Take your Bibles, if you would, turn to the book of Galatians, chapter number five. Also, if you would hold your place, we're also going to read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. Galatians, chapter five. We began a couple weeks ago, right at the beginning of June, a study on the fruit of the Spirit. The first Sunday, we gave an introduction. We kind of walked through Galatians, chapter five, verses 16 through 24. And then last week we went ahead and introduced the first fruit of the spirit and that is of love. And love is such a grand subject in the Bible that I couldn't go without having another week on it. And especially without being able to say anything about 1 Corinthians 13. And so we're gonna go ahead and look at both of these passages. I will just go ahead and read beginning of verse 22, but let me comment again, verse number 16. Every week I said I'd try to read through this, but for the sake of time, I will not tonight. Notice here, this calling of us to walk in the spirit, be led of the spirit. And the reason being is because there is a conflict in our life, there's a constant friction that's going on with the flesh wanting to fulfill its desires, and those works of the flesh are listed in verses 19 through 21. Now either you're gonna be a Christian that's going to fulfill and do the works of the flesh, or you're gonna be a Christian that actually produces the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not anything that you and I produce of our own smarts, our own doings. It's literally when we're rightly connected with the Spirit of God and allowing Him to work in our lives. When the Holy Spirit of God controls us, when we yield to him is when this fruit begins to be produced. You and I cannot produce, and we're gonna talk and define again this love tonight. I cannot of my own willpower produce the love that is expected of me. I can't love people as God wants me to love them. I can't love people like God demonstrated His love, but I can do it. when I'm rightly connected with the Spirit of God. Walking in the Spirit, being led to the Spirit. Now look at verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, and then notice these nine fruit that are all brought together, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Now back to 1 Corinthians 13, which is where we'll try to go ahead and park for tonight. and take our time together. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, beginning in verse number one. Paul writes here, he says, though I speak with the tongues of man and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. Notice that last phrase there that I'm gonna read. Charity never faileth. Tonight, let's go ahead and talk about this subject of love. Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for this evening. Cause us to just put aside any of the things of this coming week. Help us to put them aside. May we take these next moments together and be thoughtful of what you have for us. You desire us to be Christians who demonstrate love. I pray that we would follow through and be connected with the spirit of God in just a way that he can produce that love in us. In Jesus name, amen. The story is told of a seminary student who wanted to have a scriptural basis for everything that he did. He always felt that he was on solid ground if he could quote a Bible book, a chapter and a verse to okay all of his actions. Well, he did all right until he began to fall in love with a college student, a very beautiful girl. He very much wanted to go ahead and kiss her, but he couldn't find a scripture to okay and justify his actions. So true to his conscience, he walked her to her dormitory each night, looked at her longingly and then said, good night. Well, it went on for several weeks and he was so frustrated by all this, he searched the Bible, couldn't seem to find any scripture, but all of a sudden he came to the book of Romans where it says, greet one another with an holy kiss. He thought, I found my scripture. But he says, you know, even though I may have some scriptural backing, he says, I'm going to go to my hermeneutics professor and I'm just going to talk to him and check it out. After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than a dating situation. And so boy, he just walked away just feeling dejected. So once again, he didn't have a scriptural passage, and he walked his girlfriend one evening to her dormitory, and once again, started to bid her good night, but as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, and planted a 10-second kiss right on his lips. At the end of the kiss, I hear some of the older people saying, wow, I'd like to get one of those again. Okay, but anyways, that's another message, all right? But at the end of the kiss, the seminary student gasped for air and stammered, Bible verse, Bible verse, Bible verse. The girl grabbed him a second time and just before kissing him again, he said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Well, all of us desire really to have some backing for everything that we do. And when it comes to this matter of love, I believe that from cover to cover, we have every bit of what we need when it comes to understanding and knowing about the subject of love. But our problem is twofold. How to perform that which we're supposed to do. And secondly, the people that we're supposed to love. I love the one peanuts cartoon that showed Linus announcing to Lucy that he's going to be a doctor. In the next little clip, Lucy looks at him and says, you a doctor? That's a big laugh. You could never be a doctor. You know why? Because you don't love mankind. To which Linus responded, I love mankind, but it's people I can't stand. Well, I tell you what, it is true when it comes to the subject of love. First of all, how do we do that which the Bible says we're supposed to do? But then we begin looking at family, church members, relatives, and we say, boy, They're hard to love. He's hard to love. She's hard to love. Well, let's look tonight at this chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 and at least get a better grasp of this type of love that the Holy Spirit desires to produce in us. Three things I wanna divulge from this chapter. Number one, I want you to look verses one through three and understand first of all, that there really are no substitutes for the type of love that's required. It doesn't matter what natural talents you have. It doesn't matter what abilities or gifts God has given to you. There are no good substitutes for flat out loving people as God's asked us to love them. 1 Corinthians 13 often is read just within the context of 1 Corinthians 13, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's much that we can pull out of this, but do you realize that the context of chapter 13 is within the realm of the whole book of 1 Corinthians? And when you look at the chapter before, chapter number 12, and you look at the chapter afterwards, chapter number 14, you put together a very comprehensive package of the Christian and his duty and his responsibility with other people around him. You say, pastor, what are those other chapters deal with? Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, if you read about it, in fact, Lord willing, if God so moves and I can do this, I plan in the fall to teach a series on Sunday night concerning spiritual gifts. We're gonna take Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're gonna talk about spiritual gifts, but that's what 1 Corinthians gives us is the concept of the gifts that God has given to every individual. But then 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is the proper use of those gifts. You remember the Corinthians Paul had to deal with them? They're abusing this whole gift of tongues. And Paul says, let me set an order what this gift is all about, how it's to be used and it's proper context. So 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is all the gifts that have been given to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is all about how to use those gifts. But smack dab in the middle is the fact that those gifts that have been given to me and those gifts that have certain context of how I'm to use them are no good unless I have love for other people. Notice here in verses one through three, the importance of the love that we're to have. If you look at verse number one, I believe that your words that you speak to people are meaningless. unless they are attached with love. Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. It doesn't matter how angelic you may sound. It doesn't matter how you've crafted your words. If you come to someone and you do not have love, you might as well stay silent. How many times in churches people have spoken to others and have said things, well, the Lord told me to tell this person, or the Lord told me to do this, and they've just gone ahead and flapped their lips and said things, but there's been no love attached to it. You know what Paul's saying? He's saying if it doesn't have charity, it's just a sounding brass, it's just simply a tinkling cymbal. So words are meaningless without the genuine fruit of love. But then 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse number two, our gifts that we have are useless without love. Look at verse two. He says, oh, I have the gift of prophecy. Now, man, who wouldn't want the gift of prophecy? understanding mystery and knowledge and faith. Now, he pulls out four big areas here of gifts. Wow, prophecy, a man who can go ahead and prophesy things, a man that's got knowledge. How about a man who has faith in God? You know what? All of those gifts are useless without love. But then verse number three, very important, he says, our sacrifices yield no return without love. Look at this, though I bestow all my goods, if you went ahead and cleared your cupboard at home, and your refrigerator, and you brought it in, you said, I'm bringing it down to the local rescue mission, or I'm giving it out to the poor, and I'm gonna give everything out that I have, if you gave your body to be burned, but you have not charity, read the next words with me in verse three, it profiteth me nothing. Think with me about that. I mean, how much of a premium do we put on our words that we speak? How much of a premium do we put on the gifts that we've been given? How much of a premium do we put on the yield that we give? Now, many of you maybe dabble quite a bit in a stock market or get into certain things where you're looking for a return. If you don't get a return, you're gonna go ahead and look elsewhere, aren't you? You wanna make sure you get a return on your money. Can I tell you, you can make all the sacrifices you want, but you won't get a return if those sacrifices are not attached with love. Love must be there. And what I believe, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is opening up to us is he's, before he begins to describe love, he just says, I wanna tell you how important it is. It must be part and parcel with every part of who you are and what you do. There are no substitutes. Secondly, I want you to notice this, that we must understand the type of love required. I went over some of this last week when we introduced the subject of love. But I want you to take note here because something very interesting takes place in our King James Bible that we use. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the King James translators, in order to help us understand the type of love that is required. Remember last week we talked about there were four different Greek words for love. There was the word storge, there was the word eros, there was the word philos, and then the word agape. The word agape is that highest form of love, a love of sacrifice, a love of commitment. It's a type of love, that ought to be a part of every marriage. It's the type of love that God wants us to have in this church. And that love, when the King James translators came to 1 Corinthians 13, recognizing the value of this chapter, they didn't want people to misunderstand the love that's spoken about, and so they took that Greek word agape, and they wrote in the English word charity. Now most everywhere else, you're reading the word love, and again, when we talk about love, we have one English word for love. I love hamburgers, I love Jesus. I mean, those are in the same sentence sometimes. We're talking about the same thing. But to the Greeks, there was a huge difference. And this high form of love, they wanted us to understand that as Paul began to spell this out, this charity, that it was important that we took and understood this agape love. It is not simply an emotional love. It's not a sentimental love. This type of love is not just a tolerance. Oh yeah, I just kind of put up with those people over there at the church. Now that's not the type of love we're talking about. It's not even just a brotherly love. This type of agape love, when it's used throughout the Bible, is more of a verb than it is a noun. What do I mean by that? It's an action. It's going out and doing something. It's actually giving of myself. It's a love that is demonstrated by way of sacrifice. What did the Bible say about Jesus in John 13 one? As we read in John 13, where Jesus went to go ahead and serve his disciples by washing their feet. Now let me ask you a question. How many of you would like to wash other people's feet? Oh, no hands? Well, think about how Jesus showed to his disciples. What did he say at the end of John chapter 13? He said, now, what I've done to you, I want you to do to others. Not necessarily go out and wash feet, but what was the whole principle he's trying to get through in John 13? Serve other people. You know where most Christians are today? They wanna be served. They want people to go ahead and look out for them. They wanna put themselves in the best spot. They want other people to notice them. But Jesus said, if you wanna go up, you must go down low. And the way to demonstrate that is to get before other people and say, what can I do for you? Today I just texted somebody who's sick today, and you know what? I have a busy day today. Sundays is my busiest day. Today I have a counseling after church is over, but I asked this person who was sick, can I do anything? Could I stop at the store and pick up anything? You know why? I wanted that person to know I love them. I'm for them. I want them to understand that love is a sacrifice. And Jesus, when he demonstrated the washing of the feet, the serving, the Bible says in John 13 one, and I think there's no accident when any words are put in scripture, the Bible says Jesus loved them to the end. He loved them to this very point that he was going to serve them. And this love has got to get in our minds. This is not just a, I put up with people at church and oh yeah, I kind of like them here. No, it's a love them. You say, well, I don't really like that person. How about going out and serving them? How about going ahead and bringing them a meal? How about going ahead and doing some shopping for them? How about going out and serving them in some capacity, helping them in some way, showing them that you love them? That's the type of love that's needed in the church. And so understand the type of love. It's a sacrifice, it's a choice, it's a commitment. Now, can I just time out for just a minute? Remember, and I'm gonna remind you, every one of these services, I can't produce this. Can I be honest with you in my flesh? There are some people I just don't like. Now, I don't mind sharing that with you because I know the same thing about you. Don't look at me with these faces like, well, I'm so spiritual, I love everybody. No, you don't. There's people you don't like. If you liked them, you'd be chumming around with them every day, going out to eat with them. But there's just people that just either rub you the wrong way, don't have the same personalities, they're quirky in their personality and that just kind of bothers you. And there's no problem with that. We're not talking about liking them and having to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week with them, but we are talking about loving them. I may not like every person, but I am commanded to love every person. There is not a person in this room here tonight That if it was required of me to do something to