Take your Bibles, if you would, with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I asked AI a question. I said, give me five qualities of motherhood. Quickly gave them. I said, now arrange them from best to worst. And then, quickly, I said, what is the single most intrinsic quality of motherhood? And it was, can you guess it? That's right, love. Love was the simple answer. And the mothers that are here represented and the mothers you've experienced show, they demonstrate for us what true love looks like. But even though their love is wonderful, and ladies, your love has been valuable to us, There is yet a greater love than even a mother's love, and that's the love of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, we have been walking through, looking through the book of 1 Corinthians. And we began chapter 13 last week, which some would call or tag the love chapter. But love different than the world demonstrates, right? The magnificence of Christian love has often been misunderstood. It's been muddled. It's been disguised. You see, the devil has no counter to love. So what must he do? Misrepresent it. He wants you to see the love of God as something other than what it truly is. Lust has been his most successful attempt to counter love, to have a desire for pleasure or prominence. for wealth or possessions. Those may distract people for a time. But what the devil doesn't have, he cannot offer. He can't offer love because he doesn't have it, right? This is what he did in the Garden of Eden. He wanted to convince Adam and Eve that God truly did not love them. They believed his lie, and we all suffer ever since. We suffer in a world of sin. We were born with the quality in us of sin. And so the love of God that you see, he would have you view. Satan wants you to see God's love through a skewed lens for it to be something other than what it truly is. If he could, Satan would redefine God's love as God's hate. So the church here at Corinth, this immoral city, this wild city, This group of true Christians who were gathered there in this city were in conflict. There were tensions between the people. They weren't getting along. And the Apostle Paul, the one who had first brought them the gospel, had preached it to them humbly, depending on the power of God, had watched from a distance these people be pulled apart. to be divided into factions and groups that were contrary, that were opposed to one another. But the Apostle Paul knew something that you and I know too, don't you? There's one who can unite them, it's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ can bring together those who are divided. And the Apostle Paul is, in this book of the Bible, helping to bring these divided people together. And he's gonna bring them around the focal point of Jesus Christ. And that's the same need that we have today. We need to align our lives with the focal point of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfection of love. We're to pursue love, and we pursue love by pursuing Jesus Christ. So Paul's gonna appeal, and in chapter 11, he talks about the Lord's table, communion. He says that should be a uniter, not a divider. And in chapter 12, he talks about giftings, like those who had trusted Christ by faith, had received from God abilities, talents, you could say, but they're supernatural talents given by God to serve God with. And the Apostle Paul is saying, you know what should unite you? It should be communion, and it should be community. As you serve God together, if you do his work in the world using your God-given gifts, you should rally around the conductor of the whole orchestra, who is the Holy Spirit. And each of us, though we play different parts, different roles within the church, we all have the same sheet music. And the Spirit of God conducts us, and so there should be unity from communion, there should be unity from community. And then in chapter 13, we find, he says, here's where you're gonna have to come to. If you're going to have unity, you need to find it in charity, in true love that's found only, perfectly, in Jesus Christ. Begin reading with me at verse four. of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Just follow along with me if you wouldn't mind. 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 truth. Verse seven. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. Every time you see the name, the word charity, you could supplement, you could put in there, you could insert the name of Jesus. He truly is the personification of love. In fact, 1 John tells us God is love. It's who He is. And so you could say, back to verse four, Jesus suffers long. or is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus isn't jealous or envieth not. Jesus doesn't parade his accomplishments. Jesus isn't arrogant. We could say, and all of those things would be absolutely true. But could we say those things about us? Could we say, I am always patient. I am always kind. I am never jealous or envious of others. I don't parade my accomplishments. I am never arrogant and proud. I will never do what's inappropriate. I am not selfish. I am not ticked off. I don't keep a record of the faults of others. Celebrate what's right, always. I cover the faults of others. I'm always confident in other people. I can endure hardship. I never fail. Can I say that? No, neither can you. But in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, We have the power to live out these qualities of love. It's interesting, the Apostle Paul made much of Jesus. He made much of Jesus even to the Corinthians. And sometimes Paul seems