02/19/2023 - From Endless Love to Everlasting Love (Love Month)

Grace Place Atlanta COGBF 4700 Mitchell Street Forest Park, GA 30297 Website: atlantacogbf.org Email: info@atlantacogbf.org Phone: (404) 241-6781 Wayne D. Mack, Pastor / Pastor Wayne D. Mack Sermon Notes February 19, 2023 From Endless Love to Everlasting Love The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. GM GP Love is in the Air as well as our Hearts here at Grace Place! Because it’s February, we’re celebrating Love Month. I pray that you’re celebrating LOVE in every crevasse of your life and with every opportunity that is in your power. 1 Just to clue everyone in, Love Month is a time in which we make it our priority to be intentional about celebrating the love among us as a church family, as well as being more keenly vigilant about the love our Father in heaven has bestowed upon us through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, how He loves us. And because of that, we should love Him and one another because He first loved us. In keeping with our sermon practice during Love Month, it has become our custom to select a popular love song and preach a message around it that correlates with a deeper spiritual truth. It’s the same way Jesus made parables in the Gospels by taking an everyday practice to illustrate a spiritual principle. With that, I want to thank everyone who submitted song titles. All of them have been so good and have given me some good content to preach. I’m doing my best to fit them in. Let’s begin . . . Today’s love song was submitted by Sis. Janice Cloud. Thank you, Janice. The song she submitted turns out to be a song that was central to our recent Valentine’s Ball last Tuesday. The couples had so much fun with this song as they sang their hearts out to each other. Enough Intrigue. 2 The title of this morning’s Love Month song is: Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. The song was written by Lionel Richie. It was performed and recorded for Motown by Richie and Diana Ross as a duet. Endless Love was released in 1981 and has been touted the most enduring love song of all time. The song spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and garnered Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for original song. Billboard’s top 10 love songs of all time are below: 10. “Best of My Love” – The Emotions 9. “I Love Rock n’ Roll” – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts 8. “Because I love You (The Postman Song)” – Stevie B. 7. “Let Me Love You” – Mario 6. “I Will Always Love You” – Whitney Houston 5. “Silly Love Songs” – Wings 4. “We Found Love” – Rihanna Featuring Calvin Harris 3. “How Deep Is Your Love” – Bee Gees 2. “I’ll Make Love to You” – Boyz II Men 1. “Endless Love” – Diana Ross & Lionel Richie 3 [For you movie buffs, “Endless Love” was used as the theme for the Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 romantic drama of the same name starring Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt]. What is the meaning of the song? The lyrics of the song reveal a deep romantic relationship between teenage lovers, without providing their names, details of their situation, or the setting where this takes place. Endless Love is one of the best duets of all-time and is listed among the top ballads for weddings and serves as one of the most requested songs for a great first dance song for those looking to do the dancefloor shuffle! Lyrics . . . Endless Love My love, there's only you in my life The only thing that's right My first love You're every breath that I take You're every step I make And I, I want to share All my love with you 4 No one else will do And your eyes, your eyes, your eyes They tell me how much you care Ooh, yes You will always be My endless love Two hearts Two hearts that beat as one Our lives have just begun Forever (oh) I'll hold you close in my arms I can't resist your charms And love, oh love I'll be a fool for you I'm sure You know I don't mind (oh) You know I don't mind 'Cause you You mean the world to me (oh) I know, I know I've found, I've found in you 5 My endless love Ohh Boom, boom Boom, boom, boom boom, boom, boom Boom, boom, boom boom, boom Oh, and love oh, love I'll be that fool for you I'm sure You know I don't mind Oh, you know I don't mind And, yes You'll be the only one 'Cause no one can deny This love I have inside And I'll give it all to you My love, my love, my love My endless love As I stated, the lyrics of the song reveal a deep romantic relationship between teenage lovers. But, as I’m sure most of you will agree, this song goes beyond teenage love. It has significance for anyone in love at any age. 6 I believe the song’s message conveys the heartbeat of any person, or any couple that has found love and dreams of that love never ending. Regardless of where your love life has taken you, or where you find yourself currently with love, it is certain that everyone who has ever been in love intended for that love connection to endure and last for a live time. Whether the relationship weathered the ups and downs of love or whether it ended in separation, divorce or worse -- I believe it’s safe to say that every couple that ever found themselves in love, every marriage that ever came to be – the original hope was that the love [or potential for love] that brought the two people together would be ENDLESS. No one has ever truly entered into a serious relationship with the intent of it ending. (Mind you, I realize there are some gold diggers out there and a bevy of playboys and players who don’t mean any good . . . Not talking about them.]