Tim Timberlake - Endless Love
- Watch
Summary:
Drawing from Jeremiah 31:3 where God declares His everlasting, unending love—"I’ve never quit loving you, and I never will"—this teaching message on «Endless Love» emphasizes that healthy relationships mirror God’s unconditional love and must be built on solid foundational truths rather than superficial aesthetics. The preacher outlines four key principles from 1 Corinthians 13:7—real love extends grace in flaws, expresses faith beyond feelings, expects the best with hope, and endures the worst without giving up—while humorously contrasting male and female communication styles to highlight the need for understanding differences. The conclusion calls believers to reflect God’s enduring love in all relationships, reminding themselves of His faithfulness even in distress, as seen in Psalm 18, to love stronger, deeper, and longer through Christ.
Greeting and Series Introduction
Well, good morning, Celebration! How’s everyone doing? Is anybody excited to be in the house of the Lord again? Amen and amen. Well, we’re going to continue our series on love languages today, and I’m excited to give you the message. Today, it’s going to be fun; it’s going to be different. I love preaching, and I also love teaching. Today will be more teaching because I believe that we all have some learning and growing to do in love.
So, how many of you brought your Bibles today? I want to share with you for a moment from the subject «Endless Love.» I was in the back listening to some Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, just refreshing my mind on «Endless Love.» You know, in order for us to live out this life the way God intends, we need to have some healthy relationships. As a matter of fact, the currency of life is our relationships. We want to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure each relationship we have—whether we’re married, single, have friends, or are parents with kids—is as healthy as it can be.
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31
I want you to turn your attention to Jeremiah chapter 31. We’re going to begin reading the B portion of verse 3. I’m going to start off with the NIV version, and then I’ll read the Message version and then we’ll pray. It says, «I have loved you with an everlasting love.» The Message version says, «I’ve never quit loving you, and I never will.» Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t it encouraging? God looks at you, He looks at your life, He looks at your ups, your downs, and He says, «I have never stopped loving you, and I never will.» There’s no description in the Bible that says there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Is there anyone grateful for that in here this morning?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank you for Your word. We thank You, God, that You love us. You love us so much that You sent Your son Jesus for us. Today, we look at Your words, and we desire to grow from them; we desire to learn from them. We desire to glean from them everything that You have in store for us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Foundational Truths for Relationships
In order for us to really understand love, and relationships, we need to look at four foundational truths. Four truths that I have written down—four truths that I’ve taken note of over the last sixteen years of pastoring people, sitting in countless premarital and marital sessions, and leading people through relationships. I’ve jotted down a few things, and this is for you if you’re married, if you’re single, if you’re working with coworkers, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re talking to your in-laws, or if you’re talking to your outlaws. This is for you. I believe we can all do a better job understanding the dynamics of our relationships based on what they are grounded in.
I’m reminded of when I was in Las Vegas last year speaking at a conference there. My hostess drove me around the city, and I admired the buildings and hotels, just the large scale and unique vision in one city. Some cities don’t have as many people in them as one hotel does. As a matter of fact, in Las Vegas, the City Center hotel has more employees than the whole city I grew up in. The City Center employs about 12,000 people, while the city of Creedmoor has a population of about 5,000 people. A hotel has more employees than my whole city—that’s encouraging to me!
I love Las Vegas. I love looking at the buildings. I love looking at the vision that was started by really three entrepreneurs who saw a desert but saw potential. I’ve been passing a particular hotel they’ve been building for the last two years, and I’ve noticed that they are taking a long time with the foundation. When they finish it, the hotel will be massive, but they take the most time laying the foundation. They understand that if the foundation is not right, it doesn’t matter what the color of the paint is, it doesn’t matter what the color of the glass is, it doesn’t matter what color paintings you have in it. If the foundation is not right, it doesn’t matter what the aesthetics of the hotel are.
I find often, when I talk to people, they skip past the foundations of a relationship and go directly to the aesthetics. Have you ever talked to someone and said, «Oh, what is he like?» and they reply, «Girl, he’s six feet tall! Man, let me tell you, his eyes are blue, he’s athletic, he works out, he’s in the gym eight days a week!» And you say, «No, no, but what is he like?» Or someone might say, «Let me tell you something: man, she can cook! I’m telling you, she fixed me something I never had before, she can burn! I mean, she can really throw down in the kitchen!» But you ask, «But what is she like?» And they might answer, «Man, look how long her hair is; it accentuates her eyes!» You reply, «That’s great, but what is she like? What is he like?» Sometimes, people get hung up on aesthetics and blow past the foundation of who someone really is.
