Faithfully

Message Transcription

Well, it is good to be with you here this morning. And to those who have served, we thank you for your service. And many of us have lost loved ones. To those who have bravely given their lives on behalf of our country. We are thankful on this weekend for that life that we share, the freedom that we share. But we also recognize that our greatest freedom comes by being released from captivity through the person of Jesus Christ. And so this summer, we wanted to spend some time looking back at some of the greatest passages and the epistles that that teach us about this amazing man, Jesus. We started last week by looking at one of Paul's most famous letters to letter to the church in Philippi, where he talks about humility, the humble nature of the servant Jesus. And each week I've been trying to pair it with a greatest hit from the music world. Last week, we looked at Country Music by Kris Kristofferson, a song called Why Me Lord, and thinking some about his interview that I was able to read through and reflecting on one of the thoughts he gave as he shared that experience of writing that song later on in life. He said It was a personal thing I was going through at the time. I had some kind of experience I can't even explain. He said, Our hope is that our encounter with this humble servant Jesus would be more than just a personal thing that we can't really explain, but it would become a way of life for us.

This week we're going to fast forward a couple of, well, maybe one decade into eighties rock and roll music, but we're going to be in first Corinthians 13. If you haven't turned there already, invite you to do so. Now as you're doing it. I'll read the lyrics to the song that we're going to look at today, or at least use as our entry point. Perhaps you remember it. And if so, you're welcome to speak them along with me if you'd like. Highway run. Into the midnight sun. Wheels go round and round. You're on my mind, right? Restless hearts. Sleep alone tonight. I'm sending all my love along the wire. They say that the road ain't no place to start a family. Right down the line. It's been you and me. And loving a music man ain't always what it's supposed to be. Oh, girl, you stand by me. I'm forever yours. Faithfully. This 1983 hit was written by a guy named Jonathan Cain. I know we associate it with Steve Perry and the the band Journey, and Jonathan was the keyboardist for that band. I read an interview. You actually listened to one this week. It was pretty interesting to hear the story of the song he was talking about. He was at a show after they had performed.

He was sitting on the stage waiting for the band to gather up all the gear, to break down the stage so that they could move on to their next show. And he said he found himself sitting there watching this team, this crew break down all the all of the materials, all of the staging equipment, the music equipment. And he said, man, you know, these guys are sacrificing this time with their families or loved ones to be out here with us. I started thinking, wouldn't it be great if we had a song we could sing for all of us because we're all missing our loved ones and all making that real sacrifice, that road sacrifice. So I went to the bus with that thought and had a napkin. And he wrote down this first four lines. The next day he was in upstate New York. They had traveled overnight. He was in his hotel room and he returned to that napkin where he said, I had a little Casio keyboard and I was plunking around on and I'm trying to get an idea for the melody. And then, you know, restless heart. Sleep alone tonight sending all my love along the wire. What next? Well, Jonathan would say I was inspired by the spirit. In fact, he said, I reckon it's a Holy Spirit moment because I've never written a song in 20 minutes. It's just me and the Holy Spirit writing this thing.

It was a supernatural morning I'll never forget. It's pretty amazing story. Jonathan is a strong Christian man. If you'd like to read or listen to that interview, shoot me a message this week and email and I'll send you the link. It's about 20 minutes long. Powerful story as he thinks about how these words that poured out of him, he said, were inspired by the spirit at work in my life. It's an amazing thing when you come face to face, when you encounter genuine love, isn't it? It's life changing. It's it's transforming. That's the kind of love I think Paul's talking about here in first Corinthians 13, this kind of love that is going to change. A young church that's being torn apart. They're fighting and they're arguing over all kinds of things. What it means to be a follower, who's the most important one in their community that I have this particular gift and you may have that one, but mine's more important and therefore I need to be seen as more important. This young church is threatening to break apart. So Paul is going to call them back and fact, he's going to focus them here at this point in the letter on worship, in chapters 11, 12, 13 and 14, they all kind of run together as he begins to to reshape their focus on what it means to be God's people. A group of different people with different gifts.

