DEEPER LIFE BIBLE CHURCH WORLDWIDE.
TUESDAY'S LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MESSAGE.
DATE: 12/09/2023.
TOPIC: THE PRE-EMINENCE OF GOD'S LOVE IN THE HEART.
TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3.
Praise the Lord. Today, we are coming to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. The above passage we have read tells us clearly and pointedly that the love of God, not just in the mind not just in our understanding, not just in our memory, that is we can quote it from the Bible. We shouldn't only have the head knowledge of the love of God, and it should not just be in our understanding, but the love of God by grace should be in our hearts. After saving us, after purifying us and after taking away the old adamic nature out of the heart, then He implants the heavenl kind of love in our hearts, not human love, not erotic love, not the love of the society, it is the love that comes from heaven, and comes from the heart of God, and that is the preeminence thing above whatever we have, above whatever we give, that love is above our skill, is above our talent, it influences us, it controls us and imparting everything we do. That kind of love is profitable and rewardable, it is what we have all the days of our lives and it comes to the top of our lives. It is the God's kind of love that you manifest in everything you do. Without love, all else you do is vain in your life.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
POINT ONE: THE PRIORITY OF CHARITY, GOD'S LOVE IN THE HEART.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1.
Charity is the first thing in our lives and it's the priority of all our actions and our lifestyle.
Isn't very instructive that Paul didn't says you Corinthians, though you speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, you are become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. He didn't say that, but he said, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I becomes as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbals. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Paul the Apostle said, I as a fervent and zealous preacher, if I have no love as a preacher, I becomes a sounding brass...
I. The possession of charity (God's love) in a pure heart.
1 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:22; 1 Peter 1:22-23; Psalms 24:3-4.
The fulfilment of commandment is charity out of a pure heart, it's unpretentious, it's unpretending. The scriptures says in 1Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. It's of faith, it's of real and proper faith. The purpose and the result of the commandment in our hearts is charity out of a pure heart. This charity that the Lord is emphasizing comes out of a pure heart. If we love the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, we will obey what He has emphasized to us, He says we should have unfeigned and unpretentious love. This is a kind of love that is profitable and unfeigned. Pure heart is very important in the love that we manifest, we should have the actions of love out of a pure heart. We need to possess that love, and we cannot possess that love without a definite evidence of Salvation. You must turn away from your sin first, and then you move on and you're sanctified and that sanctification uproot the natural selfishness in man and as you allow that love to continue, then you're on your way to Heaven.
II. The primacy of God's love with a purposeful heart.
Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37-40; 1 John 2:5-6; 4:16-19.
You don't do anything without a purpose. What you do should be motivated by love, and it should have a purpose that shows you have love. Everything we do must have a purpose of divine love in our hearts. If you profess to be saved and sanctified, and you never care about what God requires from you, maybe you're doing it and you keep doing it, but there's no purpose in your heart that you're doing it because God requires from you, that will not be recognized in Heaven. If you have a purpose in your heart that you will walk in all His ways all the time, and you will love Christ and serve Him with all your heart, and you're conscious of the presence and desire of Christ, then you will pay attention to what Jesus is saying. If you do other things but the love of God is not there, you have committed the greatest sin because you're not obeying the greatest commandment of God, and this greatest commandment is not observe by love, all things we do is useless. Love your spouse, love your friends, love your enemies and love your neighbours, love everyone as yourself. If we interpret the Bible correctly, anything we read from Genesis to Malachi is going to be interpreted on the basis of love. Anything you interpret in the law of God, the consciousness should be loving God with all your heart and Love your neighbours as yourself.
III. The Perception of charity (God's love) in a Peaceful heart.
Colossians 3:14-15; 2 Timothy 2:22-25; Hebrews 12:11-14; Philippians 4:7-9.
