Teaching Notes

MONDAY
Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. - John 15:13


Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepest not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. - John 14:23


Love, what’s the big deal? My life for yours. I have been listening to some songs by an artist and he sings a lot about love in relationships with others and with God. I asked myself this questions, what’s the big deal about love and why is it so important for us to really understand what love is and what love is not? If you look up the word love it has many meanings. One meaning is to have a deep, tender feeling of affection towards a person. It also means to have an intense desire and attraction towards a person. While there are many meanings in our dictionary, I believe if we read the word of God we get a better understanding of what God wants us to understand about love.

The greatest love there is first comes down to us from God. God showed the greatest love when he sacrificed his son so that you and I could have access to his provisions. This love was given even when we did not deserve it. It was extended to us when we were mean, lost and quite ugly in our sin. This love saw past what we were not to what we could become. This love was not deserved, but was extended so that we could become what we should be. This love is available to us if we accept it. Then we are expected to reciprocate our love back to God. We do so by following what he requires of us. This is something I don’t think we look at often. God’s love is not one-sided.

He loves us but he does require that his love be acted upon. He requires our life for his son. He gave his son’s life for you and I and he expects us to then give him ourselves. This is how we express our love for him. Love is a big deal to God. He does not merely talk about love but his love is one that is acted on. His love is one that is giving and it gives with the intention of bringing out the best in the receiver. That is what our love should look like. When we love our husbands or wives, we should love them with a love that builds them up, that seeks their best and not a selfishness that seeks only what one can get. When we love our children it should be one that things about their needs and not only our own. When we love others (believers or not) we should do so with intention and purpose and that being to build them up.


Worldly love, fleshly love is self-seeking. I don’t even like to use the word love when describing what takes place in the world arena. In and out of relationships looking for love, but with a selfish agenda of looking for what will make you feel good, not caring how others are hurt or affected. I have difficulty looking at that as love. Loving parents as long as they can give you something, but when they don’t have anything else to give, your love stops. That isn’t love. God showed us true love. It gives itself for others. True love is willing to lay down its own agenda so that others can be lifted up.


I pray today that we ask God to show us what is his truth about love. How are we to love? How are we to show it so that others will see who we belong to and who dwells within our hearts? Today, Lord help us to love as you did, by being willing to be a living sacrifice for you.


TUESDAY
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – 1 John 2:15

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. – 1 John 4:21


Love, what’s the big deal? Love, the right priority. Yesterday we established the fact that the love I am speaking of comes from and is set in motion by God. From the love God gives us should spring forth all the love we have, from the love of our spouse, to our children to our neighbors and ends with ourselves.

God’s word now gives us some guidelines on how he expects us to exhibit true love. I’ll continue to call it true love, because there is a false love, a counterfeit love that this world wants to establish as real, yet it does not line up with God’s words regarding love. This is what God is trying to protect us from so that we will not become confused and therefore cause harm to our selves or others.

We are first warned that we cannot love (show devotion or great affection) for the things in the world. If we do we have set ourselves apart from the Father. If your affections and devotion are for the things, the pleasures of this world you cannot claim to have the love of the Father in you, otherwise you are only fooling yourself. The reason why you cannot claim the love of the Father is because his love compels you to give of yourself, to think of others and to do that which is pleasing to him. If what you are doing does not compel you to think about others feelings, or if it makes you focus solely on your own pleasures and desires and not on God, then it is not love he gives.

The second message is that if we do love God then we must love our brothers. There is no out clause. It doesn’t say you can love them as long as you get along together. Or you love them as long as it is beneficial to you. You are simply told to love them and that means no matter what.

So the question is how do you know if you are walking in this way? If you find it difficult to do those things that are right because you are torn up inside about releasing the “pleasures of this world” then maybe you need to check where your devotions are. Is it more important to gain status or position such that you have no problem missing church or limiting your praying time or eliminating your read of the Bible because something has to give way to that pursuit? Is there something you have planned for yourself that is so important that you are willing to let everything else go because of it? Even if it means hurting others? What’s the big deal about love? Love is a big deal because it is through love that lives are changed, hearts are healed, relationships are put back right and sins are forgiven. It was the love of the Father for you and I that change the course of our lives heading for destruction.

