Corinthians chapter 13. Last week we began looking at this chapter, doing a little short series on this. We've titled this series, The Agape Kind of Love, and this is our second message. This isn't per se a Mother's Day message, if you would, but hey, you know what? Mothers have that agape kind of love. And so we will make some applications throughout the message and then at the end as well. But anyhow, we hope this is a blessing to you. This is the first time, sad to say, I've been in the ministry 20 some years, this is the first time I have actually done a series through 1 Corinthians 13. I mean, I've preached from it from time to time, you know, you refer to it, you know, a lot. And then it occurred to me about a month ago, I had never really dug into it and looked at each aspect of that agape kind of love and talked about it for any length of time. And so I've really enjoyed thinking about that and hope it's been a blessing to you last week and hopefully this week. And we'll have a few weeks of this before we get done. And then Lord willing, we're going to do a series through the book of Judges. I'm kind of looking forward to that too. That's going to be a lot of fun as well. And so we look forward to that series. This morning, let's read 1 Corinthians 13 and let's start with the reading of verses 1 through 4. Paul said, though I speak with tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And 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 all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long, and is kind. Charity envies not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed. Let's pray. Father, help us again, we ask it in the name of our Lord, as we look at this passage and the points before us. I pray, Lord, that it would be a blessing to your people. Lord, help me to relay your word to your people, that it might be applicable to their lives. And Lord, I pray that you give us a better understanding of what this agape kind of love is. We pray in Jesus' name, and amen. I want to do a little review of last week in case you were not here to give you a little bit of an introduction to this series. Last week, in our last message, we stated that the word for charity in the King James Version is agape. It is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is a love so great that it can be given to the unlovable and unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to. It does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves. It does not love in order to receive, and we mentioned all of those things. Agape love has very little to do with how we feel toward an individual, but everything to do with how we treat them. We've seen last week the preeminence and supremacy of love in the first three verses. We've seen that without this love that we're talking about, that Paul teaches that tongues, prophecy, understanding of mysteries, knowledge, faith, works of giving to the poor, even giving your body to be burned still makes you nothing if you do not have love. And we talked about each of those things. Now we then began last week to just start looking at the nature of this love by seeing that love is long-suffering, and this agape love is patient. This agape kind of love can endure personal wrongs without retaliating. We can all use a little bit more of that, can't we? It can bear with others' imperfections, faults, and differences. Well, that would change our home, wouldn't it? Change our church, change our culture. It can give people time to change, room to make mistakes without coming down hard on them. I had a quote by Jerry Bridges last week. I do not think I was able to share it with you last week for the sake of time. But he said this, he said, Patience does not ignore the provocations of others. It simply seeks to respond to them in a godly manner. It enables us to control our tempers when we are provoked and to seek to deal with the person and his provocation in a way that tends to heal relationships rather than aggravate problems. It seeks the ultimate good of the other individual rather than the immediate satisfaction of our own aroused emotions. Now we also consider that this agape kind of love is kind in nature. A love that is patient is a love that is also kind while being patient. A kind person is considerate of others. A kind person is quick to help when he or she senses a need. And this kindness was not only exercised toward those who are also kind, good, or even appreciative of us, And we consider what Jesus said in Luke 6, verse 35, where He said, But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be called the sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Kindness has a power to change people. And that's what love does, isn't it? Love changes people. Whenever you love people, it has power to change them. When you love them with patience, when you love them with kindness, it doesn't mean you ignore problems, it doesn't mean you ignore evil, but you can still love people. It's not kindness. that we exercise in order to get what we want out of someone. We mentioned that last week. Sometimes people act like they're kind so they can get what they want. See, that's selfishness. That's not what this love is about. So it's not a kindness that we exercise to put on just to get our own personal needs or what we want out of someone to manipulate, but it is for the betterment of the individual that we show that kindness. Now we'll continue to look at these character traits of love here, this agape kind of love. And like I said earlier, with this being Mother's Day, we'll make some application throughout this message, and at the end we'll make some other notes as well. So right now, let's go on to this next attribute of this agape kind of love. Currently we are at verse 4. Now we enter into a phase where he's describing