Love Matter (love is series)

Good Morning, welcome to online service.. we are looking forward to gathering in person next Sunday…February 28th … We have a couple changes coming up and one is that service will be starting at a new time… and that is at 10:00am. We are also going to be having our general meeting after the service.. We will be time of reports and sharing vision for 2021.... this will be an important meeting.. so we hope you can all make it..

This has been a challenging week and we are grateful for all the prayers, meals and donations that were received for the Alvidrez Family. We keep on praying for Lord’s continued comfort and strengthening at this tine .

This morning we are continuing our series entitled “LOVE IS” and the todays message is entitled “love Matters.”

Does love Matter?

I think that Most of us would agree with the phrase “love Matters” is true.... However, at the same time we would also have to say .... it depends on your definition…because love is also a matter of interpretation… What do we mean by love?

When John Lennon and Paul MaCartney sang the song the, “All you need is love” It sounds like a good message… If we had more love in the world, there would be less division and hate... and maybe it would be a better place to live!!

… but the CHALLENGE with love is that it is a multifaceted word… Love can mean different things to different people…

For example... If you were to took a survey of the word LOVE in many of the lyrics of popular songs AND MEDIA … WHAT you would discover is that love is interpreted as … passion…or EROs the kind of love that is self fulfilling…where Love is good when it meets me on my terms.. ..

What we find in the scripture is a different kind of love.. There are two greek words that dominate the New Testament… The word philo which speaks of friendship or companionship and word Agapeo which is the God kind of love… love that God demonstrated in sending of his son into the world …AGAPEO (LOVE) comes to us through salvation, forgiveness and reconciliation... ....... It is Redeeming love… It is what brings into relationship with the love of God…God spared no expense in bring us into this relationship of love…

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Redeeming love is what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.. before Christ we were strangers and aliens to his covenants… and sin separated from His goodness from his perfect love… But when we received Christ gift of salvation we were regenerated…we became new creatures in Christ… In Christ we have been reconciled into a right relationship with God… In His Perfect love we have been restored… We have freedom from guilt and shame and now experience His full acceptance and unconditional love. And once we have been reconciled to God it open up the door for us to live in right relationships with God and with each other… Paul says that we have been give the ministry of reconciliation…

2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

In other words we have been called to love others with the same kind of love that we have received..

What does it mean to love with the love that we have received?

WE are going to look at our text 1 cor 13... This one of the most well known chapters in the Bible and just about every wedding makes reference to this chapter… It is a wonderful section of scripture and written in beautiful prose and been has been called the “greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote”

As we look behind the text we learn that..Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth..

.. Corinth was a major City… one of the main trade routes… it was a metropolis bustling with trade and commerce. Corinth could be compared the New York City of the ancient world… It attracted some of the best and the brightest…individuals … it had a competing culture and was known for its boasting…

Corinth… prized wisdom, understanding, intelligence and secret knowledge…

The problem that Paul had with the church In Corinth is that the culture had infiltrated the church into the church… there were the same problems and and attitudes found in the church…there were ethical issues, incest, immorality, litigation, divorce…huge problems and then there was the misuse of spiritual gifts....

Instead of serving each other with their gifts they were competing with each other… and was sowing seeds of deep devision…

Paul wrote at least three letters to the Corinthian Church… One of the letters we don’t have Paul calls it his painful letter… Pauls said the hard things…

Paul believed with every ounce of his energy that the Church was to be radically different from the rest of Culture… And what separated the church from culture was the way that church loved… the bedrock of the Christian life is love.. God is love and the greatest command is to love God and to love others…

After teaching on the Gifts of the Spirit..Paul says.

​1 Corinthians 12:31 ESV But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Paul says Pursue spiritual gifts because they are God’s means of building up the church....

.. but then qualifies that statement by saying by saying there is a more excellent way… ... the Greek word Excellent means an extraordinary overabundance... The way of love is more excellent because is supersedes all the gifts… As useful and as impressive the gifts of the spirit are... there is higher gift.. love…

T/s There are three reasons why love matters…

1. The Absence of Love has Adverse Outcomes

When I was younger … learned how to make cupcakes…Pam doesn’t know this but I went through a phase where I really enjoyed baking… Think I was around 10. I distinctly remember on more than one occasion confusing two essential ingredients… Instead of using baking powder, I used baking soda in the mixture… And there were “Adverse outcomes”... Not only did the cupcakes not rise in the oven but they tasted like baking soda… not very pleasant. In baking you might get away with leaving out a smaller ingredient like vanilla extract……but you can never get away … with a main ingredient… This is the Point that Paul is making in our text..

