Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Most Important Virtue - Love*  \\   1 Corinthians 13:4-13:7

                                                                                          PH12~/05 \\ \\ I like the story about a rather legalistic Seminary student who wanted to have a scriptural basis for everything he did.

He felt he was on solid ground if he could quote Bible book, chapter & verse to okay his actions.

\\ \\ He did all right with that until he began to fall in love with a beautiful co-ed.

He wanted very much to kiss her, but he just couldn’t find a scripture to okay it.

So, true to his conscience, he would simply walk her to the dormitory each night, look at her longingly, & then say "Good night."

\\ \\ This went on for several weeks, & all the time he was searching the Bible, trying to find some scripture to okay kissing her good night.

But he couldn’t find one, until finally he came across that passage in Romans that says, "Greet each other with a holy kiss."

He thought, "At last, I have scriptural authority for kissing her good night."

\\ \\ But to be sure, he went to his hermeneutics professor to check it out.

After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than with a dating situation.

So once again he simply didn’t have a passage of scripture to okay kissing his girl good night.

\\ \\ That evening he walked her to the dormitory & once again started to bid her "good night."

But as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, & planted a 10-second kiss right on his lips.

\\ \\ At the end of the kiss, the Seminary student gasped for air, & stammered, "Bible verse, Bible verse."

The girl grabbed him a 2nd time, & just before kissing him again, said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

\\ \\

Let’s look at 1 Cor 13:4-7 together.

“/Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.”/

/ /

We use this verse a lot in weddings, and that’s a good application…but today I would like for us to apply it to our relationship with each other.

How we treat each other says a lot about what we really believe, and our relationship with God.

I hope that you noticed that this verse did not mention any emotions.

The love that is talked about here is a love that does or does not do something.

It is the way we respond to people, not with just the words “I love you”, but actions.

\\ A. The Bible has a lot to say about love.

In fact, from beginning to end that is its theme - God’s love for each of us, & our love for Him, which results in our loving one another.

The bible is really a love story from cover to cover.

\\ \\ The Bible clearly teaches that the most important virtue we share in our fellowship as Christians is our love for one another.

So the Bible has a lot to say about the subject of love.

\\ \\ B. But so does the world.

The world has a lot to say about love.

The problem is that the world doesn’t say the same thing the Bible says.

And because we hear the world say so much about love, we tend to get the two mixed up.

\\ \\ 5 Things I would like for us to notice today from this passage that deal with the Christian virtue of love.

\\ I. CHRISTIAN LOVE IS ALWAYS ROOTED & GROUNDED IN GOD \\ A. *First of all,* Christian love is always rooted & grounded in God.

\\ \\ The world tends to look at love as strictly a relationship between human beings, & we have been taught by the world that if we just love each other enough, we can create for ourselves a utopia on earth.

The world teaches that love is just a feeling or emotion.

\\ \\ ILL.

We sing songs about it.

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love."

Or "If I had a hammer I’d hammer out love for all my brothers & sisters all over the world."

Again, "We are the people.

We are the children who can make it a better world."

\\ \\ Bumper stickers tell us to hug our kids, & politicians proclaim a kinder & gentler society.

\\ \\ B. These are wonderful & noble words, words that we desperately need to hear.

But as long as love is seen as strictly a product of human effort, without involving God, it will never succeed in making our world a better place.

\\ \\ We have tried that as long as man has been around, & we still steal from each other, & assault each other, & kill each other.

This world that ignores God is not becoming a better place.

It is becoming a terrible place.

\\ \\ John says in chapter 4 of 1 John, "Little children, love one another because love is of God." Love originates with God.

And it is not until we have felt & understood God’s love, & respond to it, that we can really begin to learn how to show love to one another.

\\ \\ C. I am convinced that there are many marriages that would not survive if it weren’t for a mutual faith in God.

\\ \\ ILL.

Deborah & I have been married for more than 37 years, & we have had some rough times - financial difficulties, trying to raise 3 kids, a couple of foster kids, schools, all of those things.

We look back & wonder sometimes how we survived, & how our marriage survived.

But I’m convinced that it was because our love is deeply rooted in the love that God has for us, & that He has demonstrated to us.

\\ \\ So the first essential of Christian love is to recognize that God’s love is the source of all love, & that our love for one another must be deeply rooted in our mutual love for God.

\\ \\ II.

CHRISTIAN LOVE ALWAYS GROWS DEEPER WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME \\ A. *The second* essential is this.

Christian love always grows deeper with the passage of time.

\\ \\ Did you notice what Paul said?

He said, "Love is patient.

Love never fails."

Love is not in a hurry, & years from now, the love that is rooted in God’s love will be greater & more mature than it is even now.

This is also where  some of the emotions and feelings that are associated with the word “love” come into play.

\\ \\ B. The world looks at love & it says that love diminishes with time because the world sees love in an entirely different way.

It thinks that love is something that just happens to us.

It is something that you fall into & you fall out of, like falling off a bicycle.

You didn’t intend to do it, but it just happened to you.

It was out of your control.

\\ \\ ILL.

"Some enchanted evening across a crowded room you will meet a stranger."

Then wham, bang, zap, you are suddenly in love.

You didn’t plan it.

Your eyes just happened to meet, & suddenly you are in love with one another.

That’s not what this passage teaches, is it?

\\ \\ ILL.

Elvis Presley sang, "I can’t help falling in love."

The Righteous Brothers sang, "You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’."

And The Doors sang a song that says.

"Hello, I love you.

Would you tell me your name?" Isn’t that amazing?

"Hello, I love you.

Would you tell me your name?" \\ \\ That’s the way the world looks at love.

It is something that just happens, an infatuation, if you will.

And as long as it is infatuation, it diminishes with the passage of time.

\\ \\ ILL.

I heard a definition of the contrast between infatuation & love.

It says, "Infatuation is when you think your husband is as handsome as Tom Cruse, as amusing as Rodney Daingerfield, as intellectual as Albert Einstein, as devout as Billy Graham, & as athletic as Dennis Rodman."

That is infatuation.

\\ \\ "Love is realizing that your husband is as handsome as Albert Einstein, as intellectual as Dennis Rodman, as devout as Tom Cruse, as athletic as Rodney Daingerfield, & as amusing as Billy Graham.

But you love him anyway."

You see, there’s a big difference between infatuation & love.

\\ \\ Ill.

I’ve been told that there are 7 stages of the marital cold.

This is a story about a couple who got married & in their first year of marriage she came down with a case of the sniffles.