On Love (1 Cor. 13) | The Sandhurst Podcast

Welcome everyone to the Beyond Sunday podcast, trying to equip the saints to think biblically about God, life, culture, in this case, love, so that our faith and in this case our love goes beyond Sunday, and maybe even beyond Sunday, um, beyond an intellectual knowledge and understanding of concepts of love into the weeds of life, into um difficult situations, into um to just real life.

Yeah.

So that's what we're doing.

I think we really do ourselves and our people a disservice by sort of assuming everyone knows what love is and how it works.

And that's not true because uh we've been discipled by uh YouTube or the movies, Hollywood, which basically says love is a feeling or love is a passion or love is uh ugh, you know, and it's just so much richer, so much more, and so much more robust, so much more powerful.

And I think it uh has so much uh more potential in our lives than we give it credit for.

Yep.

And we uh it's we come by the difficulty, honestly, because we use the word love in so many different ways.

I love God.

I love my wife, I love buffalo wings.

Yes, and hunting and hunting and hunting.

Speaking of hunting, yeah, opening season.

Yes, or opening day of the season or archery started this past Saturday.

Um how'd it go?

Uh uneventful.

I was in the woods, but um no stories to tell.

All right.

Um yeah, so we use the word love in a lot of different ways.

And so in what what I hope kind of comes out of talking more about love and um and looking at what the Bible has to say, uh we need to be able to think biblically about love uh so that we can love biblically.

Yes.

And um, and I hope this is helpful to us.

Um so uh before we jump into the text, anything uh anything from the weekend for you?

Yeah, so uh Jennifer Weeby's brother played at a pub in Hartsville on Friday night, and we went out and it was so good.

It was a lot of fun just to be there and a pub.

Sort of like a I it was like I think it's a feed and seed store that they've converted into sort of like a like a like a bar and pizza and sort of basket in a place.

Yeah, in Hartsville.

Yeah.

And uh it was really, really fun, and he did a great job, good music, and uh just you know, it'd fun to see some people out there.

Love it.

Yes.

And plus it was good weather, so we took all the doors off the Jeep, and it's always you know, we were looking for any excuse basically to drive to Hartsville.

So uh him playing there was perfect.

I love it.

How about you?

Po season started uh that also ended my commitment to running eight miles a week.

Wow.

So glory to God.

Amen to that.

However, I do need to replace it with something or to continue it, but my obligation to running eight miles a week ended August 15th.

Sounds like you need to convert it to like meditation in your deer stand.

There we go.

Um but also uh we're we got something coming up next week that I'm excited about.

Uh we talked at back at Power Up Clubs about kind of, okay, what do you do after the event?

Um when you've prayed a lot for a thing, you're doing that thing, whether it's power-up club, mission trip, you know, whatever it is, how can you what do you do after it's over?

And we talked about um reflecting with heart of gratitude, looking at what God did, all these things.

We also talked about following up.

And so big shout out to my wife.

She made some flyers, and um, so we have invited everyone who came to our power-up club over the summer back to our house for a little cookout.

And I don't know if the students know it yet, but we're gonna try to get some of the students who came to our club to come to our house for that cookout.

And so I'm excited about that.

Uh trying to do it a little bit strategically at the beginning of the school year as new rhythms are starting.

And so, but uh I have no idea what will come of it or how many people will come, but uh I'm excited about working towards that this this Saturday.

Yeah, I love that idea of just following up on the momentum of the event, like you say, what's next.

And and I think it's good to establish that um pattern that it's not just a once-a-year thing.

This is this is a part of our life, it's an extension of our life, and our life goes on and the relationships go on.

And so to occasionally uh do something like that that's totally unrelated to the event, but it's uh it's it is related to the bond that we created during the event, perfect.

Yeah.

I love that.

It is advancing the gospel.

It makes sense.

Yeah.

All right.

Um well, love.

Let's uh let's read the text.

First Corinthians 13 is where we are.

You divided the the text, I think, rightly in three sections.

I can't remember your exactly exact words, but I you know it classic alliteration here.

I was thinking like the priority of love and then a portrait of love and then the permanence of love.

Yep.

What were your words?

So I said the necessity, the characteristics, and the permanence.

But uh yours alliteration was same same thing.

Yeah.

Uh so you said the necessity of love.

That's the first three verses.

Yeah.

Um before before I read them, let's connect it to what Paul is doing in the book so far.

Um, we know in chapters 11 through 14, he's addressing a certain context, and that is the corporate worship setting.

Yep.

And so he's addressed different things about corporate worship.

He's addressed uh head coverings and decency.

He's addressed uh communion, yeah.

He's addressed the employment of spiritual gifts.

Um, he's grounded it in a theology of the the gospel that unites us to God and to one another as one body, Christ's body.

Yep.

And now he is, and he's gonna come back to spiritual gifts in chapter 14, but the emphasis throughout it is love.

That the church service needs to be in whether I'm employing my gift or how how I take communion, how I dress, uh, how I use my gift is grounded on love.

Yeah.

And that's that's where we jump in here.

Yep, absolutely.

All right, so the necessity of love, we might say the priority of love.

If I speak with tongues men enough angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.

Pause there.

Um man, if we just had a symbol in here and we just started banging it, oh yeah, we'd all turn off the podcast.

Yeah, yeah.

Because that's not just um annoying, it's repulsive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And and it saints who gather and uh employ our gifts with great power or great effectiveness, um, if if love isn't seen to be at the heart of it, that is like a banging symbol.

It's like, get me out of here.

Yeah.

Verse 2 if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I'm nothing.

If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

So the priority of love, or you said the necessity of love.

Yeah.

Um anything that you having taught on Sunday, uh that you go, man, I wish I'd have said this, or anything that comes out of that.

Well, I mean, I think uh as you read it, I think the uh the plain meaning is really helpful because um the in our world, we tend to platform and elevate, you know, gifts, achievement.

Um, and in this case, it was also it was achievement, but it's also honor.

You do things for honor, you do things for uh for for reward, for recognition.

And he's saying that's totally missing the point.

You know, and to do that, and even if you succeed at those things, that you have failed if you don't do them with love, which was completely shocking and an a new message to the world.

And it is I might say confusing because there are there are a lot of people in the world who have made a profound impact on the world and yet have been inwardly corrupt.

Yeah.

