Love Letters with Jason & Ros

I Wish I Knew This About Love!

• Jason and Ros Hamilton • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Are you ready to have your mind blown and bubbles busted on everything you thought you knew about Love? Get ready to discover the truth about “L” for Love, how to nurture it in your love relationships, and avoid those toxic patterns that leave us busted and disgusted!

In Episode 4, Jason and Ros zero in on Love— what it is, what it's not, and how to appropriately put it to work in all of your relationships! The goal is for you to gain a sober awareness of love in its purest form, while also understanding why it is THE single most essential ingredient for making any relationship work! So, grab a seat, tune in, and prepare to experience transformation in your mind and in your relationships as we explore why 'Love Has Everything To Do With It!'

Chapters:

  • 0:00 - Welcome to Love Letters with Jason & Ros
  • 1:17 - “What IS Love?”: Debunking Myths/Busting Bubbles
  • 4:30 - 4 Primary Types of Love
  • 11:04 - “When Did You Know You Loved Me?”- Our Story
  • 22:25 - When Love Can HURT: Exploring Love Challenges
  • 32:34 - Winning & Overcoming in Love Relationships
  • 33:11 - Love A.D.— Power Takeaways
  • 39:34 - Bible Truths:  1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, John 13: 34-35
  • 40:42 - Love Letter Challenge & Closing Prayer

4 Primary Types of Love:

  1. Eros – Expressing sensual love and intimacy between a husband and a wife. Focused on pleasing each other. (Marriage covenant)
  2. Philia – Brotherly and friendship love through sharing values, supporting one another via trust and loyalty.  A deep bond between friends.  (Friendship covenant)
  3. Storge – Family love.  Natural affection between parents and children or among family members. (Family covenant)
  4. Agape – God's unconditional love for humanity. And humanity's love for one another, giving love without conditions (Blood covenant through Jesus Christ).

When Can Love Hurt In Relationships?
Know the signs of unrequited love and be prepared to face challenges head-on, knowing that God is with and already loves us unconditionally! 

  • Forms of love— Eros, Philia, Storge, or Agape are used for manipulation, oppression, and selfish gain.
  • Abuse, chaos, and neglect become the norm in the relationship.
  • One or both parties have deep misconceptions about love.
  • There is 'unforgiveness' in the relationship.
  • When someone makes it HARD to love/serve them.
  • When someone "stops loving"—Service ends because one or both parties gave up, or one wouldn’t allow love to grow and flow.  
  • Service of love never began = One or both parties didn't love each other in the first place.

Biblical Truths:

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a - “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…”

John 13: 34-35 - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

Live Out Your Love Letter Challenge:

  • Review 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a and identify where you personally may be struggling with loving others. Then, commit to talking with someone about the struggle.

Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/loveletterswithjasonandros

Live out your Love Letter. 💌

Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/loveletterswithjasonandros

Live out your Love Letter. 💌

Intro

SPEAKER_00

You cannot have your family business out in the street. It is a family covenant. So those details that are specific and private to your family relationship, it needs to stay within your family relationship.

SPEAKER_02

Most of the time what we think love is, it's not. Love is not great sex. Though it may feel like that. Love is not, it's not great sex.

SPEAKER_00

So what love letter are we talking about today, Roz?

SPEAKER_02

We're talking about letter L. Love.

SPEAKER_00

Love. All right, everyone. We want to welcome you back to Love Letters with Jason and Roz. Oh man, this is the place and space for you to come and learn how to navigate, overcome challenges, and strengthen your love relationships. And we are so grateful for you to be here. And like always, we want you to like, share, and subscribe. And most importantly, share your comments because we want to continue to make great content for you. All right, you ready to get started? Yeah, I'm ready. All right, I'm ready to.