How could they possibly serve together? How could they worship together? He draws them back to that same humility we hear about in Philippians chapter two. The plot reminds them this isn't going to be something they can do on their own, that they're going to be able to will themselves into or just simply tolerate each other and their differences instead. They're going to have to make a key change, if you will. They have to deepen their understanding of the greatest quality that can be found in a Jesus community, because it was the greatest quality found in Jesus. And that's the quality of love. But this love. It's a tough one to translate from the Greek. You know, the Greeks had four different words that they would use to describe a word, this word love. And English we have maybe to our word love, but also affection. Neither one really get to the heart of what Paul's teaching about. So I want us to dive in for a minute and wrestle with maybe this famous passage, one of the greatest hits of Paul's writing. And chapter is, like I said, 12 through 14, he's going to talk to them about worship and their connection, their community together. But here in Chapter 13, he breaks up this passage on on love in three different ways that I want us to focus on. The first three verses demonstrate the vitality of love.

In fact, we're going to hear in just a minute that Paul will say, it doesn't matter what you do, no matter what incredible accomplishment happens in your life. If love is not the source, then it doesn't matter. Well, after that, he comes back and says, this is actually what love looks like. This is the embodiment of this thing called love. And then the final few verses explain that love is one of the things that's going to last into God's great eternity. Into that new creation that's talked about in Revelation and to that that new world that God is bringing into existence through his people, the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven. He says, love is going to be there. And so we need to understand it. So Paul starts again as these words Kaylee read for us just a moment ago. If I speak in the tongues of men or angels but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, if I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love. I gained nothing. Paul reminds them that love is what gives meaning to all of Christian behavior our entire life, all that we are, all that will ever do.

You see, the Corinthians, we're being tempted to point to the things of this world their behavior, their abilities, their capabilities, that that's what gave them order and status. That's what made them matter. Now, I know that's weird to us, right? As we try to imagine what it's like for us to live in the world where we're measured by our accomplishments, by our abilities. But just imagine, if you will, if that creeped into the church that we started diagnosing and assessing one another based on your talent, based on what you could or couldn't do for us. Paul says that's not how it's going to be in this community. He rebukes that idea. In fact, he says if you can speak in tongues like this, this prayer language. But you don't have love. Then you're just making noise. Friends. You're just causing a disturbance. If you can prophesy. Or if God's given you this incredible mind that you can unlock mysteries of the world. That you have the kind of faith that you could say, as Jesus said, one day they would tell that mountain to throw itself into the sea. And it will. But you don't love. He says it equals nothing. Or if you make this incredible sacrifice and we think about all the incredible sacrifices that have been made on our behalf over the years, over the many years of our country this weekend.

Right. Paul says we do these incredible sacrifices, but there's no love. It means nothing. Now think about that for a moment. Allow that to soak in as as a born and raised church of Christ. That doesn't sit well with me. Most of my life was ordered around doing the right things of being the right kind of person and demonstrating that. Paul says If love's not at the heart of that, Carl, then it doesn't matter. No matter how spiritual they might seem or might be. If love is not there, it's nothing. It kind of puts a new light on Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter seven of Matthew's Gospel. He says, Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did me not prophesy in your name and your name. Drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles. Then I will tell them plainly. I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. See, Paul believed that there was a day that every believer in Christ would would come face to face. To just to be justified. To give account for the life they've lived. And he said the thing that will count above everything else is love. So I invite you to let that bounce around in your brain this week. Think about all the interactions that you're going to have this week. It may be, I would say, at school, but school's out for summer.

Now. Maybe it's in the workplace, maybe it's in the neighborhood, maybe it's in the grocery store. Maybe it's just driving down Indiana with all the crazies that drive down that street. Maybe it's on the highway somewhere. And don't think just about the people that you like, but especially about the people that you don't. And at the one metric that's going to be used to measure your Christ likeness in the world. Is love. That will be the measure. When Jesus was asked one day. Jesus, what's the most important commandment? What's the most important thing we could do? His answer was, Follow all the rules, every one of them. That's how you're going to be judged. Do it right. No, no, no. That's not what he said. He said. Love. Love is that metric that will cut through anything else? Any conversation. Any manipulation. Love will be the thing that is judged. Am I love? Well, Paul, if that's going to be the metrics, then what is love? Here's how he describes it. Verse four Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but it rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. See, this is the heart of what Paul says. Love is. But most often when we hear this passage, we hear love. It gets conflated, conflated with this emotional feeling or experience we have toward another person. In our culture, it tends to be conflated with romance. Now, we don't really have a good word that that speaks exactly to this love that Paul's describing here. The fact we hear this passage most often, perhaps at weddings, and I read it there as well, because it's a wonderful passage describing the kind of love that should unite a husband and a wife. But but friends. Paul's not writing to husbands and wives here in Corinth. He's not pulling aside and saying, okay, are you married, folks? Listen up. This is how it goes. Now Paul's writing to believers in Jesus, to followers, to disciples who are trying to navigate community and sometimes really complicated community where things happen and people make some really bad choices and we have to live with the brunt of that. And sometimes we're at the expense of that, and sometimes we're the ones doing that. He was trying to talk to folks who who take their life and Christ seriously, who sometimes get things wrong. Love, Paul says it's a way of life. Because a feeling or an emotion is not enough to keep you going. Why is that? Well, as Jonathan wrote, because love in the music man ain't always what it's supposed to be.

