You don't need money, don't take fame

Don't need no credit card to ride this train

It's strong and it's sudden, and it's cruel sometimes

But it might just save your life

That's the power of love

Real love is sacrificial - it costs you something, you sacrifice your own preference, your time, it takes work. There’s a cost, a sacrifice.

NLT Luke 6:32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!

NLT Luke 6:35-36 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

We know that real love costs us something and this makes us think that we need to be calculated and measured with our love, lest we run out. I can give love to my family but I can’t elsewhere because I’ve become drained and depleted. If I give too much away I’ll run out.

But if our source of real love is God and He is an infinite source then not only will God’s love never run out on us we will never run empty in giving it away. We don’t have to be stingy. That’s why Jesus said freely you have received, freely you can give.

Salvation is a free gift that’s what makes the good news so good. But following Jesus will cost you some things. He’s gonna give you the grace and strength and power to do it by His spirit but make no mistake there will be a transformation that occurs in your heart. That’s why the scripture says He must increase and I must decrease. There’s a sacrifice, a surrender, a giving up, laying down your own way. So you can take hold of the life that is truly life.

Real love is sacrificial- What is God asking you to sacrifice so you can love better??

Real love is a choice-

Phil 2:5-8 NIV 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross

choices lead, feelings follow

What choice do you need to make to love better?

The best expression of love is choosing to love when you don’t feel like it

John 13:34-35 NIV A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Gal 5:6 NIV The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Understand the depth of God’s love toward you.

Eph 3:17-18 NIV And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Luke 7:47 NLT “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Receive God’s love

1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us.

Romans 5:8 NIV But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What are you doing to receive God’s love? It’s found in His word, in praise, thanksgiving, and worship.

2 Cor 13:5 NIV Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

-Examine yourself. How is your love?

The power of love makes one man weep, makes another man sing

John 3:18-21 NIV Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Romans 8:38-39 NLT 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.