show that I loved you, I would do it by God's grace. You know why? Because I'm yielded to God and I want to do that. Now don't after the sermon put me to the test, okay? But honestly, I want to love people. and that's where it ought to be for you. But now I wanna get to the crux of the message, and I want you to just notice here, understanding the dimensions here of this type of love. You know what's amazing about this love? As Paul opens this up, it's almost like a diamond. Have you ever looked at a diamond under the light, the sun? My daughter-in-law has a beautiful diamond that my son has just worked ferociously for. I look at that diamond and boy that thing when it shines and glitters as the light hits off of it and reflects off of that. Why is a diamond so beautiful? Because when it reflects the light there's just so many different things you see about it. That's the way love is described in 1 Corinthians 13. We can't just define love as just one single act. We can't define love as just one single motive, but notice here all of these different characteristics of love. First of all, verse number four, love is patient. That is, it suffereth long. The Greek word that is used here means a patience with people, not just circumstances. Now if you go to the book of James, when it talks about you and I being patient, it talks about the circumstances that we're under, being patient under those circumstances. This patience here, love is patient, love suffereth long, this has to do with other people. Have you ever had somebody test your patience? It happens. It might be in the workplace somebody test your patience. It might be here in church somebody test your patience. But this word suffered long is used of a man who is wronged and has the power to avenge himself but does not do it. He is patient, he suffers long. Such patience is not the sign of weakness, but it is a sign of strength under the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. The story is told that President Abraham Lincoln, and there was nobody that treated our 16th president with more contempt than the man Edwin Stanton. Edwin Stanton called our president a low cunning clown and nicknamed him the original gorilla. But Lincoln said nothing. Instead when he got elected president he made Stanton his war minister and because he was the best man for the job and Lincoln treated him with every courtesy. On the night when Lincoln was assassinated, Stanton stood by his bedside and said through his tears, there lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen. The patience of love had actually conquered in the end. This patient love with other people does not take offense. It endures the slights and neglects and has patience towards the eventual good. You see, the opposite of this type of love would be a loving of ourselves and giving people what they deserve. How many of you just wanted to kind of give people what they deserve? You know what I mean by this right now? I'm just gonna show that person. I'm gonna go ahead and take care of that person. Well, I'm just telling you, that's not the love that Paul talks about. It's not suffering long. I read a humorous story a while back, I'm gonna share with you, very interesting, several years ago at a passion play. There was an incident that took place where Jesus, the man playing the part of Jesus, was carrying the cross. There was a man in the audience who was heckling the character playing Jesus, throwing out jeers and taunts and dares to this man. Finally, the character who played Jesus could not tolerate this any longer. He dropped the cross, went over to this man in the audience and just decked him. The director was aghast at this and he got with him. He said, look, he says, I'm gonna either have to fire you or you're gonna have to get serious about this. You cannot let this happen. So the second night, here it is, this man, again, playing Jesus, is carrying the cross. That same man in the audience is sitting down there, and again, he's taunting the man, throwing out all these insults, and the man, playing Jesus, drops the cross, and the director kind of yells across, he says, don't do it! Stop! So the man picks up the cross and goes off again. Next night, Same scenario going on. Man's carrying across the stage and he's carrying that cross and that heckler's down there and again, he's throwing out all these jeers and taunts. And finally, the man playing Jesus, he says, I'll get you after the resurrection. I'll get you. Well, I don't think that's the type of love Jesus was talking about, okay? Love suffereth long. Look at verse number four. Love is kind. Kind. I wish I could say I was always kind. Don't you? The reason we're not always kind is because people don't always treat us like we wanna be treated. I mean, if you know yourself as well as I know myself, I mean, wouldn't anybody wanna treat me or you with kindness? But yet people might say something that might hurt your feelings. People might do things that'll be disruptive in your schedule. May I say that when it talks about love is kind, it doesn't mean that love is blind. It doesn't mean that it doesn't see the imperfections of other people, but instead, though it is injured, it actually seeks the good of other people. It's kind. It's active. Isn't it amazing about Jesus with all of the pressure against him, how many kind deeds Jesus did through his ministry? Example of Christ is so good. Romans chapter 12 verse number 10, Paul tells us, be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another. And I believe that the opposite of this type of love was is when we would become nasty to people in our words and deeds. I hate to admit that there's been times when I have been treated unfairly, that I have said things to people and been unkind. I have retaliated in my actions, but that's not the type of love. The type of love is the love that Jesus showed when he was on the cross, though he was taunted, though he was sneered at, though he had all sorts of things pushing against him. Did not Jesus show kindness from the cross? How amazing. That's what you and I need. Love suffered long, love is kind, but then notice also in verse number four, love envieth not. It's not jealous. That is, it does not make comparisons. Now we hardly get out of the gate in the opening of our scriptures in Genesis, but we don't find jealousies. I mean, here's Cain and Abel, two brothers, the first two brothers of the Bible. Both of them bring different gifts unto the Lord and God is pleased with one and God's not so pleased with the other and all of a sudden there's a jealousy on Cain's part. We go down further and we touched on a little bit this morning down to the latter part of the book of Genesis and we find the brothers who are jealous of Joseph. Think about where jealousy moves people. Jealousy moved Cain to murder his brother. Jealousy moved the brothers of Joseph to go ahead and do some hurt to him. But you and I, when we're to show love to other people, the Bible says that this love envieth not. It's not jealous over other people, but instead it enjoys and is happy with the success of other people. Have you ever been somewhere and somebody got something and you thought you should have gotten it? You know, the Bible tells us rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Somebody comes to you and says, boy, I got this, and you think you should have gotten it. Well, if you truly love that person, you'll rejoice with them. That's the type of love that Jesus expects us to have, to rejoice with them, to not envy and be jealous of them. Love does not brag, in verse number four, that is, the Bible says, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. This love is not proud. Oh, there is no room for people to have any love when they're full of themselves. Can I say that when you're full of yourself, there is no way you can think for other people, no way. If you're concerned about your desires, and you're concerned about satisfying your flesh, and you're concerned about being noticed, and you're concerned all about you, you're full of yourself, then you cannot feel the pain of other people. You cannot feel the hurts of other people. You cannot feel the things that people are going through in their life. That is why there is hardly a day that as I pray in the morning, I ask God, God, humble me, bring me to the place to where I need to be because I wanna be open and available to every person. I wanna feel the hurts of the people in this church. I wanna feel the pain and the struggles that people go through so I can help where it's needed. as our deacons, as they have taken our membership list and we are gonna be getting some of our newest members over the last couple of months or so and getting them distributed to our deacons. Together, we wanna feel the pain and the struggles that people are going through and help. That's what pure love is all about. But if I'm full of myself, and all I'm concerned about is accolades for me and enjoyment for my life, then I have no concern for anybody else. That type of love is not what God expects of us and wants of us. Can I say this type of love does not brag its own accomplishments? That's what he's talking about here. Oh, how important it is to understand this type of love is not proud. It doesn't brag its own accomplishments. I like this. Someone put it this way. Whenever you're wrong, admit it. Whenever you're right, shut up. Pretty good. In essence, this type of love seeks to build others up, not oneself. Well, verse number five, then, love does not act inappropriately. That is, the Bible says, does not behave itself unseemly. This type of love is not rude, does never ask anybody to do anything contrary to the principles of conscience or the word of God. I believe this type of love shows politeness, courteousness, respect. It conforms to what is right, fitting, and appropriate to the situation that honors the Lord. I think a couple of examples of this would be a young couple who is dating will not put themselves in improper places if they truly love the other person. You won't place yourself into a spot where you're going to go ahead and ask that person to do something that would be wrong against God if you truly love God and you love that other person. If you love other people, you're gonna treat them with respect. politeness, courteousness. I love my wife. And I try the best I can to treat my wife with politeness and respect and courteousness. And I try to be careful about being and be sensitive to her needs. Example of this would be, I would never, well, never is a big word, so I don't wanna use it, but I probably wouldn't ask my wife, and haven't as of yet, to come up here on the spur of the moment and say something to you. The reason I wouldn't ask that is because you wouldn't see me for the next few weeks, okay? I'd probably be murdered somewhere, okay? There'd be a dead preacher. But I know