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Good morning.
Glad that you guys are here.
If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
That's where we're going to be.
We're in week 11.
That struck me this morning.
Some of you are like, yep, no, we're realizing it, right?
But week 11 of working through 1 Corinthians, and we still got some ways to go, but we will
be getting there.
I'm glad to be journeying through this with you guys.
This weekend, we had our marriage conference.
I want to talk about that real briefly.
It was a wonderful time.
We had about 25 couples that came through this.
We had some phenomenal conversations during it, and I'll be honest with you, we've gotten
some phenomenal feedback after as well.
One of the things that we did was we took an assessment that helps us understand some things
about ourselves.
And one of the big topics was how you view and manage time and how you do that.
And so it kind of worked through you either live in the present, so you're present-minded, or
you're future-minded.
And then within that, you are either a person who, and the assessment does a way better job
explaining this than I do, but basically you're the person who lives and die by a plan and
a schedule, or you're just a person who's like, nah, whatever.
We're just going to figure it out as we go.
And so Aaron and I, we took that assessment, and we found out, or not found out, but I think
it affirmed what we already knew, that we are both future planners, and that's who we
are.
We have a hard time living in the moment, and we panic if our phones shut down, and we don't
know what happens the next day.
Right?
So everything's on the schedule, everything's on the plan, it's what we do.
And that was embodied in us on Saturday morning.
We were driving up to the church to go through day two as we led through this together.
And on the entire drive here, we were not talking about anything we had to do today on that Saturday,
but we were talking about the next marriage conference in the future.
And so I've already had a couple people say, you know, we hope we're going to do another
one, we loved it, or even others that said, we know we didn't, we didn't have an opportunity
to be a part of this one, is there going to be another one?
Short answer, I tell all that to say, yes, we will have another.
And then I just want to kind of have a moment to be able to say this, all right?
A lot of times, you guys know Erin, and you know my wife, and she's the one that comes alongside
me and supports me and encourages me, and she sits there, and we work through that with
our children, with parenting them and what she is and all that to me.
I tell you guys often that I use this illustration, that it just helps me, that the Holy Spirit
uses her in a powerful way in my life as she speaks truth.
To me in so many ways, shapes, and forms.
But this weekend was just fantastic, because while we've led small groups together, while
we usually do couples counseling together, when we've got to work through some stuff with a
couple, we'll go through that together.
But this weekend, we had the opportunity to just lead and walk through this together in
this marriage conference and to do this as a couple.
And it was just such a blessing, and she crushed it.
And every time that I got in the way, she overcame that.
And so just a wonderful time.
And so, baby, it was just a blessing to be able to do that with you.
And thank you for all that you do, all that you mean to me, and all that you do for our
church as well.
We love you.
I love you.
And thank you for that.
All right?
Also, I want to point you guys to these cards on your rows there for our Easter.
Easter is coming up, coming up quickly, right?
That's what the pollen says.
So Easter will be here.
And we're doing some things a little bit differently than we had.
One of the things that we've learned over the last couple years that COVID kind of brought
in was thinking through doing some things differently as churches.
It's why we're able to live stream in the way that we do.
And a lot of things have changed within that.
But also, last year, we got such a positive response from how we did our Easter service
with having an early morning outdoor.
Now, it was painfully cold, right, Joanne?
It was painfully cold out there.
And so we're hoping this year won't be as cold.
But we will have a morning service at 8 a.m. outdoors out in the parking lot.
And so you can come to that.
And we're going to have a 10 o'clock service here like we always do gathered in our auditorium.
For the most part, they're going to be identical.
The message will be the same.
We'll do the Lord's Supper same.
Music will look differently because of having to be outside.
But for the most part, so choose which service you want to come to.
But also, we're doing something a little different.
We're going to have a full hot breakfast for Willow Ridge Church in between.
So at 9 o'clock after the 8 o'clock service is over with and before the 10 o'clock service starts,
you can come here that morning, get breakfast, spend some time in fellowship with our church family,
and just really looking forward to the fact of celebrating all that Christ has done
and the fact that the tomb is empty.
And so we'll have a beautiful time to do that together.
So in your group tonight, right, those of you that are in small group,
in your groups tonight, you're going to work through 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 together.
This morning, we're largely going to focus on chapter 13.
But as we largely focus on 13, because we'd be here till 3 if we had to go through all of this, right?
