I Corinthians 13, Love
Notes
Transcript
I Corinthians 13
One of the greatest human needs is the need to be loved.
-Every person in this room needs a family of people around them that loves them. Who doesn’t want to be loved?
-We as humans find ourself drawn to animals that are most capable of expressing love. We enjoy our dogs & cats. We enjoy monkeys, horses and dolphins. All these animals seem to be able to express some kind of loving affection.
-We need love.
-We also must be givers of love.
-God calls you to be a giver of love.
What is love?
Read I Corinthians 13.
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God is not looking for the person with the greatest gifts. He is looking for the person with the greatest character.
The foundation to great character is love.
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When we think about Biblical love...
We are not talking about some infatuation, that is a love counterfeit.
We are not talking about some kind of chick flick romantic love.
We are not talking about animated Disney movie love.
We are talking about a love that is like the bottom of a football cleat.
A love that knows how to dig in and have traction.
A love that is not afraid to get gritty.
A love that makes a commitment an stands by it.
A love that works even when things get tough.
Does this love have the deepest of feeling and emotion? Yes!
But it is more powerful than any emotion because this love is birthed from the Spirit of the living God.
Pause
This chapter on love is fixed right in between two chapters on Spiritual gifts.
It is a very odd place to find this chapter. Why would this chapter on love be found here?
In previous Sunday sermons we have noted that the Corinthians wanted the spiritual gifts that in their mind would be the most honorable and would bring the most attention to them.
-They were making Spiritual Gifts about themselves. Pause
-If you are a Christ Follower, Your spiritual gift is given at the moment of salvation.
-It is given to you to build up the body of Christ.
-The Corinthians were using their Spiritual Gift to bring attention to self, not others - as God intended.
-How are you using your spiritual gift or even a natural talent to build up the body?
The word Love here is the greek word Agape. It is not a romantic love.
Agape love is not self centered it asks, “What is in the best interest of others? Once it finds out - it acts on it.
This Agape love is the most powerful love. This is the kind of love that God had for His people, before the earth was made and God saw that we would sin and turn or back on Him.
-In eternity past, God asked - What is best for humanity?
His conclusion - They will need a Savior from their sin.
God said, I will be that Savior. I will send my son Jesus to make a payment for the guilt of Sin on my people.
Let me ask you this question.
Is Jesus your Savior? In His great love. He is inviting you to have your sins forgiven today.
Transition - The first thing we see in this passage about this powerful love is this...
I. Love brings significance, vs. 1-3
meaning, purpose, value, connection to our gifts.
Read versus 1-3
Illustration Diamond Ring - Growing up near the beach in Florida from time to time you would hear of someone who found a diamond engagement ring in the sand at the beach. A tourist’s ring was too loose and it slipped off during a long walk on the beach. Buried in the sand it was gone forever.
-A local guy would be at the beach with his friends, in a stroke of randomness he would sees something shiny, looks down, and find it.
-To this local guy all this ring is - is something of financial value. So, he pawns it at a local pawn shop, buys a nice shotgun, a new stereo for his car, & a case of beer.
-Without love, that diamond ring is just something of material value. Nothing less, nothing more.
Love takes something of value and gives it meaning. Give it significance.
There is a completely different young man. He also is a local that lives near the beach. This guy is desperately in love with a young woman. They have been dating for over a year. He can’t go 5 minutes without thinking about her.
He’s by no means wealthy.
He saves as much money as he can from his construction job, goes and buys that same diamond ring from the pawn shop. Early one evening, He takes his girlfriend to the beach for a walk. During a Gulf coast sunset - get’s down on one knee, asks the girl he loves to mary Him.
-Now, that ring actually means something.
-That ring has as it’s foundation - love.
-Love has undergirded the gift. Love enveloped the gift.
-It’s not about the gift. It is about something and someone much more important.
-Love brings significance. Love brings meaning to the gift.
Paul addresses this in the Church in Corinth regarding Spiritual Gifts.
-Paul
-The gifts are given by the Holy Spirit NOT for you to build up yourself.
-The gifts are given so you can express your love for God’s people.
-The gifts without love are just noise and a waste.
-But when the gifts are expressed in love, they are transformative.
Illustration - I was talking with a friend of mine who came from a church where all these gifts including tongue was practiced.
This particular church was similar to Corinth in this way.
-They were experiencing all the gifts of the Spirit, but they were not giving themselves to the Fruit of the Spirit.
The greatest of all the Fruits of the Spirit is love.
Do this congregation was celebratory & excited in worship, but the person who would pray for you for healing would turn around and gossip about you the next day.
When you have the the Fruit of the Spirit, in this case love - you have a foundation laid for the Spiritual Gifts to have great meaning in community.
Transition - Not only does Love bring significance, but ...
II. Love spotlights others, 13:4-6
Read 4-6
Illustration - When you go to the theatre or a nice circus spotlights are used.
The purpose of a spotlight is to focuses your attention on someone.
-A specific actor or the MC.
-The lady on the trapeze or the lion tamer.
-the focus is brought on them.
Let me tell you a secret.
Everyone has a spotlight and your spotlight is always on.
- Your spotlight is always on.
-You cannot turn it off.
-Your heart or mind is always focused on someone or something.
The kind of love that God calls you and I to calls us to focus our lives on others.
Jesus spotlight is not on tasks. It is on people.
-Why do we say the spotlight is on others? Why not things? Why not tasks?
-Others/people - Have souls. Things and tasks don’t last into eternity.
-God has called you to love others/people in your life well.
