Help on Tele2, tariffs, questions

Ilchenko Yu.N.

Plan:

I. Introduction

The world talks a lot about love from a human point of view. Man has a need for love. But a man, having achieved that he had everything, became lonely. And the enemy more and more winds up thoughts of loneliness. But the need for love can only be met by God through His unconditional love to a person.

II. Love for God and Neighbor

Matt.22:36-40 There are many commandments in Israel that they must obey, but Jesus reduced them all to two important commandments: to love God and to love your neighbor. Without God inside, a person feels lonely and unhappy. There is no love, despair, apathy comes.

Mother Teresa: “We can get rid of the disease with the help of medicines, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many people in the world who are dying of hunger, but even more of those who are dying because they lack love.”

There are many kinds of love: phileo, storge, eros, agape. God's love is agape, it's unconditional love. And human love is selective and expresses the sympathy of a person: we love the one we like, and it is difficult for us to love our enemies. We rely on our feelings. We often look at God from a human point of view, and do not understand His love, His Word, His will. We need the revelation of the Holy Spirit about God's love - this should be the foundation of our faith. Revelation gives everything else. We must love God because He is God and He loved us as sinners (Rom. 5:8).

John 17:26 God always loves us with the same love that He loves Jesus. He cannot but love us by His nature. He loves you as a person, but He hates sin.

1 John 4:19 It all starts with our choice, with our decision.

1 John 4:16 If we love God, we become one with Him, and the devil cannot defeat us. To love is to give. But we need to learn to accept love. We do not accept - we do not love ourselves, self-condemnation, guilt come.

Romans 5:5 God fills us with love, and everything God does, He does out of love for us: He saves, teaches, educates, blesses.

Matthew 5:46-48 We must do as He does, love as He does.

John 14:23-24 If we love God, we keep His Word. If we do not fulfill, there is no love at the foundation of our faith, our life. You are anointed to love God and people.

Ephesians 3:14-19"Indwell" - Christ lives in us as Lord to rule in and through us. "Rooted" - love is the root, foundation, foundation of our life. The root gives stability, and no wind or even a hurricane will blow away or harm us. We need to delve into the Word in order to receive a revelation of God's love.

Love is associated with inspiration - it is fire, thirst, it makes you happy, purposeful. Love inspires to move, grow, develop, win.

Ephesians 4:16 The whole body grows and grows stronger thanks to love, the fulfillment of 1 and 2 commandments. Everyone, acting in love, grows to the church - this makes the church strong, healthy.

Deut.30:6-9 We need to cleanse the heart, cut off everything that prevents us from loving God, then prosperity comes. God has no barriers to bless you.

John 4:7 1) God's love Agape is a decision: to think with love, 2) good thoughts change your attitude, 3) it leads to good deeds, 4) feelings come after deeds.

1 John 3:18 Put it into practice: thoughts - words - attitude - actions - feelings.

Proverbs 24:29, Prov. 2:20-22, Rom. 12:19 Let God act.

Prayer of Mother Teresa:“Lord! Give me the strength to comfort and not be comforted; to understand, not to be understood; to love, not to be loved. For when we give, we receive. And by forgiving, we find forgiveness. When I'm hungry, send me someone I can feed, and when I'm thirsty, show me someone I can drink. When I'm cold, send me someone I can warm,

when I am in sorrow, come, whom I can console."

God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit so that we love God and people and act in love. God wants love to be the foundation of our lives and our faith, then we will prosper ourselves, and the church will be strengthened and grow.

Sermon

Today we will talk about the love of God and the love of neighbor.

Matthew 22:36 "Teacher! what is the greatest commandment in the law?. A good question is: “What is the most important thing?”. This man was a lawyer, and he wanted to know exactly what the greatest commandment was, maybe he knew it, but he wanted to know what Jesus would say about this.

Matthew 22:37-38“Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; this is the first and greatest commandment.”.

We must understand that this is not only the first and greatest commandment for Jesus Christ, because He said so. But this should become the main thing for us personally, because in this heart of God. God wants you to decide today that this is also the main commandment for you. We have many important things in life: work, family, ministry, there are some obligations, responsibilities. There are many important things we have to do in life, but Jesus says that there is something most important, the greatest thing is to love God.

We have a lot of ideas and understandings about love in our heads. The world talks a lot about love: movies, love songs, songs about unrequited love, about loneliness. Much is said, written, sung about this, because there is a need for this in the world. People want to be loved. This is their need, the cry of the soul. But God says, "But I want to be loved." And this often does not fit with our understanding. We want to be loved, and God says to be loved, so that this becomes the most important thing in our life. Sergei Shidlovsky showed us a good way to love God. Every day we have a choice which way to go and what to do, what will be the main, valuable, priority for us. For God, the most important, valuable and priority thing is that you love Him.

God's love is different, it is not human love. After all, songs, films, poems are mostly about human love. Human love is very different from God's love. Because human love is always directed at us loved ones, which says, if I like someone, I can love that, and if I don’t like someone, don’t persuade me, I won’t even pay attention to that who I don't like. Our love comes from some kind of sympathy. What do we love? We love what we like. We love the people we like. We love the food we love. We love the clothes we like. We love because we have some likes, some preferences. And God loves us all. And the love that God has given us, by that same love, God wants us to love Him. Human love has different names, for example, phileo - friendly love, storge - love of parents for children, eros - love of spouses, but this is not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus talks about God's love - Agape.

Matthew 22:39“The second one is like it: love your neighbor as yourself…”

Who is our neighbor? People say that the best relatives are those who live far away, but this is not the way Jesus says. But often we transfer our understanding of love to God. Because we have different understandings, we say, “Lord, I can't love You. I heard that one must love God, one must love people, but I don’t know how to do it. On the one hand, I want to, but on the other hand, I don’t want to.” We, as humans, always rely on feelings.

open 2:4 "... you left your first love". But what is first love for us and what is first love for God? These are completely different things. That is why God says: "Do not transfer your understanding to Me, otherwise we will not understand each other." In order for us to understand what God means, we must read His Word, search in His Word, pray in His Word. If God says that this is the most important thing for Him, it should become the main thing for us. Otherwise, we will not be able to unite with God and become harmony. If we do not believe in the infinite love of God, we cannot receive His infinite power, we cannot receive His infinite blessing. Everything that Scripture tells us comes through revelation. God works with us at the level of revelation, and not just at the level of knowledge.

