Sermon Central
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God Is Love
Contributed by William Lock on Mar 4, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: Nothing is more challenging than imitating the love of God
GOD IS LOVE
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS NOT EASY
THE MOUSE TRAP
LIONS WHO ACT LIKE LIONS
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS IMPORTANT!
"If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right."
"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law."
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you."
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS...SELF-SACRIFICING
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS...SELF-SACRIFICING
what is love?
LOVE IS...RECEIVED & GIVEN
LOVE IS RECEIVED FROM GOD
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. (4:7)
LOVE IS RECEIVED FROM GOD
& GIVEN TO OTHERS
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS… PRACTICAL NOT THEORETICAL
WHAT IS LOVE?
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Love is so vague. What does it mean? Mercy? Grace? Hard Love? Can we really define love?
WHAT IS LOVE?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS… PRACTICAL NOT THEORETICAL
1 JOHN 4:16, 20
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them…. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
WHAT IS LOVE?
LOVE IS NOT EASY
IMPORTANT
SELF-SACRIFICING
RECEIVED & GIVEN
PRACTICAL NOT THEORETICAL
WHAT IS LOVE?
IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD LIVES IN US, AND HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US (4:12)
GOD IS LOVE. WHOEVER LIVES IN LOVE LIVES IN GOD, AND GOD IN THEM (4:16)
LOVE IS HOW WE EXPERIENCE GOD, BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE
