34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. 35One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, said we are commanded to love God. How can someone be commanded to love a person? Isn’t love to be spontaneous? Isn’t love something that magically happens? How can love be commanded?
Love grows. Love doesn’t happen over night. The Bible teaches us that our love for God grows as...
I love God in response to God’s love for me.
1 John 4:7-10 (NLT)
7Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.
9God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Underline It is not that we loved God...
God has taken the initiative to love us. Our love for God is in response to his love for us.
On my own, I am incapable of loving God. I have never seen God. I love God because he first loved me.
Outline of Bible
Genesis 1 & 2 — God created the heavens & earth
Genesis 3 — Humans sinned against God
Genesis 4 - Revelation 22 — God is calling people into a relationship with him
When we are unlovable, God loves us. When we rebel from God, God loves us. God’s love is so compelling that we respond with love for him.
I love God when I place God #1 in my life . Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NKJV)
4“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
These verses are called the Shema. Jews would recite these words many times a day. The Shema reminded them of who they served. It reminded them that God was one God and he alone was to be worshiped.
To love God means to worship him. We worship what ever is important to us. God claims first place in our lives.
The first of the Ten Commandments is that we are to have no other gods before the Lord. Why? Because he is a jealous God. He will not tolerate any other god in our lives.
Placing God in the first priority isn’t easy. There are many people and things vying for that position. We struggle to keep God there.
We set goals od spending time with God first thing in the mornings, but the newspaper or CNN get our attention. We decide to spend time with the Lord during our lunch break or just before bed time. But someone intrudes on our time with God or we’re too tired to pray and read the Bible. Sometimes our ministry of helping others interferes with our time with God.
If you want to know if God is number one, look at your calendar and your check book register. These tell us what our true priorities are.
Just we show our families that we love them by placing them at the top of our list of priorities, we show God that we love him by placing him at the top of our list.
Where is God on your list of priorities? Does God get the best of your time? Does he get the first of your income? Do you love the Lord?
I love God when I surrender my entire being to him.
Matthew 22:37 (NLT)
37Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
Underline the words heart, soul, and mind.
Circle the word all.
This little three-letter word is very important. Jesus didn’t mean part of your heart, some of your soul, a piece of your mind. The scripture said all.
These words represent our whole being — feelings, thoughts, personality. In Deuteronomy, the word strength is used instead mind. We do not know why Jesus used the word mind instead. If we include the word strength as well, we see that even our physical bodies are to express love for God.
Peter modeled surrender when Jesus told him to try again: "Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." Surrendered people obey God’s word, even if it doesn’t make sense.
In the life of Abraham we see another aspect of surrender: trust. Surrendering your life means following God’s leading without knowing where; waiting for God’s perfect timing without knowing when; expecting a miracle without knowing how; trusting God’s purpose without knowing why circumstances happen.
The root of sin is the temptation to control our loves. We do not like the word surrender because in our culture it means to give up, to quit. The biblical use of the word is to yield or submit. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, we give him control.
God is my Co-Pilot
God is the Pilot
The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."
The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."
In the midst of our dark and foggy times, all sorts of voices are shouting orders into the night, telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives. Out of the darkness, one voice signals something quite opposite to the rest--something almost absurd. But the voice happens to be the Light of the World, and we ignore it at our peril.
Paul Aiello, Jr.
I love God when I do what he says.
John 15:9-11 (NIV)
9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Jesus is our model. He demonstrated his love for God by obeying him. We remain in love with God when we obey him.
In verse 11 Jesus gives us a promise. When we are obedient to God, we are filled with the joy of Jesus and our joy is complete! When we disobey God, we lose our joy.
Bruce Larson tells how he helped people struggling to surrender their lives to Christ:
For many years I worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. ’Now that’s one way to live,’ I would point out to my companion, ’trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.’
"On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort he is holding the world in one hand. My point was illustrated graphically.
"We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, ’I give up, Lord; here’s my life. I give you my world, the whole world.’"
Bruce Larson, Believe and Belong.
Invitation
We say we love the love, but do we really love him? What about you?
Have responded to God’s love for you by asking Jesus to be your savior?
Is God #1 in your time, money, and energy?
Have you surrendered your entire being to God?
Do you love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for showing us the love of God. We want to love God, but it’s not always easy. Please give whatever we need to love God. Give us the courage to surrender our lives to you. Give us the discipline to obey your every word. Fill our hearts with your passion. Fill our souls with your desires. Fill our minds with your truth. We pray in the holy name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
