2012-04-29: Love God…Love People

Sermon: Love God…Love People
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 12:28-34
Duration: 24:58
Size: 11.4 MB

Love God…Love People
Mark 12:28-34

If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.

Jesus’ answer to this all-important question would reveal a great deal about his own heart–which, of course, is the heart of God.

Love God. Love people. That’s what matters most to God! These are the Greatest Commands. These are the big rocks!

I. Love God: Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The heart is the source of our feelings and emotions.

Perhaps, the best way to understand it is that your soul is both who and what you are.

Loving God with all your mind implies centering your education on him–learning and growing in our capacity to fathom his vastness and mystery.

Strength here has nothing to do with physique; it signifies your energy output–your work, your job, your play, whatever it is that you put effort into.

As we learn to love him more, he opens our hearts to greater love.

II. Love People: Leviticus 19:18

Loving your neighbor essentially means loving the people around you–all of them.

The five love languages:

  • Words of Affirmation
  • Quality Time
  • Acts of Service
  • Physical Touch
  • Gifts

When we serve, touch, and give gifts to other people, we are nonetheless doing it for God.

Ultimately, we love people the most when we share with them the same loving relationship with God that we have.

All of this sort of begs the question–how loving are you?

I Corinthians 13:4-8

And if it is our desire to grow in our capacity to love God and love people, then we must learn to love like Jesus