Thank you, Gary. And as Gary prayed for children and families and for the children's ministry, we certainly want to rejoice with Tim and Willie Ingram in the safe arrival of little Solomon Ingram this last Thursday. Tim and Willie, if you're watching, we're excited for you and Everett as well, now a big brother to Solomon. Many of you know that Solomon came in a very quick and dramatic way this last Thursday, but he is healthy. Willie is healthy. They came home. friday afternoon i believe and are now just in that joyful process of adjusting and getting to know one another now as a family of four so we really rejoice with them and want to continue to hold them up in prayer and i would invite you to turn in your bibles if you would to first corinthians chapter 13 And as Ethan mentioned earlier, if you don't have a Bible, you can just use your device and do a search in your browser for esv.org, and then search for 1 Corinthians 13, and that should take you to where we're gonna be this morning. Also, a reminder for those of you who are comfortable doing so, as we're seated, feel free to take your face mask off. Of course, feel free to keep it on if you desire, but we've mainly asked for those to be on before and after the services, but just want you to be aware of that as well. Well, we are in 1 Corinthians 13 as we're taking a small break from our regular exposition from the book of Genesis to just focus in on these matters that are very basic in many ways, very foundational to our lives as Christians. And yet, as has often been said, we never really get beyond the basics. We just come back again and again and again to hopefully a deeper, fuller, understanding and application of those basic realities that the Lord has called us to in Christ. And so we're looking at these matters in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Well, as you know, I grew up in the great state of Oklahoma. And one of the things that I experienced as a child is my family and I often went to stock car races. Now, Oklahoma is not the only place, of course, that those happen, but they do happen there quite a bit. And one common event at these races, what's really a big time crowd pleaser, was the intriguing phenomenon known as the demolition derby. You're probably familiar with it. But here's the premise and the setup for a demolition derby. It's profound and it's complicated. Basically, it's every vehicle for themselves. And the last vehicle standing or running wins. Now, don't do it now, but you can go on YouTube later on and just find Demolition Derby and you'll know what I'm talking about. And this happens, presumably, I've seen it now, with cars, with old school buses, with farming combines, with who knows what kind of vehicles, the classic American demolition derby. And of course, it's total chaos. There's crashing, there's smashing, there's bashing. It's basically anything goes. And of course, the only way that you win is if you do everything that you can to demolish and to immobilize every other vehicle that is present. Kind of sounds a lot like American politics these days, doesn't it? Well, it also sounds very sadly like the way lots of people in general live their lives. And tragically, it's also the way that many professing Christians can live their lives, making their families and the local church more like a demolition derby instead of places of love and of unity and of fruitfulness for the glory of Christ. Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, in connection with the entire letter that Paul is writing, his aim is to keep the local church from becoming a spiritual demolition derby. And Paul's aim then is to call Christians to pursue holy love in every relationship. And if you're a Christian here this morning, for you and I, this is what God calls us to fundamentally, to pursue a life of holy love in the church. Now Paul drives this point home, this obligation, this duty, with the urgency of this call by making three points in 1 Corinthians 13. And we've seen these in the previous few weeks. In verses 1 to 3, he establishes the truth that holy love is essential. It's essential among God's people. In the same way that our physical bodies can't function without blood, so the body of Christ, the church, cannot function without holy love. And in the same way that any one part of our physical bodies is useless if it's not animated with the proper flow of blood, so any professing Christian who's not animated with Christ's holy love is ultimately useless in the body of Christ. And so, of course, we ask then, well, what does this holy love look like? Well, that's what Paul addresses next in verses four through seven when he makes the point that holy love is extraordinary. And then in verses eight to 13, he makes the point that holy love is eternal. So those are his points as he issues this call for believers to pursue holy love. It is essential, it is extraordinary, and it is eternal. Now, in the context of this holy love being eternal, in verses 4 to 7, Paul doesn't define love, but he really describes love. He paints a stunning portrait of what the extraordinary beauty of God's holy love should look like in action among his people in a local church. And we saw last week at the beginning of verse four that he gives really a two-sided summary of the essence of holy love. It is patient and it is kind. In other words, Christians must overflow with the patience and the kindness of Jesus to others. That's the essence of God's holy love, his patience and his kindness. And we saw last week that to be patient means to be long-suffering. It means to have an inner emotional calm when you're provoked, when you're hurt, irritated, or annoyed by somebody. It means to have a peaceful and a calm disposition that is born out of trusting Jesus. It's a patience that doesn't react hotly with rage and revenge against the weaknesses, against the sins, against the inconveniences of other people. Instead, it responds with calm, endurance, and care. And we also saw last week that to be kind means to do what is good. It's kind of the positive side. Passive, or to be patient is a little more passive. To be kind is more active and positive. And of course it's to do what is good, what is helpful, what is beneficial and profitable for another person. To be kind is to have an eager, generous disposition, an orientation towards others. It's really to have the attitude and the action that says continually, I am here to do you good. I'm here to bless you. Whatever you may do to me, my only aim is to do you good. And so we saw last week that the overflow of patience and kindness in the life of a believer, the patience and kindness of Jesus, is to care more for the good of the offender than it is for the hurt of the offense or the pain of the offense. It means not being irritated or frustrated with people, but rather being seizing of the opportunity to do people good even when they bother or upset you. It means to be like Jesus, doesn't it? As we're told in Acts chapter 10 that Jesus went about doing good, that's what it means to be patient and kind in the fullest, most holy sense of those concepts. Well, everything else that Paul says then in verses four through seven really elaborates on this summary. And so the end of verse four through verse six, the passage that we're gonna look at this morning, has a series of eight negative statements. And whereas the beginning of verse four reveals the extraordinary beauty of God's holy love, the end of verse four through verse six reveal the divisive destruction of man's selfish pride. That's what we see in these eight negative statements, the divisive destruction of man's selfish pride. And these reveal what holy love is not and what holy love does not do. And of course then in verse seven, Paul concludes his description of holy love with four all things statements. And these show how comprehensively this holy love of patience and kindness is to be applied. But again this morning, we're just gonna look at the end of verse four through verse six in these eight negative statements. So just listen again as I read the end of verse four through verse six to what Paul says holy love is not and does not do. He says, love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Now we may ask the question, why does Paul give us this big list of negatives? Why focus on all of these negative characteristics of what holy love is not and what it does not do? It's because the contrast that he shows is revealing the stunning magnificence ever more fully of what God's holy love really is. In other words, in the same way that a jewelry salesperson will magnify the sparkling brilliance of a precious diamond by placing it on a black background, So Paul is magnifying the extraordinary beauty of the Spirit-empowered, unifying, constructive, holy love of God by contrasting it with the fleshly, divisive, and destructive, selfish pride of man. So he's presenting us with this contrast. And Paul speaks of these negative qualities because he wants us to see that these were the very things that the Corinthian church was habitually guilty of. Really, their failure to exhibit holy love is at the heart of all that Paul confronts them with throughout his letter. And all these negative aspects are present in a variety of different ways in the lives of the Corinthian church as he identifies them throughout his letter. So, he wants them to see their guilt. and in seeing their guilt of failing to love as God would call them to love, to repent and to pursue true spirit-empowered holy love. And here's really the big idea of what he wants them to see at the end of verse four and through verse six. He wants them to see that holy love works hard through God's spirit to build rather than to destroy. Holy love works hard through God's spirit to build rather than to destroy. Now, of course, this has great significance for us as well. And we may ask the question, we ought to ask the question, how do we know for ourselves accurately and honestly if we're walking in the path of true, holy love? How do we know if we're overflowing with the patience and the kindness of Jesus to others, or if perhaps we're walking in the divisive destruction of our own selfish pride? Well, these eight negatives, as we're going to look at them, they really show us eight manifestations of selfish pride. And I'm going to put them in the form of eight diagnostic questions that we need to ask ourselves. Eight diagnostic questions. Questions that help us know for ourselves whether we're walking in the path of God's holy love toward others or whether we're drifting into divisive and destructive selfish pride. And these negatives really show us what is fleshly, what is natural, and what is instinctive for every single one of us. And so these eight negatives, these eight diagnostic questions, really come to us as gracious warnings for those of us who are believers. And they should also be a gracious warning and a wake-up call for any of you who maybe are not believers, because these describe, to greater or lesser degree, the realities of your life outside of Christ. These characteristics that, again, to various degrees, you're no doubt enslaved to outside of Christ. But these are gracious warnings intended to wake us up if we're possibly drifting away from a life of God's holy love. I think of these things like rumble strips, if you will, that are built into most major highways in America. Rumble strips are those strips that rumble. I know it's an amazing concept, that border either side of the highway. And they're intended to wake us up if we're driving and if we start to drift outside of our lane. And if you've ever hit