Skip to content Love Like You Mean It: Everything Starts Here: Loving God Jul 13 · 29 min ...more
Love Like You Mean It: Everything Starts Here: Loving God
July 13, 2026 · 29 min
We hope you enjoy this episode of A Significant Life. You can watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App, on The Cornerstone Network or on YouTube.Website: asignificantlife.comPrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@ASignificantLife
Series A Significant Life
Jim Graff is a respected pastor, leader, and author who loves helping people fulfill their unique
potential while finding their significance in Jesus Christ.
July 13, 2026 · 29 min · A Significant Life
We hope you enjoy this episode of A Significant Life. You can watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App, on The Cornerstone Network or on YouTube.Website: asignificantlife.comPrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@ASignificantLife ...more Show the full description Show less We hope you enjoy this episode of A Significant Life. You can watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App, on The Cornerstone Network or on YouTube.Website: asignificantlife.comPrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@ASignificantLife
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In this video 0:00 Jesus Commands Us to Love One Another1:43 Why God Commands Love: Identity and Presence11:59 Love Fulfills God's Purposes26:42 Prayer and Mission Call
Jesus Commands Us to Love One Another 0:00 Freedom is a gift and a responsibility. As we celebrate our nation's independence, let's thank god for both. Let's determine not just to enjoy our liberty, but to also steward it by0:12 praying for our nation, our leaders, our communities, and our families. Let's believe together that God will continue to guide, bless, and fulfill his purposes for0:23 America, 1 nation under God. And as America marks 250 years as a nation, may this milestone remind us that our strength is found not only in our history, but in0:35 our continued dependence on god. Let's thank him for his faithfulness through every generation and ask for his direction for the generations to come. Pray that God would give wisdom to our0:47 leaders, strength, peace, a unity in Christ, and a spiritual awakening across our nation. Join us in prayer. Visit a significant prayer life dot com.1:03 Thank you for joining us today as we begin our brand new series, Love Like You Mean It. We're gonna learn why the apostle Paul said, love is our answer. When we're trying to help people, but we just1:15 can't get through, or we're having faith in people, but you know what? They don't have faith in themselves. We're believing for God to capture many hearts in our families and among our friends all over this nation.1:27 Hey, would you join us in praying for that?Why God Commands Love: Identity and Presence 1:50 I bet at 1 time or another, somebody commanded you to love. I remember a really uncomfortable time in my life. I was just 11 years old, and the, school
2:02 system where I live decided that they were gonna take 4 elementary schools, and they were gonna put all of us in 1 super elementary school. So I showed up as a 6th grader, and instead
2:14 of having 50 kids in each age in my class, there were suddenly almost 200 kids that were in my class. And they didn't realize what they were gonna set off in recess
2:26 because 1st recess, we all represented our former schools, and we started playing some serious football on the pavement. And I'm not kidding you when I say the 1st month,
2:38 I had holes in 3 of the knees in my pants, and my momma patched them and she said, you're gonna wear these 3 pair of pants every day to school this year. But 1 day we were
2:50 playing and this kid named Jim Zawick, he sucker punched me from behind. And there were just 2 hits. He hit me, I hit the pavement. And afterwards, I couldn't believe it, but they took
3:02 me into the principal's office and she looked at me and she said, now boys, she said, you 2 are gonna have to learn how to love each other. And I thought, love each other? I wanna do what kung
3:14 fu did on TV. I don't wanna love this guy, but you know, here's what we're gonna learn today and that is that Jesus commanded us to love each other because love is always
3:26 our best choice in life. We're gonna start with some words that the Apostle John shared in verse 7, when he said to those he provided spiritual leadership to, he said, Dear friends,
3:38 let us love 1 another for love comes from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and they know God. Now here's what's interesting about this particular verse, and
3:50 that is it's written in what scholars call the Greek horatories, subjective mood. And you're probably like me. You don't use the word horitory every day, so let me
4:02 give you the definition of it. The the horatory subjunctive mood is used to express strong encouragement or urging, and it's even considered a gentle command.