like he's tripping over himself to explain to us how wonderful and how great, how powerful, how mind-blowing, how transcendent is Jesus Christ. But in this passage, we don't find his name mentioned. And I have a thought to that, I have a theory for that. It's because you cannot read it without saying to yourself, there's only one person who can do all these things, and it's Jesus. He holds high the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he points to the church at Corinth, and he points us today to something that we need to unite us, together, but also to him. This is a love list, you could say. These qualities of love sometimes would be shared. We have four weddings that I know of. Maybe there'll be more before the summer's over with four taking place of people in our church. We're so grateful for that. And maybe at one of their weddings, maybe this passage of scripture will be read. It's Mother's Day today, and certainly as you read through this passage, you can say a lot of those qualities, maybe perhaps you saw in your mom, or were exemplified to you in your home, But what the Apostle Paul is doing here is he's not giving you necessarily a list to overwhelm you. I don't think that's his design. I don't even think that this list is something that's supposed to be completely implemented by us. Like, okay, today I'm gonna be working on being really, really patient, and today I'm gonna really work on being super kind. I don't think that's the agenda here. I think Paul is doing Something much better than that. He is raising, he's exposing us to perfection and completion of love, which is found in Jesus Christ, a mature love. The only one who has ever lived that was Jesus Christ, or people who have come in contact with Jesus Christ. True love, self-sacrificial love, the agape love mentioned here, is something that God intends for his children to have. but it's not naturally in us. It can only come by the Holy Spirit of God. Galatians 5 tells us, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. It's a work of the Spirit of God in us. Romans chapter five, verse five says, it's shed abroad in our hearts. The Holy Spirit, when a person receives Christ as their Savior, they believe on Him and accept His free gift of salvation. At that moment, the Holy Spirit of God moves in. He not only gives them gifts, but he gives them the capacity to have Christ-like love for others. Last week we talked about that Christ-like love and what it looks like. It looks like sacrifice. It gives up one's own rights for the benefit of another. It takes the mop. It humbles itself. It hits the floor. It does the lowly task. God wants love to be developed into our life. And so we're gonna look at three categories this morning from this passage of Scripture. First of all, I'd like you to see three things that love abandons. Love abandons self-preservation. Love abandons self-preservation. We see that there in verse four when it says suffereth long. It's the idea to bear under, to be patient in arduous circumstances. When life is hard and you keep on going, In particular, he's talking in regard to relationships. He's addressing relationships. When relationships are hard, you keep going. God allows that, enables that. But he allows you, he equips you to abandon this attitude of self-preservation. I'm gonna keep myself from ever being hurt. I'm gonna protect myself from ever being wronged or accused of being wrong. I'm gonna protect myself. There are a number of qualities listed that fit into this bill. He says, in verse five there, at the end of the verse, he says, it's not easily provoked. You say, well, I'm not easily provoked. The idea is just, you're provoked. You're triggered. Are you triggered? I mean, how do you respond to life when it doesn't go your way? You say, well, I'm gonna protect myself. If nobody looks out for number one, then, or if I don't look out for myself, nobody else will. I mean, I'm gonna live my life and I'm gonna make sure that I can control how I'm perceived and how I'm received and how I'm seen. And you live your life seeking to preserve yourself. The Apostle Paul says, you know what? You're gonna leave that behind. True love in Jesus Christ is not gonna grab onto the reins and not let go and say, I'm gonna have control. I'm gonna win no matter what. I'm gonna preserve me. Why? Because true love ultimately is putting your faith and dependence in Jesus Christ. You're trusting him. You're depending upon him. He continues on there, he says, is thinketh no evil, in the end of verse five. I mean, that's the idea of taking and recording and remembering the wrongs that have been done for you, done to you. The hurts, the disappointments, the offenses. I mean, have you been that person who has been storing up for a rainy day all the offenses of others, and boy, something happens, hey, oh yeah? Right here, July 13th, 1972. I remember, love doesn't do that. If it was a whiteboard or a chalkboard, all the offenses that would be listed, you take that eraser of love. Love doesn't reserve the right to hold over other their wrongs and offenses. You say, well, it's an opportunity for me to just put them in their place, to let them know how good I am. No, love doesn't work that way. Love abandons self-preservation. Love leaves self-promotion. Look what it says there in verse four. It vaunteth not itself. That's the idea of parading your accomplishments before others. Love doesn't strike up the brass band to let everyone know how well you have done. It says it's not puffed up, swelled with our ego, controlled by pride. Love leaves that behind. Love leaves behind self-promotion. You gotta put yourself out there. You gotta put your foot in the door. You gotta let everyone know. And if you go to a job interview and you're so excited, you can't wait for them to ask you, tell me, tell me of all of your accomplishments or what are the qualities. If you are excited to do that, let everyone know. You may not be operating on the basis of love. Love leaves self-promotion. Then lastly, the third thing we see that love abandons, love leaves selfish pursuits. It says, seeketh not her own. It's not seeking your way, your will. whatever you want, that's not true love. That's not Christ-like love. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is our perfect example. What did he do? He made himself a man of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and he went to a cross and he died in our place. He demonstrated true love by not seeking to preserve himself. Like the song says, he could have called 10,000 angels. but he died alone for you and me. He humbled himself. He went in obedience to his father to a cross out of love. He could have preserved himself. Jesus could have promoted himself, but he never did. And Jesus certainly, he could have sought his own will, but we find even though he was God, he humbled himself, time and again to who? The will of his father. In the Garden of Gethsemane, before he went to the cross, he was praying. The Bible says as sweat drops of blood, his vessels had burst and he prayed in agony and he humbled himself and he said, not my will but thine be done. Jesus Christ shows us that love has to abandon some things. Has your love for others abandoned self-preservation? Are you holding on with all you got? I've got to control this situation. I've got to make sure that I am not perceived wrong. I've got to make sure that everyone knows that I'm right. That's not love. If your love says I've got to let everyone know how successful I've been, all the things that I've done in my life, all the accomplishments of, if that's all you can do, all you can do is list your resume before people and time and again, let me tell you about how I did so well in this and how I did so fantastic in this. If that's where you are, that's not love. And then living your life for selfish pursuits. He says in verse four, It is kind. Kindness, this gentleness is leaving selfishness and it's thinking of others. Kindness. Approachableness. Are you somebody who is approachable? People know that they can come to you. They can appeal to you. They'll be received by you because you genuinely love them. Do they shy away from you? Do you make them a little bit nervous? They don't know what's gonna come out of your mouth. They check the wind and they check the calendar and think, oh, don't talk to dad this week. Don't call her up this week because you don't know. The wind must be in the east because she's in a foul temper. If that's who you are, maybe you need to have this quality that Christ offers to us. saturating your life, it's possible to be a Christian who is immature in the quality of love. That's what the problem was with the Church of Corinth. They were an incredibly gifted church. They had all the gifts. They had the gospel. They had so many things going for them, but they were lacking in this key quality, the quality of love. And Paul had said in verses one through three, he said, you can be the who's who, you can have the outstanding awards, you can get five stars for your ministry, you can be so successful in the world's eyes, but if you do it without love, it isn't worth anything. It ain't worth nothing. So God is gonna show us here in this passage that love's gonna leave some things, it's also going to allow some things. Love allows, it lets grace cover grievances. Look at verse seven. It beareth all things. The word beareth is the idea of covering, not making other people's faults a spectacle, not drawing attention to it, but minimizing it. I think there's a great example of this. The Lord Jesus Christ was confronted by a group of people who were accusing a woman who was guilty. She was caught in the act of adultery. And they brought her, paraded him before the Lord Jesus. Without her clothes on, these men stood around with fingers pointed, accusations raised. And Jesus did something, something unusual. And I don't know all the reason. I'm not sure there's another verse in Scripture to substantiate. But he went down, he dropped down, and he took his finger and he wrote on the ground, as if to take the attention away from her and her accusations. Of course, you're familiar with what he said, but he who is without sin cast the first stone, to which the entire party of accusers left. Jesus told the woman, go and sin no more. What does true love do? True love seeks to cover, to minimize, not saying that sin isn't wrong, but not exalting yourself by accusing others. Are you the master of finding others' faults? Is that how you spend your time and energy? Is that the source of your conversations? Is that how you live your life? Drawing attention to the problems? Or do you seek out of love for Christ and letting His quality of love flow through you to cover it? The Bible says in 1 Peter, love covers a multitude of sins. There's people that you live with in your home. And you see their faults clearer than anyone else in the world. You know them. In fact, you can predict them. You know when the socks aren't gonna make it into the hamper. You know that already. You know that that table won't get wiped down after dinner. You know that the dog probably isn't fed, you know. You know these things, right? Because you live with them. But what does true love do? Loves, it covers. So love is gonna allow grace to cover grievances. Whether they have apologized to you or not, you are responsible to God to forgive them. Everybody nod your head. Ephesians 2, excuse me, Ephesians chapter four, verse 32 tells us, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another because they apologize. No, that's not what it says. Forgiving one another because, They deserve it, no. Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, the basis of the forgiveness we offer to others who hurt us, who wrong us, who do us injustice, the basis is not them and it's not you, the basis is Him. It's Jesus Christ. The reason we can forgive others is because Jesus Christ offers forgiveness to you. So love is gonna leave some things behind. It's gonna allow grace to cover grievances. It's gonna, number two, let trust defeat doubt. Who do you trust? You say, I trust me. That's about it. Well, guess what? You're not demonstrating true love. Isn't it amazing that God trusted Adam and Eve in the garden when there was a tree in there that they were not supposed to eat, but he did? Because every time they said no to that tree, they said yes to God and they demonstrated His love. They demonstrated their love for God. The day they ate of it, they weren't trusting Him. God puts people in this world who aren't like you. There's people who have maybe broken their word in the past. There's people who, well, I'm not so sure they can follow through. But what does true love do? It believes all things. It has an expectation. It's not living ruled by doubting others. It's gonna be trusting. I'm gonna trust you. Of course, the Bible says to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But as a general rule, do you know what love looks like? Love is the kind of thing that you have that gives people the benefit of the doubt. You're not suspect. You're not, ah, I don't think they're gonna follow through. I'm not sure they meant that. No, love believes. It's not blind, but it believes. It lets trust defeat doubt. And then lastly, it lets expectations exceed worry. There at the end of verse seven it says, hopeth all things. It lives in expectation. I mean, the glass is half full. You're looking forward to the best thing coming. That's a much better way to live, by the way. It's a life of faith, but it's also a life of love. God, I'm confident in you. I'm trusting in you. I'm gonna allow grace to cover grievances. I'm gonna allow doubt to be defeated. I'm gonna allow expectations to exceed my worry. Wanna ruin your life? Worry. Wanna destroy your health? Worry. You want freedom in Jesus Christ? Love. Love others. So love abandons some things and love allows some things. Thirdly, lastly, I'm just gonna point to verse eight here where it says that love, charity never faileth, love endures. Love endures. It lasts longer than the gifts that were used for building the church. And he goes on to say that in verse eight. He says, whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. These were signed gifts. They were given for the founding of the church. They were given to the apostles and their associates and they were gifts given by God to speak things that were not yet in the word of God. They were not yet recorded. They were giving messages from God. Tongues is those who were able to speak in languages that they hadn't learned. God gave them supernatural abilities to communicate in a language they had never heard before. I started learning another language a few weeks ago. I've not done so well with it, but I've been learning Scottish Gaelic. I have no idea why. It interests me. I wish I could speak to you today in tongues and give you a little Scottish Gaelic. It ain't gonna happen. I can tell you the word and is agus, and that's about all I remember. Oh yeah, coffee is coffee. See how I got that one there? But these people were given spiritual gifts by God to communicate with people who spoke other languages, and it was a gift. It was a demonstration of God, and we're gonna learn more about that in chapter 14. But they were given it for a time. It goes on to tell us that some are given knowledge, some deep understanding of certain things that God had not yet revealed. And he said, what does he say about these things? He says, it shall vanish away. He says, prophecies shall fail, tongues, they shall cease, and knowledge, it shall vanish away. So there came a time, and it's not like there was a date on the calendar we can point to, but as the, Bible, the canon of scripture was completed as the apostles died out and their associates. These gifts came to a close and we have, this is the passage of scripture that tells us why. Those were for a time, they were for a season. They were to demonstrate to the Jewish people that surely Jesus was the Messiah. He says in verse nine, he says, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall be done away. In other words, as people matured, as the church matured, those things were not needed anymore. And what was that area of maturity? It was maturing in love. A growing Christian will be a loving Christian. As we grow as Christians, as we grow as a church, we will grow in love. It's so interesting, the church at Philippi, Paul praises them for their love in the first few verses. And then later on, he prays for them, and he says, I'm praying that your love would increase. In other words, it's gonna keep on growing. It's not like one and done. I've got the love, and I'm good. No, it's an area where God continues to expose you to