1 Corinthians 13: 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Ø  Communication without love is worthless, I have said nothing!

Ø  Spiritual Gifts, Wisdom, and Power without love is worthless, I am nobody important.

Ø  All sacrifice and surrender without love is worthless, I get no reward at all!

o   What is the difference between Religion and True Christianity?

§  Love…Agape..

§  I am saying nothing, I am nothing, I gain nothing! If Satan wanted to shut us down, I assume this is the area that he would attack, don’t you?

o   How could they not know that love is important?

o   Have not love! Could we say it another way?

o   Could we say “but don’t really care about people”?

o   Why are we still unsuccessful and missing the point when we have all these things?

o   Maybe it’s because talk, power, revelation, knowledge, mountain moving faith, giving and sacrifice is not the answer to the most basic need of man.

o   That is? He wants to be loved.

John 4: 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“White Man” To “God’s Man”

When Wycliffe translator Doug Meland and his wife moved into a village of Brazil’s Fulnio Indians, he was referred to simply as “the white man.” The term was by no means complimentary, since other white men had exploited them, burned their homes, and robbed them of their lands.

But after they learned the Native language and began to help the people with medicine and in other ways, they began calling Doug “the respectable white man.”

When they began adapting the customs of the people, the tribe gave them greater acceptance and spoke of Doug as “the white Indian.”

Then one day, as Doug was washing the dirty, blood covered foot of an injured Native boy, he overheard a bystander say to another: “Whoever heard of a white man washing an Indian’s foot before?

Certainly this man is from God!” From that day on, whenever Doug would go into an Indian home, it would be announced “Here comes the man God sent us.”

Feeding One Another In Heaven

A man had just arrived in Heaven, told Peter how grateful he was to be in such a glorious place, and asked Peter to give him one glimpse into Hades in order that he might appreciate his good fortune even more. This Peter did.

In Hades he saw a long table extending as far as the eye could reach, laden down with the most delicious of all varieties of foods. But everyone around the table was starving to death. When asked for an explanation, Peter said, “Everyone is required to take food from the table only with four-foot-long chopsticks. They are so long that no one can reach the food from the table to his mouth, and therefore each one is dying of starvation.”

Quickly they returned to Heaven, and behold, the new arrival saw an identical table, laden down with identical foods, but everyone around the table was happy and well fed. Then he said to Peter: “With what do they take the food from the table?” and Peter answered, “Only with four-foot-long chopsticks.” At that the new arrival inquired: “Then why are all those in Hades starving to death while all those up here are so well fed and happy?” Whereupon Peter replied: “In Heaven we feed each other.”

Part one:

I have decided to begin teaching again what our vision is. Love is the highest goal and the greatest vision that God has given the Church.

Some have confused strategies with the Vision or the goal of the Church.

When someone says “what is your vision, many want to know what programs, events, values, strategies and goals the church has.

Some people are asking what our vision is so that they can window shop to see if it fits their desires!

What’s wrong with that? It seems rational, but the Bible says that “the Father places every part in the body as it pleases him.”

Two great misunderstandings about the Church.

• We are not here to do something. - We are here to become someone. (changing who we are to the Gory of God)
• A vision is not a program or plan as much as it is finding the heart of God. To tell the world of the Father’s love.

I have taken the Bible and its teachings and have condensed it all into our vision statement.

Love God and love people

•  A vision/Goal is something that is ever before you as a beacon, a guiding light and compass.
• Loving God is the first half of the maturity circle.
• Love him how? With all you heart, soul, mind and strength.
• How do we know we love him like this? We keep his commands! Which commands?
• Part two of the maturity circle is to love one another as he has loved us.
• How should we love people? Totally and unconditionally.

If we could condense all the problems of the world into one statement it would be either we do not love God and/or we do not love people.

• Sin: the desire for self-rule (no need for God) to reach self satisfaction (no need for others except to fulfill our needs)
•  

Here we have a Church that has all the teaching and techniques, full of faith, sacrificial, and giving, full of the spirit.

