The Power of Love | Myron Miller

And I pray that you commit this into your hand.

I pray this on your name amen, god bless you.

Thank you, good morning everyone.

So I've already been a good morning to be here and hearing from God's word and I want to thank everyone who shared already this morning.

I didn't get a title into the Bulletin, but I'm going to be talking on something that everybody needs or wants.

Sometimes it's hard to give and God was the greatest example of it.

And you want to want to shoot out a word?

You're on Yep, talk about love.

This morning, when I think of a love and I started doing a study on this, I actually had an example that I want to share.

But when I started doing the study on the word love, it is a bass, and the more I studied, the more confused I got, because there's so much ground to cover when you look at the word love.

But what got me into thinking and sharing on this was a number of years ago.

I had a guy come out and had one of my tractors didn't work and we were walking around this tractor and looking at it and he was trying to figure it out.

I said you know what?

I said I really love this tractor and he stopped me, looking at me, saying no, you don't.

He said you like this tractor.

He said you have no intimate relationship with this tractor.

And that really made me think and I really got sensitive after that point about where I inject the word love and where I inject the word like.

But the more I thought about it, the more confused I got again, because I heard people say I love baseball, I love your coat, I love my house, and it didn't make sense.

Why couldn't I love my tractor then?

So what I was doing at one point was I was putting the word love all in one capsule, and it was the meaning of intimate love.

Every time I thought of something I put it in that little capsule.

That's not right.

He likes that.

But the more I thought about it and studied on it, the more I saw that we can love something without having an intimate relationship with it.

You know the Bible is covered from front to back with love, words of love, and it was hard to decide where to start, where to cut off, and the first time love is mentioned is in Genesis 22, abraham and Isaac.

And God said take thou son that thou loves, or your beloved.

That was the first time it was mentioned, and hundreds and hundreds of other times throughout the Bible, all the way back to Revelation.

But as I studied this Bible, scholars have really narrowed this down to four biblical loves and I'm going to share on those.

The first one is arrows.

That means passion, sensual or romantic love.

I'm not going to touch on that one too much.

I'll be a good one to share on, like a Valentine's banquet.

The next one is storage, which means affection, familial love, the bond that we have between our family members.

Romans 12, 10 says like this be kindly affection to one to another, with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another.

It means to esteem one higher than another.

I want to share a story on this.

It's called the chocolate egg story.

The teacher came into the classroom and told the students that tomorrow they're going to have a test and whoever has the best score she will have a prize for them.

And everybody was fired up about this.

The next morning when she handed out those tests, she took their tests and collected the papers and she said we have one prize for the grand prize, plus, we also got second prize.

And everybody's hands went up pick me, pick me.

And she finally brought out that first prize, which was a big milk chocolate egg with a blue ribbon on it.

That was a grand prize.

But she said I also have a second prize, which is four little chocolate eggs.

And everybody was all excited.

She said the one who has the best score is Eric.

Eric said you come up and get your prize.

And he walked up front and she handed the big milk chocolate egg to him and he just stood there and she said what's wrong?

He said can I have the second prize?

Everybody's like why?

But what they didn't realize that evening there were four little children sitting at home in the corner, each one having the same size chocolate egg and enjoying it.

Because Eric had two brothers and a sister at home and he saw if he takes that big one, where is it going to be?

The equal upon his brothers and sisters.

And that showed me a big example of the word storage or familial love.

Now we're supposed to be as families to honor one another, to lift each other up, not try to bicker among each other, but to have that family bond that when someone hurts we go and help them.

The next one is philia.

That means friendship, brotherly love that unites believers.

Romans 13, 8 to 10 says oh, no man anything but to love one another.

For here that love with another hath fulfilled the law.

For this thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet.

And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.

Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

It says here that we should owe no man anything.

I think it's talking about that we should be upset about anyone, but that we should show love, even though we like to get upset sometimes over a neighbor, over a friend, whatever.

But it's the love that wins.

The story is of this missionary who was out on the mission field and he was there for a couple of months on the mission field.

He came back home to his home church and they wanted him to give a report of what was going on in the mission field and he said he noticed something and he stood in town.

The people that were sick, were lame, had disease, were needed healed.

They came from outside of town, they walked through town.

There was a government office building where people could stop in and get medicine.

But they walked right past that.

They walked out another couple of miles in the countryside.

It was rough walking Through the woods.

He said you watch that a couple days.

Then finally he stopped on.

He said why do you walk right past the government office building where you can get treated, and it's right here in town, but you walk a couple miles outside of town to get your medicine, to get treated?

And the people said this they might have the same medicine, but they got different hands.

People can feel the love that is within us.

People can feel the love in our hands when we go and I mean sometimes we go, and even as a church we go and help.

People do leaves or, and people can sense are we doing it because we should or are we doing it out of love?

People can feel that.

I thought that was such a great, great example.

The next time you do something, think of that.

The person can feel the love just by you being there and helping.

Is it out of duty or is it out of love?

Another story I want to share is back in 2009,.

By a lot of you know this already, but 2009, this big jet took off out of New York and was heading, I think, for North Carolina and he hit a flock of geese and the captain was Mr Sully and quickly he had to figure out what he's going to do.

The plane was going down and from takeoff till he hit the Hudson River he landed in the Hudson River was five minutes.

The control towers were telling him go to the nearest, go to New Jersey, go to the nearest place and land this plane.

That he said I can't make it, I'm going to go into the Hudson.

So Mr Sully landed this big jet with 155 people on board into the Hudson River and as they dropped the doors and people were scrambling out the sides and people standing on the wings, little life boats were coming up and people were loading up and other boats came by to help.

Mr Sully was still inside as they loaded those little life boats.

They said that he walked twice.

He walked all the way back.

This boat was sinking.

Keep in mind this boat was sinking.

Part of the jet was sinking.

People were going out on the boat and he walked all the way back and under the jet and looked through the seats make sure there's no one there.

He walked all the way to the front.

Then he said he did it again twice While that jet was sinking.

He wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and once he had everyone accounted for, he stepped out and went to shore.

I'd like to pause here a little bit.

This has leaders in the home.

How are we with our children?

Do we risk everything?

Do we check on them a couple of times a day?

Do we check on them through life?

Are we making sure that they're out on that life boat and going safely to shore?

It was just a good lesson to me to check on my life.

Am I willing, do I give up everything?

When I give up my life for my children?

Do I love them so much?

And there's so many other examples that we could give in this.

Feel you brotherly love?

Do you, nice believers?

The last one of the four is the copy of love, which means selfless God's love for humankind.

Romans 5, 8.

But God commended his love toward us and that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us.

You know, let's claim God's love upon our life and let's let that love of God, the sacrifice that he made for mankind, let's let that love set us free.

Don't let anything come between you and God.

I like that we spell out the word love L for living, o for our B for values and E for everyday Living.

Our values every day.

Make love a priority every day.

I like to read John 13, 34 and 35.

A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that she also loved one another, but this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have loved one to another.

I think these two verses are very powerful when it comes to talking about love that people can see the way we interact with each other, that God's love is within us.

If we bicker and we go back and forth, we can't agree on something, how are we supposed to win someone to God?

And I really like this last verse that people watch us, that they can see God's love within us if we love one another.

Talking about the agape love another story to share.

I hope it's okay if I share these stories.

I'd story if I read a story.

It really brings reality out to me and I love to share stories and Troy likes if I share stories with him.

I've shared by some of the same stories over and over and he said just tell him again.

He said this story is of an Indian chief and the worm.

Some of the people in this Indian chief's tribe had noticed that all once this Indian chief got this glow on his face, he seemed to be more content and more happy.

Some of the people asked him what happened.

He said come with me.

They went back in the woods and they got a big pile.

He got a big pile of leaves and he put a woolly worm in the middle of the leaves and then he stuck fire to the bottom of it.

He had this worm on the top of the pile and this pile was burning and he just stood back and didn't do anything.

They just stood and watched and the fire got higher and got hotter, got closer to that worm and just before it consumed the worm, he reached in and took it out.

He said that's what God did to me.

He said that is why I have that glow.

It is the love of God within me.

Now, that's why I have that glow within me.

He said he took me out of, even though all the things that I've done, they were wrong.

He said because of God's love, he lifted me up out of the fire and he set me out.

He forgave me and he set me free.

When I think of the definition of love, I thought there was the first three that I shared, kind of on the natural side, and then on the last one, the God on the supernatural, and I think of the first three I came to the conclusion that love means something that excites you.

Now we can like something, but it's not necessarily really exciting.

But if we say something that we love something, we see it glow in someone's face.

Now we can.

I'm going to pick on James Plyton this morning.

We can talk a little bit about anything we want to, but if he starts talking about fruit trees, he gets his face, his lights up.

He's got a love for fruit trees.

It's something that excites him.

And all of us have something in here.

I mean, jeremy, he talks about John Deere tractors, love for John Deere.

He lights him up.

It's something that excites us.

That is something that we love.

We can talk about our children.

We love our children.

It excites us.

Now, the supernatural on the copy of love means.

Love means unending, selfless.

I'd like to look up a couple of verses.

You can follow along.

We want to.

1 Peter 4-8.

And above all things, have fervent charity or love among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Matthew 22, 37 to 39.

Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all your heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

First, john 3, verse 18.

John 3:18

My little children love us, not love and word, neither in tongue but in deed and in truth.

You know, we can say I love you, or we can say I love this or that, but unless we show it, how will people believe us?

I really enjoy this verse very much, that we should not just say, but that we should do it.

And there's a lot of power.

I think we claim this verse upon our lives.

There's a lot of power in here.

First, john 4, we'll read from 7 to 21.

We love it.

Let us love one another, for love is of God.

Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

He that loveth not, knoweth not God.

For God is love and this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and send his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, for loveth.

If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

No man hath seen God at any time.

If we love one another, god dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.

Hereby I know, we, that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit, and we have seen, and you testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God.

God dwelleth in him and he in God, and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.

God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.

He that fear hath is not made perfect in love.

We love him because he first loved us.

If a man say I love God and hate hath his brother, he is a liar, for he that love hath not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

And this commandment hath we from him, that he who love hath God love his brother also.

First John too.

15 to 17.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

And the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

Here it says that we should not be attached to the world of things.

We should not love the things of this world, but to love God, because he will always be there for us.

Verse Corinthians 13.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tingling cymbal, and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profitably, nothing.

When I was down in Florida, I read this verse, I think.

Four mornings in a row I sat down and I read this exact verse, because some of my brother-laws were helping a young man that's around our neighborhood.

They were helping him and I was wondering are they doing it out of love or are they doing it because they should?

And I read this over and over and over again If I give everything I have, I give everything away, that I got Everything, I own all my money, and if I don't do it out of love, what's the game?

It profiteth nothing.

What is he talking when he says it profiteth nothing?

I circle around there a couple of times.

What does he mean by when he says it profiteth nothing?

I think he's talking there about our spiritual growth.

How can we grow spiritually if we give our finances, we give our things away to help other people just because we think we should?

How can we grow spiritually?

How can we grow closer to God if we don't do it out of love?

Verse 4, charity suffers long and is kind.

Charity envyeth not.

Charity bondeth not itself, is not puffed up.

This first one is the challenge.

It says charity suffers long, sometimes it takes time.

We love someone Sometimes it just takes time, it takes patience.

Then it goes on and says love envyeth not, we're not jealous.

Are we okay with what that other person has?

Are we okay that the other person is successful?

It says love bondeth not itself and is not puffed up.

Are we okay if that other person gets the glory, gets the honor, when we were actually the person that made it happen?

Are we okay with not being puffed up because of the love that God has within us?

Verse 5, does not behave itself unseemly.

Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked.

Thinketh no evil.

Rejoice is not in iniquity, but rejoiceeth in the truth.

Beareth all things, believeeth all things, hopeeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth.

But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.

Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But then?

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child I speak as a child I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away a child as things.

When I received through it, last darkly, it then faced to face.

Now I know in part, but then shall I know even, as also I am known, and now I abide with faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity or love.

I'd like to go up there in verse five again, what says your love is not easily provoked.

That's a challenge.

But are we so rooted in God's love that the test comes, can be, and we just hold back just for a little bit more?

Can we hold that temper if something happens on the road?

Can we just hold that back just for a little bit?

People see your actions.

Have you been so closely connected with the Father and the love that he has for us that people see that?

I could read John 21, 15 and 17.

It says Jesus was speaking with Peter.

So when they had died, jesus saith to Simon Peter Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me more than these.

He saith unto him Yea Lord, thou knoweth that I love thee.

He saith unto him Feed my lands.

He saith unto him again the second time Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me.

He saith unto him Yea, lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

He saith unto him Feed my sheep.

He saith unto him the third time Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me.

Peter was grieved because he saith unto him the third time love is thou me.

And he saith unto him Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus saith unto him Feed my sheep.

Does Jesus come knocking at our door every once in a while and say Do you love me?

And we say, yea, we love you, but he's not convinced.

He comes back again.

Do we need to be awakened every once in a while by the knocking of Jesus on our heart's door and saying Do you still love me?

Then go and feed my sheep.

There would have been a lot more to cover yet and time actually went kind of faster than I figured it would.

But if you want to grow in knowing God more and more, pick out some Bible verses that talk of love.

Read them, meditate on them, pray over these Bible verses and watch your love grow for others.

So if anyone else wants to share, I'll turn it over to Sean then.

But anyone else wants to share just a love that someone has showed to you just by actions, or just love that you showed to someone that have helped them have a closer walk with God, or just anything that that touched your life through the word love.

I'll let you close, Sean.