June 24, 2007

Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:11

Sermon Title: The Child In Love

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What is his job? (1)

A grade school teacher was asking students what their parents did for a living. "Tim, you be first," she said. "What does your mother do all day?"

Tim stood up and proudly said, "She's a doctor."

"That's wonderful. How about you, Amie?"

Amie shyly stood up, scuffed her feet and said, "My father is a mailman."

"Thank you, Amie," said the teacher. "What about your father, Billy?"

Billy proudly stood up and announced, "My daddy murders people, steals from them, and drinks."

The teacher was aghast and promptly changed the subject to geography. Later that day she went to Billy's house and rang the bell. Billy's father answered the door. The teacher explained what his son had said and asked if there might be some logical explanation.

Billy's father said, "I'm actually an attorney. But how can I explain a thing like that to a seven-year-old?"

  1. When I was a child.

    1. Childhood, Childhood (Little boy)

    2. How do identify the meaning of "Child"?

      1. This may be an infant or a very young child.

      2. This may be an immature adult.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. When I was child I spoke like a child.

A mother was driving with her young daughter. Traffic was heavy, the weather was terrible and mom got just a bit frazzled and began commenting on the habits and flaws of all the other drivers on the road, and not favorably, either.

As they pulled into their driveway, the daughter spoke up.

"I have a question, Mom. When you're driving," she asked, "are you ever the idiot?"

    1. Listen to the child.

    2. Sometimes children are very difficult to understand.

    3. They have their own language, grammar, and pronunciation

  1. When I was a child I reasoned like a child.

There's an old story that works well with this treatment of the John text about Robert Louis Stevenson.

As a boy, Stevenson was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighter who went about with a ladder and a torch, setting the street lights ablaze for the night.

One evening in Edinburgh, Scotland, as young Robert stood watching with childish fascination, his parents heard him exclaim, "Look, look! There's a man out there punching holes in the darkness!"

  1. When I was a child I thought like a child.

Ask just any 10-year-old these days about the greatest story ever told and they'll not likely jump immediately to Genesis 1 and recite the whole witness of Scripture.

Instead they'll probably begin by regaling you with the tale of J.K. Rowling's boy wizard Harry Potter, whose continuing adventures have sparked a worldwide phenomenon. Six books and four films have already sold in stratospheric numbers, and the seventh and final book is awaited by the elementary school set with anticipation that's matched only by Christmas morning. (And before you roll your eyes at yet another Harry Potter treatment -- don't forget that while we muggles may be tired of Harry, children and the publishing world clearly are not. Okay, then.)

  1. When I became an adult I put away childish way.

    1. We're called in this text to be children, but not childish. In case you've misplaced your copy of The Toddler Property Laws we provide it here once again:

      1. If I like it, it's mine.

      2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.

      3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.

      4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

      5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

      6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.

      7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.

      8. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

      9. If it's yours and I steal it, it's mine.

      10. If I saw it first, or last, makes no difference, it's still mine.

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    1. Becoming a spiritual adult requires knowledge of God.

      1. Ephesians 4.

14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love, (Ephesians 4:14-16 NRSVA).

      1. 1 Corinthians 3.

1And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4, NRSVA).

      1. Hebrews 5.

11About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil, (Hebrews 5:11-14, NRSVA).

      1. 1 Peter 2.

1Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. 2Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--3if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, (1 Peter 2:1-5, NRSVA).

    1. Of course, without knowledge of God, we won't have the "That's So God" experiences in our life.

A little girl came to her mother with the age-old question, Mother, what is God like?

Her mother hesitated. Ask your father, she said. Her father also hesitated. Later, among her childish possessions, her mother found this scrap of paper on which were these words in free verse:

I asked my mother what God was like.

She did not know.

Then I asked my father, who knows more than anyone else in the world, what God was like.

He did not know.

I think if I had lived as long as my mother and father,

I would know something about God.

--Source: Unknown

  1. Would you know something about love?

    1. The maturity of people who live in love is described in 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1-7.

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NRSVA).

      1. Understanding this love opens the mind to a wealth of spiritual knowledge.

      2. Learning to adapt to love opens the whole of life to incredible opportunities.

      3. Applying the principles provides for expanding opportunities for spiritual growth.

    1. This is the way to maturity.

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CONCLUSION

  1. How do you achieve this love?

    1. How do caterpillars turn into butterflies

      1. The Caterpillar prepares for next stage by spinning a chrysalis

      2. Chrysalis means change, transformation

    2. To change from a caterpillar to a butterfly requires an intense struggle to escape the chrysalis

      1. The butterfly looks different in this continuation of life.

      2. It has become lively and beautiful.

  2. There was a man who noticed a cocoon in the corner of his office window.

    1. One day he saw the butterfly attempting to struggle from the cocoon,

      1. He agonized over the struggle.

      2. He wanted to help .so he opened the cocoon.

    2. The butterfly was crippled

      1. It could not fly.

      2. The butterfly needs he struggle to open its wings

  3. There is the potential for such awesome development and beauty in each of us.

    1. God wants us to grow to be people who are not only beautiful, but also useful.

    2. He wants us to be love.

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.

Amen

1 Retrieved from: http://www.dizzyboy.com/jokes/christian-jokes/christian-jokes.html?gclid=COL42-aV84wCFRUHWAodA0I6Dw

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