But I want to kind of give you guys some understanding of what chapter 12 deals with
and then some understanding of what chapter 14 deals with
so that we can understand what is sandwiched in between both of these chapters
because all of God's Word is inspired.
All of God's Word is good for us.
And so we want to make sure that we can have this.
So in chapter 12, there's kind of three sections that we see in chapter 12.
Chapter 12, verses 1 through 11, what Paul's talking about is that the Holy Spirit is the source
of all spiritual gifts.
So spiritual gifts are going to be an overwhelming concept
that Paul's going to focus in on these three chapters.
And what God does is in His sovereignty, He gives us our spiritual gifts to be used for His glory.
So your spiritual gifts were not passed down to you from your parents.
Your spiritual gifts were not worked toward in your life.
You haven't achieved these.
You haven't earned these.
God, in His sovereignty, as He chooses, gives individuals spiritual gifts.
And there are different spiritual gifts.
So you and I are different oftentimes in the spiritual gifting that we have,
but it comes from the Lord so we can trust that it's good.
Then in verses 12 through 26, Paul talks about the diversity of these gifts.
And what it does is it brings unity to the body.
So because we are different, right, the world tells us different is bad,
but because we are different in what we see, because we're different in what we have,
that actually doesn't bring the division into the body.
What it should bring into the leading of the Holy Spirit is unity in the body.
And so for me, you guys know I love sports.
I think in sports illustrations.
So imagine we're a baseball team, right?
We're not a very good baseball team if all of us want to be pitchers,
and all of us are gifted to be pitchers, right?
We need someone to be a catcher.
We need someone to be infielders.
We need someone to be outfielders.
We need someone to be able to hit the ball.
And typically, that's not where pitchers thrive, right?
And so think about this with the body.
There's a diversity in the body.
We all can't be the same.
And if we were, then the body wouldn't be what the body needs to be, all right?
And then the last part of chapter 12, verses 27 through 31,
Paul talks about certain gifts, all right,
will be used in certain leadership positions within the church.
So certain gifting will require these people to step forward into leadership positions,
and they're to be viewed as leaders, and we're to follow them in this.
But here's the big part of this.
It's still Jesus' church, all right?
And so this is not my church.
It's not Pastor Dave's church.
This is not the elder's church.
This is not the trustee's church.
This is Jesus' church, and he is our ultimate leader, all right?
So that's a really quick version of what we're going through in chapter 12.
And then chapter 14 is kind of broken into two sections, all right?
In the first part of chapter 14, Paul talks about the use of tongues and prophecy in the church,
and he goes over the rules with them, all right?
Now, I'm not going to go a lot into this,
but I am going to jump into this a little bit later in some questions about these as we look at chapter 13.
And then in chapter 14, 26 through 40, he talks about the importance of order in worship in the church.
And so there's this big piece of spiritual gifts.
How are they used?
What is the body like?
And what we can see happening in Corinth, and what we can see happening in churches here,
is that when it comes to spiritual gifts, they're meant to unify us.
But oftentimes, because we handle so many things sinfully, right?
We handle them in the negative context, and they can be used to divide.
And oftentimes, spiritual gifts, this comes in arrogance.
And here's kind of how it manifests itself, right?
We are gifted by God to do things to serve the body and to glorify him.
But yet, through our pride and ego, right, it builds in us a sense of arrogance to where we say,
look at me, look how talented I am.
I'm more talented than you.
I'm better than you, right?
And so it causes within someone who has been given this gift by God an inflated sense of self
that makes them feel like they have a self-righteousness that's better than others,
that I'm more spiritual than you, that I'm more blessed than you, that I'm more favored than you, right?
And that's an abuse of the gifts, right?
Or flip turn, an arrogance toward God.
An arrogance toward God.
God, I'm so good.
I'm so blessed.
I'm so fortunate, right?
You couldn't do this without me, right?
That's the other side of that.
We see oftentimes the arrogance within the church, but oftentimes within our own hearts.
It's, Lord, this would all fall apart if I wasn't here.
And the truth is, all of this would fall apart if Jesus wasn't here, right?
And that's it.
And so we're reversed, and I do see this that happens,
and it's created oftentimes an idolatry of leadership.
We tend to, as churches, elevate others and then devalue others
off of their gifts, right?
So we deem that a certain gift is more important than others.
And so those that have that gift, we raise them up.
And oftentimes what it can create within us is a sense of jealousy,
of wishing we were like them and not living in the reality of who we are,
of who God's called us to be.
Now, with spiritual gifts, because we're not going to see all of them,
but it's going to be an overlying theme that we see.
In Scripture, I think there are basically two lists of these that I just want to kind of mention
to you if you want to jot them down.
In Romans 12, there's a list that Paul gives where he talks about there's prophesying,
serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, and mercy.
So that's one list that's there.
And then in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul gives another list of them that's there at the front of the chapter
and at the end of the chapter where he talks about word of wisdom,
the word of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy,
distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
And so what this kind of draws us from is that so oftentimes we look at the gifts of the Spirit
and we say, well, they fall into these absolute columns.
But what we see is Paul leaves some grace and some margin to say, no, no,
like maybe the Spirit can gift us in different ways and in different capacities
and that these giftings of the Spirit may not be the end all in this list,
but it could even be beyond that, all right?
And so sandwiched in between these is chapter 13,
and that's what we're largely going to focus on is we're going to do all of chapter 13.
So let's jump in and start reading verse 1.
Paul says,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,
but have not love, I gain nothing.
And what we see here, what we're going to draw from is just this concept of nothing without love.
Like the root message of the gospel of what's going to penetrate through all Scripture
is the concept of love.
Love in the gift, love in the message, love in the song, love in who we are, love in what we do.
That we are nothing without love.
We can do nothing without love.
Love is the way in which Christians, right, are called to use their gifts.
And when gifts are used, and however God's gifted you,
when your gift is used,
when that piece of your personality that you thrive in,
when those talents that you have are used in love,
in the context of who we are as Christians,
God works in such a powerful way
that it draws people into a deeper relationship with the Lord
and a deeper relationship with others, right?
Like that's what it does.
Like if you were here this morning and you're like me and I'm not musical,
it was funny when the countdown got like below 45 seconds,
I went and stood behind the keyboard here
and I really messed with the Couragers.
They were like, you play?
I didn't think that.
I'm like, yeah, I'm going to play this morning, right?
And then I walked off like because I can't play at all, right?
But music, like what happened here
was this group of individuals used a talent or a gift
that the Lord blessed them with
and not out of pride of who they are
but in love and what it did was
standing there in that moment,
like it drew me in into a deeper relationship with the Lord
and then for a moment, like I stopped singing
and I heard others singing
and I looked around the auditorium
and I'm seeing different people engaged
and man, it just made me love all of you more, right?
Because they're using their gifts
in the way that draws people into the Lord
that challenges them in a deeper relationship.
Now, as Isaac's playing the guitar and singing,
he's not focusing that out of me
but because the heart of which is being done
and how God uses it
is what took place in the heart of a pastor
standing there ready to preach.
I now love Jesus more, I love you more
because the gift that's being used there in this moment.
But then Paul said, but if we don't have love,
we become something.
We're like a clanging symbol that's there.
Now, now the beauty of what our symbols can bring
to our worship is not what he's talking about, right?
How many of you remember the gong show?
Y'all remember that?
I never watched it, all right, before my time,
but it's the only reference I could think of, all right?
And I know they'd hit that gong
and I know that gong was not associated with good.
It was a lot, if you ever heard a gong ring,
no one sits there and thinks,
man, that's delightful, right?
That's beauty all in its own, right?
And so Paul says, like, if this is who you are
and this is what you're doing,
like, you're just a loud, distractive noise
that serves no purpose, right?
If you're as talented as all you want,
you got talent oozing out of you.
The gifts are just overflowing on you.
But if it's not with love,
then, man, you're not even pointing people to Jesus.
You're just loud and distracting from the mission
and you serve no purpose.
Paul goes on and says,
if you have prophetic powers,
if you understand mysteries,
if you understand the depth of knowledge
and have faith that can remove mountains,
but no love,
you're nothing.
You're nothing.
You don't matter.
And the purpose and the journey of what God's doing
when it's done in pride and what's there.
And he says,
if you're the person who says,
you know what?
I'm going to give it all.
And I'm even willing to be martyred.
But you have not love?
Then you gain nothing,
is what Paul says.
Now, that's hard to hear.
And it should cause us in a moment
to check our hearts
and begin to understand,
like, what is the motivation?
Who is the God that I serve?
What is my life being lived toward?
What is the pursuit that I have?
What is this all about?
What am I doing this for?
Is it out of love?
