The Reality of Relationships - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The Reality of Relationships

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)

INTRO:

Good Evening,

I truly honored and grateful that you are all here tonight. I enjoy getting to know you guys better each and every week. But what I love most, is having the opportunity of opening up God’s Word with you. We serve a God who wants to speak to us, change our lives, and walk with us.

We serve a God who doesn't just save us and then remain silent… rather we serve a God who saves, speaks, and sincerely desires to have a relationship with us. I hope the you get excited about God’s Word… and seeing what your savior, sustainer, and creator is trying to teach you…

TRANSITION - PHYSICAL COPY OF GOD’S WORD

I know that I do not say this often… but I hope you bring a physical copy of God’s Word with you each and every week. I want to encourage you to highlight, underline, circle, and makes notes in your bible or on a note pad as we dive into his Word. I want to encourage you to cherish your Bible. I am so passionate about this because of verse like Matthew 4:4 that say,

Matthew 4:4 (ESV)

But he answered, “It is written,

“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

LIVE = is a verb and action that means, “to be supplied with necessities and support”

In other words, Matthew 4:4 is saying, That what sustains us, what provides us with the necessities to live this life, the thing that supplies and supports us and that is essential for life and living is not simply just food. Rather, the thing that supports us, supplies us with what we need, and is essential for us to live - is the word of God…

Question: Do you view God’s Word - All of it - as something that is essential for your life? Is God’s Word something that supports you and supplies with the necessities that you need for each and everyday? Or is it something you view as a good thing, that you read occasionally, if you have spare time throughout the day?

I will often hear students say, I just do not have time to read God’s Word…Yet, they spend countless hours on their phone texting… scrolling through social media reels or on youtube… I hope you would be more familiar with your Bible and God’s Word than anything else in your life…

All this to say… I get excited about God’s Word because it is a necessity and essential for my life… it is the place where find support and supplies to truly live…

With this beautiful truth in mind…

Please turn with me to the passage we will be looking at this evening - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7…

We will be doing a one-time-message in the Book of Corinthians in light of Valentines Day which is right around the corner…

TRANSITION - FACTS ABOUT VALENTINES DAY

Nearly 250 Million Roses are grown in preparation for Valentine’s Day

According to the National Retail Foundation… Americans spend nearly $26 Billion on Valentines Day Gifts in 2023

People are expected to spend an average of approximately $193 for Valentines Day

SAD FACTS ABOUT VALENTINES DAY:

Approximately 15 million adults in the U.S. said their mental health is worse around Valentine’s Day

The survey also found that 47% of Americans were stressed about their love life.

Researchers also found that participants who receive valentine’s gifts report lower levels of psychological distress. However, individuals left out of Valentine’s Day festivities might find themselves grappling with social exclusion, stress and disappointment.

It is clear that a lot of people desire and crave a relationship… and Valentines Day highlights and puts on full display how people desire to be in a relationship… People seek after relationships because they want to feel and experience “LOVE”…

People seek after a relationship because they no longer want to be alone, sad, unwanted, not good enough, and they are scared that they may be alone for a lifetime…

People want to feel and be accepted, cared for, thought of, heard, loved, wanted, and they want to be seen…

And we turn to a relationship because we truly believe that we will be accepted, cared for, thought of, wanted, and seen by that individual even at our worst…

Valentines Day is a day that so many people look forward to and cherish… and yet others wish to avoid and not have to think about…

TRANSITION - GOAL OF MESSAGE

The goal of this message is to have a better understanding of what “Love” truly looks like…

Where we can find the “LOVE” that we seek so desperately…

And how our thoughts of and about “love” should lead and guide us when we think about engaging in a relationship with someone else…

TRANSITION - 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7 ESV

Please turn with me to 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7… it says,

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (ESV)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Before we dive into the meaning behind this passage and how it shapes the lenses in which we look at LOVE… we have to understand the context of this passage…

TRANSITION - CONTEXT

Why? Because the context gives us a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding the story…

Written: Between 53 - 56 AD

Author: The Apostle Paul, more than likely when he was on his third missionary mission

Audience: To the Church in Corinth. The Church of Corinth was founded by Paul… on his second missionary journey…

Setting: The city of Corinth was on located on a high plateau… a piece of land that was elevated and flat on top… for many centuries… all north-south land traffic in that area had to pass through or near the ancient city… Corinth prospered as a major trade city… The city hosted a the Isthmian games… one of the most famous athletic events of the day… So this was a city that attracted a lot of people… from different backgrounds and cultures… but Corinth was also known for being morally corrupt… the just hearing the city name - Corinth… would remind people in that day of debauchery (bodily pleasures and sexual pleasures that they should not)… it was a city of corruption and wickedness…

TRANSITION - BACK TO PASSAGE/CONNECTION

Corinth was a place where broken relationships thrived… where men and woman would act in wicked ways for their own benefits, desires, and pleasures… it was a place where selfishness reigned supreme…

