An Old School Love That Never Gets Old

July 26, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Brother. Alrighty. First Corinthians 13 and 11 is our meditation text. Let's go ahead and read that together. Here we go. When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. Amen. Put away childish things. Amen. Tell your neighbor, put them toys away. Put them away. And I want to encourage you to read all of 1 Corinthians 13. I'm going to read it all in our hearing today, and we're going to jump into this word this morning. Here we go. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love. I am only a resounding God or a training assembly. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fandom all mysteries and all knowledge. If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, give over my body to hardship that I may brag or boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, y'all. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be still. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childhood. Put away childish ways behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, and even as I am fully known. Now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Amen. Amen. Amen. I want to talk about an old school love that never gets old. Old school love that never gets old. A number of years ago, um I had a number of walls nests that would nest in and around my house. And I did everything in my power to get rid of them. I would knock them down, and you know, that's a dangerous proposition to knock down a wals nest. Amen. Because they don't take too kind of to that, you know. I would knock them down, and in a matter of six or seven weeks, they come right back and nest in the very place I had knocked down. And so this little war I had with the waltz went on for a couple of months. Finally, I said, you know what, I got something for you. I'm gonna call the professionals. So I called Orcan out. And Orkin came out with all their tools and technologies and sprays, and they would knock them down, they would spray it. Mr. Archer, they ain't coming back. How many of y'all know that ain't true? Them jokers came back and rebuilt and built their nests and began nesting again. I would discover that the reason why walls are so intentional in coming back to rebuild their nests is because that's the place that they experienced a sense of community. They tell me that the queen wals has a way of signaling to the entire community, this is the one place that is safe. That waltz, here it is, gives them the experience of what it feels like to be harmony, harm harmonized, to be all together as one. And so that even though no matter how many times I knock it down, instinctively, because of the experience they had, I wish I can preach this. They were gonna come back and rebuild that mess. And as I thought about that, I'm not here to talk about insecticides or insects, y'all. But as I thought about that, it dawned on me. That's a lot like love. Amen. Somebody said it so well. Love is not something that you can teach. No, love is something that is experienced. When you have the experience, somehow love will drive you to do what you normally don't do. We've said a lot in this series, y'all. We we've talked about the nature of love, we've talked about the rhythm of love, we talked about those buttons and triggers. And the way y'all looking at me like y'all have been pulling more triggers than pushing buttons. Gotta pray for y'all, repreach that again. We talked about the theology of forgiveness, and we even talked about uh the way uh the art of moving on. And I'll be honest with you, as a pastor, because I care about you and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I'm tempted to give you another technique. I'm tempted to give you the ABCs. I'm tempted to give you the processes and the ways to work through the difficulties that come with our cherished relationships. And I understand there's a place for that. But I've been pastoring long enough to know that you can have all the techniques in hand, but that doesn't mean you have the truth in your hearts. That something has to happen in our hearts so that our relationships are transformed in a way they honor God. And in this experience with the walls, I discovered that we gotta make sure we've experienced real love. It's like this week with my family. We we've shared memories and we shared stories from the past, and we've tried to share them with the younger generation because we want them to pass it on. And I found it interesting as to what we remember and what we forget. And the reason why we remember what we remember is because it was a moving experience in our lives. You can't forget what those experiences that change your life. You can't just drop them out of your memory. You got to share what you experienced. And that's what Paul is trying to communicate in this text to this church that was ravaged by conflict and division, and and they didn't want to get along. And and Paul here uh in this text, he kind of reminded them that look, you you gotta go back to what you had from the beginning. Uh you you gotta you can't forget what was given to you, what you experienced from the beginning. You you can't leave that. And and he wants to remind them of the love they experienced the first time. So 1 Corinthians 13, it reads like good poetry. And it is that. You read it, look, it just comes across as