Loving the Book

Sermon Notes October 28, 2018 Matt. 22:34-40 Short Review : Review the main points of the morning message. Focus on: How does the command to love God constrain and guide the way we love others? Some Questions for Discussion: 1. How does being loved, or not being loved, affect us? a. Imagine the kind of life someone like Scrooge – People! Bah-humbug! – might have had. What might his experience of love have been? b. Imagine a young person, 25 years old, full of fear and doubt when his fiancé says she loves him: What might his ‘back-story’ be? c. Imagine someone raised in the church but not accepted by her peers in school, aching with loneliness who now goes to college. How would she react to an offer of love from a young man or a young woman? Why would it be hard to ask what God’s Word says about these potential relationships? 2. Let’s begin by asking: a. What resonated with you from the Sunday message? b. Did you write down any ideas you want to talk about, questions you have? Were there particular applications to your own life which the Spirit was making? 3. Look at the text and review. a. Why is the first commandment the FIRST commandment? How does it point us to God’s Word – where God has spoken? [Only place where we learn what God’s priorities, purposes and pleasures are] b. Why is loving others the SECOND command? i. The second command is universally accepted, even by unbelievers. And they do love others. Does ignoring the first command – and the bible – affect the way they show love? ii. What could happen to the way Christians show love if we focus on this command and forget the first – in parenting, in marriage, in friendships, in caring for the needy? 4. Do these two commands summarize the whole bible? What does our text say they do summarize? a. Read Romans 3:21-26; 7:7-13: what does the Law do? What can it not do? b. How do these two commands point us to our need for Christ? 5. Here’s a little quiz and some discussion points: a. What does the Bible say about how men are to treat women? [OK, Leaders, if you need to cheat – you could start with I Tim. 5:1, 2; I Thess. 4:3-8] b. What does the Bible say about how husbands are to treat wives and wives their husbands? c. What does the Bible say about how we are to show true love to our children? [Discipline? Training?] 6. How can we pray for one another in response to the word today?