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"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
-Matthew 5:8 |
Sermon Archive
Learning to Love
Life is about learning to love!
How would you complete this sentence? My number one goal in life is…………………..
Possible Answers: My number one goal in life is to be happy, to be loved, to succeed at my career, to be popular, to have fun, to get married, to have a family, to retire with adequate finances.
The answer to that question reveals your dominant life principle. When you make a decision, a choice, you access the database in your brain & you decide what you’re going to do based on your dominant life principle.
For example, if my dominant life principle is to have fun then this evening if I get a couple of invitations on the phone I’m going to tend to choose the thing that’s the most fun to do. Why, because that’s what’s most important to me; to have fun.
If my dominant life principle is to succeed at my career, then I will give most of my time & energy to my career. My wife, my family, & my relationship with God get the leftovers.
If my dominant life principle is to be popular, then I tend to choose things that would make me popular. I buy the right clothes, go to the right parties, hang out with the right kids, do the things that will make me popular.
So it’s extremely important that you think through what is going to be your dominant life principle.
Does God have anything to say about what He wants our dominant life principle to be? He does!
In fact, one day Jesus was walking down the street & a guy came up to him & he said, Jesus, what should be my #1 goal in life? What’s most important? Jesus, of all these truths that are in the Bible, what should I really focus on? Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, & all your soul, & all your mind & all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. There are no commands more important than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NCV)
The most important goal is: Learn to love God with all your heart & learn to love people. Life is all about learning to love God & people.
The Bible has much to say about love, here are four truths.
1. We love because God loves us. 1 John 4:7-8: “Love comes from God for God is love.” (NLT) It doesn’t say that God HAS love. It says God IS love. The reason why God wants you to love is because he IS love. It is his part of his character. He wants us to be like him. 1 John 4:19“We love because God first loved us.” Circle “God first.” The only reason you can love God is because God first loved you. And he showed that love by sending Jesus Christ to earth to die for you. We love because God first loved us.
If you’re going to learn to love God & people, you’ve got to first understand how much God loves you. That’s what I want to happen in your life during these forty days. I don’t want to just talk about love, read about love, or discuss love. I want you to experience the love of God. Because when you understand how God loves you completely, unconditionally, you’re going to start cutting people a lot of slack. You’re not going to be as judgmental, critical, or angry as you’ve been. You’re going to be more patient. You’re going to be more forgiving. You’re going to be more merciful. You’re going to extend grace to other people, as God has extended grace to you.
Because of God’s love for us, as demonstrated in Jesus dying for us:
“I am a new creation of infinite worth. I am deeply loved,
I am completely forgiven,
I am fully pleasing, I am totally accepted by God,
I am absolutely complete in Jesus.
God has made me an original, one of a kind, a special person.”
Gaithers song: "I am loved, you are loved. I can risk loving you, for the one who knows me most loves me best. I am loved, you are loved, won't you please hold my hand, we are free to love each other, we are loved!
Do you know the love of God as demonstrated through Jesus? If you don’t, you will have a hard time loving other people. We love because God first loved us.
2. Love is a choice & a commitment. You choose to love or you choose not to love. It is a choice! Many have bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable. They say, “I fell in love.” I was just walking along one day & bamm! I fell in love. That’s not love. Love is a choice.
Deuteronomy 30:20-21“Choose to love the Lord your God & commit yourself to him.” (NLT) That same principle is true about all relationships. You must choose to love God. God isn’t going to force you to love him, because love can’t be forced. Love is a choice.
Have you ever heard this: “I just don’t love her/him any more,” as if they don’t have any choice. The truth is they are choosing not to love her/him any more. You can choose to love & you can choose not to love. Is it hard to love some people? Absolutely! Are you hard to love some time! No doubt! Some people are more difficult to love, but love is a choice.
3. Love is an Action not just an Emotion. Love is something you do. Love is a behavior. Love can also be an emotion. But the love described here is something you do. Why do I say that?
Because the Bible, over & over, commands us to love God & people. And you cannot command an emotion. If love were just an emotion then God couldn’t command it. Love is something you do.
In fact, the Bible says this in 1 John 3:18 “Let us love not with words or tongue [in other words, just talk about it] but with action & in truth.” You can say, “I love people.” Really, let’s see how you act toward them.
It’s like the girlfriend who said of her boyfriend “He’s always saying ‘Honey, I’d die for you! He always says that but he never does it.”
Love is something you do. Actually, acting in love when you don’t feel it is the highest form of love. When you are patient with somebody who’s irritable & everything in your body wants to be sarcastic back to them & you respond in kindness & gentleness to that person, that’s love. That brings me to the fourth thing the Bible teaches about love.
4. Love is a skill. Did you know that love can be learned? We want our church to be known as a loving church. We want people to say, “That’s the church where they love God & they love people.
1 John 4:7 says: “Dear friends, let us practice loving each other...” Circle the word “practice.” The way you get skilled at something is you practice it. You do it over & over. The same is true with love. “let us practice loving each other for love comes from God. Those who are loving & kind show that they are the children of God & they’re getting to know him better.”(LB) Let’s practice loving each other the next 40 days & beyond.
God said loving like this is proof that you’re really a follower of Jesus. The proof is that you love God & people. But you’ve got to make the commitment to do it & then you have to practice it.
If you want to get healthy physically, the first thing you do is you go to a doctor & get a check up. The same is true in relationships. If you want healthy relationships you’ve got to do a check up. So I’m going to ask all of us, before we begin 40 Days of Growth in Love, to begin looking at our relationships. Take a little self-evaluation. It’s on your outline.
Let me be honest with you – true confession. When I took the test that I’m asking you to take, I didn’t do so good in a couple of areas. There were some areas that I realized I needed a lot of work. Many of us think we’re loving people. But the truth is there are a lot of areas that I can be quite self-centered. I can be quite selfish. I can think of myself & not my family or my staff or you or anybody else. I want to challenge you to do a self-analysis.
Philippians 1:9“This is my prayer for you, that your love will grow more & more & that you will have knowledge & understanding with your love,”(NCV)
That is my prayer for you & for me. I want to grow in love & I want you to grow in love & I want our church to grow in love.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I want to be more loving. I want to work on my relationships with You & people. I want to learn to love You & people. I need to be filled with your love because I know I can’t give to others what I don’t have. I need to experience your love so it can flow out of my life into others. Help me learn to KNOW Your love & GROW Your love & SHOW your love.
40 Days of LovePre-Test
ASSESSING YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Parents 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Marriage Prospects (If you’d like to marry) 1---3---5---7---9
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Spouse 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Relative____________________________ 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Coworkers__________________________ 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Neighbors __________________________ 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Different/Difficult ____________________ 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Children ___________________________ 1---3---5---7---9
Poor Great
Jesus: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” John 13:35 (KJV)