1 Corinthians 13 - God’s Love Sets Us Free

1st Corinthians 13 this morning, if you have your Bibles, turn

there and it won't be a long message because I covered half

of this book last week and we'll we'll complete it today.

So First Corinthians 13 is not a chapter just to read and hear

words. I'm thinking as I was studying

it today that this teaching in First Corinthians 13 about what

love is, you could put your name in all these little definitions

of of what it is and find that you have struggles with it.

You have challenges of doing it or living it out, and this isn't

something you can do in your own strength.

This has to be done by the Holy Spirit and when you find that

you're a flawed and you're not able to love this way, don't

beat yourself up to say Lord, I want you to do this in me

because I can't do this apart from you, from you.

It's as though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not love. I've become a sounding brass or

a clanging symbol. And though I have the gift of

prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and

though I have all faiths that I could remove mountains, but have

not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods

to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but

have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long, so you can put your name in there.

Just quietly say to yourself and to the Lord, I suffer long.

Love is kind. Love does not envy.

Love does not trade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave

rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil,

does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears

all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures

all things. Love never fails, but whether

there are prophecies, they will fail.

Whether there are tongues, they will cease.

Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophecy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in

part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a

child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as also I am

known and now abide Faith, hope, love, these three.

But the greatest of these is love.

Father, we read this chapter understanding it's about your

love, your agape, your unconditional, undeserved love

that you give to each of us. And Father, I pray that you

would help us to read this periodically just to see how

much we are either not becoming more like you in our daily life,

or we are encouraged understanding that you are

causing us to begin to to live our lives out this way, That we

actually do these things by the power of your Holy Spirit.

That we're not uptight, that we're patient, that we're kind,

that we're loving, that we esteem others more highly.

And we do ourselves all the things that are all about you

and how you lived your life when you were on the earth and how

you taught your apostles and your followers.

And so, Lord, please bless your people today.

Encourage us, do in US, Lord, what we're not capable of doing

in ourselves. For Lord, we want to be these

kind of people. And we just ask these things in

your name, Jesus, Amen. So some thoughts on this

chapter. Cindy and I read this when we

first got married because it meant a lot to us.

We were just young kids, 20 and 18 coming out of the world.

I had long hair, former hippie got my hair cut off 1/2 an inch

to please my father-in-law. My wife had a mini skirt on.

It was surrealistic. As I look the pictures by my

bedside, I look at it and I think about all the years God's

taken us through hard times, challenging times, times we

regret, times that we look back and smile and this thank God for

the experiences. But learning to live and be in

love with God is a process and a journey.

Proverbs 817 says I love those who love me and those who seek

me diligently will find me. I thought about that verse this

morning. The Lord loves us, but He really

loves us when He knows we love Him back.

The Bible says we love Him because He first loved us.

So the love relationship with God begins with Him loving you

and me. While we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And so I was thinking about how

much do I seek Him diligently? I try to every day to start my

day to seek Him. But some days are crazy, right?

You get up and you're so busy and you got so much stuff to do

that you find yourself taking off in your life without seeking

Him, without asking him for direction, without asking him

for help. Maybe on the fly you do it.

But it's it's, it's a difference between diligently and

superficially seeking him. And sometimes we find ourselves

not sensing God's presence in our lives because we haven't

been taking time to spend seeking him.

And he said, if we spend time seeking him, we will find him.

And there's nothing better than having the presence of God in

your life and experiencing that. The thing you come to church for

isn't to just get information. You're praying.

And I'm praying to God, help us find you today.

And the challenges of life in the midst of the adversity and

the struggles and the things we all find challenging, the

temptations, the setbacks, the failings, whatever it might be,

that we might come here and find hope again and be reminded that

God is with us and he'll never leave us or forsake us.

He's not like an earthly father who can easily be disappointed.

He's never disappointed because he knows the way we are and, and

he expects our failings, but he doesn't leave us in our

feelings. He comes to our rescue to bring

us out of the feelings and out of the mistakes and out of the

mock at times we find ourselves in to restore us into that

relationship with Him of love. The apostle John tells us in the

14th chapter about what the key is in regard to this love

relationship. And these are the words in your

Bible, the red letter. This is actually Jesus actually

speaking. He says, if you love me, keep my

commandments. And I used to read that.

