I'm marking the wrong place.
If you will, let's turn to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. While you're turning there, Kimberly
boosted the message Wednesday night on Facebook. You give a
lizard man some money and they'll make everybody see it. That's
scary, isn't it? It's frightening. We gave them some money. And
that message from Wednesday night, so in a 30-mile area around Humboldt,
a 15-mile radius from right here, it's boosted on people's feeds,
which I think is hilarious. Those users are getting shamed. This guy's comical. Anyway, Lord
might use it for a blessing. I made fun of it this whole time.
Lord might use it for a blessing. So it's been boosted, and 270
people have seen it. Thirty-seven have watched it
all the way through. Been some likes in there, and
one person shared it to somebody else. You know what just might
be getting ready to happen? The Lord might be getting ready
to split San Diego County wide open. You want a gospel work? Is that
what y'all want? About to put your shoulder to
the plow and not be happy. May have a war on her hands.
What a blessed thing. What a blessed thing it'd be.
1 Corinthians 13. We're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians
13 And I'm just gonna tell you what the Holy Ghost moved Paul
to write. That's what I'm gonna do, I'm
just gonna tell you what he said. That's a vast subject. Tom, our
message is the greatest of these is love. Love's a vast subject
and it takes a lifetime to experience it, to grow to where you see
that love as if it's through a glass dimly. If you think you know a lot about
love, check your ego at the door, God's gonna tell us something.
And if it's the, I just about can't preach from it. I see what
a wretch I am. I've just struggled with this
for days. How little I love, what little bit I know about
it. But I know Him that is love. And He gave me His word. He just
might teach us something. We need to see this message before
the second one. Second one might be a little
rough. Might be hard to handle. But this one might be rough too.
It was for me. We'll begin in verse 1 of chapter
14. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1. Paul writes, follow after charity. Charity. Now you young people,
you pay attention to me. I got something to tell you,
little fella. Y'all listen to me. My whole life, I've heard
people My pastors say, charity. That means love. Charity. That
means love. Charity. Follow after love. Love. And so much so, as I read
through the scriptures, if I'm reading it out loud, I don't
even have to flip it in my head. I just say, that's what that
means. Charity. You read charity in
the scriptures, son. It means love. That's what that means.
Okay? Follow after love. Love. What's that mean? What does it
mean to follow after love? These aren't complicated terms,
are they? Go where love goes. Go where love goes. Other translations
of the Scriptures. I'm your pastor, I give you good
advice. Get your King James Version Bible. That's what you ought
to use. It's my business, trust me on
it. But some of the other ones, every now and then a blind squirrel
will find a nut. They'll get it pretty good. One version says,
follow the way of love. Follow love, follow after it,
go where it goes, but follow the way that it goes. Do what
it does. One of the old revisions says,
make love your aim. Make love your aim. You want
to hit the mark? Have that mark be loved. Be loved. Is this important? There's a
preacher of old who wrote an article one time. He said, what
area of my life, not someone else's, But if it applies to
him, it applies to me. It applies to every believer,
don't it? What area of my life to which I should give the most
attention if I would serve and walk with Christ the way He would
have me walk? What area should I give the most
attention to if I want to serve God? So many thoughts ran through
my mind. Then I discovered the answer.
The area of my life that I should give the most attention if I
should glorify Christ, if I should serve Him, if I should walk with
Him, as he would have me to do so. Love. Love. What area of my life needs
the most attention? Love does. Peter worded it this
way. He said, above all things have
fervent love among yourselves for that love shall cover a multitude
of sins. Our Lord said, by this shall
all men know that you're my disciples. If you have love one to another. How are people in this wicked
sin-cursed world going to know that you belong to God. Because
you tell them you go to church. I told the waterman yesterday,
I'm a pastor. Is that how he knows? Well, we talked about
an hour before that, before the word got out on me. They're going to know you are
his child if you have love one towards another. True love. Not
plastic hit melts in the sun love. We're going to see what
love is. Paul gets us right from the get-go, and it ain't what
we think love is. If we have true love, boy, it's
gonna last, too. You can't fake it. You can do
it for a decade, you can do it for a long time, but if it's
fake, it ain't gonna make it to the end. It ain't gonna hold
up. That tire's gonna go flat. But true love. What about the
other things? Are they important? Sure they
are. Other things are important. Just
before he says this in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, look up one verse
there. Where does this love go? What
is falling away love? Make your love your aim. What
about other things? Look at verse 13. 1 Corinthians
13 verse 13. Now by the faith, hope, love. These three. But the greatest
of these is love. Faith has been given to us. Faith
that the Lord gave, it's His gift, and He makes us look to
Christ and Him alone for everything we need and everything we desire. Faith that we walk by, looking
to our Lord, following Him. That's what faith is talking
about. And hope, that's an earnest expectation. That ain't wishy. We earnestly expect that everything
that He said, He's going to do. Everything He said, it's going
to come to pass. We have a hope, we have an earnest
expectation of Him coming again, of His return. That's what we
look for. A rightful anticipation that in that day of judgment,
I stand before Him, I'll see Him as He is, because I'll be
made like Him. There'll be no condemnation,
as He said. I'll look Him dead in the eye. He'll look me right
back. That's a hope. We have faith in Him, and we
have an expectation. Those two are important, aren't
they? Is that important? Now about a faith, hope and love. These three, but the greatest
of these is love. Why is love the greatest? It's
going to be hard for some folks. It's either be hard to believe
because they've never experienced it. Or it's going to be hard
because it's true. I struggle. I'm not good at it. I don't fucking know much of
it. And I struggled with this. Or people are going to struggle
getting a hold of it because they've never experienced God. That's
just all there is to it. Why is love the greatest? It's
the source of salvation. Do you know that? Where does
salvation come from? Well, it's in Jesus and this
and that. People have all their ideas, right? The foundation,
the source of God's salvation that He's the Lord of, it's sourced
from love. That's its beginnings. Paul wrote
to us and said, but God who is rich in mercy for His great love,
wherewith He loved us. Because of that love, even when
we were dead in sins, even when we were wicked, vile, worms that
were just at war with Him, He's quickened us together with Christ.
How are we made alive and made one with Christ? Because of the
Father's love. That's the source of it. The
foundation of grace, the driving force behind grace. He says,
by grace are you saved. The driving force behind grace
is love. If you ain't got no love, ain't
no such thing as grace in your mouth. Can't speak up. People say, well, what about
the burden of the Lord? The Lord said, I don't want to hear it. Don't you speak
about the burden of the Lord. The purpose of the Father was
established in His love for those He put in Christ before time.
John told us herein is love, not that we love God, But that
He loved us, and it wasn't just saying you love somebody. Love
you. Hate that for you. Good to see
you. That He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He sent Him to be the bloody,
accepted sacrifice. I was told that sounds vulgar.
Good, it was. It was bloody. It was messy.
He was marred beyond... His mother didn't even know who
He looked like. And that was just on the outside,
and God forsook him. For what? For our sins. And you
know where that comes from? Love. You got a good handle on what
love is? I told you, check the door. That's what love is. Christ
was made the accepted, bloody sacrifice out of love. And he
said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I love my sheep.
And am known of mine. Do we love him that first loved
us? He's loved you. You better believe you love Him.
Why? That's instinct. That's the nature.
That's the nature of love. That's what it does. He said,
My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Those that He loves, do they
follow after charity? Do they follow after love? Do
they make love their aim? He said so. He said so. That's my aim. Do I feel like
I'm standing on a bullseye? Absolutely not. That's my aim. That's where I'm aiming. How
are we going to find out about the Father's love before time?
How are we going to find out that the Son fulfilled that love
on Calvary's cross? How are we going to come to this
one that we're at war with? We have to be drawn. God the
Holy Ghost draws us. Do you know that? The Father
purposed it, the Son purchased it, and then the Spirit comes
and proclaims it in our heart. We're drawn to be to Him in love.
Jeremiah 31 says, The Lord hath appeared unto me of old, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. We stop there,
don't we? Colon. There's a listing. Therefore,
because of that everlasting love, we can't even enter into that.
Something has infinity. Something has no beginning and
no end. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Love's what drew us. Well, if
I run wild, Well, if the Lord's loved me always, He sent His
Son for me, He revealed His Son in me, and I take off. Maybe I've lived through that.
We're kept. We're kept. Paul said, we are
kept by the power of God. That power of God's acted upon
by His love for those that He saves. We're kept by His power,
kept in His love. Why is love the greatest of all
these? Love saved us. And love came first. Love came
first. If God is love, Christ has a
preeminence. What is He? That's true, isn't it? But love
came first. Before there was ever faith, before there was
ever a sure expectation, before Adam ever had hope, before Eve
ever said, the Lord's promise has come to pass, He gave me
a man-child, there it is. He's telling the truth. Before
that ever happened, there was love. Before time, before there
was a sinner on earth, love was there. While we are on this earth,
While we're here, love's the evidence of faith and hope. And I said, love does something,
don't it? Love don't just sit back in an easy chair and say,
I love you. Or James say, you got faith? I'll show you my faith
by my works. Does that mean go out and feed
the hungry? No, it ain't works. We know we ain't saved by works.