If we’re not careful, we’ll begin to fall in love with the personality of a person rather than the character of a person. We’ll put more investment into what we see on the outside versus what we see on the inside. Every test that you go through in life will be a test of what you’ve sown on the inside. There’s never a person in the gym because they know that gym workout is going to test their character; they’re in there because they desire to develop what people see. But I believe in this year, 2020, it’s going to be pivotal for us to develop what people can’t see. So that when our character and our integrity are tested, we can stand the test of time. Through the Word of God, we must lay a solid foundation. It doesn’t matter what they look like if their insides are terrible. Can I get a good Amen on that?
You might say, «But Pastor, it does matter what they look like!» It does matter—you can rent the most attractive person until they open their mouth. Oh man, have you ever met somebody who just talks about how good they look? It’s like singing your own birthday song, and it’s terrible! It’s a terrible thing, it’s a terrible thing. Here’s what I believe: I believe that every man and every woman has both a king and a queen and a fool on the inside. The one you address is the one that will respond. Come on, somebody! If you invest in the fool in your husband, you’ll get a fool that responds to you. But if you call the king out of him, guess what? You’ll get a king that responds to you. If you invest in the fool in that woman, I’m telling you, she’ll go crazy on you! If you call the queen out of her, guess what? You’ll get a queen!
Point 1: Real Love Extends Grace
So today, I just want to help us understand the dynamics of relationships through love. If you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down: Point number one: real love extends grace. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13; we’re going to read verse 7. The GW version says, «Love never stops being patient.» We could all use more patience! If we’re going to understand what point number one is, we have to learn to communicate with each other. Communication is key because oftentimes we communicate with people the way we desire to receive communication.
Let me help you out: the way women communicate is completely different from the way men communicate. I was raised with four women, and I live with one right now. We communicate differently. I’m telling you, we communicate completely differently. I will help all of us out today—we’re going to break down two different levels of communication. If you can learn to communicate with your spouse, with the person you’re dating, or with your coworker of the opposite sex, you can get a lot of things done. I’m telling you, if you communicate to them the way you want to receive communication, nine times out of ten, you’re going to be frustrated, they’re going to be frustrated, and you’re going to be arguing a whole lot.
I have this rule: I don’t argue. My wife and I don’t argue. She may be arguing at me, but I won’t argue back. It’s true! She’ll tell you; when she gets up here, she’ll tell you I won’t argue. If we can’t talk about it, then there’s nothing to talk about. I’ll say, «Hey, let’s talk about it when cooler heads prevail.» And if we can’t talk about it, then don’t! I really read the Bible. I’ve read it all the way through, and not once did it say, «God says, ‘Argue with people, argue with your spouse! ’» No!
Let me help you out: ladies, let me help you: a man’s mind is like a mall. Just like a mall, it has stores that are compartmentalized. He thinks about one thing at a time, and that’s it! That’s the only thing he’s thinking about. Like a mall, there are bigger department stores than there are most stores, so sometimes he’ll be thinking about something that’s bigger than the last thing he thought about. But for the most part, his mall is filled with hallways. Oftentimes, your husband will tell you he’s not thinking about anything, and you think he’s lying. The truth is, he’s not lying at all—he’s thinking about nothing! God has graced us with the ability to be in deep thought about nothing! Come on, brothers, help me out—am I telling the truth? You’re in deep thought, and your wife asks, «What are you thinking about?» You say, «Nothing.» She replies, «You’re lying!» No, I’m thinking about nothing!
Have you ever talked to your husband, and you asked him a question, and he says, «Huh? What did you think about it?» He was listening but thinking about something else. You ask, «What did you think about?» He responds, «None.»
I’m helping you out: don’t hit a man with a bunch of things at once and expect an answer about something he’s not even thinking about. You know what you’ll get? «Let me think about it.»
Come on, somebody! That’s what you need to holler at your boy!
Now let me help you out: a woman’s mind is completely different. A woman’s mind is like Costco. Everything you need under one roof, thousands of signatures to find! You ask a question about one thing, and she’ll take you back to something that happened thirty minutes ago. A woman’s mind is like a ball of yarn; you pull one string, and the whole thing unravels! She is going to unload on you everything she has been thinking about for the last ten years. That’s why women never forget anything! Each thought is tied to an emotion.
