Sermon – “I’m Bankrupt Without Love!!!!”
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Faith Temple Church – Sioux Falls, S.D.
Pastor Jeff Hayes
Title: “I’m Bankrupt Without Love!!!”
Some notes borrowed from: How is Your Love Life?by
TedSutherland
Scripture: 1 Corinthians13:1-13:8
Introduction:
1. 3 years ago this week… – Wedding Jeff Fuller and Melanie Wulf:
I Corinthians 13
2. Incredible definition of what love is and isn’t!
3. The Message Version: “So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
4. This chapter is not a definition of love, but rather a
display of how love is to make a difference each and
every day of our lives.
5. I Corinthians hemmed in by: I Corinthians 12:31b – “And now I will show you the most excellent way.”
6. I Corinthians 14:1 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts...”
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I. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and the Angels vs. 1
Scripture: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal.
a. Corinth was a Greek City so they knew who Plato,
Socrates, and Aristotle were.
b. Paul was saying that you could have the tongues of
Plato, Socrates and Aristotle and even the tongues of
Angels but if Love wasn’t present, all the speaking
would just be noise!
Example: a. Music Store yesterday.... young students
stop in to try the drums out!!!
b. a lot of clanging and banging!
c. the Christian without love is a lot of clanging & banging!
II. Great Preaching, Great Faith, Giving, Dying, vs. 2
Scripture: vs. 2 – (The Message) “If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump,’ and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.”
a. Great preachers that don’t love... I’ve gotten nowhere.
b. Great people of faith, no love...gotten nowhere.
c. Great givers! 3 ½ million pounds of food
No Love... gotten nowhere!
d. Martyrs for the faith...No Love... gotten nowhere!
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III. “Love is...” Patient
KJV.... “Charity suffereth long” We are willing to bear offenses and suffer their ill-treatment without attempting to retaliate.
A good illustration of Christlike patience is seen in the life of Abraham Lincoln. From his earliest days in politics, Lincoln had a critic, and enemy, who continually treated him with contempt, a man by the name of Edwin Stanton. Stanton would say to newspaper reporters that Lincoln was “low cunning clown” and “the original gorilla.” He said, “it was ridiculous for explorers to go to Africa to capture a gorilla when they could find one easily in Springfield Illinois.” Lincoln never responded to such slander; he never retaliated in the least. And when as President, he needed a Secretary of War, he selected Edwin Stanton. When his friends asked why, Lincoln replied, “Because he is the best man for the job.”
Years later, that fateful night came when an assassin’s bullet murdered the president in a theater. Lincoln’s body was carried off to another room. Stanton came and, looking down upon the silent, rugged, face of his dead President, he said through his tears, “There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen.” Stanton’s animosity had finally been broken.. How? By Lincoln’s patient, long suffering, non-retaliatory love.
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IV. Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind!
No matter how much love is ill-treated or scorned, how much it is ignored or neglected,
“Love is...”Patient and Kind”
A. To be Patient and kind is the active outworking of love.
B. Patience: To suffer long, long suffering is the passive
side.
C. “Kind” = to be mild, gracious, easy on other people. It
means volunteer to share the burden, help carry the
load.
The Sunday School Times told of an elderly Christian who was a shut-in. She said, “I have two daughters who take turns cleaning my small home. Jean comes and makes everything shine. Yet she leaves the impression that I’m an awful burden. But when Mary comes, no matter how dull the day or how low my spirit, she’s so cheery that my heart is tuned to singing. Above all, she makes me feel that she loves me. They’re both good Christians, you understand, but what makes the difference in their attitudes! Mary has the extra touch of grace that this old world so badly needs. She does everything with a loving heart.”
What is our attitude in helping others? Do we assist people grudgingly, making them feel like a burden, or do we demonstrate heartfelt concern that leaves them uplifted and blessed?
LOVE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Husband said, “I’ve had a happy marriage for many years because I whisper three little words in her ear, twice a week: “Let’s eat out!” — Laurie Baker, Better Families, Vol. 18, No. 11, November, 1994.
KINDNESS, KINDSNESS, KINDNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Patience and kindness are directly parallel to the two dominant aspects of God’s love, which are “mercy” and “grace.” Mercy means that God does not give us the bad things, the judgments, that we deserve for our sins. Grace, on the other hand, means that God does give us good things, blessings, that we don’t deserve.
Patience is a matter of passively taking the bad from others that you may not deserve, kindness is a matter of giving the good to others whether they deserve it or not.
V. “Love isn’t...” Envious
A. Envy in the Bible:
1. Mark 15:10 Pilate knew...“knowing it was out of
envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over
to him.”
2. Acts 7:9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of
Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt.”
B. Sir Walter Scott. When Lord Byron’s poems were first
published, a reviewer who remained anonymous at the
time wrote the following: “In the presence OF such genius,
it can no longer be considered that Sir Walter Scott is
the leading poet of his day.”
Sir Walter Scott wrote that about himself… he was a fan of Lord Byron, a cheerleader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
C. “Love lifts another to a higher level than pushing
him to the basement!”
VI. “Love isn’t...” Self-promoting!
Message Version: “Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others!”
There are two types of people in the world—those who come into a room and say, "Here I am!" and those who say, "Ah, there you are!"
—James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton:
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VII. “Love isn’t...” Rude
1 Cor 13:5 Love is not rude, it is not self, seeking...”
A. Paul may have had in mind the way an arrogant,
loveless, proud, self-exalting individual treats his
neighbor. Proud unloving people are users and
abusers.
TAKERS RATHER THAN GIVERS!!!!!
B. “Love isn’t...” Self-seeking
1. He does not grasp for his own rights. He doesn’t put
down his neighbor by elevating himself.
