Wednesday, 01 July 2009

• "What is Love?" sermon (& notes)

  - My notes are kinda long BUT IT IS SO GOOD, so you can watch the video AND read the notes at the same time to help you!! :)

  "Romanticism"

  - What is true love? We often have romantic ideas about what love is.
  - We should desire true, godly love that builds up instead of chasing "fireworks" that the world who doesn't know God wants us to pursue
  - We will compare God's idea (through the Bible) of love to the world's (who doesn't know God) idea of love

  A.) Movies about Love:
  - Sense & Sensibility: One character (MaryAnne) relies on her senses/feelings & gets her heart broken. She doesn't look into her love's background & doesn't think through it. Her sister is much more sensible & prudent. She causes less hurt to herself & her family & doesn't damage her character.

  - Made in Manhattan: lied about her job, lied about who she is, gets really upset when she gets found out. "It's your fault; I didn't lie. But I am a good person!"

  - Sweet Home Alabama: The husband is to blame, even though the woman did wrong things too (ran away, tried to marry another man, lied)

  - Failure to Launch: Parents paid girl for them to be together. Based on a lie from the beginning.

  - Sleepless in Seattle: Meg Ryan made up a fake story to go see a man when she is engaged to someone else.

  - How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: The poster says "One of them is lieing. So is the other." They are both lieing from the beginning.
  
  B.) Definition of romanticism:
  - impractical love ideas
  - celebrates emotion & imagination over rationality
  - exciting & mysterious quality in a heroic time
  - Romantic: consisting of a romance, having no basis in fact, imaginary, impractical, marked by the imaginative & emotional appeal of what is idealized of or relating to romantic characteristics

  C.) Culture & Society:
  1.) Lies that The World Says --
  - The world who doesn't know God tells us that we are perfect as we are
  - We deserve to find a soulmate that "completes" us
  - We are rights-driven & we are entitled & we deserve things
  - If you discover you're not perfect, you can fix it yourself.
  - You'll know RIGHT away & "see fireworks" when you meet your man
  - Oprah.com: Put your self care about everyone/everything else; make decisions based on what you want instead of what others want. We can become the love we want to find, & look into ourselves to find it.
  - Follow your heart & your feelings because they guide us to what we're looking for at the moment
  - Cosmopolitan Magazine: Your feelings at the time should guide you.
  - Your actions have nothing to do with your character. No one wants to take responsibilities for their actions.
   ex: "I'm a redhead! I'm fiery! I'm Irish!"
   ex: "I'm a Pisces! I feel things deeply!"
  - Cosmopolitan Magazine: Chemistry is above all.
  - Says "The ends justify the means," or "As long as this happens in the end, it's okay to do it in the beginning..."
   ex: "As long as my boyfriend becomes a boyfriend in the end, I can date him as a non-Christian."
   ex: "As long as my boyfriend realizes later that it's not okay to have sex, we can have sex right now."
  - - "I love him so much! This outpouring of feeling is so wonderful! I will overlook any fault or anything he does!"
  - "True love accepts any faults & it doesn't expect change."
  - Recognizing that someone needs to change means that somehow you didn't love that person in the beginning or you don't care about them
    -- ABSURD! My love for someone should expect someone to mature, change, & grow
  - Love is a feeling that we have no control over..."We fall into it, out of it, we can't control it. I love him, now I don't. That's reason enough to break up, dissolve a marriage, change what I'm doing."
  - Fireworks & passion show that someone is "the one"

  D.) What God Says:
  - Romans 3:21-24 - The law is apart from the righteousness of God. For all have sinned & fallen short of God's glory & are justified by grace through redemption in Christ.
    -- ALL have sinned. We are not perfect. We don't deserve anything. Grace says we have sinned against a righteous & holy God. We do not deserve our perfect soulmate. We deserve hell.
  - Romans 7:15, 8-18 - I don't do what I want, but I do the sin that lives within me. Nothing good is in me because I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out.
    -- You can't fix your sinful state. A broken cup cannot put itself back together. You have to understand the sinful state you're starting from.
  - Jeremiah 17:9 - the heart is deceitful above all things; who can understand it?
    -- Your heart will decieve you about what you want. It will tell you lies & you will follow it into wrong things.
  - Luke 6:45 - evil comes out of an evil heart into your actions.
    -- Your actions demonstrate your character. You can't divorce them from each other. Your heart has to be transformed into the right place for in the right place for your behavior to be correct.

  E.) Are we stuck in this sinful state?:
  - Romans 6:14 - we who died to sin cannot still live in it. All who have accepted Jesus were buried with Jesus into His death, & then raised with Him so that we could walk in newness of life.
    -- Condemns our sinful desires
    -- Offers a wonderful hope & a chance to change our sinful behavior

  F.) What the Bible says About Love:
  1.) Love is transforming:
  - 1 John 4:9-10 - God sent His only Son into the world that we should live through Him. This is love: that God loved us first so we love Him.
  - Galatians 2:20 - I don't live but Christ lives in me
  - Romans 5:8 - God shows His love for us that while we were still sinners,
  Christ died for us
    -- God loves & accepts you where you are
    -- You're still a sinner when He calls you, woos you, & sends Christ to redeem you
    -- Christ's action doesn't accept to leave you there; it transforms you & pulls
  you out of your problem
  - 2 Corinthians 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, they are new; the old has gone, the new has come!

