FEB 14: I LOVE TO LOVE YOU
Ps Gilbert Garcia
Bottom line: You are created to receive, experience and leak love to a greater level.
INTRODUCTION:
Pick up lines :
Boy : “Maglaro tayo basta wag lang taguan.” Girl : “Bakit?” Boy : Eh kasi, a girl like you is hard to find.”
Boy : “Ampalaya ka ba?” Girl : “Bakit” Boy: Eh kasi, kahit anong pait ng mga nararanasan ko, ikaw pa rin ang sustanSaya ng buhay ko.”
ME (Get ATTENTION)
I heard of love from other peoples’ experiences, from watching movies, reading romantic comics magazines like (wakasan and fantasy) and that was what I thought what love means. As long as I have the feelings, I am in love, when that is gone, my opposite partner is gone as well. Until, I met the Lord personally. The time that I began to experience God’s unconditional love, that was the time I started to fear love. I was afraid I might just hurt a woman emotionally and not stay true to a commitment . (I thank God that I am now married to a very understanding wife, hahaha). Now, I can say that I came to the point in my life that I love everyone with the love of God. Having experienced God’s love, the words “I love You” are not enough. Love is meant to be manifested and nurtured until it grows and overflows.
Love is not just a lip service, just like a make-up that can be put on and removed. Nor is love a magic trick (suddenly here and then magic! It’s gone). It is more than a spark or a zing. Love is an experience, a living experience that we receive, abide in and share.
We (Highlight the Tension)
Many people are asking for a partner in life. I asked one of them ,” What are you going to do then, if by this time or tomorrow you will have your partner in life?” Someone answered, “I will seriously take care of the person and so on…” How about you? What are you going to do? What if God will give you the person you are ardently asking for? What if, when you get out of this room, your someone special invites you for a dinner date. What if someone would even tell you that he heard from the Lord that you are to be his/her partner in life”? What will you do, are you ready to express your “known” love?
Or maybe, you are already in a relationship and yet having some bumps in your relationship, unexpected trial experiences and challenging pains? Do you need the strength and wisdom to fortify or mend your relationships?
GOD (Provide a solution)
For today, we will give attention to four perspectives of love.
• Live (abidingly in the God of love.)
• Overcome (self-centered attitudes : Accept others, serve)
• Value (purity)
• Enjoy (imparting and sharing God’s love)
◦ Live abidingly in the God of love
1John 4:16 (NIV)And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
This is where all loving starts. We should both KNOW and RELY on God’s love. With His love, we see others as how God sees them: our patience and kindness will flow, no envy nor boasting. In love, we learn to honor others. And as we grow in this level of understanding, love naturally flows. Just like tapping the source of electricity, we are conductors of how much power can flow through us.
Abiding is a state of having an open heart, willingness to learn, and listening and enjoying the daily fellowship with God. When we learn this lifestyle of abiding, we fully understand what love is. If you’re not experiencing this yet, you can always start today and ask God to teach you how to stay in Him. Because, really, unless you have a deep reliance on the Father, you will not really be able to truly love.
◦ Overcome Self Centered attitudes
Accept the people in my life. God makes no mistake in bringing to me the people He surrounds me with. If so, I must believe 1Corinthians 13: 4 and decide that I must be “patient and kind” just as God is patient and kind to me. The call for me to overcome my self-centeredness is clearly stated in Romans 12:17-18:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Let go of my self-centeredness. God is molding and honing me to be the person He desires me to be through the people that surrounds me.
Therefore I make the choice to not envy, nor boast, or be proud.“For with the grace I have received, I will not think highly of myself than I should…(Romans 12:3)
I believe that part of “thinking highly of myself” means ME FIRST. Situations like :
• If you love me, you will do this…
• You must not love me, because you are not paying attention to me
• You do not appreciate the things I am doing for you, so maybe you do not love me anymore
• You hurt me first, so you must apologize first even if I hurt you back afterwards.
Sometimes the wife is hurting the husband thru silent treatment, deliberate disobedience or by talking back. Because the woman feels unloved. Self-centeredness creeps in when: The woman only respects the man if he loves her.
At other times, it is the man who will not pay attention to his wife or neglect her when he doesn’t feel he is the king, boss and leader in the house. When the husband feels that he is not readily attended to, not obeyed, not given priority in the house nor praised for his daily hard work… The man will only give his love to the woman if she respects him.
◦ Value purity
True love does not delight in evilbut rejoices with the truth. Love is God and God is truth. There are no lies, pretensions and denial in purity. God mends my heart through the people who surround me. In my pursuit of love there is a call for my honesty and the glad receiving of the rebuke of others. The greatest pollutant in my capacity to love is SIN. Therefore, I will continually examine my heart with regards to my :
Inner Motives - Why do I show my love to him/her (So that she/him will love me back?)
