Scripture Reading
Sermon Text
Scripture Passage
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Love
Of God’s love, John goes one step further. He said, God is love. You don’t just see the trace of God’s love. For God is love, so whoever does not love does not know God because you can only know God through love like this year’s theme is press on to know God, but with own love. We can never know God. You cannot know God intellectually. You cannot know God by feeling it. You can only know God through love. Love is like a key to the door of Gospel world. When you don’t have that key, you cannot open the door and you cannot see God to enter into garth’s world and to know God. Only way to know is the love. There’s a lot of people don’t know God because the traitor Noga through Internet. You can only know God through love and whoever loves also knows God because God is love. It’s life is all about love. God is all about love, nothing less, nothing more. God is all about love and that’s why Jesus Christ came. It’s very simple why Jesus came. Jesus came simply to show us that God loves us. That’s why Jesus came. That’s the only knowledge that I can know.
Jesus came to show us that God loves you and God is Love. John 3:16 that you all know, for God so loved the world, for God so loved the world that he sent his only son, Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world. You’re just very clear and then John in the gospel makes it more clear. He says this, God’s Love was revealed among us in this way. God sent his son into the world so that we might live through him. The Gospel Love was revealed Molars and by sending Jesus Christ to Os. First Corinthians chapter 13 is a beautiful chapter about love, but this chapter has to be read in connection with chapter 12. Without chapter 12, 13 doesn’t stand-alone. Chapter 12, Paul talks about the gifts of the spirit, gift of tongue, gift of prophecy and gift of all kinds of gifts that he talks about and he teaches about gifts. But at the end of chapter 12, this is what he said, but strive for the greater gifts and I’ll show you a still more excellent way. That’s how he ends. Chapter Twelve and goes into chapter 13 about love. Strive for the greater gifts and I’ll show you a still more excellent way. I don’t think Paul is saying that love is the greater gift. I don’t think so. Try for more gifts or the beautiful gifts. But what he’s saying is love is the best way, most excellent way to use our gifts. So whatever gift you use, if you use it, that becomes the most excellent. If every gift of teaching, if you do that with love, that gift of teaching becomes the most beautiful gift. If you have a service, then if you do that with love, then that service becomes and that that devotion becomes most beautiful. Devotion in a service doesn’t matter what you’re doing in your life. But if you do that with love, that becomes a most precious thing. You may not work in UN human are working the universities. And you may just do labor work, whatever. It doesn’t matter what you do. If you do that with love, then that becomes the most precious thing. But even if you do the most honorable job in the world, if you don’t do that with love, that becomes nothing.
If I preach to you every Sunday with love, then that becomes the most precious thing to me. And for me, that’s what love does. Love completes what we do. Love makes everything perfect. Paul saw that very clearly when he said this in 39, he says, for we know only in part, we prophesied only in part. That’s the only part, but when the complete comes in other windows, love comes. The partial will come to an end and will become complete. Love makes everything complete. When love touches it, everything becomes complete. When love touches knowledge, the knowledge it becomes complete. When love touches our devotion, our devotion becomes complete. When love touches our faith, our faith becomes complete. When love touches our life, our life becomes complete with our love. You can never experience the completeness of life if we want to experience the completeness of life, we have to learn to love. Jesus was once asked by people, what is the ultimate goal of life? And Jesus said, simply love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love does what you just said, the ultimate goal of life. Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. I realize when there is love, there’s a perfect harmony between God, me and the neighbor. When did it? There is no love. It becomes all disconnected, but when there’s love, there’s a perfect harmony between God, me and neighbor. That’s what she’s a see. Harmony of life comes from love.