Now, verse four,
Paul's going to define love.
He says this,
love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
And so what Paul does
as he defines love for this congregation.
Now, remember,
this church is not a group
of seasoned, matured believers.
They're young,
they're immature at the most.
The oldest believer
is probably five years old
in their faith.
So it's a group of people
who are working through
some shallow things
and who probably
are taking a shallow approach to love.
And so Paul hits him
right in the middle
of the forehead, right,
with the truth of love.
And he defines love
by saying,
like, this is what love does.
Like, you can see love.
You can experience love.
You can look at something.
You can look at someone.
You can look at the action.
And you can say,
that is love.
So I'm going to reread
these verses,
but I want to do it
with making sure
that love is said
with each and every one of them, okay?
And I just want you
to just listen to this
for a moment
as we read through.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not arrogant.
Love is not rude.
Love does not insist
on its own way.
Love is not irritable.
Love is not resentful.
Love does not rejoice
in wrongdoing.
Love rejoices with truth.
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things.
Love hopes all things.
Love endures all things.
Now, you've heard this passage.
If this is your first time
ever in a church,
I would be willing to bet
you've even heard
this passage before, right?
Every time I get ready
to officiate a marriage,
I ask a couple,
what passage of Scripture
or what multiple passages
of Scripture
would you like for me to use?
And oftentimes,
this is one that they ask for,
and this is a wonderful
passage of Scripture
to use in a wedding,
in a marriage.
But can I say this?
This passage,
while it has a grand application
in marriage, right,
is about more than
a romantic love.
And it's agape love.
The word love that is used here
is this word agape love.
Now, Paul writing in the Greek,
communicating in a Greek context,
uses this word agape, all right?
And when they hear the word agape,
there'll be certain things
that register within them.
You see, Paul didn't use the term
for brotherly love.
Paul didn't use the term
for romantic love.
Paul used his agape love.
And in that,
that would have drawn them
to a certain set
of understanding,
even within their
pagan Greek culture,
about love.
And I want to share these
with y'all.
In the Greek context
of agape love,
love means this,
that love is unconcerned
with self
and concerned
with the greatest good
of another.
That in the context
in which Paul write this,
agape love
was not a love
that was based
in feelings
or attraction,
but love was a choice.
That agape love,
that it demanded things
from someone.
That agape love
demanded faithfulness,
commitment,
and sacrifice
without the expectation
of anything being returned.
And so when this church
reads this,
even if there was
a great sense
of immaturity
of faith,
they hear agape.
They hear that love
is patient
and kind,
does not envy
or boast,
is not arrogant.
And they're like,
wow,
love means that I'm not
the center of my world.
But love means
that I'm working
for the greatest good
of another.
When they hear love,
they begin to understand
that,
whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa,
love is not a feeling.
Can you feel loved?
Yes.
Can you experience
the feeling
of loving another person?
Yes.
But agape love
is more than that.
And that love
also isn't
based out of attraction.
Right?
But instead,
love
happens when it's difficult.
Love happens
when you're in conflict.
Love happens
when someone's
done you wrong.
Why?
You don't feel it,
but you choose it.
I choose
today
in spite of this
to love you.
That's agape love.
And that in that,
that agape love
says no matter
what you do to me,
I will be faithful
to you.
Agape love
says that you
do not determine
my commitment
to you,
but I am
committed
to you.
And agape love
says,
and I'll sacrifice
for you.
I'll sacrifice
for you.
And here's the thing,
I'm not keeping
a record
because you don't
need to do anything
in return.
No,
I just described
love to you,
but also
just described
Jesus to you.
Right?
Jesus unconcerned
with his self
to step out
of heaven
to take on
the flesh
of a man,
to grieve
when his friend
died,
to be rejected,
to be beaten,
and does it all
for the good
of others.
Jesus,
who didn't
come down here
and say,
oh,
well,
I feel like
I love you today,
you better hope
I do tomorrow,
right?
Jesus that doesn't
look at the crowd
and pick out
the pretty ones,
the athletic ones,
the gifted ones,
but Jesus saying
that I choose
to love you,
not in who you are,
but in who I am.
Jesus,
who embodies
faithfulness,
commitment,
and sacrifice,
right?
and gives
that sacrifice
to us
to the point
of dying
on a cross
without expecting
anything in return.
This is Jesus.