We are so arranged that we first receive knowledge. For knowledge to turn into revelation, you need to pray for it and ask the Holy Spirit. A cow does not immediately get milk, it is obtained when she chews, chews, chews, chews. What is this process? Wet milk is obtained from dry straw. The Word of God is also called milk. When will we get milk? When we chew the Word of God with prayer, with faith, with joy, then God will give you a revelation. Therefore, we need to find all the scriptures that speak of love. If we don't have revelation yet, then we need to get it. Many, when they are sick, take scriptures about healing and reread them, pray, meditate in order to receive healing. Healing comes through revelation. We transfer the same principle here if we do not have a revelation about God, about the most important thing. Jesus was asked, "What is the most important thing?" and He replied, "The most important thing for you is to love God." How much do I spend on the most important time? And this is the most important thing for me too.

Sometimes our most important thing is something completely different, and our main thing does not coincide with God's. For God, this is the main thing, but for me this is not the main thing, then we do not have an agreement. And if we do not agree with God, how then can we go with Him? No way. Therefore, many things do not work out for us, do not happen. But God, through Jesus Christ, shows us the answer to many of our problems, to many of our things, why He does not come. He says: "Because you do not see the root," not the main thing. But when the main thing comes, then everything else comes. Therefore, Jesus says: “This is the first and greatest commandment, the second is similar to it,” these commandments are the two main things in the life of a believer.

Jesus was approached by a lawyer who knew the law well. AT Old Testament 10 commandments are written down, but people came up with 1000 commandments for themselves. Jesus takes it all and condenses it into two major commandments. If you receive a revelation of these commandments, then your life will be as it should be. Because without God, we have only emptiness, we do not have God's love of Agape in us. Agape is a Greek word that describes God's unconditional love. Unconditional love is a strange concept for a person. Therefore, we will look at how to love God, love people and love yourself.

Some people do not love themselves, others love themselves too much, but both are wrong. Selfishness is not self-love, on the contrary, it makes a person flawed. Those who do not love themselves, they always gnaw themselves, they have self-condemnation, guilt. They can give, but they cannot receive. But God says that you must both receive and give. When you love God, you give, when you love yourself, you receive, then there is a balance, then you are a healthy true believer. But when we have a bias: everything is for God, everything is for people, and nothing to ourselves, except for condemnation and guilt. But God says, "You must love yourself because I love you." God cannot help but love you. God does not guess on a chamomile: today I love, tomorrow I don’t. “Today God doesn’t love me, I quarreled, I did badly.” We look at everything as a whole, but we need to separate the fish from the bones. If a bone gets into the throat, it becomes very painful and unpleasant, and you say: “I won’t eat fish, in general, there are bones.” You need to eat fish, just pull out the bones.

God loves us, but He hates sin, He separates us from sin. And we, if we see something bad in a person, we connect his actions with a person, and we believe that this person is bad. The Lord wants to bless us with His love. It is the greatest happiness and blessing to experience and share God's love. This is the most important thing; all the law and the prophets are established on these two commandments. That says it all. But when people do not hear this, do not understand, and do not have a revelation, they continue to feel sorry for themselves that they are so lonely, that no one needs them and no one loves them. People love to complain, and they think it's easier that way. But it is not easier for us, we simply poison ourselves, because death and life are in the power of the tongue. But if you poison yourself, then you will have what you say.

Change your speech, your thinking, start speaking differently. The devil uses any situation to show that people are supposedly lonely. But we are not alone, especially believers, we are not orphans, we are not homeless children, God took us into his family, adopted us, adopted us, called us His children. How does our tongue turn to say that God does not love us if He says: "I loved you while you were still sinners"(Rom.5:8). Either we do not know the Word of God, or we ignore it, but then we bring ourselves only harm. Many people drive themselves so far with thoughts of loneliness that they commit suicide. Depression develops from feelings of uselessness. The devil says: “No one needs you, go and kill yourself, and you will immediately solve all problems. You will go to hell with me, new experiences will begin for you. But God told us that He loved this world, He gave His Son, and by this He proved that He loves us (John 3:16).

Mother Teresa:« We can get rid of the disease with the help of medicines, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many people in the world who die of hunger, but even more of those who die because they lack love.. That is why Jesus came to give people this love. We do not just say that we are saved from hell, from sins. All this is true. But if God is love, then the most important motive for everything that God does, he does out of love for us, because He cannot do otherwise.

Romans 5:5"The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". This shows that if you have accepted Jesus, you are filled with God's love. You say: "I don't feel it, this love." We often rely on our feelings. Feelings speak of the human understanding of love, so many songs, poems, films about love. People sing about their feelings, but feelings come and go, but love will not pass. (1 Corinthians 13:8). Everything will disappear, but she will remain. God loved us when we were still sinners and continues to love us. Has He stopped loving us? No.

1 John 4:19 "Let's Love God". Everything starts with a decision, everything starts with a choice. Which road will you take? On the way to love God and love your neighbor? Or on the way to hate everyone, scold everyone, complain about everyone? Which path are you choosing? Let us love God, because He first loved us.

John 17:26 "The love with which you loved me will be in them". Pay attention to these words, this is a different quality of love. The Father loved Jesus, the same love that God loves Jesus, it is in us. Therefore, we must understand that we love God not with our human love, but we love God with His own love. Love has already poured into your heart. Spiritual laws work when we believe in them. The love of God works the same way.

1 John 4:16“And we have come to know the love that God has for us, and have believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. It is necessary to know and believe, and by faith you will release this love.

Matthew 5:46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?”. God's love is perfect love. And when we love Him with love, because He is this love, when we release it to God, to people, to ourselves, we become like Him. For human love, one does not want to love one's neighbor, and sometimes one wants to kill him. It is impossible to love enemies with human love, we do not understand this, because it is beyond our understanding. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal this to us. Just like Divine healing. How will you understand it? You understand it when revelation comes and it works, and God's love works in the same way. It comes through revelation. God wants your Christian life to be built upon this revelation.

Unfortunately, many people, having not received this revelation, leave God. Because this revelation is like a stone foundation. When the wind or storm comes, we will stand. But if we do not have the revelation of God's love, then any wind, any storm will blow believers away. They were offended, they moved away, and no longer believe. But when you love God, you believe in Him, and you will overcome all storms, all storms. This is the main commandment. And if this is not in our life, then we build our life on Christian sand. But God calls to build on stone, to lay a foundation, to go deep.

Most importantly, do you love God or not? This is the most important thing, and not what you have heard or what you know. Knowledge helps us to focus on something and understand something, because once we did not know about it at all, and did not hear about it. But then you need to get a revelation. Because on this revelation your life will be really happy. Why do people get some kind of apathy, even in the physical world. For example, in a family: there was a love, then it passed. Where did she go? When there is no love, you do everything without inspiration. Love is associated with inspiration. Why do people get cold? If you love, you have inspiration, fire, thirst. You cannot work without inspiration. If you like to work, then go to work like a holiday, in a good mood, because you like to do it. Love for God, for work, for family makes you happy. If you do not love something, then despondency, apathy, longing come. You do not like some food, you feel disgust. And when you love something, appetite comes, you are hungry, you want.

