Love God/Love People

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “ ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it’d: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
      Passage: Psalm 93:1-5

       The preacher asked a man to close the service in prayer. He prayed, “Lord, we didn’t understand anything the preacher said this morning. Help us apply it to our lives anyway.” That may occur more than I’d like to think, but God did not intend for His plan and purposes for people to complicated and hard to understand. When Jesus came, He spoke in a way that common people could understand and apply to their lives. He wasn’t concerned about trying to keep every one of the 613 commandment the Pharisees had complained, because He knew His Father’s heart.

The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with a question about which of the commandments was the greatest. Jesus laid it out in the simplest of words. Basically, He said, “Love God and love people”. Our human nature tends to forget what is really important in our relationship to God. We often look at the maintenance of the church building or the traditions we’ve had as the most important. Churches that do that will find themselves in decline and will not make a real impact in the world. Set your heart to stay simple. Love God and love people. If you do those two things, you will see God use you in special ways to make a difference for Him.

Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)