THE GREATEST IS LOVE (9-13-14)
DR. FILLMER HEVENER
SCRIPTURE: JOHN 3:16: “For God so loved the world ,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
A. FOUR TYPES OF LOVE IDENTIFIED IN THE GREEK LANGUAGE:
1.AGAPE- DEEP, UNCONDITIONAL, SELFLESS.
2.PHYSICAL, PASSIONATE ATTRACTION.
3.PHILIA- DEVOTION TO FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY.
4.STORGE- A NATURAL ATTRACTION LIKE THAT OF A PARENT FOR A CHILD OR A CHILD FOR A PARENT.
******SOME MEMORABLE BIBLE TEXTS ON VALUE OF LOVE:
B. 2.John 14:21-24 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Ephesians 4:2 With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
1 John 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
C. STORIES SHOWING LOVE:
Major Sullivan Ballou, of the Union Army, WRITES THIS LETTER to his wife Sarah:
"I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not falter. I know how American civilization leans upon the triumph of the government. I know how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down the joys of this life to help maintain this government and to help pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with many cables that nothing but Omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all those blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most grateful to God and you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the future years, when God willing, we might have loved and lived together, and watched our boys grow up around us to honorable manhood. If I do not return my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield it will whimper your name." One week later, Major Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run
*** HAVE YOU NEGLECTED TELLING ANOTHER THAT YOU LOVE HIM OR HER? If we discovered that we had five minutes left to say all we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they love them. Why wait until the last five minutes?C. Morley,
********LOVE IS FIRST MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE IN GEN. 22: God Tests Abraham: 22. “After these things God tested Abraham’s faith. God said to him, “Abraham!”
And he answered, “Here I am.”
2Then God said, “Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Kill him there and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
3Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. After he cut the wood for the sacrifice, they went to the place God had told them to go. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. My son and I will go over there and worship, and then we will come back to you.”
6Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and gave it to his son to carry, but he himself took the knife and the fire. So he and his son went on together.
7Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!”
Abraham answered, “Yes, my son.”
Isaac said, “We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb we will burn as a sacrifice?”
8Abraham answered, “God will give us the lamb for the sacrifice, my son.”
So Abraham and his son went on together 9and came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar there. He laid the wood on it and then tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the wood on the altar. 10Then Abraham took his knife and was about to kill his son.
11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”
Abraham answered, “Yes.”
12The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you trust God and that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.”
13Then Abraham looked up and saw a male sheep caught in a bush by its horns. So Abraham went and took the sheep and killed it. He offered it as a whole burnt offering to God, and his son was saved.
ABRAHAM SHOWED HIS LOVE FOR GOD THROUGH OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMAND.
(LAST USE OF WORD”LOVE” IN BIBLE)--REV. 3:19 (CHRIST IS SPEAKING TO THE LAODICEAN CHURCH) -“AS MANY AS I LOVE I REBUKE AND CHASTEN;BE ZEALOUS, THEREFORE, AND REPENT (TURN FROM SIN AND DEATH TO OBEDIENCE TO GOD, AND LIFE.”
******* (LOVE REQUIRES PERSONAL ATTENTION TO OTHERS): Some years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger, noted doctor and psychologist, was seeking the cause of many of his patients' ills. One day he called in his clinical staff and proceeded to unfold a plan for developing, in his clinic, an atmosphere of creative love. All patients were to be given large quantities of love; no unloving attitudes were to be displayed in the presence of the patients, and all nurses and doctors were to go about their work in and out of the various rooms with a loving attitude. At the end of six months, the time spent by patients in the institution was cut in half.
****** AGAPE LOVE ENDURES THE TEST OF TIME: You MAY HAVE SEEN them alongside the shuffleboard courts in Florida or on the porches of the old folks' homes ANYWHERE: an old man with snow-white hair, a little hard of hearing, reading the newspaper through a magnifying glass; an old woman in a shapeless dress, her knuckles gnarled by arthritis, wearing sandals to ease her aching arches. They are holding hands, and in a little while they will totter off to take a nap, and then she will cook supper, not a very good supper and they will watch television, each knowing exactly what the other is thinking, until it is time for bed. They may even have a good, soul-stirring argument, just to prove that they still really care. And through the night they will snore unabashedly, each resting content because the other is there. They are in love, they have always been in love, although sometimes they would have denied it. And because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures. (FROM BITS AND PIECES.
*******1 Corinthians 13 New Century Version (NCV)
13I may speak in different languages[a] of people or even angels. But if I do not have love, I am only a noisy bell or a crashing cymbal. 2I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. 3I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned.[b] But I gain nothing if I do not have love.
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. 5Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. 6Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. 7Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always endures.
8Love never ends. There are gifts of prophecy, but they will be ended. There are gifts of speaking in different languages, but those gifts will stop. There is the gift of knowledge, but it will come to an end. 9The reason is that our knowledge and our ability to prophesy are not perfect. 10But when perfection comes, the things that are not perfect will end. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways. 12It is the same with us. Now we see a dim reflection, as if we were looking into a mirror, but then we shall see clearly. Now I know only a part, but then I will know fully, as God has known me. 13So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these i FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.
******MY FATHER- LITTLE WOODEN WAGON. (PERSONAL LOVE)
******MY MOTHER-DOUBLE-BREASTED SUIT FOR GRADUATION.(PERSONAL LOVE).
****CLOSING: JOHN 3:16- FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.”
PRAY.