(Song of Songs 1:1-3 NIV) Solomon’s Song of Songs. She: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth–for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you!

(Song of Songs 7:1 NIV) HE: How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist’s hands.

(Song of Songs 7:7-9 NIV) HE: Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. . .

(Song of Songs 7:10-12 NIV) SHE: May the wine go straight to my beloved, flowing gently over lips and teeth. I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me. Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom–there I will give you my love.

(Song of Songs 8:6 NIV) SHE: Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

1. Lasting love is PERMANENT.
(Song of Songs 8:7 NIV) SHE: Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

2. Lasting love is PERSEVERING.
(Song of Songs 8:8-9 NIV) FRIENDS: We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

3. Lasting love is PROTECTIVE.
(Song of Songs 8:10 NIV) SHE: I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment. <— Shalom PEACE

4. Lasting love is PEACEFUL.
(Song of Songs 8:11-14 NIV) SHE: Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver. But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit. HE: You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice! SHE: Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.

• Love is A CHOICE we make EVERY DAY.
(Colossians 3:14 NIV) And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

• BEING LOVED gives the capacity to LOVE.
(1 John 4:19 NIV) We love because he first loved us.