Others confuse love with lust. Love is not lust. Lust cannot wait to get. Love cannot wait to give. And a lot of love these days is pseudo-love, thinly veiled selfishness. We make this big statement. "I love you." But if you read the fine print it says, "I'll love you if you meet my needs, if you are sweet to me, if you are kind, if you show me affection perfectly, everything is A-OK. But the moment you stop doing that I won't love you anymore." People talk about falling into love like you fall into a swimming pool. Love is a decision. The Bible explodes all of this confusion and nails it down precisely in a verse that is not on your scripture sheet. Listen as I read this. I John 3:18. "Let us stop just saying we love people. Let us really love them and show it by our actions." Love is a choice. Love always reveals itself in action. Love is a choice and it always reveals itself in action.
Today, here is what God wants to do in our lives. God loves you and God loves me so much, He wants to take us from the natural realm of loving into the supernatural realm of loving. Is that a great deal, or what? God wants to do that and He will do it if we can comprehend and answer two questions about love. I will spend the lion's share of my time addressing these two questions.
The first question. How does God express His love to me? It is no small thing to say to someone, I love you. That is a high risk pronouncement, wouldn't you agree. For those of us who are married, think back to the time you were dating. For some of us it might be a long time back. Do you remember those "statements at the door", guys? You would walk her to the door and after the first or maybe second date you would take the risk and say, "I really had a nice time, tonight." And you were hoping, you were praying that she would return the sentiment by saying, "I had a nice time tonight, too." And if you got past that hurdle you would go, "Oh boy, I'm cruising now."
Ed Young Pastor shares that a couple of weeks later, the next hurdle. You kind of get more and more vulnerable. You say, "I really enjoy being with you. I do." You would wait and she would say it back.
