September 29, 2025 • 43 mins
What if love isn’t something you manufacture but a life you receive? We dive into 1 Corinthians 13 to uncover why agape—self-giving, sacrificial love—is greater than any gift, achievement, or emotion and how it becomes real in our ordinary choices. Instead of cheering on more effort, we get honest about the limits of willpower and the freedom of letting Jesus live through us. The result is a love that is patient when feelings fade, kind when tempers rise, and unoffendable when criticism or hurt shows up at the worst time.
We break down the four Greek words for love and focus on agape as the only love that can carry marriages, friendships, and church life through friction. You’ll hear how Paul’s two positives—patience and kindness—become visible actions, not just warm thoughts. Then we trace eight things love refuses to be: envious, showy, puffed up, rude, self-seeking, easily provoked, scorekeeping, and secretly thrilled by sin. Along the way, we talk about comparison as a joy thief, pride disguised as public virtue, and the hidden strength of kindness that responds rather than reacts.
Finally, we anchor love in truth that actually holds: Jesus is the Son of God; salvation is by grace through faith; the cross and resurrection break sin’s power; new life in Christ is real; and nothing can separate us from God’s love. That gospel foundation turns failure into formation and security into courage, so we can release grudges, set wise boundaries without contempt, and serve without chasing applause. If you’re hungry to trade striving for abiding and performance for presence, this conversation will reframe how you see love—and how you practice it tomorrow.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope today, and leave a quick review to help others find this message.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:27):
Alright, today's sermon is called What Is Love?
Don't hurt me no more.
Okay.
It's called What is Love?
Baby Don't Hurt Me.
Yeah.
There we go.
Thank you, John.
That was awesome.
We could break out into karaokeright at church, right?
No?
Okay.
And we're gonna be studying 1Corinthians chapter 13.
(00:48):
We'll get through the first sixverses today.
And I tried to Google how manylove songs have ever been
written.
It's worth a Google.
And Google told me in itsinfinite wisdom, over a hundred
million love songs have beenwritten.
I don't know how it knows that.
But sounds right, so we'll gowith it.
But do we really know what loveis?
(01:12):
You know, they asked thousands,they asked a few thousand people
how to describe love, and theseare some of my favorites.
Uh people said it's when you canfart freely in front of someone.
I thought that's that'sinteresting.
Okay.
Uh it's buying an extra thickcookies and cream milkshake
(01:36):
after craving one all day, butyour spouse drops theirs
accidentally, so you give themyours.
Aww.
It's a term that means zero intennis.
Or this one says, Love is bacon,bacon is love.
(01:59):
I can see that.
Love songs, right?
So when we come to church, we'vewritten love, the church has
written 2,000 years worth oflove songs to Jesus.
And when we sing our songs,that's what we're doing.
We are singing the greatest lovesongs that have ever been
(02:21):
written to Jesus.
And it is so important andvaluable to do that.
We don't come here just for alecture.
I hope you don't come here justfor a lecture because the
lecture will probablydisappoint.
But if you come here to connectwith Jesus, to give him your
love, he will never disappointbecause he's always initiating
(02:43):
that.
He's giving you his love.
And so we sing to respond andgive him love.
So that's why we always sing atthe beginning of our church
service and we close our servicein a song usually, because we
want that to bookend what'sgoing on here.
That this is not, and thosearen't religious things.
We're not doing that becauseit's our tradition, but we pick
(03:04):
different songs, so it's alwaysunique and it's always fresh, so
that it's a fresh expression oflove.
Okay, we're gonna talk a lotabout love today, so let's just
look at our text here and seewhat it says.
First Corinthians chapter 13says, Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels,but have not love, I've become a
(03:25):
sounding brass or a clingingsymbol.
And though I have the gift ofprophecy and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, andthough I have all faith, so that
I could remove mountains, buthave not love, I am nothing.
So Paul says, We just finishedtwo weeks of talking about
(03:46):
spiritual gifts and howimportant they are in the
church, and to understand howGod gives you a spiritual gift.
But he says here, love is moreimportant than all the gifts of
the spirit combined, and itdoesn't matter how great your
gift is, the love is thegreatest gift.
But how is love a gift?
That confused me.
(04:07):
I was like, okay, if love is thegreatest gift, how is love the
greatest gift?
Well, a heart of love is a giftthat you can receive from Jesus.
And Paul says, I implore you toseek the best gifts.
The best gift exclusively islove.
(04:30):
So what does that mean?
It means it's a gift to have aheart of love, it's not
something you can produce.
So you shouldn't come to churchand hear, be more loving, just
do it, just be more loving.
You can do it.
Because we can't.
We can't.
We can't produce that on ourown.
But we can seek him.
(04:54):
And in seeking him and askinghim to live through us and to
transform us, our heart receivesthat love as a gift, and we can
pour out that love as a freegift.
So we're gonna talk a lot abouta lot about love today.
We're gonna talk about what whatlove is and what love is not.
(05:16):
And here's the if you don't hearanything, what I want you to
hear is this if you want thislove, if you want to be loving,
which you do because you're abeliever, and so that is your
deepest desire, if you want it,don't try to do it, but ask
Jesus to do it through you inyou.
(05:36):
Ask Jesus Himself to give youhis heart.
That's why we seek the Lord inthe morning, that's why we seek
the Lord in prayer, that's whywe spend time reading his word.
It's not to earn something fromthe Lord, but it's to receive
his heart, receive his grace.
And that's how that works.
(05:57):
As you spend time with him, hislove rubs off on you.
You start to smell like him.
All right, so Paul says, if youhave not love, now the word he
uses for love there is, doesanyone know Greek?
It's the word agape.
(06:19):
Alright, have you guys heardthat word before?
Okay, agape.
That is the ancient Greek wordfor love that Paul uses here.
But in Greek they have fourwords for love.
So we have to learn Greek thismorning.
So we're gonna learn the fourwords for love.
There's these ancient words, andso uh the first one we'll look
at is eros.
(06:39):
So you see eros.
They would use that word for theromantic love, the sexual love,
that type of love when youdescribe that.
It's um uh very simple, easy todescribe, everyone understands,
but that's the word that theyuse.
You get the word erotic fromthat love in England, or from
that word in English.
The second word is storgy, andthat refers to the love in a
(07:03):
family.
So parents for kids, you know,you for your second cousin who
you really love, you know,you're like, oh, family love.
That's that's what the wordstorgy means.
The third word is fia.
And you just can rememberPhiladelphia.
Okay, what is Philadelphia?
(07:23):
The city of brotherly love.
And Cowboys fans hate them.
So as you rem that's an easy wayto remember that the word filia
means friendship or affection.
So that's so when I say I lovemy buddy, when we play fantasy
football together, or we go tothe gym together, man, I love
(07:47):
you, bro.
That's the word that we'reusing.
But in English, we just use allthese words interchangeably, so
we just have to have context ofto what you mean.
Okay.
But agape is the only word thatmatters for us today, because
that's the word that we'relearning about.
And it's it's a love withoutchanging, it's a self-giving,
(08:10):
self-sacrificial love thatalways gives without demanding
or expecting repayment.
That's agape love,self-sacrificing love.
It's a love so great that it canbe given to unlovable people,
(08:31):
unappealing people, people thatdon't deserve anything.
Agape love will love them andwill sacrifice for undeserving
people, people who are mean,people who are dumb, people who
are unkind and treat you poorlyin response.
(08:53):
Agape love does not care at allhow it's treated.
Agape love pours out love nomatter what.
Because it loves to give, itdoesn't love to receive.
This is what's wrong with 90% ofmarriages in the world and
(09:15):
relationships.
