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Gregory of Nazianzas who became patriarch of Constantinople, one of the celebrated

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Capitodian fathers of the fourth century along with Basil the Great and Gregory of

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Nisa was one of the most celebrated orators of the early church. He writes in regard to

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this chapter on love that here we may read what Paul said about Paul. I submit brothers and sisters

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that only a man in whose heart the Spirit of God has kindled a faith like Paul's could evidence a

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love like Paul's and on the basis of his own experience of that love record its glories in

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what may be called the New Testament Psalm of love. From the standpoint of literature this is one

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of the most remarkable passages that ever came from the pin of man. It is characterized by poetic

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beauty and scientific analysis. It seems almost irreverent to analyze it for it is full of beauty

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and yet marvelous in technique. Paul's description of the action and behavior produced by love is

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distinctly counter cultural. It speaks against the envy, pride and self-centeredness of the

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Corinthian Christians and in so doing speaks clearly to our own generation as well. Brothers and

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sisters in a society where so much is presented in terms of the self, self-awareness, self-esteem,

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self-acceptance, self-image, self-realization, self-actualization, self-care, self-medicating to

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present a way of existence in which a person lives for other people in a life of loving self

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sacrifice is highly provocative for people who are concerned about themselves. Following the one

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who gave his life as a ransom for us all will be humbling and undoubtedly costly in terms of human

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recognition and progress in life as the world defines what love is. Paul is writing this letter

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in response to a report from Chloe about problems in the Corinthian Church and he provides apostolic

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guidance for dealing with those problems. In chapters 8 through 10, Paul addressed the issue

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of eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. In chapter 11, he dealt with the issue of women

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covering their heads and abuses of fighting around the Lord's Supper table. In chapters 12 through

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14, Paul deals with the issue of spiritual gifts. Brothers and sisters, rather than celebrating one

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another's gifts, the Corinthian Christians have become proud concerning their particular gifts

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and dismissing the gifts of other believers. Therefore, spiritual gifts have become a divisive

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influence in the body of Christ. There are three movements in chapter 13 on love. In verses 1

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through verse number 3, Paul shows us the value of love. In verses 4 through 7, he shows us the

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virtues of love and he ends with verses 8 through 13 revealing the victories of love. The whole idea

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of these verses is that brothers and sisters, love is distinct from and superior to anything we can be

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or do. Regardless of what we do, if it is not infused with and carried out through the love of

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God, it is a colossal waste of time. Our love, your love for me, my love for you, our love must be

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higher than the sensational, wider than the spectacular and deeper than the sacrificial. The

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greatest gifts and the grandest deeds together with all their greatness and grandeur are nothing,

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make us nothing and bring us nothing if love is absent. To love, to have or not have love is not

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about emotions. Love is not about feelings, but about living and relating to other people in a way

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that either does or does not reflect their great worth in God's eyes and if you don't see your

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brothers and sisters through God's eyes, you'll never see them properly in your own eye. Hear

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this because I worked on this line all week. You can put on a show of love without having it,

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but you cannot have love without showing it. Somebody should have shouted right there. You

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can put on a show of love without having it, but you cannot have love without showing it. The

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English language has several variations of what love is. You can love someone sexually or you

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can love someone familially or you can love someone affectionately as a friend or a co-worker or

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you can love peach cobbler or you can love a catalan or you can love your shitsu or you can love

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your cat. You can love your house. You can love being in a warm room with a nice book and a cup

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of coffee. Those are variations of love, but the Greek has only three words for love. One is

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eros, which is sexual love between a man and a woman. And then there's philas,

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from which we get our word Philadelphia, which means brotherly love. But then there is agape.

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Agape is the love of God. Agape is benevolent, well-intentioned towards another. You don't

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have to feel anything to love like that. You've got to do something to love like that because love

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is not about feeling, it's about doing. When you love your family, you don't always feel like going

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to work. You just get up and go to work. My wife doesn't always feel like loving me. Your husband

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doesn't always feel like loving you, but love is not about a feeling because feelings change.

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Talk back to me if you can. You remember when you were in high school and you signed your

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sweetheart's yearbook? Yours forever. Two years later, you forgot what they looked like. And when

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you went to your 10-year class reunion, you said, thank you Jesus. Because feelings change. But love

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when it is real is always looking out for the best interest of the one who is beloved. I love you.

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Does not mean I always like you. I love you means I will not go out of my way to harm you and I

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will do everything in my power to help you because love when it is real comes from God.

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How can you love God whom you have never seen and hate, lie on, abuse, misuse, torture,

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backbite your brothers and sisters who you see every day? You are not telling a lie, you are a lie.

