Daddy Issues Week 2 | Longing for Love

Announcements Summer Nights | Wed 7:00

Child Dedications | sun 10:30

Scoot In

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Crazy things parents say to us

The Devil is beating his wife again

I’ll swanny to my time

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Review

Mark 1:10 NKJV

10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.

Matthew 17:5 NKJV

5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

You are my son | ACCEPTANCE

Whom I love | AFFECTION

I am well pleased | AFFIRMATION

It’s worth noticing that affection and affirmation are separate realities…I can affirm without love and I can love without affirming.

OUR GREATEST NEEDS ARE FULFILLED PARTIALLY IN THOSE WE SEE, BUT FULLY IN THE ONE WE SERVE.

Week 2 Longing for Love

[PRAY]

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We love everything

We vastly overuse the word love.

I love bacon

I love a show

I love my kids

I love my car

The new testament is primarily written in greek..

the greek language has four different words that translate into our English language of love.

Phileo = Friendship

Eros = Romance

Storge = Family

Agape = Divine

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Love is a significant part of God’s plan for us…

If we don’t have the love of God…We are not all that unlike many other religions in the structure of our beliefs.

THIS IS WHY GOD HIGHLIGHTS HIS LOVE SO INTENTLY.

1 John 4:7 NKJV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The goal of todays sermon is this: We don’t simply need to understand what love is…we need to experience love

Our experience will determine our expression.

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The differnt kinds of love.

Phileo - Friends are friends forever.

Do you remember your high school friendships?

We’re gonna be besties for the resties It is impossible to imagine life without your high school friends..

Then high school ends…and you literally never see any one of them again.

Or maybe you have a friend that is so close…then you say something wrong…or don’t say something right.

While friendships are powerful and essential

FRIENDSHIP IS FICKLE!

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2. Eros - Never gonna let you down

Do you remember falling in love?

This is such an incredibly special time of life.

None of us admit that we had this special time of life more than once.

Many of us didn’t have the good fortune of marrying the first person we had feelings for.

Which begs the question…what happened to those feelings?

They were amazing…until they weren’t

He’s so funny turns into, He doesn’t take anything seriously

She’s so interested in me turns into, She’s clingy

He’s a hard worker turns into, He’s a workaholic

We lose interest in the person because

ROMANCE IS FADING

You have to choose to keep romance alive in your marriage…because love is a choice! ( we will visit this more in a moment.)

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3. Storge - We are family

There is no love like the love you experience for your family.

When you first hold that baby -

tears are shed

They are so adorable

THEN THEY LEARN TO TALK!

THEN THEY START ACTING EXACTLY LIKE YOU!

No one can make me more angry than my kids because they are carbon copies of me!

Many people need anxiety medication when they go to family reunions…We love those people with storge…but my Lord they get under our skin.

FAMILY IS FRUSTRATING

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4. Agape - The Love of God

Many of us have been left longing for a fulfilling love because we have looked for fulfillment in all of these things.

Our friendships have been fickle

Our romance has proven fading

Our families have been frustrating

We need a deeper sense of love…WE NEED AGAPE

It is impossible to find a fulfillment for the longing for love outside of the love of God.

It is the root of a fulfilled life.

GOD’S LOVE IS FOUNDATIONAL

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Now it’s important that we remember that our experience determines our expression.

If we want to do our friendships, romance, and family love right…

then we need the proper foundation upon which to build all of those loves.

If the foundation is faulty…then everything you build is unstable and dangerous.

IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL TO THE HEALTH OF OUR RELATIONSHIPS THAT WE EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF GOD!

_________ 1. God’s Love Is Available

All of the other expressions of love have a level of ambiguity about them.

I’ve wanted to be friends with people before who were not interested in friendship

I’ve liked girls before who did not return the affinity.

But that uncertainty is not present in the love of God…

God has actually made the first move towards us.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God has made the first move…but we do not experience God’s love simply by practicing some form of mental ascent.

We experience the love of God by surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus.

When we do that look at the consequence

Romans 5:5 NKJV

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The heart is the central place of emotions in biblical narrative.

God’s love isn’t just something we are made aware of…

it is something we feel to the deepest part of our being.

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It’s not something we earn…it’s something we receive

You don’t have to work to earn this love…

you simply have to surrender and receive this love.

Remember it is foundational to every other relationship in your life…

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2. God’s Love is Counter-cultural

We have to understand that God’s love is not like the love that we offer and have been offered as mankind.

The love of mankind is transactional | You do this for me and I will love you

God’s love is not like this at all

We just read in Romans 5:8 that God offered his love while we were yet sinners.

God has offered us agape love which is unconditional

It is offered before we have done anything for Him or even could do anything for Him.

Man’s love says pursue me - God’s love pursued us

Man’s love is about pleasing self - God’s love cuts through what is displeasing to Him to bring us into His righteousness

Man’s love fades - but God’s love remains forever.

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Love is a verb

This is so powerful because our culture would tell us that love is something that you feel…

but God shows us that love is something that you do!

Stop basing the success of your relationships on feelings

Love your spouse even when you don’t feel love for your spouse

Love the church even when you don’t feel love for the church.

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Real love helps us identify fake

Remember the illustration about counterfeit money - When you handle the real you can spot the fake.

Some of us keep falling for false versions of love because we have not experienced the authentic version that is the love of God.

_______ 3. God’s Love is the Solution

No matter what you are facing in life…a proper experience of the love of God is the solution that you are looking for.

Many of us become frustrated by our lack of ability to pattern the behavior that we want to pattern.

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

I always read this verse as if you don’t keep my commandments…you don’t love me.

While in principle that is probably true…that is not the structure or posture that the verse presents to us.

The structure for this verse actually presents the keeping of God’s commandments as a foregone conclusion for those who are in love with Him.

When I find myself continually falling into patterns of sin…I have to understand that it is not a problem with sin.

We don’t have a sin problem, we have love problem.

No matter what your struggle is your continual fall into that sin is an indication that you love your propensities more than you love God.

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I can’t love you…until I’m loved by God

We cannot properly love others…until we properly love God and experience the love of God.

In fact scripture uses God’s love for us as the reason and motivation towards our love for one another.

1 John 4:11 NKJV

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We need to experience God’s love deeply so we can express God’s love vividly.

This doesn’t mean we affirm every action of the world around us.

AFFIRMATION AND AFFECTION ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

We love our neighbor by seeking what’s best for them and telling them the truth in love.

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He loves me…so he calls me to repentance

The thing you need to know without question today is that GOD LOVES YOU!

He loves you too much to leave you in your sin He loves you too much to let you live how you want

e loves you enough that he confronts you and lets you know if you keep living like you are there is a price to pay.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God loves us enough to eradicate our punishment and give us a gift instead.