Love That Covers a Multitude of Sins - 2
Subject: Love Like You Have Never Been Hurt
by Rick Welborne
1 Peter 4:7-8 (NLT2)
7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:7-8 (NCV)
7 The time is near when all things will end. So think clearly and control yourselves so you will be able to pray.
8 Most importantly, love each other deeply, because love will cause many sins to be forgiven.
7 The time is near when all things will end. So think clearly and control yourselves so you will be able to pray.
8 Most importantly, love each other deeply, because love will cause many sins to be forgiven.
Proverbs 10:11-12 (NCV)
11 The words of a good person give life, like a fountain of water, but the words of the wicked contain nothing but violence.
12 Hatred stirs up trouble, but love forgives all wrongs.
11 The words of a good person give life, like a fountain of water, but the words of the wicked contain nothing but violence.
12 Hatred stirs up trouble, but love forgives all wrongs.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT2)
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
--Many people, including those who are in the body of Christ, do not know how to make their families work. I have tried thru the years to be transparent about my family.
--There have been times when home was not a happy place, when tempers were out of control, and when things were said that absolutely should not have been said. Family is difficult as we stated last week.
--Almost every week my heart is broken to hear about families who are right in the crosshairs of the enemy’s weapons…just recently I prayed with a young lady who told me after ten years of marriage…husband cheating.
--My own siblings and I are estranged from each other because of anger and bitterness. Many have chosen to not talk or communicate in any way. We so easily write each other off. How heartbreaking.
--Here’s our problem, we just do not know how to love—all the time. We can love when we agree about things, we can love when we are away from our problems, and the people who cause them.
--Vacation is an escape but it is only a short temporary one. Most are already rehearsing in their hearts and minds their issues on the way home. Again, those the closest are the most difficult to love properly.
--As believers in Christ we are called to live differently and to love differently. We do not love as the world loves, which is conditionally and when expectations are met, or when it feels good. We love God’s way.
--There are two subjects in the Bible that gets their own two chapters…Heb. 11 – Faith and 1 Cor.13 – Love. God feels that faith and love are so foundation to our lives and our future…we need to get these right.
--God knows that love is our most powerful weapon…when we look at our world and we look at our families, it is not necessarily a new word or certain worship styles that going to change anything…it is love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT2)
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Franklin – You cannot walk in love until you walk in forgiveness. We may not see eye to eye on everything, but if we focus on the blood and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, we can have unity! We can love one another as God has loved us.
--Hear my heart…I am not saying that you have to become best buds with the person who did you wrong, I am not saying you have to have tea with the person who abused you. I am saying you have to forgive them for you.
--After Jesus rose from the dead what did He do. He sought out the man who promised to never deny Him but did. He sought him out, not to rebuke him but to ask him a powerful question…Peter, do you love me?
--Jesus could have brought up so much but chose to keep the main thing the main thing. Do you love me? And if you do feed my sheep! Take care of my sheep! Watch over my sheep! Hear this…forgive my sheep!
John 20:21-23 (NIV)
21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
--Once Jesus returned from death He gave His priorities to His disciples…Receive Holy Spirit and forgive! I believe God is calling us to a higher level of love. Walking in the Spirit and forgiving!
--Love is the answer to broken homes, broken relationships, offended people, the broken hearted. Love is the weapon that can shatter division…Love covers the multitude of sins. Love like Jesus.
--What’s testing your love right now…you fill in the blanks…when we receive bad news it hurts! What would happen in all of our situations if we decided to love like we have never been hurt? What should we choose?
1. We choose love over hurt.
--I know I use Joseph as an example of faithfulness. Even Phil Dunn used Joseph as an example. He described how his process of 14 years waiting on God for his healing Joseph was such an inspiration to him.
--Joseph trusted God through jealousy in his family…he couldn’t help that God and his own father loved him more than the rest…or at least, that is the way it appeared to them. Bitterness makes us blind and stupid!
James 3:14-18 (NLT2)
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
--Sold by his brothers into slavery, falsely accused of rape (sound familiar), forgotten in prison and after years of choosing to be faithful to God, he is 2nd in Command over all Egypt…to save the world.
--And now…oh happy day, the brothers who put you through the hell you had to endure all those years are standing before you wanting to buy food to save themselves.
--Joseph had a choice. He could either treat them like they had treated him or he could love like he had never been hurt. He had a choice…love or revenge…love over hurt.
--It has been said that the depth of how bad someone hurts you determines what your response is going to be toward them when you get a chance. Pay day! Time to get even! But you have a choice.
--What would Joseph choose? Through some twist and turns finally Joseph reveals to his brothers who he was…can you imagine the terror. He had the reason, the authority, and the means of getting even.
--What did he do? He chose to forgive them. He chose to love them. He chose to reconcile. He chose love over hurt. I love this story of love and forgiveness…after Jacob was buried listen to this Word:
Genesis 50:16-21 (NKJV)
16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying,
17 'Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you." ' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."
19 Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying,
17 'Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you." ' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."
19 Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
--The beauty of this story was not only did Joseph save his entire family but he saved himself. I have said many times…forgiving others is much about freeing yourself from anger and settings other free! Love over hurt!
2. Choose to love others always.
--Somewhere someone is hearing that their child or grandchild has chosen a homosexual lifestyle. A kid raised in church has just blurted out to his parents…I am an atheist. A girl…I am pregnant!
--So what are we to do? Rebuke them, cut them off from the family, stop talking to them, give up on them. I love this one…just turn them over to Satan…that will show them we are serious.
--News flash…Satan is already having a hay day in their lives…so what do they need? They need us to love them like what they just revealed to us didn’t hurt us. Even though it obviously crushed us.
--How hard is it to say…I love you and I am hurt by the choices that you are making but I want a relationship with you. Have boundaries but talk to them, eat with them, and make them feel welcome in your home.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT2)
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
--Love never fails…when you truly love someone, love will not fail. When you love them like Jesus loved you, that love will get to them. Remember, love is patient and kind!
--Some think that there is a badge of honor given out to those who refuse to have any contact with loved ones who are not living up to our standard. How can you win them when you are an absentee person in their lives?
3. Choose to press forward.
--When you have been wounded by someone, abandoned by someone, deceived by someone, abused by someone, or even gossiped about by someone, there comes a time you must say…Enough…this is it!
--I have had my heart broken so bad that I was dysfunctional for a while. I remember in Texas BT (before Tricia) being so hurt and wounded by a broken relationship. Finally, I fell on my face before God!
--I cried out to God in such a way that is was deep crying out to deep…I said God…if this is it for this relationship, take away the love I had for this person and give me a love for souls like never before.
--I was instantly re-baptized in Holy Spirit power and prayed for the next several hours in a beautiful heavenly language. I began leading someone to Christ every week and His joy overwhelmed me.
--And, yes, I chose to forgive the person who broke my heart…Once I had my encounter with God I was so tempted to send them a “thank you” card for setting me free!
Philippians 3:12-14 (NLT2)
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
--Pastor, I am really hurting…I get it! I know pain too! I am dealing with situations right now that are heart wrenching except for the fact I am pressing onward and upward. Jesus gives us an invitation!
Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT2)
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
--No one is saying it is going to be easy. It’s a process and sometimes it is a very long one.
Franklin – So pray and keep praying. Believe and keep believing. Talk to a therapist if it would help. Work thru a twelve step program. Read books. Get wisdom from godly counsel. Do what it takes to heal the wound.
--Press forward, forget the past, and keep your eyes on Jesus! Love and forgive!
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