What’s Love Got to Do With It? | Pastor Chris Kouba

What is love?

How do you not know what love is?

How do I not know?

I know I was But your mother gave you love.

I like Daddy.

You like daddy?

Yes.

Daddy bring me sad.

It's like caring about someone.

Um like doing the dishes, laundry.

What is love, Josh?

Love is when someone be nice.

They be nice to you and they'll cunt.

Like su they like uh we give you theater and stuff.

Love is showing others that you care about them and being there for other people and helping them.

Even if I have a a Christmas cycle and my daddy helping me, and my mom is watching me.

What is love?

It's someone that you really like.

Love is a complex inner behavior, like a feeling or like a bond between somebody.

Love is God and the special for a relationship.

Smoochie kiss.

Smooching kiss.

Um, it has affection and it uh it has depth and uh it really means something to someone.

Hello, 10 o'clock.

How are we doing?

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

We're gonna talk about love today.

I know you're pretty excited.

Love uh is definitely one of those interesting things that sometimes can be a little bit hard to define.

Some of you resonated really well with dishes and laundry.

You may have even hit the person next to you and reminded them that there's some dishes that need to be done at home or there's that laundry's not gonna fold itself.

Maybe you, maybe that was your little hint of doing that.

And then some of you, spooches and kisses, you are hitting some people as well, thinking, hey, this is what this is all about, or maybe somewhere in between, we're gonna talk today about a topic that is definitely hard to define, but you know it when you feel it.

You know it whenever you give it, you know it, especially whenever you receive it.

We are in the midst of a sermon series in the book of 1 Corinthians uh called Against the Grain, and we're gonna be looking at a passage of scripture today that you probably, whether you are a part of the church, whether you've grown up in the church, whether this is your very first time ever to go to church, you likely have heard this passage of scripture if you've ever been to a wedding.

It is the love chapter.

It is a verse that always is the go-to for any type of wedding ceremony.

And a lot of times, because of the way that it reads, it reads kind of a poet, a poetic way.

It reads in such a way and is put up on scripture art along a wall that you might think that it kind of resonates with sort of having, you know, kind of a harp playing in the background and just this beautiful kind of ballad behind it.

It misses the punch that is actually intended in the context of which it was written.

If you remember in this book of 1 Corinthians that we've been walking through, Paul is writing to a church that he's not very happy with.

In fact, he's actually very frustrated with.

It's a church that needs a lot of correction, it needs a lot of uh advice, it needs a lot of being shaken to where they begin to realize and understand the way that they have been living is not how they should be living.

It's a church that found itself looking more like the culture than the church of Jesus Christ.

And so Paul repeatedly speaks to various issues along the way, trying to tell them this is what you are doing, and this is what you should be doing.

1 Corinthians chapter 13 is located in between 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

It's really three chapters that deal with spiritual gifts.

But I'm going to today pull 1 Corinthians 13 out.

We're gonna look at it a little bit on its own, and then next week we're gonna go back and we're gonna look at 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 on the topic of spiritual gifts.

But today I want us to look and see this idea of love, which a lot of times uh we we apply directly to our relationships that are around us, and you absolutely should.

But I want to remind you the context of this passage is actually how we are supposed to act when we are at the church.

This is what the idea is in 1 Corinthians 13.

Let's begin reading, beginning in verse one.

It says, If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Here's the context.

The Corinthian church was full of gifted people.

It had a bunch of people that actually had the gifts that everyone kind of wants.

You've got spiritual gifts out big time, like you've got speaking in tongues, and you've got people who have knowledge and those who have prophecy.

They have so many leaders, they're having trouble figuring out where to put all of these leaders into serve teams.

That's basically what you have happening.

And so they're fighting over who gets to use their spiritual gift.

And he says, if this gifted church uses all of their gifts, but they don't have the main ingredient, it says there that they are nothing.

I've got a gong with me uh here up on stage.

You guys ever heard a gong before?

Felt really good, by the way.

I'm not gonna lie to you.

A gong uh is actually an instrument that is used in the midst of a band designed to create a dramatic effect.

So you have the band going and they're doing their thing, and it's either trying to create a moment, or it's trying to like capture a moment that just happened by letting everyone know what just is about to take place or what did just take place is a pretty significant thing.

