WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.800 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:23.359 Morning. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.239 Welcome to our time to worship together this morning. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:40.079 Allison and I want to extend our thanks to you for your concern and especially your prayers for our family over the last couple of weeks. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:44.719 As Allison's dad was called home to begin eternity with Christ. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:52.399 As death always is, it's been a stressful time, but probably more than stressful, exhausting time. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:57.119 So continue to cover your prayers for recovery for those things. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:10.799 Just before we had to deal with a family death, another death occurred in Minneapolis that set the world on fire. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.439 Literally and figuratively. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:23.120 And of course, another death occurred here at home at the same time, resulting in an outpour of support and compassion. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:35.519 The taking of both of those lives and many others added grief upon grief to me personally. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:48.959 The first, George Floyd in Minneapolis, was senseless and brutish, and made me wonder, is that what's in store for my son? 00:01:51.280 --> 00:02:12.159 The second, Officer Holty, added grief because I thought, if those whose duty it is to keep us safe from senseless evil are not safe themselves from senseless evil, then who can ever be safe? 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.639 My next breath was, even so come, Lord Jesus. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:03:00.240 America's greatest theologian, George Jonathan Edwards, wrote in a letter dated 1743 that genuine revival in America would be accompanied by, and I quote, deep humiliation, brokenness of heart, poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, solemnity of spirit, a trembling reverence toward God, tenderness, and a readiness to esteem others better than oneself. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:12.159 As we've seen in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, those are characteristics of those who genuinely trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:23.199 Let's call the success of Satan what it really is. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:30.240 As Costi Hinn has written this week, quote, the term racism isn't enough. 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.120 We need to start calling it what it is. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:38.560 Ethnic prejudice, ethnic hate, pure hate, evil sin. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.360 We can try behavior modification, but what we need is heart transformation. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:50.560 Of course, we can add any number of terms and sins to that list. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:57.919 Injustice, murder in the heart, hatred, anger, lust, a multitude of others. 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:03.520 In the end, Costahin has said that only the gospel can bring about real transformation. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.960 And isn't that exactly what Jonathan Edwards was saying? 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.439 Was that when the gospel truly impacts who we are, that begins to transform who we are. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:32.800 When the gospel brings regeneration, that recreating work of God, sinful thoughts, sinful feelings, and sinful actions, all works of the flesh in Galatians, are replaced by the fruit of the Spirit so that we can love God first and then love others as he has loved us. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.639 1 John chapter 3, verse 16. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:38.800 You've probably heard it before. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:41.519 By this we know love. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:45.680 By this, this is this is how we know love. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:47.519 This is how we know how to love. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:51.759 That he laid down his life for us. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:55.839 There's no emotionalism there. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.000 There's no affection there. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.680 There's no description of intense, passionate feelings. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:04.319 There is only simple action. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:08.720 Jesus laying down his life for us. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:16.240 And the Apostle John says that is how we know how to relate to other people in love. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.279 I want us to love in the way that God expects. 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:31.519 And I think we all need some reminders of what God has to say about love. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:40.639 We need it because it's too easy for us to get caught up in the world's expectations and standards. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:06:08.000 When we get caught up in what the world is throwing at us and telling us as to this is how you need to be, or this is what you need to feel, or this is how you need to act, what ends up happening is we bring our own sinfulness then with us into our love and into the church, and that is often worked out in our relationships, especially within the church, with detrimental effects. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:13.199 Because of that, we end up avoiding certain people. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.959 We end up avoiding certain people because they make us uncomfortable. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:25.360 We don't speak to some people because maybe we just simply don't like them. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:36.639 Maybe sometimes we're aware of the struggles in people's lives, and we're aware of how they're dealing for them, and we disagree with that, and so we judge them for it. 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:39.519 Maybe they're just different. 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:47.040 Maybe they're just not the same as us, and so we unconsciously set up barriers around us and between us. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:55.120 All of that derives from sin, from a worldly unbiblical view of love. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:00.800 And we need God's word to correct those views in us. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:08.000 We need a revival, according to Jonathan Edwards, a revival of genuine love. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:17.759 It's because of that that I want you to follow me this week and the next two Sundays in a walk through 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:22.399 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is often known as a wedding text. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:25.519 It is not a wedding text, it is a church text. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:35.759 It is a church text and a people text for people relationships in guiding us and instructing us in how we ought to relate to one another. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:40.879 So I encourage you to take your Bible, if you have one, and open it to that text or your device. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.560 And as you do that, I'm going to plug a book. 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:46.639 This is a children's book. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:52.959 If you have children in your household, young children, or if you have grandchildren who are young, you need this book. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.000 It is entitled God's Very Good Idea. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.079 God's Very Good Idea. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:07:59.839 You must have this in your home. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.199 If you don't have children or you don't have grandchildren, that's okay. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:05.839 Buy it anyway and give it to somebody who does. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:07.759 It's that good. 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:18.399 God's very good idea is that God created human beings and he created us all different and all the same. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.000 As you're turning, I would like to read a couple of pages. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.480 Because we have ruined. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:29.600 Sorry. 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.440 I didn't switch back for first service. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:34.720 My apologies. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:38.960 We live in God's world. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.919 We are all different, but we are also all the same. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:50.480 Everyone you see is different than you, and the same as you. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:58.480 They might look different or speak different or play different, but they are all made in God's image, and so they are all valuable. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.919 This is God's very good idea. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:07.440 But people ruined God's very good idea. 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:11.120 The first people chose not to love God. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:12.960 This is called sin. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:19.840 And because they chose not to love God as they should, they forgot how to love each other as they should. 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:22.559 We are the same. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:28.960 We choose not to love God, and so we are not able to love each other like we should. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:30.399 We sin. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:35.279 Sometimes we treat others badly because they are different than us. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.919 People fight with each other, people are mean to each other, people laugh at each other. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:45.279 Because we have ruined God's very good idea, he is not pleased with us. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.360 Our sin means we can't be friends with him or enjoy living with him. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:54.080 We need God's forgiveness for ruining his very good idea. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:58.080 And it's the same for everyone in the world. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:02.080 It's just a glimpse of this book. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:04.320 Again, God's very good idea. 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:08.639 I could read the entire book and close it up and sit down and be done. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:12.960 It's in essence an exposition of 1 Corinthians 13 for children. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:23.200 Before we dive into 1 Corinthians 13, we need some background before we get there. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:37.200 We need to understand a little bit about what's going on here to properly understand it, and that background must start at the theological beginning of love, at the foundational starting point of love. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:47.440 So when you think about love, loving other people, loving one another, what do you think is the very beginning of love? 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:49.440 Where does it start? 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:58.799 If you're a Christian, it starts in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8, where we read three very important words. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:02.480 God is love. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:05.919 God is love. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.399 God says he is love. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:16.879 So at its most basic point, love is not an emotion, love is not an affection, love is a person. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:22.080 God is love. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:23.600 Love defines God. 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:24.799 God defines love. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:26.000 It is who he is. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:33.519 Therefore, any description, any definition of love must include the person of God. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.240 But that's incomplete. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:44.879 Knowing that God is love does not fill out our understanding of love. 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:50.720 He's shown us, though in his word, what he is, that is, what his love is like. 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:55.279 And so we begin to see a little bit more of what love is. 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.840 I already mentioned 1 John 3.16. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:02.240 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:07.600 Or a chapter later in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 10. 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:17.759 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:20.159 There's more. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.759 Ephesians chapter 5, verse 2. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:30.639 Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.200 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 12, 14. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:44.960 For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. 00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:48.240 Romans 5.8. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.120 God shows his love for us. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:00.080 And that while we were in the act of sinning against him, Christ died for us. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:05.919 In Scripture, we discover that God's love is active. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:12.639 That is, it's not based in his feelings, but in what he does. 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:21.600 It's not founded in his association with someone that he's affectionate towards or that he likes, but it's based in his giving of himself. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:38.799 That kind of love is not self-centered, but focused on others to the extent that he would give himself, he would give all of himself to cover the very worst part of those whom he loved. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:47.440 God gave himself to cover the worst things about you. 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:50.399 That is love. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:53.600 That is the character of God. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:14:02.240 As human beings, we experience the jittery, warm affection of emotional love, but that's not true love. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:12.240 Understand that if and when you feel that emotion, it is not love as God loves. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.919 It's not love as God defines Himself. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:18.720 That is emotion, not love. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.919 Love is active, love is selfless. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:27.519 Love is focused on others, considering them more significant than yourself. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:29.519 That is the character of God. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.000 And that is essential to understand when we come to 1 Corinthians 13. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:40.639 It's important because the people in the church at Corinth did not love that way. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.519 They were more focused on themselves than they were on others. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:58.000 They were more attentive to building themselves up and protecting what they had accomplished rather than considering others as more significant. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:09.440 Their love was so self-focused that they believed, imagine this, they believed that it was more important to tolerate open sin in the church while putting down other classes of people. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:16.720 Their love was active, it was selfishly active. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:21.679 They were not demonstrating the love of God toward one another. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:31.440 And so that became a problem as they worked out life in the church, specifically through the gifts that God's Spirit gives to do that. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:45.600 As God gave them special areas of service or special uniquely spirit-empowered abilities, they weren't used with the intent to build one another up, to encourage one another, and to fulfill the work of the ministry in love. 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.519 They were used instead for selfish, self-centered reasons. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:58.080 Spiritual gifts given to God's people became opportunities for them to say, Hey, look at me. 00:15:58.240 --> 00:15:59.919 Now get out of my way. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:15.840 So for that reason, the Apostle Paul spent three chapters on the application of spiritual gifts. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:28.000 And in the middle, in the middle of those three chapters, he tells us here is how God intends for you to interact with other people. 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:32.159 Here's how God intends for you to love other people. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.480 Notice his statement at the very end of chapter 12 in chapter 12, verse 31. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:44.240 This function is like the lead in a newspaper article saying, I will show you a more excellent way. 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.360 I will show you a more excellent way. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:57.519 The greatest means of service to the Lord and to one another is through love. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:02.879 Now we're all familiar with verses 4, 5, 6, 7, maybe to verse 8. 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:04.640 The love is portion. 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:06.880 Here's how love is described. 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:10.160 But we can't skip over the first three verses. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:11.759 They're foundational. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:18.480 It's in those three verses that the Apostle Paul describes for us the kind of love that we are to have. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:26.640 Love that has as its basis that self-giving love of God, that self-sacrificing active love. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:37.359 And so to this unloving group of people in ancient Corinth, the Apostle Paul details the importance of love in the life of a believer in Christ. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:45.759 And the way he does that is with comparisons to three different areas of Christian life. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.000 You can see those in your Bible by the if statements. 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:53.279 There are three consecutive if statements. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:18:03.359 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:18.319 If I have prophetic powers and can understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:29.359 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:40.319 We have three hypotheticals here of the Apostle Paul's own life that are most likely intended to be exaggerations to prove a point. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.680 And this is a little different than the surrounding context. 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:49.839 If you look back at chapter 12 and verse 27, it says, Now you are the body of Christ. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:56.480 For most of this book, he's been talking to the whole church gathered together, and he's not pulled any punches. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:01.839 It's been one left-hand punch after a right-hand punch, one after another after another. 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:07.359 But now he pauses and he says, Listen, I'm preaching to myself too. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:10.880 He says, I'm here. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:18.559 I'm an apostle, and even though I'm an apostle, I'm still required to be obedient just as everyone else is. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:23.519 If Paul were to serve without love, then he would be in the wrong. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:28.960 Just as all the Christians would be disobedient if they failed to be loving. 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:32.319 Look at what he says in verse 1. 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:42.400 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:51.039 The church in Corinth had elevated the spiritual gift of tongues and prophecy above all other spiritual gifts. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:20:00.480 So they thought that those particular gifts demonstrated a special spiritual ability and connection with God that separated them from other people. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:07.200 Chapter 12, the Apostle Paul addresses those unique gifts last. 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:11.519 Sort of his way of saying, You think those are so important? 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:13.359 Let me show you how unimportant they are. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:15.039 I'm going to deal with them last. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:19.200 Now he flips the script, and in chapter 13, he's dealing with them first. 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:28.079 He highlights them to help these people know that any kind of speech without love is merely incoherent noise. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:30.160 It's just noise. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:36.000 All the Corinthians wanted the spiritual gift of tongues. 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.279 It was a way to signal that you'd arrived, spiritually speaking. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:44.799 So if you spoke in tongues, it gave you a leg up on everybody else. 00:20:45.759 --> 00:21:07.680 So the greatest hypothetical demonstration of speaking in tongues, then, if you had the greatest gift of speaking in tongues, it would be to be able to speak in all the languages of humanity, so that no matter where you went in the world, no matter who you encountered on the streets, whether they were from one of the other five continents on the earth, you could speak their language. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:10.720 That would be the greatest demonstration of the gift of tongues. 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:17.759 That's all exaggeration to prove a point. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:20.720 You can imagine it this way. 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:29.279 Imagine the Apostle Paul standing up and saying, Let's suppose that I had the greatest ability to speak in tongues. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:37.200 So that I could literally actually speak in every human language and even communicate with angels. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:42.640 I can't, that's not what the gift of tongues is about, but let's imagine for a moment that I could. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:58.640 That kind of amazing, impossi humanly impossible ability, if actually possible, done without love, is not beneficial. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.000 It's incoherent noise. 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:10.720 A noisy gong was not anything like what we imagine when we imagine a gong. 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:17.279 If you go down to Mongolian grill Whohat and you go through the line and they encourage you to hit the gong if you give them a tip. 00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:20.559 First Service seemed to understand that illustration. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:22.000 Have you guys not been to Hu-Hot? 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:24.000 Okay, thank you. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.319 That's not the kind of gong that Paul's likely referring to. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:42.880 This would have been a brass vase-like vessel that would have been strategically positioned in amphitheaters or in the courtyards of temples that would reverberate sound in order in an effort to amplify it. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:46.319 We all know what symbols are. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:48.640 They have a purpose too, if used properly. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:52.640 They're even found in Old Testament temple worship. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:23:03.759 But if you just beat on a symbol, you clang it together with something else, with no pattern, with no beat, with no established music along with it, it's just noise. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:06.559 It's not helpful or beneficial. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:14.720 For a period of time, I had my office, not here in another church building, on the main floor of the church. 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:28.400 And for a time, a music instructor was giving music lessons and band lessons to homeschool students right underneath me. 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:32.160 And these were mostly beginning students. 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:36.640 There was a lot of noise. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:43.359 It was not beneficial to my studying and preparation. 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:47.519 The same is true of our speech. 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:51.119 The same is true of our speech. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:58.000 Specifically, the context here is talking about the spiritual gift of tongues, that spirit-given ability to speak in a different human language. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:07.359 But as the context to follow will demonstrate, and the rest of Scripture corroborates, it's important to apply all of this to all of our speech. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:18.079 Love is so important, so imperative, that our God-given ability to communicate with one another is just incoherent babbling if we speak without love. 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.920 Our communication is just noise. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.160 If we speak in any way without love. 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:50.960 Imagine the Apostle Paul, that giant of the faith, speaking to us and saying, You tell me, if I'm going to speak to you in the most magnificent of ways, if I use the greatest speech patterns and eloquent style and a variety of vocabulary so that you're drawn into what I'm saying, but you can tell that I'm just doing it to make myself look good. 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:52.079 Will you listen to me? 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.920 No, you're gonna turn me off. 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:01.279 Let's turn that around for a minute. 00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:02.640 Let's flip it over. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:16.319 Current events, if you're paying attention, are showing us the need to listen, to really listen to those whose lives and experiences are not like ours. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:25.839 But if you listen without loving that person whose life is not like yours, is genuine communication really taking place? 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:41.279 The implied truth here in 1 Corinthians 13 is not so much in the use of God's enablement to speak other languages, but in our communication with other people. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:54.960 When you share the gospel with someone, when you speak of Jesus, do the people that you're speaking with know that you're doing that because you love them? 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.440 Or are you irritating them? 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:14.319 When you communicate with your spouse, with your roommate, your parents, your neighbors, your friends, are you communicating in a way that expresses your love and care for them? 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:24.000 Most difficult for me when I'm standing in a line or traffic is slow and I'm impatient. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:25.920 Do I communicate love? 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:38.240 When we speak with those who don't look like us, don't sound like us, don't live like us, or each other, even in the in the body of Christ, when we gather together. 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:40.079 Do we speak to one another? 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:41.279 Do we relate to one another? 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:43.839 Do we communicate with or without love? 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:49.599 Are we are we communicating truly, or are we just babbling and making incoherent noise? 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:58.319 Church Father Augustine said, If you are silent, be silent out of love. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:02.880 If you speak, speak out of love. 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:07.039 Second comparison is in verse two. 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:19.039 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:27.519 Here the Apostle Paul addresses three more spiritual gifts that these Corinthian believers had elevated to an improper place. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:39.119 They had turned the gifts of prophecy and knowledge and faith into self-centered actions of personal gratification. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:44.079 And they all fit, all three of them fit into the realm of spirituality. 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:52.640 So if you claim to be religious, if you have a spirituality, but you have that without love, then your spirituality is meaningless. 00:27:54.880 --> 00:28:04.000 These were three areas of spiritual enablement given to God's people to begin the time of the church. 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:15.920 So God gave prophets and prophets or prophetic powers, your translation may say, doesn't simply refer to predicting the future, saying what's going to happen in the future. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:28.319 In fact, if you look over at chapter 14 and the first three verses, you'll find that the gift of prophecy is proclaiming the Word of God in such a way that the church is built up, that it is encouraged and edified. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:32.000 Old Testament prophets were God's spokesmen. 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:35.599 Sometimes they declared the future, sometimes they just proclaimed what God said. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:42.319 Understanding mysteries is a related gift. 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:46.079 But in the Bible, a mystery is something very specific. 00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:54.720 It refers to truth, to something that God had kept hidden, had kept for himself for a long time. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:59.519 But now he's revealed the mystery, and so human beings know about it. 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:10.720 God revealed truths that he had previously kept hidden from mankind, and he had determined the proper time and the proper place in the proper way to reveal those truths. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:27.759 Knowledge goes back to chapter 12 and verse 8, where the Spirit gives the utterance of knowledge, empowering someone to speak in a newly revealed way of God and his word. 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:43.279 And apparently the church in Corinth were taking these gifts of the God's Spirit to an extreme and using them in a way to elevate themselves and undermine those who didn't have these abilities. 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:51.279 So the Apostle Paul uses this picture in an extreme way to illustrate himself. 00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:53.440 He says, I'm an apostle. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:58.720 I've been become a steward of the mysteries of God. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.240 He wrote so much of our New Testament. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:22.480 He said, Even if I am to have all knowledge, if I have all understanding of all mysteries, if I have the greatest faith, so that there is nothing that stands in the way of my faith, if I have all of that, but I don't have love, my spirituality is worthless. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:23.920 It has no meaning. 