Love Is Patient Series

Title: Love in patient

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-4

Introduction

A group of professional people posed the question “what is love.” to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds.

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."

Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."

Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"

Emily - age 8

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."

Clare - age 6

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."

Lauren - age 4

"I let my big sister pick on me because my Mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her."

Bethany - age 4

"Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget,"

Jessica - age 8

"There are two kinds of love. Our love. God's love. But God makes both kinds of them."

Jenny - age 8

In 1 Cor. 13:4-8 the apostle Paul gives us 16 different qualities that describe God’s kind of love.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I want to speak today on the first of those 16 qualities of love; Love is patient.

The reality is… Every loving person must be a patient person.

“Be patient with everyone.” (1 Th. 5:14)

Be patient with our spouse (if married)

Be patient with our children

Be patient with everyone

Seriously how would you rank your patience?

On God’s scale of 1 to 16 where would you and I rank our patience?

Is patience a strong quality in my life?

The best I could say is… “I’m patient with 1 out of every 16 people.”

And the # 1 person I’m patient with is my self!

Most of us would not rank patience as the #1 quality in our life.

Yet according to 1 Cor 13 God wants patience to be the #1 quality in our lives.

The hardest people to be patient with are the ones we love the most.

Why is that?

Believe it or not that is the way God designed it!

You see the word used here in 1 Cor 13 for “patient” is better translated “longsuffering.”

Love is longsuffering.

That’s why with complete strangers it’s easy to be patient.

How much longsuffering do you really need if it’s just for 5-10 minutes?

But with those we live with and work with it’s a lot harder to be a model of patience.

It’s really here our patience needs to be the longsuffering kind.

Confession: Just last week Michelle said to me; “You are far more patient with others than yomy wife u are ever are with the kids.”

How do we develop a longsuffering patience for those we love?

1 Cor 13:1-4

“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, (insert patience) I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, (insert patience) I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love (patience), I gain nothing.”