Jon
1 Cor 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.
6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
10 but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
CS Lewis
To love at all is to be vulnerable…give your heart to no one…in that casket safe, dark, motionless…irredeemable
To be in a relationship is to be vulnerable
Designed to love one another, designed to be vulnerable?
What Paul doesn’t say: he doesn’t say we can make the world a better place
We should not be envious
He breaks down love – it’s patient
Not what we should do, what love is
Defines love very clearly
In order to understand love we need to meet that perfect man of love, have a head-on collision with love
When we move into a relationship we are vulnerable
Tendancy of human heart is to turn away because we think we aren’t getting what we needed
Approval, gratitude, something
Love never ends
Farmer, nobleman and a king
Farmer finds abnormally large carrot
Gives it to the king purely
King rewards farmer
Nobleman tries to wheedle reward
Wicked nobleman tried to love himself
Stepping into a relationship with another human or our God we often say “what’s in it for me?”
Parents push their kids to love themselves through their kids
Trynig to make ourselves better
Why do you pray? What’s your motivation?
Answer me or adoration to just be with Him
Give your money away?
Try to put ourselves in a position of getting God to reward us
When affection/reward doesn’t come, our tendancy is to harden our hearts
We want unconditional love
When someone stops giving it to us, we don’t return the favor
This is not a checklist
Wants to point us to the one person who can give us unconditional love
Easy to be kind to kind people, to be patient with patient people
I like how I look when I’m with this person
Pointing us to the person of love
Glimpses and pictures of that person
Isaiah 49:15-16
15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? Even if mothers were to forget, I could never forget you!
16 Look, I have inscribed your name on my palms; your walls are constantly before me.
Mom’s love can reach the end of her rope
God engraves our names on His palms
Yes you gotta feel the judgement
I expect people to love me that way but I don’t love them that way
Only God can give unconditional love
2 kinds of people
1) Extremely patient and kind, can’t confront people
2) I’ll just tell that person what I don’t like about them
Dr. Ken Johnson
Exodus 24:39
Act 9:3
Revelation 1:16
Moses, Paul and John – greatest lovers
Faces so bright can’t even look at them
From being with God
This brilliant light that blocks everything else
The brilliance of love
It’s a thing you can see
Marriage is a much better investment than a house
Relationship with God is a MUCH better with investment
Saul the bounty hunter – self-proclaimed Jewish rabbi, gathering names to prosecute
Encountered love and changed to Paul
Corinth was a pork town where anything went
Corinth got two books with over 16 chapters a piece
You don’t love anybody
Needed a U turn so they could have a collision with Christ
Paul says imitate me because I’m imitating Christ
His love is living in me
We are a living mission field
When people see you they will se Christ
See the glow on your face
Character mattered
Immerse themselves in their Christ-centered love
No longer a city but a tribe of love
There was no forgiveness until Paul met Jesus
Jesus is God’s forgiveness
Are we ready to accept that God was furious with us? He had to send His son to pay the price for sin
Counseling is 95% anxiety or depression
Fear causes it
If the fear was gone, how would you change? How would your relationship, your job, your life would change?
Forgiveness is the most difficult human transaction there is
Love doesn’t keep score
A woman from Cambodia who had her parents murdered in front of her
She goes to church and is asked, don’t you want revenge?
I want revenge every day. But I think of my parents…
1 John 4:17
1) God’s will won’t conflict with his word
2) First say yes and a direction will come
3) Orient in love life
4) Responds to gratitude
5) Always forgiving us
Jon
The opposite of love is fear
Turning back towards someone
If as a result of meeting Him and your face shines brightly there is also a heart change
Maybe I need to take the step back to that relationship
Love casts out fear