Love Never Fails - Pastor Jeff Schreve

[Music] welcome to from his heart where pastor jeff shreeve concludes a brand new series the greatest of these is love are you struggling to find and experience lasting love join us today to be reminded that love endures and love never fails [Music] [Music] diocletian was emperor in rome from 284 to 305 a.d diocletian was a man who hated christianity he made two edicts in 303 and 304 a.d edicts to destroy christianity to wipe it off the face of the earth the edict said burn the churches and burn all the bibles and all the sacred writings seize any treasures from the church i mean it was just open season on christians in prison christians imprisoned pastors bring people out into the open square give them an opportunity to denounce christ and if they didn't denounce christ kill them that was diocletian he had a coin made and the coin said that the name of christianity is extinguished that diocletian had extinguished it from the earth he built a monument to himself in honor of himself and it's kind of funny how you know those those roman guys had a bunch of names if you remember gladiator you had maximus but it wasn't just maximus it was maximus decimus meridius and whatever other name he could get in there and yeah you know it's kind of they had cool names well his his monument said this diocletian jovian maximinian hercules caesareas augustine for having everywhere abolished the superstition of jesus christ 304 a.d you know what's interesting about that this guy died in 311 a.d constantine took over in 3 24 a.d and he declared that christianity would be the religion of rome and the tomb of diocletian they converted that tomb into a church isn't that just the lord's poetic justice oh you're going to destroy christianity you're going to wipe christianity off the map well diocletian failed and failed miserably you know why because jesus never fails that's why that's why his love and his truth and his kingdom will last forever and ever and ever we have been studying for a number of weeks first corinthians 13 uh called the love chapter it's uh it's one of the favorites of many but it's not just an ode to love it's not just this paul's writing to the corinthians and all of a sudden he says let's take a break from everything let's i'm just going to talk about love for a while so you guys can really have fun with this years from now and put it on coffee mugs and and all sorts of things like that no it's embedded in an issue a problem in the church concerning spiritual gifts and the people were bragging about their gifts and and thinking my spiritual gift is better than your spiritual gift they loved the sensational gifts they loved the speaking in tongues they thought that was the be all end-all and paul's like that's the least of the gifts the least of the gifts let me tell you something you're missing guys you're missing love because love is the most important thing we've titled this series the greatest of these is love straight from first corinthians 13 13. hey if you don't have love you don't have anything you have nothing you are nothing you gain nothing he says if there is not love i don't care what you do in the name of jesus if it's not done out of a heart of love it amounts to a big fat zero well today we want to finish this series with a message i've entitled love never fails now when the apostle paul gives his definition of love it's not really a definition per se it's more of a description and it's not really a description with adjectives in the greek it's a description with verbs love is something you do and he says in verse 4 love is patient love is kind and is not jealous love does not brag and is not arrogant does not act unbecomingly it does not seek its own is not provoked does not take into account a wrong suffered does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth and we've talked about all those things in the weeks prior and then today love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never fails and he says in verse 13 but now abide faith hope love these three but the greatest of these is love now our question to consider today why is the greatest love let me give you four reasons why love is the greatest of these reason number one it's because love truly cares about people why is love so great why is it the greatest because it truly cares about people look at verse seven he said love bears all things now reading that in the english you could get kind of confused it's like well you know it says there was a cartoon years ago called grin and barrett you know it's just love bears all things love just like oh this is horrible that i just just bear it that's not what it means that word for bears that's translated in the english bears is a greek word that means comes from a root that means a roof and that word literally means to cover in silence to protect or keep by covering to keep secret to hide or conceal love covers by silence love throws a blanket on shame and humiliation first peter chapter 4 verse 8 says this above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins now when we think about love all the descriptors of love it's just a description of the lord jesus he's all these things because jesus is god and god is love first john chapter 4. so when you look at the life of jesus you're going to see all these things in him because he is love personified and when we talk about love covers a multitude of sins we have to know that that comes in two stages the first stage is this love exposes sin so it can be confessed there has to be a confession of sin love doesn't just cover up a sin that's not