what this agape kind of love is not. Now he only gave us two definitions so far of what this agape love is. It is patient, it is kind. Now we have a long list of everything it isn't. And we learn a lot by that, don't we? We learn a lot by what it isn't. And so we're going to see that. If it isn't this, what he lists, then it is something else, whatever it may be, the opposite. But this next thing that we're going to look at on this agape love, in verse 4, we looked at love suffers alone and is kind. Our next thought here is charity or this agape love envies not. Agape love is not envious. How often do we really hear a message on envy? We don't. Looking back, I didn't think I ever preached a whole message on envy, on the dangers of envy. But here we're told that agape love is not envious. So if we want to truly exercise the love that Christ teaches us to have, we need to know what envy is, so we'll know not to do that and do the opposite. And that's what we're looking at this morning. So we need to know what love is not so we can realize when we are not loving others like we should. Now when we see these things in us that we'll look at over the next few weeks and in our actions and thoughts towards others, then we can be certain that at that moment we are lacking the love that we are told to have towards that individual. So the first thing, love is not, is envious. Now this word speaks of eager desire. Eager desire. Now it's interesting, when you look up this word translated in our King James Version, where it's translated envies here, it's translated other things as well, and it's sometimes actually used in a good sense. Now we're not going to look at that this morning, but sometimes it's actually used in a good sense, because it speaks of an eager desire. You know, you can eagerly desire good things, right? You can eagerly desire for the glory of God. You can eagerly desire that people be saved. There are good things you can eagerly desire. Here it's used in a negative sense, and it's related to greed and selfishness. Desire is a normal human emotion, but must be channeled in the right direction and must desire good things if we want to please the Lord. We can also eagerly desire bad things. And when a person eagerly desires bad things, it can get real ugly when envy is between individuals. Envy is a strong, passionate emotion and is primarily characterized by love for oneself, the promotion of oneself, rather than love for others. Envy is not loving others enough to rejoice in their achievements or success. Envy would rather see others fail than succeed. Now envy says, if it wasn't my idea, I hope it doesn't work. I don't want to use the word jealous because we're going to talk about that in a moment because there is a difference between envy and jealous. Actually, I'll come to it right now. Envy is not the same as jealousy. God is said to be what? Jealous of His people. For He is protective. and possesses of them in a good way. He longs for their hearts' affections. Envy despises the prosperity of others because it is selfish." Now listen, God is not selfish. Agape love is not selfish or self-serving. You see, love can rejoice in the shadows of the success and blessings of others. You understand that? In other words, when someone else is being blessed or succeeding, you can rejoice with them. Envy, a lack of love for that individual, will not let you do that. Love can serve others at work and be happy at their success when they are promoted. Love can minister to others without envy filling its heart. Love can minister to the needs of others even when at times their very own needs are neglected. Mothers do that, don't they? Love and pray for the ministry of others to prosper when it would maybe cast your own in the shadows. Now we're just mentioning some of these things. No doubt you can see, you know what? These are some of the characteristics of a godly mother. She loves to see the prosperity of her children. She labors day after day to help them. If her children prosper more than herself, she will rejoice and be glad in it and not resent them for it. She labors to make them look good and better than herself. She ministers to their need, oftentimes at the very neglect of her own." Folks, that's love. Now, speaking of envy, you say, well, envy, how bad is it really? I should not envy, but how bad is envy? Listen, the Scriptures have a lot of things to say about envy and how bad it can be. Let me give you just some examples. Some of this is going to be on memory, hopefully, of some of the Scriptures. So is envy really that bad? Well, think back with me. Do you remember Joseph? Remember Joseph being sold out by his brothers, and they lied about him being killed to their dad. Do you remember what the Scriptures say was their problem? Envy. Envy. Envy was what the case was there. They were envious of their father's affections for Joseph, and they were envious of the dreams he had. They were envious of him in a lot of ways, I believe as you read that. One of the worst things you can do as parents is create an atmosphere that creates envy between your kids. It was also for envy that the Pharisees, the Scriptures say, turned Jesus over to Pilate. It says that he knew that for envy, they had turned Him over. They were envious at all the attention he got, the following, the success of Christ, the loss of power that they were seemingly having in their day. The people were loving Jesus. The Pharisees didn't like it. The way the Pharisees were toward Jesus reminds me of this quote I read by Nathaniel Vincent. He said this, How much of hell is there in the temper of an envious man? The happiness of another is his misery. That's sad, isn't it? The happiness of another is his misery. The good of another is his affliction. He looks upon the virtue of another with an evil