Sermon for 2/15/98
They died from the cold within
I Corinthians 13:5
Introduction:
Six humans trapped by happenstance in bleak and bitter cold, Each one possessed a stick of wood, or so the story goes. Their dying fire in need of logs, The first man held his back, For on the faces around the fire He noticed one was black. The next man looking across the way Saw one not of his church And couldn’t bring himself to give The first his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch. Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat and thought of the wealth he had to store, And how to keep what he had earned From the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man’s face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from his sight, For all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white. The last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain. Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game. Their logs held tight in death’s still hand Was proof of human sin. They didn’t die from the cold without they died from the cold within.
WBTU:
A. The world problems are caused by a lack of love. They have plenty of love for themselves but no love for others and definitely no love for God. Selfishness is a curse that hurts everyone.
B. In India people do not help others.
C. The world needs agape Christian love. A love that is centered upon Christ and his example. A love that comes from within the regenerated heart of a Christian.
D. So many times the world sees from us the opposite of true love.
Thesis: Let’s examine 1 Corinthians 13:5 and see what love is not and does not.
For instances:
I. Love does not behave rudely
A. Some Christians think it makes no difference whether they speak bluntly or tactfully, as long as they speak the truth. I pride on speaking my mind.
B. Slap people in the face with the truth.
C. We must try to keep proper manners and also try to keep our lips from repulsive way of speaking. The local gossip column.
D. The Corinthians behaved rudely. They spoke out of turn. They wanted their way even if that meant being a public nuisance.
E. There must be a balance between speaking the truth and showing love.
F. Love gives a Christian power of insight and feeling that teaches him or her to utter truth wisely and to tell the truth in the best way possible.
G. Love makes self-adjustment, but not at the expense of the truth. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” can be dangerous. We must not forsake the truth, but we must not also be rude and obnoxious.
H. John Wesley once had for a traveling companion an officer who was intelligent and agreeable in conversation; but there was one serious drawback- his profanity. When they changed vehicles, Wesley took the officer aside and, after expressing the pleasure he had enjoyed in his company, said he had a great favor to ask him. The young officer replied, “I will take great pleasure in obliging you, for I am sure you will not make an unreasonable request.” “Then,” said Wesley, “as we have to travel together some distance, I beg that, if I should forget myself and just start swearing, that you will kindly reprove me.” The officer immediately saw the motive and felt the force of the request and smiling said. “None but Mr. Wesley could have conceived a reproof in such a manner.” It worked like a charm.
I. Love is not tactless. Many times the problem is that we fail to put ourselves in the other’s place.
J. The story of a man, who said to his preacher, “My talent is to speak my mind.” Replied the preacher, “Out of all the talents, that is a good talent to bury.”
K. Love must be silent sometimes. However, we must speak against evil. Some pain to others is necessary for their own good. Much like a mother who refuses to have child vaccinated. At worst when we speak the truth in the best way possible, these people could insult us.
L. It is better for a man to learn from mistakes. Will we jeopardize his immortal soul because we are afraid of offending him by telling him he needs a Savior?
M. A silence may be fine, but that is too costly if it is purchased at the expense of another’s soul.
N. Man who wanted to save his friend at work. Wendell’s illustration.
Transition: We need to speak the truth in love. We do not need to be rude or obnoxious but we do need to speak the truth. Many times Christians are very rude in public because they know they are right, but is this proper way to act in love? Most of the time when we are rude, we are seeking after our own.
II. Love does not seek its own.
A. Romantic love is easily provoked. Constant jealousy. Romantic love seeks its own many times.
B. Christian love is not blind to faults. Love seeks to see people as they really are and as they can become through Christ.
C. We must be like a little child. Simple, unselfish, trustful easily gratified little concern for the future, without great ambition.
D. Many have a party spirit. This happens in the church. We should be seeking after great things for the Kingdom of God not for our own brotherhoods or denominations.
E. A girl of a faith other than Christianity worked in a store during the holiday season. (If Christians were ever seeking after their own, this would be the prime time of the year.) Meeting with an accident, she was taken to the hospital, where she made the acquaintance of a Christian nurse whose loving ministry and gently goodness soon won her friendship. One day the girl asked the nurse, “Is it true that you are a Christian?” Upon being answered in the affirmative she replied, “You are so kind and polite and gentle, I didn’t think you could be a Christian; but then the only Christians I’ve met are the Christmas shoppers.” “Everybody does it” is no excuse for pushing and shoving and trampling on others to get ahead in this world.
F. A lot of preachers bark at sales people, speak in condescending tones to subordinates, then get up and speak in wooing and winning tones from the pulpit. What is wrong?
G. A waitress after church.
H. Matthew 20:28- The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Transition: This is what we have been talking about. Love does not seek its own. We are so focused upon us. Let’s take our eyes off of ourselves and think of others. When we are constantly focused upon ourselves and our needs, this causes a spirit of anger to come over us.
III. Love is not easily provoked. Love is not easily angered.
A. Jonah and the Ninevites. He was so focused upon himself and his own people that he refused to be happy about the salvation of the gentile people. This made him angry.
B. Prodigal Son, self-love, proud of his own morality. This person hated sin and also hated the sinner. We should hate sin, but with a sense of sadness.