my wife, my wife, she'd rather hide behind the piano and play the piano and just enjoy being in the background, but to get up in front of people to go ahead and speak, she's afraid. And so I understand that. I wanna be polite and courteous to her. And I'm not gonna act unseemly, my love. I'm gonna go ahead and try to help through that. So it acts, in such a way, but then verse number five, also seeketh not her own. Verse number five, notice this, seeketh not her own. This is a servant type love. This type of love is an enemy of selfishness. Philippians two, three and four, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. And oh, how important it is that you and I, with this type of love, that we're not selfish, we're not demanding our rights, our expectations. Verse number five, love is not provoked. It's not provoked, not easily provoked. This type of love does not get soon angered. In other words, it's not quick to display its passions over problems. And I would think we would do well once again to die to our rights and expectations. Verse number five, love thinketh no evil. That is, it does not take into consideration a wrong done. Think about this word here, thinketh. It is sad that when many people get hurt within Christian circles, here's what they do. They'll take and write the name of that person down in their little black book and they'll say, I'll get even. They did me wrong, I'll do them wrong. I'll get back at them. It might be a while, but I'll get back at them. Can I say the Bible says, love thinketh no evil. That word thinketh is an accountant's term. I think Carolyn would love this well enough. The idea is, keeping a ledger so nothing will be forgotten. A person who loves does not go ahead and keep a ledger. He doesn't write the names down. He doesn't write the actions that are done against him. He puts it aside and forgets it and says, you know what, I may have been hurt, I may have been wrong, but I love those people. And I think, no, evil. What's been done has been done. God knows, he understands, he'll take care of me. This type of love gives the benefit of the doubt and forgives. The story's told of Robert E. Lee one day visiting a lady in Kentucky after the Civil War. This dear lady had showed him what had once been a beautiful tree in her yard, but now that tree had nothing but limbs and a trunk after it had been destroyed by federal artillery fire. She asked the general who came to her house, she says, what are you going to do to condemn those Yankees? And General Lee just looked at her quietly and he says, ma'am, go and cut down that tree and forget it, forget it. There's not a person in this room who hasn't been wronged. There's not a person in this room who has not had someone say something against them or do something against them. Can I just say, being in independent Baptist circles who fight against sin, who work hard against the devil, boy, we have a hard time when it comes to our brothers not really loving each other. And there's gonna be wrongs and there's gonna be frictions against one another. But sad it is that in many Christian circles, we have had Christians who have walked away from God because they've been hurt by someone and they hold on to it. And like an accountant with a ledger, they've got it written down and they say, I remember that person in that church. I remember that church over there, that pastor, what he did to me. And they hold on to it. And you know what? You become a person who's not led of the spirit. You don't have the love that you ought to have because when you are acting in the flesh and hate these people, that hatred begins to come across everybody else. Why? Because the spirit's grieved. And my friend, I want to tell you something, release it. Forgive, let it go, have this type of love that thinks no evil. But then I love verse number seven where it begins to go through and I need to go through some of this, beareth all things. A type of love that covers the weakness of others. Can I just say that we have people around us who won't do things up to your standards? It's true. We all are right in our own eyes, aren't we? We have a certain standard of how we're gonna live. We have a certain standard of how we're gonna do things, and people fall, maybe, in the Christian life. People have weaknesses. People do things that kinda rub us wrong. Maybe they're late. Maybe they're doing this and that, and we think to ourselves, well, I just can't believe that person, and they begin to just point out all their weaknesses. You know what I love about love? It bears all things. It covers all the weaknesses. That's what love does. I remember years ago when I was down at our other ministry and I was a principal over at Christian School, and thank God I'm not a principal anymore, praise God. But I remember we had this little four year old, and I don't remember his name, but I can just see his face right now. An ornery little four year old kid. I'll be honest with you, I'd see that kid and I'd just wanna go over and just strangle him. Just ornery. I was sitting down and talking to the teacher, and I said, what in the world with this boy? And she looked at me and she said, oh, I just love that boy. I said, are we talking about the same kid? Yeah. See the difference love made? I had no investment in that little boy. I had no connection with that little boy, and all I wanted to do was strangle the kid. She loved him. and she was able to overlook all the