Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Well, please remain standing if you're
able. And let's turn to first Corinthians
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Thirteen, which is not what your
bulletins say. When I gave Andrew the
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information from the bulletins, I jumped
ahead just a little bit. First Corinthians
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Thirteen. We definitely don't want to
forget first corinthians thirteen. Let's hear God's
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word, may He bless us in
it. If I speak in the tongues
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of men and of angels, but
have not love, I'm a noisy gong
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or clanging symbol. And if I
have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and
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all knowledge, and if I have
faith so as to remove mountains, but
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have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have
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and if I deliver up my body
to be burned, but have not love,
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I gain nothing. Love is patient
and kind. Love does not envy
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or boast. It is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on
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its own way. It is not
irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice
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at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the
truth. Love bears all things, things,
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believes, all things, hopes,
all things, endures all things.
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Love never ends. As her prophecies, they will pass away. As for
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tongues, they will cease. As
for knowledge, it will pass away,
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for we know in part and we
prophesy in part, but when the perfect
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comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I
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spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a
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child. When I became a man
I gave up childish ways. For now
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we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face. Now I
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know in part, then I shall
know fully, even as I have been
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fully known. So now faith,
hope and love abide these three, but
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the greatest of these is love.
Amen. You may be seated. Charles
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Hodge, Princeton theologian commentator on the
letters to Corinthians, wrote a lot of
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different things, very important American Presbyterian
theologian. He says very simply, this
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is a real gem of a passage, and isn't that true? It's so
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precious, I'm so beautiful. If
poets were to take a look at it
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they'd call it lyrical. It it
spins and dances, it twirls, it's
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lovely. It's a lovely passage.
It generates love in us. It helps
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us to feel love for love.
It's one reason that's frequently read weddings on
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it reminds us of this very,
very important on connection that we have with
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people's even things sometimes. But here
Paul is focused on our relationships within the
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church. Even as we consider it's
very specialness as this chapter, a real
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gem and all of scripture, we
don't want to forget that. It's not
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first Corinthians twelve or fourteen, it's
thirteen, and it's thirteen because there's a
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twelve and there's a fourteen. It's
thirteen because it comes in a particular context.
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Paul hasn't given up saying the things
that he's saying. He's not just
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Oh, by the way, I
want to talk to you about love and
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then we'll get back to business now. What he's saying here is very much
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tied to what he's been saying and
what he's going to say. You remember
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that in the previous chapter and Chapter
Wellve, he was focusing on spiritual gifts,
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the variety of gifts that the spirit
gives to each member of the church,
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gifts that are distributed at all according
to his will, so that together
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we form the body of Christ,
a dynamic, moving, interesting, beautiful
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body on that manifests the very spirit
of God, makes the spirit of God
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known in the world and also brings
glory to God, Father, son and
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Holy Spirit, as his work is
displayed in us, as the things that
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he is doing in us are made
known. In thinking about these gifts,
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one of the things that seems to
be in the background is a pride over
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some gifts and esteeming of some gifts
over others. First Corinthians twelve has a
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kind of equalizing force, even though
it doesn't say everybody gets the same thing.
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He says all are important, all
are essential, all have a rule
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to play, even in the diversity
that is there. He moves his argument
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forward a little bit more and another
step in chapter thirteen by saying love is
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the most important of all of these
things. Love undergods them and even if
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you have great, great gifts,
really doesn't matter that much or at all,
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if love is not there. Now, of course, love is always
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there when the Holy Spirit is present. The Holy Spirit pours out his his
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gifts on us. He's not going
to pour out gifts on us and then
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forget to pour out love, forget
to knit us together and bind us up
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in those kinds of things. So
Paul is not accusing the Holy Spirit of
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anything here, but he is w
wanting to us to bring to mind this
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very important thing, this thing that
undergirds all that is going on. He's
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he's causing us to reset the way
we think about these things, which is
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frequently wrong. Jesus, in this
passage, through his plot, apostle wants
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us to remember love. He wants
us to love love, and when we
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do that on the spirit is made
manifest. We do abide in Christ,
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we do enjoy his benefits, we
are strengthened more and more. So as
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we look at this this morning,
we'll look at it in three parts.
