Love Is the Foundation | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.

Amen and amen.

God bless you guys.

As soon as y'all can be dismissed now.

Thank y'all for indulging me and being in here as we as we pray and and intercede.

You know, it's in in moments like this that we look to the word of God for instruction and encouragement and direction.

And I think that today's topic is very fitting for us.

But before I jump into our text for the day, I do want to highlight something that God kind of put on my spirit just yesterday.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, these are the words of Jesus who's kind of outlining the world that we live in now.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

It's not new to him, and it wasn't new then, but it is something that we are feeling even more now.

And he was preparing them for the culture that would ultimately lead to his return to redeem his church.

So when you look at Matthew chapter 24, he's talking about his second coming, his arrival, his time when he's going to come for the church.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Time won't permit me to go into this in detail, but we will be doing an entire series on end times next year, so buckle up and get ready for that.

But I do want to read a passage of scripture that I think can bring us in a little bit closer.

Matthew 24, verse number 12 says this because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.

Ultimately, what the what the biblical writer was trying to communicate was that we're going to continue to see a world of chaos and confusion, and lawlessness means ultimately the lack of boundaries, the the lack of any strong sense of regulation.

And when he says that because this is going to continue to grow and increase chaos and pain and suffering, that ultimately people are going to grow numb to it.

He says that the love of many is going to wax cold.

So when he's talking about growing cold, he's talking about growing numb to it.

That people will go from a point of, man, this is traumatic and this is dramatic and we're and our hearts are broken as a result of it, to us just growing numb to it.

And if we're honest with ourselves, we we live in a world where we have normalized suffering at a scale that's very alarming.

We just grow numb to it.

We hear about another shooting and we grow numb to it.

We pick our political sides on where we think we should go with it.

We we hear about suffering and we kind of grow numb to it.

We see a homeless person on a street corner and we just grow numb to it.

And so things that were completely abnormal in one season, in one culture, we've just grown numb to it.

And Jesus is saying, You can tell that we're in the last days is when people have grown numb to things that I literally have told you that you should care about.

That we're just indifferent about it.

But interestingly enough, he doesn't leave us there.

And under the unction of the Holy Spirit, Paul begins to write about the remedy for this numbness.

And the remedy that Paul presents to us is the remedy for it is love.

In a world that's filled with numbness and normalcy of things that shouldn't be normal.

Paul instructs us that God is calling us to have a very active and compassionate and all-encompassing love for one another.

Over the past several weeks, we've been examining the Church of Corinth.

And while they are not completely a Western church, we've been influenced, and honestly, we can see a lot of parallels from things that were happening then to them, and some of those things are happening with us now.

And so for that culture at the time, they were dealing with deep divisions, they were dealing with political drama, they were dealing with governmental drama, they were dealing with religious drama, and so we can kind of see some of the parallels that we have in common with them.

So Paul being aware of all of these things, and even in spite of their knowledge and their spiritual gifts and them being a part of the body, which I want to pause here because Pastor Vinny last week preached an amazing message on the body and how the gifts are supposed to support the body.

So, can we show some love to Pastor Vinny for such an amazing message that he preached last week on that?

If you miss it, I want you to go back and check it out.

But he's talking about this idea of us being a body that is united.

But then he shifts to chapter 13, where after everything we've talked about, the the importance of unity, the the gifts and cruciformed life, and and what is what is uh liberty look like for us, he then ties it all together in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

If you've been to a wedding at any point, there's a good chance that you have heard the passages that I'm about to read to us.

And I want to read it in its entirety so that we can get a good scope of what we are talking about because in chapter 12, Paul is talking about the spiritual gifts.

He's talking about gifts of prophecy and people being healed and speaking in other tongues, like these gifts that we love so much to see demonstrated in the church.

So keep that in mind that Paul has just got finished talking about the need for those gifts, the values of those gifts, and and why we should utilize those gifts.

But then he shifts to verse number one of chapter 13.

And this is what he says after talking about the gifts.

He says this, and if I speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but I don't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.

And if I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secrets and possessed all knowledge, and if I had a faith that could move mountains, but I didn't love others, I would be nothing.

If I gave everything that I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it.

But if I didn't love others, I have gained nothing.

Because love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude, it does not demand its own way, it is not irritable, it keeps no records of being wrong, it does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up, it never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless, but love lasts forever.

Now, our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only a part of the whole picture.

But when the time of perfection comes, these these partial gifts will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in the mirror.

But then we will see everything with perfect clarity.

All that I know is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely just as I just as God knows me completely.

But here's number 13.

But of these three things will last forever faith, hope, and love.

And the greatest of all of these things is love.

But if it is not done through the posture of love, he literally says, We have nothing.

