Message Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. Theme of this year’s Christmas Service

“I have loved you with an everlasting love”   Jeremiah 31:3

2. Ancient Israel struggled with many problems

a) Unbelief

b) Idolatry

c) Faithfulness

d) Love for God

3. The Challenges we face today

a) Very similar problems

b) The love for God is admittedly hard to sustain

c) Many have left their first love for God

4. Some Goals

a) To repent

b) To return to our first love for God

c) To be refreshed and renewed

A GLORIOUS DECLARATION OF GOD’S LOVE

6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;

8 but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.

11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

1. The Love of God is expressed in His Choice

a) He chose Israel to be a people for Himself

b) To be a special treasure above all others

c) He has set His love upon His people

2. A Humbling Statement

a) He did not choose Israel because it was a large nation

b) He chose Israel despite it being “the least of all peoples”

c) He chose to love Israel because of an oath He made to their forefathers

3. The Nature of God

a) He is the Lord their God

b) He is their faithful God

c) He is a Covenant-keeping God

4. He is God who will respond interactively

a) To those who love Him and keep His commandments

i) He will show mercy

ii) His mercy will be given to a thousand generations (“forever”)

b) To those who hate Him

i) He repays their hatred

ii) He will destroy them

iii) He will not be slack in punishing the wicked

A VITAL WORD OF ADMONITION

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

1. This is called “The Shema”

“Hear, O Israel”

2. The Shema is recited daily

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.’

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

a) To declare that there is but One God

b) To declare and develop love for God

i) Heart

ii) Soul

iii) Strength

c) To hide God’s word in our heart

OUR CHALLENGE

1. To ponder afresh God’s Love for us

2. To pray for forgiveness when our love God is so frail

3. To treasure the Love of God in fresh new way