There is a solution.
But first, the problem.
Love is tough at times.
It is difficult, humanly speaking, to love certain people.
You've met them, the tougher ones.
I can become difficult to love.
And then why?
Is it difficult to love?
It just is.
I guess because we're selfish.
You know, love stretches outside of oneself.
Love is not naturally inexhaustible.
We get to a point where we just don't have any more to give.
Love is selfless and that is tough.
It might be the toughest thing we do all day is to find somebody that's unlovely and to love them.
Because where would that come from?
Is it inside of me?
Am I the source, the generator, the spark of empathy, concern, and genuine compassion, love?
For someone who probably won't appreciate it, you know, it's difficult to love when someone is frustrated because they're confused.
And that's not fun to get into that arena to try to bring peace and calm.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
How in the world?
God bless those peacemakers.
How do they make peace?
We have war in the Middle East.
How do you bring peace?
And then the most unlikely candidates steps in and says, here's a potential solution.
You know, anybody who's trying to break up a fight, they're at risk for getting hit.
And they're trying to bring a de-escalation and it's not always successful.
It's difficult.
It takes a lot of courage …
to step in there and try.
Why is it difficult to love?
Because there's a strong possibility that love could be rejected.
That the motives could be misconstrued.
That someone could say that the one trying to love is not doing it the right way.
Didn't have the right tone.
Didn't have the right purity,
or good heart.
Love is tough because human nature is just a little bit rough.
Love runs thin.
Love runs out.
I wish I could keep going on the problem, but I'm already discouraged, so I need a solution.
What is the solution?
Well, there's a verse that unpacks it.
There was a young man,
a teenager and he met God in human form and he followed Him.
This young man's name was John, John the Apostle.
And John set out on a mission, I believe he determined within himself to receive and believe the love that God had for him.
In fact, we read in, I believe it's 1 John, it says, And we have known.
The word know means to give intellectual assent.
And we have known the love of God.
Now, there's one more phrase in there.
But what does it mean to know the love of God?
This is point one.
If we're going to express love,
or increase our capacity to be a conduit to funnel love to those around us, especially those who don't want to be loved, who are, you know, really unlovely in the moment.
How are we supposed to be loving?
Well, step one, know the love of God.
That's with the mind.
You might not feel it yet,
It's not in your heart.
It's not in your soul.
You're just pondering.
You're just thinking.
It's possible.
Is love possible?
What is the love of God?
Who is this God anyway?
Does God love me?
What evidence is there that God loves me?
Thinking about love is a great first step.
This apostle John said, we'll give you the verse, and we have Known
and Believed the Love that God hath for us.
So the first step is thinking about God's love, getting to know the love of God, intellectually engaging on a superficial level, and then pondering the depth, the width, the height, the depth, the breadth,
of God's Love.
Asking questions about this love, being curious about the love of God.
Has God shown any love at all recently?
If God were going to express love, how would He do it?
How do we know that it's God doing the loving?
What is the nature of God's love?
What is the capacity of God's love?
What does love give?
What did God give?
Does love communicate?
How does God communicate?
To know the love of God.
It says later, which passeth knowledge.
So we're supposed to know the love of God.
I cannot have
that which I do not know.
You know, step two is to receive or to believe the love that God has for me.
Now, you can't skip ahead to say, “I feel loved by God” unless we first know the love of God.
Intellectually and experientially, we must think about how God has loved us.
There must be some kind of evidence
And then we must receive, embrace, believe, absorb, intake the love.
Review the facts and then receive it into our heart.
Feel loved.
Because the third step is to love others, which is not humanly possible to love, especially with divine love, unless I first think about
God's love and then secondly I believe and receive the love that God has for me and then number three I can then take some of that love and bring it to others because I cannot deliver a package that I do not hold.
I cannot give to others that which I personally don't have.
So I think about God's love and then I try to receive that love and then I try to deliver
that love.
It's a three-step process and it's difficult.
It is difficult because human nature, we just resist.
We're prideful.
Naturally, I don't want to think about such things.
I'd rather think about myself, think about protection, think about comfort, ease, live a low-impact life, a low-stress life.
I don't want to be engaged.
But love engages with others and others are rough.
I can be rough.
Everyone has a rough side.
How do you love somebody that's having a rough day?
Well, think about what love is.
Think about where love comes from.
Think about levels of love, layers of love, expressions of love, the value of love, the necessity of love.
Read about love.
Look up the word love.
Try to associate love with the true Source.
There has to be a Divine level of love.
Once we become intellectually immersed in Who Love is, what Love does, and we see the evidence rising.
Right now I can see snowflakes falling.
Where did they come from?
Well, above.
They came from above.
They did not come from me.
They come from Someone, somewhere.
And are these snowflakes acts of love?
Well, yes, they could be.
I see the leaves turning colors and falling.
They gave, they gave their lives to service and bring life to that tree and the pretty colors.
How is that love?
Well, it's love by design.
It's love by intention.
It's love by nuance.
It's love by changing of the seasons.
There is a plan that's bigger and better.
We can trust because the seasons will cycle as they always have since we've been born.
Where is love?
Love is in words.
How do we get the capacity for words?
Who's the Source of all words?
We think about love.
That's a good step toward loving.
And then we have to receive the love that God has for us.
God does love us.
God wants us to feel His love.
God wants us to open the gift of love.
And then God wants us to have excess to be able to share with our world.
He wants us to be able to be a funnel that delivers love that is valid, accurate.
The world's hungry.
We're very hungry for love.
So let's not stop at
The toughness.
Probably the toughest thing somebody can do is love the unlovable.
Love your enemy.
How do you do that?
Well, God has to help.
It's impossible.
Absolutely impossible to love your enemy.
Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.
Accuse.
Don't appreciate.
Retaliate.
These people that are antagonistic.
They're flustered.
They're confused.
They're vicious.
They're violent.
How do you love that?
They're not cute.
They're not... It's not a problem you can solve.
It's not something you can fix.
You just have to love.
Love is tough.
Make the determination to be tough.
You know, toughness in the octagon
is one level.
Toughness in the ring or on the mat or on the gridiron or on the field, that's one level of toughness.
There is relational toughness, emotional, intellectual, spiritual toughness that determines, I must love.
I've got to be tough enough to love
Where do we start?
Go get love.
Go find it.
Hunt it down.
Think about it.
Look for it.
Research it.
Explore.
Read.
Open a book.
Pursue love.
The real, true love.
Not fake.
Not world's substitute.
Not that channel.
Not that fake stuff.
Genuine.
Pure.
The love that's from above.
Charity-level love, God level love, sacrificial love, giving love.
So the verse is, We have known and believed the love that God hath for us.
And what's the result?
Other people can think about and feel and receive that love,
because you introduced them to it.
There could be no gospel without love.
And there could be no love without it being expressed in the form of rescue in the gospel.
Because love sees someone hurting, they see a scenario that's unsolvable, and love steps in to say, I'm willing to do what it takes to help solve this situation.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to solve our sin problem.
How do we respond?
Whosoever believeth in him.
We have to believe the love that God sent should not perish, that's the biggest problem, but have everlasting life.
That's the greatest solution.
What activated all of it?
God's heart
Exercise love.
It was tough.
Do you think it was tough for God to love humans?
Some of them?
Maybe it's not tough for God to love you, but you can name off a few others that are just rough.
They're rejecters.
They're not going to receive love easily.
They're not going to be melted with the cute story.
Love the unlovely.
Do the tough thing.
Transmitting Supernatural Love