Lack of Love
Narcissism. I believe that is a critical illness in the modern world. Self-Obsession narcissism is the greatest enemy that we have to fight against in the modern world. I think many, many people suffer from narcissism. Sometimes spiritual narcissism, political narcissism, or any other kind of narcissism, narcissism all around me. I think narcissism is the greatest enemy of the modern world, but narcissism, unfortunately, is not self-love. Narcissism comes from the lack of self-love, lack of love, an emptiness of oneself. If you love yourself so much, then you don’t need to be obsessed with yourself. You can’t forget about yourself. Rather you can let go of yourself when you love yourself so much. Well, cause his narcissism is a lack of love. We feel for ourselves. When true love comes, narcissism will go. When true love comes, we can accept ourselves as we are and we can embrace our neighbors and we can accept Gospel love my friends. Love isn’t a feeling so some somebody said, love is a verb. Love is an action. No love isn’t that action either. Love is simply accepting cost, love. That’s what love is. Love is the orientation to life. There are only two orientations in life. One love the other power. Are we going to live your life with power or are we going to live your life with love? A lot of people know how to live with the power so they accumulate power so they so they can live a good life, so they only know how to live with power, but you better learn to live with love. Then your experienced tremendous empowerment. Courage, Paul Tillich said courage to be. When you learn how to live with love, then there is a courage like Jesus to the cross. He was confident he did not send it to anyone. He was powerful, strong because of love. Thank you. When you learn, learn to live with love. You can live with confidence. You don’t need to suffer from insecurity or inferiority complex. When you live with love, when you learn to live with love, you will experience tremendous power. Love begins. Accepting Gospel love. We are not patient, but we can accept God’s love that is patient and then we’ll learn to be patient. We are envious or boastful and arrogant and rude, but we can accept God’s love in Jesus Christ that is truly humble.
What we Love
Then we will learn to be not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, and not rude. We have loss of anger within us, but we cannot accept God’s love that is not irritable or resentful and we would learn to be gentle, kind and merciful. Love begins by accepting God’s love and love will change us. Love has the power to change us these days. I’m reading a biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Steve jobs was a born from German, a mother and then Syrian father and as soon as she was born, they cannot raise him. So he was adopted by this family jobs and he had a turbulent life when he was a child. He wasn’t interested in school until his fourth grade when he met a very special teacher. Imagine a Teddy Hill. She saw Steve and then saw him a gift to them with many talents and intelligence and gifts. And then you will waste. She saw him, but he doesn’t do anything. He did not really live his life fully, but he saw potential. She saw potential in him so much he. So he tried to do. She’s tried to do all kinds of things to make him a really living life fully. But you can do that. And then she used to bribe him. I’m sure that beyond a doubt that is not the best way to teach. I know that that’s not the best way to teach. That’s all she could think of. She used a bribe. She gave a set of math questions to Steve Jobs to do it. And when he brings it next week and there are answers, then she would give him a large candy. And then she said, I’ll give you $5. And it’s Steve Jobs. He got the math question very easily. He just finished all the problem set and then give to her. But later he said I did all the homework every week when she gave the math questions. I did all the math questions. Not Because of candy or money, but because I wanted to please her. But that is what teachers love. A troubled kid changed his life. If she weren’t around, I don’t think I would have written my sermon on the computer that he created. Love makes life beautiful. We human beings have to learn to live again now with power, but with love. We have to learn to live with love and then I hope that you do that and then share that insight with each other. The life the world would become a much better place as we learn too. As you live with power, the world becomes ugly, but as we learned to live with love the world, all of a sudden changes becomes a beautiful place to these Valentine Day.
Reflection
So why don’t you turn around and say Happy Valentine’s? Don’t be shy. Say, Happy Valentine. Can we say once more this time around? I’m sorry, but I love you. Why don’t you turn around and say, I love you. Joy is so serious about telling. I love you too. Jacob Law. Isn’t that supposed to be voluntary? It’s not supposed to be a romantic a day. Actually, people turned it into commercialized. Love is supposed to remember Saint Valentine who was martyred during Roman times an around the fourth century, he sacrificed his life for fellow Christians. So he became the same. Valentine. He sacrificed his life for the people who are, who suffer under Roman power. He learned how to live with love, not with power. He didn’t obey the power of the world. He’ll be to the commandment of love. We thank all those who sacrificed their lives out of their love for people. We thank our parents who sacrificed their lives out of love, out of their love for their children. We thank all of those soldiers who sacrificed their lives out of their love for their country.
Most of all, we think Jesus Christ who sacrificed his life out of his love for humanity, my friends, you’re talented, gifted. Just learn how to live with love. You’ll make all the difference in a life.
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