He says, but I'm gonna show you because I love. We'll get down
in the pit with you. Put our shoulder to the plow.
Loves the evidence of faith and loves the evidence of hope. If
somebody, if I have an expected end, and I know that if the Lord
rolled them clouds back to right now, and He comes from glory,
I have an expectation. Am I going to walk this earth moaning and nagging and carrying
on all the time and complaining about everything that's underneath
the sun? And bitter to everybody around
me? No! Like that fellow on the boat
going to England, down in the dregs, that shit, rats crawling
all over him, and he was just happy as a lark. And I said,
well, how in the world could you be happy down here? It's muggy, and there's
rats all over the place, and we're hungry, the food's bad.
He said, the second I get to England, buddy, I got an inheritance.
He's gonna be stinking rich. We can enter into that carnally,
can't we? Well, when this life's over,
the second it's over, I'm gonna be with the one that loved me
first. I'm gonna be with my redeemer. How ought to I react? People
go out and work in the garden, rains come. My Lord sent the
rain. Love Him for what He does. While we're here on this earth,
love is what motivates true obedience to the Lord. Truly to follow
Him, truly to serve Him, truly to walk after Him, love's the
motivation. How can I know that? For His
people, how can I know that? Paul told us again, for the love
of Christ constraineth us. If I'm constrained, I'll be obedient
to the one that saved me. Why? His love constrained me. That's not out of necessity.
That's not out of begrudging attitudes, is it? Anything a
believer does that is not done from a heart of love, it doesn't
mean squat. If you're doing it out of just obligation or necessity
or anything else, go, well, we got to. You got to grit your
teeth and do it. Don't do it. If you've got to give, of your
first fruits every month in that little box with a hole in it
in the back. Don't do it. Normal preachers ask people for
money. I tell you, don't give it. If
it ain't out of love, God won't accept anything that's not motivated
out of love for Him, love for His Son. It won't be accepted. Now, if the Lord's blessed you
abundantly, you'll have love in your heart. That's easy, isn't
it? People like rules for everything,
don't they? I heard a friend of mine got asked, he said, what
do I give, 10% before or after taxes? He said, don't give nothing.
Do you have to ask that of your children? Of your loved ones,
your spouses, your family, your parents? Today's Father's Day.
Jared bought me something, got me a gift. He didn't go ask his
mother, now how much do I have to spend on Dad's gift? What's,
buddy, you all right? He'll be okay, don't give him
nothing, what's wrong with you? There might not be love there. Love
gives, don't it? Love's the greatest of all because
it will prevail. Love saved us. Love was before
and love will always be. It'll prevail. Don't flinch too
much and hear me out, okay? Grab a hold of your seats. You
might learn something. You ain't never heard of it.
There'll come a day for every child of God, your faith ain't
gonna be needed no more. You ain't gonna have faith. Do
you know that? You're gonna see Christ face to face. You'll be
with Him. You won't have to hope to see
Him. You won't have to hope to believe in Him. You'll believe
Him. He's right there. You'll hear Him. Hope will be fulfilled one day.
It'll give way to reality. We have an expected end. Well,
that end's going to come. That expectation's going to be
fulfilled. We hope to be made like Christ. I hope to be made
and set with joy, exceeding joy in His presence. Well, one day
that's gonna happen. When? When? Everybody's worried
about when. I can tell you a time frame for
certain. You wanna hear my prediction?
Sometime within the next 60 years, I'll tell you all about this.
I'm 42. I don't think I'll make it to
102. If the Lord don't come between then, I'll go to Him. He'll bring
me to Him. That love will draw me to Him. Faith's gonna become
sought, hope will arrive, but love will never change. Those
things have their place, now they're necessary, but they're
going to come to an end. Because we'll be with Him, we'll
be made like Him. But love will never change. You see that? That
same love that's everlasting, it'll never go away. Hebrews
11 verse 1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for. It's the evidence of things not seen. Faith and hope, that's
the evidence of love. We sing, Lord haste the day when
my faith shall be sight in the clouds, be rolled back like a
scroll. The trumpet shall sound and the
Lord shall descend. Even so, it's well with my soul. Why will it be well with my soul?