You wonder why dating is sodifficult these days and
marriages are so difficult.
Because when we think about ourrelationship, we think, okay,
I'm gonna give this much and I'mgonna get this much in return.
And God's plan for marriage wasnever that.
God's plan was you give and yougive agape love, and you keep
(09:35):
giving and you keep giving andyou keep giving no matter what.
You love and you love and youlove.
Well, where do I get that kindof love?
We'll get to that at the endhere.
So hold on to that question.
Agape love can be defined assacrificial giving.
(09:56):
It has very, very little to dowith emotion.
Emotion.
We think when when we see a lovemovie, you know, a romance, it
really gets all get us gets usright in our fields, right?
And we have that emotionalresponse.
Um, but real agape love is aboutself-denial for the sake of
(10:19):
another.
And how we learn about this, howwe know about this, is because
God is love.
So everything God does will belove.
He loves his whole creation, sohe is constantly giving, he's
just always giving to his entirecreation.
He supplies what the animalsneed, he supplies what
(10:39):
everything in creation needs.
And that doesn't stop withpeople.
He loves all his people, he isalways giving love.
Giving, giving, giving.
That's his heart.
That's what love is.
And so we can read this chapterand think that Paul is saying,
man, let's just be friendly.
(11:00):
But that's not what this istalking about.
He says, if we don't havesacrificial love, everything we
do means nothing.
Everything we do means nothing.
Agape isn't just friendliness,it's self-denial for the sake of
another.
(11:20):
It does what's best for theother person.
So if I just do self-denialthings, am I good?
If I just do good works and I'malways thinking about other
people, is that what love is?
Well, let's read.
In verse 3, it says, And thoughI bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give mybody to be burned, but have not
(11:43):
agape love, it profits menothing.
So here Paul says, you know,many Christians think that being
a Christian in the Christianlife is all about sacrifice.
You sacrifice your money, yousacrifice your life, you
sacrifice your time for the sakeof Jesus.
And sacrifice is important, butwithout love, agape love, he
(12:06):
says, it profits me nothing.
It profits me nothing.
He says that these things we doare not the best measure of
someone's true spiritualcredentials.
Oh, you should listen to me, andI'm I'm this in the church, and
(12:28):
I should be respected becauselook at all these things that
I've done.
I did this and I did this, andwhen we have our resume of all
the things that we've done, orall the things that we've
sacrificed, or all the thingsthat we give in, Paul says it
means nothing if there's notagape love there.
(12:48):
Because what is that?
It's pride and self-focus.
Pride and self-sufficiency,self-focus, it ruins all our
self-denying good works.
So, yeah, you might have doneall those good things, and those
things can be great.
But pride ruins it all, Paulsays.
Our sacrifices don't matter ifwe're trusting in our
(13:09):
sacrifices.
Our eyes are on Jesus.
Love can never be focused on me.
Agape love is never focused onmyself.
What I feel, what I think Ideserve, or how I think things
should be.
How many times in the Bible arewe told to love ourselves?
(13:37):
Zero.
But you you ask the world today,you ask the common psychological
principles, the common idea thatman has of how to find your
worth, and it says, loveyourself, love yourself, love
yourself.
And Jesus says, if you want tofollow me, deny yourself, let
death to self and say no toself, deny yourself.
(13:59):
So we have these two oppositeperspectives, these two opposite
ways of how you're supposed tolive life.
The world says, love yourself,God says, you already love
yourself.
You actually, if you want tofind life, you need to deny self
and see, discover what agapelove is all about.
(14:20):
Each thing described in whatwe've read so far in verses one
through three is a good thing.
Tongues, speaking in tongues,good.
It was awesome.
Prophecy, that was good,knowledge was good, having faith
was good, and sacrifice, livinga sacrificial life, all good
(14:41):
things.
But love, agape love is sovaluable, so important that
apart from it, every other thingis useless.
That's what that's how importantthis is, Paul says.
So vital, so vital.
When we focus too much on whatwe do, we forget that we do what
(15:01):
we do because of who we are.
We are loved by Christ, byJesus.
And so we love others because ofour identity in Christ.
All these serving things and allthe gifts that he gives us and
all the things that we do, theyspring out of our identity.
That's why in every single oneof Paul's letters, he spends the
(15:23):
first half of it pouring intoyour identity.
This is who you are, this iswhat Jesus did for you, this is
what to believe, this is what tobelieve, this is what to
believe.
Then he says, this is how to actbecause of that.
This is how you can, youridentity will inform your
behavior.
So, how do we know what thislove is?
(15:45):
How do we know what this loveis?
I wish there was a simple,perfect description of love that
could teach us what love is, andthat we could read it at all our
weddings and then ignore it forthe rest of our marriages.
Oh, yeah, that's what we havehere.
This is a great description oflove.
So let's read it.
(16:06):
Chapter 13, verse 4.
Here's two things that love is.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Paul is not writing about howlove feels.
Again, we think love is allabout feeling, but he's writing
(16:27):
about how love can be seen inaction.
So true love, this agape love,is always demonstrated by
action.
Don't say you love me, show it.
Right?
You've heard that.
Probably said it in yourmarriage or in your
relationships.
Don't say you love me, just showit.
So the first way he says we canshow love is by long suffering.
(16:50):
That means I'll choose to loveyou even when you don't deserve
it, or do things that hurt me orannoy me.
I'll treat you the sameregardless of how many times you
fall short of the standard, orhow many times you reject me, or
how many times you actunlovingly toward me.
(17:12):
This is agape love.
If God's love is in us, then wewill show long suffering to
those who annoy us and hurt us.
So I'm gonna pause right here.
And as we we look at this, weour natural thing is we are
gonna self-assess.
We're gonna be like, am Ilong-suffering?
(17:34):
And how's that gonna go for us?
Yeah, we're gonna we're gonnaremember all of the times when
we weren't this, when we did notdemonstrate it.
Maybe you'll think of a fewtimes when you did, okay?
But the intention here is yes,to recognize and to learn what
love is, but it's real easy toto to change the the subject to
(17:59):
Sean suffers long and is kind.
And if I do that, I'm probablygonna feel some condemnation.
I'm probably not gonnaunderstand the full meaning.
But if you put in the wordJesus, Jesus suffers long and is
kind, wow, then everything makestotal perfect sense.
(18:21):
Did Jesus demonstrate longsuffering?
Praise him, right?
Was Jesus kind?
I mean, limitless kindness andlong suffering flowed from
Jesus.
Now, where does Jesus live?
Up in heaven and in us.
He has sent his very spirit tolive in us.
(18:43):
Jesus lives in us.
So I'm pausing right here totake a take a just a backup and
say, guys, don't don't get lostin these are the requirements,
this is what you're supposed tolook at.
You already have this loveinside of you.
You already have it.
You don't have to earn it, youdon't have to produce it, you
(19:04):
don't have to discover it.
It's right inside you in Christ.
You are in Christ, and Christ isin you.
You have this love.
This love is how you really wantto act.
Every time you choose to notwalk in this, you're gonna be
conflicted, and your peaceinside you is gonna go away.
And you're like, oh, I want totreat this person and I want to,
(19:26):
oh, he just cut me off, and Iand you you don't do the loving
thing.
Your own heart has a disconnect.
God doesn't just say, shouldn'thave done that.
God says, Who are you?
Remember who you are.
You Jesus is living inside you,that is your identity.
(19:49):
So loving is your nature.
Love, this kind of love, is yournature.
You can be patient, you can belong-suffering.
But what about they do?
Don't look at them, look atJesus.
But how can I muster uppatience?
You can't.
It's a gift.
(20:11):
Seek the best gifts.
The best gift is a loving heart.
