True Love

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True Love!
Pastor Dave Martin Cross Creek Community Church
Feb 13, 2005
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What is Love?

• Affection? Devotion? Fondness?
• Infatuation? Tender Feelings?
• Intense Desire? Sexual Passion?
• Emotional Attachment? Deep Attraction?

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The Greek uses four different words to describe
Love

• Storge a Parent Child Love
• Philos a Friendship Brotherly Love
• Eros a Romantic Sexual Love
• Agape a Sacrificial Unconditional Love
• Agape Love is True Love

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1. True Love Finds its Source in God.

• 1 John 47-12 Dear friends, let us love one
  another, for love comes from God. Everyone who
  loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever
  does not love does not know God, because God is
  love. This is how God showed his love among us
  He sent his one and only Son into the world that
  we might live through him. This is love not that
  we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
  Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear
  friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
  love one another. No one has ever seen God but
  if we love one another, God lives in us and his
  love is made complete in us.

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2. True Love is Commanded for Every Believer.

• Matthew 2237-39 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.'
• John 1334-35 "A new command I give you Love one
  another. As I have loved you, so you must love
  one another. By this all men will know that you
  are my disciples, if you love one another."

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3. True Love has No Substitutes.

• 1 Cor. 131-3 If I speak in the tongues of men
  and of angels, but have not love, I am only a
  resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have
  the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries
  and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can
  move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender
  my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain
  nothing.

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Not...

• Eloquence
• Prophecy
• Knowledge
• Faith
• Benevolence
• Martyrdom

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4. True Love is Always Active Not Passive.

• John 316 "For God so loved the world that he
  gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
  in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
• 1 John 49 This is how God showed his love among
  us He sent his one and only Son into the world
  that we might live through him.

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• John 1513 Greater love has no one than this,
  that he lay down his life for his friends.
• Romans 58 But God demonstrates his own love for
  us in this While we were still sinners, Christ
  died for us.

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Daily Hugs Needed...

• 4 Hugs for Survival
• 8 Hugs for Maintenance
• 12 Hugs for Growth

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5. Cultivate the Qualities of True Love.

• 1 Cor. 134-8a Love is patient, love is kind. It
  does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
  proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it
  is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
  wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
  rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
  always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
  Love never fails...

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