[Mr. Jeff Lockhart]: My title today is “But the Greatest of These….” “But the greatest of these is love.” As I’ve mentioned, I’ve given sermons recently on faith and hope. There are different stages of faith, where, first of all, we have to believe in God. We have to believe that God is, and that God has a plan for us, and that God loves us, and that there is a future. We also have to have faith and trust in Him to obey Him – to do things like coming to church on the Sabbath and not going to work. We have to have faith and trust and obedience that we keep things like the first tithe, and the second tithe, and that we provide for the widows and the orphans. We have to have faith at a stage of acceptance, so that when things happen, that is not our will, but it’s His will – that we can accept those things. And then we have hope. And our hope is in a better day – that a better day is coming. These are important. These are great things. Faith and hope are great things. But the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love.

As the New Living Translation says – this is actually coming from 1 Corinthians 13:13…. And you know… things about numbers… today is November 13, so maybe you can remember – this is 1 Corinthians 13:13. This is the last verse in chapter 13. But when you go to the next verse, in chapter 14, obviously, Paul is continuing that line of thought. He’s continuing that line of thought in verse 1 of chapter 14. And I’m going to read it here from the New Living Translation.

1 Corinthians 14:1 – “Let love be your highest goal.” Love is the greatest. Let it be your highest goal.

Other translations say, “Go after love.” Or, another translation says, “Love should be your guide.” Another translation says, “It is love, then, that you should strive for.” And the Easy To Read Version, in 1 Corinthians 14:1, says, “Love should be the goal of your life.” Love should be the goal of your life.

So, today, I want to take a look at love. Why is it the greatest of these three? Why do we need to be more loving? So I want to start by taking a look at the book of 1 Corinthians. To give us some context, who wrote it? Who did he write it go? What was his point of writing it?

The apostle Paul was writing this to the Corinthians. He was living in Ephesus. And this was written sometime in the 50s AD. Now, Paul had actually been to Corinth. He had actually started the church, and then he had left. He went to Ephesus for about four years. And sometime, during that four years, he got word that things weren’t going so well in Corinth. Someone from the household of Chloe did a tattle-tale letter. But it was a letter written out of love. It was like, “Paul, we’ve got problems. We’ve got divisions here.” So the first area that he covered in the book of 1 Corinthians – and I’m not going to be covering these things – but somebody had written him a letter requesting clarification on things like marriage and consumption of meat that was previously offered to idols. But the second purpose for him writing this letter was of the jealousies, and the rivalries and the immoral behavior that was taking place within the church in Corinth. These behaviors were creating divisions that were so bad that, again, somebody felt the need to write him a letter and send it to Ephesus.

As we look at some of these items that he was writing about almost two thousand years ago, let us compare them to our church today to see if there are any similarities. They were going through a time where they were not being loving to one another. You’re just going to see this for a long time (pointing to screen with a slide that reads “1 Corinthians”). I will mention parts of 1 Corinthians, but you’ll actually have to turn there yourselves in your own Bibles – once again, whether or not it’s physical Bible or an electronic Bible. I’m just giving you a summary as we lead back up to 1 Corinthians, chapter 13.

In chapter 1, Paul is pleading with them not to have any divisions. He actually uses the word plead. “I beg you.” In verse 13 of chapter 1, he asks the question:

1 Corinthians 1:13 – “Is Christ divided?”

People in the church had actually created divisions. There were some that said, “I am of Apollos,” or, “I’m of Paul,” or, “I’m of Christ.” And I can imagine, if their divisions were anything like our divisions today, they’d probably get together at the synagogue or the church, and they would stand off in their little corners, and they’d be in their bubbles, reaffirming to each other, “Oh yes, Apollos was better than Paul.” “Paul was better than Apollos.” And they would all shake their heads and agree in their bubble. And their bubble wouldn’t talk to other bubbles in the church. So, there were separations and factions. These divisions weren’t coming from a place of love, were they?  When someone says, “I’m of Apollos. He’s of Paul,” is that coming from love? Is that coming from a place of love? No, it comes from a place of pride and boastfulness and selfish ambitions.

Paul had a lot to say about those who had high opinions of themselves, due to their perceived wisdom and knowledge. We just sang that first song, Not Many Wise Men Are Called – the first or second one. Not Many Wise Men Now Are Called.

Paul goes into chapter 3, saying they’re acting like little children. He wants to give them real meat. He wants to write them a letter of deep spiritual meaning, to speak to them as spiritually mature adults, but he starts out saying, “I’ve got to give you milk, like a little babe, because right now, you’re behaving like a babe. You’re acting like little children.” He repeats that their envy, their strife, their division is showing him that they’re still carnal in nature – that they haven’t spiritually matured.

