Love Never Ends Series

(NOTE: I WANT TO THANK ARRON CHAMBERS AND SHAN WOOD FOR THEIR INSPIRATION FOR THIS SERIES. Please purchase Arron's book, Love Better.)

INTRODUCTION

• Today our journey through loving better comes to an end.

SLIDE- LOVE NEVER ENDS WITH HANDS

• My prayer is that even though this series is coming to a conclusion, your personal journey to love better is just beginning!

SLIDE- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LVOE BETTER?

• This series has centered on helping us answer two questions.

• What can I do to love other Christians better?

• What can I do to love people in my community better?

• If we say we want to love better but do so without loving each other better and without loving our community better, then what’s the point?

• There is very little reward for TALKING about loving better, and even less in KNOWING about loving better.

• Honestly, there is no reward for talking about it and not seeking to do it.

• The reward for doing it, for actually loving better, will be so much more.

• It's about transforming lives, healing wounded hearts, offering forgiveness, and much more.

• We’ve learned a great deal from the passage we have been studying since the beginning.

• Let’s look at the entire passage one last time.

3 SLIDES

1 Corinthians 13:1–8 NET 2nd ed.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.

5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.

6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.

• Today the focus of the conclusion of this series is the fact that love never ends.

• Many versions translate the first part of verse 8 as "love never fails," which is a perfectly acceptable translation of a Greek word that is somewhat challenging to convey in full nuance.

• The word translated ENDS in the NET2 means to fall, to suffer defeat, failure, or ruin.

• The phrase 'love never ends' in 1 Corinthians 13:8 means that true, selfless love is enduring and constant.

• Unlike spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, or knowledge, which are temporary and will eventually cease or fade, love remains and continues forever.

• Paul is emphasizing that love is the most essential and lasting virtue in the Christian life.

• It is not subject to change or end—it persists through all circumstances and surpasses even the most miraculous spiritual expressions.

• Love is the foundation of all Christian conduct and has permanent value.

• We will center the message today on Luke 5:17-26.

• The story starts as an ordinary day that ends as an extraordinary day!

• This passage gives us the story of a man who was paralyzed and his friends lowered him to the feet of Jesus by making a hole in the roof of the place Jesus was teaching.

• I want you to experience extraordinary things today, and I want the people in our community to experience extraordinary things today, but—for that to happen—we must love them better.

• Jesus can make anything extraordinary. Nothing truly extraordinary happens without a true connection with Jesus.

• If we are truly connected to Jesus, we will want to love people in our community better by being more connected to them and help them to become more connected with Jesus… and extraordinary things will happen!

• Loving better looks like doing whatever we can to not let others fall so they can experience extraordinary things.

• How can we help people to connect with Jesus in an extraordinary way?

• Here are a few keys to helping people to connect with Jesus:

• Let’s begin by turning to Luke 5.

2 SLIDES

Luke 5:17–18 NET 2nd ed.

17 Now on one of those days, while he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), and the power of the Lord was with him to heal.