But I think we can all agree that a gong by itself is incredibly annoying.

I had someone text me in the first service and said that they almost got in a wreck on I-10 as they were listening to our service, driving somewhere, and they heard this gong, okay?

Check this out.

Verse one.

If I speak in the tongues of men, we're gonna look at this in a lot more detail next week.

What this basically means, it's speaking in tongues, it's speaking in a language that is not your own.

It's not speaking gibberish, it's actually speaking a language that someone else in the audience speaks, but they don't know how to understand because they're you're speaking a different language, and you walk into the service and you supernaturally have the ability to speak in a language that you don't normally speak, and someone else is able to understand the things of God.

That's what it's saying.

That's a pretty cool thing.

Like if you were to do that, that would be pretty significant.

Or it says, if I speak in the tongues of angels, I don't know what that is, but that sounds pretty cool, right?

That sounds like a pretty fun conversation that you got to be a part of.

If I do anything like that, but I have not love, I'm an annoying gong.

Folks, what I want you to see the the the issue there going on in that service was that you had all of the people fighting over getting to use their gifts, but they didn't care about the people that were meant to actually hear the gifts, receive the gifts.

I brought with me as well some clanging symbols.

I wanted you guys not to miss out on that of fun, okay?

So I got some clanging symbols here.

Uh, for those of you band people, make sure I'm doing a good job on this because I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about right now.

But but what I've been told is that symbols, okay, symbols, which that's a lot more movement than I expected up here.

Uh just FYI.

Uh symbols are meant to be able to be in concert with the percussion.

So what you basically have is you have a snare drum, and then you have a bass drum and a tenor drum.

Bam, people, am I doing okay so far?

Am I doing good?

Okay, I'm alright.

I'm all right.

Thank you.

Pretty appreciate that, Rex, who is the drummer, by the way.

All right, so there you go with that.

Uh, and so what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to work in concert with all of these other percussion instruments and not just kind of do their own thing, but they instead are meant to do it at a specific moment in the midst of all of the other percussion instruments that add great value to what it is that is taking place.

I think we can all admit this is a pretty annoying noise.

If it's just by itself.

Take a look.

If I have prophetic powers, if I understand all mysteries and knowledge, if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

What this means is that you can know as much Bible as you ever want to know.

You can quote any scripture that you want to quote.

You can be able to quote C.S.

Lewis and Charles Spurgeon all the time.

But you having all of that knowledge and no love, it's like a clinging symbol.

Folks, what does this show us?

Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

Don't miss what it says here in verse 3.

It says, if I give away all I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

That sounds like a lot.

A United City Church.

Last week we passed the number of baptisms in the history of our church in a single year last week.

Meaning we have baptized more this calendar year than we have in any other year in the history of our church.

We are on pace right now to give away more money to missions outside of this church than we ever have in the history of our church this calendar year right now, which is amazing.

We are seeing God move in significant ways.

We've got construction projects going on and all that kind of stuff.

We're able to see people being saved.

We're having historic uh additions to our church in terms of those who are coming alongside of it.

We have a goal of seeing 500 people go on a mission trip in five years, and we've seen a number of people go this past year, which has been very, very significant and exciting.

We had two serve days already this year.

These serve days have been absolutely incredible with some new partnerships, and we've been able to go and serve our community in significant ways.

There is so much to be excited about.

It says here, though, that if we do all of this stuff and we are not known as a loving group of people, we're nothing.

Please, dear God.

Don't let us be nothing.

The United City Church, we've got to be known for our love, not our flash.

The United City Church, we must not be known for our buildings.

We must be known for the love of our United City Church.

We need to be a place that doesn't just throw cool outreach events.

We need to be a place where the people of the church have their heart broken.

For those that need to know Jesus.

The last thing that we want to be is a show.

But instead, it means all of us.

Seeing this as our mandate and our call that we go and we love those around us.

And we love each other.

So that we're not just an annoying symbol, we're a really loud gong.

Where we get together every Sunday and we just bang our gong yet again.

May we be known by the care we have for each other more than the lights of our worship.

What Paul does is he moves into a section in 1 Corinthians 13 where he begins to tell you four things that love is and three things that love is not.

I want to encourage you to write these down.

