Week 3 – Love
July 8, 2023

We Will Bring Life, Love, and Value, to Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day

Love (agapē)

God’s in-depth love for people, and people’s love for both God and others.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40

“John wrote for the third generation…..For by its third generation, every movement of God needs a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit.

The first generation is motivated by conviction; great truths have been grasped, and those who have espoused them have a compulsion to spread those truths abroad. They will dare all and die for them.

The second generation inherits these truths, but the conviction softens into a belief. They believe the truths they have been taught; they debate them, defend them, and disseminate them, but the fire and passion have gone.

By the third generation, the belief becomes an opinion. The third generation will trade first-generation truth, dilute it, change it, accept counterfeits, and make room for error. And that’s why John wrote for the third generation—the third generation needed a fresh revival.”

Greatest Generation: Born 1901-1924
Silent Generation: Born 1925-1945
Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964
Generation X: Born 1965-1980
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Millennials: Born 1981-1996
Generation Z: Born 1997-2012 (My students)
Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025

Conviction
Belief
Opinion

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:1-3 ESV

Know (Ginosko)
To Come To Know, Recognize, Perceive, Personally And Experientially Know Something

Do you know of Jesus or Do you know Jesus?

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1 John 2:4-6

If you love me, keep my commands.
John 14:15

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35 ESV

Love Your Enemies

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love (agapē) your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love (agapē) your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

For if you love (agapē) those who love (agapē) you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

Marks of the True Christian (Love In Action)
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9-21 ESV

Loving Right is more important than Being Right

Everybody matters to God even if God doesn’t mean anything to them

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:9-11

Pray Something
Say Something
Await Something