After you have done all things, above all put on charity. Make that charity visible, let us see the love like we see the cloth you put on, let that love be reflected in your actions, in your disposition, in your conversation, in your dealing with other people, in dealing with people, you will not have a kind of mind that will want to trample on other people. Don't forget your love, don't forget your affection, don't forget your sympathy, but when you forget your love, you're not a Bible believing Christian and you're not on your way to Heaven. We must have knowledge and understanding that above skill, above talent, above everything, we should put on charity. Let the Peace of God rule in your heart. Without a restful and Peaceful Spirit in your heart, if your heart is burning and wanting to revenge, that is not the love of God. Don't forget yourself, the love of God you have brings the Peace of God in your heart and that passes all understanding. That is the evidence of grace in our lives. when the God of peace is with you, the peace of God will control everything in your life.
POINT TWO: THE PURPOSELESSNESS OF CHARISMA WITHOUT LOVE IN THE HEART.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-2.
If we are going to make progress in our personal life, what we do must be of a purpose of love. To make our service profitable and rewardable, we must have Love as a basis, as a motivation and as a foundation of what we are doing. We refer to charisma as the gift of the Spirit. If you have the gift of the Spirit without love, it is purposeless. Is even better that person do not have the gift of the Spirit. Before the gift of the Spirit, if you have godliness and love in your heart, you're alright. There are people that were godly and loving before, they are alright before, but now all the gifts are coming and they becomes a tinkling cymbals. There are people that before they had any power and any gift, they were humble, they were peaceful, you could easily relate with them, but now authority and gift has come, there's no love in their hearts anymore because all they can think about now is position and gift and the authority they manifest. The people of the world will count that person as a pastor or as a prophet because he had all knowledge and Faith, and yet if he doesn't have charity, he may exercise power but there's deep sited anger, heart of antagonism and hatred and animosity in his heart, yet he manifest Power like Samson and there's charity in his heart, all those things he do, in the account of heaven, he's doing nothing. Without love, everything is useless.
I. The Tongues without transparent love.
1 Corinthians 13:1; James 3:1,5-6,13-18; 2 Peter 2:15-17; 1 Peter 3:8-12.
If you don't have a preeminence love in your heart, all the gifts and power you manifest is nothing! Don't be eager to be a preacher because of competition. There's no condemnation in Heaven, but if anyone will have greater condemnation because there's no love in his heart, that means he has lost heaven. You must put your tongue under control, if we don't have that love that controls our tongues, we might miss eternal Kingdom and miss our reward. Don't pass any comment on everything that happens, let Love control your tongue. Some people burn down their family because of their tongues. The tongue defiles the whole body when not properly guide and control, because what comes out of the tongue is not of Love, and if that person dies in that condition of talkativeness and tearing other people down, he will not get to Heaven with that defilement. That is why we need to be very careful and watchful over our tongues, that the Grace of God will temper and transform our tongues and make our tongues transparent love.
II. Prophetic Proclamation without Protective love.
1 Corinthians 13:2;Numbers 24:15-19; 31:8,16; Revelation 2:14; Matthew 7:21-23.
Do you ever think of protecting other people's life and their progress rather than protecting yourself? Are you into self defense? If you are genuinely Born again and sanctified, you will protect other people in love not only yourself. There are people that are not using the understanding of the gospel to protect other people. The Lord wants us to have love that will protect others from danger. Balaam had the great prophecy but because he didn't have the love of the Father, he had the Love for money and God was angry with him. Barak thought Balaam how to make the children of Israel sin. Those who are teaching others to commit sin, they are sitting in the congregation of the righteous, they are influencing, integrating and counseling other people to commit sin and to make other people fall, they do not have the love of God in their hearts and whatever their influence, whatever their effectiveness and their counsel they have on other people, that will not take them to Heaven, they will perish like Barak perished. Charisma is not enough, we must have love that protect others from sin, from provocation and from evil. The will of God is that you Love God with all your heart and you love everyone as you love yourself and you have protection in your vocabulary and in your actions of love. To get to Heaven, charisma is not enough. Graceless, loveless and purposeless lives are not prepared for Heaven, they just settle down charisma without charity.