And so that is a little bit of a difficult one to wrestle with.

It's like, okay, well, does everything they did, did it count for nothing because it wasn't done in love, even though it made a profound impact?

And well, his answer is yes.

And I think that gives us a window into the heart of God and what is important to God about his people, and it's not just um the harvest that we're able to reap.

It's it's how we plant, it's how we sow.

That's right.

You know, it's it's not just what comes of it.

That's right.

And it's not primarily what comes of it, it's it's how it's done, in love or not.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, so that's the necessity of love.

Then you talked about the characteristics of love, or you might say the portrait of love.

Yep.

Uh love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not brag, and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

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

All right.

What you got?

I mean, these uh verses have been presented oftentimes in kind of this sort of a sappy hallmark, heartwarming, uh, you know, basically love is sweet and love is nice and love is tender, you know, but it's actually really robust.

And uh the the things that they're talking about here, I I just want to give hope to us that that is the total wrong way to view these things.

That when it says that love is patient, it doesn't just mean, you know, you're sort of picturing a guy that just does essentially doesn't have the courage to stand up and say something he needs to say or do what he needs to do, you know.

Okay, well, I'll just sit back.

But no, he's saying love is patient under fire.

Love has power, has uh strength, but chooses not to use it, chooses to wait, chooses to be tender, chooses to it's power with restraint.

And it's it is a it's a really strong picture of an active love that is um at the same time uh boundaried to be to be tender to the vulnerable.

Right.

Yeah, that's good.

And so to keep this sort of love that goes beyond Sunday, I wrote out some questions that I think were helpful for me to actually answer.

And I want to read them now, and then and then I want to, as we keep going through the text, I want to get into the weeds of love a little bit more because love what love does is not always clear.

Sometimes that's right, uh sometimes it can be very tricky what love would do in any particular situation.

That's right.

Like, for example, um with just with our kids, yeah.

Sometimes there's disagreement between Sweet D and I.

Would love execute discipline or would love show grace in the moment?

Sometimes I'm not always sure always sure.

What would love do here?

Right.

Uh the path isn't always super clear.

So I do want to get in the weeds here a little bit, but I also don't want to get I want to be able to keep the simple things simple.

So we give this portrait of love.

Let's start uh by let's see if we can take some of the negative statements and make them positive statements so that we can kind of grasp the portrait.

Yeah.

And then I want to ask some of the questions.

So love is patient, that's positive.

Um phrased positively, it's kind.

Yep.

It does not envy.

Yep.

Or mine says um it is not jealous.

So if love isn't jealous, right, what is it?

I would say it's generously supportive.

So uh when you see someone else who's prospering, you rejoice with them, right?

Uh and you rather than when you when you see someone either online or you're having a conversation and they say, Hey, you know, we're excited, my kid got into whatever, or uh, we had this good thing happen, or whatever, you you don't think you there can be a human tendency to react negatively, crazily, thinking, oh, I wish that happened to me and I'm sorry and kind of fussy about that.

Rather than being generously supportive of the other person, that is fantastic.

We rejoice with you.

All right.

That might be very much connected to the next one.

So if love is patient, love is kind, uh, it is not uh or it does not envy, you then you would say, well, then it is generally generously supportive.

Right.

Uh it does not love does not brag.

Right.

So if love doesn't brag, what does love do?

Love is humble.

Right.

So and and the bragging as I understand it, is essentially um verbalizing things about yourself and life that just don't need to be shared, you know, kind of beyond the appropriate circles, um, or oversharing good things for the purpose of kind of like the puffer fish, making yourself look bigger than you really are.

And uh and I think it's just the humble that you just don't mention things unless they need to be mentioned, unless it's relevant, unless it would be an encouragement to someone.

You think about the other person.

Are you saying this to this person, this good thing about you, because you want to share your joy and or because you want to look bigger, or do you want, you know, just check your own heart.

Are you look at trying to kind of ramp yourself up, or are you saying it because you want to encourage this other person in some way?

Are you thinking about essentially are you thinking about them or are you thinking about yourself?

All right, and that kind of takes us to the next one.

Yeah.

Is it love is not proud?

So let's just re-go through this through the list.

Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, so it is generously supportive, it does not brag because love is humble, and then is not arrogant.

Yeah.

Or um, what does mine say?

Uh yeah, arrogant.

Yeah.

Pride is essentially um comparing ourselves among ourselves and by ourselves, uh, comparing ourselves positively against other people.

So um to be proud is to take responsibility for your own positive traits and to compare yourself positively against others.

So um it's not wrong to rejoice in winning a tennis match and to share with your wife or your husband, hey, I won this tennis match, you know, and you're excited about that, you want to share your joy.

Um, but uh we also want to share the uh the the success in real life, you know, with other people.

Hey, thank you for letting me take those lessons.

Thank you for letting me get out there and practice, you know, and just you know, use it as a so I think pride is again um the taking ownership of our positive traits and comparing them positively against others uh who would be to to to elevate ourselves.

Yeah.

Thoughts?

Yeah, no, I I agree.

And it is interesting how intertwined those three are does not envy, does not brag, is not proud.

So to be proud or to be arrogant, it literally means to be puffed up.

And I just think about the me monster.

It's kind of like too like, look at me.

That's that the heart posture of the proud is to be puffed up.

And then uh, what does that person do?

That person brags.

Right.

So that's where I see these things connected.

The heart posture of the arrogant is to be puffed up.

What that person talks about is themselves, they brag.

And what that person does, uh I guess what that person does with their mouth is they brag, and what person does with their heart, they envy, which is the three things that are connected.

Does not envy, does not brag, is not proud.

So the puffed up person, what are they gonna do with their mouth?

Talk about me.

Right.

Talk about my like just just kind of it comes out sometimes and you have a story, and I one up it, or that ain't nothing, you know?

Those sorts of things.

And love doesn't do that.

Yeah.

Uh there's things that love doesn't do with my mouth, doesn't do in my heart in terms of envy.

Um, I'm generously supportive.

I am uh verbally supportive, yeah.

And and it comes from the heart posture that love is not arrogant, love is love is humble.

And and I think to again take this beyond Sunday, I think the way that Christians do this most often is if someone's telling me, you know, their uh uh their vacation story, or like, you know, in in in the video, your your your two tooth story or whatever.

And it's so you can be the best intended, like, oh, we went to Disney or oh, we I had a procedure or whatever.

And then you may be trying to genuinely, and I've watched this happen, I've watched people genuinely try to build a bridge to the other person by just identifying with them, like, oh, I have this common thing with you.

But then it just keeps going and going and going, and all of a sudden it turns all the attention on self, and this person who was sharing something is now a bystander watching you talk about your own life.

And so I just would caution us when we're hearing people, if they say something that we can relate to, oh, I went there, or oh, I've got a friend, whatever, that's fine, but give yourself one sentence and then put it back to the other person.

Like, hey, oh, I went to Disney two years ago.

It was really great.

Tell me what your experience was.

Like make sure you pass the baton back to the other person and don't make them try to snatch the wheel back from you.

That's yeah, that's that's really good.

And we want to keep it beyond Sunday.

So it's good.

Uh love is not rude.

So if love is not rude, what is it?

Uh if love is not rude, uh let's see if I had a thing on that.

Courteous, thoughtful, har and not harsh, right?

So uh you're not rude, you're you're courteous.

You're um kind of the old word for this was genteel.

You know, when if somebody s says something that that ruffles your feathers a little bit or rubs you a little bit the wrong way, you just you know you take a deep breath and you just listen.

And in that moment, in my in my worst moments, I kind of start answering tit for tat.

But what about?

Or, you know, I kind of try to get into the the thing.

But in my better moments, I try to stop and think, why is this person saying this?

Or like I try to understand.

Listen for understanding, not to win.

Okay.

Yeah, that's good.

And I kind of wanted to save some of these really practical questions, like uh do my most rude two.

But I actually prefer now, I I think it's better to just address them one at a time.

Yeah.

So in terms of you know being arrogant, you kind of gave a love tip.

Um now, in terms of being rude, uh I think if it love is not rude, love is courteous.

I think it's really good.

Sweet D and I were at a restaurant for a date on Friday.

Uh it's a good time, and they were clearly understaffed.

And I've never been in a restaurant where you could just hear all the tables talking about, you know, how terrible the service was.

Yeah.

And there's an opportunity to be rude there.

And um or there's an opportunity to be courteous.

That's right.

And and love is courteous.

Yeah.

So and another word for courteous, if I could throw this in, is thoughtful.

So in that moment, you're observing the service is bad.

People are talking.

Both and and the fact that the service is bad is true.

Um but thoughtfully, if you just step back from your own animal instinct for a moment, you realize these people are working their tails off.

Somebody called in and didn't come in.

It's it's not this server's fault that they have six tables.

And just to be thoughtful, right?

Yeah.

And uh I think one of the things to just put on our radar, especially on Sundays, is when we stop by Krispy Kreme on Sunday morning looking like we're going to church.

Or at the restaurant after.

Yeah, or at the restaurant after.

We are obviously bearing the name of Jesus.

Yeah.

And we represent God so clearly in that moment.

And man, Sunday, Sunday lunch at a restaurant with those church-looking people, there I think there ought to be a a lot of people who are very courteous because love is not rude.

That's right.

Love is not easily angered.

If it's love is not easily angered, then what is love?

Um I think this is kind of related to patient long suffering.

Yeah, yeah.

I was gonna say if if it's not that, then it is patient.

Yeah.

Long suffering.

You know, it's uh it's not easily angered.

It it has ballast in the boat, right?

It does it it if when you poke it, um, it doesn't, you know, like you know, when you um you know you work out for the first time in a while and you've got some sore shoulders or whatever, and you know, your buddy slaps you on the back, you're like, oh, you know, like it's just tender at that spot.

I feel like some people live that way their whole life, like in their they just little poke, right?

You know, you poke them at a two and they're at, you know, they're they're they're up at an eight, right?

Right.

And um, so I I think it should be the opposite.

You know, if they poke us at an eight, we're up, we're we're only to a two.

Like, you know, it it should take a while to to to to arouse uh wrath, if you will.

And and we should hopefully just keep our course.

Yeah, and uh I really like that analogy.

Um I think about sunburn.

Yeah, you have sunburn, you touch me, and just a flick will make me why'd you do that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And um so to make it go beyond Sunday, when's there there are times when Sweet D and I we will find ourselves being a little the word we will use is chippy or edgy.

Snippy, snippy, yeah, just kind of like um easily angered.

Yeah, and so we What do you do there?

I think one of the things that we've done well is there's been in in those moments when it's like, okay, it's been a couple hours now, maybe maybe an afternoon, and we're like, one of us will usually call it out, and oftentimes it's sweet D, and when she does it really well to say, okay, we're being we're being a little edgy right now.

And sometimes just calling it out can be helpful for both of us to take ownership and go, okay, that's not who we are.

That's not who we want to be.

And a lot of times, uh so to be able to call it out respectfully, yeah, uh, to take ownership for it, and then to to go to try to dig a little bit and go, what is why am I being this way?

Right.

What is what is the sunburn that is making that that I am allowing to make me because I mean uh with a sunburn, you know, you're you're kind of stuck with it, but oftentimes, and not to change the analogy because it it doesn't uh but but like it, what if it's a splinter, right?

You can kind of pull something out.

Like, is there do I have a splinter somewhere that's kind of just annoying me uh in a splinter in my soul, so to speak?

Is there something I can kind of you know what?

Okay, now I feel better.

Yes.

There's something in there.

Yeah, and so you gotta do that tenderly, you gotta do that uh wisely in terms of like dealing with the splinter if it's a relational one, like say with the spouse or even with a coworker.

Um but it is important, I'd say necessary to go, okay, I'm easily angered more than usual.

What is the splinter and to be able to deal with it?

Yeah, and can I just please especially appeal to the men here and just say, look, when you are tempted to think this is 95% my wife and 5% or fee or four or three, me, don't.

Okay?

Give yourself full credit.

Give yourself 50, you know, and just even if you're right, take credit for that five and focus on that.

Because um it's not gonna help the come at her and say, you know what, you're 95% wrong.

And and and even if you're right, um love is not rude.

That's rude.

Take take responsibility for your five and just say, you know what, we're we're I like the we.

So we're not we're not trying to like kind of like say who's more, who's less.

You're being snippy.

Yeah.

And you're drawing me into it, and it's your fault that I'm snippy with you, right?

No.