Love makes us purposeful, inspiring. You yourself are inspired and you inspire others. This is the most important thing in your life. Jesus loved God so much, loved people, that it attracted everyone to him like a magnet. He had inspiration. When Jesus spoke, His words were completely different, with inspiration, with authority, they brought results. And without love, we are kaput, everything stops, nothing is reluctant: reluctance to live, reluctance to work, reluctance to move, reluctance to change. But when you love: "For the sake of you, my beloved, I will do everything." Love gives us inspiration to change, move, develop. But without this you will wither, you will stop, without this your life will be very sad. But Jesus didn't come to make us sad. The apostle Paul always said, "Rejoice." When you love, you are always joyful. When you don’t love, you are sad: “No one loves me, I don’t love anyone, everything is bad, everything falls apart”, this is life on the sand. Life on stone - no matter what the winds, storms, storms, but no one will extinguish love. Therefore, you will pass and be a winner.

Often Christians pray, "What is God's will for me?" For us, sometimes the will of God is like a secret behind seven locks. People wonder: what will, what calling, what mission in my life? God says, "God's will is to love Him and love people." Read the Bible, everything is already written there, what you must do is the most important will. You are called to love God, this is your calling, this is your ministry, this is your mission. You are anointed to love God, you are made for this. The church must love God and love people.

Ephesus 3:14“And therefore I kneel before the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Jews were mostly praying standing up, and then all of a sudden Paul says, “I kneel. There is something valuable in this, and I draw your attention to it.

Ephesus 3:15-17 “From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, may He grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be firmly established by His Spirit in the inner man, by faith to dwell in Christ in your hearts.”“Indwell” means what part Christ occupies in your heart, how much you have given Him the right in your life. "To move in" means to be the master and master of our life. Without this, He has a temporary residence permit, He came modestly into your life, and modestly sits somewhere. And you live your life, do what you want, and then you remember and shout: “Lord, Lord, help me!” And call on Him to help you. And so life goes. But God says: "I came into your life not to sit modestly, but to rule in you and through you, to be the Lord."

Ephesus 3:18-19 “So that you, rooted and established in love, might be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Love is the root on which everything rests. If there is a root, we will not be blown away by the wind, and problems will not carry us away, because this root is established in Christ. This is our foundation, and It is unshakable.

Transcending understanding, how to understand? It's a revelation, we just can't understand. That which surpasses our understanding is revealed by the Holy Spirit, and Paul says that this revelation is not of man, but of God. Without this revelation, we are incomplete, and when it is revealed to us, then fullness fills us.

Ephesians 3:20-21“And to Him Who, by the power acting in us, can do incomparably more than anything we ask or think about. To Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, from age to age. Amen"". What boundless expanses the love of God opens up for us. When we come to know the boundless love of God, God lifts us above all limitations. “Incomparably more than anything” means infinitely, this is the main commandment. You will not understand the main commandment, others will not be able to understand, pay attention to the main thing, make it the main thing, pay your attention to this main thing. Jesus inspires us: “Come on, understand, see this, love with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and such power will be revealed to you that I will do more than you can imagine. Where are your prayer lists? They are limited by your mind, and I will do even more, incomparably more.”

Ephesians 4:16 “from which the whole body (this is us), composed and copulated by means of all mutually binding connections, with the action of each member in its measure, receives an increment for the creation of itself in love”. Each person must act in love, then he gets an increase. You become one with God, you love with him, you act with him. The new translation says that when we love, the body grows and becomes stronger. The Church grows and grows stronger when she loves God and loves her neighbor, then she is filled with inspiration. Because love is inspiration, it attracts people.

Deuteronomy 30:6 "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." The Lord wants to cut off what prevents you from loving God: someone has selfishness, someone has unbelief, someone has doubts, someone has laziness - various dry things that do not bring good fruits. He will cleanse your heart of everything unnecessary so that your heart is able to love.

Deuteronomy 30:9-1 "The Lord your God will give you abundant success in every work of your hands." There is no love - there is no inspiration, and nothing is reluctant: neither work nor serve. But when God cut, cleansed, filled, you have inspiration. And He says, "I will bless you because you have entered the zone of love." The zone of love is a zone of blessing, and not just, but an excessive blessing. Therefore, when we do not love, there is no inspiration, we do not want anything, you wither, fade. What is the success here? But when you love, everything burns with you, then success comes in every work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 30:9-2 “in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, in the fruit of your land; for the Lord will rejoice over you again, doing good [to you], as He rejoiced over your fathers.”. The Lord will rejoice because you love Him. We often talk about success, about prosperity, but God says: "Without Me, you will not have any success." Love is the main success in your life. As soon as you love God and people, it will bring you success. The golden rule is that you treat others as you treat yourself. All business coaches always quote this and say: "No sales means bad attitude to the client, no success - bad attitude to the task." Success comes when you do everything with joy, with love, with inspiration.

1 John 4:7 "Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Beloved of God, how well God speaks of us. Let's love each other, not beat. Beat is the wrong attitude, these are the wrong words: “another idle talker stings with a word, like with a sword” (Proverbs 12:18). But God says, "Love one another with love from God (Agape)."

How to apply it in practice.

Imagine for a moment a person you don't love. Scripture says, "Love your enemies." How to love them? Why we don't love, because we don't like this person. Our relationship is built on sympathy. If we have antipathy for a person, we do not like him, he annoys us, no matter what he does, no matter what he says. Our thoughts create our attitude. And attitude breeds action. Actions give rise to feelings.

We heard the word of God that we must love this person, because God loves this person, and I decide to love this person. First, think well of him. What do you think about yourself, imagine this person instead of yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's hard, but it's always hard in the beginning. It all starts with the decision to start thinking about this person differently. Otherwise, how will we love whom we do not love? How will we change? We start thinking about it differently, we start talking about it differently. Decision - thoughts - words - deeds, actions.

Proverbs 25:21 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him with bread; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink: for [by doing this] you are heaping burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”

In Egypt, when a person committed some kind of offense, he wore an iron container on his head, there were coals in it. This showed people that he repented of the bad things he had done. It was a symbol of repentance. And the meaning for us is that when you do a good deed, you give a person a chance to repent. It is written: "Conquer evil with good."

Romans 12:19"Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God". When we begin to think about how to take revenge, we become like a judge, because we have already determined the sentence and punishment. But one judge is the Lord, so do not take upon yourself what is not your own.