needs and to opportunities, to challenges, where Christ's love can be lived through you. When is Christ's love best seen? In some of these instances and hardships when you have to persevere. when you have to endure, when you are treated unjustly, when people do wrong and you know it, and you're wrestling through, how do I show Christ's love in this circumstance? So love's going to endure. It lasts longer than those gifts that were made for building of the church. It lasts longer than assumptions based on emotions. Look what he says in verse 11. He said, when I was a child. I mean, do you think the same way today you thought when you were a youngster? I mean, some of us are younger than others here. But hopefully, you don't think the way you do, you did 10 years ago. There's been a change. Generally speaking, as you're gonna see in this passage, young people think through things, they weigh things, but they base them entirely on their emotions. How it makes me feel. And as we grow older, hopefully a little bit of logic kicks in and we weigh things not just on how it's gonna impact you for the moment, but you think of the big picture like, how will this affect the rest of my life? How do you weigh major decisions? If I buy this car and I have a $998 a month payment for the next 16 years, will that limit me? Maybe, right? So hopefully, as we grow older, you grow in maturity, and you can look at life, you can make assumptions and evaluations based on truth, on the unchanging character of scripture. But here's what Paul said, and he likened it to those who were so excited, they were just following the gifts, the gifts that they had seen. They had lined themselves up as a church under certain giftings. And here's what he said, when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. In other words, he understood something. I'm not gonna just make decisions based on my feelings and my emotions, by which way the wind is blowing today. I'm gonna make decisions based upon the settled truth of the word of God. I'm gonna make them based on true love. Love, in a sense, is an emotion. There's a response of love, but the true love we're talking about here goes far beyond that. It's the Christ-like love that gave himself on a cross to pay for our sins. That's the kind of love. That's the kind of maturity that we're to grow into as Christians. Not seeking our own, but sacrificing ourself for the benefit of others. You want everyone to know your problems, everyone to know your grievances, everyone to know what you're upset about today? Check your love level. You might need to add a quart. You might need the Holy Spirit of God to fill you, control you, to offer you his love. He says in verse 12, now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. It was common. The city of Corinth was well known for their production of mirrors, but they weren't like mirrors you and I would have. They were handheld and they were circular, but it was just polished metal. They weren't great. In fact, oftentimes they would have a a line or a string attached to it with a pumice stone, a hard sponge, you know. And so when your mirror wasn't so clear, you could just scrub it down a little bit and get a little better view. But even then, even then, It wasn't a great view. Nero is said to have had a mirror that was made out of a, oh, what's the stone, valuable stone? They make phones, sapphire, that's the one, that's the one, they make sapphire. He said he had a mirror made out of sapphire, but most people didn't have those. And when Paul is saying here, now we see through a glass darkly, he's saying, You're looking at that mirror, and you can see some things, but there's going to be some things you're probably going to miss. Like, I don't know, I lost my nose yesterday. Whatever. Okay, I see the outline, I see my ears, but it's kind of vague in the middle. And he gives that picture here in regard to love. He says, we see right now through a glass darkly, But then face-to-face, there's coming a time as we mature, but also there's coming a time when we will be face-to-face, eye-to-eye, mouth-to-mouth with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfection of love. He says, but then shall I know, even as I am known, just as God has perfectly loved me, there's gonna come a day when I'm gonna come to a full understanding, a clear view of true love, which was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. So love's gonna endure, right? It's gonna last longer than those temporary gifts. It's gonna be something that goes beyond my assumptions that were based on my emotions. It's gonna take seriously God's truth. It's gonna weigh things in light of true love, Christ's love. And then love is gonna last eternally. It's going to last forever. He says in verse 13, now abideth faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. These three things are going to continue. They're going to last. What's interesting about them though, I mean, I'm reading this and I'm thinking about the three pigs. You know, they built three houses. One's in faith and one's in hope and one's in charity. The big bad wolf is gonna come blow on it, you know, and oh, everyone from faith, they've just been trusting the provisions of God, and they're gonna get in the house, and they're gonna go to hope. Well, these are the people who are only trusting the promises of God. And then, oh, blows and the house is down, and then they go into charity. It's like the brick house that doesn't get blown down, okay? Now we'll abide it. That's what I was thinking about this. I know, I shouldn't think that way. But