Paul tells us

​1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is an essential ingredient… and when you leave it out your will see how it impacts.. Paul tells us that the Absence of love will impact us in three specific ways…first..

a. The absence of love will impact the effectiveness of our Words (what we say)

Remember the Corinthians were obsessed with impressive speech… they followed after the Philosophers of the day … they praised Apollos for his eloquence …But they were also intrigued by the idea that they might be able to speak supernatural languages.. *(They discovered in the Qumran community in Israel that there an extraordinary fascination with praise that is offered from the tongues of angels)

Pauls tells the church that …If an individual spoke with the eloquence of the greatest Orators (which they had) … or if they spoke in angelic languages — speaking the very mysteries of God…(which was practiced in the church) but if their words were not undergirded with love....it’s was all noise.. a clanging CYMBAL what a vivid picture of meaningless words.. …

A few month ago we went to San Francisco and outside Macy’s and there was a protest … Every couple of minutes the protestors stuck this metal sheet of metal with a hammer.... and this high pitched noise resounded out INTO THE STREET … It was a piercing sound ... there is only so much that you could talk and eventually you are forced to move… Words are important… it not just what we say but how we say things..

Plato said that one of the problems with the public speakers of the day was that they din't know how to dialog (they didn’t know how to use words… he said they were long winded in their answers....

Words have power… short stanza of poetry can carry more power…as a whole lecture… sermon.

but we know that it is more than the words… it is more than charisma or pathos… words that impact us when the are supported by love

Paul tells us that.... No matter how important our words are … no matter how urgent our message is… if they are missing the ingredient of love they lack power and influence.. …impact..

T/s When you leave out love not only will affect our words… it will also

b. Impact what we have to Share. (content)

Paul says .. 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. .

Paul is using exaggerating he is using hyperbole… obviously nobody understands everything... no one has all faith…and no one has the power to move mountains… But if it were at all possible… if you have these incredible abilities and gifts to impart.. … with out love...... it is all meaningless..

When you think about the gifts of the spirit… they are not for you… they are not for you personal consumption.. if preaching or prophecy… that is to encourage someone else.. if it is Faith.. that is to inspire stand along someone else… the gift of miracles to benefit someone else…

If you don’t have love… those gifts loose their impact… it doesn’t matter what gift you have if it is never received…

T/s When you leave out love not only will affect our words… it will also

b. Impact what we have to Share.

c. The presence or absence of love will impact our actions. (what we do)

Paul touched on something that the Jews esteemed and prized highly and that was the giving of alms to the poor as a religious act…For the Greeks it was Knowledge --- For the Romans it was power… for the Jews it was keeping the law… Paul is messing with things cultures esteem highly..

They took pride in alms giving…

Paul says..3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

There are a couple of interpretations of this text.

Firstly.. the giving of one’s body to be burned could mean to place oneself into slavery — … by having oneself branded… The other interpretation is to sacrifice one’s life in a fire… Like many things it is not certain.

But the message is very clear…

Paul… cautions us… That we can give everything we own… even lay down our lives for a cause… but if any of these are done without love, then it adds up to one big fat nothing Love has to take center stage in our Words (what we say) our Gifts and talents) (what we knowledge) Our actions (what we do) the Christian community.

T/s There are three reasons why love matters…

1. The Absence of Love has effect Adverse effects on Outcomes

2. The Presence of Love is evidence of the Power of God.

The theologian NT Wright makes some interesting observations about the apostle Paul… He tells us that…..Paul must have been very difficult person to be around--- he seems to have been awkward, abrupt, argumentative, and generally an unpleasant character…

But, in this chapter we see another side of Paul…Here we see that in reality … ‘Paul spent his life and energy being what he was and doing what was for the sake of other people.”

Quite the opposite of what we might expect from the impression we get of his character…

NT Wright…says What we see in Paul…is that God’s power at work through personality… When Paul was still named Saul… he went to persecute the christians in Jerusalem… I imagine that he had his reasons.. He had convictions....He was a highly trained scholar and Rabbi… When Saul became Paul… God saved him and there was transformation… and Initially the early church did not trust him… It was Barnabas to help the church receive and accept the ministry of Paul… Why might they have not trusted Paul? I have a theory… Maybe.. Paul still looked the same… and sounded the same… He had the same personality traits… But the evidence of Pauls transformation was in his Actions… Paul didn’t just talk about love… ..

Love was not part of Paul teaching material… Love for him became personified… That is what he does in this section —

​1 Corinthians 13:4–10 ESVLove 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. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Paul personifies love…He gives LOVE - human characterists.. to show us how love manifests the power of God… first of all…

a. Love shows God’s Goodness

1. love is Patient - ‘ An article in Time.com noted that ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of .028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the San Diego Zoo, zips along at a blazing 0.16 miles per hour, or almost six times faster than ketchup.

But impatiently tapping your ketchup bottle soon might be a thing of the past. A team of mechanical engineers at MIT… have come up with a solution...to this ketchup flow problem. They have discovered Liquiglide…solution that you can coat on the inside of a Ketchup bottle that will make the sauce just ooze out of the bottle....