good language and poetry and symmetry. For others, this is great inspiration. And there's a sense you can read that and you can be inspired. Uh for others, it can it can come across as something that we ought to read at special occasions. And there's a place for that. But to see this as a sentimental expression of the apostle Paul to rally the Corinthians is to miss what Paul is trying to do in this passage. Most Christians, and I would include myself on this one, when we read this passage, we read it like a to-do list. That if you're really a good Christian, you're gonna be patient. If you're really a good Christian, you're not gonna envy it. If you're really a good Christian, you're gonna you're gonna be kind to one another. We read it like the Ten Commandments of Love for the Christian community. But but I'm I'm I'm influenced by the late uh Pastor Tim Keller on this, and he doesn't see it that way. He he argues that if it were to do this, then Paul would say we should be more patient, but he doesn't say that. He would say we should be more kind to one another, but he doesn't say that. No, what he does is he personifies love. Love is patient, love is kind, as if to remind us of how much God loved us. So before I can get the techniques right as to how I'm supposed to relate with somebody, Paul says, No, I need to turn you back to the one who loved you first. Matter of fact, let me give you my thesis uh statement right here. The love of Jesus never gets old. That's what he's doing right here. He's personifying the love of Jesus to remind us that when we find it difficult in our relationship, don't forget how God has loved you in Christ. Anybody remember the first time you fell in love? Don't say that out loud. You might get in trouble. Well, that's what Paul is doing right here. He says, Look, have you forgotten the first time Jesus loved on you? Have you forgotten how you found the Lord and the Lord found you? Have you forgotten how the Lord has touched and changed your life? Matter of fact, when I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but think about that woman at the well that Jesus met, the Samaritan woman. And the Bible says that she had had five husbands, and and Jesus lets her know, and then the man you're with, that sixth one, that ain't your husband either, but you're hanging out with him anyway. But oh, thank God she met the seventh man in her life. And that seventh man is what turned her around and gave her a new walk. And I know I'm not the only one in here that met the same man that somehow, the way he loves on us, somehow, the way he ministers to us can cause us to forget what we've done in the past, that we can be all that God wants us to be in the future. Anyone know God is good? The love of Jesus never gets old. Tell your name, it never gets old, it never gets old. The old the songwriter was right, said the blood of Jesus never loses its power. Well, the love of Jesus never gets old. It never gets old for us. When everybody has turned their back on us, Jesus is still there for us. When hearts have been broken and folk we trusted have betrayed us. Anybody know Jesus is still there for us. When no one can relate to what we're going through, does anybody know he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me that I am his home? Jesus is still with us. The love of Jesus never gets over. He passes on this love so that we can pass it on to others. I know it's tough with some people. They're hard to love. Say amen. Hard to get along. Family, friends, men, and women, amen. I know some of you women went on this cruise. You come back with a big old smile on your face because you got away from us. Amen. Well, you're we're here now. You say just hard to get along with. Well, the Lord, maybe the Lord is taking us all back to the to Him and to remind us that the love of Jesus never gets old. Anybody ever come to church one way? Came to church mad, mad with everybody in your family, but you came to church anyhow. And when you came to church, you made up your mind. I'm just gonna get through church and I'm gonna go on about my business. But seems like the Lord got into the song. Somehow Shay hadn't followed you around, but she knew what your week was like, and the Spirit of God got in her and got in the song, and all of a sudden the music started getting good. You found yourself rocking back and forth. Now you came in with rocks in your mouth and everything. You were angry, but somehow the spirit of God began to stir up in the service, and you started rocking back and forth, and then Pastor took the pulpit, and and you know he just started preaching in such a way you thought he had been following you the whole week. That's because God's love got in the sermon somehow. And then folk who really don't ever say anything to you started hugging and loving on you after service, and and you thought it kind of odd, but you felt something a little different, felt like anointing, felt like the Holy Ghost. And though you came mad to church, you're less glad because the love of Jesus touched you in this place. Is there anybody in here that knows that God's love can turn you around? Ah, I've held you too long. Let me run through this thing. So, how does his love work? Here's the first one. Number one, we gotta ask three questions. Here's the first one. Number one, are we tired of artificial love? That's the first one. The Lord is waiting for us to