The Life We Want
Week 2 | Love God
Dean
January 8, 2023

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. 28 And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply…” —Genesis 1:26-28a (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” —John 3:16-17 (ESV)

God Loves You

“Define yourself radically as one loved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is an illusion.” —Brennan Manning

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ —Mark 12:30 (ESV)

1. What is love?

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. —1 John 4:10 (NIV)

“True love is not a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. It is a committed, thoughtful decision…because true love is an act of will that often transcends ephemeral feelings.” —M. Scott Peck

Love is a committed, thoughtful willingness to sacrifice.

2. Who is God?

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

“Nothing can move itself. There must be a first mover. The first mover is called God.” —Thomas Aquinas

“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” —The Nicene Creed, 4th Century

“Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is. God is love because God is a Trinity.” —Michael Reeves

15 [He] is the image of the invisible God… —Colossians 1:15 (ESV)

9…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… —John 14:9b (ESV)

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ —Mark 12:30 (ESV)

1. Heart
2. Mind
3. Strength
4. Soul

9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice… —Philippians 4:9 (NIV)

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. —Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)