Rick Warren - It’s All About Love – Part One

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry

of Pastor Rick Warren. Today, Pastor Rick kicks off a

series called Forty Days of Love. In these lessons, Rick

looks into the Bible to help you understand God's great

love for you and to empower you to love others

the way Jesus does. But first, in just a bit,

we'll tell you how to get Pastor Rick's forty Days

of Love Bible study with six video sessions and workbook.

It's perfect for individual studying and also great to do

with a small group of friends. You can take a

sneak peek by going to Pastorick dot com while you listen,

or just text the word hope to eight hundred, six

hundred five thousand and four. That's the word hope to

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Right now,

here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called

It's all about out Love.

How would you complete this sentence? My number one goal

in life is and I want you to think about

that for a minute. My number one goal in life,

what is most important to me is how would you

complete that sense? What word? What phrase would you use?

Would you say, my number one goal in life is

to be happy, or my number one goal in life

is to be loved, or my number one goal in

life is to succeed at my career. How would you

answer that question? My number one goal in life is comfort,

or have fun, or retire or get married and raise

a family. My number one goal in life is to

be well known popular, How would you answer that question?

It's very, very important, and if you haven't ever thought

it through, you need to think it through and consciously

understand it. Because however you answer that question is what

I call your dominant life principle. Now, everybody's got a

dominant life principle. It's the most important value to you

in life. You maybe never thought it through, but you

use it all the time every time you make a decision.

Every time you have a choice, you access the database

in your brain and you decide what you're going to

do based on your dominant life value, your dominant principle

of life. For instance, if my dominant life value or

principle is to have fun, then this evening, if I

get a couple of invitations on the phone, I'm going

to tend to choose the thing that's the most fun

to do, because that's what's important to me, have fun.

If my dominant life principle is comfort, then I'm going

to tend to choose the easiest thing to do. What's

the most convenient thing. No, I'd rather just stay home

and lay on the couch and watch TV. If my

dominant life value our principle is safety, it's then I'm

going to tend to make every decision in life based

on what's the safest choice. And so I'm going to

look at it that way, security issues. If my dominant

life value is to be approved, to be affirmed, to

be applauded, then I'm going to tend to choose things

in life where I get the most affirmation. If earning

approval is the most important thing to me. So it's

extremely important that you think through what is going to

be the most important value in your life. Now, what

does God have to say about this? Well, he has

a lot to say about it. And in the Bible,

in the Book of First Corinthians there on your outline,

chapter fourteen, verse one, he says this, let love be

your greatest aim. You might want to circle that let

love be your greatest aim, not status, not success, not

possessions or power, or privilege, or prestige, not comfort, not money.

He says you should make is the number one life value. Love.

Now why does he say that, make love the highest

aim of your life. Why? Because God is love and

he wants you to be like him. The Bible tells

us that God created everything in the universe out of love.

He made everything in order to love it. Because God

is love. Doesn't say he has love. He is love.

He created you as an object of his love. And

God wants you to be like him, and so he

created you to learn how to love. In fact, you

were put on this planet to learn how to love.

Why didn't God just creation take you to heaven? Have

you ever thought about that? Why does let you spend

sixty seventy eighty ninety years here on a broken world

where there is a sin, suffering, sorrow, sadness, problems, pressures, stress.

Why doesn't God just create you and take you directly

to Heaven. Why does he put you here on earth?

He allows you here on earth in order to learn

to love. Life is all about learning how to love.

In fact, one day Jesus was walking down the street

and the guy came up to him, and he said, Lord,

what is the most important command in the Bible? Can

you tell me what really matters most Jesus, Of all

these things that are in the Bible, what should I

really focus on? And Jesus said, I can do that.

I can summarize the entire Bible for you in two sentences.

And if you get these two things, you get it.

You get what life is all about. It's called the

Great Commandment. We've looked at it manyutes, many times. It's

stare on your outline. Let's read it aloud together. In

Mark chapter twelve, Jesus said, love the Lord your God

with all your heart and all your soul, and all

your mind and all your strength. And love your neighbor

as yourself. There are no commands more important than these.

Now that's pretty clear. He said, nothing in the Bible,

nothing at all, is more important than these two things.

Learn to love God with all your heart. And oh,

by the way, learn to love everybody else. He said,

if you get those two things, you got it. You

get it. You understand what I put you on this

planet to do. Life is all about learning to love.

Everything else is excess, everything else is secondary. Make love

your highest aim. He said, I want you first of

all to learn to love me God, And then he says,

I want you to learn to love every everybody else.

And once you've done that, now you're ready to come

to heaven. That's why you were alive. And if you

go all through life, it doesn't matter how much you

acquire and how much you achieve, and how many accomplishments

you make, and how many rewards or how famous you become.

None of that matters. One day you're going to stand

before God and he's going to say, did you learn

to love me by the way? That's why I sent

Jesus Christ so you could learn to love me. And

did you learn by the way to learn to love

other people? Because that's what I put you on earth

to do. And if you admit that, miss that wrong answer.

