Love Completely

Loving Completely
One Month To Live Week Three

Show Sermon Spice Video
What is Love – 3:15

What is love? NOW – that really is a good question… AND - defining love is not really an easy thing to do. I MEAN - how would you define it? YOU KNOW – I thought those people in the video gave it a good try…

• I like the guy who said that love is - ‘The essence of all things that leads to the ineffable”

• And the guy who said that love is – ‘fleeting. Every time you try to grab it, it disappears. Invisible. Ethereal (intangible). That which you constantly chase after but never catch up to.

• And I also liked the honest response that a lot of people had…‘I don’t know’ ‘I have no idea’ ‘I can’t describe it to you.’

NOW – I think that part of the problem in defining love is that love is the most overused word in the English language (THINK ABOUT IT - the word love is thrown around more then a football at the super bowl). I MEAN - we use the word love to refer to so many different things… WE say, “I love my wife, I love my kids, I love God. I love my country. I love really spicy food. I love McDonald fries, I love catching rays on the beach, I love it when Steve preaches for a really long time (man are you going to love today’s message) ”

WE - have love letters, love stories and love songs “I love you baby” “I’ve lost that loving feeling” “I just called to say I Love you” “I love you just the way you are” “All you need is love,” “How Sweet It Is To be loved By You” and that all time classic --- “hello I love you – won’t you tell me your name.”

LOVE – event though it is hard to define… still a lot of people want to tell you what it is… Here are a few definitions I found this week… LOVE IS;
• A warm hand on a cold night
• Friendship that has caught on fire
• A game you win by letting others go first
• What you’ve been through with somebody
• Heartburn w/o chili
• Surfing w/o a board and bungee jumping w/o a cord
• Not knowing how you feel and not feeling what you know
• A lot like jelly beans you have to eat the bad ones to enjoy the good ones
• The meaning of Life
• The way to live
• What it means to be human
• The solution to the world’s problems
• The way to make friends and disarm enemies
• The path to happiness
• The guide for the next step
• The hope of children
• The greatest power in the universe
• The antidote to: greed, selfishness, misery and indifference
• The reason to keep on keeping on
• The answer
• The key
• All we need

NOW – the bible, the word of God ALSO has a lot to say in regards to what love is;

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(Understand – What Paul IS saying in those verses IS THAT without love; what you say, what you know, what you accomplish, what you give…AND EVEN your faith -- doesn’t matter!)

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angerjed, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does