We are always looking for ways to do things more efficiently… We want progress today… One of my professors Rodney Cooper would say… that sometimes slower is faster… Paul would agree when it comes to patience… He tells us that patience is longsuffering… maybe you have been praying for someone for years… but they still living distant from God… One of the ways we see God mercy and grace is through his slowness..

Numbers 14:18 ESV

18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

God is patient and just.. Paul says...

2 . love is Kind.... kindness means (to be) gentle.. warm hearted... considerate... -

Kindness is undeserved generosity”

A Great example of kindness in the Bible is when King David was looking for someone in Sauls household to show kindness… The reason is that David had made a covenant with Jonathan that he would show kindness to his family… Remember this is after.. king Saul did everything in his power to destroy David… A man who was named Mephiboshetha is found… He was crippled from a fall when fleeing from the battlefield on the day that Saul and Jonathan died..

We told that David showed kindness.... He Mephibosheth all of the property and servants that had belonged to Saul … and then he Placed Mephibosheth at the place of of honor at the top of his table. David treated Him as one of his own sons... We are told that He always ate at Davids table..... What picture a picture of kindness..

Each of us are recovering from the tragic fall of sin..... yet God in Christ took the initiative to bring us to his table → and give us an inheritance in Him that will never fade or perish...

love (God) is Patient love and is kind....

love (God) shows God’s restraint

Love (God) does not Envy... ..

love (God) dose not boast --

love is not... arrogant - puffed up..

love is not - rude

. love is not selfish

Love expects the best It does not take pleasure in evil but rather rejoices in the truth..

Love shows us God’s Restraints..

c. Love Shows no limits

“Today there are no limits!” our culture encourages us to push against and challenge the limits in all areas of life, physical, social, sexual, spiritual and economic.... Having no limits can be hazards for our lives..

But there is one activity in life that God encourages and that is in Christian love

Paul SAYS.....8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Every thing IN LIFE IS prone to entropy → every thing regresses. Everything fails ⇒ you can only repair something so many times⇒ Eventually that appliance, that gadget, that car, that tractor is going to fail.

Paul says that love Never fails. and that There is no restriction on love.. You will never be able to out love someone..

T/s Why does love need to be prioritized in Our lives? 1. The Absence of Love has effect Adverse effects on Outcomes

2. The Presence of Love is the evidence of the Presence of God.

3. The Priority of love is the Pathway to Maturity.

Setting Priorities can be a challenging…We are all given the same amount of time in day.. yet some achieve more than others… Why is that? It is a matter of setting priorities… It is distinguishing between… the important… the unimportant..

Tim Sanders— WAS THE former chief solutions officer at Yahoo! and author of Love Is the Killer App—

SANDERS shares the following thought about establishing priorities: HE TELLS US THAT ONE OF THE WAYS WE CAN DO THIS IS DIVIDE YOUR LIFE INTO 1 OF 3 OF THESE CATEGORIES..

glass, metal, and rubber.

THINK OF THAT ITEM — THAT RELATIONSHIP, COMMITMENT… THIS IS HOW THIS WORKS...

The things that are made of rubber, when you drop them, will bounce back. Nothing really happens when these kinds of things get dropped and NOTHING changes and NOTHING IS LOST... For example…

IF YOU ENJOY SPORTS… AND YOU MISS A GAME.. my missing a game or a season of football will not alter my marriage or my spiritual life.

Things that are made of metal, when they get dropped, create a lot of noise. But you can recover from the drop. You miss a meeting at work, you can get the cliff notes. Or if you forget to balance your checkbook and lose track of how much you have in your account, and the bank notifies you that you have been spending more than you have—that's going to create a little bit of noise in your life, but you can recover from it.

Then there are things made of glass. And when you drop one of these, it will shatter into pieces and never be the same. Even though you can piece it back together, it will still be missing some pieces. It certainly won't look the same, and I doubt that you could actually fill it up with water, because the consequences of it be being broken will forever affect how it's used.

He says..

The thing is, you're the only person who knows what those things are that you can't afford to drop. More than likely, they have a lot to do with your relationships. Your marriage, your family, and your friends.

Maturity means prioritizing love…

​1 Corinthians 13:11–13 ESVWhen I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The Corinthians were still acting like children.. They behaved selfishly thought about their own needs…

It is noramal..to expect a child to think, understand, and speak like a child; but there is a time when you expect that child to mature and start thinking and speaking like an adult.

Paul tells us that there comes a day when every child he must “put away childish things…

Here is the thing...

Immaturity -- impacts... Our Speech - the kinds of thoughts we are having.... Some of the arguments we are making to ourselves also Maturity is giving up of childish ways... Put an end to that kind of thinking...

My thinking is now filtered through love...Maturity says I need to Grow… I need to make love a priority....

If you are thinking about priorities… you have to ask yourself what is going to last… Things in our lives can change quite radically in our lives… people… jobs.... health.... What is going to Remain...

Paul says there are three things that will remain...

​1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Faith…

Hope…

love....

LOVE MATTERS PURSUE LOVE.