CLICK HERE FOR THE LIFE GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE CONTAINING DISCUSSION QUESTION

Our mission is directly taken from

Matthew 28:19-20 “¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

What is a disciple?  One who is following a teacher to become like him.

We are called to make Disciples of Jesus.  

What are the marks of one who looks like Jesus? 
What are the marks of Jesus?

LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, LIVE TRUTH, PROCLAIM JESUS

We begin today with loving God.

What’s love got to do with it?  Everything!

Love is something we aspire for the most with our spouses, our children, our friends, our bosses—ok maybe not as much there, but love is the greatest desire we have for defining our relationships.

 Jesus said loving God is the most important thing we can do.  Matthew 22:36-40

• So great is the importance of loving God that we are commanded to do it.
  
  
• He is to be loved above all else for out of that love we can learn how to truly love others.

Love for God is to be of such intensity that your whole being is driven by that love.  Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The Lord God is one- a complete rejection of the polytheistic culture of the Near East that would see the “gods” as not cooperating with each other and to be risky to rise one above the others at cost of alienating others.

All (def)- totality, all encompassed, wholly, no part of you withheld.

• Heart- “It is your seat of thought and emotion…your inner person.” BKC Relational point of connection. KMH
  
  
• Soul- Life force, being, breath, the immaterial part of the person. KMH
  
  
• Strength- the degree to which one goes, quantity, how much.

Jesus lived this out…

• Obedience reflects love. John 14:23-24
  
  
• How he operated was by watching the Father. John 5:19
  
  
• He too was sent on mission by the Father. John 5:36
  
  
• He took joy in glorifying the Father. John 17:4, 13
  
  
• He wanted us to see his love for the Father. John 14:31

According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

What love is…

Patient, Kind, Rejoices in Truth, Always Protects, Always Trusts, Always Perseveres.  DRIVEN BY OTHER.

What love is not…

Envious, Boastful, Proud, Dishonoring, Self-seeking, Easily Angered, Keep a Record of Wrongs, Delight in Evil.
DRIVEN FOR SELF

The first distinctive of a disciple of Jesus is that you…

1. LOVE GOD from the totality of your heart and all that drives you from within.
   
   
2. LOVE GOD from the depth of your soul that it becomes energy of your life.
   
   
3. LOVE GOD from the greatest use of your strength where you hold nothing back.

Benediction:

1 John 4:9-10  ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 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.