Uh and so I I just think, look, we, you know, we're we're we're doing this.

Um let's let's let's let's stand down.

Is anything going on we need to address or whatever?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yep.

All right.

So uh love is patient, love is kind, does not envy, does not boast or does not brag, is not proud or arrogant, is not rude, is not easily angered.

And uh next one, uh love uh does not keep a record of wrongs.

Yeah.

Forgiving, right?

You're forgiving.

And so Love forgives.

When someone for you know offends you, you you don't get historical.

You you you don't start using um absolute language.

You always, you never.

Um so because that that is just a button.

That is just like the that is just the the nuclear button you're gonna push on your sp on your spouse or whoever it is.

Um and so, you know, do there need to be boundaries if there's real abuse?

Yes.

We need to, you know, if there's something that the lines being crossed, we got to deal with it.

But in the day-to-day life, uh, let things go.

You know, they say, go into go into marriage with your eyes wide open, and after that, half shut.

And just let things roll off.

Let's dive into that real quick.

If love forgives, then we need to go, okay, what does what is forgiveness?

Yeah.

Somebody's forgiveness.

So forgiveness is essentially um, it is not a a free pass.

Like it doesn't matter.

That's not what it is.

And uh what it is, is it is releasing the person from consequences to God.

I'm not gonna punish you with my cold shoulder, I'm not gonna punish you with my shame and my finger wagging, I'm not going to lecture you, I'm going to release you to God.

And and not like, go get them, God and you know.

Um but but but genuinely like um you're you're letting you're you're you're basically removing yourself from the seat of God's seat, which is the judge, and you're saying, I will, uh, I want my role in your life is to be your your friend, your partner, your whatever that role is, but it's not judge.

And so we are releasing that person to God and we release this longing that we have for essentially for vengeance, for retribution, for whatever you call that.

But uh if I do that, they won't learn their lesson.

See that's the thought that we feel.

Not only that, so I could be endorsing their bad behavior.

So yeah, respond to that.

If I if I say, if I go, man, well, if I just forgive them, if I um release them, or if I r refuse to make them pay with the cold shoulder, the finger wagging, those sorts of things.

Right.

Um, then they're not gonna learn their lesson.

They're just gonna keep doing it.

Right.

So how would you respond to that?

So at that point, that's where um the next phase comes in.

So like there's the death of Good Friday and there's the life of Resurrection Sunday.

You're releasing the right to crucify them.

You're releasing Good Friday and let God judge.

You but you should step into the new life of Resurrection Sunday.

And so you so at that point you say, I forgive you.

Um this is where I would and good communication build the bridge to health.

So in situations like this, when we talk this way, I feel hurt and going forward, could we con talk about how we could have a healthier, you know, conversation around money or sex or whatever it is, the kids and and and and and and have the courage to take those next steps.

So let go of Good Friday in judgment and take hold of Resurrection Sunday and new life.

What would that look like for us to have a healthy ex, a healthy discussion version, you know, relationship around this and try to take a step in the direction of health?

Uh yeah, I think that's really good.

And and I think um mostly it helps me to turn the negatives into positives to kind of get the fuller picture, you know, if love isn't rude, it is courteous.

Love does not keep a record of wrongs, it does forgive, but also keeping it in the negative really helps me too.

Love does not keep the record of wrongs, doesn't do that.

And at this point, I think people who are listening to the podcast may be thinking, they Adam and Will Dagum better be talking like bringing the gospel into this real soon.

And I know you just did with like Good Friday Easter, but I would say, yeah, we're gonna get there because um we cannot be talking about this stuff.

Right.

Uh we can't talk about forgiveness and love without bringing the gospel into it.

So we're gonna get there.

Can I talk about that rope right now, or do you want to wait?

Uh let's wait right now because I'm yeah.

I'll let's just stick with the portrait right now.

But in terms of love that forgives.

Sorry.

Uh love that forgives.

Um love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.

So if it doesn't do that, what does it do?

It's sincere, right?

It's sincere.

It doesn't delight in evil, it rejoices the truth.

But that just means that it it it it literally it follows the good shepherd.

It loves the high road.

It um it it avo it recognizes that sin is candy-coated poison, it avoids the dark, it moves to the light, uh, and in our hearts we are owning the heart of God, you know, for us.

And we are sincere.

Now, the root of the word sincere, and I'm gonna kind of get this wrong, but basically it's based on a Greek word that uh is related to wax.

It means sinceres.

If I'm if I'm getting this wrong, I apologize.

But it means without wax.

So what they would do is like in a in in the ancient world, pot kind of cracks, and but you want to sell the pot.

You just made it, you want to sell it.

So what you do is you cover that with wax and then you glaze it over so it hides the crack.

And so to be sincere is to be without wax, right?

It's it's what you see is true.

It's what it's what's real.

And so um love does not delight anyone but rejoices with the truth.

Love not only accepts, but embraces, celebrates, and demands what is real and not uh hiding or covering or uh um uh you know, we you know, we talk about transparency and vulnerability as opposed to hypocrisy and and and and hippocrineo is another version of this.

Hypocrisy is also related to covering uh uh things.

So um uh I I think it's just love does not delight in evil but rejoices with with what's true out there and in here.

The the first part of that does not delight in evil, I think is especially relevant right now for our culture.

If love does not delight in evil, love does not celebrate things God hates.

Yes.

Full affirmation of everything I think, say, or do.

If you do not fully affirm everything I think, say, or do, you hate me, you're a bigot, you whatever.

And absolutely not true.

Like no sane normal person says that or thinks that, but that rhetoric is applied to uh to basically stake out, to basically destroy any boundary that would prevent me from doing anything I want to do.

And it's just uh it's just absolutely absolutely destructive.

Um I don't know if I want to chase that right now or wait.

Um let's chase it right now.

Okay in terms of everything you just said about the cultural view of love, let's let's bring in uh a definition that we have used for love.

Uh we stole it from Del Tacket.

You said that on Sunday.

Yep.

Um but I think it's been really helpful to me.

It's been helpful to us that love is the steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another.

Yeah, say it again because all the elements of that definition are so critical.

And they're all biblical, they're all proven.

We can go back and do it some other time, but but it's they're all important.

So the steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another.

To me, I mean, the the the it's all so good.

But I think the true good is really the focus, the true good of another.

