Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 – The Great Valentine of Love

Valentine’s Day has become the day synonymous with showing that special person how much you love them. Throughout much of the world, people are giving flowers, chocolates, balloons, teddy bears, and jewelry just as a way to show that love.

But let me ask you; really, is this really love? Buying things for others is nice, but does it really show true love for someone?

Valentine’s day is one of those days that the retail industry has marketed with hearts and candy, just to get you to buy the stuff, to give to someone, to say that you love them, only for most of it to end up in the landfill. Doesn’t really seem much like love to me.

I mean, we buy flowers, to sit them in a room, just to watch them die, how depressing. And most of the chocolate that we get, is so different, that we barely eat any of it. Now, I’m not trying to knock this special day, because I believe that we should take time to show people we love them. And giving an item can help us express love. But is it true love?

You see, over the years, we probably have given Valentine’s gifts to people that we really don’t love. We just do it to be nice. You remember when you were young and you gave someone a gift, only for you to break up with them the next week.

What I am getting at, is the fact, that we really don’t know how to love like we should. We mimic what we see others do, because we think this is the way we should show love. But showing love is more than giving a card.

Now let’s admit it, we sometimes struggle in the department of love. I mean, we don’t always wake up with the attitude of adoring someone, going to them for whatever they need, and just gazing at them with that sparkle in our eye. No, we’re not like that. Somedays, we get up and those that we see all the time, like our spouse, we think, I want to kill them.

Love is not always a bed of roses, and the world has a poor way of showing love, but do you know where we can learn about true love? From God, from the Bible.

The Song of Solomon is one of those books that we often neglect to share from the pulpit. Its subject and its description can have an adult theme. But within this book, we find an example of love. The kind of love that Christ shows to us. A love that we see God share with us, and that we can learn from that love as well.

[Read Scripture]

Now this passage comes from the hand of Solomon, the son of David, and he is writing to his beloved. And he expresses all of this deep emotion, for this dear lady in his life, the Shunamite bride. But we mustn’t forget what the Lord shared in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

So even though Solomon is speaking to this Shunamite woman, in reality, this is the Lord speaking to his bride, the church. He sharing to us his love for us and what we mean to him. What true love really is. Not the made-up scenarios that we see on the Hallmark channel, nor the romances that we can read in some novels, but a true love that goes beyond what the world deems as love.

When it comes to the agape love that the Lord has shown in the word, we may miss the intensity of it. Today, I want you to become intimate with the Love of God, with real love. And realize that this Love that God shows is meant just for you.

God’s Passionate Love

· Throughout these two verses, you see that there is intensity, there is strong desire, there is a passion that God is expressing to us, that He loves us.

· I want you to know that God is passionate about you. Now this is not some casual love, or just be warm hearted about you, God has an unfailing love for you!

· You see when God loves, he doesn’t love you partially, or on occasion. When God loves he does it with every ounce of his being.

· From the very fingertips down to his toes, God loves us with all of his being.

· How many of you are parents? Now let me ask you, do you love your children? I mean are you passionate about your children? That you love them so much, that you are willing to do anything you can possibly do to show them that love? We’re passionate about our kids, and I want you to know that God looks at you just like that.

· 1 John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…”

· God is so passionate about you that he sent his only begotten son to die in your place! Romans 5:8

· Now the Love that God demonstrates to us, is not suppose to be one way. It’s not meant that God love us and we just like God back.

· I mean you ever seen those couples were one of them will say I love you, and the other gets all awkward and doesn’t say it back?

· Listen, God wants to hear from you that you are passionate about Him, that you love Him with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength.

· That you love God so much, that you are willing to do anything for him.

· In the Bible, we see an example of this, when Jacob comes to the house of Laban and falls in love with Rachel, he has to work a total of 14 years for Laban, just to have Rachel, but he was willing to do anything for her, because he was passionate about her.

· Now we might say, that was a long time of working just to have her as his wife, but in like manner, God has been working on some of us for that long just to have a relationship with him. God is passionate about you!

God’s Protective Love

· Not only is God passionate about you, but God is also protective over you!

· These verses in Song of Solomon speak to us that God loves us so much, that he protects us by putting his seal upon us.

· There was a nature show on television about a black bear that gave birth to two cubs. One cub died right away. Three weeks later the mother died and the remaining cub was left to fend for itself. An orphaned cub in that condition is like a walking buffet for predators. And of course, the camera immediately showed a hungry-looking mountain lion.

