CRAVINGSREAL LOVE!

TALKING ABOUT LOVE:

• 16 networks, 11 reality TV shows.

• McManus, Soul Cravings, entry 4: “We are created to know God and to know love…Follow love and it will guide you to God.”

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT “LOVE”

• 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b) irritable and does not count up wrongdoing ] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1. LOVE IS MORE THAN A “FEELING”

• Harlequin Publishing House: 180 Million books per year, they sell 5 ½ books per second!

• Love does affect our feelings deeply and powerfully:

• In the comic strip Peanuts, Linus says to Charlie Brown, “She is so cute. I used to see her in Sunday School every week. I used to just sit there and stare at her, and sometimes she’d smile at me. Now I hear she has switched to another church.” Charlie Brown responded. “That’ll change your theology in a hurry!”

• Righteous Brothers “ You’ve lost that loving feeling”

LOVE IS A CHOICE:

• Col 3:12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

LOVE IS HOW WE WHO BELONG TO CHRIST

LIVE:

• As Covenant and Kingdom People we believe and become more like Jesus:

• Matt 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

• Romans 12: 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[g] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

• McManus: Soul Cravings, entry 3: “When loves does not come to you, it breaks your heart, but when you do not give love away, it hardens your heart”

HYPOCRISY?

• I can’t love if I don’t feel it so it is hypocrisy! But hypocrisy is not acting contrary to what you feel rather it is acting contrary to what you believe…

• 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY REAL LOVE

LOOKS LIKE:

• 1) Love has time: 1 Cor 13:4 “Love is patient” Patience makes allowances for the faults of others and waits for someone to change…

2. Love cares. “Love is Kind (13:4)” “it is not irritable[easily angered] or resentful;[b) irritable and does not count up wrongdoing] (13:5)” This means we are willing to adapt to meet the practical needs of another person.

A line in Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address reminds us how caring and compassionate he was. Speaking of the coming end to the Civil War he said: “with malice toward none; with charity for all.”When the war ended the crowds gathered at the White House while Lincoln talked about the horrors of war now over, families getting back together and finally, peace. He said: “In a few moments I want the band to play.” The band got “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” ready. It was the victorious North theme song. Lincoln said, “The band will now play the theme song of the people we have called our enemy. They are not our enemies any more! We are one people again. I want the band to play: “Dixie.” Lincoln knew the South was hurting from the horrors of war and the shame of defeat. He was sending a clear signal to the South consistent with what he believed and said in the Inaugural Address, that the South would be treated with love and compassion!

“When we love we are moved toward forgiveness” (McManus, Cravings, entry 6)

3. LOVE IS SECURE

• 1 Cor. 3:4 “love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant”

• Insecurity is so destructive! Insecurity in a relationship makes it so unhealthy!

• Security makes relationships secure..

• Not relying on the other person for your worth and relying on God in humility.

4. LOVE GIVES

• 1 Cor. 3:5 “Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way;”

• Quote: “some marriage relationships are like a tick on a dog. The tick is there for one purpose, to take. The tragedy is after 20 years of marriage you end of with two ticks and no dog!”

• We know the damage of having our “own way” causes in our relationship to God and to others…

5. LOVE IS CONSISTENT

• 1 Corinthians 13:6b…but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

• If we spent our time doing these things because of who we are would we leave time to act unloving?

SO WHAT? 1 JOHN 4:9-119 IN THIS THE LOVE OF GOD WAS MADE MANIFEST AMONG

US, THAT GOD SENT HIS ONLY SON INTO THE WORLD, SO

THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM. 10 IN THIS IS

LOVE, NOT THAT WE HAVE LOVED GOD BUT THAT HE LOVED

US AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR

SINS. 11 BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE ALSO OUGHT

TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

• You are the object of God’s LOVE. (McManus, Cravings entry 10)

• Loving others begins with experiencing the love of God in Christ Jesus…

• Hugh Martin in his book The Parables of the Gospels tells of a rough cultured man who became fascinated with a beautiful, expensive vase in a shop window……

• When we put the LOVE of Christ in the Center of our lives HE transforms us!