Pastor Wayne Cordeiro & Pastor Stefanie Anderson
February 14, 2021 - W2107

"The Seal Upon Our Hearts: 

Loving God and Loving People"

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro & Pastor Stefanie Anderson  

February 13 & 14, 2021

Aloha & Welcome to New Hope Oahu--Everywhere and Anywhere! Whatever you are facing today, I want to encourage you that the King of kings and the Lord of lords is here to fill the hunger in your soul; heal your broken heart; and set you free addiction. His love will wash over you in a way that you've never experienced Him before!  But first, I want to start with Apostle Paul's prayer to the church in Ephesus: 

Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV: "¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Apostle Paul says that in order to grasp God's love, we must have the power to do so, and we'll talk about that today. King Solomon wrote the greatest love song ever written called the Song of Songs and in Song of Solomon 6:3 NKJV, "I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine." He was also considered the wisest king that ever lived and wrote 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs! There are three things that we can take away from this song, the first is... 

For Singles: 

1. Do Not Awaken Love Before It's Time  

The first thing that the Shulamite woman would tell us in Song of Solomon 2:7 NJKV is:

“Promise me, O women of Jerusalem...not to awaken love until the time is right." 

God would say, "First, let my love be enough for you."  Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:32-33 NET: "³² I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. ³³ But a married man is concerned about the things of the world, how to please his wife,"

While you're single, you have the freedom to do as you please and go after your dreams and hopes. And right now, I'm excited to announce that our senior pastor Wayne Cordeiro is with us via video to speak on distinguishing between counterfeit love and the real thing!  

[Video] 

PASTOR WAYNE CORDEIRO:  Aloha and Happy Valentine's Day, New Hope Oahu!  We're so glad to be together again--even if it's by video.  The speakers from the Teaching Team have been doing a great job teaching truths! This week Pastor Stephanie is talking about discerning counterfeit love from true love--such an important topic to talk about!  

Love is like plants--when they're just shoots or brand?new, you can't really tell the difference between a vegetable and a weed.  They look the same. True love grows slowly and takes time to mature and cannot be distinguished in the early stages! According to scriptures, true love is based on mature character; but there is also love that's based on emotions, looks, and hormones--so be careful not to make quick decisions regarding counterfeit love from true love. 1 Corinthians 13 mentions qualities of true love, based on character:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV says: "⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 

Galatians 5:22 NET says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,^" 

God must first build character and maturity on the inside of us before true love sprouts.  Learn about God's love so that you won't accept a counterfeit for true love.  You'll be surprised at how God takes you to the end with a life of no regrets!

[End Video]

PASTOR STEFANIE: It's such a good word that God is actually restraining us for our own good, not to harm us!  We're like Eve sometimes thinking that God is holding out on us, that He doesn't want to give us good things--but He does!

2.  Satisfy

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." (Psalm 90:14 NIV)

Allow God to satisfy you with His love first, before you look for love in all the wrong places!

3. Let the Longing of Your Heart Be for Him Alone  

King David (King Solomon's father) expressed his love for God and wrote: "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."  (Psalm 63:1 ESV)

Singles, you are a son or a daughter of the King! What you have is precious and sacred--not meant to be common or given to others!  The Bible says that we're saved by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony; and since many may not know me, I want to share my testimony:   

I was born in the generation of The Summer of Free Love. At that time about a hundred thousand young people descended from all over the nation to a place in San Francisco called Haight? Ashbury and gave themselves over to free love. The problem with this idea is that when the sacred (uniting in marriage of a man and a woman) is made common or base, it loses its value!  Those that participated in the free love movement found out later of their disillusionment, as many came down with STDs--and many of me came out of that generation!  

I am the consequence of what happens when a man and a woman come together just for a hook?up.  My biological mother was 17 years old when she was pregnant and quite shocked and very disturbed!  She had so much shame and just wanted to get rid of it.  I was the "it."  How do we get rid of it?  How do we make it go away?  Mother went to a doctor hoping to get an abortion and lucky for me, the doctor knew a couple that couldn't have children and he convinced her not to have an abortion, but to give the child to a family.  

Being hated and despised from the womb leaves a scar that never ever goes away! My mother's father was an alcoholic and left the family so, my mom was always looking for love in all the wrong places.  She married five times, and we had a revolving door of men that came through our house.  When I was 16 years old, I said, "I don't belong here.  I just can't live in this house anymore," and left!  When I was in my early 20s, I met a man in his 40s who had never married and I believed that it was me that he was looking for!  I flew to Hawaii to work, and he called me on the telephone and said, "You are a silly stupid little girl.  I will never marry you.  I have no intention of marrying you!" I was absolutely undone!  I felt worthless, unloved, and that was it! I was living in Kaanapali [Maui, Hawaii].  I remember walking out on the beach, and crying out to God, "If you are real, I need to know!  Otherwise, I have no reason to live!" And as I cried out to God (it wasn't a prideful thing), it was a cry of the most brokenhearted young person who bought into a lie that, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." 

