SERMON- HOW TO LOVE BY FAITH
Written 6/10/1999, Revised 10/28/2000 By James Wright

1st- To love like God loves
There are three kinds of love:

1. Eros - Sensual desire. (Love that you gain through physical encounters)
2. Phileo - friendship
3. Agape - God’s. (God’s love is taking the first two, and adding I Corinthians 13:4-8 to it.)
Let’s look at I Corinthians 13:4-8.... (Read it)

So what is love? I Corinthians 13:4-8, right. But it goes beyond that. If you love someone with that love, you will be loyal to them no matter what the cost, you will always believe in them, always expect the best. But be willing to to give it also, and you will always defend your ground in defending them. All the special gifts and powers from God will some day come to an end, but God’s love goes on forever. Their are three things that remain, 1) faith, 2) hope, and 3) love. The greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13. Love in the King James Version of the Bible is charity. To cherish is to love. Look at I Corinthians 14:1..... PURSUE LOVE, AND DESIRE SPIRITUAL GIFTS, BUT THAT YOU MAY PROPHESY. “Let love be your greatest aim.” (YOUR GOAL if you will.) Desire what God has shown you, follow the truth (THE WORD). God has given us all we need to know, from which I have come up with five things about love.

1. God loves us with an AGAPE love, the I Corinthians 13 kind. You all know John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” His love was not based on performance. Christ loved us so much He died for us even before you or I were born.
Romans 5:8:
“God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Even if I had the faith to, so I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I still am nothing without love. If I died for God today, preaching His gospel, and didn’t love, it would be of no value. So whatever you do, do it for GOD with His kind of love, not for selfish gain. His love for us is unconditional and undeserved, let’s not put conditions on loving Him. God loves us in spite of our disobedience, our weaknesses, our sins and selfishness. Luke 23:24: At His crucifixion, He was still fighting for us. Christ cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He covered everybody that blessed day, because of what? Love.


2. LOVE AWAITS. (The entire chapter of Luke) Where the son took his part of his father’s inheritance and totally wasted it on prostitutes, liquor, and parties. But when the famine hit, he realized that his father’s servants were doing better than he was. So, he returned to his father’s house, and what awaited him? His father with an Agape love. His father saw his repentance, and accepted the wrong his son had done. He did not belittle him, or even speak harshly, but he turned to the Lord in thanks that his son was well. And praise God, He forgives us too. He continues to love us, waiting for us to respond to His love by being more Christ like, forgiving to ourselves and others.
3. Romans 5:9,10: “Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (The blood, reconciliation, and victorious living.
4. The blood.

Romans 3:10:
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE.”) –
MEANING WE ALL DESERVE TO DIE, BUT THROUGH LOVE, GOD HAS CHOSEN NOT TO JUDGE US HARSHLY.
(verse 10: “For if we were His enemies, we were reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”) By giving his life he showed an agape love the purest kind of love.


3. MORE THAN ENOUGH Once, this young man left his home and things were not going so good, so he wrote home to his mother and father that he wanted to come home and if it was okay, they were to tie a white rag on the old elm tree in the back yard. (The train tracks happen to run by the boy’s house, so this was the reason for the rag..) Now he was seated by an older gentleman on the train, and the boy and the older gentleman had begun talking, and the boy told his story. When the train got close to the boy’s house, he asked the old man to look, because he was in fear of rejection, so the old man looked out the window, yet was silent. Then the boy asked nervously, “Is the rag there, Sir?”, and at that, the gentleman began to shed some tears; for there was not just one rag, for the whole tree was covered in rags. Every branch had one on it.

If, as parents, you can love your children this much, then how much more does God love us? No Christian, even though he has sinned, ever needs to fear that God has ceased to love him.
John 17:20:21, Jesus said “My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, Father, just as you and I are.”

5. LOVE DISCIPLINE. We need not have fear of someone who loves us perfectly. Let’s go to
6. I John 4:16-19. God will chasten us. He loves us to the point of correction, He disciplines us and it can be sorrowful, but afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Let’s read about Hebrews 12:6-11.... GOD IS MERELY “CHILD TRAINING US.” He is not paying us back for our sins, but growing and maturing us for our works for him, so He can bless our lives. Such chastening is likely to be a grievous experience, but as it can be made easier by confessing our sins, (Brokenness- see Romans 12:9-21) according to I Corinthians 11:32. “But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

5. GOD’S LOVE IS CONSTANT. Romans 8:35-39, let’s read it. (This is good for discouragement, with love we can be conquerors in our chastening, which goes with discipline [itself?]) Such love is beyond our ability to grasp with our minds, but it is not beyond our ability to experience with our hearts if you continue to have problems loving, then cast your cares on the Lord. Allow God to help control your habits; take your habits and turn them into thoughts and pray when your habit rears its head. You’ll start to be constant when you get selfish. [??] I Peter 5:7 Pray for others with love and ask the Holy Spirit to take over the next time you’re confronted by any of them you have a grief (grievance?) with. If something goes wrong, love it, praise God for everything and He will begin to Bless you.

So, let’s pray this prayer together, that we all can love the way God has intended us to.

Lord, you would have never commanded me to love, had You not intended to enable me to love, and on the authority of Your promise to answer if I ask anything according to Your will, I appropriate your love, the I Corinthian 13 kind of love, for all people and myself, for I bind the spirits of haughtiness, anger, and selfishness. I release Your love over us all, in the Name of Jesus I pray, (and we all say...) AMEN.

Thats funny Aix. I just had a friend over and we were just discussing a similar subject... That a relationship has to involve emotional, spiritual, and lastly, physical aspects.

Curtis