18th Jan 2025 - Brendan Hurley

Father, we thank you that you speak to us in

your word, that you're a living God, a speaking

God. And Father, we thank you that you're a loving

God. And we ask that you would help us to be

a loving church that reflects your love. And

we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the footy

season is over. If you haven't caught on to that,

I'm sorry. It's been over for a little while.

I know many of you are rugby league fans. Don't

hold it against me. I'm an AFL fan. But for footy

fans, it's a long wait. And we just have to sit

there and watch endless cricket until footy starts

again. And you sit there and you jump on your

phone and you look at the latest trade news.

Oh, the Swans got Charlie Kernow. If you don't

know who that is, that's okay. It's a good thing

for me. If you're a non -fan, you go, welcome

relief that footy just doesn't dominate everything,

because it can often do that for some people.

And for the players, well, they get a holiday.

They get a bit of a holiday, but not much of

a holiday. Then they get back to it. They get

to work and have a gruelling pre -season training.

And pre -season for a footy team is massive.

If you get a good one, it can set up your whole

year. But you've got to pursue the right goal

as a footy player. If you don't, it can be disastrous.

A great example of this is the 2018 Adelaide

Crows training camp. Did you ever hear about

that? The year before, the Adelaide Crows were

the top of the table. They made the grand final.

They lost to Richmond. But, gee, you know, they

came close. And everyone was expecting them to

bounce back. And they went, we need a new focus.

We need to build mental toughness. Our mental

toughness wasn't quite there on grand final day.

We're going to build mental toughness. So they

hired this company called Collective Mind. And

Collective Mind took the Adelaide Crows players

on a bus. They blacked out all the windows of

the bus. They started playing on repeat again

and again and again the Richmond club song, the

team that they'd lost to. They started verbally

abusing the players with personal information

that they'd shared in confidence and they manipulated

them in all sorts of horrible ways that I just

won't go into. All in the name of let's build

mental toughness. It was huge damage. The Crows

dropped from second down to 12th. Players left

the club. The coach resigned. And for many years,

many of the players had ongoing counselling from

this whole thing. Trust was severely broken.

The goal was pursued, let's build mental toughness

so we win more. But there was a greater goal

that was forgotten, wasn't it? Care for the players.

Protect their welfare. That's a much higher goal

than building mental toughness, isn't it? Immense

damage was done because the higher goal was forgotten.

Now the same thing can happen in our lives, can't

it? And can happen in the life of a church. We

can easily pursue lesser things and we can pursue

them too hard at the expense of greater things

that we should pursue more. And when we do that,

it's a damage to ourselves and others. Think

about our last year, our last five years. What

were we pursuing? Was it the right aim? Have

we been pursuing what we should have been pursuing?

Is our ultimate aim, is it assumed, is it neglected,

is it forgotten? Actually, what is it? What is

it we're meant to be doing here? What are we

pursuing? Well, this is crucial if you're a Christian,

because we need to know what it is we're meant

to be. focusing on and it's important too if

you're not just to understand what real christianity

is about so let's have a look today what is it

we're meant to be pursuing as a church and we

see that goal by looking at the church here in

corinth the church is a mess if you were to go

you know 2000 years ago back to corinth you would

find a church full of divisions lawsuits immorality,

idolatry, drunkenness, and it all stemmed from

the wrong pursuits. Some of them were going,

I want power. That's what I'm pursuing. Some

of them were going, I want to pursue freedom.

Some of them went, I want to pursue specky spirituality.

And Paul is writing to show them, guys, guys,

guys, you've all got the wrong goal. The whole

mess that is Corinth would be sorted if you pursued

the right thing. What is that right goal? Just

two words. Follow the way of love, or as the

ESV puts it, pursue love. That's the goal. Pursue

love. And that's our big idea for today. Pursuing

Christ -like love. is at the heart of being spiritual.

The three chapters that we've been looking at,

chapters 12, 13 and 14 of 1 Corinthians, are

in kind of like a sandwich. So you've got two

pieces of bread, which is the two chapters 12

and 14, all about the gifts. And then the middle

chapter, the meat of it, is this chapter on love.

It's the heart and soul of what being spiritual

is all about. So why should pursuing love be

our ultimate goal? Why is that spiritual? Why

is it better than other goals? What's love even

mean? Well, that's what we're going to look at

today. And there's three reasons we're given

why we should pursue love. Pursue love because

love is essential. Pursue love because love is

excellent. And pursue love because love is eternal.

Love is essential. Love is excellent. Love is

eternal. So let's have a look at those three

together. Here's the first one. Pursue love because

love is essential. So the Beatles nailed it.

Beatles and Paul would get on at this point.

