2011 THEME: LOVING GOD

& LOVING OTHERS!

TEXT: Matthew 22:37-40
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.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

1. LOVE IS THE MAIN THING.

a. Living for God begins with love, and nothing in Christianity is done right, if
it’s not done because of love.

i. Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore

love is the fulfilling of the law.

b. Love is the purpose of our existence.

i. It’s what we are called by God to do.

ii. It’s our created intention.

c. Love is the purpose of this church.

i. If love is not the main reason for church then we will have a hard time
understanding why we have church.

ii. And because of that hard time we often lose interest.

d. Jesus boiled down God’s commandments for us in life: Love God and love
people.

i. If we get this right, most things will fall into place. But if we get this
wrong, most other things will go wrong as well.

e. Many people think the church and God as being solely concerned with
keeping rules and certain regulations.

i. When this happens the rules and regulations become the focus of our
faith instead of God Himself.

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2. LOVING GOD IS WORSHIPPING GOD.
a. What does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul and mind? It means
putting our all into our worship, surrender, and service.

b. How do we love God with all our heart, soul and mind? Anyway we can.
Every way we can.

i. By going to Sunday School and Church. By worshipping Him in

obedience, song, prayer, giving, and study.

ii. By putting our all into our worship. By making it as meaningful as

possible.

iii. We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, anywhere, any
time. At church, at home, while driving, while working, while playing,
etc.

iv. We love Him by honoring Him as best we can and by talking to Him
every chance we get.

c. What is worship? Worship is simply our expression of Love for God

i. Worship is the way we communicate to God how much we love Him.

ii. Worship should never be confined to Sunday Morning.

iii. Worship can be done by ourselves or with a group of 100,000 people.

iv. Worship is more than just a song.

3. LOVING PEOPLE IS MINISTRY.

a. We must love both God and people. It is my opinion that we will never
properly love people until we learn to love God.

b. All our lives we are involved with people. You can’t avoid people.

c. Ministry is reaching out in love to those around us.

d. Ministry is what we do for others as a result of what Christ has done for us.

e. God put us here to love one another.