WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.800 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:29.519 Glad to have you here as we pick up where we left off last week in our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:38.799 As we begin to consider how the love of God is to be displayed in the lives of his people. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:54.320 And as you are turning there to 1 Corinthians 13 in your Bible, I would like to note for a few moments of introduction a list of troubling words found in 2 Timothy chapter 3. 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.799 Here's how the Apostle Paul began that chapter. 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:06.159 He said, But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:38.159 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.239 It's a troubling list of words. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:50.319 It begins with two groups of people, those who are lovers of self and lovers of money. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:59.760 And it concludes with two different groups as well: lovers of pleasure and those who love God. 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:09.280 Author Brian Payne writes, this list begins and ends with words expressing misdirected love. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:22.560 This suggests that what is centrally wrong with the human condition is that our love is misdirected and that all other vices flow from this misdirected love. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:38.800 Every human evil, from murder to lust, raping, and pillaging to coveting or racism or hate or injustice or any other sin, are symptoms of the problem. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:44.240 The core problem is found in our love. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.360 Our love for God and our love for our neighbors. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.840 You remember what Jesus said when asked, what is the greatest commandment? 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:58.800 He said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and your strength. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.599 And don't forget the second greatest commandment. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.319 You will love your neighbor as yourself. 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:07.840 Those are commandments. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.919 They are not suggestions or recommendations. 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:14.879 They're not optional. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:23.680 Therefore, to not love God and to not love our neighbors means we are sinning. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:26.000 Period. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:29.919 And who is our neighbor? 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:31.680 Who is our neighbor? 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:43.439 In the story of the Good Samaritan, you might remember, we are told that the person who is our neighbor is the one whom we have every sinful reason to dislike and to avoid helping. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.080 You remember there was an injured man lying on the ground. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:56.560 And several groups of people walked by him, having the opportunity to help him, and in their sinfulness, they just avoided him. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:59.919 For one reason or another. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:08.080 In our present times of racism being front and center in our world, that becomes very striking. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:14.479 As are the descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.839 If you have your Bible, I encourage you to look there. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.480 If you have a device, you can use that as well. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:25.600 I'd like to begin reading in verse 1 so we get a little bit of the context here. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:34.399 You will remember from last time, the Apostle Paul is in the midst of a three-chapter section on spiritual gifts and how those are to function in the local church. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:40.560 And he says, I'm going to show you, though, a more excellent way to serve one another. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:48.160 He says, If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:58.879 If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:06.160 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.040 Love is patient and kind. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:11.600 Love does not envy or boast. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:13.680 It is not arrogant or rude. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.519 It does not insist on its own way. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:17.519 It is not irritable or resentful. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:21.759 It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:26.879 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.199 Love never ends. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:30.399 Amen. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:36.079 In verses four through eight, there, there are sixteen characteristics of love. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:42.000 Each individual characteristic could be a sermon in and of itself, but I won't put you through that. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:50.560 I'm going to try to get through verses four and five this morning, considering how we are to love the way God loves. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:57.120 And it begins by understanding that verse 4 and verse 5 especially don't simply describe love. 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:59.040 They tell us what to do. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:02.879 They tell us actions. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:08.879 They describe what love does, how it's lived out towards others. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.160 Now it begins here in verse 4 with love is patient. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:15.759 Love is patient. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:25.040 And I don't think that that's necessarily an inaccurate translation, but we need to emphasize a little bit here for our purposes this morning that these are actions. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:32.079 So I want to put a word in there to help us recognize that this is something that we are to do. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:36.079 So we will begin then with love acts patiently. 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:44.319 When we display the love of God towards others, it is displayed in such a way that it acts towards others in a patient way. 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:48.160 There are two primary New Testament words for patience. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:54.160 One of them is connected mostly with patience in circumstances. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.319 I apply it mostly in my life to driving. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.639 Yes, I struggle with that, as you can tell. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:05.439 I need patience in those circumstances. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:07.360 That is not the one used here. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:14.959 The one used here is a word that is most often applied to patience related to people in our relationships with other people. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:31.759 So for example, we have in 1 Timothy 1, verse 16, the Apostle Paul saying, I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience, as an example to those who were to believe in him. 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:35.279 Or 2 Peter 3, verse 9. 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:41.759 The Lord is slow to fulfill his promise, is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:49.360 But he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:08:02.319 You can see from those two passages, God's patience is seen most clearly in his slowness to respond in judgment to sin. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:12.319 He holds back, it's as if he's holding himself back from a quick and hasty and angry judgment. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:17.040 God is patient with your sin. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:26.879 Jesus showed us that patience in the parable recorded in Mark chapter or Matthew chapter 18, beginning around verse 24, 25, 26. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:28.560 You might remember it. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:33.679 It's the parable of a servant who owed 10,000 talents. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:41.039 Now that that needs some translation into our modern world because a talent was actually a weight. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:47.600 It was about roughly 70 pounds of coins, of either silver coins or gold coins, something like that. 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:49.679 That was a monetary unit. 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:58.559 And when you think about 10,000 talents, you can't think in terms of$10,000 because Jesus meant something much more hideous than that. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.759 Here was a man who owed a debt. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:07.919 And the debt, if we were to put it in today's terms, let's just say it's it's it's gold talents. 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:13.360 He would owe in approximately$1 billion with a B. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:20.559 Imagine having that debt on your account, that you owed somebody else one billion dollars. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:31.200 See, a single talent in Scripture was about what a common laborer could earn in 20 years of working. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:38.879 20 years of working would get you one talent times 10,000. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:46.480 Man's debt was more than the average laborer could earn in 200,000 years of working. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:49.600 It's an outrageous sum. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:55.919 The number was purposely inflated to highlight the grace of God. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.960 The number reflects the debt that we owe to God. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:08.960 It's so outrageous, so hideous that we could never come close to making even the tiniest of dents in paying God for our debt. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:16.320 And so the servant in the parable says to his master, have patience with me, and I will pay everything. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:17.519 Yeah, right. 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:25.759 Even if you earned$100,000 a year, you couldn't ever pay back the debt. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:28.320 It's impossible. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:30.960 It's out of the question. 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:36.159 And then the parable says that the master let him go and fully forgave the man's debt. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:37.440 He erased it. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:44.639 That picture is God's patient forgiveness towards those who've come to him. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:50.720 We come to God with a debt of sin that is beyond comprehension. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.240 No amount of working could ever pay it off. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:11:01.120 We come spiritually bankrupt, and God is patient with us and forgives our sin debt by wiping it out. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:02.320 It's gone. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:08.559 Now the second half of that parable is where it really gets to be applied to us. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:13.120 That same servant had a fellow servant who owed him. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:19.279 And in the parable in the story, it says that that servant owed the guy a hundred denarii. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.840 Now, one dinari was about a day's wages. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.120 So he owed him just a little over what you could earn in three months. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.519 About a hundred days' wages. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.399 Now that's that's still a lot. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:37.519 We don't relish having a debt that would take us all of our income for over three months to pay off. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.679 But it's piddly compared to one billion dollars of debt, isn't it? 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:43.919 And what happened in the parable? 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:52.240 The guy that was forgiven for the large debt went to the guy that was forgiven the small debt and said, Pay me now. 00:11:54.480 --> 00:12:02.960 Matthew 18, 29, we read, So his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:06.480 What happened? 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:08.559 He refused. 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:15.519 He refused to be patient, and he put the fellow servant in prison until he paid it. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:24.879 And when the master heard that, he threw the first guy in prison until he paid the entire$1 billion debt, which means he would never get out. 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.120 He would die in prison. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:29.759 Now here's the point. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:43.120 To fail, to show patience to others when we have experienced the patience of God with our sin is to bring judgment on ourselves. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.720 God has been so patient with you. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:51.200 He's been so patient with me. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:55.759 How can we not be patient with one another? 00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:58.799 Do you love in that way? 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:02.480 Because that's the way your Father in heaven loves. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:09.519 The next action is linked with patience, and that is that love acts with kindness. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:12.480 Love is patient and kind. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:19.440 So again, we're talking about actions here, about verbs, putting these things into life, and so love acts in a kind way. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:23.600 It's ready to do good even to those who are our enemies. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:35.200 According to Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, patience and kindness are linked together as characteristics of God that lead us to repentance. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:38.000 So understand that. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:42.159 These are the first two characteristics of love mentioned by the Apostle Paul. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:55.279 And he says, your love is to be such that people see your patience and they experience your kindness and they want to come to your God because of it. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:13:59.840 That's convicting, isn't it? 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:05.360 It's an attitude and a way of acting toward others with grace. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:09.519 It's being warm and generous, thoughtful, kind, compassionate, helpful. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:14.480 Those who love with kindness recognize that everyone struggles. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.840 Everyone here this morning has some burden to bear. 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:29.600 And that recognition enables us to be gracious and patient with one another, treating one another with the kindness that God has shown us. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:34.799 I love the way that the early church thought about this. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:40.000 Actually, not so much the early church, but the way the unbelieving world perceived Christians. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:46.480 Tertullian was a Christian writer who lived roughly 150 to 225 A.D. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.120 And he wrote in Latin. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:50.879 He wrote a lot. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:15:02.559 One of the things he wrote was that the kindness of Christians at the time so surprised the unbelieving world that they were given a nickname, a moniker, if you will. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:05.519 It was called Crestiani. 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.080 C-H-R-E-S-T. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:09.840 Crestiani. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:18.320 Which in Latin means it's a word made up of, meaning made up of kindness, that these people are built out of kindness. 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:23.919 And it was a play on words for the normal term applied to Christians, Christiani. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:29.759 How appropriate that Christiani are supposed to be Christiani. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:34.720 You can see then how patience goes hand in hand with kindness. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:37.840 If we are not patient, we're not going to act in a kind way. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:39.759 At least that's the way it is with me. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:44.879 If I am impatient, I'm not real likely to be kind with you. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:55.279 But if we have a love that is kind, we're going to lean towards patience with one another. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:03.200 And God says, My love is to be patient and to do good toward all, and that is how my children are to be. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:09.919 Now, from here, this list of actions shifts from the positive to the negative. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:12.399 He's told us this is what love does. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.360 Now, here is what love does not do. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.200 Love does not envy or boast. 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.120 Let's deal with the first one: envy. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:24.159 Love does not act with jealousy. 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:32.159 Now, jealousy means to have some intense emotional feelings over someone else's success. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:42.159 Sometimes this word is used in ancient literature in a way that pictures burning or boiling with emotion. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:52.639 See, acting with jealousy means we don't see others as more significant or important or worthwhile. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:58.720 In fact, we may want to harm them or desire for harm to come to them. 00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:03.279 Jealousy seeks for personal advancement instead of the good of others. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.519 There's some biblical examples for this. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.039 You remember Joseph, the end of Genesis? 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:16.720 Joseph was his dad's favorite son, and all the other brothers were jealous of him, so they sold him into slavery. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:21.680 Acts chapter 7, verse 9 describes that jealousy. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:25.839 James 4, 2 says, You desire. 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.079 You're jealous, and you do not have, so you murder. 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:34.400 You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.079 It's a major problem in the church at Corinth. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:44.000 Back in chapter 3, the Apostle Paul said to them, You are still in the flesh. 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:49.920 For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:57.759 He says, Listen, if you're jealous of one another, you're not displaying yourselves as sons of God, you're displaying yourselves as sinful human beings. 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:05.200 That's why jealousy is included in Galatians 5 as a work of the flesh, not a work, not a fruit of the spirit. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.160 Jealousy is something that comes out of us naturally. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.480 Therefore, it's to be squashed. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:21.119 Genuine, spirit-empowered love does not allow those intense feelings any room to germinate, any room to grow or to find expression in life. 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:27.839 We love properly when we squelch jealousy in our lives. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:39.680 Loving properly means giving thanks to God for his grace and provision to someone else. 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:44.880 When was the last time you did that? 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:54.400 That you saw God being gracious and providing for somebody else, and you praised God for providing for them instead of yourself. 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:56.720 That's what love does. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:00.319 Love also does not act boastfully. 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:06.160 Jealousy is when we don't have what others do have, right? 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.599 Boasting is when we possess what we believe others to be lacking. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:13.839 I have it, but you don't, right? 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:17.519 And we want them to know about it. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:19.359 That's boasting. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:21.680 And that's the outworking of pride. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:23.279 It lifts me up. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:24.640 It lifts my family up. 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:30.319 It lifts my group, however that's defined, up while putting you down, your family down, and your group down. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:31.759 My group is better than your group. 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:34.960 I'm better than you because I have this and you don't. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:38.559 Boasting is heaping praise on yourself. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:41.440 It's behaving in a bragging kind of way. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:52.240 It refers to someone who exaggerates, someone who's offensive or overbearing and talking about themselves or their abilities or their possessions or their lives. 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:54.720 It's simply unrestrained arrogance. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.200 And it's the opposite of being humble. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:08.000 You see, when we boast, we seek to make others jealous of what we have. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:14.480 Or at least make sure that the world knows who we are and what we've done. 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:26.559 And by doing that, if we are acting boastfully, we are implicitly declaring you're less than me because you don't have what I have. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:35.119 You don't live up to my standards because I have something that you don't have. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:40.880 And that that's a kind of evil that fuels racism in today's world. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:57.599 If all you do is talk about yourself, if all you do is seek to direct conversations to your abilities, to your interests, your possessions, your job, your family, your problems, it becomes all about you. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:09.920 If you speak so that others are neglected, so that others aren't given significance, then you're boasting. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.240 You're not loving as God does. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.279 Love is not arrogant. 00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:22.000 Again, it's a verb. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.519 So love does not act arrogantly. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:36.640 Boasting generally comes from a certain level of arrogance, and to be arrogant is unloving. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:44.160 Arrogant people have an elevated, exaggerated view of themselves. 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.720 They're self inflated, they're filled with pride and conceit. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:22:00.960 Those who act in that kind of way generally want to impress others with what they know, with what they've Done with where they've been. 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:05.119 You know, the arrogant person is the person who always has a better story. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.680 You know somebody like that? 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:12.160 They want you to know about their wisdom, their abilities, their possessions. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:17.119 How proud you ought to be to be in their presence. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:25.519 But let's bring it home a little bit more, because I think in Christians it looks sometimes a little bit differently. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.759 An arrogant Christian might put themselves out there as somebody who's really righteous. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.119 Yeah, let me tell you about my prayer life. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:38.160 I pray every day, all the time. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:42.400 But what they don't tell you is that all they do is pray for themselves. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.440 Praying for things that they want, praying for things that they need. 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:57.200 An arrogant Christian might seek to gain more from God rather than bring God glory and praise that's due to Him. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:06.559 If disaster comes on somebody else, an arrogant person might think they deserve whatever's coming. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.000 Whatever they get is what they deserve. 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:13.279 But arrogance can also come in less obvious forms. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:22.960 We can display an arrogant spirit if we unwaveringly assume that our perception of other people is correct without ever having spoken to them. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:32.880 We can be arrogant if we make assumptions about the truth, about people or about situations. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:37.119 We can be arrogant if we judge the motives of another person's heart. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:51.119 See, we end up putting ourselves in a position of authority on matters when all we are doing is using our own opinion as fact, and that is becoming so rampant in our world today. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:24:00.640 Because we act as though we know all the truth there is to know when all we have seen is a meme on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:03.839 And we think that's the truth. 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:08.720 And we go about proclaiming reality when that's all we've seen. 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:16.640 At its most basic point, arrogance is preoccupation with self rather than others. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:23.839 It's a dismissal of other people, of other views, of other opinions and convictions as less important. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:29.359 The demonstration of this is how we can't agree to disagree anymore. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:33.920 We can't discuss. 00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:40.240 We live in a world in which if you're you disagree with me, you're just simply wrong. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:42.640 Well, that's simply arrogant. 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:49.519 And at its core, at its core, it's a form of idolatry. 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.640 Because we are proclaiming that we are more significant than the Lord Jesus Christ, who humbled himself. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:04.160 And the next negative action in our list in verse 5 is rudeness. 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:14.799 Sometimes this is translated acting improperly or acting unbecomingly or even dishonoring others. 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:18.960 For our purposes, I'm going to state it as acting unbecomingly. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:20.799 Now, what does that mean? 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:29.920 Well, it's a word that means behaving in an indecent, disgraceful, dishonorable, shameful way. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.640 Maybe I can illustrate it in this way. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:43.599 I found myself saying in our home and our parenting hundreds of times, probably at this point in time, that we don't do that in our house. 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:47.440 That's not the way we do it in our house. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:56.000 Because that's inappropriate for how we act, for what we do in our family. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:02.079 And God says, My children love in this kind of way. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:08.400 They don't do things improperly, impolitely, unbecomingly. 00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:18.640 To act in an unbecoming manner is to impose your own perspectives, your own desires, your own way of doing things on others in an offensive kind of way. 