So, without further ado...
midweek :: Love Bug :: week 1
“True Love”:: 1 John 4:7-19
-Have you ever been in love? With whom?
-How did you feel? How did you know you were in love?
That’s great and all. But so much of our world is focused on a superficial love, a love that happens merely between two people. What I want to talk with you about over the next couple of weeks is a real love—a true love; a love that comes only in and through our Creator.
So, let’s begin by taking a look at what love really is. You may have your preconceived notions of what love is and what love means. But for the next two weeks, I’d like you to join me in looking at love and learning about love with a fresh perspective. I’d like for you to hear about love as if for the first time, forgetting misconceptions you may have and misrepresentations you may have experienced.
I’ve got to be honest: Love is something I’ve completely struggled with in my life. And I don’t mean just romantically. I mean that it’s so difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that God is a God of love, that He loves me, fully, completely, unconditionally. And even now, I struggle to get it all the way, or even a little, really. But I’ve got to tell you, recently, I started praying and asking God to help me fall in love with Him, to help me see His love for me. And it’s been absolutely amazing. So I want to share it with you. I truly believe that if and when we can come into an understanding of what Love really is and how it really does apply to us, I believe it will transform our lives.
Pray, asking the Lord to make Himself known to us as LOVE, opening our hearts and minds to His truth and His creation of love, nothing less.
What is love?
Read 1 John 4:7-19.
Let’s break it down.
1. God is love. Vs. 16
a. Love does not describe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love.
2. Love is a dwelling place. Vs. 16
a. Abide: to remain, to continue, to stay; to dwell, to live in; to put up with; to accept without opposition or question; to submit to or agree to.
b. As a Christian, a Believer in Christ, we live within the sphere of God’s love. That love is something that we both experience and express.
c. Romans 8:37-39. Nothing can shake us from the sphere of God’s love. Why? Because God is Love and if we abide in Him, we abide in love.
3. Love is a haven.
a. Haven: any place of shelter or safety.
b. Perfect love CASTS OUT fear. Vs.18-19
c. Cast out: to throw or expel with violence or force; to reject or dismiss; to shed or drop.
d. Favorite definition: “to throw or expel with violence or force.” Love is fierce. It is not quiet or timid; it is PROTECTIVE, which is why we can dwell there safely. God’s Love does not diminish or fade; it protects and shelters us. And therefore, there is NO ROOM FOR FEAR in God’s perfect love.
e. Illustration: Remember when you were a kid and you had a bad dream in the night? What did you do? Call out to mom and dad, maybe in extreme cases, go and sleep in their room. Why? There was safety and protection in their love and in their arms. That’s such a beautiful picture of a small scale of what God is like with us. His love is so much greater than our parents’ and if we could place so much trust in them as a haven here on earth, how much more trust could we place in our Creator and Protector, our ultimate Lover?
f. Think about your greatest fears or even daily fears for a moment. One amazing fact about God/Love is that there is NO room for fear in Love. Perfect Love casts OUT fear. It offers us acceptance, confidence, companionship, security, truth, loyalty, hope, etc. That is SO important for us to recognize, believe, and trust. In love, we don’t have to fear.
g. A mature understanding of God’s love removes any fear of God’s judgment. A person who abides in God’s love will not be ashamed when Jesus returns.
i. How is that possible? How does that make sense?
4. Love is death on a cross. Vs. 9-10
a. Jumping back up a few verses…
b.This is the ultimate culmination of love: God made Himself enter the world in the form of man. He lived
perfectly; He loved perfectly. And then He died IN OUR PLACE.
c. Propitiate: to make favorably inclined; to appease.
d. Propitiation: He took our place. He made it possible for us to be loved. By Jesus dying on the cross, we are pardoned, or excused. Because of that act of love, when God looks on us, He sees Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that we are the righteousness of Christ. Why? How? Because He is love. And we get to experience that Love. We get to DWELL in that Love. We get to TRUST that Love.
Are you overwhelmed yet? I am. This is true Love.
In case I haven’t done a good enough job of expressing it to you tonight, I want you to listen to this song. This is one that has shown me so much over the last couple of months. It says so much about God as love and how He sees us and uses us.
If, tonight, you haven’t ever experienced Love, if you’ve never met Love, would you come talk with me tonight? I’d love to pray with you. I’m praying now, and have been praying already, that the Holy Spirit would be drawing you into an encounter with Love tonight.
Close your eyes and listen to True Love.
Play “Beauty for These Ashes” by The Great Exchange.
**By the way, HUGE props to The Great Exchange for their recent album release. It is a stellar piece of work and I highly recommend checking them out: http://www.thegreatexchangeband.com/
midweek :: Love Bug :: week 2
“In Love”:: 1 John 4:7-10 :: 1 Corinthians 13
Recap last week.
-We talked about what “True Love” was and what that looked like.
4 Things about Love
1. God is love.
-Remember: Love does not describe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love.
2. Love is a dwelling place.
3. Love is a haven.
4. Love is death on a cross.
What is Love? How is your idea of Love different this week than it was last week?
What have you learned about Love? Have you experienced TRUE Love?
Now that we know what TRUE Love looks like, let’s take a look at how it plays out in our lives. I’ve titled tonight’s message, “In Love.” That’s a phrase that gets tossed around so often. I wish I could count the number of times that I see people post things, whether on Twitter or on Facebook or on Instagram, about how “in love they are with this boy/girl” or how “in love they are with this band/tv show/celebrity/movie/etc.” And I just think, “You’re ‘in love’ with ___________?! That must be a satisfying and fulfilling relationship.”
All joking aside, being in love is a serious matter. As believers, we are called to be in love with Christ, with our Creator. And beyond that, we are called to be in love as we live our lives. We were created to LIVE in love.
Tonight we’re going to be looking at a passage that is probably very familiar to most, if not all, of you. It’s often read at weddings, posted around homes, quoted in song lyrics, etc. Tonight, my prayer is that your eyes, both physical and spiritual, would be open to the Truth and to the contextual meaning of what God’s Word says in this particular passage.
Take a look at 1 Corinthians 13 with me.
Pray.
What do you naturally think of when you think of 1 Corinthians 13?
Check out 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14. What do those headings read in your Bible?
1 Corinthians 13 is sandwiched in between two chapters that talk specifically about the Body of Christ, the Church. It’s no coincidence that this chapter detailing how we ought to show love to one another is stuck right between two chapters about relationships between the Body. LOVE is what binds us together, it’s what connects us. In fact, when Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he didn’t break it up into chapters or into verses; it was one continuous letter. (A fairly lengthy one, I might add.) But Paul intended for the believers in Corinth to apply it to their relationships among one another. 1 Corinthians 13 is a guide for us to use as we struggle with and wrestle through the mess of relationships here on earth.
I submit to you tonight that 1 Corinthians 13 describes the way we treat others when we are
love.
So then, what does it look like to be “in love”? Let’s break down that phrase.
In: located or situated within; inner; internal; well-liked; included; inward; plentiful; available.
Love: Recapping last week’s lessons, we learned in 1 John 4 that God Love. So if we are in Love, then we are in Christ.
Now, if we are talking about love as an action, love as a feeling, love as a tangibility in our daily lives, then there are a few different types of love that we could consider. Love is a by-product of
Different kinds of love
Eros: physical sexual desire and not much else
Philos: suggests esteem and affection found in casual friendship
Agape: Describes a love based on the deliberate choice of the one who loves, rather than on the worth of the one who is loved.
Agape is the kind of love that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13.
Check yourself: Are you in love?
Illustration: Use a box with the word “Love” written on it. If I’m in the box, then everything I do, say, think, feel, etc. has to go through love before it comes out. If I abide in Love, then my actions, reactions, attitudes, etc. will align with the characteristics in 1 Corinthians 13.
To be in love is not merely a state of being or a description of our affections; rather, it is a constant choice of motivation and operation.
Are you acting with the motive of love?
Are you following through with the actions, words, etc. that show that you are
Love?
Galatians 5:22-23 gives us the fruits of the Spirit. What’s the first one mentioned? Love.
How we display love is a direct reflection of where we abide and what state we’re in.
Check yourself: How well do you exhibit the attributes of love?
As I read back through 1 Corinthians 13, I want you to consider each of these characteristics of love. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, how would you rate yourself on each characteristic?
Long-suffering/patience
kindness
not envying
not boasting or parading itself around
not behaving rudely
not self-seeking
is not provoked
thinks no evil--thinks positive or encouraging
does not rejoice in sin
rejoices in truth
bears all things (hold up or support)
believes all things
hopes all things
endures all things
Tonight I want you to spend some time with the Lord, considering and searching your heart in relation to this whole idea of being
love. Where do you stand? If you rated yourself low on any of those categories from 1 Corinthians 13, chances are you may be walking around out of love. You may have an arm or a leg hanging out, uncovered and unabiding in love.
My challenge to you tonight: Be in love. Let Him cover you. Let Him be your dwelling place so that your words, your attitudes, your actions are a direct reflection of Him, of love. If you’ve never encountered True Love, tonight is the perfect time to meet. And I would love to introduce you.
Pray.