One day the orphan cub encountered a giant male black bear. The little cub cowered at the bear's sheer mass. The larger bear peered around and seemed to realize that the mother bear wasn't anywhere to be found. He gave the little cub a friendly nudge. The camera then showed the little bear happily trailing along after the larger one. The adoption papers were signed, sealed and registered at the county seat in that nudge. Papa bear proceeded to show the cub how to grub for insects and how to catch fish and how to scratch his back against a tree.

One day the two bears became separated. The cub began to cry and looked frantically for his new father, but couldn't find him anywhere. The cub approached a stream where he'd learned to fish and something caught his attention. He looked up to see a mountain lion ready to pounce. That same mountain lion had stalked the cub for the entire show. There was no way that mountain lion would've gone for that cub with Papa bear around, but now....

The camera zoomed in on the cub. He automatically mimicked the posture of his adopted father when threatened. He stood on his hind legs and bared his teeth. Then, in the exactly the same way his new father would have done, this cub let loose a mighty growl that should have reverberated throughout the forest. But only a tiny bear cub squeak came out.

Well, you know what was coming. But, to everybody's astonishment the mountain lion lowered his head and ran off in the opposite direction.

The camera panned back to the proud little cub still standing tall on his hind legs. And then all the viewers saw what that little cub Could Not: a few yards behind him, at full, ferocious height, his sharp, white teeth bared in a snarl, stood Daddy bear. He may not have made a sound, but he was there.

And even though the cub couldn't see his father, his father stood guard, protecting his young. The little cub had power available greater than anything he could produce on his own. There was a greater power watching over him.

· Listen, God is there for you, he has put his protection around you – Ephesians 1:13 “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”

· God’s love for us is a protective love, he has protected us with His Spirit. And the Devil is out there like a lion, trying to devour us, but the Lord just stands up, when the Devil comes preying on us, and all we have to do is trust in his protection.

· Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

· When you’re scared, just say Jesus. When you don’t know what to pray, just say Jesus, when Satan assails you, just say Jesus. Jesus is there, he loves you and he will protect you.

God’s Persistent Love

· Now we have seen how God loves us with a passionate love, and a protective love, but God also loves us with a persistent love. – vs 6 “…for love is strong as death”

· It is said there are only two things that are certain in life, death and taxes, but whoever came up with that statement didn’t know the love of God.

· Can I tell you that God has never stopped loving you? God loves you right here, right now, and that love will not go away.

· Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love…”

· So, many times we fall under the lie, that God doesn’t love us. You know what I’m talking about? Those days when you get up, and it feels like everyone hates you and God doesn’t love you anymore. Listen, it may feel like there are times when God doesn’t love us, but I promise you, God loves you and his love never stops.

· Even when you have gone out there and committed a sin, and you know you did wrong, guess what, God still loves you. Now he wants you to turn away from that sin, but he doesn’t look at you and says, well, you are not going to heaven now.

· No, God’s love is persistent, I mean think about some of the men and women in the Bible that God loved even when they failed him.

· Think about Peter, when he denied the Lord three times, did the Lord stop loving Peter? No. He loved Peter, and we read in the scripture, this beautiful restoration of Peter on the shore of Galilee.

· Psalm 89:33 “Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”

· Now, lets be honest, we fail God in the Love department all the time. We’re like Gomer to Hosea, The Lord had Hosea marry a prostitute named Gomer. He took her as his wife, but Gomer kept wandering into the arms of other lovers. She was unfaithful. And yet the Lord told Hosea to keep going after her again and again, and bring her back home.

· Our love hasn’t been persistent, we flounder in our love for the Lord, often. We need to make up our minds, that we love the Lord and we are committed to him!

· Oh, the Love of God, how it is persistent! It reminds me of the chorus of FM Lehman hymn:

“O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,

The saint’s and angels’ song.”

God’s Powerful Love

· Brothers and Sisters, God’s love is passionate, it is protective, it is persistent, but it is also powerful!

· The Lord has told us here in verse 8, that the many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Water is powerful, it can wear away rock, it can be used to satisfy thirst, it can flood the lands and destroy buildings and wash away cars, but, as powerful as water is, it is not more powerful than the Love that God has for us.

· The love that God has for us is so powerful, so strong, that there is nothing that can stop it. The Lord would go to the deepest valley, climb the tallest mountain, cross the raging rivers and traverse through the floods, just for you, because he loves you!

· An example of the Lord’s powerful love was demonstrated in Egypt, when the Hebrew children were held captive by Pharaoh. God moved powerfully in that land by sending plagues to make Pharaoh let the Children of Israel leave. And even when they left, God continued to show that powerful love by parting the Red Sea, by having manna come from the sky, for water coming from a rock.

· The Love that God showed to them was powerful, and that same love has been shown to us. That God made the ultimate sacrifice and with his powerful love for us, defeated death, hell and the grave!!

· Do you realize that the love that God has shown to us, is the most powerful love in the universe? Listen, this isn’t some love that breaks under pressure. This is a love that has stood the test of time.

· Psalm 136:26 “O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy (love or lovingkindness) endureth forever.”

· Now it makes me think, how strong, how powerful is our love for the Lord? I mean, if pressure came upon us, would our love for Christ be so strong that we would not waiver?

· A few years ago, I was redoing my deck on my house, when I was putting down the boards, I didn’t just use two or three nails to hold them down, I used 9 or 10, you know why? I didn’t want them to go anywhere. I wanted them to remain.

· Listen, we need to affirm our love for the Lord. We need to make sure, that we have a strong love for the lord, not just something we say, but that we show it. That we live it. That we mean it. That we nail it down!

· If we don’t have a powerful love for the Lord, the storms of life will blow us away, put your life in the powerful hands of the Lord where you’ll be safe and protected, and cared for.

God’s Personal Love

· Now we have seen God’s passionate, protective, persistent, and powerful love, and finally we see God’s personal love.

· Do you realize that love is from God? Our ability to love is rooted in God himself. For the Bible tells us 1 John 4:8 that God is love.

· And that love is meant just for you. You heard me right, God loves you, he knows you, he has seen you behind close doors, he has seen you during your failures, and guess what? He still loves you!!

· God loves you so much, that if you were the only person who would have come to know him as Lord, he would have still come and died for your sins. He did it for Noah, he will did it for you.

· Now what is amazing, about God’s love, is that when I have his love in my life, it helps me to love others.

· The more I learn about Jesus, the more I love my wife. You want to know men what to give your wife for Valentines day, give your heart to Jesus. Ladies, you want to show your husbands you love them? Give your life to Jesus. Children, you want to grow up with love, come and give your heart to the Lord. I’ll tell you, you will never know how to love like you should until you get your heart right with Christ.

· Now you might be here right now, and your saying, God doesn’t love me. I have done to many bad things. He will never forgive me for what I have done! Listen, No one has ever sinned themselves beyond the love of God.

· You know how I know? Because I read it in his word. God loves you, and the Bible is God’s love letter to you.

· Now you might be here right now, you’re a child of God, you know that God loves you, but you haven’t shown that love back to the Lord like you should. In your heart, you want it to be right, it can be, if today you will give your heart back to the Lord by coming to this altar and praying unto him.

· You know, when we get our hearts right with Christ, we will be able to love others like we should. You know, those who make life hard. That we dread crossing paths with. Jesus has a way of helping us to love those we thought to be unlovable. It reminds me of a story:

One day Billy came home and said, "You know what, Mom? Valentines' Day is coming and I want to make a valentine for everyone in my class."

His mom's heart sank and she thought, "Oh, how I wish he would not do that." Because every afternoon she watched all the kids coming home from school, and they would be laughing and hanging onto each other, books under their arms, all except for Billy. He always walked behind the rest of the kids.

But she was intending to be a good Mom, so she went along with Billy's idea. So, glue, paper and crayons were purchased. For three weeks Billy painstakingly made thirty-five valentines.

When the day came to deliver the valentines, he was so excited! This was his day. He stacked those valentines under his arm and he ran out the door. His mother thought, "You know, this is going to be a tough day for Billy. I'm going to bake some cookies and give him some milk when he comes home from school and maybe that will ease the pain. He probably won't be getting very many valentines."

That afternoon she had warm cookies and a glass of milk sitting on the table. She went over to the window to watch as the kids came home. Sure enough, here came the big gang of kids, laughing, valentines under their arms. They had really done well.

And there was Billy, coming up behind. He was walking faster than usual and Mom thought, "Bless his heart, he is ready to burst into tears. His arms are empty."

As Billy came into the house, she said, "I has some warm cookies and milk for you."

But Billy's face was all aglow. He just marched right by her and all he could say was, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!" (1)

You know, not everyone out there loves us, but we can show them we love them, like Jesus loves us!