Love Worth Finding Series
Selected verses
Introduction-
Good Morning,
We are beginning today a series looking at finding love in our lives, in all areas of our life.
Most people think when you talk about love that you are only talking physical attraction between two people, or close family and friends, but dare we really believe that God wants us to find love in every area of our lives?
This world has a polluted view of love and a polluted view of how we express love to each other.
We see the problem magnified with all the pornography, with the spreading of sexual diseases, with the high divorce rate even in the churches and with the inability to communicate with each other.
No one wants to be told how they should love and to whom they can love.
We have so many bad examples of love that it clouds our ways of thinking unless you have one authority that you will follow regarding how we make our decisions.
The tensions in America are critical.
We have lost the ability to talk and have set a society of them against us in every decision making process we face.
We have approached God with the same distaste.
We approach God like our opinions matter over His concerning moral values and complicated controversial issues.
The human experts tell us how to feel and how each of us has to find what is right for us.
So, I say this as we begin this study.
I am looking at it from a Biblical stand point and I am not debating God’s word with our personal views.
I realize that there are a lot of people who have been married for a very long time who may not give God a thought in any decision they make concerning their lives, but I make a stand on the Word of Almighty God that if you are looking for a love worth finding that it will not only include God but will be directed by Him.
In the next 5 weeks I want to look at three important areas of our lives.
Loving God
Loving each other
Loving ourselves.
If you get nothing else out of the series, I hope you find peace and love in these three areas of your life like you have never before.
As a preacher, one who has dedicated his life to ministering God’s Word and has taken an oath to God’s people for His service, I think the church universal has done a poor job in relaying the importance of relationships from God on down to those we come in contact with every day.
We have fought to get people in our churches by big events, fancy light works, big name stars, and created an attitude that the church has to entertain us rather than disciple us.
To keep earning our business like they were selling something and trying to beat the store down the road.
Creating an atmosphere that the church owes me something instead of the church being an extension of God’s love and being a part of what God does with the people who come through these doors.
I am thankful for all the hard work that every individual puts in this church to further the kingdom of God.
This is not complaining, it is a warning of where society is headed and how we need to be careful that we do not get sucked into it.
What kind of community would this look like if God’s people loved God not just with their mouth but with every part of their being?
If we loved God with all our heart, with all our minds, with all our resources, all our time?
Would we be making a bigger impact? The answer would be yes!
Prayer-
If you are truly seeking true love, and you want to find it while wanting to please God then you must begin your search for love with God.
Seeking God, loving God, and caring about what God thinks of the things we do in our lives.
Mark 12:30-
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
John 3:16-
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
To begin your search for love is to see the love that God has already shown his creation mankind.
He loved us so much that He left all of glory to come to this sin infested world and died for our sins.
He sought us out first.
He paid the ultimate cost for us to even be in a position of having a relationship with a holy God.
Until you realize that, the barrier that is up is one that we created, because He consistently is reaching out to us and desiring that intimate relationship.
You can deny it but inside, you know that is true- His
Spirit will show us that
If God is not in your life, He cannot be Lord of your life! (Repeat)
You can claim to love God, but if you don’t spend time with him, it is a sign that the relationship is not right. If your husband or your wife spent the same amount of time that you spend with God, with you…would you be mad?
Would you feel like the relationship would be in trouble? If the answer is yes, you need to take a hard look at your relationship with God.
He has to be first!
He does not share that position with anyone or anything! He does not apologize for being God.
You will see in this series that everything filters down with the assumption that God is first and all the other areas of our life will fall into proper prospective. When God is not first, is where dysfunction begins.
Loving God
Loving God with your whole heart, soul, mind and body.
Seeking first the kingdom of God, and “all these things” will fall into proper place.
All these things are the essentials, provision, protection, and occasionally as He sees fit “wants”
What does that look like?
Well, it begins with understanding Biblical love.
We throw the word love out in so many ways.
I love God
I love my wife/ husband
I love my dog
I love cookies
I would hope and pray that you don’t love all those things in the same way even though they are individually important.
The Eskimos have 26 words in their language relating to snow- why?
Because snow plays a very big part in their lives and their culture.
Biblical love on the other hand has three expression of love
The love we have for God- unlike anything we have for anything else
The love we have for people- from intimate to casual
The love we have for ourselves and knowing who we are in Christ Jesus
Jeremiah 31
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
God started loving you before you were even I the womb.
You may have been a surprise to your parents, but you are not an accident to God.
He has plans for you. You are not an after thought
He sought us out
He made the first move-
He is God and He wanted you to find Him.
He desires to have a relationship with you… not just a Jeanie in a bottle that grants wishes when you want his attention.
He did not wait till we get our act together
Truth is, if that was the case none of us would have a relationship with Him because we are all messed us, broken and in need of a savior and friend to redeem us from ourselves.
No person is too good that they don’t need him or too bad that His hand doesn’t reach out to them.
The Prodical son that came back to his father is an example of God love. Found in Luke
He tried the world and found that it left him with a void that only his father could fill.
He realized that away from the Father he was missing the blessing of being with the Father.
God never stopped loving us. He loves us with unconditional love.
He loves every single person on the face of the earth. Even those that don’t choose to serve Him and accept His gift of salvation.
He still loves them and desires that we would reach out to the love that He offers to us.
When we do, He allows us to sense His love and His love changes us.
His love does not change. The hardest heart that feels they can no longer love, God’s love can break through that heart and show his love to us.
He loves the unlovable; He loves us in spite of our mistakes and failures.
There is no sin too great that can cause God to turn his back on us.
We can only turn our back on Him.
He still loves us, but we sever the reach that he desires for us.
He first loved us- Could you love a God like that?
A God who loves you, knows the things that you have done and still reaches out to you and offers his love.
Says if you abide in me. I will abide in you.
Let’s get this relationship started. It was broken but I can repair it.
I can heal the hurts that you have had. I can love you better than anyone else has ever loved you.
I can bridge that gap and I can fill that void.
You have put everything in your heart to fill that need but that part of your heart can only be filled with my love.
In my sight you are a beautiful creation and I do not make anything ugly.
I don’t throw away anything that I have made.
I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Think about this as we close out time this morning,
It is hard to find truth among so many opinions. There is only one authority and that is God Almighty!
What He says is the final authority- Now and Forever!
He exchanges His New for our old and His death gives us new life!
He is the only one that can fill the God void in your life- nothing else fits!
Lisa Bevere, the author of the book Adamant- “Jesus is the rock, our strength, and sure footing in a world littered with gravel.” (End Quote)
There are a lot of things to cause us to lose our footing- only on the rock of our salvation can we be sure to keep a good footing.
If we foolishly try to find love without God, we are building our life puzzle with one of the main pieces missing.
Until I was 28 years old, I felt I knew God, needed God, but never opened my heart up to God.
I had a life changing experience with the Lord at 14 years old but soon struggled because of life stuff!
Until I opened my heart to Him and accepted His love. When I did that almost 35 years ago, I have never regretted it. It is not always easy, but He has never forsaken me… just like He said. He has given me the strength to endure because He has not made me to do it alone.
I love Him today because He never gave up on me, even when I gave up on myself.
I love Him today because He has become my rock and my strength, not just someone I read about in a book.
It is easy to love someone like that and have a personal relationship with Him.
I know that I know- it is not based upon someone else telling me, it is based upon Him making Himself real to me.
That is my closing prayer for you this morning
He loves you that way, would you open your heart to Him?
I know this may be a little tough, but are you willing to express that kind of love to God this morning?
Accept His love so He can show you that love?
Time around the altar.
Amen.