4:14 So why did John give a gentle command to the believers that he led that they needed to learn to love 1 another better? Well, remember, it was John who was in the upper room with
4:26 Jesus. He put his head on his bosom before they took him to be captured and then to be crucified in the Garden of Gethsemane. And John heard Jesus talk about
4:37 love after Judas had betrayed him. He he saw Jesus' eyes when he looked into this disciples, when they were in a huge turning point moment in their
4:49 life and he said, I want you to understand the power of loving each other. Most of us know the scripture in John 13 34 where Jesus said, a new
5:01 command I give you, love 1 another. And then just to make sure they wouldn't dumb love down, Jesus said, now as I have loved you, so you must love 1
5:13 another. But here's what's interesting, Jesus didn't just say that once in the upper room before he and his disciples descended down through the Kidron Valley, and they went
5:24 into the Garden of Gethsemane where he was later going to be captured by the religious leaders who would hand him over to the Romans. But Jesus said it a 2nd time before
5:36 they left the upper room. John 15 12 says this, my command is this, Jesus said, I want you to love each other as I've loved you. Now why is that
5:48 so important? Because where there's unforgiveness, people aren't gonna give their best, but if love can replace that, God can bring forth some amazing things in people's
6:00 future. Listen, there are people who don't believe in themselves. Nobody's ever nurtured the greatness that God has deposited on the inside of their soul. But if somebody
6:12 learns to love the way that Jesus taught us to love, listen, something beautiful is gonna break forth. You know, I heard a story the other day about a little boy, his name was Tommy.
6:24 And Tommy saw this pet skunk run out of the woods in his backyard. Then he went to his dad and he said, dad, he said, I wanna have a pet skunk. I wanna capture that skunk and make it my
6:36 pet. Well, his dad laughed and he said, Tommy, he said, you don't want a pet skunk because if you get a pet skunk, listen, it's going to stink. Well, this little boy wouldn't take no for an
6:48 answer. So the next time he saw this skunk run out of the woods, he ran after it, got within about 5 yards, and sure enough, Tommy got sprayed. And you know what? Tommy
6:59 never really got a pet skunk, but how many of you know Tommy lost a lot of friends because of what he thought about a pet skunk? And listen, love is kind of that way. There's a lot of people who
7:11 chase after love, but they end up losing a lot more than they gain. And that's why Jesus wants us to take a minute, and he said, I want you to think about how
7:23 you receive my command to love. And John gives us 3 reasons that God commands us to love in his text. And the 1st 1 is that love reveals who
7:35 God created you and I to be. Let me read verse 7 again. He said, Dear friends, let us love 1 another for love comes from God, and everyone who loves has been
7:46 born of God, and everybody who loves knows God. In other words, if you don't want to love like Jesus loves this morning, John would say to you, are you sure
7:59 that you've had your sins forgiven? Are you sure that God has made you reborn on the inside? Are you sure that you're practicing the faith like you should?
8:11 Because if you experience God's love, you recognize that the 1 thing everybody in this world needs is the love of God. And John says, listen, if
8:23 you're a Christian, you have the capacity to love because you have been born of God. You say, pastor, why is that true? Well, because we share some biological traits with
8:35 the animal world, but there's something that happened at creation in John 2 in Genesis 2 7. It says, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, then he breathed into
8:46 his nostrils the breath of life. And at that point, man became a human being. He became a living being who was created in the image of God. That's why
8:58 animals don't act like you and I do. They don't have the nature of God deposited on the inside of them. But if you're a person, you never feel more fully alive
9:10 than when you love well because when God breathed into you and God created you, God gave you the capacity to love other people. And that's what John
9:22 wanted people to understand. Jesus also wanted somebody to understand this in John chapter 3. Nicodemus was 1 of the 71 people who were considered
9:35 Israel's highest religious leaders, and he respected and admired Jesus because of the miracles that were being performed, and because of the amazing, way
9:46 Jesus talked and helped people understand God. And Jesus said this to Nicodemus, very truly I tell you no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again.
9:59 I believe that if you and I were in heaven for 5 seconds, and if we felt the quality of life that heaven offered for just 5 seconds, I believe we would come back
10:11 to this earth, and we would be more determined to love the way that God loves. So John starts by telling us that love comes from God. And if you're a believer, you
10:23 have the capacity to love because you were created in the image of God. You know, I heard a story about the great general Alexander the Great and they were in a fierce battle.
10:35 And 1 of his soldiers acted cowardly instead of showing the courage that he should have shown in the battle. They ended up set bringing him to Alexander the Great to be sentenced.
