Relationships at School

Salt Week 5 part 2

Salt Week 5

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Corinthians 4:18 “18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

How does our culture distort love?

Love can certainly look different to different people.

I want us to look at some characteristics in just a moment.

From this list, you can only choose 5 and I want you to rank them from 1-5 with 1 being the most important and 5 being the least.

Let’s take a moment and do this.

In a perfect world, we would have all of these characteristics in our relationships, perfectly, all the time.

But we don’t live in a perfect world, and there is much brokenness and messiness.

How have you experienced brokenness in the relationships around you?

How has sin and selfishness damaged relationships?

What is unconditional love?

God’s love for us is pure, unselfish, sacrificial, and unconditional.

How is God’s love pure?

How is it unselfish?

How is it sacrificial?

How is it unconditional?

In our language and in our culture, we say that we love alot of stuff.

What are some things you love?

Funny enough, we might say

“I love this show on netflix...”

or “Man, I love Chick Fil A...”

Or “wow there is nothing better than being home, I love my home.”

But then we also tell our parents we love them, our friends we love them, and one day guys, you’ll tell a girl you love her.

Girls, you’ll tell a guy.

That’s a big deal.

In our language we don’t differentiate with the word love. We just say “Love”

But in the Bible, which wasn’t originally written in English.

It was written primarily in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.

The Greek language has a few words for love.

Eros - Erotic love.

Phileo - brotherly love

Agape - God’s love.

When we read 1 Cor. 13, I want you to understand that it’s not an erotic love or a brotherly love… This is something different.

This isn’t the love we have for food, netflix, or sports.

This is a deep unconditional love.

Who would like to read this?

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Could someone else also read Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Could someone also read

2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What do these verses say about God’s love for us? What does God’s unconditional love mean even when we feel unlovable?

Do you feel accepted in life? Do you feel you have to work really hard to be accepted?

Is God’s love like that? Do we have to work super hard and be stressed on any given day that God might not accept us?

So how does that change the way we live then?

Does that Just give us a license to do whatever we want since God loves us?

Certainly not.

Romans 6:1–7 “1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

We are set free.

We will all sit with friends in the coming week who may not feel loved or accepted.

We worship a God who can set them free from their sin.

Are we bringing Jesus to the lost and hurting around us?

Are we caring about the hurting around us?

Do we realize God cares for our hurts as well?

Let’s pray for our friends, care enough to notice them, and share God’s love with them.

Let’s pray and be dismissed.