Moving on with God; the next step in LOVE
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Introduction
- to the series:
o 2 months ago I was sitting on a bridge just behind the Hyde Museum praying about YOU. About our family
“What do they need, Lord? What should we do?”
• -> “The next step”. They need to move on, and be challenged to take STEPS towards me
bam, bam, bam- came to me. Next step in Love, faith, hope, gifts, discipline, holiness
o that’s quite something! Clearest for a long time!
o Like it! There’s SO much I want God to do in my life the task seems to huge
But steps I can handle
“the journey of 1000 miles begins with one step”
We’re going to journey together. If you’re serious- you’ll be here.
- I’m wanting to go on with God. My soul can’t wait for those who can’t be bothered. But those of us who want to- we’re going to walk, run, crawl, weep- together
- to tonight
o so: here we are tonight, starting off with the first and foremost step to moving on with God
o the foundation to all we are as followers of Jesus
LOVE
Greatest thing
Because LOVE is the greatest thing. Loving one another.
We’ve all heard sermons on 1 Cor. 13. Many good ones
- but most often in cases of ‘Eros’ love on valentine’s day or at a wedding
o but THIS passage is best understood and applied in a church context. Community context
Here’s the context: the Corinthian church was actually an
- immature church (only ready for ‘milk’)
- competitive church (‘I follow Paul’)
o ‘carnal’, fleshly church
o over competitive- left folks out at Lord’s supper
- gifted church
o many ‘gifts of spirit’
- proud church
o ‘I have this gift therefore I’m better’
And it’s into this context that Paul speaks and says
- you can have ALL these great gifts- but if you don’t have LOVE for each other
o you’re a monster
o you’ve missed the point altogether
o your effectiveness is not ‘reduced’
it’s useless! In fact- off-putting
noisy gong or clanging symbol
• like at the worship orgies of Dionysus, the god of the ‘reproductive energies of nature’ that was worshipped in Corinth
o it’s just a load of noise, froth, bubble
He clarifies this again to the Philippian church
PHP 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
If God really HAS worked among you… His Spirit done something in you
- let’s see it by your unity, love and humility
Wow! Isn’t this applicable!
- people storm off from churches because they’re not ‘following the Spirit, or not charismatic enough’
o but HATE the people they leave. Barely see them as Christians. Maybe even as ‘fools’- unable to really grasp what it’s all about
- some are ‘angry people’ because the Spirit isn’t moving enough
o (don’t get much of that, here)
But, friends- if we’re ‘angry’, restless, frustrated
- maybe what we need is more of THIS stuff (here) than (so called) ‘power’
o ‘power’ can be a smokescreen to us not wanting
to sacrifice for God
to let Him in. Really move on with Him
It’s a challenge to all of us who might want to judge whether we’re ‘right’ by
- externals, flashiness, outward success
And so- it is NO coincidence… or just to be politically correct… that Paul puts this in between Chs 12 & 14
- it REALLY is the most excellent way.
o Healing in itself! All long to be loved, accepted
- Everything else WILL pass away. APART from love
But what is this love?
It’s unique to God and then Christians
- NOT saying others don’t love!!!!
- But had to develop unique word, here (agape), as others insufficient
o = a word used of Jesus’ love for us
So- our love finds it’s basis in Jesus’ love
- I can only do… give it- because HE’s in me!
- Thomas Merton. (The seven story mountain pp73) describes it thus
o God’s love ’is a love for the utterly unworthy, a love which proceeds from a God who is love. It is a love lavished on others without a thought of whether they are to receive it or not. It proceeds, rather, from the nature of the lover than from any merit in the beloved’.
It’s the love of an open heart. A heart opened by God… intimate with God- that can open up itself to theirs without hear of hurt, rejection
- because it trusts God. Has been healed, helped by Him
- therefore it always TRUSTS, hopes, perseveres
- RO 12:9 describes it thus:
- Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good
Sincere
- to us: means ‘sine-cera’- without wax,. An open letter
o an open letter and heart to all
- to them: lit ‘without hypocrisy’
o without a mask. Without play-acting… pandering to the person (through own needs) or power-playing
Do you love enough to be YOURSELF with people?
- because that’s who they want
o -> move on with God. Get closer. Get real. Get the masks down
Now- it tells us other things about this love: it is patient, it is kind
2 things about this:
1) - they are verbs.
- So- this love is started by How you know God feels about you… how you FEEL about Him
- (and that, I guess, transforms how you feel about yourself- as it must for you to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’)
- but it leads to changing your ACTIONS.