Chapter 5 shows us that some in the church were puffed up, and even glorifying, in their acceptance of sexual immorality. He said there was sexual immorality in the church, such not even heard of in the world – and that they’re boasting about it. He said, “That should not be.”

In chapter 6, Paul is shocked – shocked – that members are suing one another. We sang another today that was basically quoting Matthew 18. If you have a problem with your brother, go to your brother, and you handle it – you and he alone. We just sang that. But no, they were going to the courts and suing one another.

The list of unloving behavior goes on. In chapter 11, Paul describes some truly ungodly behavior. They would come to together at church to celebrate the Lord’s supper, and people were getting drunk, and they were gorging themselves on food. They would push others aside and go to the front of the line. And they would eat of an abundance and let others in the church go hungry. So, they were coming together, supposedly, to celebrate the actual Lord’s supper, and yet, they were leaving people hungry in the congregation.

In chapter 12, Paul starts addressing how yes, God did give people in this congregation different gifts – gifts of prophecy, gifts of tongues and gifts of healing even – and yet, they were boastful in that. And once again, they were trying to set themselves apart, instead of being unified. And so the focus and the theme of chapter 12 is that all of these diversities of gifts come from one place. They come from one Spirit. So, you may have a different gift, but you got it from the same place – that’s God’s Holy Spirit. Why is Paul having to address this in chapter 12? Well, you can imagine that, even though they were boastful in their gifts, it was still causing divisions. And he’s like, “No, you’re gifts are not supposed to cause divisions. It’s supposed to cause unity. Come together.”

So, we can see that Paul was dealing with people that were selfish and divisive. Do we live in a world like this, where people are only thinking of themselves or the group to which they are a member? There are some people I’ve watched over the years that will join a group and then divide that group, and then they’ll divide that group, and then they’ll divide that group. And there’s one common denominator, when you look back at the four or five splits: this guy’s always been a part of it. Can he not get along with anybody? Is he always finding something that’s a flaw with somebody – a flaw with some idea, a flaw with some plan – and he’s going to point it out and create a schism. It’s easy to do that, because none of us is perfect. It’s easy to find flaws in people and plans. This is why, when we do something wrong, we learn from it, and we change, and we move on, and we grow. We don’t split.

I want to look at some examples from the world of people looking out for only their own interests. So, quickly, I have an example here. They call it the grandparent scheme – the grandparent scam. This happened just this week. The date on that – it’s an Associated Press article from November 11. So this is only two days ago that this was in the news. This lady got a call – by the way, this is just a stock photo; this is not the actual grandmother. I think they were actually hiding her identity to protect her. But this grandmother got a phone call. She thought it was her granddaughter, and she was in legal trouble. And they handed the phone off to, supposedly her lawyer, and over the course of a couple of weeks, they would send Ubers to her house to pick up cash and give it to the attorney. And they even coached her on how to get around the bank – like, when she went to withdraw $100,000 in cash from the bank, “Just tell them it’s for home improvements. This will help your granddaughter.” They told the woman how to wrap the bricks of money in padded envelopes for the courier to pick up. This happened in Tampa, Florida. And they are currently trying to research, through the Ubers, who ordered the Ubers and try to track and get back to find out who did this. Very selfish – not looking out for others.

Next, we have a school board president. This is again a story that just came out yesterday. School board president in Arizona was in a Facebook discussion with somebody, and accidentally them a screenshot. And the person that got this screenshot saw a Google drive address inside the picture. So they typed in the Google drive access and found hundreds of documents where the school board president had been tracking parents that had said anything negative about any of his policies at the school board – actually hired private investigators. They had divorce records, medical records, phone records of these parents that disagreed with the school board policies. A school board president is supposed to be a leader. They’re supposed to be serving the parents, not investigating them. Actually, when they’d have a school board meeting, the private investigator would go through the parking lot writing down license plate numbers. Is that love?

Sadly, there have been divisions within our own body – the church – as well. I’m a moderator on several social media groups. There’s one in particular where I’m just kind of the backup person, in case something happens to the guy that created the group – the group will continue on in his absence. And yet, I get these emails. “Hey, you need to take this post down.” One of them is the Feast of Tabernacles. Okay, it’s a group – United Church of God Feast of Tabernacles. It’s sole purpose is to discuss the Feast of Tabernacles. And people will put on there, “Hey, I’m going to Saint George, Utah. Does anyone know of a condo that might be available for our family?” That’s the purpose of it. And yet, people will get on there and start fighting about things that are completely different. And, as moderator, I’ll go and remove those posts, because it doesn’t serve the purpose of the group.

