From Indifference to Agape: Receiving and Giving God's Love

``There's someone right in front of us that we have the opportunity to share God's love with, yet we miss it because we're in the moment with what we're focused on. Or maybe we miss an opportunity to encounter God's love, the greater depths of understanding it because we're all we're so focused in our own little world. You see, when it comes to love, I would say that the greatest enemy of love is not hate and it's not fear. Although I would say they are contenders, the greatest enemy of love is indifference. You see, because indifference is emotionally neutral. It's disconnection without feeling. [00:33:31] (42 seconds)  #NoticeLove

It communicates, I matter more than you, and it views interruption as inconvenience. So love moves towards, indifference moves past. At its core, indifference is apathy, apathy about what's happening in the moment with people around you. And it plays out when we scroll past someone's plea for help thinking, well, someone else will help. Or we walk past a neighbor who's struggling to bring their garbage can down their driveway because we're in a hurry. We gotta get to where we're going next. Or when we judge someone else, not knowing their circumstances and thinking, well, they're just asking for a handout. The real danger to love is indifference. [00:34:36] (46 seconds)  #ChooseToMoveTowards

Now in contrast, the Greek has four different ways to depict love. Most of you might be familiar with this. And the first one is philia, which is brotherly or sisterly love or affection. And then there's storge. Storge would be like that family protective love. Then there's eros, which would be this when you're referring to, like, passionate love between two people, romantic love. And then there's agape. And agape is sacrificial. Agape is based on covenant. It's love that seeks the good of the other regardless of their response. It's a choice of the will rather than just emotion. [00:41:27] (38 seconds)  #ChooseAgapeLove

He moves towards. He moves into action because when sin entered the world at the very beginning with Adam and Eve, it broke relationship. God could have washed his hands of humanity, and he could have said, I'm done. You guys are out of here. He could have turned his back on us or been indifferent towards us, but he didn't. Because God is love, he moves towards us. Indifference moves away. Love moves towards. [00:46:32] (28 seconds)  #LoveMovesToward

He took the payment. He paid the price where we should have in order to reconcile us back to a relationship with God through his death and resurrection, not because we earned it, but because love initiated it. That's what love does. Love seeds sees the need and crosses the divide to meet it. Love moves towards love counts the cost and pays the price still. But love also stays. [00:47:50] (29 seconds)  #LovePaysAndStays

You see, John tells us in verse 18 that there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. Now this word perfect here, in English, we oftentimes think of this as without flaw or without struggle or to be fully polished, to be perfect, but the Greek word here is teleos, which means mature, complete, fully developed. So what John is saying here is that when God's love matures in us, fear is driven out. He's not saying we won't ever face fear. But as the love of God surrounds us and as we open ourselves to maturing in his love, the fear cannot stay. The fear has to leave. [00:51:51] (48 seconds)  #MatureLoveDrivesOutFear

In order to receive God's love, we need to move from understanding to experiencing, and that requires vulnerability. It requires us to move towards God and to open our heart to him. He's already moved towards us, but now we have to come to him with our need. And we have to expose to him the tender places of our hearts. [00:55:40] (28 seconds)  #OpenHeartToGod

Some of you are living your life as if you're one mistake away from falling from the love of God. But that's worldly love. Because worldly love is based off of how you perform. Godly love is based on the fact that God is love and he moves towards you. He sends his son. He gives you his holy spirit, and he helps guide you. [01:01:35] (30 seconds)  #GraceNotPerformance