The Exclusions of Love - Part 2

1 Corinthians 13:5-6

How many of you recognize the name “Haddaway”? Well, if you don’t recognize the name, you might recognize this (play musical clip – What Is Love).

The answer to that question “What is love” has been long sought after, but the answer has not been hidden from us. If we want to know what is love all we have to do is look in the Bible to 1 Corinthians 13. Because here in this chapter, Jesus tells us exactly what it is.

Now, we have been looking at this passage for a few weeks now, and what it shows us, is the Love of God to us, and how we are to love God the same way.

If we are going to love God like he loves us, we have to remember some key things, that love should be enduring without any expectations, that it demonstrates kindness that is rooted in the good soil of God’s word.

That it is not a love that is envious of others or prideful in spirit, and especially not rude, but instead displays compassion and edification to others. Because, if we want to love God like he loves us, we need to love other people the same way.

Now this passage continues on, and there are some other things we need to remember that love isn’t.

(Read Scripture)

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!" The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, bringing the box back into the house. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale. Bob has been missing since Friday.

When it comes to love there is definitely some do’s and don’ts. And here in this passage, we find three more “don’ts” when it comes to love. Take notice of what the verse says…

Love is not…

Selfish

· Let me ask you, have you ever had someone say to you, if you love me you will do this for me or you will buy this for me?

· Have you ever done that to someone else?

· Well, that isn’t what love is supposed to be, because when we make demands, what are we doing? We are being selfish.

· And what a person is ultimately saying is that “I come first”, that my wants, my interests, and my desires are more important than others.

· When we have a love that is self-seeking, it will consume us to the point that we will be hated instead of loved.

· This is what happened to King Ahab, remember him? He wasn’t a loved king, and that is because he was all about himself. He was a selfish man. And he didn’t demonstrate love to others, instead he made demands of others.

· There was a vineyard that Ahab wanted, but the man who owned it didn’t want to sell it. And so, Ahab began to pout on it, until his wife had Naboth murdered so Ahab could seize the land.

· That is what self-seeking love does, it schemes and destroys others to make one’s self happy.

· It is loving yourself, and putting yourself first rather than putting God first in your life.

· Now do you realize, that God puts you first in his life? So much that he gave his life up for you.

· If we are to love God like he loves us, then we must understand, that God and others come before ourselves.

· Matthew 16:24 says “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”

· And what Jesus was saying there is that I will lay aside my selfishness and my pride, and I will go and demonstrate love to God and others, by sacrificing myself.

· You see, love is not selfish. And that brings us to the next point.

Love is not Easily Provoked

· There is a story regarding King James. Yes, the same King James where we get the King James Version of the Bible from. It is said that King James had a hot temper, and when the translators got to this particular verse, they supplied the word “easily”, to soften the tone to the king.

· It is unclear if there is truth in that story, but what we do know, is that in the original text the word “easy” doesn’t appear.

· Now when it comes to love, we should not be people who fly off the handle at others.

· For instance, a father may say he loves his son, but perhaps one morning the son is in the kitchen fixing him some cereal, and he spills his bowl on the floor. Milk and cereal go everywhere. And the father comes in and begins to yell and scold that child for making a mess.

· That is someone who is easily provoked.

· Now we may say I am not like that, well do you get upset easily when others do something that you don’t like?

· For instance, do you get upset easily when someone drives slow and you can’t get around them, and you are in the car just calling them “idiot”, “crazy nut”, or this “slow poke”?

· Or how about when you are at that four-way stop and no body knows what to do?

· How about, when you are working on something with your son or daughter, and they do it wrong, do you begin to insult them and belittle them? Or just snatch it away from them and tell them to go on.

· Is your heart showing love? No.

· Or, how about when that person you work with fails to complete a task, and you are there having to deal with the mess? And all you want to do is go up to that coworker and chew them out?

· What has happened? You’ve been easily provoked. Now God told us to love them, but all you want to do is jerk a knot in them.

· It reminds me of the Husband who was talking with his wife:

"When I get mad at you, you never fight back. How do you control your anger?" Wife: "I clean the toilet " Husband: "How does that help?" Wife: "I use your toothbrush."

· Love refuses to be provoked into wrong action. Now as Christians, we are to love God and to love others.

· That means we mustn’t be people who carry a chip on our shoulders. Or is easily offended.

· You know where people are often offended at? Church. When we are together, there should be harmony and peace. But what happens?

· Sometimes we come to church, and we might feel insulted when Sister Sniffbetter doesn’t speak to us. Or, we get upset because Brother Blacktooth said something that we didn’t like.

· Listen, God told us to love regardless of how others might treat us. And no matter what they do or say, we are going to love them just like God loves us.

· You remember the two disciples, James and John? There was a time where they were in a village of Samaritans with Jesus. And the Samaritans had snubbed the Lord. And James and John are provoked by this, and they go and asked the Lord about sending down fire and destroying them.

· Isn’t that how we want to respond? Just bring down hail, fire, and brimstone on someone. But how did Jesus respond to that? He rebuked them, and told them that Jesus came to save lives, not destroy them.

· I am grateful that God is not easily-provoked, because if he were, we wouldn’t be here today.

· Now if God is not easily provoked and he loves me like that, then I am to love like that. Back to him and to others.

· And there is one more thing that I want us to see today, and that…

Love is not Evil-minded

· Now if we are to love like God loves us, we should not have this mindset of evil.

· Don’t get confused by what the scripture is saying, it is not saying, I better not think about the evil things that happen in the world. That is not what it is saying.

· But It is saying, that I should not have on my mind doing evil things. Because love is not about doing wicked things.

· Now when we hear that, a person might think, I don’t think about doing evil.

· I’m not thinking about harming someone, or going to the extreme about killing them.

· I don’t think about stealing or anything like that. I’m good.

· And for most people that is where we fall. But the mind can be a dark place. And it is easy for a person to think about evil and they do not even realize it.

· For instance, let’s say a person you are associated with, says something to you that you may be offended by. It upsets you. And you leave from that person, and what they said is on your mind. And the more you think about it the madder you get. And at some point, you make up your mind that you are going to get that person back. You don’t know when or how, but you are going to get them back.

· Friend that is having a mind that is thinking evil. And the scripture tells us that if we are going to love like God loves, then our minds should be cleared from evil thoughts.

· One of the biggest hangups among Christians, is that we have grudges. And we allow that evil; because that is what a grudge is evil, to consume our minds.

· We get angry and that anger just goes the wrong direction, and our thoughts are not thoughts of love toward that person, instead it is thoughts of “they better never ask me to do anything for them again.”

· Let’s take it a step further, we live in a society where many people are divorced. And maybe that divorce wasn’t pretty. And when you see that ex, where does your mind go?

· Does it go to evil thinking, or does it remain in the love of God?

· Friend, God loves us, and God doesn’t think evil towards us. Wait a minute, we killed his son? God isn’t mad, God isn’t thinking about how he is going to destroy us?

· Not at all. Do you know why? Because God loves us.

· Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”

· Friend, God loves us so much, that even though we hung Jesus on a cross, he still loves us and want to have a relationship with us.

· He looks at our situation, and he sees us and all the sins we have committed. All those things we have said in the past, all of those people we have hurt in some form or fashion, he sees all the mistakes and things we are embarrassed by and says, I love them. He isn’t sitting in heaven, thinking how much he looks forward to throw a person in Hell.

· Friend, God loves you like that, and he wants you to love him and others like that.

· Now a person might say, well that is easy for God, he’s God. Its not so easy for me to love others like that.

· And you’re absolutely right. Without Jesus in your heart, you will never be able to truly love them like the Bible is talking about.

· But, if you would allow Jesus to come into your heart and show you his love, you will find over time, that you can love others.

· Those evil thoughts can become a thing of the past. Because Jesus will heal you and free you from those chains.

· But for that to happen, you must open the door, and allow him to come in to your life.

· For some of us, we have to quit walking away from the Lord and doing it the world’s way.

· What we must decide is this, I am going to love God and others, just like God loves me.

· Friend, God has been so good to us, he has been long suffering, and kind. He has been nothing but generous and has never been demanding. He has never been rude or prideful, he has loved us with grace and mercy, and he doesn’t hate us.

· God loves us and likes us. And he wants that back from us.

· So here is the question, Will you love God like he loves you today? He has come to you, will you now come to Him?