Sermon Tone Analysis

What do you want people to say you accomplished with your life?

How do you want to be remembered?

What big thing do you hope will be your legacy?

We all want to see God do big, amazing things.

We want to be part of them.

I believe you come fully alive, fully human, when you walk in the way of Jesus.

Walking any path includes using both feet.

In this case the way of Jesus has two steps: 1. abiding in Him, and 2. being sent by Him to love God, love others, and make other disciples.

The way each of us makes disciples of Jesus will be similar because we are pointing everyone to Jesus.

But our way will be unique too.

We saw last week from 1 Corinthians 12 that God works through us in by giving us a variety of gifts, a variety of ways to serve, and a variety of activities.

When these three line up for each of us, it’s like we’re firing on all cylinders.

We can take pleasure in what God has invited us and called us to do to become profitable to Him and caring for others.

In our passage today, Paul will tell us that there are big things God can do through us, but nothing’s as big as the love.

Paul concludes 1 Corinthians 12 that chapter by saying,

“Earnestly desire” is the literally, “be zealous”.

The word for “higher” is mega, really big.

The word for “more excellent” is hyperbole.

We use this word in English to describe an excessive description of something.

Everyone is about “mega” today.

There are mega-meals, megabucks, Megamind, even mega-churches.

Paul is saying it’s okay to be excited over big gifts that God can use, but even the big gifts are nothing compared, and I cannot say too much about (hyperbole), the way they should be practiced.

And then comes the love chapter.

With a familiar passage of the Bible, it’s too easy to miss the main point because we have our favorite parts, or we’ve been told by so many people what we should think about it.

So I hope to tell you nothing new, but also I hope to show you some angles that get missed.

The first is right here in 12:31.

What Paul is about to describe is a “way”.

The word is used of a road, a path, anything upon which you might walk to get to your desired destination.

Our desired destination, as we saw last week, is to be profitable to God in His kingdom expansion and grow in mutual care for one another as we proclaim and demonstrate Jesus as Lord.

Where is Jesus not known as Lord?

Let’s go there, and cooperate with the gifts God has given each of us to serve others and do good work in Jesus’ name.

As we go along that path, here’s what you should keep in mind.

You are going to need three tools, and one of these is the best one.

You will need faith, hope, and love, but the “mega” of these three is love.

In Your Zeal for Mega, Love

Paul uses some of the more miraculous and, from man’s perspective, powerful gifts as a lesson in the supremacy of love.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (ESV)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

What do most people think the church needs to be effective, powerful, and relevant?

We need good communicators.

What do all the mega churches have?

A good communicator on stage.

They also have smart people: educated, knowledgeable, prophetic leaders who can discern our times and will use God’s word to tell us how to live for God.

To do big things, we need people with the gift of faith, willing to be bold for Jesus.

We need givers and martyrs, people who will give their money, time, efforts, and are willing to die for the faith.

We need people sold out to the cause.

We think we need gifted people to have a successful gospel ministry.

Paul says, nope!

You need people who have learned love.

Even if you had all of these gifted people all in one place, if you did not have love, you have done nothing, you are nothing, you gain nothing.

It’s time to...

Learn the Hyperbole of Love

Paul describes love in verses 4-7 that make it clear he’s talking about love in a different way than we do.

His version of love is not a disposition or a feeling.

He’s talking about a person that we should get to know.

This isn’t the love the world thinks it knows.

It isn’t some squishing good feeling for the people, places, and things that make me feel good.

Love is a person, as tough as nails, whose crown was not made of laurel leaves, but of thorns.

This is someone that did not envy the political leaders in their comforts or the religious leaders with all their fawning followers.

When His few followers boasted about who was best, He set the example by becoming a servant to all.

He was not arrogant or rude, but stopped at the roadside to touch the untouchable hurting.

He submitted to the will of God the Father, even when it meant suffering and death.

He was never irritated with anyone, and was not resentful of those who betrayed Him, abandoned Him, and crucified Him.

He did not rejoice with wrongdoing, but rejoiced every time someone discovered, understood, confessed, and lived the truth.

Because He is the Truth.

He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

If He didn’t, He would have given up on His foolish followers, and would have run from the cross.

But because he does, He has been raised to eternal life, which He shares with all who believe in Him.

God is love, and we know the love of God in Jesus, God with us.

Long after all the “gifted” people have passed away, the people who have learned love live in God.

Paul is telling us, if you want to become fully alive, fully formed, fully human, if you want to do big things with your life, walk in the path of love.

You’ll find Jesus there.

But to walk this path, you’ve got to learn humility too.

To Grow Big, Embrace Small

Learning love is also learning humility.

It’s embracing our limits.

One day, everyone will know the glory of God, and no one will need to tell them.

One day, every one of us will ascend the mountain of the Lord to be instructed by Him, and the smart people won’t seem so smart.

One day, God will no longer require sacrificial giving because when He restores the world there will be no need.

But on that day, love will still work.

When you think about it, love was around before all these things were needed.

God is love, after all.

Paul says that for all those who think they know so much, and all those who think they speak so well and clearly for God, they need to realize that anything we could ever know here is only a part of what God has for us to know, and whatever you can say for God is only part of what God will say to us when we see Him face to face.

Those who depend on mega gifts and don’t love are still children.

Every child has questions they are not able to understand until they grow up.

Like, why do people hate other people who have a different skin color?

Or why does grandma cry when I ask about grandpa?

Or why do you go to work every day when I want you to play with me?

Or why can’t I have all the candy I want?

Or why can’t we get an elephant?

Life is the best teacher.

Just like we all had to grow up one day to understand these things, Paul says there are some things for now we will only see in a fuzzy way.

But one day, we’ll all grow up when we see Jesus face to face.

Right now, no matter how smart you think you are, I want you to know you couldn’t hold a candle to the Apostle Paul.

You only know part of everything he could have taught us.

But when you see Jesus, and realize it wasn’t about what you know, but about the One that knows you, you won’t care how many degrees you did or didn’t earn.

For the last 100 years, the successful churches were those that hired a gifted preacher who would speak with certainty on all the doctrinal issues that people have debated for 2,000 years or more.

Paul’s inviting us into a new era.