confessed love exposes sin calls people out of the darkness into the light so that they can come clean so that they can get right with god we see that in the life of jesus in john chapter 4 where he meets the woman at the well you remember he's talking to her about living water he enters into this conversation with the samaritan woman she's shocked that he would talk to her he's a jew she's a samaritan jews and samaritans didn't converse they didn't get along well and rabbis didn't talk to women and so when he's talking to her she's pretty surprised and he talks to her about living water she's like yeah evermore give me this water so i don't have to come to the well and drink he says to her go call your husband she said well i have no husband he said that's right you're right to say you have no husband because you've had five husbands and the one you're living with now is not your husband this you have said truly he confronts her about her sin about her being an adulteress and uh man she tries to change the subject real quick sir i perceive you're a prophet let's talk about something else because see it got very close to to her you know you're stepping all over my toes here but see love has to expose so that sin can be confessed and when sin is confessed what does love do love covers that sin so it can be forgiven and forgotten the lord wants us to love like that to to truly care about people to not glory in their humiliation we want to cover over their humiliation give you an example from the life of jesus john chapter 8 where the the scribes and the pharisees get together and they're they're trying to trick jesus and trap jesus they're always trying to do that you read the gospel accounts they're always trying to figure out how can we get this they hated jesus how can we get him to say something or do something that would cause the crowd to turn on him so they get this woman they they probably work this out with some guy to get this woman caught in the very act of adultery they drag her out of the bed they bring her throw her before jesus and say this woman was caught in adultery in the very act question is where's the guy she wasn't by herself where's the guy oh we didn't bring him just the woman and then they said hey moses commands us to stone her with stones for this sin what do you say now here's the dilemma they put jesus in if he said stoner with stones let's do what moses said then the people would back off jesus because they'd say well man i mean he he's harsh he's hard line and there's no mercy there's no grace there's no forgiveness and that would cause him to fall out with the people but if he says don't stone her with stones then they're going to say this guy contradicts moses and moses i mean he's he's big time he's the brightest star in the hebrew heavens moses was the lawgiver so they felt like they had him in a on in between you know a rock and a hard place what's he going to do and so we know what jesus did he said let the one who is without sin cast the first stone well cut him to the quick and you just heard all these thuds as the stones started to fall on the ground and the people all walked out and then the woman is left by herself and jesus said did no one condemn you she said no one lord he said neither do i condemn you go and sin no more interesting little tidbit there was a a bible one of the first bibles that was ever produced they messed that up and it said go and sin on more they had to fix that part it's a little just it's an aside it's kind of an interesting little story go and sin no more he didn't say go and sin on more go and sin no more see here's this woman and she can you imagine the humiliation that she has and she's thrown out in front of this crowd and what does jesus do he throws a blanket of love on her because love bears all things it covers in silence now proverbs 28 13 is one of my favorite verses it says he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion listen if you conceal your sin if you cover up your sin you know what god's going to do he's going to uncover it number 32 be sure your sin will find you out you cover it up god is going to cover uncover it he's going to expose it and it's going to be a shameful horrible thing but if you uncover it bring it to the lord say lord this is what i did i confess my sin to you i acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity i did not hide i said i will confess my transgressions to the lord and lord you forgave the guilt of my sin then he covers it in his blood in his mercy in his grace and in his love if we cover our sin god uncovers it but when we uncover our sin he covers it in his blood and in his love hey love truly cares about people it throws a blanket of love on the shame and the humiliation of people second reason why love is the greatest because love believes the best about people love believes the best about people love bears all things believes all things now you can take that to the extreme and say love believes all things so you tell anything to a person who loves and they're just gonna believe you i mean because love believes all things was jesus like that did he believe everybody that said anything to him no love is not gullible and believing all things doesn't mean that you're gullible the bible wants us to be discerning god tells us to be discerning proverbs 14 15 says fools believe every word they hear but wise people think carefully about everything jesus was not gullible john chapter 2 says that the people believed in jesus beholding the signs that he performed all these miracles they said wow this guy we believe in you but it wasn't