Message Notes for August 11, 2024

Series: Influencers

Title: Love Makes It All Work

Love is the very essence of who God is and is the one quality of the Christian life that will be fully active in both the present and

in eternity.

What Jesus says about love.

John 13:34-35 esv 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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Mark 12: 30-31 esv And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 esv If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing….

Love separates noise from beauty!

Love makes me and my gifts valuable to others for God’s Kingdom!

Love turns sacrifice into investment!

1 Corinthians 13:8-13 esv Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Notes:

The enduring nature of love.

1 John 4:18-19 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

Family/Group Study Notes for the week of August 11, 2024

Series: Influencers

Title: Love Makes It All Work

* Describe ways that you see love as authentic or not authentic. How can you discern the difference? How do you know when someone is looking after your best interest with love? How have you seen inauthentic love in your own life? How was it called out by others?

* Read John 13:34-34 and Mark 12:28-31. What would it be to love as Jesus loves? How do you see Jesus in the way people love in this world? How does loving God first help us to love others? What is the limitation of love if someone does not know God?

* Read 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3. What is Paul wanting these Corinthian Christians to understand? How would you apply this passage today? In what ways do you see the actions or intentions of people being dismissed because there is a lack of love?

* How would you describe character? In what ways do you see character in people being dismissed for their position, power or gifting? Why do you think we make these compromises? Do you think God accepts these compromises? Why or why not?

* Read 1 Corinthians 13:8-13. What makes love the lasting character quality? What is the value of faith and hope on earth?

* Paul describes this life like a dim mirror and knowledge as only partial. What do you think he means? How have you experienced this? What do you think it will be like to meet Jesus face to face and have understanding and clarity be perfect?

* Discuss with your family or group ways you would like to love better. How can you hold each other accountable to the greater desire to love?

* Receive prayer requests and pray for each other.