Matt.7:1"Judge not and you will not be judged" and do not take revenge on anyone. Many people think that when they take revenge, the person will understand what he did wrong, but this is not our method. God says we win by doing good. It is difficult to do this, but it is possible. The most interesting thing is that good feelings will come later. When you do good, you yourself will feel good, so overcome evil with good.

Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven”. Love changes us. We become like God, we become real sons.

Matthew 5:45“…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. We must be like Him.

1 John 3:18 “Let us love not with word or tongue, but with deed and truth.”

God says that every believer should do this, and this is the most important thing. God looks at how you are doing with your heart, how you love God, how you love your neighbor. This is the most important thing the Lord is looking at. And if you're in the ministry, it'll be anointed with the Holy Spirit, it'll grow, because the Lord will be there. Love attracts. It was an amazing miracle that was in Jesus Christ. He not only worked miracles, He Himself was that miracle, and that was unique. People experienced the love that came from Him, and they followed Him.

Mother Teresa was an amazing person who did not have a great education, she was not some kind of scientist, some kind of world luminary, inventor, for which she would be appreciated and respected. She was humble, loving God and people, and God raised her so much that every head of state considered it an honor to meet her. All this God did in her and through her. How did she pray?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we thank You that You fill us, that You have poured Your love into our hearts. You speak and teach us, Lord, how we should love God, how we should love people. We must open our hearts, we must think differently, speak differently, act differently, because You came into us, You live in us. And what You did, and what You want to do now, You want to do it through Your church, through Your people.

We pray that each of us will receive a revelation of God's love, that each of us will see how much it exceeds our understanding, how much it surpasses our strength. Your greatness in us is immeasurable, Your power is immeasurable. And this is the power of Your love and Your strength. You gave us this love, You filled it, You poured it into us so that we can give it to You, so that we can give it to this world, so that we can show who our God is, what He is. Your love inspires and makes you a different person, lifts you up, lifts your wings. You take off because this is the power of God, this is His greatness, this is His power. Everything that God does, He does out of love, because He cannot do otherwise.

Today He tells us, “I want you to do exactly what I do today, because I created you to be like Myself. If you want, you can do it. Ask and I will help you. Seek and you will find it. Knock and it will open for you." If He says that this is the most important thing for us, that this should be in our life, then how much God wants this to be revealed to us. But also understand how strongly the enemy will oppose this first commandment, because with this revelation, with this power, the devil will lose all power over us.

What is the power of the enemy? This is anger, hatred, envy, disbelief. But when we begin to love God and people, this is the most powerful weapon. The most powerful weapon in the universe that can be is the love of God. It is His immeasurable majesty of power in us.

Holy Spirit, we thank You, we praise You, Jesus, we magnify and exalt You, Lord. We want to love You more and more. We want to hunger for that love, be filled with that love, and impart that love, so that rivers of Your love will flow through us, Lord. You came into this world to save it. You came into this world to show the Father. You came into this world to show the difference that there is another world, there is God's world, there is God's kingdom, so You call us, You speak and inspire us. Want to love God as much as possible: with all your strength, with all your heart, with all your mind.

We thank You and praise You, Father. Holy Spirit, let Your love fill us now, let Your love move. We know that Your love brings healing. There are many wounded people, many rejected, offended, hardened people, but Your love, Lord, brings healing. We're praying, Lord, now for these people that's offended, that's rejected, that's carrying all these wounds. Let Your love pour out, bring healing, because there is acceptance in your love. Your arms are open to us, this is the breadth of Your love, Lord, this is the length and height and depth. Your heart, Your hands, Your mind are directed to love the world, to love every person.

We pray, Lord, against the lies that the devil is spreading, that God does not love you, you are rejected and God does not need you, that God has forgotten you. We proclaim Your words, Lord, that You love us, and loved us even when we were sinners, and now we are Your children, members of Your family. Healing, first of all, belongs to the children of God.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will now heal people, heal the spiritual wounds of rejection, resentment, anger. God wants to cut it all off with this healing, to purify our heart so that we are able to love God and able to love people. Cut it off now, Lord, take it all away, every hedge and every obstacle, let it go in the Name of Jesus Christ. Everything that was destroyed, was broken, was mutilated, you heal it, Lord.

Receive the healing love of God now. Accept the power of God's love that is beyond Your understanding, just trust Him now. Tell Him, “Lord, I accept, I trust You that You make me whole, that You make me well, that You restore me, Lord, so that I can love You and can love people, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen".

A sermon on love for God and neighbor.

We are called to love one another. Love begins from the moment when we see in a person something so precious, so bright, so wonderful that it is worth forgetting yourself, forgetting about yourself, and giving your whole life - your mind, your heart so that this person is light and joyful. . This is not necessarily just an ordinary, earthly joy, it can be something more. In relation to God, for example, if we say that we love Him, we must ask ourselves the question: is He the greatest value in my life?

Am I ready to live so that He can rejoice in me? Am I capable of turning away from myself in order to think only of Him? This does not mean not to think about anything else, but to think in such a way that He would have joy from my thoughts and from my subsequent actions ...

In relation to a person, the Gospel speaks of the same thing: to love a person so that you can give your whole life for him. In war, this is clear: you go into battle, and you can be killed in order to save another. I remember a friend of mine who was very tall and broad-shouldered and always complained about it because it drew people's attention to him. And during the war, from one corner of the front to another, he sent me a note: now I just understand why God created me so tall and broad-shouldered: when there are shelling, two can hide behind my back ... It was said as if with a smile , but how much love is needed in order to stand between bullets and a person whom you may not even know, but who has a mother, wife, children whom you can save ...

And in life we ​​can also stand between trouble and a person, even a person we do not know, even a person about whom we know nothing - only that he exists and that he needs help; to live in such a way as to be a protection for another, to never hurt another, to be an inspiration for another, to be joy for another ... Let's try to live in this way, in simplicity, without complicating things; let's think about all those who surround us, about the closest ones first, who are so often victims of our selfishness, selfishness, self-centeredness. And then we will expand our horizons, look at other people who are around us.

I remember we had a parishioner who was a stumbling block for everyone, a difficult person; many did not understand it, because they did not know. At the age of fourteen she was taken to a concentration camp, left it four years later, and in her remained, so to speak, animal fear. If someone approached her from behind, she reacted with horror and screaming. And I remember how one pious woman said to me: How long should we endure it? - And I answered her: The first 25 years will be difficult, and then it will be a joy ... And it happened. Before she passed away, everyone loved her.

Let's think about it, and learn to love at a price, with an open heart, joy that any person can bring joy and strength when there is weakness, and inspiration, when there is nothing in life to live for. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh.