heart belief it was it was the belief in miracles adrian rodgers wrote a booklet one time says uh believe in miracles but trust in jesus don't don't trust in miracles these people were kind of trusting in miracles and it says jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them because he knew what was in the heart of man he didn't need for anybody to tell him what was in the heart of man he knew what was in the heart of man he knew that they weren't really putting their faith and trust in him so he didn't just believe their uh superficial uh commitment he wasn't entrusting himself to them he backed off from them salvation is when you believe in jesus and he gives you his life because he knows it's genuine and true and true in your heart so love believes the best is not gullible here's what that means it means that love is not suspicious and distrusting of people you ever been around somebody that's very suspicious and distrusting it's not a lot of fun i've had to deal with people that are very suspicious over the years distrusting over the years they look at you with a jaded eye and it's like what's your angle pal is somehow i just know somehow you got something going you got some ulterior motive here let's look at how you're doing the finances of the church because i think you're cooking the books i think you're doing this i think you're doing that that's horrible to deal with somebody like that so suspicious and so distrusting and always thinking the worst about people hey we have in america you are innocent until proven guilty but some people treat others as they're guilty until proven innocent that's not love love believes the best about people heard a story some years ago about mildred she was the pillar in the church she was the church gossip she was a mean lady and she always thought the worst about people would they had a guy join the church name was frank he's a fairly new believer and they were having church one day before the service a group of them were talking and she came up and she pointed at frank and she said this week i saw your car two o'clock in the afternoon parked in front of the bar she said that tells me you're an alcoholic who goes to the bar at two o'clock in the afternoon alcoholics you're an alcoholic and he's looked at her didn't say a word just stood there stared at her and then walked away that night he drove his truck to her house he parked it he got out walked home and left it there all night hey love is not suspicious love believes the best about people you remember reading about job and job's three friends and you think you know were these guys really job's friend well i think i think they were but then they became distrusting of job you know job was hurting so badly they sat down in the ashes with job job chapter 2 for a week and didn't say a word to him because they saw his pain was so very great they just grieved with him but then they start to talk to him and they start to say well job you need to confess your sin and job said well i hadn't sinned he said oh of course you've sinned you need to come clean pal because this kind of stuff doesn't happen where you lose all your wealth and all your kids just bam like that and then you cover it head to toe and and sore boils this doesn't happen unless you have some deep dark terrible horrible sin confess it and maybe god will be merciful to you and job said i don't have a deep dark horrible terrible sin oh for sure you do for sure you do they weren't thinking the best about job and listen job was the top guy in the world at that time i mean there wasn't anyone else like job god said to satan have you considered my servant job there's no one on the earth like him he loves me with all his heart he fears me but these friends they didn't believe the best about job i had a friend of mine when i was at champion forest dick hill he was the worship pastor and champion forrest lord church and so he would always have a worship associate a younger guy that he would mentor and build into his life and then they would train that guy up and then he'd be able to go to another church and be their worship pastor well dick was notorious for being an encourager and he would bring these young guys in and he would always tell them and i believe in you i believe you're going to do a really good job i believe god brought you here for a reason and and i believe god's going to use you and just really build them up but that was his phrase i believe in you i believe in you i remember thinking about that you know that's got to be wonderful for a young guy to hear that you have this guy that was dick was very gifted and and he believes in me you know when when you're up on the platform and you're getting nervous you remember hey he this guy believes in me my boss believes in me hey the lord believes in you in terms of he sees what you can be he doesn't see you as you are he sees what you can be what did the lord say to gideon hail mighty man of valor like mighty man of valor who are you talking to i'm i'm gideon i'm the least in my family i'm at least in my tribe i'm hiding in a hole because i think the midianites are going to steal my grain i'm not a mighty man of valor oh but i see what you can be the first name in disciples of the 12 disciples in any list first name is always the same peter but that wasn't his given name his given name was simon that's when they his parents had him uh take him home what's the baby's name simon that's why jesus said he called him simon son of john simon barjona bar means son simon son of jonah or son of john that was his given name but jesus called him peter peter which means