One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
1 John 4:16-21(CEB)
We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. We love because God first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen. This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.
Message
do you have something to write with? You will need something so find something
Question for you … what is a noun? What is a verb?
Simply … a noun is a thing.
And a verb is an action.
A noun is usually something you can see, taste, touch, smell, hear.
A verb is something you do …
Alright! Good, now we are going to play a word game!
I will hold up a card and you tell me if it is a noun or a verb.
Start with the easy ones, and offer lots of encouragement!
Catch— Bird— Sing— Singer— House
Then hold up the LOVE card last.
What do you think of this one?
Is love a noun?
You can feel love, right?
We know when we love someone or when someone loves us, so maybe it is a noun.
But, maybe it is a verb, too.
Love is something that you do, too!
Think about that for a minute.
When you love somebody you want to do good things for them.
You want to make them feel good, and you want to take care of them.
So love is a noun AND love is something that we do.
We have this story again… JC is asked @ greatest command
they are looking for 1
JC puts all 10 together…
JC says the most important thing you can do is to love.
Love God, love yourself and all the people around you.
Memo: love is a noun AND a verb!
To LOVE neighbors & ourselves—have to do SOMETHING
We have to care for them,
we should do good things for them,
we should work to make them feel good, joyful and safe.
That is a difficult thing to do, and I think that Jesus knew that when he said it.
To love God— same thing
What is loving God like?
What does it feel like?
What does it sound like?
What does it look like?
How is it present in your life as a person of faith?
GUIDED MEDITATION: LOVE IS
Written by: Steve Dalton
Take a moment to get comfortable. Take a deep breath.
Take a deeper breath and as you exhale allow all the tension our of your muscles.
Take another deep, deep breath and as you exhale allow your mind to clear.
Like wiping a whiteboard clean with your next deep breath allow all the distractions and stress to be wiped away.
You are not thinking about anything but the sound of my voice.
Just focus on my words.
Love
Love
Love
Picture “Love” it in your mind.
Just allow the images to come into your mind.
Don’t analyze them or judge them.
Allow your mind to freely go wherever it goes when you hear the word LOVE.
Love
Love
Love
In your mind’s eye, what do you see when you hear the word LOVE?
Do you picture a person?
Do you envision a romantic or passionate scene?
Are your thoughts of love filled with red and pink hearts and warm and fuzzy feelings?
Love is most certainly those things.
But love also much, much more.
As Eric plays I invite you to focus on your Love of God handout…
Loving God looks like _____________________.
Loving God smells like ____________________.
Loving God sounds like ___________________.
Loving God feels like _____________________.
Loving God smells like ____________________.
Loving God sounds like ___________________.
Loving God feels like _____________________.
Anyone want to share with the group?
We are the church when we LOVE GOD.
We are the church when what we do reflects that we LOVE GOD.
let’s Love God with all our hearts and our souls and our minds.
And from that we’ll be able to do all these other things that it means to BE THE CHURCH! Amen
