Earnestly Desire Love - 1 Corinthians 12:28-13:3

When I was young, I loved basketball and I thought I was good at it, but I wanted to be great at it.

I wanted to be the best player on the team.

I wanted to be, I remember thinking to myself, I didn't just want to be the best player on my team, I wanted to be the best player on the other person's team.

I wanted to be the star of the game, and that motivated me.

The drive to be the best motivated me as a young man.

I played basketball constantly.

I looked back, I wasn't as good as I thought I was at the time, but at the time I thought it was pretty good.

I used to daydream playing.

The commercials were like, "Mike, that was a great commercial because I wanted to be like Michael Jordan." I would daydream about scenarios of winning the game, winning shot, hitting the game, winning shot at the end of the game.

I had this little nerf goal in my room and I would play it by myself.

Every basketball player knows what I'm talking about. We've all done this. We're going 2, 3, 1, then we shoot.

The crowd goes nuts and we're the star of the show.

You dream of that, playing in the NBA or playing at some amazing championship game and being the star player.

I would work hard to be a great player.

Well, after the Lord converted me and called me to the ministry, it's easy to take that same mindset of being a great whatever you're pursuing as a child, whatever you want to be known for.

Everybody has something they're aspiring after.

It's easy to transfer that to, "I want to be a great Christian.

I want to be a superstar Christian. I want to be one of these Christians that people write biographies about one day, the Charles Spurgeon's of the world." If you're a young preacher, you know what I'm talking about.

It's something in us that thinks maybe I could be the next superstar or pastor, superstar or preacher. I could be a missionary that someone writes a book about one day.

So we aspire for greatness.

And think about the ministry or in Christianity, it's four areas that we may want to aspire after.

Maybe we want to aspire to be a preacher, so we want great preaching skills.

Or maybe it's not so much we want to be a preacher. Sometimes maybe it's a theologian.

I want to be known to be a great scholar, a notable scholar, so we aspire after knowledge and become really, really studious.

And if it's not a preacher, if it's not scholarship, maybe it's practical Christianity.

Maybe that we could be someone that has a lot of faith and that we live out our Christianity in such a way that is exemplary for others to follow.

And if it's not that, maybe we could be a man of service, someone that sacrifices and gives and depletes himself.

Now, as we're about to enter into this text, but as we do, think about some of the great men in Christianity, because I'm going to preach on how to be great, how to become great, how to become a great Christian.

But as these four areas, think about some of the greatest preachers who's ever lived.

And who knows who is the greatest preacher?

But I think up at the top would be Charles Spurgeon.

He's called the Prince of Preacher.

He was so famous in his day that there would be crowds lining up to hear him preach.

He preached to 5,000 people every Sunday, but his congregation couldn't hold the crowds.

One time he had to ask people, his regular people, "Don't come next week so people can show up and have seats." It's estimated that he preached over to 10 million people in his life.

And what was amazing about his preaching was his oratory skills.

He had the gift of words.

You could read a sermon today and go, "Who could write like this? Who could preach like this?" He had just a gift of eloquence.

He knew how to craft his words in such an amazing way.

He had a photographic memory.

He would read six books a week, and then he would just come and preach.

And it would be amazing.

If I could hear one preacher in history, I probably would choose Spurgeon to listen to.

Well, if it's not trying to be a great preacher, maybe it's a great theologian.

In my mind, the greatest theologians ever lived besides the apostle Paul or the Lord Jesus is John Calvin.

And the reason I say that is because Calvin lived before a lot of things were settled.

And he wrote a book.

By the time he was 26, he wrote the systematic theology.

He put them on the map.

And he continued to build out that systematic theology the rest of his life.

And to this day, every major scholar deals with Calvin.

Every scholar works through Calvin.

He's kind of the standard, if you would, when it comes to theology as a great theologian.

When it comes to maybe, well, I don't want to be a great preacher or a great theologian.

Maybe you don't aspire for that.