Maybe we could change those words to say love and a Christian man ain't always what it's supposed to be. Or love in a Christian woman ain't always what it's supposed to be. Love in a Christian parent or a Christian grandparent. Or loving a son or daughter. It's not always what it's supposed to be, right? We've experienced that, haven't we? Friends. That love isn't always what it's supposed to be. Sometimes life in community is really hard and it's really challenging. And it could be really painful. It's not always what it's supposed to be. Look back again at the type of person Paul is describing here, a person who's committed themselves to the way of love. If you took the word love out. And we just read through the descriptions of that person and we kind of launched it out into the world. That would not necessarily be the most popular person around or seen. At least it'd be seen. Kind of silly. You're crazy. They keep no record of wrongs. What are you talking about? It must be a glutton for punishment. It's not proud. It doesn't boast. Well, that's because it doesn't have anything to talk about. Otherwise, it'd be on Instagram. A rejoices in the truth. What is truth? That's your truth. It's not my truth. What is truth? Perhaps in the church. Maybe sometimes it gets. Turned into these admirable, even noble, but not really realistic way of life.

I'm really supposed to live that way. That's kind of the spiritual giants, the spiritual heroes in our life for the people who live first Corinthians 13, Paul. That's not what he's saying. According to Paul, he acts and speaks as if it's essential for Christian living. I don't know if we're going to be the community we have to be this that's not we just aspire to it. It's we have to become this. Not only in community individually, but even in our worship. So how do we learn to live this way of life? I think Paul would say we practice it. When my favorite commentators and this passage in all the scriptures empty right and he offers this exercise I want to offer it to you this week that in your own time of reflection, a quiet time just invites you to return to these words here and first Corinthians 13, four through seven. Just to spend a little time thinking about how do I see this quality in Jesus? Love is patient. Allow your mind to go through. Maybe you want to just move through the Gospels, those moments where Jesus is just incredibly patient, where He's kind. Those places where he keeps no record of wrongs. Or he's not delighting in evil behavior, but instead he's rejoicing and sharing the truth that the gospel is here. This kingdom has come. Invited to spend some time this week.

Just reflecting on where in Jesus life did you see these qualities that Paul talks about, this way of life? And the second question goes right along with it. How do I see or not to see this quality in me? We're the places where I'm able to live this part out. We're the places where I'm really struggling to live the way of love. Who are those people? What are those places? What communities do I struggle? Man at work. Man. There's this person. Or or like me on the road when I'm driving in a bad driver, man, I struggle in the way of love. Where are those places in your life that you see these qualities and where you don't? In the last one pair with it. If you were to commit to living this way. If I was to commit to living this way. To living out these qualities, not just as a word or a thought experiment, but actually as a way of life. What might that begin to look like in my day to day existence? If I just chose one, I'm going to God teach me to love patiently this week. I'm going to commit myself to that. How might that change your interactions with the people around you that you come into contact with? You see this kind of reflection? Exercise is not just a way of trying to make ourselves feel better or worse.

It's instead trying to help us develop that theological imagination on the way of love. To begin imagining what that might look like. So when we encounter a situation in our life, we know how to respond. It's amazing how God, if you if you ask God to help you focus on patience or kindness, all the different opportunities He will present to you in the week to be patient. To be kind, right? You're going to run into some rough folks. And you're gonna have lots of practice. What if we committed ourselves to that and then encouraged each other and had it go for you this week? What aspect of love are you going to be focusing on? How can I pray for you in that? You see, it moves it from this exercise into a reality. In our world, we call it in the world of the church. We call that discipleship learning to live in the way of Jesus. Because Paul says, this is the thing that's going to last into eternity. We want to learn how to do it now because we're going to be living this way for eternity. He says. But where there are prophecies, one day those are going to stop. They're going to be stilled where there's knowledge, it's going to pass away for we know in part. And we prophesy only in part. But when completeness comes. All that in part business that just disappears.