I pray for us today, is there something in me that is keeping me attached to the things of this world? Is there something I am having difficulty letting go of? Then I ask God that you help me so that I can give my complete devotion and affection to you. Help me to love you and when I do, I will follow your commandments and be an avenue of help to my brothers and sisters. Help me Lord as I yield my complete self unto you. This day Lord, I say thank you for loving me when I was unlovable. Thank you for loving me when I choose other things instead of you, now today I give you my all. Thank you for loving me into your kingdom, into your presence. Help me to love others into your kingdom and into your presence.



WEDNESDAY
The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. – Psalm 145:20


Love, what’s the big deal? My safety. I have had the opportunity to pray with several people regarding the things that Satan is trying to do in their lives through the hands of others. It sometimes saddens your heart to hear the things that people will do to others, but you come away with the understanding that this is how evil works.


Sometimes it is hard to understand why as a child of God you go through so much difficulty yet others seem to prosper and go unchallenged or unaffected by the wickedness they do. I have come to the place that I understand what may seem like an individual is getting away with evil, is not the truth.


God is a just God and in his time he will deal with each persons actions. What we must do as children of God is trust in his way and in his timing. We can also rely on his promises. We have some benefits for loving God. One of the benefits is he promises to preserve us. That means several things. He promises to defend us. He will defend us against the attacks of the enemy against us. He will save us from not only the wickedness in this world, but even from ourselves. He also promises to maintain us. That means he will keep us from falling when we are faced with the attacks against us.

The God that saves us is also the God that can keep us. We do not have to continue in sin because the power of God through Christ Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient to keep us safe in our walk on this earth. He also promises to put in safeguards for us. That is what his word does, it safeguards you and I from our self and from the tricks of the enemy.

So you and I don’t have to worry about what the wicked do, because God says those he will handle. He will destroy those that refuse to obey him and follow after his ways. We must also realize that God in his mercy allows these individuals an opportunity to come to him. He gives to our enemies the same opportunity that he gave to us, when we were his enemy.


So today, the big deal about love is God promises to take care of us through whatever situation we find our selves in. He promises to save us, to defend us against the onslaught of attack, he will maintain us in a right relationship with him and he safeguards us from the tricks of the enemy by giving us his word and his Spirit. So today we give our love to God but he gives us so much more in return. Lord help us today to accept this love you offer to us with a gracious heart. Help us to walk in your ways, even when it seems all around us is prospering, but yet we struggle. For in God’s time and in God’s way, he will bring all things to pass. Just continue to trust him, for he is faithful and he never fails.


THURSDAY
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. – Jeremiah 31:3-4


Love, what’s the big deal? Everlasting love. There was a song or movie, I guess I’m old I can’t remember which one, that had the name, everlasting love. Yet it did not really speak about a love that could last forever, through everything and face every adverse situation. God however, shows us what it means to be loved with an everlasting love.


This is the message he gave to the prophet Jeremiah as he spoke to the every turning, every sinning people of God. Jeremiah preached the same message to the people of God over 20 plus years. Can you image having to try and tell your children the same thing for twenty years? You would give up and tell those rebellious people to get out of your sight and out of your house. Yet here God is giving them a promise of restoration, even after they continue to reject his love.


Do you notice what he calls them? He says “O virgin of Israel”. Do you think that is strange when previously they have been called wicked, adulterous people following after other gods? Why then does he call them this? I believe God is giving them a promise of the state he will restore them to, one of purity. They have lost that state of being holy and set apart because of their sinning and going after lesser things. Yet God says he love them with an everlasting love (eternal, never-ending, perpetual, endless, ceaseless). God gives them this promise because his love never ends and he wants to restore them if they turn from their wickedness back to a right relationship. He will restore them to a state of “spiritual virginity”. He will cleanse them of the sins of their adultery and bring them back to a state of being set aside, holy unto him, his bride, and his precious one.