rock peter wasn't a rock man when peter when the flame got hot peter melted like a snow cone in phoenix and he said i don't even know the man peter jesus saw what peter could be hey with your children with your parents with your friends with your neighbors with the people that you work with believe in them love believes don't don't be suspicious don't be distrusting don't be cynical believe the best and and encourage them to be the person god wants them to be so loved truly cares love believes the best thirdly love doesn't give up hope love bears all things believes all things hopes all things now hope in the bible is used over and over and over hope literally means a confident expectation that something is going to happen that you're hoping for hope is related to faith both of them are rooted in the word of god see faith is for right now at this moment i'm walking by faith that's the challenge for all of us i'm going to walk by faith well that's that's for today hope is in the future it's kind of faith in the future so god gives a promise and you say well i'm hoping in this promise i have confident expectation in this promise that's different than from the way we use hope we use hope in english as a wish like i hope it doesn't rain tomorrow because i'm planning to do something outside i was watching the football game yesterday texas longhorns i hope they can make a play and most of the time that's just a wish that doesn't come to pass you know just i hope they don't lose i hope they don't have a penalty here i hope you know you just wish it hope in the bible is not a wish it's a confident expectation that this is going to happen because god has promised hey love hopes all things now if you lose hope you lose your reason for living the people who commit suicide you know why they commit suicide they lose hope there's no more hope life has gotten so dark so black so bleak in their minds that they say i can't live anymore some years ago when jack kevorkian's name was big in the news you know jackson kevorkian was the suicide doctor people would be in chronic pain they'd call dr jack come over to my house bring your your medicines and kill me why why would you want jack to come over and kill you because i have no hope of ever getting better i can't live like this anymore just kill me you lose hope you lose it all here's the good news you might be struggling with hope and you're losing hope that your situation is going to change you're losing hope about a son a wayward son or a wayward daughter you're losing hope about some friend you're losing hope in your marriage god is the god of hope romans 15 13. now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound overflow and hope by the power of the holy spirit love hopes all things a t robertson the greek scholar translates it this way love doesn't despair it doesn't despair you know if you look up despair in the dictionary you know what it says definition of despair to be without hope and love doesn't do that it doesn't despair david who had his share king david had his share more than his share of difficulties in his life especially in the early part of his life he spent years and years on the run from psycho king saul who was trying to kill him and david hadn't done anything wrong david said this in psalm 27 verses 13 and 14 i would have despaired unless i had believed that i would see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living wait for the lord be strong and let your heart take courage yes wait for the lord have you noticed that your timetable and god's timetable aren't the same table i mean god he seems to be so slow on doing stuff and the the psalms bear that out because you'll read in the psalms and the psalmist will say how long o lord will you hide your face god why don't you do something do you not see what's going on here how long o lord hey wait for the lord don't despair god is the god of hope let your heart be encouraged wait for the lord there's a good little three-letter word that you and i need to remind ourselves of when we're hoping for something and it doesn't seem to be coming to pass you know many young people that want to get married you're in your 20s and i had three daughters my middle daughter amy was wanting to be married and joe got married when she was 19 almost 20 and sarah got married and she's 27 and here's amy at 29 and there's nobody on the horizon she wants to be married that's the desire of her heart and so she would have some times where it would just feel like this is never going to happen for me you know i like this guy he doesn't like me this guy likes me i don't like him and it was just not working out and you would encourage your daughter as i would as debbie would hey amy you just keep hey you be you be ruth you just keep working in the field you just keep trusting the lord he's going to bring boaz at the right time see i would have despaired unless i believed i would see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living that's that's now that's not talking about heaven that's talking about here wait for the lord and so we would encourage her that way and we'd encourage her with this three little word three uh letter word yet but it hasn't happened yet hasn't happened yet you keep trusting god you keep hoping in the lord you keep bringing a promise before him saying god you said if i delight myself in you you'd give me the desires of my heart you remember yet i would have despaired unless i believed i would see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living it hasn't happened yet but it is going to happen because i believe god love believes