Attitudes - Why do I love others and why I don’t like others?When am I motivated to love all the more?
Character - Is my character lovable? Or am I hard to love? Am I ready for love or do I have life “issues” (Broken heart; Hard heart: Empty heart)
For the singles, purity may mean letting go of ungodly relationships, or bad habits in your relationship. The only lasting foundation of a blessed relationship is WITH GOD as the foundation.
◦ Experience sharing and leaking love
In any relationship, there are trials. For the singles, there may come a time to let go. We seek not the best, because in the best, we are presented with options – “si Anna ba, si Lorna or si Fe?” What if the set of persons you are looking into does not have God’s Choice for you? For all the singles out there, seek God and He will reveal His choice for you and for you alone! (Since I became a Christian, I felt from the start that the one for me is Sol. But it took us 5 years of friendship, with me being busted by this woman not once but twice, before we became one! It was a journey of infatuation, dreams, tears, surrendering and trust). The month I surrendered to God everything (the same month that ‘my undying love’ for her was “snubbed” the second time), that was the month that I experienced heartbreak, then surrendered and finally, freedom of just being wholly God’s. I returned to just bask in God’s love… Around a month later, God opened her heart for me (or rather maybe she has at long last, surrendered to God’s will? hahaha).
As for those already in a relationship, we are encouraged to endure God’s will in the midst of trials.
Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.Love never fails.
Our faith is all the more tested and hewn in the midst of difficulties. I have to become more creative when my wife and I are not actually seeing eye to eye. It becomes irrelevant for me who is in the wrong. I just either cook for her which she likes so much) or buy her favorite hopia, and there goes her heart melt… I have to protect my marriage, I wouldn’t want my marriage life to be cold, nor lukewarm for indeed my wife is my first ministry.
What are the difficulties you are experiencing now as a couple? We have to all the more show forth our faith and believe that GOD WILL MOVE in the midst of it all. We are encouraged in Romans 12: 11 -12.
11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,serving the Lord.12Be joyful in hope,patient in affliction,faithful in prayer.
Spouses, let us fervently serve God by loving our partner. Regardless of how our partner love us, we love.
YOU ( Relevance to audience)
God so love me he gave up His only Son… God so love me, he wants me to be happy in this life. If God so love me, He really wants me to :
• Be healed if I am hurting
• Forgive if someone wronged me
• Trust once more if I was betrayed
• Give room for faith, to believe that God can work in my relationship
• To let God be God and let Him take control in the affairs of my heart. His Kingdom come, and let His will be done
For the singles
• Believe that He is not late in giving me a partner
• He is preparing, molding and grooming me to be the “marriage material” He wants me to be
• Keep myself pure until the day I say I do
WE ( Spark an Inspiration)
I recall a story of a dad and his two children. They were on their way to a dinner at a restaurant when they happened to pass by a circus. The 2 children shrieked in delight and asked daddy to let them go into the circus. Now the circus has special attraction of being able to feed young animals at a minimal cost. They pleaded their dad to let them in to the circus. Since it was so near in the restaurant and the circus looks secure for kids, the father gave them P100.00 each after they had eaten. They both immediately rushed out of the restaurant . The father left the restaurant minutes after. He was surprised to see his daughter walking along a hardware, near the circus.
Knowing that her daughter loves animals the most, he came up to her. “Why are you not with your brother in the circus?” Her daughter replied, “ Well I gave my P100 to my brother since the entrance is P200.00 . I remembered our family motto, “ LOVE IN ACTION. “ I enjoy seeing how you and mom sacrifice for one another, even for us. You always give priority of others within our family. Well this is my chance to live it out. I love my brother and I want him to enjoy the animals, so I gave him my P100.00 “
Conclusion : Love is abiding in God, overcoming self-focus, valuing purity and experience sharing the love! Happy loving everyone!
LIFE QUESTION
They say that our capacity to love is dependent on the state of our hearts. To which kind of heart will you classify yours? Why do you say so?
• Broken heart – in pain, hurt, was neglected by others and unappreciated
• Empty heart - feels like nothing to give, without zeal and feels dull
• Hard heart – angry with someone, has unforgiveness, won’t try to love anymore
• Desperate heart – just wants to be loved and have someone to love
• Happy heart - in love, “over the moon”, romantic
• Generous heart – beats on giving, sharing, and pouring out
• Contented heart – at peace, satisfied, fulfilled