For Love's Sake Pt. 1 And 2 Series

For Love’s Sake!

Philemon 4-9

Introduction:

v.9 – Underline 3 words: “For Love’s Sake!”

Illust: Psychologists claim that the three greatest needs of a human being are…

1) The need to be wanted.

2) The need to be needed.

3) The need to be loved.

? Live in a world that is obsessed with this thing love.

• World sings about it – love songs.

• World writes about it – bookstores shelves are lined with romance novels, magazines, blogs.

• World’s airways are filled with it – podcasts & radio shows devoted to it, Hollywood movies inundated with it.

? World = obsessed with love but also disillusioned by it.

Quote: late Rock Star Tina Turner called love, “Nothing but a second hand emotion.”

? World = starving for love!

Illust: Atheist and activist Madeline Murray O’ Hare vanished in 1995… when her diaries were found… page after page revealed the emptiness in her heart and life… cried out in her words over and over again… “Somebody, somewhere please love me.”

The problem is that the love this world offers is shallow, sensual, and unsatisfying. It leaves those searching for it empty and unfulfilled and always wanting something more!

Good News = there is a love available to us that is real and genuine… it is deep & satisfying… it is an out of this world kind of love… it is the “agape” love of God!

Agape Love = GK word for love that was little used in Paul’s day. It is a distinctly Christian word. That pagan world knew nothing of their gods loving them

• Grace = sweetest word in the Bible.

• Love = greatest word in the Bible.

1Cor. 13:15 – “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

Agape Love = is the great theme of the little book of Philemon:

“Love” = 6x’s – [vv.1,2,5,7,9,16]

It is love on a higher plane! It is the divine love that God has for each of us! And the kind of love that we are to have for one another.

It describes…

1. The Savior’s Love for Us!

- Paul’s love for Philemon, Onesimus.

- Philemon’s love for Paul.

- Jesus’ love for every one of us…

Purpose = Paul’s letter to his friend Philemon was to make a request for him to forgive his runaway slave Onesimus.

v.8 – I could have commanded you on the basis of my authority.

v.9 – Instead I am pleading with you on the basis of love.

“For Love’s Sake!”

Paul = not referring to an earthly love (love of one human for another human) but a Heavenly love…

“Agape Love” = reminding Philemon of God’s love for Him! I want you to love and forgive Onesimus because Jesus loved and forgave you!

A. Its Without Limitations

“Boundless” = vast or unlimited… God’s love knows no limits.

God has not limited his for a select few… it is a love that includes us all.

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…”

Jesus’ love reached…

o A persecutor named Paul.

o A pagan named Philemon.

o An outcast runaway slave named Onesimus.

Quote: A.W. Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy” writes, “God does not love populations, He loves people; He loves not masses but men.”

God’s love is personal and individual. It reaches you and reaches me! No one outside the bounds of God’s love!

B. Its Without Conditions

God = doesn’t place any conditions on His love… not one of us are worthy of His love.

Why??? God loves us simply because He loves us. It is His nature to love.

God hasn’t just shared His love; He has shown it!

Calvary is the greatest display of love this world has ever known or ever will know. There God spared not His own son but willingly gave Him up for us all… Jesus showed His love for us by willingly going to the cross to give His life as a payment for our sin!

Love = great motivator!

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Rom. 5:8 – “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” = God did not love us at our best; He loves us at our worst. God loved us when we were the least deserving of His love.

Object: There is no way God could love me. You don’t know me, where I have been and what I have done. It is not possible for God to love someone like me. Friend, God knows you and it is not possible for Him not to love you.