'THE CRAVING OF THE SOUL #1-EXAMINING LOVE' 1 …



"THE CRAVING OF THE SOUL #1-EXAMINING LOVE" 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-8

INTRO: "We cannot live unaffected by love. We are most alive when we find it, most devastated when we lose it, most empty when we give up on it, most inhuman when we betray it, and most passionate when we pursue it." (Erwin Raphael McManus. Soul Cravings. Entry #3). Love is something that every person pursues but it seems many never find what they are looking for. They are willing to substitute lust for love. Love can wait and worship endlessly; lust says, "I must have it at once." --Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) (Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry #7353).

Currently there are 16 networks, which have a total of 111 reality TV shows. The majority of them deal with love. Love is the most talked about word yet it is so misunderstood. But real love is best learned from God. "We are created to know God and to know love...Follow love and it will guide you to God." (Erwin Raphael McManus. Soul Cravings. Entry #4). The Bible gives us three realities of love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 has been called THE GREAT LOVE CHAPTER. In it we find three realities of love...

(1) LOVE HAS A CHARACTER

1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3—" Though I speak with the tongues of men and

of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And 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, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

A. TRUE LOVE IS NOT UNDERSTOOD. This world has no idea what true

love is. Our culture confuses lust with love. "Sex, unfortunately is used as a shortcut to love." (Erwin Raphael McManus. Soul Cravings. Entry #6). An old Latin proverb says, “Govern your passions, or they will govern you.” "In Our generation, we see love and sex mentioned in the same breath so often, that many think they are synonymous. Obviously, this isn't so. Love is a completely unselfish feeling you have

towards another. Lust is totally selfish. Not once does the Bible put them together, but modern man, for selfish and commercial reasons constantly makes the association." - Zig Ziglar

ILLUS: Harlequin Publishing House says there are 180 million romance novels purchased each year. Harlequin itself sells on-average five and one-half books per second.

As an old Country song says, "Looking for love in all the wrong places." That seems to be true today. Many are pursuing love but not finding it because they do not really know what they are looking for. Many today act on their feelings. Feelings motivate us to do things we normally would not do. Love affects our feelings deeply and powerfully. But love is more than a feeling.

ILLUS: In the comic strip Peanuts. Linus says to Charlie Brown, "She was so cute. I used to see her in Sunday school every week. I used to sit there and stare at her, and sometimes she'd smile at me. Now I hear she has switched to another church." Charlie Brown responded, "That'll change your theology in a hurry!"

B. TRUE LOVE IS UNIQUE. Love affects our feelings but is more than an

emotional feeling. The Righteous Brothers once had a song, "You've lost

that loving feeling." It epitomizes how we look at love today. We have

confused love with uncontrollable feelings. God never intended marriage

and other relationships to be founded on something as unstable,

unpredictable, and uncontrollable as a loving feeling. Love is an outgrowth

of the love of God we have experienced by being born again by the Spirit of

God. We show love because we have been loved by God.

ILLUS: Some of these newfangled inventions are great-especially the puncture-

proof tire. If you are driving along with ordinary tires and a nail goes

through one of them, whis-s-s, you lose all the air. But a puncture-

proof tire is different-if a nail goes through, there is some stuff inside

that runs around and stops the hole and the air stays in.

The heart of a Christian is like that puncture-proof tire. An ordinary

heart may be filled with love, but when someone does something to

puncture that heart, all the love runs out and hatred and hard feelings

take its place. But a puncture-proof heart is different. It is filled with

the Spirit of Christ and when someone, through their words or deeds

punctures that heart, immediately the hole is stopped up tight and the

love stays in.

LOVE HAS A CHARACTER and also...

(2) LOVE IS A CHOICE

JOHN 13:34-35—"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love

one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this

shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to

another."

A. TRUE LOVE IS A CONSCIOUS CHOICE. Colossians 3:14 tells us—"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness". Friends, love is a choice we make. WE must choose to put love on. Sometimes the people we are called to love are not the easiest people to love.

ILLUS: As a group of college students toured the slums of a city, one of the

girls, seeing a little girl playing in the dirt, asked a guide, "Why doesn't

her mother clean her up?"

