What is Love?

Before I begin, lets bow our heads for a word of prayer:

God, thank you for giving us this time to come here in a warm and sheltered place. Thank you for giving us the freedom to learn willingly, and to learn about your love, and for giving your only son, who died on the cross for our sins. We thank you so much for those things we always take for granted. Amen

I would like to begin by reading from 1st Corinthians 13: 4 to 7. These will be the verses that I will focus on for my sermon, although I will make some references to the scripture drama taken from Luke 13.

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 records of wrongs, love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres…

When I read that I thought, WOW! That is tough --and it made me question whether or not it is possible to love that way. I think it is safe to say that we probably do not love our family, friends, and those we meet in life that way. Rather, we get frustrated, and lose sight of the love we have for that person. In striking contrast, God may get frustrated, but He never loses sight of his love for us. His love for us is beyond our comprehension, because the love we know best, is often conditional love.

I stand here today a little different then the last time I did. My previous sermon I will admit I was a little nervous not exactly sure as what to say, or if I messed up what I would do. However, this time I have a much better feeling of myself. Now, I don't know the exact reasoning behind my level of comfort changing, maybe I did it once and know I can do it again, but I think this time is different. Because I truly feel God gave me this message to learn for myself and to share with you.

At first, I was frustrated, because I could not come up with a sermon topic - I simply did not know what to talk about. I guess that's not unusual for preachers or pastors to have trouble, but it was really working on me. Several nights, I lay in my bed just thinking, unable to discover a topic I felt I wanted to preach on. I went to bed confused and frustrated and with no ideas coming to mind. But one morning I woke up with a clear sermon idea. Almost miraculously, I knew what I wanted to do and all the various areas I wanted to focus on. It was truly amazing, and I feel blessed how God spoke to me. And in writing down my thoughts to share today, I felt an added blessing as I grew to understand that no matter how bad I might mess up, God still loves me. Actually, that blessing is what some may call the "bottom line" for my message today - the message for us all - that no matter what, God loves us. It's simple. It's basic. And yet, it seems almost impossible at times to completely comprehend - just like the opening scripture lesson describing love. Love is God's purest expression of what our faith is all about.

Which leads me into my sermon, this morning I wanted to talk about God's agape love for us. Agape, what exactly does it mean? Agape love is unconditional, and everlasting, it cannot be replaced or changed in any way. Agape love is the love God has for each and every one of his children. No love is greater and no love can even compare. You could take the strongest love relationship in the world and yet it would not even be comparable. We could each think about that individual who we care most about in our lives and multiply it by million times more - and even if we could do that, that's not even close to how much God loves each one of us.

I feel there is one major reason why we have such a difficult time understanding how true God's love for us is. When it comes down to it, it is really our fault. We have our own human ideas about love. I looked up the word love in the dictionary. The dictionary -- man's definition -- describes love in various ways. There is love for your mom and dad, your children, your spouse, your friends, your pets, etc.

With human love, we usually choose friends who are nice to us -- people who please us. We fall in love with someone who in our eyes is beautiful, happy, and intelligent - we each have those things we look for and when we find that person they mean everything to us. While we turn away from those who are mean, selfish, or not what we want - because they are not pleasing to us. God loves everyone, regardless of looks, skin color, personality; He loves you for you. He loves me for me - for who I am. There is nothing that can change that. He made us the way we are, and He loves each of us individually. Although we displease God with many of our actions, he never stops loving us.

The bible tells us that "God is love", God is the epitome of love, and no one on earth can match His love for us. It is "everlasting." That word "everlasting" means something, which, like a river, is ever flowing. His love flows on through eternity without a beginning or an end. Why then, if it is this easy, do we continue to misuse and abuse the word love? Love is a word that easily comes out of our mouths, but is often difficult to live out day to day.

Let's go back to the scripture I read earlier from 1st Corinthians. Read it carefully and break it down. It is truly amazing. The first line; Love is patient. Now, I don't want to sound disrespectful or give you the wrong idea, but if someone were to ask me what is the first word that comes to mind when I think about love, I don't think the word patient would have been it! However when you look at love really, that is so. How much easier it is to love when we are patient.