eye, and is as sorry at the praise of another as if that praise were taken away from himself. Envy makes him a hater of his neighbor and his own tormentor." Oftentimes in Scripture, how bad is it? Oftentimes in Scripture, envy is connected with strife and divisions. Do you realize how many problems we can have in our home due to envy? Do you realize how many problems we can have in our church due to envy? Earlier in this letter, Paul is writing to the Corinthians, and earlier, if you want to turn there, but in chapter 3 and verse 3, we see a connection here between envy and so much of the problems they were having. In 1 Corinthians 3, he said this, For you are still carnal, for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? And so we see a connection there. There was envy, there was strife, and there were divisions. If you look back, you can see what they were divided about. One said, I follow Paul. Another, Apollos. They were divided. They were envious. Well, this one did this one, and this one did that. He's dealing with envy in 1 Corinthians 13. Some were proud because they had certain gifts. Some were envious that they didn't have the gifts that other people had. And I think that's why he talked about what he did in chapter 12, understanding all of you have a purpose, all of you have a gift. Now you need to teach them about envy because they were not looking at their gifts the right way. In the second letter to the Corinthians in 1220, Paul said this, For I fear when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not, lest there be debates, Envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, and whisperings. So envying there is connected with the debates, the wraths, the strifes, the backbitings, and the whisperings. You see, envy is at the heart of those problems. Envy is at the heart of strife. Envy is at the heart of much backbiting, of whisperings. Envy is at the heart of many debates. Whether there is envy in the home, church, or business, you can expect there will be strife, backbiting, and whispers. Now the solution though, to strife, wrath, backbiting, and whisperings, is what then? Love. If envy causes these things, and charity envies not, then it's love that we need. When we love the people around us, we're not going to be envious whenever they prosper. If we love the people around us, we're not going to be backbiting or whispering and such. So love is the answer. Husbands and wives can become envious of one another, can't they? Does that bring discord in the home? It does. I've seen husbands being envious at their wife if she has a job and makes more money than he does, or it can be the other way around. There is envy sometimes on husbands because the wife stays at home with the kids, and he becomes envious of that. And he says things that shows envy. He's resentful towards his work, and he's upset because she stays home. I've seen envy in that way. The children may be envious of one another for many reasons, and sometimes because of what the parents do, or how they act, and sometimes not. But his lack of love in the home will cause divisions, because it will cause strife, wrathful words, and backbiting. Envy can be a problem in the church. I think it was a problem at Corinth, as they coveted, eagerly desired, envious of other people's gifts. Well, they can do that. Why can't I do that? Envy. They're going to be envious of church for other reasons. Some become envious because the pastor went to this person's house or went to the hospital to see this person and didn't come to see this one for that reason. And boy, envy is spread across the board there. Some may be envious because this person was recognized in some way and this one was not. Honestly, we just forget things sometimes, don't we? But people get envious of things thinking that there was some malicious purpose behind it. Some may be envious and call Strife because her name is not on the golf championship tournament trophy. Now I'm not envious about that because my name's on there. We'll talk about love being puffed up in a little while. I had to mention that again. It just fit right in there this week while I was typing. It just came right out, you know. That's really interesting because we're going to see another form of what love is not. It's something like envy, but it shows itself in a different way. Jesus said this, didn't He? We referred to this last week. All men will know you are my disciples if you have love one toward another. Well, when people of the world come and they see a people that rejoice in the success and the blessings, the promotion of other people, that they don't see a people who are whispering and backbiting. I mean, if you're in a community and you're talking about the other church members in a bad way, well, so-and-so did this, and they get to do this, and the pastor likes them, and they don't like me as much. Listen, that's envy. It's not love. Well, we can't act like that, can we? Thankfully, I don't think we do that. At least I hope we don't. At least there could be some preventive medicine here. But, you know, envy, when people see that we love one another like we ought, then we won't show envy. And this is one of the ways that love is seen when we rejoice in the success, the blessing of others. When we're okay with mentioning the blessings of others without feeling the need to speak of our own. Some people are like that, don't they? They can't speak about something somebody did without saying something that they did was a little bit better. You understand? That's part of that lack of love, envy. I'm going to give you a short list here this morning, just some red flags for you to show you possibly if you have envy in your heart towards someone. I'm going to run through these real quick. There are ten of them. Don't get scared. We're not going to