So the modern world says, hey, if I want to eat a sleeve of Oreos, affirm it.

And yeah, okay, you can eat a sleeve of Oreos.

You may regret it in five minutes, you may regret it, you know, um, but you can do that.

You're free to do that.

And so I think what what the world says is if you love me, you'll not just say it's okay, you'll not just tolerate it, you will affirm it.

So back in the day, tolerance meant had two aspects.

Tolerance had the aspect of disagreement and allowance.

And they were both present.

You think about tolerating a medicine, right?

Like there's negative elements, but I can do it.

And but we have eliminated the disagreement part and said only affirm.

So tolerate now means fully affirm.

And and it's it is it is actually unloving to fully affirm things to people that are not in their true good, true good interests.

And so, but the world uses this as the club to beat back people who would say we humans have limits that we need to observe if we will be healthy.

Yeah.

The yeah, so you you're you're connecting the true good part of the definition of love to what our culture is saying, uh, what true love actually is, and that is affirmation.

Um but love is the steadfast sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another and and does not celebrate things that God hates because anything that God hates is not for our true good.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Anything that God hates is not for our true good.

Yeah.

That's right.

That can be really hard though, because sometimes people are uh that that we're close to, or even you know, sometimes ourselves.

We there's some things that God hates that feel really good.

I want the Oreos!

Yeah.

And and there's a sense in us that wants us to be that wants to be happy for the person that they're happy, yeah, but then doesn't want to celebrate unrighteousness.

Right.

So let me give you um a few examples that may kind of illustrate the uh the spectrum.

So let's just say that um uh a guy says, Hey, um me and my girlfriend, we love each other, we've moved in together.

Okay, that would be clearly outside of biblical morality.

And it would be And I I want to emphasize that because that is less and less that that's actually not commonly believed now.

Right.

Even among Christians.

Yeah, so just affirm that.

That is outside that it's something God hates.

Okay, it's outside God's design.

It's outside God's design.

Yeah.

So so he says that.

So it's easy to look at that now, right?

Maybe culturally it's changing, but it's easy to look at that and say, and and say, brother, sister, that is not good for you.

You know, how whatever you might think.

So then um, you know, say that um uh uh a guy says, Hey, I want to uh uh finally uh uh we're gonna I'm gonna marry my girlfriend.

We're getting married, and you wanna, you know, you're happy for that person.

Great.

But um I need to divorce my wife to do that.

Does that change it for you that he's already in a marriage, but he's super happy that he's found new love outside of his marriage?

I had a guy call me like this once, and he and and and I told him on the phone, he he he he was calling me with his in his joy to let me know he was getting married.

But I knew he was having to leave his wife and four children to do this.

And I told you, I do I told him I do not rejoice with you.

I do not, I do not rejoice in the breaking up of this family.

And he's like, But don't aren't you glad for me that I'm happy?

And I said, the shortest distance between you and happiness is not destroying what you have and starting fresh, it is fixing the marriage that you're in.

But uh, that was not the message he wanted to hear.

Yeah.

Man, there's there's real life uh examples that I think a lot of us can have right now that we are faced with the choice based on something that's happened in somebody's life or somebody that we love that they're choosing to do.

Yeah.

And uh where we have to go, am I going to celebrate that?

Let me give you with two more quick examples.

So let's say that the the the lesbian or the homosexual c couple that uh comes to you and says, Hey, we finally found love.

And you're saying, okay, that that is outside of God's design.

It is not your true good.

And they don't understand it.

And they think you're a bigot because after all, they're committed, they're gonna get married, they're I mean, every it's just it's it's exactly the same to the biblical pattern, except it's just two men or two women as opposed to heterosexual.

But um, what you've done is you have now moved the boundary.

So what if three men want to get married?

Is that okay?

And and I've asked sometimes these homosexual couples, and they're like, oh no, that's not right.

Or four men.

What if, what if five women want to all be married?

Is that okay?

I'm like, well, I don't I don't think so.

Why not?

Because once we move the where if you're gonna move the why would you draw the boundary?

So I feel like that once we say it's no longer God's standard, then whose standard is it?

And that honestly, there really there's nowhere to put a standard if it's not God's, it's man's.

And if it's man's, it's every man's.

So there in other words, there's no standard.

Aaron Powell Yeah.

And I think that does a good job of helping flesh out how having a standard actually points us to our true good.

Yes, our true good.

And um and so love does not celebrate things God hates.

Um All right, real quick, let's hit the last one.

Yeah, love.

Um permanence of love or what No.

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

Okay, yeah.

Uh what do you think there?

So um yeah, so super quickly, um in the NIV it says always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

And I do think the the first thing you're you said love bears all things.

Mine says always protects.

They're both right.

So what the the image here is imagine you know, Captain America with his shield in front of you and you're behind him, right?

So bears all things means I can take the hit, so you're you're safe behind me.

So um, that's why the the NIV said always protect.

So it always looks out for the people who are vulnerable that it can use its power to help.

It's literally like the superhero verse.

Love lets a loving husband is gonna let his wife crash against him with her emotions and uh and remain uh steady.

Steadfast.

Steadfast.

Steadfast.

Okay, keep going.

So um always trust.

This doesn't mean you believe everything.

It doesn't mean gullible.

It means that you want that you're believing the best and and and and you're you're doing your best to uh to honor people's word.

You know, you it and and the you know, it bears all things.

What's the second tr believes all things?

Mine uh says bears all things, yeah, believes all things.

Believes all things, yeah.

So it's the same word as faith, belief, trust.

It's just as it you know leans into trust, right?

And then uh always hopes.

Again, uh not trust just for the moment, but the long term is always looking uh for the good, looking for God, looking for Romans 8.28 that that God will bring good from this and hoping and expecting good things to come.

Again, it's not it's not this kind of Pollyanna sort of uh mindless type of hope.

It is a hope based on fact.

And then last thing always perseveres.

I mean, what a great way to land that just says is steadfast, keeps going, just keeps going, and uh and and does so by the grace of God.

Yeah.

Um I agree with those.

So the uh the we're looking at this portrait, or you might say characteristics of love.

I like portrait.

Yeah, that's good.

And the hope is that the conversation so far would do a little bit of kind of hold up a mirror for us and help us see, man, I see the portrait of love and then I see myself.

And there are some things that aren't consistent with love.

