IT’S A LOVE STORY #3: RELENTLESS LOVE
INTRO TO THE SONG OF SONGS:
“The song of songs, which is Solomon's.” (Song 1:1, NKJV).
• Three names to this book: Song of Songs, Song of Solomon, Canticles (Latin for song).
• Author: Solomon: “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore… He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.” (1 Kings 4:29,32, NKJV).
• Solomon was an amazing song writer, and this is like his greatest hits collection.
• This is a series of love songs between a husband and wife.
THE MARRIAGE METAPHOR:
“for your Creator will be your husband. The LORD Almighty is his name!” (Isaiah 54:5a, NLT).
“And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church.” (Eph. 5:25, NLT).
• People who have experienced a divorce or seen their parents go through a divorce will have a hard time understanding and experiencing God’s love. PRAY FOR THEM!
THE BIG IDEA: The Song of Solomon describes the relentless, passionate love that Jesus has for us, and how nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
CHAPTER 1: A REVELATION OF JESUS AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD:
“Tell me, O you whom I love, Where you feed your flock, Where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself By the flocks of your companions?” (Song 1:7, NKJV).
• Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, NKJV).
CHAPTER 2: JESUS REFRESHES US AT HIS BANQUETING TABLE OF LOVE:
“He brought me to the banqueting house, And his banner over me was love.” (Song 2:4).
• The first thing we need to learn about God is that He is love. “Jesus loves me!”
“The Shulamite The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.” (Song 2:8).
“My beloved spoke, and said to me: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away. For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.” (Song 2:10-11).
• Jesus is calling and inviting us to have a personal relationship with Him!
CHAPTER 3: SEEKING THE BELOVED:
“By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. "I will rise now," I said, "And go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love…” (Song 3:1-2).
• God has promised us that if we seek Him we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).
CHAPTER 4: COVENANT LOVE:
“You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace.” (Song 4:9).
• When we become Christians, we enter into a covenant relationship with God.
CHAPTER 5: AWAKENED LOVE:
“2 The Shulamite I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, "Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” (Song 5:2).
• Just like Jesus in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
I. WE BELONG TO JESUS AND HE DESIRES US:
“I am my beloved's, And my beloved is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies.” (Song 6:3).
• Stop and think about this simple and profound truth for a moment:
o Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so! WOW!
“I am my beloved's, And his desire is toward me.” (Song 7:10).
• “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).
• Some of you need to meditate on this truth – to believe the love Jesus has for you!
II. WE ARE SEALED BY JESUS:
“The Shulamite to Her Beloved Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm.” (Song 8:6a).
• A seal is a sign of ownership.
• To say that we are sealed by Jesus means that we belong to Him.
• “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” (Eph. 1:13).
III. JESUS LOVES US WITH A RELENTLESS LOVE:
“For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love All the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.” (Song 8:6b-7).
• God’s love is stronger than death – it will never die.
• Water can quench fire, but nothing can put out God’s love for us!
• “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39).
APPLICATION:
1. Behold – take a look at – meditate on – the love of God (1 John 3:1).
2. Know and believe the love that Jesus has for you (1 John 4:16).
3. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11).
CLOSING: Prayer for people to encounter the love of God.
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://pastorchrisjordan.wordpress.com/