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First, the requirement of love,
then the characteristics of love and then thirdly,
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the permanence of love. So first
the requirements of love, and verses
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one through three, Paul says if
this happens but this isn't true, then
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it's worthless. And that's the formula
he uses. So he's arts. He
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says, if I speak in the
tongues of men and of angels but have
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not love, I'm a noisy gong
or clanging symbol. Now the next chapter
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will get to tongues and and prophecy. In those kinds of things, and
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we'll talk about that more and full, but just for right now, what
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he's talking about is this ability,
that this extraordinary ability, to speak in
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the languages of men, to speak
in other human languages, perhaps, and
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probably spontaneously, like we see happen
in the book of acts. You remember
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in acts, when this Holy Spirit
right again, we're thinking very much about
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the doctrine of the spirit. When
the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord's disciples,
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they all started speaking in languages that
all these people that had come into
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Jerusalem to hear, or to be
it for a pentecost, they could hear
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the Gospel and their own languages.
And there are astounded. They were amazed
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at this happening and there was how
is this happening? Right, the Holy
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Spirit gave them this very amazing gift, and that seems to be what's going
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on in Corinth. There are those
who have this ability to speak in the
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tongues of men and other languages.
Paul takes it a step further, though.
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He says, if I can speak
in the tongues of men, if
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I could even speak in the tongues
of angels, right, the other words,
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I forget these extraordinary gift. Let's
just dial it up a notch.
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Right, if I could even do
that, right, if I conversed with
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angels, certainlyst spoke the language of
angels, whatever that is, but have
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not love. I'm a noisy gong
or a clanging symbol. Now, a
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symbol in an orchestra. You know
where they put it. It's way in
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the back. It's way way in
the back. The percussion such could there's
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those you know three or four people
back there and you don't. You typically
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use a lot of simple symbol right. There's baby one or two spots.
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The Guy stands there and he's like
this and then, when it comes to
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you, looks at this Mes Goes
Bang and the softens them. Banging that,
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he softens them and then he's done. Right, that's it. It's
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for a fete. Usually it's for
this one powerful thing. If you,
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you know, if you woke up
and somebody was just in your room going
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Bang, Pang, Pang, thank
you would not enjoy it. You would
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not want it. To speak in
the tongues of men is an understandable thing.
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It's a helpful thing. It's not
an obnoxious thing. Right to speak
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in the tongues of men, even
angels. That's how that's a helpful thing.
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But if you don't have love attached
to that, pulse says, you
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might as well be a noisy gong
or a clanging symbol. This thing that
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you esteem, this thing that you're
perhaps amazed by, this thing that in
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some ways is so helpful, is
entirely undone and becomes the equivalent of a
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noisy gong or a clanging symbol if
you don't have love. That's an amazing
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thing to say. It gets more
strong and verse two he says, if
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I have prophetic powers, understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, if I have
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faith that, if I have all
faiths so as to remove mountains. But
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this is almost like Superhero language.
Right, I can do this and I
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can do this and I can do
this and I can do this, he
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says. If I can do all
these things but have not love, I'm
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nothing. I'm nothing. Now Paul
puts it in the personal sometimes I if
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I sort of pretend he's talking to
me, I think I kind of hear
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him saying I could care less.
Right, how impressive you think you are,
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how many gifts you think you have, like if you don't have love.
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It just it doesn't impress me.
It doesn't matter. He goes on.
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If I give away all that I
have, even my body, if
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I deliver my body to be burned
right, take even my life, but
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have not love, I gain nothing. We'll think about this a little more
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later on, but so often we
replace these and other things and think that
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they can serve as replacements for love. Paul takes all of them to the
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extreme, their extreme forms, and
then makes this really, really clear contrast,
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so that none of us can leave
confused about the requirement of love.
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You cannot replace even amazing miracles,
spiritual gifts, the giving of even your
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body, unto death, with love. There's no replacement for it. It's
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that important, it's that good.
Well, next, in the next section,
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he talks, after he talks about
this requirement for love, he talks
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about the characteristics of love and,
like I mentioned before, this reminds me
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of lyric poetry. Right, perhaps
you've read things like this or where you
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know, an Ode to a flower
or to a drinking coffee, you know
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in the morning, or to sitting
on the beach, or you know these
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kind of things, and then the
poet will just kind of describe right all
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the things about it, wrap you
up in those images so that you can
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just see so clearly and feel very
deeply. Ah, yes, that's what
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that is. I think he's doing
something similar here. Let's go through these
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characteristics and meditate on this for a
moment, and as we do so,
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I want you to think about yourselves, the ways that you see this manifest
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in your own lives, maybe the
ways you see it not manifest in your
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own lives. Think about the way
you see it in your brothers and sisters
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especially, think about the way you
see these things in our Lord, perfectly
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loved us in every way. Paul
says love is patient. Patient love is
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love that is not always hurrying,
a love that's willing to wait, a
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love that's willing to suffer, as
we'll see. He says that love is
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kind a word that refers to the
desire for the good of something or of
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someone. Right kindness often has a
connotation of gentleness with it. Right it
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desires good things for someone else.
He says love does not envy or boast.
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We are not loving when we want
what other people have and are often
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angry or possessive about those things.
Love doesn't boast. Love isn't seeking it's
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it's. Love isn't seeking the advantages
of oneself through through boasting and and the
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requirements or requiring others praise. That
relates to arrogance, which love is not.
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Love is not arrogant. Love doesn't
walk around telling everyone else about how
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great you are. I love,
I'm rejoices and shares in the gifts of
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others, recognizes the value in others
honors them, which gives to this next
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one about rudeness. A lot of
times today we value it, you informality,
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and we value authenticity and we value
commonness and equality. None of those
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things are totally bad and of themselves. There are often very good and there's
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certain situations, but they should never
be used an excuse to be rude.
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Rudeness is that which dishonors and disrespects
other people, people who are made in
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the image of God, people who, even though you disagree with them and
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don't like them and find them obnoxious, still deserve to be heard, respected
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loved. Love is not rude.
Love doesn't push past people, love doesn't
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disrespect people, it honors them,
it esteems them, and not just some
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people, but as Peter tells us, we are to honor everyone. Love
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is not rude. Love does not
insist on its own way right. It's
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not loving when it when, if
we are demanding, inflexible, unable to
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move and change as is necessary.
Love is flexible. It's it's able to
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be agile. It is not irritable
or resentful. When we are irritable,
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we are quick to judge, quick
to get angry. We we have trouble,
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right, the sparks fly and the
sparks light fires. Right has this
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this quickness to it. That's different
than patience or resentful. I'm one of
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the things that as often a leading
indicator of divorce is resentment or contempt.
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When we begin to resent people and
have contempt for them, things fall apart
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really fast. Love isn't resentful,
it's not full of contempt. It doesn't
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look at other people and just despise
them for who they are or what they
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have or what they do. It
doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing, but instead,
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Paul says, it rejoices with the
truth. Love is honest. Love sometimes
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does the hard things. Love doesn't
look away, love doesn't ignore, love
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doesn't um pretend, love rejoices with
the truth, desires to see the truth,
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it desires the connections that we have
with one another to be based on
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truth, to live in that,
to uphold it. Love bears all things,
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which has a lot of different possible
meanings to it. One is endure.
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But if you think that, he's
probably not duplicating himself or resaying it,
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because he does say endure all things
in just a moment. If that's
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true, then love bears all things
probably has to do with covering all things.
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So, while it's while the love, while love rejoices with the truth,
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that doesn't necessarily mean love always exposes
everything in every situation and in every
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moment. How do you know the
difference? How do you know when to
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do what? That takes love and
it takes wisdom to the proverbs talk about
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this. The the person who hears
a secret from a friend and then just
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labs it to everybody's not a wise
person, it's not a loving person.
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Sometimes the loving thing to do is
to cover for people's mistakes. They're embarrassments.
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Sometimes the loving thing to do is
to just be gentle and let it
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slide. Sometimes the loving thing to
do is to confront and point out it
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takes love and wisdom to know which
is right. Love also believes all things.
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This is not an argument to that. There is no such thing is
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truth. That truth doesn't matter.
Paul just told us. Love rejoices.