Uh there are things that are causing me to lose my patience.

And love doesn't do that.

Things and people that uh where I am unkind, envious, boasting, prom and to go, uh that's that's not the portrait that God has given us for love.

So I'm trying trying to hold up a mirror to help us to help expose where love is absent so that we can walk in love.

And I think that's necessary, but I'm just kind of feeling a little bit of the the blood boil to go, man, if we just stop at the portrait, then we've I don't know if we've done a disservice, but maybe we've done a disservice to just stop at the portrait because um because Christianity and God and the gospel goes so much deeper than the portrait of love.

Yeah.

And yeah, go ahead.

I was gonna say that's where I I do think that the portrait naturally bridges to the gospel because if you're listening to this, I don't know if you're having an experience that I'm having as we're talking about this.

I'm like, that is an unattainable standard.

Like I cannot do that.

Like in any given day, maybe even any given hour.

And so I just think, just give up, you know, just whatever.

And um, and I think no, that's where it has to be by his doing.

It has to be by the power of his spirit for the praise of his glory.

And we need God desperately.

And that's where we need to, we need to recognize that we have died to sin and we're living to the spirit, and we're living literally by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me and fills me.

So that's what it means to live by faith.

God, help me do this, help me live your resurrection life because it is not humanly doable.

Yeah.

Um, exactly.

That is that is exactly what I feel in me right now that I want to really connect on because there is a worldly kind of love that Jesus, I mean, Jesus talks about it in Luke 6.

Here's what he says if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

Yeah, like there is a kind of love that's very consistent with sinners.

And I love you if you love me.

Yeah.

And then he just keeps going, for even sinners love those who love them.

If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

That's right.

If you lend to those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high, for he himself, he himself, he's pointing it back to God, is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.

That is so good, and I think that's necessary for us because there is um I think this view of love that man, I need to draw boundaries from people who are, quote, toxic.

And I need to separate myself uh from this person's really a toxic person, and uh and it would not be kind to myself to allow that person to treat me like that.

And I do think there's something there.

However, um, I have a real great concern that what I just said uh flies in the face in contradiction to what I just read.

And And love acts sacrificially.

That's right.

Loving your enemies.

If you just love people who love you, everyone does that.

You don't have to try to do that.

And a biblical love is going to do everything we just described in terms of the portrait of love and goes beyond to doing it to people who love me, but even to my enemies, even when it's at great cost.

And then so wanna that's where I think it's really important to distinguish it's cost.

It's a costly love.

That's what we mean by sacrifice.

In a sacrifice, something dies.

And for us, when we love what dies, what dies is uh our right to control or own the situation and to um uh to get retribution or our rights or whatever, or uh to to to focus to let myself be the center of this moment.

That's what dies.

And so it's not if you're a uh you know a Buddhist or a Hindu or an atheist, you can mimic patience and kindness in these things, but you cannot truly do them by the power of God.

And that's what this is saying is like true love is sacrificial zeal that seeks a true good of another that is, you know, we could probably add that is fueled by God Himself.

That there is a life in us, and what came to my mind the verse was um Galatians 2 for through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

So I died to my sin to live for God.

And this here's the uh the money verse.

I have been crucified with Christ.

Good Friday, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, resurrection Sunday.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

What it's saying is if you could be a good person without the grace of God, then Jesus Christ died for nothing.

And so draw that, take one more step, and so connect that to love.

And so, in order to actually love people, we must have the presence of God in us.

We die to self, we live to God first, and then we share what he gives us, his grace, his presence, his power, his provision, his protection, his all of the the the fruits of the spirit we he gives to us, and then we share it with others.

Yes.

Um so the the gospel is what you just said, and the gospel is the Christian's great hope for authentic love, for biblical love, for Christian love.

A love that doesn't just I love people who love me.

It's not just nice.

Yeah.

And um, and this is what I want to dig into and would love if the portrait of love uh was able to really spring out of the gospel that actually uh motivates and empowers love.

And both I think the gospel does both motivate and empower love.

Let me uh connect those dots.

And there are two passages that have been extremely helpful and compelling for me in terms of the gospel that motivates and empowers authentic, biblical, steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another.

Uh the first is from Luke 7.

We've read it before, and it's probably just gonna grow to be kind of a staple kind of chapter for us at Sandhurst.

Um but Luke 7 is when Jesus is at the home of this Pharisee named Simon, and this woman comes in and she begins to um w wash Jesus' feet with her hair and her tears.

And Simon is like, Bro, if he if Jesus knew what kind of woman this was, that she's a sinner, he would not let this happen.

And so Jesus says, Hey, let me tell you a story.

And this is what he says in Luke 7, um, verse 40, it says, Jesus answered, Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you.

And he replied, Say it, teacher.

A moneylender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, and the other fifty.

When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both.

So which one of them will love him more?

Okay, so we're tack or attaching right now forgiveness and love.

That's right.

One owes five hundred, the other owes fifty.

And there's this simple answer here.

Okay, and Simon gets it right.

Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more.

And he said to him, You have judged correctly.

Turning toward the woman, he said, He said to Simon, Do you see this woman?

I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss, but she since the time I came in, have not ceased to has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume.

For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.

But he who is forgiven little loves little.

Yeah.

So if you've forgiven little, you love little.

Let's flip the the other side.

If you are forgiven much, what do you do?

You love much.

You love much.

The the point of the story is not to be like, well, you know, Simon, you're kind of like the 50 denarii debtor and she's the 500 denarii debtor.

I'm kind of just uh condemned to a life of superficial love.

Because you just pretty good.

You're just you're just good.

No, we taught this a couple years ago, and it was so helpful to me to go, okay, uh, who does the 500 denarii debtor represent in in the story?

Is it the woman or is it the Pharisee?

It it's humanity.

It's all it's both.

It's all of us.

So who if if we're if we are the 500 denarii debtor, who is the 50 denarii debtor?

Answer the 50 denarii debtor is a fictional character.

A hypothetical person.

He exists only in the imagination of the self-righteous.

That's right.

Only in the imagination.

I remember when I was in high school and I read this, and I, you know, that was in the day of the kind of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll testimonies, and I was just kind of pretty much a church kid that it all and I thought, when I read that, I you're not gonna I literally had this idea like, oh no, I I've been forgiven little.

I had that idea.