Jesus has given you a lovingheart.
So to walk in that loving heartis about faith.
Do you believe that Jesus lovesyou?
Do you believe that Jesus livesin you?
Do you believe that He'll makeyour actions loving as you step
forward to love?
The problem is we don't evenwant to step forward to love
(20:32):
because we we know that we'regonna get hurt.
We believe the person's notgonna change.
We believe the person's gonnatreat us the same way again.
We don't believe love transformspeople.
And Jesus says, It does.
Look at you.
I've loved you and ittransformed you.
(20:54):
So why don't you just let mylove flow through you to these
people that you need to love,that you want to love.
Love suffers long.
Love is kind.
So kindness is the descriptionof love.
I'll choose to treat you in away that is best for you, not
what I think you deserve or howI feel I should treat you.
(21:18):
I would treat what is truly bestfor you.
I'll respond with kind words andactions instead of reacting with
my feelings.
Did you see that?
I'll respond instead of react.
Love responds.
The flesh reacts.
It's always best if you feellike you're gonna say something
(21:40):
stupid to not say anything atall.
Just wait.
It's best to respond withpatience and kindness.
This means love is gentle.
What is kindness?
It means gentle, considerate,compassionate.
It seeks the well-being ofothers and it acts in a way that
(22:01):
is beneficial and supportive tothe person that it's loving.
In Ephesians 2, 7, it says thatGod shows the incomparable
riches of his grace.
Let me read it to you in the NewLiving Translation.
It says, God, so God can pointus, point to us in all future
ages as an example of theincredible wealth of his grace
(22:23):
and kindness towards us, as hehas shown in all he has done for
us who are united with ChristJesus.
That means for all of eternity,our whole life, our purpose is
to be the object of God'skindness.
You're not gonna be playing aharp for all of eternity.
(22:46):
We're not gonna be just braggingabout our mansions.
For all of eternity, it's gonnabe about God revealing in us
exploring the kindness He hashad to us.
It will be an exchange ofkindness and love with God.
That is our that is what eternallife is.
(23:09):
Experiencing the love, the agapelove of God, and responding to
it with love.
This kindness is not somethingthat we muster up on our own,
but it is the result ofreceiving his love and believing
he lives in us and will livethrough us.
So now let's look at our nexttext here, which is verses four
(23:32):
through six.
We're gonna see eight thingsthat love is not.
Eight things that love is not.
It says, Love does not envy,love does not parade itself, is
not puffed up, does not behaverudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil,and does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in thetruth.
(23:55):
So let's just break down eachone of those.
First, it does love does notenvy.
This means we do not compareourselves with each other.
Comparison is always, always awork of the flesh, an idea of
the flesh, a mode, it'smotivated by the flesh.
(24:16):
Love will never compare ourlife, our state, our blessings
with someone else.
Something they have shouldbelong to me.
I wish I had their life.
I wish I had their gifts.
I wish I had this, I wish I hadthat.
That's never love.
(24:36):
Love is happy that someone elseis blessed, love is happy that
someone else can be lifted up.
Love is always willing to takethat lower place to lift up
somebody else.
The next thing, love does notparade itself.
So love in action, this agapelove, can always be anonymous.
(25:01):
Love never has to have theattention, it doesn't have to
have the limelight, doesn't haveto people say it did a good job,
and it doesn't have to see aresult.
Love does not have to see aresult.
We want to see results so we canhear, well done, good job, you
did a good job.
And love says, That's just whatI do.
(25:23):
Love says, I just love.
I will love and I will do it insecret if I need to.
I will care about other peoplebecause it never shows itself
off.
Sometimes the people who seem towork the hardest at love are the
ones who are furthest from it.
They do things many wouldperceive as loving, yet they do
(25:45):
them in a manner that wouldparade itself.
And this isn't love, it's pridelooking for glory in the
appearance of love.
Again, don't just say I loveyou, just be loving all the
time.
Sometimes we say I love you, sowe can hear someone say I love
you back.
(26:06):
I said I love him, and hedoesn't say it back to me.
That's not love.
Agape love loves no matter what.
We are called to agape love.
Love is not puffed up.
Again, that means prideful.
To be puffed up is to bearrogant and self-focused.
(26:28):
It describes someone who has abig head.
Love doesn't get its headswelled up, but it focuses on
others.
No one is worried about theirposition or their standing or
their title or gettingattention.
That's that's not agape love.
It's not the heart that Jesusgives us.
(26:49):
It's not the heart we haveinside us.
Next, love is not rude.
Rudeness.
That means polite manners,right?
Love never rushes people.
Love never is insulting.
Love never is insulting.
(27:09):
Love never insults another humanbeing.
Made in God's image, no matterwhat they believe, no matter
what they do, they are aneternal soul.
And that soul will either livein eternity with God or will be
separated from God for eternityas well.
(27:31):
And if we can see people aseternal souls, it really will
affect the way that we treatthem.
And we will lovingly avoidrudeness.
We will never laugh at others'expense.
We will never joke about peoplewho aren't like us or don't look
like us or don't act like us ordon't believe like us.
(27:53):
I've been reading, my wife and Ihave been reading about these
missions to the Congo from C.T.
Stud and then this the next guy,Norman Grubb, his son-in-law,
and they would go into theCongo, and the the Congolese
people at that time in the early1900s, I mean, they wore like
nothing.
They were just naked all thetime.
And they were cannibals and theyhad you know worshipped awful
(28:16):
things and they had every kindof iniquity you could do.
And and they could go in, youyou could hear the heart of
these missionaries.
They would go in and they wouldbe like, We could we could just
decry all the evil stuff.
And they said that these areevil, they're very evil people.
But they went in there and theywere willing to be killed and
not just killed, but brutallymurdered, and some of them
(28:40):
cannibalized because they valuedthese people.
There was nothing you could saythat just gave them value as
people, they they weren'teducated, they didn't have
anything that you could say wasredeeming about them, except
they were created by God andloved by God, and so these
missionaries with the heart ofJesus went in and sacrificed
(29:01):
their lives for people that theyhad no guarantees would would
turn.
But God used it and throughagape love, a great revival
happened in that country whenthere was it was incredible
violence, it was stuff we couldnot even imagine.
(29:21):
Like the the treatment was justunspeakable what they were doing
to each other.
And um, and God's lovepenetrated it, transformed them,
and won because Jesus alwayswins.
When he is lifted up, he candraw all men to himself.
And that's what we do when welove.
(29:43):
All right, love never seeks itsown.
Paul says the day is the sameidea in Romans chapter 12, verse
10.
He says, in honor, givingpreference to one another.
And in Philippians 2, 4, hesays, Let each of you not look
out for his own interest, butalso for the interest of others.
(30:04):
And that's being like Jesus inthe most basic way, being
others-centered instead ofself-centered.
So love doesn't, it doesn'tmatter what I get out of this
relationship, I'm going to pourout love.
And then it says love is notprovoked.
(30:24):
We're just getting deeper anddeeper and deeper.
Here.
This is insane.
This is crazy talk.
Love is not provoked.
That means you are unoffendable.
Nothing anyone says about you,about God, about anything will
ever offend you because of love.
Because you know it doesn'tmatter what they say, I'm gonna
(30:45):
love them anyway.
It doesn't matter if they have alack of understanding, it
doesn't matter if they hate, itdoesn't matter the differences.
We can all find easily uh waysto get uh provoked or become
irritated or get offendedbecause people are just annoying
in this world, and further thanthat, people are evil.
(31:06):
But God says, agape love doesn'tget offended, and that heart is
in you, it's already there.
You can love the unlovablewithout being provoked.
