1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Out Living Your Life 2 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Popular culture in literature, in music, in advertising and in the visual arts, 3 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:44,000 popular culture uses the word love to mean just about everything except what the Bible means. 4 00:00:44,000 --> 00:01:08,000 So even we Christians are easily misled into thinking that love is primarily a feeling, something you can fall into or fall out of. 5 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:29,000 But in this chapter as throughout Scripture, love is first of all an action, an unconditional commitment, a promise that is never broken. 6 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:41,000 Lewis Smedes in a marvelous book entitled Love Within Limits outlines this approach. 7 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:50,000 He writes, patience does not include toleration of evil. 8 00:01:50,000 --> 00:02:05,000 Kindness is both intelligent and tough, and without wisdom and honesty, kindness becomes pity. 9 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:17,000 Dr. Warren Wearsby says, truth without love is abuse, but love without truth is hypocrisy. 10 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:25,000 I don't love you if I can't tell you the truth. 11 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:39,000 The truth is the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God through Jesus Christ is eternal life. 12 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:54,000 There is not much being spoken in these times about what's going on in our world in terms of truth, because we do not want to offend. 13 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:02,000 We don't want to be labeled as intolerant or homophobic. 14 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:13,000 But something is evil about children being taught that you can have two mothers. 15 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:23,000 There's something wicked about a man being sexually involved with another man. 16 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:33,000 And we who are children of God, if we have a biblical worldview, it does not matter whom we offend. 17 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:41,000 If God is against it, then the church must be against it. 18 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:49,000 And we must not just be against the sins that we don't commit. 19 00:03:49,000 --> 00:04:07,000 I wish I had somebody to help me preach it. It's easy to shave your hand and shout when I'm preaching about homosexuality, but I got to preach about gossiping, adultery, lying. 20 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Talk back to me if you can. All unrighteousness is sin. 21 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:38,000 I have to confess that I'm here this morning because I did not win the Powerball. 22 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:52,000 I would be in Hawaii right now. I'd buy me an island and some members because you would no longer want to have anything to do with anybody like me. 23 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:58,000 I wouldn't care what you thought. 24 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:12,000 But the Lord knows he's got to keep me poor and broke so I can keep coming to church and you too. 25 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,000 You've got a ticket in your purse right now. 26 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Listen, when we tell the truth, it frees us not to be under anybody else's opinions of us. 27 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:39,000 Because if God be for us, who can be against us? 28 00:05:39,000 --> 00:06:05,000 When we expose ourselves to the love of God, his love purifies us. His love cleanses us because if we confess our sin, I wish I had a Bible reader, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 29 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:19,000 In these closing verses of chapter 13, Paul's praise of love reaches its climax. 30 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:30,000 The Corinthians had been so obsessed with the gifts that they had that they stopped loving one another. 31 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:52,000 Paul enthrones love and it is made out of the various stuff of eternity and it belongs, brothers and sisters, to this genre of the idea in Scripture that love never fails. 32 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:57,000 Love never comes to an end. 33 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:12,000 Without change of its inner essence, love passes over into eternal joy because love is eternal life already begun in time. 34 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:31,000 In the midst of the suffocating self-love of our modern and postmodern culture, the Bible is clear that our real hunger is to know the one true God revealed in Scripture. 35 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:51,000 And in so doing, then we will satisfy our craving for security, find the purpose for which we exist and we are able to live free from the slavery to self through the love of God. 36 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:56,000 Look with me in verse number eight at this expectation. 37 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Verse eight says, love never ends. 38 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:07,000 It never fails, but as for prophecies, they will come to an end. 39 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:11,000 As for tongues, they will cease. 40 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,000 As for knowledge, it will come to an end. 41 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,000 I need you to stay with me right here. 42 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:27,000 In the Greek language, there are three basic voices which govern verbs. 43 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:34,000 In the Greek language, there are three basic voices which govern verbs. 44 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:42,000 There is the active voice, the passive voice and the middle voice. 45 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:50,000 Stay with me. The active voice is used when the subject is doing the acting. 46 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:54,000 The mother bathes the child. 47 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000 That's the verb in the active voice. 48 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:06,000 The passive voice is used when the subject is being acted upon by another. 49 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,000 The child is being bathed by its mother. 50 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 That's the passive voice. 51 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:21,000 The middle voice is used when the subject is doing the acting on itself. 52 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,000 The child is bathing. 53 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,000 The child is doing the acting. That's the middle voice. 54 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Now, let's put those three together. 55 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,000 Passive voice, active voice, middle voice. 