I saw this quote on social media recently and it really hit me. One of our church members – I won’t give the person’s name or any other context – but tell me if this sounds familiar to you. Hopefully, maybe you have felt like this. Here’s the quote: “The worst part of this pandemic for me has been seeing how vicious church members have become toward each other – how eager they are to accuse and assume motive. Jesus told us to bless our enemies, but we can’t even be civil to each other. Satan must be delighted.” Have you felt that way in the last twenty months when you read the comments that people make to each other, or if you hear the comments – hopefully, not on any of our Zooms – but if you’re having conversations with others? Hopefully, you have felt that that is wrong! When you hear people being vicious to each other, when you hear people creating division, hopefully, something within you doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s my side!” Or, “Yeah, I agree with that person.” Hopefully, it makes you sad inside – that there are these divisions.

I think that what has caused the most divisions in the church since Covid has started has been knowledge. Thanks to Google and YouTube, we’re now all experts on everything, aren’t we? We know it. We know what’s going on. We know what’s right. We know what’s wrong. We know what’s false news. I can send you fifteen links right now on any subject. We’re suffering from a lack of the right knowledge. We’re suffering from a misuse of real knowledge. We’re suffering from people that boast because they have exclusive knowledge. We’re suffering because we have all these false prophecies that keep changing because the facts keep changing. The situation keeps changing. This boasting and exclusivity has created some people, in today’s church, who are puffed up by their knowledge and their opinions. Some feel superior to others in the church and they’re so willing to judge and they’re swift to condemn. Too many people in the church have recently approached topics from a point of view that, “You’re wrong, I’m right, and I’m going to argue with you until you see it my way, or I’m just going to listen to you anymore.” That’s how so many people are approaching things these days.

So what is the solution? There’s this guy that comes on Friday night on HBO. I think it’s called Real Time with Bill Maher. I may not be pronouncing his last name correctly. He’s a Democrat, but he’ll normally say things negative about Democrats, because he wants them to do better. And he’s trying to say, “Hey, this is where we’re weak and we can do stronger.” But, because he’s a Democrat saying bad things about Democrats, FoxNews always picks it up. So, I was noticing a quote that he gave last night when I was reading FoxNews this morning. He was just talking about how much hate there in the world. So what’s the solution? A worldly solution is, “Well, we need to have more compromise.” Or, “We need to have more discussions.” Or, “We need to have more civil discussions.” Nobody in the world says, “We need more love,” because they’re never going to love their enemies. They’re never going to love anybody they disagree with. So, that just doesn’t enter into the equation for them – that that’s the solution to the problem. But love is the solution.

Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. I’m going to read the last two verses of chapter 12 leading into chapter 13. 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, is called the Love Chapter. So, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12:30,

1 Corinthians 12:30-31 – “Do all have gifts of healing?” So, he’s pointing out, “No. Everybody is different. There are people in this congregation that do have the gift of healing, but not everybody.” “Do all speak in tongues?” Nope, not everybody. “Do all interpret?” Nope. Verse 31, he starts out: “Earnestly desire the best gifts.” It’s not wrong to desire the gift of healing, or the gift of tongues, or the gift to interpret, but… and I really like this: “Yet, I show you a more excellent way” – a more excellent way. There’s something more important than these gifts. And it’s something that we can all have. It’s not exclusive.

What an odd way to end a chapter. I know that the people that were creating the Bible had to divide it into different chapters - Paul didn’t. But what an odd way. “And yet, I show you a more excellent way. Period. End of chapter. What’s this more excellent way? I want to know. Don’t you? Okay, next chapter, verse 1:

1 Corinthians 14:1 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” And that, to me, goes back to how a lot of people sound on social media. They sound like clanging cymbals. They have their knowledge. They’re boasting. They may even be right. A lot of times, they are right and I agree with them, but their tone and their words are nothing but a clanging cymbal.

Love is the solution. Faith, hope and love. They’re all great. Love is the greatest. What kind of love? We need the kind of love – and specifically, God’s church needs the kind of love – that God has toward mankind – that love that He pours out onto all of His children.

The Greek word that is used a lot in chapter 13 here is the word agape, which simply is – if you look it up in Strong’s Concordance – it just says love. It just says love. Agape is love. But there is a deeper underlying meaning to this that is significant. It implies – this word agape implies – a decision – a conscious decision – not a feeling, not an emotion, but a conscious feeling to love, even when there is no expectation of a reciprocal response. It is often not mutual. Agape love is often not mutual. It is not a two-way love.

