Love Knows This
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 | August 30, 2020
What do you not like coming to an end?
- A good book?
- A good movie?
- A good walk?
- A good run?
- A good vacation?
- A good bowl of fresh clam chowder?
The Lobster Claw restaurant in Orleans, Massachusetts, along the hook-shaped peninsula of Cape Cod, has been serving up fresh seafood including lobster, clams, and swordfish since 1962.
It has been called the best family restaurant in Cape Cod and describes itself as cheerful and unpretentious.
I like eating at places that are happy and humble.
Owners Don and Marylou Berig clawed their way to the top of the seafood world in Cape Cod and now they are going to take their claws out of the restaurant business and claw their way down to Jupiter, Florida.
The Lobster Claw will close it’s claws on September 13.
The family recently clawed out a goodbye note that said this…
Berig’s
So many great friends have been made and the Berig’s will miss you all so much, but all good things must come to an end!
For the people of Cape Cod The Lobster Claw has been a very good thing and I’m sure that many of them are mourning the loss of a happy, humble spot where they could talk loud, eat well, and laugh often over a good bowl of chowder (chowda).
But is it true – do all good things come to an end?
There’s actually one super, terrific, amazing, fantabulous thing that does not come to an end.
In fact, it can’t come to an end.
- A pandemic can’t end it
- An election can’t end it
- A hybrid school schedule can’t end it
- A cancelled sports season can’t end it
- A socially distanced church service can’t end it
At the very least that sounds like something we should check out, right?
So, what good thing never comes to an end?
Let’s find out.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 13, verse 8…
8 Love never fails;
- Love never fails
- Love never quits
- Love never ends
Never.
There are some people that rightly note that never can be a very dangerous word to use.
Like you should never say never again…never.
Or like never in the history of calming down has anyone ever clamed down by someone telling them to calm down…never, never, never.
But love is the only time that you can use the word “never” and get away with it.
Why?
Because love is not my idea, and love is not your idea.
The love that Paul is talking about here is not intimate love or family love or friend love – it is called agape love.
Someone has said that agape love is God's kind of love and it is a deliberate choice to act for the best interests of another person.
If we look at the world over the last 3 months, is that mostly what we see?
If you look at your own home over the last 3 months, is that mostly what you see?
Are we willing to say that if it were up to humanity that we would be the ones to come up with the idea of making a deliberate choice to act in the best interests of another person?
Or does it seem more reasonable and logical to consider that the concept of deliberate love had to originate outside of us?
The Apostle John writing to churches just like this one said that love is from God and that God is love.
1 John 4:7,8
…love is from God…for God is love.
- Love did not begin with your parents or your grandparents
- Love did not begin with that cute boy in 7th grade
- Love did not begin with that cute girl in 9th grade
- Love did not begin with Romeo and Juliet
- Love did not begin with The Beatles
- Love didn’t even begin with bacon
Love began with and is owned by and is defined by God.
From the redneck who lives in a single-wide in a muddy swamp to the aristocrat who’s seventh home is a $25 million dollar estate in Cape Cod, everyone has some level of respect for the concept of love.
But to say that love began from God is not just respect for love.
C.S. Lewis said this about the Christian view of love…
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else.
- God’s kind of love has been going on forever
- God’s kind of love created everything that exists
That concept of love is outside of ourselves.
All good things might come to an end, but God’s kind of love is not just a good thing – it is THE thing.
- The movie will end
- The TV series will end
- School will end
- The game will end
- The bowl of chowder will end
- The Baptist church will end
- The Presbyterian church will end
- The Methodist church will end
- Your job will end
- Your life will end
But it is impossible for the love of God to end because like its Owner love was and is and is to come, therefore, it might be more correct to say that love does not begin with God because God has no beginning and no end and neither does love.
That concept of love is outside of ourselves.
C.S. Lewis went on to say this about the difference between God’s kind of love and our kind of love.
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not.
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
Even on your best days, you can get weary and indifferent in your love for your spouse or your kids or your parents or your siblings or your friends.
And when that person in your family or in the neighborhood or at church disagrees with your opinions about pandemics or politics or peach pie you can get relentless, but usually not with love.
But the love of God does not get weary or indifferent and his love is relentless and his love for you comes with a price.
And what did it cost him?
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
That’s not cosmic child abuse, as one author has said, that’s a Father’s love for you and that’s a Savior’s love for you.
That’s a love from outside designed with relentless determination to rescue you and save you and redeem you and satisfy you so that you can be brought inside from the storm of sin and death.
Our love and our feelings of love come and go, but the love of God just goes and goes and goes.
Someone has said that our definition of love is fluid, but God’s definition of love is concrete – it doesn’t change.
That’s why love never ends – because first and most love is outside of us.
- Love never fails
- Love never quits
- Love never ends
Now Paul wants us to see how amazing agape love is compared to some other amazing things that can be super cool to us…
Listen to what he says in verse 8…
8 but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
- Prophecy
- Tongues
- Knowledge
Why does Paul single out those gifts?
Because they are powerful and cool and extremely helpful and extremely dangerous all at the same time – why?
Well let’s briefly look at each one of these and see why they could be dangerous.
Prophecy is when someone, equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirt, is able to pull back the curtain and help people catch a glimpse of the mysteries of God – mysteries that have already in some way been revealed in the Bible.
Prophecy is not when someone predicts that the world is going to come to an end in 78 days if a certain candidate is elected president.
Prophecy is not when the Rev. Claude Henry Smoot mystically picks out a guy named Jim Bob from a crowd and predicts that he is having a headache and slaps him on the head and heals him.
Prophecy is not when you hear someone on the radio or in a church or on TV or through an email or through a letter in the mail tell you that if you will plant a seed of just a $37 donation to their cause that $3,700 dollars will suddenly appear in your bank account in 37 weeks.
I read a story about a man from Houston, Texas, that got a letter like that.
It was a religious broadcast that said they needed some huge amount of money to stay on the air, but they did the math and if every person that received that letter would make a donation of $76 they would survive and the givers would be blessed because after all, you can’t out-give God.
The man wrote them back and said this…
Letter
Sir, I believe what you have written; I believe it is true that God cannot be out-given; and I believe you have a tremendous need for funds.
Letter
But I would like to suggest that you send me the $76 and God will give it back to you three times over. You can get rid of your debt a lot faster that way.
Prophecy is not smoke and mirrors trying to woo people to follow you or your church or your group with the promise of blessings or emotional stability.
Now, are there moments when signs and wonders happen that we can’t explain and cause us to wonder about the realities of life and death and God and his ways of doing things?
Yes.
But, generally speaking, prophecy has to pass the J-Teen test.
What is the J-Teen test?
It has to be filtered through John 16:13-14.
This is what Jesus said…
John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
John 16:14
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to get you to raise your hands at music or feel the magical presence of religious vibes when a certain person is praying or preaching or singing.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring attention to Jesus.
So, does the prophecy bring attention first and most to Jesus?
Is it the kind of prophecy that is in line with the truth that God has revealed in his book, the Bible?
Or first and most does it draw attention to a certain preacher or a certain church or a certain country or a certain style of music or a certain blurry picture on the top of a grilled cheese sandwich?
True, Jesus-consistent, Spirit-equipped, biblically-inspired prophecy is a gift from God, but prophecy will end.
Love never ends.
What about tongues?
In the Bible we don’t see a pattern of tongues being speaking gibberish to make people feel emotionally moved or impressed with your access to God.
We see it as the supernatural ability, again, equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to speak or understand or interpret an unlearned language.
Again, the J-Teen is helpful.
Is what is being spoken bringing attention first and most to Jesus?
Is what is being spoken in line with the truth that God has revealed in his book, the Bible?
Or first and most is what is being spoken visually and verbally impressive and moving, but completely unintelligible and without spiritually rational interpretation?
Now, there are believers I know and respect that have a different take on tongues and this side of heaven we can disagree and on the other side of heaven we will never talk about it.
Why?
Because although true, Jesus-consistent, Spirit-equipped, biblically-inspired use of tongues is a gift from God, tongues will end.
But love will not – love never ends.
What about knowledge?
Knowledge is the ability, equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to write a 1,264-page book on Systematic Theology on an 8th grade reading level.
Not really, but kind of.
Knowledge is the ability to comprehend a wide range of biblical truth and connect it and explain and teach it and make sense out of it.
Not everyone has that.
I feel like I’ve only personally known about 3.5 people that have the gift of knowledge.
Rarely have I known them to be preachers, they are usually humble men and women behind the scenes that have an intoxicating ability to love and enjoy and dissect and delineate the Scriptures.
And I’m telling you, I’m not the smartest lace in the shoe and I’m super thankful for the people I know that have and use that gift in my life and in the life of the church around the world.
True, Jesus-consistent, Spirit-equipped, biblically-inspired knowledge is a gift from God, but knowledge will end.
Love never ends.
Paul keeps unpacking this – listen to what he says next…
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
We can listen to sermons and podcasts and get a study Bible or go to seminary now – we know some things in part.
Paul says there is coming a time when the partial will be done away with.
Why?
Because the perfect has come.
What is the perfect?
There are several views out there, but I think it is hard to steer away from the most obvious message of the Bible…Jesus is coming again.
And why does that matter?
This is what Jesus said…
John 14:1
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
- Anybody troubled today?
- Anybody troubled with politics?
- Anybody troubled with having to wear a mask?
- Anybody troubled with school and sports?
- Anybody troubled?
Jesus says, “Don’t be. Believe in God…and believe in me.”
Why should you do that?
In the middle of the uniqueness of 2020, why should you believe in Jesus?
John 14:2-3
…I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
If you have been saved, if you truly know Jesus as Savior and friend and Lord and King, then do not let your heart be troubled with 2020, because Jesus has a prepared a place for you.
- This isn’t a joke
- This isn’t a fairy tale
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved you and gave himself up for you, and he has promised with his own blood and his own body and his own resurrection that he is preparing a place for you.
For you.
J.C. Ryle
Home is the place where we are loved to the end, never forgotten, and always welcome.
I love that picture, but here’s the great thing about being at home with Jesus – you can’t be loved to the end because love never ends.
All good things might come to an end, but the love of Christ is not just good – it’s great, it’s real, it’s satisfying.
Now let me say this, if you are not saved, if you do not know Christ, then please be very, very, very troubled.
2020 is kindness from the Lord for you, because all that we are seeing is just a faint glimmer of the only true terror in the universe – and that true terror is being separated from God forever.
So, please be troubled and come to Jesus – not just so you can no longer be overwhelmed with anger and anxiety in this world, but come to Jesus so you can be truly, deeply, eternally loved.
Dear Christian, 2020 is the year the Lord has made and because of the breath we are breathing and because of our salvation we have every reason to rejoice and be glad in the Lord.
Something interesting happened 242 days ago.
There was a float in the Rose Parade called “Dodo Bird Flight School”.
Dodo birds are an extinct, flightless bird.
Laura Farber was the president of the parade and she made this statement about the positive message behind the humorous design…
Laura Farber
With hope – anything, in fact, everything is possible.
If the Dodo bird ever claws its way back into existence, at least it will have its own flight school.
Besides the funny Dodo float, something else happened 242 days ago – another picture of hope.
What was it?
2019 ended.
You know what will happen in 123 days?
2020 will end.
But the love and mercy and grace and hope and power and beauty and authority and salvation of Jesus will never end.
Never.
Message by Dow Welsh |
August 30, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church
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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://www.cslewis.com/four-types-of-love/
So what do you not like coming to an end? I mean, besides the sermon every week, you know what, Do you not like coming to an end? You know, maybe a good book. Good movie, Good TV show. Maybe a good Walcott. Good. Run a desert get run. I guess that's a thing. A good vacation about a good bowl of fresh clam chowder. The Lobster Claw restaurant in Orleans, Massachusetts, has been serving up fresh seafood since 1962 right there in the Cape Cod area. It has been voted over and over again as the most family friendly restaurant in Cape Cod. By its own definition, Restaurant says that is cheerful and unpretentious, which in Dow language that means happy and humble. I like eating at a happy and humble place. Don and Mary Lou Gehrig clawed their way to the top 51 years ago. They are now going to take their claws out of the restaurant business and claw their way down to Jupiter, Florida for a little R and R, The Lobster claw will close its claws on September 13 and the family clawed out a little note for everybody this week and Yes, I can keep this cloth and going all day long. This is what they're notes that so many great friends have been made in. The barracks will miss you all so much. But all good things must come to an end now for those folks who live in that area. I am sure that the lobster claw has been a good thing for that community, and they probably are mourning the loss of a good thing. They're mourning the loss of a place that they could go and talk loud and eat well and laugh often and get a good ball of Chata there. They're probably morning, but is there any truth to that statement? Is it true that all good things come to an end? There's actually one thing, one terrific amazing fantabulous thing that does not come to an end. One thing that can't be brought to an end a pandemic cannot bring it to an end on election cannot bring it to an end. Health issue cannot bring it to an end. A hybrid school schedule cannot bring it to an end. Canceled sports season cannot bring it to an end. A socially distance church cannot bring it to an end. Nothing can bring it to an end. At the very least, something that has anything to to with not being brought to an end. A good thing. It seems like something we should at least look at. Right. So what is this thing? This good thing that cannot come to an end? The Apostle Paul is going to help us find out. First Corinthians, Chapter 13 Verse eight Paul writes This love never fails. Love never fails. Love never quits. Love never ends. It can't happen ever. Never, Never. Now some people rightly say that you need to be careful using the word Never. Sometimes it can get you in trouble Like you should never say Never again. Never or never In the history of calming down Has anyone ever calm down from someone telling them to calm down? Right Way notice? Never. Love is the only thing we can usually were that we can use Never with. We can use never ending love. Why? Because love is not your idea. And love is not my idea. We didn't come up with the idea of love The love that Paul is talking about here. It's not an intimate love. It's not a family love. It's not a friend love. It's what's known as a got. Someone has said that this is God's kind of love. That I got My love is is God's kind of love. It's a love that makes the deliberate choice to consider the needs of others a deliberate choice to toe, look out and move toward the interest of other people. Now, if we just look at, let's just say our country over the last three months, would we say that mostly what we see is a desire deliberate to look out for the interest of others. If we just look at our own homes for the last three months, our own families, our own friend group, can we say that mostly what we've seen is a desire, a deliberate desire to look out for the interest of others? Are we willing to say that if it were left up to humanity, the humanity would be quick to say, Let's everybody do everything for the interest of others? Or does it make more logical, rational sense to say that this kind of love has to come from out side of us? Apostle John was riding to some churches, just like this one and others, and this is what he said, he said. Love is from God and God is love. Love is from God and God is love. Love did not begin with your parents or your grandparents. Love did not begin with Romeo and Juliet. Love did not begin with the Beatles. Love did not begin with that cute boy in the fifth grade and didn't begin with that cute girl in the ninth grade. Love didn't even begin with Bacon. Okay, lets you know how serious this is. OK, Love began with God is owned by God and is defined by God. It's his nature. It's who he is. You listen from the redneck living in a single wide in a muddy swamp to the aristocrat living in a $25 million estate on Cape Cod. Everybody has some notion of respect for the concept of love, everybody a some notion of respect for love. But when we say that love began with God, that it's owned by God, that it's defined by God, that's a different kind of concept for love, completely different, C. S. Lewis said this about what Christians believe about love. They believe that the living dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. God's love has been going on forever, and God's kind of love creates everything else. That is a concept of love that is outside of ourselves. It's outside of of how we think and how we plan and what we do. It is outside of who we are. All good things might come to an end, but the love of God is not just a good thing. It is the thing the book will in. The movie will end TV Siri's Will The sports season will in the school year in the bowl of chowder. Eventually the Baptist Church will end. The President Erion Church will end the Methodist Church in our jobs in our homes and even our lives will in. But the love of God cannot in because, like its owner, it waas and it is and it is to come. And so it might be most correct to say this, that love didn't begin with God because God has no beginning and no end, and neither does love. Love has no beginning and no end because it comes from God. That is a concept of love outside of ourselves, outside of how we think, outside of how we plan outside of what we do. Yes, Lewis went on to describe the difference between God's kind of love and are kind of love. He said this. But the great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not. He says this it is not wearied by our sins or our indifference, and therefore it is quite relentless and its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us at whatever costs. To him. I was just trying to be honest with your own heart and mind, even own our best days. We get weary and indifferent with our love toward our spouse or our parents or our kids or our friends, even on our best days, and when that person in your family or that person in your neighborhood or that person that you work with or go to school with or go to church with when that person disagrees with your opinions on politics or pandemics or peach pie or whatever else it is you're talking about week. We have a way of being relentless, just not really in love. It's a different kind of relentlessness that we have. But the love of God does not get weary. It doesn't get indifferent in his love is relentless, His love is relentless, and his love for you comes with a price. And what is the price? When Jesus was teaching and he said this for God, so loved the world that a big gate he gave his only begotten son, his one and only son, that whoever believes in, whoever relies on whoever trust in whoever cleans to his son well, not pairs will not come to destruction but will have eternal, everlasting, satisfying life. But that's the cost of love. No, no, that cost what what God did in giving his son. It's It's not cosmic child abuse, as an author said years ago. Now that is the love of a father for you. That's a love of the savior for you. It's it's love. It's a love that's from outside of us. It's not a love that that we can put together to love from outside that has a relentless determination to rescue you and save you and redeem you and satisfy you and bring you from the outside. Inside, away from the storm of sin and death Assess the love of God, our love and our feelings. They come and go. But the love of God, it just goes and it goes with relentless determination. It goes and it goes and it goes. It pursues. As David said, with goodness and loving kindness, all the days of our lives, someone said that our definition of love is fluid. It kind of comes and goes. But God's definition of love is concrete. It can't change. It won't change. It's never changed. It will never change. And that concept of love is outside of us. Love never fails. Love never quits. Love never ends. Never. Paul wants us to to see how amazing this love is compared toa other things that are amazing that we tend toe maybe sometimes love too much equity says going on the first date. But if their gifts of prophecy they'll be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. The prophecy tongues and knowledge. Why does Paul pull these three gifts into the conversation? Well, here's why. Because they're pretty powerful. They're pretty cool. They're extremely helpful, and they're extremely dangerous all at the same time. So how are they dangerous? Well, let's just look at each one briefly to just try to see how there's danger in these good gifts. We'll start with prophecy. Prophecy is when someone equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit is able to pull back the curtain, so to speak and help people catch a glimpse of the mysteries of God. Mysteries that in some way, shape or form have already been reveal in some way. In God's book, the Bible prophecy is not when someone predicts that if a certain candidate is elected president that the world's going to end in 78 days, it's not props. Prophecy is not. When Reverend Claude Henri Smoot pull some guy named Jim Bob out of an audience and predicts that he has a headache and slaps him on the head and heels Prophecy prophecy is not when you get a phone call or an email or a letter in the mail saying that this particular group needs you to plant a seed to give a little money a little seed money and God will bless you. If you do, that's not prophesy. Read a story about a man in Houston, Texas, that actually got a letter like that. It was one of these letters that for some kind of religious broadcast they needed this huge amount of money to stay on the air. And they said they had figured out that if every person who got that letter would just send $76 that they would be fine and everything would be great and that God was going toe bless them if they gave because you can't out give God, We gotta got that letter, wrote them back. This is what he said, Sir, I believe what you have written. I believe it is true that guy cannot be out given. And I believe you have a tremendous need for funds. But I would like to suggest that you send me the $76 and God will give it back to you three times over. You can get rid of your debt a lot faster. That way. There you go. Is it prophecy? Is not smoke and mirrors and fancy letters trying to convince someone to woo them, so to speak, to you, to your church or true group. And if you do, And if they dio, though they will be blessed. That's that's not props now are there moments when there are signs and wonders where there are prophetic things that happen that are hard to explain, that it really calls us to sit and wonder while what is the reality of life? What is the reality of death? What is the reality of God and his way of doing things? Are there moments like that that we cant explain that we can't just pull a Bible verse out and say, Oh, no, this is not this And this is this. Sometimes there's moments like that, but generally speaking, prophesy needs to pass the J 18 test. What is the J teen test? It's nothing. I made it up, but it is something. J Team test is filtering everything through John 16 vs 13 and 14 J team test. Here's what Jesus said John, 16. But when he the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come. And then Jesus says this Verse 14. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and we'll disclose it to you. In other words, the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to get us to raise our hands when we hear a certain kind of music, although that's fine. But that's not the primary purpose of the spirit. The primary purpose of the spirit is not to have give us some kind of magical presence of religious vibes. When we hear a certain person pray or a certain person seeing or a certain person preached, that's that's not the picture that we have, but we have of the Holy Spirit is that his purposes primary purpose is to bring attention to Jesus. And so we put any prophecy, anything really through for this picture through this test, so to speak, is this prophecy bringing attention first and most to Jesus Christ? Is this prophecy consistent with in line with the overall truth that God has helped us define? In his book, the Bible? Or is this prophecy primarily trying to get people to one preacher or one church or one city or one state or one country? Or are one blurry image of something on a grilled Jesus sandwich? What is this prophecy drawing our attention to True prophecy Prophecy, That is, Jesus, consistent prophecy, that his spirit equipped prophecy that is biblically inspired. That kind of prophecy is a gift from God. But prophecy will in Paul's not accidentally saying this prophecy will in But love love will not Love never fails. Love never quits. Love never hands Paul brings a prophecy and he brings up tongues. What? What about talks? Well, in the Bible, we don't see a pattern of tongues being speaking gibberish to people, making them feel like you've got some really cool access to God. No in the Bible that the pattern that we see is the ability to speak in tongues is is when someone again equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit has the ability to understand, translate to interpret an unlearned language. That's the pattern that we see in the Bible again. The J 18 test is helpful. Okay, It's like, Okay, so is this tongue, drawing attention to Jesus. Is it? Bringing attention? Is this moment bringing attention to Jesus first and most? Is this consistent with in line with the overall truth of God that we see in the body or its first and most? This is something that's verbally and visually exciting and amazing, and it's it's stirring emotion, but it's completely unintelligible, and nobody can make any spiritual, rational interpretation. If so, then way have to struggle a little bit with that picture of talks. Now there are people that I respect, that they have a different view of that and this side of heaven. It's okay for us to disagree. And on the other side of heaven, we won't talk about it at all. You know why? Because true gift of tongues Jesus consistent, spirit equipped, biblically inspired that that type of tongue is a gift from God. But tongues Lynn over. But love, not love, never fails. Love never quits. Love never ends of prophecy and tongues and Paul also there's in knowledge. What about knowledge? Well, knowledge is the ability again equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit to ride a 1264 page systematic theology textbook on an eighth grade reading level. I mean, I'm kind of kidding, but but it is this picture of someone's ability, by the kindness of God, to take the wide range of biblical truth and be able to understand almost all of it, to be able to make all the connections and be able to explain it and teach it to delineate it, to dissect it, to do everything you can. I mean, in my life, I've only known like 3.5 people that I think have this gift. What's the point? Five? Well, one of them is crazy, and so I don't know if I'm supposed to take away a half a point or at a half a point. So I just went with 3.5. But this this picture of of being able to take God's truth and pull all of it together. Look, I'm I'm not the smartest lace in the shoe. I need people like this. I need people to help me think through the big picture of God's truth. And there's people that can do that. True Jesus. Consistent, spirit equipped, biblically inspired knowledge. It is a gift from God, but it will not last forever. Love will Love does not fail. Love does not quit. Love does not end. Paul's going to pull us a little deeper into this because he really wants us to get it. Look what he says in Verse nine for We know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. We can listen to sermons today. We can listen to podcast. Today we can go buy a good study Bible. We could even go to seminary. There's some things we can do today, some some knowledge, some things that we can get a partial understanding of it. But the parcel, Paul says. Even that will one day go away. Why? Because the perfect will come. So what's the perfect? Well, there's a few views out there, but But I would say that it's kind of hard to get away from the overarching message of the Bible that Jesus is coming again. The perfect is when God makes all things right. All things new, in and through Jesus, Jesus is coming again. Why does that matter? This is what Jesus said in John, 14 do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me and by troubled today and I troubled over politics. Troubled over pandemic, troubled with having where mask every good. Anybody troubled with sports or troubled with school or troubled with health. Anybody have any trouble? Jesus said something very interesting to us, he says. Yet it don't do that. Don't Don't be troubled. Can't Big Senate's Jesus. Come on, will help. I think you so do not be Trump. Look, we're not perfect, okay? That's not going to happen all the time. But are we in the ballgame? We're in the ballpark of not being troubled because this is an instruction from the person we call our Saviour and our king and our Lord and our friend. He says I don't be trouble. Don't let your heart trump. What does he say? Believe in God and believe in me. Believe in me. And why should you do that? He goes on to tell us 14 to 3. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there. You may be also trying to over sell it that I kind of feel like that's the perfect right there. Being with Jesus, this is the perfect. Listen, if you've been saved, if you've been rescued, if you've been redeemed, if Jesus is your savior, your lord, your friend, your king than everything that Paul is saying to us and everything that Jesus is saying to us and everything about the message of the Bible says to us, Hey, do not let your heart be troubled with 2020. Really? This is Jesus saying, Do not let your heart be troubled. Don't let it be troubled. Why? Because Jesus has prepared a place for you. For you. Have you ever been to a luncheon or maybe a away on the owner? Retreat somewhere. And when you get to your table, are you get to your room. There's a sign that has your name on it years to get care that out with some kind of pastors retreat. I think it was like an overnight thing up in Flat Rock, North Carolina. And I remember is that this kind of mountain resort place and when we got there, you know We went upstairs and when we win in our room and opened the door and there was a note on the door that had, you know, our name on it and you wouldn't side there's this big gift basket. I mean, I'm all about a snack. I mean, I walk in, there's a basket of snacks and every snack had a little sticker with my name on it. That's fantastic. It was my back I didn't share. It was mine. But there's something about just just having your name. There's something no hate. This one. This is for you. Jesus has promised that if you're Hiss, he's prepared a place for you. This isn't a joke. This isn't a fairy tale Jesus has promised with his blood with his body. With his resurrection, Jesus has promised a place for you. Four. You for you. And if that's true, then we have every reason to not let our heart be troubled. Our minds will be troubled. Our bodies will be troubled. Our attitudes may be troubled. Are our hearts do not need to be troubled. And then when we can remember for our heart not to be troubled guess what it changes our minds that changes our attitude. Sometimes it even changes our bodies. JC rousted This home is the place where we're loved to the end, never for gotten and always work. I love that picture. Home is the place where we're loved to the end, never for gotten an always welcome Jesus says. I am preparing, Ah, home for you. I'm preparing a place for you But here's the kicker about the home of Jesus. Here's the kicker about being with Jesus with Jesus. Love never comes to an end. That's what Roz it, right, he said. Home is the place where we're loved to the end. There is no end with Jesus because we're loved to the end. And then for ever and ever and ever, there is no all good things. They may come to an end, but the love of Jesus is not just good. It's great. It's fantastic. It's amazing. It is satisfying. It's satisfying to your soul. If you're not a believer, if you're not a Christian, then we would graciously say, Let your heart be very, very, very troubled because in the midst of all that's happening in our chaotic world, please know that 2020. It's kindness, too kindness from God to you because of all the craziness that is happening. None of it compares to the greatest terror in the universe. None of it because the greatest here in the universe is being separated from God forever. Should be very troubled and come to Jesus and come to Jesus not just to no longer be overwhelmed with anger or fear or apathy. With everything that's happening around us. Come to Jesus so that you could be deeply, permanently, eternally loved. Come to Jesus to be loved. You're Christian. 2020 is the year of the Lord has made. I know we don't feel like that. Always lately then feel like that at all. But But it is 2020 is the year the Lord has made. Guess we're on the state again because it rattles us, and it should. 2020 is that is the year of the Lord has made because of the breath that we're breathing right now because of our salvation, we have every reason to rejoice in the Lord every reason because of the love of Jesus, you know, something very interesting happened 242 days ago, there was a float in the Rose Parade called the Dodo Bird Flight School. If you don't know anything about dodo birds Kay, they've been extinct since, according to my scientific research around the 16 hundreds. Okay, so there's no more. And when they were here, they were flight bliss. It's the humor of the Dodo Bird Flight School. Lara Farber was the president of this year's parade, and she said this about the message, the positive message behind that humorous float. She said this with hope. Anything, in fact, everything. It is possible. So I mean, you know, if the dodo bird claws its way back into existence, Hey, it's got its own flight school when it gets here's got something look forward to. No, something else interesting happened 242 days ago. 2000 and 19 ended 2020 began. You know, something else interesting is going to happen in 123 days. 2020 is going to end. But the grace and the love and the mercy in the power and the hope and the beauty and the authority and the salvation of Jesus, I will never Yeah, never Yeah. Why? Because the love of Jesus by its nature and character, it will never fail. It will never quit. It will never end. Whatever we face today, let us do everything we can to grab hold of the love of Jesus. Because it will not. Yeah, never.