get tired of artificial love. In other words, the love of Jesus, it never gets old when we get tired of artificial love. Paul here in verses one through three, he talks about all these gifted individuals, and they have all these abilities and gifts, but they do it for the wrong reasons. They do it with an agenda, they do it for attention. You know how it is. You've you've been to those places. You can't stand Christians that always need to focus on themselves. Can't stand the preacher that always needs to focus on them, need to be the platform. And many times they can be incredibly gifted, but incredibly self-censored, and that turns us off. And yet that's where our culture is today, isn't it? It's a culture of self-love, it's a culture that's focused on ourselves. And what amazes me, we can see it in others, and we can detest it. But the moment we see in ourselves, we say, you know what? That's what I need. No, love is never self-focus. No, love is other focus. God wants us to begin to focus on others. It's kind of like that song Whitney Houston used to sing, the greatest love of all. Does anybody know what she was talking about when she said the greatest love of all? It's in the song. You know how it goes. No matter what they take from me, you can't take away my dignity. Because the greatest love of all is happening to me. I found the greatest love of all inside of me. Here's the last line. Learning to love yourself is the greatest love. The greatest love is self-love. Now, I'm gonna be honest, because I did I like Whitney, amen. And she has a point here because when she writes this song, she writes it in the context of that music industry that can be so cutthroat. And she recognized that look, I can't just be giving my good graces to everybody. And so I need some self-confidence. I need some dignity, I need to feel good about myself before I can start loving on somebody else. So, in terms of having self-confidence, I get what you're saying, Whitney. You you may have a point. You may need a little self-love right there. Even the Bible says, love your neighbor as yourself. The Bible even assumes you ought to have some kind of self-care. Somebody help me here today. But now, when you put 10 or 15 people in the same room and everybody got self-love, you're not gonna get a loving community, you're gonna get a fight. At some point, we gotta learn to take the focus off ourselves and turn it to somebody else. And what I've discovered is, y'all, the research on this backs me up that time and time and time again, the relationships that are most successful, the relationships that are the healthiest, the ones that have better mental health outcomes, the one that has better uh physical outcomes, and all the other relational outcomes, they are the ones that are not self-focused, but they are other focused. They have shared values and they're committed to the long term, meaning they may have some ups and downs. But as they work through their differences in the long run, they actually have better relationships. How many of y'all know that's what Jesus does with us? Aren't you glad he doesn't just kick us to the curb when things go south? But he keeps on working with us and working with us and working with us, and as we walk with him, we get better with that relationship. So here I'm ready for my meditation verse. This is what Paul means when he says, When I became a child, I spoke like a child. When I was a child, I spoke as a child and I talked like a child, and I reason as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things. What is he talking about? I put away self-love. I put away verse one, two, and three where I had to be the focus. I grew up because children need all the attention. Children will take all of your energy. If you used to having all the energy on yourself, go have a child. I promise you that'll change so quickly. You you can you can be on the phone and they don't even want anything. Mommy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. They don't even want anything. You sit down and talk to somebody, all of a sudden they want your they want all the attention. But Paul said, wait a minute. I've been walking with God long enough. At some point, I don't need all the attention on me. He's done some work in my life that now I can put the attention on somebody else. Because you know the truth, you know the reality of a true, mature Christian, right? We can love him for what he does. But there comes a point in our walk with God that you ought to come to a place. You know what? I appreciate all that you do. Thank you for waking me up. Thank you for blessing me. Thank you for making a way. Thank you for healing my heart. But after a while, you ought to be saying, you know what? I just love you for who you are. I love you because you're good. I love you because you're gracious. I love you because you're merciful. I love you even because you're holy. I just love you for who you are. So, number one, we got to get tired of artificial love. But here's a second one. Uh, number two, here we go. Uh, has his love really shattered us? In other words, has God's love in Christ leveled us to the place that no one has ever loved or ever will love us like the Lord? That's my point. See, I think that's what he's doing in this text in verses four through seven. I don't think it's a to-do list. Where this is what Christians ought to do. By personifying love, he's