WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE - Razor Planet



WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE?...Part 4

“Love Looks Like TRUTH”

• Our generation THINKS that it knows all about love…but it actually knows so little about it really

• We THINK we know so much about love because love is talked about in songs that we hear over and over again on the radio…we see what love “supposedly is” constantly on TC and in the movies…

• People write about it in books and on the internet…everybody talks about it more in this age than anytime before…..so with all this attention on LOVE…you would think we would really know what TRUE LOVE is…

• BUT WE DON’T…in fact, as things are right now…more married couples are divorcing than every before…more families are breaking up than ever before…there is more drama than ever before….WHY? Because we are operating under the wrong definition of love…we are getting all the wrong examples and all the wrong instructions…

• For some reason, our culture has turned to the very worst role models for love…we look to the people in Hollywood for our definition..or we look to the people who are the least knowledgeable…people on TV who call themselves “experts”…and they give us absolutely AWFUL advise!

• The “world” says that we can get a divorce if we aren’t “happy”…no wonder marriages are breaking up left and right…no wonder people today are finding it harder and harder to get along with each other in all situations…

• Our culture seems to ignore the ONE PLACE we could get the REAL DEFINITION of what LOVE really is….THE BIBLE!...no wonder our world is in such a great mess….

• The bad thing is that Christians seems to fall into this trap too…because they have also not gone back to God’s Word to see what TRUE LOVE is…instead Christians listen to Oprah…we listen to the same love songs, watch the same movies, read the same novels that describe what love is…and slowly but surely the world’s definition creeps in on us and we begin to buy into it…

• Love looks like TRUTH…and the ultimate TRUTH that we have is the living , breathing WORD OF GOD!

• So let’s go back to the verse we left off with the last week…

• Last time we met…we left off with the verse from 1 Corinthians 13

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…”

• Check out what is smack in the middle of that passage of Scripture…

• 1 Corinthians 13:6 “LOVE does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the TRUTH.”

• LOVE is not just a sweet little thing that makes us feel super good on the inside…it is WAY MORE than that!

• Have you ever heard some well-meaning person say…”We just have to love people where they are”///?

• While that is TRUE…it is only true to a certain extent….a lot of time when we say that, the intent behind it is “we need to pretend that everything is perfectly fine the way they are so that we don’t rock their boat”…

• In other words…if we confronted the REALITY of their life…that would seem “mean” and “uncaring”…but in actuality…loving people where they are is good in itself…but it all goes haywire when we pervert what that means ….a lot of times WE are the ones missing some key characteristics of love in OUR OWN LIVES…hang on a minute and we will talk about those things…

• If we truly believe that EVERYTHING ABOUT GOD is TOTALLY WHAT TRUE LOVE is…, and HE IS, .then we need to follow what He gives us in the Scriptures…

• Amos 3:3 “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?”

• God is not going to change His direction to walk OUR way…we gotta change OUR direction to walk in step with HIM!

• So……………….how do we go about walking and agreeing with God…..the ONLY way is to walk the Way that His Word tells us to walk…to follow His commands…to walk in Spirit and in TRUTH….which ultimately means that we must face His CONVICTION…

• Even His conviction is TRUE LOVE….His conviction…by the Holy Spirit is what corrects us and disciplines us when we are not in agreement with Him.

• God IS love and since He said that LOVE CANNOT rejoice in wrongdoing…TRUE LOVE cannot either…it can only rejoice with TRUTH.

• Proverbs 1:23 “If you turn at My reproof, behold, I will pour out My spirit to you; I will make My words known to you.”

• WHAT AN INCREDIBLE, LOVING PROMISE HE HAS GIVEN TO US….

• If we turn from our wrongdoings when He gently corrects us…He will pour out His Spirit on us and make His Words know to us! I WANT THAT!!!!

• Ok…did you get that?....WE have to be open to correction from God …

• God loves us and He wants to speak PERSONALLY to us…in order to do that…to bring us to a place where we “walk together in agreement”…He REPROVES or corrects or convicts us BECAUSE He cannot rejoice at wrongdoings

• So His reproof IS part of love…

• Just like as parents…we correct and lead BECAUSE we LOVE…we are made in the image of God…we do the same things with OUR children that HE does with HIS children…

• Proverbs 13:24 “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

• Now…this doesn’t mean that you get to go around to everyone you meet and yell at them and scold them and tell them that they are not living right…this is meant for YOU…it’s PERSONAL

• Just like the bride in the Song of Solomon…we have to go through some reproof and correction in order to be the mature bride of Christ

• Hebrews 12:6 “For the Lord disciplines the one He LOVES, and chastises every son whom He receives.”

