The Love Project Part 2

Our message on Sunday was from 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7. The famous wedding passage... love is. Yet what we found was an altogether more radical definition of love. More than words... so stop being all talk. Greater than gifts... so stop trying to be first. Not just for show... so think about what you are doing and why. The lifeline
was this: 'A failure to love those around me reflects a hardness to the truth tht God loves me.'

It is that when we get the Gospel our relationships become grounded in the Gospel. Your relationships are designed to demonstrate Gospel reality. We then turned our
attention to the list of qualities that love demonstrates. We packed them up into 10 things (it started as fourteen but we ran out of time... to be continued) that love says. Yesterday we looked at the first five. Here are the numbers 6-10:

6. My worship will outweigh my worst (Love is not rude). Love does not draw someone into sin. That is what rude means. Behaving in an unbecoming manner. It is speaking or acting in unrighteous way. When we do that we in some ways veil the eyes of those around us to Jesus the righteous one. It is so important to see that when we do this it is the most unloving thing tht we do

Rude is drawing someone onto our darkness. Love does not corrupt but seeks to create an relational atmosphere where worship of Jesus thrives.

7. I will choose selflessness over selfishness (Love does not insist on own way). This is going to be hard for you to hear but all the things that you think are important are less important than you think. You are not always right… and that includes the temptation you feel right now to bring this up with someone in a way that suggests they are more like that than you. Your way is not always best. Now, maybe you are saying ' I don’t speak like that'… the issue is more likely, do you act like that?

The idea behind this is of self-seeking… seeking self first. It is a corrective to our tendency to look for a personal upside before considering the impact on others. Matthew 6: 33 encourages us to 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

If you are constantly or even regularly asking or taking an attitude of 'what’s in it for me?' Tht indicates a problem. Living for God not living for self frees us to live in loving consideration of others.

8. I will default to affection not attack. (love is not irritable) Imagine tht you were to make this ur resolution. How would your relationships be changed?
Irritable is easy to downplay… 'I got out of bed on the wrong side'... I get HANGRY when I haven't eaten.'

So, in case u don’t think tht describes u, let’s define it some more. It means: Prone to exasperation. Touchy (not touchy-feely, that is a different thing). It is what happens when someone touches a nerve with some words or actions and your inner 'temper tiger' comes out. Now, the idea of a temper tiger might seem ridiculous... but no less ridiculous as you are being in your irritability.

It is the tendency to bcome easily angered. It pictures being sharpened so that your response is a stabbing one. It is the blowing out of proportion or refusal to allow proper perspective. It often rears it’s head when we are feeling defensive or disturbed when we are comfortably distracted or in seasons when we are emotionally disconnected. Suffice to say that it is very destructive.

Love rejects an irritable response. Now,supposing you default to affection. Think about what it means to love the person before you lash out. Remind yourself that even in tht moment of provocation you are benefitting from God’s promises. Let that inform your reaction. When you are tempted to treat someone like an enemy it is important to urgently recall how God treated you who had made Him ur enemy... He made you family. Then preach two words to yourself- grace & peace.

9. I will forget in proportion to how I have been forgiven The word for resentful implies the keeping of a list. It is an accounting term and creates an image of auditing your relationships. It is taking into account wrong done. It is the equivalent of writing down the ways you have been let down. Resentment is keeping a grudge list… do you have one of those?

You have a list when you are prone to keep casting up historic wrongs done. You are resentful when you answer implied criticism of you with an equal and opposite failing of your critic. It is that you walk through your relationships with a sinned against score-card.

The bottom line is this: if you have things that you resent… that make you angry still about someone when you are alone with your thoughts... then u have a forgiveness issue?

Bear in mind how Colossians 3: 13 talks about 'bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.'

10. I will celebrate truth and not congratulate tragedy We are given a contrast next. First, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. So important! Our culture makes caring for people by way of correction an intolerable criticism. Proverbs 27: 6 says 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses enemy.'

Love refuses to congratulate unrighteousness: even when it might lead to rejection. Even when it might make things awkward. Even when serving as a lone voice.
Why? because love that comes from God and points towards God cannot delight in evil. Anything that is wrong in God’s sight grieves a heart that is full of love.
Instead, love rejoices with truth. That is why it is so important for the church to be marked by a culture of ready encouragement and a willingness to identify evidence of grace. Affirmation creates an atmosphere of audible accountability. Accountability does not serve well where there is an encouragement vacuum in the relationship.

Loving someone is excited when they are walking with the Lord and willingly emphasising it when they are not.