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I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

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First Corinthians chapter 13.

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This chapter of course is well known because of its emphasis on the very theme that we

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have focused our attention on this morning, the theme of love.

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As we talk about it, I don't want you to lose sight of the fact that chapter 13 comes between

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chapter 12 and chapter 14.

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Chapters 12, 13, and 14 all deal with the same matter of spiritual gifts.

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Last Sunday we talked specifically about the spiritual gifts and attempted to define them

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and to outline some suggestions as to how each of us can determine our spiritual gift

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personally.

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If you were not here last Sunday and would like a copy of those notes, I think that they

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are available in the church office.

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We have a few left over and you can drop by there afterward.

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We're this morning going to talk about the matter that Paul brings up right at the end

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of chapter 12 when he says, and now I show you the most excellent way.

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That word way means road, a course.

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We talked about the spiritual gifts and how they relate within the body of Christ.

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He says, now I want to show you the way, the course you should follow as you exercise your

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gifts.

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This is how you should conduct yourself as a believer in the body.

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Of course, then he begins to speak about this matter of love.

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If there were such a thing, we could call this chapter a non-narrative biography of

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Jesus Christ.

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We're going to read the first seven verses.

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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding

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gong or a clanging cymbal.

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If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I

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have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

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If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love,

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I gain nothing.

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Love is patient.

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Love is kind.

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It does not envy.

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It does not boast.

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It is not proud.

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It is not rude.

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It is not self-seeking.

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It is not easily angered.

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It keeps no record of wrongs.

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Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

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It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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In the text we read this morning, we learn about love, first its preeminence.

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The apostle tells us in verses 1 and 2 that love is preeminent over the gifts of the Spirit.

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He first makes reference to the gift of tongues.

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He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only

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a resounding gong, a clanging symbol.

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In other words, he says, though I may possess the gift of tongues and have great eloquence,

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if I do not speak with love, then all of my words are only as a gong that echoes and as

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a symbol that keeps clanging.

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All of us love to attend a symphony concert, I would assume.

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We enjoy hearing all the various instruments combining to produce that lovely sound.

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Can you imagine going to a symphony concert that was only cymbals?

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All the players had were cymbals and everybody was clanging away.

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And right in the middle, perhaps, was a gong and there was a fellow beating the gong, bong,

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bong.

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And everybody else playing the cymbals, would that be beautiful?

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Of course not.

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That would be noisy.

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It would not be music.

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The apostle is saying that if you and I, though we may have great gifts of speaking to people,

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if we speak but we do not possess love, then we are no more than just noise.

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There are some people who think that if one is greatly gifted, that's the most important

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thing in life.

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It is not.

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There are others who think the most important thing in life is to be well known and respected

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in your profession.

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It is not.

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The most important thing is to have love.

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It's preeminent over all of the gifts.

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In verse 2 he mentions the gift of prophecy, which we talked about last week in its technical

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meaning and its broader meaning.

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He talks about fathoming mysteries, perhaps referring to wisdom there.

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He talks about the gift of knowledge and the gift of faith.

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In fact, such great faith that one could literally move mountains.

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He says that one may have these gifts if he has not love, he is a zero.

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He is less than a nobody.

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He is a zero, though he may be greatly gifted.

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He says love is more important than any gift.

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And then he says love is more important than benevolence.

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He says if I give all, I possess to the poor, perhaps referring to the gift of giving.

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But at least he is talking here about the act of sharing, of giving out to the poor.

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He says though I may give everything I possess to those who have little, if I do not do it

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with love, I gain nothing.

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So love is more important than benevolence.

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And finally he says if I give my body to be burned, in other words if I experience martyrdom,

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and yet if I do not have love, there is no profit in it.

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There were some, especially under the reign of Darkletian, who felt that martyrdom was

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a great mark of distinction.

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Of course that is still true today in some religions.

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For example, some sects of the Muslim religion believe that it is a great mark of honor,

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it is sheer entrance into heaven according to their theology, if one suffers martyrdom

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for a cause.

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Paul says here by the Spirit that though we may even suffer martyrdom, if we are not possessed

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by love, we have gained nothing.

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There is nothing that is more important than love.

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Without love I convey nothing, I am nothing, and I gain nothing.

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That is how important love is.

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Then in verses 4 through 7 we have the portrait of love.

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I would like for us to spend most of the rest of our time this morning looking at the specific

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description of love that we find here.

