IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE SERIES
Everyone says, “I love you.” but do they really know what they are saying? Do they have any idea what real love really means...what it is...what it looks and feels like? During the month of February, amongst the Valentines and candy boxes, we will endeavor to define and discover real love and through God’s Word to ultimately return to the true source of true love.
Introduction –
My Many Loves
• I Love Tacos!
• I Love West Virginia Football!
• I Love Fishing!
• I Love Star Trek
• I Love to play cards/games
• I Love being a pastor
• I Love living in Vermont!
• I Love that song!
• I Love Tiramisu
• I Love Coffee
• I Love my wife!
• I Love my kids!
• I Love Jesus!
Message: Love Notes – Taking a Look at Real Love
Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (HCSB)
1 If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5 does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This morning’s Scripture shows up in a lot of places:
• Posters
• Valentine’s
• Greeting Cards
• Wedding Ceremonies
• Love Songs
• Marriage Workbooks
Warren Wiersbe says: “It is tragic when the world takes a chapter like this and divorces it from its true Christian meaning. The unsaved man can no more experience this kind of love than can a marble statue! It takes the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the life, and the empowering of that Spirit, for anyone to display this kind of character in daily life.”
Love Note #1: Real Love Is Essential (13:1–3)
Keep in mind that Paul is still dealing with the question of spiritual gifts. Here he is emphasizing the fact that gifts without grace (Love, Charity) lack the substance God intends them to have. Experiencing and expressing love is the priority.
Authentic Love Validates
Notice how he takes up some of the spiritual gifts of 12:8–10 and shows their emptiness apart from love. Tongues apart from love become mere noise, like the clanging of a cymbal. Prophecy without love makes the prophet nothing. This application can also be made to knowledge (spiritual insight given immediately by the Spirit) and faith. Paul is not minimizing these gifts; he is simply saying that they will have no good effect on the individual or on the church unless there is love in the life of the Christian in the exercise of his or her gifts. We might go so far as to sacrifice our body, but apart from love, this act would amount to nothing. Love is the measure of all things.
Authentic Love Differentiates
John 13.34-35
• A NEW Command…
• Love Each Other…
• By THIS will everyone know you are mine
Authentic Love Sacrifices
• The word love {AGAPE} (in some versions “charity”) means “love in action.”
• When Jesus was asked about what it meant to love one’s neighbor he responded with “The Parable of the Samaritan. (Dramatize it?)
• It is not simply an emotion; it is the heart reaching out to others. The word he uses for love is agape, which is love that SACRIFICES for the good of others.
Love Note #2: Real Love Is Effectual (13:4–7)
Something you notice relatively quick as you look at Paul’s definition of what Authentic Love really is here is that you don’t see any reference to the “Feeling of Love.” The fact is that Love is Tough. It requires dedication, commitment, and determination. We hear—“Love Ya”—“I Love You Baby”—and such, but…well let me confess — I don’t even remember the name of the first girl I said “I love you” to. We tend to want the feeling, the experience without the work. Here’s what real Love looks like, and it’s more than sunsets and rainbows.
A. Love is patient and kind (v. 4).
B. Love never SIMMERS with jealousy (v. 4).
• Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.
o Telescopes bring something far off close in appreciation and wonder
o Microscope purpose is to examine and in this case find the slightest flaw
C. Love is not boastful or conceited (v. 4).
• Boastfulness is the Outward Expression of
• Conceit, which is the inward attitude of pride.
D. Love is not rude or self-seeking (v. 5).
• You might find this hard to believe, but the Kids at Elementary School Cut in Line
• You won’t believe the arguments that ensue when trying to figure out who will be the last person dropped off on AWANA night.
• Kids wants something and that’s all they fixate on…how to get it. They manipulate…whine…throw a tantrum…whatever it takes to get what they want.
• Is it just kids? I’m afraid not. We can do the same thing, and often do.
E. Love is not provoked (v.5)
• Have you ever seen someone provoked? It shows pretty quickly on their face.
• I have to confess that I am often easily provoked. There’s a whole lesson just on this that I’m gonna save for another time. I want to just say this morning that I have seen this quality in my wife over and over again as I have the opportunity to watch her working with kids, at school, church, or in the home.
F. Love Does not harbor evil thoughts (v. 5).
• I call this “LEDGER BOOK LIVING” where we keep an account of who we “OWE” and the people we have to “PAY BACK” so that we can “GET EVEN” with them.
G. Love gives victory (v. 7).
• Love Bears…Believes…Hopes…Endures –That is Real Victory the World Will Never Understand apart from Christ. It’s the love of the Cross. [Heb. 12.1-2]
Love Note #3: Real Love Is Eternal (13:8–13)
• The Corinthians, in their Spiritual Immaturity had become fixated on the Temporary and Lost sight of the Eternal
o I want to feel it…
o I want to touch it…
o I want to experience it…
o I want to have it…
o NOW…NOW…NOW…NOW
• Is the Same True of Us?
o Young ladies make the ultimate choice and give themselves away because that’s what they think, or have been told, it takes to be in love with that hottie?
o Guys manipulate and push girls…”if you love me you will”…longing to experience something that he vainly hopes will make him into a man, but really only reveals him to be more of a child.
o The dissatisfied spouse walks up the pathway of adultery trying to fill some gap that—real or imaginary—can never be filled without God.
o We sell our bodies, our purity, our virginity in a snap for a temporary thrill…satisfaction…relationship, and we miss out on the eternal.
Invitation:
Real Love is Found First in Jesus Christ
You will never know the depth, breadth, height, and weight of real love until you come to the source of real love.
Real Love Gives Others Room to Grow
People will let you down, anger you, and often hurt you. When that happens it is love—and only love—that provides you what you need at the moment. (Patience, Kindness, Selflessness…etc)
Real Love may be the Clearest Picture We Can Give the World of Jesus Christ.
