#1 Love Matters

I wonder how many love songs you could list off.

1 John 4:7-12 & Mark 12:28-31

It is estimated that there are over 100 million love songs that have been recorded over the years. It is an enduring theme that explores our human experience and emotions. Songs of hope, friendship, family, and also romantic relationships.

As we walk the road of Lent, our preparation and reflections on the path that took Jesus to the cross, death and resurrection, I will be preaching on God’s love.

Scripture tells us that God is love. In 1 John 4:7-11 NIV

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

To try and define love can be difficult. Yet this Scripture tell us that if we wish to define love, all we need to do is look to God. He by very definition is Love. He has demonstrated love through his Son.

Love is not a feeling; it is the person of God. Love is not firstly about you; it is about God. Any experience we have of love is always connected back to the creator, God.

And we know love matters—through Jesus we have the way of salvation, restoration, and identity. Through Jesus we can experience all God’s love for all eternity. And through Jesus, the love poured into us is to be poured out into others so they might also experience God’s love.

Through Lent, let us thank God for his love in Christ, and let us love others with this love we have received.

God bless

Pastor Stephen