Love & Gifts

Intro:

What Lasts?

What really endures in life?

Obviously the things that God does last...

But what is it that we do that lasts?

Here is what I mean...

I do a lot of Funerals. And for me what is impacting about the funerals is not what is said at the funeral, but it is when I am meeting with the family before to discuss how that funeral will go.

We tell stories, and really decide on what the final service will look like.

Well just about 4years ago I did a funeral for a man who I didn't know but his family left an impression on me

The man was actually a member of my church but by the time I had started to pastor the church he was a shut in with some major memory issues…I met him a number of times but he was a hard guy to get to know by the time I had met him. Well after he died, I knew very little about him and I met with his two adult daughters to plan the funeral

I always ask the family what they remember most, what impressions were left and such...

One of the things I hope I never forget is that the girls said that they grew up in very modest circumstances. Not a lot of money.

The girls always had nice clothes…Bob wore his old clothes…He was fine with warn out shoes, and pants with holes...

But one of the things that they really focused on was that Bob always made sure that everyone else had the best food and he had the least or last of everything

He always served up the food, if it was steaks, his two little girls would get the biggest and best, his wife would have the best, and his was tiny and scrawny.

It is so impactful to me to see what lasts after a person is gone…

For Bob it was his life of pure selflessness and love that his family remembered…this.

That was Bob’s life that when he was gone…what was left, was his selflessness for his family.

Sometimes I sit with other families and it turns into a counseling session because what is left is resentment.

What is left is regret

What is left is anger

What is left is a bitterness down in the soul.

We literally have to work through forgiving the person

So as we get into the text today, I want to frame it with this question: What are you leaving behind?

Last week we dug through the spiritual gifts that God gives us

and how much you are needed…how much you are an essential for the church to function the way that God created it to function

And this week we are getting into Paul’s love chapter...

But it all flows from this idea of the church having a gifting and using it for the common good…in fact here is the way that Paul ends 1 Corinthians 12...

1 Corinthians 12:31 NIV

Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

1 Corinthians The Greatest of These is Love (13:1–13)

This chapter has been called the “greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote”

1 Corinthians 13 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and 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 and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when 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 the ways of childhood 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, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

so 9 out of 10 times you hear this used at a wedding…And thats not wrong

But what Paul is doing in this section is talking to us today here in the church…How we actually use our gifts

How we relate to one another

No doubt this is one of the greatest chapters to discuss love in a general way the word Agape is used 10 times.

And what that word means is a self giving love or a selfless love toward others

It is the most impotrant word used in the New Testament to define love.

But really we have to focus on the aspect of community that this verse is dealing with

1-2

Lets break this down...

First, many scholars on Paul uniformly agree that this chapter is Paul’s greatest work. Many call it a Hymn to love…This is Paul’s understanding of what it means that Jesus died on the cross for us.

But lets look just at the first couple of words.

“If I speak…But do not have”

What is so common to the human condition that Paul had to bring it up 2,000 years ago is that often times we speak one way and act another

Isn’t this all of us sometimes?

We speak like we love but do we have it?

We speak the words of a christian but do we live it out?

Isn’t this somehow the universal condition we find ourselves in?

So we have to remember that Paul is saying these words right after writing about spiritual gifts...

Do we know that some people are exceptionally gifted, yet fail to love their families?

I have seen men who are exceptionally gifted and yet neglect his wife

I have seen women who are so gifted in the church only to turn around and emasculate and belittle her husband...

I have seen the wreckage from when a pastor who is insanely gifted, neglects their kids or…when a pastor who can give the best sermon you have ever heard cheats on their spouse. What?!?

I’d rather see that pastor give a sub par sermon and love his wife well!

I have seen people who are insanely gifted in areas where they serve the church but they do it as an escape to not be around their families or their spouse....

See our gifting is from God. God gifts people to build up the church

God build communities like this one so that we can experience his selfless love more and more and more because that lasts

I love the way the Apostle John talked about Love:

1 John 4:8 NIV

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

You have to keep in focus that your gifting by God is designed to help other people fall deeper in love with Jesus

Your gifting is to help others experience God’s love in fuller ways.

And what I think Paul is trying to say is look, You can have all the gifts in the world but if love isn’t the result of the gifts then who cares

In Corinth they were prolific bronze makers and they used bronze noise makers in the pagan festivals…And Paul would have known that from his time in Corinth...

So he says…your just a clanging Gong…A resounding noise or a crashing symbol...

You might make a lot of noise but at the end of the day, you life is just for show!

 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, u but do not have love, I gain nothing.

When Paul wrote this he was saying, basically, if I sell myself into slavery…to pay for someone else's debts but don’t have love, then it is just a selfish empty gesture.

4-8

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NIV

Love is patient, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

So Paul gets into his description of what love actually is…

So I know we didn't cover it here but on the podcast I went through 1 Corinthians 8-10 and the point of that entire section was, of course we all have freedom to do anything we want, but love for others should tower over freedom.

So Paul was saying, do you have the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols? Sure but would that lead others astray? Yup!

So if its going to harm the faith of others then act in love!

And you can chooses to not exercize your freedom for the sake of other people and that is called love…

This is Paul’s crescendo in that conversation…

Because if you follow that conversation from chapter 8 till now the whole point is that

Love must tower over freedom

Love is patient: Patience is long-suffering…Patience is being even tempered in trying circumstances ,

Listen to this because for those of you who are quick to anger this is impotrant....Patience defers one’s anger even

It is being even-tempered under provocation

Thats hard...

love is kind: Kindness is becoming a rare commodity these days. It means to be or become warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic.

I think one of the things that I have seen is that people are open to following Jesus because someone is kind to them.

Kindness should be one of the defining traits of any church that you go into

It does not envy: its doesn’t boast.. it isn’t proud:

All three of these are selfish traits, and what Paul is doing is saying that in love there is not an ounce of self-interist…In love your own selfish desires are put on the back burner. Envy is wanting what someone else has, wanting their stuff, their position, their title, their money…Love doesn't do that...

It doesn't boast…Love does not inflate its own self importance…Love doesn’t sit around speaking about itself

Love isn’t proud: In Hebrew, the concept of pride is most often expressed metaphorically with words that literally denote height. to an unhealthy elevated view of one’s self, abilities, or possessions.

It does not dishonor others: Love brings honor to others, always…Even when they are not honoring back. Think of what Paul criticized this church for a few chapters earlier, dishonoring the poor!

Think of how easy it is to dishonor people.

Dishonoring others is lazy and easy and almost takes no effort …But bringing honor to others takes intentionality, it takes thoughtfulness...

it is not self-seeking, Love is inherently giving of yourself..>Doing what is the best for others. You can not properly love others with a selfish agenda!

it is not easily angered, In the old testament, when the Bible says that, “God is slow to anger” the phrase in Hebrew is long in nostril, because Hebrew is a language that offers pictures…So what if you can picture smoke coming from someone’s nostrils that is a picture of anger…So the phrase, slow to anger is literally…Long nose. like it takes God a long time to get angry…Because he is Love and love expresses itself in patience

If you fly off the handle with everything and really easily,

1. you probably had a parent teach you that so I think God needs to un-teach you that and

2. The trait of being easily angered is extraordinarily selfish, because what your saying is that everything has to go your way.

See if your love truly is patient then you wont be provoked easily to anger

Being easily angered reveals a problem with patience

it keeps no record of wrongs: …There is this very human tendency to keep a record and to use it like a bullet....Like you owe me because …But that is not what love does…Every record of wrongs you keep is like a bullet that you load up..and when you fire that bullet off…people get hurt....

This is what forgiveness is. We all sin against God, and he has the capacity to remember all of it. But in his goodness, when you say yes to Jesus, what happens is that he blots out your record of sin and wrongdoing with the blood of Jesus!

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: In other words, if you are finding yourself receiving joy when something bad happened to someone...

If you find yourself laughing at someone else misfortune and you say…well they are getting what they deserve....

Well imagine if you got what you deserved

Imagine if God did keep a record of your wrongs

Delighting in evil rivals a seed of evil within your own heart

But here is what love always does:

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails: like a leaf or flower

See the reality is that when Paul was reflecting on what the picture of true love is, he always goes back to the cross…

Jesus is patient with us:

1 peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance

Jesus is Kind to us: Think of the thief on the cross…Jesus in agony reached out to him and showed him kindness...

Jesus doesn't envy, boast or is not proud....Jesus didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped

Jesus never dishonored others! Jesus may have revealed hard truths to people that needed it…But I think of all the dinner parties he went to and the rich elite pharisees joined up in talking about these women who were prostitutes, but yet, Jesus treated them gently and gave them honor...

Jesus was never self seeking, if he was he wouldn't have ended up on the cross

jesus was not easily angered…He did get angry, out of love and concern for the poor!

Jesus keeps no record of wrongs…Literally this is what his blood on the cross does...

You may have some vision of God that he will see you as some kind of notorious sinner, but when you accept him all he sees is what his son has done for you he sees you perfectly!

And then Paul ends with saying this:

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 NIV

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when 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 the ways of childhood 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, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It may seem strange...

Like it feels like Paul shifted gears from love to growing up...

But what I want to submit to you is that understanding this little section is so key....

I started by asking us…what lasts? What really goes into the future?

Actually place yourself in heaven for a moment…In the presence of God on the throne. You are in the presence of the trinity?

Will you need your gifting there?

My gifting will not be needed in heaven

Call me crazy, but I dont think that when I get to the presence of Jesus he is going to say…okay Dave, give me your best sermon!

See the danger in our gifts is that you get good at them

And when you get good at your gifting then you can tie up your worth and your identity into your giftedness.

And when you get to heaven it wont be about your gifting,

God doesn’t need it there…He just wants you

Because you are worthy just because He made you

You are worthy because God is love and he loves you

You are not worthy because of the skills you have or the things you have done but because Jesus blotted out your sin with his blood.

You are worthy Because Jesus says you are worthy

But what we need to train for is being the the presence of true and real everlasting love! Otherwise, how could we stand it?!

God 's love through church community is a taste of heaven

So where there is prophecy it will cease...

Your knowledge…You know, God has no use for your knowledge! he just doesn’t, sorry!

Because one day we are going to stand in the presence of our king…and the question is....Will you have cultivated the one thing that lasts to eternity?

Love!

What Paul is asking the church at the end of 1 Cor 13 is what lasts? Because what lasts is what matters!

So back to these funerals that I do.

The question I have for you is how will your family remember you?

Because there are many ways that they can remember you...

I just know that the two strongest emotions are love or resentment

Maybe the point of this message for you is that its not as much about your gifting as it is about the gift giver....

I think Paul wants the church to focus on cultivating love, because at the end of the day that is what will last....

Paul talks about judgment as a great refiners fire

Way back in chapter three Paul implores the church to build a foundation that lasts!

Response

Part of this is effort…it really is…Its effort to ask God, Search me oh God…where am I displeasing to you!

Search me oh God and show me where I am not loving!

God reveal in me areas where you want to do work

But another part of this is God’s grace

You can not achieve a 1 corinthians 13 love on your own…you just cant do it

I believe in a supernatural God.

That is a god who supersedes what is natural.

If you have never prayed something, I want to invite you to pray it today and its not necessary the sinners prayer of anything like that

I want to invite you to come to the alter and simply pray for God to pour his love out on you

I think something powerful happens when you get up from your chair and make the decision to come forward.

I think you begin to set your mind and your focus and you really begin to search after something...

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

So I dont know that you can force yourself to love like 1 Corinthians 13…You just can’t do it...

You need the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life helping you to experience God’s love for you

So maybe today your prayer is simply this: “God may I have an experience of your love today?”