What is love? How can we become truly loving people? In this message, we examine some biblical and spiritual foundations of love, contrasting it with its opposite—selfishness —as explained by the Bible and Ellen G. White (see texts below).

This message presents the second item of the Stewardship Commitment Card:👉 “To improve my relationships by growing in love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.”

Despite some missing parts, this message has been published due to the profound relevance of the topic. It includes personal testimony, biblical insights, and a call to follow Christ on the path of sacrificial love.

🔹 Main subjects in this presentation include:

• • How to become a loving person
• • Why love is supernatural, not natural
• • The role of confession in answered prayer (Psalm 34:15-16; 1 John 1:9)
• • The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)
• • True discipleship and the character of God
• • How movies and entertainment can shape our decision-making power and capacity to love
• • What it means to die to self
• • Why you can’t love without the Holy Spirit

🔹 Special Highlights:

• • Personal testimony: Why I gave up the ambition to be a successful pastor
• • The Stewardship crown: a crown of thorns and a crown of glory• God’s call to follow Him through the desert into the Promised Land

This video has some missing parts, but has been published anyway because of the relevance of the subject it covers.

📍Originally presented to 350 pastors during the “Set Apart” Ministerial Convention of the Trans-Pacific Union Mission in Nadi, Fiji – February 12–16, 2024.

This is the second episode in the series “The Power of Vows and Commitments,” which explores all items on the Stewardship Commitment Card.

Download the card in multiple languages here:

👉 stewardship.adventist.org/commitment-card-promise

📘 Learn how to use the Stewardship Commitment Card (courtesy of the South Pacific Division):

👉 https://stewardship.adventist.org/how-to-use-the-iproimse-commitment-cards

🎁 Discover more about Promise Offerings (mentioned in this message):

👉 https://stewardship.adventist.org/promise-(regular-and-systematic-offerings)

More about Vows and Commitments: https://stewardship.adventist.org/vows-and-pledges-resources

Available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Rmj9i3ZV_v4 (with slightly more complete notes on description)

My notes:

What is love? How to love and become a loving person?

• * The power of prayer.
• * How to open the way for our prayer to be heard? Psalm 34:15-16
• * When sins are confessed, the way is open for our prayers to be heard.
• * Eph 3:20
• * My testimony: Why I quit the desire of being a successful pastor.
• * Why didn’t I love my Wife?
• * God is love. Would God require me to live my whole life with someone I don’t love?
• * Love isn’t a natural thing. It is a supernatural thing.
• * If sins are confessed, the way is open for your prayers to be answered.
• * Love is a sign of discipleship (John 13:34-35)
• * What is the risk of watching a movie?
• * Acts 1:8 -
• * Gal 5:22-23 - the fruit
• * How do we understand what love is?
• * What is the opposite of love?
• * The selfish mindset

“The opposite of love is selfishness, and this was the essence of the self-seeking spirit manifested by Satan.”— In Heavenly Places, p. 238

“Selfishness is the essence of depravity, and because human beings are selfish, they fail to understand the truth of heavenly origin. Selfishness is the opposite of the character of God, the opposite of love.”— Manuscript Releases, Vol. 21, p. 180 (Letter 263, 1903)

• * How to better understand what love is?
• * Isa 53:3-7
• * Phill 2:5…
• * The Stewardship symbol is a crown. Half of it is a crown of thorns and half a crown of glory. For you to have the crown of glory, you need to go first through the crown of thorns.
• * 1 Pt 2:19-21
• * When we die (to self), we no longer suffer. Those who are dead don't feel offended.
• * I am a sinner, and as a sinner, I cannot love other people. Love is impossible without receiving the Holy Spirit and without dying to self.