Self deception seems to be the problem here. I cannot believe that a person could get this far in his faith and not KNOW that he is supposed to love God and people, can you?

o   One of the major problems that we have as people is most of us are hiding from ourselves. We fear discovery so much that we live in denial of who we really are on the inside. When sin came into the world the first thing that man did was hide

1. The First Hindrance is: Denial is something we learn to do to avoid confronting a truth, a defense mechanism against something that is too painful or difficult for us to face.

o   Do Christians do that?

§  Oh yes we even go so far that we say we are new (all the bad is gone) when it is not! Paul said there is a law of sin and death in us. The only way to walk free of it is to walk above it, in the spirit.

o   Why is this important? One reason is: if we never admit who we really are; we never do admit how much we need God and desire his unconditional love.

Romans 3: 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Picture lesson: I saw this person sitting in a fenced in area of his sins and hidden failures. Unable to deal or change anything he lived in denial of his true self. One day the Lord appeared and opened the gate to a whole new world of possibilities. He asked what is that, to which someone shared the good news that now things are open and he can receive the REAL help that he needs, first Grace, Mercy and then all the things to become a new man, an unconditionally love. (Ro 5:6-11)

Romans 8: 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

How can we put to death something that we are denying that we have?

2. The second hindrance is the claim of innocence and powers that we do not have.

o   I am innocent

1 John 1: 8 If we claim to be without sin (and we do have it), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned (its not sin because, (Its not sin today, I did it because he/she made me…if they would have…), we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

For example: “I am the righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus” but not being in Christ Jesus.

It’s like saying “I could quit smoking if I wanted to” But you can’t because you don’t really want to.

I am innocent because of Christ, but I am not following him, obeying him or putting to death the evil inside me.

Part 2:

Real Love is/does:

Rom 12:9-21 (Key Bible verses)

9 Love must be sincere(Real, not faked). Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NIV)

Loving—Whether Good or Bad

Mark Guy Pearse used to tell of the time he overheard one of his children admonishing the other, “You must be good or Father won’t love you.”

Calling the boy to him he said, “Son, that isn’t really true.”

“But you won’t love us if we are bad, will you?” the boy asked.

“Yes, I will love you whether you are good or bad,” Pearse explained. “But there will be a difference in my love. When you are good I will love you with a love that makes me glad; and when you are not good I will love you with a love that hurts me.”

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.

Love suffers long

Love is kind

Love does not envy

Love does not parade itself

Love is not puffed up

Love does not behave rudely

Love does not seek its own

Love is not (easily) provoked

Love thinks no evil

Love does not rejoice in iniquity

Love rejoices in the truth

Love bears all things (carry)

Love believes all things

Love hopes all things

Love endures all things (puts up with)

Love never fails

Ø  This is How love acts under pressure!

1Cor.13:4-8a

4 Love is patient (When someone is testing your patience) , love is kind (When someone is being mean to you) . It does not envy (When someone gets something that you don’t have), it does not boast, it is not proud (When you do get something that someone else does not have and didn’t deserve anyway). 5 It is not rude (While trying to be first) , it is not self-seeking (When others are pushing their way ahead of you) , it is not easily angered (When being provoked) , it keeps no record of wrongs (No matter how often we are wronged) . 6 Love does not delight in evil (When others get theirs) but rejoices with the truth (When truth comes out, not sin). 7 It always protects (Those that deserve exposure, love covers) , always trusts (even if you know they have done it wrong before, to you), always hopes (expects them to do it right this time) , always perseveres (even against all criticism to stay behind them) . 8 Love never fails (gives up, lays down, decays or deteriorates, cuts off, remove from favor) …

Part 3

o   …But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

1 Corinthians 9: 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

2 Cor 5:14-20

14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (TLB) (2 Cor 5:16 So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, merely as a human being like myself. How differently I feel now!)

 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (TLB) (2 Cor 5:20   We are Christ's ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you-- be reconciled to God. )

o   10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

o   11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

o   12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

o   Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.