1 Corinthians 13

1 Corinthians 13 :1 I may speak in different languages a of people or even angels. But if I do not have love, I am only a noisy bell or a crashing cymbal. 2 I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. 3 I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. b But I gain nothing if I do not have love.[1]

Ok, I just want to share on that particular scripture. If we did not have to love deliberately, if we didn’t have to make the choice to love then why would that scripture be in the book?

Right?

Because what it is saying is if love was automatic then all that was automatic. It wouldn’t say If I have all knowledge but don’t have love I am nothing. It would say if you have love you have all knowledge. If you have the love of Christ in you, you could speak all the languages, you are something. But see what it is saying is if you are not making a deliberate decision to love your nothing. Hello!

In Christ, we walk in Love!

One of things we need to understand when we go to John 3:16. It says “I so love the world I gave My only that who ever believes in Him shall have everlasting life and shall not perish” Ok?

God did that deliberately. When God looked at the world to justify giving His son did He do it because we were great people? Because we were sinless, because we had no fault is that why God gave His only son?

Or did He deliberately love us despite of what we deserve and our sins.  No He did it because He loved us. It made no difference, that is unconditional love. He willfully loved us unconditionally.

Matthew 22: 37 Jesus answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ d 38 This is the first and most important command. 39 And the second command is like the first: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ e40 All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.”

[2]

If you deliberately love God and put Him first and you deliberately love your neighbor as you love yourself, you are free from the bondage of the law, you are free from the bondage of sickness, you are free from all the damnation the world wants to put on you.  Because you walk in love, you deliberately love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Why does that make you free? See we need it to be tangible, I want something tangible, I want to be able to feel the freedom. Right? Or do you guys want some superficial thought that you are free? No, I want to be able to feel it. If I am told I am free in Christ I don’t want to feel bond up because of my belief. Right?

See the freedom is that we know longer think about us, huh. Now our thought is on someone else. When we love our neighbor as we love ourselves we desire the best for our neighbor. If we desire the best for our neighbor our thoughts are off of us. If our thoughts are off of us then we are not bond up by them are we?

I mean when you get busy, I don’t care if you are in jail or you are walking down the street, or you’re working, When you are busy just doing what you have to do you don’t even think about what going on do you? Hello! You can have the flu, you can be sick with all kinds of things going on in your body and your focus is on doing and accomplishing something different your thoughts are not on the things binding you up.

That’s where the freedom is.

And the exciting part is we don’t have to do it on our own. See, that’s the exciting part about this whole freedom in Christ, this freedom in deliberate love, it’s because it isn’t something we have to muster up. We do have to do it deliberately but guess what the bible says “ I can do all things in Christ that give me strength.

I don’t have to do it! Christ in me gives me the strength to do it! Hello!

So that means I can love deliberately without effort, I don’t have to muster it up, all I have to do is surrender to God and say “ God give me the ability, strengthen me Lord”. Then it becomes tangible because now my thoughts are placed on something different then on myself.

You know what? When we are desperate and when we are tormented and when we are struggling. Most of the time it is most liking when we are thinking about our own issues.

You know when you guys get out of here ( this class), you go to the block ( their cells) you go play poker, you know when I was in jail we played Ucher all of the time, but I don’t know what you guys might play. Think about it, I mean that’s how you pass the time away right?  When I was in a work camp, I passed my time away playing ping-pong right? Because my mind wasn’t on my situation but as soon as I finished them activities and laid down in my bunk, Hello! All hell breaks lose don’t it? Hello! Because why, because your thoughts return to you. Am I making any since?

So what do you need to do? You need to keep your thoughts on loving your neighbor as you love yourself and putting God first.  When you thoughts are on that action, you don’t have time to think about the desperation you are in. And guess what? If you are avoiding those thoughts the enemy can’t use them against you.

If you are thinking of others, I guarantee you, 150 percent you are not going to kill yourself. If you are thinking of others? Um, Hello!

If you are loving others you are not going to break the law. You are not going to break God’s law and you are not going to break man’s law because you are thinking of  others.

We need to understand that is freedom in loving deliberately!

One of things that happens if we deliberately, by our will, loving someone else. Our plans and our agendas become less important don’t they? It don’t mean that they are not important but what becomes most important are the people we are trying to God’s best for. Um,Hello!  Am I making any sense?

If we continue to focus on our plans, and our agendas, or how we set up our schedule, we are not going to succeed as often as we would like to.  You know when you do a to-do list many times at the end of the day you have to move articles from one page to another because you did not get it done. Right?  So if it was that important to you, you could get in desperation times couldn’t you?  But you see if you are doing what God wants you to do that becomes unimportant.

