Love Language Week 1: Love Thyself?

Scott Worthington

Love Language: What God Says About Relationships

Sermon Only Sermon Audio

Aug 10, 2025

Matthew 22:34-40

We kicked off a new teaching series, Love Language: What God Says About Relationships. In Week 1, Pastor Scott Worthington shared from Matthew 22:34–40.
The most critical relationship in your life—other than your relationship with Jesus—is the one you have with yourself. This matters because if you’re not in a healthy relationship with yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll be in a healthy relationship with anyone else. And God’s primary way of expanding His kingdom is through relationships.
So, what does God’s Word say about how to truly have a healthy you? Check out this sermon to learn more!

Sermon Notes

Love Language: What God Says About Relationships
Week 1 – Love Thyself?

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” Matthew 22:34-40

3 Greek words for “love”
1. ‘eros’ – sensual passionate kind of love
2. ‘phileo’ – brotherly love or friendship
3. ‘agape’ – self-sacrificing love

Other than your relationship with Jesus, what is the most critical relationship in your life?

WHY THIS MATTERS:
1. If you are not in a healthy relationship with yourself, it is unlikely that you will be in a heathy relationship with anyone else.
2. God’s primary way of expanding the kingdom is through relationships

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Matthew 22:36

“And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.’” Matthew 22:37-38

Is your relationship with Jesus more important than anything else in your life?

“‘And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” Matthew 22:39-40

Two things we see from God’s word on God-centered love of self:
1. We should love who we are in Him

In Christ, You Are…
1. Chosen, Loved, and Wanted
“…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…” Ephesians 1:4-5

2. A New Creation
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

3. God’s Masterpiece
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

“The only person whose opinion counts looks at me and finds me more valuable than all the jewels in the earth.” Tim Keller

4. Called Saints
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…” 1 Corinthians 1:2

In Christ, You Are…
1. Chosen, Love, and Wanted (Ephesians 1:4-5)
2. A New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
3. God’s Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)
4. Called Saints (1 Corinthians 1:2)

“The ultimate love of self is to find one’s self in the love of God.” Louie Giglio

Two things we see from God’s word on God-centered love of self:
1. We should love who we are in Him
2. We should live in light of how loved we are

Four practical ways to live in light of how loved you are in Christ:
1. Accept Your Story

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NASB)

2. Forgive Yourself

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

“God takes our sins – the past, present and future – and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says, ‘No fishing allowed.’” Corrie Ten Boom

3. Speak the Truth to Yourself

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12

“Most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.” Martin Lloyd-Jones

4. Take Care of Yourself

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you… you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Sermon Notes

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