Sermon Notes and Slides | Northpoint Church

6.6.2021

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Sermon Notes

Loving God: Heart and Soul
Matthew 22:34-40
Dr. Tony Chute, Lead Pastor

Overview: Our mission at Northpoint is to love God, love one another, and reach out to His world. This mission is basic yet fundamental; and it is intentionally unoriginal. Our call to love God and to love one another comes from Jesus’s answer to a Pharisee when He was asked about the great commandment. The fact that Jesus summed up the Law and Prophets in this way underscores the importance of love, reminding us not to go through the motions of the Christian life without it. We are thus called to love because God is love; He has created us to love and to be loved; He has saved us through an act of love; He has given us a new heart with which to love; and He has made Heaven to be a world of love. As we worship the Lord at Northpoint, let us keep our mission in mind by loving God with our heart and soul.

01. Loving God with our heart and soul results from the new birth and removes ungodly self-love.

02. Loving God with our heart and soul rejoices in God and refuses to redefine His commandments.

03. Loving God with our heart and soul replicates in love for others and rejuvenates our worship.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION & DISCOVERY

1 If you were asked to provide or rank the greatest commandment from Scripture and did not know the answer given by Jesus, what would you have said? Why is love so central to the Bible’s message?

2. What does it mean to love God with our heart and soul, mind and strength? Are these aspects totally separate, or might they combine to refer to loving God with our whole selves?

3. What examples can you locate in Scripture where people express their love for the Lord in ways that resonate with your love for the Lord also? See Psalm 18:1 and Galatians 2:20 for further insight.

4. What examples can you locate in Scripture where people profess to love the Lord, or profess to love others, but do not truly love the Lord or others? What lessons can we take from such examples?

5. How does our culture encourage ungodly self-love? How does ungodly self-love contrast with love of God as found in Scripture? In what ways are you guarding your heart against ungodly self-love so you can love the Lord and others?

6. How does love for God and others rejuvenate our worship? In what ways does our attention to singing, praying, giving, serving, forgiving, and discipling take on a new dimension because we are motivated by love for God and one another?

For Further Reading: Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson, The Love of God (Crossway, 2016).