WHAT A LOVE! Is there something in your life that no matter how much you try, you cannot change? Is there someone that has been seeking lesser things and in the process failed to walk before the Lord has he has called you to? Have you believed the illusion that Satan brings to your mind that the life you “see” is all there is? Have you then decided to seek something to fill the void? Have you been seeking for love yet looking in all the wrong places, in all the wrong things? Things that numb your mind or your soul? Then I come to tell you there is an everlasting love that can fill that void with completely. What if you feel you are in a place where you are being punished for your sins, did you know God has a promise for you? He gives you this promise that he gave to the sinful children of Israel even when they too would suffer for their sins; “I love you with an everlasting Love”.


That love says, come back to me and I will remove all the sin from you life. Come back to me and I will restore our relationship to a place of wholeness. Accept my love and I will remove the spiritual sickness and restore you and I will never remember that sin again. I will call you “O Virgin”, O one that is pure before me. One that I will restore merriment to your heart so that you can dance before me in joy.

I pray for us today that we rejoice in knowing that we have a God that loves us with an everlasting love. His love is waiting and available to all that seek him. He is merciful to forgive us and will restore us to a right, and holy place before him. He promises to change us from that sinful state we may find ourselves in to one of honor. All he asks of us is that we accept his love and return his love to him. He will even help us to love him in the right way. You and I cannot even express true love until we first receive it from him storehouse of treasures. Ask him how to love and accept his, and watch him show you how to love.


FRIDAY

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. - Ephesian 3:17-18


Love, what’s the big deal? Love brings understanding. So what is the big deal about love? The greatest gift we can ever receive is the love of God as exhibited through the supreme sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. We all have somewhat of an understanding about love. We love our parents, our children or our spouses. This is even understood by the unsaved individuals. Yet, for those that belong to Christ, there comes a greater understanding regarding love.

That understanding comes because of the wisdom that God grants to us as we follow after him and express our love to him in our obedience. Christ dwells inside our hearts by us placing faith in God. That faith is the first key to opening our understanding of this great love. This key opens up the door to our understanding the greatness (to the best of our human ability) of God like we never could without our acceptance of his love in our lives as expressed in our salvation experience.


We begin to understand this love that Christ gives us and it passes all understanding on the human level. How could someone love us so much that they would give their life for us, even when the chance of us rejecting it was present? How can someone love us continually when we do not always show that love in return? God’s love for us is freely given. The horror is that God does not remove his love from us, but we reject it. Can you image a place where there is no love? A place where there is no joy or peace? A place where even the simplest of pleasures are not? A place where you will remember all the gifts you could have had from God, but now you can no longer receive them and the chance to ask for them is gone? Can you image a place where you will be forever regretful because you rejected God’s love? Can you image being given a full glimpse of God’s greatness to have it removed from you, but that your mind would forever remember what you could have had, but rejected. There is a place just like that, hell.

The wonderful thing is we do not ever have to experience such a place because the love of God is so great he continues to woo us to come to him and to be completely his. Let us heed him while he calls us. He wants to open to you and I the riches from his storehouse. I pray for us today that we would understand God’s love is a big deal. His desire for us to show our love for him in our yielding is a big deal. His desire for us to express our love towards each other is a big deal because it reflects him in our lives. This love of God is a big deal. The big deal is, we receive from the storehouse of God now and then we receive the rewards in eternity that is a big deal.


When you go to worship this weekend, go seeking God to help you walk closer to him so that you can be a walking expression of godly love. Go thanking him for opening your understanding to the depths of this love and how wide it goes and how much it covers. God thanking him for loving you when you were not quite loveable. Oh what a wonderful gift to have, the love of the Father.