Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind

Steadfast Love

Big Idea: Christians must be filled with God’s unending, unfailing love.

I. What is steadfast love?

Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

A. Steadfast love is merciful and gracious.

Mercy doesn’t give us what we deserve and grace gives us what we do not deserve.

We do not deserve God’s love - we deserve His wrath. Yet He freely offers His love to us in Christ.

B. Steadfast love is faithful.

God will never go back on His promise to freely offer His love.

C. Steadfast love is forgiving - not angry.

God forgives sin freely and without discrimination - He forgives all iniquity to those who rely on Him and His love.

Takeaway:

Model God’s steadfast love by being filled with mercy, trustworthiness, and forgiveness.

II. What does God’s steadfast love look like?

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

Ephesians 2:1–10 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

1 John 4:7–12 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

A. God endlessly loves sinners. (2 Cor. 5:14)

God’s love knows no bounds - so much so that He died for our sins on the cross.

God loved us even when we were still sinners. (Rom. 5:8)

B. God endlessly loves sinners who rebel against Him. (Eph. 2:1-7)

God loves all sinners, even if they are His enemies.

Even those who twist His creation and worship themselves, He loves.

Look at the example of Barabbas.

C. God endlessly loves sinners who do not love Him. (1 John 4:10)

God loves all sinners, even if they do not love Him.

Look at the example of Paul.

Takeaways:

God loves you beyond compare - even if you don’t love Him.

God forgives your sin. Run to Him!

III. What should our steadfast love look like?

1 John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 Corinthians 13:1–8 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Colossians 3:12–17 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

A. To love means to not think of myself. (1 Cor. 13:4-5)

Love is not selfish or prideful - we cannot think of ourselves.

My way is not important - loving others requires humility.

B. To love means to forgive others who wrong me. ( 1 Cor. 13:7-8, Col. 3:13-14)

God has forgiven us of wrongs beyond our comprehension - we must forgive others JUST as Christ has forgiven us.

Forgiveness requires humility and perspective.

C. To love means to elevate Jesus. (1 John 4:11-12, Col. 3:17)

If we want to truly love someone, we need to elevate Jesus and make Him the most important Person to everyone we ever talk to.

People will know Jesus by the unending love we show them, and they will know we are of Christ because of that love in us.

In everything we do, “in word and in deed,” Jesus ought to be the Reason we do it, including how we love people.

Takeaways:

Do you want to love others? Put away pride - it ruins you.

Do you want to love others? Forgive those who wrong you.

Do you want to love others? Show them who Jesus is - in word and in deed.