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Muskegon SDA Church

The Way of Love

Jason Sliger

The Commandment of Love

The Way of Love- Part 1

The Way of Love- Part 2

The Way of Love- Part 3

The Way of Love- Part 4

The Way of Love- Part 5

The Way of Love- Part 6

The Way of Love- Part 7

The Way of Love- Part 8

The Way of Love- Part 9

Well, before we begin our time together this morning, I invite you to bow your heads with me and we will start once again with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, what a privilege it is to enter into your presence this morning, knowing that we are sitting at the feet of our Heavenly Father, who is about to bestow upon us a blessing.

Lord, it's been a rich blessing so far through Sabbath school and the worship time, and we're just tarrying a little longer to receive an additional blessing.

And Lord, we ask that as we look at your word together this morning, that once again, your Holy Spirit would take the message and send it home to our hearts, that we may be more and more like Jesus.

Maybe you have taken the opportunity to contemplate this question at some point in your life.

Maybe you haven't, but there have been many people who have thought about this question, what is the most important thing in the world?

What is the most important thing in the world?

And I suppose that the answer to this question would probably be dictated by where you are at in the stream of your life.

Maybe you are facing health challenges and you might say that health is the most important thing in the world.

Maybe you are facing relationship issues and you might say having a stable relationship is the most important thing in the world.

There would be a variety of answers that would probably come if we were to poll each other this morning to answer this question, what is the most important thing in the world?

In fact, people have traveled the world from 1 place to another, going to far-flung places in this world, trying to find the answer to what is the most important thing.

And yet, I believe the answer to this question will be found in this, our last study of 1 Corinthians, the 13th chapter.

But before we get to that, I wanna share with you a statement here from Testimonies, volume 6, Page 439, where we are told this, the greatest work, the what work?

The greatest work that can be done in our world is to glorify God by living the what?

What is the greatest work that we can do?

Very simply put, the greatest work that we can do is to live the character of Christ.

The greatest work that we can do is to live the character of Christ.

The greatest work that we can do is not the actions of our life, but rather it's allowing the character of Christ to be duplicated in our lives.

Now we have spent much time in our time together studying 1 Corinthians 13.

We've spent a lot of time in a particular section of this chapter that defines for us this character of Christ, which is the greatest work that we can do, to live out that character of Christ.

Go with me in your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 13.

We're just going to quickly look at this, and then we're going to push on to the rest of our study together this morning.

1 Corinthians 13, you've read this before.

Verses 4 through 7 is where we find Paul's description of the character of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 7, the Bible says this, charity or agape, or you could put the word Christ, Jesus, 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 or is not provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things.

Where do we find a definition of the character of Christ?

Right there in 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 7.

That is the greatest work that you and I can participate in as sons and daughters of God.

So if you wanna do something big for God, you wanna do something big for Him, the biggest thing or the best thing that we can do today is to live a practical Christianity life in our day-to-day life.

That's the biggest thing that you could do.

It's not how much you give, it's not how much time you spend in acts of service for God, it's not how many pieces of literature you hand out, that's not the greatest work.

The greatest work that we can do is to allow God to give us what we have been studying, to continue to pray for in our prayer closets, that God would create this in our lives.

Thus, as he creates it, we can do the greatest work for Him and for those around us by living the character of Jesus to others.

Paul closes his dissertation on love with a very short phrase in the 13th verse.

And this closes out our study on the chapter.

He says, Now abideth Faith, hope, and charity, or agape, these 3, but what are the last few words there?

I humbly submit to you from the Christian worldview, from the biblical worldview, that the greatest thing that could happen to this world, second to the second coming of Jesus, The greatest thing that could happen in this world is for sons and daughters of God, the children of the heavenly King, to have what Paul has defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13.

Now as we've seen in this third section of 1 Corinthians 13, he's comparing between the present mortal state and the future immortal state.

And he's telling us, now abideth 3 things.

There are 3 things that will never come to an end, and that is faith, hope, and charity.

But out of the 3 of them, Paul says, the greatest thing that can happen in this world is for you and for me to have the character of Christ as we witness to those around us.

Now this isn't the only place we find this in the Bible.

Colossians 3, verse 14, the Bible says this, and above all things Put on agape, which is the bond of perfectness, above all these things, Paul says.

Peter goes on and he says the same thing in 1 Peter 4 and verse 8, he says, and above all things have what?

"'Have fervent charity among yourselves, "'for charity, ' he says, "'shall cover a multitude of sins.'" So this isn't just an isolated thing.

It's not something that we just find in the writings of Paul, but actually Peter cooperates with this, and he says, yes, the greatest thing that we can have is that charity among ourselves.

For charity shall cover a multitude of sins.

And in fact, Paul tells us as much in 1 Corinthians 13 that agape beareth all things or covers over with silence the faults and failings of others.

Paul tells us these 3 Christian graces, they are permanent, they are unchanging, they will abide forever.

When the spiritual gifts fail, when the spiritual gifts pass away, as he tells us in this chapter, faith, hope, and love will withstand the test of time.

Now I wanna go through each 1 of these very quickly here this morning, because I want you to see the enormity of the statement that Paul has made here, that charity or agape is the greatest of these.

When we look at faith, you can't overestimate the value of faith in the Bible, right?

Let me just do a quick bird's eye view of what the Bible says about faith here.

Acts 16 and verse 31, the Bible says, This is Paul talking to the Corinthian jailer.

He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be what?

Saved, have faith, believe in God and you shall be saved.

Jesus said to Mary when she anointed his feet in Luke chapter 7 in verse 50.

And he said unto the woman, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.

The Bible tells us that her faith in God and his word, his faith, her faith in the promises of God is what would bring salvation to her.

You cannot overestimate the importance of faith being exercised in the life of God's people.

Hebrews 10 in verse 38, the Bible says that the just, you know this 1, shall live how?

God's people, the just people will live by faith, Not by feeling, but they will live by faith.

Hebrews 11 in verse 6, the Bible says, but without faith it is what?

Throughout the Bible we see passage after passage where the Bible talks about the importance of faith.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 12, the Bible says that we are to fight the good fight of faith.

And then it goes on and tells us that we are to take the shield of faith.

There's so much in the Bible that tells us the importance of faith.

The Bible says, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the enemies, the armies rather, of the aliens.

Yet out of these 3 Christian graces, Paul tells us that as great as faith is, as important as faith is, as integral as it is to our salvation, He says it takes the back seat when compared with agape.

It's something that I'm praying for that the Lord would give me a greater knowledge and understanding of how important it is, not to just have a theoretical knowledge of the character of Christ, but to have an experience in my life.

Paul puts the emphasis right where it needs to be and the emphasis is yes, we need to exercise faith, but not to the diminishment of charity or agape in our lives.

I think we have a little room for growth here in our experience with the Lord.

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Series

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 9

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 4

46m

The Savior and the Sanctuary

41m

The Cross and the Sanctuary

The Cross and The Sanctuary- Part 5

34m

Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Thriving Mentally: Assimilating the Mind of Christ

1h 33m

The Mad Mans Driving

44m

Plenary

A Muslim and His Christian Mother

1h 15m

An Offer God Cannot Refuse

45m

It Is Finished

50m

Own It

Own It- Part 2

1h 8m

Twas the Night Before Christmas

53m

Personal Encounters with Jesus

1. A Cold Confession

58m

Dunamis 2005

How Long?

45m

Sound Doctrine