And I think this responsibility I have to keep and do work

harder. And lots of times like I didn't

want to like keep his commandments.

I didn't want to obey him. I wanted to do what I wanted to

do. I wanted to keep my plans in

place and at times in my journey is learning to be a follower of

Jesus Christ. I found that I was disobedient

and yet he still loved me and he still loves you.

But that deep relationship that can be established and developed

with God is this internal desire that Lord, I really want to

follow you because I love you, not because I have to.

I want to follow you because I'm learning how much you love me.

And if you love some and you don't want to intentionally hurt

them or betray them, He says, then knowing when he tells us we

have to endeavor to keep his commandments, He says, and I

will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper,

that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth.

And the world can't receive because it neither sees him nor

knows him. But you know him, for he dwells

with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you. Isn't that cool how God does

that? He tells us like this heavy

thing, if you love me, keep my commandments.

And then right away he realizes that we're not going to do it

without a helper, right? The Holy Spirit, that's his

grace. And he gives us the Holy Spirit

to do this work of obedience in our lives, give us a desire to

be obedient. So the whole Bible is full of

teachings on this love relationship that the Father

desires to have with us. And my wife tells me, and we've

been married a long time, the thing she cherishes most are the

times that we can just talk together and pray together.

It's not the stuff that I can get her do for her or whatever.

It's it's deeper. It's heart to heart, right?

It's communicating your heart to your lover's heart, your bride's

heart. If you're married, and then the

same kind of love relationship to God is tender and precious to

Him. When you pour your heart out to

Him and want to talk to Him and share your dreams and your

desires and the longings you have and the vision that He's

given you as a family, for your marriage, for your home, for

your kids, your grandkids, everyone that enters into your

life, your workers, your coworkers.

This this love relationship. And the fun part for me in life

is to watch the people I know and I care most about initially

my family and then you guys. Watching how God uses you to

love people unconditionally. Seeing you forgive people for

things that most people would never even consider forgiving

anybody for. I watched Erica Kirk last Sunday

in her short eulogy on what her husband meant to her.

And this woman was so empty of herself and so full of the grace

of God that she was able just to be a vessel of this love for

everyone. But also the person who killed

her husband. She forgave him.

Now, maybe some of us would come to that kind of place or

conclusion down the road in our life, but this is just a few

days after her husband was taken from her through that violent,

senseless killing. I listened to testimonies of

people that serve in government, Not all of them, but a lot of

them that spoke from their heart about their love for Jesus

Christ and their love for their country and their love for their

fellow man. That's rare, isn't it?

You don't hear that in media, you don't hear that in

Hollywood, and usually you don't hear it in everyday life and the

people you run with or you work with in Galatians and Ephesians.

We learned these things when we went to Bible college many years

ago, and we're still trying to, you know, submit and yield to

the reality of these verses. Ephesians 518.

It uses the illustration of alcohol and spiritual life, and

there's nothing wrong with someone having a drink, but

there's something wrong when someone has too much to drink.

Because when they have too much to drink, what are they

controlled by? The alcohol, right?

And the alcohol then causes problems in homes and drunk

driving and abuse and all kind of terrible things when it's not

managed properly and maturely. But Paul used an illustration

that all the people could understand because most people

at one time or another have been drunk and they knew what they

would act like if they were drunk.

She says don't be drunk with wine where it's an excess, but

be filled with the Holy Spirit. And if we're believers, we know

the difference between 2 extremes.

When we're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's all about God first

and everyone else 2nd. It's no longer about me or you.

It's about this self selfless kind of love that impacts the

rest of the world. Someone once said people don't

care how much you know until they see how much you care.

And if there's no mention of caring or loving others or

illustration of laying your life down for the sake of someone

else. And everything in the Bible is

this words and messages, and we come to worship and we just

leave empty if we haven't allowed these words to penetrate

our lives and to change us. Whenever we seek God with this

depth of diligence, we begin to cultivate a deep love for God.

We're actively and earnestly seeking God's wisdom and

presence in our lives. And we trust then that this

diligently search will be rewarded with God's presence and

blessing. And it's a fact that if we seek

the Lord and love him this way and seek him diligently will

find him. Like the U2 song says, you know,

I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

You won't find what you're looking for until you find your

searches made complete in the one that you were created to

follow and to know, and that's Jesus Christ.

