THE PRACTICAL WALK OF LOVE

FOUNDATION STATEMENT: As believers we must practically go about displaying and developing the love of God in our daily lives if we are very going to experience the kind of life that our Father wants us to experience. (1 Corinthians 13)

1. Love is exceedingly patient, slow to anger, and unrelenting in it’s operation

A. Love suffers long

1. Suffers Long – Patient restraint of anger  (Ephesians 4:1-3 AMP)

a. Love outlasts problems

2. Be slow to annoyance and anger and it will quench strife (Proverbs 15:18, 16:32)

3. Love is consistent, constant, and never changing regardless of circumstances.  It is unconditional.  It is steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity.

B. Love is not easily provoked.  Love is not touchy or resentful

1. Provoked – a person who pokes, pricks, and sticks them with a sharp instrument until the person becomes provoked and violently and aggressively responds to that person

a. Stop wearing your feelings on your sleeves and get over it

b. Touchy people look for reasons to be angry and offended

c, Touchy people are quick to be crabby, quick to be offended

2. Love is thick skinned

a. Love doesn’t wear its FEELINGS on it fingertips, it doesn’t walk in offense

C. Love endures all things

1. Endure – A person who is under a heavy load but refuses to surrender because he knows he is in his place. This person knows he is where he’s supposed to be, he has therefore decided that regardless of what tries to come against him, he is going to stay put and refuse to move.

a. No matter how hard it is to love you I’m going to keep loving you because I know love is where b. I’m supposed to be

2. Love is kind, unselfish and constantly seeking the prosperity of others

A. Love is kind

1. Love is constantly doing what is necessary to promote the prosperity of others

a. Kind – to be adaptable or compliant to the needs of others, portrays a willingness to serve and to change in order to meet the needs of others. 

i. Agape is always reaching out, thinking and focusing primarily on the need of others.

b. Kind – disposed to do good to others and to make them happy

i. Love is always thinking of ways to be a blessing to others around them.

2. Love is always considering how its actions are going to affect the prosperity of others. 

B. Love is not self seeking

1. Love does not insist on its own way and it is not seeking the prosperity of self

a. John 15:13 – There is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends

b. Love doesn’t selfishly take, it gives (John 3:16)

2. Love is constantly releasing itself into the lives of other people

a. Relationships that are based on the statement “what can you do for ME” will always fail

3. Love is honoring, respectful, and it is not critical or judgmental towards others

A. Love is not unseemly (rude, act improperly, dishonorably, indecently)

1. Being rude means that you give no honor and respect to people

a. A rude person is tactless, thoughtless, and inconsiderate of others. 

b. A person that has bad manners in dealing with people. 

c. A rude person is uncaring, insensitive, and unkind. 

d. A rude person is rough, untaught, uncivilized and violent; not courteous or mannerly

2. Love is mannerly and courteous.

a. 1 Peter 2:17 – Honor all men; will you honor those who don’t honor you

B. Love is not judgmental or critical (Luke 6:37)

1. Agape is not looking for what’s wrong with you; agape is looking at what’s right with you

2. Human love is critical, judgmental, and majors on what is wrong with you

C. Love believes all things – Love is ever ready to believe the best about every person

1. Believe (elpidzo) – constant, continuous hope, a never give up kind of hope for something to turn out the best

2. We should be slow to believe the worst about people and quick to believe the best about people

a. If you don’t know it to be a fact, then you believe the best about that person

3. Love hopes all things – Love always expects the best in others and the best for others

4. Love does not vaunt itself and it is not puffed up

A. Love does not vaunt itself

1. Vaunteth – to brag, a person who endlessly promotes themselves and exaggerates his own virtues

a. People boast because they are unsure and insecure about themselves.  They don’t love themselves, so they seek the love of others through what they have or what they’ve done, because they feel if others love me maybe that will give me a reason to love myself.

2. Love is so strong, so sure, and so confident that it doesn’t need to speak of itself or its accomplishments

a. Love wants to focus on the accomplishments of others in order to build them up  

B. Love is not haughty, stuck-up, snooty, puffed up

      1. A haughty person has a high opinion of him or herself and puts other down (Proverbs 16:18)

      2. Love builds others up with its words (Ephesians 4:29)

5. Love is delighted at the success of others and is moved with compassion to those that have fallen short

A. Love is not envious

1. Envy – a negative attitude of lust and desire for another’s possessions; a feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing the advantage or prosperity of others

a. Envy will stop your promotion

b. Envy leads to confusion, strife, and every evil work (James 3:16)

c. Envy comes from comparing ourselves to other people

i. Be less focused on what other people are doing and more on what God has called you to do

ii. If you want to get out of envy become a part of making other peoples dreams come true

2. Love is not jealous – Jealousy is feeling uneasy whenever preference is shown to someone else

B. Love does not rejoice at injustice or unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail

1. Don’t rejoice or be happy when somebody else is missing the mark

2. Love stops injustice and unrighteousness from happening and picks the people up who have fallen

6. Love thinks no evil; Love takes no account of wrong done to it; it pays no attention to a suffered wrong

A. Love is not crediting to people’s account evil that has been to do it

B. Love forgives AND forgets

7. Love bears all things

A. Love serves like a protection for you and protects others

8. Love never fails

A. Love never looses strength, it never fades away, it never stops functioning, it never falls short, it is never unsuccessful, it never disappoints, it never looses it’s authority, never ceases to have force

B. This way of life, “Love” will always prevail

1. No matter what it my look like you should know that if you are doing it love’s way you will always be victorious and succeed