He says, if we are correcting people and it's not done in love, we just sound like noisy symbols, completely getting drowned out.

But Paul says, the greatest of everything I've just said is love.

If you can love people well, then you are fulfilling the commandments of God.

So today I want to talk about that.

I want to talk about the importance of not an emotion but an expression of our faith that is meant to be lived out.

So if you're taking notes, I want us to write this down.

Love is the foundation.

Let's pray and let's see what God wants to speak to us today.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you for the theme that is emerging today with you being love.

And we are loved by you, and you make your love available to us.

So, Lord, I pray that we can receive this.

God, I pray that you give us open eyes that we can recognize you, as Paul was saying, that even with perfect vision we see things partially.

So, God, I pray that with all of the things that are obstructing our view, that we still can recognize you and your love and your truth.

Lord, I also pray for open ears that we can hear you above all else, above all the fray, above all the drama, but above all the chaos in the world, that we can still hear the still small voice of Jesus whispering in our ear that we are loved by him and we are known by him.

And Father, I also pray for open hearts that as we engage your word, that we are convicted, that we are challenged, but we are inspired.

So, Father, I just pray that you allow your word to do a deep work inside of us that can bring about transformation.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, I I think about the varying things that my wife and I have had an opportunity to um partake in, and and there's several milestones that that comes to mind.

Naturally, our our our family and and and seeing our family expand and and now having grandchildren, and that's just something that is is amazing to see that a young love that blossomed when we were in ninth grade would have produced such a fruitful life.

Now, back when we were in ninth grade, she was pursuing me.

I was still kind of trying to figure her out, but no, there's no judgment there.

But she was she was definitely feeling me and rightfully so.

But but here we are.

Who would have thought that in ninth grade something as simple as us sitting across from each other would have cultivated into us literally building a life together?

So there's a lot of milestones that we've seen moving into our first place together and and moving down to Jacksonville together, and and then ultimately I remember when we decided to purchase and build our own house.

And I've shared this with us before, so I almost spent a lot of time on it, but that was a dream for us, something that where we were from, it was something that we had never thought that we would do.

And I remember the excitement of going and going to the design center and picking out the different elements that we wanted to see in our home and writing scriptures on the beams and all of these things that we were wanting to do.

But I also know that internally the thing that excited me the most when we did it was when I saw them come and pour the concrete.

Because honestly, everything up to this point, it was just a theory.

We were going into looking at a model home that was a great expectation of hopefully what we could receive.

But the truth of the matter is when we picked out our lot of land and we were waiting for them to begin the construction process, it didn't matter how nice we were expecting to room to be if there wasn't a foundation for it to be built on.

It didn't matter how how much how big the TV we were going to have in our loft, and you know your boy was gonna have a nice TV upstairs in that loft, like it didn't matter how big it was going to be, that it means nothing if it wasn't built at first on a foundation.

Because here's what we all know is we know that we can have a beautiful room, we can have all the elements, we can have great decor, but if there's not a firm foundation for it to be built on, that when the wind comes, it's inevitably going to collapse upon itself.

So I remember that moment when they came and they poured the concrete.

I felt like, okay, now we have a foundation that our dreams can be built on.

Hold on to that because ultimately that is what Paul is trying to communicate to the church of Corinth.

He's communicating to them that man, like you guys have so much potential.

You guys have so many gifts.

You guys have got the blueprint all laid out.

You got people over here who are incredibly wise, you got people over here that have incredible spiritual gifts.

I'm talking about you're anointed, you have influence, and when you walk into rooms, you're able to discern the room.

But but the problem is it's not built on a foundation of love.

And instead of you using these things that God has given you and it being something that builds people up, it's been weaponized and you're actually tearing people down.

I'm not sure what your church history background is, but for Megan and I, we came from a church context where we were we had people that were clearly labeled.

You had like the you had like the evangelist.

Like, okay, that's evangelist, that's evangelist Jenkins.

Evangelist, like she never went anywhere, but she was an evangelist, like she was evangelist.

And and then you had the people who who were like the prayer warriors, man, those are the ones who were just always praying in sackcloth and astro, very serious, very sober-minded.

But then you had the people who are prophets, and you had to be careful when a prophet was coming to town.

We would have these revivals and say, hey, prophet Williams is gonna be here on Wednesday night revival, make sure you're here.

Now, when you knew that a prophet was coming in, a prophet is a person that has the ability to discern and hear like God directly.

So in our church context, like prophets were not somebody to play with.

You didn't even give them eye contact because you felt like they had a direct line from heaven.

And so when they were in services like ours, and the prophet would get up and be like, I have a word from the Lord to share with somebody in here, and they're starting to look around the room, you're like, Because I don't know what this guy's about to say to me.