Maybe you aspire to be someone like George Mueller, a man of faith, someone that could move mountains, if you would.

One time, George Mueller, he took care of thousands of orphans over his life.

But one time was a famous story that he was sitting at the table and they had no food in the pantry, had no food to feed.

It was breakfast time.

So he called all the children to the table and he knew he had nothing to feed them.

But he prayed and what he prayed was amazing.

He thanked the Lord for breakfast.

He thanked the Lord for the food that God had provided.

Well, he didn't know, but the night before when he was sleeping and the children were sleeping, there was a baker who couldn't sleep at night and he tossed to and fro thinking about those orphans.

So he got up in the middle of the night and baked a bunch of bread.

And as Mueller finished his prayer saying, "Amen," the baker knocked on the door and says,"Listen, I have all this bread I want to give to your children." And soon as the bread was delivered, there was a milkman that his trailer, his cart that he pushed the milk on broke down right in front of the orphanage.

And he knew that the milk would spool.

So he knocked on the orphanage and said, "Hey, you need some milk." And there the Lord provided breakfast because of George Mueller's prayer and great faith.

During George Mueller's life, he provided millions of dollars in today's currency for orphans, and he never took a salary or never asked for money himself.

More than 16,000 people were taught in the various schools that he funded.

Almost 50,000 copies of the Bible were circulated.

Thirty million tracts were given out that he paid for.

And he supported 120 missionaries during his life and over 2,000 orphans.

He died broke, but millions of dollars went through his hands, and it was by faith.

He said, "Maybe that is a great man.

I want to preach like Spurgeon.

I want to think like Calvin.

I want to have faith like Mueller." But maybe you say, "Well, to be a great man, maybe it's not preaching.

Maybe it's not being a theologian.

Maybe it's not being someone like George Mueller who's a man of faith.

Maybe I just need to be one who's sacrificial and give myself." Maybe you want to be someone like the missionary Adirnon Judson.

Judson says, "There is no success without sacrifice.

If you succeed without sacrifices because someone has sacrificed for you.

If you sacrifice without success, it's because someone has succeeded on your behalf." See, Judson was a young man, and he left England, left all that he had.

And he went to India, but couldn't get into India, and ended up going into Burma, having no contacts and no place to go, and settled into Burma as a missionary.

And for six long years, there was no converts.

He's working, providing a living, him and his wife, and for six long years, nothing.

He only came to Furlough back to England once.

He ended up being arrested and put into prison for 17 months where they tortured him.

They would hang him up by his ankles and shackles.

And even after he was released, he could no longer walk correctly.

He lost two wives in the process through death.

And at one point, he dug his own grave, so discouraged and worn out, he went into the jungles hoping a lion would kill him, and he would just die and fall into the gravy dog.

He gave everything, but today they say there's around six million believers in Burma, and all six million can trace their heritage back to Judson.

So he'd say, "Hey, this is what greatness is.

Maybe it's being a great preacher, maybe it's being a great theologian, maybe it's being a man of faith like Miller, maybe it's being someone like Adonai and Judson." The problem with the Corinthians, they wanted to be great as well.

They wanted to be the greatest.

The apostles also had this syndrome.

They fought among themselves.

They'd argue among themselves who's the greatest.

And they wanted to be at the right and left hand of Christ.

When he came to his kingdom, they fought over this.

Well, the Corinthians seemed to have the same problem, and they aspired for oratory skills.

Remember, in 1 Corinthians 1, 2, and 3, they loved Apollos because he was a polished speaker.

And they looked down on Paul because his speaking was not all that great.

And so they aspired for the showy gifts so that they could get some recognition and praise.

And this is why they seemed to enjoy the showy gifts like prophecies and tongues, because it brought a lot of attention to the one who has the gifts.

And they coveted this, and they were zealous for these spiritual gifts.

Now read with me starting at verse 28.

And we're going to read to the first three verses of chapter 13.

