The Heart Series, Part 1: What is Love?

    (1 Corinthians 14:1 LB)  “Make love your greatest aim…”(Matthew 22:36-39)  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?  Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”(1 John 4:7-8, 21)  “Let us love one another, for love comes from God... Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love... And He has given us this command:  Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”(Galatians 5:6)“…The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”(Ephesians 4:2) “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”(Ephesians 4:3) “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”(1 Corinthians 14:1 LB)  “Make love your greatest aim…”(Proverbs 4:23)  “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”Three things give us HEART disease: 1. Self-centeredness.(Philippians 2:3)  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”2. Bitterness.Grinch Video  Heart is 2 sizes to small…"this time I’ll keep it off." (Hebrews 12:15)  “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”(Ephesians 4:31-32)  “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”3.    Lust.(Mark 7:21)  “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.”What is love? Answer: Agape = Unconditional love(John 15:13)  “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”(John 13:34-35)  Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you:  Love one another!  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”Love is living for the other person’s good.How do we love? 1.    In action and in truth.(1 John 3:18)  “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”2.    By choice.(Colossians 3:14)  “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”(Ephesians 3:17-18 LB)  “I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your heart, living within you as you trust Him.  May your roots go deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love, and may you be able to feel and understand…how long, wide, deep, and high His love really is, and experience this love for yourselves…”