Relationship Builders Pt.4 Series

INTRO: A lady walked up to a man and said, "If I was your wife I would feed you poison." The man replied, "If I was your husband I’d eat it."

Adam asked God, "Why did you have to make woman so beautiful?" God said, "So you’d fall in love with her. Then Adam asked, "But why did you have to make her so stupid?" God answered, "So she’d fall in love with you."

Relationships—sometimes we may think we don’t need them and don’t want to have them but in truth we all need relationships, every last one of us.

We’ve been going through a series on relationships builders. Healthy Relationships

Serving Loyalty Forgiveness Love Review for those who have not been here.

Pillar – Serving. We got a glimpse of the Lord’s life, in the last few hours. The scene showed his disciples bickering about who would be the greatest while Judas was out making a deal with the devil to turn the Lord over to the religious establishment.

-The Lord did something amazing. He began to wash their feet, something no one else wanted to do. That is truly serving.

Pillar 2 – Loyalty. We looked at the man Uriah who was loyal to his soldiers, his country, God, and the king. We learned loyalty will cost you something, it may cost you your life, but it will be remembered.

Pillar 3 – Forgiveness. Forgiveness is surrendering my right to hurt you for hurting me. Jesus instructs us that we need to forgive others; if we don’t, our Father in heaven will not forgive us.

Today we are going to take a look at Pillar 4 – that is Love.

TITLE: Relationship Builders

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 13:7, 8a

-There are so many things we could look at in this chapter on love. The great apostle called it the most excellent way in verse 1.

-We’re going to look at four things that describe the pillar of love.

I. Love always protects.

A. Always is a strange word—it means at all times, forever, perpetually, in any event.

1. The Amplified Bible phrases it this way. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes.

2. William Barclay: It is just possible that this may mean (love can cover anything) in the sense that it will never drag into the light of day the fruits and mistakes of others. It would far rather set about quietly mending things than publicly displaying and rebuking them.

Question: In our friendships do we look past our friends’ faults and mistakes, do we bear up under them? Or do we bring them into the light for all to see?

-Somehow we feel better when others are struggling.

B. The story that comes to my mind in looking at this concept, love always protects, is the story of David and Jonathan.

1. Jonathan was the son of King Saul who was the first king of Israel and ended up losing his kingship because of disobedience to God.

-David was anointed king as a teen but didn’t take over for many years because Saul had tremendous power.

2. David became more and more powerful. The people loved him while King Saul became more and more jealous and set in motion a plot to kill David. Jonathan found out, and then warned David, about what would happen.

-Jonathan went to his father and convinced him that David was no threat. He listened because of his son’s high praises.

3. On more than one occasion Jonathan protected David from his father’s wrath.

-David and Jonathan were very close friends. Jonathan protected David to the point of standing against his father, even risking his own safety. Saul tried to kill him because he sided with David.

TS:Love always protects, it covers the faults of others rather than delighting in them. II. Love always trusts. Love is completely trusting.

A.In relation to our fellow men, it means to always believe the best about other people.

1. A little boy walked down the beach, and as he did, he saw a woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He walked up to her and asked, "Are you a Christian?" "Yes," the woman replied. "Do you read your Bible every day?" She nodded her head yes. "Do you pray often?" The woman replied, "Yes." With that he asked his final question, "Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?"

B.Do we trust others?

1. Do we believe the best of other people, or do we see the negative side to everything?

-Are we like those who see the best in others? Or are we like those who focus on the worst in others?

2. If you focus on the negative, it’s going to be hard for you to trust others but realize love always trusts (that is believing the best about other people).