Many years ago, back when our girls were little, we had a cat, Tigger the cat. I don't know how we got Tigger the cat. I think he was a stray and he joined our family. which is remarkable in itself. I know in the world there are cat people and there are dog people, and we are not cat people. But anyway, Tigger was part of our family, but this cat ended up, we found out later, was a cat that had amazing powers. This cat had the power to cause children not to hear parents. And then we found another power that Tigger the Cat had. Tigger the Cat had the power to cause children to forget what parents say. And I don't know if it's so much that Tigger the cat had all that much power as much as when the girls would get focused on Tigger the cat. The things that were really important became things that were not that important and the things that were not that important became more important. You know that's true of life, isn't it? Sometimes in life we get focused on things that aren't all that important. and we forget about the things that are really important. And so we have to sometimes have our focus refocused. We're in a series on the book of 1 Corinthians entitled Wise Up, clarifying confusion with God's wisdom. And remember the church at Corinth had so many problems and questions and so much confusion, and God wrote this book to them to clarify their confusion with His wisdom. So turn in your Bibles again to the book of 1 Corinthians. This morning turn particularly to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Now, chapter 13 is in a section of this book, chapters 12, 13, and 14, that deals with a subject that was causing great confusion in their day and time, and it causes some confusion even today. What was the subject? Well, if you look at chapter 12, verse one, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. What was the subject that was causing confusion? Spiritual gifts, right. And in the middle of this discussion on spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul, by inspiration of the Spirit of God, writes chapter 13. Now, when you think of chapter 13 of the book of 1 Corinthians, what comes to your mind? The chapter on what subject? Love. And you might think, why in the world, on the subject of spiritual gifts, does God give us a chapter on love? I'll tell you why it's important. Because the church at Corinth did not have a problem with giftedness. Oh my, they were very gifted. They had a love problem. Did you know that you never have a problem with not having, if you're a born again person, you never have a problem with not having a spiritual gift, never. But I'll tell you what you may have, and we all have this problem sometime. We all at times have a love problem. Now I do want to clarify again with you for understanding some important concepts and teachings in the Bible. First is the gift of the Spirit. That is a gift that God gives to us at the moment of our salvation. In fact, when you came to Jesus Christ, you remember, if you have come to Christ, you remember back in your life, and you remember the story, your story, review it in your own mind. When you realized of your sin, and you were sinful, and you saw that your sin led you to one end, and that is condemnation. and the condemnation before a holy God was that you would have to pay for the penalty of your sin, eternal punishment in a place the Bible calls hell. Do you remember that? Do you remember the weight of the sin? And do you remember when you were confronted with that, when God in His mercy revealed to you this fact, that even though you're sinful and you must stand before Him and must pay for your punishment, that God the Son came to the earth as a sinless man. And He paid the price for you on that cross. And He rose again. Do you remember it? And on that day, do you remember when you came to Christ and by faith you trusted Him? And at that moment, you knew that you were once and for all eternally saved from the wrath to come. Do you remember that? Now, at that moment, you got a package deal. There are a lot of things God did for you that moment you put your trust in Christ. But included in that package deal, there's a forgiveness of sins. That's enough. But included in that package deal is that God then places His Spirit inside of you. You'll find it described a number of ways. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 12 we learned we are baptized into one's spirit. Sometimes it's described, 1 Corinthians 6, that He indwells us. Sealed with the Spirit. All of this describes the fact that when a person comes to Jesus Christ, God gives them His Spirit. If any man, Romans 8, 9 says, have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. The moment a person comes to Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in them. It's a gift that He gives. And if you have not yet received by faith Jesus Christ, and you don't have a story to tell that you know that you were a sinner condemned and that Christ can save you, my friend, why not today? In fact, why not right now in the quietness of this moment in your heart? Call on the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I can't save myself, but you bore my wrath. I receive you by faith because of what you did for me and saved me, and he will. So at that moment, God the Spirit then indwells you. You receive the gift of the Spirit. Be careful because some will teach, well, what you do is you trust Christ, and later you pray and pray and ask and ask, and eventually God gives you the gift of the Spirit. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. So there's the gift of the Spirit. It's a gift that God gives to us. And then there is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is what God produces in us. So as an individual now, as a child of God by faith in Christ, yields to the Holy Spirit. He speaks to my heart about an area that needs to change, a sin I must forsake, something I must embrace. I'm praying and I'm asking, God for His help because I'm in a time of temptation and I need His help and I yield to Him and I yield to the Spirit and He gives me power to overcome. I'm praying for God to help me because I'm not thinking accurately and God would you help me and I yield to the Holy Spirit of God. And as what happens as you yield to the Spirit of God, do you know what God the Spirit does? God produces in us His character, it's called the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5, 22, 23. The fruit of the spirit is, and there's all this list that I don't know if I can quote exactly or accurately, exactly, accurately, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, all of these things God produces in your life as he forms your character. And then beside the gift of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit, I want to point out the gifts of the Spirit. And that's the subject that is addressed in these chapters in 1 Corinthians. And God works, this is how God works through us. He gives each believer an enabling power for ministry to serve others. And what happened at the Corinthian church was that they got out of focus. their gifts became about self-promotion and division, rather than selflessly loving God and serving others. And because they were all about themselves, then it created all kinds of problems. How many of you know that whenever you have a life that's lived for yourself, it creates all kinds of problems? Yeah, absolutely. See, the church at Corinth was a highly gifted church, but they had this real love problem. And 1 Corinthians is 13. We call it the love chapter, but it's really not about love as much as it is helping the church at Corinth to get their focus right and check their focus. And so this is a chapter that tells us what you need to know to keep your focus right. So I'm gonna preach to you today about check your focus. You've turned in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Would you stand with me please? We're gonna read beginning in verse one through verse seven. Standing, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I'll begin reading in verse one. We'll read through verse seven. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I'm become as a 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 profiteth me nothing. Charity or love suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and then finally, endureth all things. You see, God wants us to know something about the focus of our life. He wants you to know this, that your character is far more important than your giftedness. Maybe I could put it this way, that your personhood is a priority over the public prominence of any spiritual gift. And sometimes in life, we need to have our focus adjusted. And that's why God in this chapter tells us about a life that is lived and motivated by love. So let's pray and ask God to help us, all right? Lord, It is so easy for us to get our focus wrong. And as our brothers and sisters in Corinth a few millennia ago had a real problem that created other problems because they had their focus wrong and they forgot to focus on a selfless life lived in love it reminds us that we have the same problem. So unless your spirit helps us and speaks to us, Lord, and you show your mercy to us, and you speak to us and help us to see the reality of who we are, we are bound to go on our own way and our own selfish way. And so God, the spirit, please arrest us and speak to us so that we learn to live a life that is driven by love. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. Please be seated. Well, here's what you need to know to keep your focus right. You ready? Here's what you need to know first. Check your motivation. Check your motivation. What drives me? I've told you many times that the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. And the Apostle Paul in this passage of scripture very creatively strikes at our heart motivation in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In fact, he sets up a series of hypothetical illustrations or hypothetical possibilities of what could happen. And each time he does so, he identifies it with the term though. So you'll notice this in verse one. Though, and here's the case that he's going to make. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Now what is the meaning of these terms, the tongues of men and the tongues of angels? The term that is used here, the tongues of men, is the term glossa. I'll give that to you. It's one of the terms that's used for human language. In fact, the other one is another term that we will meet at other times in our study. But this term is used in two different ways in the Bible. One of them describes a body part. How many of you have that body part, a tongue? Some of you don't? My, bless your heart. Yeah, how many of you have gotten in trouble with that body part before, right? Boy, that same part, it'll bless you or it'll curse you, right? So there's a body part, the tongue. But then, the term is also used at times to describe a known language. Now, there are two meanings to the term that is used as a language. The first term, You'll read about it in Acts chapter 2. Keep your place in 1 Corinthians, or the first one we'll talk about in 1 Corinthians 13. Go with me to Acts chapter 2 and we will be introduced to this term in this way. Acts chapter 2. Remember that Jesus had ascended from after his resurrection. He comes back to the earth. He spends 40 days with the disciples and he's teaching them the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He's getting them ready for them to go on their own and carry on his work, not in his bodily presence, but now with the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. So he ascends to heaven and he says, now, fellas, don't go out and start preaching yet. I want you to just wait because there will come a time when I will send the Holy Spirit and he will give you his power. And when I send the Holy Spirit, then you proclaim the gospel and begin carrying out the mission that I have for you. And so it's the Feast of Pentecost and there are people from all over the world, Jewish people from all over the world that have come to celebrate this Jewish feast. And because they're from all over the world they speak all kinds of languages. And in Acts chapter 2, the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost comes down and enables these men and these men begin to preach. I'll have you read with me, follow verse 4 of chapter 2. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, that's our term, other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and they were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own what? Language. What was the tongue described as from verse four in verse six? It's described as a language. And in fact, look at verse seven. And they were all amazed and marveled and saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And now we hear every man in our own tongue, our own language wherein we were born. And then look at those names in verse nine, Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers of Mesopotamia and all this list of different languages where these individuals enabled by the spirit spoke that language. Now that tells us then about the first meaning of the term. It is a sign gift in which God enables individuals to speak languages that they have not previously known. A signed gift in which God enables people to speak languages that they had not previously known. Now how many, I'll put it this way, in our congregation we have numbers of people that speak more than one language. We have people that speak Russian and Portuguese and Spanish and Japanese and there may be other languages that I do not know. We have people that speak American Sign Language, its own language. Now, how many of you all that speak another language, if you had to learn that language, how many of you wish that you would have had the gift of tongues, a sign gift to help you learn that language? How many of you all in school that are taking, your kids that are in school, you're glad you're out of school this summer, I know, but you kids that are taking languages, how many of you wish, especially on test day, that God would give you the gift of tongues, of languages? How many of you know what I mean? Wouldn't that be great? It doesn't quite work that way. A sign gift. where God enabled people to speak a language that they did not previously speak to declare his truth. But then there's another meaning for tongues and that is the ability to speak languages that are known. So in Revelation chapter 5, chapter 7, you'll find this congregation in heaven. And God, there's tribulations going on in the earth. God is pouring out His judgment. There are believers who have followed Jesus Christ. They're being martyred. They're in heaven. And God transports us from the chaos of the earth and we go to the glories of heaven. And we see there people that have been redeemed by His blood. And they're described this way of people who are out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation. It reminds us that all over the world, even while judgment is going on, God is still redeeming and saving people. And those people, many of them are then giving their lives as martyrs for the cause of Jesus Christ. you'll find it used this way, that it is a known language. Now, in this passage of scripture now, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is the meaning that is used there, or the usage that is there? Is this, tongues of men, the sign gift of languages that are not previously known, or is this the ability to speak languages that are known? Well, In the book of 1 Corinthians this term is used of the supernatural gift. In 1 Corinthians the problem was not, was the misuse of this supernatural gift. It wasn't the people who were bilingual or trilingual or multilingual had a problem with their different languages. The issue was the spiritual gift of tongues that was creating the problem. And in the immediate context, The use is a description of this supernatural gift. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 20, verse 28, verse 30 all describe the supernatural gift. Two times in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 1 and verse 8. Fourteen times in chapter 14 the term is used to describe the supernatural gift of tongues. So in 1 Corinthians 13 one, this tongues of men is a gift of speaking with languages not known previously, but enabled by the spirit of God to do so. But I'll tell you what, that is still pretty impressive, isn't it? Can you imagine being in a congregation and the person that you've known for a period of years that also like you came to Jesus Christ, you know them pretty well and all of a sudden they begin to speak Spanish. You have no idea what they're speaking. That's pretty impressive. Of course, later you'd have someone interpret that. But wow, that's impressive. Then there's another tongue, the tongues of men, and then there's the tongues of angels. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that In heaven, the angels speak their own language and sometimes people on earth get to, by the Spirit of God, speak heavenly, angelic language. Is that what that means? Well, that's hard to say because it's the only time this expression is used. We have no other indication that the angels speak a different language and that we as people ever speak that language. In fact, every time an angel speaks in the Bible, guess what language they speak? They speak the language of the person to whom they're speaking. So is that a tongue of angel or it could mean this. Let me illustrate it to you this way. I've had this said to me numbers of times over the years. Our daughter Jessica sings. And I've had people make this comment or something like it. They would say, and it's happened many occasions, she sings like an angel. Now what do they mean by that? Do they mean that she is an angelic being that is up here? No. There's something about the quality of her voice that just reminds them of something just beautiful and even heavenly, right? And what does God mean here? The tongues of men, this is a supernatural gift of speaking another language, the tongues of angels. It's an impressive quality. And what is the point that God is making? God is making this point that here are individuals that illustrate people who have impressive eloquence. And you marvel, how incredible, how beautiful. But God tells us something about them. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity. That's a motivation driven by love. I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. How many of you have ever dropped pots before? You ever dropped a pot? Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang. Not very impressive. Sounding brass. or a tinkling cymbal. How many of you kids have ever pulled out one of mom's pots from under the cupboard and took one of her wooden spoons and started playing the drum? How many of you kids ever done that? You ever done that? Is it fun to play that drum? Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, ba-bang, ba-bang, ba-bang. Oh, it's so fun. How many of you kids love doing that? Do you enjoy it? Do you remember doing that? How many of y'all did it? You adults, when you were kids, how many of you remember doing that? Now, as a parent, is it nearly as entertaining? No, when your grandchildren do it, is it nearly as fun? After a while, it's not nearly as fun. In fact, it seems sort of worthless and meaningless. God says, you know how impressive someone speaking another language they never learned and they just start rolling out Spanish or Japanese or Portuguese or whatever language. It's just coming out. How impressive someone whose voice is so beautiful, impressive. And God says with all of that, It's not driven with a heart of love. It's bang, bang, bang, clang, clang, clang. Meaningless. Well then, verse 2, God gives us another illustration of this. You see the word and though again, I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and And though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. He goes from impressive eloquence to something that's also equally impressive, at least publicly, and that is impressive insights and power. And you read about it and the prophecy, what is this prophecy? The gift of prophecy is direct revelation from God communicated from God to an individual for a congregation. Now in chapter 14, we will address this extensively because that really is the focus of chapter 14. But it's pretty incredible. Remember, there's a time of transition. The word of God hasn't been written yet. In fact, as the apostle Paul is writing this, he is writing this eternal word that is now being inscripturated and he's writing it And so there's a time of transition and we don't have a written record of the word. And God is speaking to individuals sometimes through this gift of tongues. Sometimes he's speaking through the gift of prophecy. And God is speaking to individuals who then pass along God's word to that congregation. Now, hey, listen, that's impressive to imagine that God personally speaks to an individual for our benefit. Wow. Beside that, I want you to notice something else. This is also impressive. Beside that, this person understands all mysteries and all knowledge with spiritual insights and knowledge. And then there's something else. This person demonstrates spiritual power. Verse two again, though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains. Three times on two occasions, it's recorded three times, it occurred on two occasions. Jesus said as he was teaching, now if you have faith and you say to the mountain, be thou removed and cast into the sea, that it'll be done for you. Now that would be impressive, wouldn't it? And now this is a person who's impressive. You come to church and you're sitting in the adult Bible class And that person is giving insights and expounding. You say, wow, that's incredible. Wow. Having church and excuse me, God has just shown me something. Wow. Now you're in the prayer meeting and you have them pray and they're praying and I mean, things are happening. Wow. That's impressive, but with all of that, God says something about even that individual. Verse two, that if this person has not charity, motivated by love, I am nothing. Then, God tells us about impressive eloquence. Without love, it's no use. Impressive insights and power. Without love, it's nothing. Then another hypothetical illustration of impressive sacrifice. And he says, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. Can you imagine that? I empty every bank account. I empty all my 501k, my life savings, sell all my stuff, sell the house, donate it all to the Chandigarh Rescue Mission. Wow. Wow. And though, I give my body to be burned, martyred for the cause of Christ and the truth. I'm not going to volunteer, but I'll tell you, it's impressive. Over the years, brothers and sisters in the Lord have given themselves as martyrs, burned for the truth. And with such sacrifice, God says something about even this level of sacrifice. With all of it, I do all of that and have not charity. It profiteth me what church? Nothing. You see, God is serious about our motivation. And God, even on a day like today from this passage of scripture, lets us to see all this laid out because God wants us to look to him and say, God, With whatever I have, with whatever I'm doing in all of it, God, am I focused in the wrong way? Even with all I'm doing, do I need to get my focus back on doing it out of love? There are a lot of motivations that are powerful. Fear, is fear a powerful motivation? You better believe it is. Is pride a powerful motivation? Absolutely. Is anger? Oh, yes, it is. Pressures? Duty? Yes, duty is a powerful motivation. Sometimes survival, and survival is a very powerful motivation. Bitterness? Selfishness? Oh, there are all kinds of motivation. But God calls his people to be motivated out of love. Remember when a man came to Jesus and said, Lord, what's the greatest of all the commandments? Now that's a good question. There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. That's a lot of commandments. So Lord, out of all of them, what's the greatest? And Jesus said, here's what they are. This is the 22nd chapter of Matthew. The first was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, thy mind, and thy strength. And the second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. And in time, The motivation will manifest itself. And on this day, this is an occasion for us to say, Lord, what's my motivation? Am I driven out of love? How do you check your focus? Well, you check your focus first by check your motivation. That helps you keep the right focus. And then there's another truth that God tells us to keep the right focus, and that is check your manifestation. Because, listen, in time, your motivation will be manifest. So you check your motivation and you check your manifestation. In chapter 13, verses four to seven, probably the part of chapter 13 that's well-known, known more than anything else, there are 14 characteristics of love, 14 characteristics of a love-driven life. And this morning I'm gonna place these in four different categories that help us to take a look and consider whether you and I have a love-driven life or not. In fact, the next time we're together, my plan is to look at these in greater detail and go deeper into not only the meaning of these terms, but deeper into our own hearts and our own lives. But for today, I want you to write down these four categories that describe a love-driven life. A love-driven life transforms how we deal with people. Verse 4, charity suffereth long and is kind. A love-driven life transforms how we develop personally or sometimes we'll use the word here personhood. Keep reading in chapter 4. 13 verse 4, love envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked. How we develop personally. A love driven life, thirdly, transforms What determines our perspective and so verse 5 finishes with these words that love thinketh no evil. In verse 6 rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth. And then the final category you'll read in verse 7. A love-driven life transforms how we deal with problems. So love beareth all things, and believeth all things, and hopeth all things, and endureth all things. Now I want you to stop and ask yourself, does my life reveal that I have a love-driven life by how I deal with people? Does my life reveal that I have a love-driven life by how I'm developing personally? Does my life reveal that I have a love-driven life by my perspective of life? And does my life reveal that I have a love-driven life by how I deal with problems? How do you keep the right focus? You check your motivation and then you watch the manifestation. How is that playing out? Because in time, in time, your manifestation reveals your motivation. The story is told about a high jumper who set a meet record in the event. And the reporter asked him, how did you jump so high? And he answered with these words, I just threw my heart over the bar and my body followed it. See, the problem is not Or the problem, excuse me, the heart of the problem is always a problem of the heart. And the heart of the matter is always a matter of the heart. And God wants you to have a heart that is driven by love. Would you stand with me please? Now, Lord, as we pray, sometimes I think we have to, I'll be honest with you, and I think for all of us, we really have to be honest that we don't always know our own heart. But we pray, oh God, that you would reveal to us, for sometimes we need the encouragement Other times we need to be challenged and rebuked and corrected. And so we pray, oh God, that you would, in your mercy, show us our heart for what it is. We can be changed. Now, before I'm done praying, I wonder if you'd say, you know, pastor, that's the person you just prayed about is me. I know I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I know I put my trust in him, but God is speaking to me about my heart and driven by love. And I want God's help in my life in this way. And he's in a very specific way dealing with me about that. You just very quickly raise up your hand. I'm gonna pray with you in just a minute. Yeah, thank you. Lord, we have friends that you're helping them, and thank you for your mercy. You could have let us go on our way, but you, in your mercy, are dealing with our heart. We praise you for it, Lord, and ask for mercy for them and for all of us who are seeking to have a love-driven life. And before I finish out this prayer, I wonder if you could say, you know, Pastor, earlier when you talked about that individual that saw their sin and just the weight and the exceeding sinfulness of sin and that Jesus died for them and God in his mercy saves all who come to him and can make out of their sins forgiven and all, you know, Pastor, that's me. And maybe you'd say, even in the quietness of that moment, I called on the Lord Jesus to save me. Or maybe you'd say, I don't know about it, but I'm concerned about where I stand. If that's you, just hold up your hand. And again, I'll acknowledge it. I'm gonna pray with you about that just very quickly. If you'll just raise up your hand. Okay, looking. So God, for those that that's where they stand, your love draws them. And I pray that they would receive Jesus and the love gift that he gave of the forgiveness of sins through his blood. And now we ask at this time of invitation, in this time when individuals are responding to the truth and to the Holy Spirit as he speaks individually, we pray, oh Lord, there would be great joy and true worship as individuals, submit his will, her will, personally to your gracious love. For we pray it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. The instruments are playing. Say, pastor, God has dealt with me and you're seeking the Lord. I'm so thrilled for you. And it may be that on this day you need someone to pray with you about some things. This altar is for you. It may mean that you don't want necessarily to pray with someone about some things, but you know that God is dealing with you and you want to make some commitments to him in your love-driven life. And these front steps, these front chairs are available for you. You come on. For you, it may be that you want to know Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins and what it is to be, the Bible term uses the word saved, redeemed, to be in Christ, all those are Bible words that describe a person that puts their trust in the Lord Jesus and that's you and you want to know that you have an eternal home and that assurance and that confidence because of what Jesus did then you come on and we have men here and they'll direct a lady if you're a lady, a man if you're a man to speak with you about your eternal soul. So you come on now.