So when we,
when we read
these,
when we read
these verses,
it's describing
to us
what love is,
but when we read
the whole context
of scripture
in every moment
of what we see,
if we want to know
what love is,
if we want to know
what love does,
if we want to know
what love looks like
in the context
of your marriage,
in the context
of your family,
in the context
of your neighbors,
in the context
of work,
in the context
of your church,
look at Jesus
because this is
who he is
and the full
embodiment of it.
And then Paul
continues on,
look at verse 8.
He says,
love never ends.
As for prophecies,
they will pass away.
As for tongues,
they will cease.
As for knowledge,
it will pass away.
For we know in part
and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes,
the partial will pass away.
When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I gave up childish ways.
For now we see
in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face,
now I know in part,
then I shall know fully,
even as I have been
fully known.
And what we're going
to see here
is this permanent
nature of love.
Paul says very simply,
first three words,
right?
Love never ends.
Seasons end.
Time will end.
Your life,
my life will end.
This world as we know it
will end.
But love,
love,
agape love,
will never end
is what Paul says.
And Paul looks at the church
and he says,
I'm going to give you
some insight
in the concept
of these spiritual gifts.
And he gives a list
of apostolic gifts,
all right?
Which God gave
to the early church
to use them
and to grow them.
And he says,
they will come to an end.
All right?
Here's what I want to talk about.
He says,
prophecy,
right?
It will pass away.
Tongues,
speaking in tongues,
will cease.
Knowledge,
now you think this is weird
because we still have knowledge,
right?
So what does that mean?
Well,
this knowledge here
is to know what God
is going to do
before God is going to do it,
right?
That there are certain people
that would have that gift.
It will cease.
Now,
I'm going to say this
and we can be friends,
all right?
I believe that in the context
of these apostolic gifts,
as Paul writes,
that they will come to an end
and that they have.
I believe the prophecy
of Scripture
has been given to us
in fullness and sufficiency.
I believe that God
equipped the church,
the early church,
with these
and that God equipped
those before us
so that we can have
what we have before us.
I believe what God gave
and the issue
of speaking in tongues
was used in a powerful way,
but I'm just going to tell you
what we see happening
in Pentecost,
we probably don't see happening
in Lexington,
South Carolina,
right?
But that God used it,
right?
And it ceased.
The knowledge
to know what God
is going to do
will cease.
Why?
Because we can see
and know
what God is going to do
in Scripture
and we can continue on
in different ones
like the gift of healing,
right?
Like while God heals
and while we pray for healing,
God gave the apostles
this gift of healing
where they could go in
and touch someone
and that person
who was dead
would come alive,
right?
We don't see that.
Now here's why I say
we can still be friends.
Because if you believe differently
and you want to have coffee
and lunch
and we can talk about it
and we can hug
when we see each other
and we can hug
when we leave.
What I've seen happen
and exist
and take place
in churches
is men and women
who get into things
that can be open-handed
for the church
and they decided
they're closed-fisted
and they decided
that you're against me
if you don't believe
what I believe
and I do not believe
this is what Paul's
talking about.
Because here's what Paul says.
He says,
when I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I gave up childish ways.
You know what children do?
You've got to be like me.
You've got to think like me.
Paul says,
look,
I gave this up.
I walked away
for now
we see dimly
but then face to face.
Now I know in part
then I shall know fully
even as I've been fully known.
Right?
And so,
so what Paul is saying to us
is that
as I walk through these,
here's the understanding
of what I have.
Here's the understanding
of what I'm placing for you
but I see dimly.
I know that.
I see through the limitations
of my earthly body,
of my earthly mind
and where I am
but one day
I will know fully.
And one day
I will be able
to fully comprehend.
And what I don't want us
to do tonight,
what I don't want us
to do here right now
is get caught up
in tongues
and prophecy
and miss the love of Jesus.
Too many churches
divide themselves
over the things
that we can agree
are open handed
and not agree
on the things
that close fisted
of who Jesus is
and the grace
that comes from him
and him alone
and what he did
on the cross
and what he provides
to us
and what it means
to love him.
Right?
So Paul says
this isn't going to be.
And then he says
in verse 13,
so now
faith,
hope,
and love
abide
these three
but the greatest
of these
is love.
And love
is the greatest.
Love is the greatest.
How can I say that?
Faith's a big deal.
Right?
We place our faith
in Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior.
Hope is a big deal.
We hope
for the things
that we have not seen.
