Love Connection

Title: Love Connection

Text: John 15:9-17; key verse is 13

Pray!!!

Read Text!!!

Introduction:

- How many people remember seeing the show Love Connection?

- A show where they would try to match either a male or female with 3 possible bachelors.

- In hopes of making a love connection.

- Well in our text this morning, Jesus wants to make a love connection with the world.

- It is God’s desire to reconcile the world back to Himself.

- The only problem is that some people don’t want to be reconciled with God.

- Vs 13 of our text says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

- Now from God’s perspective, He wants people not only to be reconciled to Himself, but God also wants people to have a love connection with each in brotherly love.

- What is brotherly love? It’s when you are concerned about everyone’s spiritual, physical and emotional well being.

- The world takes one day a year to really show the people around them how much they care.

- I believe the Lord wants His church to show each other how much they care, not just once a year but everyday.

- Not only with people around us this morning, but also those outside these four walls.

- So with Valentine’s Day being on Monday, it will be a time where people express there love for one another through a variety of methods, here are just a few:

~ 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine’s Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.

~ 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day.

~ About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year. That’s the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.

~ About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.

~ California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine’s Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America. Approximately 110 million roses, the majority (red), will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.

~ February 14, 270 A.D. : Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed "Claudius the Cruel," beheaded a priest named Valentine for performing marriage ceremonies. Claudius II had outlawed marriages when Roman men began refusing to go to war in order to stay with their wives.

~ In the United States, 64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine’s Day with their sweethearts.

~ The Empire State Building in New York City played a prominent role in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle." Each year and average of 15 couples will take (or renew) their vows on the 80th floor of this famous landmark.

~ Wearing a wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart.

Transition:

- So by looking at our text, God wants us to have a love connection with Him first, and by that I mean to be reconciled with Him through Jesus Christ.

- Then He wants us to have a love connection with each other in brotherly love, meaning having a genuine concern for the other person’s welfare.

- How do we do that?

- How do we grow in love with God and with each other?

- Our text shows us how to grow in love.

- Especially in the marriage relationship, where it can be a little tense at times

- I love this story that I found that shows just how tense it can become:

There was a man sitting on the back porch of his pastor’s parsonage. The man said to his pastor, "Pastor, I’ve got something to tell you. I’ve never told this to a soul, it’s extremely difficult to tell you this now, but my wife and I have had a fight almost every day for the past 30 years of our marriage."

The pastor was taken back. He looked away. He nervously took a sip of his coffee. He didn’t know what to say. The young Pastor aid, "Everyday?" "Yes, just about every day." "Did you fight today before you came to church?" "Yes." "Well, how did it end up?" "She came crawling to me on her hands and knees." "MY Goodness what did she say?" "Come out from under that bed you coward and fight like a man!"

- In our society relationships are coming under attack, we need to know as Christians what the proper why to love each other and God.

- This is how we grow in love for God and each other, that when applied it will change our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.