elaborate. Anytime a preacher says there's ten points, everybody's like, uh-oh, you know. These are quick. Some red flags of envies in your heart. One, you are rarely impressed with someone's accomplishments. I mean, they could say they climbed Mount Everest and you would say, well, haven't a lot of people done that now? Have you seen people like that? It's like you're on a mission to protect your ego from being bested by them. And so, you show little interest or impression of them. Listen, you've got a problem with envy. You need to love them enough to rejoice in their accomplishments. Two, if you tell someone specifically all the time, oh, you're just so lucky. You're just so lucky. And they work hard, you know? I mean, they're out there working and they're doing stuff, you know, you're just so lucky. Me and my cousin have a saying, sometimes people say to him, well, it must be nice. You know what that is? That's envy speaking. It must be nice you were able to get that. You know, if you can't get something somebody else has, rejoice that they can get it. Maybe they'll let you borrow it. I didn't type that out. That just kind of came out. Saying that people are lucky sometimes is sometimes our way of making ourselves feel better for not getting it ourself. Well, they're just lucky they got that. In some other words, you're not acknowledging their accomplishments. Three, when you must try to get for yourself the same thing they have or something a little bit better. That's envy. Four, when you're quick to rain on someone's parade, by pointing out something bad that may happen. How many of you have ever seen this? In other words, maybe you got tickets to go to Cedar Point, and your friend is all envious because you're not getting to go, and they say, well, I looked at the forecast, I think it's going to rain that day. It's like they always got to rain on somebody's parade. Or you got a new car, you're excited, you're thankful to the Lord, the Lord gave you a new car, and somebody says, I heard that doesn't get very good gas mileage. You know what? It's kind of funny, but if we get down to it, you know what it is sometimes speaking? Envy. Envy. Five, you begin to talk bad about someone in private. Six, you begin to avoid someone. Seven, you start arguing with someone for something minor. Eight, you go out of your way to mention people that are better than them. You know? I mean, for us hunters out there, I mean, I've seen this many times. You kill a nice buck, and somebody comes around and says, well, I've seen one bigger than that, and so-and-so got that one. You know, always got to rain on your parade, don't they, Lowell? You can't let you have any joy with that at all. Or this one's always big among hunters. Well, I ought to pass that one up. You know, just don't make you feel bad, you know? Nine, you get angry when that person gives you advice. Now think about that. Sometimes when you don't love somebody and they try to tell you a little advice, you know what? Sometimes it's envy. Ten, you seem to be happy when that person fails at something. Yeah. Secretly, right? Of course, not out in the open. Everybody would know that's not loving. But in your heart, you're like, yes, I knew they'd fail. Love can rejoice in the blessings, the success, the achievements and talents of other people. Now for all you mothers today, there's application here even in your home. Love is not going to be envious at your kid's success. I mean, what kind of a mother would that be? I mean, if your kid got a better job than you had, or made more money than you had, or excelled in some way, a mother should want their kid to go beyond them, right? But it can show up in other ways. You could be envious of your husband's success. Or, you could be envious at the success of other mothers. God doesn't want you to do that compare thing, ladies. He doesn't want you to do that. Now it's not that it's wrong to desire to be successful in certain ways, it's godly, as others may be, but it is wrong to not truly be able to rejoice in the success of other people. Proverbs 14.30 tells us that envy is as rottenness of the bones. I tell you what, it will work at you deeply. Envy will eat at you within, When we see envy in our hearts, let it be a sign to pray, Lord, help me to love like I am to love. To love our neighbors, our family, our church family, even our enemies. Are you at strife with someone? Is it envy? That's a good question to ask. Let me sum this up on envy by giving a comment by Adam Clark. He said this, Those who have this pure love rejoice as much at the happiness, the honor and comfort of others as they do in their own. They are ever willing that others should be preferred before them. This may sound funny, but I like to fish, and I tell you what, it took me a long time to rejoice as much as the other guy in the boat catching a bigger fish than me. That took me a long time to get there. And sometimes I still had to fight it, you know? You're catching this fish, and all of a sudden he pulls in a big one, and you're like, And you're not even happy. I mean, you're not like, yeah, all right, you got one. You're more like, why didn't I catch that? I mean, it shows up in many ways. I mean, Nathan treats me like that all the time when we go fishing. He's got to get that envy under control. I'm coming to me here in a second by talking like that, because this lack of love shows up in something that kind of almost appears the opposite. Here's our second main point tonight. Agape love does not brag and is not arrogant. You know what's so funny is that envy sometimes is aroused within ourselves when someone else is being proud about themselves. You're both wrong. You can hear someone bragging about how they've done this and that and all of a sudden you're like, why couldn't I have done that? You know? You