He might be like, I know what you did last summer.

I'm like, like, so so you're just you're just like, or you don't want to give eye contact because you just never knew it was gonna happen.

And so they would call people out.

There's sin in your life.

I'm like, good Lord, isn't sin in everybody's life, but somehow, like, like, okay, I digress.

Like, they would just go after people, and so watch this.

Even though that gift was powerful, and I've seen it, but I've seen it tear more people down than build people up.

I've seen it condemn more people than actually encourage more people.

I'm giving you this example because one, you guys are so lucky to have me.

But next week is gonna be prophetic week.

I'm gonna come in here all black.

Y'all get ready for it.

Okay, but but what I'm saying is you can have the right thing, but do it the wrong way.

And so what was happening in the church of Corinth, they had all of these gifts, but instead of using their gifts to build one another up, they were tearing people down.

Instead of them looking at what God's word says and speaking it from a posture of love, that they were speaking it from a posture of condemnation.

Because you know correction without love is condemnation, it can be critical, but correction with love leads to change and transformation.

So Paul is saying, hey, you guys have got all these things together, you're so smart, you're so well learned, you have so many spiritual gifts, but the house is collapsing on itself because you're not building it on the foundation of God's love first.

He's trying to lead them to understand that we need to first function from a posture of God's love.

Now, the truth of the matter is he's speaking to a Greek audience.

And a lot of us, we have been influenced by Greek thinking.

So when we think about what love is, I think all of us will have a different definition of how we perceive love.

There may be some kind of amalgamation that we can come up with that could collectively represent all of us, but the truth of the matter is love has become such a casual phrase that it's lost its potency because there's so many different definitions for it.

I had somebody come up to me and say, Keith, man, I truly love your sneaker game.

I'm like, so do I.

Thank you.

We all have these things that we can say that we love, that we are we're drawn to, that we're connected to, but the same way that we can say that we love our new home, our new neighborhood, or love someone's shoes is the same love that we're saying and we're talking about our wives and talking about God, it can sometimes seem like it's too casual and it can lose its true definition.

So, from a biblical sense, let me give us a definition of what biblical love is so that we can make sure that when we're communicating Jesus, I love you, that we're talking about the right type of love.

The Bible is broken up into two different sections Old Testament, New Testament.

Old Testament is before Christ, New Testament or New Covenant is Christ.

And so the language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, it is it is very much connected to the Jewish mindset.

And they had a different way in which they communicated words.

They didn't have as many vocabulary words as we did because they were more of an integrated people, which meant this that for them, when they spoke a word, it was speaking to the mind, the body, the soul, it was all of it connected.

They didn't separate it.

So for them, you understood something when you did something.

There was no concept of, hey, I understand it, but I'm not doing it.

In their world, when you're not doing it, it's because you don't understand it.

So when they say love, they're talking about this holistic love that has no limits to it.

One of the passages that we look at that we can pull from in these moments is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

This is a famous passage that Jesus even quotes when he's talking about the importance of the commandment of love.

And what he says is that you were to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with your soul, and with your strength.

He uses this word called ahava.

Sounds like such a beautiful word.

And what this descriptive term for love was, it was an all-encompassing love.

It had it communicated care, affection, and loyalty.

It was all connected into one concept.

So when you said I love God, you were saying, I love God because you can see it in my affection towards him, you can see it in my care for others, and you can see it in my loyalty.

All of it's connected.

But then when we get into the Greek mindset, we begin to recognize that the Greek thinkers thought vastly different than the Hebraic thinkers, and even than the way that we think.

The Greek thinkers were far more compartmentalized.

They were very, very meticulous in their words, and they wanted to make sure that we can have separation of what we're talking about.

So they created a way of thought that allowed us to live more fragmented or separated.

So their Greek way of thinking was analytical, it was more precise.

They have a lot more vocabulary words in order to communicate what was going on.

And so when they talk about love, they have different renderings of different types of love.

So for them, they have the word eros, which is a romantic or passionate love.

This was the love that was typically connected between relationships.

It's where we get the word erotic from.

It's a passionate love that's typically reserved for a man and a woman.

We have storge love.

This is more of a family type of love.

This is a family type of love, like, hey, I love my son, I love my brother.

This was a family type of love.

Again, they have compartments for it.

Then they also have another love called Philea, which is this brotherly love, this friendship type of love.

This is where we get the word Philadelphia from.

The city of brotherly love, the city of the one and oh Philadelphia Eagles, the city of God's team, the city of God's favor.

You guys are catching what I'm saying.

Like it's the city of brotherly love.

It's a city that communicates this connection and bonding.

So we understand the word Philea, which means a brotherly connection.

So I don't love you with arrows love.

