Summary of Love 4

Title: LOVE IS… Summary of love pt 4- Love is Positive

Text:

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

Intro: 1. One of the most famous passages in the Bible

2. Follows chapter 12 which is all about Spiritual gifts/manifestations

3. Love is the greatest gift of them all

4. First week we talked about the Superiority of Love

a. Spirituality without love is annoying

b. Knowledge without love is arrogant

c. Giving without love is manipulation

5. We have no capacity to generate (agape love) on our own

a. It comes from God

b. the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us

6. Summary of love

a. Love is submissive- patient and kind, submissive to God and others

b. Love is not possessive

c. Love is not competitive

d. Love is positive

7. Stinkin’ thinkin’- cognitive disorders

· All-or-Nothing Thinking: someone gets a promotion you wanted, you think you’ll never be promoted and you’re a total failure in your career

· Overgeneralization: It’s useless to try to meet people. No one really could like me. People are all mean and superficial anyway. All, Everyone

· Jumping to Conclusions: someone you are meeting is 20 minutes late. You believe that they’ve stood you up, had an accident, etc… but they are simply stuck in traffic

· Magnification and Minimization: someone brags on your work and you downplay it saying you should have done better, it was just dumb luck

· Labeling and Mislabeling: You blew it one day on your diets & exercise and tell yourself, I’m a fat, lazy pig

· Personalization: Your kids act up or make bad grades and you feel like you must be a bad parent, it’s all your fault.

8. Margaret Mitchell was writing a book when a friend mailed her the book John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benet. She thought her book would never be that good so she stopped writing it. Nine years later she changed her mind and finished her book Gone with the wind.

IV. LOVE IS POSITIVE

A. Bears all things

1. Definition- A roof over, to protect or keep by covering

a. The concept of protection, exactly as a roof protects, shields, and guards the inhabitants of a house from exposure to the outside influences of weather

2. Explanation

a. The roof of a house is designed to shield people. This protection is vital for survival in most climates, preventing us from freezing or burning up in the sunlight

b. There are many different seasons to life, and not all seasons are pleasurable

1) Some people hate summer, others hate winter

2) Spring of life you try to protect your young spouse

3) Summer of life protecting your children (can’t build a fortress)

4) Winter of life protecting an ailing spouse

c. Bible examples

1) Elijah when he was running from Jezebel- what are you doing here? job to do

2) Jesus with the woman at the well-

3) Jesus with the woman caught in adultery-

3. Application

a. Rather than expose you and your flaws to the view of others, a person who operates in this kind of love will conceal, cover, and protect you

1) Not here to embarrass anyone

2) Most people want others sin exposed because it makes us feel better about ourselves

b. With God- If I conceal it, He will reveal it, if I reveal it, He will conceal it

c. Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ

d. It’s a spouse giving up their desires and plans to be with an physically challenged spouse to help them through their difficulties and the situation they are put in

* Love protects, shields, guards, covers, conceals, and safeguards people from exposure

B. Believes all things

1. Definition- To think to be true, believes the best

a. To put one’s faith or trust in something or someone

b. Where we get the word faith, trust

c. A constant, continuous entrusting of one’s faith in something or someone

d. A “never-give-up” kind of belief that something will turn out the very best

e. Could say “believes the best in every situation”

2. Explanation

a. Agape love isn’t stupid, or blind. It sees everything — the good, the bad, and the ugly

1) It is so filled with faith it pushes the negative realities out of the way

2) It makes a choice to see beyond the problems and see the highest potential

3) When others put them down you point out the good

b. Eternally optimistic

1) Agape continually presses ahead full of faith

c. Biblical examples

1) Moses- others saw a runaway, God saw a leader

2) David- others saw a shepherd, God saw a king

3) Disciples- others saw uneducated, not good enough, God saw men to start the church

3. Application

a. Do we see the best in others or pick people apart and point out all their flaws and weaknesses?

b. Do we see others potential through eyes of love?

c. Everything in life appreciates or depreciates

1) Spouses, kids, employees

2) Like an athlete playing with the coaches confidence, unconditional love gives us confidence no matter what we are going through

3) Being judged on potential or reality

d. Treat them like the person you want them to be

1) Appreciate others

* Love strains forward with all its might to believe the very best in every situation

C. Hopes all things

1. Definition

a. Not only a hope or a desire, but an expectation of good things

b. To look with expectation

c. Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. And it not only expects it to happen; it is confident that it will happen

d. Because it is based on the character of God and His Word

2. Explanation

a. Rather than assuming failure or a bad result, the love of God always expects the best

1) It not only expects it, but is filled with an anticipation to see it happen

b. I know the plans that I have for you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope

1) It can believe for the best in people because God wants the best for people

2) This hope is not built on positive confession but on God’s Word

c. Bible Examples

1) Abraham- (He hoped against hope) Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” 19 And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. 20 Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God

3. Application

a. Hope is always looking down the road at what things can be

b. Hope is the proper response to the promises of God

c. Trials should have a way of growing our hope not destroying our hope

1) We can rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance, character, and character, hope

2) When I am suffering or going through a trial with someone else I can have a confident expectation about the situation because I know God’s character & nature

3) I know God has something better in the end

4) We call the rapture the Blessed HOPE

d. I can be hopeful for my children, marriage, for a friend because I know God is hopeful

* Love always expects and anticipates the best in others and the best for others

D. Endures all things

1. Definition

a. To remain, not recede or flee

b. Literally means to abide under- to hold up under a burden or weight

c. To stand firm (because you know you are right where you should be)

2. Explanation

a. A person who is under a heavy load but refuses to surrender to defeat

1) They know they are in the right place

2) They are where they are supposed to be

3) People give up on marriages because they say they weren’t in God’s will

4) If you are convinced you are in the middle of God’s will you can hang in there

5) Regardless of what tries to come against us, we are going to stay put and refuse to move

b. Agape never quits or throws in the towel

1) God’s love doesn’t know how to quit

a) God will love people all the way to hell

b) If you go to hell it will be over His dead body

c. Bible verses about enduring

1) By your endurance you will gain your lives

a) Trials have a way of helping you figure out who you are, what you’re made of

2) But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance

3) For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised

a) MSG- But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion

b) We are tempted to switch to plan B when things don’t go the way we want

4) The testing of your faith produces endurance

3. Application

a. The flesh says, “I’ve done all I’m going to do. I’m not wasting any more of my life. I’m finished, and I’m leaving”

b. Loves says, “I am here to stay”

c. Is there a situation in your life right now that you are tempted to quit on, to run away, to throw in the towel, even though you know you are in the middle of God’s will

* Love never quits, never surrenders, and never gives up

Cncl: 1. God’s kind of love is gracious (bears), spacious (believes), bodacious (hopes), tenacious (endures)

2. Is this kind of love is operating in your life?

3. Would others say that you have been a “roof” for them — protecting, covering, concealing, and guarding them during the hard and difficult seasons of life?

4. Would others say you believe the best about people, or that you tend to be nit-picky and critical of others?

5. Is there someone others have given up on that you are still believing the best for?

6. Have you made the decision to “stick it out,” regardless of how long it takes?

7. A covering gives us confidence so we can have hope and hope helps us endure

8. God’s love is eternally optimistic

Altr: 1. Salvation

2. Given up on yourself?

3. Given up on someone else?