All you need is love, you know. But we've got

to be clear on what love actually is. And that's

what Paul does here in the first three verses.

Have a look with me. If I speak in the tongues

of men or of angels but do not have love, I am

only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom

all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have

a faith that can move mountains but do not have

love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to

the poor and give over my body to hardship that

I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

So here's what Paul does. He starts with the

ultimate gifts and deeds that you could possibly

have. Tongues of angels. This is the ultimate

in tongues. You know, all sorts of faith that

can move mountains. The ultimate sort of miraculous

power. Your body being burned as a martyr. And

he then follows it by this refrain three times.

If I have not love, I'm just a clanging gong

or... I gain nothing or I am nothing. He's saying

that the greatest gifts and the greatest deeds

are worthless without love. A few years ago,

Laura and myself and the family, we all drove

from Broken Hill to Sydney to see some extended

family. And while we were there, our car blew

up. Kia Carnival. We upgraded to a Toyota Kluger.

Man car. It's good. And we got all these cool,

like, accessories with it. You know, it's a very

old Toyota Kluger, but it's a top -of -the -line

old Toyota Kluger. And it had a seat warmer and

a sunroof, and the boot goes boop, boop, boop,

and does it all automatically. It's very cool.

And the salesman, he was trying to wow me with

all this. And I said to him, look, mate, I'm

not interested in any of that. My car just blew

up. I just want a good engine. I want something

that's going to handle the rough of the outback.

Don't sell me a lemon. No good having all the

accessories without the engine. I want a good

engine. Well, here Paul's saying to us, love

is the engine of the truly spiritual person.

Gifts, they're great. They're like a sunroof.

They're like, you know, an automatic boot. They're

bonus accessories that are really good. But the

engine, the thing that drives everything of being

spiritual, it's love. And that flips what we

value on its head, doesn't it? See, tongues,

all sorts of spiritual miraculous gifts, they

can look so impressive. They look like they're

something. Paul says they're just a banging gong.

If you're a Bluey fan, you'll know what I'm talking

about. This is Chattermax. Chattermax is this

little toy that goes, and the kids love to play

with it. The parents don't so much. It's loud,

it's unintelligible, and it contributes nothing.

That's what Paul's talking about here. Specky

gifts without love, it's just noise. He's showing

how crucial love actually is. But what is love?

Well, Paul shows us in verse 3 that we can even

get that wrong. We tend to think of love as a

verb. Love is a verb. And he says, yeah, giving

money to the poor or giving your body to service

or martyrdom, those are actions that appear impressive

and loving. But they too can be without love,

can't they? And he says if they're without love,

therefore they're worthless. Love is not just

an action, it's a heart attitude. See, what he's

getting at is this sort of idea. Late after church,

you could be having a chat and you're stacking

the chairs with people. And there's two ways

you can be stacking chairs, isn't there? You

can do the fake smile stacking chairs. Do you

know that one? Stacking chairs. When you're inwardly

seething, wishing others stayed back and helped

out. Or you can do it with the real smile. Yay,

I'm stacking chairs. And joyful and glad, and

your heart is being other person centred. It's

the exact same action, but it comes from a very

different heart posture, doesn't it? The fake

one has no love. And there's no benefit to you

doing it. It won't grow you. It doesn't honour

God. It's just hypocrisy that makes you bitter.

The good action is not enough. Love in the heart

is needed. Can you see how essential love is?

You can have the most amazing spiritual experiences

and have nothing. You can be more gifted than

Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham. Paul says you're

nothing without love. You can perform greater

deeds than Mother Teresa. And before God, you

gain nothing if you didn't have love. Is fostering

a loving heart our pursuit, our priority? Have

we been seeking accessories and forgetting the

engine? Ask yourself, look at the last six months.

What have you been pursuing? Has it been love?

But that's not the only reason to pursue love.

Pursue love because love is excellent. See, love

is not like veggies. You know, veggies, they're

good for you, but they're yuck. Well, you just

pour lots of butter on it or something. But love

is beautiful. Love is good for you and tastes

good. It's like steak. It's joy. Take a look

with me at verses 4 to 7. Love is patient. Love

is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast.

It is not proud. It does not dishonour others.

It's not self -seeking. It's not easily angered.

It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight

in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always

protects, always trusts, always hopes. Always

perseveres. That's a beautiful description of

love here, isn't it? It's the one that we always

have at the weddings. And who wouldn't want that

at their wedding? But for the Corinthian readers,

not only is this beautiful, it's also an arrow

to the heart. Maybe think of that next time you're

at a wedding where they read this. Because Paul

is showing how they failed to be loving. That's

what this is meant to do. It's meant to expose

how the Corinthians have failed to be loving.