  2.) Love is more than a feeling:
  - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Biblical love. It is patient, kind, does not envy or boast, is it not irritable or resentful. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, & endures all things
    -- Doesn't sound like something that comes & goes so easily
    -- Love as fireworks or passion....the Bible says there is passion involved in
  God's love for us, but FIREWORKS DO NOT INFORM YOUR CHOICE...they follow it
  - Song of Solomon 4:9-10 - You've captivated my heart with one glance
    -- It follows them being married already

  3.) Passion: lost of reasoning, intense or driving mastery of feeling or outbreak
  of emotion, strong liking or desire or devotion to an object or interest
  - You can be passionate about the wrong things:
  a.) One family once spent $48,000 to do a stem cell implant for their dog to live
  b.) One woman purchased a Star Wars Klingon outfit for $50,000. Then she went to South America to look like a Klingon character that she wanted to look like.

  G.) Love's definition in the Bible:
  - Points us to God:
  a.) be prudent in our emotion
  b.) study God whom the Bible defines as love
  - 1 John 4:16 - God is love & whoever abides in love (God) & God abides in Him
  - center our life around HIm & it radiates into the rest of our lives & helps us manage what we're going through

  5.) To Be "In Love":
  - the Bible never says God is "in love" with us
  - NIV version of the Bible, 2 Samuel 13 we do see the words "in love" when Amnon,
  the son of David, falls in love with his sister, Tamar, & says "I'm in love!" ... He ends up raping his sister in the heat of passion.
    -- He begins to hate her & he hated her more than he loved her
  - to "be in love" implies that you are not in control of your feelings, that love is acting on you not you acting on love
  - The Bible says: "Love is a choice"
  a.) Commanded to Love God -
  - Deuteronomy 30:16 - If you obey God's commands by loving God & walking in His ways & keeping His commandments, then you will live & multiply & God will bless you in the land you will get.
  - Joshua 23:11 - Be careful to love God
  - Hosea 12:6 - Return to your God, maintain love & justice, & wait for God always
  - Psalm 89:28 - My steadfast love I will keep for Him forever & my covenant will stand firm for Him
  b.) Commanded to love; requires a response -
  - be cautious & keep/maintain our love as scripture says we can, then we exercise control over it
  - decide to love, then we take actions upon that

  6.) What is love?
  a.) Love is action:
  - Nehemiah 1:5 - Oh God who keeps His love with those who love Him
  - Psalm 42:8 - God's love is with me by day & night
  - Psalm 57:3 - God will send HIs love from Heaven & save me & protect me in His
  faithful love
  - John 3:16 - God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever
  believes in Him won't perish/fall away but have everlasting life
    -- Giving of God's Son is how He loved the world
    -- He didn't just say "I love you" then left us separate from Him; He gave us
  Jesus Christ to bring us back to Him & repair what was put wrong

  b.) Love is obedience:
  - Deuteronomy 11:1 - you will love God by following His commands
  - 2 John 1:6 - this is love, by following His commands

  c.) Love is discipline:
  - Job 5:17 - blessed is the one who follows God's discipline
  - Proverbs 3:11-12 - dont' despise God's discipline because He disciplines
  those He loves as a father disciplines His son He cares for
   -- If you love someone, you will correct them if you see them in error or sin.
  You will instruct them, help them to improve.
  - Proverbs 3:5 - 6 - trust God in all that you do & don't lean on your own
  understanding. He will make your paths straight as you acknowledge Him.
    -- God offers you freedom from sin. He wants you to be free from the things
  that hurt you. But it comes with a choice from you to go after that.

  d.) Love is sacrifice:
  - Ephesians 5:1-2 - imitate God as Christ loves us & gave Himself up for us
    -- Christ didn't die FOR love; His death IS love
    -- Christ wasn't overwhelmed by a feeling of love; His love was an action to
  love us
    -- Christ died with a specific purpose in mind; His love accomplished everything
    -- Christ's death makes a change
    -- Christ's death was victorious; He conquered sin by dying on the cross

  e.) Love is labor/service:
  - 1 Thessalonians 1 - we give thanks to God for your work & love
  - Hebrews 6:10 - God doesn't overlook our work & the love shown by serving the saints
  - Ephesians 5 - we are called to be imitators of God; God showed us love by sending Christ

  f.) Love is to glorify God:
  - Matthew 22:36-40 - Love God with your whole self is the greatest commandment. Second is
  like it: love your neighbor as yourself.
    -- You cannot love your neighbor as yourself or your enemy without a correct understanding
  of love....without understanding God & the need for Him

  g.) Love between Husbands & Wives:
  - Ephesians 5 - husbands love your wives as your own bodies as Christ
  does the church because we belong to Him as His body. Wives honor your
  husbands as you honor the Lord.
  - Philippians 2:5-8 - Be humble. Your joy is made complete in loving others & being
  one in mind. Put others before yourselves.
    -- Opposite of what the world says & Oprah.com says!

  H.) Misunderstanding of love:
  - allows us to romanticize behavior of problems in relationships
    -- Movies & the world say that when you fight, you are in love
    -- the World says that it is okay to give ourselves up sexually, which can take
  many years to repair
  - you should be treated well, but misunderstanding love can make you not able to see that

  I.) Getting Saved/Knowing Jesus every day:
  - brings you to right understanding of love
  - helps you to understand your misunderstandings
  - helps you to understand your problems of the past & be healed from them
  - redeems us from everything happening
  - prepares us for the RIGHT person God has for us & teaches us through that person about what
  TRUE love is, based on the Bible
    -- having a godly man/husband centers us around Christ & teaches us about Christ & what
  love really is
  - convicts us, brings us to repentence, changes us, fixes us
  - can make right your understanding of love & help you to have a right relationship with Him
  & those around you

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