Moses was kept out of thepromised land because he became
(31:29):
provoked by the people ofIsrael, it says in Numbers
chapter 20.
And the promised land for us isthis life, this victorious
Christian life where our churchis a light to this world and we
are overcomers.
That's our promised land whereeverything we do is is a light
(31:50):
to this world.
It'll never happen if we'rebeing provoked, if we're letting
ourselves get annoyed.
We're gonna love people deeplybecause that's how Jesus loves
them through us.
Lastly, it says, well, secondless, thinks no evil.
Literally, this means does notstore up the memory of any wrong
(32:12):
it has received.
Does not store up the memory ofany wrong it has received.
People will treat you poorly,people will take advantage of
you, people will speak evil ofyou, forget it.
Love forgets it.
Your mind can't forget it.
I'm not, he's not saying youhave to forget it, because your
(32:34):
mind won't forget those things.
But love is more powerful thaneven your mind and your memory.
You can love people.
Love will put away the hurts ofthe past instead of clinging to
them.
One writer tells of a tribe inPolynesia where it was customary
for men to keep reminders of hishatred for others.
(32:57):
And these reminders weresuspended from the roofs of
their huts to keep to keep alivethe memory of the wrongs, real
or imagined.
And I think in some of our huts,we're doing the same thing
sometimes.
Sometimes we judge otherpeople's motives.
That's thinking evil of them.
(33:18):
Oh, I bet this person is justthis, I bet they think that.
I bet this, that, or the other.
We we group people.
Well, because of this, you'reall that.
And that's not love.
It says love does not rejoice insin.
What makes our hearts, thehearts of love that we have, the
(33:42):
hearts of love Jesus has givenus, what makes us the most
happy?
Not sin.
Sin doesn't make you happy.
I know that many of us strugglewith sin, and when we choose to
walk in that sin, I know that weare not happy.
I could go around and I couldsay, Well, you should stop doing
(34:04):
this and you should stop doingthat, and you should stop doing
that.
Or I could say, Are you happydoing that?
I know the answer is no.
Because if you're a believer,your heart is filled with his
heart, and your heart rejoicesin the truth, not in sin.
(34:24):
And so I don't need to try toconvince you not to sin.
I need to remind you of who youare.
You are a beautiful child of Godwhose heart has been renewed by
the Holy Spirit.
You are love personified becauseJesus lives inside you.
And when we surrender to him,that love oozes out of every
(34:50):
part of our every action,everything can be filled with
his love.
So it says, We don't rejoice ininiquity, but we rejoice in the
truth.
Well, what is this truth of thegospel that makes us so happy?
I'm gonna tell you, what isthis?
(35:11):
The truth of the gospel is thegood news that Jesus has
finished his work on the cross.
He finished all the work thatwas needed to do on the cross.
It's it's all about the grace ofGod and the salvation that Jesus
freely gives us by grace, andour side of it is always faith.
(35:34):
Are we gonna believe in what hedid?
So here's four things you canremember that we can rejoice in.
When you want happiness, whenyou want joy deep in your heart,
when you're looking for thatjoy, when you're hungry for joy
and you've been struggling withthe struggles of this world or
(35:54):
sin, you've been strugglingagainst sin.
Rejoice in the truth.
Number one, Jesus is the Son ofGod.
Rejoice in that.
He came to earth, he lived asinless life, he revealed God's
love and his truth to allpeople.
And if you understand that andif you believe that, then he's
revealed it to you, and you'reliving in that truth.
(36:17):
And that truth is the beginningof all knowledge, is the
beginning of everything.
Jesus was God, who Jesus is.
The second thing you can rejoicein is that salvation is by grace
through faith.
All of salvation is by gracethrough faith.
It's a gift from God, notsomething we can earn with our
(36:40):
efforts.
No part of your Christian lifeis something you earn with your
efforts.
Oh, I went to church, so God'sgonna bless me.
I did good things, so God'sgonna bless me.
I said no to those bad things,so God's gonna bless me.
It's never about that.
It's always a free gift ofgrace.
It's received by grace throughfaith.
(37:03):
Everything you can get from God,your side of it is faith.
Am I gonna trust in Jesus or amI going to try to earn it by
myself?
That's the law, that's areligious mindset, not the
Christian relationship gracemindset.
It's a gift, that's grace.
(37:24):
If I have to work for it, that'sreligion.
And we are not religious.
The Bible doesn't teachreligion, it teaches a
relationship with Jesus.
The third thing that will makeyou happy is the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross to takeaway the sins of the world.
He rose from the dead,conquering sin and death, and
(37:47):
both those things are yours.
So what happened to Jesushappened to you.
So his death on the cross wasyour death to sin.
His new life that he raised withis your new life.
We are we identify with him.
We are one with him.
He gives us his forgiveness andhis new life of joy and victory
(38:11):
over sin.
As a Christian, you do not haveto sin.
You have been set free from thepower of sin.
Now, do we walk in that all thetime?
No, because we're growing infaith.
But the more we believe in ouroneness with him, in his victory
over sin, in his death andresurrection, the more we
believe, the more we will walkin his victory and in his love.
(38:35):
It's all about faith.
Here's another one.
New life in Christ will make youhappy.
Believers are made new throughJesus.
We have a new life.
The old self-life has beencrucified, and the new life has
begun.
And so now we have the HolySpirit living inside us.
(38:57):
That means we don't ever rejoicein sinning.
We have a new life.
The things that made us excitedand excited our flesh and made
us happy before you were saved,they just don't work anymore.
They don't make you happyanymore.
And believing that will make youhappy.
(39:20):
The last thing is we haveeternal security through our
relationship with Jesus.
We are secure in Jesus.
Nothing can separate you fromhis love.
Have you failed as a Christian?
Yeah.
Have I failed as a Christian?
Big time.
But we will never lose oursalvation through that type of a
(39:44):
failure, through a mistake,through a sin, because we are
forever united with him.
And that can make you superhappy.
The gospel, everything that weknow about the truth of the
gospel is not about religiousrituals or human efforts, but
it's about trusting in thefinished work of Jesus.
(40:06):
It's the power of God forsalvation to everyone who
believes.
That's what the gospel is.
Not for everyone who goes tochurch on Sunday, not for
everyone who does the rightthings, and not for everyone who
votes the right way.
For everyone who believes.
We will be a light to this worldif we love other people and we
(40:29):
believe.
And we will have the joy of theLord.
Okay, that's our study for thisweek.
Next week, we'll pick up wherewe left off, and we're gonna
learn about four more thingsthat love is.
So we're gonna learn about fourways that love can be expressed
in our lives, and we'll gopretty deep on that verse, on a
(40:50):
couple verses next week.
All right.
So as the worship team comesback up here, let's pray.
Father, we surrender our livesfresh to you.
We believe in the finished workof Jesus Christ.
(41:12):
Not only that, we believe thatJesus Christ is love because the
Bible says God is love.
We believe you have been patientwith us.
We believe you have been kind tous.
You were never self-centered,you were never prideful, you
were never you never rejoiced ininiquity, but you rejoiced in
(41:35):
the truth.
You rejoiced in the word of God,you rejoiced in the finished
promises that you were going toaccomplish that God would make
for us.
God, we thank you for howperfect your love is.
And we thank you that we do nothave to strive and we do not
have to work to become loving,but we simply invite you to live
(42:00):
through us, Jesus, live throughme.
Lord, protect me from living offmy own power, protect me from
living by my own strength,protect me from living to
protect myself.
Lord, the only safe place is tobe fully surrendered to your
will, to fully invite you.
(42:21):
I beg you, Father, live throughme.
Live through me, Jesus.
Live through me.
Make me loving towards my spousewho is frustrating to me
sometimes.