Stay up to date with upcoming events and news!

Join the group - Dobrinsky Temple

Question: What is love in every sense of the word?

Answer: Love is the essence of God. "God is love". 1 John 4:8;

Love is God's gift to man, as a reflection of His image. "He who does not love does not know God." 1 John. 4:8;

The apostle Paul defines the love of God: “More than anything, put on the love that is totality of perfection. Col. 3:14;

AT human language there is no sufficient definition by which to express the whole essence of love. The Apostle Paul writes a letter to Ephesus, and says: “So that you, rooted and established in love, could comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and understand the transcendent love of Christ so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:18,19;

By studying Scripture, we can understand some of the elements of love. At the creation of the world: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Gen. 2:7; The love of God was manifested in the fact that He gave a part of Himself. He endowed a person with his own qualities. In the future, no matter how a person’s life develops there, the Lord reveals the essence of love in the words “I have loved you with eternal love and therefore have extended good will towards you.” Jer. 31:3; Then the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians expresses: "Love never fails" 1 Cor. 13:8; Before these words, the apostle Paul gives a detailed description of love. In numerous "love not" is clearly visible the essence of love is to give, to serve,

Here are a couple more texts about God's love.

“For God so loved the world that gave His Only Begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him did not die, but had eternal life." John 3:16;

“The love of God for us has been revealed in the fact that God sent into the world of His only begotten Son, so that we got life through him". 1 John 4:9;

Thus, we can express two facets of inexpressible love.

First. Love gives, serves, giving itself, its best. The highest expression of love is sacrifice. “There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for his friends.” John 15:13;

Second edge. Love - accepts, serves, accepting another, accepting the gift of another.

In the relationship God is man, to the greatest extent, God is love giving, man is love receiving. However, receiving love is also inherent in God. He accepts us, He accepts our prayers, He accepts our praise and worship, He accepts our love!

A few general provisions. Personality is determined by the presence of intelligence, emotions, and will.

Love, as God defines it, includes all three elements of personality. "Teacher! what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Love the Lord your God with all my heart yours and with all my heart yours and all your understanding: this is the first and greatest commandment”; Matt. 22:36-38;

Love is the fruit of reason, emotion, and will. The whole triune essence of personality in harmony expresses love in the service of giving, and equally expresses love in the service of receiving. I want to emphasize especially that love is the harmonious service of all three elements of personality.

However, most often the word love refers to a bright, exciting feeling, a passion that sometimes arises unconsciously both in relation to people and in relation to objects, to a position, to a career, to fame, to awards, etc.

For example, sexual relations are called love. However, the attraction of the flesh is not yet love. Here is an example: Amnon fell in love with his sister Tamar. Beautiful. I got carried away so that I lost my peace. Everyone already sees it. His friend Jonadab comes to him: “Why are you getting so thin every day, son of kings, won’t you tell me? And Amnon said to him: Tamar, the sister of Absalom my brother, I love. Jonadab taught him how to get Tamar to come to him. He committed violence. And this is the result: “Then Amnon hated her with the greatest hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was stronger than love which he had for her. 2 Sam. 13:14,15; The greatest number of human tragedies is rooted in sexual attraction. The well-known expression "look for a woman" accurately reflects the nature of all troubles, tragedies and crimes. In Russia, fourteen thousand women a year are killed by their husbands. This is the finale of love, with promises and vows.

In the same series of the strongest hobbies, which, by the way, are also called love, are alcoholism, drug addiction, fornication, kleptomania. This is not love. This is the lust of the flesh. The strongest excitement passion, paralyzes the mind and will. A person does what he would never do in a state of calm reflection.

Here is an example. When taking Jericho, Joshua announced that the city was under a spell and nothing could be taken from it. But it happened, and the people began to suffer defeat. Jesus finds the one who disobeyed. Why did you do this: “In answer to Jesus, Achan said: Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and have done this and that: between prey saw I am one fine garment of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels; that's for me fell in love and I took this is". Joshua 7:20,21;

Love is an act of will, based on serious reflection, giving a feeling of satisfaction, bringing pleasure, enjoyment.

Let's look at love as it is ordained by God and how it manifests itself in our lives.

Love the Lord thy God. It is love that makes a man a man.

This includes reverence for God, admiration for God, worship of God, glorification of God, obedience to God. We have already noted that this injunction obliges a person to love with both mind and heart and will. Love for God is expressed in the fulfillment of His commandments. His command is to till the earth. A caring attitude towards nature, environmental protection, this is not a whim of the green, this is God's prescription. Even more caring attitude to all living things around us. After all, all this is the creation of God, in everything His love. And of course the highest phase of love, the attitude towards people. "He who says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And we have such a commandment from Him that loving God He also loved his brother." 1 John 4:20,21"

Self love.

Self love is natural. Self-love is a reflection of the likeness of God in man. It is a common practice in Christianity, too, to hide self-love, contrary to Scripture. Moreover, there is the position of "particularly pious Pharisees" who categorically object to self-love. They say it's immodest. Some especially gifted theologians say that they are terrible sinners, disgusting, dead in sins, that there is nothing good in them, they are simply dirtier than dirt and more sinful than sin. But all this is nothing more than pride. I like Fazil Iskander, who once said, answering the question: "What is modesty?": - "Very patient pride"! You can talk about yourself as much as you like, how terrible, dirty, sinful, vile you are. But when your neighbor tells you about it, you will explode in anger and sue for insult. At the same time, when we pedal our carnal “dignities”, convincing ourselves and our neighbors that we are ungodly, which the world has never seen, and loving ourselves is a sin, we are lying to the truth. The Lord, love, loved us and transformed us and gave us everything new! Perhaps the most important thing in self-love is self-acceptance. Once Adam, having heard the steps of the Lord in paradise, was afraid and hid. "Adam! why did you hide? the Lord asks him. "I was afraid because I was naked and hid." This feeling of shame, the feeling of nakedness, we carry within us, and only the love of God clothes us in His holiness, removes fear, returns us to the presence of God.

Love for your neighbor.