56 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:42,000 When the scripture says, prophecies shall be done away with, 57 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:48,000 and knowledge shall vanish away, that's the passive voice, 58 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:54,000 meaning God is going to bring prophecy to an end. 59 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,000 God will bring knowledge to an end, 60 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:06,000 because prophecy and knowledge are guideposts on the road to faith. 61 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:13,000 And once you know the way, you no longer need the guideposts. 62 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,000 Somebody will help me preach it. 63 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,000 There is no longer any need for anybody to prophesy, 64 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:29,000 because everything God wants us to know is in the scripture. 65 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:35,000 If you run up on somebody who called himself a prophet, run away, 66 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:40,000 because God has no more prophets. 67 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,000 There are no more apostles. 68 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,000 The last apostle was John, and he died on the Isle of Patmos. 69 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:55,000 I have a preacher who calls himself a cardinal. 70 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:00,000 It's not going to be long before we're going to have a pope in the black Baptist church, 71 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,000 because bishop is not good enough. Cardinal is not going to be good enough after a while. 72 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000 After a while, we're going to have a pope. 73 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,000 What's wrong with being pastor? 74 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,000 What's wrong with just being a preacher? 75 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,000 Everybody wants to have some special knowledge. 76 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:20,000 God is not giving anybody any esoteric knowledge. 77 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:29,000 The only knowledge you and I have now comes from reading the scripture. 78 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,000 Faith comes by hearing. 79 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,000 I wish I had some noise here. 80 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,000 And hearing by the Word of God. 81 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:46,000 Whatever the Word of God does not say, you need to be quiet on. 82 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:54,000 Prophecy will cease, and it has ceased, 83 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,000 because we have the canon of scripture. 84 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:06,000 C-A-N-O-N, the canon of scripture, the Bible in its completed form. 85 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:15,000 God is not going to speak another word until we stand before Him in judgment. 86 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Everything God wants to say has been said finally in the Word. 87 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:29,000 In sundry times, I need two or three more Bible readers. 88 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,000 And in diverse places. 89 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:36,000 I spoke through dreams and visions and prophecies. 90 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:41,000 But now God has spoken through a son. 91 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:47,000 Jesus is God's last word. 92 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:52,000 In the beginning was the word. 93 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,000 And the Word was with God. 94 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,000 And the Word was God. 95 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:04,000 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 96 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,000 And we beheld His glory. 97 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,000 The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 98 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:17,000 The last word God spoke died on a cross. 99 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,000 Rose from the grave. 100 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 And is seated now on the right hand of God with power. 101 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:34,000 And so prophecy has ceased. 102 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:40,000 There is no special knowledge. 103 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:43,000 People come up to you all the time and say, 104 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:48,000 the Spirit told me to tell you. 105 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Oh. 106 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:58,000 I had a vision about, oh, you last night. 107 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:03,000 And the Spirit told me to tell you. 108 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,000 You need to tell them. 109 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:10,000 The Spirit knows my phone number. 110 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,000 The Spirit knows my address. 111 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,000 My zip code. 112 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,000 My social security number. 113 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,000 God ain't going to tell you nothing to tell me. 114 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:27,000 Because what God wants me to know, He's shown me in His Word. 115 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:31,000 The will of God is not hidden from any of us. 116 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:42,000 God has revealed His will in His Word. 117 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:47,000 Stop reading your horoscope. 118 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,000 Your day ain't got nothing to do with you being a Sagittarius. 119 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,000 Or cancer. 120 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Leo. 121 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:00,000 You got ugly ways because you got ugly ways. 122 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,000 Ain't got nothing to do with the sign of your zodiac or none of that. 123 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000 You mean and crabby. 124 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:11,000 Not because you're a cancer, because you just mean and crabby. 125 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,000 And you need to ask God to work on that. 126 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,000 That has nothing to do with the stars. 127 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,000 It has nothing to do with the signs of the zodiac. 128 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:26,000 It has to do that you feel like cussing somebody out. 129 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Stop giving people a piece of your mind. 130 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,000 That's why you ain't got that much left. 131 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Because you're always giving it away. 132 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,000 Let this mind be in you. 133 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,000 Which was also in Christ Jesus. 