Help me to be loving to mychildren who don't always walk
in the truth.
Help me to be loving to thisworld who needs your light and
(42:41):
your love more than they needanything, even though they don't
know it.
Father, help us to love you evenmore than we love our own lives
and our own comfort and our ownself safety.
Help us to love you even todeath.
Father, you are our life, youare everything to us.
(43:04):
Jesus, we surrender the wordswe've been saying, the things
we've been writing, the thingswe've been thinking.
We surrender it all to you.
Let us only be your love in thisphysical world.
Jesus, we rejoice in how youhave loved us and how you were
(43:24):
patient with us.
And Jesus, we ask you to takeover our church and help us to
love you in a way that we couldnever have loved you before.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
Alright, today's sermon is called What Is Love?
Don't hurt me no more.
Okay.
It's called What is Love?
Baby Don't Hurt Me.
Yeah.
There we go.
Thank you, John.
That was awesome.
We could break out into karaokeright at church, right?
No?
Okay.
And we're gonna be studying 1Corinthians chapter 13.
(00:48):
We'll get through the first sixverses today.
And I tried to Google how manylove songs have ever been
written.
It's worth a Google.
And Google told me in itsinfinite wisdom, over a hundred
million love songs have beenwritten.
I don't know how it knows that.
But sounds right, so we'll gowith it.
But do we really know what loveis?
(01:12):
You know, they asked thousands,they asked a few thousand people
how to describe love, and theseare some of my favorites.
Uh people said it's when you canfart freely in front of someone.
I thought that's that'sinteresting.
Okay.
Uh it's buying an extra thickcookies and cream milkshake
(01:36):
after craving one all day, butyour spouse drops theirs
accidentally, so you give themyours.
Aww.
It's a term that means zero intennis.
Or this one says, Love is bacon,bacon is love.
(01:59):
I can see that.
Love songs, right?
So when we come to church, we'vewritten love, the church has
written 2,000 years worth oflove songs to Jesus.
And when we sing our songs,that's what we're doing.
We are singing the greatest lovesongs that have ever been
(02:21):
written to Jesus.
And it is so important andvaluable to do that.
We don't come here just for alecture.
I hope you don't come here justfor a lecture because the
lecture will probablydisappoint.
But if you come here to connectwith Jesus, to give him your
love, he will never disappointbecause he's always initiating
(02:43):
that.
He's giving you his love.
And so we sing to respond andgive him love.
So that's why we always sing atthe beginning of our church
service and we close our servicein a song usually, because we
want that to bookend what'sgoing on here.
That this is not, and thosearen't religious things.
We're not doing that becauseit's our tradition, but we pick
(03:04):
different songs, so it's alwaysunique and it's always fresh, so
that it's a fresh expression oflove.
Okay, we're gonna talk a lotabout love today, so let's just
look at our text here and seewhat it says.
First Corinthians chapter 13says, Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels,but have not love, I've become a
(03:25):
sounding brass or a clingingsymbol.
And though I have the gift ofprophecy and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, andthough I have all faith, so that
I could remove mountains, buthave not love, I am nothing.
So Paul says, We just finishedtwo weeks of talking about
(03:46):
spiritual gifts and howimportant they are in the
church, and to understand howGod gives you a spiritual gift.
But he says here, love is moreimportant than all the gifts of
the spirit combined, and itdoesn't matter how great your
gift is, the love is thegreatest gift.
But how is love a gift?
That confused me.
(04:07):
I was like, okay, if love is thegreatest gift, how is love the
greatest gift?
Well, a heart of love is a giftthat you can receive from Jesus.
And Paul says, I implore you toseek the best gifts.
The best gift exclusively islove.
(04:30):
So what does that mean?
It means it's a gift to have aheart of love, it's not
something you can produce.
So you shouldn't come to churchand hear, be more loving, just
do it, just be more loving.
You can do it.
Because we can't.
We can't.
We can't produce that on ourown.
But we can seek him.
(04:54):
And in seeking him and askinghim to live through us and to
transform us, our heart receivesthat love as a gift, and we can
pour out that love as a freegift.
So we're gonna talk a lot abouta lot about love today.
We're gonna talk about what whatlove is and what love is not.
(05:16):
And here's the if you don't hearanything, what I want you to
hear is this if you want thislove, if you want to be loving,
which you do because you're abeliever, and so that is your
deepest desire, if you want it,don't try to do it, but ask
Jesus to do it through you inyou.
(05:36):
Ask Jesus Himself to give youhis heart.
That's why we seek the Lord inthe morning, that's why we seek
the Lord in prayer, that's whywe spend time reading his word.
It's not to earn something fromthe Lord, but it's to receive
his heart, receive his grace.
And that's how that works.
(05:57):
As you spend time with him, hislove rubs off on you.
You start to smell like him.
All right, so Paul says, if youhave not love, now the word he
uses for love there is, doesanyone know Greek?
It's the word agape.
(06:19):
Alright, have you guys heardthat word before?
Okay, agape.
That is the ancient Greek wordfor love that Paul uses here.
But in Greek they have fourwords for love.
So we have to learn Greek thismorning.
So we're gonna learn the fourwords for love.
There's these ancient words, andso uh the first one we'll look
at is eros.
(06:39):
So you see eros.
They would use that word for theromantic love, the sexual love,
that type of love when youdescribe that.
It's um uh very simple, easy todescribe, everyone understands,
but that's the word that theyuse.
You get the word erotic fromthat love in England, or from
that word in English.
The second word is storgy, andthat refers to the love in a
(07:03):
family.
So parents for kids, you know,you for your second cousin who
you really love, you know,you're like, oh, family love.
That's that's what the wordstorgy means.
The third word is fia.
And you just can rememberPhiladelphia.
Okay, what is Philadelphia?
(07:23):
The city of brotherly love.
And Cowboys fans hate them.
So as you rem that's an easy wayto remember that the word filia
means friendship or affection.
So that's so when I say I lovemy buddy, when we play fantasy
football together, or we go tothe gym together, man, I love
(07:47):
you, bro.
That's the word that we'reusing.
But in English, we just use allthese words interchangeably, so
we just have to have context ofto what you mean.
Okay.
But agape is the only word thatmatters for us today, because
that's the word that we'relearning about.
And it's it's a love withoutchanging, it's a self-giving,
(08:10):
self-sacrificial love thatalways gives without demanding
or expecting repayment.
That's agape love,self-sacrificing love.
It's a love so great that it canbe given to unlovable people,
(08:31):
unappealing people, people thatdon't deserve anything.
Agape love will love them andwill sacrifice for undeserving
people, people who are mean,people who are dumb, people who
are unkind and treat you poorlyin response.
(08:53):
Agape love does not care at allhow it's treated.
Agape love pours out love nomatter what.
Because it loves to give, itdoesn't love to receive.
This is what's wrong with 90% ofmarriages in the world and
(09:15):
relationships.
You wonder why dating is sodifficult these days and
marriages are so difficult.
Because when we think about ourrelationship, we think, okay,
I'm gonna give this much and I'mgonna get this much in return.
And God's plan for marriage wasnever that.
God's plan was you give and yougive agape love, and you keep
(09:35):
giving and you keep giving andyou keep giving no matter what.
You love and you love and youlove.
Well, where do I get that kindof love?
We'll get to that at the endhere.
So hold on to that question.
Agape love can be defined assacrificial giving.
(09:56):
It has very, very little to dowith emotion.
Emotion.
We think when when we see a lovemovie, you know, a romance, it
really gets all get us gets usright in our fields, right?
And we have that emotionalresponse.
Um, but real agape love is aboutself-denial for the sake of
(10:19):
another.
