What’s Love Got to Do With It Wk.2

Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God, and we love people.

Let’s quote our scripture for the year of 2026.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.

Are you ready to be equipped to go and do the work of the ministry?

Let me see your Bibles. (QR code to get my notes)

Let’s pray.

Today we are continuing our series.

What’s Love Got to Do With it.

Wk. 2

Our focus is on God’s relationship with us.

We’re seeking to find out about God’s love for us so that we can transform and mirror His kind of love in our relationships with others.

I’m going to assume that most of you didn’t go back and watch last week’s message or do a review study of your own.

Last week I started with a verse of scripture that overwhelmingly points out the type of love God has for humanity.

Romans 5:8 ESV

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And I challenge you not to think of this like;

(Yeah, that’s what I would be willing to do for my children.)

Because the verse before this, challenges that thinking.

A person might just be willing to die for a good person or a righteous person, but not for someone who is against them.

I also caution you against thinking that just because you are hearing this teaching and agreeing with it, that it’s going to translate into transformation.

You are going to have to spend some time sitting with this in prayer and meditation.

You are going to have to wrestle with your old thoughts and emotions that tell you, you have reason to do what you do.

You are going to have to seriously rethink some things.

Last week we pointed out some of the attributes of God’s Hesed.

Exodus 34:6 ESV

“The Lord passed before him [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love [Hesed] and faithfulness,”

God’s love is:

Merciful and Gracious – patient – abounding in steadfast love – faithful

Let’s take a look at what’s often referred to as the Aaronic blessing or Priestly blessing.

Numbers 6:24-26 ESV

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

This was given by God himself to Moses to be spoken over the people of Israel by the priests from Aaron’s lineage.

This is not just some prayer we can quote at the end of a church service.

This was a declaration that the people belonged to God and lived under His covenant care.

This ancient prayer asks God to:

· provide and protect you

· show you His favor

· extend mercy toward you

· give you His personal attention

· fill your life with wholeness and peace.

And this is what God told them to pray over the people so that they would know God’s desire for them.

We serve a God who loves us in a way that we can’t love others without identifying totally and completely with Him. [Hesed]

So, what does Hesed mean?

One thing we must recognize is that it is not just some great feeling towards someone.

Let me park there for a moment.

This whole notion of love and relationships based on feelings has gotten humanity in a world of trouble.

They’ve coined this new phrase called Gray Divorce.

It’s a term used to describe a divorce that happens later in life, typically involving couples age 50 or older who end a long-term marriage.

So, were talking about couples who have been married 20, 30 or even 40 years and decide to separate.

And it’s usually because one of them doesn’t feel happy enough and wants to try to spend their remaining years searching for happiness.

It creates unique challenges later in life such as:

Dividing retirement savings

Social security and pension issues

Emotional impact after decades together

Trying to adjust to being single later in life

When are we going to get it through our thick skulls that God’s ways are better than ours.

Since Hesed is not based on feelings, what is it?

Hesed is “covenant love in action.”

Let’s look at 3 of the main layers of Hesed:

1. Covenant Loyalty – It is the commitment to keep one’s word and remain faithful to a person or a group of people. Even when they don’t deserve it.

(It’s the glue that holds relationships together.)

2. Undeserved Kindness – It implies a “surplus” of love that goes above and beyond what is required.

(One scholar defined it as, “when the person from whom I have no right to expect anything, gives me everything.”)

3. Reliability and Endurance – Unlike our English word love which can be fickle or emotional, Hesed is rock-solid.

It is the persistent, relentless pursuit of another’s well-being.

Although Hesed is most often used to describe God’s character, we are seeing a blueprint for how we should love and treat one another.

God didn’t choose Israel because they were impressive or made Him feel good.

He chose them and set His covenant [Hesed] love on them out of His own faithful character and promises.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 ESV

“It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

He wanted to show His Hesed to them. Why? So they would eventually Hesed one another and fill this earth with His kind of love.

So, we see that:

God’s love flows from His own character, not from our performance.

That should also tell us that our love and treatment of those we are in relationship with, flows from our own character, and not there performance, like we think.

Stop blaming others for the way you treat them.

Blame it on your character.

As we look at God’s treatment of Israel, we could define Hesed as:

A relationship with you, that always looks for what’s good for you.

I hope you are picking up what I’m putting down.

When we apply the practice of Hesed to our lives, our love will be:

1. Reliable: Our love and our word will be a covenant.

2. Generous: We’ll do more than the bare minimum or what is required.

3. Persistent: We’ll stay in relationship even when the other person is going through a difficult or unlovable season.

 In closing:

Our title was, What’s Love God to Do With it?

When it is this human love that has been based on feelings and emotions, it’s got nothing to do with it.

But when it is the Hesed or God kind of love, it’s got everything to do with it.

Thank you to our online viewing audience for tuning in. (If you’re in the greater KC area, drop in and see us in person.)

 We’ll see you next week.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you?