They're not like this. They've got factions where

people have got superiority and inferiority complexes.

They're celebrating immorality. Many of them

are selfish. Instead of being a beautiful community

of love, they're messy, dysfunctional, and a

cesspit of misery. See, a great way to feel what

they would have felt as we read this is to put

your own name where it says the word love. So,

you know, see where it says love? Okay, here's

what you do. You put your name there. Brendan

is patient. Oh, Brendan is kind. Oh, sheesh,

not last week. You know, you just go through

it and you think, yikes, that's not me. But then

here's the next thing you do. Put Jesus' name

there. Jesus is patient. Yep. He's been putting

up with me for a long time. Jesus is kind. Yep.

He treats me far better than I deserve. It fits

what Jesus is like, doesn't it? He is the embodiment

of love. And better yet, what we read here is

how Jesus has loved you and me. I mean, we see

it ultimately at the cross, don't we? What amazing

love that Jesus would bear our sins. All the

times where we've been loveless and unloving,

he took that punishment on himself. That's how

loving he is. Seeing how unloving we've been

and how loving Christ has been toward us, do

you know what it does? When we see those things

clearly, it moves us to pursue love. I don't

know if when you were a kid, did you ever line

up the dominoes? You know, not the pizza boxes,

the little dominoes, and you line them all up.

And I remember seeing on YouTube a big domino

train where someone just did heaps and heaps

of them. And they knocked that first domino and

other dominoes fall and fall and fall and fall

and fall. Do you know what? Jesus' love for us

is like that first domino. It's like a giant

first domino that knocks over a whole bunch of

other dominoes. When we experience Jesus' love,

It moves us to be loving. When we believe it,

it moves us to be loving. When we feel it, it

has this knock on effect so that we become more

loving. When I think back to times where I've

most been loving as a husband, as a dad, as a

friend, as a pastor, it's when I'm most conscious

of Jesus' love for me. There's such joy and thankfulness

that comes when I think, yeah, he's loved me

so much. I mean, there's plenty of times where

I'm a real selfish jerk and not very loving at

all. Just if you're thinking, oh, Brendan, that's

not true. Wait till you get to know me. It's

okay. There are times where I lose sight of Jesus'

love. It drifts from view into the background

because there's so many other things that need

to be pursued. And the constant fight is to keep

looking at the endless ocean of Christ's love

for me. That's a big part of pursuing love, is

to see how loved I really am. So what's it look

like to do that? Well, one way would be, say

you're heading to work or to school drop -off,

and before you go... Read a phrase from 1 Corinthians

13. Just pick one of these. Love is patient.

You know, there's the first one. And then as

you're driving, think about how Jesus has been

patient with you. How has Jesus been patient?

Well, gee, you know, like you think about all

the sins and all the times I've grumbled and

been unloving. And then you spend time thanking

Jesus for his patience, saying sorry to Jesus.

that he had to be patient with you and asking

him for help that you would be more like him.

That is a key to pursuing love. But that's just

one way. You don't have to do it that way. You

could read a book on God's love. You could listen

to a sermon on God's love. You could read a part

of the Bible all about God's love. I'm just here

saying to you, make a plan. You won't pursue

love and become more loving. if you're not aware

of your failure to love and conscious of Christ's

love for you. Make a plan. How are you going

to pursue love? Now, I don't know about you,

but these things have got me already wanting

to pursue love more. But there's still one more

reason that we should, and here's our last reason.

We pursue love because love is eternal. 8 to

13. Love never fails. Love never ends. But where

there are prophecies, they will cease. Where

there are tongues, they'll be stilled. Where

there's knowledge, it will pass away. For when

we know in part and we prophesy in part, but

when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child. I

thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood

behind me. For now we see only reflection as

in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully,

even as I am fully known. And now these three

remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest

of these is love. So what are you meant to do

with these verses? Well, imagine you're standing

there in glory. You're in heaven. What do you

see when you're standing there in heaven? Love.

Everyone loving everyone else as if they were

Jesus. That's what makes heaven heaven. If you

look around in heaven, you're not going to see

prophecies. Oh, there's some prophets over there.

If Isaiah and Jeremiah are there, they're going

to be like, well, I used to be a prophet. I've

kind of changed careers. I'm all about love now.

They were actually pretty good prophets, so they

were about love too before. But there won't be

any tongues. There won't be any prophets. There

won't be any words of knowledge. No one's going

to say to you in heaven, hey, I have a word from

the Lord for you. Because you're already there.

In glory, the one thing that will remain is love.

But all the gifts, they're going to cease. Do

you know what the gifts are like? The gifts we

have are like milk. They have an expiration date.

Eventually they're going to go off and get chucked

out. But love, it's like honey. It just lasts

and lasts and lasts and is always good. I don't

actually know if that's true of honey, but that's

what it seems like from my perspective. And it

makes sense. It makes sense that love is like

that. Because... Before creation even began,

what do we have? We have the Trinity. God is

love. Three persons in loving communion. That's

who God is. He's love. Love is at the heart of

the universe. So Paul's saying, it's up to you.

You pursue what you like. You can pursue something

will fade away and disappear and is going to

expire like milk, or you can pursue something

that just goes on forever. What are you going

to pursue? I think it's obvious what we should.

Seek after love. It's eternal. It's glorious.

It's heavenly. I know which one I'd be devoting

myself to. And do you know what happens when

we do? We actually, here as a church, we get

a little entree of heaven. It sorts so many things

out. Want to see our church grow? Like new people

coming in? Let's just get really good at loving

each other and them. Want to see people have

sound doctrine? A big part of that is loving

people well. And you can sort out a lot of things

when you love people well, can't you? Because

they're willing to listen. No one cares what

you think if they don't think you care. Do you

want to see people have rich worship and joy?

Let's make church a place that's a loving community

that makes people overflow with joy to God because

they go, wow, God, you've given me such loving

people around me. Love sorts out a lot of messes,

doesn't it? So let's recap. We started by asking,

are we pursuing the right things? Are we distracted?

Are we putting too much focus on lesser things?

Are we like the Adelaide Football Club in 2018?

What should we pursue above all else? And here's

what Paul tells us. Pursuing Christ -like love

is at the heart of being spiritual. Pursuing

Christ -like love is at the heart of being spiritual.

We saw that we should pursue love because love

is essential. Love is excellent. And love is

eternal. So what's this mean for us? Well, if

you're here today and you're checking out Christianity,

I'm glad you're here. I hope you've seen today

what true Christianity looks like. It drives

people to pursue a radical otherworldly love.

And it gives those people the power to make real

steps in that direction. to become incredibly

loving as they experience Jesus' love for them.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, I

want to ask you, couldn't our world use more

of that right now? Just look on the news. There's

hate between Israel and Palestine, and that's

just one pocket of the world. So much everywhere.

Even in our own community in Cairns, I mean,

there's tribalism, there's vengeance, there's

envy, there's pride, there's theft, there's all

sorts of stuff. And day to day in our own families

and homes, it's easy to lose it at the kids,

it's easy to lie, it's easy to be selfish, isn't

it? What else can truly and deeply change people?

The only thing I've seen is encountering Jesus'

love. Why don't you try it? If you're not a Christian,

come have a chat with me. I want to take you

out for coffee. I'll even pay for the coffee.

And let's look at Jesus' love together. And if

you don't like the cut of my jib, you can go

out with someone else. That's fine. But let's

do coffee. But if you're here and you're already

a Christian, I want to ask you, has pursuing

love been your goal for the last few years. I

have to admit it's not as much of a focus for

me as it should have been. And today's been a

good reminder for me that it's something I need

to be intentional about. Maybe I need to put

a post -it note on my bathroom mirror or on my

home screen or something like that. Pursue love.

This is a reminder that I do it in every sphere

of my life. See, it's about being conscious of

it because it easily drifts to the back burner,

isn't it? It's easy to pray about other things.

It's easy to forget that that's what we're here

to do at church. It's easy to stop reflecting

on, what have I been doing wrong? How have I

been unloving? And to not ask yourself, how should

I be more loving going forward? We need to work

together as a church to pursue love. And I want

to close by saying, wouldn't it be amazing if

all of us were transformed to be more loving

like the Lord Jesus? You might even want to shut

your eyes for a sec. Just imagine. What would

our homes and workplaces look like if we pursued

love? What would our church look like? If we

pursued love, can you imagine how great it could

be? I think it's already a great church. I really

love being here. Can you imagine how great it

could be if we intentionally pursued love more

and more? It would be truly a slice of heaven.

But the only way we're ever going to see that

happen is if each of us pursues love. And motivated

by Christ's love for us. How about we do that

together as a church, eh? Let's pray. Father,

we ask that you would help us to be truly spiritual

by pursuing love. Help us to follow the way of

love, to seek love, to chase after it. Help us

to know your love for us. Help us to take the

love of Christ, to have our hearts warmed by

it, softened by it, and may Christ be our example

of just how amazingly loving even sinners like

us can be. We ask, Father, that you would help

us to be loving, that your spirit would be at

work in us to make us more loving. And we pray

this in Jesus' name. Amen.