God’s Love Language

God’s love language

I want to talk tonight about the very masculine subject of love languages.

A husband I know recently took his wife on a special get away ... to a pro wrestling championship.

How many of you could have gotten away with that?

He should have read Gary Chapman’s book. Remember the 5 love languages: 1words of affirmation, 2quality time, 3receiving gifts, 4acts of service and 5physical touch.

The main thing I want you to get out of this talk is God’s love language.

Going back to 1 Thes.1:3 - “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Faith produces a life occupation of serving God.

Love prompts selfless service (we’ll get back to that in a minute).

Hope inspires endurance for the long haul.

Those 3, faith, hope and love, are mentioned together 8 times in scripture!

11 Cor.13:13, 2Gal.5:5-6, 3Col.1:3-6, 41 Thes.1:3, 55:8, 61 Tim.1:1-5, 72 Tim.1:12-13 and 81 Peter 1:21-23.

God tells us a lot about love in 1 Jn.4:7-19 - “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.”

Love is a big deal to God because God is love and we love in response to Him.

God has a love language ... It’s obedience!

Jn.14:15 - “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

1Jn.3:18 - “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Phil.2:21 tells us most people aren’t that interested in loving God. It says, “Everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

They might like the Christian facade but they don’t speak His love language.

James 1:22 warns us, saying, - “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Explain...

Remember Faith, Hope and Love ... 1 Cor.13:13 - “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Those 3 are intricately connected.

Heb.11:1 ties those 3 together telling us Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

What does that mean?

If I told you Russ would give $1,000,000 to everyone who asked him for it you’d probably hope I was telling the truth.

If you had faith that I was telling the truth, you’d act on that hope - you’d go ask him.

That action would be the evidence of your faith.

Obedience is the substance of faith and without it, faith is dead (James 2:26).

Likewise, the absence of obedience proves the absence of faith.

The greatest of those 3 is love and that’s why we’re going back to it tonight.

God’s plan: Love God - Obey God - See God do immeasurably more than you can imagine or ask (Eph.3:20) - That builds trust which creates intimacy.

That process keeps repeating itself.

The opposite of God’s plan is SIN = Say you love God - Don’t obey God - Don’t see God work (but instead see the result of my sin and then falsely attribute that to God often asking “why”) - that results in less trust and less intimacy with Him.