Oh, what a great day of celebration. I'm glad
you're here to be a part of it. And some of the
things we're celebrating today include the addition
of new music staff. And you've met a couple of
them already. Josh Tompkins on the piano, who
did the meditation for us. And Rick Matson and
his wife, who are here today as part of our contemporary
worship team. In fact, Rick is the director of
the team. And you've heard some of the rest of
the team. And next week, they'll be introduced
to you personally. And today as well, we're happy
to announce that Karen Anderle has been appointed
as our Permanent Director of Children's Ministry
here at the church. She's been doing a great
job filling in since last fall when Emily Willoughkey
left. And assisting in the Ministry of Children
will be Julie Norris, who has also been a part
of the fill -in team during the last year. So
we're just delighted with what God is doing in
bringing our children's ministry team together.
Let me say a word about next Sunday because it's
very important for you to notice that the times
are completely changing. You have great opportunities
to select what service you want to be a part
of. Adult CE will all be on site next week. In
the bulletin today you have a listing of the
hours when the small churches and classes are
all meeting. There is a welcome class that will
resume next Sunday at 9 o 'clock. in the 9 o
'clock hour in room 11 and that's for everybody
who is new to the church and wants to find out
about membership, is interested in pursuing that
direction. We encourage you to step into the
Welcomers Class for a few weeks and learn about
Grace Church and become a part of our membership.
And then I guess I would be remiss if I didn't
point out that there's a new class starting next
week called the Pastors Class. And one reason,
I happen to be the teacher of it, and one reason
I'm excited about going to three hours is because
it gives me an opportunity to teach Sunday School,
which I have been able to do for 16 years. And
I love that environment of a smaller group where
we can have some give and take, and that will
be in the third hour in room 1A downstairs. And
so you adults have some place to choose each
hour in Adult CE as well as other options. And
I do want to say thank you to all of you who
have stepped up and are involved in serving this
fall in a variety of ways in ministries. There
have been a lot more opportunities because of
what we're doing starting next week. And many
of you have eagerly been willing to say, yes,
I'll serve in that area. And yet there is more
room. There are still some slots that need to
be filled. And I want to encourage you, each
one of you, to consider where God wants you to
serve. where He wants you to give as well as
to take in ministry. Both are important, aren't
they? Well, this morning is a blowout musically.
It always is. We have a great time celebrating
the Lord and His grace and His goodness and His
reaching out to all the peoples of the world.
And it's been a wonderful morning before we...
Dismissed from this part of GraceFest, we want
to look into God's Word, and I invite you to
open your Bible with me to 1 Corinthians chapter
13, as we study our way through the book of 1
Corinthians. This last week, the world was shocked
and saddened by the death of Diana, Princess
of Wales, and then later by Mother Teresa. All
of us have been focused on the good deeds of
their lives, and how they touched those who were
poor, needy, hurting, and ill among us. I could
not have asked for any set of circumstances,
and of course wouldn't have asked for those circumstances,
but there could not be a set of circumstances
that would so affect our minds, that would prepare
us for what 1 Corinthians chapter 13 talks about.
You see the Corinthians were a badly divided
church for a lot of reasons and one reason was
their abuse of spiritual gifts. The very gifts
that God had given for the church to be brought
together and unified and built up were being
mishandled and abused and misused. by these Christians.
And the result was that their church was being
destroyed. Paul, as he enters into this part
of the book, is going to address this problem.
He reminds them that we're all a body of Christ
and we all are members individually of that body
and gifted to serve in a certain way. And he
says to us as a body that we ought to eagerly
exalt and seek out and pursue the greater gifts.
But he says, beyond the gifts, I want to direct
you in a way that will keep the church together.
He says, I want to talk to you about a direction
of life that far exceeds the spiritual gifts
that you may think you have. And of course, that
is the way of love. is the heart of a Christian's
life and service for Jesus Christ. I'm saying
it is right at the core of it. Love is the heart
of your life and your service for Jesus Christ.
There is nothing that is more vital than love.
We learn to walk in the way of agape, the Greek
word for love here. We learn to walk in the way
of agape when we observe the life and the service
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This kind of love is
the self -sacrificing generosity that deliberately,
intentionally seeks the benefit of others. And
I want to present to you this morning the idea
that this love is the most powerful energy that
our world can know. I believe that love is the
power of heaven. Love is what moved the Father
to send the Son to be the Savior of the world
through His sacrificial cross death. Love is
the most significant life -changing power in
existence. And so this morning I want to urge
you and myself to earnestly pursue love as your
life motivation. That is not natural. It is supernatural.