- as these are verbs about how you ACT
- and you know what- as you DO- more love comes, as it ‘is more blessed to give than receive’
- love, like the flame from a candle, is one of the only things you can give away without loss
- in fact- you GET
- ’The real test of my loving is not that I feel loving, but the other person feels loved by me’. Morton T Kelsey in ’Companions on the inner way’
- do we need to GIVE so we can get and GROW?
-so, this is quite specific and ACTIVE. It is God-powered and transformed, but it is not ‘sentimental’ and ‘general’
- C. S. Lewis once said: "it is easier to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital "H" than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting - exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular."
2) - They are present tense.
- displaying that these need to become practiced, habitual, ingrained- permanent attributes
- of course, that takes time
The toughest thing
This love is not a gushy thing
- it is the tenderest and toughest thing
You see- this love is not WEAK.
- love REALLY wants the bet for the other person
- wears no mask
- > so, sometimes, it says:
o “you need to stop that thing. It’ll destroy you”
o “I can’t agree with you on that.- but I can love you”
o “You need a bath!”
Illustr: Bible college. You really need to find a deodorant. Cried ‘nobody has ever really loved me enough to be frank with me as to why some avoid me”
"love without truth is sentimentality. Truth without love is brutality"
Many in our churches don’t grow because
- there’s not enough love. SERIOUS love
- no serious accountability
- everyone just lets everyone do what they want. And people do!
o Even though it destroys their soul!
- So, lovingly, say ‘I’m so concerned you’re going to shipwreck your soul the way you’re going’. ‘Come- walk with me!”
So- we all need to ask: ‘am I really loving, or am I a coward’ (or both?)
The most needed thing
And oh, how we need REAL, true love. Don’t we?
- I need it so badly, Lord. How can I move on with other things if I’m so lousy at the basic thing? Change me!
o Illustr: found myself asking in Nigeria (could have asked all kinds of things)- “man of God, I need more love for God’s people… others… more love for Jesus. How can I transform others if I’m not transformed,. Myself”
God has helped me this far. I want to go further
And we need it for THEM (outside), don’t we
- often we just love ourselves. Insular love (that’ll die!!!)
- nobody says ‘I came to join you because of your full programme and evangelical stance”
- they come because of love, acceptance. They stay because of it
o PLEASE think of others in your
Tea, coffee, donuts. Pub-going
Social life. Invite others! Throw the net wider
- Please love others enough to THINK to invite them to
o Alpha (only a handful invite, actually)
o The Cabaret. The Sat pm event. Next Sunday
It MAY save their life (in the years to come)
So- how can we have more of it. Move on in it?
1) Remove the blocks, the calcification of the heart
On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual
operations in medical history took place in Ohio
State University’s department of research surgery.
A stony sheath was removed from around the heart
of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age.
When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a
playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had
lodged in his heart but had not caused his death.
However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the
protective covering of the heart and gradually was
strangling it. The operation was a delicate one
separating the ribs and moving the left lung to
one side. Then the stony coating was lifted from
the heart as an orange is peeled. Immediately the
pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded
by expanding and pumping normally. "I feel a
thousand per cent better already," said the patient
soon after the operation. Charles M. Crowe. Sermons For Special Days. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 163.
It gives a short list of things, here, that love is NOT
- if you practice THEM, you are not PRACTICING love… and it can kill your heart:
o rudeness, self seeking, easily angered, keeping a record of wrongs
Illustr: at ch meeting “I have it HERE!”
o Rejoicing in evil
Strange phenomena, in us all. It’s the sinful nature. Must resist it, starve it… grow Christ’s nature in you
- Forgive. Forgo.
- If people irritate you- or you feel ‘let down’- ask yourself ‘what is the darkness in ME that makes me react like this
o Can’t speak for THEM. CAN change ME.
2) Use the WILL
These are deeds, not emotions.
- use you WILL to DO what is right and loving- irrespective of how you feel
o that’s how it is for a lot of us a lot of the time
And who knows- after testing you… your will… intent and resolution- God will reward you with the blessing that comes from giving
3) ASK
let’s be honest with God about where we are at… what we can do as a next step
- and ask Him for MORE. MORE LOVE, MORE POWER. MORE OF YOU IN MY LIFE
SILENCE , BUSINESS & WAITING ON GOD
- how do YOU take your next step in this? DO it.
Jerome, the Church historian, relates of the Apostle John that, when he became old he used to go among the churches and assemblies, everywhere repeating the words, “Little children, love one another.” His disciples, wearied by the constant repetition, asked him why he always said this. “Because,” he replied, “it is the Lord’s commandment; and if it only be fulfilled, it is enough.” John knew that the greatest truth was most apt to be forgotten because it was taken for granted. This is one of the greatest calamities in the Christian Church
