Living in Chapter 13 and Loving It (Part 1 of 4)
Loving Bankruptcy
1 Cor. 13:1-3
Feb. 4, 2007 FBC, Chester Mike Fogerson, Pastor
Introduction:
A Illustration
1 There is a story about a man who was walking down the street.
He passed a used-book store, and in the window he saw a book with the title, "How to Hug."
He was taken by the title and, being of a somewhat romantic nature, went in to buy the book.
To his chagrin, he discovered that it was the seventh volume of an encyclopedia and covered the subjects "how" to "hug."
Everyone knows that the church is a place where love ought to be manifested, and many people have come to church hoping to find a demonstration of love—only to discover an encyclopedia on theology.
2 Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels) said, "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."
a No matter how exciting or wonderful a spiritual gift is, they are useless (and destructive) if they are not ministered in love
b The church is the BODY of CHRIST.
aa Many members, gifts, functions
bb Love is the "circulatory system" of the body
B 1 Cor. 13 is often misinterpreted/misapplied
1 Divorced from its context it’s a "hymn to love" or a sermon on Christian brotherhood.
a Paul’s writing a church that’s dealing with lots of problems: the abuse of tongues, division in the church, envy of other gifts, selfishness, impatience with one another, & disgraceful behavior.
b To this church he writes: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 am nothing. 3 And 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. 1 Cor 13:1-3 (NASB)
2 The spiritual gifts exercised in Corinth were empty because they lacked love (essence of the text in a sentence).
a Love is the catalyst that brings value to the believer’s God-given spiritual gifts (essence of the sermon in a sentence).
b I pray you’ll ask God to grow your love for Him, His people, and lost souls (objective).
3 What motivates you to do what you do for God? (Probing question)
a Let’s look at two paths we can take as we deal with loving bankruptcy (transitional sentence).
b Pray
I The first path is one that is leading to loving bankruptcy.
A The church at Corinth were using their spiritual gifts in a spirit of competition.
1 The spiritual gifts that were supposed to be building up the church were doing more harm than good!
a The five spiritual gifts named in 13:1-3 were tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, & giving.
b Paul is not minimizing these gifts; he is simply saying they do no good to individuals/the church unless there is love in their lives.
aa Paul’s not saying the answer to abuse of the gifts is disuse of the gifts.
bb The gifts were worthless, empty, useless, nothing, no profit, bankrupt without love.
cc Tongues were a bunch of noise, prophets were nothing, faith, miracles giving=ALL NOTHING!
2 We, too, face the problems Paul warns about in verses 1-3.
a Some tongue-speakers insist you imitate them, very unloving towards those God hasn’t so gifted.
b Christian intellectuals who criticize & destroy their brothers/sisters from another denomination in the same style as a lost cynic would.
c Folks who throw money at causes, but never shoulder the cost of a loving, personal involvement.
d Look at the Middle East, thousands of young people sacrifice their lives in battle (or in terrorism) as in Islam, in hopes of a quick passage to heaven.
aa 70 virgins, etc.
bb Tragically, all those young people are doing is speeding up their trip to hell.
e There is a missing piece in all of these, & that is the fundamental love for Jesus.
B (IL) Picture it this way: write a string of zeros...tongues alone zero, prophecy alone zero, mysteries alone zero, knowledge alone zero, faith alone zero, giving alone zero, martyrdom alone zero.
1 0,000,000: what’s that add up to?
a Nothing!
b Put a "1" to the left & now every zero amounts to something!
2 Love is the thing that must be added to every gift of the Spirit (without love you gift is worthless).
II The second path is one that is leading out of loving bankruptcy.
A Christians are "taught of God to love one another." Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another 1 Thess 4:9 (NASB)
1 God teaches us to love one another.
a And He said to him, " ’YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, ’YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Matt 22:37-40 (NASB)
b Before we can love one another we must love God!
aa Love for each other is a must. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14 (NASB)
bb If we don’t, we’re still lost!
2 How does He teach us?
a We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (NASB) God the Father showed us He loved us by sending His Son.
b "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35 (NASB) God the Son taught us to love by giving His life & by commanding us to love each other.
c ...and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5 (NASB) God the Holy Spirit teaches us to love one another by pouring God’s love into our hearts.
d "The Spirit of God is a spirit of love, and when the former enters the soul, love also enters with it."~Jonathan Edwards
3 The only way out of loving bankruptcy is by the Holy Spirit filling us!
B We can’t get out of loving bankruptcy until we allow God’s love to envelope us completely.
1 (IL) C.H. Spurgeon told the story of the preacher who was walking in the countryside and stopped by a farmhouse for a drink of water. The old farmer who lived there went out to talk to the preacher. As they were talking the preacher noticed that the barn had a weather vane on it that was spinning around in the wind. On the weather vane the words "GOD IS LOVE" were engraved. The preacher said to the man, "I don’t think that is a very good way to talk about God’s love. Are you saying that God’s love is wishy washy and changes depending on the way the wind blows?" "No," said the farmer, "that weather vane is saying, ‘No matter which way the wind blows, God is love.’"
2 No matter what, God is, was, and always will be teaching us to love.
a He’ll never stop!
b Let’s never stop striving to be like Him in His holiness, forgiveness, mercy, grace, & love.
Conclusion
A The spiritual gifts exercised in Corinth were empty because they lacked love (essence of the text in a sentence).
1 Love is the catalyst that brings value to the believer’s God-given spiritual gifts (essence of the sermon in a sentence).
2 We’ve looked at the two paths we can take as we deal with loving bankruptcy.
a The path leading to loving bankruptcy
b The path leading out of loving bankruptcy
B I pray you’ll ask God to grow your love for Him, His people, and lost souls (objective).
C What motivates you to do what you do for God? (Probing question)
1 Diet Coke & Mentos
a Diet Coke is erruptive, explosive when the Mentos are introduced.
b Diet Coke is nice by itself, Menots are nice by themselves, but combined it is an incrediable event!
c All of these things we talked about today are great, but when love put one them . . . watch out!
2 I’m not saying, nor do I believe Paul is, that before you exercise a gift you must do it flawlessly.
a Preach every Sunday-never flawlessly; give to those in need-even if your attitude stinks, they are certainly helped.
b This chapter presents us with the ideal to strive for, even as we are painfully aware of how far we still have to go to measure up.
3 What motivates you to do what you do for God? (Probing question)
a I pray you’ll ask God to grow your love for Him, His people, and lost souls (objective).
b Pray
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