How to Show Love!

How to Show Love!                                         by Kelly Durant  2-15-14

 1 John 3:16

 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1. Today we will talk about love! I could talk about love all year! I was young when the Beatles sang “Love, Love, Love…All You Need Is Love!” At that time in a cold love starved cold war society, people wanted to hear that they needed love, “All you need is love! We need God’s love, and the love of each other, or we will shrivel up and die! Harlow, a psychologist, did experiments on baby monkeys and proved that without love babies die right away! The baby monkeys would run from the rough wire monkey with milk and hug up to the furry monkeys. We don’t need psychologists to prove the power of love to keep us alive, we know that instinctly!

In I John 3:16 in begins with; Hereby, perceive we the love of God. The first key word is perceive! Love is not love until you give it away! Love is perceived, a manifestation of an action which is from some feeling, or emotion, or passion. In the Greek perceive means to touch, to see or understand by experience: to know. Love is hard to describe but to give an illustration it is like the wind, that we can see by what it affects but we cannot see the wind itself.

2. The effects of love we can perceive and define in the manifestation of the 3 T’s; time, talent, and treasure. Love is the opposite of selfishness, instead of the person making him or herself as the owner of everything; it is a position that gives up all to another.

In the verse we perceive the implied by knowing all of what Jesus did for us, he died on the cross and gave us forgiveness of sins and healing. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Jesus gave up all of his time, talent, and treasure. He gave up all, all the time while he was alive and then He gave up all in his death. Laying down his life was something that was a proof and manifestation of his love. He did it while living and then while He was dying. Laying down his life for us means for all people of all nations and tribes, in the past, present, and future!

We know how Jesus gave up all to show us love, so now let’s carry out a study on how to get others and God to perceive our love. Before applying this to the work of God, let’s apply it to the normal universal human relationships which God created as an example for us to learn from.

3. I recall as early as age 14 when you had feelings of love for another girl and the expected was that one should show off your talent, I have written several dozens of poems in my life and I imagine you have too. At this time of year of Valentine’s Day, cards with flowers and poems are mailed and delivered so much that it is multimillion dollar industry!   

Just to erase any doubts the most beautiful and intense songs I have written have been for my wife Regina!

One Chorus states this:

And everyday you choose to stay, shows how love wins anyway!

Hey, I know love is for eternity

Hey, You know love’s what made us to be

Before poems were like this: Roses are red, violets are blue

Sugar is sweet my love, but not as sweet as you!

Poems are only one type of expression but talent applied is imperative.

To prove intensity, or passion in love, you must apply your personal unique talent!

4. Another proof of love is the treasure, or sacrifice part; how much are you willing to spend? If she thinks you have a lot of money and you buy one rose, instead of a dozen you will be in trouble! When there is love, the other person expects to be treated with a more class than the ordinary.

To prove seriousness, or dedication in love, you must apply your personal money, or treasure.

Another imperative factor for love is time. You cannot say to your boyfriend (or girlfriend) I love you but I don’t have time to talk to you because I am so busy. For important people, we all have a tendency to make time to communicate! If you are not sharing all the details of your life, your dreams, your pains, your desires with the one you claim to love, then how do we believe it is love?

To prove credibility, or confidence in love, you must take time to share your innermost secrets.

5.Taking these 3 examples of the expressions and perceptions of love, we can apply them as a thermometer to your life to determine how hot or cold your temperature is in the love for God.

Talent:

Do you share your talent with God and others? Some of you do it well, refereeing to you here, and recall God sees every little thing you do with your talents. You show your love by: cooking, painting, teaching, singing, cleaning, leading meetings, disciplining. God knows your names and everyone does. Applying talent shows love.

Treasure:

Any program, any building, any operation requires money and thank God we are able to keep going due to your tithe and offering support, and the support of outside donations along with the major gifts donated by those who are generous. I know many of you give the maximum of what you can and God knows and he blesses the cheerful giver.

Material gifts from your income prove love and it has been that way ever since the Cain and Abel noting that God expects an offering of sacrifice for us to proof our love!

Time:

I have seen others give their time since they did not have any money and that is very valid as well!

I started the year again by giving a book to most everyone as a tool to help each person spend more time with God. Are you reading them? We are doing more prayer lately too.  Everyone must spend quality time with God, we must study His word and consume it as our daily bread so we learn what it is He desires from us.

6. Imagine having a friend but you never spend time with them and you never learn about their wishes!? Do you know what God wants you to do with your life? We pray and talk to Jesus as our best friend so He knows we are honoring and respecting Him and this is proof of our love through the connection of communication.

And finally, finishing the verse it states: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. The point is, Jesus proved His love, He laid down His life: now all of us are forever challenged to prove our love by showing the same level of sacrifice! We may never die for Him, so we must serve Him daily!

Proof of love requires manifestations in time, talent, and treasure given to God’s work so that another brother or sister, or mate can perceive it!

How good a lover are you?. Do you spend quality talent, treasure, and time with the one you claim to love? Or with your Christian friends and family?

7. And again, how do you love God? If God were to measure your love for Him, what you do to show your love for Him and for your neighbor as yourself?

We have the standard of Jesus laying down His life and this was the maximum love ever expressed by God and by His Son on earth! This type of supernatural, unexplainable, amazing, intense, merciful love provokes a response! How much will you love back?

With God you can never love enough, but with some people we must establish limits of our love. Matt 7:6  “Don’t give pearls to swine”.

You and I both have had bad experiences with other human beings with whom we have given a lot of love to; we have given our passion, our dedication, and our confidence only to be let down because they were too selfish and arrogant to understand what love is and be thankful. Measure love, is the person you are loving thankful, or indifferent, giving or returning nothing, or are they reflecting back your passion?

8. At one time or another, we all have been unloving and unappreciative towards God or some Christian friend in the church who has loved and helped. But no one of us here is full of love to our potential yet! If you were you would be like the young ruler in reverse who was told to sell everything and give to the poor and follow Christ, and you would do it and be right now on fire preaching every day to every one of the love of Jesus for all! You would be giving your life for full time service for Jesus!

How sad it is that some people have been loved by God through you or I, yet they have still remained in a selfish pit of ingratitude! But we love out of obedience to God, not to get loved backed, amen? We simply must love and leave the rest to God!

Love someone today! Love gives a chance and God reveals His love to all in many ways over and over and we should too! He wants us to just love and to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters! Loving God and your neighbor, (and your soul mate) is in obedience to the scripture! Can others perceive that you are giving love? Love as Jesus did, love in Jesus name, and you will make a big difference in those closest to you, and to anyone in your path!