Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:03]
A
Amen and amen and amen. Hey, Church, would you join me in just saying thank you to all the men and women that serve in our kids and students ministries that join us to raise up that one more generation. Praise God. Praise God. Thank you. And a bunch of them can't hear it because they're serving right now. So when you go pick up your kids, would you please say thank you to the people that serve and volunteer. And when you drop off your kids on Tuesdays or Wednesday nights or whenever you do, please say thank you to those people. And if you were not serving in an area, an incredible area of impact would be for you to pray about serving in our kids and student ministry. All right, if you got your Bible, then you better. We're gonna start out at first Corinthians 16 for a minute. Then we're gonna back up a few pages to 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. We are going to talk about love. All this whole series, we have been doing a deep dive in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, verses 13 and 14. Hopefully you know it well, says, be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now I'm going to make a confession to you this week. This week is a little different, okay? Up to this point, I have felt very confident in my preaching about what I'm talking about here. Because when I look at these imperatives of what the Apostle Paul carried along by the Holy Spirit tells us to do and be as men, I'm gonna be honest. I feel pretty good about it with the help of the Holy Spirit and a lot of sanctification and grace in my life. But I am watchful. I am on watch for my family. I am on guard. I know the schemes of the enemy. I know he's trying to take them out. And I stand at the door like a strong man willing to protect his palace. And I know how to keep things safe. Check feel pretty good about that. I know how to stand firm in the faith. That means to fight that on a daily basis. I put on the armor of God and on behalf of those people that I love, my family and this church. I fight the devil of hell all the time. I've told you I want to be like this. I want to be like when the sons of Sceva tried to cast that demon out. If you remember this, they say, in the name of Jesus, who Paul preaches, come out. And they say, jesus, we know, Paul, we've heard of, but who are you I kind of want to be in that Paul category, that every week when I wake up in the morning, hell trembles a little bit because they got to deal with me. Right? C.S. lewis says, When I die, I want hell to throw a party because they ain't gonna mess with me anymore. So I feel pretty good about that. I go to war. The Bible says, act like men. I am a man. I am a man. I told you. I drive a truck and have guns and hunt and wear a camo. That doesn't make me a man. Makes me awesome. All right? But I am trying to be the kind of man God has called me to be. Feel good about that. Be strong. I am strong. Not as strong as I used to be. Stronger than most. And I try to leverage my strength for the benefit of others. No problem. Feel really good about that. So far, to some extent. I can say what Paul says in First Corinthians 11, 1, Follow me as I follow Christ. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am following Christ and am submitted and surrendered to him until we get to this last one. Okay, let me explain. It says, let all that you do be done in love. And when you first read this, here's the thing. If you evaluate yourself on how loving you are, most of us go killing it. Killing it. Why? Because immediately we begin to say, I feel many things on the inside of me. I feel warm feelings. I almost cried at that video. Almost. I didn't. I work out. I have hobbies. Some people are criers. The problem is, love is not a feeling. Love is a thing. And one of the places that I fail most often in my life is what I am about to preach about. So the only reason I'm not a hypocrite is cause I admit it. If you admit you're a hypocrisy, you're no longer a hypocrite. You're just a sinner. Amen. So to my family, to my wife, to you. I'm sorry. Cause I don't love well. And you're like, I'm sure you do, Pastor. Oh, give it a minute. I feel love. I love love. I love to love, and I love to be loved. I just don't do love very well, according to the Bible. You see, when we in English use the word love, we don't even know what we're talking about. There's a bunch of words in Greek. I won't go through them all. And they're very nuanced about different types of love. I mean, think about English we will say things like, I love my wife and I love Jesus, and I love tacos. How can that be the same thing? So when the Bible says, let all that you do be done in love, what does it mean? Well, I've got good news. If you made it to First Corinthians 16, just turn the page a couple of pages over and you get to the preeminent text in the Bible on love, even if you're new to Bible study, if you've ever been to a wedding, you've heard First Corinthians 13. This is the love chapter, okay? Now, what's interesting is if you're reading Paul's letter to the church in Corinth. The Corinth church was a dumpster fire. I think it's funny, when I do all these pastors conferences, I'll be honest, I don't love them. I'd rather preach here. But whatever. I'm trying to help these cats out, right? And there's all these like. And they're like, we just want to be like the early church. I'm like, which one? I mean, the Corinthian church was a dumpster fire. People were getting drunk on communion. I mean, listen, some of you struggle with alcohol, but if you're getting drunk at church on communion, you've missed some meetings. You understand what I'm saying? People were sleeping with their mother in law. Think about that and try not to throw up in your mouth for a little while, okay? I mean, this place is a train wreck of a church Anyway. So in First Corinthians 12, you gotta understand the context of this. First Corinthians 12 is about unity and leadership in the church. And then first Corinthians 14 is about spiritual gifts being used for the edification of the body, that gifts weren't giving to you for you. And so right in the middle of this, you get this love chapter. And if you don't understand the context, you almost think Paul's thinking, well, you know, we gotta have something to read at weddings, so let's just throw it in there in 13. No, no, no, no, no. The reason the chapter on love is here is because love is like the oil to the engine of the family that is called the church. And there's three parts to chapter 13, verses one through three. We'll talk about the necessity and primacy of love. I'll explain that verses 4 through 7 will describe what love is, not what you feel like. And then verses 8 through 13 talk about the permanence of love. And then Paul just punches men right in the stomach right here at the end. So again, if I ask you, are you loving? Most of us would think, yeah, I'm killing it. Because we would think about how we feel. Well, here's what Paul's going to do. Paul's going to give us a whole chapter carried along by the Holy Spirit and define love. Now, as we read this, I'm telling you there's two ways to read the Bible. The best way is to hold the Bible up as a mirror. The worst way is to use the Bible like binoculars and think about how I'm gonna send this to my husband. Okay, how about we're gonna just try to be what the Bible says to be. So again, Paul in 1 Corinthians 16. You wanna be a man? Here's how to be a man. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. All right, well, what is love? I'm glad you asked. First Corinthians 13. Paul says this. He's gonna talk about the necessity and primacy of love. Here's how big love is. Ready? If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. This means if you can preach the paint off the wall, but you do it from a place not of love, then you're just making noise. And when he says noisy gong or clanging cymbals, what he's actually talking about is that's the way pagan worship services conducted themselves in Corinth in the first century. That just down the road there was a temple to a pagan God. And they would get in there and they would clang a. But they'd make a bunch of noise. And here's what Paul's saying. If you preach without love, you might as well be worshipping the devil. Cause you ain't preaching a gospel centered sermon. This is what he says. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Verse 2. And if I have prophetic powers and understood all mysteries and knowledge, think about that. What if you had prophetic powers, men? What if you could look at the stock market and predict it with 100% accuracy every time? What if you could predict every election every time? What if. What if you knew the outcome of every ball game before it happened? What if you had all knowledge, you knew every question, you would double down on double Jeopardy every time and get it right. What if that was you? What if you knew how they got those boats and those little bottles, whatever the thing is, okay, and you had all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains. If you have the power of miracles, if you were a faith healer, if you had that kind of faith, but have not love, I am nothing. Verse 3. This is how important love is. If I give away all that I have, if you were the most generous person at the church of 1122, if you sponsor the most children, if you give away the most money, if you give away all that you have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned. If you are a martyr for the faith. So think about this. If you were the best preacher, if you had prophetic powers, understood all mysteries, could explain every verse in the Bible, even the ones that are hard, if you had miraculous powers and you were literally a martyr and the most generous, how do you think you would be doing in the kingdom of God? Paul says, but if you had not love, even if you do all those things, you gain nothing. You see what a big deal this is that he says? Without love, you are nothing. You gain nothing. You have nothing. According to the Bible, without love, you're an absolute failure. Nobody teaches us this in our world. Let me put it in context. You could have the biggest house, you could land the dream job. You could outperform all the competition. You could shoot one under, you could buy the sweetest boat, you could impress the most people. Your YouTube clip could go viral. You could pastor the fastest growing church in the history of America. Whatever. The thing is that you think makes you successful. Paul says, neat, neat. But without love, that you are nothing. You have nothing, you gain nothing. So men again, we're talking to men about acting like men. Women, you're smart enough, make the connection. Men. Ask yourself, would you say love defines you? Would you say if I said, when they go, hey, you met Ted? I'm like, tell me about Ted. Do you think love makes your top 10 list? Oh, he is loving. Why? Because Jesus says, a lawyer comes up to. Jesus says, all right, 613 laws in the whole Old Testament. Number one, ready, go. Jesus says, no problem. Love quotes Deuteronomy 6, 4, the Shema. He says that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second one is like it that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Think about this in our context. We think the people that are most successful, they're successful in passion in position and in stuff. That's what we think. And yet the Bible would say those people are absolute failures. Think about this. If the best looking people with the most fame and the most money were actually the most successful, then wouldn't Hollywood be the epicenter of peace and happiness? And can we not agree it's an absolute dumpster fire? No matter how much money you have, no matter how much power you have, no matter how pretty you are, without love, you will fail. Let me give you an example, okay? Do you know at one point Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were married to one another? Do you realize this? Think about this. Just get that in your mind for a second. Okay? Mr. And Ms. Smith, there they go. Don't think about the movie, it's sin. But just think about them being married. They got all the money, they got all the fame, they're so good looking, it must hurt, right? And then one day, Brad Pitt looks over in the morning and Angelina Jolie and goes, huh, I can do better than this. What? Yeah. And then she looks back and is like, I don't even like him anymore. Is that crazy? You know what? They're actually looking for men. You know what Angelina is actually looking for that she couldn't find in Brad Pitt. Now, I don't mean physically, unless she's into like balding and a little overweight but committed. You know what I mean? And so you look at all the externals are there, but they have not the love of Christ in and through them. And so it is an absolute failure. So if Paul says that love is this important, and Paul says, men, let everything you do be done in love, then you have to ask, well, what is love? Well, it's not a feeling. My definition, I've given it to you 100 times. Keep writing it down, eventually you'll know it. My love is. Love is your joy in the Lord expressed towards others at great expense to yourself. I get that from the cross, okay? And most of the time in America, when we say I love you, what we actually mean is I love me. And you make me feel better about me. And I like you to be around. Cause I like me a lot. That is not the definition in the Bible. You see the Bible, what Paul is gonna do in verse four is he's actually gonna define love. It doesn't say love feels like he doesn't tell a story about love. He's not like two trains left the station at 9:30 and 8:30. None of this stuff. He just says love is. And he's going to give some defining words. And so, men, what I want us to do, as if Paul says, let everything you do be done in love. And then he says, this is what love is. I dare you to hold up the mirror of the word of God and say, am I these things in all of my relationships, not just my wife and my kids, but in all of my relationships? All right, you ready for this? Love is patient and kind. All right, how we doing? How we doing? I'm over, too, right out of the gate. I mean, let's be honest here. Have any of you ever used those two words to describe me? Have any of you ever thought, you need to come to my church, man. You need to meet my pastor. Tell me about him. He is patient and kind. I mean, the fact that you're laughing at me in my face, just think about that. Patient and kind. I am the least patient person I know. I mean, I yell at the microwave when I'm in the left lane, if anybody is in front of me, I feel like I'm losing gracious, like, why you gotta pass everybody? I was like, cause they're in front of me. When they get behind me, I don't care. Okay? Why y' all so slow? It makes me go crazy. Patience is a passive reaction of love in tough circumstances. Patience, literally, in Greek, means to take a punch. That's what it means. When I take a punch, it's usually to set up for the counter punch. Every time I think about this, every time I think about patience, I know I've told you this a million times. I don't care. Is. I go back. My mind goes back to when I was coaching Little League baseball with J.P. when he was playing. And we had this little kid on our team, my third baseman. He was very athletic. And listen, we played to win. When I played Little League baseball, occasionally I'd get some little kid and they'd be like, well, my dad says we shouldn't keep score. I was like, your dad's a communist, okay? And they said, yeah, but it's just for fun. No, no, no. Your dad's a loser, so you're gonna have to go to the loser team. We win around here, all right? My Bible says you run a race to win. It's not the most important thing, but it's pretty dang important. We're winners. We won all the time. We're the champs. All right? And so this kid. You've heard me talk about it before. I. I'm out there on the field. It was coach, pitch. You gotta. Gotta get em all lined up, you know, little, tiny, tiny baseball's hard. And I look over and this kid has the brim of his hat laying face down on the infield. And he's using the brim of his hat to scoop up. He's making a pyramid with his hat. And I wasn't. I did not think, I bet he's having fun, man. I mean, I'm a no man. And then I met his mom and I was like, this is a generational curse. That's what that was. So. And the reality is, I'm telling you, as awesome as I think I am, sometimes when heaven looks at me, I look like this goofy kid just scooping up dirt on my hat. And God is so patient and kind towards me. Love is patient and kind. If patience is the passive reaction of love in tough circumstances with tough people, kindness is the active action towards those people. I love it last week when Pastor Matt just said he made a willful decision to choose kindness. So love is patient and kind. Men, grade yourself here, okay? There's gonna be a quiz at the end. Second, we haven't even gotten out of the first verse definition. Next. Love does not envy or boast. Do you envy? And are you feeding it with social media? Here's a crazy one. Are you jealous of the people that you say you love? That's not love. You cannot simultaneously compare yourself to and be jealous of people that you say you love. Love is not that thing. Every time we compare ourselves, I hope you realize that comparison is a trap and it's just a lose lose situation. That envy is an affront against God. You realize this when you envy what somebody else has. You're not loving them. You're actually looking at God and say, God, you screwed this up because you're not doing it right. You gave him too much and you didn't give me enough. You're not doing this right. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Let me ask you this. Are you boastful? Like, do you always have to one up somebody's story? When you look at a group photo, do you immediately look at you and evaluate the quality of the photo based on you? Love does not do that. Do you need recognition? Do you constantly compare when somebody is telling their story or talking to you? Do you listen to understand or do you listen to respond? Love always says, it's not about me. All right, so we've got four categories so far. How we doing? Anybody like nailing it? Well, if that's you, you're screwed. Why love Is not arrogant. What an arrogant thing to say. Love is not arrogant or rude. Arrogance believes I'm better than you. Arrogance thinks you God's really lucky to have me. Arrogance looks down your nose at other people and groups of people. And I want you to realize that we cannot simultaneously lift our eyes to Jesus, fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and look down our nose at any other person. You wanna check your humility? I dare you to do this. Christmas Eve, after you go to one of our 14 services, Christmas Eve, about 11:30, roll into Walmart and just look around. First of all, your understanding of the grace of God for all people will expand. You'll be like, you died for these people, I'm telling you. But the moment, man, the moment you think somehow you have more value or worth than any other person, it's cause we're arrogant. So arrogance believes I'm better than you. Rudeness is treating people that way. Let me ask you, man, are you arrogant and rude? Now I've told you this a million times. When you walk in the door, does peace walk in with you? When you walk in the door, does peace walk in with you? Let's keep going. Love does not insist on its own way. Does everything have to be your way? And let me tell you how this is so tricky. Okay, men, let me tell you how tricky the devil is. You see, everything God creates, the enemy corrupts. And the reason that some of you are so successful in areas of your life is cause you demand your own way. And you're right. You're actually right. That's why you're the boss. That's why you have all the authority. And if everybody would just shut up, keep their hands and feet inside the car and do what you said at all times it goes good. And what rewards you in one arena of life, you will kill you in other arenas of life, see how tricky the