reminding Christians this is how God loves you. Have you forgotten how God loves you? Look at how it reads. Love is patience. You know, matter of fact, when you read it, it reads like someone who's trying to scale a mountain. And so you start at the bottom of the mountain and you say to yourself, when you look at the mountain, you know what, I can scale this. But when you get about halfway and you get to say, you know what, this thing a little bit higher than I thought. I don't think I can do it. That's how the passage reads. So when we read it, love is patient. We say, okay, you know what? I can be patient. I can be patient every night. Love is kind. I wasn't really kind yesterday, but I can really be kind. I can be kind. Love does not envy. Okay, okay. I'm not envious, I'm not a jealous person. Love does not boast, does not proud, does not dishonor. Well, they kind of deserve to be dishonored, but you know, for the most part, I don't I don't really dishonor people. Then he says it's not self-seeking, we'll just keep moving. It's not easily angered. Ah. And then we'll spiritualize it here. But you know, Jesus got angry every now and then, so I'm okay right there. Uh, then we'll say, it keeps no record of wrong. Well, I mean, if you got common sense, you ought to at least know the patterns in the history, right? Uh, most folk. It says, love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. And we say, well, as long as it's the truth about somebody else. Now we ain't talking about the truth about me now, but if it's the truth about somebody else, yeah, we'll rejoice in that, but the truth about me, no, I don't want to hear that. But here's where he levels us it always protects. And you don't appreciate all that I do for you, and you Still want to stay up in my house and act like you think you're gonna do whatever you want to do and you think I'm gonna put up with all that, y'all not hearing me. Always trust. Maybe the first, the I might, if I'm on it, and if I'm in a good Christian move, I may give you four times. But on the fifth time, you got to go. I can't trust you. You got to go. You see where this thing's going? Love never always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. There's a sense that Paul is putting some ascension on this thing. As if to show us and disarm us, here it is, to shatter us. Nobody can love us but the Lord, like the Lord. And every now and then, I don't know about you, sometimes you got to go back to the beginning and remember what the Lord has done for you. And remember where he brought you from. Because it's easy to forget what you came through and what God did for you. And so sometimes God has to take us back to let us know. You wouldn't always had it. You didn't always have it together. You wasn't always that. No, I did some work in your life to help you get to where you are. Oh, I saw a great illustration that illustrates this. So, and I've actually done this, but I hadn't heard this story. So this husband and wife were having their differences, and they were not getting along well at all. Your, y'all looked like they were gonna break up. And so the wife came up with an idea and said, you know what? You write down everything that frustrates you in this relationship. I want you to write down all your complaints on a piece of paper, and then I'll write down all my complaints, and we'll share our complaints. And so both of them started writing. And as they were writing, they would look up at each other, and they see the other one writing, they start writing more. They'd look up again and see each other, and they got that growl on their face, they just write some more. Wife turned hers over, started writing on the other side. Even though they agreed to only write on one side of the paper. He turned his over and she wrote all on the down the other side, looked at him, and she looked at him. He just writes some more. And finally she came to the end of the other side and she put her pencil down. Said, I ain't gonna write no more. You know what the man did, right? He kept on writing. He looked at her and think of something else and just started writing again. He grabbed another piece of paper and started writing again, writing again. He looked at her just when he's ready to put the, he started just writing again. He wrote about four more pages. And the wife, she is sitting there, she is just steaming. I mean, she just wants to kill him. So finally, they trade papers, and she starts reading what he wrote. And he wrote, I sure want to leave here. But I can't because I love you. I'm angry with you that I can cut you. But I love you. I really, really can't even stand the sight of you right now. But I'm gonna stay here because I love you. Oh, I'm so angry, I can, I'm just ready to spit bullets. And so every single line was everything he was angry with her about, but he kept saying, I love you. I want to get out of this chair, but I love you. I should get out of this chair. I must be crazy, but I love you. And so if you compare lists, even though his was longer, his list communicated love. And it dawned on me in that moment, you know, that's exactly what happens with God. See, sometimes we have a list. God, how come you weren't there for me? You let them break my heart. Well, did it ever occur to us that God has a list? And on God's list, I told you not to go. But I still love you. I told you to let go of that thing, and you're