And this is what the apostle Paul is doing.

He's going to tell us how to aspire to greatness.

But he's going to tell us what not to aspire to and then give us the correct way of greatness.

Starting at verse 28.

And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets and teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping administrating various kinds of tongues, or all apostles, or all prophets, or all teachers.

Do all do miracles? Do all have gifts of healing?

Do all speak in other tongues? Do all interpret?

But desire the greatest gifts.

That is, don't not desire gifts, but desire the greatest ones.

I will show you an even better way, or a more excellent, or surpassing way.

He goes on to say, "If I speak human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I'm a noisy gong and a clingy cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." In this we see the true path to greatness.

How we're to aspire, all of us, should just aspire to be a great Christian.

It's not that we shouldn't aspire to glory and to greatness.

It's just which way are we aspiring, and how are we aspiring to be great?

If you're aspiring after true greatness, then don't aspire after the greatest gifts, or at least what we would think to be the more showy gifts.

We see this in verses 28 through 30.

First of all, in verse 28 we notice that there are greater and lesser gifts.

Not all the gifts are on the same plane.

There are some that are more useful, some that are greater.

We see that there's a list that the Apostle Paul has.

Read verse 28 with me.

"And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues." So here's a order.

First apostles, apostles were greater than prophets, but prophets were greater than teachers.

They had more authority, and they had a greater purpose to play.

But then after that, then there's gifts of healing and helping and administration.

The last gift he put in is tongues.

Like, listen, tongues are on the list, but it's not at the top.

You may be thinking, "I want to speak in tongues.

I want that gift.

I want to be able to speak well or preach well." Or maybe this is speaking about the gift of tongues, which is being able to speak another language without studying it.

This would be amazing.

This is what they were spired after, but he's not denying.

Paul is not denying that there's an order or a ring of the gifts.

But we're not to aspire after these things because we're not in charge of the gifts that we have.

Look at verse 29.

"Are all apostles?" I mean, you may aspire to be apostles.

I'm going to tell you, you can't do it.

None of us can.

None of us can be apostles today.

That office and that gift has ceased.

"Are all prophets?" I mean, is it rhetorical question?

The answer is no.

"Are all teachers?" No.

"Do all work miracles?" No.

"Do all possess the gift of healing?" No.

"Do all speak in tongues or with tongues?" No.

"Do all interpret?" No.

Obviously, not all of us have these gifts.

Only a few have these gifts.

And you being a great Christian is not dependent upon you having one of these gifts.

See, not all have the greatest gifts, not all speak in tongues.

But we're not necessarily to evaluate our greatness based upon the type of gift that we've been given.

You see, there's a better way to strive for greatness.

There is a more excellent way.

We see this in verse 31.

There is a more excellent gift to pursue after.

Look at verse 31.

"But earnestly desired the higher gifts." And I will show you a more excellent way.

So here's an exhortation for all of us.

All of us Christians, we should expire after greatness.

We should expire after the highest gifts.

It's not that we shouldn't want these things or aspire after them, or crave them, or ask for them, or seek to grow in them.

In fact, we're told not just to want them, but to earnestly desire them.

This word earnestly desire comes from the Greek word, it means jealous.

We should be jealous after this.

We should want this deeply.

The word speaks of water that's coming to a bowl, a water that's bubbling because it's fervently hot.

In fact, this word jealous here in the Greek is where we get the English word zil.

We should be zealous after this.

We should be dedicated to this.

We should seek this.

We should work hard to obtain this.

In fact, that's why it's translated earnestly desire, or eagerly seek after.

I mean, I don't know if you woke up today and say, "Dear God, I want this today.

I really want to become a great Christian today, and I know this is the means to do it.

I want this badly." I think the problem we have, and I know I have this, is we become lazy because we're content.

We settle in where we're at, and we're no longer really pursuing after this.

We're no longer eagerly desiring this.

