Love is not kept to oneself. One must show forth his love to other people. One must be able to receive love as well as share love.

The World knows TO LOVE. Every movie, book, song, everything popular in our culture carries the message that life is better with love. I took some time looking at the Billboard hot 100 this week to see what songs our culture is enjoying.  The #2 song in the world really jumped out at me… The #2 song in America is about a perfect family that loves each other. Every member of the family seems magically gifted and all the doors within the family home seemed to be opened with love and care… except it is not true.   Does anybody know the song I am talking about? “We don’t talk about Bruno” “We don’t talk about Bruno-no-no…”  This song is the 2022 version of “let it go.” It is everywhere. In the movie Encanto you see a family that seems to be very loving on the cover, yet if you can get past the veneer you will learn that there is a member of the family they do not have love for… And this story line hit home because our culture likes to put on the display of love, while past the outward wrappings we have discarded others and have chosen who and when we choose to love. I love everyone… “what about Bruno?”  …” We don’t talk about Bruno.” The world knows TO LOVE, but the world lacks the understanding of HOW TO LOVE. How to Love Last week we talked about a love that rejoices in hope, is patient in affliction, and is faithful in prayer. That message can be reviewed on our Redemption Church podcast or through our website – Redemptionplano.com. In this series we have been focusing on a passage of scripture, Romans 12. Let’s read this together. Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Our prayer for this series is this, “Lord, teach us how to love.” We have need to be taught, but we also have need to be un-taught. The world has led us to believe false things about love. The world: Share? What’s in it for me? The world teaches the need to love, but it places limits on that love. Love, up to the point it costs you.  If it costs you time, energy, or money, then a love-limiter kicks in.  If it costs you pride and causes you to live humbly, many people refuse to love at that level. There is a word that we learned in pre-k that many children struggled with… and still many adults struggle with. That word is “share.”  Sharing is difficult because sharing causes you to have less of the substance you share.  If you share some of your pie, you have less of that pie for yourself.  If you share a portion of the dollars in your wallet, you will have less money.  If you share some of your time and energy, you will give that to someone and have less for yourself. Now the world recognizes that sharing is a good and loving thing. In fact, the world celebrates when someone shares. For this very reason there are countless YouTube accounts where people film themselves sharing with those in need.  They go out of their way to set up cameras and microphones to record themselves acting virtuously so that they can receive the adulation of viewers. It really makes you question the motives behind their sharing. It is suspected that many times the videos are all acted out and no one is actually helped. Our society would rather be adored for sharing, than to actually share.  Is that how we should love? Comprehend that?  The highly theological and prophetic show, Seinfeld has a clip where George Costanza shares a tip with the Calzone guy. Seinfeld Clip – Tip Jar George shares a tip in the tip jar, so far so good.  It is good to share, but George notices that his sharing goes unnoticed,