Love Is For Grown Folk!

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

11 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.

There are many things that we heard growing up with a black mamma that most of us still remember today. I’m going to share parts of some, and you finish the rest:

“A hard head makes...” (Makes a soft behind.)

“Who you think you talking too? I’m not one of yo’ lil nappy-headed...” (Friends!)

“Because I… (Said so!)

“First of all, check your...” (Tone!)

“Stop all that crying before...” (I give you something to cry for!)

“Stop running in and out of...” (My house!)

“I will knock the taste outcha…” (Mouth!)

“When we get in this store, don’t...” (Touch nothin’!)

“You better fix your...” (Face)

“Keep playing with me and ...” (See what happens!)

“Don’t let your mouth write a check...” (Your behind can’t cash!)

“I brought you into this world, and… (I can take you out!)

“If someone hits you, first, you… (Hit them back!)

And last, but surely not least: “Shut up when grown folks...” (Talking!)

Although we may not have liked most of these saying when we were growing up, many of them had and still have great value. This morning, if you don’t mind, I want to talk to you about “Love Is For Grown Folk!”

The church of Corinthians in the Apostle Paul’s time was one that was very carnal or worldly, just like many churches are today. One of the reasons that Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians was to answer some of the questions that the believers had about living the Christian life.

1 Corinthians 13 has ben dubbed the Love Chapter, and in it we find out what love is and isn’t. Let me start by introducing to some that love is not a feeling. If you have been around any amount of time, you know that feelings change, but love is a choice.

John 3:16 reminds us that God made a choice by sending Christ. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Jn 3:16. It had nothing to do with God’s feelings, but everything to do with His choice to show His love for mankind. Likewise, as believers we have to make the choice to love.

Paul reminds all of us in 1 Corinthians 13:11

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

11 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.

When we think of some characteristics of children, what comes to mind?

Disrespectful

Impatient

Lazy

Manipulative

Defiant

Selfish

Lie

Irresponsible

Impulsive

Disobedient

Of these 10 characteristics that I named for children, which fits you as a supposed adult? Thew truth of the matter is, we can be any or all of these things at one time or another.

I don’t want to keep you too long, so I’ll just share a few points about this thing called love, and why it’s for grown folks.

#1 Love is for the Saved, Not Unsaved (v. 1-3)

The King James Version uses the word charity here, but other translations use the word love. 1 John 4:7–8 says “7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” “8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

So, when we read 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NIV

1 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. 2 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. 3 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.

We find out that God is love, there is no way for any of us to truly love without Him. In other wards, we have to be saved to have the ability to love someone else. You can have things that look like love, or seem like love, but in the end, without God and Salvation in our lives, we can’t love.

Let’s bring Simon the Sorcerer to the stand from Acts 8:9-24

Acts 8:9–24 NIV

9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” 24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

#2 Love Is For The Selfless, Not the Selfish (v. 4-7)

We live in a world that teaches and professes me, myself, and I. There are songs that lie to us and proclaim that some are Independent Women, or Self-Made Men. Yet, Grown Folks need to know that love is not about me, but all about others.

Ask King David about selfish love: 2 Samuel 11

2 Samuel 11 NIV

1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” 6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” 12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” 16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. 18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ” 22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” 25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.” 26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

You see, if King David wouldn’t have been thinking about himself, he would have been out to war with his soldiers. Instead, he found himself at home looking at Bathsheba, someone else wife.

Let’s read what verses four through seven says:

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NIV

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Paul reminds us what love is and isn’t in these verses. Now, let me ask you, when you read verses four through seven, how does your love look? Does it look grown, or childish? Are you patient or impatient? Are you kind or mean? Are you envious, boastful, or proud?

Do you honor or dishonor others? Are you selfish or selfless? Are you easy to get angry and keep record or every wrong? Do you get excited when bad things happens to others? or do you rejoice in Christ’s truths?

Do you ALWAYS protect, trust, hope, and persevere?

Why, PastorMic, you may ask? Because Love Is For The Saved, Not Unsaved. Love is also for the Selfless, Not the Selfish. But finally, Love Never Stops, But Keeps On Going.

#3 Love Never Stops, But Keeps On Going (v. 8-10)

One of the major reasons that the divorce rate is so high in and out of the church can be summed up in verses eight through 10 of today’s text. The Word of God proclaims:

1 Corinthians 13:8–10 “8 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

The Greek word for never is… NEVER! Too many of us have created what we call love, and then when things go left, we throw in the towel and give up. Think about this; who gave us this person that we profess love for? Was it God or us? Are we walking in love, lust, or like?

Paul reminds us that everything that we have done or will do will ultimately cease. The apostle says, where there are prophecies, they will cease. And where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Paul even reminds us that our knowledge will pass away. When, you may ask? When Christ returns (v. 10).

Sometimes giving up looks like unforgiveness. Matthew 18:21–22 says, “21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Matthew 6:14–15 says, “14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

And Ephesians 4:32 says “32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

God’s people, it’s time that we grow up! As our beginning text states, 1 Corinthians 13:11 “11 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.”

Love Is For Grown Folks! How do I know? Because one Friday night, a Grown Man was beaten, bruised and battered for Love.

This same Grown Man was taken from judgement hall to judgment hall for something He never did.

This Grown Man was spat on, pierced in His hands, feet, and side, and He never said a mumbling word because of Love.

This Grown Man had His Father turn His back on Him momentarily, as He breathed His last breath and was placed in a borrowed tomb for Love.

Love kept this Grown Man in the grave all night Friday, and all night Saturday. However, because Love Is For Grown Folks, this Grown Man got up early Sunday morning!

This morning Christ not only wants us to know that Love Is For Grown Folks, but that without salvation we can’t love. Being selfish, we can’t love. And if we love Him, we can’t stop or give up!

Are there any Grown Folks in here this morning?