enemy can be? Do you always have to have it your way? Here's one. Do you always have to have the last word? Gretchen has asked me this about a thousand times. She'll say, why do you always have to be right? To which I go, it is a burden that I have to bear. You know, I'm sorry, I got a couple verses. I don't know why you want to be wrong. Why don't you just cross over to my side and we could be right together, okay? The actual answer is, because I insist on my own way. Okay, you ready? Is this fun? Isn't this fun? Love is not irritable. Or resentful? The NIV, which I memorized most of this in the 1984 edition of the New International Version. Okay? It's not the best translation. It's just the one I had in my youth group Bible. And it says, love is not easily angered. Are you easily angered? Are you irritable? Like when you walk in the room, men, does peace walk in with you? Or does everybody pucker up a little bit because Dad's home and we kind of got to see what we're getting today. And the slightest little thing can set you off. You see, irritability is about something that sets you off in the moment. Resentfulness is a result of harboring some undealt with things, mostly unforgiveness over time. And what begins to happen is that unforgiveness ferments. And when something ferments, two things happen. It stinks, and you can get drunk on it. And when we begin to live bitter, resentful lives, it's because we've actually got a wound that has not healed and it begins to ferment. And we get drunk on the feelings and our own emotions and. And we're in our negative thought patterns all the time. And just like if you bump into a scar, no problem, you bump into an unhealed wound and there will be an overreaction of emotion. And that's what's going on there. And the reason some of you don't deal with it is cause it's your excuse for all of your bad behavior. And you can constantly blame what your dad did to you 35 years ago so you don't have to take accountability for your own words. And the Bible just says, love doesn't do that. Love doesn't do that. You see, when emotion comes spilling out of you, I know what's actually happened is God made you a protector. But the question that you've got to ask when you respond in anger is what are you protecting now? When we're fighting for the people that we love, then we lay our lives down for their sake. When we begin to try to defend ourself, most of the time what we're trying to protect is us and our own ego. And Paul's like, yeah, that's not love. Love is not irritable. And love is not resentful. A few weeks ago, I asked you to do this, and I know you didn't. So I dare you to sit down with your wife, sit down with your children, sit down with the people that call you boss and say this what is it like to be on the other side of me? And if they don't feel like they can answer, there's your answer. And again, men, Paul says, let everything you do be done in love. And love is not irritable or resentful. So we are not to be easily angered, and we are not to be resentful. If we are doing things in love. Let's keep going. Verse 6. Doesn't this feel like if you got a trainer and they scream, one more rep, you're like, I didn't have reps six reps ago. All right, that's what. He just keeps going. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Again, I memorized this in the new international version, and it says it this way. Love keeps no record of wrong. So, men, do you keep score? Because what a lot of us tend to do is we keep a scorecard. You know what I mean? You ever heard this, that when some couples get into an argument, some people get hysterical, some people get historical. You know what I'm talking about? It's like you're fighting about whatever. About whatever. You burned Mac and cheese, and you're arguing about it, and then all of a sudden, you. You bring up something. I'm gonna tell you what. Back in 1988, I remember it was a Tuesday night, and you just get all historical. And the Bible literally says love keeps no record of wrong. That word in Greek is logizomai. Logos means word. This means that when you love somebody, you don't even talk about their wrongdoings against you because you don't have a scorecard anymore. But love rejoices in the truth. Husbands, the Bible says that the power of life and death are in the tongue. You realize that? Do you realize that where your family is right now, where your relationships are right now, where your marriage is right now, it probably lived up to the prophecy that you prophesied over it. And some of you are like, I'm Presbyterian. I don't even believe in that. Here's all I mean is that most relationships and people either live up to the promises or down to the curses that they hear. Here's what's crazy about this one. You can actually just text this. Are you constantly nitpicking and criticizing and getting on people? Or are you rejoicing in the truth and encouraging and saying, man, that was great. I dare you to do this. Husbands, with your wife, with your kids, with a couple of your employees. You have documentation of how you talk to Them just go through your last hundred texts and say, did I rejoice in the truth or did I just point out what was wrong? Because love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Keeps going. Verse 7. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. Here's what this means. Love never quits. Never quits. Husbands never stop fighting for the heart of your wife. And if you're like, yeah, but she left me, okay? So it's probably your fault. Let's be honest. If you treated her this way, she probably wouldn't. And I know occasionally somebody will come up, like, pastor, I understand your whole sermon, and, you know, I'm sure it's easy at your house, but you don't understand my wife, okay? I mean, she might be possessed, and she walks into the room and laser beams come out of her eyes and puppies catch on fire and go to hell. Okay, all right, no problem. I'm not saying you don't have a tough situation, but the Bible says that Jesus is the groom and the church is the bride. Who's the crazy one in that marriage? And yet, husbands, we are called to love our wives like Christ loved the church. You never start. Stop pursuing the heart of your wife. You never stop fighting for her. You never stop fighting for your kids, ever, ever, ever. Listen, and when they get to be teenagers, they lose their mind. They lose their mind. That's what teenagers do. You did, too. They'll come back. And so they're worth the fight. You just can't ever let them wear you down and tap you out. That's what they do when they get together. They all come up with plans like, you know, you can just wear them down and eventually they'll quit. Don't ever quit. I did student ministry for a long