134 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:49,000 And as a child of God, it doesn't matter that they don't love you. 135 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,000 God obligates you to love them. 136 00:15:52,000 --> 00:16:01,000 Because God is not going to hold me responsible for how you treat me. 137 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:09,000 But by this shall all men know that you are my disciple. 138 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:16,000 Because you have love one for another. 139 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000 I hear me brothers and sisters. 140 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:23,000 Passive voice, prophecy ceases. 141 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,000 Knowledge is done away. 142 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,000 That's passive voice. 143 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000 It's being acted upon by God himself. 144 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:36,000 But tongues in this passage is in the middle voice. 145 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Meaning that tongues will cease on their own. 146 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:51,000 And the reason tongues ceased in the home of Cornelius in chapter 10 of Acts. 147 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:58,000 Is because there was no more a need for unbelieving Jews to understand 148 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:05,000 that the same spirit that fell on Pentecost fell on the Gentiles. 149 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,000 Somebody help me preach it. 150 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:18,000 And so God no longer needs the apostles to speak in other languages. 151 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:26,000 Because the Bible is now interpreted in other languages. 152 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,000 There's no need for tongues. 153 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,000 Because tongues have ceased. 154 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,000 The same Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost. 155 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,000 Is the same Holy Ghost that fell in the home of Cornelius. 156 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,000 And they spoke with other tongues in the home of Cornelius. 157 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:55,000 And Peter even said that the same spirit that fell on us has now fallen on them. 158 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,000 I wish I had one or two more Bible readers. 159 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:09,000 So that if you're speaking in tongues, there needs to be present and interpreter. 160 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:19,000 Because God is no longer causing tongues to be a part of worship. 161 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,000 See how quiet you got right there? 162 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:30,000 I'm trying to learn something here this morning. 163 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:39,000 That this gibberish that you hear is not tongues. 164 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,000 It's babbling. 165 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:53,000 And when tongues happened on the day of Pentecost, it reversed the curse at the tower of Babylon. 166 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,000 That's why it's called babbling. 167 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,000 Because they couldn't understand each other. 168 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:05,000 But it does not make sense for me to come here this morning and speak Swahili when you speak English. 169 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:12,000 Because you need to hear the gospel in your tongue. 170 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,000 I had some help to preach right here. 171 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:20,000 Thank God that the day of Pentecost undead the curse at the tower of Babylon. 172 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:27,000 Because now everybody can hear the gospel in his or her own language and know God for himself. 173 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:35,000 Because we understand what somebody is saying. 174 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:42,000 It's in these kinds of crowds that Satan will get you distracted. 175 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,000 That Satan will cause you not to hear what I'm saying. 176 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:51,000 Satan will cause you to close your mind to the truth. 177 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:56,000 And you will believe fables and lies. 178 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000 But brothers and sisters hear me. 179 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:03,000 Paul goes on to talk to us not only about this expectation of what's going to happen. 180 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:12,000 But he says, prophecies and knowledge are gone because the perfect has come. 181 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:20,000 When the perfect has come, prophecy and knowledge is done away. 182 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,000 Jesus is who David was talking about. 183 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,000 When David said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 184 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,000 He was talking about Jesus. 185 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:35,000 When Ezekiel talked about a wheel in the middle of a wheel, he was talking about Jesus. 186 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:42,000 When Daniel talked about a stone that had been hewn out of a mountain, he was talking about Jesus. 187 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:49,000 When Solomon said he's the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley and the bright morning star, he was talking about Jesus. 188 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:54,000 When Job said, if I had a dais man, he was talking about Jesus. 189 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:59,000 Every time the scripture talks about an Ebenezer, he's talking about Jesus. 190 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000 The scepter will not depart from Judah. 191 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,000 Nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. 192 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000 That's talking about Jesus. 193 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:21,000 The prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. 194 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:32,000 Now we don't need a fourth telling when Jesus is the telling that's been coming forth. 195 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:36,000 That was good. I worked on that all the week. 196 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:45,000 We don't need a fourth telling when Jesus is the telling that's been coming forth. 197 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:52,000 Now, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, he's been coming forth. 198 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:58,000 The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. 