those rumble strips, they're very alarming. They wake you up. They serve a purpose to wake us up. And so if we're driving and we start to drift out of our lane and hit the rumble strips, they're there to warn us, to alert us that we're drifting and that we need to get back into our lane. And they keep us from crashing and hurting others. And so in many ways, these eight diagnostic questions with these eight negative statements are rumble strips, if you will, that God has given to warn us, to alert us, to help us stay on the path of His holy love. So let's look at these eight negatives, these gracious warnings, and again, I'm gonna put them in the form of eight diagnostic questions for each one of us. So here's question number one. Do you envy other people? Do you envy other people? This is found, of course, in the phrase there at the end of verse four, love does not envy. Now this means that love isn't envious or jealous. Love doesn't earnestly covet what somebody else has. Earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4, Paul rebukes the Corinthians because they are acting fleshly. He says they're acting essentially like immature spiritual babies. And the reason is because they are filled with jealousy and strife. And so, the sense of the Word has to do with a burning and a boiling in one's soul. It has to do with being consumed with envy about the good of others. Now, in the context of chapters 12 to 14 in 1 Corinthians, they were very envious of one another's spiritual gifts, among other things. They were envious of one another's talents and their abilities and perhaps their knowledge and their apparent spiritual achievements. And isn't it true how easily we can become envious and jealous of others? We become jealous of other people's life experiences or situations, of their jobs, of their accomplishments, of their relationships, of their money, of their possessions, of their physical appearances, of their abilities, of their education, and the list just goes on and on and on, doesn't it? One pastor has observed, quote, one of the hardest battles of a Christian that they must fight is against jealousy. There's always someone who's a little bit better or who is potentially a little better than you are. He goes on to say the first reaction of the flesh is to wish that person ill. And I think if we're honest, we can all identify with that, how easily we compare ourselves to others and how easily we can be given to envy and jealousy. But you see, when you are envying someone for any reason, you're not loving them. You're not seeking to do them good with the patience and the kindness of Jesus. And rather than being content and grateful in Jesus, overflowing with His holy love and seeking to build others up in Him, envy really reveals our own selfishness and our own pride. And it works to bring division and destruction in the body of Christ. So that's the first diagnostic question. Do you envy other people? The second question, do you boast over other people? Or do you boast before other people? And that of course comes from the statement there again at the end of verse four, love does not boast. This gives the clear idea of bragging, of praising and parading yourself for others to see. Paul expresses really that same concept in chapter eight, verse one of 1 Corinthians, when he says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And so to boast in front of others is to strategically use actions, and I might say subtly for most of us as well, be tempted to use actions and words in order to win the applause and the approval and the affection of other people. It's to have a sinful preoccupation with ourselves and to always crave the attention of others. One writer has called this boasting, quote, our own private advertising business, our little campaign to publicize an image of ourselves, end quote. And so among other things, think about how we use all the reasonable forms even of social media to become a platform for our own self-promoting marketing campaigns. And there's a host of other ways that we can do this. But when we're boastful about ourselves, what we're ultimately doing is giving in to the lie that we are somehow both the origin and the goal of everything about ourselves. And Paul confronted the Corinthians about this throughout his letter. One of those places is in chapter 4, verse 8, when he says, what do you have that you did not receive? He says, if then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? What do you have that you did not receive? And then if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Those are some searching and penetrating rhetorical questions that we need to chew on quite a while. So if we're boastful, we're failing to love and serve others. Instead, we're selfishly using others to bolster our own proud, self-centered image of ourselves. And this, again, brings division and destruction to individual people as well as to the whole body of Christ. So do you boast before other people? The third diagnostic question we find, again at the end of verse four, is this. Are you arrogant toward other people? Love is not arrogant, so are you arrogant toward other people? This, of course, is connected with being boastful, and it relates to the inner attitude of being puffed up with pride, really overinflated with self-assurance, self-sufficiency, self-satisfaction, and self-importance. It's frankly a self-centered, arrogant person who just thinks only of ourselves and thinks that we are ultimately better than everybody else. So to be arrogant is the misguided and tragically delusional idea that we are worthy of people's praise and their affection and that we are worthy of their adoration and worship. Now, obviously, if you or I drift into this and we become inflated with great thoughts about ourselves, that means we're having very