And how we learn about this, howwe know about this, is because
God is love.
So everything God does will belove.
He loves his whole creation, sohe is constantly giving, he's
just always giving to his entirecreation.
He supplies what the animalsneed, he supplies what
(10:39):
everything in creation needs.
And that doesn't stop withpeople.
He loves all his people, he isalways giving love.
Giving, giving, giving.
That's his heart.
That's what love is.
And so we can read this chapterand think that Paul is saying,
man, let's just be friendly.
(11:00):
But that's not what this istalking about.
He says, if we don't havesacrificial love, everything we
do means nothing.
Everything we do means nothing.
Agape isn't just friendliness,it's self-denial for the sake of
another.
(11:20):
It does what's best for theother person.
So if I just do self-denialthings, am I good?
If I just do good works and I'malways thinking about other
people, is that what love is?
Well, let's read.
In verse 3, it says, And thoughI bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give mybody to be burned, but have not
(11:43):
agape love, it profits menothing.
So here Paul says, you know,many Christians think that being
a Christian in the Christianlife is all about sacrifice.
You sacrifice your money, yousacrifice your life, you
sacrifice your time for the sakeof Jesus.
And sacrifice is important, butwithout love, agape love, he
(12:06):
says, it profits me nothing.
It profits me nothing.
He says that these things we doare not the best measure of
someone's true spiritualcredentials.
Oh, you should listen to me, andI'm I'm this in the church, and
(12:28):
I should be respected becauselook at all these things that
I've done.
I did this and I did this, andwhen we have our resume of all
the things that we've done, orall the things that we've
sacrificed, or all the thingsthat we give in, Paul says it
means nothing if there's notagape love there.
(12:48):
Because what is that?
It's pride and self-focus.
Pride and self-sufficiency,self-focus, it ruins all our
self-denying good works.
So, yeah, you might have doneall those good things, and those
things can be great.
But pride ruins it all, Paulsays.
Our sacrifices don't matter ifwe're trusting in our
(13:09):
sacrifices.
Our eyes are on Jesus.
Love can never be focused on me.
Agape love is never focused onmyself.
What I feel, what I think Ideserve, or how I think things
should be.
How many times in the Bible arewe told to love ourselves?
(13:37):
Zero.
But you you ask the world today,you ask the common psychological
principles, the common idea thatman has of how to find your
worth, and it says, loveyourself, love yourself, love
yourself.
And Jesus says, if you want tofollow me, deny yourself, let
death to self and say no toself, deny yourself.
(13:59):
So we have these two oppositeperspectives, these two opposite
ways of how you're supposed tolive life.
The world says, love yourself,God says, you already love
yourself.
You actually, if you want tofind life, you need to deny self
and see, discover what agapelove is all about.
(14:20):
Each thing described in whatwe've read so far in verses one
through three is a good thing.
Tongues, speaking in tongues,good.
It was awesome.
Prophecy, that was good,knowledge was good, having faith
was good, and sacrifice, livinga sacrificial life, all good
(14:41):
things.
But love, agape love is sovaluable, so important that
apart from it, every other thingis useless.
That's what that's how importantthis is, Paul says.
So vital, so vital.
When we focus too much on whatwe do, we forget that we do what
(15:01):
we do because of who we are.
We are loved by Christ, byJesus.
And so we love others because ofour identity in Christ.
All these serving things and allthe gifts that he gives us and
all the things that we do, theyspring out of our identity.
That's why in every single oneof Paul's letters, he spends the
(15:23):
first half of it pouring intoyour identity.
This is who you are, this iswhat Jesus did for you, this is
what to believe, this is what tobelieve, this is what to
believe.
Then he says, this is how to actbecause of that.
This is how you can, youridentity will inform your
behavior.
So, how do we know what thislove is?
(15:45):
How do we know what this loveis?
I wish there was a simple,perfect description of love that
could teach us what love is, andthat we could read it at all our
weddings and then ignore it forthe rest of our marriages.
Oh, yeah, that's what we havehere.
This is a great description oflove.
So let's read it.
(16:06):
Chapter 13, verse 4.
Here's two things that love is.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Paul is not writing about howlove feels.
Again, we think love is allabout feeling, but he's writing
(16:27):
about how love can be seen inaction.
So true love, this agape love,is always demonstrated by
action.
Don't say you love me, show it.
Right?
You've heard that.
Probably said it in yourmarriage or in your
relationships.
Don't say you love me, just showit.
So the first way he says we canshow love is by long suffering.
(16:50):
That means I'll choose to loveyou even when you don't deserve
it, or do things that hurt me orannoy me.
I'll treat you the sameregardless of how many times you
fall short of the standard, orhow many times you reject me, or
how many times you actunlovingly toward me.
(17:12):
This is agape love.
If God's love is in us, then wewill show long suffering to
those who annoy us and hurt us.
So I'm gonna pause right here.
And as we we look at this, weour natural thing is we are
gonna self-assess.
We're gonna be like, am Ilong-suffering?
(17:34):
And how's that gonna go for us?
Yeah, we're gonna we're gonnaremember all of the times when
we weren't this, when we did notdemonstrate it.
Maybe you'll think of a fewtimes when you did, okay?
But the intention here is yes,to recognize and to learn what
love is, but it's real easy toto to change the the subject to
(17:59):
Sean suffers long and is kind.
And if I do that, I'm probablygonna feel some condemnation.
I'm probably not gonnaunderstand the full meaning.
But if you put in the wordJesus, Jesus suffers long and is
kind, wow, then everything makestotal perfect sense.
(18:21):
Did Jesus demonstrate longsuffering?
Praise him, right?
Was Jesus kind?
I mean, limitless kindness andlong suffering flowed from
Jesus.
Now, where does Jesus live?
Up in heaven and in us.
He has sent his very spirit tolive in us.
(18:43):
Jesus lives in us.
So I'm pausing right here totake a take a just a backup and
say, guys, don't don't get lostin these are the requirements,
this is what you're supposed tolook at.
You already have this loveinside of you.
You already have it.
You don't have to earn it, youdon't have to produce it, you
(19:04):
don't have to discover it.
It's right inside you in Christ.
You are in Christ, and Christ isin you.
You have this love.
This love is how you really wantto act.
Every time you choose to notwalk in this, you're gonna be
conflicted, and your peaceinside you is gonna go away.
And you're like, oh, I want totreat this person and I want to,
(19:26):
oh, he just cut me off, and Iand you you don't do the loving
thing.
Your own heart has a disconnect.
God doesn't just say, shouldn'thave done that.
God says, Who are you?
Remember who you are.
You Jesus is living inside you,that is your identity.
(19:49):
So loving is your nature.
Love, this kind of love, is yournature.
You can be patient, you can belong-suffering.
But what about they do?
Don't look at them, look atJesus.
But how can I muster uppatience?
You can't.
It's a gift.
(20:11):
Seek the best gifts.
The best gift is a loving heart.
Jesus has given you a lovingheart.
So to walk in that loving heartis about faith.
Do you believe that Jesus lovesyou?
Do you believe that Jesus livesin you?
Do you believe that He'll makeyour actions loving as you step
forward to love?
The problem is we don't evenwant to step forward to love
(20:32):
because we we know that we'regonna get hurt.
We believe the person's notgonna change.
We believe the person's gonnatreat us the same way again.
We don't believe love transformspeople.
And Jesus says, It does.
Look at you.
I've loved you and ittransformed you.
(20:54):
So why don't you just let mylove flow through you to these
people that you need to love,that you want to love.
Love suffers long.
Love is kind.
So kindness is the descriptionof love.
