SEPTEMBER 20
LOVE SPEAKS: NO GREATER LOVE
Week 1 FACE TO FACE
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
We get to be face to face with GOD!
Week 2 EXCELLENCE
- The More Excellent way
1 Corinthians 12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
EXODUS 31
31 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalelson of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.
- Hur was Caleb’s son!
THEME: LOVE SPEAKS // TOPIC: NO GREATER LOVE
John 15:13
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus laid his down for his enemies - at the time, we were his enemies. The Father, out of His love for the world sent His Son to die in our place. So many parents would do this seeking to protect their children from danger, harm and the likes.
New command to love as JESUS loved.
John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
LOVE HAS LEVELS OF GREATNESS
Having no greater love, means that love is greater than other kinds of love.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE.
6 words for love in greek. Only two of these make it into the New Testament.
Agápe - Unconditional Love. - A parent to a child. Love for a spouse. Love especially of God for Humans.
Philia - Brotherly Love (8 Variants/derivatives of this kind in the New Testament)
Greek words for love not in the Bible.
Storge - "Natural empathy"
Éros - Intimate love, Sexual love.
Xenia - Love in a hospitality sense, especially to foreigners
Philautia - “Self love”
Bonus:
Hebrew: ahabah - Love.
HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Don’t get your prayers hindered
1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
LOVE WILL WAX COLD
Matthew 24:9-14
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
- RICH YOUNG RULER NOTE, JESUS LOVED HIM AND SAID….
Mark 10:21-22
21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
LOVE IS RADICAL
- The More Excellent way
1 Corinthians 12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 13
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
BID
PT. 1 KNOW greater Love
• Jesus died so we can KNOW him John 17:3
PT. 2 DISCIPLES ARE KNOWN BECAUSE THE LOVE EACH OTHER
- “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have lovefor one another” John 13:35