What is Love? pt.2

LOVE IS  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Intro:

Bell Hooks
“One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.”
Rupi Kaur
“How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.”
Sanhita Baruah
“Even when it seems that there is no one else, always remember there’s one person who never ceased to love you – yourself.”
Alan Cohen
“To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
The world PROMOTES SELF LOVE - it preaches from the pulpits of social media and secular education that the ULTIMATE answer to life’s greatest problems is SEEKING YOUR OWN GREATEST DESIRES -
But in our passage we pick back up IMMEDIATLEY with Paul describing love and saying quite the OPPOSITE - tonight we look at 2 points - WHAT LOVE IS AND WHT LOVE IS NOT and Paul starts by saying v.5 Love does not seek its own… KEEP READING

1. What Love Isn’t

Self seeking

Seeking your own interest above others is the root of all sin -

R. C. H. Lenski, the well-known Bible commentator, has said, “Cure selfishness and you have just replanted the garden of Eden.

I want to challenge you to begin thinking of relationships NOT in a give an take way BUT at all TAKE. We can no longer treat others as if they can offer us something and we can offer them something.
You were not placed here to benefit from other but to BENEFIT others.
Evaluate your relationships- friends, teamates, classmates, siblings and KNOW this - you are there to help them not the other way around.
1 Corinthians 10:33 “33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.”
Romans 15:1–6 “1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” 4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus is always our perfect example…
Philippians 2:4–8 “4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
God didn’t create you bc He was lonely, He didn’t save you bc He needed you, we are the primary and sole beneficiaries of the gospel -

Provoked

Paul is speaking of an angry response to personal offenses
Being quick to anger is of being self seeking - its the sinful response when things don’t go your way
Illus: Search and Destory -
You know what makes my hands sweat and heart beat
BC if i make one wrong move or don’t do it in time - BOOM
App: DO you make peoples hands sweat and heart beat BC one wrong move results in an explosion?
what makes you GO OFF?
Siblings - not leaving you alone,
Parents - telling you what to do
No one likes living w/ a ticking time bomb -
Its not the actions of others that causes the explosion - the bomb is already PREPARED TO EXPLODE
You know why - you BLOW UP? BC your heart is PRIMARILY focused on yourself - so when things don’t go your way - you burst out and do irrevokable damage
Psalm 145:8 “8 The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.”

Record keeping

Love does not take note of sins against them and hold it over that persons head, instead they wait for God to settle the score
THE reality is - you live in a sinful world, w/ sinful people, you ONLY interact w/ sinners at home, school, sports & church.
Luke 23:34 “34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.”
2 Corinthians 5:19 “19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Romans 4:7–8 “7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. 8 “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.””

REJOICE IN EVIL

App: My personal temptation is to HELP affirm the WRONG decision of my friend bc I want to be on their side. But in reality a GOOD friend, will tell the truth out of love.
Ex; Your friend gets into an argument with someone and YOU talk with your friend and VALIDATE everything they did and said as if they were perfect to “BACK THEM UP” in reality you end up just gossiping about the other person involved - and rejoice in evil
PREACH: IT IS UNLOVING TO PICK SIDES! That’s exactly what this MESSED up corinthian church were doing 1 Corinthians 1:12 “12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.””
The reason you approve evil is because you have already given yourself over to it
Does your life reflect that your LOVE is what Paul says LOVE IS NOT?
PUT OFF AND PUT ON!
​

2. What Love is

Paul ends with a STACTTO for empahsis (digadum digadum digadum digadum) in the greek these all end with the sound (ei)
Its also a chiasm - where the OUTER 2 are similair and inner 2 are similair

BEARS & ENDURES

This two bring a similair emphasis and meaning
“bears all things” = “passes over in silence”
You could think of BEARS ALL THINGS as NEVER GIVES UP
and ENDURES as NEVER GIVES IN
The POINT IS

Love bears all things by protecting others from exposure, ridicule, or harm. Genuine love does not gossip or listen to gossip. Even when a sin is certain, love tries to correct it with the least possible hurt and harm to the guilty person. Love never protects sin but is anxious to protect the sinner.

Proverbs 10:12 “12 Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions.”
App:
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way - YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING!
IT DOES NOT HIDE SIN
PREACH: God will not BRING TO REMINDER our many DARK sins because His LOVE covers them- how can we bring to light the lesser sins of others?

BELIEVES & HOPE

The First Letter to the Corinthians ii. Pointed Description of Some of Love’s Key Attributes, 13:4–7

This is not about always trusting those around us, who are often not worthy of such trust, but about trusting the one who calls us to love others and living out that love for others as a reflection of our trust in him

As long as God’s grace is operative human failure is never final

This doesn’t mean be NAIVE - its a hoep and belief anchored in the GOD who transforms sinners into saints - who changes people from the inside out - for the Christian its a hope that God can work out all things for GOOD - no matter the circumstance.
ILLUS: My mother in law is one who is PESAMISTIC ABOUT CA - to say the least bc she is obsessed tih TN
EATING A GREAT DINNER - better in TN
BEACH w/ PERF weather - better in TN
Neighbors park theur trailer on the street - BTEER in TN
APP: What about you?
My friends will never change
My parents don’t understand me
My school is the worst
That event couldv’e been this way
LOVE - knows God to be the one who ONLY does what is BEST and trusts that IN the GOOD and BAD He will make all things right
​

CONCLUSION:

as we look back at what LOVE is and IS NOT it becomes clear that there is a FAMINE/ drought going on in our world, in our city in our school and even in this group - OF LOVE.
Whats the answer?
300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Stocking up on God’s Love (Genesis 41:53–57; Acts 7:11–13; Jude 21)

If I were told that a city was about to be besieged, and if I were commanded to keep the people supplied with provisions during the siege, I should lay in a plentiful store at once to provide for the famine.

So, if you desire to continue in the love of God, have much of the love of God now and pray for more of it. Oh, to know the love of God as much as ever it can be known! Be greedy, be hungry, be covetous after it. Store it up; fill your soul full of it as a man would fill his storehouses and granary if he knew that a famine would be in the land.

STOCK UP on the Love God has shown you in the gospel - by sending His own son to take your place in punishment, to die, to rise again & to offer you His RIGHTEOUSNESS for your allegiance.
TRUST in Christ REPENT of your sin & EXPERIENCE the overwhelming LOVE of God so that you can not only survive this famine BUT counteract it.
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