2020 VISION; Radical Love - Sermon outline for February 2, 2020 (a blogpost for a sermon to be preached at Kenwood Church in Livonia, MI, on February 2, 2020)

2020 VISION: RADICAL LOVE - Love is Not - 1 Corinthians 13 - February 2, 2020

Prayer

INTRODUCTION

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

Love comes from God.

God is love.

They will know you are my disciples by your love.

Love is . . . 

Love is not . . . 

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a 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 gain nothing. 

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 rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 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.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:1-13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I.  LOVE DOES NOT ENVY

Image - boiling pot

Onomatopoeic word (zeloo) imitating the sound of boiling water

A.  Zeal for what someone else has

1.  Envy

2.  Jealousy

3.  “Set one’s heart on”

4.  “To be completely intent on”

Matthew Poole’ Commentary “Every envious man, that is displeased and angry at another’s faring well, is an uncharitable man, there is no true root of love to God or to his neighbor.”

B.  Celebrates what others have

II.  LOVE DOES NOT BOAST

Image - spotlight

Perpereuetai - show off

Derived from the Latin perperus - vicious, boastful

A.  Focus on oneself

1.  Self-centered

2.  Braggart, boastful

3.  “A ‘show off’ who needs too much attention”

Matthew Poole’s Commentary “He doth not prefer himself before others, ambitiously glorytug or boasting, and acting rashly to promote his own glory, and satisfy his own intemperate desires or lusts.”

B.  Celebrates others

III.  LOVE DOES NOT BRAG

Image - bellows

Physioo- blow up

A.  Puffs up

1.  Inflate

2.  Swelled up

3.  Arrogant

4.  “An egotistical person spuing [sic] out arrogant (“puffed up”) thoughts”

Pulpit Commentary “Has no purse proud or inflated ego.  Love, therefore, is free from the characteristic vice of the Corinthian Church.”  (Pride of clique, gift, etc.)

B.  Celebrates God

CHALLENGE

Read 1 Corinthians 13 every day.  Begin memorizing 1 Corinthians 13:5.  Love does not envy, boast, or brag.  Rank these three in the order in which you personally struggle.  Apologize to any witnesses when you do one of these actions this week.