Love Completely Series

Loving Completely

One Month To Live Week Three

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What is Love – 3:15

What is love? NOW – that really is a good question… AND - defining love is not really an easy thing to do. I MEAN - how would you define it? YOU KNOW – I thought those people in the video gave it a good try…

• I like the guy who said that love is - ‘The essence of all things that leads to the ineffable”

• And the guy who said that love is – ‘fleeting. Every time you try to grab it, it disappears. Invisible. Ethereal (intangible). That which you constantly chase after but never catch up to.

• And I also liked the honest response that a lot of people had…‘I don’t know’ ‘I have no idea’ ‘I can’t describe it to you.’

NOW – I think that part of the problem in defining love is that love is the most overused word in the English language (THINK ABOUT IT - the word love is thrown around more then a football at the super bowl). I MEAN - we use the word love to refer to so many different things… WE say, “I love my wife, I love my kids, I love God. I love my country. I love really spicy food. I love McDonald fries, I love catching rays on the beach, I love it when Steve preaches for a really long time (man are you going to love today’s message) ”

WE - have love letters, love stories and love songs “I love you baby” “I’ve lost that loving feeling” “I just called to say I Love you” “I love you just the way you are” “All you need is love,” “How Sweet It Is To be loved By You” and that all time classic --- “hello I love you – won’t you tell me your name.”

LOVE – event though it is hard to define… still a lot of people want to tell you what it is… Here are a few definitions I found this week… LOVE IS;

• A warm hand on a cold night

• Friendship that has caught on fire

• A game you win by letting others go first

• What you’ve been through with somebody

• Heartburn w/o chili

• Surfing w/o a board and bungee jumping w/o a cord

• Not knowing how you feel and not feeling what you know

• A lot like jelly beans you have to eat the bad ones to enjoy the good ones

• The meaning of Life

• The way to live

• What it means to be human

• The solution to the world’s problems

• The way to make friends and disarm enemies

• The path to happiness

• The guide for the next step

• The hope of children

• The greatest power in the universe

• The antidote to: greed, selfishness, misery and indifference

• The reason to keep on keeping on

• The answer

• The key

• All we need

NOW – the bible, the word of God ALSO has a lot to say in regards to what love is;

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(Understand – What Paul IS saying in those verses IS THAT without love; what you say, what you know, what you accomplish, what you give…AND EVEN your faith -- doesn’t matter!)

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angerjed, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (NIV)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

– Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18