• If you really love your children…then you should be DILIGENT or STEADY in disciplining them…EX: You don’t let tell them “no” for something and then the next day say “yes” to the same thing…especially something that you know will harm them!

• We each have a “sphere of authority”…there are certain people in our lives that we can speak into …our children, definitely…but sometimes there are also others that we can speak TRUTH into ….

• Regardless of is in your sphere of influence…the Bible says that when the other person on the end of discipline RECEIVES IT WELL…they are WISE!

• Psalm 141:5 “Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it. But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds.”

• Proverbs 15:31-32 “The ear that LISTENS TO LIFE-GIVING REPROOF will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.”

• Proverbs 6:23 “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.”

• When the Bible says that discipline is the way of life, it literally means that it is the road leading to life…..the Hebrew word in this Scripture translated as “way”…literally means “road, distance, journey, manner, habit, or direction”….

• A lot of times we don’t really “get this”…this part of our journey with God that He calls “reproof” or “discipline”

• A lot of times it is because of the way we have been disciplined by our parents…we tend to associate DISCIPLINE it with ANGER and FAILURE….EX: I can remember being punished and grounded a billion times for not making an “A” or for making a “C” when I was just thrilled that I had passed certain subjects…

• So because of this kind of experience…we naturally seem to apply it to the way God disciplines too…but that’s not the way that God intends it!

• How do you react when people correct you? I can remember as a child, always seeing by dad as a disciplinarian who was never really pleased with ANYTHING at ALL that I did…He would remark that if I made a 99 on a test…why didn’t I make a 100….I just never seemed to measure up….so…I grew up with a “warped” mindset on discipline….everytime I thought of it…it always reminded me that I was a failure…

• I finally reacted to EVERYONE who tried to speak into my life in the same way….very defensive…not willing to receive because all it did was cause me to solidify the thought in my mind that I felt was “truth”…that I was a failure in everything and I would never be good enough….

• I took those experiences with my earthly father and translated them over to my Heavenly Father…I grew up thinking HE was constantly angry at me

• Looking back on where I have come from …I can see the incredibly detailed plan of the enemy to keep me in bondage…to never even have the desire to walk the TRUTH of God’s Love …which would be walking in His loving discipline of my thoughts and my ways…

• Until I learned to EMBRACE God’s discipline…I can see that I was reacting to God in a NEGATIVE way toward HIM and toward ANYONE who tried to correct me.

• I KNOW that my dad didn’t mean to correct me in a way to make me feel like a failure…but, that is how I perceived it in my warped mind…I played right into the plan the enemy had for me…

• And the enemy kept me there for a good while….and it wreaked havoc on my life…just like the Bible says it will

• Proverbs 13:18 “Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.”

• Which is exactly what happened in my life…

• Until my eyes were finally opened to the TRUE way of life…

• When I had truly come to the end of myself and I really, really sought after God…He ever so lovingly confronted my error and my wrongdoing…He loved me enough to confront the things that were standing between me and Him…

• He was trying to gently guide me beyond all my false mindsets and all the walls that i had put up into a place with Him where there was nothing standing between me and all the blessings that he had for me…

• Check out this Proverb…

• Proverb 17:10 “A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.”

• Meaning that a single verbal reproof that is gently, kindly and prudently given…not only enters the ear…but the heart of a wise and understanding man…it goes into him…it sinks deeply into his mind…it penetrates into his heart and pierces his conscience…it brings him EASILY to humiliation, confession and reformation

• A HUNDRED BLOWS INTO A FOOL…words won’t sink into the heart of a fool…he is NEVER better for all the corrections given him…his heart is not affected, is not humbled, nor brought to a sense of sin and acknowledgement of it…he is not in the least way reformed…

• We HAVE to surrender to Him…to His LOVE…to His correction and reproof…

• It’s HIS way or no way at all!...His way is the way of LIFE

• Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

• If we aren’t willing to walk through His reproof of our wrongdoing…what makes us think we are going to be able to walk in His blessing?

• So……………….LOVE doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing…

• BUT…there is also a flip side to this….another side to the coin…and you can’t separate the two…there are some people who embrace the reproof and correction of God…but they haven’t yet learned to embrace the BLESSINGS of His love!....they haven’t “got” the second part of that verse…that LOVE “REJOICES WITH TRUTH”…

• God DELIGHTS in TRUTH!

• Psalm 51:6 “Behold, you delight in TRUTH in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

• INWARD BEING…seat of the mind, the feelings, the intellect

• David, the writer of this psalm …was deeply conscious of the yuckiness in his own mind…he knew what God required, He required purity of his mind…but how was he to get that?...He knew it could only come from God…so in the next three verses…David asked God to PURIFY his soul!

