Introduction

Welcome back church! We’re a few weeks into our series, Loving God; Loving People, and I imagine today’s message is going to resonate with a lot of us as it’s all about the difficulty of love.

We all have these stories, and the truth is, we’re hard to love as well. None of us are easy to love, all the time, no matter how hard we may try to be. We live in a broken world with broken people and broken relationships. Sin has completely permeated every facet of life, making it difficult to love and be loved.

The antidote to our problem is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and be intentional about loving God and loving others. It’s far too easy to give up, become complacent, and move on from relationships when they get too difficult and messy. Thankfully for us, that’s not what God did, but rather, He engaged us in the midst of our sin and offered us a path to forgiveness and redemption.

He did this because He loved the entire world. (John 3:16)

Main Idea

Last week, we talked about the example of love that Jesus set through His earthly life and ministry to others. I think we can all agree that it’s easy to love people we like, people who are like us, and people who share our interests and desires. It’s exponentially more difficult to love people who are different, who we disagree with, and people who have differing interests and desires.

With that said, we’re going to take a deeper look today at some of the competing interests and desires that make it so difficult to love others. Thankfully, the Bible addresses all things pertaining to life and faith, including this. Please turn with me to the book of James chapter 4.

You’ve got to love how James comes right out with it in this passage, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” As you let that question hang for a moment, think about the things or situations in your life that cause fights, quarrels, and division ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium