Amazing Power of Love—How to Cultivate Unconditional Love audio video notes. The point is that Abraham and Sarah gave the amazing power of love to the correct person, and the power of love eventually brought them both to find their dreams. Abraham and Sarah’s amazing love took them through the problems and glitches of marriage to the impossible.
- What is love?
- Jesus spoke about how love requires strength
- The Bible tells us about Abraham and Sarah
- The Point Is
VALENTINE
by Delbert Young
Amazing Power of Love – How to Cultivate Unconditional Love
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Amazing Power of Love – How to Cultivate Unconditional Love
Scriptures: Mark 12:30, Song of Solomon 8:6-7, Song of Solomon 8:6, Song of Solomon 8:7, Genesis 21:1-8, 1 Corinthians 13:13,
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I knew we would dedicate a baby today. With all this love in the air talking about the destructive power of PRIDE, our current series didn’t seem to fit, so I want to talk about THE AMAZING POWER OF LOVE instead. I heard a cute joke I’d like to share with you. Children were playing and were going to pretend they were in love and getting married. They assigned parts – the preacher, the bride, the groom, the best man, the maid of honor, etc.
When it came time to perform the ceremony, the child playing the preacher didn’t know what to say. One of his friends said, “Just say something from the Bible.” Remembering what he’d heard his real preacher say the prior Sunday, the boy said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I think it’s this way in marriage and love. Love is one of those things requiring much forgiveness from God and from both spouses. And, even after years of love and marriage, we never actually know what we are doing. We know we are in love. Love is the most powerful and the greatest of all emotions (1Co 13:13). It’s the power of love.
If I asked you, “What is love?” what would you answer? I will give you my answer later, and we’ll see if we agree, but what is your definition of love?
Would you give me a show of hands if you are “IN LOVE” with someone now? My point is love is an unavoidable fact of life.
Love affects every person. One day, your child and grandchild will love someone just as you love and have loved. If you or they are not in love today, you will be. It’s impossible to go through life and not love. God has wired us to love. The Lord made us in his likeness and image (Gen 1:26), and God is love (1Jo 4:8, 16). Love is necessary and a part of the abundant life God has for you. You will never go as high and experience the life God has planned for you without love. God designed love to make life good.
Love is a huge doctrine in the Bible. Did you know the word “love” appears five hundred and five times in the New International Version? Eight different Hebrew and Aramaic words translate love in the Old Testament, and three Greek root words form eleven different words for love in the New Testament. We learn that not only do we experience love in various ways but also that love changes and evolves in our lives. It becomes more and more powerful.
Jesus spoke about how love requires strength (physical dimension), mind (thoughts), soul (subconsciousness – emotions), and heart (from where the issues of life come Pro 4:23).
When we truly love someone, it means we have allowed them to penetrate our physical, mental, and soul realms and into our hearts. The person has become a serious issue in our lives. As it were, we take our hearts and, layer by layer, hand them over to the person we desire to love us (sticky note illustration). Hopefully, the person we love is doing the same.
The more love you give the person, the more of your life this person holds and controls. That person now can make you laugh or make you cry. This person will bring you great happiness or great sorrow. This person tremendously influences your dreams and vision for life, succeeding or failing. What I want us to see is love, and who you give your love to is the strongest force in your life.4
That is why Jesus answered what he answered when asked, “…which is the most important commandment?” or we could easily say, “…which is the greatest force in life?”
Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your MIND and with all your STRENGTH.’
Jesus went on to say we can compare love to this. The greatest power and force in life is love. Love is powerful. Here is why we love God first. Give your love to the most significant force in your life.
The Song of Solomon paints a picture of love between Christ and his bride, the church, and a man and a woman.
Song of Solomon 8:6-7 PLACE ME LIKE A SEAL OVER YOUR HEART, or like a seal on your arm. FOR LOVE IS AS STRONG AS DEATH, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
Hold me in your heart like you hold me in your arms! “Seal me in your life,” she says to him – adore me, cherish me, love me!
The passage says, “For love is as strong as death…” Its power is equal to the power of death. George Jones sang a song titled “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” The lyrics say:
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today.
The Bible says love is a power as strong as death. Once love gets you, it grips you and won’t let you go. It will grip you with joy and laughter, or it will grip you with jealousy and sadness. In the correct hands, love will take you to extreme heights. In the incorrect hands, love can make you miserable and destroy you, i.e., Samson. Love is as powerful as death.
Song of Solomon 8:6 …For love is as strong as death, and ITS JEALOUSY UNYIELDING AS THE GRAVE.