I I can't believe it now, but I had that thought.

I've been forgiven little.

And how am I gonna love God much?

And man, it hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized, no, we've all been forgiven much.

All, all.

Yeah, I am the 500 dinner I didter.

Yeah.

And and to the extent that I look at myself and kind of honestly view myself as the 50 dinner I didter, then I will be a person whose love is superficial and worldly, only loving those who love me because um there is something that comes out, because there's an authentic, supernatural, gospel-motivated love that comes out of a person only who sees themselves rightly.

Because love is not arrogant, it isn't puffed up.

See, the dots start to connect.

Yeah, love cannot be puffed up.

I will not show love if I'm puffed up.

I can't because there's only one person I'm concerned about loving.

Yeah.

Me.

That's right.

You know, and um and and and that's where, you know, we we talked about the gospel and forgiveness, how does it tie in?

Yes.

And so, you know, you think, how can I forgive someone?

If you think you're the 50 denary debtor, if you think you've been forgiven little, it's gonna be hard for you to forgive others because they don't deserve it.

But if you are the 500 denary, if you realize you've been forgiven much, it's much easier to forgive others because you have been forgiven much.

And that is true, whether you accept it or realize it or not.

And so there will be a well of spiritual life and power to forgive other people if you realize how deep that well goes for you.

Yep.

Uh the the well goes deep in terms of uh transgressions.

And if you're going to think of it as a certificate of debt, that debt is not just like a page long, it is reams of paper.

Yeah.

And so then we take that, our debt, and we go to Colossians 2.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.

How?

Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile towards us, and he has taken it out of the way.

How?

Having nailed it to the cross.

So what I'm trying to connect the dots of, you know, we'd spent a while rightly talking about a portrait of love, but we need to go, okay, where's their where's the Christian's hope for authentic love that actually reflects a 1 Corinthians 13 portrait?

And the answer is the gospel, because the gospel says that the debt and the decrees of the reams of paper that I would have concerning um my indebtedness to God, my sin, that Jesus took it, he nailed it to the cross.

He does not hold it against me because he took it on himself at the cross.

And the gospel says, Yeah, you have been forgiven much.

And there, and those who see that, what do they do?

They love much.

This the gospel is Christian's hope for authentic love.

It's not just seeing a portrait and saying, hmm, I need to, I need to do that better.

Yeah, it's not just saying, okay, here's how to be a nice person and forget, you know, to win friends and influence people.

No, this is about how to live out your identity as a as a Christian, as a human born not only into the world, but born again into the family of God.

This is how you live out the name Christian that is given to you at your spiritual birth, that you sacrifice your rights uh to retribution.

You leave that person to God as you have been left to God and been filled with forgiveness, and then you offer others the forgiveness that He gave you.

The verses that come to my mind are, I mean, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, but also 1 Peter 4, uh 11 and 12.

If anyone speaks, he should do as one speaking the words of God.

If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

In other words, uh, if things uh if you're able to love people, it is because God has given you the words.

It is because God has given you the strength, it is because God has filled you with his life and power that now overflows to others.

And it that life replaces your death.

And so we are simply offering God's life to others and bringing his life to their death.

And and for that is why we can offer it, because we are stewards of God's grace and power uh and not owners.

And when we kind of get into this tug-a-war with others and forget about God's forgiveness, forget about his grace and provision, and then just own it for ourselves, then it becomes essentially an atheistic type of life.

It's just like, okay, me, me versus you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And and so the gospel is uh the great it's it's the hope for authentic Christian love in so much as it gives a real real motivation for love.

Um, but motivation, as good as it is, is not enough.

Um I I've been doing my push-ups, all right, still gonna do my push-ups, I pay if I don't.

And if you put a gun to my head and said, All right, do a thousand push-ups without stopping, I would be very motivated.

Right.

I still wouldn't have the power.

Right.

Uh motivation is good, and the gospel motivates authentic love.

I've been forgiven much.

That's great motivation.

The gospel motivates love, but not only that, the gospel also is the Christian's hope.

That's right.

In so much as it's not just motivation, it is empowerment for love.

And this is the beauty of the full gospel that you keep coming back to in terms of the the Good Friday death and then the resurrection Sunday, Easter, that God well, um, so this is actually what the passage that Sweet D yesterday during the um when you were teaching, I was, you know, we're always kind of thinking, what are we gonna say at the sending and so uh she knew I was thinking well that I was thinking that as you're starting to wrap up yesterday, what am I gonna say at the end?

And um because we're trying to base what we say on you know, the sermon was saying.

Uh, but she pointed me to a passage that honestly I wish I had I would have read, but she was like, You should read this.

I didn't.

There it is.

I wish it would have.

It's from 1 John 4.

And uh this is going to point us not just to a motivation for love that we've been forgiven much, and that is great.

And I'm not trying to discount the motivation for love, uh, but it points us beyond love that love is not just something that we show.

Love has a capital L.

Love is got God is love.

That's right.

Is what first John 4 says.

Beloved, beloved, let us love one another.

Okay.

And so it's good to look at the portrait and go, okay, where is love absent in my life?

Where do I need to grow here?

Let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God.

For God is love.

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world, so that we might live.

How?

Through him, that is, by faith in him.

Yep.

In this is love.

Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

There you go.

That's first John 4, 7 to 11.

So he so emphatically ties our love for one another to God's love for us.

God is love.

And if the gospel is true, then the God who is love has given us himself.

That's right.

So love is not just a virtue that I try to live out.

Love is a person, his name is Jesus, and he has poured forth the spirit of his son into our hearts.

We cry, Abba Father.

If he lives in us, love lives in us because love is a person, Jesus.

And so I have the gospel says, Yeah, my debt has been paid, and I'm one with Christ.

If my debt is paid, I have great motivation for love.

If my um if I'm one with Christ, and then I have the power to show love when I'm at when I'm kind of at the end of my tank, when I, you know, I got the sunburn, I got the splinter, I'm I'm easily angered.

I actually have motivation and empowerment to say, I'm going to be patient when everything in me is going.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's that's the beauty of the gospel.

And that's, you know, that's living in the image of God.

It is being the hands and feet and voice of God.

This verse is often a few uh in the next chapter, 1 John, it's usually used in a salvation context, but I think it works in a sanctification context, which is what we're talking about, how to grow in your identity and God, grow in your love.