So you just move forward say “Ok, God, just strengthen me, I needed this done, I didn’t get it done, I did what you wanted me to do. Help me! Huh. Help me Lord”?

The Spirit of God that lives in us gives us the ability to do things that we could not do as a man. Right?

See we can read in Galations 5:16, Paul says, “ I want to encourage us to live in that new life in the Holy Spirit that lives in you.  So you won’t fulfill the flesh nature.” You are not going to fulfill that flesh nature if you are allowing the Spirit of God to live in you. Again, that is a deliberate choice. You have to choose to allow the Spirit of God to live in you. As a Born-Again believer the Spirit of God takes residence within you. A bonefide Spirit Man now lives within you. But He  is not going to act within you with out your permission. Hello!

Am I making any sense?

Because we can have the Spirit of God in us, how many in here are saved, born-again believers, accepted Jesus Christ as Lord? Ok, out of you guys that raised your hands and said you were saved, have a perfect day everyday?  When your day is not perfect, why isn’t perfect?

Being in here don’t have to make it imperfect.

Because we are trying to satisfy that flesh nature because we are not allowing the Spirit of God to fulfill the nature that He has imparted in us. We are trying to take control right?

So I want to encourage you guys to wake up everyday, instead of waking up saying I am here again, Say Ok, Lord I am here again, help me get through the day. Spirit of
God living in me show me how to respond in love, deliberate love. How can I love my neighbor as I love myself?  My neighbor hasn’t taken a shower all week. Hello! How can I love him? Man I don’t know if he owns a toothbrush, hello!  Every other word that comes out of his mouth is a cuss word I don’t want to hear. Right? How can I love my neighbor?

First and foremost I what to make you guys aware that you have to choose to love and it has to be deliberate. Once you make the deliberate choice the Spirit of God give you what you need to do to love. Hello!

Now I am going to tell you something, In love, you can come up to that brother that has not brushed his teeth and buy him a toothbrush or toothpaste. Hello! Just love him.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting two kids. One of the kids was six years old when she came to the house and she was not in the habit of brushing her teeth. She was never brought up to brush her teeth. She had no parental upbringing, right? So we would encourage her to brush her teeth and she would get upset. She did not know any difference.  But when my wife took the time and showed her how to brush her teeth, helped her brush her teeth, guess what, she loved that attention and now she brushes her teeth everyday.

Why is that, because we deliberately loved her into brushing her teeth? We didn’t condemn her and tell she better do it or else. We encouraged her, we loved her Ok?

That same thing happened can happen with grown men, grown women.

When we try to demand, see that’s why God don’t demand. He doesn’t put a demand on us. He encourages us to do His will. His will is that we are all saved. His will is that we spread the Good News of Jesus Christ! His will is that we love our neighbors as we love our self. He encourages us, He doesn’t demand it out of us.

But in that loving encouragement we become aware that if we don’t act in His way there are some repercussions to our behavior.

So let’s think about how we deliberately love our neighbor? How do we do it? Someone that’s offense, someone that we don’t want to be around you have to make the initial action. You have to deliberately choose to love.

If you didn’t have to, Paul would not have said to look I want you to live by the Spirit of God that lives in you so you won’t fulfill that flesh nature. Because if it was automatic we could just automatically get saved and everything is ok, we would not have instructions so we have to make decisions. See God, makes everything ok but he don’t do it without our effort. Do you see what I am saying; the importance is in our obedience. He wants us to be obedient in His encouragement not in His commands. It is in His encouragement because He wants to Bless us more then we could imagine.

I want to tell you something, “ if you choose not to love, you will not get the blessings that God has for you” plain and simple. If you are not trying to be a conduit a vehicle for Christ to love someone else through your actions then you are not open enough to receive what God wants to give you. Am I making any sense?

You are closing yourself off you are putting up a wall between you and God. God wants to pour out in your life, He wants to give you more then you could imagine. But when you choose to live in the flesh nature instead of the Spirit, He, can’t give you what He wants to. Hello!

Now does that means that you might go to hell if you don’t love your neighbor completely? No! The bible says; “ God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son so whoever believes in Him shall not parish but have everlasting life”.  The next verse it says;” He did not send Jesus to judge the world guilty but to judge it not guilty.” Ok, now you stand here in jail, you make a decision, “Lord Jesus, I want you to be Lord of my life. I believe in what you did, I believe you died on the cross so I can be restored to the Father. I repent for the sins that I have done so far. I want to turn my life around and follow after you.”

