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INTRO: We have many versions and interpretations of love, most of them a counterfeit version of the real thing.
· We are in the season of love; isn’t it wonderful?
· All over this last week, the week of Valentine’s Day, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, and unfortunately those in love relationships that are less than God-designed will express their love for one another.
· But, are the expressions of love that we see all around us the kind of love that God shows us?
Let’s see if we can agree on something, as a premise, before we get too far into this message today:
· God, the Creator of ALL THINGS, it stands to reason,...
God created LOVE!
If He created all things, He created love as well.
· So any expression of love has, at its core, the example of God’s idea of love to live up to, right?
· And God’s idea of love is the love that means giving all, unconditional, total.
· Agape love is the only kind of love God shows us.
· All other kinds are manmade, or at least have developed under the umbrella of agape love, and, to one degree or another, are just imitations of agape.
· They are not fake, mind you.
· Just lesser in their intensity and meaning than God’s agape love for you.
The March Toward Real Love
SECURITY LOVE: in the Greek, Storge
This love is the love that everybody needs to survive.
· It is that feeling of being cared for and nurtured.
· Some people would describe this as the type of love parents have for their children.
· This is so important: high on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; and studies have even proven that people have died of a "broken heart" (there have been no explanations for their deaths other than that).
FRIENDSHIP LOVE: in the Greek, Phileos
This is a love between yourself and someone that is totally honest, open and comfortable.
· You really only have this kind of bond with a few people.
· You might know a lot of people and be "friendly" with them in a group situation but they are not the best friends I am talking about here.
· And, you cannot truly be best friends with a member of the opposite sex.
· Ladies, if there is a man in your life telling you that you are his best friend, I promise you he wants more.
· If you try this kind of relationship, you will discover that down the line romance will always come up from either party and feelings will be misinterpreted and mistaken.
· When this happens, the friendship will change and possibly never be the same again.
ROMANTIC LOVE: in the Greek, Eros
· The much anticipated love!
· Most people experience this type of love many times in their life.
· It is when you see that person for the first time and he/she makes your knees go weak or gives you butterflies in your stomach.
i.e. "Love at first sight”.
· Most people don’t even love the person they think they are in love with…they fall in love with the idea if being in love.
· This is more of a lustful kind of love; it wears off after a while and hopefully, under the proper and right circumstances leads to...
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: in the Greek, Agape
This is the sincere love, the love that lasts forever.
·This concept was created specifically to describe the kind of love Jesus showed on the cross.
This kind of love comes when you have found the person you are destined to be with.
· Nothing can destroy unconditional love.
· It is like when you have an argument or disagree about something with that person and you realize that it doesn’t bother you because the love you have for him/her overcomes everything.
Agape is true love, God’s love, and the love that we progress toward if we are progressing in Christ.
1 Cor.
13 tells us about some of the attributes of love.
· An attribute is something that is a characteristic of something; as in love.
· We know from scripture what those characteristics are…
o You can’t just say you love someone and then cheat on them.
o You can’t just say you love someone then beat them.
o You can’t love someone AND use them.
o You can’t say you love Jesus AND ignore what that means.
o In all of this the attributes of love are missing.
o And if the attributes are missing then so is the love.
o It cannot exist in an environment of dishonesty, violence, manipulation and disrespect toward another, among other things.
Love is patient…
· Saying you are patient is quite different from practicing patience.
· For this to be grasped by you, you must demonstrate patience.
…love is kind.
· Again, saying you are kind is not enough.
· You must be found doing acts of kindness.
It does not envy...
· This can be a nasty one, indeed.
· Envy is a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
· How can be in a love-relationship and, at the same time, desire a different relationship or be discontent with what we have.
· There is no real love present if this is the case.
…it does not boast…
· We boast when we speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about ourselves.
· We’re not talking here about showing your loved ones’ pictures or being proud in the family sense.
· We’re talking here of being so consumed with self that you can’t help but make sure that others see you, above any other, in your relationships.
· You will brag on yourself before anyone else.
· These people are easily recognizable in any type of relationship because any conversation they have will turn towards them before the conversation is very old.
… it is not proud.
· Why is pride such a sin?
· Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities (American Idol bombers!).
· It interferes with our ability to recognize the grace of God.
· It has been called the sin from which all others arise.
· Pride is also known as Vanity.
· It is the root of man’s denial of God’s existence.
· After all, if I am basically good, and can believe in myself above everything else then why do I need God?
· Well-meaning elementary school teachers told you to "believe in yourself."
· We, in America, have believed in ourselves right out of a relationship with our Creator!
It does not dishonor others…
· How many spouses have dishonored each other and the vows they took under the guise of accepting something that God created, marriage, by throwing away families because they had no concept of true love?
· How many children are shuttled between homes because their parents, not only, dishonored their marriage and family, but once they destroyed that one, they created another dysfunctional one to try and replace it.
· Grown-ups listen to me here; THERE IS ALWAYS BROKENNESS IN DIVORCE.
· It can never be done right, in the sense that everybody’s okay after it’s over!
· There is always damage.
· The best that we can ever hope to do is minimize it, a task at which some are better than others.
· But in the best of these cases there is damage.
· In every case of divorce there is a lack submission to God by at least one party, but more than likely by both.
…it is not self-seeking…
· When we seek our own interest or selfish ends we have no hope of understanding what it was that God did for us by sending His Son to take our place on the cross.
· Imagine if God had sought His own self interests in creating man and the world.
· He could have made us robots, to mechanically obey His every instruction without the inconvenience of free will.
· He could have created a world that would have maintained its perfect form as it was in the beginning.
· As the old song says, Jesus could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him from the cross.
· But none of these things were consistent with his character.
· So he put aside His self interests to teach us what love is so that we could have deep, meaningful relationships with each other, and Him.
…it is not easily angered…
· Love cures anger (wrath), which is another one of the seven deadly sins, by the way.
· America has become a nation of angry people.
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