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I want to start with a question.
Not a trick question, not a 

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theological Riddle, just a real 
one. 

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What if we'd been 
overcomplicating it? 

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What if underneath all the 
doctrine, all the debate, all 

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the do this, don't do that? 
What if the whole thing, the 

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whole reason we're here, the 
whole point of the Gospel, is 

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love. 
Not love is a feeling. 

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Not love as a greeting card, but
love as the engine, love as the 

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foundation. 
Today we're going to sit with 

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that question together. 
What if love is the point? 

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In Matthew 22, a religious 
expert walks up to Jesus, trying

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to trip, trying to trap him. 
He asks what is the greatest 

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commandment? 
This was a loaded question. 

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The Jewish tradition counted 613
commandments in the law. 

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He was essentially asking which 
one wins and Jesus doesn't 

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hesitate. 
Matthew 22 verses 37 through 40.

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Love the Lord your God with all 
your heart and with all your 

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soul and with all your mind. 
This is the first and greatest 

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commandment, and the second is 
like it. 

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Love your neighbor as yourself. 
All the law and the prophets 

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hang on these two commandments. 
All the law and the prophets 

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hang on these two commandments. 
That word hang on means 

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everything else is, is, is 
suspended from this. 

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Like a coat on a hook. 
The hook is love. 

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Pull the hook out and everything
falls to the floor. 

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Jesus didn't say love is one of 
the most important things. 

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He said everything else depends 
on it. 

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So if we miss love, we miss the 
hook, and everything falls. 

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Here's what gets me This isn't a
New Testament idea. 

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This goes back before creation. 
Ephesians 1, verses four and 

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five. 
For He chose us in Him before 

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the creation of the world to be 
holy and blameless in His sight.

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In love, He predestined us for 
adoption to sonship through 

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Jesus Christ, in accordance with
His pleasure and will. 

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Before the mountains, before the
1st Adam of the universe blinked

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into existence, God looked ahead
and chose you. 

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And the reason right there in 
the text. 

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In love, not obligation, not 
legal requirement, love. 

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Here's why that matters to you 
personally. 

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Love isn't something God does 
when he's in the right mood. 

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It's something God is first. 
John 48 says it plainly. 

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Whoever does not love does not 
know God, because God is love, 

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not God loves sometimes not. 
God is mostly loving. 

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God is love. 
It's his nature, his essence. 

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So when we ask what the point of
all this is, we're really asking

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who God is. 
And the answer keeps coming back

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the same way. 
Love. 

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Now it's easy to say God is 
love. 

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You can put it on a coffee mug. 
But love has to be demonstrated.

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Words alone don't cut it. 
John 316, The most quoted verse 

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in the Bible. 
Let's not let familiarity rob us

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of all its weight, For God so 
loved the world that he gave his

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one and only Son, that whoever 
believes in him shall not 

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perish, but have eternal life. 
The proof of love is the giving,

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and Paul sharpens it in Romans 5
verse 8. 

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But God demonstrates his own 
love for us in this while we 

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were still sinners, Christ died 
for us, not after we cleaned 

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ourselves up while we were still
in the mess. 

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This isn't love that says I'll 
love you once you deserve it. 

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This is love that runs towards 
you before you've done anything 

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to earn it. 
Don't miss this, because this 

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changes everything. 
The cross isn't just the 

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mechanism of salvation, it's the
definition of love. 

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It's God showing us in real 
skin, in real time, what Love 

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Actually looks like. 
First, John 410. 

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This is love. 
Not that we loved God, but that 

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he loved us and sent his Son as 
an atoning sacrifice for our 

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sins. 
Love originates with God. 

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It moves towards us. 
That has always been the 

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direction. 
OK, so where does that leave us?

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Because here's the part nobody 
really wants to talk about. 

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Some of the most theologically 
correct people are the least 

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loving people you'll ever meet. 
I've seen it. 

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You've probably seen it too. 
People who can win any argument,

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cite any verse, and still walk 
past a hurting person. 

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Some people can defend God 
better than they can reflect 

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Him. 
And I have to be honest, I've 

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been that person. 
I've been so focused on being 

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right that I forgot to love. 
There was someone in my life, I 

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won't go into all the details, 
but someone who genuinely made 

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things hard for me, difficult to
be around. 

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Someone I'd convinced myself I 
was justified in keeping at 

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arm's length. 
I had my reasons, good reasons, 

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I thought. 
And I felt the Spirit say, not 

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in an audible voice, but in that
quiet, unmistakable way. 

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That's not the assignment. 
The assignment wasn't to be 

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right about them. 
The assignment was to love them.

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Jesus says it in John 1334 and 
35. 

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A new command I give you love 
one another. 

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As I have loved you, so you must
love one another. 

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By this everyone will know that 
you are my disciples. 

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If you love one another, notice 
what he doesn't say. 

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Not everyone will know you're my
disciples by your theology, not 

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by your attendance, not by your 
opinions online, by your love. 

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That's the identifier. 
And 1st Corinthians 13 doesn't 

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describe love as an emotion you 
want to feel. 

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And 1st Corinthians 13 doesn't 
describe love as an emotion you 

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wait to feel. 
Love is patient. 

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Love is kind. 
It does not envy. 

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It does not boast. 
It is not proud. 

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It does not dishonor others. 
It is not self seeking. 

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It is not easily angered. 
It keeps a word of wrong. 

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It keeps no record of wrongs. 
That's not a feeling, that's a 

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decision, a daily decision, 
sometimes an hourly one. 

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And 1st Corinthians 13 two makes
the stakes clear. 

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If I have the gift of prophecy 
and can fathom all mysteries and

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all knowledge, and I have a 
faith that can move mountains 

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but do not have love, I am 
nothing. 

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Not something, not close. 
Nothing. 

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Knowledge without love becomes 
arrogance. 

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Rules without love become 
religion. 

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Conviction without love becomes 
judgment. 

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Here's the part I don't want you
to miss. 

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You don't have to manufacture 
this love on your own. 

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You can't. 
Actually, none of us can. 

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Not consistently. 
Not for the hard people, not 

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without help. 
Romans 55 God's love has been 

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poured out into our hearts 
through the Holy Spirit who has 

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been given to you. 
God's love has been poured out 

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into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us.

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Poured out, not dripped and not 
rationed. 

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Based on how well you performed 
this week poured, you already 

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have access to this. 
The same love that existed 

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before creation, the same love 
that drove the cross, the same 

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love that called you by name, It
has been poured into you by the 

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Holy Spirit. 
The question isn't whether you 

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have enough love. 
The question is whether you are 

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letting it move. 
So here's what I want you to 

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carry out of this today. 
Just one question. 

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Who in your life needs to 
receive what God has already 

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poured into you? 
Not a lecture, not a correction,

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not a theological argument. 
Just love. 

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Patient, present, practical 
love. 

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Because if love is the point, 
then love is the assignment. 

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Let's pray, Father, thank you 
for loving us first. 

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Thank you that before we had 
anything to offer you move 

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toward us. 
Forgive us for the times we've 

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chosen being right over being 
love. 

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Help us today to stop 
overcomplicating it. 

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Let love lead. 
Let love define us. 

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Let love be the thing people see
when they see us in Jesus name, 

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Amen. 
If this challenged you today, if

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it hits somewhere, share it with
someone who needs it. 

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Leave a comment and I'll see you
in the next one. 

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God bless.