Can I have a few minutes of your time please. I want to talk about love. How many of you out there "love" someone? It could be a parent, a brother or sister, a child, or even a spouse or a significant other. We all have people in our lives that we love. We love them so much that we can't live without them. We love them so much that we do things that are against our own beliefs because we don't want to disappoint them. We want to keep them happy. Why? Because we love them of course. I see it everyday. A young girl with her whole life ahead of her falls in love with a guy that she will do anything for or vice versa. All along, that guy or girl isn't worth the time, energy, or love you're putting into that relationship. But as humans, we crave that love and we crave that special relationship with someone. It's how we were created. But what if I tell you that the love we seek cannot be found in any human form. Would you think I'm crazy? It's true. God created us with a yearning for love. A need for closeness. That need that we have can only be filled completely through our relationship with our creator. We are to look to Him for that desire to be quenched but instead we look to other humans that have the same needs as we have. God's Word is the most beautiful expression of love ever written. His love transcends every kind of earthly love. His love is stronger than any bond between parent and child or husband and wife. No earthly image can accurately portray God's love for us. Galatians 2:20 explains that Jesus loved you enough to die in your place. He chose to accept your punishment so that you could spend eternity with the father. With his death, Jesus committed the greatest act of love ever seen by human eyes. With a love so devoted, so sacrificial, so extreme-- nothing can ever interfere. Nothing can squelch or diminish that love. You can never fall beyond reach of his love. You can't lose it. You can't change it, win it, or control it. His love extends before and beyond time, and he loved you before you even knew him. When you choose to accept his love, you begin the most amazing relationship of your life. Nothing else can ever or will ever compare.
*(Jeremiah 31:3) And from far away the LORD appeared to his people and said, "I love you people with a love that will last forever. That is why I have continued showing you kindness.
*(John 13:1) It was almost time for the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that it was time for him to leave this world and go back to the Father. He had always loved those who were his own in the world, and he loved them all the way to the end.
*(Ephesians 3:14-19) So I bow in prayer before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. I ask the Father in His great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love--how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.