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:24.640 Zero. 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:26.079 But notice how he said it. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:29.039 He says, I am nothing. 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:40.799 He says, if I can do all of this in the realm of my spirituality without love, it means nothing to me, and I am nothing. 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:53.200 If we have the greatest ability, the greatest spirituality, if we demonstrate the power of God working through us, but we don't have love, then we as individuals are nothing. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:54.640 We amount to nothing. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:59.519 We cannot claim to be anything or anyone special, meaningless. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:05.599 If you and I as Christians do not live with love, we are stripped of everything. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:07.519 We are nothing. 00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:12.720 And we can't think of ourselves as being of anything. 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:22.640 Now in verse 3, we are told that sacrifice without love is also useless. 00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:34.799 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but I don't have love, I gain nothing. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:41.440 Sometimes we will make sacrifices in life, right? 00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:47.759 When we make sacrifices for something, we usually do it in anticipation of getting something in return. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:57.279 The Apostle Paul paints two pictures here, both of which refer to great personal sacrifice. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.799 The first, he says, is if I give away all I have. 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:10.079 That's not necessarily a statement about all of his possessions, you know, giving it all up or selling it all, getting rid of it all, although that may be included. 00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:15.440 The particular element that's being referred to here is of feeding hungry people. 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:22.319 It's a picture of giving out food so that people can be filled. 00:32:22.559 --> 00:32:24.559 And this happened in the early church. 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:32.240 They made sure that everybody in the church had food, even if they had to sacrifice something themselves to provide for others. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.200 Did you know that there are historical records? 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:49.119 There are historical records of Christians selling themselves into slavery and giving the money from the proceeds of selling themselves so that poorer Christians could eat. 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:54.559 And we think we have problems. 00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:56.160 We think we lack. 00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:11.200 So the Apostle Paul is projecting this image of giving away all that he can possibly give to feed the poor in the church. 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:26.720 But if that if that sacrifice is done out of compulsion, out of pride, out of getting something in return, out of some kind of wrong motive, if it's done without motive, I'm sorry, if it's done without love, it is a useless sacrifice. 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:32.160 The second image is a more difficult one. 00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:36.880 Because there's a textual issue here with this statement. 00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:44.720 Some Bibles will translate it to be burned, and others might have that I may boast. 00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:47.039 Quite a difference there. 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:54.160 In my opinion, the majority of scholars are correct in thinking that the most likely reading is to be burned. 00:33:54.559 --> 00:33:57.200 But if that's the case, then we still have to figure out what it means. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:33:59.039 What is he talking about? 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:07.599 Because at the time that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter, the Romans didn't use burning as a way to persecute Christians. 00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:09.119 They used other ways. 00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:13.519 So it's probably also not referring to self-immolation. 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:20.480 You know, you've probably seen that famous photo from many years ago of a monk dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself on fire. 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:25.920 We have no historical records of Christians doing that in the first century, so it's likely not that. 00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:32.480 No, I think that this is connected with the previous statement. 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:36.800 I think they go together in this single if statement. 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:45.599 I think the burning is what happened when Christians sold themselves into slavery to provide food for others. 00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:53.199 Because when they sold themselves, they would be branded with a hot iron, burning a mark into their flesh. 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.039 And we have historical records that that happened among the early church. 00:35:01.679 --> 00:35:16.480 I think what the Apostle Paul is saying is if I give up my own life, selling myself into slavery to get some money so that somebody else can eat, so that I take a burned mark in my flesh. 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:27.440 Because if I go to that extent of a sacrifice and I do it without love, I gain nothing. 00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:31.679 I think these images are purposefully extreme. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:32.719 Did they happen? 00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:33.039 Yes. 00:35:33.199 --> 00:35:34.239 Did they happen regularly? 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:34.800 No. 00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:37.199 They're hyperbole to prove a point. 00:35:37.360 --> 00:35:48.079 And the point is this: no matter what we do, if we're to go to the extreme form of sacrifice for the benefit of others, we gain nothing if it's done without love. 00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:48.960 It would be useless. 00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:52.320 It's a waste of time, it's a waste of energy, it's a waste of resources, etc. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:57.039 And no one wants to be ignored. 00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:09.599 No one wants to work hard or to sacrifice of themselves or their resources or to have great abilities that don't get recognized. 00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:16.400 We don't want who we are and what we've done and everything about us to become worthless or pointless or without value. 00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:23.519 But that is exactly the way it is if we do not live with the kind of love that God expects. 00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:36.159 If we do not have the love of Christ, that self-sacrificial, other-centered love in all that we do, we're simply doing what I hate to do. 00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:38.320 Run on the treadmill. 00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:44.159 I'm doing something, but I'm not going anywhere. 00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:48.719 We're exerting energy. 00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:53.760 We're spending resources, but we're not going anywhere. 00:36:54.719 --> 00:37:04.880 Now we ought to know, as God's people, we ought to know from Matthew 22, verse 37, that love is extremely important in our relationships. 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:11.760 Jesus was asked a question: What's the greatest commandment? 00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:16.639 Out of all the commandments of God, what's the greatest commandment? 00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:18.079 And you know what he said. 00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:28.320 You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:32.960 And don't forget the second greatest commandment, because it's like it. 00:37:33.760 --> 00:37:37.119 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:43.039 It seems to me that we need a Jonathan Edwards kind of revival. 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:51.840 Now maybe you feel convicted as I have been. 00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:57.119 Or maybe you you have a sense of guilt after hearing this. 00:37:58.079 --> 00:37:58.719 Good. 00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:00.559 That is good. 00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:05.119 But don't let that move you to give up. 00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:08.480 To just throw your hands in the air and say, oh, it's beyond me. 00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:10.400 I can't I can't love that way. 00:38:11.119 --> 00:38:12.559 No, don't do that. 00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:17.840 Instead, confess that inability and pursue Jesus. 00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:36.880 Pursue Jesus so that you seek to know him more, so that you seek to understand why he laid down his life for you, so that you seek to know what motivated him to go to that cross and to seek that with joy, so that he might cover the worst parts of you. 00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.960 Seek him, pursue him. 00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:44.960 Let that motivate you to love him more. 00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:52.079 And that love will then begin to pour out of you toward others as a fruit of the Spirit's work in you. 00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:58.400 That all comes from the person of God because God is love. 00:38:58.559 --> 00:38:59.599 That is his character. 00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:03.280 It is based on his actions and giving up his son for us. 00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:12.079 We must see that importance and not simply see it, but begin to believe it. 00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:23.039 And by his grace and the power that is at work within us to love our God, we will begin to love one another and to love our neighbors, even the unlovely ones. 00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:32.559 Now, by his grace, the Lord has himself shown us his character. 00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:38.559 Our Father has shown us what he is like and the giving of himself. 00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:45.920 Next time we'll gather together to begin to see what that love looks like in action. 00:39:47.119 --> 00:40:01.039 I'd like you to commit with me to make it a matter of prayer this week that the Spirit of God would cause the love of God to be displayed in us toward others. 00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:04.239 Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you. 00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:09.199 And we confess to you that we have failed. 00:40:10.719 --> 00:40:14.239 We have failed to love as you have loved us. 00:40:17.440 --> 00:40:20.079 Lord, we're not much different than the Corinthians. 00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:27.599 We struggle with all kinds of inherent difficulties. 00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:38.559 There are parts of our flesh that rise up and want to rule in us and want to make us be thrust into the forefront so that we get attention, so that we get the benefit. 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:41.280 We are so self-focused. 00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:45.440 Oh, forgive us of our sin. 00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:49.519 Draw us closer to yourself and renew us. 00:40:49.760 --> 00:41:00.320 Renew us by your spirit so that we might have a love that is that is willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others. 00:41:05.119 --> 00:41:08.320 Lord Jesus, sometimes it feels like we just can't do this. 00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:10.480 It's too hard. 00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:14.800 So help us. 00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:18.000 You've promised that you would give us your spirit. 00:41:18.400 --> 00:41:23.119 You've promised that your spirit would enable us to fulfill your commands. 00:41:23.280 --> 00:41:29.760 Your spirit is given to us to enable us and to empower us to love the way you have loved us. 00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:41.280 So until you come again to rescue us and to rescue your world, enable us to see that we need to walk with you. 00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:50.320 Because it's as we walk with you that you work in and through us to show your love to a needing world. 00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:52.079 Amen. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:57.360 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:41:57.519 --> 00:42:04.400 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:42:04.639 --> 00:42:08.719 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.