Love Is (2)
Love Is • Sermon • Submitted
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· 12 viewsWhat is true love? What is the love of God according to the Bible? In part two, we continue looking at what sound Biblical love is and what it looks like in the life of a believer!
Notes
Transcript
Air-soft ministry had a great outing yesterday at the Dishman air-soft field!!
Baby dedication for David and Kourtney Bess with little Langston!
OK, so this past Sunday, we started a series entitled, “Love Is”. And in this series, we began looking at what true LOVE is, according to the Bible.
OK, so this past Sunday, we started a series entitled, “Love Is”. And in this series, we began looking at what true LOVE is, according to the Bible.
If you were not here last Sunday, I gave some details about how God wired us, or rather, created us to be able to love one another in our natural/physical relationships.
If you were not here last Sunday, I gave some details about how God wired us, or rather, created us to be able to love one another in our natural/physical relationships.
I also covered the four types of love that we recognize from the Greek language, that are either depicted, and/or mentioned within the Bible.
I also covered the four types of love that we recognize from the Greek language, that are either depicted, and/or mentioned within the Bible.
Can anyone tell me the four types of love that we talked about last Sunday?
WAIT FOR ANSWERS AND THEN COMMENT ABOUT EACH OF THE FOUR AS A RECAP FOR EVERYONE.
Eros -This is the form of love that deals with sexual, sensual pleasure. It is from this Greek word, that we derive our English word, “erotic”.
Although it is depicted in the Bible, this word is not found in the New Testament.
Storge - This form of love describes family love; the affectionate bond that develops naturally between husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers and sisters.
Like “eros” the actual word, “storge” is not found in the New Testament, but compound variations of it and alternate uses of it are found in the Bible, as in Romans 12:10 and Romans 1:31.
As well as multiple depictions and expressions of this type of love within the Bible.
Philia -Philia refers to brotherly love and is most often exhibited in a close friendship.
It refers to love based on mutual respect, shared devotion, joint interests, and common values.
And this is the form of love most commonly seen in people’s everyday relationships, as well as what you will most openly see within the Body of Christ, between most believers.
Agapē - This is a sacrificial love that voluntarily suffers inconvenience, discomfort, and even death for the benefit of another without expecting anything in return. It is the highest of the four types of love mentioned, or referred to in the Bible.
Agape love seeks the benefit and well being and good of the other, and not of one’s self!
It is this form of love, that we know and believe to be the LOVE that comes only from God the Father and no other source!
And as I also mentioned last week, until the New Testament was translated from the Greek language and the Latin Vulgate into English, the word “agape” was a word that had never been used to represent the perfect love of God.
It was as if they seemingly created a word that could expressly be used to represent God’s perfect, self-less, sacrificial LOVE for humanity!
Pure LOVE, perfect LOVE, self-less LOVE, can only come from the true source of LOVE, which is Yahweh, Himself, because He is love!
Just as we read last week from 1 John 4:8, 16, which says,
1 John 4:8 (ESV)
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 (ESV)
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
A great deal of what we looked at last week, in talking about the agape love of almighty God, was the subject of God’s love being unconditional.
A great deal of what we looked at last week, in talking about the agape love of almighty God, was the subject of God’s love being unconditional.
God’s perfect love is unconditional in that we do nothing to earn it and we can do nothing to change His great love for us! The Word of God clearly shows us that He has shown His great love for mankind, through the sacrifice of His own Son for our sins and to offer to us redemption.
God’s perfect love is unconditional in that we do nothing to earn it and we can do nothing to change His great love for us! The Word of God clearly shows us that He has shown His great love for mankind, through the sacrifice of His own Son for our sins and to offer to us redemption.
“We love Him, because He first loved us”, as 1 John 4:19 tells us! And that love that He has for us is unconditional as far as our not being able to earn it, or change it!
“We love Him, because He first loved us”, as 1 John 4:19 tells us! And that love that He has for us is unconditional as far as our not being able to earn it, or change it!
But, as we also looked at last week, we need to be very careful in telling people that God loves them “unconditionally” and just as they are and right where they are in their life.
The love of God and what He did to redeem us through the Christ, demands REPENTANCE from us, if we want to have a relationship with Him!
We must repent and believe and yield to Him and His will and His Word for our lives, if we want to spend eternity with Him.
You CANNOT stay right where you are in your life as a sinner and walk into the kingdom of God!
Repentance MUST be taught to the unbelieving world around us!
If you go back to the teachings of the early preachers in this nation in the 18th and 19th centuries and you read some their sermons, the messages that they preached were chocked full of the necessity of repentance and being found truly righteous before God!
Such famous messages as Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, openly and emphatically taught that the only way to God, was through the Christ, which then demanded and still does demand today, the sinner to REPENT and turn and walk away from their sinful life!