C. When Mr. Wesley was on a voyage with General Oglethorpe to Georgia, the General threatened revenge upon an offending servant, saying, “I never forgive.” “Then I hope, sir,” said Mr. Wesley, “That you never sin.” The General saw the force of this remark and modified his action toward the servant.
D. Galatians 6:1- Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.
E. Sibling, brothers and sisters, are masters of provoking one to wrath.
F. Some sailors who were working on a ship in harbor noticed an elderly man engaged in his business on the pier. One sailor laughingly said to another, “You can’t make that old man angry no matter what you do to him.” The sailor who was addressed immediately took this as a challenge, and snatching up a bucket of tar ran up to the old man and dashed its contents all over him. The old man started back at this surprise attack and said in a mild voice, “Young man, the Savior says, Whoso shall offend one of these that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the depths of the sea. Now, since I am one of these who do believe in Him, will He not consider that you have very much offended me?” The sailor turned away quite ashamed and perplexed at the spirit that the injured Christian exhibited. The picture of the old man covered with tar and looking at him with mingled pity and displeasure stayed with him and led him to go back and ask him to forgive him and pray for him. The elderly Christian was very ready to do both; and not long afterward the sailor became a Christian.
G. We must hate evil to love the good. Jesus in the temple, anger at the Pharisees. However, his anger was directed at hypocrisy, religious injustice that led many to reject God. Jesus was not even angry at his own unjust suffering, but angry at the unjust suffering of others.
H. Noble anger against sin and wrong is the best protection of the soul. If we do not have this, then we don’t know what holiness is.
I. The pastor of a large city church was walking down the street one day with set lips and a steely look in his eye. A church member greeted him with the question, “How are you today, Pastor?” He waked as from a dream and said, “I am mad!” It was a most unusual word from this mild-mannered Christian, but he went on to explain with deep emotion: “I found a widow standing by her goods thrown into the street. She could not pay the month’s rent. The landlord turned her out; and that landlord is a member of the church! I told her to take her things back again. I am on my way to see him now!”
J. Tears of pity are married to this wrath. WE feel sorry for those in sin.
K. Christ was often provoked to righteous anger against evildoers, but never to bad temper. Person who is bad-tempered is a person whose ways have a snarl and growl, person of venom and bitterness. The temper usually thrives on trivialities.
L. Husbands who growl at wives, wives who scold husbands, parents who bark at children, children who snap at parents. We need to seek the spirit of Christ.
M. Only through Christ can we overcome temper- must want to be delivered. Many do not.
Transition: WE have talked about what love is not. Love is not rude, love is not self-seeking. Love is not provoked, or easily angered. The person who is easily angered does not have love or patience, which is part of love. Bad-tempered people are driven to do evil things. This leads to the next point.
IV. Thinks no evil. (NIV- keep record of wrongs)
A. Two meanings in this:
1. Love does not cherish in memory grievances or injuries done.
2. Love is ready to believe best of anyone.
B. Man is an accountant. WE have a good memory.
C. Love does not let mind become storage room for unexpressed resentments. Love controls what we choose to remember.
D. Evil that others have done to us is often written in bold ink. Love has a way of erasing evils done.
E. At funerals we remember the good in a person. Why not do those while they are living?
F. What do we remember best? It tells us what kind of a person we are. Memory and heart are closely related.
G. We need a loving memory. If our possessions and success do not furnish us pleasant reflections when we go to bed at night or when we review our past, we have missed the greatest reward of living.
H. To the bitter heart, sunshine is no longer bright, song of the bird is not musical, and pocketful of gold brings no self-respect and content.
I. If families are divided by jealousies about property or anything else, if neighbors are devoured by angry feelings toward each other, if professedly Christian people cannot rise superior above unchristian passions around them, there is no paradise there; there is a hell.
J. Two little boys had quarreled. But next morning Johnny took his cap and headed for Bobby’s again. Surprised, an older member of the family said teasingly, “What! Going to play with him again? I thought you quarreled only last evening and were never going to have anything more to do with each other. Funny memory you have.” Johnny looked a little sheepish, dug his toe into the carpet for a moment then flashed a satisfied smile as he hurried away. “Oh! Bobby and me’s good forgetters!”
K. Love does not allow evil to linger in the mind and fester in the soul.
L. Memory is necessary for us to remember evil for protection, but if fear of evil dominates our thinking, it tends to wary our judgements and produce pessimism.
M. Woman who came to preacher and was still bitter about honeymoon 25 years before.
Conclusion:
A. Her mother and daddy disowned her. She did all she could do. When Elizabeth married the famous poet Robert Browning, her parents were so upset they disowned her. She and her husband settled far from home in Florence, Italy. Elizabeth loved her mother and father and did everything she could to be reconciled with them. Several times a month she wrote expressive, loving letters. After 10 years without any response, finally, a package came from her parents. It was a happy moment for Elizabeth as she opened it. But inside she found all of the letters she had sent- unopened. Like her husband, Elizabeth was a poet and her letters of reconciliation were eloquent. They have been called “some of the most beautiful and expressive in all English literature.” But her parents never read them. Jesus Christ, like Elizabeth, went to extreme measures in a reconciliation attempt. He died so sinful men could be reconciled to God. It breaks his heart that many refuse to even read the letter of Calvary’s love.