Four things that love is and three things that love is not.

Let's begin reading in verse four.

It says, Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way, it is 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.

Let's break this down and see first of all what love is.

Number one, love is patient.

Love is patient.

The Greek word actually means long-tempered.

The idea is that there is long suffering.

Everything isn't quick and everything isn't easy and immediate.

Instead, there is a willingness, this is so needed in our culture today, there is a willingness to let someone be in process.

You see, our culture is known for having a short fuse.

And we're told to go against the grain of what the culture does.

Here's what the culture does are the culture, anytime you have something that's good, we're gonna elevate you really, really quickly, and we're gonna put you on a video, or we're gonna put you up in front of a crowd, and we're gonna celebrate that thing.

But at the same time, whenever you do something that maybe isn't so great, we're gonna be the very first ones to tear you down.

We're gonna make sure to knock you off the pedestal as quickly as we put you on the pedestal.

Folks, the culture says this is what we do.

We cancel each other.

But let me tell you what this church is supposed to be about.

We're supposed to be about having a long fuse, meaning this, that we know that all of us should be canceled because of our sin.

And the only reason any of us have an opportunity to be chosen is because of the grace and the mercy of Jesus.

And so therefore, we're willing to be patient with someone who may not necessarily deserve it, because we know that God was patient with us.

Second Peter chapter 3, verse 9.

2 Peter 3:9

Look at what it says.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Love is patient.

We've got to allow people to be in process.

Number two, look at this.

Number two, love is kind.

Love is kind.

This carries this idea of a very active response.

It's not just sort of like a passive thing like being nice.

You know, we in Texas, we're kind of known for Texas hospitality.

We're known for basically being a people who's gonna be very nice.

Whenever someone visits from another area, they come here and they're like, man, everyone's just so kind.

They're just so they're so nice.

They're just they're just real friendly.

And there's no question that's part of it, but I don't think that's enough of what it's trying to suggest here.

It's an active pursuit to be kind.

Being nice is passive, being kind is active.

Think about Jesus in John chapter 4 when he when he interacted with the woman who was at the well, he didn't just be nice, he wasn't just nice to her, he instead actively sought to go past the surface and to get to know her, to ask questions about her, to show genuine interest.

John 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31 and 32, look at what it says.

Ephesians 4:31

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

So you're supposed to avoid bad things.

But here's the active part be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

Folks, if you're gonna offer up forgiveness to someone, especially if you know they don't deserve it, that's gonna require something of you.

And so the idea is that I know that God has forgiven me, and so therefore I'm supposed to respond with the same type of forgiveness to others even when they don't deserve it.

Not just nice.

I'm gonna go extra and I'm gonna be kind.

Look at the next one.

Love is protecting.

Number three, love is protecting.

Love creates safe spaces.

It gives, it guards dignity, it builds others up, it doesn't tear people down.

This is the environment where you're safe with another person.

These days we're always trying to define the lines that keep people out.

Biblical love, agape love is what the Greek word is.

It's trying to figure out what brings people in.

We got to be careful.

Our political climate today simply says this: that love means that you basically just tell people what they want to hear.

We know that you can't separate love from truth, but we also must be careful that we don't use truth to be a club to keep people out.

We instead want to make sure that we can open up the doors as much as possible because we want people from all different backgrounds and all different races and all different socioeconomic situations and all different uh all different uh history and past to be able to come to United City and for everyone to feel welcome.

But make no mistake about it, whether this is your first day or whether you have been the grandmother that gave the money to the grandson whenever they showed up so they could give some money into the offering play, as Dave talked about earlier.

What it tells us is this everyone has a next step.

Everyone has the next step.

So we want you all to feel welcomed here, but we also want you to know the whole point is that none of us stay the same way that we came in.

But all of us, all of us are on a journey.

We may be at different points in that journey, but what we know, this is a safe environment, not for me to be who I've already decided I'm going to be, but instead, this is a safe environment for me to be welcomed while I am being changed.

While God is working on me.

Look at the next one.

Love is trusting.

Love is trusting.

He says, love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, hopes all things.

Sometimes you'll hear this: love is blind.

This doesn't mean that you overlook everything, but it does mean that you choose to believe the best about someone.

