How True Love Acts - Part Ii Series

How Love Does (and Doesn’t) Act - Part II

Here’s a question for you:

What do men and women really want from their relationships?

Here’s what DAVE BARRY - Well-known newspaper humor columnist said:

- from his book, “The Complete Guide to Guys”:

WHAT WOMEN WANT: To be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes, just to be held.

WHAT MEN WANT: Tickets to the World Series.

It seems that way sometimes, doesn’t it. . . the opposite sex is just as confusing as they can be! But sometimes, I think we make it more complicated than it really is – I think that what men and women BOTH want from their relationships is to really be treated in a way that shows they are LOVED!

Thankfully, God tells us what real love is like in 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter. Let’s continue this morning with looking at what REAL love is like.

LOVE DOES NOT BEHAVE RUDELY:

This is pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Think about your relationships. . . do you ever behave rudely – inappropriately?

LOVE DOES NOT DEMAND IT’S OWN WAY.

At a party: "My husband and I have managed to be happy together for 20 years. I guess this is because we’re both in love with the same man."

Now THIS is a problem for a lot of people today. You know why? Because the basic problem of humans is that we want our own way over anything else. We’re born with it! Listen to Isaiah 53:6, “All of us have gone astray like sheep, every one has turned to HIS OWN WAY!”

Bart Starr, former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, was describing to a group of businessmen how his coach, Vince Lombardi, held absolute power. He stated that, as you entered Vince’s office, you noticed a huge mahogany desk with an impressive organization chart behind it on the wall. The chart had a small block at the top in which was printed: "Vince Lombardi, Head Coach and General Manager." A line came down from it to a very large block in which was printed: "Everybody Else!"

The problem is that many people structure their families and their marriages this way! If you had an organizational chart for your family up on the wall, how would it read?

Now, I know that the Bible says that the man is the “head of the woman”. In other words, the man is the leader of the home, and it IS important to have a leader. However, remember what the Bible’s definition of a leader is: Jesus said, if you want to be FIRST in the kingdom of God, you must be a SERVANT (Matt. 20:26-27) - By the way, I’m not just talking to the men. If some wives drew up an organizational chart, it would have SELF at the top, and EVERYBODY ELSE under it!

If you know you’ve got this problem, what can you do? There’s only two things that will solve this problem.

1) you’ve got to become a Christian - ask God to forgive you of your sins. This is a critical first step.

2) you’ve got to ask God to change your heart. You were born with that self-centered nature, and the only way to change it is to ask God to change your nature, and make you like him.

3) Cultivate “servant leadership” in yourself.

Matthew 20:27 "Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your servant...”

LOVE IS NOT IRRITABLE:

Most of you have probably seen the “Andy Griffith Show” at one time or another. In one episode, little Opie calls Barney “sensitive”. Barney responds, “I’m not sensitive! If there’s anything that bothers me, it somebody saying I’m sensitive!”

Well, call it what you want – most of us have DONE that at one time or another! We get really sensitive and irritable. . . usually about something that was pointless in the first place.

Imagine all of the obstacles a person might have to overcome if he were to walk from New York City to San Francisco. One man who accomplished this rare achievement mentioned a rather surprising difficulty when asked to tell of his biggest hurdle. He said that the toughest part of the trip wasn’t traversing the steep slopes of the mountains or crossing hot, dry, barren stretches of desert. Instead, he said, "The thing that came the closest to defeating me was the sand in my shoes." - Chuck Swindoll

There’s something about living together 24 hours a day that causes “sand in your shoes” irritations. For a lot of marriages, it’s not one big thing that takes them down – it’s the accumulation of little irritations.