Love Well Series

Video Transition Illustration: Love Boldly Bluefish Tv – Maybe we could call rephrase it “Love Well in 2022”

The challenge for 2022 – Are you willing to commit to “Love Well” this new year?

Poem:

I am the New Year.

I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.

I am your next chance at the art of living.

I am your opportunity

to practice what you have learned during

the last twelve months about life.

All that you sought the past year

and failed to find is hidden in me;

I am waiting for you to search it out

again and with more determination.

All the good that you tried to do

for others and didn't achieve last year

is mine to grant-- providing you have

fewer selfish and conflicting desires.

In me lies the potential

of all that you dreamed but didn't

dare to do, all that you hoped

but did not perform.

All you prayed for

but did not yet experience -

these dreams slumber lightly,

waiting to be awakened by the touch

of an enduring purpose -

I am your opportunity

to renew your allegiance to Him who said,

"behold, I make all things new."

I am the new year.

Author Unknown - "Behold, I make all things new." Rev 21:5

Love Well - 2022 series

Thesis: To be able to love well means I have to embrace the 4 letter word “Love” in its original definition and application – Because that word “Love” has been twisted and distorted by this world – But the true meaning of love goes back to God’s meaning of love!

Scripture Text:

John 13:34-35: Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

1 John 4:7-10: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Introduction:

LOVE’s original definition is spelled out in Scripture - “God is love” says 1 John 4:8 or to reverse this thought “Love is God” God created and defined what Love is and what it should look like and act like. John 1:1 tells us Jesus and God are one which also implies that Jesus is God’s love manifested in the flesh – in other words a recognizable expression of love in the flesh that all can see and model.

We have decided as a staff and creative team to focus on “Loving Well” in 2022!

Some of our focuses this year will be the following:

-We will be talking about how we love other people outside of the church, who are different from us, think

different than us, believe different than us. But love will help us bridge the gap with them and impact them with the love of Jesus!

-We will be talking about how to love and appreciate those in our church, the behind the scene’s people, the volunteers, the people who sacrifice to make this place make a difference for the Kingdom.

-We will be talking about how to break out of your box, or rut and seek to connect with God and with other people. We will even talk how to love your neighbors well, your classmates well, your city well and your church family well.

-We will be talking about what it means to walk out the gospel in a Jesus way filled with acts of love.

-We will be talking about learning peoples Love language’s so we can connect together and connect people with each other and the Lord.

The challenge: But that 4 letter word “Love” needs to be redefined today. Why? Because we need to make sure we understand what “Love” really is. So, to get a Biblical understanding of this word let’s make sure we define what love is not.

Pretty much everything you see in romantic movies or read about in romantic novels or watch in romantic sitcoms is not genuine love instead it’s actually a cheap fake or fraud to real love. I could also say it’s a cheap substitute for the real thing – for the real deal – the enemy of our heart desires us to embrace a “Love” that is not rooted in God.

Reality Check: Every person is on a search for real love and that can only be found in God alone. Many are in frantic search for it but cannot find it because they are looking for love in all the wrong places. The media lies and proclaims this is love, that is love, and even diamonds are love! LOVE has been redefined by this fallen world – this why so many cannot find real love – the world throws everything into the love category and it is use’s this word very carelessly and even distorts its original meaning. So throw out the world’s definition of love and seek it through the eyes and the heart of the Lord.