Uh and this is the testimony.

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

He who has the son has life.

He who does not have the son of God does not have life.

In other words, you can mimic attributes of God, but they are dead.

Your your your you know, your patience is just human effort and uh as opposed to spiritual life.

And so to be dependent daily on the Holy Spirit for filling and for power to do his will in his name, uh, that's that is our life.

That is the Christian life, and that is the continuation of the gospel.

We that we believe, we live, and one day we'll be perfected.

Yeah.

And so there is a qualitative and quantitative difference between a love that I can show as one made in God's image, and a love that I can show as one who's been made one with Jesus.

Yeah.

There's a qualitative difference.

And and our hope, my hope is that Sandhurst would be full of saints who are so grounded in the gospel, so um have have learned to live by faith, which for in four words for me has been helpful.

Yes, Lord, help Lord.

Um that that that kind of God sourced uh authentic love comes out more and more.

And so to kind of land the plane a little bit, and I know we didn't get to the uh the third part of 1 Corinthians 13.

It's all right.

Um uh I want to do both kind of bring it back to the ultra practical and then the gospel root.

The ultra practical, I've been so helped by what I said on Sunday, and that is just imagining a script for love.

What would love do when I get home from work?

What would love do when I show up to work?

What would love do um when I'll give I'll give a a good example of just how a script for love just really helps me.

I learned this from Matt Chandler.

Um Matt was going, here's here's one way that I love my wife.

And he might he might not have been tying it exactly to love with that language, but this is his example of a love script.

Um, whenever he has a a meeting scheduled that got canceled for whatever reason, um, usually like a lunch meeting just fell through or whatever.

Yeah, his first call or his first kind of rescheduling is to his wife.

That's a love script.

That's going, that's that's a guy going, okay, I want to love my wife.

How can I do that?

Here's a script.

When my when I have a meeting or an appointment gets canceled, my second um or kind of my first uh go-to play is text my wife.

And I haven't done that every time, but I have done that a lot more.

It's part of like a love script.

How can I show my wife?

Well, there's a script, and and the script helps me um be intentional because in the absence of that, I can just get caught up in mindless routine.

It's not that I'm being unloving.

I'm just kind of Yeah.

And I and when you text your wife, or like when he does it, is he like inviting her to do something or just just checking in with her?

Yeah, he's inviting her to lunch.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, he's he's initiating time with her.

That's what he's doing.

Okay.

Yes.

I was like, oh okay, text his wife.

That's awesome.

Hi.

No, that's uh you know.

So um in that way, uh the Luke 10, a couple chapters later, we're we were in Luke 7, has been really helpful to me with the story of the Good Samaritan.

The Good Samaritan is is a this great story.

I think probably a lot of us know it, but you have this priest and this Levite, they they see the hurting guy, and it says they pass him by.

They pass him by.

Uh the Good Samaritan feels compassion, uh kind of uh a zeal for him, this this pity that moves him to action.

And at his at cost to himself, he helps the guy.

The Good Samaritan um does.

And that helped me see that the priest and the Levite, it didn't say that they they hated the guy, right?

They just passed him by.

The the great one of the great greatest enemies to a a biblical love is just passing by, just passivity.

Just kind of they came to the place and saw the man and passed by.

It's like they it's not that they didn't notice him.

Yeah.

They saw him.

And they just passed by passing by.

Just pass.

And I tend to think, well, the the great enemy of love is hate.

Not in my home.

No.

The enemy of love in my home and love to my wife, to my kids, to people at church, it's it's not hate.

It's not, I'm not r I'm not wrestling with man, I just really hate that person.

The great enemy to love is passivity.

Well, mindless routine.

Can I give it another word?

And that is distraction.

Um, you know, used to be busyness was seen as sort of this badge of honor, like I'm super busy because I'm important or whatever.

And so I think we do in America still feel this sort of drive to be busy.

Oh, I'm just so busy all the time.

Um, here's the question though, like when you get to the end of it, are you gonna have been busy with things that mattered?

You know, or um, or are you just essentially, you know, rearranging the furniture?

You know, and just make sure, especially husbands and fathers, that you are busy with things that matter, the, the, the, the, the God-given priorities that are true and real, that you, that, and this is where you know you mentioned earlier loving yourself, that you have a steadfast sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of you, that you are also using your time wisely, you're building into things that matter, you're doing things that matter, and you're you're recognizing distractions for what they are and and and removing from your life empty calorie things to make room for uh nourishing things that actually build things long term.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so that that has been really helpful to me, just kind of getting back into normal life.

I wanna we're called to be a people who shows love.

We will be known by our love.

We want to have a love culture at Sandhurst.

And so a script helps.

Here's what I do.

Um, here's what I do when I come to church.

And as silly as I did not think that that whole kind of one-word love from 1 Corinthians 11 and like their their word that Paul gave them was y'all need to wait.

That's your one word for love.

And and my one word for love has been chill at church.

Keep coming back to it because that has been helpful to me.

It's it's a one-word script for me.

Yeah, chill.

And as silly as that sounds, I've I just know myself.

Well, I feel it every Sunday.

I go, okay, yes, Lord, help Lord.

We need to chill.

That's right.

Uh and and worship with people, yeah, not just kind of run around, yeah, yeah.

Not just pull it off, but actually love the people in front of us.

Yeah.

So man, if I hope, church, that we're listening and going, okay, uh, that we are sensitive to anything that the Holy Spirit would be putting on our heart right now to go, here's here's what love's gonna look like for you in a very practical way.

Yeah.

And I hope that this uh conversation has helped our church connect it to uh deeper than a portrait to the root to the gospel that motivates love, debt paid, that empowers love and one with Christ, so that we're not just giving our best effort towards it, but it's actually God's love through us because He's love.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, um next week, tongues and prophecy.

Yes, and I actually threw some of my punches that I'm gonna throw on Sunday because First Corinthians 14, while it is uh well, actually we're gonna we're gonna see that on the surface it's about tongues and prophecy.

When you go just one layer deeper, and it's not even that much deeper, right?

It's really about something else.

But he's going to start off by saying these words pursue love.

Uh that's that's how chapter 14 opens.

And so I threw some of my punches I'm going to throw on Sunday.

So uh sorry about that.

But we're gonna do it again.

There you go.

All right, we'll see you.

Yep.