SEPTEMBER 27
THEME : Love Speaks TOPIC : We need His love
2 key points today
The Love problem
The Love solution
The Love problem
All you need is love…
A true conversation I had with a young man while Ubering a few years ago.
Cheated on
After I dropped off one of the two young men at his location, it was quieter in the car. The young man in the front seat seemed to be happy doing his own thinking so I had music playing quietly and drove on over towards Eastside. He started fidgeting a bit, scratched his head, put his beanie on and off again, shuffled in his seat.
He: “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question, you being an older woman and all?”
Me: “Sure”
He fidgeted some more and struggled a bit. Uh oh, I thought, this is going to be big.
He: “See, I have this girlfren and she an I are togetha you know and I thought she lerved me. Well she went out with another man and she done cheated on me”.
Me: “Are you sure?”
He: (Defeated) “Yes, I am sure. So here is my question to you Ma’am, "does she love me?"
Me: “Hey, I can’t answer that for you. You will need to ask her.”
He: “But what do you think about it though?”
Me: “You know unfaithfulness is the key reason Jesus in the Bible gave to excuse people within a marriage relationship setting as grounds for a divorce. Why? Because God made us and He knows what we can handle and how hard it is to trust someone again after this happens. It causes a big break in a relationship of trust and even God is saying that if this happens to you, you don’t need to continue on with the relationship. What is going to take place now? Every time your girlfriend goes out somewhere you are gonna wonder where she is going, who she is with and what she is doing. Then, if she is a few hours later than she told you she would be, you are gonna start churning right up thinking about it!”
He: “Yeah, exactly”
Me: “So, you need to think about what it is you want in your relationship, where the boundaries are and what you should do if those things happen. My husband and I have set some rules so that we are not putting ourselves in the situation of walking closely to the cliff edge where we could fall off, we put up a few fences along that cliff edge so it isn’t going to happen at all. We have been married for over 30 years now and it has worked for us.”
He: “Like …what do you mean?”
Me: “We don’t spend long periods of time alone with the opposite sex as a general rule – you know, apart from work meetings and some situations where it is needed, we stay accountable to each other so we know where each other is at all times. If we are going to be late we let the other person know. We communicate a lot - for some examples”.
He: (heavily) “Well, yeah I gotta talk to her I guess. She says she still loves me, but I guess I don’t believe her anymore”.
Me: “I am sorry mate, it’s tough but you should get your emotions in check and then talk to her about what is and isn’t Ok if she is to be in relationship with you. You are a valuable person and deserve to be respected”.
Just one of so many stories these days. So many people confused about love, what it is.
“He loves me, he loves me not” daisies.
So many failures, selfishness, covenant breakers, divorce, disenfranchised families, abortions, single homes, fatherlessness, STDs, prostitution, pornography, gender identity issues, self-esteem problems, racism, murder, including the murder of young innocent babies unable to protect themselves from predator fathers or boyfriends of the mother in many instances, liars, cheaters The news is full of it. Society is fed this pretty much 24/7 on all newz channels. When was the last time you turned on the TV screen and saw some GOOD NEWS? Because there is good news happening on the daily too. But you have to dig around deep to find any of that.
These are symptoms of a society that is low on love. These are outworkings of a society that is low on love. These are not the root cause of the love problem.
The root cause of the love problem is… found in the Bible
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart of man is desperately wicked above all things who can know it?”
Romans 3: 23 “All have fallen short of the glory of God”
Look at a young innocent little baby, watch it for a while and you will see fairly soon that the baby doesn’t have to be taught to misbehave. For it to become a well rounded, secure, healthy esteem built up person, it has to be taught how to be good.
Our love can be like this…
“I will do this for you if you will do this for me…”
“I cannot forgive you for what you have done to me”
I hear you thinking “OK so man has failings, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
There is something we can do about it. There is only one thing that can solve this love problem. There is a love solution.
The love Solution
Unconditional Love
Unconditional means absolute,
Unconditional means perfect love,
I Corinthians 13 - whole chapter
Put your name there in place of the word love… what happens? We fall short
Put God’s name in the place of the word love… what happens? He nails it.
We need God’s love because HIS LOVE is unconditional
Gods love is Absolute
Gods love has no conditions
Gods love is unmerited favor / grace / forgiveness for what we do NOT deserve
God’s love is a free gift
While we were enemies of God, either directly or ignoring Him He gave His life for us.
God will NEVER leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 5:13)
God’s love is Fair
Gods love is righteous
Gods love has no end, it is everlasting
God’s love forgives
Only God loved sufficiently to send His son to die on the cross
Spell this out. Other people died on the cross also.. So what?
In conclusion
The Love problem is our sin
The Love solution is The Cross
BID - Biblically Informed Decision
God commands us to love:
Love God
Love one another
This is wrapped up in the 10 commandments and Jesus so succinctly said these 2 commandments cover the whole ten commandments
Prayer with those who want to receive God’s love
How can we grow in love?
Actively dying to self. How do we do that?
That is confess before God our shortcomings
Actively name the key sins that you recognize in yourself daily ( an act of placing them on the altar for God to burn up)
As situations come up where you would normally react in a certain way, ask God for help and choose the way of love – Pummel the flesh!!