Because life is all about love. Love God with all

your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's what

it's all about. In fact, the Bible says this one

Corinthians sixteen fourteen everything you do must be done with love. Question,

what does that include? How about everything everything you do

must be done with love? I didn't say that, God

said it. Now does that mean writing emails. Yeah, some

of you need to tape this verse to your computer,

and before you ever write an email, you need to think.

Everything I write must be done with love. Does this

include ordering fast food when you can't understand the speaker? Yeah?

Everything you do must be done with love. Does it

include finding a parking spot when other three other people

want it? Everything you do must be done with love.

Does it mean including being nice to people who vote

differently than you. Everything you do must be done with love.

Does it include responding to people who attack you for

your faith? Yes? Everything you do must be done with love.

If you don't, you are missing the point of life.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can

listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

Jesus said there's nothing more important than loving God and

loving others. That's why Pastor Rick created the forty Days

of Love Bible study that comes with a sixth session

DVD in workbook. In these sessions, Rick helps you understand

how deep and wide. God's Love is for you and

reveals how you can enjoy happy and successful relationships with

us by focusing on the spiritual principles of patience, kindness, truth,

and forgiveness. This resource is perfect for personal study, or

you can invite a few friends over and do it

in a small group setting. And today, when you give

a gift to share the love of Jesus with people

here and around the world, will send to you Pastor

Rix forty Days of Love Bible Study to say thanks.

Get yours now and experience more fulfilling relationships as you

live a life powered by the love of Jesus. Go

to pastorik dot com right now to get your copy,

or you can call eight hundred six hundred five zero

zero four that's Pastorick dot com. Or call eight hundred

six hundred at five zero zero four. Thank you so

much for your support, and don't forget to let us

know which radio station you heard us on.

Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.

Everything you do must be done with love? Does it

mean including being nice to people who vote differently than you?

Everything you do must be done with love? Does it

include responding to people who attack you for your faith. Yes,

everything you do must be done with love. If you don't,

you are missing the point of life. I think this

is a great verse verse to memorize together before we

start forty Days of Love. Now you've heard me say

many times that in order to learn a verse, the

hardest part is to learn where it is in the Bible.

The reference point. We call that the address. First Corinthians,

sixteen fourteen. So when you memorize a verse, you say

the address before and after, because that's the hardest part

to remember. So let's look at the outline and let's

read this verse together. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Everything you

do must be done with love. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Okay,

now here's the hand motions. Everything you do must be

done with love. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Okay, let's try

it together. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Everything you do must

be done with love. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Some of

you didn't do it. That was very unloving, So we're

gonna do it again. First Corinthians, sixteen fourteen. Everything you

do must be done with love. First Corinthians sixteen fourteen.

Very good class. Now let's try that. Oh, by the way,

what is First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. Everything you do must

be done with love? First Corinthians sixteen fourteen. And today

we're going to begin the journey of how you do

everything with love? Now, as we begin forty days of

love journey together, I thought it'd be helpful to start

with the definition of love. We throw this word around

and we use it now. I love hot dogs, I

love salsa, I love Krispy Kreme, I love my life wife,

I love America, I love God. But not all in

that order, and not all in the same way. And

so what does it mean to love? So I went

to my twenty fourth volume encyclopedia at home, and I

looked up the word love to get a definition. And

I discovered that in that twenty four volume encyclopedia there

was not a single article on love. In fact, if

you looked up the word love, it said see emotion

and sex. So I looked up emotion, and in the

article on emotion, a long, long article, it used the

word love one time and never defined it. So I

looked up the article on sex. Three pages of article

on sex defining sex. In the Encyclopedia five sentences on

love and again no definition, And what does that say

to us? It says we know a whole lot more

about sex than we do about love. A lot of

things in the world today that are called love stories,

love songs, love poems are not really about love. They're

about sex. When a guy gets up and sings, give

it to me, give it to me. If you don't

give it, I'm going to take it. That's not love.

That's actually a lust song, not a love song. Lust

can never wait to get, love can always wait to give.

So what is love? Well, the Bible has a lot

to say about it, and I've been studying it for

thirty years and I'm going to be sharing that with you.

You can just call me the love doctor. So today,

as we kick it off, we're going to look at

all that we're gonna do together in the next forty

days of love. Five things the Bible says about love.

Number one, if you're write and hews down, we love

because God loves us. God is love, and all love

comes from God. And we love because God loves us.

In First John four seven and eight, it says love

comes from God, for God is love. It doesn't say

God has love. It says God is love. And the

reason why God wants you to love, as I said,

is because He is love. It is his character, in

his essence. He wants us to be like him. And

God is the source of all love. If God wasn't loving,

there would be no love in the universe. All love

comes from God. And the reason you have the ability

to love is because you were made in the image

of God. That's what makes you different from rocks and plants.

God gave you that ability. You were made in His

image so you could do the two things you were

put on earth to do. Learn to love God and

learn to love other people. Life is all about love now,

the Bible says in fee John four nineteen, we love

because God first loved us. Circle God first. God is

always first in everything He takes the initiative. The only

reason you can love God or love anybody else is

because God first loved you, and He showed that love

by sending Jesus Christ to earth to die for you.

