Love Is Kind Series

Love Is Kind

#LoveIs

OKAY – let’s do this.

Week three of our series, ‘Love Is’

NOW…

IN WEEK ONE - we talked about ‘The Unrelenting Love Of God.’

LAST WEEK – we unpack the truth that love is patient and discussed some practical ways that we could develop our ‘Makrothymia.’ Makro – slow, Thymia – burning

QUESTION – was anyone’s makrothymia tested this past week?

NOW – before we jump into our next Love Is statement (Love Is Kind)… I just want to remind you that this love thing, is like, a really huge deal…

I MEAN – just lean into the following Scriptures…

I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:34-35

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. – Romans 13:8

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. – Galatians 5:6

Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. – 1 Peter 4:8

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. – 1 John 4:7-12

MGCC LOVE - really IS A…

big, huge, massive, enormous, gargantuan, great, gigantic, immense, significant, serious, essential, critical, crucial, imperative, indispensable, important DEAL!!!

AMEN.

AND – what if… what if you… what if I, what if the people sitting around you (go ahead and take a look)…

WHAT IF – instead of merely skimming the surface and skirting the edges, what if we stop mere sticking our toes and instead dove head first into the depths of God’s kind love…

Prayer

OKAY – here is what we are going to do this, morning as we unpack the truth that love is kind…

USING – a story, an event in David’s life, that is found in 2 Samuel chapter 9.

A story that will provide us with several practical lessons that will help us to live out in our lives, ‘Love Is Kind…’

As 2 Samuel chapter 9 opens up David has been king of Israel for many years. He has won many countless victories.

He has firmly established himself as King.

AND HE – is now enjoying a time of relative peace and quiet throughout the kingdom…

THAT – is basically where we are when this story begins to unfold.

One day David asked, “Is anyone in Saul’s family still alive—anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

2 Samuel 9:1

OKAY… let me give you a little back story here.

• Saul was the first king of Israel

• Now, he started out good, but ended up not so good

• Jonathan was His Son and heir to the throne

• And Jonathan and David became best friends shortly after David killed Goliath.

NOW – if you think about it, these two should’ve been bitter enemies… they really should have.

I MEAN - when someone takes something that you were expecting… AND THAT - you thought was already yours (like a throne, a crown and a kingdom), it usually creates a lot of conflict.

SO LIKE I SAID – you would think that these guys would be bitter enemies who would battle throughout all of their lives.

LIKE…

The Democrats and the Republicans,

like the Yankees and the Red Sox,

like UVA and VT

YEAH THAT - should have been Jonathan and David’s story.

But it wasn’t.

AGAIN - Jonathan was King Saul’s son, AND - in many minds (including his since he was a young boy), he should have been the next king.

BUT INSTEAD – David is anointed as the next king…

AND – Jonathan was not only totally okay with it, but he became David’s best friend and his most ardent supporter.

HOWEVER – His dad King Saul had different feeling towards David. He hated David, he was jealous of David and he tried to kill him on more than one occasion.