all things and let me tell you something it is better to die in hope than to live in doubt and despair i'd rather go to my grave saying you know i was hoping for some some things that i from salvation for family members or something like that it didn't happen in my lifetime but god i just delivered up to you but i'm not going to live in doubt and cynicism and despair that's not the way a christian is supposed to live we're supposed to live in hope and abound in hope by the power of the holy spirit so love doesn't give up hope and fourthly love always endures it bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things the word endures monet in the greek it's a military term it means to remain under a t robertson translates it this way it's to carry on like a stout hearted soldier that's what love does it just carries on like a stout hearted soldier it doesn't throw in the towel it doesn't give up it endures and love stands firm against intense opposition intense opposition i'm not going to stop loving you love says just because the going gets tough give you an example stephen in the bible acts chapter 7 he's hauled in before the sanhedrin for preaching jesus and the resurrection sanhedrin the jewish supreme court the 70 plus one the high priest these guys they weren't a fun lot i mean going before the sanhedrin is a lot like going to deacon's meeting it's just a tough crowd just teasing deacons but it was these are guys that don't like you if you're a believer they hated jesus jesus had to appear before the sanhedrin so stephen is called before the sanhedrin and he's called to give enough a defense and he preaches a sermon in acts chapter 7 that just fried their hair i mean it was powerful he told all about israel and their history and then he says he he wheels on them and he says let me tell you what you guys are doing you men who are stiff-necked always resisting the holy spirit he said who did the prophets in the old testament what did they do how did they how did the people respond to the prophets they murdered the prophets and you are doing the same thing and you murdered god's messiah you talk about getting cut to the quick when you tell the religious muckety-mucks that they killed the messiah and they are on par with those who killed the prophets man they got so mad they covered their ears and they rushed upon stephen to stone him to death and the bible says this and when they had driven him out of the city they began stoning him and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named saul and they went on stoning stephen and he called upon the lord and said lord jesus receive my spirit and falling on his knees he cried out with a loud voice lord do not hold this sin against them and having said this he fell asleep so much like what jesus said on the cross father forgive them for they do not know what they do stephen was like that lord don't hold this sin to their charge he loved those people that were stoning him he understood they don't know what they're doing they are blind and god they desperately need to come into the light now listen in this political season that we've been in it's divisive and it can create i mean you thought you were friends with somebody all of a sudden you become enemies and social media is horrible for that because you say things that that are you know fire bombs that you're throwing and can really divide people we need to be careful with that i'm speaking to myself you need to be careful of that because people are not the enemy listen the enemy is at work the the prince of the power of the air he is at work and just like it was in diocletian's day in the 300s a.d the the devil wants to come and eradicate christianity he wants to shut it down he wants to remove freedom of religion from america he wants to to make it a crime to be able to open the book and preach the book he would love to get all the bibles and burn them he works overtime to do that you have to always remember i have to always remember people are not the enemy the devil's the enemy people are the mission field and people who are very very ugly to us if we stand up for the truth if we stand up for the unborn if we stand up for israel if we stand up for law and order if we stand up for truth you know as i told you truth is hate to those who hate the truth and people who hate the truth you can start seeing them as you're bad people and we don't like you and i don't like you and and uh lord should we james and john should we ask god call on the lord to send down fire from heaven and consume them jesus said you don't know what spirit you're of the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them and so we need to see those people as god open their eyes to truth they don't see the truth they don't see the truth and lord don't hold this sin on their charge you don't don't put that on their account god open their eyes see love stands firm against intense opposition to be able to pray for the people who are stoning you to death is the love of god at work in a man's heart and then lastly love lasts for all eternity see he sums it up in verse eight love never fails it never falls it it never drops off it survives everything love never fails he says if they're gifts of prophecy they will be done away if there are tongues they will cease if there is knowledge it will be done away all these spiritual gifts they only last for this life and then they're gone for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes when we go to heaven the partial will be done away with and faith will turn to sight when i was a child i used to speak as a child think as a child reason