God doesn't just display love, He defines it — and only when we truly receive His costly, sacrificial agape love can we love others the same way.
God's love for us isn't a feeling He has but the very definition of love itself — a willed, sacrificial commitment shown fully in Jesus dying for our sin. When we truly receive that love instead of living in fear of punishment, it naturally overflows into how we love, give to, and sacrifice for one another.
Illustration
Video clip of a couple obliviously interrupting a marriage proposal in Santorini, Greece
“God doesn't just display love. He defines love”
— Pastor Bill Bush
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 1 of 6
God is love, but love is not God — the difference matters
Pastor Bill unpacks 1 John 4:7-8, warning that many Christians flip the statement and end up defining God by their own idea of love rather than letting God define love. God is love means love is His perfect attribute, alongside holiness, justice, and mercy — not His only attribute.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 2 of 6
The love God calls for is agape — a willed, costly commitment, not a feeling
Working through the Greek words for love (phileo, eros, storge, agape), Pastor Bill explains that agape is not measured by how strongly someone feels love but by what it cost them to give it. He points to verses 9-10 and 18-19: God showed His love by sending His Son as a sacrifice, and perfect love casts out the fear of punishment.
“It's measured by what it cost that person to love you”
— Pastor Bill Bush
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 3 of 6
Love receives — we can't give a love we haven't first accepted
Using the illustration of french fries and ketchup ('the ketchup of Christ'), Pastor Bill shows that without continually receiving God's love, loving others becomes a forced, joyless burden. He explains that God disciplines out of direction for the future, not punishment for the past, and that dwelling on how much we've been forgiven is what produces patience with others.
“The catch up of Christ is what allows us to love all of us french fries out there”
— Pastor Bill Bush
“Jesus loves you more than you can love yourself, and he's not mad at you”
— Pastor Bill Bush
“commitment to Christ is not about perfection. It's about continuing”
— Pastor Bill Bush
A story from life
Story about his kids and ketchup on french fries used as an analogy for receiving Christ's love
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 4 of 6
Love gives — real love costs something
Pastor Bill retells the story of King David buying the threshing floor from Araunah rather than accepting it for free, insisting he would not offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing. That land became the site of the temple, showing how a costly, faithful act of giving can become part of something far bigger than we imagine.
Related passage
“I will not take from you and then offer to God something that cost me nothing”
— Pastor Bill Bush
Illustration
Story of King David, the census, the plague, and his purchase of the threshing floor as an act of costly worship
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 5 of 6
Love flows — it doesn't stop with us, it moves through us to others
He tells the story of an Ohio sheriff who anonymously donated a kidney to a stranger, sparking a chain of five more strangers donating kidneys the following month. Pastor Bill ties this to Jesus telling His disciples they would do even greater things than He did, through the Holy Spirit's power, as love multiplies outward through us to change families and generations.
Illustration
Story of a sheriff donating a kidney to a stranger, sparking a chain of other kidney donations
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 6 of 6
Stay in the fight — love like this is the legacy worth living for
Closing with the story of his father, a decorated soldier who told him on their last conversation to stay on mission and stay in the fight, Pastor Bill frames sacrificial love as the true battle worth fighting, one that buys people eternity rather than just borrowed time.
A story from life
Account of the preacher's final conversation with his father, a decorated war veteran, before his death
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Take it into your week
Pastor Bill's charge is to stay in the fight — receiving God's love, giving it away at cost, and letting it flow through us to others.
Application
Receive God's love before trying to give it
Stop trying to force yourself to love others out of fear or obligation; sit with how much God has forgiven and loved you first, and let that be what unlocks love for others.
Give sacrificially, not from leftovers
Whether in time, serving, or finances, don't let others carry the cost of loving the church for you — ask whether you're letting someone else's sacrifice cover what God has asked of you.
Let your love flow outward to others
Recognize that one act of costly love ripples further than you can see; be willing to be the one who starts the chain rather than waiting for someone else to.
Stay in the fight
Don't quit when you fail or feel like you're not doing it perfectly — keep returning to God's love and keep pursuing the mission of loving like Jesus for the long haul.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI