Sermon Tone Analysis

*BUILDING BETTER RELATIONSHIPS: BE LOYAL*

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*I Corinthians 13:4-13*

 

Loyalty is a vanishing virtue.

It seems to me that years ago people were committed to each other and faithful to their commitment.

But loyalty has given way to fickleness and self-interest.

* The decline of loyalty is evident in the business world.

Employers deceive or terminate workers who have been with the company for years.

Customers purchase according to the bottom line only, disregarding years of faithful service.

Many employees have little sense of commitment to the company.

One study showed that the average worker today will change jobs at least 15 times in their lifetime.

* Disloyalty is also evident in our citizenship.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

There used to e be an almost automatic loyalty to America and a willingness to defend our freedoms.

But there are fewer and fewer who are willing to die for their country today than in generations past.

* Disloyalty is apparent in the church, too.

As soon as the slightest problem arises, some people flippantly say, /“I don’t have to put up with this.

I’ll just go somewhere else.”/  Loyalty to a particular fellowship of believers is replaced by a consumer mentality; /“What’s in it for me?  I’ll go as long as my needs are met, but when it gets boring or disagreeable, I’ll bail out.”/

* Maybe the decline in loyalty is most evident in family commitments.

People used to enter marriage with the understanding that this was for a lifetime.

But today, may regard marriage as a trial and error experiment.

/If my needs are not met, I’ll bail out and try against with someone else.  /

 

Several years ago I conducted a funeral for a family that was unrelated to the church where I was preaching.

I had not met the family before, but they needed a Minister to conduct the funeral services for their mother.

It was a small service.

The only family member still living was an only daughter.

But at the service I was introduced to a friend of the family.

The daughter told me that she had met this gentleman in the nursing home where her mother had been pervious to her death.

This gentleman’s wife was in a room next to her mother.

Apparently, she had suffered a debilitating stroke several years earlier.

And this husband of hers would come to the Nursing home 3 times a day to feed his wife.

At the funeral I commended this man for setting such a positive example of what it means to be loyal to a wife in sickness and in health.

He seemed surprised that I was so impressed.

You know what he said?

He said, /“Well, young man, I made a promise to that woman 40 years ago when we got married and I meant every word of it.”/

I think that kind of loyalty and devotion is increasingly rare in our culture.

Some young people getting married today want to change the vows to say, /“For as long as we both shall live”/ to /“for as long as we both shall love.”/

This morning I want to share wit you the final message in this series on Building Better Relationships.

We’ve been examining the various characteristics of love as they are listed in I Corinthians 13.  Verse 7 of that passage adds these 4 qualities of love: *“love always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.”*

Note the repetition of the word “always.”

The Living Bible paraphrases it like this, */“If you love someone, you will be loyal to them no mater what the cost.”

/* Here are 4 qualities that are essential to lasting meaningful relationships.

They are also the qualities that describe Jesus’ relationship to us.

*LOVE ALWAYS PROTECTS*

 

First, love always protects.

Love defends that which is loved against harm.

It seeks to safeguard the objects of love, even tat the expense of self.

Now, we know there is such a thing as being overly protective.

We’ve all witnessed parents who attempt to guard their children against any kind of struggle or difficulty and they deprive their children of the challenge necessary to grow.

Loyalty doesn’t mean that you hover over and you’re obsessively protective.

But it does mean than you are alert to the realistic threats to the well-being of the one that you love and you seek to protect them form harm.

 

How many times have we heard that ad, /“Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”/?

You know, if a friend is intoxicated and they get behind the wheel of a car they will endanger themselves and other around them.

So, you may take away their keys, and in doing so, you may make them angry at you temporarily.

But even so, love always seeks to protect.

Or, maybe you have a single friend who has become infatuated with another person than you know is absolutely the wrong person for them.

They begin to date and you can see that it’s going to end in spiritual and emotional disaster.

What do you do?  Love always protects.

You tactfully try to intervene, even at the risk of ruining your friendship.

That's not being a busybody.

That’s being loyal.

Proverbs 17:6 reads, *“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”*

If you see someone you care about becoming involved in an activity that is spiritually threatening, loyalty demands that you protect them.

Maybe they begin to consult a psychic, or every day they are spending their non-discretionary money on lottery tickets.

Love doesn’t sit back and allow the one who is loved to be spiritually destroyed.

Love always protects.

Love has the courage to warn against spiritual danger.

Love is loyal, even when it is uncomfortable and risky to intervene.

Jude 23 reads, *“Snatch others from the fire and save them, to others show mercy mixed with fear hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”*

Jonathan and David were best friends.

Jonathan learned that his father, King Saul, was trying to kill David.

So, he warned David, */“Don’t come to the banquet tonight because he King is going to try to take your life.

You have to flee.”/*

David and Jonathan wept and they embraced because they realized that their friendship was going to be severed, and it probably would never again be as strong as it was at that moment.

But love was loyal.

It told the truth.

It was protective.

Jesus was protective of the disciples He loved.

He spent 3 years fortifying them, preparing them for the rough-and-tumble experiences they were going to have in the world.

And over and over again He would say to them, *“Now beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, they’ll seek to destroy you.

Watch out for greed.

Beware of false prophets.

Don’t let anyone deceive you.”*

And, then, just before he died, in the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed, *“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect the from the evil one.

Holy Father, protect them by the power of your Name.”*

And then he went to the cross to protect them and us from the consequences of sin.

One of the most effective ads on television in recent years is the one that pictures  cuddly baby in a tire.

And the slogan I, /“because so much is riding on your tires.”/

Michelin know stat love instinctively protects.

Christian parents, you have a responsibility not just to protect your child physically, but you have a responsibility to protect your child against the very real spiritual dangers o this world.

II Thessalonians 3:3 says, *“The Lord is faithful and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”*

And if you’re a faithful parent, you will seek to protect your children from their spiritual adversary.

Satan is going to attack your child with all kinds of threatening temptations and false philosophies, and if you love your child, you cannot send them out into the world with out the proper spiritual armor to protect them from the fiery darts of the devil.

If you allow them to watch MTV when they are 10, or roam the mall lat at night when they are 12, or go to parties where there will be alcoholic beverages available when they are 14, or stay in a motel room unsupervised after the prom when they are 16, you’re not being loyal.

You do not love your child in the same manner in which God loves you.

You need to establish some reasonable boundaries to protect your children from spiritual dangers.

See to it that you set a positive example.

Take them to church every weekend.

Let them know your priorities.

Saturate them with the troth of God’s Word.

Let them hear you pray and sing.