199 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,000 The serpent shall bruise his heel. That's talking about Jesus. 200 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:11,000 That's the expectation we have now what they were looking for. 201 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:19,000 But not only is there expectation in the text, in verses 9 and 10, there is an explanation. 202 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:25,000 Verse 9 and 10 says, for we know only in part, and we prophesy in part, 203 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:30,000 but when the complete comes, when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 204 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:45,000 Listen, I don't have any need now to wonder about my salvation because the Bible tells me, 205 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:54,000 these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. 206 00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:00,000 I don't have to wait to get to heaven to find out if I'm saved. 207 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:08,000 I know because the Bible says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart 208 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:14,000 that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. 209 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:20,000 How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? 210 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:25,000 And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard? 211 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,000 And how shall they hear without a preacher? 212 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000 And how shall they preach except they be sent? 213 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:40,000 What happens here on Sunday morning is not a man standing behind a lectern giving a lecture. 214 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:49,000 I am a preacher in the pulpit pulling people out of the pit. 215 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:56,000 That's why this place where I stand is a pulpit because I'm pulling people out of a pit. 216 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:09,000 Because one day I was in a pit and John Wilkerson preached and pulled me out of the pit. 217 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:16,000 Church is not some municipal auditorium. 218 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,000 Church is not some concert hall. 219 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,000 Get rid of your entertainment philosophy. 220 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,000 Trash your nightclub mentality. 221 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,000 Words of life are being preached into your spirit. 222 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:40,000 And when your spirit connects with my spirit and the Holy Spirit comes down in this place, 223 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:45,000 bad men become good men. 224 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:51,000 Good men become better men. 225 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,000 Evil people become sweet people. 226 00:24:54,000 --> 00:25:00,000 Lost people become saved people. 227 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,000 Here it is. Here it is. 228 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,000 Here it is. 229 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:14,000 When I was a child, I spoke like a child. 230 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,000 I fought like a child. 231 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,000 I understood like a child. 232 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:33,000 But when I grew up, when I became an adult, when I became a man, when I became a woman, 233 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:46,000 I put away, listen, not childlike things, but childish things. 234 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:52,000 Because like a child, I still wonder about the grace of God. 235 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:58,000 I'm childlike with wonder when I think about God's goodness. 236 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:04,000 I am childlike with excitement when I think about preaching on Sunday morning. 237 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:10,000 I am childlike and giddy with joy when I think about the gifts God just gives me 238 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,000 that I don't even deserve. 239 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:20,000 And then he gives me what I didn't even ask for. 240 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:28,000 I'm about to shout right here. 241 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:33,000 You Texas people won't get this. 242 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:38,000 This is a Louisiana quail realism. 243 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:43,000 We Louisiana people have a secret handshake 244 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000 and a different way of looking at stuff. 245 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:50,000 And there's stuff that happened in Louisiana that you Texas people have borrowed, 246 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,000 but it's not yours, it's ours. 247 00:26:53,000 --> 00:27:00,000 But so you can shout with me on credit. 248 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:09,000 We have something in Louisiana where I was raised called LANYOP. 249 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:15,000 L-A-G-N-I-A-P-P-E. LANYOP. 250 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:27,000 LANYOP is when you go to buy five pounds of rice, they give you six pounds. 251 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:36,000 Or you go to get a five pound bag of sugar and they give you eight pounds. 252 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:44,000 My grandmother would look at that and if somebody baked you a cake, 253 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:51,000 you didn't just bring the plate back, you put something in it. 254 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,000 More than what they gave you. 255 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,000 That's called LANYOP. 256 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:05,000 You baked a cake, they send you a cake and some fried chicken. 257 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:12,000 You send them some soup, they'll send you back a pie and some pineapples or bananas 258 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000 or some candy or some homemade stuff. 259 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,000 That's LANYOP, that's something you didn't ask for. 260 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,000 That's just extra. 261 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:27,000 God! 262 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:34,000 When you prayed this morning, you asked them for health and strength, 263 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:39,000 but he gave you something extra. 264 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,000 Somebody ought to help me holler right here. 265 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:47,000 You asked God for peace, but he gave you something extra. 266 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:52,000 You asked God to keep you from losing your mind, but he gave you something extra. 267 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,000 You got a new car, you got a new house, you got a new job, 268 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:06,000 and even if you don't have that, you got joy in your old house. 269 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,000 This joy! 270 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,000 Have I got a witness? 271 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:19,000 This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me. 272 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,000 And the world can't take it away. 273 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:33,000 You can't make me doubt him, because I know too much about him. 274 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,000 When I was a child, I thought like a child. 275 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:42,000 I would see him shouting on Sunday morning, 276 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:48,000 and as a child, I laughed and played with that. 277 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,000 Somebody ought to help me finish it. 278 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,000 My mama would get happy in the choir, 279 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000 and the Ushers had them little white caps on their head, 280 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:10,000 they had some smelling salts in their apron, or in their pocket, 281 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:18,000 and they'd put it under my mama's nose, and she'd come out of it. 282 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000 And I'd get to school the next day, and they'd say, 283 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:27,000 tell your mama to calm down. 284 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,000 So I'd come home, I'd say, my listen. 285 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,000 You ain't got to do all that. 286 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:46,000 She said, just keep on living. 287 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:52,000 And one Wednesday, down in Yulis, Louisiana, 288 00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:02,000 I came to Jesus as I was weary, worn and sad, 289 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:10,000 but I found in him a resting place, and he made me glad. 290 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:15,000 And now I understand why my mama would carry on so much, 291 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,000 because when I was a child, I couldn't get it, 292 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:22,000 because I thought I was a man. 293 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:26,000 Now that I've been through some storms on my own, 294 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:30,000 now that I've had some people to walk away from me, 295 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:35,000 now that I've had some folk to lie on me and criticize me, 296 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,000 now that I've had some people I fought with my friends 297 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,000 who turned their backs on me, 298 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,000 now that I've been down to my last dime, 299 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,000 and my back has been up against the wall, 300 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:49,000 and I've been showed up and made away out of no way. 301 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,000 I don't need to ask nobody about how good God is. 302 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:57,000 I know for myself, I'm not a child anymore. 303 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,000 I'm a grown man this morning. 304 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,000 You are a grown woman this morning, 305 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:14,000 with your own God experience. 306 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,000 And so somebody ought to help me testify. 307 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,000 He can do anything. 308 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,000 I said he can do anything. 309 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,000 When I was a child, I spoke like a child. 310 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,000 I thought like a child. 311 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,000 I understood like a child, but when I became a man, 312 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,000 I put away those childish waves. 313 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,000 You're going to help me close this, won't you? 314 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,000 And now we see through a glass darkly, 315 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:50,000 and face to face, I will know even as also I am known. 316 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000 I need somebody to help me close here. 317 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000 You can move the word love in the text, 318 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:03,000 and substitute that with the word or the name Jesus. 319 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,000 And it'll make this text read with so much power 320 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,000 that you will shout even before you get to the last verse. 321 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,000 I'm going to read it for you the way it really ought to be read. 322 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,000 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 323 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000 but do not have Jesus, 324 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:31,000 I am a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. 325 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,000 And if I give, if I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 326 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,000 and if I have all faith to remove mountains, 327 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:44,000 but I don't have Jesus, it profits me nothing. 328 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,000 If I give away all my possessions, 329 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:52,000 and if I give my body to be burned, but I have not Jesus, 330 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:56,000 it profits me nothing. 331 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,000 Jesus is patient. 332 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,000 Jesus is kind. 333 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,000 Jesus is not envious. 334 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000 Jesus is not boastful. 335 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,000 Jesus is not arrogant. 336 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,000 Jesus is not rude. 337 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,000 Jesus does not behave himself unseemly. 338 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000 Jesus is not irritable. 339 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,000 Jesus is not resentful. 340 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000 Jesus does not rejoice in wrongdoing. 341 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000 Jesus rejoices in the truth. 