In every relationship that you have, in every interaction that you have, you always have these two things that exist.

You have expectations and behavior.

Think about this.

Expectations and behavior.

And in between these two things, there is always a gap.

Let's talk about this.

Expectations.

You someone says that they're gonna be a part of the committee or the group, and so therefore, the expectation is that you're gonna show up for all of the meetings when the group gets together if you're gonna be a part of this group, okay?

Or the expectation is that I tell you that I want to make sure that I do not see shoes left in the playroom.

And so my expectation is when I go into the playroom that shoes are not gonna be there on the floor, okay?

Or expectation is that I am gonna make sure you say you're gonna be home at this time, then you're gonna be home at this time.

There's an expectation.

This isn't just with individual relationships, though, this is also with organizations.

Maybe you you have all have expectations when you came here to United City Church.

Maybe it's based upon the background that you have, maybe it's based upon the church that you grew up in.

And so, therefore, in your mind, this is how you do things.

And then here's what happens.

Then you get over here, and there is the behavior.

And the behavior is such that you said that you were going to be a part of the committee, you were gonna be a part of the group, and that you were gonna show up at the meetings, but then the meeting comes and you're not there.

Okay?

You said you were gonna be on time and you were gonna be there at a certain time, but then you come to that time, and guess what?

You're you're you're not there, you're late.

You said that you were gonna pick up the shoes uh from the playroom, that you were gonna make sure that they were clean, but then I walk down the stairs this morning, and I this may be a little too personal, guys.

Sorry about this.

Um, I walk down the stairs, and there's shoes in the playroom, right?

There's this behavior.

And every single time there exists this gap between my expectations and the behavior.

Church doesn't do the things that I want them to do.

Why?

It's not because the church did it wrong necessarily, it's because my expectations were this and the behavior was this.

Here's what the culture says you should do whenever you deal with this gap in between expectations and behavior.

You should assume the worst.

That's what most of the time takes place.

So therefore, I'm gonna have this situation to where, hey, we're I need you to be at the house at this time, I need you to show up for this particular meeting.

They're gonna be late.

They're always late.

This is what they do, this is who they are, and I'm just assuming the worst in all situations, and you may have tons of history to go off of that gives you this assumption to assume the worst.

So, therefore, by the way, Thanksgiving is coming up.

Some of you are about to be with some family members, some of those family members, your natural inclination is just to assume the absolute worst whenever you guys get together.

Here's why biblical love is so radically different because instead of assuming the worst, like the culture says, it goes against the grain.

And you make a conscious choice to believe the best.

What this means is that I'm going into Thanksgiving.

I'm going to be with some folks that may be a little more difficult.

And guess I'm going to go into this, but you know what I'm going to do?

Instead of just assuming that they're the worst and that they're going to try to come after me and that they're going to, I'm just going to believe the best.

Who knows what's going on going on in their lives this past year?

Who knows what's going on in their situation?

Who knows why they're late yet again?

But I don't just immediately go to saying you always and you never and you all this and all.

Instead, I believe the best because I think there are some people that are all around us in the church who basically already assume the worst about themselves and already assume the worst because of everybody else that has told them this that just needs somebody to look them in the eye and say, I believe the best for you.

I believe that God has something different for you.

And I hope you get it on this statement.

But even if you don't, I want you to know this.

I'm going to believe the next time around, I'm going to believe that God, maybe that's the time you're going to get it.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine how much different we would look from the rest of everybody else if we were a people that just believe the best about folks?

Whenever something goes on at the school, whenever something goes on at the church, whenever something goes on at the work, instead of just believe assuming the worst and blasting off that email or posting something publicly, ripping everybody, what if we just believe the best?

What if we just thought, you know, maybe, maybe there's something else I don't know about going on here.

And I'm going to choose to love, protecting their dignity and their integrity instead of just assuming and tearing it all down.

Let me show you number one of what love is not.

What love is not.

First of all, love is not envious.

Love is not envious.

Love is the ability to genuinely celebrate when another team wins.

You know what I realized in this postseason is the first time that the Astros have not been in the American League Championship series uh in the last eight years.

And honestly, it was kind of difficult to watch MLB playoffs like I usually do, right?

I mean, usually I'm living and dying.