So, let’s look at some examples. I’m only going to go into two books today – 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 and 1 John 4. So let’s turn to 1 John 4 – 1 John, chapter 4:7,

1 John 4:7-8 – “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” So, if you love – true love – this decision where you have no expectation of a reciprocal response – where you’re not expecting anything – if you have that type of love, you’re born of God and you know God. Verse 8: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” For God is love. This is why the world is the way it is today. Too many people don’t know God and so they don’t know how to love. They are unloving, because they can’t know God. Continuing in 1 John 4:9,

V-9-11 – “In this the love of God was manifested toward us – that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Kind of a repeat of John 3:16, right? – which is coming from the same author – John. This is showing us agape love – Godly love – is outgoing concern for others, without expecting anything in return. Verse 10: “In this love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Verse 11: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” So, there is the response. He loved us first. He loved us even when we were enemies of His. He loved us even without an expectation of us loving Him return.

And we have benefited from that, so what should our response be? Interesting – not to love God back. That’s not what it says. “Okay, He love you, so love God.” It says, “Love others! He love you, so you should love one another. You, too, should have outward concern for other people.” Should we wait until someone loves us first? Should we wait until they’ve earned our love – however you could do that? Or, should we love simply because God loves them too. God loves them too.

Remember the story of the two great commandments. Somebody came to Jesus, and said, “What’s the greatest commandment?” And He said, “Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your might – everything you have. And the second is like it – to love your neighbor as yourself. Love, love. That’s the beginning of both of those. What are the two great commandments? Love God, love your neighbor. Continuing in 1 John 4:16,

V-16 – “And we have known and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love” – outgoing concern for others – “abides in God and God in him.” God is love. It’s His very Being! He cannot be unloving! It’s impossible for God to be unloving. It is impossible for God to be selfish. His entire Being is outward concern for others. God is love and we are to be like Him. It is our destiny. If we accept it, we are to be just as He is. So we have to be love – not just be loving. We have to be love also. Continuing in 1 John 4:19 – once again:

V-19-21 – “We love Him because He loved us first.” Verse 20: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” Verse 21: “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” That word must is a command. There’s no wiggle room there. It’s not “he who loves God might love his brother,” or “should love his brother, or “can think about loving his brother.” It is must.

The bar is high. The standard is the highest standard. I’m not going to turn there, but John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Not many of us are literally asked to lay down our physical lives.” But, we are asked everyday to be living sacrifices for one another – to give some of our time, to give some of our money sometimes, to give some of our energy, our physical actions to serve one another. So, this can take on many forms.

Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 13. With this framework in mind now, as we read through 1 Corinthians here – chapter 13 – think about this love to be a living sacrifice for the outgoing concern for the wellbeing of others. So, 1 Corinthians 13:2,

1 Corinthians 13:2 – “And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge” – wow! All mysteries, all knowledge – “and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” I wonder what the people of Corinth thought as they were reading this, and they had been boasting in their gifts. And he’s saying, “No, no, no. I can actually have more prophecy than you, but if I have not love, I am nothing!” Today, the people that boast they have all the answers, you need to agree with them, if you don’t watch all fifteen YouTube videos they send you, and send back an email in agreement, that’s just it. They’re done with you. I wish they would write those on a Post-It and stick it all around their house, because it doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have. If you have not love, you are nothing.

Is it wrong to be smart? No. Is it bad to be correct about something? No. Once again, a lot of times, when people come to me with their theories and their thoughts and their understanding about what’s going on in the world today, I agree with them a lot of times. They have the right facts, they’re on point, but you know what? They’re like, “Why doesn’t anybody like me anymore?” They may ask that question, but what’s worse is when they don’t care. “I’m going to write this and I don’t care if I lose all my friends.” Really? Is that the type of love that God demonstrates toward us? It’s because they’re coming across as a clanging cymbal. It’s like, you brought me the right information, but you’re doing it from such a… you put yourself up on a platform, and you are so right…. What happened to giving all glory to God in saying that everything comes from Him and everything goes back to Him.

Now, I’m not naming any names. I’m not even using specific examples. But almost wonder if I’m going to get an unhappy email from somebody… they’re going to email me, saying, “Jeff, why were you talking about me up there today?” I’m sorry. I’m not talking to you. That voice you hear is your conscience. It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s not me. Verse 3 – 1 Corinthians 13:3,

V-3 – “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, if profits me nothing.”