That's that's reserved for my wife, but I have a brotherly love for you.

But then there's the agape love.

And the agape love is powerful.

What agape love is, agape love is an unconditional, selfless love.

Of the four types of love that we talked about, this would probably be the most pure and beautiful type of love.

A selfless, unconditional type of love.

So here's the thing: when we're reading the Bible in our English translations, a lot of times they're just rendering a word as love, but we don't know the original Hebrew or Greek word that's used there.

And so sometimes when we're seeing the text say, hey, love God, which love is it referring to?

And so a lot of times we can miss what God is trying to communicate because we simplified the way in which we express it.

But I have a I have a great example of how we can look at how this happens.

Let's put up John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

So when we look at John chapter 21 and give you some context, this is after Peter has denied Jesus.

John 21 · chapter mention

Jesus has been resurrected from the dead, Jesus is now back, and so now Jesus is having this conversation with Peter and beginning the process of restoring him back into ministry, thank God for his grace.

So this is this is Jesus having a conversation with Peter.

And watch what it says here.

He says, And when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Look at the rendering.

Do you agape me?

Do you do you have this selfless, endless, sacrificial, all-encompassing love for me?

He said to him, Do you love me more than these?

And and look at what Peter says.

He says, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Then he says, Feed my lamb.

But look at the love that Peter uses Phileo.

So so so so here we have we have Jesus saying to Peter again, Peter, do you love me?

Do you have this agape love for me?

This love that is connected to loyalty and this love.

That would allow your life to be formed around me, this selfless, unconditional love for me, Peter.

Do you have that for me?

And Peter responds and says, Yeah, Jesus, I love you like a friend.

We notice that Jesus is inviting Peter to a deeper level of love.

But Peter's like, But but I don't, we cool, but I'm not sure if we're that cool.

Like, I'm not sure if you've ever been in a relationship with somebody, in community with somebody, and you felt like there was a little bit of a disproportion to the way that y'all feel about the relationship and how you feel about one another.

Just being completely practical with you, I have amassed a great collection of different friends in different communities through the years.

And so I'm so thankful that we have social media when it's used in a healthy way, that it allows you to still stay connected to people.

But I know that as we grow older, and there may have been bonds that we had with people when we were younger, that when we re-engage people, although we can pick up where we left off at, the dynamics have changed a little bit.

So I remember about 10 years ago, a good friend of mine that when we were in high school, we were always together thick as thieves.

But then we go off to college, we go off to live lives, and we probably hadn't talked in like 20 years.

However, because of social media, we were able to like friend each other and watch this.

Occasionally we would like one of each other's posts.

Put a nice little fire emoji in there.

Man, this is amazing.

Great to see you.

So then you'll be surprised when I got a DM from him.

He's like, hey man, can I can I get your number?

I want to talk to you about something.

Here's an operative word.

We're friends, but he didn't have my number.

Hold on to that.

So then I'm like, yeah, sure.

I gave him my number and he called me up.

We catch up for a few minutes and he's like, yo, man, I see that things are going good, man.

I see that you're living in Florida, man.

Things are great.

Man, I even saw on social media, man, that you and your wife went on this great vacation.

I'm like, yeah, it's great.

And I'm trying to get to like catching up with him.

He's like, hey, so I was wondering, I got this investment idea, man.

Can you give me a thousand dollars?

So I'm thinking to myself, yeah, man, like, listen, I love you, but I think I'm like Starbucks love you.

Like, if you come to town, we can go to Starbucks.

I'll I'll I'll I'll treat.

Maybe we can go get something to eat.

You know what?

Chick-fil-A's on me.

We we have that measure of love for one another.

I don't know if we have thousand-dollar love for one another.

I don't even know if my family has thousand-dollar love with me.

But here's the point: he was misjudging the relationship, and he thought that he can ask more of me than I was willing to give up.

Imagine when Jesus says, Hey, you're coming to church and I'm and I see you.

I went to the cross with you in mind, and I want to invite you into a deeper level of love.

But hey, I want to know, are you willing to lay it all down on a line for me?

Do you love me more than anything else?

And we're like, Yeah, Jesus, like, I love you enough to come in like every three Sundays.

Got quiet in here, right?

I I I love you enough, Lord, that that I can serve when it's really convenient.

I I fill I love you like a friend.

Like if you need me to help you move, Jesus, depending on what day of the week it is, I'm your man.

But but you're talking about a life of total, you're talking about that agape love.

You're talking about that that all-in love.

You're talking about living a cruciform life that my life will be built around you, Lord.

I'm more of like a Christmas and Easter type love, if we can be honest with each other.

I'm I'm more of the type of love that's more convenient and when it's on my turn, Lord, but you get it, you know my heart.