still struggling with it 10 years later. But I still love you. I told you that's what they were gonna do to you. You wouldn't listen to me, but I still love you, and God's list is ten times longer than our list because God loves us. Have you been shattered by God's love? Let me give you my last one. I'm out of here. Here's my last one. Number the my third one, number three, is are we rooted in his love? Or better, is his love rooted in us? And that's where he comes to the end of this song, this this poem-like uh chapter that he he writes here. Uh, he gives some reflection and basically he's saying, Look, I don't have it all together, but some of it is beginning to live in me. So he says, now we only see a reflection as in the mirror, but then we shall see him face to face, but now I know in part, then I shall be I shall know fully, even if I'm fully known. And now the of the three, these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest is love. He never says this, and in any of his letters, he never says the greatest is faith. He never says the greatest is hope. He says the greatest is love. Matter of fact, in Galatians 5, he said, the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love. And Paul here says, Look, I don't have it right, but God has rooted something in me. God has put something deep inside of me. And the word is that when you've been loved by God that way, it causes you to look at people a little bit differently. It might not be perfect, and it might not be exactly like God, but you ought to get a whiff of God's love in what you do. You ought to get a scent, you ought to get a flavor of it. There ought to be a hint of God's love in how we relate with one another. It's not always perfect, it's not always complete, Paul says. But there ought to be something that reflects that God has touched your life, that somehow Jesus has loved on you. You can't keep all this to yourself. So if I can wrap this thing up, I'd wrap it up like this. Most of y'all know I've been a diehard Laker fan my whole life. But I never told you how I became a Laker fan. And really, I have one person to blame on this, and he's gone on to be with the Lord, and that's my father. My father is the one who turned me on and helped me become this rabbit Laker fan. And I never shall forget when I was growing up as a kid, he loved the Dodgers, but he loved the Lakers. He would go to the games from time to time. He loved listening to Chick Hearn on the radio. Matter of fact, he actually did some work for Pat Riley when Riley was in the organization. My dad loved the Lakers. Well, one year, my tenth grade year, I didn't do well in school. I was just playing around, y'all. I could have done a whole lot better. And I never shall forget the look on my dad's face when he saw my report card. He had such a look of disappointment. And I remember saying at that time, would you please whoop me instead of looking at me like that? That's how I felt. He looked so disappointed, and in that moment, I made up my mind I was gonna do a whole lot better. So the next year, not only did I get better grades, but the first time in my educational career, I made straight A's. Came home, proudly, gave my report card to my daddy. He looked at my grades. He couldn't believe it. He said, What? And back then, each class had its own report. So he goes through each class and hey, what? What? What? What? What? I can still hear him saying what? And he was so blown away, one, that he went and bought season tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers. And that's when I fell in love with the Lakers. Because my daddy shared his experience with me. And as I thought about that, if that's what my earthly daddy knew how to do, what about your heavenly father? Everybody knows your heavenly father is good. He'll share with your grimies. He will share with your modesty. He will give you love. He reminded you of the gospel. He will take your bad to the colours. Reminding you what Jesus did for you. But somebody gun that the low fish was. What do you do with it? What would he do with it? The love of Jesus never gets old. Never gets old. Thank God for Jesus. Hallelujah. Bless his name. Hallelujah. An old school love that never gets old. He'll walk with you. He'll encourage you. He'll heal your heart. He'll lead you. And his list is always longer than ours. Every single time. And he'll do for us more than we could possibly do for him. Father, we bless you and thank you again for this time. As we come and prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper, speak to our hearts and our minds. We've tried to share in this series about love. There's a lot of hurt in the house, Lord. A lot of disappointment. Whether it's romantic love, family love, even amongst Christians, friends, co-workers, neighbors, community. Lord, you know. You know how our hearts have been shattered. You know how our hopes have been disappointed. So glad. You know how to turn it all around. So glad your list is longer than ours. So glad you hang in there with us when we're ready to throw in the towel. Oh God, just like you had to do the Corinthian church, remind us of what love is all about. Remind us of the experience. So we'll come back running. Just like that wolf's running back to his nest. Because we've been touched by you. That's what we need, Father. May we share that. Bless us now as we come, prepare our hearts for the Lord's.