“What IS Love?”: Debunking Myths/Busting Bubbles

SPEAKER_02

The first thing I think we need to define is what is love. And in defining what is love, I think we just need to bust a few love bubbles.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-uh. Let's let's let's pop some love bubbles.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we need to bust a few love bubbles and share some myths about love. In order to really define what love is, we need to talk about what love is not.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02

Because most of the time what we think love is, it's not. Love is not great sex, though it may feel like that. Love is not, it's not great sex. It's not just simply saying, I love you. Love is more than a feeling. The feeling that we experience when it comes to love is it's really a byproduct of love. So the feeling is like passion and compassion that moves you to act. So the feeling is passion or compassion for someone and it moves you to act. Love is not stagnant. So it's not one of those things like, hey, I love you. You love me. So we've arrived. That's it. We just love each other. You know, love is not involuntary either. It's not one of those things that's like out of your control, like, I can't help it. I I fell in love with you or whatever. You know, it's it was out of my control. And and also, lastly, love is not something you fall in and out of. Yeah, that's that's impossible. That's a myth. That's a myth. And you can't do myths. Can't do myths. You can't do myths. But what love is, love is a verb, it's an action word. Love is something that you do. Um, it is a conscious decision to serve someone with benevolence, serve for their betterment. That's what love truly is. Love is also a noun. It is a person which is God. God is love. And God, uh, because God is love, we also have a noun which is like the object of your affection, like you are my love.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and you are my love.

SPEAKER_02

So the object of your affection. And even like your kids, they're the object of your affection. Your parents, you know, your siblings, the object of your affection. So that's when love is a noun. And love, lastly, it is a mutual expression that grows and it evolves, it evolves over time. And the whole idea of love is to not only draw us closer to God, but in doing that, we draw closer to each other. So love is like that triangle, you know, me, you, and God. So as we get closer to God, we get closer to each

4 Primary Types of Love

SPEAKER_02

other. So, Jason, how else do we need to navigate love? What else do we need to know about love?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so here's the deal: there are four types of love. And those four types of love are arrows, filia, storge, and agape. Now, you know, when I was preparing for this rise, I found out some things.

SPEAKER_02

What you find out?

SPEAKER_00

I found out that with each type of love, there is also a specific covenant with it. Yeah. So I want to I want to explain to you the four types of love. Now, Eros love, that's the love most of us know about. Eros, erotic, that's that sensual love, that's that passion type of love. That's sexual intimacy. However, all of these have a confinement or covenant, if you would. So in this particular case, Eros love is under the covenant of marriage.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

So when you're thinking about sexual intimacy, don't think about situationship. I want you to think about the covenant of marriage. So that's Eros love. Exactly. Relations. So the second one is Philia, and this is brotherly love. And this one's this one's gonna go out to my frat brothers. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. So that's like a fraternity brother. That's someone that you have a close, deep, personal relationship with. And that covenant is called a friendship covenant. So as I was getting prepared, I looked at 1 Samuel chapter number 18, verse 3.

SPEAKER_03

David and Jonathan.

SPEAKER_00

David and Jonathan, they are by far the best example of a friendship covenant. Yes. The Bible talks about their souls were knitted together. They were such close friends, they had a unique connection, but it was a unique friendship. Yes. So it was truly a ride or die type of friendship because they were on the run, but they were committed to one another's success. So that's that philia of friendship love.

SPEAKER_02

And I want to add one more thing. Go ahead. So with Philia, so there's friendships between men and women. There's just like there's brotherhood, there's also sisterhood. Yeah. So, you know, I had my best, my best friend that passed on, but I still have other good friends as well that we share a sisterhood, a bond that just cannot be broken. And that's just friendship. You know, a friend sticks closer than a brother.

SPEAKER_00

So no, absolutely. And actually, what you made me think about is in Matthew's where uh Jesus gives them the greatest commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And then the second commandment is just like it love your neighbor as yourself. So even if we if we go back to David and Jonathan, yes, that's the type of love that they had. They were loving their neighbor as themselves.

SPEAKER_03

I like that. You like that? I love that.

SPEAKER_00

So that's that so that's that friendship love. The third type of love is storegay. Now, this one was kind of new to me, but it makes sense. That's family love. Okay, that's the love you share for your family. So, for example, when we had our kids, you know, Roz was nursing the babies. I mean, that was a very unique bond that they were creating with one another. Yes. That's family love, and that's the context of family covenant. Yep. Here's the power of family covenant. You can't be having your family business all out in the street.