Love brings jealousy, which is as enduring as the grave. Jealousy can last a lifetime. Jealousy can be a slow death gnawing and eating at a person’s heart (issues of life), soul (subconscious – emotions), mind (thoughts), and strength (physically sick). You will cry and hurt because of jealousy. It will cause you to do and say things you resent. It will take your vision for life and crush it. Love is as powerful as jealousy.
Song of Solomon 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
Love is a powerful power, but you cannot buy it. Here is my short definition of love: Love is a fantastic power placed within us by God. No one can buy your love. You alone willingly relinquish your love to another. By so doing, you permit another to release love’s fantastic power upon you. Love is an incredible power, but no one can buy love. You give your love.
It’s easy to find Biblical and personal examples of people relinquishing the amazing power of love to someone who misused the power. We have Adam and Eve (man fell because of love). We have Isaac and Rachel, Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, etc., but finding one example where love was perfect with no problems and no glitches escapes me.
God’s love is perfect for us, but I wanted a Valentine’s love example between a man and a woman. There are no perfect love stories in the Bible where, when given sufficient information, something strange didn’t happen. In the Bible, something always happens with people in love and always happens in life.
Even with Mary and Joseph, hand-picked by God to be the earthly parents of Jesus, problems were present in their love. Joseph planned to put Mary away privately (Mat 1:19). My point is that “a perfect love” where problems don’t happen is not reality. In fact, real love, true love, and perfect love include working through difficulties. It’s not perfect love until tested.
The Bible tells us about Abraham and Sarah.
It’s a beautiful account of two people who handed over their love to one another as they went through life together, but not without several glitches. Twice, Abraham became fearful for his life and convinced Sarah to first allow Pharaoh to put Sarah into his harem (Gen 12:12-13). Later, Abraham did it again with King Abimelech (Gen 20:2).
Wives, imagine if your husband gave you to another man to save his own hide—not once, but twice? God stepped in on both occasions and protected Sarah, but this would be a good-sized glitch in a love relationship. We learn that when we love God’s way, we can count on him stepping in.
Abraham and Sarah worked through their problems. Working through problems is also the amazing power of love. Once Sarah, because she could not conceive and wanted a child, convinced Abraham to have a child with her servant girl named Hagar (Gen 16:1-2). They didn’t have artificial insemination in those days.
That entire situation escalated into a huge family problem lasting years. But again, God stepped in, and Abraham and Sarah worked through their issues. Their love may not have been what we’d call “perfect,” or was it? Isn’t perfect love actually working through the problems and glitches of love? One thing we know is their love was endless. They sealed each other in their hearts as they sealed each other in their arms – adored, cherished, and loved.
The point is that they handed the amazing power of love to the correct person, and the power of love eventually helped them both find their dreams.
Abraham’s dream was to have a son by Sarah, who would be his heir. Sarah’s dream was a child of her own whom she birthed, nursed, and raised for Abraham. Their amazing love took them through the problems and glitches to the impossible. A hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old woman conceived and birthed a child.
Genesis 21:1-8 Then the LORD did exactly what he had promised. SARAH BECAME PREGNANT, AND SHE GAVE A SON TO ABRAHAM IN HIS OLD AGE. It all happened at the time God had said it would. And Abraham named his son Isaac… Abraham was one hundred years old at the time. And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”
Dreams come true, and life is good when we give the amazing power of love to the correct person. Love is an amazing power designed by God within us to willingly relinquish to another with the permission to release love’s power on you. When done correctly, it will cause dreams to come true.
I will close with this thought: Life is meaningless without love. Paul goes through the entire thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians saying things like if I have not love, “I am nothing,” and if I don’t have love, “I gain nothing.” Love makes us who we are, and love makes life worth living. Love is the greatest.
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and LOVE. But THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.
Love is the greatest, brightest, hottest flame—the most powerful of all emotions. Love has the power to take a person to the highest summit of joy, happiness, and success. Remember this one thing from this lesson: To whom you give your love, you give this person amazing power over your life.
Amazing Power of Love – How to Cultivate Unconditional Love
Amazing Power of Love – How to Cultivate Unconditional Love
Other Related Sermons:
Wicked Woman Delilah Part 2 – How to Discern True Love
Love Kingdom Love—How to Love Like God
Believing In Tomorrow audio video notes
Man Who Amazed Jesus Luke 7:1-10
Have A Person To Love It’s Good To Be Alive
Old Abraham Gave Up The Ghost And Died
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