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And the truth is not in you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciple because you

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have love one for another. Look with me again in verse number one. If I speak with the tongues of

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men and of angels and have not love, charity, the King James says, I am a sounding brass and a

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tinkling, clanging, noisy symbol. Paul says, no matter how great your oratory, no matter how beautiful

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your speech or how brilliant your rhetoric without love, you are simply noise. Let me ask you,

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have you ever been to a symbol concert? I mean, what the only instrument on the stage is a symbol? I

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don't imagine you have because a symbol is nothing but noise. It crashes, it makes a noise that

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there's no note in a symbol. It's impersonal. It's just noisy. There is no, there is no scale in a

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symbol. It's just a lot of noise. And now in a concert, you need a symbol, but you need a flute.

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You need a clarinet. You need an oboe. You need a violin. You need a percussion section. You need

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a woodwind section because a symbol by itself is just noise, but with all the other instruments,

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it becomes a symphony, which makes me to say to us this morning that in the church,

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there is not a one person band because the whole church together is a symphony and anybody

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operating outside symphonic sound is noise. And you can't listen to the noise and appreciate the

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music. Somebody ought to help me talk here today. Sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. Listen to

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me. Great oratory can move a person emotionally. Great rhetoric can move a person intellectually.

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Great speech can move a person volitionally, but only great love can move a person spiritually.

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Sounding brass and tinkling symbols were the same instruments used in the heathen worship.

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Therefore, the person who exercises his tongue in a spiritual fashion yet does not do so with

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the love of God in him is no better than a heathen worshiper. In fact, his worship is more

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man centered than God centered. I'm trying to leave that point, brothers and sisters,

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but there's a difference between gifted preaching and anointed preaching. Gifted preaching will

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make you clap, but anointed preaching will make you shout. There's a difference between

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gifted singing and anointed singing. Gifted singing will make you clap, but anointed singing

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will make you cry because that's something God puts in the anointed that he does not give to

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the gifted. I wish I had somebody to help me preach it. That was this banquet where a

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renowned orator was invited to speak, and after he had spoken, he was asked by the audience

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at the banquet for an encore. He stood and with perfect diction, with acute rhetoric,

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with sweet elocution and erudition recited the 23rd song. People put their forks down

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and clapped up roriously because of his diction and his elocution. An old preacher came from

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the back of the room, got to the podium and recited the 23rd song. They picked up their

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napkins and wiped their eyes. When he sat down, the man who had recited the song with

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such elocution and diction asked somebody next to him, why? When I said it, they clapped,

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but when he said it, they cried. And the preacher next to him told him, because you

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knew the song, he knows the shepherd. And when you know who Jesus is and when you know

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that the love of God has been shared abroad in your heart, there's something different

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about being gifted and being anointed. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels

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and don't love anybody, I'm a sounding breath or a tinkling symbol.

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Verse number two, and if I have prophetic powers, if I understand all mysteries and all

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knowledge and I have faith so that I could remove mountains, but I don't love anybody,

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I'm nothing. That's strength of service in verse number one. But in verse number two

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is energy of equipment. While prophecies and mysteries and knowledge in the service of

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others is a good thing, people who use their gifts to establish their own superiority or

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their own dominance over other people are not in accord with God's will. They will only

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get an inflated opinion of themselves that will do nothing to help anybody else. A PhD

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without some Geode makes you a smart devil. And the church is in danger of being destroyed

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not by unlettered ignorance, but by unsanctified intelligence. That's intelligence that has

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not been baptized in the grace of God. And when your intelligence has not been baptized

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by grace, you think you're smarter than everybody in the room. And if you are the smartest person

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in the room, you better hurry up and get out of there. If you are the only pebble on the

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beach, if you are the wisest person in your circle, if nobody knows anything but you,

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if you in a room by yourself, you in bad company, because God has spread out his gifts. And

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a whole lot of folks want the exhibition gifts, gifts that people can see so you can stand

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out above everybody else. You want the gifts of being a Sunday morning gifted person. But

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we need some Monday morning gifted people. We need some folk who can cook. We need some

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folk who can park and watch our cars. We need some people who clean the church. We need

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some people who scrub the bathrooms. Those are spiritual gifts that are behind the scenes

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that they never get any credit for. But if you do all of it to the glory of God, it does

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not matter if men don't see it. I've been doing this long enough to know. I'm wise enough

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to know that God can take some drunk off the street and stand him up in his pulpit to preach

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circles around us. Because God uses whoever he chooses to you. As good as that choir got

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through singing a minute ago, God could take every one of them out and get some girl dancing

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on a pole. Put a choir robe on her. Sanctify and forgive her. And she'll run every last

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one of us out of this church. Because what you do, if it's all about you, you get the

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credit. But if it's all about God, God gets the glory. I'm trying to get through. You

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didn't come here to hear me preach. You came here for a meeting. You got my email. I know

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why you're here. You ain't fooling me. Thirdly, verse number three, if I give my body to be

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burned, if I give away all my possessions and I don't have love, I gain nothing. We can