• THE SECRET HEART…the depths of the soul…the cleansing had to happen in that part that was hidden from the eye of man…in the SOUL…WISDOM had to have a place there…it couldn’t just be purification that happened to the outward part of David…but the inward part

• Psalm 51:7-10 “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

• He’s asking for God’s discipline so that he can in turn walk in God’s blessing…

• God’s LOVE rejoices in TRUTH…we love it when we are walking in truth and God is rejoicing with us….but we tend to HATE the other side of the coin because we don’t understand that it is also LOVE!

• If we are going to be mature…then we have got to also learn to take REPROOF and CORRECTION and the discipline of the Lord…we HAVE to understand that it is part of His love for us!

• God DISICPLINES us BECAUSE He delights in us!

• If you desire to mature in Him…then we need to HONESTLY EMBRACE His discipline…so that we CAN move into deeper intimacy with Him

• We have got to see that He LOVES us and He DESPERATELY wants us to be soooo close to Him!

• Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but be who hates reproof is STUPID.”

• Proverbs 29:1 “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.”

• If we only accept one aspect of God’s love…according to this verse…we will end up BROKEN BEYOND HEALING…TOTALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL…and God’s love will not be able to fully affect us…because we aren’t allowing Him to fully LOVE us!

• Be THANKFUL for the reproof and discipline of the Lord!!!!

• Every time you embrace it and apply it…you are growing in maturity…you will be able to OVERCOME things that you wouldn’t have been able to on your own…

• So………this is just another aspect of how God shows TRUE LOVE to us…..embrace His correction and embrace His TRUTH

• I believe that only AFTER we have accepted this aspect of His love for us (meaning His reproof and correction)…only then…could we apply this and show TRUE LOVE to others….

• After all…we can’t go around correcting others when we won’t let God correct us!

• Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “

• So…let God do what He needs to do in you FIRST!

• I used to ask God why He didn’t change the things that irritated me that Donny did or my kids or whoever….and He would ALWAYS reply to me with “well, when are you going to let Me do what I need to do in YOU first?”

• TRUE LOVE is to correct so that the person would return to the right and correct path…this can ONLY be done when you have PURIFIED your soul and you truly have a SINCERE PHILEO love for that person…

• 1 Peter 1:22 “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

• The Scriptures give many examples and instructions of reproving and rebuking. God rebuked and reproved Adam, Eve, and Abel. The Lord rebuked Sarah when she laughed. …He rebuked Moses when he struck the rock in anger. Nathan the prophet rebuked and reproved David about his sin.

• We see the same thing in the New Testament. Jesus rebuked and reproved the hypocritical religious leaders…. He also rebuked the disciples, especially their main spokesman, Peter…. Jesus rebukes the churches of Asia in the book of Revelation. Paul rebuked the Corinthians many times in his two letters to them. Why? Because rebuke and reproof are ACTS OF LOVE!!!!

• In fact, when Paul tells Timothy to keep on preaching the Word in II Tim. 4:1-4 he defines preaching, in vs. 2, as reproving, rebuking, and exhorting.

• 2 Timothy 4:1-4 “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct (reprove) , rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

• He is saying that correcting, rebuking, and encouraging…it all has to be done in PHILEO(Brotherly) LOVE!

• Check out some other Proverbs…

• Proverbs 27:5 “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.”

• FAITHFUL ARE THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND…because when they reveal to you your faults…they don’t go tell everyone else…they conceal them from others…

• Proverbs 28:23 “He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue.”

• HE WHO REBUKES A MAN…in a kind, tender, and affectionate manner

• WILL AFTERWARD….in the original Hebrew it is written “he that rebukes a man after me”…after God’s directions…according to the rules God has given and by His order…or after Solomon who wrote these lines and instructions…

• Meaning “rebuking the man PRIVATELY, ALONE, SECRETELY, WHEN THEY ARE BY THEMSELVES….which is what Matthew 18:15 tells us to do FIRST….

• Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”

• AFTERWARDS….he will find more favor than the person that simply flatters with their tongue….EVEN THOUGH giving the rebuke to the person IN PRIVATE may cause you some uneasiness and pain and the person may dislike you at first….if it is given in the correct manner..OUT OF SINCERE AND DEEP LOVE…eventually IF THE PERSON RECEIVES THE REBUKE…the person receiving the rebuke will love, value, and esteem the faithful friend way MORE than the person who flattered him

• Go back to the verse we started with….

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends”

• TRUTH…in love…..

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