What is love?

Read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Read 1 John 4:7-8

Now that we know that God is love I want everyone to read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 and wherever you see the word love, replace it with God.

God is patient and kind. God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand his own way. God is not irritable, and he keeps no record of when he has been wronged. God is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up, never loses faith, He’s always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

What times did you think about? Now flip back to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and match up which attribute of God/ Love that God showed you in your situation.

Why is it that humans want to experience love so badly?

Read Genesis 3: 22-24

The originally Garden of Eden God walked among Adam and Eve. He spent time with them and was always there with them in the physical. However, when he expelled them from the Garden the fellowship and the connection was broken between humans and God.

Answer: God cannot associate with sin; therefore, when sin entered the world, we were separated from God. As we know from 1 John 4:8 God is love; therefore, when we were separated from God, in a sense, we were also separated from love, and being separated from love left a hole where there originally wasn’t suppose to be one.

What types of things are we trying to fill that hole with?

Our efforts to fill that hole, is like trying to fill a crater with a tiny piece of confetti. Yes the confetti fits; however, there is still a humongous amount of space that isn’t filled.

God can only fill that hole because the whole is his shape, and he wants so badly for you to allow him to.

John 3:16  

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
 

Now we hear this scripture all the time, and I feel like we have become numb to it; however, there is so much passion behind it, and the next scripture will show the passion and the depth and seriousness of what God did for us.

Isaiah 53: 1-12

Who believes what we've heard and seen?
Who would have thought GOD's saving power would look like this?

²The servant grew up before God--a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.

³He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

⁴But the fact is, it was our pains he carried--
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.

⁵But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him--our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.

⁶We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And GOD has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

⁷He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.

⁸Justice miscarried, and he was led off--
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.

⁹They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.

¹⁰Still, it's what GOD had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it--life, life, and more life.
And GOD's plan will deeply prosper through him.

¹¹Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.

¹²Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly--
the best of everything, the highest honors--
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

God wants to be our eternal Valentine. Right now, he wants to be the one we long for, the one we think about late at night when were alone. For right now, God wants to be the one we tell our friends and our families about, he wants us to tell about all the gifts he’s given us, and he wants us to save our phone minutes and spend all our time talking and getting to know him.

So why not let God make you whole by filling that hole.

God loves you so much and wants to be with you so badly, so why won’t you just be with him?

This Valentine’s Day God wants to give you the gift of wholeness. In order to be whole you must first accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, and then you must surrender and give your lives over to his. Wholeness comes from obedience, faith, and trust which all are gained through living your life in the Spirit.

Read Romans 8. This talks about living your life in the spirit, future glory, and how NOTHING can separate us from God’s Love.

² I will be careful to live a blameless life—
when will you come to my aid?
I will lead a life of integrity
in my own home.

³ I will refuse to look at
anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all crooked dealings;
I will have nothing to do with them.

⁴ I will reject perverse ideas
and stay away from every evil.

⁵ I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.
I will not endure conceit and pride.

⁶ I will keep a protective eye on the godly,
so they may dwell with me in safety.
Only those who are above reproach
will be allowed to serve me.

⁷ I will not allow deceivers to serve me,
and liars will not be allowed to enter my presence.

⁸ My daily task will be to ferret out criminals
and free the city of the LORD from their grip.