LOVE: More than words or feelings
John 3:16, 13:34-35, Romans 5:8, 12:10, 1 Corinthians 13, 16:14, Galatians 5:14, Ephesians 5:1-2, Colossians 3:14, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Hebrews 10:24, James 2:1-9, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 John 3:16-18, 3:23, 4:7-12, 4:16-21
HONOR: You before me
2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 147:6, Proverbs 15:33, 22:4, Luke 10:30-37, John 5:22-24, Romans 12:9-11, Romans 13:7, 1 Corinthians 12:22-24, Philippians 2:3-8, Ephesians 4:2, James 3:13, 4:10, 1 Peter 2:16-17, 5:5-6
Making a decision to love someone is an intense commitment. Well, it should be anyway. Our culture today puts all kinds of conditional clauses on love. For example, things like prenuptial agreements give people a safe way out if they no longer love the person they marry. Generally speaking about the church, we have chosen to love some people while choosing to not love others, but this has been going on since the church began, so it's not a new problem. However, it is a trend we are hoping to change.
The Overflow is committed to loving people based on God's commitment to love us. Here's why...God first chose to love us, and He continues to love each of us even though we mess up and we're far from perfect. So why should we not love in the same way? We believe each person is worthy of love, and we won't chose who we love with conditions or because of their position.
There's another part of love that we will practice. When you love someone, you only want the best for them. I'm learning this more and more as a parent. However, in order to help them reach their potential, we sometimes have to give them tough love. Because we love them, we have to be honest with them. Therefore, we want to love each person towards Christ. Sometimes this means we'll simply listen and be there to give support. Other times, we may need to share the truth of God's Word with someone in a loving, yet firm way. The Overflow loves the people of this city, and we love them enough to share with them the true message of Jesus Christ, but we'll do this in a way that doesn't contradict the very message we are trying to present!
At the same time, we also take very serious the idea of honor. Like love, honor isn't simply something we casually discuss. Giving honor is a decision to continually practice "You before me." It means you think and act in a way that your willingness to put others ahead of yourself is clearly demonstrated. For example, as we work our jobs during the week, we will honor our boss and other employees. When someone comes to our worship experience, we want to honor them in a unique yet comfortable way so they can personally experience the love of Christ. When we eat at a restaurant we'll honor those serving us buy being patient with them and leaving good tips. (We tip because of who we are, not because of what's been done to us) In our interactions with other churches, we will honor their pastors and members by speaking positively of them. (God didn't establish the church to destroy the church.) Giving honor is our response to a culture that is often full of selfishness and negativity.
I've shared these two core values together because they really compliment each other. Love is something we demonstrate by our actions while giving honor can be thought of as the attitude that allows us to properly love. We'll never lead people towards Christ unless we are willing to put others first and love them unconditionally!
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