10:47 And when they brought him to Alexander the Great, he learned that this soldiers name was also Alexander. And Alexander the Great looked this soldier in the eye and he said, Son,
10:59 you have 2 choices. You can either change your name or you can change your conduct. You see, that's what Jesus was doing with his disciples when he said, by this, all
11:10 men are going to know that you're my disciples if you love 1 another. And listen, I know love isn't easy. Some days, I go home and I do the wrong thing and I get the cold
11:22 shoulder. If I do the wrong thing 2 days in a row, I might get cold dinner. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Sometimes I go home and I've worked so hard and I just wanna rest and miss
11:34 Tamara comes and she wants to put me to work and it just doesn't feel like love. I told her the other day because she kept talking. I said, honey, did you know that when when that men are gonna go up in the
11:45 rapture 1st? She looked at me and she said, what do you mean men are gonna go up in the rapture 1st? I said, well, honey, the Bible says in Revelation 8 1 that there was silence in heaven for half an
11:57 hour. So it had to be that men were the 1st ones to go up in the rapture. But seriously, I want you to know this morning that you have the capacity to love if you're a child of
Love Fulfills God's Purposes
12:09 God because love comes from God. And everyone who is born of God and anybody who even knows God well in their hearts knows that he's a God of love. Here's
12:20 the 2nd thing John talked about and he said we should receive God's command to love like Jesus because love begins releasing the presence of God around us. Verse
12:32 8 says, whoever does not love doesn't know God because God is love. So the best definition of love that I can think of is this, that love is the presence of God
12:44 in action. You know, that's why when we read the Bible, God doesn't just talk about the stuff that we're supposed to do as a Christian, but he talks a lot about the spirit that we do it with as believers.
12:57 Let me give you some examples. Galatians 5 13 says, through love that we're supposed to serve 1 another. 1st John 3 verse 18 says, dear children, let us not love
13:08 with words or speech, but with action and in truth. In other words, love is not a feeling. Love is not a mood that you get into, but love is the presence of God. That is
13:20 the very definition of love. And listen, I saw something terrible happen as a child that I'm gonna talk about in our service when we rededicate ourselves,
13:32 our country in just a couple of weeks, and that is I remember a world, and you may not believe this, and I wanna really be careful because I know many of us aren't in 1st marriages
13:44 today. Society has changed so much since I was a kid, and many of us were in abusive marriages. Many of us have good reasons for why we've done what we've done. So please don't hear
13:56 this wrong when I say it today. But did you know when I was a kid, if somebody had an affair on their spouse, they were most likely going to lose their children because it was considered a lack of
14:07 character. And in today's world, beginning in 19 69, there's something that's called no fault divorce, which means if I don't like how we're getting along, I can just
14:19 walk out on the relationship if I don't like how we're getting along. You know what God would say to us? God would say, if you don't like how you're getting along, let the love of
14:31 Jesus infiltrate your relationship. And I promise you, it'll banish the darkness like the sun banishes the darkness whenever it rises in the east. Amen? You
14:43 see, love comes from God. All of us have capacity to love whenever we're born of God. But the 2nd thing we need to understand is it's love that releases the presence of
14:54 God into surroundings. That's why we're told in John 12 verse 10, be devoted to 1 another in love. In other words, devotion that doesn't have love is never gonna make it the
15:06 distance. 1st Peter 1 22 says, now that you purified yourself by obeying the truth, so you have sincere love for each other, love each other deeply from
15:18 the heart. In other words, if you wanna know why there's so much phony love being practiced in the world today, it's because love has to be rooted in the presence of God. So
15:30 every believer has the capacity to love like Jesus because we're born of God. But here's the 2nd thing, every believer has a calling to love like Jesus because Jesus commanded us to love.
