True Love Is Priceless Series

Intro

• I have had the blessed opportunity to sit down and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ so far with two of my three children.

• I’m still praying for my youngest and I have faith that he will one day come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

• Not only have shared the gospel with them, I have seen them accept Jesus Christ and have had the opportunity to baptize them.

• How truly precious it is to be able to share the Gospel with your children and see them come to Jesus Christ!

• As I have mentioned before, years ago my grandmother started giving me some of my grandfather’s things to me.

• One of those things that she gave me was an old handkerchief.

• There’s nothing special about this handkerchief; it’s just made of plain material. It’s been used a lot so it’s not in mint conditions.

• One of the things that this handkerchief has been used for is in the baptism of my children.

• I’ve done that just as a small token to remember the spiritual heritage and foundation that my grandparents set for me.

• Those special times of sharing Jesus Christ with my children are very priceless to me; nothing can replace those memories.

• Also, just as this handkerchief looks like nothing to you, it is priceless to me because of who it belonged to.

• Today, we come to the conclusion of our study in Song of Songs.

• We have seen where the man and the woman started with a true joy to their love.

• We have seen that even though their desires for one another were strong, they waited to express their love in a physical manner.

• We have seen also that this couple waited till the appropriate time to express their love, which was after their marriage.

• Also, we have seen the bride’s emotions as she expressed her true love for him and the groom’s devotion to his bride as he expressed his true love for her.

• This Groom and Bride have found something very special, true love and their true love is priceless.

• What makes true love priceless?

• True Love is priceless because within the confines of true love we can experience #1 Freedom, #2 Unity and #3 Peace.

• Prayer

#1 Freedom

• Song of Songs 7:10-8:4

• Last week we ended with Song of Songs 7:9; in this verse the man was interrupted by his bride but she was in agreement with his thought – they truly belonged to one another.

• Throughout this study we have seen the man call to his bride a few times to go away with him but they resisted.

• Now, after their marriage, we see in v11 where the woman now has the freedom to call her husband to go away with her.

• We have seen the emotions that the bride had about losing her virginity and especially after her wedding night; those feelings of anxiety and tension have left and now she is free to love her husband.

• She paints the picture of a country setting in these verses but the point of all this is found in v12 –“ There I will give you my love.”

• V13 is filled with the same kind of imagery of a country setting but they all point to the same thing.

• The ancient reader would have noted the mandrake in v13 – The mandrake was regarded as an aphrodisiac.

• Every delicacy of the garden was hung on the doors; We have seen this imagery with the doors before but as a barrier; now entrance

• She also speaks of “new and old” in v13; this implies that their love for each other has grown as well.

• Now, to us, 8:1 might sound a little creepy.

• In the ancient world, a woman could only show public affection to her father, brother or near relative; not looked at as weird in that society.

• Even as a married woman, she could not show affection to her husband in public.

• This shows us that what she is stating in v1 is that she wishes she could show her love for her husband to everyone as she has the freedom to show her brother.

• Since she does not have the freedom to show affection in public, she will express her love for him much more in private.

• The bride has truly moved from being the woman who had a low self-confidence, who wrestled with her emotions to one who has truly found freedom in her marriage.

• True love has brought to her a freedom that she never had.

• When we find true love, we too also can have this freedom to love each other; We can have a freedom to be who we are and not worry about what the other thinks. – True love brings this freedom.