04/14/2024 Midtown Church Elk Grove
Series- Matters of the Heart: God’s Love for the Church and the World
Receiving & Returning God’s Love
Pastor Otis Amey
Heart Lessons
- What someone says indicates what’s going on in their heart.
- We’ll all need heart surgery, but it can only be performed in solitude.
Biblical Background: God’s Ultimate Character Trait is Love
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 3:16-19
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:
Learn the Love Languages of God
1.) Learn How Much God Loves You (1 John 3:1-3)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
- He knew you before you were formed in the womb. He formed you in the womb. He knows you now.
- God loves you. You can come back to His love!
2.) Learn How to Love God (Exodus 20:1-2)
And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Matthew 22:34-36
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
What are some ways we can love God with ALL of our being?
- Seek Him first
- Prayer & Scripture
- Live by Faith
- Serve Others
- Fellowship
“Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re getting.” – John M. Comer
Don’t complain about the FRUIT. Take time to examine the ROOT.
3.) Learn How to Show the Love of God (Matthew 22:39-40)
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
What are some ways we can show the love of God to others?
- Be sacrificially generous.
- Be hospitable.
- Pray & look for opportunities to serve them.
- Don’t show partiality.
- KNOW the Gospel so that you can be READY to share the Gospel.
WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK MIDTOWN!
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