Eric Ward
July 13, 2025
God is Love.
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Agape love is a selfless, sacrificial, and
unconditional love that seeks the very best for another person.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.
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Agape love is more concerned about what is best
for us than how we necessarily feel in the moment.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but
do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of
prophecy and 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. 3 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.
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God has given spiritual gifts as tools to be
used in love for the benefit of His church.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
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A good question to ask ourselves is this: “What
if Jesus loved me the way I love others?”
1 Corinthians 13:6-13 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth. 7 It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But
where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will
be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we
prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I
talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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Key 1: Spend time with God daily to know
Him and lovingly submit to His Lordship.
Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were
unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these
men had been with Jesus.
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As we spend time with Jesus and His followers,
we will begin to look, speak, and act more like Him.
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Key 2: Regularly examine ourselves
against the word of God.
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Key 3: Go back and repeat Step 1.
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Call 321.574.6970 if you have chosen to
accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.