here's the reality. All three of those things are eternal. But faith, it's necessary today, right? Because we do see through a glass darkly. We don't understand all that God has for us. We're looking to God, we're trusting his word, but there's a whole lot of unknowns. But there's gonna come a day when you and I are face to face with Jesus Christ, and we're not wondering anymore. What will heaven be like? We will see it. We will be living there. Hope. Well, the expectation that one day we will go to be with God. In heaven, will I have a need for hope? No, my hopes have been realized. I am there with God, with His people forever. Those who have trusted Christ as their Savior, those who have repented of their sin, believed on Him, you are forgiven and you're forgiven forever. God gives what He calls eternal life. But what about charity? Charity is eternal. from before the foundations of the world until eternity future. Charity demonstrates the same quality that it always has. God's love. That's why it tells our scripture reading this morning. We know nothing is going to defeat God's love. It's going to last forever. Satan doesn't want you to see God's love though. When I was a kid, we lived in kind of a remote area of northern Wisconsin. We were 60 miles north of Green Bay. And so our opportunities for shopping included the Ace Hardware Store down the road. And so Christmastime would be coming and my mom would have three Christmas catalogs. Let me see, there was Sears, there was Montgomery Ward, and JCPenney. And she would say, okay, Jason, make your Christmas list. All right. I'd go through those catalogs. Boy, they sold everything back in the day. Those companies, they even sold houses, I've heard. They made everything. I remember looking through and seeing a TASCO telescope. It was bright red, and I thought, I'm gonna see the stars. Yes. Now, we lived in northern Wisconsin. I mean, northern lights were not a rare occasion. We would see them from time to time. We lived where there wasn't a whole lot of light pollution, right? So we saw stars. But I thought, I really want to see stars. I remember I did get that gift. It was on my list, and it came in a package, a long octagon package. And we were opening it up, and I thought, my telescope. I'm going to see the stars. I'll never forget screwing it together, putting the little tripod together. First dark night we had that was where the stars were out. I remember going outside and holding it up. Pull off the end. Put it back together. I think I maybe have a glimpse of one, maybe. Sure is fuzzy. You know, I never did see a star with a telescope. Satan's handing out telescopes and he says, you wanna see God? Here he is. And you're like, I don't see anything. There's nothing here. I'm not seeing it. And there, he can't destroy God's love, but he can certainly cause you to miss it. How does he do that? Causing you to look at yourself rather than him. You look to God and you're looking with a mirror. God, I'm looking at you, but all you're really seeing is yourself. In the Victorian era, I think it maybe began in the 1700s, there was a fad. And it was called Claude Glass. Anybody ever heard of Claude Glass before? Mr. Paxton, maybe. So Claude Glass. was like a black mirror, somewhat convex, and it came in a compact, like a ladies compact. Back in the day, that's how kids, that's how ladies put makeup in there. But anyway, so it's in these like fold out things. And it was a tool to help the Victorians enjoy their environment. I mean, they were poetic, they were artistic, they were aesthetic. They enjoyed seeing the world in different ways. And so, I mean, how do you look at the world that you see outside differently? They would pull out this Claude glass. There was a famous landscape painter, and it's named after him. His name was Claude, I'm almost here, Claude Lorrain. And when he painted, his paintings, he would use kind of a wash over the top so every image was a little bit grayed, a little bit yellowed or browned. And it just kind of had this really warm, cozy feel to it. And so, in order to get that experience, people would take this black mirror and they would go to a vacation site or a riverside, maybe before mountains. And then, okay, if the mountain is there, you take out your cloud glass and you turn around. and you hold it up to your right or to your left, and you're looking at this thing backwards. People made fun of them because people go on vacation and they're looking at it all the wrong ways. But it was a way to see something with a different view, but it simplified the images, it made some things clearer, but it just gave it kind of this overall hazy, artistic view. In fact, what they said of it was to give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge, like the coloring of the master. Okay. You could say, in a way, in fact, I heard one person say, if you want to experience cloud glass, take out your phone, don't turn it on. Hey, everybody, there you are. I see you in a soft, willowy, you know, breeze, you know, anyway. But in a ways, in all seriousness, our view and our understanding of God's great love on this world is gonna be through a glass darkly. It's not gonna be perfection, because none of us are perfect. We live in a world yet marked by sin. Now there is God's love here. And where does God's love reside here on earth? In us, those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior. He is in you. Now we imperfectly demonstrate it. But Jesus Christ in this passage is held up as a standard by what true love is. That love will never fail. And if the church at