Unconditional Love
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
“Human nature is a web of contradictions. We are at once the grandeur and degradation of the created order; we bear the image of God, but we are ensnared in trespasses and sins. We are capable of harnessing the forces of nature but unable to rule our tongue; we are the most wonderful and creative beings on this planet but the most violent, cruel and contemptible of Earth’s inhabitants.” - Kenneth Boa
Because of our ability to reason and think, because God granted us freewill are definitely filled with contradictions. However, because of that free will I have the ability to love beyond reason and understanding. To love unconditionally as it says in 1 Cor 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Pray
Have you counted the cost of your freedom of your salvation? What does it mean to count the cost, I thought this was a free gift from God like Ephesians says? Well, its gonna cost more than you think, if you read the Word and not listen to the world.
But what does it mean that the greatest of these is love? Well, as part of our mission statement and vision we will learn to love unconditionally. This means without reservation, without limit, we are to love with the Agape love of God, the full unending, never ceasing love that brought Christ to the Cross, but perhaps it is in 1 Cor 13 that we find the true nature of this love that is unconditional, look at
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love Is Bigger
Love Is Bigger
A. It is above Spirituality - vs 1
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
1. What is it we seek
a. Spiritual gifts
b. Hyper spirituality
2. The love of God
a. It’s authority behind these things
b. It’s power
c. It is above these things because it is deeper
i. these will fade away but love remains
B. It is above knowledge - vs 2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1. Knowing is not Employing
a. I can know a lot of things and never do anything
b. Love compels our knowledge to action
2. Knowing is not Enough
a. Doing is where it is at
b. Just to know Jesus, don’t the demons do that
3. Love must engage not knowledge
a. put it to use in life
b. Put it to use in others lives
c. Defeat my own selfishness and love others
C. It is above service - vs 3
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1. What is the gain
a. Serving the poor
b. Giving to those in need
c. Dying for Something
2. The only gain is love!
D. Because Love is the Foundation - vs 13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1. God’s love
a. Ceaseless
b. Boundless
c. Causeless
2. Nothing I did
a. Never earned
i. Only tried to spurn
ii. Only succeeded at evil
3. God is Love
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
a. That’s the foundation
b. He is relationship
i. Born of God
ii. Automatically relational
Like having kids, see the relationship all the time and start to grasp the unconditional love of God
II. Love is Unconditional
II. Love is Unconditional
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
A. Duality of People
1. Either this or that
a. Take a look at what the World says is OK
i. God’s love isn’t the same
ii. Cannot be self-seeking and still be love
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
a. Either I love with God or not
b. No grey in unconditional love
c. Paul was unlovable
The blind couple story
2. Love and free will
a. It’s unconditional because we choose to love
b. We see the deficiency and love anyway
i. Because that’s what God does
c. God Chooses to love
i. Didn’t destroy in the Garden
ii. Jesus calls Matthew
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
B. Love -
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
1. Love never fails
a. Because it is boundless
b. Because it belongs to God
‘You have granted me life and lovingkindness;
And Your care has preserved my spirit.
i. right in the middle of suffering
ii. He knows God’s love even when it seems hidden
2. It matures
a. All these “spiritual” things will end
i. Love will be what remains
ii. We will love in full
b. God is ceaseless, love is ceaseless
i. Why we practice it now
ii. It will be what is in the end
C. It has to be Unconditional
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1. I don’t get to set boundaries
a. God is love
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
b. He Exemplifies in Forgiveness
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
2. Love Everyone
a. God will sort them
b. Not my job
c. Cannot be as a child anymore
i. Grow up to deeper things
ii. Understanding love in light of eternity, not now
3. Great thing, I get to do the good thing
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
a. Don’t have to worry about condemnation
b. Just love and live the Gospel
c. Live in God’s love
d. Choose to love others
4. Will Lead Others
a. To Christ
b. To the Choice
c. To Love
Conclusion: