Demonstrating Our Love for Others Continued

First Corinthians chapter 13. We'll go ahead to start and read the first seven verses and then we'll come back to the outline this morning. First seven verses, first Corinthians 13, we're going to read it later in the sermon. We'll get back to it. So, if you think, boy, we read it and he's not, he's not preaching on it.

I'll get there. Alright? You hang on. First Corinthians 13 verse one. Though I speak with the tongues of men of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, have not charity. I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not.

Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Bear with all things, believeth all things, hopeeth all things, endureth all things, charity, never fail. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord. For the opportunity that we have today to worship you together.

We thank you Lord for those that you brought out. We pray for those who couldn't be here with us for whatever reason. Lord, we pray that they would be able to come next week. And if there is an obstacle in their way, Lord, that you would take that out of their path. Lord, we pray for the service today.

Lord, that you would be exalted, that you truly would be glorified, and that our hearts would be turned towards you. Lord, we pray for brother Ron Van Horn's daughter and her family and the loss of this little one. Lord, we trust in your will and We pray that you would comfort them in your love and help others around them to show the compassion of Jesus Christ. Lift them up in a very difficult time. We pray that you'd be with miss Judy.

We miss her. Raise her up Lord. Give her grace. Lord, restore her health and we pray for Jeremy's mom and Jeremy's family as they facing a very difficult path at the moment. Lord, we thank you that his mom knows you and she is prepared to meet you whenever that may be.

Lord, we thank you Lord that she has had the time the past few months that she has. We pray that you would give her now wisdom and the doctors to know what the next step is to take and that you would give her peace. And and her family. We thank you Lord that you're there with her even though Jeremy and Sarah cannot be. Lord, we thank you for the peace that that gives.

Lord, we thank you again for this day and for these words that we look at from your word today. May they conform us more to the image of your son and draw others to you that may not know you today that they might be saved. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. We start a series few weeks ago What does God want and deserve from Missouri Avenue Baptist Church in 2016?

And for that matter, any year. What does God desire? What does God want? What does God deserve from Missouri Avenue Baptist Church and and the church is not the building. It's not the property, it's us.

What is God want and deserve from us? Well, among other things, to be glorified in our good works, to be glorified before the unsaved world, that they may see who he truly is. That they might recognize that and might be drawn to him. The Bible says in first Corinthians ten thirty one, where therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whether we're at church or whether we're at home or whether we're at work or whether we're doing our hobby or or or whatever else it may be.

Our life should bring glory to who? God. In Matthew chapter five, it says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. That was Jesus talking to his disciples. Let others see your good works.

Why? Because if you don't do the right works, you're not going to make it into heaven. No, that's not what this says. We're not saved by our works. We're told that in Ephesians chapter two, we're saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Salvation is a gift. That was purchased for us on Calvary's Cross by Jesus our savior who he has given to us by his grace not based upon our merit for we can never earn it. We certainly do not deserve it. No, we're not saved by our works but we're saved to bring glory to our savior through our works. That he does through us as his children.

By his grace and strength. How do we bring glory to God? How do we demonstrate this in our life? We had three things that we're looking at. There's probably we could add more to this list but just three, number one, by demonstrating our faith in God.

How do we bring glory to God by as Missouri Avenue Baptist Church by demonstrating our faith that you really believe him, him, in him, and in his word. Well, how do we demonstrate that? Well, primarily this, obedience is the very best way to show that you believe. Get a little kids song. Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.

And it is. So, how do we demonstrate our faith in obeying obeying our God and obeying his word. Also, we demonstrate, we glorify God by demonstrating our love for God. The Bible says, we love him because he first loved us. He loves us far more than we can ever return to him.

But there is much we can by his grace show our love for him and for others and that must be demonstrated. Needs to be demonstrated in our life to bring glory to our God and then number three, by demonstrating God's holiness in our life which we'll get to here in a couple weeks. The love that God has placed in our hearts must be expressed not only towards our God but towards others, towards brothers and sisters in Christ, towards the lost, if we, if that love is to bring glory to our heavenly father who has put that in our hearts. It must be expressed in our love for others. To bring glory to him.

The first thing we looked at last week is this, number one, know this, you can love others. With this kind of love. Selfless, unconditional sacrificial love of Christ. You can love others. It is part of your new nature that you have in Christ Jesus.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. You're a new creature in Jesus Christ. You have a new nature.

Therefore, you're a new creature, a new person. Philippians four thirteen, Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me which means you can love that neighbor. You can love that relative. You can love that coworker. Even though they don't always act lovingly towards you.

You can. You can. Romans chapter five verse five says, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit which is given unto us and if you are a child of God and you've been born again into God's family through faith in his son, you have received the Holy Spirit and thus, the love of God in your heart. And you can. Love others.

As he loved others. First Peter chapter one and verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Peter writes, since you have been saved, obeyed the truth, you've come to God through the only way to God, that's through Jesus Christ, his son, that he has commanded us. You received his spirit and gen, the word genuine means unfeigned means genuine, genuine, authentic love for your brethren in Christ.

He says, this is possible. You can and then the flash of the verse says, not only can you but you what? You must. You must. Not only can we love others but we must, it is a command, it is expected of us.

It's not expected of the lost and unsaved world. But it is expected of those who know Christ as savior because God has given us his spirit and his love and though it should go without saying several times in God's word, he has commanded us. To love one another. As he loved us, to exercise it, to purpose by God's grace, to practice it. John thirteen thirty four and thirty five, a new commandment I give unto you that you what?

Love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love. One to another. There's many things Christ could have said there but he chose to say that it is by our love for one another that the world is first going to recognize that there is something different about us.

Sad to say, Too many times that's not the case but we can and we must. Put aside the petty jealousies and bickerings and issues. Recognize that you are my brother and sister. We may not see eye to eye. Our personalities may clash.

That's okay. I love you need to love you more. You're my brother and sister in Christ. First John four twenty one and this commandment have we from him that he love that he who loveth God love his brother also. Ephesians five twenty five, husbands, love your wives even as Christ also love the church and gave himself for it.

God said, husbands, you must love your wives. This isn't a a suggestion. This is a command. Amen. And you can.

You can. God doesn't command you to do things he doesn't enable you to do. Husbands love your wives. Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church?

He gave his life for. When you get married, two become one. Give up your agenda. Give up your some of those hobbies and some of those friends. You have a family now.

Takes precedent. Takes precedent. You must love your wives. Word of God clearly communicates God's will to us that we love each other. As he loved us.

God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God didn't love us when we were serving him, when we were doing right by him. He didn't love us when we were showing love for him. No, he loved us when we were completely unlovable. When we were fighting him, that's when he loved us.

When we were rebelling against him, that's when he loved us. And he reached down to us from heaven. And he gave his life to redeem us He gave his son so much he loves us and he asks us to love others with the same kind of love. If you love only those that love you, then you're you're no different than the rest of the world. Everybody loves those who loves them.

The kind of love God has placed in our heart is a love towards people that aren't necessarily always loving us. It may be a little bit difficult to love. Some of you wives are thinking about your husbands and some of your husbands may be thinking about your wives or maybe it's your neighbor or your friend or your coworker, but you can't. And you must and it is rewarding. Not only can we love, not only must we love, but it must be real and demonstrated in our life to bring glory to God.

It must be real and it must be demonstrated in our life. You can act like it. You can put on that you love somebody but they're going to figure out. If it's really in your heart or not. What's sad is particularly men often put on a great show when they're trying to woo a young lady.

To be there wife someday and then when they get married, all of a sudden, they turn into the rascal they were before they ever met her. Because it was a what? It was a show to get what they wanted. It wasn't real. The world will recognize when it's not real, and God knows when it's not real.

This selfless and sacrificial unconditional love, which demonstrates a genuine interest in the good, well-being, and happiness of the one who is loved, is more than just a feeling. But it does not exist in the absence of feeling and emotion either, Because it must come from where? From the heart and this combination of emotion and action is expressed in Christ's ministry by the term, you might remember from last week. Compassion. Compassion.

Jesus demonstrated that his love was real by his what? By his compassion. Look, if you would appear on the screen, Mark one hundred forty and forty one and there came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jesus moved with compassion. Put forth his hand and touched him and said unto him, I will be thou clean.

Before Jesus reached out and touched him, which he did do and healed him out of love. It says, first, that he was moved with what? Compassion. His love was real and from his heart. He saw someone in need and he cared and then, he demonstrated that by his actions that he cared and his father in heaven was what?

Glorified. Matthew six thirty four and Jesus when he came out saw much people was moved with compassion toward them because they were sheep not having a shepherd. He began to teach them many things. The different gospels that record this event said he taught them, he healed them, and he fed them. He was trying to get out of the city where he could get some rest and some peace and quiet and they followed him and rather than getting frustrated and saying, let me be for just a few minutes.

No, he looked on them and he felt compassion, cared, and then he acted accordingly. It seems today particularly in fundamental circles that sometimes one of the things we lack is compassion. We know the do's and the don'ts, the rights, and the wrongs and we can tell you, this is right and that is wrong and sometimes it seems like we'd rather beat somebody when they're down rather than what? Helping them up. We may have the rights and wrongs and the dos and the don'ts, right?

And that's great and we should. But it is unprofitable and worthless in service of our king if we have no what? If we have no compassion, we become like the priest and the Levite in the story of the good Samaritan who see the man laying there and walk by on the other side. Well, he shouldn't have been out here by himself. Look what happened to him.

I don't know what they were thinking. I think part of it was they were just too busy to care. All they knew the dos and the don'ts and the rights and the wrongs. All they had the wall down. They could tell it to you backwards and forwards.

But Jesus said, you strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. You're focused on these little tiny things and you're missing the big thing. Love, compassion, mercy. Sometimes that happens in our circles today. Do you care about the person behind you, in front of you, beside you?

Or or do you just happen to be sitting in an auditorium with? They have needs that you have compassion Our savior did. It has been said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Whether it's the lost who need Christ or brother, sister who stumbled and fell, We need to be in the business of picking others up rather than kicking them when they're down. Galatians six one and two commands this, Paul writes, brethren, if any man be overtaken of fault, you which are spiritual, that is walking with God, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Well, they made their bed. Now, they can sleep in it. It's not my problem. Hold it. Is that what that verse says?

Is that what that verse says? No. It says, when somebody is fallen, you that are walking with the Lord, seek the what? Restore them in a spirit of meekness. Knowing, you you know, you're capable.

Of making the same mistake falling into the same sin they did. And bear you not just your burden but says bear you what? One another's burdens and so fulfill the love of Christ. Well, that's their burden to bear. They chose that.

No. My brother and sister in Christ, I have a responsibility to try. To restore them and bear that burden with them. Is that what this says? It does.

You're not going to do that if you have no compassion. And if you do have compassion, then you need to let it show. They need, yes, they need to know right from wrong. Sometimes, they need to be rebuked. In love.

They also need to be some help getting back up. We need one another says in Hebrews ten twenty four and twenty five and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. It says, don't stop assembling together. Be in church. Why do you need to be in church?

Well, for several reasons but one of them is this, to exhort one another. We need each other. God knew that. He established the church because we need each other. And you can make a difference in someone's life if you choose to love.

Show compassion, encourage, and assist each other. The Bible tells us, one of the ways that we do this is by displaying an attitude. In our life that is in accord with the compassion and love that should be in our heart and that's what we read here in first Corinthians chapter 13. So, we're back there. First Corinthians 13.

The first three verses tell us this, you can do all kinds of great feats and have great successes. You can give of your wealth. You can give of your body. You can speak in tongues and make great prophecies. You can have great knowledge but if you don't have charity and the word charity here is the same word translated love in many other passages in the Bible.

Same word, love. Not just talking about giving as in, you know, charity. Just talking about giving yourself in love. If you don't have love, then all these other things are what? They're worthless.

If you don't have love and compassion, if you're not doing these things out of a heart of love and compassion, then they profit you nothing, God says. So, let's look at the kind of love that Christ had and the kind of love that we're supposed to have in this passage and how it expresses itself in our attitude. The first is this, we look at the first two last week. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity suffereth long.

What does it mean to suffer long? It means to be patient, to suffer long with others. To put up with their shortcomings, their spiritual weaknesses, their personality quirks, their ill manners, bad habits, dumb decisions, stubbornness, care to add anything else? We could go on. But charity suffers long and is kind and you know what it means to be kind.

If this isn't present particularly in a marriage, the marriage won't make it because none of you are married to a perfect wife and none of you are married to a perfect husband. There are things that we have to put up with sometimes. Shortcomings, weaknesses, ill manners, bad habits, stubbornness, True love suffereth long. Your spouse isn't going to change overnight. Your spouse may not change at all.

You may have to forgive 70 times seven or maybe if you live long enough, 70 times 70. But if you love that person then you'll do it. And your marriage will make it. Love is not just patient and kind but love what? It envieth not.

What does that mean? Well, it doesn't begrudge others their blessings. You know, instead, it's happy for others. Love and the the focus of love is not me. My focus of love is is you, is others.

If we love others this way, we won't begrudge them their blessings. Instead, we'll be happy for. You know, you got a new car. I'm happy for you. I got a new car once.

I will probably never buy one again. I'm thankful for the cars I got. I can get around. If you get that 1965 Cherry Red Corvette hardtop convertible that I like, I'm still going to be happy for you. Cherry doesn't begrudge others their good fortune or their blessings.

Maybe it's something you have or maybe it's the health that you have. But it's happy for them. Does not covet what others have? No. Love is content.

Love is content. Why? Because it's not all it it it all comes back. It's not all about who? Not all about me.

It's about you. And I can be content because I'm not competing against you. Now, if you play me in monopoly or if you play me in risk or you play me in chess or you play me in any board game, you are my competitor. And I am competitive. I don't like to lose.

But in life, it can't be that way. We're not competing against one another. We are working what? Together. And if I care and love you, I'll be able to be happy because I'm content with what I have.

Paul's key to success. Paul suffered greatly. Paul spent day after day sometimes without food. He went to cities and he gave them the good news and they beat him and they put him in jail and on one occasion, they stoned and they left him for dead. They chained him up and put him on a ship to go across the Mediterranean Sea.

He did all of these things and it seemed like half the time people hated him for it. What was the key to Paul's success? How could he keep going? Other Christians weren't doing what he was doing. They weren't putting themselves out there like he was.

Why didn't he envy them? How could he keep going? Key. Philippians four eleven, not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned and whatsoever state I am, what? There was to be content.

He learned to be content. Whatever state I'm in, Lord, I'm content. Why? Because he knew he was doing God's will and he loved his God and he loved others. And that he was like his savior So, he didn't envy.

As I was thinking of an illustration I thought not so much about the things that other people have material wise but particularly health. It's easy to envy others in their good health. If your health is poor. God has called us to be content and to be happy with what they have and not envious. And if we love them, that's the way we'll be.

I thought about a girl, her name was Joni Eareckson. Ever heard of Johnny? Might be familiar to some of you? She was a young lady, she jumped in a water that was too shallow, she broke her neck, as I think she was a teenager. When she woke up, she couldn't move her body from her neck down.

She was a quadriplegic the rest of her life. Somewhere along the line, a very bitter and angry and envious young woman met Jesus Christ. Jesus changed her life. She became a different person because of the love that was shed abroad in her heart that taught her to have compassion for others who were better off than she was. There was a fellow that was in my class at Bob Jones University.

He gave a testimony at his graduation, which brought tears to my eyes. And I don't get tears in my eyes at the drop of a hat. I had had classes with him for three years. He had originally came to Bob Jones earlier as a major in something else, and he was an athlete and kind of proud, I was told, but one summer he made the same mistake. He jumped in a pool that was too shallow or something like that.

He broke his neck, and he was a paraplegic. He couldn't move from the waist down. And he didn't have all the movement in his arms either. He went to class in this motorized chair that he had. And he couldn't move his fingers very well in his wrist, but he could move his arm.

And he could maneuver the motorized chair. And he had a thing that hooked to his hand so he could write. And he graduated with a Bible degree, and he went into ministry. And what a testimony he had. Love, the love of God had changed his heart and changed his life.

Brother Al has a son-in-law. His name is Scott. I've only met Scott once or twice. That doesn't take long to see the love of God in Scott. Can others see the love of God in us?

Or do, does it bother us when other people have something we don't? Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself. It doesn't brag or boast. No, it's modest.

It's unassuming. It's not showy. It doesn't say, look at me. Doesn't seek the limelight, doesn't push itself to the forefront, doesn't have to be acknowledged, isn't a know it all, who must always be heard. No love serves others.

Love exalts others. Love helps others. Love is sensitive to the needs of who? Others. Rather than on a on an agenda to exalt oneself.

The braggart is too busy exalting himself or whining about his problems to notice the needs of others. Not so the love of God. Now, the love of God is more interested in exalting others than it is exalting self. It's not the way of the world. It is the way of the Lord.

And if you would, take hold your place. Turn to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Look if you would in verse 42.

Mark 10 verse 42. Mark ten forty two. Jesus was speaking with his disciples. He called them to him and say it unto them, said unto them, you know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them. In other words, they seek for power.

They exercise power. They exalt themselves. Verse 43, but so shall it not be among you but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. The word minister is the same word that's also translated servant and deacon in our in our Bibles, in the Greek, the diakonos. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all.

For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. We have the example of our savior. Jesus said, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. And who is more worthy of being served than our creator?

But yet when he came, he didn't come with a badge that said, I'm God. Please worship and serve me. No, he came with an attitude of service to others and he went as far as dying on the cross for us. He didn't come to exalt himself He came to lift us up. God has therefore, the father has therefore exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.

The Bible says that those who humble themselves, God will what? Exalt but those who exalt themselves, God will rebase, bring love. John 13, Jesus gave an illustration When they were in the room, he he grabbed the towel and a bowl of water and he began to go around washing his disciples' feet. That was a menial task for the lowest servant in the house to do, not the master. And Jesus said to them, you need to learn to do to others as I have done to you.

If I, your master, have have have washed your feet, then, shouldn't you be washing one another's? They were all in the room and nobody would stoop to do the dirty task. But Jesus He gave us an example You know, you have neighbors, friends, relatives, sometimes even in your own home. In your own church. They've got dirty feet.

And you want to stay away? No, my my feet are pretty clean. Thank you, John. But our tendency is to stay at what? Arms length from em.

Jesus said, no. You go to them. You be sensitive to their needs and help them. Love does not exalt self, exalts others. Jesus had much to brag about but chose instead to keep his mouth shut and instead serve others.

I I have a father-in-law. His name is Roger. Some of you have met my father-in-law. My father-in-law went to Bible College and got a degree in Bible. He went off to the Vietnam War and he ended up, when he came back, going into mortuary school.

And he became a mortician and a funeral director. And at first, I thought, well, why didn't you stay in the ministry? But I don't know anybody more suited to be a funeral director than my father-in-law. Because of kind of person he is. He doesn't exalt himself.

He's the kind of funeral director you would want at your loved one's funeral Because you walk into the room and everything about him cries out, I care about you. He's not there to put on a show. He's not there to be seen. When he calls me on the phone, he might have a zillion things wrongs with wrong with him. But he'll never mention it if I don't ask.

Instead, he calls and asks, how I'm doing? That's my father-in-law. Maybe you know somebody like that in your life. God puts them in our lives so we might learn from them. We need one another.

It vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, it's not proud, not arrogant, truly humble, thinks little of self and much of others. It reminded me of this example in scripture, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the greatest of prophets, the last of the Old Testament prophets, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Yet when others came to him, this is what he said. He said, there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

He must increase but I must decrease. John the Baptist knew his place. He knew who he was. He was a servant and nothing more of the king. Where do we get off thinking that we are somehow more than him.

What are we? Servants of the king. Nothing more. What a privilege it is to be a servant. We are children.

We are sheep. It is a privilege to be a sheep in Jesus' flock. It is a privilege to be his child. But he is the Father, the Creator. He has put me here to serve.

John the Baptist, example. Paul said in Romans, for I say through the grace given unto me and to every man that is among you himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Don't don't get on your high horse. Don't think that somehow you are better than other people. You're not.

You have a better savior. Have a great savior without him, where would we be? Well, without him, we might be more like this guy. The puffed up Pharisee. He was praying in the temple.

It says, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Notice he prayed thus with himself. He really wasn't talking to God. But he said, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this publican.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. God, aren't you impressed with me? The answer to that is, no. No.

Do we hear any love for the publican in his prayer that was over in the corner? No. Any room in his heart for true love? Don't think so. How about ours?

Love does not behave itself unseemly. It's not inappropriate, not rude, or crude, inconsiderate of others. Love is not inconsiderate of is love is not inconsiderate. Thus, it is considerate of others. It doesn't justify inappropriate behavior.

It doesn't say, oh, I can bash his nose in because he took a swing at me. No, it says, turn the other one. It's not in your face. A few of you might remember a few years back, I preached a sermon from first Corinthians chapter 11. In that passage, it talked about that it is a shame for men to have long hair.

It was part of the message. There was a man's that had come that particular week. There were two or three men in our service that that had long hair at the time but there was just one of them here that Sunday and I was concerned when it got to that message. It might be an issue with him. He had been coming for a while.

Well, it was. He he had his hair in a a thing back here and the minute I got to that part of the message, he pulled it out and he shook his head like this and he started brushing his hair and then a few minutes later, he got up. He marched out the door and slammed the door on his way out. I'm sure in his mind and heart, he thought he was justified in what he did. But that's not love Now, love doesn't justify that kind of behavior First Corinthians chapter eight, Paul said to the Corinthians, you are fighting amongst yourselves and bickering over whether you eat meat that is sold in the market that was once sacrificed to idols.

Would you please stop fighting and bickering over this issue? Knowledge puffeth up but love edify. It builds up others. And Paul said, if somebody serves you meat, don't ask him where it came from. So that you can say, oh, I'm not eating that.

I'm more spiritual. And if you have somebody in your home that doesn't eat meat sacrificed to idols, don't serve it to him and tell him. Oh, that meat was sacrificed to idols. Know what? Love each other.

Don't behave unseemly. We have neighbors in the behind us at the house couple weeks ago at 11:00 at night. They decided they would get this humongous subwoofer, I guess, and play music for their party. It shook houses for three blocks around. Who did they care about?

Themselves. Obviously, they didn't care about the people trying to put their kids to bed. There was a guy that pulled up in a truck out here. This week, just about ran me over. He pulled up to the cones we have right here and I I stepped away from my car because I thought, well, I'll go pick up the cone so he can pull through.

Well, the minute I took a step, he revved up that truck and he went flying across those cones and dragged the cone all the way down the other end of the parking lot, turned around because he couldn't get out down there. I guess that's what he was trying to do. Turned around and shot back out where he came in laughing as he went. He thought it was funny. Love does not behave itself unseemly.

You know something? God expects that from the world. Does not expect that from us. We know better. Love seeketh not her own.

It isn't self seeking. It doesn't have to have things its own. Last verse. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in loneliness of mind, let each is done other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others.

That's the love of God. Not self seeking but what? Others seeking. Set aside what I want for what you want. You know, some things that are right and wrong.

There are some things that are just what we want. Maybe we want. We're putting a new roof on this church hopefully pretty soon. They gave us some samples of shingle to put on the roof, three of them. Choose.

I bet if we all went out there and looked at it, we would have different ideas about which shingle we wanted to put on the roof. Are you going to let that be an issue? Between you? I hope not. That'd be silly.

You know, churches split over the color of carpet they're going to put in the church. What does that say to the world around? Where's the love of God? It isn't about me. It's about others.

That's the love of our savior. The love that brought him to the cross to die for you because he cares for you. Have you received his gift of eternal life? He knocks at the door. He offers.

It's a gift. Will you take it today? And with the gift that you have received as a Christian, remember this, we can love others. We must love others, and we need to demonstrate it. It is real and in our actions.

Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord. For the opportunity this morning to look into your word and Lord, we we pray that we would recognize areas where we have fallen short and Lord, we would deal with you today. Lord, we pray if there's one here today that's never trusted Christ as savior, that today would be the day of their salvation. They would come as we give this hymn of invitation.

We'd love to show them more about your love. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.