Stupid Cupid and the Effect of Love
Intro: Society has a warped view of love and how it shows up in our lives. Often love is thought of as flowing from person to person. If you “Google” the word love, and you have to be very careful doing this, you will find all sorts of websites,120,000,000 to be exact. Here are some examples that you will find:
I love Dogs.com
I love Cats.com (Although this one is a plea to spay or neuter)
I love Cheese. Com
I love Lucy.com
We love the Iraqi Information Minister.com
True Romance Dating Service.com
Love Test.com
Matchmaker.com
The Love Calculator.com
(On this site you type in your name and your mates name and it gives you the odds of your relationship lasting. Alana and I got 41%)
The interesting aspect is that on all these sites, love is seen as almost an entirely human endeavor.
Theme: True love begins with God and is passed on to others.
All true love originates with God. Man would not have any concept of love without God loving us.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” 1John 3:16
Without Jesus demonstrating love, we would have no idea what love is.
Proverbs point out two great effects of love in our lives:
I- Faithfulness
Ex: Faithfulness is a by-product of love. When true love is found, faithfulness is also present.
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name with God and man.”
Proverbs 3:3-4
The term “faithful” comes from the Hebrew term for certain.
When true love, love, that originates from God and grows in our hearts, is present, faithfulness is one of the results.
In the Hebrew text love, (hesed) is almost always used in connection with a result; faithfulness, righteousness, steadfastness.
This type of love, though evidenced in man, always refers back to God’s love.
This love demonstrates a covenant or a love contract between God and man.
“Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil.” Proverbs 16:6
Gods love is a contract that he will never break. It is an unfailing love.
“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11
NAR: Alana and I have a Marriage Covenant that hangs on the wall at our house. As soon as you walk in the door it is the first thing you see. We had a special anniversary dinner with our children and explained that this document was an outward sign of our commitment to never divorce. We vowed to each other and to them that we would remain faithful and in love to one another. We both signed it and had the kids sign it.
APP: Do you trust Gods faithful love? Does a failed human relationship cause you to question the eternal love of God? He is always loving and faithful.
II- Forgiveness
Ex: Gods love allows us to experience forgiveness from him, but also to forgive others.
Forgiveness from God:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5
God’s love produced a harvest of forgiveness for us.
Forgiveness For Others:
“Hatred starts fighting, but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.” Proverbs 10:12(The Message)
Gods love and forgiveness for us allows us to forgive others. Forgiveness is one way Gods love passes from one person to another.
Three important truths about forgiving:
1) Forgiving is not forgetting.
We may never forget how someone hurt us, especially if we are victims of violence or abuse. But God has called us to forgive.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
2) Forgiveness is a choice.
It is our decision to forgive. We can either choose forgiveness or bitterness. But we must live with whatever choice we make. It is not our place to repay evil but Gods.
“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for Gods wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Romans 12:19
3) Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of someone else’s sin.
The greatest example was Jesus. Even though he literally died, he refuse to bring condemnation. From the cross he cried:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
NAR: Phan Thi Kim Phuc
(Illustration from Still More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks” Wayne Rice. Printed by Youth Specialties)
On June 8, 1972, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, her clothes flaming from gasoline bombs, fled the American-led assault on her village of Trang Bang. With her eyes screwed shut and her mouth spread wide in a scream of pain, she was captured on film in America’s most remembered Vietnam wartime photo.
In Officer John Plummer’s nightmares, this picture flashed huge, in black and white, to a sound track of children screaming. His order had directed bombers to shower Kim Phuc’s village with the chemical explosives. For years, guilt over destroying and maiming the villagers haunted the officer. Women and alcohol were his escape of choice.
Twenty years after the destruction of the village, Officer Plummer asked Christ to take control of his life, unleashing God’s ultimate power to end guilt. Although free from guilt, he carried inside himself scars somehow linked to the thick, white scars on the neck, arm, and back of the now-grown Vietnamese girl. Six years later, Plummer knew he needed to find her. In an effort to meet her face to face, he tracked her down while she was visiting America.
Unlike the June 1972 event, no photographer captured the moment when Plummer explained to Kim Phuc who he was. But in the middle of a busy sidewalk, the soldier, now 49 years old, and the child, now 33 years old, embraced. “She just opened her arms to me.” Plummer later said, “I fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say is, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m just so sorry.’”
“It’s all right,” she replied as she patted Plummer’s back. “I forgive. I forgive.”
Kim went on to survive although it took 14 months of painful rehabilitation to treat the third degree burns that was over more than half of her body.
Kim is now a Canadian citizen and shares her thoughts on survival and inspiration. She has traveled all over the world, meeting and talking with people about peace. She is now a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
She has forgiven, but has not forgotten, and in a commemorative ceremony to the Vietnam War she publicly pardoned the person who had launched the napalm bombing on her village in Vietnam. Ever since, she has dedicated her life to promoting peace, and to this end she founded the “Kim Phuc Phan Thi Foundation” (kimfoundmullC@aprint.ca). This foundation helps children who are victims of war everywhere by providing medical and psychological help to surmount their traumatic experiences.
APP: Is forgiveness a part of your life?
Conclusion: How do you define love? Where do you seek to have your love needs met? Jesus has called us to allow God to pour out his love on us so we can live lives of faithfulness and forgiveness.
