LESSON: 1 Corinthians 12.31a-13.13, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: It's the Greatest

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INTRODUCTION:

ILLUSTRATION

    1. FMC member Rev. Warren Keating, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Derby, KS, tells this story:
      1. There once was a very rich man who "wanted to take it with him" when he died.
      2. He prayed and prayed until finally the Lord gave in, but on one condition - he could only bring one suitcase of his wealth.
      3. The rich man then began to worry, "What kind of currency should I bring - the dollar, the pound, the yen, the mark?"
      4. He finally decided that the best thing to do was to turn it all into gold bullion.
      5. The day came when the rich man died.
      6. St. Peter greeted him, but told him he couldn't bring his suitcase in with him.
      7. "I have an agreement with God that I can take it with me," the man explained.
      8. "That's unusual," St. Peter said. "This has never happened before. Mind if I take a look?"
      9. The man opened the suitcase to reveal the shining gold bullion.
        1. "Pavement!" the amazed St. Peter exclaimed.
        2. "Why in the world would you bring pavement?"
    2. It would be easy to draw the conclusion that this is the way of the people of the world.
    3. What about the people of Christ?

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ILLUSTRATION

Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion (1) reports,

      1. "When I was a university student, I was unsuccessfully evangelized by almost every Christian group on campus.
      2. My basic response to their preaching was, 'How can I believe when I look at the way the church lives?'
      3. They answered, 'Don't look at the church; look at Jesus.'
      4. "I now believe that statement is one of the saddest in the history of the church.
        1. It puts Jesus on a pedestal apart from the people who name his name.
        2. Belief in him becomes an abstraction removed from any demonstration of its meaning in the world.
        3. Such thinking is a denial of what is most basic to the gospel: incarnation.
      5. People should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about.
      6. Our lives must tell them who Jesus is and what he cares about."

MAIN BODY:

  1. People should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about. Our lives must tell them who Jesus is and what he cares about."
    1. If Christians begin to comprehend and live out the principles of Jesus,
      1. Will people should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about.
      2. Will our lives must tell them who Jesus is and what he cares about."
      3. What is the most important element of life?
    2. There is a hint of how this may be done

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ILLUSTRATION

In the Guinness Book of World Records there is listed the shortest sermon ever preached.

      1. It was given by John Albrecht, an Episcopal priest in Michigan.
        1. He stood in his pulpit to preach, paused, and said "Love!"
        2. He then sat down.
      2. Some of Albrecht's members said it was the best sermon he ever preached.
  1. This is it, this is the most important ingredient of our lives, Love

ILLUSTRATION

    1. Chorus that I love to sing, Love, Love, Love

                    That's what it's all about.
                    'Cause God loves us,
                    We love each other,
                    Mother father, sister, brother.
                    Everybody sing and shout.
                    'Cause that's what its all about.
                    Its about love, love, love.
                    Its about love, love, love.

    1. What is love.
      1. We begin to realize how important it is.
      2. The biblical material does not give us a definition
      3. We are given a description.

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  1. Explore 1 Corinthians 13
    1. [1] 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.
      1. Who wants to be a noisy gong?
      2. Do you really want to be a clanging symbol?
    2. [2] 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.
      1. Nothing is a naught, a zero
      2. You can get nothing less than this.
    3. [3] 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.
      1. To hand over my body is to become a martyr
      2. You may gain some recognition and accolades of heroism from your associate human beings
      3. There is nothing to be gained with God by giving the ultimate sacrifice.
    4. [4] Love is
      1. patient;
        1. Long-suffering
        2. Enduring
      2. love is kind;
        1. Good
        2. Merciful
      3. love is not envious or boastful or arrogant [5] or rude.
      4. It does not insist on its own way;
      5. it is not irritable or resentful;
      6. [6] it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
    5. [7] It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
    6. [8] Love never ends.
      1. God's love is unconditionally eternal
      2. Love is available to everyone who is willing to accept and expand its practice is life.

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    7. 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. [9] For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; [10] but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
    8. [11] 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.
    9. [12] For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.
    10. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
    11. [13] And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

CONCLUSION:

  1. Today is (I hate to mention it) Super Bowl Sunday
    1. The Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants
      1. This is intense competition.
      2. One will emerge the winner, the other the loser.
  2. In Christ there is no competition.
    1. There are no winners or losers.
    2. There is no competition in love.
    3. In Romans 12:9-10, we read: "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; [10] love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor."
      1. Live with mutual affection, love
      2. Outdo one another in showing, demonstrating, applying honor.
  3. Amen!

1. Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992), 108.

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