In fact, he goes on to say, "This is a more excellent way." He's telling the Corinthians, "You're seeking greatness through the showy gifts.

This is what you think someone is a great is that they're a great preacher, or they have great faith, or they're sacrificially loving others, or they're sacrificially giving of themselves.

They're a Jureus Mueller, Adonai Judson, or they're Spurgeon, or they're a Calvin.

This is what we think is great.

But let me show you a better way to greatness.

Let me show you a more surpassing way." And obviously, he's telling us the way is love.

This is what you should all aspire to.

Not all of you are going to be apostles.

In fact, none of us are apostles, but all of us can love.

Not all of us are going to be pastors and teachers and missionaries, but all of us can love.

It doesn't matter your status.

It doesn't matter your age.

It doesn't matter your location.

It doesn't matter your physical condition.

It doesn't matter where you stand.

You all can be great if you have love.

Love is something to spar after.

You see, I'm going to talk about this next week, but verse 4 through 7 says,"Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It does not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It's not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." You see, the key about love is not self-focused.

It's not ambitious towards self-greatness.

It's not look at me greatness.

It's not I want to be great.

I want to be a great preacher so people can applaud me and write biographies about me.

It's not that type of greatness, is it?

Love doesn't do things for attention's sake.

Love doesn't do something for applause.

Love doesn't do something in order for some secondary benefit or some press release.

Love doesn't seek self.

You see, love is humble.

Love is ready to be forgotten.

Love is God-centered and other people-centered.

Love is hoping that others are blessed at your own expense.

Love is rejoicing at the betterment of other people.

Love rejoices with the glory of God.

Love will cause you, if you really love God and love your neighbor, it causes you to give of yourself happily and joyfully without seeking attention, without seeking to be noticed.

The greatest joy of love is seeing someone blessed.

And seeing someone blessed, if it's God's name being glorified or someone else being blessed, you're loving that.

Think of a mother's love for her child.

She's not hoping for a payday one day.

She's not hoping that he or she becomes rich and can pay her back for waking up in the middle of the night and all the sacrifices mother gives to their children.

That's not what mothers want.

They just want their kids to be healthy and happy.

And ultimately, all parents want their children to know the Lord.

And we'll do whatever we can in order for them to be blessed.

And that's the reward of love.

See, love is not self-focus at all.

This is the better way for greatness.

The Lord was trying to teach his disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.

He's coming down and he's saying all the things that he's going to suffer for, suffer.

And he's talking about humility and dying to self.

And after that conversation, the apostles were talking to themselves.

And they got an argument among themselves.

The Lord must have been ahead of them because he could barely overhear them.

But they got an argument who's the greatest.

And the Lord overheard it.

And when they got home back to Capernaum, he goes, "What are we all talking about on the way?" We were traveling back from the Mount of Transfiguration, some accessory Philippi.

What were we all talking about?

And they were embarrassed.

They didn't want to talk about it.

They didn't want to let them know what they were arguing about because they were arguing about who among them was the greatest.

And Jesus knew what they were talking about.

Then he saw a little child in the room.

I think they were at Peter's house and he put the child and he says,"If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you must become like this little child." He says, "Whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." What's so great about children?

They know to sit down at the least seat.

They're not yet self-entitled, if you would.

They're not great in their own minds.

They understand their position.

If you're going to be great, you must see yourself like a child.

One other time, they got an argument about the same thing.

This is a few months later.

And this is when James and John, they got their mother involved in this.

And they came to Jesus and they wanted to ask Jesus for a request.

And Jesus said, "What do you want?" And the mother asked on their behalf.

"What would you, when you get your kingdom, put my two boys, James and John, at your right and left hand." And what did the Lord say?

He said, "You don't know what you're asking for.

If you want to be great, you're going to have to drink this cup.""Oh, we can drink that cup. Yeah, we'll drink it." No, this cup is bitter.

This cup is not the greatness that you think it is.

This is not where people applaud you and put you on a stage and think high of you.

