For the Love of God
2019 Sunday Morning Sermons • Sermon • Submitted
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The Supremacy of Love
The Supremacy of Love
Better than tongues
Better than tongues
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Corinth had a problem with tongues
The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
Paul here says that true manifestations of God’s Spirit is speaking truth in a way that is helpful and understandable by the congregation.
This speaks to content as well as delivery!
“I’d rather hear a man speak for an hour out of the fullness of his heart than 5 minutes of Bible doctrine”
Substitute speak in tongues with shouting, or emotional testifying, or weeping in worship, or any outwardly manifesting experience. Without love, it is just noise and show
Better than knowledge
Better than knowledge
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.
And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them.
They knew who Jesus was, and firmly believed that like Elijah of old, God could indeed rain down judgment.
This is an unexpected truth, because so often it is the case that people lack knowledge and understanding.
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
But, to lack love is to have completely misunderstood God and His purposes.
One can be completely orthodox in their confession and practice, yet without love for God and for neighbor they have gained nothing by their knowledge
Better than martyrdom
Better than martyrdom
Self-martyrdom is about self, not others
We seek the Glory of God, not self
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 cor
Losing one’s life in service to God and others is not the ultimate sacrifice. Giving one’s life, the life that God gives and takes at His will, wether that be in loss, injury, sudden death, or faithful longevity is the ultimate sacrifice.
Love is never-ending; all other gifts are temporary
Love is never-ending; all other gifts are temporary
The perfect, the telos, the end
The perfect, the telos, the end
This is not the completion of the Bible
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
For all of eternity, there will be no prayer, no preaching, no prophesying, but there will be perfect love
The Definition & Source of Love
The Definition & Source of Love
So often we speak of love in ways that are no love at all
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.
1cor 13:
How and why do we label things as love when they are not?
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We reverse this, seeing something we want to call love and then insist in a reverse manner that it must be godly if it is love.
In so doing, we are declaring ourselves to be God. It is more manifestation of the ways our souls are bent inward on self. God is love, NOT love is god. We look to God to see what love is:
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
“God loves me just the way I am”
True, but He also loves you enough not to leave you the way you are
If you loved me, you would let me do what I want and support me in it.
It is not loving to allow people to continue in destructive paths without at least warning them. To say and do nothing is not love, but is demonic hate.
This does call for discernment and tact, but:
Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
So, the litmus test: does it look like Christ’s love?
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.
God is love, therefore if we love we know it is from God.
God is love, therefore if we love it looks like what God has done and is doing through Christ Jesus
The Specificity of Love
The Specificity of Love
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
The love and plan of God for you is unlike that of any other.
You are not a nameless face in the crowd of the accepted.
If you are today resting in the salvation of God, or also if today you are being drawn to faith in Christ for the first time, it is because the God of the universe is loving you individually, not apart from, but in a way to cause you to become one of the innumerable multitude from every tribe, tongue, and nation
But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
pointing forward to the end of all things, God knows who are His and will have no confusion on the day of judgment
In the now, we need to recognize God’s grace in dealing with us. We are as the widow in the days of Elijah. We are as Naaman in the days of Elisha. We have done nothing deserving, yet God has chosen to continue to set His love upon us.
If God so specifically loves us, then how ought we love God?
Supremely. Above anything and anyone else!
Paul tells us that love is the greatest gift. John tells us that God is love. Christ Jesus showed us the love of God in His life and in His death. The Spirit today works to apply and to awaken us to the love of God for us in Christ.
