Reclaiming the True Meaning of Love
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." [31:03]
2. "Aren't you glad, aren't you thankful that God doesn't keep a record of wrongs, the wrongs that we've committed against him, and actually the wrongs that we commit against his creatures, when we commit wrongs against other persons who are creating the image of God, that is also a sin against God himself, you know, he's not up in heaven nurturing his list, matter of fact, in Colossians, Paul talks about a record of debt, a record of debt that each, one of us has, and it's a debt caused by our sin that we can't possibly ever, ever pay, we can never be relieved of this debt, and yet Jesus took that record of debt, that legal document, and he nailed it to the cross, emptying it of its power, paying the debt in full, so that we're free, free to love God with our whole being, and free to love our neighbor, love." [36:54]
3. "Imagine if you were to throw a dinner party and you hired the best pastry chef in Louisville. You found, I don't know who that is, but if you probably did some research, you could probably figure out who that is. And you hired that person and you said, I want you to make, I want you to bake the greatest cake of all times. And so, we're going to serve for dessert at my dinner party. And so, they get there and they've got all the ingredients. They're mixing the cakes and doing it up and they've got all the decorations and they bring this thing out and it's beautiful. It's the end of the party. They all just dig that fork in there and then everybody takes a bite at the same time. Then everybody realizes that it's missing one key ingredient, sugar. The cake would be worthless. Well, love is the one key ingredient for the Christ follower. Without love, all of our actions, all the things that we do, all the things that we say, they're worthless because we're not backing it up with love." [29:30]
4. "We are continuing our series that we started last week, The Summer of Love. And we talked about the fact that in 1967 was the actual original Summer of Love. And that was part of a movement that was promoting this idea of love without commitment. But we know that that doesn't exist. It's not a thing. You can't have love without commitment. That would be an oxymoron." [20:29]
5. "Agape love. It's the love of God. And so we want to experience the love of God and the God of love. And then we want to share that love with others. That's who we are as followers of Jesus, as we imitate him, as we pattern our lives after him." [25:40]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Love never ends, love never ends, love is eternal, because God is eternal, the Bible says that God is love, so God is love, and God is eternal, which he is, and that means love is eternal, love is a virtue, but it's a, it's a virtue that's going to be present in the fullness of the kingdom, when Jesus comes, love's going to keep right on, matter of fact, when Jesus returns, and he establishes his kingdom, heaven and earth come together, you know, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that's what we pray, that prayer is going to be fully realized, fully answered, when Jesus comes back, and love is going to really come into its own at that point, because there's not going to be, there's not going to be any more sin, there's not going to be, any more selfishness, there's not going to be anything left in the, in the entire cosmos, in the entire world, or even in our lives, that is inconsistent, or an obstacle to love, and so kind of the goal right now, is to start living towards that, if that's how I'm going to be for eternity, a fully, completely loving human being, reflecting the character of Jesus, then let's, let's start doing that right now, and that's, that's basically what Paul is asking, that's what he's, that's what he's talking about." [41:28]
2. "Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known, I was reflecting on that this week, and I thought, you know, it's connected to this idea of this mirror, and partial knowledge, and what do you see in a mirror, well, usually you see yourself, right, you're looking, you're checking your teeth, did I get that food out of my teeth, you know, my hair, okay, my clothes, all right, you know, you're looking at yourself, and I think what Paul is suggesting, what might, you might be able to kind of tease out of this, this sentence here, is this idea of self-knowledge, that right now, when we're in this temporal existence, when we're in these broken bodies, our inner motivations, the things that really get us going, our inward, inner thoughts that, that help determine our outward expression, our outward actions and experiences, are somewhat a mystery to us, the Bible even says that the heart is unsearchable, that the heart, above all things, is deceitful, and what I've discovered is that I get confused a lot of times, between my felt needs, and my real needs, sometimes I perceive my felt needs, are just things that I feel like I need, and then I get all upset at somebody, or someone, or something, or some circumstance, when my felt need isn't met, and that this is a lot of what's going on in Corinth, that people are living in the deceitfulness of their hearts, they think, you know, I'm boasting because I feel like I'm not getting enough attention, so I'm going to boast about myself, I'm going to try to tear someone else down, so I can build myself up, this is the way of the fallen world, and we don't, we're not even always aware of why we're doing it, have you ever just looked back on your former self, like yourself from, say, you know, a year ago, five years ago, 50 years ago, and said, what was I thinking? Have you ever had that thought? Because the mature you, the you now, would never have made that kind of decision, but there was something going on in your heart that was askew, that was off, and so we're just kind of stuck right now in this, in this temporal reality, where we're not, we're not fully known, even to ourselves, but do you know who does know you fully? This is what Paul is just saying, even as we are fully known, God knows you fully, and he knows the deepest, most fundamental, basic longing of your heart, and it's true for you, and it's true for me, and it's true for every human being, our deepest longing, my deepest need, my most fundamental want, is I need to be loved. That, at the very base of who I am, is what drives me. It's what drives you. Friends, I'm here to tell you, there is a God, there is a God that knows all, knows everything there is to know about you, knows far more about you than you even know about yourself, and that God, wants to embrace you fully, so that he can love you perfectly, with this love that never ends, this love that's permanent." [48:52]