small thoughts about God and about all of His glory and His love and His goodness in Jesus Christ. And it means we're not overflowing with His holy love, with the patience and kindness of Jesus, but rather we're seeking to, we're not trying to build others up and to build unity and maturity in the whole body, but rather in our arrogance, everything terminates on us. And we lose sight of the big picture of the glory of God and all of His purposes. And in that, of course, we end up bringing division and destruction to individual people and to the whole body of Christ. So are you arrogant toward people? Well, number four, don't you love these diagnostic questions? They were slicing and dicing me all week long and praying and preparing for these things. But we need to hear them. And it's God's love that even brings these to us. But here's question number four, are you rude toward people? See it there at the beginning of verse five, love is not rude. So the question, are you rude toward people? We understand this, don't we? To be rude is to act in defiance of social and moral standards in a way that brings disgrace, that brings embarrassment, and it brings shame. It means to not be loving and appropriate toward people, but rather to be careless, to be overbearing, and even oftentimes to be crude. To be rude has to do with needlessly offending and troubling others. One writer has said this of what rudeness it involves. It can involve inappropriate dress, inconsiderate talk, disregard for other people's time or moral conscience, taking advantage of people, being tactless, ignoring the contributions and ideas of others, running roughshod over other people's plans and interests, inappropriate behavior with the opposite sex, basic discourtesy, and having a general disregard for proper social conduct. He goes on to say it also involves talking over people, not listening, ignoring other people's ideas and perspectives, making cutting comments and threats, bullying, and showing disrespect to those who disagree. Quite a list. Are we rude? And there were a number of examples of rudeness among the Corinthian believers. We find in other places in the letter that they were rude to others when they came together for the Lord's Supper. Paul addresses that in chapter 11. The richer people ate their expensive food and they ignored the needs of the poorer people. How rude could you be even in the context of sharing the Lord's Supper? They also very rudely used their liberties to trample over the sensitive consciences of their weaker brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul speaks about that in chapters 8 through 10. They also rudely ignored, dismissed, and scorned church members that they viewed as lesser, as having less significant gifts and abilities. And that's what Paul calls out in chapter 12. And so to be rude is to be insensitive and uncaring with people, and it obviously brings division and destruction to the body of Christ. And instead of rudeness, holy love is gracious and considerate. It's appropriate, it's caring, it's respectful, and it's tactful. And it has a great sensitivity towards others, especially when others disagree with you. So are you rude toward other people? Well, diagnostic question number five, do you demand your own way with other people? Do you demand your own way with other people? We see there in verse five, love does not insist on its own way. Now this is self-evident as well. And what it means is that love doesn't passionately seek its own desires and will to the exclusion of everyone else. Love doesn't seek its own interests of praise and honor and profit and pleasure and comfort. The sense is that love isn't selfish. It doesn't seek its own ambition to the neglect and the hurt of others. Instead, holy love is unselfish. It dies to itself and it lives for the interests of others, preeminently for the interests of Jesus Christ. And we see the guilt of the Corinthians here as they selfishly pursued legitimate spiritual freedoms, but to the destruction of their brothers and sisters in Christ and to the destruction of the unity of the body of Christ. Again, that's what Paul addresses in chapters eight through 10. They were set on their own way and they demanded their own way. Who cares how it affects anybody else? So rather than building up others and rather than building up the body of Christ, they selfishly pursued their own interests and they brought harm to the body of Christ. And so you see, holy love is concerned first and foremost for the interests of Jesus Christ, for the concerns of His body. And like Jesus, holy love submits to the Father's will rather than to our selfish will. It seeks to serve and strengthen others for Jesus' glory rather than insisting on its own way. So do you demand your own way with people? Diagnostic question number six. Are you quickly irritated with other people? Are you quickly irritated with other people? Again there in verse five, love is not irritable. And the idea here is that love is not sharp and explosive. It's not quickly provoked to anger and sudden outbursts. It doesn't fly off the handle when subject to wrongs and insults and injuries. In other words, holy love is not combative. It's not easily drawn into a fight. It isn't touchy and temperamental. It doesn't incline others to walk on eggshells around you lest they detonate a bomb. So we could say love isn't given to vicious outbursts and what's implied is that holy love is instead gentle and it's approachable and it rises above all temptations to provocation and anger. Just think about, of course, how divisive and destructive this irritability, this quickness to anger can be in relationships. We see it, sadly, in marriages and in families, and all too often it can happen, of course, in the church. And such selfish, proud irritation brings much hurt and division and fear among people. One pastor has observed, quote, it does no good to protest. Hey, I lose my temper a lot, but it's all over in a few minutes. He says, well, so is a nuclear bomb. And if we understood the damage and the impact and the fallout that happens from our outbursts, we would be much less quick to give expression to such irritability. And so holy love, on the other hand, born of God's spirit, is not irritable. Instead, because holy love is trusting in and rejoicing in Jesus, delighting in him, it overflows with patience and kindness, even when we're offended, even when we're provoked. So are you quickly irritated with other people? If so, you're not exhibiting God's holy love. Two more diagnostic questions. Number seven, do you resent other people? Do you resent other people? There again in verse five at the end, love is not resentful. Now this is actually an accounting term, and it has to do with keeping a mental record of events for some future action, for someday settling accounts, as it were, with the person who has hurt or offended you. It has to do with calculating the real or imagined evil and offenses from others and keeping a mental list in our own minds for the purposes of ultimately punishing another person, for seeking revenge, for bringing those things back at the right moment to jab into their heart. But you see, holy love is patient and kind. Holy love is forgiving from the heart. Holy love cancels the debt. It renders the offense of absolutely no account. It's kind of like a story I heard about a married woman who was talking to her friend, and this woman said, every time my husband and I get into a fight, he gets historical on me. And the friend said to her, oh, you mean hysterical. And she said, no, the woman said she means historical. Not hysterical, but historical, because he brings up everything I've ever done wrong in the history of our marriage. Well, the Corinthians were guilty of this selfish, proud resentment in the way that they were using secular courts even to sue one another. And they were enslaved to this resentment that brought the sinful attitudes of, listen, I've been wronged, I've got my rights, and somebody's going to pay. That's the sinful heart of resentment. I've been wronged, I've got my rights, and somebody's gonna pay. And I'm going to keep a ledger in my mind of that wrong and bring that payment when the time is right. So do you resent other people? Love is not resentful. Well then the final negative, the final diagnostic question that Paul speaks of At the beginning of verse six, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but it rejoices with the truth. And so the question is, do you rejoice in evil rather than the truth? Do you rejoice in evil rather than the truth? And this really is the foundation of all of the other negative statements that Paul makes. Because he understands that at the heart of all of this, at the heart of all of these negative aspects of what holy love is not and does not do, is a love for what is evil rather than for the truth. Holy love takes no delight in evil, that which is unrighteous, that which is contrary to the truth. It takes no delight in evil either in one's own life as well as in the lives of others. Because holy love trusts and rejoices in the life-giving truth of Jesus, it cannot rejoice in anything that is contrary to Him. Holy love therefore takes no pleasure, it takes no delight, it takes no gladness in evil in any way. It is grieved by evil and it's grieved by the consequences that evil brings. Another pastor has observed this regarding this point. He says, quote, love finds no pleasure in that which causes pain to another or dishonor to God, but it is delighted with everything which may tend to the advancement of God's honor and to bring our brethren's good. Love loves God's truth, and it loves God's honor, and it loves the good of people within God's truth and within God's honor, and so it can't rejoice in evil in any way. And the truth here, as Paul speaks of it, refers to the whole body of truth in God's Word. It's the truth of God's saving work preeminently revealed in and embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul speaks of this throughout his letter. In fact, it's interesting that Paul only uses the word truth, that actual word, he only uses it three times in this letter, but the entire letter is an example and an expression of his own rejoicing with the truth. And the heart of the truth that he's rejoicing in, and that all believers are to rejoice in, is that Jesus Christ is come, and he has been crucified, and he has risen from the dead, and for all who would repent and believe on him, there is forgiveness, there is life, there is hope that is eternal. That is the full substance of truth. So it's the truth of the hope and the power of the resurrection of Christ. And so holy love lives in this hope, and it rejoices in the truth, and it grieves over all that is contrary to the truth. Whether that is known in a person's individual life, whether it's known in the lives of others, whether it's watched on television, or on a movie, or heard in songs, or read in books, or whatever it may be, love does not delight in evil, but it rejoices with the truth. Well, how'd you do with these eight diagnostic questions? They're just a little bit searching, aren't they? They're very, very searching. And I think that for all of us, if we are honest, we acknowledge that if we even are believers, we are far from perfect and we all have room to grow in this holy love. But for us who are believers, who profess the name of Christ, we ask ourselves the question, do we see evidence, evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in our life? And do you see evidence that you're trusting in and rejoicing in Jesus and seeking to overflow with his patience and his