I'll choose to treat you in away that is best for you, not
what I think you deserve or howI feel I should treat you.
(21:18):
I would treat what is truly bestfor you.
I'll respond with kind words andactions instead of reacting with
my feelings.
Did you see that?
I'll respond instead of react.
Love responds.
The flesh reacts.
It's always best if you feellike you're gonna say something
(21:40):
stupid to not say anything atall.
Just wait.
It's best to respond withpatience and kindness.
This means love is gentle.
What is kindness?
It means gentle, considerate,compassionate.
It seeks the well-being ofothers and it acts in a way that
(22:01):
is beneficial and supportive tothe person that it's loving.
In Ephesians 2, 7, it says thatGod shows the incomparable
riches of his grace.
Let me read it to you in the NewLiving Translation.
It says, God, so God can pointus, point to us in all future
ages as an example of theincredible wealth of his grace
(22:23):
and kindness towards us, as hehas shown in all he has done for
us who are united with ChristJesus.
That means for all of eternity,our whole life, our purpose is
to be the object of God'skindness.
You're not gonna be playing aharp for all of eternity.
(22:46):
We're not gonna be just braggingabout our mansions.
For all of eternity, it's gonnabe about God revealing in us
exploring the kindness He hashad to us.
It will be an exchange ofkindness and love with God.
That is our that is what eternallife is.
(23:09):
Experiencing the love, the agapelove of God, and responding to
it with love.
This kindness is not somethingthat we muster up on our own,
but it is the result ofreceiving his love and believing
he lives in us and will livethrough us.
So now let's look at our nexttext here, which is verses four
(23:32):
through six.
We're gonna see eight thingsthat love is not.
Eight things that love is not.
It says, Love does not envy,love does not parade itself, is
not puffed up, does not behaverudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil,and does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in thetruth.
(23:55):
So let's just break down eachone of those.
First, it does love does notenvy.
This means we do not compareourselves with each other.
Comparison is always, always awork of the flesh, an idea of
the flesh, a mode, it'smotivated by the flesh.
(24:16):
Love will never compare ourlife, our state, our blessings
with someone else.
Something they have shouldbelong to me.
I wish I had their life.
I wish I had their gifts.
I wish I had this, I wish I hadthat.
That's never love.
(24:36):
Love is happy that someone elseis blessed, love is happy that
someone else can be lifted up.
Love is always willing to takethat lower place to lift up
somebody else.
The next thing, love does notparade itself.
So love in action, this agapelove, can always be anonymous.
(25:01):
Love never has to have theattention, it doesn't have to
have the limelight, doesn't haveto people say it did a good job,
and it doesn't have to see aresult.
Love does not have to see aresult.
We want to see results so we canhear, well done, good job, you
did a good job.
And love says, That's just whatI do.
(25:23):
Love says, I just love.
I will love and I will do it insecret if I need to.
I will care about other peoplebecause it never shows itself
off.
Sometimes the people who seem towork the hardest at love are the
ones who are furthest from it.
They do things many wouldperceive as loving, yet they do
(25:45):
them in a manner that wouldparade itself.
And this isn't love, it's pridelooking for glory in the
appearance of love.
Again, don't just say I loveyou, just be loving all the
time.
Sometimes we say I love you, sowe can hear someone say I love
you back.
(26:06):
I said I love him, and hedoesn't say it back to me.
That's not love.
Agape love loves no matter what.
We are called to agape love.
Love is not puffed up.
Again, that means prideful.
To be puffed up is to bearrogant and self-focused.
(26:28):
It describes someone who has abig head.
Love doesn't get its headswelled up, but it focuses on
others.
No one is worried about theirposition or their standing or
their title or gettingattention.
That's that's not agape love.
It's not the heart that Jesusgives us.
(26:49):
It's not the heart we haveinside us.
Next, love is not rude.
Rudeness.
That means polite manners,right?
Love never rushes people.
Love never is insulting.
Love never is insulting.
(27:09):
Love never insults another humanbeing.
Made in God's image, no matterwhat they believe, no matter
what they do, they are aneternal soul.
And that soul will either livein eternity with God or will be
separated from God for eternityas well.
(27:31):
And if we can see people aseternal souls, it really will
affect the way that we treatthem.
And we will lovingly avoidrudeness.
We will never laugh at others'expense.
We will never joke about peoplewho aren't like us or don't look
like us or don't act like us ordon't believe like us.
(27:53):
I've been reading, my wife and Ihave been reading about these
missions to the Congo from C.T.
Stud and then this the next guy,Norman Grubb, his son-in-law,
and they would go into theCongo, and the the Congolese
people at that time in the early1900s, I mean, they wore like
nothing.
They were just naked all thetime.
And they were cannibals and theyhad you know worshipped awful
(28:16):
things and they had every kindof iniquity you could do.
And and they could go in, youyou could hear the heart of
these missionaries.
They would go in and they wouldbe like, We could we could just
decry all the evil stuff.
And they said that these areevil, they're very evil people.
But they went in there and theywere willing to be killed and
not just killed, but brutallymurdered, and some of them
(28:40):
cannibalized because they valuedthese people.
There was nothing you could saythat just gave them value as
people, they they weren'teducated, they didn't have
anything that you could say wasredeeming about them, except
they were created by God andloved by God, and so these
missionaries with the heart ofJesus went in and sacrificed
(29:01):
their lives for people that theyhad no guarantees would would
turn.
But God used it and throughagape love, a great revival
happened in that country whenthere was it was incredible
violence, it was stuff we couldnot even imagine.
(29:21):
Like the the treatment was justunspeakable what they were doing
to each other.
And um, and God's lovepenetrated it, transformed them,
and won because Jesus alwayswins.
When he is lifted up, he candraw all men to himself.
And that's what we do when welove.
(29:43):
All right, love never seeks itsown.
Paul says the day is the sameidea in Romans chapter 12, verse
10.
He says, in honor, givingpreference to one another.
And in Philippians 2, 4, hesays, Let each of you not look
out for his own interest, butalso for the interest of others.
(30:04):
And that's being like Jesus inthe most basic way, being
others-centered instead ofself-centered.
So love doesn't, it doesn'tmatter what I get out of this
relationship, I'm going to pourout love.
And then it says love is notprovoked.
(30:24):
We're just getting deeper anddeeper and deeper.
Here.
This is insane.
This is crazy talk.
Love is not provoked.
That means you are unoffendable.
Nothing anyone says about you,about God, about anything will
ever offend you because of love.
Because you know it doesn'tmatter what they say, I'm gonna
(30:45):
love them anyway.
It doesn't matter if they have alack of understanding, it
doesn't matter if they hate, itdoesn't matter the differences.
We can all find easily uh waysto get uh provoked or become
irritated or get offendedbecause people are just annoying
in this world, and further thanthat, people are evil.
(31:06):
But God says, agape love doesn'tget offended, and that heart is
in you, it's already there.
You can love the unlovablewithout being provoked.
Moses was kept out of thepromised land because he became
(31:29):
provoked by the people ofIsrael, it says in Numbers
chapter 20.
And the promised land for us isthis life, this victorious
Christian life where our churchis a light to this world and we
are overcomers.
That's our promised land whereeverything we do is is a light
(31:50):
to this world.
It'll never happen if we'rebeing provoked, if we're letting
ourselves get annoyed.
We're gonna love people deeplybecause that's how Jesus loves
them through us.
Lastly, it says, well, secondless, thinks no evil.
Literally, this means does notstore up the memory of any wrong
(32:12):
it has received.
Does not store up the memory ofany wrong it has received.
People will treat you poorly,people will take advantage of
you, people will speak evil ofyou, forget it.
Love forgets it.
Your mind can't forget it.
I'm not, he's not saying youhave to forget it, because your
(32:34):
mind won't forget those things.
But love is more powerful thaneven your mind and your memory.
You can love people.
Love will put away the hurts ofthe past instead of clinging to
them.
One writer tells of a tribe inPolynesia where it was customary
for men to keep reminders of hishatred for others.
(32:57):
And these reminders weresuspended from the roofs of
their huts to keep to keep alivethe memory of the wrongs, real
or imagined.
And I think in some of our huts,we're doing the same thing
sometimes.
Sometimes we judge otherpeople's motives.
That's thinking evil of them.
(33:18):
Oh, I bet this person is justthis, I bet they think that.
I bet this, that, or the other.
We we group people.
Well, because of this, you'reall that.
And that's not love.
It says love does not rejoice insin.
What makes our hearts, thehearts of love that we have, the
(33:42):
hearts of love Jesus has givenus, what makes us the most
happy?
Not sin.
Sin doesn't make you happy.
I know that many of us strugglewith sin, and when we choose to
walk in that sin, I know that weare not happy.
I could go around and I couldsay, Well, you should stop doing
(34:04):
this and you should stop doingthat, and you should stop doing
that.
Or I could say, Are you happydoing that?
I know the answer is no.
Because if you're a believer,your heart is filled with his
heart, and your heart rejoicesin the truth, not in sin.
(34:24):
And so I don't need to try toconvince you not to sin.
I need to remind you of who youare.
You are a beautiful child of Godwhose heart has been renewed by
the Holy Spirit.
You are love personified becauseJesus lives inside you.
And when we surrender to him,that love oozes out of every
(34:50):
part of our every action,everything can be filled with
his love.
So it says, We don't rejoice ininiquity, but we rejoice in the
truth.
Well, what is this truth of thegospel that makes us so happy?
I'm gonna tell you, what isthis?
(35:11):
The truth of the gospel is thegood news that Jesus has
finished his work on the cross.
He finished all the work thatwas needed to do on the cross.
It's it's all about the grace ofGod and the salvation that Jesus
freely gives us by grace, andour side of it is always faith.
(35:34):
Are we gonna believe in what hedid?
So here's four things you canremember that we can rejoice in.
When you want happiness, whenyou want joy deep in your heart,
when you're looking for thatjoy, when you're hungry for joy
and you've been struggling withthe struggles of this world or
(35:54):
sin, you've been strugglingagainst sin.
Rejoice in the truth.
Number one, Jesus is the Son ofGod.
Rejoice in that.
He came to earth, he lived asinless life, he revealed God's
love and his truth to allpeople.
And if you understand that andif you believe that, then he's
revealed it to you, and you'reliving in that truth.
(36:17):
And that truth is the beginningof all knowledge, is the
beginning of everything.
Jesus was God, who Jesus is.
The second thing you can rejoicein is that salvation is by grace
through faith.
All of salvation is by gracethrough faith.
It's a gift from God, notsomething we can earn with our
(36:40):
efforts.
No part of your Christian lifeis something you earn with your
efforts.
Oh, I went to church, so God'sgonna bless me.
I did good things, so God'sgonna bless me.
I said no to those bad things,so God's gonna bless me.
It's never about that.
It's always a free gift ofgrace.
It's received by grace throughfaith.
(37:03):
Everything you can get from God,your side of it is faith.
Am I gonna trust in Jesus or amI going to try to earn it by
myself?
That's the law, that's areligious mindset, not the
Christian relationship gracemindset.
It's a gift, that's grace.
(37:24):
If I have to work for it, that'sreligion.
And we are not religious.
The Bible doesn't teachreligion, it teaches a
relationship with Jesus.
The third thing that will makeyou happy is the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross to takeaway the sins of the world.
He rose from the dead,conquering sin and death, and
(37:47):
both those things are yours.
So what happened to Jesushappened to you.
So his death on the cross wasyour death to sin.
His new life that he raised withis your new life.
We are we identify with him.
We are one with him.
He gives us his forgiveness andhis new life of joy and victory
(38:11):
over sin.
As a Christian, you do not haveto sin.
You have been set free from thepower of sin.
Now, do we walk in that all thetime?
No, because we're growing infaith.
But the more we believe in ouroneness with him, in his victory
over sin, in his death andresurrection, the more we
believe, the more we will walkin his victory and in his love.
(38:35):
It's all about faith.
Here's another one.
New life in Christ will make youhappy.
Believers are made new throughJesus.
We have a new life.
The old self-life has beencrucified, and the new life has
begun.
And so now we have the HolySpirit living inside us.
(38:57):
That means we don't ever rejoicein sinning.
We have a new life.
The things that made us excitedand excited our flesh and made
us happy before you were saved,they just don't work anymore.
They don't make you happyanymore.
And believing that will make youhappy.
(39:20):
The last thing is we haveeternal security through our
relationship with Jesus.
We are secure in Jesus.
Nothing can separate you fromhis love.
Have you failed as a Christian?
Yeah.
Have I failed as a Christian?
Big time.
But we will never lose oursalvation through that type of a
(39:44):
failure, through a mistake,through a sin, because we are
forever united with him.
And that can make you superhappy.
The gospel, everything that weknow about the truth of the
gospel is not about religiousrituals or human efforts, but
it's about trusting in thefinished work of Jesus.
(40:06):
It's the power of God forsalvation to everyone who
believes.
That's what the gospel is.
Not for everyone who goes tochurch on Sunday, not for
everyone who does the rightthings, and not for everyone who
votes the right way.
For everyone who believes.
We will be a light to this worldif we love other people and we
(40:29):
believe.
And we will have the joy of theLord.
Okay, that's our study for thisweek.
Next week, we'll pick up wherewe left off, and we're gonna
learn about four more thingsthat love is.
So we're gonna learn about fourways that love can be expressed
in our lives, and we'll gopretty deep on that verse, on a
(40:50):
couple verses next week.
All right.
So as the worship team comesback up here, let's pray.
Father, we surrender our livesfresh to you.
We believe in the finished workof Jesus Christ.
(41:12):
Not only that, we believe thatJesus Christ is love because the
Bible says God is love.
We believe you have been patientwith us.
We believe you have been kind tous.
You were never self-centered,you were never prideful, you
were never you never rejoiced ininiquity, but you rejoiced in
(41:35):
the truth.
You rejoiced in the word of God,you rejoiced in the finished
promises that you were going toaccomplish that God would make
for us.
God, we thank you for howperfect your love is.
And we thank you that we do nothave to strive and we do not
have to work to become loving,but we simply invite you to live
(42:00):
through us, Jesus, live throughme.
Lord, protect me from living offmy own power, protect me from
living by my own strength,protect me from living to
protect myself.
Lord, the only safe place is tobe fully surrendered to your
will, to fully invite you.
(42:21):
I beg you, Father, live throughme.
Live through me, Jesus.
Live through me.
Make me loving towards my spousewho is frustrating to me
sometimes.
Help me to be loving to mychildren who don't always walk
in the truth.
Help me to be loving to thisworld who needs your light and
(42:41):
your love more than they needanything, even though they don't
know it.
Father, help us to love you evenmore than we love our own lives
and our own comfort and our ownself safety.
Help us to love you even todeath.
Father, you are our life, youare everything to us.
(43:04):
Jesus, we surrender the wordswe've been saying, the things
we've been writing, the thingswe've been thinking.
We surrender it all to you.
Let us only be your love in thisphysical world.
Jesus, we rejoice in how youhave loved us and how you were
(43:24):
patient with us.
And Jesus, we ask you to takeover our church and help us to
love you in a way that we couldnever have loved you before.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com