Corinth was gonna have unity, if the church in Ohio is gonna have unity, we are going to have to understand the concept of God's love in a mature understanding. We have to come to the place where we understand, okay, my love is based upon the love offered to me through the Holy Spirit, lived out in my life, And I'm going to have to surrender my rights. I'm going to have to yield my wants. I'm going to have to give up all the wrongs that others have done. And I'm going to have to take them, wad them up, put them in the trash, throw them away, and say, I'm not going to focus on that anymore. I'm going to focus on one thing. The very thing that made that love possible. It was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified Lord on the cross. He was buried and he rose again victorious. But Jesus Christ, he's the center point. He's what we look to. That's where we get our understanding of what true love is. And that's the kind of love we can have. Look what it says in chapter 14, verse one. He says, follow after charity, pursue it. How do you pursue charity? How do you pursue this kind of love? You pursue it by pursuing Jesus Christ. When you forget to pursue Jesus Christ, you get your own ideas of what love looks like. It's conditional, it's performance-based. It's self-interested love. Well, I'll see if you love me. No, no, that's not biblical love. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's biblical love, the kind of love that Jesus Christ showed us. You know what the Bible tells us, Romans 5, 8? While we were, the love of Christ, that's the one, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The love of Christ, Paul said, constrains me. It was Christ's love that came and died on the cross for me, but it was Paul's motivation then, how am I gonna live in this world? How am I gonna serve the Lord? How am I gonna function? His motivation was simply this, the love of Christ, it drove him. to sacrifice himself to serve for others. 1 John 3, verse 1 says, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. God shows us his love in Jesus Christ. He is the perfection of love. In order to know love, you need to know Christ. Moms, I'm so glad that you love us. I'm grateful for the love my mother shows to me, continues to show to me. But mom's as wonderful as your love is. It's nothing compared to the greatest of love, the mature perfection of love found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Could I ask you a question this morning? Do you know him? Have you personally welcomed the gift of God's love? Christ loved us even though we're sinners. He died for us. And if we believe on him, we trust in him, The Bible tells us that he'll save us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And you can do that now. At this moment, God, I believe in you. I'm trusting you. I'm depending upon you. Cleanse me, forgive me. Give me a relationship with you. Christian, is that the kind of love that's living through you? It can be. We hold up and we look at this beautiful picture of Christ's love. We can't even see it perfectly. because our view is skewed. Satan is trying to get us to see something else, see it a different way. But as we gaze to the scriptures, as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, there we see the personification. We see what love truly is. God is love. D.L. Moody was an evangelist in Chicago. He had planted a church, and in the church, he was just so concerned that people are aware of God's love that he got a light, and he put it at the front of the church. He called it a gas-lit light. I think it's what we would call today as a neon sign. In the front of his church, it was lit. During the services, it said, God is love. He told the story about one evening, a man was walking down the street, and he saw that sign, and he thought to himself, that can't be. Not me. God couldn't love me. A little later, he came back. He saw his service was beginning. He came in, and he sat in the seat. As the service concluded, everyone was dismissed, and that one man was there. They were preparing for another service, and his head was bowed, and he was sobbing. And Moody came, put his arm around the man, and he said, what is it, son? And he said, it's what that says. He said, I didn't hear a word of what you said, but that right there, I can't get out of my head. Could it be that God loves me? Moody said, absolutely, God loves you. He opened his scripture, and he showed him from the Bible, yeah, that God loves sinners. And Jesus died to forgive us for our sins, and that he could be saved. And that night, that man believed on Jesus Christ. It was one simple verse of scripture. God is love. If you were to take this book and to summarize it in three words, it would be this, God is love. He loves you. He died for you. And if you come to Jesus Christ today by faith, he will save you. You will experience his love firsthand. Not only that, he's going to enable you to show others his kind of love as well. Father, thank you for your word today. Thank you for the truth spoken. to a needy church 2,000 years ago, we're a needy church today, and we need to know something of your love. I pray that we would focus our attention on the Lord Jesus Christ, the kind of love that you showed us, you want us to have and to live. Father, if there's one who has never trusted you, believed on you, not been saved even today, Father, would you bring conviction to their heart, help them to see how much they need you, And I pray that today they would receive your great gift of salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.