I love you…but | Exiled (why I left the church)
1. Do you personally know anyone that has left the church feeling hurt, judged, and unloved?
2. When it comes to loving other people, we often look for wiggle room, for the reasons why we shouldn’t give
unconditional love. Despite Jesus providing us with complete, unconditional love we often fall short of sharing
that same love.
a. Why do we find this so difficult?
b. What is one thing I can change about myself to be a vessel of unconditional love?
3. One of the greatest ways to love the Lord is to love those that He loves, those He gave himself for…….that includes
everyone. Jesus instructed us to love them as we love ourselves. Maybe the reason we struggle to love others is
because we struggle to love ourselves.
a. How would you define loving yourself? Why is loving ourselves often a struggle?
b. What are ways to practice loving yourself?
c. Men’s Bonus Question: Who else are we to love as we love ourselves? Ephesians 5:28
4. If we fail to demonstrate love, 1 Corinthians 13:1 compares us to the annoying sound of a clanging cymbal.
Unfortunately, we often use Ephesians 4:15 “speaking the truth in love” to justify our words and actions.
a. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. How can I best demonstrate these attributes of love (kind, patient, not
demanding, etc)?
b. How can I practice making sure my words encourage, build up, point people toward God by reflecting
how he see’s them?
c. Without a love relationship the “truth word” has no place to live. How do I know if there is a love
relationship with them?
5. We cannot solve all the world’s problems but what is one way we can demonstrate God’s unconditional love to
someone this week?
Matthew 22:37-40 NLT Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all
your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as
yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.
Luke 10:29 NLT The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
John 15:12 NLT This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.
1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would
only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.