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To be controlled and possessed by love is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ

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Himself.

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Let us understand clearly too that the love that is mentioned here is not mere human love,

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this is agape love, the distinctive kind of love that God has and shares with us.

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It is an unselfish giving of one toward another, expecting nothing in return.

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It is not mutual admiration, nor is it friendship, but it is a love that self-sacrifices, as

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we clearly see from the description here.

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There are some people who feel that love is kind of a, or the fuzzies I guess they call

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it.

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It is kind of a sentimental thing, it is an emotional feeling that comes over you.

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Someone has penned this little poem, love is a funny thing.

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It is just like a lizard, it curls up in your heart and jumps in your gizzard.

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And there are some people who feel it is just that way.

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Unless there is something inside of them that gets all tickled, they don't feel like there

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is love.

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But that is not love according to the Bible.

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Love is something that is active in seeking another's welfare even if the other person

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is undeserving.

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Let us look at some of the qualities that are mentioned here in the portrait of love.

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And again may I say to you that we are here actually painting a portrait of the life of

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Jesus Christ.

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You can take every phrase here that describes love and go back to the gospels and find specific

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illustrations of love in action in the life of Christ.

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We don't have time to do that today but that would be a good Bible study for you sometime.

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Love is patient or long suffering.

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What does that mean?

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It means that it endures injuries and slights without losing interest in the welfare of

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the one causing them.

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Did you get that?

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It means that even though someone may injure you and hurt you, you do not lose a desire

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for their welfare.

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Love is patient.

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It does not become resentful and bitter at others.

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It is patient under provocation of evil from others.

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Love is never in a hurry.

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Love can wait.

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Love is a calm.

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Love is patient.

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And then it says love is kind.

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Actually it means merciful.

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It means to be easy on another.

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To extend good to others.

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This is the positive aspect of number one.

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Number one says love is patient.

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It sort of receives, blows, and does nothing to retaliate.

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But when it says love is kind, it is the outgoing side of that.

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Love is the hand that is outreached to another.

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It is giving another genuine pleasure.

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There was a young boy who had been converted at an early age.

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The word of God was daily read in his home and he faithfully attended Sunday school.

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One day the child said to his mother, Mother, I wish Jesus lived on earth now.

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She said, Why, Johnny?

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Because I'd like so much to do something for him.

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But what could a little fellow like you do for the Savior?

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The boy replied, Why, I could run all kinds of errands for him.

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His mother said, So you could, Johnny, and so you shall.

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Here are some oranges and a glass of jelly for poor old Margaret who lives down the street.

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I will let you take them to her in Jesus' name.

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Then noticing that her son was rather surprised by that, she explained, When Christ was here

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on earth, he said, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it

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unto me.

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That means, Johnny, that whenever you do a kind act for anybody because you love the

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Lord, it's just the same as he were living on earth and you were doing it for him personally.

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Does that help you understand what kindness is?

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Someone wrote these words, I shall pass through this world but once.

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Any good thing therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human

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being, let me do it now.

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But may not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

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Love understands that and is kind.

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How is it expressed in your dorm?

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How is love expressed in kindness there in your room?

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How is it patient with that person down the hall?

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How about your home, your husband, your wife?

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Love is patient.

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Love is kind.

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Furthermore, it does not envy.

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It is not envious.

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The root word here means to boil, which is an interesting thought about envy.

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Because envy, you see, is rather hidden and yet it's very real in the heart and the spirit

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of a person.

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It boils down underneath where it can't be seen.

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But every now and then one of those little bubbles of air comes popping up and there

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will be a little bit flash out of the life, like lava that comes out of a volcano.

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That's the way envy is.

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But love is not envious.

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Envy has been described as the dislike we feel when someone is in a better position

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than ourselves.

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It's the attitude that was seen in the Corinthians who felt that their gifts were inferior.

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They were envious of the others who had other gifts.

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Love does not bear a grudge over the success of another, but rather it rejoices when another

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is promoted or succeeds or is honored.

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Love is that part of the Christian life that rejoices when another guy is elected captain

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or another gal is given the first place.

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Love is not envious, nor does it boast.

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The word means a braggart, a show-off, one who, as it were, blows his own trumpet.

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And here Paul is probably thinking about those Corinthians who felt they were greatly gifted

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and who showed off with a display the gifts that they possessed of the Spirit.