An interesting thing happened back in October. Hertz Rental Cars made an announcement that they were going to be buying 100,000 Teslas. Elon Musk, who is the majority shareholder of Tesla, earned – or his net worth went up – $36,000,000,000 in one day – because of that announcement. Can you imagine? You’re already one of the wealthiest men on the planet, and in one day, you earn $36,000,000,000. So the head of the UN Food Agency took note of this, and he said, “Congratulations, Mr. Musk, for earning $36,000,000,000 in a single day. One sixth of your one day increase would save 42,000,000 lives that are knocking on famine’s door.” You can see here what Elon Musk’s reply was to that. “Well, if the World Food Program” – that’s what WFP stands for – “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.” I was talking about 1 Corinthians, verse 3 – “though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor….” He doesn’t even need to bestow all of his goods – this is like 2 percent – 2 percent of his net worth. Instead of saying, “2 percent? What’s that. Let me go ahead and do that,” he wanted to make some type of statement out of it. And he still hasn’t sent them $6,000,000,000. He did ask Twitter to vote on whether or not he should sell ten percent of his stock. But I read some other articles that said he did that because he was about to take a tax hit, so he needed to sell some stock to pay the tax bill. I don’t know how much he has actually given to them. I doubt he has given any to this World Food Program. Even if he did, would he do it out of outgoing concern, or would he be doing it for publicity?

Verse 4 – 1 Corinthians 13:4:

V-4-5 – “Love suffers long and is kind.” Love is kind. “Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Love is not puffed up. Love does not” – this is going on into verse 5 – “behave rudely. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. And love thinks no evil.”

Again, a lot of times, we’ll know something, we’ll see something, we’ll have the correct facts, but we only have half the picture. And so what do we do with the rest of the picture? We assume. Do we assume good? Or, do we assume evil? And that’s what it’s saying here in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love thinks no evil.” So, if you see Jeff coming out of – and I think I’ve used this example in previous sermons – if you see Jeff coming out of the liquor store – or, if you see me return from Jamaica with boxes of alcohol…. Okay, you could have the evil thought, “Jeff’s an alcoholic,” but this says, “Love thinks no evil.” Maybe Jeff has lots of friends that he wants to give Jamaican rum to when he comes back from a trip. You see. You see Jeff getting off the airplane with all these square boxes. You’ve seen them – the little brown boxes with all the Jamaican rum in them. You see it. You’ve got your facts right. But what do you think about what you see? This is what happens way too much. We hear a news story. And everything we hear may be true, but are we hearing the whole story?

Verse 6 – 1 Corinthians 13:6:

V-6-7 – “Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” When you do hear that someone has fallen short – because we all do – do we rejoice that they have backslid? Love says, “No.” Love says, “No, we don’t rejoice when somebody has sinned, but we rejoice in truth.” Verse 7: This one’s a tough one here – 1 Corinthians 13:7: “Bears all things.” We don’t get to pick and choose. “Well, I’ll bear some things, but that other thing over there, that one I’m not going to bear. I draw the line. I’m not doing that. I have my rights. I have my body autonomy. I have my whatever… wishes. So, I’ve drawn the line.” But verse 7 says: “Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” That’s a tough one.

One of ministers this year at the Feast, Andy Lee, gave a sermon called “The Patterns of God’s Plan,” and this was something that he encouraged people… when people came to him this year – in the past twenty months – all upset about something, he’d say, “Go read 1 Corinthians, chapter 13.”

Verse 8:

V-8 – “Love never fails.” Love never fails. It never becomes obsolete. It is eternal. It never fails. It says: “Whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.”

So what does that mean when it says, “Prophecies fail?” Well, the book of Isaiah has prophecies about the first and second return of Jesus Christ – the first coming of Christ and His return – the second coming. Okay, what happens in Revelation 21 and 22? There’s a new heaven and there’s a new earth, and all things have passed away. The earth has been burned up. Do we need a prophecy about the second return of Christ after that? No, because we will all be living with Christ. God the Father and Jesus the Son will come down to the new earth and will live with us. So we don’t need a prophecy anymore, do we? What about tongues? In that time, there will be one language. There will be no need to be able to interpret different tongues. There will be one language.

So, these things pass away. They’re temporary. They’re important for a time, but they are temporary. Love isn’t temporary. When we’re living with God, we will be loving. We will have outgoing concern for others, because He’s not going to have anyone in His Kingdom that is unloving.

Verse 9 – 1 Corinthians 13:9,

V-9-13 – “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away.” Once again, it will be done. Verse 11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understand as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Verse 12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am also known.” And then we come back to where we started – verse 13: “And now abide in faith, hope, love” – these three – “but the greatest” – the GREATEST – “of these is love.”