3. "Patience is kind of a passive virtue. In the King James version, it really gets more at the heart of what this word means. It means long-suffering, it means so in the King James version, it reads, you know, love suffereth long. It's a long-suffering. It has to do with hanging in there, with difficult and challenging circumstances, particularly within relationships. It's a relational word, particularly within relationships for the long haul. That's what love is. And aren't you glad, aren't you glad that God has love in you? That's what love is. that's patient with sinful humanity. You know, he just could have wiped us off the face of the earth, but instead he sent his son, Jesus. He's suffering long. And then love is kind." [32:01]
4. "This is more related to a positive action of kindness, of particularly God's mercy expressed through Jesus, that he's active, actively showing us kindness, actively expressing mercy in our lives. To us. And then, and then Paul goes through a long list of negatives. Okay. So this is called the via negativa, right? Who knows Latin? Via negativa, the way of negation. So it's a way of defining something by what it isn't. You say, love is, is not these things. And these happen to be vices. And in essence, what Paul is saying is, okay, you Corinthians, love is, is like not what you're doing. You're doing all these things wrong. And that's not love. So let's talk about what love isn't. And so he says, love does not envy or boast. So envy has to do with jealousy. You know, somebody might be jealous of the spiritual gifts." [32:35]
5. "Love never ends. Hope, and faith, those are things that are temporal. Think of it, like this, say an arborist, a tea person. Where to plant and acorn, an acorn, a little baby oak tree, in a little bitty thing that you could hold in the palm of your hand. They plant it, I don't know how to grow an oak tree, but they do. They plant it, I don't know, they ferlite it, they make sure it gets enough water, whatever. I don't understand it they do they nurture this tree and it starts to grow and you know it takes like 40 50 years for an oak tree to mature to where it actually starts producing lots of acorns itself. Now let's say the the arborist came back she planted that tree with with hope and faith that it was going to grow and now she's there under the majestic branches of this beautiful creation of god and its branches are spread out and it's in full leaf and she can stand in the in its beautiful shade there's no need for hope and faith anymore that's how it's going to be we're not going to need faith and hope anymore the greatest of these love you can experience the love of god and i want to invite you to know and love and experience the god of love." [51:14]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." [31:03]
2. "Aren't you glad, aren't you thankful that God doesn't keep a record of wrongs, the wrongs that we've committed against him, and actually the wrongs that we commit against his creatures, when we commit wrongs against other persons who are creating the image of God, that is also a sin against God himself, you know, he's not up in heaven nurturing his list, matter of fact, in Colossians, Paul talks about a record of debt, a record of debt that each, one of us has, and it's a debt caused by our sin that we can't possibly ever, ever pay, we can never be relieved of this debt, and yet Jesus took that record of debt, that legal document, and he nailed it to the cross, emptying it of its power, paying the debt in full, so that we're free, free to love God with our whole being, and free to love our neighbor, love." [36:54]
3. "Imagine if you were to throw a dinner party and you hired the best pastry chef in Louisville. You found, I don't know who that is, but if you probably did some research, you could probably figure out who that is. And you hired that person and you said, I want you to make, I want you to bake the greatest cake of all times. And so, we're going to serve for dessert at my dinner party. And so, they get there and they've got all the ingredients. They're mixing the cakes and doing it up and they've got all the decorations and they bring this thing out and it's beautiful. It's the end of the party. They all just dig that fork in there and then everybody takes a bite at the same time. Then everybody realizes that it's missing one key ingredient, sugar. The cake would be worthless. Well, love is the one key ingredient for the Christ follower. Without love, all of our actions, all the things that we do, all the things that we say, they're worthless because we're not backing it up with love." [29:30]
4. "We are continuing our series that we started last week, The Summer of Love. And we talked about the fact that in 1967 was the actual original Summer of Love. And that was part of a movement that was promoting this idea of love without commitment. But we know that that doesn't exist. It's not a thing. You can't have love without commitment. That would be an oxymoron." [20:29]
5. "Agape love. It's the love of God. And so we want to experience the love of God and the God of love. And then we want to share that love with others. That's who we are as followers of Jesus, as we imitate him, as we pattern our lives after him." [25:40]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Love never ends, love never ends, love is eternal, because God is eternal, the Bible says that God is love, so God is love, and God is eternal, which he is, and that means love is eternal, love is a virtue, but it's a, it's a virtue that's going to be present in the fullness of the kingdom, when Jesus comes, love's going to keep right on, matter of fact, when Jesus returns, and he establishes his kingdom, heaven and earth come together, you know, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that's what we pray, that prayer is going to be fully realized, fully answered, when Jesus comes back, and love is going to really come into its own at that point, because there's not going to be, there's not going to be any more sin, there's not going to be, any more selfishness, there's not going to be anything left in the, in the entire cosmos, in the entire world, or even in our lives, that is inconsistent, or an obstacle to love, and so kind of the goal right now, is to start living towards that, if that's how I'm going to be for eternity, a fully, completely loving human being, reflecting the character of Jesus, then let's, let's start doing that right now, and that's, that's basically what Paul is asking, that's what he's, that's what he's talking about." [41:28]