And then the book of Galatians talks about the the fruit of the

Spirit and the works of the flesh.

And when we were young Christians, we memorize these

things, these chapters, Cindy and I.

And it says in verse 16 of chapter 5, I say, then walk in

the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

It's a command. The, the, the Greek tense in

that statement is that this is what you're to do, not a

suggestion, but a commandment. And why?

He says the flesh lusts against the spirit.

So there's this battle between our fallen nature and the new

nature that we have that we've been given when we got saved or

born again. They're contrary to one another.

So you can't do the things that you want to do, and Paul talked

about that in Romans 7. Why do I do what I know I

shouldn't do? And why don't I do what I know

that I really want to do? That that conflict, that power

of the flesh and the Spirit, but it only can be overcome through

the power of the Holy Spirit. You can try and make promises

and journal and hold, have accountability partners, all

that kind of stuff. Nothing's going to work until

you're under the power of the Holy Spirit.

And he says, if you're led by the Spirit, you're no under the

law. The law would be like, do this,

don't do this. And, and all the 10 commandments

and, and you find that if you've tried to live the commandments,

you've broken them. That's why we needed a savior.

That's why we needed Jesus because he's the only one that

could fulfill the law 100% and give us his forgiveness and

righteousness because he knows we couldn't do it ourselves.

And so he, he tells us then that the works of the flesh, like if

I'm under the compulsions of my human fallen nature, they're

going to be very clear. And they could run into all kind

of different sins. Adultery, sex outside of

marriage, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry,

sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath,

selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,

drunkenness, revelries and the like.

Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past,

that those who practice such things will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. So you read that and you say,

well, you know, in my life I did this, I did that, I did this.

Well, that's why the cross is there to forgive us, right?

And to give us new life and, and, and Jesus, he cleanses us

from our sin through his blood. And God says he chooses to

remember our sins no more. Isn't that awesome?

I remember mine, but he says, Clark, I'm not remembering him.

So why are you remembering? I don't know.

I'm a knucklehead. Lord, help me to think on the

positive things that you've done, not the negative things

that I've done. Mercy, forgiveness, freedom,

grace. But we we find ourselves at

times maybe not deep in the dive at a flesh anymore of doing like

the big bad ones, we think, but like you're flipping out an

outbursts of wrath, yelling at someone just flipping out right.

You ever do that? Anybody ever flip out and yell

at someone? Raise your hand, every one of

us. We still don't.

Thanks, Dan. Dan's helping Jessica admit it,

right? So he raises their hand for her.

But you know, we, we, we just do that, right?

We do it. But then what do we do?

Don't condemn to say, Lord, forgive me and fill me with your

spirits. And next time I'm going to be

cool and I may be calm and I may be collected and I'm going to be

under your control. So you still sin and that's why

there's repentance and confession before the Lord to

keep short accounts, get things right.

But if we are doing this habitually and we could care

less, it's obvious we're not saved.

We need a Savior. We need to get born again so

that our nature then begins to change into God's plan and not

our own. And then he says the fruit of

the Spirit and this correlates this First Corinthians 13 If

you're under the control of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the

Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering.

That's patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness and self-control. If you're, if you're honest and

you're a clear thinker, who wouldn't want to have that kind

of life, right? To be that way as much as

possible in our lives. I mean, that's like the

ultimate, that's like the, the goal of, of human existence to

have that kind of demeanor and temperament.

So you can live that way and, and be that way in business and

neighbors and families and marriage of kids and craziness

stuff and just have that gentleness and that

self-control. Against such there is no law.

And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us

also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,

provoking one another and envying one another.

So we go back to First Corinthians 13 and all the

things there. Love suffering long, that's

long-suffering, that's the fruit of the Spirit kind doesn't envy.

Love doesn't act like a big shot.

It's not all about you or me. It's not puffed up and

braggadocious. Does not behave rudely, does not

seek its own, has not provoked, Thinks no evil, does not rejoice

in sin, but rejoices in the truth.

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,

endures all things. So what happens is someone has a

failing or someone stumbles or someone falls, and the human

nature is, did you hear what happened to such and such?