You could be driving in your car, getting lost, and she reminds you of when you got lost fifteen years ago, what you were listening to on the radio, how your car broke down, and what you told her when that happened! Meanwhile, you can’t even remember what you ate for lunch yesterday!
A woman has the ability to think about everything all at once! She could be in the kitchen cooking, watching TV, and doing the kids' homework at the same time. You can’t even tie your shoe without thinking, «How in the world am I taking this shoe off?» Women are gifted and anointed in the craft of multitasking and mental thinking all at the same time!
But this is where it gets confusing. We start thinking that he understands how you think, and we start thinking that she understands how you think, but they don’t! You assume they should know by now. You ever meet someone and ask, «How long have you been married?» They say, «Forty years!» and everyone applauds, but in his mind, he’s like, «Yeah, but only two of them were good.»
Sometimes if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself just enduring the time until time is no more. You don’t want to live that kind of life. You don’t want to endure relationships. You don’t want to endure friendships. You want to enjoy the people that God has placed in your life!
In order to do that, we have to understand how to communicate the love language that the people in our lives desire to receive. I’m telling you, when you talk to a man, it’s like turning on a light switch. When you talk to a woman, it’s like going into a circuit breaker room. You’ve got to figure out which panel cuts on what.
You come home from work; man, she asks you how your day was. You were satisfied and at peace with one response, «It was good.» You go about your business, and she’s walking behind you saying, «Well, what did you do? Who did you talk to? What emails did you get? Who did you talk to on the phone? Did you remember to pick up the groceries? Did you remember that…?»
And you’re like, «Lord, have mercy! I just want to go sit on my couch and get in deep thought about nothing!»
We don’t get freed up in here today. Deliverance is in the house!
The worst thing you can do is stand in front of a man during a basketball game talking about nothing. He’s not listening to you! Did you remember to empty the trash? He didn’t hear a thing! Did you remember? Huh? He’s not even looking at you; he’s looking through you at the basketball game!
Let me help you out: compliment him; hey, you look good today! You look real good. Your socks are dirty, but you look real good. You see what I just did there? I just complimented him, told him what he needs to change, but I picked him back up at the end.
He’s feeling good about himself, and he doesn’t mind changing if you ride him about his socks—he ain’t changing! He’s going to wear them just to spite you. And when he gets to church, he’ll take his shoes off so everybody can see what you’ve got to deal with on a regular basis!
Gentlemen, if you want your wife to respond to you the right way, love her, encourage her, build her up, motivate her, and then say, «Love, what do you need today? You’ve been cooking all week. What can I cook for you?» We know the menu is short, but at least offer it—a bologna sandwich! You cook the best bologna sandwich you ever made in your life. You bring that bologna sandwich and say, «Love, I could really use this week…»
How about those dirty socks—wash them? How can I serve you? But do you know what marriage is? It’s identifying the person you don’t mind making sacrifices for for the rest of your life.
Hear me, people. If you don’t have that person, don’t get married! Don’t get married if you’re looking for happiness in someone else. Let me help you out, single ladies: Most men look—men, listen: Don’t be deceived! If she does not listen to your heart, she won’t respect or honor you in your future. If you have not found the person that you don’t mind laying your life down for for the rest of your life, do not get married!
If he’s not here today, and you’re like, «Man, it’s been thirteen years; Pastor, I should have heard this back then!» I’m telling you, you can renew the love that God intended for you to start with. But in order to do that, you have to understand that real love extends grace. The Word of God teaches us that His grace is sufficient for us. If His grace is sufficient for you and for me, then we should extend the same grace that God gives us so freely to the people that we are in relationship with. Isn’t it amazing that we judge people based on what they do, but we judge ourselves based on what we intended to do?
Isn’t that crazy? «I didn’t mean to say it, but I said it—I forgive myself; you should too! I didn’t mean it like that; go ahead, forgive me; I already forgave myself!» But the moment someone else does something, we hold them to the standard of being Jesus Jr. We should never hold people in our lives to the standard of being who we are not!
We don’t hold ourselves to that standard! Why do we hold other people in our lives to that standard? If we held our standard to the level that we hold other people, most of us would need to talk to ourselves. We’d be so bitter, frustrated, and angry with ourselves that we couldn’t live with ourselves!
But we don’t mind forgiving ourselves! «I didn’t mean it! God, you understand my heart—that just slipped out!» How many have ever said that before?
What about when you sin so badly you wonder, «Where did that come from? I didn’t even know that was in me!» I didn’t mean it—God, you know my heart! But this is what the Word of God teaches us: out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
You have to be careful of what you sow into your heart because if it stays in your mind long enough, it will seep into your heart.
Real love extends grace. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 7: the Message Translation says, «Real love puts up with anything.» He keeps throwing his clothes on the floor instead of putting them in the dirty clothes hamper. Real love is extending grace towards him. She keeps talking about stuff that really doesn’t matter to you in the long run, but real love extends grace. The NCV version of this says, «Real love patiently accepts.» The NJB version says, «Real love is always ready to make allowances.»
When should grace be implemented? When you see flaws in other people! When should grace be implemented? When should you extend grace? When you see flaws in other people! No one lives to the standard of Jesus, so we shouldn’t hold people to that standard in our lives. You are sin-prone. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to fumble your words—you’re going to say something you didn’t mean. Extend grace to other people when they do that in your life.
Everybody has that one sibling that gets on your nerves! You got that one cousin that’s crazy—no, he’s crazy! He’s always been crazy; he’s going to be crazy for the rest of his life! Extend grace! Some of you have been avoiding family reunions because you didn’t want to see that one person. Go to your family reunion! Some of you avoid going to work, going past a certain cubicle because of that one coworker. No, go out of your way to love on them and show them the love of Jesus Christ because real love extends grace.
Point 2: Real Love Expresses Faith
Number two: real love expresses faith. The B portion of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 7 says, «Love never stops believing.» This is so important because a lot of times we don’t feel like doing what we know we should be doing. But thank God we don’t operate off of our feelings! If you’re in a relationship because you feel like it, at some point, you’re not going to feel like it.
That person is not going to always make you happy. As a matter of fact, you won’t always like that person, but God has called you to love that person. Real love operates off faith. It operates off something more than what we see; it operates off something more than what we feel. Guess what? Your feelings are fleeting, and they will lead you down the wrong path.
If your love is not rooted and grounded in faith, then your love will be like the storms that blow the trees. It will be blown back and forth. But when you have your love rooted and grounded in faith, it’s consistent through time. No matter how you feel, no matter what’s going on, it doesn’t matter what you see—all that matters is what God said.
When you can have your love rooted in the promises of God, it does not matter what you see! You know what God said to you—what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, according to Hebrews chapter 11.
So oftentimes, in order for our faith to be activated, it takes us believing in what we can’t see. Some of you have a hard time loving people that God has placed in your life to receive your love because of how you feel. But the reality is, it doesn’t matter how you feel. God has called you to impact and impart wisdom into your children. Some of you haven’t talked to your children, and you’re like, «I don’t even know how to communicate with them.»
Listen, go into that crazy room; push the door open; sit down, and have a conversation with your kids! Because regardless of how you feel, regardless of the gap in time between your conversations, they still have parents, and you still have kids. They deserve the love you can give through faith.
Learn the language that they speak. I talked to my brother; he’s 20 years old; he’s like my son. I said, «Hey man, what are you listening to?» «I’m listening to this particular artist.» I said, «Play it!» He puts it on, and it sounds like a foreign language! I said, «Man, you’ve got to interpret that for me. What are they saying?» He replies, «This!»
I mean, it’s like a master’s level of interpretation! I’m like, «How do you know that?» But you can’t tell me what Psalms chapter 18 says! Alright, but I’m intentional about learning how to communicate with him. If I don’t communicate with him, someone will. If I don’t communicate with the people in my life whom I should be intentional about, someone else will.
If we’re not careful, our voices will be replaced with people who don’t mean well to the people that we love. Real love is rooted and grounded in faith. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 7, the NIV translation says, «Real love always trusts.» The NLT version says, «Real love never loses faith.»
You say, «Well, PT, my kids have broken my trust! I’ve trusted them, and they let me down time and time again! My spouse has broken my trust. My coworkers have broken my trust! What do I do when I can’t trust them?»
I would encourage you—trust God! God says, «I’ll never leave you, nor will I forsake you.» That scripture means He’s been consistent in your life since the beginning, and He’ll be consistent unto the end.
If you can’t trust the people that God has placed in your life, then you can trust God! Guess what? We can’t control them, but we can pray to the One that can. You can’t change your spouse, but you can pray to the One that can!
I talk to people all the time, saying, «I’m going to change him! I’m going to bring him to church! Here’s what you do, man; you can’t change him! You can’t change her! But God can.» Sink your faith in him, and watch what God does in their hearts. You know what I’ve always noticed? When I’ve got a problem with someone else and I pray to God about them, God always redirects the prayer back to me!
