I attended Harvest Bible Chapel today, and the sermon was excellent. I will be sharing what it was about in my post this evening. The main point of this sermon was simply loving God.
What if God got all of your time, money, energy and love? Have you ever thought about that. Your life would be so much more simple. We often give God our leftovers. We get to busy because we are involved in so many things and by the time we think about our relationship with God we have already used our time, money, energy, and love on other things. It's sad but it's true. When was the last time you gave God everything. Or even given him one of those things before you used it on something else or someone else. We need to give him all of those things and our lives would be so much more simple. God isn't interested in a part-time you. He wants all of you all of the time. Our lives are so complex because we have more than one god. We are so stinking busy! We get involved in sports, school, our jobs, you name it. When you get overly involved in that, our lives feel complex because there are more commands that we have to follow. It's so much more simple than that my friends. There is one God, one commander, and one command. The law is love. Do it.
Mark 12:28-34: One of the greatest teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked them, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor has yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he has answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
There are 5 "steps" that you can take away from this.
1. adore God with a whole-hearted love.
- your heart is who you are
- your heart is where you decide everything
- your heart = decision maker
- Proverbs 4:23: "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
2. enjoy God with a soul-consuming love.
- our soul is the controller of our emotions
- love the Lord will all of your affection
- Luke 7:47: "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."
3. believe God with a mind-blowing love.
- you can't love God properly until you start learning
- to know him is to love him
- 1 John 4:8: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
- reminder: learning isn't a substitute for loving, it's fuel to the fire
I want to talk a little but extra about this topic. When he went over this it really stuck out to me. Part of the reason I do this blog is because I want to encourage people to learn about God. It's so much fun to learn about God and sometimes I think people forget that learning about God leads to loving God. The verse from 1 John 4:8 might be my favorite verse right now. The simplicity of it is crazy. God is love and you can understand that by learning about him every single day.
4. serve God with your strength.
- 1 Corinthians 6:20: "you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
- serve God in all that you do
- don't be lazy
5. represent God with a world-changing love.
- we are world changers because of God
- show it by the way that you love and enjoy life
As I wrap this post up I hope that you understand that the key to a simple life is to love. Love God will all of your mind with all of your soul and with all of your strength. You are loved.
~ Live the simple life ~
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