Love

Elizabeth Barrett, Browning ask in sonnet 43. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways of celebrating romantic love. And there's this wonderful opportunity here than just say, you were so great, that I just can't remember all the things I like about you. And, and that it's, it's from a new kind of a relationship reflecting that particular point of view and it can remind us of how happy that time is. And yet, we know that relationships, expand beyond that there's children in their screen children in and there's Agape relationships that form from those and lead us to have those. He's Rich relationships with other people as well and and the love is a wonderful thing. And it fills our life in a, in a variety of ways and improves Our Lives, it in incredible ways. 1900 romance, literature comes along, and I'm not totally sure how I feel about romance literature. I think they're probably some things where people started to be more aware of relationships and how to bake those relationships better or they became an important part of life for a lot of folks. At the same time sometimes romance, a literature gives us a perspective of the way. Love is supposed to be, that's really a man-made perspective rather than a Biblical perspective. And so there, places where it can lead us a little down a path. It could be a little bit confusing at times. I'd like to wrap up what I've been doing this whole year in terms of living victoriously by looking carefully at this love relationship. As we close this out and over the next few weeks. Oh, that's what I'm going to be doing and I don't charge you to to focus on that and to focus on the love relationship in your own lies, and I'll come back to that just a little bit later on.

We're not looking at stopping with romantic love or looking at going to be on to the love of God provides for us. I'm going to use 1st Corinthians 13 as a text. Probably comes as a surprise, to no one that's pretty, pretty basic place at. But yet, it is such an important scripture because it doesn't come out or romance literature, it doesn't come out of anything that setting up a movement toward some kind of positive as much as it is being with me. If you look through 1st Corinthians, you'll see that basically chapter-by-chapter. There are problems in this church and Paul is addressing individually these problems and he's gotten 22 chapter 12 and he's talked to them about the spiritual conflict that they have dealing with spiritual problems in terms of spiritual gifts. And apparently, there's some antagonism, there's some competition, the people that core it, what the hell, the better gifts. And so they're actually leaving people behind Walgreens negative things are happening. and so Paul just if you look at your 12 or 14, he's addressing these issues, it's almost like, you says, we we we we we we if we would just love each other, this would be okay. This would work itself out. And so this inspirational chapter is not about romantic love. It's not about, it's about how to deal with difficult things in life. Are these people aren't getting along. This congregation is having terrible problems that you're really being threatened in terms of their going to make it or fail. Apologist.

Play about real love. And he starts in verses 1 through 3. And I'm going to share those three verses. 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. That's what they're fighting about. I want to have the better gift and the best gift. You can have his being able to speak in tongues. And I think very clearly at this point in time that speaking in tongues was actually another language that would allow you to interact with someone who needed to hear the gospel who was coming from another place. And so, like the apostles were able to do on the day of Pentecost, it's a tremendous blessing. A tremendous skill to be able to have How to put into a group of people who say in France right now and doing some giving time, she probably love to be able to speak French. Well, if you miraculously could speaks French, think of all the different ways. If you could interact that you can't until you know, the language when people go to the mission field, often times the first few years are Utilize trying to become fluent in the language so that you can have the kind of verbal interactions that you want to have in, in, in the countries that speak other languages. So, it becomes very critical process and the people that were there saying, I want the best gift. And Paul says, but listen to me. if the only reason you're wanting to speak in a tongue, Is anything but for a loving purpose, then you're becoming a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

I may have told you the story already, I didn't you just popped into my head. I saw the whole thing where the guy said, can you believe it? My neighbor had the audacity to knock to ring my doorbell at 3:00 in the morning. And in the second part of it, fortunately, I was still up playing my drums. Well, Yeah, they get tired of that trying long. I maybe you have a a football fan rival and I'm thinking of a particular one that I know who has one of those cowbells and you'd like to throw it out of the top of the stadium or get it lost or anything that thing is so irritating especially when they ring it. When your team is losing, that's the thing where they really do like to do it and fall saying that's what you sound like. You know, you may want to have this incredible gift but if you do for the wrong reason it's just Halo with emptying irritating. If I have the gift of Prophecy and can fathom all Mysteries, and all knowledge, and I have a face that can move mountains, but do not have love. I'm nothing because that list again. Prophecy speaking for God is prophecy, you understand all the Mysteries, you have all the knowledge, Look at what a person like that would have to give plus you have the practical application of so much face that you can move mountains. But if you're doing it for a reason, besides a loving reason, it's the wrong thing.

Number three or first three. If I give all I possess to the poor. Everything you You give to somebody who needs that. You don't keep anything at all. That would be a pretty dramatic act followed In this passage by even if you gave your own body over.

But if I do not have love I gain nothing, he's very simply, there's two parts to the process, there's the right action, and there's the right motive. And it doesn't matter what we do it matters. The motive that we have going along there. That's not totally. That's why I didn't say that exactly. Like, I wanted to say, I've been a little bit before this little book and I looked for it. Again, I would have loved to been able to find it, obviously, it's called Katie roses mad. And this little girl is mad because she didn't get what she wants. And so,

She's going to do destructive things in her house and she goes into the kitchen and does. All the dishes are on the sink is. So she takes do some off into the sea and her mom comes by, and says,

Stormed upstairs in a all the Linens off the beds and her dad says once because she's done so many positive things and it's a really good story with kids because it's like big katie-rose do the right thing. And even children ride. I don't know. She was ugly but it's okay. So, am I doing the right things? Maybe. So, but it also matters about what motivates us to do those things.

Paul's going to use the Jews as an example, he knows him very well. Go back to Matthew chapter 6, starting the first one and going down to verse 4 He says to his disciples, be careful, not to practice your righteousness in front of others, to be seen of them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in Heaven. And I get a picture there, that Paul or tubing. The Jesus is actually in a place where you can observe the Pharisees doing these various things. And I'm, I'm just assuming that he's kind of, at least gesturing over to where some of this is going on where somebody is over there. You know, really, with a lot of fanfare, all the great things that they are doing and what Jesus is saying to them, is if you're doing it for attention, If you're doing it for praise.

You're doing, you're getting paid for it and credit but not in God's remembrance. Pursue. So when you give to the needy Do not announce it with trumpets as the Hypocrites do with the synagogue, sit on the street to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you they have received their reward in full Bexar County is paid up, the fact that they got to have their ego in large because they had somebody who painted them on the back or whatever. They got out of that, that's it. They may have thought they were serving God, but they weren't, they've already been paid. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know, what your right hand is doing so that you're giving may be in secret, then your father, who sees what is done in secret, Will reward you. He says his again about the needy, he says his again about fasting in that same chapter. I told you before about, see my grandmother making a pie for sister Smith and one of my cousin said but you don't even like sisters Smith. And my grandmother said I'm heaping, coals of fire. Is that the right motivations for making a pie to take to a person who sticks? Even though it doesn't exactly work it becomes that Help. That doesn't help. My sister used to have a house that had an Atrium inside was contained. A tree of this beautiful little place and its really nice one day and there's a squirrel in her Atrium and says he's like her husband's out of town and how I'm going to get this squirrel out of here. And says, there's a squirrel in the atrium in and they were just don't worry about it. I'll send Bobby over later, bobby shows up on her front door with a shotgun. And she's like, that's not how we can fix this deal and he's like, it's the only way. So now she has two problems. She has a squirrel in her age group, and a guy on her front porch, who wants to come into her house and shoot in this class area. I can't. I won't even go with all the ways that this became a problem. They didn't live in that neighborhood. Very long age is supposed to kind of a crazy kind of interaction and I think that's a really extreme example of help that doesn't help. Yeah, sometimes we do things that make us feel better. Not because we're really trying to address the needs of the individual who needs help and that becomes a complicating situation. Now, the person has more than one problem. It's so, we constantly need to be aware of our patterns of helping some Saturday. Fun of grief are very much about what feels good to us rather than what's really helpful. And when we're really trying to do things lovingly, you want to make sure that it comes from the heart. the other thing that people could come to, my not only, can we have, excuse me, the right action with the wrong motive, we can have the, the wrong action with the right motive and this one's gotten confused and religion the great deal. Well, it's okay, your heart was in the right place.

Now, sometime it is important, but our heart is thinking, and sometimes the heart is the most important part, but it's two-sided circumstance and situation. It's not just about how we feel about doing it. You're forgiven your wife, a lawnmower for a birthday.

