It's all about LOVE

What is your number one goal in life?  How would you answer this question?

My number one goal in life is ________________?  

Think it through.  Whatever the answer is will be your DOMINANT life value/principle.

If your dominant life value is to have fun, then this evening if you get a couple invitations for the evening, then you will tend to choose whichever is most FUN.

If your dominant life value is safety, then you will make sure every decision in life based on the safest choice.

If your dominant life value is to be affirmed, then you will choose things in life that will give you the most affirmation.

It's extremely important what is going to be the most important value in your lfie.

In 1 Corinthians 13.  Let LOVE be your greatest aim.  God says your #1 life value should be LOVE - your highest life value.  The bible said God created everything in the universe for love.  He created us as the object of His love.  He created us to learn how to love.  

Jesus said the most important thing is the "great commandment".  Mark 12:28 

Life is all about learning to love.  Everything else is EXCESS.  One day you will stand before God and answer to how well you loved yourself, God and other people.

Life is all about love.  Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Everything you do must be done with love.  What does that include?  EVERYTHING

Does this mean when you deal with people who attack you because of your faith? YES

Does this mean when you deal with the person at the fast food drive thru that you can't understand?  YES

Does this mean when you deal with people who have different political opinion? YES

Does this mean when someone disagrees with your opinion? YES

1 Corinthians 16:14 - MEMORIZE it - "Let all that you do be done in love."

The day you understand how completely and unconditionally God loves you, you will automatically be more loving, merciful and graceful.  

People who don't feel good about themselves are people are the ones who give no grace, mercy or love to others.  

You cannot give to others what you do not have yourself.  

Next we talk about five things the bible says about love.

1.  We love because God loves us.  All love comes from God.  1 John 4:7-8.  God is love.  The reason why God wants you to love, is because he IS love and he wants us to be like him. If He wasn't loving there would be no love in the universe.  We have the ability to love because we were made in the image of God.  Animals cannot love, rocks cannot love.  Animals have instincts but they do not love the way human beings have the ability to love.  Our two missions while on earth:  Learn to love God and learn to love other people.  God takes the initiative.  When he sent Jesus to earth to die for us, He shows us his love.  

When believers don't believe they are not measuring up to God and feel they don't love God enough, the real problem is they don't realize how much God loves them.  If they realized how much God loved them so extravagantly and unconditionally, they would be automatically attracted to God.  If they understand or felt how much He loved them, they would not be carrying around guilt and condemnation. 

You can't make God stop loving you.  Once you feel the unconditional love, you cut people more slack and give more mercy.  People who hurt others don't feel good about themselves, so they pass it along to others.


Unlovely people are unLOVED people.  If you are feeled with anger and impatience?  You won't be able to love anyone else.  Let God's love heal your heart and let it flow through.

2.  Love is a CHOICE.  Love is a commitment.  You choose to love or to not love.  We do have control over our love.  Attraction is uncontrollable.  Arousal is uncontrollable.  Attraction and Arousal is not love.  They can lead to love, but they aren't love.  Love cannot be forced.  You can't make someone love you or stay in love with you.  You can choose to love God or not love Him.  When a person says, "I just don't love her anymore".  This is a choice.  Don't blame it on circumstances.  You are choosing not to love.  

3.  Love is an ACTION not just a emotion.  Love can cause emotion.  It can create emotion.  Love is not an emotion, though.  Why?  We are commanded by God to love each other.  You can not command an emotion.  You can't command an emotion and have it be authentic, it can be acted.  Love is something you DO and it is an ACTION.  1 John 3:18.  "Let us not love with tongue, but with action."  Acting in love when you don't feel it is a more MATURE love.  It's easy to love someone who loves you, it takes nothing at all.  Real love is when you do the right thing when they don't deserve it, you don't feel it or when they don't respond.  Look at how we sacrificially love our children and take care of them.  Anytime you have held a sick hand for

4.  Love is a skill.  It's something you can get good at.  




to be continued....
notes from Rick Warren's "40 Days of Love, It's all About Love, Part 1".

Change - what does it take?

Change - what does it take?

Romans 12

6 principles for lasting change.

1.  The Principle of dedication.  The first thing you do is commit your body to God.  Your body affects your behavior.  Your muscles your motivation and moods. Romans 12.

1st Law of Change
Nobody can force you to change or make you offer your body.

Change is my choice.  It is always my choice.  Nobody can force me to change, nobody can talk me into it.  You will not change until you decide to change.

3 things you can do with your body that are acts of worship:  

1.  Cleanse it.  Don't put poison into your body.  Stop putting bad things in your body. 2 Corinthians 7:1
You contaminate your spirit by what you watch and what you listen to.  You contaminate your body by what you put in your mouth.  Caring for your body is a ACT OF WORSHIP. Act of stewardship.  We don't own our body, we are lent our body.

2.  Caring for my body is an act of worship.  

3.  Controlling my body.

If pride is your motivator - it's not an act of worship.

2.  Principle of concentration - I must REFOCUS my mind.  Romans 12:2
Focus on what's good for you not what's bad for you.  Focus on what God wants you to do not what others want.  Focus on the positive not the negative.  Transform by the RENEWING of your mind.

