Learning How To Love God
His Way
(Learning God’s Language of Love)
1. The Command to love God
• Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5
• And thou shalt love the LORD thy God
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy might.
3. The Characteristics of true love
for God.
•
To love God with all my heart, mind, soul,
and strength is to commit myself to:
1. be totally loyal to God and obey Him in
everything
2. to delight in Him
3. to desire continually to please Him
4. to rejoice in serving Him
5. to seek my happiness in Him
6. to thirst day and night for a fuller
enjoyment of Him.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
• Psalm 37:4:
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he
shall give thee the desires of thine heart
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
• As we think about delighting in God, we
want to learn:
1. The relationship between love and delight.
2. How to delight ourselves in the Lord
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
1. The Relationship between love and
delight.
• Proverbs 3:12 – equates love to
delighting:
• “For whom the LORD loveth he
correcteth; even as a father the son in
whom he delighteth.”
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
• Notice the parallel between loving and
delighting
For whom
the LORD
loveth
the son in
whom
Even as a
Father
delighteth
he
correcteth
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
• Parallelism in these verses makes it clear that
loving and delighting are interrelated.
• To say a father loves his son is another way of
saying that he delights in him.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
• Psalm 119:47: “I will delight myself in Your
commandments which I love.”.
• When we realize that love involves delight, Psalm
37:4 takes on new significance.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
Psalm 37:4:
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall
give thee the desires of thine heart.
The word translated “delight” in this verse means
“to take exquisite delight in” or “to take one’s
pleasure in.”
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
Isaiah 55:2
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen
carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And
delight yourself in abundance.
Do you know what it is to delight in your favorite
food?
This illustrates the kind of delight that love for God
involves.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
1. The Relationship between love and delight.
To love God is to find great delight in Him.
2. How to delight ourselves in the LORD.
Psalm 37:4: Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall
give thee the desires of thine heart.
The focus of our delight = “in the LORD”
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
LORD – two concepts:
•
He enters into personal relationships with
people.
•
He will always do what He has said He will do.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
LORD –
• When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we are
finding pleasure in the One who enters into
personal relationship with us and will always
keeps His covenants (promises).
•
•
How strong is your desire for God?
Are there any “mud pies” you’ve been hanging
onto rather than seeking your pleasure in God?
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
Delight in God results from reflecting on:
1. Who God is for us.
2. What God does for us.
3. What God reveals to us.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
1. Delight in who God is for us:
Psalm 18: (turn in your Bible)
v1: I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
v2: The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will
trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation,
and my high tower.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
1. Delight in who God is for us:
•
What created David’s delight?
•
His delight grew out of meditating on his
experiences with God – all that God had been
for him.
As you think about your experiences with God,
what aspects of who God is give you delight?
(e.g., He is our Father, Shepherd, Intercessor,
Protector, etc.)
•
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
2. Delight in what God does for us :
v6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to
my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my
cry came before Him, even to His ears..…
v19 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered
me because He delighted in me.
v20 The LORD rewarded me according to my
righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands
He has recompensed me.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
2. Delight in what God does for us :
•
V6. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and
maketh my way perfect.
And the list keeps going on and on. That is just a
sampling from Psalm 18 of David’s delight in
God’s works.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
2. Delight in what God does for us:
•
In addition to what God does for us personally,
we can delight in Him through His works in
nature because they tell us about Him.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
1. Delight in who God is for us.
2. Delight in what God does for us.
3. Delight in what God reveals to us in His Word.
v30 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word
of the LORD is tried; He is a shield to all who
take refuge in Him.”
• “Tried” = the faithfulness and blamelessness of
the LORD.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
•
What benefits has God’s word brought to your
life that delight you?
•
As you read God’s word, what do you delight in?
How does your delight in the word reflect delight
in the Lord who gave you His word?
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
We delight ourselves in the LORD by thinking
about and talking about:
1. Who God is for us.
2. What God does for us.
3. What God reveals to us in His creation & His
Word.
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
•
When we delight in someone, we find pleasure
in things they do.
•
Psalm 112:2 - “Great are the works of the
LORD; they are studied by all who delight in
them.”
Element 2: To commit myself to
delight in God.
•
•
•
Could it be that the things in our lives that give
us more delight than we derive from God, easily
end up usurping the role God wishes to play in
our lives?
Could those things become the things John
warns us about when he warms us not to allow
any “idols” in our lives? (1 John 5:21).
“My little children, keep yourself from idols.”
Learning How To Love God His Way
•
Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal
to God and obey Him in everything.
•
Element 2: To commit myself to delight in God.
•
Next time
•
Element 3: To commit myself to do desire
continually to please Him.