And in 1 Corinthians 13… Paul is writing to this church… that he planted… and he ells them to be characterized by love… true love… In fact, in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 - the chapter right before this one… Paul talks about how Spiritual Gifts were given by the Spirit to different people… not all people have the same exact gifts… and how each member of God’s Church make up the body of the Church… Paul talks about how gifts from the Spirit are a good thing… yet… they are not what matters most… what matters most… what carries the most weight… what makes the most impact… how the world will see and know what a true Christina looks like… is not by their gifts… rather it by the way they LOVE others…

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (ESV)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

NOTHING = A quantity of no importance…

In other words, if I can speak in tongues, if I can prophesy, if I can perform miracles, if I have all the wisdom and knowledge that someone can posses, yet I lack in love… it means nothing… it has not impact… it is not important…

POINT #1: A CHRISTIANS most LETHAL Weapon is LOVE

When I look at the life of my mom… I see a life that is characterized by LOVE…

My mom is not an emotional kind of mom… she is not the mom that gets over excited… she is not the mom who plans over the top parties… she is not the mom who is a super girlie…

My mom is not the type of mom to tell me that she loves me all the time… that is not what she is like…

But I know my mom is filled with the LOVE of Christ… and I know that my mom truly LOVES me… and other people…

STORY #1 - PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

When I was in middle school my mom started a business… with her best friend… and it was called Pennies From Heaven…

Any money that my mom found on the ground, in a parking lot, in a grocery store, at a gas station, she was save…

And at the end of the month… what ever money she had found and saved she would match it.

For example, if she found $25 in January… she would match that $25 at the end of the month…

She would do this for the entire year… and at the end of the year… she would go to Walmart at Christmas time…

And there would be a list of family names who could not afford Christmas gifts for their kids… and she would purchase those gifts with the money she had collected and leave a note for the families that the Lord loved them and cares for them…

I know my mom is a Christian because she overflows with the LOVE of Christ… and when people see her and ask her about Jesus, its not because she is healing people or performing miracles, it is not because she can quote the entire bible, it is not because she knows how to prophesy, rather it is because they see a genuine and authentic love within her…

Love is your lethal weapon… it is what people will look at and say… wow… that is different… how do you love like that…

I would say it like this… The LOVE of Christ that LIVES inside of you, ought to LURE in other around you…

Question: Would you be characterized as someone who is loving? Would those closest to you say that you truly care and love other people? Has someone asked you why you are so loving? Is your love for other people evident and does it Lure other people and invite them into your life so that you can share Christ with them?

POINT #2: LOVE will always LEAD to the LORD

I love how Paul defines what Love is for in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7…

We do not have to wonder what true love looks like… Because Paul clearly defines it for us…

I am thankful that he does because so many of us confuse LOVE with SELFISHNESS…

I would define love as “leading someone else in the direction of the LORD”…

Anything else outside of that… is usually not LOVE, it is actually you and I just being SELFISH…

STORY #2: BROOKE

I have said this many times… but my wife and I dated for 7 years before we got married…

She was truly the first girl that I had ever dated…

I can remember falling in LOVE with her… having strong feelings for her… having a connection with her that I had never had with someone else… having a desire to be around her more than anyone else… I was captivated by her… and I was in LOVE with her… I was excited about the life we would live together… And I could not imagine a world without her…

She was the only one I could think about… she was the only one that I was truly happy around…

She was the only one I was really excited to be with…

And I had convinced myself… that LOVE was something that I got to define… I had convinced myself that because I LOVED her that I got to determine what the next steps were… LOVED changed from just strong feelings to a law that could not be broken, shaken, or taken…

If I was not with her I was not happy…

If we did not go on a date I was bummed…

If she did not text me after a certain amount of time I was devastated…

If she was happy then I was happy…

If she did not view me as valuable, handsome, or important… then my world would fall apart…

I realized that I always wanted more from her… I wanted more time, more attention, and more affection…

I was demanding and she became the object of my happiness and value…

And my point is this… that is not love… that is selfishness…

The question becomes… what is LOVE?

Love is patient…

Love is kind…

Love does not envy…

Love does not boast…

Love is not arrogant or rude…

Love is not irritable or resentful…

Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing…

Love rejoices with the truth…

Love bears all things…

Love believes all things…

Love hopes all things…

Love endures all things…

When I read these words… I am reminded of Jesus Christ…

When I try answer the question… what is love… I do not have a definition… rather I have only a name - Jesus

Jesus is love…

Jesus is patient

Jesus is kind

Jesus is not envious

Jesus does not boast

Jesus is not arrogant or rude… he is gentle and humble

Jesus is not irritable or resentful

Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing

Jesus bears all your pain… all your sin… all your suffering

Jesus is your hope no matter what the circumstances are or look like

Jesus has and will endure all things for you

If you are someone who says that love someone else… yet you have never experienced or encounter Jesus Christ… then you do not truly know what LOVE is…

Real Love… can only be found in Christ…

So the question becomes… how have you been defining love? Is it merely a feeling? is it a strong desire? Is it a commitment? Or is it leading others to the real source of love - Jesus Christ? Anything outside of that is you being selfish…

APPLICATION:

How do we apply this to our lives and dating?