REALLIFE STUDY GROUP

"Lovers Who Love!"

ICEBREAKER: What is your favorite valentine’s gift to give or receive?

OUTLINE:

10 Characteristics of Lovers who love...

1. Know God for God is love (1 John 4:7,8)

You can run out of what you have but you can never run out of who you are

2. Strive to exemplify (1 Corinthians 13)

3. Lay down their lives for the object of their love

Are willing to become a living sacrifice?

Go the distance, break the bank, push the limits, spend the time, raise the bar, stretch the boundaries, reach the goal...

4. Are passionate about loving

Perfect love casts out all fear

Celebrate both...

The strengths and weaknesses of others

The differences and similarities

The positives and negatives

5. Realize that love will cost you more than you can afford and will be worth every penny spent.

6. Understand that love is more than a feeling. It is the fruit of a Spirit filled life.

7. Know the definitions & the different types of love and what is the antithesis of love

Love sets healthy boundaries

8. Loving is all about serving

Serve their way into people's hearts and lives

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care

Heal hurts, meet needs, solve problems

9. Speak the language of love

It is understood in every race and every culture

Quality time, Affectionate touch, Acts of service, Giving Gifts, Words of affirmation

10. Understand intimacy requires vulnerability and

transparency

Two become one flesh, naked and not ashamed

Text: 1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:20-22; 1 John 4:7,8

STUDY GROUP QUESTIONS:

1. How do you define love?

2. Describe how love feels.

3. I Corinthians 13 has been called the love chapter in the Bible. Which of the descriptions of love do you need to work on most?

4. What is the hardest thing about loving people like God loves?

5. Read 1 John 4. This passage teaches us that abiding in God is the key to loving others and ourselves. On a scale of 1-10 how full is your love tank based on how much time you have been spending with God?

6. According to Jude 20, 21 how do you keep yourself in the love of God? Describe how you get emotionally when you fail to keep yourself in the love of God?

7. Read Romans 8:35-39. Tell us something or some issue or some event in your life that has tried to separate you from the love of God or tried to convince you that God is not real or just does not love you.

8. Read Ephesians 5:2, 25, 28. Husbands are commanded by God to love their wives like Christ loves his church. What does that mean to you?

9. Describe a love story in the Bible.

PRAISE REPORTS & PRAYER REQUESTS:

ACTION POINT: This week I will pray for someone in my life that has been hard to love.