He showed that love by creating you, and he showed

that love by everything you have in life is a

gift of God's love. Love. We love because God first

loved us. You know, sometimes I'll talk to believers in

churches who are kind of down on themselves, and they

always feel like they're not measuring up and they're not

pleasing God, and God is always angry with them, and

they always carry a load of guilt around the whole time.

And I've heard many people say this. You know, my problem, Rick,

is I just don't love God enough. And I said, no, No,

that's not it. Your problem is not that you don't

love God enough. Your problem is you don't realize how

much He loves you. Because if you realized how much

God loves you, extravagant, irresistible, unconditional love, you would have

to love him back. You could not not love God.

If you understood how much He loves you, you would

automatically be attracted to it. And the reason you don't

love God, you don't care about God, you don't serve God,

is you don't understand or feel how much He loves you.

So you have to start. If we're gonna talk about

learning to love other people and becoming great lovers, you've

got to first understand and feel how much God loves you.

And that's what I want to happen in your life

during these forty days. I don't want to just talk

about love, read about love, talk discuss about love. I

want you to experience the love of God, because the

day that you finally fully understand how God loves you

completely unconditionally, you can't make God stop loving you. You

can try, but you will fail. When you feel that

unconditional love. You know what, You're just gonna start cutting

people a lot of slack. You're not gonna be as

angry as you've been. You're not gonna You're gonna be

more patient, You're gonna be more forgiving, You're gonna be

more merciful. You're gonna let other people have grace. The

reason why you see people who are judgmental, who are sarcastic,

who are mean spirited. The reason why you see people

who are angry, self righteous, always putting other people down,

is because they're putting themselves down. They don't feel good

about themselves. They don't feel loved, they don't feel forgiven,

they don't feel grace, they feel guilty. They feel bad

about themselves. And if I feel bad about myself, I

certainly don't want you feeling good about you So during

forty days of Love, we're gonna have to do some

healing in your heart because you have been hurt in life.

You've been hurt by parents, or you've been hurt by

peers on school, or you've been hurt by professionals. Are

you been hurt by partners? Maybe some of you have

been abused, or you've been misused, or you've been rejected,

or you've been abandoned, or you've been betrayed, and you've

got scabs on your heart, and we're gonna have to

do some gentle surgery on your heart because you can't

love others until you feel loved. Let me say that again.

We're gonna have to come back to this several times

this in the next forty days. You cannot give to

others what you have not received yourself. You cannot give

to others what you don't possess. Unlovely people are unloved people,

Hurt people hurt people. It's like a bottle of toothpaste.

When you squeeze a bottle of toothpaste, what's gonna come

out whatever is inside it. And if you're filled with

anger and you're filled with impatience, and you don't feel loved.

Guess what, You're not gonna be able to love anybody else.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you've missed any

part of this message, or if you'd like to find

out more about Pastor Rick Warren and in this ministry,

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a moment. But first, one of the main reasons Pastor

Rick started Daily Hope was to share the hope of

Jesus Christ with people around the world. And because of

your prayers and financial gifts, we're now reaching over thirty

five million people every month, but there are still billions

of people who need to hear the good news. Would

you prayerfully consider giving a gift to Daily Hope today

to help reach even more people for Jesus Christ. And

when you do, we'll send you Pastor ricks forty Days

of Love video based Bible study to say thanks for

your support of this ministry. Here's Pastor Rick to tell

you more.

Jesus says that the two most important things you can

do while you hear on earth are to love God

with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, life is all about love now, as believers,

it's not just enough to talk about love, or to

read about love, or to discuss love. We must show it.

We must exhibit it by the way we treat other people. Now,

the Bible says that we do this. We learn to

be genuinely loving people by relying on the love that

God has for us. That's why I put together a

six session study kit called forty Days of Love. It

includes a study guide and a six session DVD that

will teach you the habits of a loving heart. Now,

you can go through it by yourself, but really, how

are you going to learn to love by yourself? You

need to do it in a small group with two

or three friends or even more. Just get some friends

and some neighbors and say, let's learn how to really love,

and let's study this together for forty days. Now. Forty

Days of Love is going to teach you why love

matters most more than anything else, and it's going to

teach you what the Bible means when it says that

love is patient, and love is kind, and love speaks

the truth. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love is forgiving. Now,

I want to tell you something. This is a life

changing study. It changed my life when I did it,

and it's going to change your life and those that

you share it with. And if you really want to

grow spiritually, you've got to learn how to love. Now.

This month, we're offering the forty Days of Love study

kit for a financial gift to Daily Hope ministries. I

want everybody to be able to enjoy this study, So

all I ask is that you help support Daily Hope Ministries. Now,

I know some of you can afford a little bit

more than others, and I appreciate that it helps us

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at home and even all around the world.

To give a gift and receive the forty Days of

Love study kit, call us now at eight hundred, six

hundred five thousand and four, or just go to Pastorrick

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