This is kind of a key time of watching and following the Astros.

And sure enough, I'm a baseball fan, I'm a baseball purist, and so you think as a baseball fan, I could celebrate the fact that two very historic franchises made the World Series and the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But I just gotta confess to you, I don't love either team.

I hate them both, okay?

I wanted both to lose.

Like I would have loved for them to tie and just didn't have a champion.

Like it just, I found no joy in seeing the Dodgers win the World Series.

None whatsoever, right?

And I know I need to work through that, all right?

But but but I would just tell you, love doesn't compare, it has the ability to celebrate.

It's tough, particularly whenever you think about our social media culture that we've got today, where basically people only post the best parts of themselves or organizations only pest the best things about themselves.

And so you you begin to look at that, and it's very easy.

You're gonna have a choice.

I'm either gonna celebrate what I'm seeing or I'm gonna compare myself to what I'm seeing.

And when I compare myself to what I'm seeing, I look at their vacation and I don't celebrate the fact that they got to go on a great vacation.

I instead compare it to the fact that it's better than the vacation that I got to go on, or I didn't get to go on one earlier, or maybe I feel pride because I somehow was able to have a better vacation than them, and so somehow I feel better about myself, and all along it's just a post that somebody put about their vacation.

Somebody put something out there about their Friday night, and I look at that, and I can either celebrate what they got to do on Friday night, or I can look at that and compare to what I didn't get invited to this past Friday night.

And I have a choice to make.

I can either choose to celebrate the wins of somebody else, or I can choose to compare and either make myself feel better about myself or make myself feel worse about myself.

Either way, that is never what God's called me to do.

That's what was taking place in the church at Corinth.

You had all these people with these spiritual gifts.

Instead of celebrating somebody else getting to use their gift, they were mad they didn't get to use theirs.

Hell along, you're saying that's not, it's not, it's not a situation to where you're you walk around envious of other people.

You instead celebrate what God is doing in the lives of others.

Look at this.

Number two, love is not boastful.

Love is not boastful.

It kind of goes along with it.

Love doesn't need the spotlight.

It's willing to share the stage, it's able to say, hey, you win here, and I don't need to be seen, and I don't need to be known.

It's a choice to let others feel and be significant, even if you don't get the recognition that you think you deserve.

Our church had a really amazing opportunity this past week.

We hosted three outside events.

They're technically called outside events.

We wouldn't really call them that or think about them as that way.

They're really, we call them as inside events with Umble ISD.

Great partnership with the school district.

We love Umble ISD, and we got to host a number of different just events on our campus, and it was just really, really great.

One of the ones that I especially loved being able to be a part of and see was the signing day that took place here in the worship center this coming uh this past Wednesday.

What happened was is that you've got a number of different student athletes all throughout the district that came here and they basically got to sign their letters of intent to go play at the next level.

They do three of these throughout the year.

We had six folks in our church who actually recall United City their home, six athletes who signed to go play at the next level.

This is one of them, Bailey Fovar, just so grateful and excited.

It was just an awesome, awesome event to be able to host.

And we love hosting it.

The district loves having it here.

It's a great partnership.

But I want to show you something that I would tell you is way more significant than I'm more proud of than just the fact that our building got to be used to host an outside event.

It's this picture from this past Friday night.

This is Cale Melton.

Cale's head football coach at Kingwood High School.

Kingwood made the playoffs for the first time in five years and won their very first playoff game in who knows how long, a very significant long amount of time.

It has not been easy for Kale as he's been the head coach at Kingwood High School and the football program over the last many, many years.

And he's had some very difficult and trying moments, not a ton of success.

And so the very fact that not only they made the playoffs is something to celebrate, but the fact that they won a playoff game is also very significant.

But here's what I want to talk to you about.

Not necessarily the fact that Kingwood won a playoff game and all of that.

What I want to show you is this this is what happens whenever you see a coach who gets it.

He's praying with his team.

Because what I want you to know is this is that it's one thing for you to be able to win games.

But let me just tell you something.

You're gonna have to win next year, and it's gonna be fleeting.

And playoff games and playoff wins are awesome, but eventually they're gonna go.