Here are the words of Jesus Christ: “Master! what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second one is similar: love thy neighbor, as yourself; on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:36-40; In the same row, His words: "And as you want people to do to you, so do you to them." Luke 6:31;

To love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your will means to accept all His gifts, all the qualities He has given, all His prescriptions. "If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15; Loving God means putting your heart, your mind, your will at His disposal. This simultaneously means that my brains are filled with knowledge from Him, my feelings are shaped by Him, and my will has disappeared into His will. In such a state, love for God is at the same time love for oneself, it may be correct to say, love for God in oneself. This is the starting position, which generally allows you to talk about love in the biblical sense. If this reverent merging with the Father does not exist, then the most modest modesty is nothing but pride. Out of love for ourselves, we ask God for forgiveness, we ask for protection from the evil one, from illnesses, falls, we ask for His mercy for every day. Out of self-love, we build our own houses, cook the best food, buy the best clothes. Out of love for ourselves, we do not allow offense, we are upset when we are deceived, we suffer when we are betrayed, we are ashamed when we make mistakes, we put on masks so that those around us do not know our suffering. Self-love helps us understand the pain of others, the needs of others, the joys and sorrows of others. That is why the Lord prescribes love your neighbor as yourself! This is not the pride of a self-satisfied Pharisee, this is the acceptance of God's love, His gift of forgiveness, His gift of life and all blessings.

Self-love is not an instinct, not a desire for pleasure, not a passion. First of all, a clear, God-enlightened mind. We have the mind of Christ! Feelings subordinate to the mind, accustomed to the skill to distinguish between good and evil. The will that submits to God's will, the will that restrains the impulses of feelings, forces the mind to measure seven times and only then cut it off once. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him."

And only by building a relationship with God, and by realizing the values ​​of His love in His love, can we love our neighbor. I repeat: love presupposes the harmony of feelings, reason and will.

conjugal love.

conjugal love- the most sublime, the most complex, and the most fruitful love. Conjugal love most clearly characterizes God's love. In conjugal love, the fulfillment of God's command to "be fruitful and multiply." In conjugal love, giving to each other takes place. Not a one-time, in a fit of feelings, not only when wealth and health, but giving away forever, in any circumstances, in any weather. "My beloved is mine, and I am his." Song 2:16;

The Apostle Paul writes: “So husbands should love their wives as their own bodies: “He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and warms it, just as the Lord does the Church.” Ephesians 5:28,29; As you can see, the Word of God quite naturally draws on self-love to show the value and importance of loving your spouse.

Soul Unity. Conjugal love is the love of a man and a woman who are united into one for a life together. Conjugal love presupposes spiritual unity, in which both spouses devote their spiritual qualities to serving each other. “Why are you despondent, my soul? What are you embarrassed about me? - this sigh is familiar to everyone. Love in marriage presupposes such mutual trust, when any experience of one, any pain of one, will become an experience and pain of both, and will be healed in love. Mental wounds, possible fears, doubts, suspicions, bring tension to the relationship of the spouses, destroying love. Loneliness is not characteristic of a person, neither a man nor a woman. A person needs communication, it’s not good for a person to be alone! Conjugal love satisfies these desires of the soul. This is achieved in the expression of every attention of one to the other, care, pleasure, mutual admiration for each other. “Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved, you are beautiful! your eyes are dove. Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved, and kind! Song 1:14,15;

spiritual unity. This is the side of love, in which spouses unite in one spirit, and worship one God, accept His word, fulfill His will. Spouses take care of each other's spiritual state, are sensitive to each other's spiritual needs, create spiritual unity in common worship, in joint prayer, and joint study of Scripture. Idolatry is the biggest temptation that destroys spiritual unity in marriage, because it destroys the relationship with God. The creation of spiritual unity requires the exertion of the will, the humility of emotions, and the enlightenment of the mind by the word of God. If love is not manifested in the spiritual giving of oneself to each other, spiritual unity will suffer defeat. Equally, the absence of spiritual unity, the love of giving, the love of service, will also destroy the love of spiritual service.

intimate relationship. “Husband show his wife due favor; like a wife to her husband. The wife has no power over her body, but the husband; likewise, the husband has no power over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deviate from each other, except by agreement, for a time, for exercise in fasting and prayer, and then be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with your intemperance. 1 Corinthians 7:3-5; As you can see, even in intimate relationships feelings, reason and will harmoniously participate in conjugal love. Satisfaction of carnal desire can become lust even in marriage. The generally accepted ideas about love as about sex have emasculated all the essential, characteristic of love, duties of one in relation to another. Sexual intercourse itself is a mechanical process associated with obtaining pleasure, even with the possible conception of a child. Sexual intercourse is performed by all living beings. And the ability to continue life is given by God to all living beings on earth. But love is much more than sex, and therefore, speaking about love in marriage, about intimate relationships in marriage, I must say that spouses can receive real pleasure only if their spiritual relationship is holy. If their spiritual unity is harmonious, pure, without idols. Then their unity, spiritual and spiritual, is natural, pure, holy, and will be in intimate unity. Then intimacy will not be using the spouse for pleasure, but will be serving the spouse, giving yourself to the spouse.

In marital love, it is extremely important to maintain harmony. Both spouses are responsible for this, but the man is more responsible, for he is the head of the wife according to Scripture. A man is commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the church. This means that a man with a cold head provides his wife, and therefore himself, with spiritual peace and order. This means that the husband subjugates his feelings, his passion, thirsting for pleasure, by his own will, in order for the wife to receive pleasure. This means that the husband loves his wife, gives himself to her, serves her.

Love for children.

Parental love seems natural, no matter how demanding. But this is a misleading notion. Most often, such love is expressed in feeding, buying toys, clothes, and providing for the needs of life. But God's standards of love require from parents the most serious attention, dedication, service to children, in building up their spirit, soul and body. Love forms the character of children, obliges parents to invest in them the spirit of the family, as the Lord has invested in a person, the spirit of truth. Shaping their mind. Shaping their will. Parental love understands upbringing as a conscious, purposeful, growing nourishment with spiritual food. Love for children includes the transmission of knowledge about God. Teaching them God's Law, God's love. Love for the church. Love for parents. The means of education are varied. These are lessons, and an example of parental life, and reading the Bible, and games, entertainment, encouragement and even punishment. But, I repeat, the love of parents is a tense, sacrificial dedication to children. Will, mind, feelings create a harmonious, whole personality. Such a harmonious whole person, from the earliest times, learns not only to receive parental love, but also learns to give. Parents must teach their children to love their parents. Love brothers and sisters. Teach children to give, the best to give. "Instruct the young man at the beginning of his path: he will not deviate from it when he is old." Prov. 22:6;

Love for brothers. Brotherhood love.

First of all, love for brotherhood is expressed in love for the local church. The voluntary tithe offering. In participation in the life of the community, in the maintenance of the house of prayer, in prayerful fellowship, in helping the needy, in visiting the sick, in repairing the building. Love for the brotherhood is expressed in the support of the young, in caring for the elderly, in caring for widows, for orphans.

Love for enemies.

A commandment that transcends the usual attitude towards people. A person who is not filled with the love of God cannot understand this commandment, much less fulfill it. Only the born-again children of God can understand and do this. This love is sacrificial.