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That the truth, but it has
that meaning that we all experience and feel
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when when someone tries to assume the
best about us. Have you ever tried
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to talk with someone who wasn't doing
that, who just automatically was assuming the
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worst about everything you said? It
was like they had this whole other narrative
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for who you were and what your
life was and what your motivations were,
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and it's like nothing you could say, no matter how good, no matter
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how valuable, would come out right. Everything was twisted, everything is as
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changed. It's the opposite of that
that Paul means here. It means listening
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to people and believing that they probably
mean what they say, listening to people
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and doing your best to impute to
them the best motives, to hear them
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in the best possible light, to
let mistakes be mistakes and to see them
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and try to understand them for what
they really are saying and what they really
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are intending. We love it when
people do that with us. We ought
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to extend that to others as well. It hopes all things. It looks
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forward in kindness. Right, it
has this disposition towards the good, but
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it also looks forward to good things
to come, especially when we consider all
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this in light of the Lord and
his promises. Right, when we love
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and we do these things and patience
and kindness, sometimes that's hard, Paul
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says, and the next phrase that
it endures all things. Love isn't always
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easy. Maintaining these connections with each
other and and this disposition of good is
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sometimes hard. Sometimes requires suffering and
extreme patience. I'm sometimes it means I'm
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trying and trying and trying again.
When we put our hearts and our hope
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in the Lord, then we can
hope in him for these situations. We
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don't have to give up the meal
the moment things get rough. We can
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stick with each other when things aren't
going very well. We can show love
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even when when things are are difficult. So this on, these descriptions and
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these characteristics of love their they don't
say everything there is to say. There's
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a lot more. All kinds of
examples we could give, things we could
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reflect on, but it certainly it
certainly paints a very good picture and it's
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a good reminder. I frequently will
go back to this and other passages like
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this and and ask me what's missing
in my life, what things I am
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I am I not paying attention to? Maybe maybe I don't boast and I'm
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not arrogant, but I am really
impatient, or maybe I'm okay with patients,
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but but when it comes to when
it comes to enduring in the long,
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long run, that's hard. Or
maybe it's resentfulness or irritableness. All
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of us struggle, of course,
and in different ways. That's really amazing
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to think of. Out Is that
our Lord did all of these things perfectly.
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This is another fun thing for you
to do. Maybe this afternoon or
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sometime this week, go read some
of the stories about our Lord and the
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Gospels, see him interacting with people
and ask yourself, what is he doing?
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How is he exhibiting these things?
Is he patient? Is He kind?
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As we consider these characteristics, Paul
then moves us into this last section
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about the permanence of love. He
says love never ends, and then he
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gives examples of things as a way
to help us to see this, of
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things that do end and he talks
about the way that they end. So
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what are they? He mentioned prophecies, tongues and knowledge prophecies, probably referring
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to a prophetic prophecies. Why do
these pass away? Well, because they
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are fulfilled. Right when something is
spoken about in advance and then it is
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fulfilled, well, then prophecy is
not there anymore. It's not it's not
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necessary anymore. I'm similarly for tongues, Paul says tongues will cease, and
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we have seen that happen. And
there was a time, in a place
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and a usefulness in which God used
this extraordinary aspect of this gift in his
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church, but there would be a
time when that purpose would end and tongues
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would cease. Knowledge. Same thing
now. Of course he doesn't mean all
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knowledge or the knowing of anything,
but he's talking about this this way and
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we we try to understand, I
think in particular the scriptures and the Lord.
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We try to understand these things.
Why will it pass away? Because
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we won't need to know anything anymore. No, because we will know more
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fully. Here's how he describes it. He says when the perfect comes,
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the partial passes away. That's his
explanation for these things. They they are
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partial and then when they are fulfilled, well than the partial is not there
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anymore. Give us an example,
Paul, this is kind of confusing.
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All Right, I'll give you an
example. He says, when I was
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a child, I spoke like a
child, I thought like a child,
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I reasoned like a child, but
then I grew up, when I became
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a man, childishness, being a
child that went away. It was there
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for a time, it had its
place, but whence he is a man,
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he gives up his childish ways and
he says that for these things that
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he's listing here, it's similar to
that. They're good, they have their
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place, but they will pass.
He gives us on another example and he
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uses the example of a mirror.
He says, for now we see in
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a mirror dimly. Usually most of
us have, you, I guess,
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Vanity Lights, we call them,
interestingly enough, but we have these right
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bright lights above our mirrors or sunlight
coming down in our bathrooms and we can
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usually we look in a mirror and
it's it's not dim. But have you
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ever tried right where the light isn't
working or something like that? You're trying
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to comb your hair and you just
can't quite see. That's the experience he's
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describing here, looking in a mirror
dimly. So there's two problems with that
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one, and it's all backwards and
right. It's not face to face,
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it's not in person. It's sort
of seeing things truly, but it's refracted.