Consider the selfless nature of love. This is God's idea of love, He shows it through the parable of the Prodigal Son, love how He intended it to be. Try this in your life. It's hard, believe me, I fail time after time. However, try loving the way God has intended. Put others' interests first. You cannot have any jealousy or mistrust. Trust completely and never give up. The story of the Prodigal son is a story of loves triumph over selfishness - how far are you willing to go in sharing your love with others?

The next verse tells us that Love is kind; while it relates a lot to being patient it varies a bit. Be kind to the one you love, treat them with respect and honor them for who they are.

It does not envy -- when I got to this point in the scripture, I had to ask myself what exactly does the word envy mean. In the dictionary envy is defined as:

"A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another." What this is saying is: do not be jealous or wanting of something someone else has. I believe this would describe the older brother in his reaction to his father's love for the younger son. We too need to be careful that we do not envy others.

Love does not boast: this one is fairly self-explanatory -- do not glorify yourself or talk in a self-admiring way. I think in this it is suggesting too that we listen. Someone once said that God gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak. When we turn away from boasting, we listen in love, putting others before ourselves.

Love is not proud: This one was difficult for me to understand. Again, I wondered what exactly does proud mean in this sense. After some study, the way I would describe it is this:

Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, a possession, a quality, or a relationship by which one measures one's stature, or self-worth. This can be difficult to avoid in a world that focuses so much on self.

The scripture continues with love is not rude. This is more or less just re-stating that love is kind statement but, in another way, and more importantly, reminding us that rudeness is never a part of how we are expected to interact with others. Rudeness is never acceptable. If we live in love - if we strive to be the person God calls us to be, then rudeness cannot be part of our life.

Love is not self-seeking. If anything, this is the most difficult part about love for me. I have a hard time accepting what others want before myself. I have difficulties striving for what the other person wants rather than myself. I have had several experiences in my life that have impacted me greatly and I have struggled through them. But, when it was all said and done, I look back and wondered how I could be so selfish and childish. Perhaps it is just human nature. It is hard to consider doing what the other person wants -- but when you realize considering others thoughts and feelings is what God wants you to do -- it makes it a little easier.

Love is not easily angered. This verse means you cannot get angry over every simple thing. You must strive to get through the minor differences of opinions and find a common ground. It is not healthy in a relationship to be angered over everything. A healthy relationship is one where tempers are controlled and communication lines are open - it should not matter if it is a parent-child relationship or a husband-wife or friend to friend.

Love keeps no records of wrongs. This is another very challenging issue for me to deal with. However, God does this time after time. We come to Him, confess our sins, and truly apologize for the things we did wrong, and He forgives us and provides us with a clean slate. How often can we say we do that? After something happens and the person apologizes for the issue, can we just clear it from our minds? No, it is never that simple, the issue sits in the back of our head and we ponder over it. We say we accept their apology but we can never truly erase it. God gives us that opportunity and really shows He is the only one who can love how it was intended. God is so amazing!

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. I feel that trust and honesty are the most important things in human relationships, you cannot hide anything, you must be open with everything and when you do something wrong you need to tell the person about it. Lying will only get you into more trouble. If this is the way it works in our earthly relationship, how much more important are trust and honesty in our relationship with God? In the story of the Prodigal son, it must have been really challenging for the son to be honest with his father on his return home, but the father's reception made it all worth it. God knows when you are lying so you are just hurting yourself. People will be hurt for a while when hearing the truth, but they will be hurt forever by a lie.

Love always protects; I think this is a simple one. If someone you love were ever in danger, you would stop at nothing to save them, or would you? The other night I was watching a movie on TV. The movie was titled Daunte's Peak. The basis of the story was that a nearby volcano had erupted and lava pored all over the town. With the explosion, the lava had filled a nearby lake, which served as the only way of escape for the town. The lava causes the lake to become acidic and as the family was escaping there was a grandmother and her grandkids on the boat. The grandmother without thinking threw herself into the lake to drag the boat to safety. She saved the lives of her grandchildren, but lost hers. We sit here and say of course we would do the same thing but I wonder if you were put in the situation how many would actually jump in. I know I would have to think twice.