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Paul says love is not ostentatious.

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It is not pretentious.

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It is not a braggart.

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It does not boast about itself.

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He goes on to say, and love is not proud or is not puffed up.

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Well, the one word, boast, talks about the outward display of arrogance.

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Being puffed up is, again, the inner word.

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It talks about the spirit of a person, the kind of a person who is a windbag, as it were,

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where there is no real substance within.

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It's just being puffed up with arrogance.

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This is a word that is related to the Greek word for bellows.

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And so you could just almost see a person like a bellows swell up with his attitude

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of himself.

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And though he may not say or show that arrogance, it is obvious in his life because his spirit

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does show through.

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Love is not puffed up.

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Love does not act unbecomingly.

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In other words, it is not rude.

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It does not display bad taste.

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The thought here is not necessarily evil, but it refers to that which is uncouth.

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Again, the apostle may be thinking about the Corinthians and the way they acted at the

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Agape feast.

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Remember we talked about that?

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When they would get together to observe the Lord's Supper, which should be a beautiful

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display of their unity and their oneness, they would jump in and there would be those

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who would eat the food very quickly and leave none for others.

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It was actually a display of selfishness.

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And that's what Paul is probably thinking of here when he says that love is not rude.

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Do you notice how these are in the negative?

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Sometimes in order to show something at its most beautiful point, you have to paint a

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black scene behind it.

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If you want to show a diamond, for example, one excellent way to do that is to put it

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on a piece of black velvet.

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So the apostle paints love here against the negatives first.

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He says furthermore that love does not seek its own.

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It is not self-seeking.

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It looks out for the advantage of another, in other words.

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Sometimes it's hard for us to discern, isn't it?

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Because our hearts can be very deceitful.

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And we may think that we are looking after another's welfare when in fact we are subtly

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looking toward our own.

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Perhaps again Paul had in mind the Corinthians and those who felt that it was fine to eat

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the meat that had been offered to idols, which he talks about in chapter 8.

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Then there were others who felt that it was wrong and it was a stumbling block to them.

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Paul is reminding them that love is not self-seeking.

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There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving, says Henry Drummond in

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his book The Greatest Thing in the World.

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And there he says love is not pervert.

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It is not easily angered.

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It does not give way to a fit of emotional violence.

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It does not become irritated at another.

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The apostle knew what this was because the very thought here was found in his own life

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when he and Barnabas had what is called in the New Testament a sharp disagreement in

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Acts 15 verse 39.

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Whatever the whole story was there, we know part of it at least, there was a sharp disagreement

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or an irritation or a provocation between Paul and Barnabas.

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Paul comes back to say to us that love is not provoked.

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It is not irritable.

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And then love keeps no record of wrongs, or as the King James puts it, it thinks no evil.

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And actually I think the NIV comes closer to the meaning here because the word means

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that love does not count up evil.

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There are some people who live as though they have a great ledger book before them.

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And when an evil is done to them they write it down in the ledger book so that they can

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keep track of how everybody in their circle of friends is doing.

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And when the occasion calls for it they draw the line and they sum up all of the evils

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that another has done, perhaps to justify some evil action back at that person.

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What Paul tells us here is that love does not take account of evil.

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There is no ledger book for it.

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To nurse a real or an imagined injury is to miss the point of love.

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Love does not hold a grudge.

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Love does not allow resentment to build up, because resentment poisons the mind and it

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sours the spirit.

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Love considers any slight as unintentional.

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But if in fact it realizes that the slight is deliberate, it chooses to take no notice

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of it, because it keeps no record of wrongs.

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Proverbs 10 and 12 says, hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.

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That s the point here.

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How s your ledger book?

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Where do you keep one?

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Then he says, love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

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Now the two verbs in that particular clause are similar.

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But the second one means that love is a partner with truth.

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On the other hand, it has nothing to do with iniquity.

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Again the apostle is probably thinking of the Corinthians, who are rather proud of their

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broad mindedness, because they allowed immorality in their church, as spoken about in chapter

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5.

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What the apostle says here is that that s not love, because love does not rejoice or

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delight in evil.

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But on the other hand, it delights, it rejoices with the truth, because it is a partner with

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the truth.

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In the Psalms it says, mercy and truth are met together.

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Where do they meet together?

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In the person of Jesus Christ, who may be described by the very clause that is before

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us here.

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Love grieves over the fallen one, and quickly shields him when it s possible.