Love will endure. Love's the greatest because it's
the character of those in the kingdom of God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. Isn't that what John told us?
Remember when we were going through 1 John? That's the first book
we went through when I got here. Any man say he loved God and he hated
his brother, he's a liar. Is that strong? It's true, isn't it? Paul tells
us to follow after love. Make that your aim. If you miss
love, you're going to miss faith. If you miss love, you're going
to miss hope. You ain't going to have any. You have a false
hope. You have a false faith. What does real love look like?
1 Corinthians 13 verse 1. Love is described here. 1 Corinthians
13 verse 1 says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and have not love, I am become a sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal. What's that mean? If I could
speak a hundred languages and translate the scriptures and
translate messages, and I could say the nicest things to people. He just says the nicest things.
say Him so sweetly, and I don't have love for Christ and I don't
have love for His people, I'm just an annoying gong. I'm a
pesky wind chime. That's all I am. That's it. He did great things. Nothing. Nothing. Verse 2 says, And though
I have the gift of prophecy, though I can preach and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, And though I have all faith so
that I could remove mountains, have not charity, have not love,
I'm nothing. Didn't know if you say that. Lord, we've preached in your
name. We've performed miracles. We've cast out devils in your
name. Well, that sounds good. If you
don't have love for God, love for His people, it's nothing. It's nothing. That happened to
Simon. Not Simon Peter, He's there with the apostles. He was
agreeable to the gospel. He didn't chop anybody's heads
off. And he saw them apostles lay hands on somebody, and the
Holy Ghost went into them. And he offered them money, saying,
Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he
may receive the Holy Ghost. How much will this cost? Let
me give you some money. Let me do that. Let me do that. That's not out of love. That's
not waiting. waiting on the one that loved
you. You could be the best preacher,
you could understand every picture of Christ in the scriptures,
you could have faith to perform miracles and move mountains,
but if love is not in it, it's nothing. It don't count. Verse 3, And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity, have not love, it profiteth me
nothing. What if you give all your money
to the church and you sacrifice yourself and you sacrifice your
own body? I'll be a martyr. Don't kill them, kill me. How
could someone give all their wealth and give all their own
bodies, lay down their life for the gospel and not do it out
of love? Is that even possible? It sure is. It sure is. Ananias and Sapphira, They sold
off their stuff. Most poor to gospel ministry,
but they held something back, didn't they? So why did they
sell off all their stuff? Was it for love? No, it was out
of recognition. They wanted to be seen for it.
What did that Pharisee in the temple say? He gives alms to
the poor, didn't he? Why did he give alms to the poor?
That's an offering. That's in addition to tithes.
The Lord said, you brought me in tithes and offerings. Why
did he give alms to the poor? For righteousness. And he asked
them, they wanted to be seen of men. And that Pharisee in
the temple did it so God owed him something. He did it for
righteousness, for his own good works, so he'd be seen with that.
Without love, everything that even seems good, everything that
even seems right and proper, it's a sounding brass. It's an
annoying alarm clock at 5 a.m. We've been learning in our house,
if you set an alarm clock that sounds like a tune that puts
people to sleep, sounds like a lullaby, you ain't gonna wake
up to it. It's gotta be annoying to wake up, don't it? That's
all we are, an annoying 5 a.m. alarm clock. The Lord told Isaiah,
Those that say, stand by thyself to come not near me, I'm holier
than thou. He said, there are smoke in my nose. There are fire
burneth all day. It's a norm. Love is the gift
of God, and it's shed abroad in the heart of his people. What's
that mean? It's broadcasted. Like seed in
a field, you take it and sling it. It's slung to every corner.
It might be tiny little seeds, but it's there. What does His love that He provides
do? It's all based on love. That's
something you can't choose to do. You can't choose to love
somebody. Same as you can't choose not to love somebody. That's
a gift of God, isn't it? He does that. That's His work.
His love it puts in us. What does His love that He provides
do? Verse 4. Charity suffereth long. It suffers long. It's patient. It don't give up easy. They don't
say, well, we did it for a little while. Let's hang it up. It's
over. No, first off, it's the first
thing Paul hit with through the Spirit, speaking through Paul.
First thing, I want to know something about this love, this saving
love, this eternal love, this love that's in Christ only. Tell
me something about it. First thing, it suffers long.