I say, «God, I don’t like the way they did that!» God says, «But what are you doing?» And when you go to God because someone else did something, God always redirects it back to you.
This is what you have to do: You can’t determine how you get wounded, but you can determine how you heal. If you can sink your faith and hope in Jesus Christ, He’ll show you what you can do to become more like Him. I’m telling you, it works every single time.
We are in marriages trying to become one. It takes a lifetime to do that because you’re different! You think differently; your mindsets are different; you come from different backgrounds—two different walks of life. Thank God for your differences! The enemy that elevates your differences as negatives. God elevates your differences as positives.
So admire each other’s differences, and figure out how you can accomplish what God has called you to accomplish together. Don’t work against each other; work together! I’m telling you, sometimes just choosing where to eat feels like a full-on battle. You talk to your wife: «Baby, where do you want to go?»
She says, «Honey, you decide.» You say, «Alright, let’s go get some Mexican!» She says, «No, I want to go to Mexican!» Alright, then tell me where you want to go! «No, baby, you decide!» That’s alright—let’s go get some Chinese food! «No, I don’t want that!»
Now tell me where you want to go! «I want something healthy!» Alright, explain to me what healthy is because I don’t want nothing healthy tonight! I’ve been fasting all January! I want something greasy!
So communication is so important to get what you desire accomplished through the help of Jesus Christ. If you can have your love rooted and grounded in faith, I’m telling you it will help smooth a lot of things over.
Point 3: Real Love Expects the Best
The third thing: real love expects the best. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 7, the C portion of this scripture, the GW Translation says, «Love never stops hoping.» Some of you have kids in here that you’ve been praying for. Love never stops hoping!
Some of you have coworkers that you’ve been believing God for. Love never stops hoping! Some of you have been coming to church by yourself praying for your spouse. Love never stops hoping!
A woman asked me one time, «Pastor, how can I get my husband to come to church? I’ve been praying, I’ve been telling him to come with me to church!» I said, «Don’t invite him to church anymore. Until you love on that man!»
Because right now, he’s just looking at the rules and regulations you’re trying to set for him to change his life. I said, «You love that man, and over time he’ll see the difference in you. He’ll want to know why you changed.»
If you want to reach children, love them! Because they are searching for that. You got to love your kids back to the Lord. That’s how Jesus got you! He saw everything you were doing wrong; He saw every mess-up, every hang-up. He didn’t remind you of all that! He told you, «You can come back to Me, and I still love you!»
It’s amazing how the enemy knows your name but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name. Can we implement that in the life of the relationships that we have? Let’s stop calling out the wrong in people and instead call out how much we love them, understanding that God loved us first and knew we wouldn’t make it on our own!
He sent His Son, Jesus, for us because He understood—we knew that we would not make it on our own, but with Him, all things are possible to he or she that believes. Real love expects the best!
Point 4: Real Love Endures the Worst
The last one is this: real love endures the worst. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 7, the Message Version says, «Real love never looks back but keeps going to the end.»
Hear me: I’m not telling you to be crazy and stick in a relationship that’s abusive. I’m not telling you to stick in a friendship that’s tearing you down. But I’m telling you, if you’re in something—if you’re in a friendship, if you’re in a relationship, if you’ve got kids and they’re just driving you crazy—don’t give up!
Endure, because the race is not given to the swift; it’s given to the one who endures. You never know what God could do through time, and if you give up, you don’t give Him the time to work out of them what He’s been working out of them all along.
Closing with Psalm 18
Psalm chapter 18 is where we’re going to close today. I’ll look at this passage of Scripture; it’s a love letter God wrote in the middle of one of the most distressed moments in the author’s life. Psalm chapter 18, verse 1 says, «I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.»
He’s reminding himself of who God is. He says, «I call upon the name of the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies!»
The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction entangled me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From His temple, He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.»
I love the way it starts—it reminds God who He is to him, and he reminds himself who God is to him as well. He says, «I love You, O Lord.» Sometimes, when you don’t feel at your best, when you don’t feel great, you have to remind God, «God, I love You. I trust You. I’m with You! I’m so grateful that You love me, and You’re with me.»
In James, it says, «When I am faithless, God, You remain faithful.» Can our love be the same way, reflecting the love we see in the Bible and in God in our lives? That’s my prayer for us today: love stronger, love longer, look deeper, love harder. If we can communicate to each other not how we feel, we’ve got enough opinions going around! Everybody' s got an opinion! We don’t need people’s opinions; we need the love of Jesus Christ!