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It's like it's mediated. Right,
problem one with the knowledge and these
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other things. Problem too is that
it's dim right. It's not just that
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they are presented through this medium,
this mirror, but it's hard to see.
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The light doesn't good and there's kind
of a struggle there. Right,
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you see but you don't really see. That kind of experience is how he
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describes how we are now. But
there's a coming, a time when we
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will see face to face, and
I think he has in mind the Lord
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Jesus in particular. This is a
a great hope and a desire of Christians.
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We love our Lord, but he's
away, right, he is not
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here, he is not present.
Now, we see him, we know
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him, we feel him, we
experience him, we hear his voice,
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we pray to him, and yet
there's a little bit of disconnect there,
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isn't there? We want to be
with him, and Paul says, that's
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a good thing. You don't need
to feel bad about that. That's a
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good thing. That's the way it
should be, and one day we will.
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Now I know in part, but
then I shall know fully. And
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then this beautiful line, even as
I have been fully known, all that
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love and connection, that that that
connective connectiveness of love in relationship that he
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describes there, which is largely been
kind of one way. Right, I
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am being patient, I am being
kind, you know, as we've been
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thinking about it. Now all of
a sudden he talks about how it has
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all come to us. Write this. This knowledge is not just a knowing
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about you know, what's his name
and favorite ice cream or whatever, but
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being fully known. That's an aspect, and a wonderful aspect, of love,
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isn't it? The Old Testament,
the language of knowledge is even to
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express a deep, deep intimacy between
husbands and wives. Adam and Eve knew
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each other and then baby's appear.
This knowledge that we have, that we
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have can have, is not just
a list of facts, but it's a
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can be the very deep and personal
knowing. The Lord knows you, which
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is to say he loves you.
Paul says, I know in part.
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Then I shall know fully, even
as I have already been fully known,
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the love that we experience, the
love that we give to others. It
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comes in this context of already having
been loved by Christ, Jesus. When
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he loves US, he heals US, he empowers us, he forgives us,
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he knows us, he lifts us
up, he is kind to us,
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he's patient with us. Can you
imagine if Jesus was irritable with you?
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What that might look like in your
life? Every time you messed up,
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Jesus got really, really mad and
disciplined you in some way. Think
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about how you're how different your life, my life, would be if Jesus
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came down hard on us every single
time we had the wrong thought, every
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single time we went to the wrong
place, every single time we weren't as
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wise as we could have been,
didn't think through it all the way,
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didn't plan accordingly, weren't flexible enough
or kind enough or loving enough. Jesus
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isn't irritable with us. He's so
patient and kind. Imagine what it would
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be like if Jesus were resentful with
you. I died on a cross for
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this right, for this guy.
He doesn't say that, though, does
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he never. It never crosses his
mind, it never comes into his heart
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to dislike I'm about to give up, I'm about to walk away. No,
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he died for us and he died
for US perfectly and forever. He
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guarantees by his own blood that nothing, as Paul says, nothing will separate
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us from the love of Christ,
high, depth, angels, powers,
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you name it, nothing will separate
us from that love. Jesus isn't resentful
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about what he's done. He loves
what he's done. He is of it,
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he loves US, he calls US
beloved. We could go on and
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on, as Jesus's arrogant, as
Jesus rude with you. Does Jesus Rejoice
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in the truth? Does he bear
all things? Does he believe all things,
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help all things and Doure all these
things? Isn't it lovely how Jesus
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loves you? Isn't it lovely how
Jesus loves us? Isn't it lovely how
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Jesus gives to us all of these
things? Yes, he's calling us to
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them absolutely, and yes, we
need to confess our sins for the ways
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in which we have fallen so far
short. But let us not forget,
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as we do so, that this
comes in a context of already having been
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fully known. One day, that
one who is fully known us, you
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will see him face to face.
We see the glory of the Gospel in
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the face of Jesus Christ. Right
now, in the preaching of the Gospel,
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we hear these words about Jesus and
encourages us and it strengthens us.
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One day you will hear the words
of Jesus from him directly, face to
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face, and what a what a
wonderful and Glorious Day that will be.