"Madam," he replied, "that girl's mother probably loves her, but she

doesn't hate dirt. You hate dirt, but you don't love her enough to go

down there and clean her up. Until hate for dirt and love for that child

are in the same person, that little girl is likely to remain as she is."

Until hate for sin and love for the sinner gets in a person, he will do

little about the plight of the lost. (Bible Illustrator For Windows. Version

3.0f. Parsons Technology, Inc. Copyright 1990-1998. All Rights

Reserved).

B. TRUE LOVE IS A COMPASSIONATE CHOICE. When we choose to love we prove our compassion. Without compassion we do not have true love. Compassion acts.

ILLUS: Someone has asked, “How long has it been since you?...

• Took the time to go see someone who lives alone?

• Wrote a letter to someone who crossed your mind?

• Read the Bible to someone too ill to read for themselves?

• Encouraged someone who was having a hard time being a Christian?

• Prayed earnestly for someone who was faltering?

• Tried to have a Bible study with someone you knew was lost?

• Told a teenager that you were proud of his efforts to live for the Lord?

• Spent more time on your knees praying than on the telephone talking?

EVERY CHRISTIAN CAN DO SOMETHING TO ENCOURAGE SOMEONE

ELSE!

LOVE HAS A CHARACTER, LOVE IS A CHOICE, and...

(3) LOVE IS A MATTER OF CONDUCT

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8—"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; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

A. LOVE IS AN ACT OF THE WILL. Love is more than an emotion of our hearts. It is an act of our wills. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44—'"… Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”. I may not like my enemies, but I can obey Romans 12:2O which tells us—" if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink...". "When love does not come to you, it breaks your heart, but when you do not give love away, it hardens your heart." (Erwin Raphael McManus. Soul Cravings. Entry #3). Friends, we need to start living the things we say we believe about loving each other. It does us no good, as a congregation, to say we love one another if we are unwilling to demonstrate that love by serving each other.

Some say that hypocrisy is acting contrary to how you feel. But hypocrisy is acting contrary to what you believe not acting contrary to how you feel. We must act like love acts. 1 John 3:18 tells us—"My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth."

B. LOVE IS AMAZING IN ITS WAY. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us—"And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Love has a conduct of its own. Look how amazing love is:

• LOVE HAS TIME. "Charity suffereth long" (v4). When we practice patient love we make allowances for other's faults and wait for God to change others.

• LOVE CARES. "Charity...is kind" (v4b). Love does not anger quickly not does it keep a record of wrongs. It is adaptable to meet other's needs. "When we love we are moved toward forgiveness" (McManus. Soul Cravings. Entry #6).

• LOVE IS SECURE. "Charity...envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." (v4c). Security is what causes relationships to work. Insecurity in a relationship is what causes it to be unhealthy.

• LOVE GIVES. We are told in v5 that love—"does not behave

unseemly, seek not her own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil." True love gives. It is not constantly receiving but giving. Someone has said that many marriage today are like ticks on a dog. The tick is there for one purpose, to take. The tragedy is after 20 years of marriage you end up with two ticks and no dog.

• LOVE IS CONSISTENT. Vv. 7-8 tells us that love—"Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth." If we would understand what love is and act like love acts it would last.

CLOSING: Friends, we cannot begin loving other until we have

experienced the love of God through Jesus Christ. Hugh Martin

in his book, The Parables of the Gospels tells about a rough

cultured man who became fascinated with a beautiful, expensive

vase in a shop window. He bought it, took it home and placed it

on the mantel of cluttered room. The vase became a kind of

judgment on its surroundings. So the man cleaned up the room to

make it more worthy of the vase. Then he noticed the curtains

looked dingy so he replaced them. That made the chairs which

had stuffing coming out look bad so he bought new furniture. That

made the walls look dingy so he painted and papered them. Soon

the whole room was transformed.

Friend, when you put Jesus on the mantel of your heart He will

begin to gradually transform every nook and cranny of your life.

You start with Him and He will free you from sin!

LOVE HAS A CHARACTER, LOVE IS A CHOICE, and LOVE IS A

MATTER OF CONDUCT. Friends, let me challenge each of us

tonight that we strive to love like we have been loved by God!

PREPARED BY BROTHER BRYAN L. BROWNING, PASTOR OF BEECHMONT BAPTIST CHURCH, BEEHMONT, KY FOR SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 13, 2008.

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