But Jesus is inviting us to something so much more.

He's inviting us to something that is so much more encompassing, he's inviting us to something that is so much more transformational than this surface level friendship.

He's inviting us to something so much more.

Do you agape me?

Are you willing to really give it all up for me?

Because Jesus says that when you lose your life in me, it's actually when you find your purpose, it's where you find your identity, it's where you find your calling, it's where you find your anointing, it's where you find your impact, it's where you're able to find the thing that I put you on this earth to do.

But you're not going to find that as long as you're still just treating me like a casual friend who you occasionally visit when it's on social media and when it's convenient.

So, what I love about this is that even in Jesus, as he's inviting us to something deeper, there's no condemnation because look at what happens here.

Put back uh John 21 and let's go to the next verse.

Because what we see here is that when Jesus is talking to him about saying that, do you love me?

Do you phileo me?

That eventually Peter just finally convinces Jesus to Jesus to get to the point, Peter, do you phileo me?

In other words, what he was saying is, I'm inviting you to agape, love, but I'm willing to meet you where you are.

And so Jesus met him where he was.

That he was inviting him to agape, but Peter said, Phileo is the best that I can do right now.

And Jesus said, I'll meet you right where you are.

This is an example of God's grace in our life.

That even though he's inviting us into something deeper and we're trying to figure out what it means to be a person who agape loves him, he doesn't condemn us, he meets us exactly where we are.

He meets us while we're still on the fringes, he meets us while we're still afraid, he meets us while we're still being hesitant.

That is the God that we love, which in and of itself means that he is worthy of the agape love because he meets us where we are.

So I believe it's when we look at these things and understand the varying renderings of love that we now can enter into what Paul is talking about.

Because in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is not using Phileo love, he's not using storage love, he's not using Eros love, but when he begins to describe God's love and the love that we're supposed to demonstrate towards one another, he's using agape.

He's saying that when you're part of a community, that the standard of love is an all-in, all-encompassing, unconditional love.

And so what I want to do is I just simply want to give us a couple of points for us to ponder on and for us to wrestle with so that we can begin to reflect it in our lives.

Here's the first thing.

He says that love is patient and kind.

The first thing I want you to write down is this love is gracious.

That true agape love, that love that is all in, that love that is all-encompassing, that unconditional love, that is that is gracious.

It's a love that's not earned, it's it's a love that's not based off of stipulations, it's it's a love that's not based off of performance, it's it's a love that's rooted in loving you because you were made in the image of Christ, and he loved you enough that he went on the cross on your behalf, so you are worthy of dignity and respect, and I love you with that.

He says these words.

He said, Love is patient, and love is kind.

The concept of being patient means long-suffering or slow to anger.

Kindness simply means just gentleness.

It just means kindness, it means an act of benevolence.

It's a it's a love that's not rooted on circumstances, it's unconditional.

Megan and I had gone to a store and I was I stayed in the car, but she went into the store, and when she came back out, she sat down and she was like, those people were so kind.

And we literally spent the next 25 minutes for the drive home with her just talking about how kind the people were.

Like I went in and they were just so kind.

They were genuinely happy to see me, and and I had questions, and they were they were eager to answer them, and and they showed me where things were.

Like they were genuinely just really kind.

They went above and beyond of just demonstrating their kindness.

And it's a shame that we even have to remark on that because it's so rare that we even see that.

But what if that was God's standard for our lives?

That kindness for no reason, not kindness because I'm in a good mood and today was my payday, not kindness because today things finally worked out for me, but a kindness that is rooted in God that even in spite of how I may feel, I'm gonna treat you like you have value and yet you're worthy.

A kindness that's not connected to my circumstances, but a kindness that that demonstrates the grace that was once extended to me.

That that would what Jesus is inviting us to do is have a kindness and a love that is rooted in his grace.

For the church in Corinth, they did not know how to love gracefully.

So what they were doing is that they had love, but that love sadly was tearing people down.

That that love sadly wasn't actually inviting people into a deeper relationship with God.

I believe that same thing can be said of us.

But I believe it's in these moments that we can engage God's word and be challenged and motivated by his spirit of just being kind to one another.

That shouldn't just be reserved for Christmas time, it shouldn't just be reserved for holidays, but genuinely being people who were kind.

I'm talking about the kind of kind, watch this, that you take your shopping cart back to the section so that the the poor teenage guy doesn't have to go out there and almost get hit.

Some people feeling convicted right now.

Let the Holy Spirit work, let him work, let him work, let him work.

There are literally times where I'm like, man, I'm not taking it back, and God be like, you know better.

You come on, you you know better.

I'm like, all right, God, I do it reluctantly, but I do it.

That's a small gesture, but I'm talking about just being kind.