You see, when I was a child, I talked like a child and I thought like a child and I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. See, there's nothing more important in the life of a disciple of Jesus than love for. There's nothing more. So we've been we've been misled to think there's nothing more important in the life of disciple than to be right. You got to be right. That's not what Jesus says. Jesus says it's the way of love to be loved. Well, doesn't rightness and love. Yes. They go together. Absolutely. Speak the truth in. Love. I see. Even the truth is wrapped in love. Why? Because love is the most important force at work in the universe. It's what's changed our lives. It's what will change the world. Again, we think about what's happened in our world this week and we want to rush out and say, well, if we just pass a law to do this. Well, yeah, that would help. Absolutely, that would help. I think this is a good idea. But you and I both know there are laws that don't change our hearts.

All right. Let me ask you a question. You don't have to answer this. How many of you obey every speed sign you see? All right. That's a law. You're supposed to go this limit. That's the most. And you go, Yeah, but I'm going to a really important meeting that you don't know about. I'm about to encounter someone that I really like and I don't want to be late. There are these other things that come along. No, no, no, no. Well, we passed a law. Shouldn't that change everything? No, because that's not how it works. Jesus understood that our hearts and how our hearts work. We don't force somebody into love. Love happens because we've been encountering it and we've seen it. And we can't help but respond to it. At the end of this interview with Jonathan Cain, he was sharing about his Christian faith. Now he writes Christian music. He still performs some with Journey when the band goes out and does a tour. But he's talked he talks a lot about his ministry. That's through his music. And it was really, again, a deeply spiritual thing for him to go back and reflect on the words that he wrote this song faithfully in 1983. And part of why he says it was the Holy Spirit at work in his life, he said, Because I began to imagine how it's been.

Jesus. Oh, Lord, you have stood by me. And so I'm forever yours faithfully. That Jesus was the one who faithfully loved him, who faithfully stood by him, who faithfully walked with him through the hardest times in his life. It said, The song actually becomes this echo of prayer for me. So church how will we respond to the love that God has for us to love? That's patient. And kind. To a love that doesn't just love you, but actually likes you. Like Jesus likes you. He thinks you're an amazing person. To a love that isn't boastful or proud. There's an envy, but instead seeks the best. It doesn't dishonor or make fun of. It doesn't get easily angry. And it doesn't keep a list of all the wrong things you've ever done. And here we go again. Instead, it's a love that doesn't delight in evil. Rejoices in the truth. It always protects it, always trusts. It always hopes. It always perseveres. How church will we respond this week to a love that never fails? Well, perhaps your invitation is to fall more deeply into that love today. Maybe to learn about it, to. To try to encounter it in a new way in a community. In a Bible study. An experience of serving alongside one of us here abroad. We'd love to help you learn to step more deeply into this love. Maybe for some of you. The invitation is.

Is to re encounter that love. Let's stop and take a quick assessment of how these other forces in the world have been shaping your heart and your life and not the way of love. Because we know we know love is going to be with us from now until eternity, that the way of love is going to be our way forever and ever. And so Jesus says, What if we started here? What if we began now? We didn't wait for one day far away. But what if we started right here and right now? That's our prayer this week is that this amazing love that you have for us would overwhelm us and would transform us. What changes from the inside out? Just like you did to Paul. And for some of us, Father, it's going to take a Damascus Road experience the way Paul had it, because our hearts have become hard, because we focus so much on being right that we haven't thought a minute about love. And instead we just spent our life trying to power up on people or manipulate them. Oh, God. Would you have that experience with us this week? Would you show us the way of love? Yeah. For some of us, we have been burned by people that we trusted. Who said they loved us. And then they took advantage of us. Or maybe we were the perpetrator in that we we said we loved and then we did things that actually benefited ourself more than another person.

Oh, God. Would you bring that forgiveness, that healing that we need? To help turn us around back into the way of love. Or maybe we're just kind of on the outside trying to get this faith thing figured out, trying to understand and reason our way into it. And we just need to know you. We need to experience this love. God, would you encounter us this week in a powerful way? Lord. Help us as your people. To practice the way of love this week to reflect on, to consider, to meditate on these amazing aspects of love, of a way of life, and then begin to just choose one and put it into practice this week. That show us ways that we can be kind or patient. Show us opportunities, God. Where we can bring forgiveness and healing and reconciliation. Would show us ways where we can be humble and genuine. We can help others take a step up instead of us trying to power up on them. Yeah. Whatever it may be. Would you help us live in the way of love this week? Faithfully. Just the way that you have loved us. Oh, thank you, God. Thank you for Jesus, for the life, the opportunity. We have to begin living it right here, right now. God made it be so. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.