The Better Way Series

The Better Way.

First Corinthians Series

February 22nd, 2026 CCCAG

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1–13 (CSB)

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Introduction-

When I was newer in the faith, I was recruited to serve on the usher and greeter team. This was a pretty big church, so the ushers also had the task of walking through the building to make sure people, teens and kids especially, were not wandering through the building and ending up in places they shouldn’t get into.

One time I was at church during a special service where we had a pretty famous guest speaker, and a worship leader associated with some major revivals in the area. Both of them were excellent. In particular, the worship leader was a gifted musician on the keyboard, and had a unique and powerful worship presence on the stage.

From the congregational perspective, both were powerful men of God.

As I rounded a corner, I saw the worship leader pulling one of his background singers out into the hallway, and began to very cruelly and with strong profanity tear her apart for missing a cue, and in his mind, ruining the entire worship set. They saw me and another usher coming, , and went back into the sanctuary, praising God, speaking in tongues, and riling everyone up.

As a very young Christian, it was my first hard example of how a person can seem so spiritual, speak in tongues and encourage others to speak in tongues, give prophecy and lead others toward worship of God.

But still not have the character of Christ within them.

Hypocrisy in the church is one of the most effective attacks that the kingdom of darkness uses to ruin our impact in the world.

I will say- we are all capable of not always showing the character and love of Christ. I think I was Billy Graham who once said, “We are all just dirt….having a spiritual experience.

And sometimes that dirt side shows more than it should.

One of the ways that it does is when spirituality becomes only performative- speaking in tongues, giving prophesy, miraculous “healings”

When our spirituality is tied to performance it can darken what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in the lives of believers-

To cultivate the character and nature of Jesus Christ in the lives of the believers.

Why is this important?

Many of you are following the chronological bible reading plan for this year, so as of today you’d be finishing the book of Leviticus.

If that is you- you made it! The second half of Exodus and Leviticus are hard books to read because of the details in the Levitical law that are mind-numbing to our modern way of thinking.

But what those books show us in relation to what we are talking about this morning is this-

Outside of three men- Moses, Joshua, and Caleb

No amount of miraculous occurrences, signs, and wonders every changed one single heart in the millions of people that witnessed them.

Not one.

Keep in mind these people all witnessed

-10 plagues of Egypt

-A sea parting with walls of water on each side, and the ground dry so they could walk through.

-God coming down on Sinai

-Pillars of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night- every day.

water from rock

-Bread from dew

-Flocks of quail just happened to come into the camp, every night, enough to feed several million people, for 40 years.

Yet with all of those miraculous signs, they still struggle with disbelief and rebellion.

That’s why God The HOLY SPIRIT, when HE was moving on Paul’s heart to write this letter to the Corinthian church, chose to put the important attribute that should define Christians the middle of 2 chapters talking about the gifts of the Spirit.

That thing is love.

Let’s read about it in 1 Cor 13

1st Corinthians 13 (read carefully)

13 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.