got both things that are not right. Let's deal with this bragging. and not arrogant. Verse 4 in our King James Version says, charity vaunteth not itself as not puffed up. We're looking at those together. It is not brag, it is not arrogant. These are ugly twins right here mentioned here in verse 4 and they are closely related so we'll deal with them together. And they both stem from selfishness and are the flip side of envy. Envy is wanting what someone else has sometimes or not rejoicing in what someone else has, looks at it with disdain, they don't deserve it. Bragging is trying to make others envious of what we've done or what we have. Envy puts others down. Bragging builds yourself up. Bragging is an outward manifestation of pride. The braggart tries to impress others of his great accomplishments in order to make himself look good. So you can see a little difference between envy and the braggart. Now it's good to see this side of what love is not because, listen, sometimes we may not be envious so much as what others have done or are going to do, because we're very impressed with what we have, with what we've done, or what we're going to do. Now the New King James Version, instead of saying that charity vaunteth not itself, says love does not parade itself. Love does not parade itself. Now that speaks volumes to the gay pride parade. Just real quick, I'll throw it out there, right? That's not love. Anyhow, love in action can work anonymously. It doesn't parade itself. It does not have to have the limelight or the attention in order to do a good job or to be satisfied with the result. Love gives because it loves to give, not out of a sense of praise it can have from showing itself off. Now sometimes we can seem to work very hard at loving others and can be very far from actually loving them because we want to make sure everyone knows what we did. That itself isn't love. It is pride looking for glory for the appearance of love. Now Jesus taught us something about this, didn't He? In Matthew chapter 6 and verses 1 through 4. If you want to turn there and read that, I'm actually going to read this from the New King James Version. I like the translation there. It says this in Matthew 6, verses 1-4, Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." I like that. So that speaks to what we're talking about. Love does not parade itself. It doesn't have to sound a trumpet on everything that it's done, all of its accomplishments. When a person says, I've done this, and I've done this, and I've done this. And we see that love is not a braggart. It does not parade itself, but we also see that love is said here that it is not puffed up. I think this is interesting because sometimes It's not the words people say in bragging, but sometimes it's their demeanor. Puffed up. He doesn't want to say a thing. He doesn't have to say anything. Everybody already knows how wonderful and great it is what he's done. Puffed up. You've seen people. But sometimes, I like that word puffed up because sometimes we say what? He's got the big head, right? He's puffed up. So sometimes, say, well, I don't brag on what I do. No, but boy, are you puffed up. Man, you can't get through the door. Now listen, I'm not putting anybody specific down this morning. We've all been there. We've all done it. When you're as good as Lowell is at cornhole, it's hard not to be puffed up. Right, Lowell? I tell you, it's hard to be humble when you're that good, you know? I'm picking on Lowe a little bit this morning, but you know, this is real stuff. It seems little, but I'm just making it up. Sometimes it shows up like, I know we joke around and kid around and stuff, and we know we're joking and kidding, but we've seen people, it's no joke. They are puffed up or they are arrogant in what they've done. look at this. When you consider some of the things that Paul mentioned here earlier in the chapter, there's some good application here. I want you to think about this real quick. In verses 1-3, he talked about some things we can know or do, and how it can be nothing without love. You should never be a braggart or puffed up, or have the big head because of your knowledge of the Scriptures, because of the works of the poor, because of the sacrifices of God. When we have love, You have to have these abilities and grow them out. and all those things, or the works of charity. But he says it's got to be with love. So what is the opposite of this? The braggart, the puffed up? It is humility. I believe I can rightly say love is not envious. Love is not proud. Love is not arrogant. Love is not puffed up. Love is... Humble. Humble. Love shows itself in humility. We should humbly, humbly speak of the knowledge of the Scriptures. We should humbly exercise the gifts God has given us. We should humbly give to the needs of others. We should humbly do the work of the Gospel. is okay, as we said, with being in the shadows and others held up. I want to turn to a passage here in Philippians 2. Philippians 2. I haven't referred to this in a while. Philippians 2. I just love this passage. Verse 2. I want you to see its connection here from what we're saying to what we see here. Philippians 2. Verse 2. Paul says this, Fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded. He would say, I want you guys to think alike. Then he says what? Having the same love. Being of one accord, of one mind. What does he say next? Let nothing. So he says, have the same love. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Look at this. But, in what? Lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other better than himself." That's the same love that he wanted them to have. I love to show that we're humble. But a love that really thinks, like-minded, that thinks. others better than themselves. Not something that acts like people are better than themselves, but a love that actually thinks that way. You know what? You can only answer that for the most part. He says, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let what this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Wow! I can't even explain that, okay? The depths of my understanding of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage and in the humanity of Christ blows my mind away to see all of that right there together. We see here that love does not work for vain glory, but is humble and esteems others as better. It looks out for others and not for itself. This love is not trying to build up self, but is seeking to build up the other person. It does not tear down others, so self can be bigger. This love is humble, because it truly thinks of others as better than self, and truly wants what is better for them. So in summary of envy, and between love not being envious, and love, as we're talking about here, with it not being a braggart, not being puffed up, When we are envious, we reveal how little we think of others. When we are boastful and puffed up, we reveal how much we think of ourselves. This shows how little we love others and how much we love self. Whew, that stings. Doesn't that hurt? Hey, can we all grow in love? Absolutely. One of the greatest things we can pray today, Lord, help me to love, to not be envious, to not be proud, to walk in humility. Some conclusion this morning, some final thoughts for mothers today. First of all, thank you. Thank you, godly mothers, for your loving patience that you show your children. I know that there are going to be days that your patience is greatly tried, but know that your patience is greatly appreciated. And will help your children see the longsuffering of Christ in you. Don't you love that? Listen, every time you need to have patience towards your child, you have an opportunity to show them the love of Christ. A love that is longsuffering. Thank you, mothers, for your kindness that you show your kids. All the many acts of kindness that do not go recognized. When you speak and do kind things for them, even when they have oftentimes been rotten. And it's not easy. Love is not easy. But it is necessary to raise children for the glory of God and to echo them and to emulate the love of Christ in our life. In showing them kindness, you show them the mercy and kindness of Christ to sinners, even when they do not deserve it. Thank you, mothers, for all the work you do that no one else even sees or knows about. I seen a great video one time, it was really funny, because this guy thought he had this magic coffee table. He said, this thing is absolutely amazing. He said, I don't know what happens. He said, there's stuff on it every night when I go to bed and I get up the next morning, it's all gone. He said, I can leave whatever I want on this coffee table. My socks, etc. I don't remember everything exactly, but you got the idea. He was just saying, I can leave whatever on this thing. And in the morning, he was telling his wife, he finally told his wife, isn't this a great coffee table we have? You know, she's just standing there looking at him like he's an idiot, of course. But you know what, there's so many things that you do Kids don't see. You know, your husband sometimes doesn't see. We meathead husbands sometimes, you know, we don't see it. Family doesn't realize it. But you keep on doing it. You keep on doing it. I'm not giving you guys an excuse to not recognize them, what they do. I'm just saying oftentimes you do things that go unrecognized. You are a servant for Christ's sake to your family. Thank you. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is the greatest of faith and hope. Understand, dear mothers, that one of the greatest things you can do for your children is to love them patiently, kindly, in the shadows, and with humility. It won't be easy. And it will take Christ's love working in you and through you. You therefore must seek to abide in Christ so that you may bear His image of love in your life and so that Christ can use you to impress His image on your children's hearts. If you have a mother like that, praise God. Let me close with this quote by J.R. Miller. He said this, The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and prayer and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies. A true mother is one of the holiest secrets of home happiness. God sends many beautiful things to this world, many noble gifts, but no blessing is richer than that which He bestows in a mother who has learned love's lessons well, and has realized something of the meaning of her sacred calling." Isn't that good? God bless you mothers today, and may all of us learn what love really is. Love is without envy. Love does not boast. It is not proud. It is humble. Let's pray. Father, I pray for Your blessings on Your Word today. Help us, Lord, to eagerly desire to love like You love. Help us, Lord, to love others, to rejoice in their successes, to rejoice in their achievements, to not lift ourselves up in our achievements and the things we do, the things we accomplish. Help us to walk humbly. Help us not to seek the praises of men. And Father, I pray for any here today that are lost without Christ. Oh, that they would see that Jesus came to save sinners, that He came and He walked humbly. And He came for our betterment and for our good, to lift us up out of death and to give us life. And that they would trust Christ before it's eternally too late and see that He is their only hope. Help us to go forth in this day to be thankful for our mothers and the life you've given us. And thank you so much, Lord, for all the beautiful testimonies here at New Testament and all the many godly mothers we have here. We pray in Jesus name and amen. Let's all stand Dave you have us for 30