Genuinely, when I when I go in stores, it's as I look people in the eye, I try to give them respect and and dignity.

Even when, even when we're on a if I'm riding down the street and I see someone who's who's disadvantaged or or homeless, even if I don't have anything on me, I still just want to be kind to them.

I'm so sorry, I just don't have it.

Oh, I know you got it.

I'm like, I I wish I did.

I'm sorry.

But I'm trying to give just kindness, and sometimes I miss the mark, and sometimes I do it right, but I believe ultimately what we're trying to cultivate as followers of Christ, as an example of an embodiment of the agape love, is that I'm not going to give you kindness because you deserve it.

I'm going to give you kindness because I didn't deserve it.

And it's from that space that I will give it to you.

It's it's giving, it's giving a gracious love.

Here's the second thing love is not arrogant.

Paul describes the church of Corinth and he says, Listen, now that I've told you what love is, love is patient, love is kind.

Let me tell you what love isn't.

Love isn't envious, it's not boastful, it's not arrogant.

He literally says, love is not rude.

Love isn't rude.

See, I think that sometimes we we believe that that we have these convictions that may be rooted in God, but then the expression of it doesn't come out looking anything like God.

Like, like, listen, like I have these deep convictions, these core things.

I I read the Bible and I have these things that I have strong belief in.

But the Bible says that love isn't boastful, it's not arrogant, it's not rude.

And if you step into the landfill of social media and you see people who are professing Christians, but you allow there to be a social issue that they're on the other side of, it doesn't look anything like Jesus to me.

And I want y'all to hear me with every ounce of love that if you are standing up for Jesus and it doesn't look like Jesus, you're doing it wrong.

I'm gonna say that again.

If you are standing up for Jesus and it doesn't look like Jesus, then you're doing it wrong.

The Bible tells us uh about the moment when Jesus was literally in the process of being arrested.

And while he was about to be arrested, the Bible says that Peter lost.

Peter was saying, like, I'm ten toes down, Jesus.

He pulls out that sword and he just starts swinging, just letting them things loose.

Like he's like, Lord, I'm gonna fight for you.

And he literally cuts off a man's ear.

So watch this.

You would think that if if if fighting for Jesus meant harming other people, that Jesus would be like, Yes, everybody, take your arms, fight for your Lord.

You know what Jesus said?

This is in the Keith translation.

Peter, what are you doing, you idiot?

What are you doing?

Lord, I'm I'm taking up for you because we live in a world that doesn't want to connect with you and they're they're putting you in handcuffs, Jesus.

Does that sound familiar?

Lord, they they they don't have you in schools anymore.

I want to take a stand for you, Lord, Lord, they got you in handcuffs, you're restricted, so I'm gonna fight for you.

He says, If I if I honestly needed someone to fight for me, do you think you're my best soldier?

You he says, Don't you know that I have an army of angels at my disposal?

That if I really needed someone to fight for me, I'm gonna call down Michael, who literally threw the devil out of heaven.

That's who I have access to.

Not Peter, not William from Windermere, Kyle from College Park.

Like, I don't I don't need you to fight for me.

He says, Why are you cutting off people's ears and saying that you're doing it on my behalf?

Why are you hurting people but trying to say that you're doing it for me?

This doesn't look anything like me.

Do you not know who I am?

Rewind time a little bit that when they came to arrest Jesus, Jesus says, Who are you looking for?

They said, We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He says, I am He.

And when He simply said His name, they fell to the ground.

He was showing that you can't do anything to me that I don't allow, that all power is in my hands, and when I reveal my glory, the enemy doesn't have a chance.

I don't need you to yell and cut people out on my behalf.

I don't need you to cut off people's ears on my behalf.

I don't need you to demonstrate love for me at the expense of alienating people from my love.

Love is not arrogant, it's not rude.

If you really love me, then act like it.

Make sure that it looks more like me than it does like the world.

And sadly, we've allowed the love of God to look like the love of our favorite politicians.

We've allowed the love of God to look like the love that is demonstrated in culture.

But I want you to hear me.

We can disagree culturally, we can disagree theologically, we can disagree politically, but just don't be a jerk about it.

First Keith, chapter three.

We can disagree on all of these things.

Just don't be a jerk about it, don't be arrogant about it, don't be prideful about it, don't be rude about it.

And you know what I've come to the place of?

And this is me, and it's probably because I'm closing in all 50, but I'm just at a point of like, yeah, man, that's you do you.

Yeah, like you, you do you.

And and and unless it it directly is in a world where I have a relationship and we can actually have a conversation that's rooted in love, I feel no need to debate with someone on social media because I have yet to see someone's mind change because you were able to use Chat GBT well.

Moving on.

Okay, point number three.