There's a person here who has didn't go? Well the next time there was a birthday offering, he really felt bad about the lawn mower and so you and she wasn't any more happy with the TV then she wants a lawn mower. He was buying her things he wanted and what she wanted was for him to get over into her perspective. And say what would what would you like to have until that motive dust become very, very important but it doesn't big gay eat doing the right thing. Pulsing you need both of them. You need both of them working together. You need to do the right thing, but you need to do it for the right reason. Matthew 7 verse 21, just on everyone. He says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. Many will see it, say, to me on that day. Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and your name drive out demons and their damn perform any Miracles? Then I'll tell him. I never knew you away from me. You evil Dewar's. They thought, as long as I do it with the right park, Jesus actually do what I've asked you to do much like a parent. What we want to do the right thing going to do the right action, when do the right about him, how do we know what hear Paul is telling us exactly? How we know whether we have both of those pieces together and quite simply it's, can I do it in pure love? Can I be motivated purely by love? You know, sometimes we say bull healthiest and they'll do that and then this response will happen will I'll feel better this way that's kind of an Artful manipulation at times. We not really just doing it in a loving kind of what your expression. Fake it to you, feel it.

How about that? Are there times when you don't want to do it? Yeah. So I'm going to, I think, really the biggest problem with the phrase is a semantics because it's real easy to remember, fake it to you feel it. I think we could choose better words, may be linked to that a little bit and get to the heart of a little bit more but that kind of drives a lot of false love.

And I put on my fake smile and go over there and everything will be okay. And maybe I'll start to feel loving. Remember, love is not a feeling, it's on, the fiction love is behavioral. And so we don't have to get to the place where it feels right. We know when it is write something that God's asked us to do, God's asking to be his agent. That supposed to be his interview, his instrument and intervene in this situation, let me do that we're helping gone and we were responding to what God wants from us.

when we start to grow, You start to have? Love.

You look at in Corinthians that the problems they're having with the Lord's Supper. How is it? That one goes away. Wake hungry. Is there. Nobody in that church who's concerned about the people who were hungry? He is that Fellowship that they're having some kind of way that's that's are not addressing of what is a very basic love thing. Can you imagine somebody coming in here to a second Sunday, fellowship and leaving hungry? Somebody would say, did you get enough to eat? The way the food is laid down. Lay down. So that only certain people have access to certain kinds of food because it's there to demonstrate a Fellowship club. That's the way that it's supposed to work. Trying to get these people to understand it. That love is just this basic element that kind of pulls everything together. It's the basic element that you pour over the top. It's the basic element that just makes it fit and makes it worse and makes it right.

We are blessed. Will Me Your Love. Then it's a huge Advantage when we have people who love us care about us. And I know we always like to have more people But if you have anyone in your life, who loves you. That's a blessing but John is give it to you. I'll close with the 1st Corinthians chapter 16. He picked chapter 13 Out To Be A Treatise on love and then over in chapter 16, he writes his summation. You just let me tell you what I've been telling you and you put to do the two passages. He says, in verse 13, be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong for direct things that he wants him to do. And then there's one other verse do everything. In love. Do these things but do the in love. and because of love, is a benefactor of that becomes, not only our broader relationships, but our relationship with our self. Is this really what we're looking for? We're looking for love. Have a big ole orange cat. He weighs about 25 lb, and he loves to get in my room and bother me. And so, anytime I come in or out, I have to check because all he likes to do is jump, run over and jump up to the top of the closet. I cannot get him down from the top of the closet, please too strong. He is too big and so I used to get frustrated with various kinds of things in. And now I've learned

can come get my lap. YG one in there in the first place he wants, he wants to be loved, he comes for love and I'll just given the opportunity then, I don't have to chase him down or Dragon man with

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Also had a poem. How this is friendship? Distinguishes between romantic love and friendship relationship? And she says, I love you not for what you are. For what I am. What I am with you. I love you. For the part of me that you bring out.

That's such a good description of agape love. Such a good description of what God has in mind for us. It's it's not. What's happening to me is what's happening to us together? It's what's pulling us together, it's what's giving his purpose, it's what's giving us power. It's what's giving us the enthusiasm to move forward because we love God and we love each other and we know no positive. They can really be. Would you play with me?

You're going to be, don't totally understand how you are love. We know that you're driven totally completely by the love that you have for us. And we thank you so much for that. We know that you bless our lives. And way said, we aren't even aware of Father, we want to experience your love, we want to capitalize on your love. We want to really embody the love it. You have direct us toward father. We just pray that we might understand that it benefits us to benefits others. And it benefits you. Give us the strength to be the people that you have in mind for us to be. Pray that she your precious son, Amy. This morning, we extend a loving invitation if you need or have any desire to respond to that place. You that what we say the same together,