10.04.2020 - Serving in Love

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13 NLT

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Summary: We serve like Jesus when we serve in love.

Hook

Ed Stetzer quote about the importance of small groups

Right relationships vs Right information

Magnets

Plumbing for irrigated fields

Thesis: We serve like Jesus when we serve in love.

Talent and Skill is Not Enough

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NLT

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Paul tells us that Talent and Skill gains us nothing without love.

Everyone has a talent or skill that they can show off.

Every decade someone comes up with a new dance move and everyone tries it out, attempting to be the best at it.

Ten years later, it has gone to the vault of every dance move ever, people have forgotten about it, and moved on to the next new thing.

Every once in awhile, they recycle those moves out for a few years, and then they go back into the vault.

Talents and skills are like fireworks on the 4th of July:

Everyone has one

They fizzle, or pop, or bang, or boom

And then they are gone and we are on to the next one going off.

When you use your talent or skill to show off, Paul says it gains you nothing and you often come across as arrogant, annoying, and obnoxious!

In Contrast to that, Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NLT

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Love gives purpose to your talents and skills

The church buildings that were built hundreds of years ago were things of incredible beauty.

Mighty Fortresses for our God and His people.

Majestic pictures that you could see across the city landscape and know that God was a part of that community.

But if you were in a wheelchair, you probably could not go in.

Ramps and elevators are not things of beauty, the way spiraling staircases and sanctuaries with raised platforms are.

But they show love in a way that invites in the gifts of those who could not take part otherwise.

They don’t make us think about the builder. They make us think of those who could be a part of us.

Love puts the power in Talent and Skill

A ramp builder that is truly motivated by love does not just build a ramp.

He invites invites his friend in a wheelchair, picks him up, helps him up the ramp, and into the presence of God.

Love doesn’t stop short of building the relationship.

Like magnets working in alignment with one another, love gives you the power to transform lives instead of just impress people for a moment.

What are your talents and skills?

How are you using them with the purpose and power of love?

Knowledge is Not Enough

Some consider knowledge and wisdom more important than talent and skill

Some consider it even more important than love.

Paul continues:

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 NLT

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Those who do and those who teach

It’s the clash between the white and blue collar world.

Who is more valuable? The workers or the teachers and trainers?

Those who are teachers point out that Knowledge can be passed on, while skill and talent alone cannot.

It is better to teach a man to fish than to keep fishing for him.

However, knowledge only gets passed on through right relationships.

Like Ed Stetzer wrote, if we get the relationships right, the right information can get to them.

If we don’t get the relationships right, we become wasteful, poor stewards of the gifts and knowledge God has given us.

When I was a child...

A mature believer does not go out just scattering seed everywhere.

They invest in the dirt and they plant on purpose.

When I was a child, I was asked to mop the kitchen floor...

I was wasteful, inefficient, and probably did more harm than good.

When I realized there was a proper relationship between the soap, the water, the mop, the mop bucket, and the kitchen floor, I learned how to actually clean instead of just make more mess.

Growing up means thinking of others instead of ourselves and what would be best, most convenient, or most enjoyable for us.

Growing up means learning to love like Jesus.

Love brings truth out of knowledge

More than just thoughts, ideas, and perspectives.

Because love is real.

That is why grief is painful, even when it brings relief after suffering.

We feel an end to that love, and that was as real as the person.

As Paul writes, it is often more important to be known ourselves than it is to know about other things.

Who really knows you? God? Family? Close friends?

More than likely, the people you serve with are the ones that know you best.

If you are going to serve with your knowledge, you have to serve in love or it won’t work.

CTA

Old Faithful may be one of the world’s most powerful and consistent natural water pumps, but it is not made to irrigate the land around it and help it bear fruit. It does it’s own thing, and the scientists predict that someday it is going to make a huge mess.

We are made to work together as teams, as family, as the people of God

Our serving is given purpose and power by love and our knowledge shared through loving relationships.

We have many opportunities to serve in our church in these coming months.

And there are even more opportunities to be serving outside the church.

When you serve, what is your motivation? What results do you hope for?

Doing a good deed or building a relationship?

When we stop doing things FOR God and serve WITH God...

When we stop doing things FOR one another and serve WITH one another...

We will begin to see what it means to be the church.

Communion