You're going to suffer, and it's going to take a long time. It's
going to last a long time. Is that appealing? Is that what
man preaches to other man? No, no, that's warm fuzzies. God says, the first thing that
this love does, it's going to suffer long. It ain't going to
give up. Not easy. Charity suffers long and is kind. Paul told us there in Ephesians
4, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another. Why? Even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. How can I suffer long? How can
I be kind? He suffered long with me. How
long must I suffer? He said. Take a real his kindness to me.
Charity envieth not. Love doesn't envy. There's a
difference between envy and jealousy. In a sense, jealousy wants to
keep what it already has. But there's a difference between
jealousy and envy quickly. Jealousy is like, I really want
that. And envy says, you've got what I want and I don't think
you ought to have it. Love doesn't take away from others, does it?
It doesn't strip others. It provides. Love vaunteth not
itself. It's not puffed up. Love doesn't
promote itself. Love doesn't promote its knowledge.
Love doesn't promote its abilities. Love doesn't just correct everybody
around them on every little jot and tittle. Love's humble. And
it promotes others. That's what love does. Pride's
arrogant. Love's not. Five, what do we
have to boast in? What do we have to boast in?
Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you didn't
receive? Love doth not vaunteth itself.
Verse five says, doth not behave itself unseemly. What's that
mean? Love doesn't behave unseemly.
It's not rude. It's not rude. It's not without
manners. It's not without courtesy. Love
labors to be appealing. Love labors to be kind. Love
labors to be patient. You want friends, you need to
be friendly, don't you? Why would you want friends? You love people.
We're in the people business. John Chapman told me that when
I was a young, young fellow. Yeah, we're in the people business. Verse 5 says, Love seeketh not
her own. Everyone around this country
has been and is because nothing changes. Everybody talks about
their rights. My rights. My rights. I'm going
to do things my way. And whatever nonsensical argument
they have, my body, my choice. Know what people say? That's
all over. Whether you're killing babies or Fighting vaccines,
or wanting to wear a mask, or don't want to wear a mask. What
are you saying? My body, my choice. I got rights. Doesn't matter
what you think. It doesn't matter how it affects
you. It doesn't matter what. I'm going to do it my way. That's
my right. No, that's selfish. No matter
what argument you stand on, no matter what platform you're saying,
I'm going to do it my way. That's self-centered is what
that is. Love seeketh not her own. Best ill-stressed I've ever
heard of that. Mothers love their children.
And they cannot love their child and seek their own. They forego
sleep. They forego meals. They forego
showers. Because they're seeking that
child's well-being, aren't they? Love puts the needs of others before
self. And not begrudgingly, not begrudgingly,
not from duty, but from love. Well, I've got to do this. Absolutely
not. It's out of love. It's out of love. There might
be some pain with it, there might be some suffering with it, but
it's out of love. You can have duty and not have love. The Lord
uses a whole bunch of scaffolding to build his church. The Lord
used ravens to feed his prophets. You can have duty and not have
love, but you cannot have love without duty. I made that bold
and I underlined it and I'll put it in a bulletin next week.
You can have duty without love, but you cannot have love without
duty. That nurse, this is the illustration I was talking about.
A nurse goes in, to care for the babies in incubators. And they're so sick and so frail
and so little. And those maternity nurses come
in and they care for that child. And they do everything they can
in their power to take care of that child. And they make sure
the fluids are in that child. And they make sure it's warm
enough. And they make sure it's covered. And they watch its heartbeat
and they check its blood pressure. And they are diligent. Four o'clock came. High five
and switch, buddy. The next one comes on. What about
that mother? That mother don't leave. We're out of beds, we ain't got
no pillows. You stay in here, you have to sleep on the floor.
Why sleep on the floor? I ain't leaving. One song said, I deny my own
self before I see you, you without it. Why? Because I love you.
Because baby I love you. Verse five says it's not easily
provoked. What's that? Love doesn't fly off a handle
at every little thing. Love ain't overly sensitive.
Love ain't overly cranky. You don't have to walk on eggshells
around love. Scared to death, you might fire
them up. If we've been given wisdom from
above, love from above, it is easily entreated. That's what
James said. It's easy to talk with someone
you love, don't it? If there's real love there, me and Kimber
can go on a road trip from any corner of this country to any
other corner. We've been to all of them, haven't we, baby? That's
not a chore. Oh, man, let me get a piece of
paper. I'm going to make some notes. Maybe I'll have something
to talk about. Well, no, I love her. Now, let me ask you a question. We understand that, don't we?