as a child when i became a man i did away with childish things for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face now i know in part but then i shall know fully just as i also have been fully known in heaven you're going to know things fully just as god knows you and he says in verse 13 but now abide faith hope love these three but the greatest of these is love now love is the greatest as we've said because love truly cares love believes the best love doesn't give up hope love always endures but let me tell you something else about love in heaven that's what dominates is the love of god faith is not needed in heaven why because faith is there when you can't see but when we go to heaven faith turns to sight so there is no reason to have faith and hope doesn't it's not there in heaven why because hope is faith in the future and the future is right before us forever and ever all eternity and so the only thing of faith hope and love the only thing that we have in heaven of those three is love and here's what you're going to experience see jesus said the greatest commandment is to love god with all your heart souls strength and mind and the second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself in heaven we will experience god's love to the max and we will love god back to the max and we will love horizontally one another to the max and heaven is a place where the two greatest commandments are fulfilled every single day to love god and to love your neighbor and it's a place where love just overflows that's why love is the greatest see love connects us to god because god doesn't he doesn't have a need for faith god doesn't have a need for hope but god is love and when you and i love we are like god and we connect with god through love let me close with this story there was a man named george matheson a scottish minister and hymn writer he lived in the 19th century he was engaged to be married as a young man 19 years old very much in love very excited but then he had this issue with his eyes you went to the doctor they said you're going blind there's nothing we can do to to correct this he told his fiance and she said i can't handle that i can't be married to a blind guy i'm out and she broke off the engagement well he was heartbroken as you can imagine and he had a sister a younger sister who was there to help him and she assisted him as he went through his studies and got his degrees and and began to pastor and began to write and do those things but when george mathison was 40 years old the sister got married and she wasn't going to be able to be there for him and help him anymore he understood that but it was on the eve of her wedding day that the sadness really rose flooded his soul he remembered how his fiancee had abandoned him and now his sister was gone he was feeling so alone you know the devil really likes to move in uh during those times in our lives when it's really dark he comes in and says god doesn't love you god has forgotten you uh it's it's over you've lost hope and that's kind of what george matheson was feeling and he said a song came into his heart lyrics to a song he said i used to have to work and work and work to get lyrics to a song he said this song came into my heart he said i was able to write it down in five minutes i never edited a word it was a song from god to him that says o love that will not let me go i rest my weary soul in thee i give thee back the life i owe that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer fuller be god has a love that will not let you go paul said in romans chapter 8 he asked the question what shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword for i am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall it be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord oh love that will not let me go and can i tell you something that is just mind-blowing that love that god has for you dwells in you to love other people because romans 5 says that the love of god has been shed abroad in our hearts through the person of the holy spirit whom he has given to us god lives in our hearts as believers and he can love through us to other people so that we could cover their shame with a blanket of love so that we could believe in them so that we can hope about them so that we can endure with them and for them and concerning them do you realize that this love resides in you if you're a believer my friend the greatest of these is love and god so loved the world he so loved you that he gave his only begotten son if you have never put your faith and trust in jesus i want to encourage you to do that today just pray this prayer with me just say lord jesus i need you i know that i'm a sinner and i'm lost and i can't save myself jesus i believe that you are god in the flesh i believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead lord right now i surrender my all to you come into my heart forgive me of all my sins be my lord and savior and i promise to follow you all the days of my life my friend if you pray that kind of prayer and mean it the lord will come in and your life will never be the same 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 savior and lord please call me write 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 thank you for watching from his heart today the viewers supported broadcast ministry of dr jeff shreeve 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 go to promiseheart.org [Music]

Channel: From His Heart Ministries

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Length: 42min 0sec (2520 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021