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give away everything we own. Even our bodies to the altar of martyrdom. But if we do so

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with our love in our hearts, it is all a spectacular waste of time. You may build great

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cathedrals, large or small. You may build skyscrapers, grand and tall. You may conquer all the failures

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of the past, but only what you do for Christ is going to last. You may seek earthly power

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and great fame. The world may be impressed by your great name. Soon the glories of this

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life will all be passed, but only what you do for Christ is going to last. Though your

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songs and your prayers are heard and praised by men, they have no meaning unless you've

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been born again. Center heed these words. Don't let this harvest pass. Only what you

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do for Christ is going to last. Love when it is real expresses itself in action. Love

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when it is true goes beyond what is expected to do whatever is necessary to reclaim the

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beloved. When you love somebody, you have spiritual intelligence that moves you towards

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a spiritual purpose. Spiritual intelligence means when you love somebody, you know everything

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that's wrong with them. You know how crazy they are. You know how mean they can be. You

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know their quirks, you know their idiosyncrasies, you know their hiccups, you know their foolishness,

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you know everything about the person you love, but you love them enough to move them toward

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becoming better. Can I help you with that? God commended his love towards us. Wow! We

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were yet sin. Somebody ought to help me close here. God didn't wait for me to get my act

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together. God didn't wait for me to understand the scriptures. God did not wait for me to

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go to Sunday school or to have a Bible. God did not wait for me to get baptized. God did

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not wait for me to get off drugs or to get off an alcohol. God did not wait for me to

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get off the streets or to stop doing what I was doing. Wow! We were yet sin. Christ died

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for us. I wish I had somebody to help me get happy here. I thank God for a love like that

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because when I couldn't even love myself, He loved me. Even when I didn't know what

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love was, He showed me. Even when I was incapable of expressing what was on my mind, He was

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looking out for me. I wish I had one or two more witnesses here. My girlfriend died the

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other day. My sweetheart Tina Turner went to wherever Buddhist people go. I almost said

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went to be with the Lord but she went to wherever Buddhists go. I was in love with Tina because

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she could shake that thing because she took a good job in the city, working for the man

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every night and day. I never lost a minute of sleep. Just worried about the way the

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things might have been. Big wheel keep on turning. Proud Mary keep on burning. Yeah,

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you got it. There's some more Tina lovers in here today. But then Tina sang my other

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song. What love got to do with it. I wish I could wake Tina up wherever she is right

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now. I tell her what love got to do with it. Love was born in Bethlehem. Love was wrapped

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in swaddling clothes. Love was laid in a manger. Love was presented to Simeon in the

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temple. Love after some years was baptized by John in the Jordan River. Love stood there

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in the Jordan when John baptized him. And the heavens opened and a dove descended. And

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everybody heard God saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Love went around

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healing the sick, turning water in the wine. Love made deaf men hear dumb men speak. Love

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calmed a storm on the sea of Galilee. Love fed 5000 men not counting women and children.

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Love healed a woman who had an issue of blood. Love went to Jairus' house and took his little

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girl by the hand and she came back to life again. Love went to a cross one Friday. Love

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died on a hill called Calvary. They hung him high. They stretched him wide. He hung his

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head. For me he died. That's love. You're going to help me close this, won't you? That's

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not how the story ends. Three days later. Three days later. Three days later. Three days later.

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Three days later. Heroes again. That's love. Love is on the right hand of God with power.

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And every time I sin, love stands up at the right hand of God and said, I know he's done

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wrong but I paid for it on Calvary. I know he deserves to die but I took his place on

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the cross. Is there anybody here know what love got to do with it? Is there anybody here

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know Jesus loves you? Jesus loves you? Jesus loves me? This I know because the Bible tells

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me so. I wish I had a witness here when you don't feel like loving. You just love anyhow

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because he first loves you if the Lord saved you and you know God loves you. If God has

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been good to you and you don't mind testifying. If the Lord has made a way for you and you

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don't care who's looking at you. If the Lord brought you a mighty long way and you don't

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mind being a witness. Why don't you tell somebody I know what love got to do with it. I know

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what love got to do with it. I know what love got to do with it. He died, didn't he die?

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He died Sunday morning. He got up from the grave and because he loves me I can shout

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this moment because he loves me. I can face tomorrow because he loves me. I can love my

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enemies because he loves me. I can pray for those who despitefully use me because he loves

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me. I can go to sleep tonight, put my head on the pillar and say now under him. Now under

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him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask a fake a calling to

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the power does that work in you? Why don't you grab somebody tell him he loves you. He

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loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. I know

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he's all I know.

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He loves me so much. I'm trying to let y'all go but he went back to heaven to prepare a

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place for us. He said if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive

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you under myself that where I am value will be also in my father's house. In my father's

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house. In my father's house. In my father's house. In my father's house. There are many

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matches. Thank you Jesus. I know he's all right.