flaws. That's the type of love we need. Can I just remind you, people in here around you are flawed. Can I remind you that people around you are gonna fail you? People in this church are going to do wrong, they're gonna fall down. But love bears all things. Love also does this, love believeth all things. This type of love believes the best about others and puts the best interpretation on events. That is, it doesn't judge motives. You know, sadly, we, in our church settings, have our little court systems And we don't even act like the court system of our land which says people are innocent till proven guilty. You know how we act in the court system of our church and our life? People are guilty until they're proven innocent. Love believes all things. You say, well, I just heard something about someone. You heard something. Love believes all things. It puts the best interpretation. It says, look, I know that person, and until the facts come to me, I'm not going to believe it. I'm going to hold them up on higher regard and believe them. And I'll tell you what, you someday will need that from people. Because you'll fail someday. And with the same criticism that you've given to other people, it'll come back on you. And I'd rather just go ahead and bear all things and believe all things. Now, look, I'm not naive. I'm not pretending to be a cynic. I'm not gullible about things, but I'm just real about stuff. And when things have to be dealt with, then they have to be dealt with. But in the meantime, we cover things and we help people and we believe in them. But then lastly, love hopeth all things and endureth all things. It doesn't give up when the situation seems impossible. It understands that failures are not final. It hopes all things. I wanna tell you as a pastor, this is one of those phrases that I need regularly. Because there are marriages that I deal with, there are people that I deal with that I think to myself in my flesh, man, it's over for them. It's over. but all the time, and it's not just an optimism. I consider myself an optimist, but it's not just that. I believe in people and I hope for the best for people. I hope you hear from me all the time that I am hoping for the best for people. If you ever hear from me a negative thing where I say, well, boy, there's no hope for that person, I want you to do me a favor and slap me. Help me because I wanna be the type of person that hopes all things and endures all things. This type of love stays put even when you want to quit. Now when we look at this chapter, what an amazing chapter about love. May I say that if you have this type of love, that you cannot produce in yourself, but when you're rightly connected with the spirit and you're cooperating by yielding to him, he begins to produce this love in you. Can I say it's going to be different and it's going to be noticeable? The world is looking for something different. One of the things that they'll see You say, well, I know, they'll notice our standards. There's nothing wrong with standards, but that's not what's gonna make the difference. They'll say, well, they'll notice that our men look like men and our ladies look like ladies. Look, that's one thing. But the love, Jesus said, by this all men will know that you're my disciples. That you have love one to another. Do you stand out? I close with this. When I was a student, at Bob Jones University, I learned something that I had never realized growing up in New England. And that is there is such a thing as red dirt. Red dirt. That you cannot get out of your clothes however much you wash them. I found this out because I played soccer. And after that first practice, the socks that I had on, the shorts that I had on, and the shirt that I practiced in all had this red clay on it. And I wasn't a good washer in the first place, but I did the best that I could in washing it. And when I took it out, I thought, I just washed that. There's still dirt on it. And eventually through the course of a week of practice, all of the clothes that I would use for practice would all be stained and so would all of the other soccer players that were all over the university. And it became well known who were the soccer players and who were not. You could change into your practice clothes in the dorm and run over to the soccer fields and somebody would pass you and they'd go, oh yeah, there's a soccer player. Oh, there's a soccer player. I got home, and I brought my clothes to mom, and my mom says, what did you do with your clothes? All of them were red, and the socks, and the shorts, and the shirts. I said, mom, I'm a soccer player. I got this stuff called red dirt clay. We've never seen it before, but here it all is. My friend, I wanna just remind you that if you display this type of love as you yield to the Holy Spirit, You can stand out and make a difference in this world. You can make a difference in your workplace. You say, you don't know the type of people I work for. I don't have to. I just know the God you serve who can help produce this love in you. You say, can this type of love be produced in our church? Absolutely. You say, can this type of love be produced in my family? You don't realize my marriage is about ready to dissolve. My marriage is in trouble. My struggles are with my children and my adult children, and I just, I don't love them like I ought to love. God can help you. He can help you. Oh, may the Lord truly help us as we yield to him. Let's pray together.