This is a true story: When I said, "God, if you're real, I need to know," I felt a tidal wave of love; the deepest most powerful love that I had ever experienced in my entire life wash over me, and I began to weep. It was a deep, deep crying--everything was just a mess--I was undone! Every bad thing that had ever happened to me, every hurtful word spoken, every rejection, every bit of abandonment was coming out, going out in my tears, and His love was just flowing!  I'd never experienced a love like that in my life!  I had absolutely no idea what was happening; I began to sing a song that I had never heard before in a language that I didn't even know.  And all of a sudden, it was like the spigot just went off, and I just stood there!  

I walked back to my hotel and laid on my bed and thought--that was really weird!  The next day I flew to Oahu where met my husband Ross--we have been married for 27 years!  We have three amazing children! I was able to break a generational line of unwanted pregnancies, abuse, and abandonment in this generation!  And I'm so, so grateful because just one encounter with God and His true love changed everything for me!  Moving on...  

For Married Couples:  

1. Set a Seal upon Your Hearts 

"⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. ⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised."  (Song of Solomon 8:6-7 ESV) 

She's saying, "Put me as a seal upon your heart," your mind, will, emotions, and as a seal on your arm (your actions) because love is as strong as death and jealousy is fierce as a grave!  That's some power there!  This is the reason we can't take what is sacred and make it common! It's holy, beautiful, and powerful!  I have a bracelet and inside is engraved, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."  It's a reminder to me--a seal.  

If you have a garden and don't tend to it, you'll soon find out that the weeds have overtaken it!  Check this out--foxes are cute and fuzzy, but may I tell you that the devil never comes with a pitchfork and horns--he could come as a cute cuddly little thing like a sly fox and steals and eats all the grapes in your vineyard! Our marriages are like a vineyard!  It's been reported that more divorces occurred during COVID, than at any other time of year: jobs have taken people away from home and they haven't dealt with the little foxes that may be stealing the grapes from your vineyard.  I want us to catch those little foxes

• Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards,” (Song of Solomon 2:15 RSV)

Another thing that spoils our vineyards is the way that we speak to each other.  Proverbs 18:21 NKJV says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." 

I would encourage married couples, if you're the one that stays home, please realize that when your spouse goes to work, they live in a totally different world with many struggles! They need to come home to a safe and wonderful place! I'm guilty of saying to my husband, "Here, babe, take the kids.  I can't take it anymore.  You got to do this!"  But over the years I have realized that he needed to be celebrated, so when the kids were little and Daddy came home, it was, "Daddy is home!"  It was the biggest celebration ever!  We have no idea what our spouses had to face that day; so, watch your tongue--Speak life!  Be kind!

"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32 NKJV) 

One of the biggest things to overcome in marriages is to stop nursing and rehearsing every argument or bad thing that ever happened--instead, forgive and be compassionate to each other!

3. Do Not Allow Your Love to Grow Cold 

Solomon was the wisest king that ever lived and wrote the most passionate love songs ever. He so beautifully describes love and the beautiful relationship between a man and a woman; but in the end, Solomon took what was once sacred and made it common to the point that he says:

" ¹The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: ² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”  says the Teacher.“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 NIV) 

I believe that if we're not careful we could come to the same conclusion as Solomon did. When we don't recognize how beautiful and joy?filled the power of love is and we take the sacred and make it common, it becomes meaningless! If we kept that at the forefront of our mind, we would overlook offenses and the petty grievances that we have with each other. We would love one another and prevent our love from growing cold, and actually go after the things that we so desire, and set a seal upon our heart, mind, will, and emotion!  

COVID has taught us many things, and for some of us it's that life is short!  

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away." (James 4:14 NASB)

The seal upon our arms says, "I've been bought with a price!" The ultimate sacrifice is Jesus! That is love! Whatever we've done, been through, or going through, Jesus tells us... 

³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 NKJV) 

I especially want to pray for those who feel there is no hope and no love, that you are worthless and unlovable.  God is Love; He loves you!

STUDY QUESTIONS: 

1.      How can you distinguish between true love and the counterfeit?
2.      What does "Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards,” mean?
3.      Expand on "COVID has taught us many things, that life is short!"  
4.      What is the new commandment that Jesus gave? Share an experience you had.