©2004 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

07/18/04

But The Greatest Of These

7/18/04 But The Greatest Of These

Several weeks ago,

when we were nearing the end of our series on My Life’s Greatest Surprises,

I attempted to communicate a concept

that was, I think, not communicated as effectively as it needs to be.

At the time

it was tucked in among a number of other thoughts

and I did not give it the attention it deserved.

This morning I want to bring us back to it

and see if I can do better.

I will tell you right up front

that I have some major concerns

about what I want to share with you this morning,

concerns for which I have no solutions.

One of those concerns

grows out of the fact

that many of you hear me teach nearly every week,

and some of you have done so for many years now.

Each week you hear me attempt to share with you

another small portion of truth

concerning the life we are offered through Jesus Christ.

And my concern is that what I share with you this morning

will be placed into your thinking

along with all the other stuff I’ve offered you throughout the years

and given an equal position with all the rest.

And if that happens,

I will have failed in my attempt

to effectively communicate the significance of what I want to share.

I’m also concerned

that some of you will hear what I say this morning

and then leave here saying to yourself,

“Well, that was obvious! So what’s the big deal? I’ve known that for years.”

Now, I’m willing to acknowledge that all of that may be true,

and even that I really am one of the slower learners in the family of God,

but, before I get into what I want to get into this morning,

I want you to know that it has taken me most of my Christian life

to see what I think I’m finally beginning to see here.

So, with that as background, let’s get started.

During most of my childhood

my family lived in Seattle,

and for several years during my teens

I had an Uncle and Aunt and their 3 children living in L.A.

One summer during those years

my brother and I visited them.

It was the first time I’d ever been to Southern California,

and the first thing on my list of things I wanted to do was to go to Disneyland.

I can still remember that first trip to the Magic Kingdom.

I remember walking through that entrance gate,

with hundreds of excited fellow tourists thundering by me,

looking at all the stores and displays,

having no idea where anything was,

or which rides were the best rides,

wanting to be very sure I didn’t miss anything,

and yet knowing, too, that I only had a few hours in which to take it all in.

And all that day as we went from ride to ride,

and from one section of the park to another,

half the time I was standing in line

I kept wondering if maybe I should have chosen another line,

or another ride.

I had a good time, of course,

but as I look back on that trip to Disneyland

I realize now that when I entered those gates that morning

I forgot the real purpose for which I was there.

It wasn’t to make sure I got on every ride in the park.

It wasn’t to be certain I’d walked down every pathway

and entered every building.

It was simply to have fun,

to enjoy myself,

whether I went on just one ride,

or on every ride there.

The time will come a few years from now,

(and Sandee and I have already talked about the minimum age at which we can reasonably do this,)

when we will take our grandson to Disneyland.

And when we take him

we will go knowing what we’re there for - to have fun.

And if fun for him

means going on two rides,

shaking hands with Micky Mouse,

and then going back to the hotel and playing in the swimming pool

with Daddy and Mommy

and Grammy and Papa for the rest of the day,

then that’s what we’ll do.

And what in the world

does all of that have to do

with what we’re studying this morning?

I see some striking parallels

between my first entrance into Disneyland so many years ago

and my entrance into the family of God in the fall of 1966.

Just as I did not understand my real purpose for entering Disneyland,

so, until very recently I did not understand what God has been seeking to accomplish in me as His child.

And just as Disneyland can be so overwhelming when we step through the gate,

so the Christian life can seem overwhelming as well.

There seem to be so many big things to focus on.

There’s so many things to learn.

Just learning to find our way around the Bible is a huge undertaking.

There’s The Old Testament,

and the New Testament.

There’s the Gospels,

and the Epistles,

and there’s all that stuff about prophecy and the end times,

and there’s stuff about marriage,

and about money,

and about raising children,

and about creation,

and about the history of the human race.

And then there’s the whole church thing -

so many different churches,

with all of them saying something a little bit different,

and all of them apparently thinking they’re right and everybody else is wrong.

And then once you finally find a church that sort of seems to fit,

there is the huge task of figuring out where and how you fit into the group.

And then, too, there is that huge issue of dealing with all those changes

that we know need to be made in our lives,

discovering the true nature of that protective moral framework given to us by our Lord,

and then learning how to live out our true freedom in Christ

within that protective moral framework.

And then there is an endless stream of other issues,

and diversions,

and interesting themes lined up in front of us like all those shops on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom.

How about spiritual gifts,

and how about the role of Christianity in politics,

and how about temperaments,

and how about Christian schools v/s home schools v/s public schools,

and how about...and how about...and how about...

And always there are so many voices,

and so many well meaning friends,

and so many preachers, and teachers, and books, and radio programs

all promising to provide us with the answers we need

and the keys that will unlock the fulness of life in Christ.

And so we plunge into this world we once knew nothing about,

this world that began with nothing more than our quiet submission to Jesus Christ

and our simple affirmation of trust in His death for our sins.

And if we do not have a firm grip on what our Lord is seeking to do within us,

and why He’s doing it,

in other words,

if we don’t understand what this whole thing is about,

we can easily invest huge portions of our time and energy

into things that never take us where we really want go.

Now, what I want to do first of all

is to show you what I want us to see

through a key passage of Scripture.

And then, from there, I’ll do my best

to help us understand how this fits into our daily lives.

But first, let me show you what I want us to see through Paul’s words to the Corinthians.

The passage I want us to look at now

is, from a teaching point of view,

one of the most difficult passages I’ve ever brought us to.

It is difficult not because it is obscure,

or intricate,

or complicated,

but because it is exactly the opposite.

In fact, as soon as I begin reading it,

most of you in this room will say to yourself,

“Oh sure, I know that passage.”

And, as soon as you tell yourself that,

you will very likely cease to listen to what’s actually being said.

I’ll show you what I mean...

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Do you see what happens?

As soon as I read those words

those of you who are familiar with this passage

find this voice within yourself saying, “Oh! Sure - that’s that famous love chapter in the Bible.”,

or maybe, “Oh yea, that’s I Corinthians 13!”

And then something else happens in our minds.

We switch into our poetry mentality.

We hear these words

in much the same way as we would hear a love poem,

or possibly a love ballad on the radio.

We don’t relate to it as factual truth

but rather as poetic expression

talking not about real life

but rather about life the way it would be in a perfect world -

fun stuff to listen to,

but with no real practical application.

But if what Paul does for us here is to be of any real value

we are going to have to break from our poetry mentality

and relate to his words as clear, simple, logical truth.

So let’s give it a try.

First of all,

it will help if I explain where this chapter exists

within the flow of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

The Corinthians were a group of very enthusiastic

and yet very confused Christians.

We know from the issues Paul addresses throughout the letter

that these young believers charged into their life with Christ

with tremendous energy and boldness.

And along with this blast of energy

there came also a hunger and a longing on their part

to really make a difference in their world,

to live in a way that changed things,

that changed the people around them.

And to help them with this

Paul takes the preceding chapter, chapter 12,

and uses it to explain to the Corinthians

that God truly has equipped every one of them

with the ability to make their own special and highly valued contribution

to the life, and health, and growth of the church family as a whole.

He talks with them about the special gifts given to each of them by the Spirit of God

and how those gifts should be used within body of Christ.

But then, after leading them through all of that,

in the last half of the last verse of chapter 12 Paul says this:

1CO 12:31 And I show you a still more excellent way.

And that right there

is far and away the most important single statement

in this whole section of the Word of God.

And it is that phrase

that it has taken me most of my Christian life to hear.

And as much as I find myself appalled

and offended by so much of what I see going on in the church at Corinth,

I must admit that, in this respect at least,

I really am just like them.

The Corinthians were totally focused on changing their world through the use of their gifts.

And for so much of my life

I have been driven by the same point of focus.

In my case it has been the gift of teaching.

How can I teach in a way that will change lives?

How can I communicate the truth effectively?

How can I take the facts,

and then draw from them the principles,

and then transfer those principles into the lives of those who hear me?

It is within this context,

with the Corinthians pumping Paul for information

about how they can live a truly effective life for Christ

that Paul gives them the specific information they asked for,

but then goes on to say,

And I show you a still more excellent way.

And then he goes on to take each of the spiritual gifts he has just told them about,

sets each of them next to the power of love,

and shows them how the compare.

1CO 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1CO 13:2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1CO 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Now, the words themselves have tremendous power.

It is extremely good writing.

But the power of their meaning vastly exceeds their literary quality.

Paul is saying that the power of the spoken word,

the power of the most effective sermon ever delivered

by me, or by others, or even by angels to bring about enduring change in the lives of others

is about as effective as subjecting them to a noisy gong or a clanging symbol

when contrasted with what can be accomplished through loving another human being.

And if I understood every mystery in Scripture,

and could correctly interpret every verse in the Bible,

and if I had so much faith in God that I could step outside this gym

and command mount Redoubt to plunge into the sea and it would obey,

and yet did not love those God had entrusted into my care,

it would all be worthless.

And if I took everything I possessed

and sold it all,

and then gave every cent to the poor,

and then I offered my body for martyrdom in the name of Christ,

and yet did not love those around me,

my actions would be both worthless and meaningless.

Do you know what I hear Paul saying?

