The love of God is often separated to Jesus and Jesus alone, while painting the Father as cold, distant, and judgmental. The God of the Old Testament is often painted as an evil God who has no mercy nor love within Him, but is that true? Is the God of the Old Testament and the God of the Old Testament two different personalities? One evil and condemning, while the other kind and loving? What of the Father? Is God the Father loving? Is He forgiving? Is He merciful? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he sheds light on the eternal love of God in his message, Our Heavenly Father Is Good.
Three of the most overused words in our culture today are “I love you,” not because the words aren’t necessary, but because they no longer hold any meaning. We don’t know what love is, not true love. We don’t even know how to define love, nor can we identify it when we see it. Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the true definition of love in his Valentine’s Day message, An Acceptable Kind of Love.
1 John 3:16 John 3:16 (NKJV) Isaiah 58:6-7 John 15:13 Proverbs 27:5-6 Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) 2 Corinthians 5:21 Hebrews 12:6 Ephesians 5:25-28 Genesis 2:24
Many people struggle with the concept of God. They can’t grasp how God can be a loving, merciful God if there is a place called hell. Many in the Church even struggle with the concept of the love of God because they believe God is just waiting for them to mess up so that He can punish them. If God is love, then is He loving God? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the Truth in his message, The Steadfast Love of God.
Psalms 136:1-3 Ephesians 3:14-19 Ezekiel 22:29-31 Luke 23:34 Matthew 5:44 Lamentations 3:22-23 Ephesians 3:19 Mark 16:17-18 Colossians 2:9 Ephesians 1:19-23 John 15:13
The Steadfast Love of God
1Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. 2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. 3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever;
Psalms 136:1-3
29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. 30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”
There are many Christians who easily understand the love of Jesus but struggle with the love of our Heavenly Father. Many see Jesus as the selfless member of the God-head who gave up His life for us, whereas they see the Father as a strict disciplinarian just waiting to catch us slipping so that He can punish us, but is this true? Is our Heavenly Father always seeking to punish us? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he searches through Scripture to answer these questions and more in his video, Understanding The Father’s Love.
John 3:16 John 10:30 Ephesians 5:25b-27 John 6:38-40 Matthew 26:53-54
Understanding The Father’s Love
The Love of Our Heavenly Father
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day.
John 6:38-40
53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?
The term soulmate has become popular in our society today in both the Church and the world, but is it in the Bible? Soulmate, in the Church, is defined as the spouse God Himself created and formed specifically for you. This is a beautiful thought, but is it true? Join ArieRashelle as she searches through Scripture for the Truth in her video, Are Soulmates In The Bible?
The Prayer of Abraham’s Servant For Isaac’s Soulmate
10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”
8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ~ 1 John 4:8CSB
I remember having a conversation with someone, and they argued that we can hate people because of their sin. They even tried to explain that God hates them, too. When I explained God is love, they laughed in my face and told me that that was a Catholic teaching. In this world, we have two main types of people: those who believe God loves them so He’ll overlook their sin and those who believe God hates anyone and everyone who sins. Here’s the thing. Neither of these statements are true.
For God showed His love for us before we could even receive salvation while we were still His enemies. For God so loved the world that He gave… it’s not “for God so loved the righteous,” but the world. The world is all the souls of mankind. The world is those who rejected Him and crucified Him. We are the world; that is why He called us out of the world so that we might be saved.
God is love. And love doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing, but only in Truth. Love is loving the sinner and hating the sin. Love is praying for your enemies and blessing those who curse you. Love is turning the other cheek. Love is God, and God is love. It’s only in His perfect love that we are safe and redeemed from our sin and our past.
40 to 50% of all marriages in the US end in divorce, making the US have the 6th highest divorce rate in the world. Why are so many marriages failing? Why does it matter? Not only does such a high divorce rate affect millions of families and children, but Jesus declared, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Shouldn’t we work towards figuring out why the divorce rate is so high if marriage makes a couple one? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the key to a loving, successful marriage in his Valentine’s Day message, Husbands Love Your Wives.
Ephesians 5:22–33
Husbands Love Your Wives
1Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Matthew 19:1-9
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
So many people say they know what love is. They use phrases like love is love but never define what love is, so no one can really learn from this phrase. So, what is love? If we can’t define love, how can we show love? What does the Bible say about love? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the true meaning of love in his message, What Is Real Love?
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a (NIV) Mark 12:30–31 Luke 6:32–36 John 3:16
What Is Real Love?
Definition of love
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
How To Love?
43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17
The Love of God
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
John 10:11-18
Next Steps
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
God is merciful. He is filled with compassion and unfailing love, but what does that mean? What exactly is mercy? More importantly, how do we get mercy? Join ArieRashelle as she dissects Scripture to define what mercy is in our video, ‘What Is The Mercy of God?’
Lamentations 3:22-23 Hosea 1:6-7 2 Samuel 24:12-16 2 Samuel 24:10 Exodus 33:19 James 4:6-8 1 Peter 5:5-6 1 Corinthians 13:6 Ezekiel 33:11 2 Peter 3:9 John 9:4-5 Psalms 84:11 Revelation 22:5
More Verses on Mercy
The Mercy of God
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 8:10-12
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then He adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:14-18
21 Blessed be the Lord, for He has wondrously shown His steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22 I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.
Psalms 31:21-22
How To Get Mercy:
25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 26 with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 27 For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. 28 For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. 29 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. 30 This God—His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.
Psalms 18:25-30
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Divorce has become more and more prevalent in our culture. But why? Why has divorce skyrocketed so much? Have we forgotten how to love? How can you protect your relationship? There are five love languages, according to Gary Chapman:
Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Receiving Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
According to Gary Chapman, each person expresses and feels love according to one of these five love languages. Do you know what your significant other’s love language is? Do you know how to make it through difficult situations together? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he shows us how to have a lasting relationship in his love-filled Valentine’s Day Message ‘Protect Your Relationships.’
Song of Solomon 2:15
How To Protect Your Relationships Verses
Marriage
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5:22-33
Divorce
3 And Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Matthew 19:3-9
Love
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8a Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Summary
In order to protect your relationship, you have to fight for your relationship. You have to decide that no matter what happens, divorce is NOT an option. You have to fight for your relationship if you want to keep it. Love is an action. Live your life as if you can’t live without your significant other.
