Love God Totally Series

Sermon series - 6 qualities for spiritual health

- Today we’re looking at the first & greatest decision we ever make.

- It is to Love God totally.

- I know that in life it’s easy to say I love this person, or I love so & so, but it’s just

words.

- The power of the phrase, I love you, is a statement of commitment. It’s not

something that’s to be used lightly.

- Now, think of the power, or destruction that comes when you tell God you love

him, but it’s just words.

- In the beginning of a healthy Spiritual life, it begins with loving God totally.

- So Let’s begin,

- A rich young ruler comes up to Jesus in Matthew 22:, & he asks a question in

verse 36.

Matthew 22:36-38

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

- The greatest Commandment is, Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, & mind.

-Prayer

Q- Can you imagine what your week would look like if it were without God?

- This is what the days of the week would be called.

> A Weekly Reminder (www.smilegodlovesyou.org)

Without GOD, our week would be:

Sinday, Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday, Thirstday, Fightday & Shatterday.

Remember seven days WITHOUT GOD makes One WEAK!!

- Each day would be a day of sorrow & chaos.

- Moses sets the model for a productive life. One that isn’t falling apart (even if it may

Not look like it is), but it is lifted/supported in the nurturing arms of out Lord!

- Here’s What he says in Deuteronomy 10:12.

Deuteronomy 10:12

12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Q- Why do you think a person heavily addicted to drugs, or alcohol are so easily

picked out of a crowd?

- They’re picked out because, we can see their life falling apart from under the god

they’ve put themselves under.

- For many of these people under the ruse of I’m okay as long as I’ve got my

drugs, or alcohol.

- They took God’s name Jehovah Jireh (the Lord will provide) & gave it to this

created substance.

- It became their God!

- Yes, the list of false gods keeps going, but I think you get my point of if

God’s not first, you’ll never be.

- Now, I want to give you an entirely different perspective.

- We easily Judge a person by their outward appearance.

- The common belief of the Israelites was, if you were doing well it was because You

were right with God & He was blessing you. If you were bad off, God was cursing

you for sin.

- We know the way it worked for Job. He was righteous, but his life looked like it was

falling apart.

- The same can be said about Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.

- Besides Job, I cannot think of a Godly man that looked more depressed & cursed by

God.

- Jeremiah was called, not to try & turn the people from their sinful way, but to

prepare them for judgement!

- They would see famine, would be plundered, and taken captive by foreigners

who would exile them to a foreign land

- Jeremiah was constantly rejected by the people of Judah he loved and reached

out to.

- God had called him to preach, & forbade him to marry or have children.

- So, he lived alone, he ministered alone, he was poor, ridiculed, and rejected by his

people.

Q- Although his spiritual faith and strength was strong, can you imagine the

depression he had to have suffered?

- Listen to Jeremiah’s words & realize how close they sound like Job’s.

Jeremiah 20:14

14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

Jeremiah 20:18

18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Q- If people don’t see God’s Joy in me, how am I a good witness?

- Most of my sermons echo the thought of witnessing, & people are

watching/taking note of us.

- Today we’re going deeper than just our outward appearances.

Q- Do people see how much you love God?

- Job never cursed God, Although he had lost it all.

- Jeremiah never lost his faith/hope in God.