This is where they despise you.

This is where they ridicule you.

This is what true greatness is.

It's not in pride.

It's in humility.

And remember when he had the Lord's table, the disciples got an argument for the third time over who's the greatest.

After Jesus had already put a towel around his waist and cleaned their feet.

After that, they're arguing about who's the greatest.

This is right before his death.

Can you imagine?

This is what Christians do.

I mean, this is in all of us.

They do one another in getting praise and attention, wanting to be the greatest.

And Jesus says, "You know that the rulers and the Gentiles, Lord, it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

It should not be so among you, but Huber would be great among you, must be your servant, and Huber would be first among you, must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." See, the way to greatness is the way of humility.

It's the way of love.

It's not self-centered.

It's not self-focused.

Whatever we're doing out of motivation for self-exaltation is the opposite of love.

The greatness is when you're willing to go down.

You must become least to be the greatest.

You must be last to be first.

This is the method and the pathway to spiritual greatness.

Four reasons why we should seek to be great through love.

Four reasons why we should seek to be great through love.

Starting with verse 1.

1. Because possessing the gift of love is more important than being the greatest preacher who's ever lived.

Look at verse 1.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong and a cleaning cymbal." Let's just say that you had the gift.

I mean, you're the greatest orator ever lived.

You're greater than the Apollos, or you were greater than the Prince of Preacher himself, Spurgeon.

Let's say everybody wanted to hear you preach.

You preach with such skill, with such craftedness of your words, and you never mispronounced a word.

That'd be great. I'd love that.

And everybody just clamored to come hear you.

What a wonderful gift that you would have.

To have the natural ability to speak well.

To have chrisma.

But let's say you had all that, but you lacked loves.

What would happen?

You would become proudful.

You would speak as a self-promoter.

You would be seeking a platform.

Seeking attention.

You were seeking to show off your gift.

To exercise your gift for attention's sake.

And no matter how theologically precise you may be, your speech would be as a noisy gong and a cleaning symbol.

I mean, think about a noisy gong.

I thought about maybe getting written up here with a gong as I go after it, you know.

And it would be cute for a few seconds, but if he just continued on, it would drive us all nuts.

We would go quit, stop it.

I mean, we all heard crazy noises in our home where the kids are going nuts, or they're banging on something.

You know, someone gives you, your enemies, buy your children's gifts with batteries.

And you're going, oh, thanks.

I mean, have you ever, you know, like think about preachers that get up and preach, and they may be smooth speakers.

And you may win a lot of affections and attention by the world, but in the eyes of God, it's clean, gonging, disorderly.

It's the complete opposite of what you're trying to accomplish.

It's not smooth and elegant.

It's noisy and unprofitable.

You know, it is true.

People don't care what you know or how well you preach until they know you care.

And I've seen this.

I know this to be true.

I know it to be true.

I know you can win an audience for one or two sermons by your skill, but you can't keep a people by your skill.

You can't maintain it until people know you love them and you care for them.

And this is what Paul is saying.

The greatness is not in your giftedness.

It's in your love.

Well, what about being a theologian?

The second reason we should seek greatness through love is because it's more important than being the greatest theologian.

I mean, I this is something I aspire after.

I want to be a great theologian.

I mean, I'm doing honest, but look what it says in verse two.

If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, I mean, every seminary student either aspires to become a great preacher or a great theologian.

It's either one.

Sometimes you could be like Spurgeon and be both, but that's very rare.

Usually you're a nerd that knows everything but have no speaking ability or you got great speakability, but you don't know anything.

But very rarely can you have ball.

But let's just say, hey, I want to be, you know, you're one that say, hey, I know I can't speak very well.

I don't have that.

Maybe I can compensate it by being a great scholar.

I'll just keep reading and reading and reading until people respect me and want to hear me and listen to me and maybe read my books.

But let's say you become such a scholar, such a theologian.

You become the next John Calvin.

