15/11/2025
TITLE: LOVING GOD, FIRSTLY
TEXTS: Matt. 6:33
Introduction
Last week in our study, we saw that the love of God is sacrificial, and we have been called to imitate Jesus
in love. Sacrifice means to put others ahead of your comfort, convenience, and selfish ambitions. Jesus
demonstrated sacrificial love when He gave Himself up to be the propitiation for our sins. To love God,
therefore, means that we are commanded to demonstrate sacrificial love towards God. It means to love God
FIRST, to make Him our priority, ahead of our comfort, convenience, and personal/selfish ambitions.
Salvation comes with an innate ability, the ability to love God as we ought to. We will explore these, and
also see how the bible teaches us to make loving God our utmost priority.
Believers And Our Ability To Love
1. The new birth comes with a new heart, the heart of flesh. Ezk. 36:25-27, 2 Cor 5:15-17.
2. God gave us the Holy Spirit in our hearts at the new birth. Ezk. 36:25-27, Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:4-6
3. The Holy Spirit pours the love nature of God into our hearts. Rom. 5:5
4. And the Holy Spirit also works in us, so that we can obey God. Phi. 2:13
Practicing Loving God As Our Priority – Matt. 10:37
1. LOVE COMMUNES: Jn. 15:15, Lk. 10:38-42, Jn. 13:23-26. One of the ways to demonstrate love
is to always spend time communicating with the one you love. As you communicate, information,
details, and secrets are shared. God wants to reveal Himself to us more and more. Loving God as a
priority means ensuring that daily we spend time with God in the place of prayer and the word of
God.
2. LOVE OBEYS: Jn. 14:15, 21-24, Jn. 21:15-17. Jesus was clear: no one can claim to love God
without obeying God. Obedience is proof of love. As you commune with God in His word and in
prayer, God expects that you begin to obey all His commandments as written in His word. In Jn.
15:10-16, Jesus was again clear: He loved and chose us to go and bear fruit. Obedience to that
instruction is our loving God.
3. LOVE SERVES: 2 Cor. 5:14-15. To serve is to wait on another. It means using your time, talent,
energy, etc, to meet the needs of another. The love of God instructs us to no longer live for ourselves,
but for the commission of Jesus, who died for us. This means that to love God, you must SERVE
HIS NEEDS/PURPOSES. And God’s commission is clear – go into the world and bring many more
into the kingdom. 1 Tim. 2:3-4, Matt. 28:18-20.
4. LOVE GIVES: 1 Jn. 3:16-18. Giving is proof of love. If you love God, you will give for His cause,
and you will make it a priority. Give your time, your energy, and your resources/money for the use
of God’s kingdom expansion. This is love at work. Lk. 7:37-42. Giving to the Lord is a
demonstration of love for God.
5. LOVE SACRIFICES: 1 Pet. 2:21, 2 Cor. 11:23-27, Phi. 1:19. Suffering, sacrificing, persecution for the sake of the gospel is proof that we love God and that he is priority, therefore that we are
willing to endure hardness and inconvenience, maybe even insult, just to preach the word of God.
It is a cross we must bear as people who desire to demonstrate our love for God. Matt. 16:24-26
Conclusion
The great goal of demonstrating our love towards God is so that we will be fruitful and the kingdom of God will expand. He chose us to be fruitful. In communing, obeying, serving, giving, and sacrificing for the gospel, the territory of God’s kingdom on earth will expand. No one claims to love God who does not desire the expansion of the kingdom – Matt. 6:33.
Let’s do all in our power as believers to show our zeal for the Lord.