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Our love is dependent upon his,
and these things, prophecies, tongues,
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knowledge, these things are going to
pass away, but not love. Love
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is different. Love doesn't sort of
enter into its final form and then sort
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of go away. This love will
abide and it has grounding and produces and
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flows from and is intimately related to
these other things, faith, hope and
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love, or faith. Yes,
faith, faith and hope rather, the
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greatest of these, he says,
is love. There's very deep things to
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think about here and we can't get
into all of them, but I hope
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that at the very least you see
the loveliness of love, particularly the loveliness
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of love as it comes in Christ
Jesus to us. I hope you also
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see the the importance of it as
we live our lives in the body to
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apply this in a way similar to
what we Paul says. It's it's sometimes
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easy to forget that love is as
essential as he says it here, particularly
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when we see people with gifts and
when we're hungry for people with gifts and
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leaders and helpers and servants. It's
easy to look at a man who might
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be a potential pastor, let's say, or an officer or an elder or
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Deacon in the church, or maybe
a lay leader of some kind, and
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say, yeah, he's really arrogant
and he's not very patient. It gets
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irritable really fast. But man,
that guy can preach. It's so good,
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isn't it right? We love him, he's awesome. We gotta get
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him, we got to bring him
into the pulpit, we got to give
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him a position of authority. Or
maybe it's not preaching. Maybe his administration
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skills are just top not he knows
how to get things done, he can
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manage people, he can move people, he can shift people, he can
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help make things work and function really
well. and Oh we could really use
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that right now. Oh if he
weren't just a jerk, right, if
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you weren't so impatient, if you
weren't so demanding all the time. But
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we say these things to our something
to say, well, that's all right,
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well, let's just get him.
He's rough around the edges right.
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Both believes all things. It hops
all things. Let's ignore it and try
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to try to work with what we
got now. No one's perfect, right.
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I'm not saying that no one has
it all together. We all struggle,
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we all have our ups and downs
in our bad days. But if
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the people that we are putting in
leadership positions, if the people were seeking
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and praying for, don't have love, just to be really simple about it,
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if they're they don't love people,
it doesn't matter, Paul says,
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how awesome their gifts are. It
doesn't matter if they could move mountains with
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their faith. If you had somebody
in in in our church who could,
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you know, Keel Limbs, move
mountains, a somebody who is very generous
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all buy a church for you,
no problem. It doesn't matter. If
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love is not there, let it
go. Don't be all clamoring over each
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other to respect this person or that
person, whether that seems like they're spiritual
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gifts, financial gifts, if they're
willing to give their own body to be
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burned for the church or for you
or whatever, but have not love.
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It's nothing, he says. It's
really tempting for us to forget about that
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and to push people into places and
to ask people to do things, but
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they're not ready for it when they
don't have this most essential characteristic. And
402
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it's also true of us as well. We in the same way, we
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sort of look past these things,
and others sometimes we look past them in
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our selvingly say well, you know, I just I'm irritable and I mean
405
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and I'm rude, but I sure
know how to and you fill in the
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blank. Let's learn not to excuse
that kind of thing in ourselves, but
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to hear Paul saying what he's saying, how lovely love is, how required
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00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:57.559
love is, how important it,
love is, and when we see the
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00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:01.840
need for that, let's look to
the one who loves us, who knows
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00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:07.519
US and who is pulling us together
in his love and by his strength.
411
00:37:08.880 --> 00:37:16.280
We do that, beloved, because
his love is infinite. There's no end
412
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:22.079
to it. It's a it's a
limitless supply and we can go to her,
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00:37:22.159 --> 00:37:25.760
him for all of our needs,
which are many. When we sense
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00:37:25.880 --> 00:37:30.199
what we lack, when we sense
the struggles that we have, when we
415
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:36.280
sense our impatience, and and and
all the rest, let's go to Christ
416
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:39.679
ask him to forgive us, ask
him to grow us, ask him to
417
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:45.400
give us his spirit. And you
know what, that's exactly what he desires
418
00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:51.320
to do. It's what he died
to do. His love never fails,
419
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:55.559
his love never ends, his love
never gives out and gives up. We
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00:37:55.599 --> 00:38:00.960
can go to him and trust him
for all these things. So let's do
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00:38:00.039 --> 00:38:04.920
so now in prayer and ask for
the Lord to be at work in each
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00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:07.039
of us, in our hearts and
in us as well as a body,
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00:38:07.079 --> 00:38:08.119
his body. Let's pray