Right. And then we begin to tell

everybody about something that we have no business spreading

around about someone. If we really love someone.

The Bible says love covers a multitude of sins.

You want to cover the person's sins.

You want to protect their reputation.

You don't want to destroy them publicly.

Now you might have to talk to them and help them figure out

how to get out of the mess they got themselves in.

But love isn't like telling anybody else about someone

else's dirty laundry or problems or failings.

I loved how Jesus dealt with that woman caught in the act of

adultery. Everybody knew about it because

of how people would talk about things and they wanted to accuse

her and they wanted to throw stones at her.

And the way Jesus responded to this crisis was with his typical

long-suffering and love. He always behaved this way.

He always acted this way. He said you who are without sin,

let him cast the first stone. Guess what they did?

They put their stones down and they walked away because who

were they to condemn someone else?

Love never fails. No matter what happens in your

life or mine, God will never stop loving you.

Everybody else might turn away from you, reject you, badmouth

you, slander you, but at the end of the day, Jesus is always

there with His arms. Come to me, all you labour and

are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Learn from me for I am meek and lowly of heart.

You will find rest for your souls when you feel everybody's

betrayed you, abandoned you, There's no one that depends on

you, no one trusts you anymore. No one believes in you anymore.

The Lord never stops believing in you.

Isn't that awesome? That's the God we serve.

That's the Jesus who saved us. And He's the one that wants us

to tell everyone about who he really is, not who they might

think he is because of hypocrisy and self righteousness and

legalism and judgmentalism. That's not the gospel he talks

about the giftings. And the giftings are still here

today. But guess what?

One day when he comes, they won't be needed anymore.

You won't have to put up with inferior preaching from men like

me or anybody else. We try to do the best we can

with whatever God's given us a gift and that's it.

Like, you know, that's all, that's all I got right.

But Jesus, he has it all. And when he comes and preaches,

it's going to be awesome. Whether there's prophecies, they

will fail. Whether there are tongues, they

will cease. Whether is knowledge, it will

vanish away. For we know in part and we

prophecy in part right now we're doing the best we can with the

light that we have been given by God to teach the Word of God and

to follow the Word of God. But when that is which is

perfect has come, and that's Jesus, when he comes second

coming, then that which is in part will be done away.

Then won't need, there won't be any need for anything else but

Him. When I was a child, I spoke as a

child, remember? I had like this nostalgic thing

couple days ago. I was working, I'm driving back,

and the way the sun was setting that day just reminded me of

what it was like when I was a kid.

So I grew up in Irwin. So I drove down through the

streets of Irwin and remembered things the way they were when I

was a kid. Isley's was there, Murphy's 5

and 10 was there. I remember going down into the

five and 10 and when The Beatles came out, I, they had those 40

fives and and they had those little paper sleeves.

If you remember, and I want to hold your hand was the, the,

the, the big song that was on Ed Sullivan.

It started The Beatles career and I forget the other one.

She loves me or something is on. Well, I, I looked around and I

put two of those in one one thing.

That was the kind of kid I was, you know, So I got 2 for the

price of 1 I stole, right? I remembered that.

I remembered walking down an Irwin and acting like a big

shot, smoking my first cigarette.

I remember going to the dance at the Methodist Church and I, like

all these flashbacks, came back. I remember going down to the

Irwin playground and it used to be packed on their kids playing

basketball, tennis. I don't know where the kids are

anymore. They're playing video games or

something. I don't know.

But we were down there playing until it got dark.

And I remember as a kid, vaguely 3 years old, for whenever I was

old enough to begin to walk around, I had this like

adventurous spirit. So when my mom put me in for the

nap, I didn't want to take the nap.

So I figured out a way to lift the bedroom window up, climb out

and get on the railing. And I had these pajamas on.

I had these feet in, you know, didn't have any shoes.

And I'd walk. I saw this alley going down to

the Irwin playground. And it, it just drew me.

It was sun was on. It looked like the yellow brick

road, right? And I just walked down there and

I went down there and my poor Mama came out.

Oh my gosh, where is it? And she would come down and she

knew I was down there and she'd have a hair brush and she'd be

beating my beat my butt the whole way up with me on her

shoulder beating me. And I don't you ever do that

again. Well, I, I still have that

wanderlust kind of. That's why I like sails.