Protection from physical pain or death is not the only type of protection that love might offer though. Love protects us from the pain of evil - love enables us to cope and overcome the trials and tribulations that invade our everyday life. True love protects us from the hate, deceit, jealousy, and other adversities that we encounter. If you have love, God's agape love, there is nothing that can hurt you. The old "sticks and stones" rhyme is true - nothing can hurt you when you allow yourself to be surrounded by God's love and when you, in turn, share that love.

Love always trusts. Almost in tune with rejoicing in truth, love does always trust. You must trust the judgment and decisions of the ones you love. They will not disappoint you and if they do, they should, if they love you, tell you honestly, about how they mistrusted you. Love needs to be there for both people, if one gives of themselves and the other does not, the trust will not be there.

Love always hopes. Hope is wishing for something with expectation of fulfillment. Now that seems obvious to me, of course you are going to hope for high expectations in a relationship. You must set high goals. Make sure those goals are reachable but set them high so you do not meet them too easily. However, we want to be careful not to just put this description of love in the context of a romantic relationship, but we need to remember it also applies to our relationship to our Savior. If our love is focused on the Christ, then we have a reason for hope in each day.

The final line, is probably the one I like the most, love always perseveres. Love always wins and always comes out on top. When we live in God's love - and share that love with those around us - whether it's at work, school, the cashier at your favorite grocery, or a family member - no matter what the difficulty or conflict, -- love can handle anything. It is the universal ointment for a world living in pain. Love is the most enduring material and the only resource that man cannot deplete. Love can stand up to anything - if we live in God's love - so can we.

When we look at this, it does not seem too difficult. However, when we are faced with the difficult challenges daily life sends our way, we lose sight of such standards. We need to always keep these ideas in our head, remembering this is how God wants us to live. We need to call upon God to give us the continual desire to follow His will and in seeking Him we will find the strength and courage to live according to His will for our lives. We will be able to love beyond our own abilities, but this will only happen if we give ourselves over to His way of living completely.

Love is great and we can accomplish so much with love, however when it comes down to it, God is truly the only one who can love how it is defined. We can try and try but we always seem to fall just short.

I saw something-online one day, and it read:

Could a God of love create cancer cells, rattlesnakes, and earthquakes?

You may answer yes. However, I would like to believe our God is all loving. We cannot fully understand His ways. He is bigger than anything we could ever imagine. He is awesome and incredible. While he does not promise a journey of fun and easiness, he does promise to walk with us, and even in times of need carry us, and to work everything out for the good. Of course we might learn something from our experiences but I would prefer to think that God could never harm any of His children. While browsing the Internet, I found a poem that really appealed to me and I would like to share it with you.

God's steadfast love empowers us

and makes our lives complete,

It gives us hope and strength to

face the challenges we meet.

For everything is possible

to God who reigns above.

And when we place our trust in Him,

He guides us with His love.

God in Love has promised

Grace for every trial,

Strength for every sorrow,

Help for every mile.

And may He in sympathy and

unfailing love impart,

Help for each tomorrow and

new courage to your heart.

To me this poem means everything. It applies right now in my life today. God is now, and will always be there. Regardless of whatever circumstances may surround us, he loves us. If we come to Him in forgiveness and lift up our problems to Him, He will forgive us. Every morning when we wake up, he is there guiding us through our day, every night before we go to bed, he is there, He is always around us. God does not go away and we cannot hide things from Him. The challenge of today's scripture lesson is for each of us to seek to realize God's love for us, and always put Him first in our life. He will not let us down. When we are having problems living our lives with the kind of love the scriptures teach us, ask for His help. He is truly the only one who can help us. Just realize that if you strive to live life with the definition of love the scriptures give us, there is nothing we can't handle. Remember, we serve and love a God that is ready to welcome us into His loving arms, just like the Father welcomed the Prodigal Son.

Let's close by joining together in prayer.

Lord thank you for loving us so much, for always being there when we need help and never letting us down. Help us to focus on you and not let anything get in our way. Also, Lord when we have struggles be there to show us the right path, to show us God's path for us. We thank you for everything, but most of all we thank you for your ultimate sacrifice, for dying on the cross for us. We cannot thank you enough.

-Amen