Habits are things when you do things for a long time.  When you've done it for a long time, it becomes a habit, your hurt - your hangup.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world.  Everything you learn in life you learn from a pattern.  You learn from a model.  The problem is there is no perfect models in the world.  So, you have learned some models that weren't very good.  They were defective.  We are going to have to learn some new patterns, change the way we think and learn some new models and some new patterns.

2nd Law of Change
To Change my life, I must change my model.

The bible says you need a model, mentor, partner and friends.  Bad company will corrupt good character.  Jesus is a the right model.

Only God can take a Caterpillar into a butterfly - radical change.  Positive thinking won't give you that kind of radical thinking.  You allow yourself to be transformed by (totally new life) by the renewing of your mind.  Before you can renew your mind...you have to PUT OFF before you can PUT ON.\


3. Principle of Evaluation - Humbly assess your current state.
Romans 12
Pride is the #1 stumbling block to radical change.  Admit you need change.    You don't know where to go until at first you know where you are.  Admit you don't have it all together in order to get it all together is better than pretending you have it all together.  Do not think of yourself more highly than you are but evaluate with yourself with sober judgement in accordance with a measure of faith God has given you (verse 3).

What are you pretending isn't a problem in your life.  What are you pretending isn't a problem in your marriage, health and finances.  Do you have enough courage to confront yourself?  Do you have the courage to ask those closest to you- where do I need to change?

There is nothing perfect on earth besides God's earth.  Everything is broken on earth because of sin.  We live on a broken planet.  We pretend though that we do.

Do you have courage to confront yourself?

Ask yourself, "What is the measure of faith I have and what do I NEED to change?  How much faith am I gonna need to change, do I really believe I can change,

do I really believe I can be different?"

The measure of your faith will have to increase in order to change.  The more you hear the word of God, the more you have faith.  Limited faith, limited future.  Unlimited faith - Unlimited future.  You need to know where you are right now.  Why is measurement so important.

3rd Law of Change
I can only manage what I can measure.  If I don't know where I am - I can't set goals.  I have to evaluate humbly my current state.

Two practical applications
1.  Record your progress in any goal through the year so you can measure your growth and progress.
2.  Know your starting numbers.
3.  You must get group support.  You will not make all these changes by yourself.  If you could, you would, but you can't so you won't.  God wired the universe in such a way that he wired the community that we need each other. You need a spiritual family. Romans 12:4 - We belong to each other - We need each other.

The greatest barrier to change is PRIDE.  You will have to admit it when you don't have it all together.  Be realistic with yourself.

4th Law of Change
Change requires community

Principle of Affirmation
If you want lasting change, you must fill your life with love.  Love revitalizes, love renews, love refreshes and is the most powerful force in the universe.  Love heals what cannot be healed otherwise, love strengthens, love energizes, love empowers when you don't have the power.  Love is stronger than death.

Don't pretend you love others.  REALLY love them.  Hate what is evil.  Stand on the side of good.  Love enough to confront.  Love each other with genuine affection and take delight into honoring each other.  When your friends have a small win - you need to celebrate with them!  Affirm them!

You want help with your goals?  Help others with their goals!  There is HEALING in giving back.  You know you are healed when you start helping others.

Nothing great is ever accomplished without passion and enthusiasm.  

How do you maintain enthusiasm for the REST OF YOUR LIFE??  Lifetime goals and reach them.  

Positive thinking won't get you through tough times - GOD WILL.  The way you stay enthusiastic is your lifetime is to study God's word.  The kind of enthusiasm that it doesn't matter if the economy is tanking or soaring, or whether it's raining or shining, or things are going good or bad or whether you feel healthy or sick.  Your enthusiasm is not dependent on your circumstances because you are tied to the eternal God and you are tied to the rock of eternal ages.

Paul tells us how to do this in the last verses Romans 12: 11- 12. "Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.[a] 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer."

Your going to set some goals this next year and your going to mess up because you are human, but with God's GPS you will make a uturn and get back right on track.  You will have God's hope with all this.  

What does it mean to be zealous? 

 Being full of zeal means that we have a burning desire to please God and to do His will. God puts this desire in our hearts when we are saved. A zealous Christian is ready to make any sacrifice, to go through any trouble, to suffer, to work, to do anything in order to please God and honor Him.   A zealous Christian is a person who concerned about one thing, who lives for one thing—and that one thing is to please God. He doesn’t care what others think. Nothing else is important except pleasing God. 

The apostles served the Lord with zeal (Acts 20:24; Philippians 3:13-14). Paul faced persecution and opposition and prison. But he endured everything in order to tell others the Good News about Jesus. The early church was full of zeal. Some lost everything because they followed Christ (Hebrews 10:33-34). They were ridiculed and beaten, but they did not give up their faith. When told to deny his faith, Polycarp (AD 70-160) told the Roman governor, “86 years I have served Christ and He has never denied me. How can I deny my King?” That is a zealous Christian. 

Zeal marked the Lord Jesus. He told His disciples that His food was doing the will of God and 

finishing His work (John 4:34). When Jesus cleared the Temple the disciples remembered the 

prophecy from Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for God’s house burns within me.” (John 2:17) When we read 

the Gospels, we see that Jesus was full of zeal. He is our great example.

notes from Pastor Rick Warren's "What it takes to really change" series.