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The Foundation - Making God's Love Real

Dwayne Gandy
04/06/25 - Praise and Preaching Service

Summary: Authentic Relationships – Love That Is Real

At the heart of the Christian life is authentic love—a love that is chosen, spoken, and shown. This sermon, which opens a new series on building strong, authentic relationships at the Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ, calls believers to examine their love for God and others through the lens of Scripture, honesty, and eternal purpose.

The Ultimate Measure of Success

The speaker begins with a powerful mental exercise: imagine the end of your life. As we sit in our final days, what will determine whether our life was a success? According to Scripture, the answer is not wealth, possessions, or status, but the quality of our relationships. Have we loved others well? Have we helped them draw closer to God and prepare for eternity?

The goal of this sermon—and the series it launches—is to foster unity, love, and encouragement within the church so that we can impact heaven's population. By building deeper connections with each other, we reflect the love of Jesus, who came not to enrich our material lives but to restore our relationship with God and one another.

Foundational Truth: Love Is the Bedrock

This lesson explores three dimensions of love that must be present for relationships to be genuine and life-giving:

1. Love is a choice
2. Love must be verbalized
3. Love must be demonstrated

1. Love Is a Choice

We often hear that love is a choice, not merely an emotion. But this sermon deepens that idea: when we accepted the love of God through Jesus Christ, we already made the choice to love others—including our enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 makes this clear: we must love our enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who do us harm.

The love Christians are called to is not reactive—it’s proactive and intentional. We don’t get to decide whom we love based on how they treat us. Instead, we made the decision to love when we chose to follow Jesus. That includes spouses (Titus 2), children, and especially fellow Christians (John 13:34-35). It’s not always easy, but it’s a commandment, not an option.

The key? Our love must come from the right source: God Himself. 1 John 4:7-12 teaches that real love begins with knowing God. Without a genuine relationship with God, any attempt at loving others will be shallow and eventually falter. Authentic love stems from an authentic relationship with God.

2. Love Must Be Verbalized

It’s not enough to feel or even choose love—we must say it. Just as Jesus told His disciples, “I love you,” we too should verbalize our love. Paul repeatedly expressed his love for churches and individuals in his letters (1 Corinthians 16:23, 2 Corinthians 2:4), and Jesus even asked Peter to affirm his love three times in John 21, proving how important it is to say “I love you.”

The sermon challenges us: Do we regularly say “I love you” to our family, our friends, our church family? We can’t assume people know we love them. Words of affirmation are powerful. If we say it often and sincerely, our hearts will follow. If we avoid saying it, it may signal a deeper disconnect in our relationships.

3. Love Must Be Demonstrated

Words are powerful, but actions are the proof of our love. If we say we love someone but treat them poorly, our words become hollow. Authentic love must be backed up by consistent, sacrificial actions.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) illustrates this truth perfectly. A priest and a Levite passed by a suffering man, while a Samaritan—an outsider—stopped, helped, paid, and followed up. Jesus ends the story with the command: “Go and do likewise.”

True love is seen in the merciful, sacrificial, and costly actions we take to serve others. It’s seen in parents modeling love to their children, in married couples enduring and supporting one another through difficulties, in Christians mending broken relationships, and even in the humility of a Roman centurion who pleaded for help on behalf of a beloved servant (Luke 7).

The sermon reminds us that love sometimes means saying hard truths. It’s not just about making others feel good—it’s about doing what is right for them spiritually. Real love is truthful, even when it's uncomfortable.

The Example of Christ

The ultimate demonstration of love is found in Jesus’ suffering and death. Matthew 26–27 and Luke 23 recount how He was beaten, mocked, and crucified, yet He still said, “Father, forgive them.” Why? Because love compelled Him. John 15:13 reminds us: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

When we accepted the love of God through Jesus, we made a lifelong commitment to love others in return. As our relationship with God deepens, so will our capacity to love others more deeply and authentically.

Practical Applications

The sermon concludes with some practical suggestions:

• Know God better. If you want to love others better, you must grow in your relationship with God.
• Repair strained relationships. Choose to love, even when it’s hard. Tell people you love them. Serve them in meaningful ways.
• Say “I love you” more often. Get over the discomfort or awkwardness. Make it a normal part of your Christian relationships.
• Be a church that reflects Jesus. Our love for one another should be so visible, so authentic, that the world says, “They are the disciples of Christ.”

The Final Challenge

The most important question anyone can ask is: Where is your relationship with God right now? Have you been washed in the blood of Christ? Are you growing in your faith or have you stalled out?

The speaker invites those who are not yet Christians to be baptized, and offers prayers for those who want to renew their love for God and others. Because if we don’t love God, we can’t truly love people—and if we don’t love people, we’re not truly following Jesus.