Transcript Slide 1
Today’s topic . . . LOVE How does the world define “LOVE”? Love is . . . From Philosophers: • “A grave mental disease” (Plato) • “A dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species” (W. Somerset Maugham) • “Temporary insanity cured by marriage” (Ambrose Bierce) Love is . . . From Mathematicians: • “Love is like Pi – natural, irrational and very important” • “1 + 1 = everything but 2 – 1 = nothing” Love is . . . From Hollywood: “To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore to be unhappy one must love.” (Woody Allen) Love is . . . From the Music World: • All You Need Is Love • Love Will Keep Us Together • What’s Love Got to Do With It? • Love is a Battlefield • Love Stinks How does God define “LOVE”? Love is . . . 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 is . . . Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:16) Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8) LOVE POWER (Galatians 5:22) LOVE RULES (Matthew 22:36-40) How do you “love God”? This is love for God: to obey his commands. (1 John 5:3) LOVE IN ACTION Dear friends, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:18) Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Love your enemies. (Matthew 5:44) THE BOTTOM LINE Live a life of love. Ephesians 5:2 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How can the world’s misconceptions about love affect us if we’re not careful? 2. Do you truly love God with all your heart, soul and mind? If not, what gets in the way (and what can you do about it)? 3. What are some specific ways you can put love into action this week? ONE THING What one thing from today will you apply to your life?