Filters
Notes
Transcript
Intro
We are talking all about love!
Last week we discovered that:
The world has a skewed view of love
It gets lost in translation
only God can define love because God is love
God shows love thru His relationship with the trinity and thru the relationship He wants to have with you! - giving His Son - ultimate sacrifice of love
We learned that true love feels foreign to us because sin has contaminated everything good, it broke everything beautiful, it skewed our perspective or lens thru which we see.
Sin has influenced our understanding of love.
Have you ever used a social media before? how funny or different it makes you look
Show slides of my filters
no filter - tired, spotty, blurred
filter - smooth, bright, perfect
too much - goes too far and skews everything
Filters are fun to use, but they are not an accurate depiction of who we truly are
Last week we talked about how God is love, and to understand what love is, we have to understand who God is. It is hard to understand who God really is when our source of truth about Him is twisted. When we see thru filters that change the view.
Sin will always distort the truth, and when it does, it will distort our understanding of love in the process.
Let’s check out tonight’s video
Body
We have to distinguish between love & sin
We learned that love is sacrificial, obedient, thinks of others - like God
Sin says that love is satisfying myself
Fill myself with relationship, money, success, experiences
Now none of those things are bad but the filter, motivation to satisfy myself, is the problem
You see, sin is subtle, sneaky and disguised in truth even.
There is a tale-tale sign that it is not right tho:
No matter how much we consume, we are never full
sin likes the dark and doesn’t want to hear the truth or be in the light
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I want to hit on some touchy things to show you what I mean tonight, just stay with me
The video touched on one aspect of this - Sexuality
In 1 breath, the world says that your sexuality is your identity, the core of who you are
the top value of what makes you, you
At the same time tho, the world also says that sex is no big deal, just be casual
Why is this? These 2 things are opposites yet the world wants us to believe them both!
It is all about staying in the darkness
Both statements are said in order to satisfy ourselves
I want to show my identity as the most important and I want you to confirm it
& I want to cheapen sexuality by making it casual and not important so I can have what I want when I feel like it
Another touchy subject
We are seeing a massacre of people right now and nothing is worse than the killing of innocent babies
Some people have so much evil & darkness in their heart, that they think it is ok
How did they get there?
To think so little of life
Yet, we justify abortion
We say it is better for the child to not be born into hardship
We say it is better for the mom cuz she couldn’t handle it physically, emotionally, financially....
But isn’t it just justification for staying in the dark, for not being honest that you are killing a baby, to satisfy your wants.... That you think one life is more important than another...
Where does the sin come from?
It comes from within
Satan doesn’t make you do it, man can’t make you do it
It comes from the desire to satisfy yourself
We begin to seek what we want, and then justify our choices, and then refuse to consider any other side
back to my filters
No matter how I changed up the filter, the truth lay beneath
It was still a true picture of me, tired, spotty, blurred..
The filters can lie to you to show something different, but the truth is always there and doesn’t change
No matter how I pretty up my sin, or justify it, or even get you to approve of it, it is still there, lying below the surface: my sin
Because sin comes from within
Conclusion
The real question tonight, is, are you brave enough to step into the light?
Do you want to seek out the truth, even if it is not what you want to hear?
Do you want to experience true love and see where it wants to take you?
15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
The love of the world and the love of the Father can’t coexist
So how do we find the truth of love?
God’s Word - the more we read it, it becomes our filter thru which we see
Relationship with God - feel His love, express His love, live His love
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Are you willing to let God change the way you think?
The world is shouting their version of love as the most freeing, pleasurable way to guarantee your own happiness… but that version can’t deliver deep, lasting joy
Do you dare to believe that God’s definition of love is the key to experiencing deeper joy than any shallow pleasure the world could offer?
Maybe you are sitting here tonight, and you admit you have fallen for the world’s definition of love, you may feel convicted of a particular area of sin in your life. Step out of the darkness and into the light
Seek God’ truth in the situation
Confess your sin and turn away from it - refuse to look thru that filter that justified your actions and seek God’s truth and love
Maybe you just realize the need to begin to ask God to replace your shallow desires for the things of this world with deep desire for the things that truly last
God has great things for you, including incredible soul-satisfying love
Let’s pray.