The Most Excellent Way To Be The Church | Messy Church, Part 20

The Most Excellent Way To Be The Church | Messy Church, Part 20

1 Corinthians 13: 

The church

What happens in the church

How the church should interact with each other

1 Corinthians 12:31

“But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

LOVE

The primary thing people need from us is NOT spiritual gifts, but love.

They valued the things that God gave but struggled to use them in the spirit that God intended.

John 13:35

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1. When love is absent…

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Our actions and gifts need to be motivated by love

Volunteer for a church event…

Give to kingdom causes…

Lead worship on Sunday mornings…

Teach the Bible…

Provide counsel to someone…

2. When love is present…

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

[your name] is patient

[your name] is kind

[your name] is not irritable

[your name] is not resentful

[your name] does not rejoice at wrongdoing

Christ is patient

Christ is kind

Christ is not irritable

Christ is not resentful

Christ does not rejoice at wrongdoing

“bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things”

3. When love is permanent…

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 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. 12 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. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Spiritual gifts are temporary

Love is eternal

Implications: 

We need to prioritize love

We need to keep the unity of the church

We will be a powerful witness

Application: 

1. Pursue Humility

2. Prioritize Community

Earnestly desire the higher gifts

Embracing the most excellent way

Using our spiritual gifts in a loving way.