III. Mountain moving Faith without the Master's love.
1 Corinthians 13:2; Exodus 21:5-6; Luke 16:13; John 14:15,23,24.
If you have mountain moving Faith without love, you might miss Heaven. There are people that are running after faith to heal, faith to cast out demons and faith to move mountains, and the Lord is saying that is not enough. If you fast and pray to have faith so that you can move mountains and you don't fast and pray to have love, then what is the extent of your fasting and prayer? When you understand you're deficient in Love and in helping other people, go on your knee and pray, so that you can have this more important thing, pray that the love of Christ will reign in your heart. If you have all kinds of Faith so that you could remove mountain, faith without love is useless. Faith without love, miracle without mercy, healing without honest heart to relate with other people, that is not possible. Christ wants us to have a kind of love the Master have. If you love Christ, you will keep the commandments of God. And anytime you're being persecuted and you feel pains, remember the words of Jesus on how to forgive, how to care for the poor. Somebody might use the name of Jesus to heal, but if he doesn't keep His sayings, he doesn't love Him. He's only using the Name of Jesus but he's not keeping the sayings of Christ.
POINT THREE: THE PREFERENCE OF CHRISTLIKENESS, WITH LOVE IN OUR HEARTS.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:3.
Everything Christ did, He did it in life. We should center our hearts on His love and that love motivated Christ and made Him to go to Calvary and do everything He did. Christ moved mountains, He delivered the oppressed, He warned the people, He proclaimed good news because of love. If we are Christlike, we will do everything because of love. Though you're very generous and zealous, if you don't have charity, it is nothing! You can copy the action of other people, you can copy what they do out of love, and if there's no demonstration of habit you copy, it is nothing! Not only action, it is the affection behind the motive of action That matter. Somebody may not have that Salvation and sanctification and still be zealous for religious and there's no love. If he die in that condition, he will go to hell fire. Giving yourself to be burning for religion without love doesn't make you to be recognized in heaven.
I. Insufficiency of sacrificial giving without saving Grace.
1 Corinthians 13:2; 2 Kings 10:16,31; Matthew 6:1-2; 5:20.
Zealous for the Lord without saving grace is nothing! If you just have the action and there's no affection and love, you give money but the purpose is not of Love, you will not have the commendation of Heaven you are expecting because you're doing it because of what you're seeking. All the good things you do, if they are going to have recommendation and reward from heaven, we must have love and saving grace.
II. The implication of burning for religion without new birth through redemption.
1 Corinthian 13:3; John 3:3,5-8; Luke 13:3,5; 23:29; Hebrews 2:1-4.
Some people give their body to the Lord but they didn't give their hearts to Him. You must give your heart to Jesus first, some people don't see the importance of love but they are only full of activities and the love of God is not in their heart. In the private, they will not live like a life of a believer, we must have the love of God in our hearts so that we will not serve the Lord in vain.
III. The indispensability of sincere graciousness with Spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 1 Peter 4:10-11; Ephesians 4:7,11-13; 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.
Before you manifest the gift, be gracious to everyone, you will be gracious to those who are downtrodden, you will be gracious in your actions and in your comportment, you will not hurt the victims, you will not hurt the feeble, you will not hurt the weak and in every action of your heart, you want to be gracious at every time. Gift can now follow and you will be able to do what you ought to do. Without the graciousness, gift is vain, gift will oppress other people if the love of God is not there. You must manifest love, affection, humility, Christ living in you and graciousness and you're helping like Christ, you will not be like Judas Iscariot only having the gift without Grace. The Grace and the gift must work together, you can manifest gift because you have love in your heart. We do all things to the glory of God by Grace, you cannot oppress other people for the glory of God, if you're possessing and you always wants to control other people's life, you just want to possess them and put them in your pocket, that is not love. Release other people to serve God and have their liberty, if you love people, you will not possess them to the point they do not have liberty on their own anymore. We do all things with the graciousness of what God has given us, then we will have unshakable hope of getting to heaven. The Grace is there, and the gift is there. You must have Love before you manifest gift. It's for the perfection of the Saints and edifying the body of Christ. There are mature and immature people in the church, love and graciousness must continue. In everything and anything you do in any place, let the Love of God control your tongue and influence everything, anytime at all cost. Service without love is unreasonable, activity without love is unrewardable.