We hope
for the beauty
of eternity.
We hope
for what God
has promised us
and what God
tells us
he's going to do.
And we place
our faith
and our hope
in him
and these are big.
But Paul says
but the greatest
of these
is love.
Now I read a lot
this week
about this.
And there was
a lot of people
who wrote
well Paul didn't
really mean that
but I read
that Paul wrote that
so I've got to really
think he meant that.
Right?
So what does that mean?
And in my simple mind
here's what I believe
the Lord
bringing me to.
One day
I said it earlier
one day
you and I
we're going to die.
Right?
We're going to have
our faith.
The funeral
of a person
with faith
is a joyous
occasion for me.
Because their faith
in that
will be made sight.
So when you die
your faith
of who Jesus is
guess what?
You're going to see him.
And now the difference
of what I've heard
of what I've placed
my faith in
is right here
and it's Jesus.
And so my faith
is not different.
My faith is sight.
Like I said
you're going to die
one day.
I'm going to die
one day.
And as we
are anticipating
for that
we have hope
for eternity.
we have hope
that all
of the brokenness
and the evil
of this world
will pass away.
We have hope
that there will be
no more death
because that's what
God's word tells us.
We have hope
that there will be
no more pain
because that's what
God tells us.
We have hope
that there will be
no more suffering
that there will be
no more tears
because that's what
God tells us.
And then one day
we will experience
eternity
and eternity
will be reality.
Can you imagine
living like that?
No more hurt
no more sorrow
no more pain
no more suffering.
And so now
it's not hope
of what it will be
it's the reality
of what it is.
But love
will still be there.
And the beauty
of that
is in that moment
as much
as I think
I love Jesus
as much
as I think
about
how much
Jesus
loves
me
in my death
and in my
experience
in eternity
right
that love
will not
go away
but that love
will deepen
to a point
that I've never
experienced before.
And so Paul says
the greatest
of these
the greatest
of these
is love.
Would you pray
with me?
Amen.
Lord we thank you
for your word
this morning.
Lord we thank you
that when we
think about love
in the context
of all that's
going on
in this world
and in our life
where there's a lot
of defining pieces
for that for us.
the world
tries to tell us
what love does
and what love
doesn't do.
The world
tries to take
broken standards
of love
and give them
to us
to set as our
standard.
Lord no standard
that we can
think of
other than you
fits.
They're all
square pegs
trying to go
into round holes.
But Lord
you
are the perfect
embodiment
of love
for us.
So Jesus
thank you
for being patient
with us
as we run
and as we rebel.
Lord thank you
for your kindness
that's given
toward us.
Lord thank you
thank you
that while you
are jealous
for us
Lord that you
are not
envious
because there
is no one
for you
to envy.
Jesus thank you
that you came
not boasting
in who you
are
but boasting
in the Father
and came
to serve.
Lord thank you
that you came
not in arrogance
but in humility
that you came
not in rudeness
but the embodiment
of grace
and truth.
Lord thank you
that you did not
come insisting
on your own way
Lord
but you
surrendered
to the will
of the Father
Lord thank you
for not being
irritable
but being
compassionate
of not being
resentful
and being
joyous
of not rejoicing
in the wrong
but rejoicing
in the truth
and the repentance
of lost.
Lord thank you
for bearing
our sins
on the cross
for showing
us belief
in action
Lord thank you
for showing
the hope
we can have
and what
the plan
of the Lord
is going to be
and Lord
enduring all
Lord may we
take our
gifts
and our
talents
in our
positioning
in our
resources
in our
personalities
in everything
Lord that you've
given us
and use
them out of
love
out of you
to draw
people to
you
to speak
reconciliation
and hope
and love
and relationships
to have a
love for the
brother and
sister
who's
wronged me
who's
offended me
who's not
like me
and Lord
may this
be who we
are
Lord would we
not let
gifts
our
understanding
of gifts
divide us
but instead
to unify
us
in who
we are
in you
and in you
alone
Jesus I
thank you
for the
work you
did
in the
marriages
of the
individuals
that were
here this
weekend
and I
thank you
for the
work that
you're doing
in the
hearts of
the men
and women
and children
and people
who are
here today
Lord may
we respond
to your
gracious
calling
thanks again
for listening
to the
Willow Ridge
Church weekly
podcast we
hope that you
enjoyed listening
to this week's
message if
you'd like to
learn more
about who
we are or
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