But what God has allowed us as a church to do is not only host people from the community for outside events, which is awesome as that is, but God has raised up coaches within our church who have the ability to know that their influence with the players that they have influence over lasts much longer than the wins or the losses in this picture right here of something that ultimately is what matters when it comes down to it.

Folks, God's not only allowed us to have Coach Melton, he's allowed us to have Coach Bryan at uh at Kingwood High School, he's allowed us to have folks like uh Coach uh Maple and Coach Cross, and he's given us Coach Hamilton at K Park High School, uh, he's given us Coach DeWitt, he's given us Coach Stringer at Newcane High School, he's given us the the McDougals over at West Fork High School, Coach Watson at Umble High School, he's given us Coach Wilson at uh Summer Creek High School, he's given us Coach O'Neill at Taskasita High School, he's given us so many coaches at the middle school level, Coach Carlos, Coach Hill, Coach Emerson, Coach George.

I mean, one I can keep going on and on and on of coaches who are in our church who have the ability to use their profound influence for things greater than just the sport that they teach.

Why do I tell you that?

I tell you that because let me just say something.

There's always somebody around you who needs an out of boy or an out of girl that you can brag on.

Always.

And so if you find yourself at a place where you're struggling and you're you're wanting the attention that you think you deserve, and you're wanting to make sure that people see you, or you're wanting folks to be able to celebrate you, I would just simply tell you what God's word tells us is that love says, hey, who can I go tell somebody they're great?

Who can I go and celebrate what God is doing?

Who is around me?

What teacher, what administrator, what coach, what worker, what boss needs that?

Hey, I just want you to know I really appreciate you.

I want you to know that I'm thankful for you.

I would ask you that question today.

Who do you need to brag on?

Who in your life and your circle of influence?

I tell you what, there's so much joy in talking about the coaches at United City Church.

Gosh, I love them.

I love them because of the impact that they have and how God is using them.

I would also tell you because it's good for my soul.

Being able to celebrate what God's doing in the lives of others.

Look at this next one.

Love is not easily angered.

Love is not easily angered.

Love has the ability to keep emotions in check.

When it has something happen to it, it doesn't react.

There's instead a measured response.

This is not easy.

In fact, it is super hard.

You're likely gonna get it wrong along the way, but it's about making it right whenever you, instead of wrong, whenever you do things wrong, you don't just blow off the handle and react.

Instead, love isn't just for when things are great, it's also especially for those times when it's challenging and when it's tough.

And those are moments, true love, biblical love controls the temperature.

Even though the intensity all around you is getting very high and it's off the charts, you instead believe the best instead of assuming the worst.

This is what love is.

Keep reading in verse 8.

It says, Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease.

As for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

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

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide.

These three, but the greatest of these is love.

Paul goes back to the original argument, which is about spiritual gifts, and he says, as great as prophecies are, even prophetic words will one day come to an end.

Meaning, if you think that you want to do miracles and you want to speak words of prophecy, and that you would think that's varsity-level spirituality, one day it's gonna come to an end.

If you speak in tongues, as amazing as that would be to speak in a language that isn't your own and have others interpret so that they can understand, eventually it's gonna one day cease.

The tongue gifts are temporary.

The idea of knowledge where you know things and see things and can sense things in the lives of others, as significant and as special as that would be, eventually that will cease.

Even wisdom has its limits.

But love, it has no expiration date.

It's the only thing we're gonna get to take into heaven with us that will still be there.

So instead of us fighting over who gets to use their gifts, we instead should be all about how we can both receive and give love to others.

Let me close by giving you a specific application.

I encourage you to grab something to write with, whether that be a piece of paper, whether that be your phone, something.

I want to ask you to do a little bit of an evaluation because the last thing that we would want is just learn a lot about love and not apply it.

You're like, please don't do that ever again.

I want you to write down three names, and then I want you to write down next to those names.

I want everybody participating.

Alright?

So I know some of you are looking at me like I'm not doing this.

I'm gonna I'm gonna wait on you, okay?

I want everybody to participate because the last thing that I want us to do is be loud.

Last thing that I want us to do is be showy.

I want us to be practical, I want us to be relevant, I want us to walk out of here specifically with action steps for you to do.

I want you to do a little evaluation.

How am I doing in love to three relationships?

First one is this.

Your closest relationship.

Your closest relationship.