Then you walk out of here and you go back to the block, you start cussing, you watch some sleazy movies. Does that mean you are going to hell?  Why aren’t you going to hell? Because we gave our hearts to the Lord, right? What He said was “ if you believe on Him you are not going to perish you have everlasting life” you are saved.

But here is the problem that happens, if you continue to live in that flesh nature.

Paul says; if you continue in that you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So if you don’t deliberately choose to let the Spirit of God live in you and you continue to follow after you flesh, you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.  That does not mean you will not inherit salvation. The kingdom of heaven is here on earth, joy, peace and comfort in the Holy Ghost.  So, what don’t you inherit? You will not have joy in your life, you will not have peace in your life, and the Holy Spirit will not comfort you.

You will have to go through all the crap you decide to go through on your own. Jesus says if you believe on Him. The way you can’t go to heaven is if you don’t believe on Him. What did I read in John 3:16, “if you believe on Him you shall not perish, you will have everlasting life”. Right?

It goes on to say in verse 17, “ I did not send Jesus to judge the world guilty. And in 18 it says; “ those that are guilty are guilty already. Why, what does it say? Does it say because they sin continually?  No! What, Paul said was,’ if we continue sinning we are calling God a liar” We are making Him a fool.

So we do it because we choose to do it, again it is a deliberate choice because we love God because He loved us.

So I want to tell you if you are a man of God, you will start living the way you need to live. But if you make a mistake you are not going to hell.

If you choose to follow after Christ it says you will have everlasting life. But if you choose to live continually in the flesh you are going to lose out on everything that God wants for you. You put a wall up between you and God. He is not going to give you all that you need to accomplish your life.

Then you know what is going to happen? You are going to get a hard heart. What happens when you get a hard heart? You become a hater don’t you? You stop believing who Jesus Christ says He is and guess where you are going? Straight to hell!

I am saying and justifying the fact that you can continue your life in sin and still go to heaven. But what I am saying is if you are a born again believer and sin, you are not going to hell.

Because if you think you can live your life from the time you make a commitment to the time you die, if there is any length to that time, without sinning then you are a liar. The bible says if you say you are not a sinner you are a liar don’t it?

But through the Grace of God we have salvation.  Am I making any sense?

Paul speaks on that, he says now that we are under the Grace. See it says in the New Testament we are under the Grace which is favor and kindness no matter the person did.

God gives us favor and kindness no matter what we deserve. By no merit or what we have done do we get God’s favor and kindness.

So I want to tell you that you cannot make yourselves good enough for salvation. You cannot make yourself good enough to go to heaven. You can only go to heaven by believing in Jesus Christ! That’s It!

If you stop sinning from today until the day you die and you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you are not going to heaven.  That’s plain and simple and that’s all I am trying to say.

What is accepting Jesus Christ as Lord?

The motivation is because you love Him because He loved you.

I am here preaching good news and the good news is Grace. Undeserved favor and undeserved kindness, no matter what we do or how we act.

All I am trying to say is that there is a freedom in Christ. That freedom is to choose to follow after what God says. If we make a mistake it don’t mean we are damned for making a mistake.  We have an out, we have the ability to repent and move forward because we are free in Christ.

That’s what I am trying to say, I’m not justifying continuing in sin because Paul says we are dead in Christ. Because of our death in Christ our old man is gone. It is a deliberate decision, we have to choose to allow the Spirit of God to live in us and move in us.

You first have to make the choice to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. But once you make that decision you are under God’s Grace. Now, He is going to work on you and you are going to become a different man.

It says in 2 Corinthians 5: 17 “ If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new![3]

In Christ we have to put away childish things.

I am trying to say that if you deliberately love you will walk in freedom that God has for you.

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a languages This can also be translated “tongues.”

b Verse 3 Other Greek copies read: “hand over my body in order that I may brag.”

[1]The Holy Bible : New Century Version , containing the Old and New Testaments. 1991 (1 Co 13:1). Dallas, TX: Word Bibles.

d ‘Love . . . mind.’ Quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5.

e ‘Love . . . yourself.’ Quotation from Leviticus 19:18.

[2]The Holy Bible : New Century Version , containing the Old and New Testaments. 1991 (Mt 22:37). Dallas, TX: Word Bibles.

[3]The Holy Bible : New Century Version , containing the Old and New Testaments. 1991 (2 Co 5:17). Dallas, TX: Word Bibles.