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:27.440 It's acting in a way that disregards common standards of politeness and kindness toward others that God expects of all of his children. 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:29.759 Love does not do that. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:44.960 In a very simple and short way, acting unbecomingly is to not care about people around you. 00:26:46.559 --> 00:26:54.640 To not care enough to act politely, appropriately. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:58.640 But instead, love considers others as more significant. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:11.839 Do you ignore the visitors in church who speak or look differently than you? 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:17.039 That's unbecoming. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.119 Not loving. 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:24.000 Do you avoid certain people in public because they are different? 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:26.799 That's unbecoming. 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:29.359 Not loving. 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:33.599 Now we might use the word rude for this. 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:35.599 Rudeness is self-centeredness. 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:39.039 It doesn't care about others, which is the point of the next characteristic. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:44.160 Love does not act selfishly, it does not insist on its own way. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:51.839 Literally, if we were to put it into very wooden English, love does not seek itself. 00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:56.640 Love does not seek to be built up itself. 00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:58.799 Does not insist on its own way. 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:09.200 In so many ways, this whole chapter is a literal genius of painting a picture of the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:18.559 For example, in the Gospel of Mark, in Mark chapter 10, verse 45, it says, For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:23.119 How is that not a description of not insisting on his own way? 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.400 Even said hanging on the cross, you could call legions of angels in a moment. 00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:33.519 But he did not insist on his own way. 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:42.160 Now we know Philippians chapter 2 speaks about the Lord Jesus and his humility. 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:52.640 Before it gets into that, it says, Do nothing, church, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:57.759 Yes, let each of you look out for his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:02.160 Have this mind in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus. 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:10.480 Love doesn't look for opportunities to take advantage or to gain control for personal benefit. 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:17.920 But instead it looks out for the good of others, even if it brings hurt or loss to me. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:28.960 Now we're all good, at least most of us, saying, yeah, I'm willing to go down and serve at the mission for a day. 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:32.240 We can be humble to that point, right? 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:36.559 But what if we had to pay to do that? 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:41.680 What if we had to pay to be able to serve others? 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:44.960 What if it cost us something? 00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.759 What if it brought hurt to us? 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:54.000 What if not insisting on our own way brought hurt to us? 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:56.079 Isn't that what the Lord Jesus did? 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:57.920 He did not insist on his own way. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:02.400 Instead, he took all of the beatings, all of the punishment, all of the abuse. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:09.359 That's why 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 24 says, Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:16.000 Do your actions towards your neighbor, and remember, that's not just the guy that lives next door to you. 00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:17.119 It could be. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:26.720 Do your actions towards your neighbor result in building them up for good or tearing them down or undermining them? 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:33.359 Does it bring them to the goodness and the kindness and the patience of Christ, or does it say, I don't want anything to do with that? 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.920 The next item in our list, verse 5, is irritable. 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:44.799 And this builds off of the negative points in the list. 00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:56.640 See, if a person is acting jealously and boastfully and arrogantly and shamefully and selfishly, then they're going to be easily provoked. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:30:59.039 They're going to be easily provoked. 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:02.000 Love does not become provoked. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:12.000 This is a word that speaks of provoking to the point of exasperation. 00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:17.759 To the point of generating a sinful kind of response. 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:23.359 Now I I confessed this in the first service, so I'll confess it to you as well. 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:38.400 In my younger days in western North Dakota, we had these kind of ants that built massive anthills. 00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:41.440 Hopefully you've seen them. 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:46.960 You know, to a little boy, everything is tall, but these these anthills seemed massive, right? 00:31:47.279 --> 00:31:54.559 And sometimes they could be a foot, foot and a half, two feet tall, and be gigantic, be three feet, four feet across. 00:31:57.279 --> 00:31:59.200 I liked to provoke them. 00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:03.759 I would ride my bicycle right through that anthill. 00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:14.559 But what was most enjoyable was using the holes in the anthills as placeholders for my firecrackers. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:21.279 What was even better was sticking the bottle rockets down the hole and then lighting the bottle rocket. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:26.960 Let me tell you, those ants were that were the big ants. 00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:30.240 About a centimeter long and fiery red. 00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:33.039 Sometimes they were red and black, and they hurt. 00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.440 Let me tell you, they become provoked with fireworks. 00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:39.680 Go figure. 00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:43.279 They reacted fast. 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:53.920 That's a reaction to being provoked. 00:32:55.119 --> 00:32:58.720 Love does not become provoked. 00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:02.160 Now I want you to consider two sides of this coin. 00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:16.559 The one side is the primary point being made here in our text, and that's this a person seeking to love someone else in the way that Christ loved us takes into consideration how that person is responding to the interaction. 