How do I love others well?
a. vs. 4 - In patients you let them take the time they need. You do not push them verbally or rush them.
-When they do not meet your time expectation you take a step back and give them grace.
-I’m not talking necessarily about being on time.
-I am talking about giving someone time to ...
-Learn something that you have mastered, that comes easy for you.
-You may have a natural ability to see something in a social situation that it takes a family member longer to understand.
-You may be great with numbers, math, or the computer and someone else just doesn’t get it as naturally as you do.
-Our tendency is to be frustrated with something that seems so easy.
-But we are called to be patient, and kind.
b. Love also does not insist on it’s own way (it is not selfish)
-Love is not me first, love is you first.
-Love serves someone else.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-The call of a Christ Follower is to reposition yourself as a giver of self.
A giver of love. A giver of life. A reflector of Christ.
-Confession, May I confess a sin to you?
-I have someone I am well connected with who is very Godly. Full of faith and very humble.
-For reasons that relate to sin in my heart, there are times that if something negative happens to them, something disappointing takes place in their life - I will catch myself snickering and taking joy in that.
-Obviously our greatest attention must be on our Savior Jesus.
-There are others God has placed in your life for you to focus on.
Spotlighting others, being others foused and not self focused.
That doesn’t come naturally.
How do I love others well?
I must first allow the love of God to permeate every part of my life.
To fill me up until I am overflowing with gratefulness toward Him.
When I have received His love. I will give it away.
-When you have allowed his love to touch all the dark, hidden, shameful places in your life.
-When you reach into your pocket and pull out those action, thought and attitudes that you are ashamed of, that you don’t want anyone else to know about or see.
-When you open your hand and surrender to God the failures of your life to HIS LOVE...
-It is then that his mercy, grace and love can permeate these shames & failures that you have been keeping hidden.
-When you have allowed God’s love to be poured into every avenue of your heart - creeping into the deepest most difficult places. It is then, that you his love will transform you.
You experience his mercy, kindness and grace at such a deep level that it overflows out of your life to others.
Review:
So far we see that love brings significance.
That love spotlights others.
Love is spotless.
Transition -
III. Love is Spotless, 13:7
Pure, faultless, unblemished
Spotless Illustration -
In the Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple. Sacrifices were brought and blood was shed. In faith, worshipers were forgiven.
-When the sacrifice was brought to the priest he inspected it before it was killed.
-The lamb was looked over. There could not be any imperfection.
-The sacrifice had to be spotless. It had to be pure.
This pure love is a powerful love. Early I coarsly spoke of love like the soul of a football cleat. Love has to be grity and strong.
-The motivation for love is the belief that God is the one who changes and transforms others.
Bears all things - “steadfast in difficult circumstances”
Believes all things - a Christian has faith in God, who will work out his divine plans even when all the indicators seem to point in different directions.
Hopes all things - Hope is the forward looking faith that God will work. Hope is an optimistic faith in God working in the future in someone’s life.
Endures - perseveres, it does not give up.
Love ‘s motivation is pure - it is spotless.
-Love is powerful.
Transition - love is so powerful that biblical love lasts for eternity.
IV. Love is Sustained Eternally, vs. 8-13
vs. 8, Love never ends (never fails, never perishes), it is eternal.
When Christ returns our spiritual gifts will pass away. Why? There is not longer a need for them. The gifts are meant to build up the body of believers.
-When Christ returns, Christ Followers will be perfected & become holy. There will no longer be sin in your life.
-You will no longer need to be built up. Then and only then, you will have spiritually arrived.
-vs. 10, now our knowledge and our spiritual gifts are imperfect, we only know in part.
-When the perfect comes, That is when Jesus comes back for His people to take them to heaven. The partial, the incomplete Spiritual gifts will pass away.
-vs. 11, Illustration
-When I was a child (while on this earth), my understanding is limited.
-When I became a man, When I am transformed into my heavenly body and mind, my knowledge and thoughts will be complete.
-Illustration - Mirror
In Bible times the technology didn’t exist to perfect mirrors and glass like we have now. Mirrors were rare. Most people in Bible times rarely got to see how they looked. When you did have the opportunity to look in a mirror, you looked in something that gave a poor reflection. The imperfect glass would give a distorted image.
-In fact the city of Corinth was known for it’s polished bronze mirrors. Those would only be for the very wealthy. That’s the best they could do.
-In Corinth you saw dimly in a mirror.
-One day you will see as clearly as face to face.
-Your understanding will be full. You will be able to look back through human history and your own history of life and see with clarity why God did what He did.
-How his plan for human history was unfolding.
-When you understand this fully, you will be even more amazed at this great God.
-You will be amazed that He invited you into His plan.
Transform - You will be amazed at how intimately God knows you and loves you.
vs. 12b “Even as I am fully know” and still fully loved by the Father. Gospel???
Look at verse 12. Pay special attention to the last half of the verse
Read verse 12, God fully knows you.
He knew you actions before you even did them.
He saw you successes and he has seen your failures.
He sees your hidden places & your secret thoughts.
In God’s great love for you. He still loves you.
He still asks, What is in his/her best interest? Then he does it.
He has not abandoned you. He has drawn you near.
Will you right now thank God in your heart and say.
“Thank you for loving me.” “I love you!”
If you have not trusted Jesus as your Savior, He is inviting you to place your full trust in Him right now.
-Will you surrender to Him your life, right now.
-Will you ask Him to forgive you of you sins, right now.
-There is no one who knows you better. There is no on who loves you more!
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.