Love Is Patient Series

Love Is Patient

Video Bumper - I want to know what love is

I want to know what love is… Yeh, what a great song (a classic song from 1984)…

AND – do you know what? It’s an even greater question.

ONE – we began answering last Sunday as we kicked off our new series,

AND UNDERSTAND - as I said last week this is an extremely critical study for us both as individual Jesus-followers and as a church.

• Because nothing is more important than love (in fact without love according 1 Corinthians 13:1-3… what you say, what you know, what you give, what you sacrifice, what you accomplish and even your faith does not matter… gains you nothing)

• Because nothing is more powerful than love (love has the power to change people, and love has the power to show the world that Jesus is real and that we are His followers)

• Because nothing is more needed then love…

Needed in - our world and in our homes, marriages, community and relationships) than a bunch of people living out God’s kind of love. It’s what the world needs NOW?

AND LISTEN – last Sunday in a message called ‘The Unrelenting Love of God we saw that any attempt to answer the question…

I want to know what love is

Must begin with a discussion about God’s love, because as the apostle John writes…

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. – 1 John 4:16

UNDERSTAND B/S - our God does not just love, but He is love.

And since God is eternal and always existing, LOVE is eternal and always existing.

In the beginning was LOVE… actually before the beginning there was God’s love.

YOU SEE – the truth is God’s love is both love the foundation and the very reason for our existence… LOVE – is why we are here… LOVE is what compelled creation.

He chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him. Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him, - Ephesians 1:4-6

AND – never MGCC that God’s Love is…

• A love that is unconditional and beyond reason

• A love that delights in you

• A love that is for you

• A love that pays attention to you

• A love the unrelentingly pursues you.

There's no shadow He won't light up

Mountain He won't climb up

Coming after You

There's no wall He won't kick down

Lie He won't tear down

Coming after You

Pray

HEY – so let’s do this… let the unpacking begin…

Love is patient… - 1 Corinthians 13:4

HEY – I know you have probably heard some of this stuff before.

BUT – has your hearing resulted in real, tangible, noticeable ways.

LISTEN – I want to encourage to approach this morning and the comings weeks as we talk about what LOVE IS differently…

I want you to listen and lean in differently… with your heart and mind open, determined to live out God’s kind of love in deeper ways than you ever have before… for your good and His glory! Can you do that? Will you do that?

HEY - don't you wish the world, was a perfect place?

I MEAN - in a perfect world…

• Chocolate would have no calories.

• Procrastination would be an honored as a virtue.

• Teenagers would rather clean their rooms than be on their phones

• Politicians would pay us taxes.

• Children on long road trips would say, "Isn't riding in the car fun?" and then they'd go to sleep.

• Candy would be considered a vegetable

• There would never be any delays on Hwy 29

• No one would cut you off in traffic

• Gas would always be 50 cents a gallon

• Computers would never have problems

• Everyone would always be on time

• Your team would always win

• Snow would fall on the ground and not the roads

• You’d never loose your keys, wallet, checkbook or debit card…

• And you’re happy meals would always have an extra nugget in them.

BUT - unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.

THAT’S WHY – everyday you and I are going to face things that are going to test our patience…

QUESTION - have you ever felt your patience being tested?

Was it tested at any time during the past week?

Like were there any moments when you felt like you were losing it, or actually did?