Scripture 1 Corinthians 13:13
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW:
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / No not just for some, but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another mountain / There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross / Enough to last 'til the end of time
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / No, not just for some, but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another meadow / There are cornfields and wheatfields enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine / Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love / No, not just for some, oh, but just for every, every, everyone.
How Hal David wrote the lyrics – it didn’t come together till he really thought about who he was talking to – GOD!
Do you ever pray that way? Where you cry out to God to say “This is what we need!”
Telling God the world needs LOVE is telling God what the world needs is GOD who is love.
NIV - 1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Faith, Hope, Love (Nouns)
They are also Anarthrous
Anarthrous refers to a word or group of words which appear without a definite article. Greek has no indefinite article, "a" or "an" in English. Sometimes it is best to translate an anarthrous word by supplying "a" or "an" before it. [a faith a hope a love] Anarthrous constructions are most often intended to point out the quality of something. In fact, due to reasons of English style or Greek idiom, the word "the" is even an appropriate translation in some cases.
[The faith The hope The love]
“What the world needs now is not just love – it needs THE LOVE. God’s love.
There are 7 words for love in the bible but 3 that are used most often. They are:
EROS – passionate, romantic love
PHILEO – brotherly, family love
AGAPE – God’s love – ultimate, complete love.
First 5 words of the Bible
“In the beginning God CREATED!” Why? Love had to be expressed!
First 6 words of the gospel of John
“In the beginning was the WORD!” Who? Why? Jesus because God is love!
John 3:16
God so loved the WORLD (His creation) that he sent His (word) Son!
1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. God’s love expressed through creation was not His complete love – it can only be completed when it is always expressed through us.
1 Cor 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
But the ‘greatest’ – largest, most super, highest, ultimate, maximum, supreme, complete LOVE.
1 John 4:16-21 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother & sister. Who is my brother and sister. The answer is the same as the answer to the question “who is my neighbor?” Anyone and Everyone. SLIDE 13 Matthew 5:46-48 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
God’s love was most greatly exhibited on the cross and the next greatest move of His love will be the marriage between Christ and his church when we join him in eternity.
If God so loved us – we also MUST live by his new command – “Love one another!”
ILLUSTRATION
A man is walking along the shoreline of an ocean when he comes up on a little boy standing in the midst of thousands of starfish that had washed up along the shore. The man watches the little boy as he picks up a starfish and one by one throws them back in the sea. The man watches for several minutes then walks up to the boy and asks, "What are you doing?" The little boy answers, "I'm saving these starfish so they won't die." The man says to the boy..."There are too many too save, it wont make any difference." The little boy reached down and picked up another starfish and said, "it will make a difference to this one" as he threw it into the ocean.
The price of not living in God’s love is eternal death. The price of not living (sharing) by God’s love is becoming like Sisyphus. WHO?
ILLUSTRATION
Sisyphus, the mythological king who's lust for life (instead of loving others) caused him to try to trick the gods by cheating death. The gods responded to this treachery by sentencing him to Hades, condemning him to endlessly SLIDE 14 roll a huge bolder up a hill, only to have it roll down again.
Students of ancient Greek mythology, philosophy and psychology have for centuries studied this tragic character, searching for insight into the human condition. The famed existentialist writer, Albert Camus, had this to say about Sisyphus' odd lot in life (or should we say "death"):
"The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. … Sisyphus' scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which his whole being was exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth."
We have a choice. If we claim to be ALL IN for Jesus, then receiving God’s love and expressing that same love – to everyone – is not an option. It is who God is! It is who you are! It is who we are in Christ Jesus!
Sisyphus, the mythological king who's lust for life (instead of loving others) caused him to try to trick the gods by cheating death. The gods responded to this treachery by sentencing him to Hades, condemning him to endlessly SLIDE 14 roll a huge bolder up a hill, only to have it roll down again.
Students of ancient Greek mythology, philosophy and psychology have for centuries studied this tragic character, searching for insight into the human condition. The famed existentialist writer, Albert Camus, had this to say about Sisyphus' odd lot in life (or should we say "death"):
"The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. … Sisyphus' scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which his whole being was exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth."
We have a choice. If we claim to be ALL IN for Jesus, then receiving God’s love and expressing that same love – to everyone – is not an option. It is who God is! It is who you are! It is who we are in Christ Jesus!
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