15:42 And here's the 3rd and final thing I want us to see from John's writing this morning, and that is love is what causes God's purposes to be realized in our life. Listen to 1st
15:54 John four:nine. It says, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his 1 and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In other words, aren't you glad
16:06 that God didn't just talk about love, but God sent Jesus into the world to show us what real love look looks like? You know, whenever lepers were banished and whenever
16:17 lepers were made to just enjoy or be in a miserable state because people looked at it as sin, Jesus showed up with love and he said, no. He said, that's not how heaven sees
16:29 this leper. I'm gonna touch them whatever they do wrong. Aren't you glad you don't have to be perfect to be loved by Jesus? He's gonna touch you and he's gonna eliminate pain no matter what you've ever done as a
16:41 person. Amen? Jesus came to earth to show us what love looked like. Have you ever thought about why Jesus endured the agony that Jesus endured on the
16:53 cross? Jesus himself told us in John chapter 12 verse 32 and 33. He said, when I'm lifted up from the earth, he said, I'm gonna draw all people to
17:04 myself. And the Bible says he he did this or he said this to show what kind of death he was getting ready to die. And when Jesus talked about this death, he said to his
17:16 disciples, he said, my soul is so troubled within me. He knew how difficult it was going to be to die the death that Jesus died. In fact, medical professionals
17:28 and many historians have written about how crucifixion is probably the most agonizing way to die that human beings have ever devised for a person to
17:40 die. So why would God have Jesus die the kind of death that he died? Because the truth is, Jesus had to die for our sins. Peter wrote about it in 1 Peter 3
17:52 18. He said, Christ also suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. So Jesus had to die for my sins and your sins for us to go to heaven.
18:04 But but really, you know, they could have just slit his throat like they did a sacrificial animal, and it and it wouldn't have been so painful. Or somebody could have stabbed him in the heart like many people have
18:16 been stabbed in the heart and it wouldn't have been so painful. But Jesus told us why he endured that terrible death on the cross of Calvary. And he said,
18:28 because when I'm lifted up, and people see how much I love every single 1 of them, he said, I'm doing it so their hearts melt and they receive the love of God and they get drawn to
18:39 me. Paul talked about it in Romans 8 verse 32. He said, if God didn't spare his own Son, but he freely gave him up for us all, won't he
18:51 also give us richly all things? In other words, if you need forgiveness, look to the cross. If you need healing, look to the cross. If you need deliverance, look
19:03 to the cross. If you need restoration, look to the cross. The kind of love that hung on that cross with the kind of capacity our God has can do everything that's ever been promised in the Bible.
19:15 How many of you know that's the kind of love Jesus wants us loved with? And he wants us to understand that miraculous things are gonna happen whenever we receive
19:27 God's challenge to love. And I wanna read some words from the Apostle Paul that indicate that God challenged him to love the exact same way. In 1st Corinthians
19:39 13, Paul wrote this, if I speak in the tongue of men and of angels, but I don't have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. In other words,
19:51 Paul said, I learned that I can be talking and I can be saying the right things. I can have mess heaven's message on my lips, but if I'm talking, and I'm not getting
20:02 through the chances God wants me to learn more about love. Then he went on and he said, if I have the gift of prophecy, and I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith
20:14 that can move mountains, but if I don't have love, he said, I'm nothing. In other words, Paul said, I can speak what's right with no results. He said, I can be having faith for God's best in
20:26 people's life. But if I don't have love, I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna be frustrated instead of succeeding. Then he said this, he said, if I give all I possess to the poor and give over my
20:38 body to hardship that I may boast, but I don't have love, he said, I'm gonna gain nothing. What a sad thing that a lack of love could keep us from the things
20:50 that our heart desires the most. I want to share a story in my own life. I grew up in a wonderful Catholic family, but whenever I came to faith as a 17 year old, my mom
21:02 didn't understand me coming to faith. And so for 7 years, she made my life really really difficult. As a matter of fact, in April of of 19
21:13 85, whenever she was diagnosed with cancer that ultimately killed her later that year, I was preaching somewhere about 5 hours away. And when I got the news, I went and
21:25 bought my mom flowers. I jumped in the car. I canceled my preaching engagement, walked into the house, and I just wanted to be with my mom. You know what my mom's response was? She
21:37 started bawling. And she said, Jimmy, could you ever forgive me for 7 years of trying to crush my baby? Let me tell you what brought her to that point. It was May of 19
21:49 84, and I was a, itinerant missionary evangelist traveling all over the world speaking in schools, speaking in churches. And I was home for just 2 weeks. And when I was
22:01 home, I just started learning the guitar. And I tell people I've never really played the guitar, I beat the guitar. How many of you know there's the difference? And I was beating the guitar in my bedroom
22:13 and I was singing a song that was popular that that time, Thou Art Worthy, O Jehovah. And as I was singing it, evidently my mom was out in the hall
22:25 and she heard it and so concerned she opened the door and she said, oh, no, Jimmy. You haven't become a Jehovah Witness, have you? And I assured her that's not what I've done, but I
22:38 God is my witness that when I shut the door and I was gonna continue in worship, I could tell instantly that the Holy Spirit had something on his heart that I needed to hear.