Point number three.

Y'all stick with me.

We're almost done.

Love moves us forward.

Love always moves us forward.

Paul says this.

He says, love doesn't keep a record of wrongs.

This is actually an accounting term that he's using here when he's talking about a person who tallies every record.

They keep meticulous records, they know where every single dollar is, they know where every single penny goes.

So Paul is using a term used for accounting when he's talking about how we're supposed to love one another.

In other words, he's saying that if you love somebody with an agape love, it's a love that has grace attached to it.

And because grace is attached to it, forgiveness is attached to it.

Love always moves us forward.

It doesn't mean that we don't hold people accountable, it doesn't mean that we don't establish boundaries.

But what it does mean is that I may establish boundaries, but I'm not gonna build a wall.

I'm gonna love you well, even if it means loving you from a distance.

I I remember a few years ago, me kind of going through a season where I kind of had like a breakup with a friend of mine.

I was deeply offended, I was hurt by it.

And so in my mind, I thought that I was moving forward, but I pondered on it over and over, and it literally kept me from being free.

And I realized I was wrestling with unforgiveness.

So I knew that the only way that I can move forward, it's not that they deserve forgiveness, but guess what?

Neither did I when Christ extended it to me.

So I needed to learn how to embody God's love, receive God's forgiveness so that I could extend his forgiveness.

But watch this.

We moved forward, we had a meaningful conversation.

We are cordial now, but we move different.

It's okay for us to be able to say that I'm going to have a love that is open-handed enough that it allows me to move forward, but also mindful enough that I'm going to allow myself to continue to be hurt.

A love with boundaries, but not a love that has walls.

Love is challenging us to what does it look like to move forward?

What does it look like to have reconciliation?

When he's saying that love doesn't keep a record of wrong, it means that we're not having this tally system of saying, okay, if you do these three things, then I'll do this one thing.

Okay, yesterday you said that.

Well, that means that I'm going to do this.

It's not having this system of you will earn my love if you perform a certain type of way.

That's not agape love.

That's not the love that God is challenging us to.

He's saying, I want you to have a love that is rooted in grace and in my kindness and in my peace.

Here's my fourth point: love perseveres.

Paul ultimately communicates that that love is something that has the ability to persevere.

The high moments, the low moments, the mountaintops and the valley, that that love, an agape love, a real love, has the ability to navigate challenges and and and complexities, but with a commitment to still stay true to one another.

Some of us we are used to seeing a circumstantial love demonstrated.

A love that if everything lines up, then that we can stay committed, but the moment that something goes off, then we're off the tracks and then we move on.

And again, we all have to protect our mental health.

But I gotta be honest with you, I I remember when the agape love in my relationship with my wife became real.

Because for us, we we started liking each other in ninth grade, we started dating after we completed high school, we started living together, and and can I tell y'all that the Keith at 20 is vastly different than the Keith at 49?

And and and and the Keith that was 26 was so immature, and the Keith that was 27 was so broke, and the Keith that turned 30 was so broke, and the Keith that was 35 was so broke, and and the Keith that was 38 was was so broke, like like we gotta get out of this broke cycle, but but we endured.

We endured having to downsize our homes, and she never made me feel bad about it.

We we had to endure, we endured me going through seasons of when I couldn't work because I got injured in a car accident and we were living off of one income and we persevered and we endured it.

And I believe that it's in these moments that the Bible is inviting us to this love that is that is forged in the fire, but it's something that's precious that could come out to the surface when there are trials there.

The Bible says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver us from them all.

And what I saw in my wife is I saw what we would call where I'm from is somebody who's a ride or die, somebody who stood ten toes down.

She said, Like, I don't care what we have, as long as we have each other, we're gonna be okay.

This reminds me of when Moses was talking about God and saying, Lord, if you don't take us there, I don't want to go.

In other words, there may be a promised land, but I'd rather live in the wilderness in your presence than live in the outcome of your blessings, and it's not you there.

This is what we're talking about, this agape love.

A love that's not rooted in circumstances, but it's a love that's rooted in God.

God is inviting us to have a love that has the ability to persevere, to endure challenges, to endure suffering, to endure the loss of loved ones.

Like Megan and I, we built our dream house, and a year later I came back and said, God is telling us to leave it.

I was expecting her to say, Well, you can leave.

But love, but love is connected, and I believe that sadly we live in a world where it's so easy for us to disassociate from this agape love that God is inviting us into.

God is love, and his love has grace, his love has perseverance, his love has endurance, his love is a loyal love to us.

And Jesus is the standard of that love.

The way that he lived his life, and the fact that he gave his life for us.

You know, when I look at uh 1 Corinthians, there's a lot of things that we'll read in the text that can sometimes be a little bit perplexing if we're honest with ourselves.

