Love Does This

1 Corinthians 13:7 | August 23, 2020

What do you know about tacos?

Like did you know that tacocat spelled backwards is tacocat?

This past week the University of Texas at San Antonio hosted the last in a series of summer webinars called “Food for Thought”. 

The final episode was a panel discussion titled “Everything you need to know about tacos, Texas and tradition”.

Now, I don’t know everything I need to know about Texas and tradition, but everything I need to know about tacos I learned about 2 years ago when I had my first puffy taco.

As I have done privately and publicly on more than one occasion, I give a gracious, unashamed plug for the crab cake taco at Tacos 4 Life in Concord, North Carolina (Concord Mills exit take a left and it’s a little less than a mile down on the right next to QT).

The crab cake taco is a crab cake seared on the grill with remoulade (rim-oh-laud) on a puffy flour tortilla.

Now, if you don’t like crab cakes, no big deal, there are 15 other gourmet taco options for you to choose from with chicken or beef or steak or pork or seafood or veggie.

And if you go, for the sake of Pete, whatever you order, please try it on a puffy flour tortilla – it could change your life.

Now, that might be more than you wanted to hear about puffy tacos but isn’t it interesting how willing we are to chat about things that we love?

Our love for something or someone has an impact on how we think and talk and act and eat. 

We are living in a time when angry news and aggravated news and anxious news seem to be all we hear and want to talk about.

But like not changing the oil in your car for 5 years those realities seem to be destroying our mental and emotional engines.

Is there anything that can help?

Is there something that can help our brains and our bodies at the same time?

Is there something that can help the fear and rage and stress that seems to be running wild in our minds and in the world?

And if there was, wouldn’t we want to know about it?

Well, there is something like that and it’s not a puffy taco and it’s not a medical vaccine and it’s not a political candidate and it’s not a piece of social justice legislation and it’s not a sporting event and it’s not a church with perfect re-gathering guidelines.

It’s something bigger and more powerful and more purposeful and more helpful than all of that. 

What is it?

Love.

Someone might be thinking…

• “Love?”
• “Please don’t be so weak and silly and foolish.”
• “Love stinks.”
• “How can love help anything happening in the world right now?”

Let’s find out. 

Paul is writing to folks in a place called Corinth.

Those folks were confused and frustrated and aggravated and sinful and selfish and they didn’t always think about God’s way of doing things – in other words, they are absolutely nothing like any of us, right?

This is what Paul says to them about love in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 7…

7 [love] bears all things,

Love bears up under all things.

Love covers and protects.

Love is not quick to broadcast the sins and failures of others. 

That doesn’t mean that you ignore people’s sins or hide fugitives at your house on weekends. 

It means that as much as you can without dishonoring God or breaking the law, you protect the reputation of someone. 

Someone said that love doesn’t air dirty laundry – like when a husband meets his wife’s friends for the first time, one of them shouldn’t have a reason to get snarky and say out loud, “So, that’s what the jerk looks like.”

Simon Peter wrote about the same thing, but he put it in the context of when it looks like the world is coming to an end.

Peter says we should be found doing this when the end comes…

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

We live in a time of intense gossip and suspicion and conspiracy theories and fake news from the left and fake news from the right. 

A time when everybody seems to be eager to take every little mistake or every questionable comment and post about it or text about it or email about it or talk about it on the phone. 

You know, we aren’t big fans of people being nitpicky toward us, but for some reason we think our spouses and our kids and our politicians and our teachers and our pastors and the girl at the checkout want their faults broadcast out loud or on social media.

Paul and Peter are simply repeating the pattern of the words of Jesus that if we are going to be eager for anything, we should be eager to love.

As believers, we should be eager to love people who are Christians and eager to love people who are not Christians. 

Why would we do that?

Well, Peter said we should do that because love covers a multitude of sins.

• Does that mean loving other people will take your sin away?
• Does that mean loving other people will take their sin away?

Does that mean that you can be a rude jerk or a silent jerk to your spouse or your parents or your kids as long as you lovingly volunteer at church and lovingly give money to local charities?

