Sermons on Love (Page 2)
God said that this was the most important thing in the entire Bible—love Him with all our heart, soul and might. Learning to love God teaches us how to love others! The problem is that we have a skewed understanding of what it means to love one another. The three Hebrew words used in Deuteronomy 6:5 (translated heart, soul, and might) provide a clear biblical definition of love: Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object.
“People hear your words of truth, but the feel your words of kindness… I am defining kindness as being a loving and respectful person” (Before You Hit Send page 63). Our first concern in communicating with others is to be truthful; but when you communicate truth without love and respect, you are not communicating at all because people will not listen to someone who is disrespectful and rude. In this message, we will look at several motivations for communicating with kindness.
Tolerance has become a buzz word in the twenty-first century. In a study prepared by Probe Ministries International, Scott Scruggs wrote, “In response to a survey concerning beliefs about God, a sixteen-year-old girl replied, ‘In my mind, the only people who are wrong are the people who will not accept different beliefs as being, well, acceptable.’ This girl believed that the only real sin is to not accept or tolerate other people’s beliefs.” If tolerance is respecting someone’s beliefs, does that mean that we are being intolerant if we attempt to convince someone to be a Christian? Does the Bible teach us to be intolerant?
Four events occurred in a dramatic succession on that Easter weekend: The Upper Room, The Garden, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection of Jesus. Let’s look at each of those events and their implications.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8
In this sermon, we will spend some time examining Paul’s instructions to Titus concerning how to live in such a way to bring glory to God in our lives. Paul gave similar instructions in chapter five of his letter to the Roman church. The Bible teaches us that God saved us as a result of his loving-kindness, and experiential knowledge of this salvation is a requirement to be able to truly worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
Our tendency will be to always return to what we know even if the known is less than ideal.
Freedom embraced is Freedom lived.
Overcoming the fear, worry, stress that is associated with Fear of Ruin.
What will you surrender to God today?
God created you, so he could love you, and save you, and make you holy.