I want to look at some examples of people out in the world who have shown love to others with no regard to themselves – not expecting anything in return and it did not even have to be mutual. And certainly, if people in the world can show these examples, we should be able to show these examples to each other. We should be able to have this same type of love. My first example comes from a recent football game. The gentleman standing there is Mario Hopper. And, if you look at the uniforms, they’re not on the same team. So what happened is, the person on the ground got a cramp, and Mario says, “You know what? I know what that feels like, and I can help this person.” Talk about helping your enemy. For all I know, the guy laying on the ground is the star player for the other team. And Mario is helping him stretch, so that he can get back in the game and compete against him. The photo was snapped by a parent and has since gone viral. Hopefully, this level of compassion for others follows suit. This is person that posted this: “Hear me. This is not football gone soft. This is beautiful.” And it is.

My next example: An anthropologist was in Africa and he showed a game to children of an African tribe. He placed a basket of delicious fruit near a tree trunk, and told them, “The first child to reach the tree will get the basket.” When he gave them the start signal, he was surprised. They didn’t start running. They walked hand-in-hand altogether. And when they reached the tree, they all shared the fruit. When he asked them why did they do that, when any of them could have had the entire basket to themselves? They were astonished. They had never heard of that idea. Why would I have it all to myself? And they said this word – ubuntu. Now I actually wouldn’t have known how to pronounce this, but there’s a computer version of Linux called Ubuntu. So I learned years ago how to say this word. I didn’t know what it meant. What it means is, “I am because we are.” I am because we are. How can one of us be happy if the rest are miserable? This tribe knows the secret of happiness that has been lost in modern “civilized” societies.

My third example of someone who shows outgoing concern for others: Will Smith. He’s recently released a memoir called The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. You know where that comes from, right? That’s the title. I’m going to quote from his story. It says: “My story was very different from the ones being told by the young black men who were launching the global phenomenon that would later become hip-hop. In their minds, I was somehow an illegitimate artist. They would call me soft, whack, corny. They called me a bubblegum rapper. These criticisms violently infuriated me.” Why was he picked on? Because he didn’t curse. He says: “I didn’t curse. I rapped about my high school experiences. I used a lot of humor.” Any of the other stuff – that he wasn’t a real MC – or he was actually told he wasn’t black enough or that his music wasn’t real hip-hop. So why didn’t he use cuss words? Why didn’t he use crude terms to describe women? Well, it turns out, in the very beginning, he did. As a twelve-year-old boy, he had a notebook full of rap lyrics that were full of those very things. Let me go back and quote again from his memoir. Smith said that he felt a sense of shame at twelve years old after his grandmother, GiGi, found his first rap notebook in which he had crafted verses full of curse words in slick, slingy vulgarities, similar to all of his hip-hop idols of the time. His grandmother never verbally confronted him about his writing, but left a note inside the book, and told her grandson that he should use his gift to uplift others. Smith wrote, “I decided that night that I wanted to use my words to empower others to help rather than to hurt.” And so, because he listened to his grandmother, he had to endure harsh peer pressure. But he felt that, “Hey, It’s more important to empower….” He had outward concern. Yeah, it hurt him to be picked on, but that wasn’t his motivation and that wasn’t his driving force. He had outward concern for others. He saw where uplifting other people would make the world a better place.

I have one more example. I won’t talk too much about this guy. Frank Caprio – did I add the picture of Frank? – there we go. I just discovered Frank this week. He’s been a lawyer/judge his entire life. He has a TV show called Caught in Providence. And you can find him on YouTube as well. I watched 5-minute clip after 5-minute clip this week, and in almost every case, he dismisses. People come to him with speeding problems and running red lights and parking tickets. And most of the time, he’ll dismiss them. He’s like the nicest judge on the planet. I think if I got a speeding ticket in Florida – because he’s in Providence, Rhode Island – if I got a speeding ticket in Florida, I’d say, “Can we get this moved to Providence? I’d like to have Frank Caprio decide my case for me.” Because his videos have gone viral – he has millions of people that watch each one of his clips – people will actually send him money now. So, there’ll be somebody in front of him that might have thirteen parking tickets – that’s $800.00 – and then the penalties have made it $1,600.00. And he’ll say, “Okay, let me drop that down to $400.00, and I won’t charge you the penalties, and I’ll cut the $800 in half to $400. And then I’ve this check for $100.00 that somebody sent me. I’m going to apply that to your bill. What can you pay today?” And they’ll say, “$100.00.” He’ll say, “Okay, pay me $50. How much can you pay each week?” And they’ll say, “$50.” “Oh, pay me $25 each week.” He never accepts what they offer. He’s always a little lower than that. He realized people have things they’re going through. Now, he’ll come down hard on somebody if he sees them twice in his courtroom. He’s like, “Hey, didn’t I give you a break? Didn’t I tell you to stop parking on the street? Didn’t I tell you to stop running those red lights?” So, he’ll come down hard on you if come before the court a second time. But the first time, he has so much love – so much outgoing concern for others.

We need more examples like this within the body of Christ. And again, I pointed it out as I went through them, but all of these examples, what did they have in common? Each time the person had outgoing concern for someone else – outgoing concern for someone else. Selfishness is a tool of Satan. Selfishness is a tool of Satan.

I have another quote here. This is from Dennis Kinlaw. I’m not really sure who Dennis Kinlaw was. He lived to be 95 years old – died in 2017. But this is a quote. Interesting that this is November 13. This is a quote from a book that he did. Each day he had a different quote, and this is the quote from November 14. So, this is the quote for tomorrow. It says, “Satan disguises submission to himself under the ruse of personal autonomy. He never asks us to become his servants. Never once did the serpent say to Eve, “I want to be your master.” The shift in commitment is never from Christ to evil.” Because we’d never fall for that, would we? If Satan was saying, “Hey, you need to leave God and go and do some evil bad things,” Eve would have not listened. “It is always from Christ to self. And instead of his will” – meaning God’s will – “self-interest now rules and what I want reigns. And that is the essence of sin.” Satan said to Eve that she should follow her own desires, her own lusts, her own wants. He didn’t say, “Follow me.” Satan doesn’t even want us to serve him. We mean nothing to him, so us serving him would mean nothing. What he wants is to destroy us. It’s 24/7, 365 days. He has one goal: Destroy mankind – keep us out of God’s family. He doesn’t need worshippers. He wants to destroy us. And so he tells us to worship ourselves. “Worship yourself. Make yourself the most important part of your life. Make yourself the center of the universe.”

Even those Mr. Kinlaw died in 2017, this quote sounds like it could have been written today. So many people are shouting once again about their rights, their liberties, their autonomy. Everyone seems to only be concerned about their own self-interests. Satan must be delighted. But what about Christ when He was on trial? What about the time when He was about to be sacrificed for your sins? Was He inwardly focused? Or, was He outwardly concerned for you? Don’t forget, brethren, that we are to be living sacrifices to God.  

As I’ve already mentioned, in Matthew 5, we’re to love even our enemies, and that He loved us. And we were His enemies when He loved us. And He set the example when He gave His life to us. Going back to 1 John, chapter 4:12,

1 John 4:12 – “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” It’s only through His Spirit that we are able to show this love.

It is so human to love ourselves. To be able to love others requires God’s Spirit. So, if we feel that we are unloving, maybe we should ask God to stir up His Spirit in us more, so that we can have more love for one another.

God gives His divine true love to human beings who truly want it, and who present themselves appropriately before Him to receive it. A person can receive God’s gift of true Godly love only through His Holy Spirit. God gives His Holy Spirit only to those who are willing to obey Him – which again, if you read through 1 John 4. There’s an old saying: Love the sinner, but not the sin. Kind of seems like a bumper sticker: Love the sinner, but not the sin. But isn’t that exactly what God said to us in John 3:16?

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… so that we would not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Was He talking about good people at the time? Or, was he talking about his enemies at the time? So God loved all the good people that He gave His only begotten Son. No, God loved the world. So that meant He loved us. He did not love our sin, but God loved us.

Can we love our fellow man? Or, are we going to judge them and condemn them, because they look different than us, they act different than us, or they think different than us? Do we discard those whose views are in contrast to our own? There’s been way too much of that. We need one another more now than ever before. We need one another now more than ever before.

As I wrap this up, I want to give you a couple of things. We’ve already given some examples of what Godly love looks like – Christ’s sacrifice for us, or a football player stopping in the middle of the game to help his opponent. What are some other things that will keep us focused outwardly to other people? I do want to you give a couple of things about what Godly love looks like, but I’m also going to give you some homework.

I simply summarized 1 Corinthians. Go back and read it. That’s your homework. Go back and read 1 Corinthians this week – with this framework of these divisions, but also of unity and love and outward concern. Look at the times that Paul says to put others first. Look at the times where Paul said there were things that “are lawful for me to do, but I’m not going to do them, because it may cause offense to my brother.” Look at those times when he sacrificed his own needs, wants – his self – for others with that framework. He counted his wants as nothing compared to someone else’s conscience – someone else’s conscience.

So, love will voluntarily regulate its own liberty. Love will voluntarily regulate its own liberty. One of the examples he gave is, “If I’m having a meal with somebody, and they don’t eat meat, I’m not going to eat meat.” Was he free to eat meat? Yes, he was free to eat meat. But he regulated that liberty, and said, “For these people, I am going to subject myself to not eating meat for this meal.”

Love is more important than any knowledge. Love is more important than any knowledge. What does that look like? “I may know something that you don’t know. And I’ve tried to explain it to you, and you just don’t get it, or you don’t want to listen. I still love you anyway.” That’s what that looks like. Love is more important than any knowledge. “Okay, so we don’t see eye-to-eye on this. I still love you. And I hope that in the things that you know that I don’t know, that you still love me.”

Love stays home when it’s sick. Love stays home when it’s sick. I had a conversation with my mom yesterday. She’s getting over a cold – little bit of a runny nose, little bit of a sore throat. She tested last week. She doesn’t have Covid. And she’s like, “I think I might be feeling better tomorrow.” I’m like, “No.” “Hi Mom.” She’s watching on the Webcast. She’s at home, watching on the Webcast today, because love stays home when it’s sick. A common cold might be common, but I still don’t want it. I don’t want a runny nose. I don’t want a sore throat. If you have anything that’s contagious, you can be selfish about that, okay? You can keep that to yourself. Stay at home. I don’t want it.

Love esteems – values – others more than themselves. Love esteems others more than themselves. And again, it’s a value. And we all have our bank accounts. We all have those things that we value. We’re supposed to value others better higher than anything that we think of ourselves. Our words and our tone of voice can show what is in our hearts. It can show whether we love the person that we’re speaking to, or if we don’t. So, I’m going to put something up here – it’s the think before you speak. Think before your speak. You’ve probably seen this before, but it’s a good reminder.

Before You Speak: Think

T = Is it true?

H = Is it helpful

I = Is it inspiring?

N = Is it necessary

K = Is it kind?

They take the word think and they make an acronym out of it. And each letter of the word think tells us what we should do before we speak. Before we say something, we have to ask ourselves, “Is what I’m about to say true? And do I know it to be true or, is it simply hearsay? Am I the third or fourth person to hear this?” And, if it’s not true, don’t say it.

“Is it helpful? Is it edifying?” Even Will Smith said, “I’m going to get rid of this stuff that’s negative and puts people down and degrades people. And I’m just going to put stuff in there that builds people up and encourages.” Is it helpful?

“Is it inspiring?” Is it going to give people energy to face the day?

“Is it necessary?” Okay, you’ve already answered, “Yes,” to a couple of these. You’ve answered that it’s true, you’ve answered that it’s helpful, you’ve answered that it’s inspiring. But are you the right person to say it? Is it necessary to be said? Is it necessary?

And finally, “Is it kind?” We read earlier, “Love doesn’t think evil. Love doesn’t rejoice in iniquity.” So, are our words to hurt somebody? Or, are they kind?

True love takes the time to get it right – which means we take a moment, we stop and we think before we speak. I know a lot of times, when somebody’s talking, our mind is… my mind is, “Okay, how do I respond to this?” And sometimes I don’t even wait for them to finish. And I interrupt and say, “Let me add this. Because I know this other story.” Love takes the time to get it right.

My son was telling me the other day that his boss always orders the wrong stuff for Panera. And his excuse is, “Well, the boss didn’t have time, and so he did it quick.” Quick is not always the best way. Do it slowly. Take the time. Use the energy that’s required to get it right.

I don’t know how many times I’ve said stuff at the end of the day that I would never say in the morning. But, at the end of the day, I’m too tired to be nice. I’m too tired to be polite. I’m too tired to be diplomatic. Okay, that’s wrong! Those are no excuses. Love takes the time to get it right.

Faith, hope and love – the greatest of these is love. Brethren, Satan is always – 24/7, 365 days a year – trying to destroy us. And one of his most successful tools in the last two years has been division and disunity. We all need to look at ourselves. Listen to this. We all need to look at ourselves to see if we are contributing to his success. His desire is to destroy us. Are we contributing to his success? Today, tomorrow, this week, I ask you to be the person who uplifts and encourages. I am asking you to bring people together – to celebrate each other. God has given each of victories this week. Ask your brothers and sisters in Christ how God blessed them, and then, rejoice with them on their blessings!

Satan can have all the different weapons that he needs in his arsenal. We only need one weapon to defeat him. And that is love. Our one weapon is God’s love. I beg you, go on the offensive this week. Pour out your love on everyone that you’re in contact with. And even contact those who may be absent today, so that we can reflect God’s love to them as well. We all need to focus on what we have in common and what unifies us – not our differences that are only important to our adversary. God’s love is endless. It is eternal. It never is obsolete. So, we can share it as much as we want. And we never have to worry about running out. Have Godly love to all and share it freely, because freely we have received.