Specifically, as Paul, who has lived a life of empowering and giving value to women, makes some interesting statements in Corinth that makes you say, This seems so inconsistent with what I've seen in your life and what I've seen in the ministry of Jesus.

Specifically when we get into chapter 11, where it talks about how women need to keep their heads covered and they're beneath man and all these other things.

And so, what I've seen is people weaponize these passages in a way that basically minimize and devalues women, even in the church.

But let me give us the context of what Paul is communicating.

For the church of Corinth, it was profoundly paganistic, and there were all these different belief systems that were there, but there were mass conversions where people were coming to faith.

But when they were coming to church, they were bringing those traditions with them.

Specifically, one where it would be the temple prostitutes.

And the temple prostitutes, they had to make sure they were very visible.

So they wore very ornate clothes, their heads were shaved, they had tattoos on their heads, so that way people would recognize that they were open for business if you're checking what I'm saying.

But now these women have been converted and they're now coming to the church.

But they're still coming in like that.

So now you have people who have once were in paganism, seeing someone they were engaged with in the past.

You have people who were super critical and judgmental, which, yeah, that seems to be something that's consistent with Christian behavior.

They were looking at them and judging them.

And so Paul says, hey, listen, we want to create an atmosphere of freedom and love.

So let me create this stipulation.

When the women come to church, how about everybody cover their heads?

So that way everybody is seen with the same value.

And because of all the crazy teachings and all the chaos that's out there, and women weren't allowed to read at that time, instead of allowing them to just kind of blurt out stuff in services, let's let's make sure we have some order.

And while they're being discipled, and then they will grow into a space where they can find their voice in the church.

Paul was never giving us a final statement that minimized women's value.

He was actually speaking from a place of love and saying, I don't want them to walk away feeling condemnation and shame.

But somehow we've lost all of that, and we jump into the scripture and say, Hey, women should have their heads covered, and men should tell women what to do.

And they've completely missed the way that Jesus treated all the women that were in ministry with him, and even what we've seen Paul do with the women that were in ministry with him.

It was built on the foundation of love, not control.

Paul wasn't telling women what to do because they were lesser value, he was trying to protect them from the shame that was coming from the rest of the Christian community.

I think for some of us, we read situations and we quote, well, the Bible says, the Bible says, and we feel justified and being arrogant and being rude and being controlling.

But when love is the foundation, we're able to express God's truth with a posture of love in a way that builds people up and doesn't tear them down.

But I know it's very hard to demonstrate a love that we haven't yet received.

Because some of us have a very unhealthy view of God's love, and maybe inside of ourselves we still feel that we have to perform for God's love.

So if I gotta perform for God's love, then you gotta perform for God's love.

If I gotta work hard for it, then you gotta work hard for it.

But what if we can just wipe the canvas clean and say that God's love is gracious and unconditional and we begin to function from that place?

With every head bowed and every eye closed.

I just want to pray for us really quick.

And as we go into this moment of prayer and reflection, maybe there's areas of your life where you just have not received the agape love of God, this unconditional love that He makes available to us.

It's demonstrated through the crucifixion of Christ on the cross and our ability to receive that and recognize we did nothing to earn it, but we now can embody it.

It allows us to be empowered by the Spirit of God to not only receive it for ourselves, but to demonstrate it for others.

Lord, as I look around this room, I recognize that all of us may have had a different interpretation of what love looks like.

And for some of us, Lord, we may have been raised up into believing that you're an angry father who's withholding love every time that we make a mistake.

But Father, we look at the fact that love is patient and love is kind, love is gracious, love isn't arrogant, it's not rude, it builds up, it doesn't destroy.

Lord, I pray that we can receive that love that is found in the person of Christ.

Right where you are, maybe you're in here right now and you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord.

Maybe that's your next step.

So right where you are, I just want you to begin to receive Him in your heart.

And we want to invite you to our Connect 10 outside where we can give you some next steps.

But Father, I'm praying for every precious person in here right now that they are recognizing that they need to receive the pure love of the gospel that is available to them with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

A transformational love, an agape love, a love that can endure all things, a love that never ends, a love that never fails.

Let us all be the recipients of that so that we can embody it and then we can demonstrate it.

Lord, I thank you because we didn't deserve this.

But while we were yet sinners, Christ died on a cross for us.

So in the same way that we didn't have to earn it, we're not gonna make others earn it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church family, let's stand on our feet.

We're gonna go into a song of declaration and prayer.

But as we sing, Jesus, we love you, let's shift from this Phileo love to a true agape love.

Lord, we we love you with an all-in love, uh a cruciform love, a love that we're gonna wrap our entire bodies around you.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.