I was tired of looking at the last post...so i put up something else from last sunday....

It's a compilation of my thoughts and thoughts of others who ave shared their ideas that i gound online...i'm going to go back and find the original articles so i can reference them properly...


Today’s service theme is based on a celebration yesterday that the world termed Valentine’s day. The history behind that is a story for another day but if anyone were like me…quite on the “unromantic side,” you would have wondered why there has to be a special day to remember to show or celebrate love…

If you’re in a relationship-married or courting, or even a child to a parent or parent to child, I say whatever happened to being able to throw in a gift every now and then, or just doing something special as an expression f that love? Why wait until one specific day…while the thought of the day is really nice, I think it further propagates the idea of love by the world’s standard.

I’m not sure how many people have ever tried asking anyone to define “love” and you don’t get the answer you really want to hear? You get different kind of funny answers like “you just know when it’s love,” or it’s a wonderful feeling that can’t be explained.”

On the other hand, if you look into the dictionary, you’ll find different definitions but one common thing about all the definition you’ll find is the fact that the definition of love is dependent on something else.

The American Heritage dictionary defines love as an “intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties” That intense affection usually stems from a sexual attraction for another person, that is, we love people or say we love others when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. The underlined word here is the term “based on.”

It implies that our love is conditional; we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. Even with children, you hear a child after being given a gift be real quick to say I love you to the parent and even as young adults, how many times have you heard or said to someone else, “I love you because you are cute, or I love you because you take good care of me or I love you because you are fun to be with.

In all, we can clearly say that we love based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to another and also the reason why many times we say we love someone and after a while, the love just dies.

Ok, so we’ve looked at what people say about the definition of love, we’ve looked at how the dictionary defines love, now, we want to look at how the bible defines love: The honest truth is we can’t exhaust it based on the time we have. There are too many scriptures that back this whole idea of love.

As Christians, It’s simply the basis of our existence! Why do you think God created the world? It was out of this love, this love is the same reason we’re able to wake up each day, it’s the same reason we see a lot of things/mysteries of nature-some as simple as water falls others as complicated as day and night, the seasons, and we’re “wow,” and appreciate them all…the bibles’ definition is love is simple: I John 4:8 simply tells us “God is love!” what about one of the most popular one John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Here, God’s love is defined in the act of His giving. However, what God gave was not a mere gift wrapped present; God sacrificed His only Son so that we, who put our faith in His Son, will not spend eternity separated from Him. If anyone here has any other way to express love greater than this love that was expressed for us, I’ll really love to know. The honest truth is I’m not even sure right now I could sacrifice my life for another person’s.

Another verse about love is found in Romans 5:8: “But God Commandeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Here, and also in John 3:16, we find no condition for this love- an unconditional expression. He didn’t say, well, “I’ll wait for you to get yourself together and come to me, or say “if you promise to love me, or even ask if I give you my son will you love me?” He just went ahead and loved us! I think that’s amazing.

Having said all of that, the bottom line is that Real love is costly. Real love demands sacrifice that can’t be found in self-centeredness. Sacrificial love requires that we give what we value most: our hearts, minds, souls, and strength.

Going back to the passage we read, 1 Corinthian 13…It describes the depth of love, for those of us still wondering about what I’m saying, Love is the very nature of God, and the greatest of the Christian virtues: So it says in Matthew 22:36-38…


Love is essential – vs 2
· It is more important that prophesy. The bible is full of prophecies but combined they are not as great as love; without love, prophecy is useless.
· Love is more important than mysteries – we’re talking about all the unknown, Trinity, Incarnation, etc
· Love is more important than knowledge – this includes the whole range of possible learning: schools, universities, or college degrees.
· Love is more important than faith: faith as a grain of mustard seed would be wonderful, but useless without love.

Love is Generous/sacrificial – vs 3
Giving without love is useless. To give with an unkind spirit or mind is useless. It’s funny because giving is probably one of the common ones we go astray with. Not only in giving money, we’re talking bout-giving time, it’s usually easy for us to say I’m just doing so that they won’t say or so that “they” say…. Imagine how God gave his son even without thinking twice about it. The utmost possible sacrifices of property or anything else is useless if it is not done in love…

Love is able to suffer long vs 4a

This is probably the most outstanding attribute of love…
In other words, love is able to persevere patiently and bravely, is able to be patient, love is able to be mild and slow in avenging, love is slow to anger, slow to punish. As Christians, we will be willing to endure sufferings of various sorts for the sake of others. , Sometimes, it may involve being ridiculed suffer actual or physical loss or even persecutions for the sake of Christ. The bible makes us understand that The Christian journey is one of suffering, God tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but he’ll give us peace, in this suffering, we as Christians must still learn to love. Through this suffering we become matured Christians as all this will pass…let’s look at Romans 8:35-39.

Love is kind
An attribute we all need this days, imagine being in a store and a waiter is rude to you, of-course your first instinct is to say “ what the “heck” and I put it mildly for some…or imagine someone just saying horrible things about you, the first thing you want to do is get back at the person…but there is actually a solution, James 3:13 say “ “who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.” Let’s also look at 1 peter 2:12…

Love is not vs 4b – 6a

Envious- true love does not envy success, gifts, talents, and possessions of others
Boastful –true love is humble. It does not show off
Conceited – it is not self centered
Rude – True love is courteous at all times
Selfish – True love is not self-seeking, it is sacrificial and generous
Provoked – True love is not irritable, it is not easily angered…
True love does not delight in evil
True love does not dwell in sin.

Love is
Truthful – it’s honest regardless…
Sustaining, it bears all things, it does not drop under strain, and it does not run away
Trusting –
Hopeful
Enduring – it endures through time, and even death
Successful – love never fails

Love is Eternal; it will outlive everything else, prophecy, tongues, and knowledge.
The bible says Heaven and earth may pass away but love will abide…

Now, I may have said a lot, and maybe some have even gotten lost in all my rambling, but just as a reminder, if you’re wondering
how much and amazing God’s love is: Jeremiah 31:3 – God loves you with an amazing love, a love that endures through all time.

The cost of this love was Calvary: I John 4:9-10 - God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins

It doesn’t matter how many wrong things we have done in the past, Jesus loves us and is waiting with open arms to receive us.

And even though we may be going through some hard or difficult times, God promises that nothing can separate us from His amazing love!

Having said all that, to understand the depth of this amazing love, and the peace of mind that also comes with it, and be able to truly love others, we must know God, by establishing a relationship with him.

If there is anyone who does not have that relationship, or anyone who thinks they have strayed away from that relationship, even as we all rise to pray, let us meditate on the reassurance that God loves us. Let us thank Him for that love, ask him to open our eyes to each evidence of the love, no matter how small; and pray that re establishes or restores us to Himself so that we may begin to bask in that love.

An additional prayer point is taken from Ephesians 3:17-19
“May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.”

Let us ask God to help us discover the heights, depth, width and length of his love to the extent that we will become speechless.