But if you and I who declare ourselves to be
followers of Jesus Christ will only learn to
tap into this God -derived energy we will touch
the lives of literally everyone around us. And
here's why. First, because of the preeminence
of love. Verses one through three. Paul says
that love is more important than our gifts. Notice
verse one. If I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, but do not have love, I have become
a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Now a cymbal
has a place in an orchestra or in a band, but
suppose this morning that all of our music program
were just the cymbal going back and forth. It
wouldn't take us too long to tire of that. We
love it in its place. But nobody wants to hear
a noisy gong, a loud cymbal all the time. Paul
is saying to these people who were emphasizing
tongues really above everything else, if I speak
with tongues, whether it be with men's language
or the language of angels, probably meaning here
with eloquence, he says, and I don't have love,
I'm just like a gong. a symbol going back and
forth that's meaningless and it's irritating.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, that is if
I can proclaim God's truth, and if I know all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, anybody here
with that kind of faith? that you've ever said
to a mountain, you move over there. We need a
mountain in that part of the scene. Of course
not. But he says, even if you had that kind of
faith, if you have not love, he says, I'm nothing.
Love is more important than the gifts. Whether
they be tongues or prophecy or knowledge or faith,
without love, we are zeroes. And he says, secondly,
that love is preeminent above benevolence. Verse
3. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor,
but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Is he talking here about the gift of giving?
Perhaps. But benevolence in general. He says,
if I give away everything that I own, If I take
the course, for example, of a Mother Teresa,
who I learned for the first time in the last
couple of days was born into wealth. If I take
her course of life and take a vow of poverty
and give it all up and never have anything, but
I don't have love, it's meaningless. Love is
more important than benevolence. Thirdly, he
says love is more important than sacrifice. He
says if I deliver my body to be burned, but do
not have love, it profits me nothing. He says
if I take the route of a martyr, if I actually
lay down my life for the name of Jesus Christ,
but do not do it with the energy of love for
others. And he says I've wasted my life. Without
love, I convey nothing. Without love, I am nothing.
Without love, I gain nothing. That's why Paul
says, pursue love as the energy and the motivation
of your life, because it's preeminent above everything
else. There's a second reason that I believe
he points to here for us to pursue love, and
that is because of the portrait of love in verses
4 through 7. You see, agape love is not merely
a sentiment. It's not an emotional feeling that
we get. Agape love is the kind of love that actively
seeks the welfare of another, even when that
person, and I might say especially, When that
object of our love is totally undeserving of
it, someone has said that these verses are a
non -narrative biography of Christ. Ladies and
gentlemen, what we see in verses 4 through 7
is the very essence of the deity that we worship.
God is love. And love is patient. Love is kind
and is not jealous. It does not brag and is not
arrogant. It does not act unbecomingly. It does
not seek its own. It is not provoked. It does
not take into account a wrong suffered. It does
not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices
with the truth. bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Here we have a portrait of our Lord. There are
15 qualities to love. 8 negative, 7 positive.
And as Paul throws them up on the canvas for
us, when he's finished, we have a picture of
Jesus. You can actually read this text this way.
Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus is not
jealous. And you get the essence of what he's
saying. What does it mean to be patient? Well,
it means to hold back one's reaction. The passion
that one might feel. Love endures injuries and
slights without losing interest in the welfare
of the one who's done the hurting. Love is calm
under the provocation of evil. It is patient.
Love is kind. This word is found only here in
the New Testament. It means that love extends
goodness to others. Someone has written these
words, I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any
goodness that I can show to any human being,
let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect
it, for I shall not pass this way again. Love
is lavishly kind and it is not jealous. To be
jealous means to be envious and to dislike what
somebody else is able to gain which we would
like to have. It means that if another person
is given the advantage or is given a position
or has a possession and we desire it for ourselves
and we dislike them because they have it. It
means that if we do that, we are not controlled
by love because love is not jealous. The word
comes from the idea of boiling. If we are boiling
inside because someone else got what we wanted,
that's the point. Love is not that way. Love
does not brag. It does not show off. It is not
self -centered. Love does not blow its own trumpet.
And by the way, if we had time this morning,
we could go down through all the problems of
the Corinthians, and you would find that how
Paul describes love fits almost every single
problem they had. Love does not brag, he says.
Love is not arrogant. The Greek word here is
the word for bellows. If any of you went to the
Heritage Square at the State Fair, you might
have stopped by the blacksmith shop. which I
try to do every year for a few minutes just to
watch as this artisan uses bellows to pump up
that charcoal fire and to get it so hot it's
able to heat the metal and then he can pound
it. The word for hot air is this idea of arrogant.
Paul says love is not a windbag. Love is not
puffed up with hot air. Love does not have an
exaggerated sense of self -importance. He says
love does not act unbecomingly. That is, love
does not act in bad taste. What he says here
is not that there's something necessarily evil,
but it's something that's rude. Love doesn't
do that. Love is not ill -mannered. Love is not
crass. One who is controlled by love has integrity
and propriety about it. He says love does not
seek its own. Rather, it seeks the advantage
of the other and denies itself. Love is not provoked.
The word provoked here It literally means to
sharpen along the side of. Love does not go along
the side of somebody and grate against them.
To bring them to a point of exacerbation or irritation.