You know, you have understanding where you can you can explain every mystery of the Bible.

I mean, it can go through the Trinity and break it down where everybody can comprehend it and understand it and everybody's impressed with how much you know.

But how many great theologians out there lack love?

I understood this in college when one of my professors, I thought, had become very arrogant and broadful.

Often knowledge is accompanied by pride.

And once we're seeking to become a theologian for the sake of knowledge itself, then it does lead to pride.

And then we just want to display what we know.

It's not that we want to help people with what we know.

It's about getting people to admire and respect what we know.

But this is not real greatness.

James 3 13 says, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts and do not do not boast and be false to the truth, this is not the wisdom that comes from down from above.

This type of wisdom is earthly and spiritual demonic.

That is, if you're seeking self attention and praise, this is not the wisdom of God.

This is not becoming a great theologian in the eyes of God for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vowel practice.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, good for its impartial and sincere.

In other words, true wisdom is seen in love, humble love.

And so we can all have that.

You can all aspire after that.

Lord, I do want to know the Word of God.

I do want to understand the Scriptures.

I don't want to be ignorant when it comes to your word.

You should seek to be a theologian, but you should seek it in love so that you can love better.

The motivation behind the pursuit should be God's glory and the good of others.

The third reason we should not seek glory and selfish ambition, but seek it in love is because possessing the gift of love is more important than even having all faith or being the greatest man of faith.

It goes on to say in verse two, "And if I have all faith, so to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing." You know, maybe the best way to become great is not being a preacher or a theologian, but maybe I need to be someone like George Mueller.

And Paul is alluding to Jesus' teaching when the apostles came to him, "Hey, increase our faith." And Jesus says, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains." As far as I know, no one has ever moved mountains by faith, but Jesus says, "If you had enough faith, you could." And Paul is alluding to that even if you did have that type of faith, that you could move mountains.

Literally, you say, "Mountain, get up and be moved in the sea." If that was you, you had more faith than George Mueller, but you had no faith.

I mean, we had no love.

The Bible says you would be nothing.

You would be nothing.

You would not be great, not in the eyes of God.

Rather than being great, you would become nothing without it.

See, what's God saying to us?

Greatness is in love.

Without it, there is no greatness at all.

Fourth, possessing the gifts of love is more important than being even the greatest man of service.

Look at verse 3.

You know, Peter Waldo, when he was converted, he was a rich merchant in the 12th century.

He was very wealthy, but once he was converted, he sold everything he had, gave everything away, and then became a missionary.

Or maybe we give up all of our time.

You know, Adderdon Judson went to Burma and gave every bit of his time in translating the Bible and the Burmese language.

He had to write dictionaries and grammar books, and he just gave his life for the translation of the Bible.

He gave his time.

I remember waking an hour to this.

He worked on it even when he was in prison.

Or what if we even gave our lives to the English reformers?

Lattimore and Ridley, in the 1554, remember Bloody Mary?

She had them two preachers put to death for their faith.

And Lattimore said to Ridley, "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man.

We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England that it shall never be put out." They gave their lives for the gospel.

But Paul says, "Hey, this is great.

Being a martyr is great.

But if you have no love, if you're being a martyr just to be great in the eyes of the world, or getting your name written in some biography, or to be remembered for who you are, and you don't have love, then you're nothing.

It doesn't matter how well you preach, or what a great theologian you may be, or how much faith you have, or how much service you have.

You're nothing without love." He says, "I've gained nothing.

You wasted your life if you didn't give your life to love, loving God and loving your neighbor." Is that not the essence of the law, to love God with all your heart, minus "oh, love your neighbor," as yourself? Is not this the kind of the chief end of man that we love God and enjoy God and glorify God and live for God out of love, and then to love others as God has loved us?

Is this not the great charge that we have?

Is this not the measure of greatness in the eyes of God?

See, this is wonderful news for us because we don't have to be a Spurgeon.

We don't have to be George Bueller.

We don't have to be someone like that.

We don't have to have all these gifts.

We don't have to be prophets or apostles or evangelists.

We don't have to be teachers.

You can excel and you can be a great Christian if you have love.

You see, love is the power behind all the gifts.

I mean, if you're a preacher, you should seek to be a good preacher, but what makes a good preacher is love.

Love is the essence of all theology.

Love is how faith works.

Faith works through love, Galatians 5, 16 tells us.

Love is the end of all things.

I mean, this is what love rejoices in the truth.

This is what would push us to be a great theologian.

Love is what leads us to sacrifice.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I mean, if you love, you will sacrifice.

You will have faith.

You see, our gifts are not for our own self-consumption.

I've said that like three weeks in a row.

God didn't give us these things for ourselves or for self-attention.

He's given us to give them out, to serve others, to see His name, God's name, magnified in this world.

Just assist the body of Christ.

You see, love is patient, is kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It's not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

And love is not saying, hey, look at me.

Love is saying, look at Christ.

How can I help you?

We may not become a Spurgeon, a Calvin, a Mueller, or a Judson, but we still can become something great.

It's not that we shouldn't seek greatness.

You should.

But there's a more perfect way.

There's a more surpassing way.

We should earnestly desire this.

We should be zealous after this.

The problem is we become too content when we could all grow in love.

We can all love more.

I mean, one of the best things that could be said about you and your memorial service is, this woman loved God.

This man loved the church.

This man was a man of love.

Now that's great.

You know, why love is so surpassing is the better way.

It's because it's seeking greatness, but it's not seeking it selfishly.

It's seeking glory, but it's not self-focused.

It's truly humble.

It is truly magnificent.

Who was the greatest preacher, theologian, man of faith?

And who sacrificed more than any other man ever lived?

Jesus Christ.

He was the greatest.

But who loved more than him?

Who loved more than Jesus Christ?

Now, I want to end by giving you a way to grow in love.

How to grow in love?

I've thought long and hard about this.

I want more love.

In fact, preparing the sermon brought me to tears in the sense that I said, Lord, I'm not living up to this.

Who knows all the bad motives I've ever had in my life?

Lord, I'm sorry, but I'd see the goodness of this.

I see how wonderful this is.

Please give me this love and I'm praying for it.

And so, like, how do you have more love?

How do you kind of instill it?

How do you grow in it?

And I don't think there's any other way to grow in love than just to look at the love of Christ.

You see, you have to see love and experience love to know love and to have love.

And Christ has loved you not just unconditionally, but to the greatest and the furthest extent he possibly could.

There's no greater love.

I mean, literally, he poured out everything he had, and there wasn't a little bit of reservation that he kept himself.

He gave you everything.

He gave you his life.

He gave you his dignity.

He gave you his reputation.

He gave you his time.

I mean, and he did it with joy.

He wasn't even begrudging of it.

He was happy to do it because he cared about you, and he's affectionate for you, and he served you and died for you.

Just meditate on that.

Keep that on your mind.

Think of his love for you, and how can you not love him back?

How can you not fall in love and grow in love and your love not swell up within you?

And it's that love that you have for Christ that's going to give you the strength to love people that don't love you back.

How are you going to bless those who curse you?

How are you going to forgive those who despise you?

How are you going to not have bitterness in your heart?

How are you going to walk in love?

You've got to abide in his love.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you and another place is abide in my love, and then you'll love others as I have loved you.

So this is a path of greatness.

Christ walked it for us and showed us his love for us.

May we love him return and give our lives and faith and service and speaking and studying God's Word.

May we do all these other things.

Not that we should despise preachers and theologians and men of faith and those who sacrifice, but it's going to be love that pushes us in that direction.

It's going to be love that's going to make these things great.

Let's pray.

Lord, we're overwhelmed by your love for us, and we are underwhelmed by our lack of love.

Give us more love to you.

This we pray. Amen.