2. "Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known, I was reflecting on that this week, and I thought, you know, it's connected to this idea of this mirror, and partial knowledge, and what do you see in a mirror, well, usually you see yourself, right, you're looking, you're checking your teeth, did I get that food out of my teeth, you know, my hair, okay, my clothes, all right, you know, you're looking at yourself, and I think what Paul is suggesting, what might, you might be able to kind of tease out of this, this sentence here, is this idea of self-knowledge, that right now, when we're in this temporal existence, when we're in these broken bodies, our inner motivations, the things that really get us going, our inward, inner thoughts that, that help determine our outward expression, our outward actions and experiences, are somewhat a mystery to us, the Bible even says that the heart is unsearchable, that the heart, above all things, is deceitful, and what I've discovered is that I get confused a lot of times, between my felt needs, and my real needs, sometimes I perceive my felt needs, are just things that I feel like I need, and then I get all upset at somebody, or someone, or something, or some circumstance, when my felt need isn't met, and that this is a lot of what's going on in Corinth, that people are living in the deceitfulness of their hearts, they think, you know, I'm boasting because I feel like I'm not getting enough attention, so I'm going to boast about myself, I'm going to try to tear someone else down, so I can build myself up, this is the way of the fallen world, and we don't, we're not even always aware of why we're doing it, have you ever just looked back on your former self, like yourself from, say, you know, a year ago, five years ago, 50 years ago, and said, what was I thinking? Have you ever had that thought? Because the mature you, the you now, would never have made that kind of decision, but there was something going on in your heart that was askew, that was off, and so we're just kind of stuck right now in this, in this temporal reality, where we're not, we're not fully known, even to ourselves, but do you know who does know you fully? This is what Paul is just saying, even as we are fully known, God knows you fully, and he knows the deepest, most fundamental, basic longing of your heart, and it's true for you, and it's true for me, and it's true for every human being, our deepest longing, my deepest need, my most fundamental want, is I need to be loved. That, at the very base of who I am, is what drives me. It's what drives you. Friends, I'm here to tell you, there is a God, there is a God that knows all, knows everything there is to know about you, knows far more about you than you even know about yourself, and that God, wants to embrace you fully, so that he can love you perfectly, with this love that never ends, this love that's permanent." [48:52]
3. "Patience is kind of a passive virtue. In the King James version, it really gets more at the heart of what this word means. It means long-suffering, it means so in the King James version, it reads, you know, love suffereth long. It's a long-suffering. It has to do with hanging in there, with difficult and challenging circumstances, particularly within relationships. It's a relational word, particularly within relationships for the long haul. That's what love is. And aren't you glad, aren't you glad that God has love in you? That's what love is. that's patient with sinful humanity. You know, he just could have wiped us off the face of the earth, but instead he sent his son, Jesus. He's suffering long. And then love is kind." [32:01]
4. "This is more related to a positive action of kindness, of particularly God's mercy expressed through Jesus, that he's active, actively showing us kindness, actively expressing mercy in our lives. To us. And then, and then Paul goes through a long list of negatives. Okay. So this is called the via negativa, right? Who knows Latin? Via negativa, the way of negation. So it's a way of defining something by what it isn't. You say, love is, is not these things. And these happen to be vices. And in essence, what Paul is saying is, okay, you Corinthians, love is, is like not what you're doing. You're doing all these things wrong. And that's not love. So let's talk about what love isn't. And so he says, love does not envy or boast. So envy has to do with jealousy. You know, somebody might be jealous of the spiritual gifts." [32:35]
5. "Love never ends. Hope, and faith, those are things that are temporal. Think of it, like this, say an arborist, a tea person. Where to plant and acorn, an acorn, a little baby oak tree, in a little bitty thing that you could hold in the palm of your hand. They plant it, I don't know how to grow an oak tree, but they do. They plant it, I don't know, they ferlite it, they make sure it gets enough water, whatever. I don't understand it they do they nurture this tree and it starts to grow and you know it takes like 40 50 years for an oak tree to mature to where it actually starts producing lots of acorns itself. Now let's say the the arborist came back she planted that tree with with hope and faith that it was going to grow and now she's there under the majestic branches of this beautiful creation of god and its branches are spread out and it's in full leaf and she can stand in the in its beautiful shade there's no need for hope and faith anymore that's how it's going to be we're not going to need faith and hope anymore the greatest of these love you can experience the love of god and i want to invite you to know and love and experience the god of love." [51:14]
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