00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:23.039 So you need to be aware of how the person that you're communicating with is receiving this information. 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:27.440 And if you see that they're getting stirred up as a result of it, you back off. 00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:34.480 You don't provoke them because you consider the other person more significant than yourself. 00:33:35.599 --> 00:33:47.920 It is more important for the other person that I'm trying to love to not be provoked than it is for me to have my say or to get my say. 00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:50.000 Put in there. 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.640 I didn't need to get it in there at all costs. 00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:59.119 Genuine love doesn't purposely push buttons that will provoke another person. 00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:03.440 So think of that person. 00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:05.920 You know their buttons, right? 00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:11.440 You know exactly what it takes to just set them off. 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:16.960 Love is not doing that. 00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:26.320 Now the other side of the coin is the person on the receiving end, the one who's being provoked. 00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:28.079 And we've all been there, right? 00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:39.679 One of the things that I like to do is to take a whole string of my black cat firecrackers and light the whole thing on the anthill. 00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:42.719 Just set it off. 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.079 Just one after another, after another, after another. 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:47.360 You've been there, right? 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:51.280 You've been there when there's that person that's just pushing you and pushing you and pushing you and pushing you. 00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:53.199 And it seems like it's not lighting up. 00:34:56.159 --> 00:35:04.159 Maybe it's because of what the person's saying, maybe it's because of their body language, maybe it's the tone that they're using, not necessarily the words. 00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:12.960 If we're going to be acting in love towards the person that is provoking us, we're not going to let ourselves get provoked. 00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:17.199 We will resist that urge out of love for the other person. 00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:25.280 We're going to see more of that in some items later in our list, but let's conclude today with the last item in verse 5. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:28.719 Love is not resentful. 00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:30.480 Love is not resentful. 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:35.840 But that's more of an interpretation instead of a translation. 00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:40.000 Maybe better is love does not keep a record of wrongs. 00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:45.280 You see, this is a term that the Apostle Paul used from mathematics or from accounting. 00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:49.440 It means to count up, to keep a record of something. 00:35:49.840 --> 00:36:00.079 And I know that not many today use checkbook registers anymore, but if you can imagine a checkbook register, you know, you keep track of all of your expenditures and your deposits and all that stuff. 00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:01.440 You're keeping a record, right? 00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:02.960 Of what's in there. 00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:13.039 The statement includes the idea of keeping a record like that so that you can use it against somebody at a later date. 00:36:14.159 --> 00:36:24.559 You're keeping a record, but the record being kept as a record of wrongs, a record of hurts, a record of evils done to you, whether real or perceived. 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:32.159 And that includes the idea on dwelling on the wrongs done to you, of occupying your mind with that list of wrongs. 00:36:33.679 --> 00:36:36.559 The people in Corinth apparently were keeping score. 00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:40.480 They were keeping track of things done to them. 00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:42.960 But what did Jesus tell his disciples? 00:36:45.679 --> 00:36:50.800 Wasn't it good old Peter who asked Jesus, Lord, how many times do I need to forgive this guy? 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:52.960 He's just irritating me to no end. 00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:54.480 How many times do I have to forgive him? 00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:55.519 What did Jesus say? 00:36:56.800 --> 00:36:58.559 70 times seven, right? 00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:02.320 Now he didn't say keep track of the 490 times you forgive. 00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:05.519 He said that to say, you keep on forgiving, right? 00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:08.480 You keep on forgiving. 00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:20.159 If we keep score, if we maintain an historical record of the wrongs done to us, what we are saying is, I get to judge. 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:27.039 I get to hold a grudge, and I'm holding that wrong against people until I can repay it. 00:37:31.039 --> 00:37:34.480 But that is not at all the way God treats us, is it? 00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:41.360 Psalm 103 says that God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. 00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:51.760 Isaiah says that it's as though God takes our sins and puts them behind his back so he can't see them anymore. 00:37:52.559 --> 00:38:07.519 Maybe the best is Isaiah 43, 25, where God says, I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will remember your sins no more. 00:38:11.440 --> 00:38:20.800 I remember being afraid of my dad sometimes, afraid that he would remember the last thing that I did, that I got disciplined for. 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:26.079 Because if you remember the last thing that I got disciplined for, then this discipline is going to be far worse, right? 00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:43.840 Now, God, if he's a divine, if he is God, he can't forget, right? 00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:51.519 So it's not that God, God forgets that it ever happened, it's that he forgets that it's offending. 00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:58.639 He forgets that it is a wrong done against him because it has been taken care of. 00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:08.079 He has blotted out the wrong, he has blotted out the offense, and it no longer comes to his memory as something that grieves his holiness. 00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:19.039 I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:20.639 Do you hear that? 00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:29.840 Listen, child of God, there is no greater comfort to you in your sinfulness than that. 00:39:33.039 --> 00:39:35.840 What a treasure on Father's Day. 00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:41.199 We have a heavenly father who treats us that way. 00:39:44.639 --> 00:39:46.800 Maybe you've said it yourself. 00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:54.159