. Endless Love relationships are an investment. In the words of many love crooners, their gospel reminds us: • You Can’t Hurry Love -- and from time to time . . . Everybody Plays a Fool, . . . Sometime; but, When A Man Loves a Woman . . . It’s like Stairway to Heaven. And, When I’m With You (tony terry) . . . . that is, Just to be Close to You, Girl . . . You Make Me a Believer (Luther). So, for that cause, I Believe in You and Me (Whitney). But you make me wonder: How Deep is Your Love, -Because “What a Fool Believes” is sometimes – Just Your 7 Imagination. . . . but the real Sounds of Love (Constance) is wrapped in Endless Love . . . because no one Wants to Break up just to Make up, and goodness knows, Neither One of Us Wants to be the First to say Goodbye – So . . . Let’s Stay Together. This take on love songs is an illustration of how the love pendulum swings . . . from one extreme to the other. In the equation of LOVE, there are highs and lows. There are good days and not so good days – even bad days. But through it all there are lessons to be learned. One of those lessons is that God allows us [human beings] to experience through one another. First with family, friends, and our fellowman – then, at a level of affection and affinity between a man and a woman. The ultimate goal is that a man and a woman will experience the essence of love through marriage. It is at that point, that two people come to realize that LOVE is more than just a “secondhand emotion”. Love with Marriage is the place that God enters [or is invited in] to perform a mystical act that melds two hearts into one. Realistically, when two people are in love [in the first phase or season of love], they want nothing more than to be ONE. It is beyond comprehension. No one can tell them any different. Both of their noses are wide open. They’re on the phone all night and go to work the next day drained but fueled by love. In the gospel according to Frankie Valli and Lauren Hill: Can't Take My Eyes off You . . . The feeling is like this . . . 8 You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off of you You'd be like Heaven to touch I wanna hold you so much At long last, love has arrived And I thank God I'm alive You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off of you Then, remember what Song of Solomon 2:5 said . . . 5 Sustain me with cakes of raisins, Refresh me with apples, For I am lovesick. In other words, he is saying: Strengthen me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am weak with love. And 2:16a says: 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his. So far, I’ve provided you a picture of Endless Love. What is Endless Love? Endless Love … is love that is love to the end. To the end of what you ask? Till love runs out. Till one falls out of love. Till one loves to the point “Until death us to part”. 9 “Until death do us part” is God’s hope and design for every marital relationship. By the way, marriage is one of God’s most marvelous and enduring gifts to mankind. This divine plan was first revealed to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and then described succinctly in Genesis 2:24 where we read: 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. With those 21-22 words, God announced the ordination of the marriage and family. The union of Adam and Eve is the first true picture of ENDLESS LOVE. God used marriage to introduce His creation to a love that was stronger than heartbreak, betrayal, and pain . . . even SIN itself. A picture of how strong an Endless Love is illustrated through Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit, then offering it to her husband. Although Adam knew it was wrong to eat of the fruit and disobey God, he said to EVE . . . . “If Loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right”. And to the tune of falling out of fellowship with God, Adam chose to go with EVE. Now that’s Endless Love. 10 Other lovers have gone the way of Endless Love as well. The likes of: • David and Bathsheba • Romeo and Juliette • Sampson and Delilah • Abraham and Sarah • Paul and Christine Mack • Jacob and Racheal • Bonnie and Clyde • Barak and Michelle • Ruth and Boaz • Moses and Zipporah • Aquillah and Priscilla But through the picture of Adam and Eve and other power couples, the experience of Endless Love is God’s way of revealing to us the reality of His EVERLASTING LOVE. God’s Everlasting Love is Never Ending, unlike Endless Love which is only to the end – in comparison. Jeremiah 31:3 speaks of God’s Everlasting Love . . . it says: The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. 3 11 God’s everlasting love is about His faithfulness above and beyond any adverse thing that we throw at Him. His love is not like ours – potentially Endless – meaning to the end but not ever-existent or perpetual and transcendent and without bias or condition. In the Book of Jeremiah [31:3], the Lord is illustrating what everlasting love is by receiving back and restoring His children Israel after their committing detestable, revolting, and abominable sins. They disowned God and treated Him as if they didn’t need Him or that they didn’t know Him. All this, after He had provided for them and loved them with an Endless Love. Now God is picking them up [after finding love on a two way street and losing it on a lonely highway.]. Now, Israel is abandoned by the love they left God for, but God – beyond an Endless Love (the kind of Love that is conditional; that runs hot and cold, and sometimes lukewarm) – goes out and finds a beat down Israel and picks her up renews His relationship with her. The motivation for God’s restoration of her is His Everlasting Love which, in due time, He will freely bestow up her. He will restore Israel’s joy by giving her back her dance, her rest, and ever-abiding protection. In our two final illustrations of God’s Everlasting Love, we must come to know that it is Everlasting Love He has for us, and not Endless Love. Endless love is ours; Everlasting Love is God’s alone. 12 Everlasting Love goes beyond human comprehension and experience. Where we often say: I’ll never love again . . . God’s everlasting says: I so loved you, that I gave My only begotten Son for you. You shall be loved and never perish. Peter’s Denials . . . God’s Everlasting Love: Matthew 32:31-35 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 31 ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” 33 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. 35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And so said all the disciples. 34 Luke 22:61 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the 13 word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Mark 16:7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” Final . . . Romans 8: 31- 39 God’s Everlasting Love 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 14 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Everlasting love is a love that has no end. It is the only love God loves us with. From Endless Love to Everlasting Love 15