Let Every Heart
Notes
Transcript
What is love? Is it an emotion, a choice, an idea? We have love songs and love stories. But what is true, lasting, meaningful love? How does the Bible define love?
When I was 12 I thought I had found the love of my life. I was stupid. I see that now. She wanted nothing to do with me. In a last ditch effort to win her affections, I wrote her a love letter. This was a devastating mistake. Has you or someone you love ever been victimized by a group of junior high girls? It is violent and soul crushing. For the next 5 years of my life, I was tormented.
Looking back, I had no idea what I was thinking. Love was so much more than I could understand at the time.
Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. True love is something we have all searched for. Maybe in a bottle, maybe in a friend, spouse, job, we are all looking for love.
If you have ever been to a wedding you have heard this scripture….
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
This is how the Bible defines love. What did Jesus say to His disciples right before He was betrayed?
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Is that easy or hard? Fairly easy right? Well, compared to this..
“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
So who does that leave? No one. We are called to love each other and those who are outside of our little christian community. Jesus has called us to love without limits. So what does that look like?
The love that is often associated with believers, in greek, is agape love. This type of love is selfless or spiritual love as revealed in Christ. It is not just a feeling or a choice. It is action.
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
The question remains. How? What does this look like?
Love is patient.
This is the ability to withstand hardship.
Long tempered instead of short tempered.
Love is humble.
This is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.
More concerned with improving and growing yourself than keeping a record of wrongs.
Love is truth
Speaking truth in love is not a licence to be a jerk.
Sometimes the truth is the other person doesn’t want to listen.
Love is a very popular thing in culture today. It’s everywhere. In the end, we are all looking for a love that heals. That love is only found in Jesus.
Jesus came to us when we were lost in our sin. Rom 5:6-8
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
We want acceptance. We are desperate for hope. None of this can be found without Jesus. His love is more than words. Jesus showed us that love is nothing without action. We are so lost we often don’t know we are lost. Jesus comes in those moments to show us that we are lost, but now found. His love reaches across time and space for us. He is the God who sees, the God who hears, the God who knows, and that God who loves.