Let me hit you where you live. Hit me where I live. You struggle
with praying? Do we make a form out of praying? Do we play religion? You talk to your wife, hello
wife, and have a checklist of things you want to hit. No, you
talk to him. That's our father. Are we reverent? You better believe
it. Because he first loved us. We know who he is. That's a holy
God. But pour out your heart. Lord, if it be your will, make
this tomato plant ripen. I've been staring at this half
pink tomato for two weeks now. It's a Cherokee purple, and it
won't turn pink or purple. It's just stopped. I started
looking up stuff. If you can have tomatoes, don't
ever ripe them. There's a nutrient missing or something. Just tell
the Lord. Take your burden to Him and leave
it there. Do we ask for things? Of course we do. Do we petition
for serious things? Of course we do. But if there's
love there, there's communication there. It's not forced, and it's
not fake, and it's not somebody else's. It's mine. I possess
it. I am my beloved's and my beloved's
mine. Isn't it? I talked to him myself. I talked to that woman there,
and I'm not disrespectful to her. I love her. I speak kindly to her. Love thinketh
no evil. Does that mean it don't have
evil thoughts? Absolutely not. Love doesn't find faults in other
people. What do they do? You see a man
walking downtown, what do they do? What are they thinking about? The Lord forgave the sins of
that paralyzed man. There in Matthew 9, And it said,
the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemeth, a judge
in every little thing, looking for fault in every little thing,
wouldn't it? And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore
think ye evil in your hearts? You just said God blaspheming
is what it was, but you're finding fault, finding fault. Love doesn't do that. Verse six
says, rejoices not in iniquity. Love doesn't rejoice in iniquity.
Love doesn't rejoice in someone else's sin. and the falling down
of others. It doesn't do that. When your
children are learning how to walk and they fall and they hit
that table, do you laugh at them? Of course not. You go grab that
child and love it. What do we do when a brother
or a sister is in a fault? We say, buddy, I told them. I
got what's coming to them. I'll tell you that. Or do we
just drop what we're doing and hug them and love them? You shouldn't
have been walking there. You should have watched out.
You should have been looking. You should have read. You should have done...
No! Snatch them up. Hug them close. We do all the
other things. I do the opposite of everything.
And you know what that is? That's my flesh. That's my sin nature
from Adam, and I hate it. I abhor myself. Kevin, how could
you say that? Well, God's saints say stuff
like that, don't they? Job did. You abhor yourself? I do. It
rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth. Does that
mean I just like to be accurate? No, love rejoices in Christ the
truth. Love rejoices in that One that
redeemed us and all of His people from their iniquities, and no
one can lay a charge to us. That's what we rejoice in, in
Him. Whatever a person truly believes,
or whatever a person truly rejoices in, that's what they talk about.
Did you know that? I like gardening. Could you tell?
Could you tell? I talk about it. I like my children. Can you tell? I talk about them.
I tell people about them. Whatever a person truly rejoices
in, that's what they talk about. If they talk a lot about what
other people are doing wrong, that's because they rejoice in
that. If they talk a lot about what errors other people have
that they've discovered, they rejoice in error. If they talk
about how right they are and they correct everyone all the
time, they're rejoicing in their own knowledge. What should we
talk about? Paul tells us that too. Paul
knew something about this love, didn't he? He wrote a lot about
it. He said in Philippians 4, 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever
thing is true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report. Barnard used to say this.
I wouldn't say that's something bad about somebody. The devil
would do that. Go say something good. If somebody comes pecking
at you, alright, let me finish that. What sort of things are
a good or poor? If there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things. Think on these things. Enjoy
some of these things. I have a loved one that was getting
his hen pecked. And I said, next time that old hen comes, starts
pecking you to death, whatever, just have something to brag on
the Lord about. Isn't that true? If somebody's
coming after me and said, Kevin, what are you doing this? Well,
look how the Lord provided. Can you imagine that? Look how
kind and long-suffering He has been to me. And you know what
will happen? Either that'll be a brother or
sister that knows the love of God, you brag on him, and they'll
say, you're right. The Lord's gracious to His people.
They're rejoicing in His people. Or if every time somebody tries
to talk about what they rejoice in, and you meet them with the
love of God in Christ for His people, this will shut them up.