You find this same message in the New Testament when dealing with salvation, you find it throughout the centuries in the gospel message and you were still seeing it well into the 20th century, until it began to gradually change; it began to soften and go lax! Men began to shy away from the issue of repentance and the blood atonement for salvation. WHY?!!!
Did the gospel message change?
Did the “unconditional” love of God begin to evolve and make concessions for the sinner?
That is what’s being taught today in many places around the world, that the Bible and its teachings are old, outdated and antiquated and it’s time that the Word of God begins to evolve and catch up with where we are as a nation and as a world population!
Or maybe we are now witnessing in its full measure, the warnings that Paul gave to his spiritual son, Timothy, in II Timothy 3:1-5, where he said,
2 Timothy 3:1–5 (ESV)
1 But understand this, that in the last days (everyone say, “ last days”) there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Paul was instructing Timothy that people would eventually and overwhelmingly become lead by LOVE, but it would not be the LOVE of God of that was leading them.
They would in fact become lovers of themselves and lovers of their own wants and desires and the pleasures of this world, but not lovers of God and His will!
For this reason, Paul continued in instructing his young spiritual son that the time would most definitely come when, within the church body itself, people would no longer endure (that is, accept and receive as true), the sound teaching of the gospel message.
He warned Timothy by saying, “Having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
Paul went on to say, “the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. (So that), God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
Paul was warning Timothy that these are people who had been exposed to the full TRUTH of the gospel, (and at the very least), they had begun considering and moving towards the truth. (Much like the first 3 soils that Jesus mentioned in His parable about the soils.)
The devil, through lies and deception entices these people away from the truth and once again, he captures them and has them doing his will!
See, we’re born into sin and under the control of the devil. He doesn’t have to capture an unsaved, non-believer, because they are already his!
So he uses people to propagate his message of hate and pride, (which is cloaked and hidden under the guise of LOVE) to deceive and lead astray people who are moving towards the TRUTH and the LIGHT!
But the LOVE that he sells to mankind, is not even remotely close to the agape LOVE of Yahweh!
God’s perfect love, agape love, is self-less and sacrificial love for others!
The enemy’s love, as Paul told Timothy, is a love of self and of the love of one’s own pleasure!
Do you remember the very popular hit by Whitney Houston back in 1986, “The Greatest Love of All”?
In the chorus of that song, she sang, “Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all.”
Now before you ask, yes, it is true that the Bible teaches of our “loving ourselves”, but you have to understand the context of that command.
In Matthew 22:37-40, upon being asked by the Pharisees of what the greatest of the commandments in the law was, Jesus answered,
Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)
37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
In other words, as a true Christian, your first and foremost desire, should be to strive to LOVE God with everything that you have and everything that you are (your thoughts, your will, your emotions, your motives, EVERYTHING about you should burn with a fervent passion to LOVE God) and with true agape love!
And only when you start pursuing this love, will you be able to see yourself as He sees you, and how He loves you!
And only when you see and understand the love that He has for you, as an individual, will you be able to truly see and love yourself for who you are in Christ, as He created you to be!
And only when you learn to love yourself as He loves you, will you be able to love others that same way!
Loving others with true, selfless, agape love, is the proof that you have the active love of God inside of you and that you know who you are in Christ!
So, “loving ourselves”, from the Biblical perspective, is seeing ourselves as we are seen by God and then believing that we are who He says we are, and thus treating this vessel as one which is sacred and set apart for Him!
If we love ourselves in a godly way, then we will treat this vessel of ours as a temple of the Holy Spirit; guarding it against defilement and making it a place where Holy Spirit is active and where He fills us with more of His presence and power and yes, His LOVE!
According to Romans 5:5, that is how God placed His perfect love inside of you and I, through His Holy Spirit.
“because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
You see, that is the sure sign of Holy Spirit alive and active inside of you, is the agape love of God present and going forth to others!
This is why Paul said that the “FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT” is LOVE first and then everything else flows from it!
The late Dr. Donald Barnhouse pointed out that love is intrinsic to all the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22. He said, “Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.”
There are no fruits of the Spirit without love!
Just as there are gifts of the Spirit without LOVE!
Too many Christians become zealous for the gifts and the power of the Spirit, but they neglect the weightier matter, which is the LOVE of God that comes by Holy Spirit and showing that love to others!
According to Jesus, showing His perfect love to one another, is how the world will know that we belong to Him. (John 13:34-35)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So if you and I say that we identify as belonging to Yeshua and we are a part of His body, then the world should be seeing agape LOVE flowing between us in the body of Christ. (Not division and strife and animosity!)
