This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

Today we continue in the series Essentials for Living.

In these lessons, Pastor Rick shares the power you need to live on,

the principles you need to live by, and the purpose you need to live for,

so that you're truly living and not just existing.

Now in just a few minutes, we're going to tell you how to get a copy of the Daily Hope Gold Scripture box called,

Versus of Hope. A great way to keep God's Word right at your fingertips all year round.

You can go to PastorRick.com or you can text the Word Hope to 800-600-5,000-4 to find out more.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of a message called,

How to Tell God You Love Him.

If somebody asked you to describe the Christian life in two words, what would you say?

If somebody asked you, what does God really want from us more than anything else?

What would you say? If you said moral devotion, if you said ethical behavior,

if you said religious ritual, you would be wrong.

Because the essence of the Christian life can be summed up in two words, love affair.

Love affair. God wants to have a love affair with you.

The Bible says that you were created as an object of God's love. God made you to love you.

He made you to be an object of His love, and God wants to have a relationship with you.

Now, that means that you were created for the purpose of having a relationship,

and as a result, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you.

And the most important thing that you can do in life is to love Him back.

Jesus said it like this in Matthew chapter 22. Let's read it aloud together.

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