So you take that ammo, put it in your gun. Next time somebody
comes after you, you just start talking about the wonderful things
the Lord did, and they'll either bow or shut up and leave. They'll
leave you alone. That's what we ought to think on. Whatever
things are pure, whatever things are of good or poor virtue, think
on these things. Verse 7 says, Love bears all
things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures
all things. It endures suffering. It bears
burdens. It endures the storm. The good
times, the boring times. Love endures the boring times.
Love endures hurt feelings. Love endures neglect from others. Love don't care, it just loves.
Love don't love if you love me, that's quid pro quo. That's blasphemy. Love loves, it goes out from
you. Whenever I was gone, last time
I was deployed, I come back, Johanna, I missed the bulk of
her first half of her life. And she's a year and a half old.
When I come back, I've been gone a year. And she didn't know me. She just
knew there was a strange man hugging her mother. And she screamed.
And if she could, we'd hug each other. She'd get between us and
push us apart and looked at me and just bawled and cried and
screamed. Get this man away from me. And
I said, well, I'll just hold her next week. I don't care if
she's crying. Give me that baby. I ain't seen
you in a year. Give me that thing. I'm going
to hug her and kiss her. If she's pushing away, you can push away all you
want to. I love you. Get away from me. You can hate me all
you want. I love you. Your opinion of me doesn't change
my opinion of you. What does the Lord say? I know
my thoughts of you. I know what I thought about you.
Oh, ain't that what's important? I want to have those thoughts.
I want him to teach me. The honeymoon phase is a very small portion
of love. Love endures, it bears, it believes,
and it does not stop. It does not end. It does not
quit. The Lord said He'll make them
faithful to the end. And the closer I get to my end,
the more I ask, Lord, make me faithful. Lord, keep me. But
that love, that preceded faith and hope, didn't it? It doesn't
end. It doesn't quit. Look here in
verse 8. Charity never faileth. It don't fail. The love He gives
don't fail. But whether they be prophecy,
They shall fail. All the preaching I have, it's
going to quit one day, isn't it? Whether they be tongues,
somebody can translate or speak a bunch of languages, they cease.
Whether they be knowledge, I know everything. Sometime this brain's
going to be gone. I'll lie in a grave, won't it? For we know
in part, and we prophesy in part. I know the Lord, and I only know
part. You know Him. You only know a part. This goes
with Wednesday's message, because people always stand on the dead
men. They'll praise the dead and curse the living. I've watched
it happen, it ain't a lie. And I told Kim, she's got specific
instructions. On my death, delete every message
I've ever preached. Everything I've ever wrote, you
shred it. I don't want my name attached to any of it, because
if I was to find out, what a shame that would be. 200 years from
now, there's the Thacker Baptist Conference or something. Get rid of everything that's
me. All those things will cease. What's my aim then? Verse 10. But when that which is perfect
is come. What's that which is perfect?
Christ. When Christ is come, that which is in part shall be
done away with. All that stuff I understand in part, I really
don't have a good handle on it. I mean, we do, but we don't.
And His vastness and His love and His mercies, we don't really
enter into them. Those things will go away and
be done with. When I was a child, I spoke as
a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when
I became a man, I put away childish things. Physically, in this world,
I've told my boys this, quit acting like a child. There's
no such thing as adolescence. This in-between, figure it out
for a couple years, there's no such thing. You're either a child
or you're a man. Either act like a child or act like a man. Pick
one and go with it. We understand it practically,
that's all people see. Spiritually, Are we children
in God? To enter His kingdom, will we
have to be like a child? We're His children, aren't we? We're
here. We have to be taken care of,
we have to be fed and looked after and everything else. But
when this life is over, when He that is perfect has come,
we'll be grown-ups. We'll be brides. Ain't that something? We'll be right there with Him.
For now, verse 12, for now we see through a glass darkly. But
then, what's he talking about, but then? What I just told you?
Face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. I'm gonna know him the
way he fully knows me. We got a little bit more handle
on love. We don't have a handle on love,
but we understand a little bit more, don't we? We got a little bit of a
grasp on it. Now verse 13 again. And now abideth faith, hope,
Right now, living in you, Christ dwelling in you, you have faith,
you have hope of His return, and you have love. These three.
But the greatest of these is charity. The greatest of these
is charity. That's the greatest one is love,
isn't it? I'm going to give you a commandment. I'm going to tell
you to do something. Every one of you. Y'all hear
me? I'm going to tell me to do something. Hold on, Kevin. Easy. Easy. Well, you'll be all
right. If you've been mad at somebody,
And you've been hurt, and you've been offended, and you can't
just deal with your brother. You can't deal with your sister.
