Let Nothing Shake Your Love For God

“Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You” Let Nothing Shake Your Love for God

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Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

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Deut 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

• Introduction

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What does it mean to love the Lord? Deut 6:5 – And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

– Love=Hebrew word “ahab” (“aw-hab”) meaning to have affection for

– heart =Hebrew word lebab (“lay-bawb”) meaning inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination, conscience, heart as seat of appetites, as seat of emotions and passions, as seat of courage

– soul=Hebrew word “nephesh” (“neh-fesh”) meaning a breathing creature, vitality, life, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion

– might= Hebrew word “me-od” (“me-hode”) meaning vehemence, force, abundance, exceedingly, greatly, to a great degree, much – In Tagalog: grabe, to the max, over

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Why do we love God? – Because He loved us first • •

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I Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us. Rom 5:7-8 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jer 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”

– Because nothing can separate us from His love •

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,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.

– Because He forgave us •

Luke 7:36-50

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How about you? How much debt was cancelled in your life by the blood of Jesus? How much sin of yours was forgiven? Do you love God because you were forgiven much? Or do you feel you deserve to be forgiven and therefore you do not need to be grateful to God?

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How do we love the Lord? –

Set Jesus as a seal upon your heart and your arm. Let your love burn as fire, as the most vehement flame, the flame of the Lord. Don’t let floods and trials quench your love for God. •

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

– Don’t turn your back on your love for God, moreso, not because of the “ministry” or doctrine or good works or persecution. •

Rev 2:2-4 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

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Forsake=Greek word “aphiemi” (af-ee'ay-mee) meaning to send away, depart, divorce, yield up, to expire, to let go, let alone, let be, to disregard, to omit, neglect, to give up, keep no longer, to leave, to desert wrongfully, to abandon

– Don’t let other people, things, money, power, philosophies, turn your heart away from the Lord. •

King Solomon loved many women. – IKing 11:1-4 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter-- Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

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The rich man loved his money. – Mark 10:17-23 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-- except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. esus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

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We love God by obeying his commands. I Jn 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

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We love God by loving other people •

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I Jn 4:20-21 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. I Jn 3:16-18 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. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

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Luke 6:32, 35 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

• We must not give our spiritual gifts and our knowledge of the word more importance than love for other people. That is not God’s will. God did not give spiritual gifts so we can lord it over others. • 1 Cor 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

• 1 Cor 13:1-13 • If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. • If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. • If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. • Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. • It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. • It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. • Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. • For we know in part and we prophesy in part,but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. • When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. • Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. • And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Conclusion • Deut 11:13-16 • So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-• then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. • I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. • Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.

Conclusion • Deut 7:7-9 • The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. • But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. • Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.