Sunday, September 7, 2025
Love Without Limits
I. THE NEW COMMANDMENT – LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED
John 13:34-35 (NLT) – “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
II. PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR
1 John 4:7-10 (NLT) – “7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins…
1 John 4:18-21 (NLT) –18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”
What fears does perfect love cast out?
1. Fear of Rejection
2. Fear of Inadequacy
3. Fear of Conflict
4. Fear of Vulnerability
III. LOVE IN ACTION – THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST’S LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NLT) – “4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”
What Love Is:
1. Patient
2. Kind
3. Rejoices in Truth
4. Never Gives Up
5. Always Hopeful
What Love Is Not:
1. Jealous
2. Boastful or Proud
3. Rude
4. Self-Seeking
5. Easily Angered
6. Keeps Record of Wrongs
IV. TRANSFORMING LOVE
Romans 5:8 (NLT): “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Romans 12:1-5 NLT