Does that mean you can commit adultery or gossip about people or cheat on your taxes or vote more than once in the election because they mailed you an extra ballot or shoplift Perler beads at the craft store and everyone is just supposed to overlook all of that and love because love covers a multitude of sins?

No – it doesn’t mean any of that.

It means when Christians are eager to love, the breeding ground for sin has nowhere to grow. 

It means when Christians are eager to love, forgiveness not revenge, becomes our delight.

It means when Christians are eager to love, the great news of the gospel can flourish and thrive.

C.H. Spurgeon

It is by no means honorable to men or women to set up to be common informers. Yet I know some who are not half so eager to publish the gospel as to publish slander.

What are you more eager for – to complain or post about all that is happening in the world right now or to proclaim and boast about the grace of Jesus?

C.H. Spurgeon

Love stands in the presence of a fault, with a finger on her lip.

Love knows how to look at the heart and the mind and the mouth and the posting finger and say, “Shhhhhh.”

Listen very closely, dear friends, the end is near, so, do not be eager to gossip or complain or sinfully post.

• Be eager to love
• Be eager to cover and protect

Love bears all things.

Paul gives us a second thing that love does.

7 believes all things,

To say we live in a cynical age is an understatement.

What can you really believe in these days?

So, what does it mean that love believes all things?

When someone calls your house and says you just won the Pig in a Poke contest to receive a year’s supply of free barbecue but to release the prize you have to pay a shipping fee of $200 and you need to wire the money to Fat Sam’s Bait and Tackle shop in the country of Florin, does believing in all things mean you should run to the bank and get that cashiers check taken care of ASAP?

No – believing all things does not mean being duped by phone scams or duped by political promises.

When we say love believes all things, we mean that love is quick to believe the best.

Love gives the benefit of the doubt.

With the waves of cynicism crashing around us the idea of giving the benefit of the doubt is almost unheard of these days. 

But love, agape love, Christian love, gives the benefit of the doubt – not foolishly, but faithfully. 

Paul put it this way in his letter to the folks in Philippi…

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Think about a normal week in your life and consider which of these questions most often run through your mind…

• What do I disagree with that person about?
• What is that person not doing that I think they should be doing?

Or…

What is excellent and worthy of affirming in that person?

Listen, love is not foolish or ignorant or mamby-pamby – unless you are willing to say Jesus was foolish and ignorant and mamby-pamby.

Love isn’t foolish, but love does believe the best first and then it continues to try and believe the best. 

The love Paul’s talking about here in chapter 13 is not intimate love or family love or friend love – its known as agape love. 

Agape love is self-denying love that keeps loving even when love is rejected.

Granted, that is not easy love, but it is the kind of love that Jesus has called us to. 

When Jesus was crucified on the cross its not like he was there because all of us raised money to sponsor him.

The Bible says when we were helpless and dead in our sin, Jesus died for us. 

Jesus didn’t die because people were loving him and believing the best about him.

The Bible says Jesus died for sinners – he died to rescue rebels – like me and like you. 

When there was nothing but the worst to believe about us, Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us.

If you’ve truly been rescued by Jesus, you have a gazillion eternal reasons before and after death to make every effort to believe the best of others first.

Love believes all things.

Paul gives us a third thing love does.

7 hopes all things,

The last 45 American presidents have promised some kind of hope – that’s not the hope Paul’s talking about.

Paul is talking about a hope that is built on the one, true, ultimate hope.

He wrote about it in his letter to the folks in Ephesus…

Ephesians 2:12

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

 

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

When we have hope in Christ it is supposed to be impossible for us to ever think that any spouse or any child or any parent or any politician or any election or any church or any community or any country is without hope. 

Why?

Because true, lasting hope can only be found in being brought near to God and that’s what Jesus does – bring you to God.

• In Jesus there is always hope
• In Jesus there is always hope
• In Jesus there is always hope

If you have hope in Jesus, then you can hope for the best in people and hope for the best in any situation. 

Why?

How?

Because you have Jesus.

About 10 years ago, I met a guy named Nick who had only been a Christian for a few weeks, and this is what he said to me…

Nick

You can’t have Jesus and be the same.

He’s right.

You can’t have Jesus and not have hope – you just can’t.

If you have not read the book “Unified” by United States Senator Tim Scott and former United States Representative Trey Gowdy, I super highly recommend it – it’s better than a crab cake taco.

The book dedication gives a great picture of how hope works in real life…

Dedication

To Artis Ware, Tim’s grandfather, who grew up in a segregated South and a polarized world, but who learned to love everyone. His faith and his perspective were transformational. 

Dedication

To Jessie Lee Evans, Trey’s grandmother, who shared with Artis a love for South Carolina and a profound faith in God.

Dedication

In the segregated age in which they lived, the two never met. But two generations later, their grandsons became the best of friends.

Dedication

Here’s hoping that Artis and Jessie Lee have met each other on the other side. May what they now have in common overwhelm any differences.

In Jesus there is always hope.

Paul gives us a fourth thing that love does.

7 endures all things.

Love doesn’t give up – it hangs in there and hopes that friends become frenemies and that frenemies become friends.

Sometimes loves says, “Shhhhhh”, and sometimes love says, “Don’t run away.”

Again, in our deeply self-centered, cynical culture we are tempted to take our ball and go play somewhere else if we don’t like something with our spouse or our parents or our jobs or our church or our school or our politician or our car dealer or our hamburger joint.

But love, agape love, Christian love, endures and keeps going.

How does that play out in the most difficult situations of life?

Well, I’d love to tell you it’s pretty and peachy-keen, but far too often it isn’t.

But if you are a Christian, we have this amazing fuel and this constant half-time pep talk that goes like this…

1 Peter 2:21-22

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;

 

1 Peter 2:23

and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

1 Peter 2:24

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Listen, none of us are perfect and we are all going to have lots of moments when we struggle.

But when it comes to love, Jesus has set the example that we have been called to follow.

• Love does not revile
• Love does not attack
• Love does not threaten
• Love endures
• Love stands its ground
• Love hangs in there and keeps loving

It’s been said that 1 Corinthians 13 is a great chapter to help you evaluate your life.

So, what does love look like in your life?

One day Jesus was teaching his closest friends and he painted a word picture for them involving two men – one who listened to Jesus and honored his teachings with his life and one who didn’t.

And his word picture breaks down like this…

• Two men
• Two houses
• One storm

Here’s the first man…

 

Luke 6:48

he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock;

Luke 6:48

and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

 

Here’s the second man…

Luke 6:49

But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation;

 

Luke 6:49

and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.

• Two men
• Two houses
• One storm

One listened to Jesus and what he said and trusted him and kept following him.

One looked like he was listening until the storm came and then he didn’t have time to trust and follow Jesus because he was so consumed following the news and social media.

Imagine me and my son roll through the drive-thru of Stan Mikita’s Donuts for a dozen glazed and a couple of milkshakes.

I order a chocolate chip milkshake and he orders a mint chocolate chip milkshake.

They fix our shakes and write on the side of the cup which one is the regular chip and which one is the mint chip.

We get back out on the highway and I take a big swig through my straw and all I taste is the annoying flavor of minty chocolate.

I pull over on the side of the road and pitch a fit.

• “This is the wrong one!”
• “How could they mess this up?”
• “Do they not know how to write?”
• “Somebody should get in trouble for this!”
• “I don’t like mint chocolate!”
• “I never even order milkshakes!”
• “The one time I do and look what happens!”

My son smiles and says:

• “I don’t like regular chocolate chip.”
• “When I get a shake, I want to feel minty fresh.”
• “But it’s okay, dad.”
• “I listened to your podcast the other day.”
• “You said if we have Jesus, we have everything.”
• “You said that knowing Jesus helps in life’s highs and lows.”
• “I’m pretty sure that applies to messed up milkshakes too.”

Our normal reactions and responses to the trials and struggles and tribulations of life show us which house we live in.

Again, none of us are perfect, but which house are you living in?

The enduring house of love or the fickle house of hopelessness?

You may have heard the story about the man who stopped to watch a Little League baseball game.

He was at the outfield fence and couldn’t see the scoreboard, so, he called out to one of the kids in the outfield and asked him what the score was.

The kid smiled and said, “We’re losing 18-0.”

The man said, “Wow! You don’t look too discouraged.”

The kid said, “Why should I be discouraged? Our team hasn’t come to bat yet.”

Love bears all things and believes all things and hopes all things and endures all things because the love of Christ reminds us that we always have another bat. 

• In Jesus there is always love
• In Jesus there is always hope

Build your house on that.

Message by Dow Welsh |

August 23, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://ericgeiger.com/2017/10/4-ways-spurgeons-teaching-on-love-shapes-our-leadership/

https://www.amazon.com/Unified-Unlikely-Friendship-Divided-Country/dp/1496430417

You know about tacos? Did you know that Taco Cat spelled backwards is Taco Cat? It's okay. You'll get it at lunch and you'll enjoy it later. It's fine. This past week, the University of Texas at San Antonio hosted the last in a series of summer webinars called Food for Thought, And this past week's the title of the episode. Was this everything you need to know about Tacos, Texas and tradition? Now I don't know a whole lot about Texas and tradition, but everything I need to know about tacos I learned about two years ago when I had my first puffy taco. Okay, now I, with no shame, will give a huge plug for the crab cake taco at Tacos for Life in Concord, North Carolina. A couple exits past Ikeya two or three. The Concord Mills exit. Take a lift. Go back over the overpass about 7/10 of a mile next to Q T. Okay, great thing is, there's a cute, too, so you have a Q T and tacos for life. Okay, unashamedly just told you where it waas. So the crab cake at tacos for life is a crab cake. That's been seared lightly on the grill. It has some PICO. It's got some remoulade sauce and it's in a puffy tortilla. Palffy. 20. So good. Now look, if you don't like crab cakes, no big deal because there's other options there. You've got all kind of other options. There's 15 I think. Gourmet tacos. You can get beef and steak and chicken and veggie and seafood and pork. I mean, there's little bit everything. But whatever you get, whatever you decide to get when Ugo please, for the sake of Pete, get it on a puffy tortilla. It might just change your life. No, that might be more than you want to know about a puffy tortilla. But in it funny how when we get to talking about something that we love, we could go on and on. We can give a lot of details and keep the fire going. And here's why. Because what we love has an impact on how we think on how we talk on how we act and on how we eat. Everything is impacted by what we love. You know these days we're living in a time when angry news and aggravated news and just news seems to be all that we are hearing about all that's being talked about. And if we're honest, it's almost all we want to talk about. We say we don't, but then we find ourselves engaged in it. The problem, though, is kind of like not changing the oil in your car for five years. All of that talk is starting to destroy our mental and emotional on. Maybe a little bit. Are are spiritually engine in life. We can't breathe way. Can't think so. Is there something that can help? Is there anything that can help something that can help heal our brain and our bodies at the same time off some of the things that are happening? Is there anything that can help our fear and our rage and our stress? All the things we're finding floating through our minds and even floating through the world in our community day. Is there anything that can help like that? Well, there is something that can help, and it's it's not Ah, puffy taco, And it's not a medical vaccine, and it's not a political candidate. It's not a perfect scenario for opening schools. It's not a perfect scenario for opening church. Now it's something different. It's something bigger. It's something more powerful. It's something more purposeful than any of those things. What is that? Well, it xlat of now somebody might be thinking God, love, Are you kidding me? They don't be weak. Don't be silly. Don't be foolish. Don't be binding all this love stuff, man. Love stinks. Love can't help anything that's happening in the world right now. How in the world could love help anything. Well, let's see if we can find out. The Apostle Paul is writing to some folks in a place called Court and he's writing to these folks because they're struggling. They're struggling with things like confusion and aggravation and frustration and stress and anxiety. Their selfish, they're sinful. They tend to not think about God's ways of doing things. In other words, they're nothing like any of us, right? I mean, so we're going to have a hard time making a connection. Now they're a lot like us. And so Paul writes them about love. What does he say about love? This is what he said. First. Corinthians 13 Verse seven. Love bears all thanks. Love bears up under all things love covers and love protects. Love is not quick to broadcast of sins and the failures of others. Love doesn't do that now. That doesn't mean you ignore people, since it doesn't mean you start harboring fugitives. If your house on the weekend because, hey, no big deal, it's just love everybody. That's not the picture. What it means is that to some measure, without dishonoring God without breaking the law, that we do everything we can to protect the reputation of other people. Way, bear things, way protect. That's the picture that we have. Someone put it this way. Love doesn't air dirty laundry. In other words, it would be like this if a husband is meeting his wife's friends for the first time, like one of them shouldn't say. Oh, so that's what the jerk finally looks like. Yeah, Or if a wife is meeting her husband's friends for the first time, one of them shouldn't say, Oh, so that's what the nagging him looks like. Okay, I got it now, right? The love doesn't do that. Love does everything it can to protect Simon. Peter wrote the same thing, but he wrote it in the context of the end times. And in the end times, Peter said, this is what we should be found doing. First Peter, Chapter four, Verse eight. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sense. We live in a time of intense gossip, of intense speculation, suspicion, conspiracy theories, a time of lots of fake news from the left and fake news from the right. We live in a time where it's really hard to think through a lot of things, a time when everybody seems eager to take every little mist ake or every, you know, unnecessary comment and just broadcasting, you know, just just posted or texted or email it or or get on the phone and talk about you know, it's really interesting. I think I speak for all of us when I say none of us, like when people are nit picky with us. We don't like when people are nit picky with all the different things that we do or don't do. But for some reason, we're all convinced that our spouses and our kids and our parents and our politicians and our teachers and our pastors and the girl at the register at the check out place. They all want their missed aches, broadcast very loudly in the store, are posted all over social media. But they're just like us. They don't They don't. Paul and Peter, they're both simply repeating the same pattern of words that we hear from Jesus. And that is this. If you're going to be eager to do something, be eager to love. Be eager to love as believers. We should be eager to love people who are Christians. And we should be eager to love people who are not Christians. And why? Why would we do that? Well, Peter says, if we're eager to love and that way it covers Ah, multitude of sins. That sounds pretty good. Does that mean that you know a zoo? Long as we love other people, all of our sins will be taken away. Does it mean if we love other people that all their sins are going to be taken away to cover a multitude of sins? Does that mean that we could be a rude jerk or silent jerk to our spouse or our parents or our kids or anyone else in life? No. Big deal. It's fine. As long as we lovingly volunteered church are lovingly give money to local charities. Does it mean that love covers a multitude of sins that, hey, it's OK to commit adultery or gossip about somebody or cheat on your taxes? Or, you know, maybe vote more than one time in the election because they mistakenly sent you an extra ballot? Or are shoplift pearler beads from the craft store? And, hey, it's no big deal, you know, because all those people are just supposed to ignore all of that and love you because love covers a multitude sends No, but that's not what any of that means. And what Paul's getting in the picture that Paul is painting is this. When Christians agree to love when they set their affections own loving, it means that there's not a breeding ground for sin to grow. When Christians choose toe love, there's not a breeding ground for sin to grow. When Christians choose toe love, forgiveness, not revenge, becomes our delight. When Christians choose toe love, we create an atmosphere for the gospel to thrive and flourish, Charles Spurgeon said. This it is by no means honorable to men or women to set up to be common informers. I think that's a nice way to say gossipers. Yet I know some who are not half so eager to publish the Gospel as to publish slander. So what are we mawr eager for our We mawr eager to complain and post about everything that's happening in the world or his believers? We mawr eager to proclaim and boast about the grace of Jesus. What we eager for this version goes on to say this love stands in the presence of a fault with a finger on her lip za vivid right there, right? Love knows how to look at our minds and our hearts and our souls and our mouths and are posting fingers and say Ahh, don't don't post him. Don't don't don't say it. Try really hard not to think it, but just just don't that that's what love does. Love knows how to bear things. Listen, Peter's not far off. We do need to remember the end is near being isn't here. So if you're going to be eager about anything, don't be eager to complain. Don't be eager. Eager to gossip. Don't don't be eager to sinfully Post. Be eager toe love. Be eager to protect, be eager to cover love bears all things. Paul gives the second thing love does, he says. Love believes all things man way live in a cynical age, right? That's an understatement, really. I mean, what can you really believe in today? So it's kind of confusing that we're reading Pauls advice here, and he says, You know, love actually believes in all things What does that mean? So when someone calls your house and says, You just won the pick the pope contest and you're going to receive, uh, your supply of barbecue every week And they say, But in order to get your free barbecue for the whole year, you've got to pay an upfront shipping fee of $200. Gotta be cashier's check. You got to send it toe fat Sam's bait and tackle shop in the country of Floren. Now, if you do that, are you supposed to hear that information run to the bank? Get that cashier's check and get it there ASAP? No, you should. Paul's writing here about believing all things. He's not talking about buying into every phone scam. He's not talking about being duped by every political promise. What he's saying here is that when we believe all things very simply were quick to believe the best were quick to believe the best. Now you put another way. Love gives the benefit of the doubt, man. When we look at all the cynical waves crashing around us, the idea of giving anyone the benefit of the doubt seems to be lost in our world today. But loved us. Love a gap. Love, Christian love. It gives the benefit of the doubt, not foolishly but faithfully. Paul put it this way in his letter to the folks at Philippi. Clippings for eight. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute. If there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Think about just a normal week in your life and just just consider which one of these questions runs through your mind more often than not. Okay, here's a few first question. What do I disagree with that person about? How often does that run through your mind? What I disagree with them about What? What am I not agree with him about with sports or money or finances or anything? What? I not agree about that person? Second question, Maybe something like this. What is that person not doing that? I think they should be doing? Was that person not doing that? I think they should be doing. What is that person doing that I wish they would stop doing? Or what about this question? What is excellent and worthy of affirming in that person? What is excellent are worthy of affirming in that person. Listen, we're we're not perfect, okay? And the reality is when we talk about love, believing in all things, we're not talking about ignorant love here. We're not talking about being foolish. We're not talking about being taken in. We're talking about this picture that's not Manby pamby, not ignorant, not foolish. Because if we think that love is ignorant or foolish or Manby pamby, then somehow we have to also think that Jesus is ignorant and foolish and manby pamby because Jesus was very clear on promoting love. So we're not talking about being foolish. But love does believe the best, and it believes the best First and and even when it has caused to not believe the best, it still tries. It still fights to believe the best. That's what love does. Remember this love that Paul's talking about is what we call a gap love. It's It's not intimate love. It's not family love. It's not friend. Lovett's a Gap Love. It's a self denying love that keeps loving even when love is rejected. It keeps loving God. I Love is not easy love, but it is the kind of love that Jesus has called us to when we look at the beauty of the cross. When we looked at that, Jesus was crucified on the cross. What we see in that picture is that Jesus was not crucified on a cross because we all raise some money to sponsor him. Jesus was not dying on the cross for people who were believing in him for people who were giving him the benefit of the doubt for people that were loving him. Jesus was dying according to the scriptures, for sinners, rebels like me and like you, when we were helpless when we were dead in our sins, that's when Jesus died. For us, that's the picture of love that we see in the Scripture. That's how love makes its way into our life, when there was nothing to believe in us when there was no reason to give us the benefit of the doubt. That's when Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us. That's what love does. If you've truly been rescued by Jesus, you have about a gazillion reasons before and after death to give other people the benefit of the doubt, to give other people the ability to know that as far as you're concerned, you're going to do your best to believe the best. First and most love believes all things. Paul gives us the third thing he says. Love hopes, all things now I don't know if I can find an exact quote on every single one of these. But generally speaking, the last 45 presidents of the United States have promised some type of hope. But that's not the kind of hope that Paul is talking about. Paul is, is talking about a hope that is built on the ultimate one true hope. He described it this way to the folks that emphasis Ephesians two verse 12. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world remembers 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you formally who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So we have hope in Christ by the very nature of our hope in Christ. It means it's supposed to be impossible for us to look at our spouse, our kids, our parents, our politicians, or our country or anything else in life and say there's no hope, because in Christ there is always hope by the nature of who he is. True, lasting hope can only be found in being brought near to God. So if you have been brought near to God, you will never not have hope. Let me just graciously repeat that whatever you are ticked off about this morning, whatever you are afraid of this morning, whatever you're anxious about, whatever your aggravated about whatever you want different, none of those things can change your hope. If you are in Christ, your hope cannot be taken away from. We may not see it, we might get distracted. We might get discouraged. We might get depressed. We might get angry. We might get anxious. We might get a lot of things, but that hope in Christ cannot be taken away from us because it's in Christ. It's him. It's his character to he is and Jesus, There's always hope in Jesus. There's always hope in Jesus. There is always hope. Always, always. Why? How? Because he's Jesus. I met a guy about 10 years ago. His name was Nick. I think it could only been a Christian, maybe three or four weeks a month, something like that. And he just made a very simple statement to me that day. Hey, said this. You can't have Jesus and be the same. He's right. You can't have Jesus and not have hope. You just can't because it's who he is. So if if you have him, you have hope. There's always hope in Jesus. If you've not read the book, unified by United States Senator Tim Scott and former United States representative Trey Gowdy, I have before and will again highly recommended to you. Hey, I'll even say this. It is better than a puffy crab cake taco. It's good. It's good stuff. Okay? The dedication of the book gives a great picture of what hope looks like in real life. This this hope that comes from love. This is how the dedication reads toe artists, where Tim's grandfather, who grew up in a segregated south and a polarized world but who learned to love everyone, his faith and his perspective were transformational to Jessie Lee Evans Trays, grandmother who shared with artists a love for South Carolina and a profound faith in God and the segregated age in which they live. The two never met, but two generations later their grandsons became the best of friends. And here's how the dedication ends. Here's hoping that artists and Jessie Lee have met each other on the other side. May what they now have in common overwhelm any differences. There is always hope in Jesus always and whatever you hate on this side. Whatever you're angry about today on this side, whatever you're anxious about today on this side, whatever you're afraid of on this side, whatever your apathetic about on this side in Christ, there's another side, and the other side will always overwhelm whatever disturbs us here and in his kindness. Every day God sends grace from the other side for us to breathe and see and seen pray and live because that's what love thus love hopes. All things, 1/4 thing that love does, Paul says in Verse seven. His love endures all things love doesn't give up. Love looks for ways for friends to become frenemies and frenemies to become friends. Love is just always hanging in there. Love is always trying to find a way sometimes love says. H Don't say And sometimes Love says, Hey, don't run away, Don't don't run away, You know again and are deeply self centered, cynical culture were tempted to take our ball. Go play somewhere else if we don't like something with our spouse or our parents or our church or our job or our politician or whatever it may be. But love hangs in there. Love a gap. I love Christian love. It finds a way toe keep going now what does that look like in the most difficult moments of life? Well, I'd love to tell you that it's all pretty and peachy, keen, but far too often it's not But here's the great thing in the hard times, the difficult times and the times that it doesn't feel peachy keen. There's this fuel. There's this gasoline. There's thesis energy that comes from Christ. There is this halftime pep talk that never goes away. And it sounds like this First Peter, Chapter two for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps because he committed no sin. Nor is any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return while suffering, he uttered no threats but kept and trusting himself to him who judges righteously and then Verse 24. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die this in and live to righteousness for by his wounds. You really, by his words, you revealed. Listen, none of us are perfect. Okay? We're all going to We're going to struggle as I'll keep reminding this man. We're going to We're probably going to have mawr grumpy love days than a gap love days. Okay, it's going to happen. But when it comes to love Jesus has set the example for us. He's called us to this. Love does not reviled Love does not attack. Love does not threaten. Love endures. Love stands its ground. Love hangs in there. Love keeps loving. It's been said first. Corinthians 13 is good evaluator for your life that looking through this chapter will kind of help you see where you are in life. So you know where where is love in your life? If you were toe used these words, How would you evaluate your life? One day Jesus was talking to his disciples closest friends and and he gave them a word picture of two men. One of the men is somebody who listened to his teachings and put into practice what he heard. Another one listened to the teachings and did not put into practice what he heard. And this is how Jesus described those two men. Luke, Chapter six, Jesus said. First man is like a man building a house who dug deep and later foundation on the rock. And then when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. Anybody ever been like, almost in the eye of a hurricane. My wife and our our first waiting. Married four months, I think. And I forgot. What was her name? Brand. Not my wife. Sorry. Um, the good thing she's in the back helping the kids. I it seemed like it might have been birth or a friend. I can't remember now. Karen would know, but But I remember that night being on the floor and we had the mattress over us. And these huge pine trees that had been in Wake Forest, North Carolina, probably for 300 years, were just dropping like toothpicks outside of our window. And we were waiting any moment for one of them just to come through. And and it was just it was unnerve ing just how the building was shaken. This building was built like I think, back in the forties, maybe. And it was just shaking, shaking. And I think about that when I read this and I think, Wow, the storm came. But his house didn't him didn't even shake, you know, it felt like it was shaking, but he was secure. Here's the second man, Verse 49 Jesus says. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation. And the torrent burst against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the ruin of that house was great. Great. So you got two men. You got two houses. You got one storm, and you got to results. You got one guy who listened to Jesus, heard what Jesus was teaching and said, Yep. I need to do that. And I'm going to keep following Jesus. And then you've got another guy who listened. But then the storm came, and he didn't have time to trust and follow Jesus because he was working too hard to keep following the news and social media. He didn't have time to follow. Jesus. Imagine me and my son. We, uh, roll through stand Nikita's doughnut shot. One afternoon. We're going to get a dozen glaze and a couple of milkshakes. He orders a chocolate chip mint milkshake, and I order a regular chocolate chip milkshake and they hand us all our stuff, doughnuts and milkshakes. And they've got written on the side. Which one's regular chocolate chip? Which ones? Mint. Chocolate chip. We get out on the highway. I grabbed mine, Take a big swig. And the only thing that happens to me is I get the annoying flavor of minty chocolate. Okay, because I don't like minty chocolate. And so I pulled over on the side of the road. Man, I'm just I gotta I gotta throw a tantrum. E Believe this. What in the world do these people not know how to write? I mean, how hard is this? It's a milkshake. How do you switch these up? I don't even order milkshakes. And this is the first time I do and look what happens. And my son smirks at me and says, You know, it's funny that I don't like regular chocolate chip when I get a milkshake, I want to feel minty fresh. But you know that it is going to be okay, because I listened to your podcast this week and remember you said that thing about how when we have Jesus, we have everything and that having Jesus and being in Christ means that he will help us in the highs and the lows that he's there for us. So I'm pretty sure that includes messed up milkshakes. now. Thankfully, I don't lose it like that over food. If I do, it's excitement. It's it's never anger it z excitement. But here's the thing. Our normal reactions are normal responses. How we normally respond to things, how we normally respond to trials and struggles, difficulties, tribulations. How we normally respond gives us a picture of which house we're in. So which house are you in? Are you living in the house of enduring love? Or are you living in the fickle house of anger? Aggravation or anxiety or hopelessness are a number of other things. Again, None of us are perfect. But which house read in You never heard the story about the businessman that was out of town on a trip and finished up early one afternoon and was heading to his hotel, and he noticed it was right around five o'clock and there was a Little League baseball game that had already started. Hey, thought, Hey, I'm going to go watch a couple innings, you know, just for fun. So he goes over in Parks and he walks up and where he walked up, he actually walked up the outside outfield fence and so it gets up to the fence and you can't see the scoreboard from where he's standing. So he hollers out to the kid in the outfield, Hey, what's the score? Kid says. Looks at him and smiles and says 18 and nothing. We're losing, man thought. That's interesting thing to smile about. He said, Well, buddy, you don't seem very discouraged. He turned back and the kids said, Why should not be discouraged? We haven't even had our bat yet. Love bears all things and believes all things and hopes all things and endures all things. Because the love of Christ reminds us. We always have an extra bat, always in Jesus. There's always love in Jesus. There is always hope. Build your house, build your life on that.