Loving Like Jesus | Small Group Lesson 1: Love Matters Most

What would you give to radically improve, even transform what matters most in your relationships? You can thrive in your

career, acquire wealth, or build an excellent reputation. But if your relationships aren't thriving, nothing else matters. Let's explore and begin to practice six foundational principles, including how to give your relationships the highest value, love as Jesus loves you, and communicate from the heart so we can walk a practical path for fulfilling God's intention in all our relationships, especially the difficult ones.

Welcome to a forty day journey toward becoming a more loving person. Love is not an emotion or feeling, it is a skill. Love is expressed in action. So the good news is that you and I can get better at it. Our model of course is Jesus.

He was a relationship master. He listened, he comforted, he forgave, he served, he spoke wisdom. He said some hard things but always in love. He was kind and compassionate and giving. He loved people who were pretty unlovable.

He even loved his enemies. That's level love. And over the next forty days, we're going to learn to love like that. We're gonna become relationship masters. No, we're not.

We we we we we may not become masters, but we are gonna move in that direction. If you give yourself to it, forty days from today, you will be a more loving person. It really is possible. Why forty days? In the Bible, the number forty is often used to refer to a season of preparation or transformation.

I'm certain that God doesn't require forty days to transform a person or a relationship, but you do see this biblical pattern. Noah's life was transformed by forty days of rain. Moses' life was transformed by forty days on Mount Sinai. The spies were transformed by forty days in the promised land. David was transformed by Goliath's forty day challenge.

The city of Nineveh was transformed in, you wanna guess, yep, forty days. Jesus was empowered for ministry by spending forty days in the desert and the disciples were transformed by forty days with Jesus after the resurrection. There's nothing magical about the number 40 but focusing on something for forty days can be character forming. At the heart of our forty day experience is 40 daily readings in the book The Relationship Principles of Jesus by Tom Holliday from Saddleback Church. The book is literally divided day one, day two, day three, forty readings about six pages each day on the relationship principles of Jesus.

So first we read daily. Second, we get together and talk about our readings as a small group. The book has discussion questions in the back and we'll provide some additional materials. So we read, we talk about it and thirdly, we put the principles into practice. We try new ways of thinking and responding, of interacting and initiating.

We develop new habits. Friends, this all really matters because nothing is more important than love. Love matters most. Paul emphasized this truth in one Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter of the Bible. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.

If I have the gift of prophecy I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love I gain nothing. Paul says love is more important than oppressive spiritual gifts, more important than knowledge and information, more important even than faith. What? Love is the most important thing.

To miss love is to miss everything. So let me offer you three thoughts on love as we get started on this journey together. Thought number one, the best use of life is love. Jesus spoke directly to the priority of love. He was famously asked what's the greatest commandment to which Jesus replied love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. The most important thing says Jesus is to love God and to love people. Make learning how to love your number one priority, your primary objective, your greatest ambition. Look at this from Colossians three fourteen, love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.

If you focus on loving God and loving people, all kind of other virtues will surface. Humility, self sacrifice, compassion, generosity and on and on. Love is the best use of your life also because it's really the only thing that really lasts. Look how Paul's chapter on love concludes, and now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. One day your trophies are gonna be trashed.

Given enough time, somebody's gonna throw them away. That bowling trophy, that merit badge, that report card, that gold watch you got for retirement, nobody's going to remember those things. But how you love will impact generations. Love remains. Nothing else on this planet is permanent, it's all temporary, but love lasts.

Thought number two, the best expression of love is time. Love is spelled T I M E. The Bible says this in one John three eighteen Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. Question, what's the most desired gift of love? When people are in love they might show their love with a gift.

What's the most desired gift? It's not diamonds, it's not chocolate, it's not flowers, it's not a gift card. The most desired gift of love and the most priceless gift of love is focused attention. It is time. When you give your time to someone that is the greatest gift you can give to a kid, to a spouse, to a friend or anybody else.

Why? Because time is our most precious resource. Thought number three, the best time to love is now. Not tomorrow, not later, not someday, not when I get around to it, not when my schedule gets lighter, not soon, now. Whatever you intend to do with your life, do it now.

If you have an opportunity to show love, do it now. Proverbs three twenty seven-twenty eight says, Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, come back tomorrow and I'll give it to you when you already have it with you. There are some things in life you should procrastinate on. Some things you ought to say, we're just not ready to do that, let's wait, let's delay, let's postpone.

That's okay. But we should never postpone showing love. We don't know what the future holds. We don't know how long we have to live. We have today, we have now.

This is our chance to show love. Love is our priority, calling, our purpose. Let us learn better how to love our God, our neighbor and our enemy as Jesus instructed and modeled. Thanks for joining us on this journey. Let the adventure begin.