And you've got to have friction. I don't care if it's been two
days. I don't care if it's been two months. I don't care if it's
been two years. I don't care if it's been 20 years. Drop it and love
one another. Drop it and love one another.
I'm telling you flat out. How can I say that? Kevin, how
could you get up and just, how could you know that? Our Lord
said, a new commandment I give you. that you love one another. That you love one another. He
gave us commandments. The Lord gave us ordinances, didn't he? Why
are believers baptized? When they hear the truth, not
under a false gospel, when they hear the truth, and the Lord
says, be baptized, and they say, okay. And they put away their
pride, they put away their ceremony, they put away their whole life
of playing church, and they bow to God, they submit. We'll see
this next hour, sometimes when they're real old. They bow to
God, and they submit, and they do what He says. What about when
the Lord says, take this table? He said, eat of my flesh. That's
an unleavened bread. Drink this wine. We drink wine
because it's wine, because He said so. That's His blood. We
do it. You say, I ain't doing that.
Well, no, we love Him, don't we? Here's His commandment. Love
one another. How? How am I going to do that?
As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Love's
not a priority. It is the principle and it's
the possession of every child that's born of God. Love is the
driving of the Lord's people. And our Lord commands it. And
if He commands something, guess what? That means it's going to
happen. People read the Ten Commandments and say, well, it's a rule of
life. Read that as if the Lord's declaring something to us. You
shall! What's that mean? That means
it's going to happen. Well, how can it? It's going to happen
to His Son, isn't it? What happened to this son? What are we to do
if we have love? I've gone long and that's alright. If you've
sat through a movie, you can make it 45 minutes. The Lord came to Simon Peter. He
said, Simon, our son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He wasn't saying to other people,
do you have bigger love than the pot? No. Do you love me more
than your fishing boats? Do you love me more than quitting
preaching? Do you love me more than your family and your mommy
and daddy and everybody else? He said, you love me more than
he? He said, yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. And he saith unto
him, feed my lambs. Don't comb them, don't whip them,
fix a crooked leg, don't get all the bugs out of their hair.
What'd he say? Feed them. Feed them lambs. He saith unto
him again a second time, Simon, thou son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? And he saith, yea, Lord, thou knowest I lovest thee. And
he said, feed my sheep. And he saith unto him a third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved. Because he said unto him the
third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
And Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. What if I don't have a trough?
Maybe I got a scoop. What if I don't have a scoop?
Well, maybe I got a field we can grow a little bit of milo in. Get them sheep
fed. Or if I don't own a field, I
can go by and pick weeds out of that milo. Every one of us
have a different job, don't we? If we have experienced this love
of God shed abroad in our hearts, what is our purpose to go into
the world and preach the gospel? Tell somebody else about Him. I love people. I want them to
know God before they meet Him. I want Christ to reveal Himself
in their hearts before they see judgment. What can we do? What can we do to further this
gospel? I want to feed the sheep. Do you? I do. I want to be fed. I want to be of the sheep. I'm
a herd animal. I want to be in a big herd. I
want a bunch surrounding me. Keep you warm, won't it? Love's
important. The wisest man moored of Adam.
I was reading the Proverbs. Boy, that's hard. Several times
Solomon says, you fold your hands and go to sleep. There's work
to be done. Why don't you take a nap? And
I thought, well, I didn't quit napping. Honey, quit being lazy. Talks
a lot about a lazy man. But Proverbs 15, 17 says, Better
is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled
ox and hatred therewith. I'd rather have to become a vegetarian
in a home where we have nothing but beans and rice where love
is than have a big fat steak from an ox that never left a
barn and have nothing but hatred. Isn't that it? Our dinner of honor is being
fed. The Lord will feed his own. All right. Father, thank you
for this word. Lord, teach us to love. Teach
us to love by showing the love that Christ had for us. Allow
it to be paramount in our hearts, Lord. Be with us. Forgive us for what we are. Lord,
forgive us for our inability and our unknowingness. Who will save us from this body
of death? Allow us to love Christ, Lord. Allow us to love one another
and allow us to tell those that don't know him yet. Allow us
to feed the sheep and broadcast Christ who is truth and wisdom
and love and redemption and sanctification of His people to everyone. They'll
give us ear to hear, Lord. Give us words to speak to them.
Be with us this day. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen.