The Power of Love
I Corinthians 13.1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Love
The most powerful force in the universe is the love of God.
He has lavished His Love on us. I John 3.1
Jesus showed us the full extent of His love. John 13.1
He gave us a new commandment...
John 13.34
To love one another
As the He loves us!
Paul is speaking about spiritual gifts in the previous chapter, in this chapter and in the next chapter.
Love is all important. It is called by some, “the greatest gift.”
Look with me how it’s absence in the face of great spiritual gifts make those gifts of no blessing or benefit to us and negates the blessing to others. The lack of love short circuits the flow of the Spirit through you.
1. If you could speak the languages of the all nations and even heaven itself...!
Imagine that!
I have been around the world.
Even here in New York! 80 languages spoken.
I need someone with the gift of interpretation.
It would be awesome, my mind reels! Wow! If I could speak the 80 languages of Metro NY!
Just “God bless you” in Creole 2 weeks ago when meeting with Pastor Kuadio and his church board. They all laughed. I said, “You didn’t know I could do that!” They laughed even harder. The connection you can make when you speak the language is beyond imagination.
But love is so all important that even if I could speak all the languages on the earth if I did not have love, “I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Now remember last week?
the common good= I Corinthians 12.7
sympherÅ Symphony
an elaborate musical composition for full orchestra
If I don’t have love I would just be making a lot of noise. I would not be part of the symphony. I would not be a blessing to the church. It would do nothing for anyone but just draw attention to myself. It would not exalt Jesus Christ. It would be meaningless. It would be annoying. resounding gong or a clanging cymbal
No, I want to blend into God’s symphony.
I may even be speaking the truth but we are to speak the Truth in Love. Ephesians 4.15
There is a huge difference. I have heard it both ways. Talking about eternal things with passion and a broken heart or lecturing about them without love.
2. If you had the gift of prophecy and could understand all mysteries.
Mysteries= the hidden and secret things
You could explain the other side of the curtain.
You could unwrap all the mysteries and answer questions that people have about life.
Why are there wars?
Why do people die young?
Why are there birth defects and children born with special needs?
Why can’t some people already burdened down catch a break... Pastor Jerry and I with Lyswa Rene... suffering joyful... sick daughter. “Bro, it seems like this guy has enough to contend with, then he has a sick daughter on top of it.”
Most recently, about Haiti, why is God allowing this to continue? The theological answers don’t cut it for me. They fall far short of bringing peace to the heart, especially when you are the one suffering or if you care about those suffering.
We cannot give adequate answers for grief. Not do I believe that people grieving are looking for answers. Yet they flow freely. Nonsense!
But say for a moment you could explain to a grieving soul, a mother, an answer that would unwrap the mystery of her child’s death. You could explain it...
If you could explain all of it without love it would not touch hearts, transform lives
Knowledge= deep understanding
Knowledge
If not done with love... I am nothing.
3. If you had a faith that could move mountains.
We are impressed with mountain moving faith, very impressed.
That guy is really something!
If he does not have love, he is nothing!
This is serious. God working through me, doing great exploits, without love I am
A nobody.
Love and faith. Faith without works is dead. Faith and works without love doesn’t do a thing for me.
Look at verse three...
4. If I sell all I have and make the ultimate sacrifice...
And have not love i gain nothing.
No gain= useless, no advantage, no profit
Interesting we are told that all these things will pass away.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
Even 2 out of three things essential for our journey will no longer be necessary.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
When we see Jesus in heaven we will no longer need faith! Right now we walk by faith not by sight, but there! Fave to face!
Who hopes for what He already has? Or what he has already seen? Romans 8.24
Our hope will be fulfilled.
But the greatest of these is love.
Greatest= used of rank and age as with elder
In closing look at verses 4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
Put your name in the place of love... how far can you get? It will show you where you need to grow in love!
Live a life of love! It is the greatest!
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Spiritual Warfare
The Church and Spiritual Gifts
Before Jesus left for heaven He told His disciples to wait in the city of Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high. So they waited in Jerusalem praying. When the day of Pentecost had fully come they were all in one place in one accord and the Holy Spirit fell on them, the promise of the Father. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in the languages of the Jews where they resided, who had come to Jerusalem from every nation on the earth.
Peter stood up and preached. He used
Joel 2.28-31 “And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Paul was sent out by the Lord to be the first missionary in the church. We are reading one of the letters that he wrote to one of the church he started in Corinth. With the coming of the Holy Spirit came many wonderful gifts listed here others in
Romans 12.3-8 The gifts of the Holy Spirit for the church. They are to be a display of the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God for His Church and the world.
As with all the doctrines of the church in the Scriptures there is the possibility of error.
I believe we are in a time right now of great error. People who have followed the LORD for a long time are in danger of departing from the faith. They are dabbling with things spiritually that are outside the parameters of the Scriptures. The Bible is our guidebook for our spiritual life. There are seducing spirits today at work sent from Satan because he knows his time is short.
I Timothy 4.1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to (seducing spirits)deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Don’t be deceived!
Just As Paul penned this admonition and instruction to Timothy so he writes to the Corinthian church to correct any misgivings or misinformation concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A number of times he uses the word “now.”
Three “nows”
Now= moreover
1. Understanding, Not Ignorance. v.1
Ignorant = not know, not understand, to err or be wrong by mistake or sin
We should know about the gifts of the Spirit.
The Scriptures are abundant.
Here
Romans 12.3-8
We should understand how they work.
Romans 12.4-6a
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.
God distributed the gifts to you.
We have different gifts.
Don’t envy another’s gift.
A 14th century Christian whom the gifts of healing came through asked God at one point to take it away. People were coming only to be healed!
We should not make mistakes over and over again.
(I think that too often happens)
The second “now”
2. For the Common Good v.7
sympherÅ Symphony
an elaborate musical composition for full orchestra
The whole body, building it up, strengthening it
Each part does its work.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit after the building up of the body of Christ his church. Some are very obvious such as prophecy speaking forth His Word while some are done quietly and out of sight like the servants who drew the water at the wedding feast.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for our glory. They should exalt Christ and build up His Body.
In this time when entertainment has invaded the church we need to be alert. His Spirit.
Compliments should be controlled. Criticism avoided. We have this treasure in jars of clay, some of us are cracked pots.
The third “now”
3. You are Part of the Body of Christ.
Holy Fellowship
Spiritual Relationships
His Hands, His feet here on the earth.
All of us have been given gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit. God’s gifts are distributed to each one of us. We all have different gifts and those gifts express themselves differently for instance someone may have the gift of exhortation and they’ve got a outgoing personality that it will be expressed for the most part through the spoken word someone else might have a silent gift of exhortation and it comes across in writing notes.
I have watched when the Body, a local fellowship, the whole Body in a locale, the Body of Christ Worldwide (Bahamas now)... Errol Viera from Ozone Park and contributions all for His Glory... when this happens the church may have the gates of hell conspire against it but it is an unstoppable force. When the Body of Christ uses its gifts for His glory wonderful things happen.
It is thing of beauty and grace. It is attractive. People may criticize but we will hear Jesus saying about us, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. She did what she could.”
4. Zealously Seek After The More Useful, More serviceable, More Advantageous, Excellent Gifts.
We are to ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit and will not He give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
So when the need arises in our lives we can ask the LORD for a gift from His Spirit to address their needs.
Luke 11.11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7.11
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!
The gift of faith
The gifts of healing
The Word of Wisdom
The gift of Helps
Serving
Encouraging
Giving
Showing mercy
Yes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
