God Is Love Series

Well… I just wanna welcome everyone here to Embrace… at all 5 of our campuses.

My name is Adam…

I’m one of the pastors here…

And as always… we are so excited that you are here…

And today… we are in the second… and final week of a series…

simply called Love is.

And now… I hope everyone survived Valentine’s Day last week…

Married and dating people…

hopefully none of you forgot about it…

otherwise you might wanna pray for your other half.

And single people… hopefully you were able

to finish watching the entire series…

of your favorite show on NetFlix.

Too soon?

No but seriously… last week we talked about what love is…

and when you ask this question around…

It seems like you’ll get a different answer…

from each and every person that you ask.

I mean… some people will say that love is family and friends…

And others will say that love is blind.

Or that love is an open door.

And has anyone watched the movie Frozen…

a trillion times?

Okay, just me.

And some people… will say that love is bacon… or love is donuts…

Or love is both at the same time.

Others will say that love is a poem.

And if you’re looking for a good pickup line…

Maybe try saying:

love is… you plus me… baby.

Or something.

And folks, it’s a miracle…

that I was able…

to convince my wife to marry me.

No but really… again…

if you were to ask around… the question of… what love is…

You’d most likely get a different answer…

from each and every person that you ask.

But for this series…

Our intent isn’t to talk about…

what we have to say about love…

Instead it’s to find out… what God has to say…

about what love is.

Now… last week…

we read the classic words about love…

found in 1 Corinthians 13…

where a guy named Paul…

is writing a letter to the church in a city called Corinth…

and in the midst of his letter to these Christians…

He begins to talk with them about what love is.

Like what God has to say about love.

And here’s what Paul says…

He says that: Love is patient... and love is kind.

Love isn’t rude… and it doesn’t seek its own advantage.

And it doesn’t keep record of wrongs.

Instead love puts up with all things, trusts in all things,

hopes for all things…

and it endures all things.

and love... it never fails.

And as we said last week…

these words might sound all romantic…

and warm… and fuzzy… right?

and they kinda give you butterflies inside…

and you get all hot and bothered…

just thinking about love…

and we just picture our spouse…

or our future spouse…

and how loving they’re gonna be…

and they’re always gonna be patient with us…

I mean… Even when they’re tired…

And when you have 4 kids…

and they drive a minivan…

They’re always gonna be kind.

And never irritated…

Because that’s not possible with love right?

Again… these words might sound all romantic…

And we might picture a beautiful wedding…

But as we shared in week 1…

these verses are actually not about marriage… specifically

Instead they’re actually for our lives as a whole…

And also… Paul isn’t talking about the love…

that we should look to receive from others…

instead he’s talking about the love

that we should extend to others… ourselves.

Again… Paul’s not talking about the love

that we should look to receive from others…

instead He’s talking about the love…

that we should look to give...

to others ourselves.

And so that’s where we were last week…

But now… continuing on for today…

Again… Paul explains what love is…

and that we’re called to give…

this kind of love to others…

and yet… just being honest here for a minute…

I know for myself… I just have to say…

that even though I know we’re supposed…

to give this kind of love to others.…

I just have to say… that I know that I long… to be loved…

and to receive this kind of love personally...

myself… as well.

It’s like… when I go through these verses…

And I hear about love being patient… and kind…

And that it doesn’t keep a record of wrongs…

I know that I’ve made so many wrongs…

and I’ve made so many mistakes…

And when I hear that love… it puts up with all things…

and it endures all things…

I know that I’m… probably not…

always an easy person to put up with…

And again… just being honest here…

And it feels weird to say this… particularly as a guy…

but I just know that I long to be loved…

and that I crave to receive this kind of love myself…