Love is a funny word isn’t it. We love chocolate, we love that Ferrari, we make love, we’d love you to be there, we love our children, our parents, our husband or wife…..but what does it really mean ?

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a.

That’s true love…..not infatuation, not lust, not desire, ….but a total selfless, commitment to another person. Not looking for reward or payback. The sort of love that as parents we hope to give our children, but often struggle to.
I don’t know about you, but I know, that I need help to love in that way, it doesn’t come naturally. I’d like to think I can, but in reality part of me wants something in return.

If I told you that I know someone who loves you selflessly, completely, and is totally committed to you, wouldn’t you want to know about it ?
Who is this person ?
Why do they care about me so much, I’ve done nothing for them ?

Well, there is a love talked about and demonstrated in the Bible that is stronger and more powerful than any love you can experience from another human being. There is someone who loves you so much, they’re prepared to die for you.
We’re moved by stories of sacrifice aren’t we ? Rescue workers who risk their lives to save another.
But what if someone did that knowing that they were going to die…..not just risking their life but giving their life as a conscious planned decision.
That’s what Jesus, the Son of God, has done for you and me.
His love for you is not just a feeling, it’s a choice, a commitment. We simply have to believe and receive it.

Most people have the right idea about God….that He is a God of love…the Bible tells us that. But where we go wrong is that we don’t really understand what love means. You only have to look around you, or even look at your own life…..divorce, broken homes, abuse, violence and aggression. The very people closest to us, that we should love the most, it seems we have so much trouble actually loving. ………Basically because we’re selfish.
You know, I thought I was a fairly generous giving person…then I got married…and found I was in reality still quite a self centred, selfish person. Then we had children and that challenged me even further to let go of what I want, and to serve my family.

God made us for love. Jesus said the two most important commands of God are to love God with all that you are, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Remembering of course what the Bible says love is. That’s what life is all about, that’s the goal. It’s not complicated, simple. But you know what, I can’t even do that without God’s help.

Part of us wants to love, part of us is utterly selfish. It’s what the Bible calls the sinful nature, or in the old King James version….the ‘flesh’.
Our sinfulness damages us, it damages others, and hurts and angers God who made us.
It’s a barrier to that love relationship with God, and our relationships with others.
The Bible says, ‘the wages of sin is death’. Ultimately, it leads to death.

But God, because He loves us, has not abandoned us and left us to destruction and death.
‘Whilst we were still sinners Christ died for us’ Jesus isn’t for goody goody people, He’s for everyone who recognises who He is and their need of Him.
Jesus has died for us. He has paid the price for all the bad things we have ever done, said, or thought….He has suffered and died on the cross for our selfishness and self-centredness.
Why ? So that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God. So that the barrier I mentioned earlier might be removed. So that we can love Him and others in the way He intended.
Jesus is not just an example of giving and sacrifice…..He is the sacrifice….for you and me.
Jesus has died for you. And He has risen from the dead as evidence of who He was, God in human form.
God’s forgiveness, a personal relationship with Him in which you can experience His love, the assurance of eternal life with God when your body dies, are offered as love gifts from God, gifts of grace that aren’t deserved by us.

The question then for all of us, is what are we going to do about it ?
‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life’ John 3:16.
Accept Him or reject Him ?
Receive His love or push it away ?
It is the most important decision of our lives.

I’m not perfect as my wife and those who know me, will testify. But I’m a different person to who I was before I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and my Lord. Before I didn’t have a clue how to love. It was all about desire, manipulation, and so on. But when I experienced the love of God through Jesus suffering and death for me, and when the Holy Spirit came to live within me….things started to change. I knew real love for the first time, and could start to give it away too. It is as we experience the love of God, that we begin to love others as we were meant to. Makes sense if God made us in such a way as to be in loving relationship with Him.
In God we can reach our potential, become the child, parent, husband, wife, friend, neighbour, work colleague….that we were meant to be.
It comes by putting our trust completely in God and acknowledging that He’s the boss.

Obviously, if we’ve lived life our own way, it means that we need to say we’re sorry to God.
For the blaspheming, the jealousy, the bitterness, the deceit and lies, the lust, immorality, greed and so on that messes up our lives.
To turn away from our selfishness and self-centred lives, and turn to God and go His way – it’s what the Bible calls repentance. A complete turn around, a change of heart and mind.
It’s not just for ‘really bad’ people, it’s something that every person needs to do, because in some way or other we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. (exam, eggs in cake)

It’s hard because it challenges our pride. We have to let go of control, and let God in.
But you let in someone who loves you perfectly and completely.

Nobodies going to force you, I’m not going to give an alter call or anything too alien like that, but in a moment I will give the opportunity for quiet personal prayer, just to talk in your heart to God.
When faced with the truth about God’s love and Jesus Christ who died for you…..you’re intelligent people and know this is a big deal.
If this is false then of course it’s irrelevant. But if it’s true, then it’s lifechanging and vitally important to respond. Either what I have said this morning is true or it isn’t, what you do with it is up to you.
The one thing I ask you not to contemplate, is to ignore it. I can think of nothing more insulting to Jesus, when He has given Himself for you. We all have deal with the consequences of our decisions in life. Please take Jesus seriously.