A Passion For God

Focus Passage: Matthew 22:35-40

Supplemental Passage: 1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

Introduction: There was a little boy who entered the family room after suppertime. Dad was weary from a hard day on the job. He had the recliner kicked back and was reading the paper. The little boy inched up beside his Dad and said, "Daddy, I love you."

"I love you too, son," the father replied, and he continued reading the paper. But this didn’t satisfy the boy, so he went around the other side of the chair and began rubbing his daddy’s arm. "Daddy, I love you," he said.

And with the slightest amount of impatience in his voice, the father again said, "I love you, too, son." But still the little one was not satisfied.

Suddenly the little boy came crashing through the newspaper onto the father’s chest, reaching his arms as far around his dad as he could, and he said, "Daddy, I love you and I’ve just got to do something about it."

I. Love the Lord with all your heart

a. As representing the man himself, it was considered to be the seat of the emotions and passions and appetites, it has come to stand for the center of its moral, spiritual, intellectual life.

b. Rom 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness

c. Cleaned Heart - Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart,

II. Love the Lord with all your soul

a. “living being,” “life,” “self,” “person,” “desire,” “appetite,” “emotion” and “passion”; As the life-breath, it departs at death

b. Saved Soul - James 1:21 … receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

III. Love the Lord with all your mind

a. our intellectual and emotional nature, our will – “Made up our mind”

b. Renewed Mind - Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

IV. Love your neighbor as yourself

a. 1Jn 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

b. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 NASB)

c. 1Jn 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Invitation: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.