The Greater Gift

Series: Greatest

January 29, 2017
Frank Foreman

The last in a series of messages

Episode Notes

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." --1 Corinthians 13.13 (ESV)

IF YOU WANT TO BE GREAT ... LEARN TO LOVE GREAT

Love is our source of INSPIRATION

"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."  --1 Corinthians 13.1-3

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."  --Philippians 2.2-4

  • Charitable love is more concerned with GIVING than receiving.

Love is our source of MOTIVATION

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  --1 Corinthians 13.4-7

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.  By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him" --1 John 3.18-19

  • Charitable love is compelled to take ACTION.

Love is our source of DETERMINATION

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."  --1 Corinthians 13.8-13

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us." --1 John 4.12

  • Charitable love is how others see God THROUGH us.

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."  --1 Corinthians 13.13

This week's prayer:

  1. Commit 1st Corinthians 13.13 to memory.
  2. Love God and love people.
  3. Seek an opportunity to invite someone to church.

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