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It rejoices when the truth prevails.

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Love seeks to put things in a proper context, in a proper light.

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Love does not mean that one is spineless.

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For truth condemns evil, and love concurs with that condemnation.

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But it does mean that love allows no bitterness, and no undue harshness.

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There are some people who believe that we ought to overlook iniquity and evil out of

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love.

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In fact, to put it in one illustration, I was associated for a brief time with a denomination

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where that was true.

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In their seminaries there is a great deal of iniquity and evil in terms of liberal theology

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that is being poured out into the minds of the students and from them into the churches

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of that denomination.

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And there is a great struggle in that denomination this day, over this matter of liberal theology.

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And there are those in the denomination who stand up and say, for the love of our convention,

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we ought not to make this an issue, this matter of the inerrancy of the Bible, etc.

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And yet, that very sentence betrays the essence of love.

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Because love does not delight in evil.

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On the other hand, it rejoices when the truth triumphs.

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And so love is not that which pulls the rug over sin.

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In fact, there are times when love exposes the sin so that it can be dealt with because

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sin destroys.

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But love, on the other hand, is not harsh and bitter about it.

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Love bears all things.

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It always protects.

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And you'll notice these last four phrases each have always in it.

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Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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And it says that love always protects.

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The word there is rooted in the word for roof.

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We speak about having a roof over our heads, and the thought is that that roof is there

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to protect us from the elements.

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Well, here it says that love is a roof to the heart.

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It protects us from resentment and from bitterness.

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Not only that, it shelters and protects others as well.

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Love endures without divulging its distress toward another.

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It's like a ship that is tight against the water.

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Love does not allow the water to seep in.

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It keeps the vessel dry and floating, and so love does that with the life.

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It protects us.

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It always protects.

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The loving man contains himself in silence.

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He does not allow, for example, the mastery of his tongue.

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He does not allow his tongue to get out of control.

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He allows his tongue rather to protect others.

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That's what love is concerned about.

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Are you ever concerned about that?

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Of course you are, because love is concerned about protecting others.

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And then love is always trustful.

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That does not mean that love is gullible.

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There's a difference between being gullible and being trusting.

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What it does mean is that love is not always suspicious.

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Love is predisposed to trust another.

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Love always expects the best qualities from another.

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Someone has said it is far better to be deceived in a doubtful case and suffer hurt than as

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a skeptic to hurt another who should have been believed.

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And then love always hopes.

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What does that mean?

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It means that love is always optimistic, not blindly optimistic, but it's optimistic.

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Love is a realism that is anchored in the promises of God.

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Love does not get to the point of despair.

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Love sees the bright side of things.

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It always counts on God, this coming through, as being faithful and able and willing.

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And then love always perseveres.

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It endures all things.

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The thought here is to remain under a load.

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Love persists in the face of all odds.

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Though there are adverse circumstances, love sticks to it.

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It perseveres.

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Often in a warfare, it is the general who is most persistent who wins, not always the

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one that is the most brilliant.

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The general of this might be Ulysses Grant, although he was a talented general.

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But on one occasion he said in a battle, I intend to fight it out on this line if it

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takes all summer.

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Now he transfers that kind of an attitude into love in the Christian context and it

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shows that love always perseveres.

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Impatience is forever self-destructive.

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Impatience causes disintegration in relationships.

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But love endures.

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As we read through these phrases, we read what Jesus Christ is like.

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The question that I would pose to each of us today is this one.

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How much are we like Jesus?

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How conformed are we to the image of Christ?

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It's easy to have an emotional feeling about that.

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It's also easy to talk about love.

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But when we begin to define love in the terms of the chapter that is before us, it is a

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test to see how much love we really have.

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What about that person you're engaged to?

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Are you patient?

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Do you overlook those things about that person that you don't particularly care for?

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Does love protect the other person by sealing the tongue?

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Is love causing a courtesy in your life so that you are not rude?

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Does love restrain you from becoming boastful or inwardly arrogant about your abilities

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or your accomplishments?

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Do you trust other people or do you always think the worst about them?

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Those are just some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves when we talk about

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this matter of love.

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Love is so very important.

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It is the mark of Christlikeness.

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Jesus said by this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if we possess the kind

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of love that's described here.

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Not if we talk about love and not if we sing about it and not if we hold hands and sing

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about it, as good as that may be.