Love does not allow sharp disagreement as happened
between, for example, Barnabas and Paul in Acts
15 39. Our word here, the English word is paroxysm,
which means a spasm. Literally what he is saying
here, if we were to put it in our vernacular
today, love does not get spazzed out. He says
love does not take into account a wrong. A bookkeeping
term. Love does not keep books on people. It
doesn't have a ledger that it pulls out and marks
things off. and says that's one against you.
It does not take into account on the ledger.
It does not nurse a real or imaginary fault or
injury in someone else. Love does not rejoice
in unrighteousness. Here Paul seems to be reaching
toward those who were so broad -minded in the
church that they were unwilling to confront sin
in their midst. And he says love does not rejoice
in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the
truth. That is when truth prevails. He says love
bears all things. That is, it builds a roof over
others. It protects others from injustice and
hurt. Love believes all things. This does not
mean that love is gullible. but that love trusts.
Love does not make us suspicious of everyone
and everything. Rather love causes us to expect
the best of others. Someone has said far better
to be deceived in a doubtful case and suffer
hurt than as a skeptic to hurt another who would
have been believed or should have been believed.
Love hopes all things. It does not despair, rather
it's optimistic. Love is realism that is anchored
in the promises of God. It accounts things for
how they really are, but at the same time it
never loses sight of the hope of what God can
do. And then he says, love endures all things.
That is, love is able to stay under pressure.
It is persistent against all the odds that may
come against it. Now folks, what a striking portrait
these phrases and words paint for us. Jesus the
Lord is love incarnate. Jesus, the Lord is love
incarnate. And the question I want to ask you
and me, just before we go out to continue our
day of celebrating God's goodness and God's grace,
is this. How much do you look like Jesus? As
you throw your own picture up against what Paul
is painting here, how much do you? look like
Jesus? And a second question is this, will you
allow Jesus to love others through you? I've
been deeply troubled the last few days. And I'm
still troubled this morning by this thought.
As I look at the lives of Diana and Mother Teresa,
both of whom had a theology that I cannot identify
with, I nonetheless see in how they chose to
live more love than I see in my own life. That
bothers me. Because I'm a child of God. His love
has been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit
who lives in me. But I have never gone to an
AIDS house and touched and ministered to a young
man dying of AIDS. I've never done that. I have
never gone to a leper and washed her feet, bandaged
her hands. Never. How about you? Does that bother
you at all? How do we explain this theologically?
I don't have an answer for that yet that satisfies
me. But I can tell you this, that I have asked
myself this question right here. Will I allow
Jesus to love others through me? And I hope that
you will ask yourself that question too. And
ask God what it means if He is going to love
somebody through you. Somebody who is undeserving.
Somebody you may not know, who can never pay
you back. Somebody that everybody else may despise.
Are you willing to pray with me this morning?
Jesus. love others through me, and then to ask
Him to bring to you opportunities to do that,
and to allow you to see those opportunities.
Folks, do not pray that prayer lightly. It could
revolutionize your life. It could change the
lives of people all around you. Be careful in
praying the prayer. But I'll tell you something.
I have looked at myself in the face the last
few days and I have said, if you are a Christian
and a child of God, why don't you love with God's
kind of love? And that's a question all of us
need to ask ourselves and repent and open our
hearts for God to pour his love through us in
a way that we have never ever experienced before.
May God break our hearts today for a world that
God loves and we despise. May God break our hearts
today for people that Jesus died for and we don't
give a rip for them and haven't. And may God
show us what we need to do to be his channels
of love. Let's pray. I'm going to ask if you
would be willing to pray that prayer with me.
Jesus, love others through me. And if you're
willing to pray that prayer, I'm going to invite
you to pray it out loud with me in just a moment
and say those words. And I don't ask you to shout
them. I just ask you to pray them from your own
heart but out loud, not for the sake of anybody
but you and God. But say the words, if you can
mean it, from your heart. I mean it deeply. Let's
say it together. Jesus, love others through me.
Lord, help us today. to become channels of your
love in a way that we have never experienced
before in our lives. We repent before you of
hard -heartedness and self -righteousness. We
repent before you for judgmental attitudes and
for being impatient and unkind and jealous. and
all the rest. And we ask you to do something
fresh and new in our hearts that we might experience
the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Amen.
I'm going to ask you to take your hymnal, and
we're not going to sing, but I want to read two
verses of a hymn. and all of us read it together.
Please take your hymnal and turn to 283. Would
you stand with me please as we read this? This
declaration really. 283, verses 1 and 2. Let's
just try to read it in unison as much as we can.
We are God's people. the chosen of the Lord,
born of his Spirit, established by his word.
Our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in
him we stand. O let us live transparently, and
walk heart to heart, and hand in hand. We are
God's loved ones, the bride of Christ our Lord.
For we have known it, the love of God outpoured.
Now let us learn how to return the gift of love
once given. O let us share each joy and care,
and live with a zeal that pleases heaven. Amen.
Amen.