Love Is? Part 3

Love is part 3

Thesis: Love needs to be defined in light of what the Bible says love is. Love really is only defined in light of the statement ¡§God is Love!¡¨ If you do not start with God then you cannot know or experience love in your life.

Scripture Text:

I Cor. 13:1-13 (NIV)

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.

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 angered, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Secondary texts on Love:

1 John 4:7-11:

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice forƒnour sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Introduction:

Love is only defined and experienced in light of the truth that ¡§God is Love!¡¨ Without this as our base we cannot love. So we must start with a love relationship with the Lord. This relationship is formed and put into action when we openly confess with our heart and mouth that we love the Lord and want to live and serve Him with our lives. 1 John 4:7, 8: 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.

Rick Warren States, ¡§Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us¡¨ (123).

Love means that we live our lives the way Love = God instructs us to live. If we choose to not live our life in light of love then our lives are bankrupt. We are broke and penniless in the purpose for our lives. Love = life and if you take love out of the equation then you do not have true life.

T.S. - Love is rooted and grounded in God and Love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13 as the most supreme way to live our lives.

I. Love is defined by 1 Corinthians 13 as the supreme most excellent way and out text clearly defines what it looks like and acts like. (Lets pick up were I left off last week in 1 Cor. 13:6:.

1. Love is? ¡V ¡§Love does not delight in evil!¡¨

a. Let me ask you a question today, ¡§What do you laugh at?¡¨ Is it evil things? Do the things contrary to God¡¦s Word it make you happy?

b. Do you enjoy watching Horror movies?

i. If you do then you need to ask yourself the question do I delight in watching evil?

ii. Truth is if you delight in evil ways then you are eroding in your relationship to the God of love.

iii. The word says abstain from even the appearance of evil.

1. Get away from it don¡¦t play with it, it will burn you and destroy you.