kindness to others? Do you see evidence in your life that you're working hard through the Holy Spirit to build up others and to build the body of Christ rather than destroying others and destroying the body of Christ? And do you take these negative diagnostic questions as warnings to avoid to help you stay on the path of holy love for others? And so again, dear brother and sister in Christ, knowing that you're not perfect, do you see evidence of Christ's work in your life and your eagerness to grow in holy love, your eagerness to grow against and to avoid these dangers, to renew your resolve, to avoid drifting into these dangers and the divisive, destructive, selfish pride that they express? Again, holy love works hard through God's Spirit to build and not destroy. Children who are here or who may be listening this morning, maybe think about it this way, and this is especially for you young ones. If some part of your body gets injured, let's say that you stub your toe or you twist your ankle or you jam your finger or you get a nosebleed or you scrape your knee, What do you do with that injured body part? Do you just cut it off and get rid of it? And just say, you know, I don't need this toe anymore, I don't need this ankle, I don't need this finger or this nose or this knee anymore, so I'm just gonna get rid of it. No, of course you don't do that. You wanna see that body part healed, and you want it to get better, because it's connected to your whole body. And so you and usually one of your parents is gonna do what's necessary to fix the owie, if you will. Because you care for your body and you work for the health of your whole body. And the health and the functioning of each body part. And you see, this is what Christians are to do in the body of Christ. We recognize that we're not isolated and independent and disconnected from Christ's body. We are an intimate part of Christ's body. And so when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. When one part of the body is doing well, we all rejoice because we work hard through God's Spirit for the good of the body, to build rather than to destroy. And this is what Christians do. This is what holy love does. Well, perhaps this morning you honestly see no evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in your life. Perhaps you're not trusting in and rejoicing in Jesus and you've instead had to answer yes to every one of those diagnostic questions. And let me just say, friend, if this is the case for you, God is perhaps showing you this morning that you know nothing of His holy love in Jesus. You know nothing of faith in Jesus Christ and of having your sins forgiven and of having eternal life and hope in Him. And as a result, you're not free to love others with this holy love. Instead, you're enslaved to your own selfishness and pride, and rather than loving people, you simply use people for your own selfish and proud ambitions. And if that's true, then all these negative things that Paul says really describe your habit of manipulating and leveraging other people just like common tools to build your own self-serving, self-promoting, self-pleasing kingdom of one. Rather than loving and serving people, you use and abuse them for your own agendas. And if they don't function and perform like the useful tool that you expect them to, well, you just toss them out and go find another tool. And so I would say, if this is true of you this morning, your great need is to repent and to come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because friend, if you continue in your rebellion and your unbelief, God will grievously discard you and throw you into his eternal judgment in hell. And he lovingly warns you now, that doesn't have to be your destiny. He calls you to repent. you need to experience what many of these Corinthians had experienced in trusting Christ and learning to boast only in Him. The Apostle Paul said it this way in verses 26 to 31 of chapter 1. He says, for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He goes on to say, and because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Friend, where is your boast this morning? Is it in yourself or is it in the Lord Jesus Christ? Beloved, we can only be like Jesus in holy, humble, sacrificial love for others when we have eternal life through faith in Christ. And when we're rejoicing in and overflowing with the holy, humble, sacrificial love of Jesus for us, then we're free to serve others and to overflow with his patience and kindness to others. And it's only then, as one author has said, Ed Welch, in his excellent little book, When People are Big and God is Small, it's only then that we can truly need people less and love them more. May God help us to exhibit such love through faith in Christ. Let me lead us in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word, even as it is living and active, even as it is sharper than any two-edged sword, even as it penetrates, even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. you tell us your word judges the thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts. And certainly you know the thoughts and the attitudes of heart of every individual who is hearing your word now. And how we pray that your will would be done, how we pray that wherever they may have been, wherever they are, that they would know through faith in Jesus, that life, that hope, that holy love that forgives, that cleanses, that restores, and that enables and frees through your spirit to truly love others with the fullness of your patience and your kindness, and avoiding all of these negative, divisive, destructive expressions of interaction that we can so often be given to. We pray, Father, that your will would be done and that your work would be done in each one's life for your glory and their joy. In Christ's name, amen and amen.