342 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,000 Jesus bears all things. 343 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,000 Jesus believes all things. 344 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,000 Jesus hopes all things. 345 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:45,000 Jesus endures all things. 346 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,000 Jesus never fails. 347 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:55,000 And now abided faith, hope, and Jesus. 348 00:34:55,000 --> 00:35:02,000 But the greatest of these is Jesus. 349 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,000 I wish I had somebody to help me. 350 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:09,000 The reason why I have great expectation, 351 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,000 the reason I thank God for an explanation, 352 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:17,000 is because I have now a marvelous illustration. 353 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,000 You're going to help me close this, won't you? 354 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,000 This ignorant eight grade student, 355 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,000 who was a grown man in his seventies, 356 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000 went to a lawyer's office 357 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,000 because God laid this lawyer on his heart 358 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:37,000 to go to his office and evangelize him. 359 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,000 And the ignorant eight grade, 360 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,000 seventy something year old man, 361 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,000 went to this lawyer's office 362 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,000 to talk to him about Jesus. 363 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,000 And every argument the old man raised, 364 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000 the lawyer had an answer for it. 365 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:59,000 Because the man just went to the eighth grade. 366 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,000 But this lawyer was erudite and successful. 367 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,000 This lawyer had a jurist doctorate. 368 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:10,000 This lawyer had years of schooling. 369 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,000 But this old man had just finished the eighth grade. 370 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,000 But he went to his office to talk to him 371 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,000 because God laid him on his heart. 372 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,000 And he wanted to witness to this lawyer about Jesus. 373 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,000 Every argument he raised, 374 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,000 the lawyer had an answer. 375 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000 And the man said, I'm sorry, 376 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000 I just came because God sent me to come. 377 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,000 And I wanted to tell you about Jesus 378 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:43,000 simply because I love you. 379 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:46,000 I know I can't argue with you. 380 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:50,000 I know I don't have all the education you have. 381 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:54,000 I just came because I love you. 382 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,000 The man went home depressed. 383 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,000 He was dejected and disappointed 384 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,000 because he did what God said him to do. 385 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,000 He told his wife, I went to this lawyer 386 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,000 and tried to tell him about Jesus. 387 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,000 And every argument I raised about Jesus, 388 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:15,000 he had an answer for. 389 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,000 I'm failed. I'm not good at evangelism. 390 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,000 I'm going to my room. 391 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000 I don't want to be disturbed. 392 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,000 I don't want to see anybody for the rest of the day. 393 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,000 He went in the room and closed the door. 394 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000 And about that time there came a knock on the door. 395 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,000 The wife went to the door to answer 396 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:40,000 and it was the lawyer that the old man had gone to witness to. 397 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,000 He said, ma'am, is your husband home? 398 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,000 She said he's here, but he doesn't want to see anybody. 399 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,000 He said, go tell him that I'm here to see him. 400 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,000 And I'm sure he will come out. 401 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,000 And when the old man came out and met the lawyer, 402 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000 the lawyer said, thank you for coming 403 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,000 because today because of you, 404 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,000 I'm saved and I know Jesus Christ. 405 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,000 The old man said, what do you mean? 406 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:15,000 Every argument I raised, you had an answer. 407 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,000 The lawyer said, but you had an answer 408 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:22,000 for which I didn't have an argument. 409 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,000 Somebody ought to help me shout here. 410 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:28,000 The old man said, every argument I raised, 411 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,000 you had an answer. 412 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,000 The lawyer said, you had an answer, 413 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,000 but I didn't have an argument 414 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,000 because you told me Jesus loves me. 415 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:42,000 I had no argument for that. 416 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,000 Jesus loves me. 417 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:53,000 This I know because the Bible tells me so. 418 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,000 I don't have a whole lot of theology this morning. 419 00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:00,000 I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. 420 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,000 I don't have a whole lot of scriptures to cope this morning. 