I can be in different places at different times whenever I'm

meeting new people, meeting new things, different experiences.

That's that's what floats my boat.

But when I was a child, though, I thought about all those things

that I did as a child. I thought as a child, but when I

became a man, I put away childish things.

And I'm still trying to put away some of the childish things

because I'm still a kid at heart in a lot of ways.

And I know, like, I'd like to have a good time and have fun

too, you know? But there's certain things that,

you know, I do differently now I think differently.

And maturity begins to develop in our lives as God grows us in

his grace. But he says, for now, we've seen

a mirror dimly. So back then they had these

bronze mirrors. They didn't have these like

clear crystal mirrors like we have now.

Maybe they would be better, especially as you get older, if

you had a bronze mirror, you couldn't see the wrinkles,

right? And say, well, I still look

pretty good at whatever age, but that's the type of mirrors they

had. So when they, when he said this,

Paul, he, he talked about the, the ability or the lack of

ability to be able to see clearly.

But then he said one day we'll be able to see face to face.

Now I know in part. So we know a little bit about a

lot of things and not a lot of things about little things, but

we know some things. And he says, I know in part, but

then I shall know just as I'm also known.

So one day we'll see Jesus face to face and he's not going to

bring up a bunch of junk that's already been died for and

cleansed and forgiven. He'll talk to us about our

effectiveness or lack of it, maybe in regard to his calling

on our lives that I really live fully for what He created me

for. And that's the purpose of

church, to help us all like sort of get on track to be reminded

of what the big picture is because it's really about him

and becoming more like him and living for him.

Career success, all these things are all fine, but the most

important thing is that one day when all that stuff's behind us,

it'll just be us and him. And if we live as fully as we

could by his grace for him, we'll hear those wonderful

words. Well done, good and faithful

servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.

And may we help each other stay on track and keep pressing in

deeper and deeper to Jesus is like Cason said this morning, he

has this desire to press deeper into Jesus.

May that all be our desires to and now abide faith, hope and

love these three. But the greatest of these is

love. The worship team can come

forward. Love is what makes life worth

living. To be loved by someone, there's

nothing like it. To be loved by God is far

superior than any human. Love can be given to us.

Love sets us free. I think stings lyrics.

One of my favorite musicians. He still doesn't know the Lord,

but boy he can write good music. If you love someone, set them

free. Jesus proved us to us, He loves

us, He set us free. He said you shall know the truth

and the truth shall make you free.

Amen. Nothing better than being free,

is it? When I got saved, the night I

got saved, I didn't know all the theology, I didn't know all the

verses, but I knew I met Jesus and on my way to the Community

College, I had a Volkswagen, a pale powder blue Volkswagen with

a sunroof, and I had The Who on full blast.

I am free. I am free, and my hair and

freedom is thus a taste of reality.

Jesus has set us free, and whom the sun is set free is free

indeed. Let's prepare our hearts for the

supper. Lord, we are grateful for this

special day you've given us for your servant case and Harold,

who will now begin to take the steps into the path that his

Father has walked now for eight years and I've worked, walked in

for 30 years. Lord, we do pray for him today

and other men, young men that will be raised up in this church

in days ahead to help lead it. You would protect him, keep his

heart free, keep it joyful, keep it full of your Holy Spirit.

And if you do, he will one day finish well as his dad and I

desire to do. And along with George and John,

thank you for everybody you brought here today.

Thank you for those on the YouTube and the Facebook and

Grace FM Lord, who are tuned in. We pray, O God, your blessing of

First Corinthians 13 upon all our lives, that we would love

others like you have loved us for You said by this people will

know we're your followers, your disciples, by the love we have

for one another. Thank you for the love in this

church and the lives of these people, and may we just grow

deeper in it. Now we celebrate once again,

Lord, as we do every week, and remembering what you've done for

us. On the night to Jesus, it's

betrayed. He took the bread in his hands

and he broke it, and he gave thanks, and he said, Take, eat,

this is my body which is given for you.

Eat this in remembrance of me. The same manner in it evening he

took the cup, and he said, This cup is a new covenant, My blood,

which is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.

Drink this in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this

bread and you drink this cup, he show forth the Lord's death till

he comes again. Amen.

God bless you guys, love you, have a great week.