I hear him saying,

“Larry, if you really want to bring about changes for good

in the lives of those God has entrusted into your care,

don’t just preach at them,

don’t just flood them with knowledge,

don’t just give them a whole bunch of stuff,

learn how to love them,

and then find out how to communicate that love in ways they can receive it.”

Now, there is a problem we face with this whole thing,

a problem that the Spirit of God seeks to correct within us

before we can do what He’s asking us to do in these verses.

When we first come to our Lord

most of us are so filled with pain,

so needy,

so desperate for some kind of affirmation and validation,

we are so focused on ourselves and what’s going on inside us

that we are virtually incapable of loving anyone who doesn’t give us what we want

or provide the kind of feedback we think we need.

The damage inflicted upon us by our sins and the sins of others

has reduced our capacity for love to an endless stream of emotional bartering

in which we give others what they want

in exchange for what we want from them.

But when we come to our God

He seeks to accomplish the most remarkable healing program within us,

a program designed to equip us more and more to truly love those around us.

It begins by His seeking to communicate to each of us

the true nature of His love for us,

a love that has no ties whatsoever to anything we have ever done or not done,

a love that is based solely upon His absolute delight in us,

His delight in who we are at the deepest level of our being.

Do you know how I picture this?

Picture yourself as one tiny nobody

pushing and shoving your way through an endless sea of humanity.

Inside you is this huge, aching, empty void,

an emptiness created within you

by your fear that no one in that mass of human beings really knows you,

or cares about you,

or loves you for who you are.

And as you push your way, one step at a time, through the crowd,

with each person you pass,

in a thousand different ways,

you cry out to them, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?”

And then, all of the sudden,

God Himself reaches down into that crowd

and He gently places His almighty hands around you.

He lifts you up to Himself,

seating you on His lap,

and then He wraps His arms around you and He says,

“I love you.

I have loved you from the instant I formed you in My mind before the foundation of the world.

I will always love you, no matter what.

Now, my child, rest secure in Me,

and in My ability to keep you with Me, in My love forever.”

Hearing those words from our God

and trusting them

takes years for most of us.

But as we do,

the more we do,

something remarkable begins to take place in our relationships with those around us.

As we find a growing security in being loved by God,

we gain a growing freedom to love others

no matter how they may choose to respond to us.

We don’t have to use others to meet our needs as we once did.

And as we grow in our ability to love those around us,

we become tiny mirrors of God’s love for them,

and just as God’s love brings healing into our lives,

so our love for them brings a measure of healing into theirs.

Now, Paul goes on in this amazing passage

to make certain we don’t confuse the love he’s talking about

with that pitiful human emotional bartering substitute

that we so often identify as love in our society.

He says,

1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

1CO 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

1CO 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

1CO 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1CO 13:8 Love never fails;...

What he’s describing is the way in which God interacts with us.

But He is also describing the way we will be able to interact with others,

the way we will be able to love them,

as we rest more and more in the truth of His love for us.

So what is my big discovery in all of this?

What is that central purpose for which our God has brought us to Himself

and then left us as His body here on the earth?

What is it that has the power to make sense of our lives,

and the power to bring healing,

and transformation,

and a hunger for our God into the lives of others?

What is it that has infinitely more power to alter our lives

and the lives of those we touch

than all of the seminars,

and the rallies,

and the spiritual experiences in the world?

JOH 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

...as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Husbands and wives, do you want to create for your mate

a safe place in which he or she can heal, and grow as God intended?

Fathers, mothers - do you want to reach deep inside your children for good?

Do you have others that you know God has entrusted into your care?

Ask your Lord to show you

what it means for you to love them.

The real thing is not a feeling,

although it will impact our feelings dramatically.

The real thing is a choice,

learning how to recognize the needs in those we seek to love,

and then reaching out to those needs

with whatever resources for good our God has placed into our hands.

And I wouldn’t be honest with you

if I didn’t tell you, too,

that the real thing is incredibly risky

because, although love truly does have the power to alter our lives

and the lives of those we reach out to,

to alter their lives as nothing else can do,

yet, to love is also to open ourselves up to the possibility of pain.

I know why so much of the religious world has opted for marketing systems,

and promoting ministries,

and pushing doctrines,

and evaluating successes on the basis of how many, and how much.

I understand that instinctive self-preservation response within us

that seeks to keep our lives emotionally isolated from those entrusted into our care.

We do it because, even though love has the potential of bringing about healing in the lives of those we love,

there is no guarantee it will,

and once we allow love in,

we will also allow in the pain of those we love.

But this is also the pattern established for us by our God,

a pattern in which He chose to take on Himself our pain

with the hope that, in so doing, He could then lead us into His joy.

...but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Cor 13:8-13