“And if you love those who love you, what thanks do you have for that? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what thanks do you have for that? for sinners also lend to sinners in order to get back the same . But you love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. So be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Luke 6:32-36;

Be in love! Who has comprehended this sacred word?
Who has delved into its meaning and significance?
To love is someone else's happiness
Watch with a tear of tenderness.

To love is with your neighbor, as with a friend and brother,
Share his grief, torment;
To be a friend to enemies, to forgive the guilty,
Taking away the malice of contempt.

To love is to look with regret
On evil and human vices;
Lost people show the way to salvation,
Giving good advice.

To love is for the happiness of another
Renounce personal aspirations;
Love is God's great word,
But who understood its meaning?

Beloved brothers! Such a commandment of the Lord our God has been proclaimed to us today by the Gospel. The Gospel adds that the whole Law of God is concentrated in love for God and love for one's neighbor, because love is that virtue which is delivered from the fullness of all other virtues. "Lyubov is the union of perfection"(), as defined by the Apostle.

Obviously, in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you must first love yourself correctly.

Do we love ourselves? Despite the strangeness of this question - new and entertaining only as if by excess in it - it must be said that a very rare person loves himself. Most people hate themselves, trying to do themselves as much harm as possible. If we measure the evil done to a person in his life, then it will be found that the worst enemy did not do him as much harm as the person did to himself. Each of you, looking impartially into your conscience, will find this remark just. What would be the reason for this? What is the reason why we do harm to ourselves almost incessantly, while we constantly and insatiably desire good for ourselves? The reason is that we have replaced the correct love for ourselves with self-love, which inspires us to strive for the indiscriminate fulfillment of our wishes, our fallen will, guided by a false mind and an evil conscience.

We are carried away by greed, and ambition, and vengeance, and memory of malice, and all sinful whims! We flatter ourselves and deceive ourselves, thinking to satisfy self-love, while we satisfy only our unsatisfied self-love. In an effort to satisfy our self-love, we do evil to ourselves, we destroy ourselves.

Proper self-love lies in the fulfillment of Christ's life-giving commandments: “This is love, let us walk according to His commandment”, said St. John the Theologian (). If you do not get angry and do not remember malice, you love yourself. If you do not swear and do not lie, you love yourself. If you do not offend, you do not kidnap, you do not take revenge; if you are long-suffering towards your neighbor, meek and gentle, you love yourself. If you bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who hurt you and raise persecution against you, then you love yourself; you are the son of the Heavenly Father, who shines with his sun on the evil and the good, who sends his rains to both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you bring careful and warm prayers to God from a contrite and humble heart, then you love yourself. If you are temperate, not vain, sober, then you love yourself. If by almsgiving to the poor brethren you transfer your property from earth to Heaven and make your perishable property incorruptible, and your temporal property into eternal and inalienable property, then you love yourself. If you are so merciful that you sympathize with all the infirmities and shortcomings of your neighbor and deny the condemnation and humiliation of your neighbor, then you love yourself. While you forbid yourself to judge and condemn your neighbor, to which you have no right, the just and merciful God removes the righteous judgment and cancels the righteous condemnation that you deserve for your many sins. Whoever wants to love himself correctly, not to be deceived and not carried away by self-love, that is, by his fallen will, guided by a false mind, must carefully study the gospel commandments, which contain the spiritual mind and lead the performer to the sensations of a new person. In the study and study of the gospel commandments, it is necessary with all vigilance and sobriety to observe the desires and inclinations of the heart. With strict vigilance, it will be possible for us to analyze our desires and inclinations. From skill and from the fear of God, this analysis turns, as it were, into a natural exercise. Not only every desire and inclination that is obviously contrary to the gospel commandments must be rejected, but also all desires and inclinations that violate the peace of the heart. Everything flowing from the Divine Will is accompanied by holy chrism, according to the experimental teaching of the holy fathers; on the contrary, everything accompanied by confusion has its origin in sin, even if outwardly it seems to be the highest good.

He who loves himself rightly can love his neighbor godly. The sons of the world, afflicted by self-love and enslaved by it, express their love for their neighbor by indiscriminate fulfillment of all the wishes of their neighbor. The disciples of the Gospel express their love for their neighbor by fulfilling his all-holy commandments of their Lord; they recognize the satisfaction of human desires and whims as soul-destroying human pleasing and they fear it as much as they fear and run away from self-love. Self-love is a distortion of love in relation to oneself, pleasing to man is a distortion of love in relation to one's neighbor. A self-lover destroys himself, and a man-pleaser destroys both himself and his neighbor. Self-love is a woeful self-delusion; man-pleasing is intensified and the neighbor is made a sharer of this self-delusion.

Do not think, brethren, that love from self-sacrifice acquires a severity uncharacteristic of it, and from the exclusive fulfillment of the gospel commandments it loses its warmth, becomes something cold and mechanical. Not! The Gospel commandments drive out carnal fire from the heart, which very soon goes out with any, sometimes the slightest opposition; but they introduce spiritual fire, which cannot be extinguished not only by human atrocities, but even by the very efforts fallen angels(). The Holy Protomartyr Stephen burned with this sacred fire. Extracted by his murderers outside the city, stoned, he prayed. Deadly blows followed; from their ferocity Stefan fell half-dead on his knees, but the fire of love for his neighbor in moments of separation from life burned even more vividly in him, and he cried out “with a great voice about his murderers: Lord, forgive them not this sin!”(). With these words, the first martyr gave up his spirit to the Lord. The last movement of his heart was - the movement of love for neighbors, the last word and deed was a prayer for his murderers.

An invisible feat against self-love and philanthropy is initially associated with labor and strenuous struggle; our hearts, like the hearts of our father and forefathers, since the fall of our ancestor into the sinful region, "permanently resist the Holy Spirit"(). They do not admit their fall, they fiercely defend their disastrous state, as if a state of complete contentment, perfect triumph. But for every victory over self-love and philanthropy, the heart is rewarded with spiritual consolation; having tasted this consolation, it enters the struggle more courageously and more easily wins victories over itself, over the fall that has become accustomed to it. Frequent victories attract frequent visits and consolation of grace, then a person with zeal begins to trample on his own pleasure and self-will, striving along the path of the commandments to evangelical perfection, confessing and mysteriously singing to the Lord: “The way of your commandments is tekoh, when you have expanded my heart” ().

Brethren! Let us courageously enter into the struggle against selfishness under the guidance of the Gospel, which depicts the pleasing and perfect will of God, in which the New Adam, Christ mysteriously dwells, and transfers affinity with Himself to all His children who truly desire this affinity. Let us learn to love ourselves properly and sacredly; then we will be able to fulfill the all-holy commandment of our great God regarding our neighbor: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself". Amen.

