My latest sermon notes (sorry I don't have Tim's responses scripted but they're in the podcast):
1Corinthians 13:1-8 using the NIV
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude,
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.”
Other than John 3:16, there is perhaps no other text in all of Scripture that is more quoted than this one. I’ve heard it read at weddings, funerals, and ordinations.
I’ve heard people talk about it in parenting, marriage counseling, youth & children’s ministries.
I’ve heard it used to describe the love of God, the interaction of the trinity & the character of Christ.
It is a beautiful Scripture…
And for us today, one of the most powerful things for us to hide deep in our hearts after a sermon series on the Holy Spirit and a conference where we’ve sought More Love & More Power from the hand of the Father.
You see, the dilemma for me today is that we could use this Scripture and find application for it in any of the situations I mentioned, but Paul (the author of 1 Corinthians) was using this to make sure that the Corinth church understood God’s heart in the midst of Him moving powerfully among them.
God’s heart is always for his people. Jesus modeled that in everything that he did. That’s why Paul, in the midst of a great discourse on spiritual power, giftedness and unity in the body (12), stops to talk about love (13)… and then goes on to powerfully describe the proper use of power through prophecy and tongues (14).
He was using this language to make sure that they didn’t miss who God was and who he wanted us to be no matter how much power they were experiencing.
WE will never see the Kingdom of God come powerfully if we do not love people.
Jesus gave 2 commands to the disciples as he left them (Acts 1:7)… Wait for the Holy Spirit and then go be my witnesses to people.
We must have a heart for people. We must love. We must extend God’s grace and mercy. These are the heartbeat of the Kingdom. These are the characteristics of the Father. These are the character of Christ.
Can you imagine if Jesus healed the sick without compassion for them?
Can you imagine if he raised the dead and shouted “look at me”?
Can you imagine if he lost his patience with the blind men?
Or said to demonized, “you’ve committed to many sins to be set free”?
No, all he did was birthed from that love in 1Corinthians 13…
A patient love. A love that kept no record of wrongs. A love that wasn’t proud or self-seeking. A love that protected and hoped for those whom Jesus was pursuing.
I want to see the Kingdom come powerfully. I long for it. Our church leaders pray fervently for it. We are so excited about how the Lord is breaking in through our Summer of the Spirit series and how the Holy Spirit breathed on us during MLMP that we are continuing the MLMP theme for the next several weeks.
But the Kingdom will never break through without love. It must start with our heart for people. It must start with our brokenness for our community. It must begin with love! We need the Holy Spirit to do that work in our hearts. Come Holy Spirit!
Prayer
Introduce Myself
Welcome All Campuses
So what do we do with this? How do we begin with love? Even the Beatles told us that “All You Need Is Love, Love, Love is all you Need.”
Is it that simple? No, probably not…
So here’s the great part about love and power. Both are birthed by the amazing Spirit of God’s presence living in our lives! You don’t have to work up a fake passion. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, he gives us the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Then the Spirit begins to produce amazing fruit in our lives. And the major fruit is love because God is love. Listen to this amazing verse:
Romans 5: 5b “For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Do you hear it friends? When we give our lives to Jesus, he replaces our human ability to love with his love. That 1Corinthians 13 love! Isn’t that incredible?
Let me share a story that might help you….
When we first moved back to Illinois 2 years ago, the thing that we kept asking the Father was how do we love our community, when we don’t know where we’re going or what we’re doing.
You see, we lived in Cincy, OH for 10 years, so by the time we left there it was easy to care about that city. We loved our city. We loved people completely. We rolled out of bed and cared about local politics, our school system, our church and our neighbors. We had relationships at every level of that community.
Then God asked us to pick up and move… and Happy had the answer of where… back to central Illinois where I grew up. That sounded pretty good, but the only problem was that Hap didn’t have a job for us & God seemed to say move and I’ll fill in the details later.
So, for the first 10 months my job was doing home inspections on delinquent loans & foreclosures for banks (exciting huh?). But God was at work. As I traveled around central Illinois (Peoria, Clinton, Bloomington, Paris, Danville, Rantoul, Paxton, Sullivan, Urbana… all over), Jesus and I had lots of time to talk. I kept asking him what he wanted me to do & where did he want me to serve?
At the same time, I asked him to break my heart for a community. I asked him to open my eyes to the needs of the people that I met and interacted with. During those 10 months, Jesus did so much with me.
First, he totally broke my heart for all of the lost and hurting that I came in contact with… sometimes moving to the point of tears …always fun to drop off delinquent mortgage papers to a family when you’ve been crying… of course, they received them a little better.
Second, Jesus totally moved my heart with a desire to see Champaign-Urbana be transformed by the power of God’s amazing gospel of grace.
You see, I couldn’t be a pastor at this church without first having a deposit of the Father’s love in my heart for you & for our community. It wasn’t that I didn’t love people at this church or in our town, but I wasn’t burdened for you & for my neighbors. (Wake up in the middle of the night praying for our church, our city, my neighbors, kindof a love!)
I loved, but it wasn’t always patient and kind… it didn’t always protect, trust and persevere… The Father through the power of the Holy Spirit needed to produce in me HIS KIND of love for you and for our cities. It couldn’t be my own love… that would definitely fail on its own …but God’s kind of love won’t fail you & me as we pursue our cities.
Do you see the difference? Anyone can come into a community with the truth of the gospel… even filled with the power of the Holy Spirit… but it takes you and I together filled with love (and the Spirit!) to continue the ministry of Jesus
YOU
Over the next few weeks, we want you to become filled with more love by the power and Presence of the Holy Spirit. We want the Holy Spirit to give you more power. We want to see God’s Kingdom come through you. We want to see you bring hope, healing and God’s voice to your community.
We want to be a church mobilized to love our cities in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This seems like a huge task doesn’t it… to be patient and kind, keeping no record of wrongs with you community… if that’s what love really is?
But, we want to challenge you as Jesus did that… Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Over the next couple of weeks, we will continue to teach you how to practice healing as you let your light shine. We will continue to teach you how to bring God’s voice through prophecy as you let your light shine. We will teach you how to fulfill the Vineyard’s vision as you let your light shine. And we will teach you how to do all of those things in your small group. We really want to see your “deeds” shine outside the walls of the church as you love your city.
Today, we want to start in a place that will be challenging, but might also seem a little less intimidating to those who are nervous about praying for someone to be healed at Wal-Mart. We want to begin with this idea of extending MoLoMoPo through the practice of kindness outreach… or simple, small things done just because you love people …anticipating nothing in return …not to invite them to church, but rather to extend God’s presence to those around you.
I want to take a minute and introduce you to a good friend of mine and one of our pastors: Tim Wheeler. Tim and his wife Melissa (and their 3 soon to be 4 kids) recently moved to the Charleston area where they are hoping to launch a new campus for the Vineyard church. They already have small groups started and held their first Alpha this past spring.
Now, all of that is, of course, very exciting for our church’s vision, but I wanted to introduce you to Tim for another reason today. First, Tim has a real passion to share God’s love with those outside the church walls. Second, this Fall Tim is going to begin helping us on the Urbana campus really think through some good strategies for doing Kindness Outreach to our city.
Adam: Welcome Tim, could you share a little of your passion for the lost?
Tim: Sure…
Adam: In fact, at the Vineyard Conference in Phoenix, God really moved your heart this year did he not?
Tim: Yeah God really did…
Adam: Tim led one of workshops at our MLMP conference a few weeks ago. Can you help us understand some of the challenge you laid out for your class that day?
Tim: We talked about…
Adam: What were some of the things that you had them do? And could we try and tackle some of those things today?
Tim: Well I had a few projects…
Adam: I love hearing those stories. In fact, let me share a quick one about how my small group went to Hessell Park last week… hotdogs, popsicles… bless Ray… Hope Center/Vern… invited to Beginnings… kids playing…
As we wrap up today, I want to remind you that if we want the Kingdom of God to show up powerfully in our community’s life, then it must be born out of love… a love that is patient & kind… a love that does not envy or boast… a love that is humble, polite, uplifting, positive and encouraging… a love that never fails.
A love that is produced and enflamed by the Holy Spirit. After all, that’s the fruit of what the Holy Spirit produces (Gal. 5) in us as he transforms your life.
Tim shared some of the ways that we are challenging the Urbana campus to step out and love our city. At our other 4 campuses, you are welcome to use those ideas or your campus pastors may want to share some ideas for your local campus…
ADAM: prayer & offering
MINISTRY TIME:
(1) Brokenness 4 city (2) Boldness (3) Experience God’s Love!