This could be your spouse, this could be your kid, this could be your best friend, your mom, your dad, your sister, or your brother.

The person that you are the closest with.

What specifically can you do to be more loving to your closest relationship?

I want you to write that down.

Maybe you need to ask forgiveness.

I'm sorry.

Here's a powerful sentence.

How can I serve you better?

For me, this is hilarious.

I assume way too much.

We got a great relationship.

We've got a great marriage.

But at the end of the day, the last thing that I want to do is stick it in neutral.

Because to stick it in neutral doesn't mean I'm moving forward.

To stick it in neutral means I'm always rolling back.

I instead don't want to assume, I want to ask.

I want to pursue.

I want to do a tangible step to the one that is closest to me to pursue them in love.

Second one I want you to write down is this you're challenging relationship.

You're challenging relationship.

Who in your life is really hard to love?

Is it a neighbor?

Is it a coworker?

Is it a classmate?

Is it a relative, an immediate family member?

Maybe it's your spouse.

The world's gonna tell you just to leave or avoid or walk away or ignore someone when it's challenging.

We are called to go against the grain and love those who are the hardest to love.

Matthew chapter 5, here's what it says in verse 44 and 45.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

I want you to consider and think through your challenging relationship.

Who is it?

And what specific act of love can you do this week to be more loving to that person?

Is it send a text?

Is it set up a coffee?

Is it for you to believe the best about the conflict that you're gonna inevitably have tomorrow at the office?

As opposed to just assuming the worst.

Last one is this.

Your casual relationships.

Casual relationships.

How do you treat strangers?

The waiter or the waitress at the restaurant that you're about to go to, the barista at the drive-thru this morning, the person who brings you the mail.

The idea of biblical love isn't just meant for us to only use it to people that are really easy to love.

The idea of biblical love is meant that no matter where we are, in no matter what setting, I can apply these principles.

Believer in Jesus is marked by a love that works no matter where they are, who they are with, what specific thing can you do in your casual relationship to be more loving this week?

Let me close by inviting you to receive God's love so that you can give it to others.

Some of you, you can never live up to the standard because that is you haven't actually received anything in the first place.

You can't give what you don't have.

Have you received God's love through his son Jesus?

I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes all across this room.

Let me ask you the question.

Do you know Jesus?

Have you received God's love through his son?

You come into a relationship with him.

I promise you, you didn't earn it.

You don't deserve it.

He wants to give it to you.

So let me invite you to give your life to Jesus today, to receive him as your Lord and as your Savior.

To acknowledge what he did for your sins on the cross, but as well for you to receive his life that he gained by rising from the dead.

If you want to receive Jesus, I want to invite you to come forward here in just a moment.

If you're in the balcony, I'm gonna invite you to come down to the bottom of these steps.

We're gonna have team members at the bottom of the steps.

You don't have to go any further, and we'll be there to receive you.

If you're here down below, we've got folks that are all along the front.

I want to invite you to come and let them know that you want to receive Jesus today.

You want to know his love for you.

Maybe you have questions.

We want to help answer your questions.

We want to walk alongside of you so that you can leave here, knowing for sure that you have a relationship with Jesus.

Others, we need to come and join United City Church.

We are not a perfect church, but we are a church that is gonna try to be way more about love than flash.

We want to hold up high the standard of excellence in everything that we do because we believe that we worship a God who deserves it.

But we also want to be a church that is known by the way that we treat the servers at lunch after our service in the morning.

We want to be a church that is marked by love.

If God's calling you to be a part of this church in that way, I'm gonna ask you to come lead the way.

Others of you need to be baptized like these three that we saw today.

What an unbelievable picture.

Children leading the way, showing us what it looks like to lead out in obedience.

So thankful for them.

God's calling you to make that your next step.

Where you publicly declare your faith through baptism, I'm gonna invite you to come.

Maybe others of you need prayer.

Maybe you're struggling today.

You're walking through difficulty and challenges, you've got things that you're just nagging.

We want you to know this, you're not alone.

We want to pray with you.

We want to pray for you.

We want to pray the love of Christ in the midst of your circumstances.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Lead people to make life-changing next step decisions.

They'll be so grateful that they did.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed a note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's gonna be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye-bye.