time, and there was a distinct difference between the kids who knew that dad always fought for their hearts, and the dads that just tapped out and ignored him. I've never met the kid. And they were overwhelmed with the car their dad bought them. They weren't overwhelmed with a dad that would never give up on them. And some of you are like, yeah, well, I'm divorced. Okay? Whatever, Whatever. Don't ever stop giving up. Don't ever give up on fighting for the hearts of your children. Do whatever it takes. Do whatever it takes. Love never quits. You know, there was a study that I read a long time ago, a study. It studied the most successful marriages, the happiest marriages in the world, which, by the way, sometimes you'll hear that the marriage, I mean, the divorce rate in the church is the same as that of that of the world. Technically, that's true if you let people self identify as Christians. But, you know, there's a whole bunch of people when they're doing a survey, they say, I'm a Christian. But they've never surrendered their life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Do you know that couples that attend church regularly together and pray together, that the divorce rate there is so small as compared to the divorce rate in the world? You realize that? And so this study said that the people that had the happiest marriages, that endure all things, that they had this unbelievable ability that no matter what the circumstance was, that they always chose to believe the best and not assume the worst. And you think, God, that sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? Well, what, you want normal? You know what normal is in this world? Normal is to lead with suspicion. And there is no room for love when it's full of suspicion. You understand what I'm saying? And it sounds like to me that love bears all things and believes all things and hopes all things and endures all things. And so, men, you want to be the leader of your house? Paul goes, cool. Love. Love, yeah. How about be the lead repenter? How about be the lead apologizer? How about be the lead worshiper? How about be the lead. I don't know how to say. Gratituder. I don't know how to say that. How about to be the most gracious, grateful person in your house and not the complainer? All right, so how we doing on your test? Anybody looking at that and going nailing it? Paul says this verse eight, love never ends. This means love is eternal. Love is eternal. He gives some commentary. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As. 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. Here's what this means. He says, as for prophecies, they will pass away. You know, I'm going to be unemployed in heaven. Ain't no preachers in heaven. I mean, there's preachers that make it to heaven, but when they get to heaven, they don't get to preach. What you going to preach on? Can you imagine? You're going to be there with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We're going to be surrounding his throne singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. At no point Is an intercom going to come on and be like, attention heaven in room 2 OA. Pastor Joby is going to be doing expository sermon on Ephesians. You know, what am I gonna do? Show up and be like, all right, if you got your Bibles, go to Ephesians. Hey, Ephesians. How are y'? All? I. Paul. What's up? Paul? That's not gonna happen. You're not gonna need anybody to explain the text. Why? Because you didn't know it fully. There's not gonna be the gift of tongues. You're not going to need some sort of supernatural intervention of God. If you got a question, be like, hey, God, can I just ask you something? And. And he will speak directly to you. Love never ends. As for prophecies, done, they'll pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. You will know all things. For we know in part, we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, when you are in glory, the partial will pass away. This is what it says. This is a big, big, big deal, okay? He says this. He keeps going. He says, this part blew me away when I was studying for this. Paul says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child and I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child. And when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Y' all hear that, kid? Amen. Right in the middle of that. Praise God. We worked on that all week. Good job, kid. It does remind me I have to say this every once in a while. If you got a baby in here, I love it. I don't know if I'm just getting. I know I'm getting old, but maybe it's like, you know, I just love it when I hear babies make baby noises. I just love it. Because success in the kingdom of God is not what you do, but who you raise. And every time I hear some babies in here, one I think, oh, God bless y'. All. It gets better. Oh, it gets better, I promise. Then it gets worse again. Then it gets better again. Okay, but just bring them now. If their head spins around three times and they spit pea soup on somebody, then, you know, either take them to the room or get one of our care team to cast out a demon. Whatever you need, but amen. See? Way to go, my guy. That kid's gonna be a preacher. I'm telling you. What? So here's what Paul's saying. Listen, when 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. I want you to put these things together. In First Corinthians 16, he says, act like men. Let all that you do be done in love. And then over here in First Corinthians 13, he was like, when I was a baby, I acted like a baby. When I was a toddler, I acted like a toddler. But when I became a man, I acted like a man. The first time I read through this, this is a long time ago. I get out of the tree stand, I get in my truck. I feel nothing but utter conviction. I get in my truck, I pull out on the highway, get a little bit of reception. I call Gretchen. She answers the phone. I say, baby, I have a confession to make. That's a terrible way to start a conversation with your wife. Okay? You should start with some precursors, you know, we're not bankrupt. I haven't cheated on you. I have a confession to make. Something like that. She goes, what? You okay? I was all shook up. I was like, I'm not okay. She's like, what's wrong? And I just said to her, I haven't been loving you. She's like, oh, you love me and I love you. And I was like, oh, I love you. I mean, I got the feels, you know, I love you, but I just haven't been loving you. And she said, why don't we talk about it when you get home? So 55 minutes later, I come pulling in the driveway and she goes, what's going on? I go back, I just need to confess. I haven't been loving you. She said, what are you talking about? And I go, well, would you describe me as patient