SPEAKER_02

True that. True that. Say that again.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to say it again because that was a gold nugget that you might have just missed. You cannot have your family business out in the street. It is a family covenant. So those details that are specific and private to your family relationship, it needs to stay within your family relationship. You know, we we talk about it being family covenant. What family covenant truly means is protection. So me had as a husband protecting and shielding my wife, me as a father protecting and shielding my children. So whenever we're thinking about um store-gay love and family covenant, I always want you to be mindful of protection. I've got a responsibility to protect you, and I'm committed to doing so because this is a covenant relationship. Now, the most important one, and I feel it's the foundation for all of the love relationships, is agape love. That is God's unconditional love for mankind. Yep. His unconditional love for mankind. And basically, that God covenant, that's another level of covenant. And what I mean by that is that covenant was signed in blood. Ooh, that's that's serious. That's deeper than a marriage con a marriage con a marriage covenant, that's deeper than sexual relations. Yes, you know, that's deeper than family. It was a blood covenant because he wanted relationship with all of us. Yes. So he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in his son so that we could have relationship with him.

SPEAKER_03

I love that.

SPEAKER_00

That's a blood covenant, and that is unconditional love. And so it becomes the foundation because in all of the other types of love, we're supposed to love unconditionally. So all of our covenant relationships or all of the types of love, they need to reflect God's unconditional love towards us. Does that make sense? That makes sense. So in all four cases, love is reciprocated. So I show you intimate love, you show me intimate love. Yes. In our friendships, you know, we're brotherly love, sisterly love, and vice versa. So those relationships are all designed to be reciprocated and not one-sided. But we're gonna talk more about that in just a

“When Did You Know You Loved Me?”- Our Story

SPEAKER_00

bit.

SPEAKER_02

So let me ask you this. When did you know that you love me?

SPEAKER_00

Ask me that question again.

SPEAKER_02

When did you know you loved me?

SPEAKER_00

When did I know that I loved you? For real, love me. For real love you, not that fake sexual.

SPEAKER_02

Not the sex and not the good feelings.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. All right, so just to get to the point, I knew that I loved you when I cared more about your salvation than you being with me. I was willing to sacrifice you being with me for your soul because I thought your soul was more important. And basically, what I what I mean by that, so you guys know we dated off and on for six years. But what you may not know is there was a six-month period that we were apart before we got married.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think that was around the third, that was the third and final breakup.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was the yeah, that's when you know it was rough. Everybody packed bags, everybody moved their own way, it was over. So six months we were apart. Well, during that six-month period, I had an experience with God. I'll never forget this. Bible Way Church, shout out to uh uh Pastor Jones. Pastor Jones, that's right. Bible Way Church, I was there one Sunday. The youth pastor was preaching, and I felt like I was the only person in the church. That day, I truly gave my heart to the Lord. And when that occurred, I even received God's Holy Spirit within my heart. I was transformed forever. And what happened was this pastor was talking about fasting, and I said, okay, I want to I want to go on a fast. So he taught me a few things one-on-one, and so I went on my fast. And the whole purpose for the fast was for me to get closer to God. So here I am fasting and praying and studying the Bible, getting closer to God. And then all of a sudden, I started hearing this voice in my head. You're supposed to marry Ross.

SPEAKER_01

I'm like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_00

We're broke up at this time. Yeah, we're on this six-month breakup. I'm like, okay, what in the heck is going on? I'm trying to get closer to God. I'm hearing this voice. We've we've, you know, we've wrapped up that relationship. I'm like, okay, that has got to be from the devil. So I dismiss that from my mind and I continue to pursue God in prayer. But the more I spend time with God, the louder that voice gets to me. So what I did was I went on over to Oakland Street where Roz was living, you know, rang the doorbell, Roz came to the door, and I know she probably was about ready to faint because we hadn't seen each other for so long. My heart fell to the floor. It fell to the floor. It's like, you know how your armpits start sweating and ditching all of a sudden it was like one of those moments. But I said, I mean, I was young. I was like, hey, Raj, you know what? I believe we're supposed to get married. And she was like, What? What are you talking about? Look, I've gone on with my life. You need to move on with yours. That's exactly what she said.

SPEAKER_02

I was playing hard though. I really, I didn't mean it, but I was playing hard because I didn't want to get hurt anymore.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't know you didn't mean it.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't mean it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I took it like she meant it. So I was like, okay, hold up. I need to do, I need a different approach. I know this is a long story to tell you how I fell in love, but I'm about to shift gears.

SPEAKER_02

You didn't fall in love.

SPEAKER_00

I'm sorry. This is a long story to let you know when I knew I loved her. I'll say this. At that point, I told her, I said, you know what? Forget about us being married. I just want to share with you what's been taking place in my life. And that moment was the shift where all that mattered to me was that she would experience the same transformation that I experienced. It was no longer about us getting married, but it was really about her soul. So that's how I knew. That's when I knew for sure that I loved you. So how about how about for me? When did you know you loved me? You love me.

SPEAKER_02

I would say for for when I knew that I loved you, so keep in mind we still live in that BC life before Christ.

SPEAKER_00

Before Christ.

SPEAKER_02

I was still living the BC life. And I was looking at, you know, every time we broke up, every time he hurt me, must mean he doesn't love me. But I knew that I loved him. And I I think even with the immaturity and even not knowing what exactly love really truly was, I just every time we would break up, I was just more and more devastated. My heart was just I was mush because I would, you know, get a little depressed and everything because it was kind of like a you know that feeling I wanted to be a part of your life. And I just couldn't imagine us not having a life together. Yeah. I had pictured in my mind, I dreamt about it, I felt like this was supposed to be, you know, I felt like I was good for you. I knew I was good for him. I just, because of everything that was going on, maybe he wasn't good for me. And I just had a struggle with that. And every time I would hear about you, the times we were apart, I would hear from friends or your brother, you know. I would always kind of ask on the slide, how's Jason? You know. And he would tell me stuff, but but it was just, you know, hearing, you know, things that you were going through, it hurt me. I felt bad. I would always, if I ever ran into him on campus or anything, or it was just, oh, you know, I ran into him in the city. I just my you know, my heart sunk to the floor. I was nervous and sweaty, and you know, my heart started fluttering real bad. So I knew that it was it was that feeling, that passion and compassion. And I I figured that that was love. So I desired a future with you. And I was just when you when you came to me, even though I was being hard, I think I was just trying to keep my guard up because I did not want to be hurt anymore. And I knew if if we were to, you know, if I was to give him another chance, another chance. One last hurrah. One last one last time. I just I was so nervous about that. And I I didn't know in the moment when he came, I didn't know if I was willing to risk that. Because love is a risk, you know, it's a risk that you take. But at the time, I just we didn't know Jesus. So yeah, I'm so thankful that God gave him a different approach. And when he came, when you came to me about the the fasting and the praying, and I I I I wanted to try it. I I knew it was something different, and I knew that that God, the God element, God who is always with us, I knew that that was the missing piece. Yeah, and I wanted to to give that a try, an honest try. Um, if there is really such a thing. I wanted to give, I wanted to test that. We don't try.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

As Yoda says, there's no such thing as trying.

SPEAKER_00

Do or do not. Do or do not.

SPEAKER_02

There is no try. So I wanted to test that and see if that would be what what we needed to make the relationship work. And thank God that you know God was our all-in-all.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I gotta, I got a question. We've been apart six months. I'm here at the door. I probably would be very, very skeptical. What caused you to get past the skepticism? Because I, you know, there are people that are in this space right now. It's like, do I continue down this journey or not?

SPEAKER_02

I will say this. He looked different. You know, he had always had hair. So he was doing this fast, right? And so he, you remember you had shaved y'all your hair off? Did I really? Yeah, you remember used to have those one little knit little knit hat. So he had cane and he he just looked different. And I kind of like the bald head, you know. I I knew he had hair, but for what for whatever reason he had cut his hair off. But you looked different and you talked different. And at that moment, I knew there was something different about him. He shared his experience at the church, and I knew he was saved for real. And that intrigued me. That drew me. You know, what does Jesus say? If I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. I'll draw it. So Jesus drew me through him. So that was the thing that um got me to listen when you came. Yeah, because I know you left, but then you came back. So after I turned them down, I left. God came back.

SPEAKER_00

Because I had to rethink my approach. Yes. I'm like, okay, God, you said this. He was like, well, Jason, you didn't you didn't wait to get the whole, you know, the whole strategy. You moved on part of the strategy. Yeah, but the reason the reason why I asked that is because I recognize that you may be experiencing a relationship even right now. You know, we talked about the six years up and down, back and forth with our relationship. You may be experiencing the same thing. There's got to be some type of indicator. That things are different. Yes. And it just wasn't, you know, hey, I'm coming by and I'm telling you that I'm saved. Anyone can tell you that they're saved. But you're going to know them by their fruit. So as we spent time together, we spent time studying God's word. We spent time understanding what his purpose was for our lives.

When Love Can HURT: Exploring Love Challenges

SPEAKER_02

So that's good. So I want to now talk about when love can hurt in relationships.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man. So you guys know I talked about the four types of love earlier. To me, this these are going to be some one, two Mike Tyson biting on the ears type of blows. Okay, so we we we got we got arrows. You know, you know you're telling the truth. Yeah, okay. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

So we got we got Eros, we got Felia, we've got Storgate, and we've got agape love. So what happens is this this hurts when those types of love are taken out of context. Oh yeah. So for example, you know, first of all, there's a marriage covenant with Eros love. So the second there's infidelity that's taking place, that causes a lot of pain. Or when your spouse gets selfish and it's about me taking care of my needs, woman, you better get up in that bed. But I'm tired. I don't care, get up in that bed. It's all about me. It becomes selfish versus benefiting someone else or caring about the needs of others. When we look at philia or friendship love, who wants a friend that drains you mentally? Yes, that drains you financially. I mean, it's like, man, they always asking you for money. There's got to be love others as you love yourself. Like I said earlier, there must be some type of reciprocation that's taking place. Yeah. So if our friendship is just about me taking, taking, taking, that's going to wear on someone that's one-sided. Exactly. It's one-sided, and that's gonna cause some tension. True. That's gonna cause some serious tension. So that's problematic. And even with family, that's the toughest. That's one of the toughest. It is tough. I mean, when you know you lose relationship with your children, you know, a parent that lose relationship loses relationship with their children, or you have other issues going on with your family that exactly. That that's breaking things up and family members not talking to family members, not even wanting to go and enjoy one another at a you know at a family event functions. Those things hurt. And then really the last thing when we talk about agape love and God's unconditional love towards us, the biggest thing is when we just turn our backs on God. That's very painful. But then even if you look at it from a spiritual perspective, sometimes we even get hurt in our local churches, yeah, which is unfortunate. Yeah, because that is a very spiritual component. We we look at these individuals as, you know, spiritual fathers or spiritual mothers and spiritual influencers. And sometimes, you know, those spiritual type of relationships can be used for manipulation, control, or causing fear. And so in all of those situations, we need to recognize that those are areas of challenge and that can cause some significant pain in our relationships.

SPEAKER_02

Key word is manipulation in all of them, because um with arrows, you know, hey, if you love me, you'll do this.

SPEAKER_00

You'll do this.

SPEAKER_02

Family, hey, I'm your mom, I'm your dad, I'm your brother, I'm your sister, I'm your your child, you gotta do this. If you don't do it, you don't love me.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

You know, that's all manipulation, you know, trying to make you feel guilty for not doing something or doing something, you know, where you're just trying to live your life, or you're trying to do what you you feel that God is leading you to do, uh, and they don't quite understand that, or they don't want to understand that. That's it.

SPEAKER_00

You don't know or you don't want to know.

SPEAKER_02

So so yeah, those can be very tough. And in those type of relationships, love hurts. Yeah. Love hurts. It can be challenged.

SPEAKER_00

I don't feel you know what I'm saying. So oh, go ahead. So, you know, um, with these different challenges, are there any other challenges? Yeah, there's some more challenges. Okay. Let the good times roll.

SPEAKER_02

Also, with love, when it it can also hurt when both parties don't truly know what love is. So you're like relationshipping with miss under mis misunderstanding. So I there's this thing I call the happily ever after lie. You know those, you know those movies, you know, the old movies, you know, love is finally confessed between the man and the woman or the boy and the girl, and it's like that's it. They they love, they they fell in love, they are they, yeah, they fell in love, yeah, they get married or whatever, they're together, you know they're gonna be together, and then that's it. That's the end. But that's the lie because love continues to grow. So if we think that just love is is is it, and we're gonna live happily ever after, we're we're we're under a misconception there. So another thing, ooh, this one is a big one. Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. You know, love is hindered when there's unforgiveness in the heart. Yeah. Um what unforgiveness does to love, to the service or the act, is it blocks the healthy flow of love in the relationship. I I I like to think of it like this. Unforgiveness is like this beautiful garden that gets watered regularly, but when unforgiveness is there in the garden, the water supply is cut off. So, what happens in a garden when the water supply is cut off?

SPEAKER_00

It dries up and it dies.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, the plants, the vegetation, the life dies. So unforgiveness does that. And the beauty fades away.

SPEAKER_00

The beauty of it fades away. Yep, it's drained, and people, people are drawn to that beauty, yes. So if just like Christ's love draws us, when we live healthy love relationships, forgiving one another as Christ also has forgiven us. Exactly. That draws people and that causes them to think, you know, hey, what do you guys have? You know, what's going on with you? Well, we love one another, yeah, genuinely.

SPEAKER_02

Ain't nobody perfect, and never will, we will, we will never be until we get to. You need to stop. You need to stop.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm over. Anyway, I move on.

SPEAKER_02

Um, the other thing, lastly, is there is such a thing as when people make it hard for you to love them. So there is such a thing as stop to stop loving. There is such a thing as to stop loving. What that means is, you know, people it's like, I've stopped loving you, or I stopped loving him, or I stopped loving her. What that means is the person has just given up. If you think of love as service, it's an action. You're doing you're you're loving, I'm loving you because I've decided that I want to support and serve you. Yeah. Okay. When I stop supporting and serving him, then that means I've stopped loving him. If I'm not looking out for his behalf, I've stopped loving. And there are two reasons why people stop loving. Either the person just said, you know what, I want to, I want to be done. I don't want to, I don't want to love you no more. I don't want to, I don't want to serve you anymore. I don't want to sacrifice for you. Yeah, I don't want to sacrifice for you anymore. Or the person won't let you sacrifice. They won't let you love them. They won't let you support them. They're they're being very difficult, and you want to love them that, but they're not allowing you to do that. So that can really hurt. And then there's also when service never began. You went to the gas station, never got you didn't get no gas in the car. So it's like what we mean by that is, you know, there was all of this superficial ideal about love.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But but either one or both parties never can can uh never genuinely supported or loved and act at and acted towards that. So so that just really means you didn't love each other in the first place. If service never began, then either one or both of you didn't really love each other in the first place. Yeah. So knowing what we know about love, we have to, we have to examine ourselves.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we have to examine our actions. Do we really love our significant other, our spouse, our boyfriend, our girlfriend? Do we really love our family members? Yeah. Do we really love our friends, our true friends?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do we really love God because we know that He loves us and Jesus gave His life for us?

Winning & Overcoming in Love Relationships

SPEAKER_02

How do we overcome?

SPEAKER_00

Um, you know, one of the first ways that we overcome, we understand the four types of love. Well, what we have to do is we've gotta put, we've gotta put those four types of love in their proper place. Absolutely. We always have to keep them within their proper context. That's the word. So eris, context of marriage, felia, context of context of friendship covenant. Yes. Um

Love After Deliverance— Power Takeaways

SPEAKER_00

I had to look it up on Google.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

This dude had a cool voice. Store gay. Okay, store gay. Context of family covenant, and then of course, agape, context of God's covenant. So, first thing is we need to keep love in its proper context. Yes, right? Yeah, I like that. Now the second thing is this. So, you know, Ross earlier talked about love is a noun and love is a verb, right? The second thing is look for fruit. Okay, Galatians 5, 23 or 22, 23 talks about the fruit of the spirit. Love is patient, love is kind, it's long-suffering, it's gentle, it's kind, it's all of these different things. So if you see that type of fruit in my life, then you know I love you. Now, if you're single, you're gonna love this. I am about to drop. If this was gold, that's a gold nugget. I'm about to drop.

SPEAKER_03

Drop it.

SPEAKER_00

You ready? Yep. Okay. When you're single and you're starting the date or you're thinking about dating, spend time with either him or her in their home with their family, so you can see the fruit. So you can know whether or not that fruit is ripe, if it's sour, if it's spoiled, if you should even be thinking about eating it. I'm serious. Spend some time. I love that. Spend some time when we were dating, we did group dating at first. Yeah, yeah. Spend some time with them in a group and watch for fruit. Look for it. Look for that fruit.

SPEAKER_02

I really know I love that.

SPEAKER_00

You love it, especially because you got love letters with Jason and Ron. And now for those that are married, what you want to commit to doing is continue to outdo one another. Remember, love is service. So our commitment is to one up one another. So, you know, me coming home with some flowers, it's not a holiday, it's not any of that stuff. I'm just coming to bring you some flowers. And Roz is like, oh, I love those flowers. And then she's like, Okay, I'm gonna one up you. Here's a Lamborghini. That's what I'm talking about. Now that's a love one-up.

SPEAKER_02

You need to put to me, to me, is like he comes home and like, hey, I got I brought food, I brought dinner, so you don't have to cook.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yeah, that's that's a big that's it.

SPEAKER_02

It's a true act of service.

SPEAKER_00

That's an act of love for her. It's just like, ugh, Friday date night. Yes, you know, all right. So any other thing again.

SPEAKER_02

This is part one of love. So we we're gonna talk about love. We're gonna have other episodes of love and we're gonna talk about different types of love languages. We'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because you know, some folk got that Tina spirit.

SPEAKER_02

What's love got to do with it?

SPEAKER_00

Man, love got everything to do with it.

SPEAKER_02

Everything. Okay, so another another way to overcome challenges with love is to understand and accept what true love is. Examine your relationships and and ask yourself one simple question when it comes to all of your relationships. Am I willing to serve this person? Okay, yeah. If you're willing to serve that person, then you are in a love relationship. Yeah, that's good. Okay, that's good. Whatever type of relationship, whatever type of love it is you're in, a love relationship. Put love into action. That's the other thing. Make a conscious decision to act and care for someone regardless of the conditions, the results, or the circumstances. That's very important as well. The state of being in love includes forgiveness. Yeah, there's no love without forgiveness. There's no love without the fruit of the spirit. We we've got to have it. Apart from apart from God, apart from the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. Yeah, we can't even love right. So those are very important. And then lastly, know that God is ultimate love. He his love is eternal and guaranteed when we accept Jesus. So when we accept him, then we're we're good to go. We're good to go on a love on love. At least that's the the initial phase of really learning how to love people.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. No, I agree 100%. So, Roz, I I think this is actually a good time to share some uh PowerPoints and some takeaways for you. So the very first thing you need to understand is love grows. Yes, it's not something that's stagnant, but it grows over time. So in in the initial phase of the relationship, yeah, you may be patient, but not as patient as you will be 30 years into the marriage. So, like we've been at we're like 31 years. So there was a different kind of patience that I had in the beginning to the patience that I have right now. All right. The second thing is extend grace as others grow. So I'm growing in my love, Roz is growing in her love, and we need to be extending grace to one another as we go through this love journey together.

SPEAKER_03

I like that.

SPEAKER_00

And then number three, seek to understand and receive God's unconditional love because that is truly the foundation for love. That's where love began, that's where it exists. And so seek to understand God's unconditional love because through that unconditional love, you are then fully equipped to love each other unconditionally.

Bible Truths: 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, John 13: 34-35

SPEAKER_00

So every week we always want to share with you a biblical truth. So we're gonna talk about a biblical truth around love. So, Roz, what scripture are we sharing with them on today?

SPEAKER_02

All right, here we go. Let me read it. We are sharing 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 8, and it says this love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking nor easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Ooh, that that speaks to me always. Love does not delight in evil, but it rejoices in truth, it always protects. We saw we said that a little earlier. Love always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes, it always preserves. Love never fails.

SPEAKER_00

So love is eternal, it's eternal, and love never fails.

Live Out Your Love Letter Challenge

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, all right. As we get ready to close out, you know, we always challenge you to live out your love letter.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so this week we've got a pretty unique challenge for you. So we want you to take a look at that scripture. There's a link down there in the description. Take a look at that scripture, and I want you to look at those different aspects of love and ask yourself the hard question: which one of these am I struggling with? Which one of these, nobody's perfect, and that's okay? The first step to getting better is identifying where your challenges are. So identify one that you're struggling with and then commit to talking to one of your love relationships, whether it's mom, a close friend, whether it's your espoused, espoused, whether it's your wife, husband, whatever the case be may be, make the commitment to have the conversation with them. And like always, we do want you to like, share, subscribe, because when you do that, that helps with us being able to produce even more content that's relevant to you. Yes. Every week we close out in prayer. So, Roz, you want to close us out in prayer this week?

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. We're gonna pray.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we want to say thank you. Thank you for being love, thank you for sharing love, and thank you for demonstrating your love towards us so that we can also love one another as you have commanded us to do. Help us to grow closer to you and grow closer to each other, and help us to remember that love is an action and that you are ultimate love for us. In Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_00

Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us for love letters with Jason and Ross.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00

We'll see you next time.