Innsbruck—In 1964, Italy’s Eugenio Monti and Sergio Siorpaes were heavily favored in the two-man bobsled event. But as they awaited their second run, the lightly regarded British team of Tony Nash and Robin Dixon was in a state of despair. After a sensational first run, their sled had broken an axle bolt, and it seemed certain they would have to drop out.
Italy’s Eugenio Monti, his second run already completed, acted swiftly. He stripped the bolt from his own sled and offered it to Britain’s Tony Nash. In one of the greatest upsets in the history of the Olympics, the British team went on to win the gold medal, while the sportsmanlike Monti finished third.
Four years later, Monti drove both his two-and four-man sleds to Olympic victory.
—Bud Greenspan in Parade
Google the name Eugenio Mont bolt
and what is he remembered for: being a giver rather than a
taker!
C. love isn’t self seeking!
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VIII. “Love isn’t...” Irritable
Scripture: 1 Cor. 13:5 “it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs.”
A. “is not easily provoked,” = “doesn’t have a short
fuse” doesn’t get angry a the slightest provocation.
B. A loving person is not touchy you don’t have to be
careful not to offend, like walking on eggshells.
Maranatha Magazine carried the following humorous story about criticism: “The wife of a hard-to-please husband was determined to try her best to satisfy him for just one day. ‘Darling,’ she asked, ‘what would you like for breakfast this morning?’ He growled, ‘Coffee and toast, grits and sausage, and two eggs— one scramble and one fried.’ She soon had the food on the table and waited for a word of praise. After a quick glance, he exclaimed, ‘Well, if you didn’t scramble the wrong egg!” Love isn’t irritable!!!
IX. “Love isn’t...” Bitter...Keeps No Records Of
Wrongs
Scripture: 1 Cor. 13:5 “it keeps no record of wrongs.”
A. greek: Logizomai It’s a term that was sometimes
used by bookkeepers, and it may carry the idea of
keeping a ledger.
B. When love is present we don’t keep a “scorecard”
Our attitude doesn’t become bitter.
In “On This Day” by Carl D. Windsor, the page for Valentine’s Day includes this anecdote: "Even the most devoted couple will experience a ’stormy’ bout once in a while. A grandmother, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary, once told the secret of her long and happy marriage. ’On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband’s faults which, for the sake of our marriage, I would overlook, she said.
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"A guest asked the woman what some of the faults she had
chosen to overlook were. The grandmother replied, ’To tell you the truth, my dear, I never did get around to listing them. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, Lucky for him that’s one of the ten!’ "
“Love keeps no record of wrongs!”
—Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 2.
In his book, Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal Artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.
—Michael Williams, Morganfield, Kentucky. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.
IX. Love Isn’t Bitter, It Keeps No Records Of Wrongs!
X. “Love Doesn’t Love Evil, Thrives on Truth! Always,
Always, Always Always... Protects, Trusts, Hopes,
Perseveres!
1 Cor 13:6-7 “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Vs. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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Wonderful story about attacking evil… rejoicing in truth! Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres!!
1. Doug Nichols went to India to be a missionary there, but while he was just starting to study the language he became infected with tuberculosis & had to be put in a sanitarium.
2. Sound like evil what are you going to do????
3. “Trust, hope, persevere!
It was not a very good place to be. It was not very clean & conditions were difficult because there were so many sick people there. But Doug decided to do the best he could in that situation. So he took a bunch of Christian books & tracts & tried to witness to the other patients in the sanitarium.
But when he tried to pass out tracts, they were rejected. No one wanted them. He tried to hand out books, but no one would take them. He tried to witness, but he was handicapped because of his inability to communicate in their language, & he felt so discouraged.
Here he was. Because of his illness he would be there a long time. But it seemed like the work that he had been sent to do would not be done because no one would listen to him.
Because of his tuberculosis, every night at about 2 o’clock he would wake up with chronic coughing that wouldn’t quit. Then one night when he awoke he noticed across the aisle an old man trying to get out of bed. He said the man would roll himself up into a little ball & teeter back & forth trying to get up the momentum to get up & stand on his feet. But he just couldn’t do it. He was too weak.
CAN SICKNESS BE EVIL… AND CAN A LOVING PERSON CHANGE IT?
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Finally, after several attempts the old man laid back & wept. The next morning Doug understood why the man was weeping. He was trying to get up to go to the bathroom & didn’t have enough strength to do that. So his bed was a mess & there was a smell in the air.
The other patients made fun of the old man. The nurses came to clean up his bed & they weren’t kind to him, either. In fact, one of them even slapped him in the face. Doug said that the old man just laid there & cried.
Doug said, "That next night about 2 o’clock I started coughing again. I looked across the way & there was the old man trying to get out of bed once more. I really didn’t want to do it, but somehow I managed to get up & I walked across the aisle & I helped the old man stand up."
But he was too weak to walk, so Doug said, "I took him in my arms & carried him like a baby. He was so light that it wasn’t a difficult task. I took him into the bathroom, which was nothing more than a dirty hole in the floor, & I stood behind him & cradled him in my arms as he took care of himself."
"Then I carried him back to his bed & laid him down. As I turned to leave he reached up & grabbed my face & pulled me close & kissed me on the cheek & said what I think was `Thank you.’"
Doug said, "The next morning there were patients waiting when I awoke & they asked if they could read some of the books & tracts that I had brought. Others had questions about the God I worshiped & His only begotten Son who came into the world to die for their sins."
Doug Nichols says that in the next few weeks he gave out all the literature that he had brought, & many of the doctors & nurses & patients in that sanitarium came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior, too.
He said, "Now what did I do? I didn’t preach a sermon. I couldn’t even communicate in their language. I didn’t have a great lesson to teach them. I didn’t have wonderful things to offer. All I did was take an old man to the bathroom & anyone can do that."