and kind? And she went, what else you got right? She wouldn't be mean. She's being honest. Because I kind of fallen in this mentality, like, hey, man, I provide and I protect and I make the money and I. You know what I mean? And if somebody broke into my house, I'd break them. Whatever it is. The problem is, it's just not what the Bible says. I mean, that's a part of what it means. You can't just be patient and kind and let people, like, ruin your family. But this doesn't mean that I get to abdicate this, man. We don't get to abdicate this. You see, oftentimes when we're being rude and we're being cocky and we're being loud and we're beating our chest and we're demanding our own way and we have to have the last word and we have to be right. And here's what we're thinking. I'm being tough. Cause I'm a man. The Bible would say, no, dude, you're acting like a toddler. Cause that's what babies do. When I was a child, you could act like a child. But if you're gonna be a man of God, you gotta put that stuff away. That's not how men act. Think about this. Have you ever met a more impatient human being than a child? Think about your lovely little children. Fearfully and wonderfully made. They're an impatient little joker, are they not? I mean, when your baby's hungry and it cries. Well, you gonna explain it? Mama's busy right now. Well, you know what, mom, why don't you just take a minute? Nah, they want more. They want. Now they are impatient. The kids are jealous. I mean by nature and nurture. Are kids good sharers? No. This is something you have to teach them. What do they do? They take from everybody else because they want it for themselves. Kids, it's all about them. Kids are rude. And if kids don't get their own way, what do they do? They pitch a fit. Don't believe me. I know. I use single people. Isn't it hilarious, parents, when people that don't have kids interact? We see kids in the wild and they're like, when I have children, they'll never act this way at a restaurant. That's adorable. You're an idiot. That's what that means. Okay. Yeah. Go to the cereal aisle of Publix when you leave here. Go do that and you'll see some kid just laying on the floor pitching a fit. Why? Because he didn't get what he wants. Yeah. Then go to a college football game and look at the losing team. And what are the men doing? The same thing. Why? Because they didn't get what they want. Paul says, man, we don't act like that. James, the brother of Jesus, says, this what causes fights and quarrels among you? Like, why are you mad? Why are you irritable? Why do you demand your own way? Because you wanted something and you didn't get it. And so we as men are not supposed to respond the way children are to respond. You want to stand up and act like a man, then you put these childish ways behind you. I hope this is challenging to you. It is very challenging to me. I hope I'm growing in these areas. Verse 12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now, in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. So now this is how important love is. Faith, hope and love abide these three. But the greatest of these is love. Why? Because. Because faith is not eternal. As important as faith is. I mean, the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. It is our faith in Jesus that gives us eternal life with him. Faith is a really big deal. Abraham had faith in God. He believed that God is who he says he is and would keep his promises. And he was credited with righteousness. When you put your faith in Jesus, you believe he died on the cross. That counted for me. That's how you get saved. And yet you don't need faith in heaven. Why? Because faith becomes sight. Nobody in heaven is like, do you have faith in Jesus? Well, he's just sitting right there. You want to talk to him. And hope. Hope is a really big deal. The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. And if you don't have hope in your heart, man, a hopeless heart will make you sick. But you don't need hope in heaven because you're not looking forward to something. You are in the thing that you have been hoping for your whole life. But you know what remains forever? Love. Why? Because God is love. That's why. And so again my definition, love is your joy in the Lord expressed towards others at great expense to yourself. So here's the point, men. Passivity is holding back your strength in manhood for self preservation. That's what happens when we abdicate our responsibility and our whole life is centered around us. Aggression is expressing your strength in manhood for self gratification. See boys, go and take men, lay down their lives and serve. Both of these are childish. Love is leveraging what God has given you. Your strength for others through self sacrifice. So men, the Bible says, let all that you do be done in love. So how we doing? Can I tell you something that haunts me, man? Is that if you're a man, you have children. God allows us to use his title. Do you realize how big the deal this is? 189 times in the Gospels, Jesus lets us know that God is father. He's not like a father. It's not an analogy that God is father and he lets us use his title. And listen, man, it's not fair. But the words of dad just weigh a million pounds. I don't know how it works. It's just true. They're the heaviest words you know. It's true. That's why there's not like a like dad wound Everybody knows what I'm talking about. If I were to go mom wound, everybody's like, what does that mean? It's just different, right? And so if one of the primary pictures that our children are gonna have of who God the Father is, is their earthly, then what kind of picture are you painting? Is it this kind of picture? Are you patient and kind? You see, I was reading these commentaries, which, I'm gonna be honest, I don't read a lot of them. Cause I don't like them. These people are smarter than me. But I don't know. I feel like they can't pastor a church. They write commentaries. But they're smart. They're really smart. Like, I look up words and all the commentaries said, this a good thing for you to do when you come to 1 Corinthians 13 is to put your name in everywhere it says love to see how you're doing. Well, that's the worst thing I've ever done in my life. Joby is patient and kind. No, no. Joby doesn't envy or boast. Joby is not arrogant or rude. Joby does not insist. I felt I heard the Jeopardy. Buzzer going off in my head, just going over and over and over. And I thought, well, this isn't good. But the Bible says in First John this that God is love. And so if God is love and love is patient and kind, this means that you can interchange the word for the word love and God. Now, God is love. The Bible does not say love is God. That's what our world believes. That's not the same. But you know what this means? That 1 Corinthians 13 is not just. It's not just an encouragement on how we should act. First Corinthians 13 is a description of how God has already acted towards you and me. That God is patient and kind. You ever think about how patient and kind he is to you? That he's never been in a hurry with you? That God does not envy or boast? When the Bible says that God is a jealous God, he's not jealous of you. That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. You think God saw you getting ready for church today and be like, man, look at those pants. I wish I had some of those pants. I don't even have legs. I'm a spirit. Oh, no. What are you gonna do with pants? Think God's looked at your cybertruck and be like, that's cool. Well, nobody else has. But God wouldn't either. You think he needs a Ride? Where's he gonna get a ride? He's already there. No. God is jealous. Not of you. God is jealous for you. And God knows that the best thing for you is him and him alone. That God does not envy or boast. That God is not arrogant or rude. That God does not insist on his own way. In fact, the God of the universe, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, steps up off of his throne, humbles himself all the way to the cross so that you and I could be reconciled to God. God is not irritable or resentful. Aren't you glad God's not easily angered? God does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. God bears all things, God believes all things. God hopes all things, and God endures all things. And God never ends. That's what the Bible says. And so, if you're thinking right now, men, I should be more loving. If you're not thinking of that, I have utterly failed as a pastor. I will confess I need to be more loving, primarily to my first church, my wife and my children. I need to be more patient, more kind, not resentful, not easily angered. For sure. I'm going to ask the spirit of God to help me more and more and more be these things. However, the try harder method doesn't go very far. And a bunch of you grew up in churches that taught that every single week, God is good, you're bad, try harder. See you next week. It'll wear you out, won't it? And, man, I mean, right now, bro, you feel so loving. If you haven't, if you're married, you hadn't reached over and held your wife's hand right now, come on, man, do better. All right? But if you just think a pep talk for me is going to help you endure loving people for a long time, you just know we will fail over and over and over. And so what we don't need is try harder. What we need is more Jesus. And here's what I mean. I'm going to give you a bunch of Bible verses to help us understand that love does not originate and generate from us. Love originates and generates from God. And that we are to be a conduit of his love, not a cul de sac of his love. I'm going to give you some verses. First John, chapter 4, verse 7 and 8. The Bible says this. Beloved, let us love one another. You've heard me teach this before. If you could understand this word that the Bible uses, especially in First John he was probably a hugger and a close talker. All right, we'll see when we get to heaven. But this is what he called the believers. Beloved man. If we could just be loved, if we could understand how much the God of the universe loved us, then we could begin to reflect the love of God through us to the people around us. Not because they deserve it, because we didn't deserve it either. And even though we were dead in our trespasses, God so loved us because God is love that he decided to put his love on us. Beloved. That's who we are. Because if you could be loved, then we would be loving. Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God and whoever has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God. Why? Because God is love first. John 4:19 says this. We love because he first loved us. That you actually don't have the capacity to love one another if the love of Christ is not in you. You have passion, you have feelings, you have attractions. You have all of those things. But love originates from God. And the reason that we can love one another is because he first loved us. John 15:13. Jesus says, Greater love has no one than this. That someone lay down his life for his friends. This is how the God of the universe has loved us. Romans 5:8 says, But God demonstrated or showed his love for us in this. That while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. That God's love was not a result of our action. That God initiated the love first. John 4:10. One of my favorite verses says this in this is Love. You want to know what love is? Was it Tina Turner? She wanted to know what love is. This is it. She should have read her Bible in this is love. Not that we have loved God. See, we don't initiate it. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as the propitiation for our sin. And what does propitiation mean? Pay me to satisfy Strong from the side over here. Okay, if you didn't say that out loud, you must be new here. Let me explain. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies that every single one of us, by nature and nurture, you're not a snowflake and you're not a puppy's breath, and you're not a skittle. You and I, by nature and nurture, are not mistakers that need to do better. Every single one of us are wretched, crooked and depraved sinners need of a Savior and Even in our own sin, even in our own sin, God did not wait for us to get our act together and start coming to church and even believe the right things and then decide to love us. But before we did anything to move towards Him. Him. This is love. Not that we first love him, but he first loved us and sent His Son as the propitiation, the payment that satisfies that. When Jesus went to the cross and pushed up on his nail pierced feet, he said the words to Tetelestai, it is finished, literally paid in full. And what he paid was the debt that we owe towards God. Because everybody's a sinner and because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. But because God is a God of grace and because of God's love towards us, Jesus made that payment on our behalf. Which means this, that if you are in Christ Jesus, he cannot be dissatisfied in you. And if you are beloved by God, and you know it's not because I did something to earn it, but God placed His love on me, then I am loved by Him. And because he loves me, I can love the people that he has placed in my life first and foremost with like your spouse and your kids and your family, and then the folks at your work and your church. Even we can love our enemies because we were enemies of him. And yet he still loved us. Beloved, let us love one another. So what you need is not try harder. I mean, we should get focused. We should ask for the Spirit of God to help us walk in obedience with what he has called us. To walk in that. Let everything you do be done in love. But this is not a white knuckle. If you'll just try harder and flex a little bit, you can love better. It doesn't work that way. In John, chapter 15, Jesus makes this invitation to his disciples. He says, come here. Boys, lose translation. But he says, come here, come here, come here. Listen, come here. I want you to abide in me. Like, stay close to me. Get to know me. And I in you. I want you to abide in my word because the more you know this, the more like me you're gonna be. And I'm going to abide in you. I'm gonna stay close to you. I want you to use 1122 language. I want you to discover and deepen a relationship with me. Cause apart from me, you can do nothing. There's no way you can pull off this. Everything you do be done in love on your own. But with me, all things are possible. And if you abide in me. I'll abide in you and I will begin to bear fruit. I will begin to produce things from the inside out in you. I'm going to deposit my holy spirit in you. And I'm going to help produce the fruit of the Spirit. And all kind of things are going to begin to happen on the inside of you from the inside out. Things like love, love, bats, lead off in the fruit of the spirit, joy and peace, patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and even self control. So the key is not just all right, I gotta try harder. The key is I want to get closer to Jesus. And Jesus, I can't do this on my own. I can't love my wife and my kids and my employees, my co workers and my neighbors and definitely my enemies if you don't do something in and through me. And you know this. You can't give something that you ain't got. That's bad English. That's great theology. You realize that? Like if I told you right now, hey, we're doing a sale at Hope's closet on eight tracks. Some of you could go home right now and pull out all kind of Google. Eight tracks, alright? Used to be a form of music, alright? If you didn't have it, you'd have to go get one before you could give one. Make sense? And part of the reason some of you aren't loving one another is because you've never received the love of God. And God is the source, the originator of love. And you just can't give what you don't have. And he so loved you. So loved you. He didn't feel a thing. He didn't just think a thing. He did a thing. He sent his only begotten son to do for you and me what we couldn't do for ourselves. That he laid down his life on the cross. That for anyone who would believe we would receive the love of God. And that love will be planted in us. The closer we get to him, the more that grows out of us and spills out onto one another. So men, be watchful. I mean, let's go. The enemy's trying to steal, kill and destroy. We're on guard. Okay. Stay on that post. Stand firm. We gotta dress up. We gotta fight on behalf of those that we love and have been called to provide for and protect. We're gonna act like men, which means we're gonna put childish ways behind us. We're gonna be strong. Not for us. But if we don't get this last one, even if we do all those things and have the biggest church and do the best mission trips and whatever man, we have not love. We've missed the whole thing. Let all that we do be done in love that begins with this receiving the love of Christ. And some of you have never done that. And today I want to give you the opportunity for the very first time to receive the love of God. Not to do better or to try harder, but to simply believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And the Bible says for all who believe, you would receive the right to become a child of God. And so I wanted to give you the chance to do that. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if today, for the very first time, you were ready to put your faith in God, if today, for the very first time, you were ready to receive the love of God demonstrated for you at the cross of the Jesus, if you were ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe that somehow when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for me, that you're putting your faith in him. Then the Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And I would invite you right now to turn over the reins of your life to him. To call on Jesus not merely as a teacher, but to call on Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And the Bible says that he answers that prayer 100% of the and if today, for the very first time, you are ready to put your faith in Christ for salvation and receive of the love of God demonstrated at the cross and the resurrection for you, I invite you right now, no matter where you are, to lift your hand as high as you can and simply say, jesus, save me. And he will lift that hand high as you can, our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you because you first loved us. And God, it is a great, high and holy calling that you would call us to be men and God. I know, I confess, the only way we can step into it is because you stepped out of heaven. You stepped onto this earth, Jesus, you lived that perfect life that none of us could live. And then you went and you simply didn't die for us. You died instead of us. And then three days later, you resurrected from the grave. And for anyone who would believe we would receive your love and the right to be called your children. So, God, I pray for every man, every woman, every student, God, that we would be more loving towards one another because your love would fill us and spill over to every relationship that we have, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet as we respond to the gospel. As you know, we do this all the time. We believe that the gospel demands a response. And so for those of us who are followers of Jesus, one of the ways that we reflect God's love back to him as we bring our tithes and our offerings. Because the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And Jesus says, wherever your treasure is, your heart will be also. And every single time we bring, what we're doing is we are just saying, God, I love you more than anything. Thank you for your blessing. And I'm bringing back a portion of that to you. My first and best. And we sing. And a part of the reason we sing is what we're saying is, God, we love you and you are worthy of our worship. And we pray. And a part of what we're doing when we pray is we're saying, God, I know that you love me. And your word says that we can cast all our cares upon you because you love and care for us. So let all that we do be done in love. Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.