Let's Talk About Love - Pastor Jeff Schreve

[Music] hi I'm pastor Jeff Shrieve thanks for joining us today I'm from his heart listen do you remember that old song by Tina Turner where she asked the question what's love got to do with it sadly Tina got the answer wrong because love has everything to do with it we're in a series this month called living on purpose and today we want to talk about love from first Corinthians chapter 13 so grab your Bible follow along and prepare your heart for a blessing [Music] I have a question for you today how many in this room would say that you like country music see your hand you're a country music fan you know my wife loves country music and I love my wife and so I've gotten to to love country music but you know country music almost all country music songs they kind of tell a story have you noticed that they tell a story and a lot of times in country music it's changing a little bit but but kind of the bulk of it it has to do with love and oftentimes it's it's kind of lovesickness it's it's my my my wife left my dog guide my truck was repossessed you know it says all these things that I love are now gone you know he used to be back in the day they used to take records and they'd play them backwards to find they called it backward masking to see if you play these rock records backwards if it said anything about the devil and they had different records where they could find it you know it's a Satan or something like that you know if you play a country-and-western record backwards you get your wife back your dog back your truck back you get it all back because it talks about that stuff well I I ran into some actual country and western songs that speak of love and the absence of love love's sickness and these are probably ones you haven't necessarily heard of before they weren't really popular but actual songs this one says I've got tears in my ears from my lying on my back in bed while I cry over you this is sad song how about this one I went back to my fourth wife for the third time and gave her a second chance to make a first-class fool out of me [Applause] say it in a sentence he's just got everything in there how about this one if the phone don't ring it's me not calling you up they didn't have a good relationship there if you can't live without me why aren't you dead yet that that's really not going well they that couple needs to see ADA it how about this one you stuck my heart in an old tin can and shot it off a log guys hurting how can I miss you when you won't go away I'd rather pass the kidney stone than another night with you and this one is really bad this is love gone awry I wouldn't take her to a dog fight because I'm afraid she'd win that's just not good you know and then but but here's the thing you know in our world we we have lots of songs that deal with love or love sickness or love gone sour that kind of turns into a hate but it all has to do with that theme of love Dionne Warwick had a very popular song years ago that said what the world needs now is love sweet love it's the only thing that there's just too little of now we're in this series called living on purpose and we're talking about what God wants for our lives and and what we're really supposed to be focused in on and we get so easily sidetracked in this life and fire and and get get involved in in spending all our efforts on making money or all our efforts on being successful in the world's eyes or all our efforts trying to be this famous person ordered to climb to the top of the heap and and so we often miss out on what what does God created us for what's our purpose well you're going to find that a big purpose a huge purpose for your life and and one of the big reasons that you've been created that I've been created not just to glorify God although that's the overarching purpose for everybody's life but a big purpose is to love to learn to love and to live in love so you don't really live until you really love now God wants us to work on the vertical the Bible says we love because He first loved us and what the Lord wants from us is he wants us first and foremost to receive his love that he has for us because when we receive God's love for us for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son when we received that love then were able to love him back and that's the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all your heart all your soul all your strength and all your mind you cannot do that until you first receive his love because we love because He first loved us so God says very first thing you do is take care of the vertical relationship receive my love love me back and when you receive my love and you love me back then you are free horizontally to love other people and jesus said that is the second greatest commandment first greatest commandment love the Lord your God with all your heart second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself he said on those two laws hang the whole law those two Commandments hang the whole law and the prophets those two things Paul said this in Galatians chapter 5 verse 14 for the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the sentence you shall love your neighbor as yourself loving other people he said to Timothy and first Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5 the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith James quotes this you shall love your neighbor as yourself which was Leviticus 19:18 James quotes that - and he calls it the Royal law he said if you are fulfilling the Royal law you shall love your neighbor as yourself you're doing well see so much of life is about love God is love and God commands us to love and created us to be agents of love so we want to talk today about love how are you doing with this thing called love I love what rick warren said in The Purpose Driven Life he said and I've heard him say this on several different occasions he said when he wakes up in the morning he said he gets up and he sits on the side of his bed and he praised the same prayer he says Lord today I want to grow in my love for you and I want to grow in my love for people because he says no matter what happens this day if at the end of the day I have grown in my love for you and I've grown in my love for people it's been a good day it's been a successful day because I've I'm fulfilling the Royal law I'm loving the Lord with all my heart and I'm loving other people I'm growing in that love that's a good day God wants to teach us today about this thing called love so we're gonna look at what's known as the love chapter first Corinthians chapter 13 first Corinthians chapter 13 is not a chapter that's just set aside all by itself it's sandwiched in the letter to the Corinthians and the Corinthian church had lots of problems tons of problems they had factions and schisms and they were suing one another in the church and there was all sorts of sexual immorality going in the church so it was so bad that one guy was living and sleeping with his stepmother that's how gross it was in the church Paul said they don't even do that in the Gentile world and you guys are doing it here in the church it was just awful they had all spiritual gifts were had run amuck that people were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper this church was in shambles and Paul's zeros in on the big problem that they had you can sum it all up there big problem was they wore operating out of love and so sandwiched in between talking about the church being a body and talking about spiritual gifts is 1st Corinthians chapter 13 which speaks about love and Paul says if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love I've become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal and if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love I am nothing and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and if I deliver my body to be burned but do not have love it profits me nothing love is patient love is kind and is not jealous love does not brag and is not arrogant love does not act unbecomingly it does not seek its own it is not provoked it does not take into account a wrong suffered does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never fails he closes the chapter and says but now abide Faith Hope Love these three but the greatest of these is love I want to look with you at three discoveries from this passage on this thing called love discovery number one love makes all the difference love makes all the difference in the world look again at verse 1 Paul starts to hit the Corinthians in the places that they thought were so great and he starts off with the languages with speaking with tongues he says if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal in corinth they really valued oratory and eloquence and they kind of downplayed paul because they said well you know he did he's not that great a speaker well paul purposely didn't come and try and wow then with his oratory skills he had oratory skills but he says my preaching didn't come to you with human wisdom wisdom but I was trusting in the Lord and the Holy Spirit's power when I came and preached to you and so these folks in Corinth they said well it's all about how well you can speak and Paul says we'll just think if you could speak with the tongues of men and even of angels and they'd be like yeah that's what we want he said if you can speak like that and you don't have love then your speaking is just a noisy gong it's a clanging cymbal it gets people's attention but it doesn't edify it doesn't help them it begins to grate on their nerves what does it sound like to listen to a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [Laughter] [Applause] that's point one it's just can you imagine you just come and that would be awful you know you hit a gun once it's like okay gets my attention and then you know I don't want to keep hearing it so he says if you don't have love you without love the best of speech is just noise it's just noise and then he says without love the best of spiritual gifts means nothing verse two and if I have the gift of prophecy prophecy is to forth tell but it's also to foretell and it's used in both ways in the scripture today if people have the gift of prophecy they're not they're not foretelling the future they're forth telling what God has already said I feel like God has given me the gift of a prophet to forth tell not to foretell I can't tell you the future but prophets in the Old Testament would say thus says the Lord and this is what's going to happen and and the people were thinking in terms of foretelling and he says if I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge all all and he says and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains can you imagine if you had all faith and you could pray and the mountains would move and you'd be a hot rock you'd be in some really huge demand because you have all faith and you have all prophecy and I know all mysteries you'd be the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas and everybody would want to talk to you and consult with you and the Lord says you're nothing nothing if you don't have love I don't care if you can reveal all mysteries and have all knowledge and all faith if you don't have love God says it doesn't amount to anything on my estimation and in eternity zhan eternity Sklar so the best of spiritual gifts and these these folks were all into spiritual gifts means nothing without love and then he goes on to say doubt love the ultimate of sacrifices doesn't count verse 3 and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor can you imagine doing that give all your possessions to feed the poor and if I deliver my body to be burned but do not have love it profits me nothing that word nothing means not one not any you you would think man if I give all my possessions God you must be pleased with that or if I delivered my body to the fire as the sack as a sacrifice you would be pleased with that right God says if you do that and you don't have love it profits you nothing it doesn't count it doesn't count now the Pharisees were those who gave and they sacrificed but they didn't have love jesus said they were lovers of money and it didn't count for anything now you mark this down you can sacrifice without love but you can't love without sacrifice see if I really love love is the the reservoir that everything else comes from if I really love then I am gonna sacrifice but if I just sacrifice and don't have love it doesn't count for anything love makes all the difference in the world that's the first discovery second discovery not only does love make all the difference but love is more than just a nice word in English we use the word love it's the only word that we have love when we talk about things that that we you know have this affection for but we use it in a lot of different ways like I can tell you today that I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I do but then I tell you that I love my wife Debbie and I do but that's kind of a different love and then if I tell you well I love my daughters and my family well I love my daughters and my family did front then I love Debbie different than I love God then I could say well you know I love Quinn and I do but that's that's still kind of different than it is the way I love my daughter's then it is the way I love my wife than it is the way I love the Lord but see we just have the one word I could tell you that I love a good oh you beat down and I do but that's different than all those other loves right I love Mexican food but is that on par with the way I love Debbie and the way I love the Lord of course not and see but we just had the one word love in Greek you have four words that are used for love that are translated love the word for sexual love marital love is the word eros in Greek so when you were talking when you would be talking about being sexually involved with your spouse you would use the eros word for love and everybody would know what you're talking about now the word there's a word in Greek for family love the love parents that have for their children that's the Greek word storge and so if people use the word storge everybody know that's what that's the kind of love he's talking about they have the word phileo in greek phileo is brotherly love we have a city in America Philadelphia it's the city of brotherly love supposed to be you know isn't sometimes not but but it's supposed to be but but that's kind of the brother to brother love so that's the third Greek word for love you know there's a fourth Greek word for love that you're not gonna find very often in Greek literature but it's all throughout the New Testament and that's the Greek word agape agape is the highest kind of love it's the love that God has for us it's a love without conditions and without stipulations the highest kind of love one definition I heard about agape is this it's a deep selfless care and concern for the well-being of others that's a gap a love and it's not with conditions and it's not I'll love you if you do this and this and this or I'll love you because you do this and this and this it's not based on any kind of conditions it's just a love that says in spite of who you are in spite of what you've done I still love you I still choose to love you and it's a selfless love and I want what is best for you now Jesus said in John chapter 13 gave a new commandment the disciples were focused in on ten commandments from Exodus chapter 20 and Jesus said a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you he's using the word agape here that you also love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another hey that's a commandment that you love one another how we supposed to love one another Lord phileo know agape do you love one another with the highest kind of love just the same way I love you that's what God is saying and notice it's a commandment he doesn't say a new suggestion I give to you a new thought I give to you a new idea I give no a new commandment you're commanded I'm commanded to love one another the way God loves me see love is more than just a nice word and the presence or absence of agape love is clearly evident and he goes on in verse four five six seven and the first part of verse eight to tell us what agape love really is and what it looks like and how it how it works itself out practically you know we would say well we're commanded to love as one person said we know I love everybody it's just people I have a hard time with and and it is kind of easy to love everybody it's harder to love people right you know you find that out pretty quick when as I did you go off to college and you start living with the roommate and then you find out all these little things that this person does they can get on your nerves and that's like what's wrong with that guy and he's thinking the same thing what's wrong with you and we just we just start to do like that you know and you get married and you what's wrong with her what's wrong with him and and it's it's difficult you can love everybody but it's people that sometimes you have a hard time with and the Lord says well this is love love is patient are you patient you're patient with people love is patient you know some of the best teachers in elementary school and junior high and high school they're patient teachers patient because if you don't get it the first go-around they don't write you off they say okay I'm gonna keep working with you the Bible says that a pastor is to be patient when wronged to be long-suffering with people love is patient and notice that God is love and all these things that are here you can put God's name in there because God is patient God is kind God is not jealous you say wait a minute timeout I have read in the Old Testament where the Lord says he is a jealous God so that can't be true God is jealous love is not jealous but God is jealous so in God is love so how does that work have you ever run across that eye where it says that God is jealous and we're not supposed to be jealous because love is not jealous how does that work with God let me tell you the difference anytime you get jealous of another person you are jealous of them you're jealous because they have finer things than you do they have more opportunities than you have they have more gifts and talents and abilities than you have and you are jealous of them you're jealous of what they have you feel like you're getting the short end of the stick I'm with jealousy over you God doesn't have that God is never jealous of you or me he's jealous for you in me jealous for because he wants what's best for us see what is the gap a love it's a self less concern and care for the well-being of that other person and God knows that the best thing for you the best thing for me is himself and that's the only place that you're gonna find satisfaction in life is with the Lord who can eat and who can have enjoyment without him the Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes so God is jealous for you because he wants what's best for you you and I we are jealous of other people and when you're operating out of love love is not jealous you know I know for women especially just the way they're made up they have a tendency to really compare themselves and they can get jealous because this one is skinny or this one seems to be a more talented this one seems to be more beautiful this one one nostril is the same size as the other nostril you know they they look at that kind of stuff women they just really they look they noticed that stuff I do too but anyway we they can get jealous if you know what the Lord taught me and pastors can be really bad about being jealous people in ministry well Biggs your church oh your church is bigger than mine you go to a convention and all these pastors hanging around see ya we had a really good Sunday said oh yeah how many were there all 1500 that's pretty good how'd you do we had 1,900 you go over to find this guy yeah we had really good Sunday how many do you have 900 well I had a 1,500 you know I mean we just you were trying to find and see any time you start doing that stuff jealousy is comparison and they does two things to you both are bad it'll either make you depressed this guy had more than you or it makes you proud you had more than this guy both of those things are wrong you know Peter did that in the New Testament after he had that encounter with the resurrected Christ in the book of John and then the Lord told Peter what was going to happen to him that there was gonna come a time where men were gonna lead him where he didn't want to go and he was speaking of Peter of his death and then the Peter looked over with the Lord and pointed at John he said well what about this guy and the Lord says what is that to you you follow me don't get your eyes on John don't look at John my plan for John has nothing to do with my plan for you you follow me hey if you're struggling with jealousy the Lord's word to you today is you follow me I made you the way I made you I gifted you the way I gifted you I want you to use your life the way I've planned to use it I've created you for good works so walk in those good works I'm not going to evaluate you based on your talent and this other person's talent it's you and me at the judgment seat of Christ God says and I'm going to evaluate you based on what did you do with what I gave you and so there's no room for jealousy and when somebody else is getting blessed you just say praise God because my job is not to try and be that other person my job is to please God with the way he made me and with what he gave me hey love is not jealous love does not brag and it is not arrogant and then he says love does not act unbecomingly it's not rude it doesn't seek its own it's not self centered and self focused let me give you two big enemies of love pride is a big enemy pride where you want what you want when you want it and it's all about me and I'm seeking my own you're not acting in love when you're doing that what is the gap a love it's a self less concern for the well-being of others love doesn't insist verse five on getting its own way it says that it's not provoked it's not irritable have you ever been with somebody and they're irritable sure yeah if you live with a woman you know you've had times where they just get but have you never lived with a woman I mean they just have it's a biological thing you know I didn't I didn't I thought that everybody knew that I mean okay let's back up no we all get irritable I remember I had surgery I was in seventh grade I had surgery and I was on some medication and I was so irritable and my dad said something to me and I just popped off I thought I was gonna die and he and my mom kind of stepped in and said he's on medication he's not normally like that but I was irritable because I was recovering from surgery love isn't irritable you might have times certain time of the month or or something's going on you might have times that you're a little on edge but that's not the way love is and that shouldn't characterize your life and he says it not only is it not irritable but it doesn't take into account a wrong suffered that is huge you know like when I say something that I wish I could take back you don't take that into account a wrong with these people back here that we're gasping you don't take that into account you don't go homeless it would you do hear what pastor Jeff said about women being irritable no I don't put you don't put that down you don't take into account a wrong suffered you don't keep a record of wrongs that's huge that's a bit of love love lets things go love doesn't hold a grudge interestingly in Leviticus 19:18 where we get the key verse love your neighbor as yourself look what the whole verse says it says you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord and that interesting don't take vengeance don't bear a grudge love your neighbor as your self why does the Lord put it like that it's because it's so easy for us to take vengeance it's so easy for us to bear a grudge love doesn't do that love lets things go pastor said that there was a guy in his church who actually kept a book and wrote down the names of people and the offenses that they committed against him he kept a list he was the most miserable man on the earth because he kept a list of wrongs of offenses Corrie ten Boom who experienced the atrocities of a Nazi death camp ravensbrück she said after the war was over and those people who had survived the death camp came out she said until and unless they were willing to forgive their captors they remained prisoners their whole lives they were holding on to a grudge hey love doesn't do that love lets things go it says that love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth love is rooted in truth you know we live in a world today especially in pulpits where the puppets are getting silent about truth and we are sacrificing truth in the name of love but love is rooted in truth you can't sacrifice truth and say that's love it's not love you you have jettisoned love you're out in in this nowhere land where you're just telling people things that you want to tickle their ears so that they'll like you because there's certain subjects today that people say don't talk about that you better not say anything negative about that well that's what the scripture says you got to preach the word you got to be true to what the Bible says I love what Jesus said in John chapter 8 he told those Jews you are seeking to kill me a man who has told you the truth and they did they took the man who was loved in the flesh who told them the truth and they nailed him to a tree hey love doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness it rejoices when the truth wins out anytime you go to a place many people they move from town to town periodically as the Lord moves them away and they try and find a new church you say how can I find the right Church find a church where the pastor believes the book and preaches the book that's so critical where he tells you the truth he speaks it in love but he tells you the truth he's not a you know the job of a pastor is not to be popular it's to be faithful to the Word of God and faithful to God because when I die you don't stand with me before the judgment I stand by myself and God is gonna ask me Jeff were you faithful to my word were you faithful to preach the truth to speak the truth in love hey it rejoices with the truth that bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never fails now let me tell you something very practical about love see God has created us for people he's created us he says it's not good for the man to be alone he's created us to interact with people he didn't create us to be the president of XYZ corporation you might be the president of XYZ corporation and that's good and that's fine if that's what God's called you to do but that's not the goal in life that's not the goal in life to see how much money you can amass to see how many houses you can buy and this and that and the other you know you never hear about a person on his deathbed her deathbed saying quickly bring all my trophies to surround me so I can feel better as I die where are all my sales Awards bring me my bank statement none of that stuff matters you know what matters relationships I want my loved ones by me when I'm dying because when it comes all boils down life's about relationships it's about a relationship with God and a relationship with other people and you don't get a relationship with God and you don't get a relationship with other people unless you spend time time with God and time with other people you know what kids want from their parents more than anything else t I am a time time you know what wives want from their husbands more than anything else time time that's how you communicate love really better than any other way is through spending time with people hey in church you know why it's so important we tell you often you need to be involved in a small group you know why that's so important because that's where you develop relationships starting to develop relationships in that in a big group that's why you need to be in a sunday-school class that's why you need to be in a connection class that's it but you need to be in some kind of accountability group some kind of small group where there can be time with other people where you can develop relationships where you can show love and receive love that is critical critical Hey love is just not a nice word it's more than that and then discovery number three love is humanly impossible you know why agape is not used in Greek literature you know why it's so rare because they never did it jesus said hey you guys love those who are good to you but what about your enemies you hate your enemies you don't love people just too love them the way I love you it's humanly impossible but the Lord is the Goff a love God is love God is agape and this is what the Lord wants to do he wants you and me to receive his love to love him back and then to let him love other people through you and through me that's God's plan for Christian that's your purpose for being on this earth to love folks to let your light shine and one of the big ways you let your light shine is by loving people loving in them enough to tell them the truth but always speaking the truth in love and the Lord wants to love through you you ever met anybody that's hard to love anybody have any people like that hard to love eg are people extra grace required because they're hard maybe you work with them maybe you share you roommates with them at school maybe you're you sit next to somebody at school like that maybe it's somebody at the next office over from you and they're just hard to love they just get on your last nerve and you say ah this person they just drive me crazy I can't love them do you remember this if you're a Christian the Lord who lives in you loves them no matter how cantankerous they may be the Lord loves them and the Lord says if you'll let me I'll love them through you the love of God the Bible says in Romans five has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts so that we can love other people the greatest enemy toward love is unforgiveness it's the biggest sin in the Christian life and it spreads like cancer across churches hey you search your heart as we close out today you ask yourself this question have you received the love of God you'll never be able to love with agape love until you receive the one who is agape love and you received his love through his son dying on the cross for your sins have you loved him back and thanked him for that sacrifice and will you let the Lord who lives in you once you receive him to love through you my friend are you living your life on purpose do you even know how to do that listen if you're watching today and you're not sure you even have a personal relationship with Jesus it's impossible to live on purpose but today is the day for you if you would like to know Jesus Christ in a real way that's a life-changing way that can happen right now pray this prayer with me Lord Jesus I need you I know that I'm a sinner and I'm lost I can't save myself but Jesus I believe that you're God and the flesh I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead and right now Jesus I open my heart to you come into my life forgive me of all my sins be my Lord and be my Savior and change me I surrender all to you my friend if you'll pray a prayer like that and mean it the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same hey I'd love to hear from you to know that you're watching to know that God is using this broadcast to make a difference in your life to know that you just prayed that prayer to receive Christ as your Savior and Lord please take the time to call that toll-free number write me email me let me know what's going on and how we can pray for you you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you from his heart is the viewer supported broadcast ministry a pastor Jeff Shrieve who believes that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life God still loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life find out more about that plan when you go to preemies heart dot o-r-g [Music]

Channel: From His Heart Ministries

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Length: 41min 15sec (2475 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2018