My present sermon will be somewhat unusual for me, because up to now I have spoken only to believing Orthodox Christians. Today I will have to read my speech to a much more diverse audience. But this is even interesting, because how else to taste the taste of wine, if not to drink it? Jesus said, "Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" And I hope with all my heart that after listening to me, you will find this happiness and harmony of your souls.

The topic of my sermon, oddly enough, will be love. But wait, do not say that everything has been said about love for a long time, and there is nothing to discuss here. Let me disagree with you.

Love is eternal, it existed even before the Lord created this world, for God is eternal, and God is love. The first people were created for the love of God. The Bible book "Song of Songs" is entirely devoted to the love of King Solomon. Love for people prompted Jesus Christ to sacrifice himself for the salvation of mankind.

The apostle Paul said, "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and love, and soundness." So you should not consider this "spirit of love" as some kind of mysterious guest that visits a person, takes possession of his whole being, causing a storm of enthusiastic feelings and a terrible attraction. This is not true. I agree that love is a wonderful, incomparable feeling. But, one way or another, it must be comprehended, both rationally and empirically. I want to say that the frivolous feelings that reign in modern world, have little in common with real love, with the kind of love that encourages people to become husband and wife, build a happy family, raise children and avoid divorce.

Open your eyes! Look around! Look around! Isn't that what John wrote about in his Apocalypse: fornication, and adultery, and immorality! In this world, there seems to be no place left for love and family. Many narrow-minded people would say: “Why love and marriage modern man? What do you mean why?! Is modern society really a poorly organized, shattered structure that smells of drugs, alcohol, pheromones and is illuminated by red lanterns?! Has mankind now returned to the Stone Age, to the time of promiscuity, when everyone slept with everyone else?

In most developed countries, the institution of marriage is collapsing, or at least in crisis. Many marriages end in divorce. Incomplete families make up 20% of the total number of families. And this despite the fact that when parents divorce, the most innocent creatures suffer - children. In his stunning epistles, Paul wrote: “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies: loving wife loves himself." What, was the apostle not right? Does love really end only in bed, without going beyond promiscuity and dubious relationships?

A lot of young people today start their families this way. Having met, we met for about two months, got a little idea about each other and decided that they would live together. All! Just live together. And how do they explain it? Yes, it’s very simple: they say, suddenly we don’t get along in character, fall out of love with each other, decide that we can’t be together. Then there is nothing easier than to disperse. But if nothing so terrible happens, then we'll see, maybe - and we will register our relationship. But for the most part, such relationships end in divorce, but in essence, nothing. There were two loving hearts, and no. And it’s also good that during their life together, young people did not make a child! Otherwise, he will suffer the most. But parents don't care. And the whole tragedy happened due to the fact that once they did not give a damn about love, they decided that it was no more important than a cigarette: you can smoke it and throw it on dirty asphalt. And they themselves are to blame for this. No one is to blame: neither God, nor others, nor the Church, nor anyone else - only they are responsible for everything.

So it turns out that we have real, strong families - once or twice and counted, and then some still shout: “We don’t need families, we don’t need love!” Well, you don't have to and you don't have to. Only I want to ask such air shakers: “Where did you come from? After all, someone gave birth to you? And if I gave birth, then I hope, not in a public toilet at the station, or not in the gateway of the red light district, and certainly not in a nightclub, right on the dance floor? I am sure, I swear to you, that it is not. You were born by a completely normal woman, under normal conditions, and for sure - you are the fruit of pure and strong love of your parents. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here and listening to me.

One of the letters of the New Testament says: "All that was written before was written for our instruction." So let's turn to the Holy Scriptures, namely, to the speeches of the Apostle Paul, already mentioned by me in this sermon, his First Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 13, for it is not without reason that he is called the "Apostle of Love."

So, now we will talk not only about family love, for I sincerely hope that each of those sitting here shares the biblical truth "A man will cleave to his wife, and two will become one flesh." Now spiritual love, love for one's neighbor, will be added to the love between a man and a woman. And in no case should these two manifestations of love be separated, for remember: God is love and God is everything in this world and God is one, therefore love is one and never ceases, no matter what happens and no matter what crazy speeches are uttered.

Paul says: “faith, hope, love; but the love of them is greater. So what's so difficult about it? Believe! And according to your faith, you will be given the hope of salvation. Hope! For your hope will surely bring love with it. So love, for in essence only love rules the hearts good people, through love the easiest way to know God; remember that he loved us so much that he gave his only-begotten son as a sacrifice for our sins! Believe, hope and love, because since the creation of the world people have believed, hoped and loved. So it was and so it will be!

But what is neighborly love? Let me take as an example the pure love of a man and a woman. What does Scripture say? That love is merciful, long-suffering, not exalted. And from myself I will add: and sacrifices himself for the sake of his beloved. So, if love is mutual, then let it endure everything; if for some reason she cannot endure everything, then love is weak and cannot be called real.

Take care of love, for there will be nothing better than love in your life, for there is nothing and no one better than God, and God, I repeat, is love. Nothing will replace love for you: no drugs, no alcohol, no music, no dubious entertainment, no promiscuity; and if you do not know how to love, then there is no more unhappy person in the world, I swear to you. Love is fragile, like a reed, and tender, like lily leaves, hide it from the harmful effects of everything evil and diabolical. Is it true that when a candle is burning in your hands and the wind blows, do you not shelter its flame from the wind? So hide your love from the winds of life, otherwise they will extinguish it and plunge your entire existence into darkness.

Let me tell you another story. When he was a student of history, this man met one girl, beautiful, smart and kind. After some time, love was born between them. And what would you think? Young people got married and began to live together. I'm sure at first the love between them was the most real! But soon the same worldly winds appeared: boring working days, new acquaintances, minor problems. These people did not save their love, they allowed it to be torn into small pieces. And to whom? To ourselves! It's easier than ever to take out anger and fatigue on your neighbor, and you try to love him, no matter what, despite all the troubles of life! Try to take care of your loved one, not noticing the speck in his eye, and even pulling the log out of your own eye! This is what is difficult, this is what requires strong faith and strong hope!

Unfortunately, such a story is not uncommon today, and, sadly, it is being repeated more and more often among young people. But I sincerely hope that the hearts of all who sit here are not made of stone, but of flesh, and at least a small part of my sermon has touched these hearts. And this is the most important and comforting thing for me.

Finally, I want to say that everything I said today was not unfounded. Not at all. My sermon today before you, who so kindly agreed to listen to me, is based on immortal truth. Holy Scripture and in my strong faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to us:

GOD IS LOVE.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.