As I shared with you not too long ago, there is a whole mind-set that people have today about the “church” that is wrong on so many different levels!
When people go around saying that this church is the best church, or that “my church” is the best church and “we have the best people and the best pastors and the best music”, you are actually removing yourself from the body of Christ!
There is no one part of His body that is esteemed better than another. At least not according to I Corinthians 12, which openly says that we are many parts, and yet ONE body and no member of that body is esteemed of more value than another!
When you start boasting about a building and what you have in that building, you are showing self-love, not self-less, sacrificial love.
This produces strife, contention and division, once it roots itself into a people and the way they think. And it’s not the “loving yourself” as Jesus meant and what we just talked about a minute ago!
And for this reason, Paul instructed Timothy, “Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, LOVE (AGAPE LOVE), and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
In other words, run away from the love of this world and those who desire the world and all that it offers, and instead, pursue the LOVE of God and His righteousness.
All the while, surrounding yourself with like minded people who are doing the very same thing!
Let’s stop and think about that for just a second. Who, and what kind of people are you surrounding yourself with on a regular basis?
Because who you choose to bring into your life, determines what you are allowing to influence you and your decisions.
You see, here is the thing people, the world around us is dying of a horrible disease. When you leave here today, look around you and pay close attention to what you are seeing.
You see, here is the thing people, the world around us is dying of a horrible disease. When you leave here today, look around you and pay close attention to what you are seeing.
You are witnessing people everywhere you go, who are sick and dying and don’t even realize it! We see and hear on the news, EVERY SINGLE DAY, about the covid virus and the need for getting vaccinated for it, and all of the strife and controversy that it is causing. And yet, no one is speaking up about the disease, that is sending millions every day to an eternity in hell!
You are witnessing people everywhere you go, who are sick and dying and don’t even realize it! We see and hear on the news, EVERY SINGLE DAY, about the covid virus and the need for getting vaccinated for it, and all of the strife and controversy that it is causing. And yet, no one is speaking up about the disease, that is sending millions every day to an eternity in hell!
The spiritual disease of sin, is a disease that every single one of us was born with! And make no mistake about it, without a cure, this disease will definitely kill you! (In some cases, it will kill you both ways, physically and spiritually!) But without the cure for this disease, you will DEFINITELY face the second death, as Revelation 21:8 calls it!
The spiritual disease of sin, is a disease that every single one of us was born with! And make no mistake about it, without a cure, this disease will definitely kill you! (In some cases, it will kill you both ways, physically and spiritually!) But without the cure for this disease, you will DEFINITELY face the second death, as Revelation 21:8 calls it!
That’s the bad news! Now for the good news.............THERE IS AN ABSOLUTE CURE FOR THE DISEASE OF SIN!
And that cure for the disease of sin, is through the vaccination process that we refer to as, REDEMPTION!
And the core ingredient in this vaccination, is LOVE!
At the core of everything that God has done and that Jesus did on this earth, you will find agape LOVE!
The world needs to see and hear the truth of its condition.
And the only way that we can share the TRUTH, is through the LOVE of God!
LOVE demands the TRUTH and it speaks the TRUTH at all times!
LOVE shares the TRUTH, even at the expense of cost to oneself!
There are those who exist today who say that the gospel message is a “hate filled” message and that true Christians are “hate mongers” and propagators of hate!
That we are unloving and unaccepting of others and their personal decisions about how they will live their lives in this world.
Jesus warned us in saying, “if the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first!”
Jesus said in that same passage in John 15 that He came and taught the TRUTH about the disease of sin and because of that, the world hated Him.
But there were those who heard and saw the LOVE of the Father in Jesus and in His message and they repented and believed and were healed from the disease of sin!
The TRUTH of the gospel message, shared in the LOVE of God, will set anyone free from the bondage of sin, who receives it in faith and repents and believes!
And now more than ever, as we are closing in on the last, of the last days, people around you and I need to see and hear and experience the LOVE of God, in all TRUTH and in every situation.
The world is so backwards to the understanding of what real LOVE is. Let me read you two quotes from the world about LOVE.
The world is so backwards to the understanding of what real LOVE is. Let me read you two quotes from the world about LOVE.
“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson
“We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.” - Orson Welles
Are these not sad and depressing views about LOVE and life? And that’s because the world is incapable of understanding real LOVE on its own!
Are these not sad and depressing views about LOVE and life? And that’s because the world is incapable of understanding real LOVE on its own!
The world relates love to the physical. It understands mostly “eros” love, with a little “philia” love sprinkled on the top! It desperately needs to be shown what real agape LOVE is. I just read you a couple of quotes from the worldly view about LOVE, now let me read you a couple from the kingdom perspective about LOVE.
The world relates love to the physical. It understands mostly “eros” love, with a little “philia” love sprinkled on the top! It desperately needs to be shown what real agape LOVE is. I just read you a couple of quotes from the worldly view about LOVE, now let me read you a couple from the kingdom perspective about LOVE.
“If we have got the true love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we will show it in our lives. We will not have to go up and down the earth proclaiming it. We will show it in everything we say or do.” - Dwight L. Moody
“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” - Augustine
Or to put it more simply from the late David Wilkerson, “Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.”
You and I can spend all of our time doing some form of community service. We could serve tirelessly serving food to the hungry in the soup lines, giving out clothing to the homeless and providing counseling services to those who are hurting, but understand this.........
If these things are not being done in and from true agape love, then they are of no eternal value!
That is not to say that yo don’t feel “philia” love for those you are ministering to in such ministries, because you do and you should feel that brotherly love for those people.
BUT, philia love is not what truly should prompt you to go out and to spend your time doing those things!
Guilt, or compulsion from others is not what wins over the world!
AGAPE love, (selfless, sacrificial love), is what conquers the hopeless and lost heart!
The world knows its own brand of love and it can sniff it out in you, if that is what you are truly operating out of!
Jesus said, that if you belong to this world, then it will recognize you and accept you as one of its own!
AGAPE love is not of this world and this world doesn’t know how to handle this love!
AGAPE love turned the world upside down nearly 2,000 years ago and it has never been the same since!
So, here comes the question.........are you ready for it?
So, here comes the question.........are you ready for it?
Does the world around you in which you are in each and every day, see and recognize its own version of love and accept you as its own, or does it see and hear a different love from you?
Does the world around you in which you are in each and every day, see and recognize its own version of love and accept you as its own, or does it see and hear a different love from you?
Does the agape love of almighty God flow from you into the lives of those around you?
Does the agape love of almighty God flow from you into the lives of those around you?
Look here for a minute. Pretty much all of us in this room, stood in front of a mirror this morning and did something to get ready to come here.
From brushing our hair, styling our hair, shaving, brushing our teeth, putting on our makeup, checking our outfits, etc.
The point is, we do this pretty much each and every day of our lives. We inspect the outer man, to make sure that he/she looks as good as possible!
But what about the inner man? How long did you spend looking at the condition of your heart before you came here and how attractive it looks?
How much time did you spend dealing with those thoughts that are in your mind, that you know are not of God?
How much do you think that your life portrays the immeasurably all together lovely, all together beautiful agape love of the Father to others?
It’s time for the real you to shine!
In closing, let me say this. If I posted an advertisement on the radio next week and put signs up all over town and went on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and I said that we were hosting a great revival here at CWC. And I said that EVERYONE who attended these meetings, would DEFINITELY receive the power and the gifts of Holy Spirit, and that this revival was going to put Brownsville to shame in magnitude, I would pack this place out!
In closing, let me say this. If I posted an advertisement on the radio next week and put signs up all over town and went on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and I said that we were hosting a great revival here at CWC. And I said that EVERYONE who attended these meetings, would DEFINITELY receive the power and the gifts of Holy Spirit, and that this revival was going to put Brownsville to shame in magnitude, I would pack this place out!
Because people desire those gifts and that empowering presence of Him. And you should desire those things, Paul said that we should desire them!
Because people desire those gifts and that empowering presence of Him. And you should desire those things, Paul said that we should desire them!
BUT, Paul also closed out the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, after having just explained about the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, in saying this, “But earnestly desire the greater (the higher gifts). And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
BUT, Paul also closed out the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, after having just explained about the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, in saying this, “But earnestly desire the greater (the higher gifts). And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
What was Paul saying? Was he conveying to us that there are greater, more lofty gifts that you and I can possess than those that are given to us by Holy Spirit?
And that we should desire those gifts even more?
Well, next week we will answer those questions, as we move into 1 Corinthians 13.
But I will end today with a command from the Apostle Paul that he gave to us from 1 Corinthians 14:1, in speaking about love and spiritual gifts, he said,
1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV)
1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts......
Did you catch that? We are to pursue love. That word, pursue, means that we do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal. It means that you are moving and going after it!
Did you catch that? We are to pursue love. That word, pursue, means that we do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal. It means that you are moving and going after it!
But we are to, desire spiritual gifts. Desiring something is not the same as actively pursuing something. I can desire in my heart to know God, but that is not the same as my pursuing (going after) God! Do you all see the difference?
But we are to, desire spiritual gifts. Desiring something is not the same as actively pursuing something. I can desire in my heart to know God, but that is not the same as my pursuing (going after) God! Do you all see the difference?
Is that where you are in your relationship with God today?
Are you pursuing Him and His perfect agape love for your life?