421 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,000 I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. 422 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,000 I'm not trying to be erudite this morning, 423 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,000 sophisticated in my argument today. 424 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,000 I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. 425 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,000 You want to know how much he loves you? 426 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:22,000 He came through 42 generations. 427 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:28,000 Let himself be born in Bethlehem of Judea. 428 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,000 He loves you so much that you went around healing the sick, 429 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:38,000 giving sight to the blind, making lame men to walk, 430 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:42,000 turning water in the wine, feeding the multitude 431 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread. 432 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:51,000 That's a good miracle, but that's not how he really loves you. 433 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:58,000 One Friday, he died on a hill called Calvary, 434 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000 but that's not how he really loves you. 435 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:08,000 Sunday morning, he rose from the grave, 436 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,000 but that's not how he really loves you. 437 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:19,000 One day, he's coming back again in my father's house. 438 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:26,000 In my father's house, 439 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,000 many mansions, if it were not so, 440 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:37,000 I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. 441 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:42,000 And if I go to prepare a place for you, 442 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:48,000 I will come again and receive you under myself 443 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:53,000 that where I am, there you will be also. 444 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,000 One of his disciples said, 445 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,000 Lord, we don't know where you're going. 446 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,000 How can we know the way? 447 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:06,000 Jesus said, I am the way. 448 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:10,000 I am the truth. 449 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,000 I am the life. 450 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,000 Is there anybody here? 451 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,000 No, he's away. 452 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,000 Is there anybody here? 453 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,000 No, he's the truth. 454 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,000 Is there anybody here? 455 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,000 No, he's a life. 456 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,000 Come on, help me talk about it. 457 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,000 He's a rock in a weary land. 458 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,000 He's a shelter in a time of storm. 459 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,000 He's a friend when you're friendless. 460 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,000 Bread when you're hungry. 461 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,000 Y'all know him, don't you? 462 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,000 He's Adam's redeemer. 463 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,000 He's Abel's vindicator. 464 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,000 Y'all know him, don't you? 465 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,000 He died. 466 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,000 Didn't he die? 467 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:58,000 But early Sunday morning. 468 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:02,000 Early Sunday morning. 469 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:06,000 He got up for you and for me. 470 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,000 Early Sunday morning. 471 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000 He rose from the grave. 472 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000 He got up with all power. 473 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,000 That's why I sing so much. 474 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:22,000 That's why I shout so much. 475 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:27,000 Why should I feel this cup? 476 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:31,000 Why should the shadows come? 477 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:36,000 Why should my heart be lonely 478 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,000 and long to heaven and home? 479 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:45,000 When Jesus, I said when Jesus 480 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:52,000 is my portion, my constant friend is He. 481 00:42:52,000 --> 00:43:01,000 He's on the spiral. 482 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:06,000 And I know. 483 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,000 I know. 484 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:26,000 I know He's our Lord. 485 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:31,000 I know He's our Lord. 486 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,000 He walks with me. 487 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,000 He talks with me. 488 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,000 He tells me. 489 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:44,000 God is on and the joy. 490 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,000 Do you have joy? 491 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,000 Why don't you grab somebody? 492 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,000 Tell them this joy. 493 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,000 This joy. 494 00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,000 This joy. 495 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,000 This joy. 496 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,000 This joy. 497 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:06,000 This joy. 498 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,000 This joy. 499 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,000 This joy. 500 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:25,180 Kakushama'u wage nai! 501 00:44:25,180 --> 00:44:55,060 And now, abideth faith, hope, and love. 502 00:44:55,060 --> 00:45:07,140 Here's three. Ah, but the greatest of these is love. And the reason why love is the greatest 503 00:45:07,140 --> 00:45:18,220 is not because love outlasts faith and hope. Love is the greatest because it outranks faith 504 00:45:18,220 --> 00:45:30,780 and hope because faith and hope are built on love. And the building can't stand without 505 00:45:30,780 --> 00:45:44,020 its foundation. The foundation of my Christian faith is Jesus loves me this I know because 506 00:45:44,020 --> 00:45:56,340 the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.