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But the test is, how do I act on the way home in the car or on the bus?

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What about this afternoon?

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00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:42,200
What about the basketball game Tuesday night or Friday night?

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00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:46,080
How do I act out on the floor?

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00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:52,200
What about my spirit as I sing in that group, as I minister?

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00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:53,760
Am I arrogant?

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00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:58,560
Am I there to receive glory for myself?

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00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:03,280
How do I feel when that person gets up in front and I feel like he's there too much?

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00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,640
Am I envious of him?

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00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:10,240
Do I condemn him?

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00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:16,920
You see, these are some of the points raised by chapter 13 of Corinthians.

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How much love do we express within our small churches?

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It's easy to say, well, they don't love.

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No, that's not the question.

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Do you love?

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That's the question.

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Do you reach out?

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00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:35,600
Do you care?

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Because love is not what others give to me.

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Love is what I give to them.

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That's love.

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00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:52,560
There's a young boy who was rushing through the streets of Chicago about 100 years ago.

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One stop, he said, where are you going?

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00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,480
He said, I'm going down to Moody's Sunday School.

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You see, Moody had started a Sunday School for the street urchins there in Chicago.

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So why are you going down there?

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00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:14,840
He said, because they love a fella down there.

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There is nothing that is more attractive than love.

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Now, as we look through these qualities, very frankly, I shrink from them because I cannot

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produce these qualities very consistently.

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I can work on one or two of them at a time for a while and fail the rest of them and

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then fail the ones I'm working on, ultimately.

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The whole point is that the fruit of the spirit is what?

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It's love.

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You see, the life that is before us here and the quality that is sought is a life and a

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00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:01,480
quality that only the Holy Spirit can produce through us.

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00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:07,720
If you're not a Christian this morning, then these phrases and these descriptions escape

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00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:08,720
you entirely.

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You cannot know them until you know the one whose life this describes and you share his

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life.

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And if you have done that, then the question, of course, to us is this.

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Is his life flowing through me today or is it my own selfish life?

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00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:30,960
Is he Lord or am I Lord?

437
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:38,640
The one whose life is perfectly described in this chapter was not honored by men, but

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he was rejected, cruelly treated, and ultimately he was nailed to a cross.

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00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:53,720
And we should expect nothing more than that if our lives are controlled by love.

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We can also expect that our lives will be glorifying to Jesus Christ, and that's the

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most important thing.

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Not acceptance here in the world, but acceptance to our Lord.

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Heavenly Father, I pray that none of us will be able to escape the point of this chapter

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00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,480
today because there's application for all of us.

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00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:24,880
If there be some friend here today without Christ as Savior and Lord, may there be a

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00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:32,240
hunger to know Jesus Christ after seeing the beauty of his life as described here.

447
00:34:32,240 --> 00:34:39,060
All of us have to confess to you the bankruptcy that we feel as we try to produce these qualities.

448
00:34:39,060 --> 00:34:42,640
Thank you for bringing us to the point where we feel that bankruptcy.

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00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:51,840
But now do we also confess that we want you to be our Lord and our life and to produce

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00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:57,360
this quality of living through us, in our homes, in our dorms, with our families and

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00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:00,360
our friends and where we work?

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00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:07,000
Lord, produce this life, this beautiful quality of life described in this chapter, through

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us and attract people to yourself.

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I pray this in Christ's name.

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Amen.

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00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:20,560
Would you take your hymn and join me in singing?

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00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:25,240
The second verse of 397.

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00:35:25,240 --> 00:35:29,360
This will also serve as an invitation hymn, and if there is some spiritual need in your

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00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:35,080
life today that you would like someone to pray with you about, we invite you to come

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00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:39,440
here to the front so we can introduce you to a counselor.

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00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:45,120
If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then we implore you to come.

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00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:49,280
Not that coming forward in itself will make you a Christian, but the point is that coming

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00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:54,800
forward we will be able to help you and talk with you personally and answer your questions.

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00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,520
Those people that Jesus called, he called publicly, and he may be calling you to follow

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00:35:58,520 --> 00:35:59,520
him today.

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Will you come?

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00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:07,200
And then if today as a Christian you feel defeated and empty and you want someone to

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00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:12,400
pray with you, to talk with you, we encourage you to come too.

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00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:19,400
Let's sing together very prayerfully the second verse of 397, O'er to be like thee, full of

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compassion.

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Amen.