January 8, 2017
Deuteronomy 1:9-18 and 1 Corinthians 13
“Living and Leading in Love”
Service Orientation: For the believer, in leading, as in living, it’s all about loving. All truly loving behavior is for the common good. Yet only Jesus demonstrates and illustrates what it means to love truly.
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
Background Information on Love:
- “I took up the word ‘Love,’ and I do not know how many weeks I spent in studying the passages in which it occurs, till at last I could not help loving people! I had been feeding on Love so long that I was anxious to do everybody good I came in contact with. I got full of it. It ran out my fingers. You take up the subject of love in the Bible! You will get so full of it that all you have got to do is open your lips, and a flood of the Love of God flows out upon the meeting. There is no use trying to do church work without love. A doctor, a lawyer, may do good work without love, but God’s work cannot be done without love.” (D.L. Moody, The Life Story of Dwight Lyman Moody, Commoner of Northfield, 146)
- “The British playwright, George Bernard Shaw, wrote, ‘Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.’ Shaw’s sarcastic wit exposes one of our most stubbornly persistent problems—not living what we profess or believe. Nowhere is this problem more evident than in our response to Christ’s teachings on unity, humble-servanthood, and love. We have failed to take Christ’s example and commands seriously.” (Robert L. Peterson and Alexander Strauch, Agape Leadership, 7)
- John 13:34-35, John 15:12, 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, Galatians 5:14, Ephesians 4:31-32, Ephesians 5:2, Colossians 3:12-14, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, 1 Timothy 4:12, 2 Timothy 2:24-25, 1 Timothy 3:2-3, Hebrews 10:24, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 John 3:16.
The Word for the Day is: Love.
1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:8a, 13.
- The mathematics of Love
Verses 1-3
Equation:
Anything – Love = Zero
Without Love:
Nothing I do Will Matter; vs 1-3
Nothing I say Will Matter; v. 1
Nothing I know Will Matter; v. 2a
Nothing I believe Will Matter; v. 2b
Nothing I give Will Matter; v. 3
- The mechanics of Love
Verses 4-6
“Patient”
“Kind”
“Does not envy”
“Does not boast”
“Is not proud”
“Is not rude”
“Is not self-seeking”
“Is not easily angered”
“Keeps no record of wrongs”
“Does not rejoice with evil but rejoices with the truth”
- The masters of Love
Verses 7-8a
“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
- The mircale of Love
The Lord Jesus!
Verses 4-8a
* * *
“ ATM” (After The Message)
We are able to live love because the Christ who IS love gives love and lives love in us and through us. We are locked into God’s everlasting love. Writes Cindy Hess Kasper: “In June 2015, the city of Paris removed forty-five tons of padlocks from the railings of the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge. As a romantic gesture, couples would etch their initials onto a lock, attach it to the railing, click it shut, and throw the key into the River Seine. After this ritual was repeated thousands of times, the bridge could no longer bear the weight of so much ‘love.’ Eventually the city, fearing for the integrity of the bridge, removed the ‘love locks.’ The locks were meant to symbolize everlasting love, but human love does not always last. The closest of friends may offend each other and never resolve their differences. Family members may argue and refuse to forgive. A husband and wife may drift so far apart that they can’t remember why they once decided to marry. Human love can be fickle. But there is one constant and enduring love—the love of God…The promises of the unfailing and everlasting nature of God’s love are found throughout Scripture…Fellow believers, we are locked into God’s love forever.” (Our Daily Bread)
For further study, books by Robert Peterson and Alexander Strauch: Agape Leadership, Leading with Love, and Love or Die; Lewis and Roth Publishers, Littleton CO.