22:49 And as I prayed, he challenged me, and he said, You know what, you've spoken the truth. You've done some good things, but you haven't loved your mother the way that you should have
23:01 loved your mother. And I spent the next 15 minutes thinking about all the loads of laundry that my mother did. I thought about how she protected me from the wrong
23:13 girls because when I was young, I had the gift of evangelism. If God made him pretty, I thought I could make him holy. Can you say amen? I thought about how she watched over me. She was part of the MBI, which is the
23:25 Mother's Bureau of Investigation. It exists all across this country in an underground form. And as I thought about how she deserved to be loved, my heart was overcome. So I got
23:37 up at dawn the next day and we lived on about 8 tenths of an acre, and I started trimming all of her trees. I started trimming all of her shrubs. I washed all of her windows and
23:49 she looked out the window. I thought she was gonna faint wondering what I was doing out there. Finally, it was dinner. And she said, Jimmy, what's gotten into you? And I said, Well, mom, the love of
24:01 God has gotten into me. And I repented to my mother for not loving her like I should. This was May of 19 84. I left for a 6 month preaching tour throughout
24:12 Costa Rica, throughout Finland, throughout Uganda. And as I went, I was praying for her a lot, and it was amazing how God was sending the perfect people
24:25 for my community to witness love to my mother. And then there were a couple times when I was in prayer, the gifts of the spirit started working to really show my mom that God
24:37 was real. I mean, 1 day he spoke to me, my grandfather went to the hospital that day, and I called her and I said, Mom, God spoke to me that grandpa went to the hospital, and she was just dumbfounded on the other end
24:48 of the phone. I flew home from Uganda about 30 plus hours. Him and I got in the door, you know what my mama said to me? She said, Jim, you are not going to bed until you
25:00 pray with me to be born again. That was this that was December of 19 84. But here's what I believe with all my heart, beloved church family. I believe that if it
25:12 wasn't for the love, that maybe there's a really good chance that all the other things, the people who visited her, the gifts of the spirit, without love, listen, things
25:24 wouldn't have worked out. And we all have things in our life today that we may know the truth, but it may take more love for God to bless us. There are hearts we want to see softened and we may have all
25:36 the commitment in the world. We may think I'd do anything to to to see that change. But listen, you may have a chance to do anything and that anything may be rooted in the love of God.
25:48 And here's why all of us should be eager to to follow God's command to love. And I close with this. 1st John 4 12 says this, no 1 has ever seen God. But if we love 1
26:00 another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us. That Greek word complete means to finish, to fulfill, to make perfect God's plan.
26:12 And that's why God commands us to love like Jesus loved. Because love reveals who God created us to be. Love releases the presence of God among us. And
26:23 love's love causes God's purposes to be realized in our life. That's why we weren't just created to love with the capacity to love and we're not just called to love, but God's
26:35 given every believer a commission to love like Jesus did because love's our best choice. And how many of you wanna see all the consequences God brings to pass whenever we choose to love
Prayer and Mission Call
26:47 like Jesus loved? Amen.
26:56 Freedom is a gift and a responsibility. As we celebrate our nation's independence, let's thank God for both. Let's determine not just to enjoy our liberty, but to also steward it
27:08 by praying for our nation, our leaders, our communities, and our families. Let's believe together that God will continue to guide, bless, and fulfill his purposes for
27:20 America. 1 nation under God. And as America marks 250 years as a nation, may this milestone remind us that our strength is found not only in our history, but in
27:31 our continued dependence on God. Let's thank him for his faithfulness through every generation and ask for his direction for the generations to come. Pray that God would give wisdom to our
27:43 leaders, strength, peace, a unity in Christ, and a spiritual awakening across our nation. Join us in prayer. Visit a significant prayer life dot
27:55 com.
27:58 At A Significant Life, we believe heaven is the ultimate goal of our work on earth. That's why for decades, we've invested in overlooked people groups throughout India, supporting pastors, building churches, and rescuing
28:10 children from traffic. Our prayer is to 1 day see 100000 lives in heaven because of this mission, but we can't do it alone. We need your prayers and support. To find out how you can be a part,
28:22 visit a significant life dot com. Together, we can make an eternal difference.
Jim Graff276K followers
