one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mk 12:28-30 38This is the great and first commandment. Matt 22:38 LifeTruth: The greatest commandment is the command of the most necessity. When you think of this: • Be amazed by God’s kindness. (Matt 10:37, Eph 1:4-5) • Challenge your objections. (1 John 4:10-11) • Consider the consequences of misplaced affection. (1 Cor 16:22, Eph 6:24) What is love for God? Love for God is reflected in obedient affection, sourced in the gift of faith, and exercised in lifestyle. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 Jn 5:3-5 A heart for God becomes your very way of life; permeating all your actions and decisions. You no longer approach life asking What does God allow? but rather asking What is pleasing to Christ? How do we grow in love? So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:1-3 Worship Service Guide || 1.13.2019 A reading from Deuteronomy 30:1-5, 6: When all these things happen to you--the blessings and curses I have set before you--and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today, then he will restore your fortunes, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. Even if your exiles are at the farthest horizon, he will gather you and bring you back from there. The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live. A reading from Jeremiah 24:7: I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart. A reading from Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes… Sing: Good Good Father Sing: Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)