The Truth About Love (Part 2)

Hello and welcome to leading the way with castor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael you sent to the world's definition of love differs quite a bit from what the Bible teaches and is Dr. Michael Yousef walks you through some very powerful words in first Corinthians 13 today will see that even Cleaver.

I hope that you listen and experience the truth about love. Specifically house official love can bring life all of your relationships to a number that leading the way is listener supported active work around the world is made possible through your generosity. Learn more@ltw.org or phone, and ministry representative. We are 866-626-4356. Now let's listen as Dr. Michael you sent this basically results or report of a group of professionals who conducted a group of children between the ages of four and eight because the kids basically one question fellows what lovers do you hear is the first one. Rebecca Jade said when grandma got arthritis. She could not bend over and played her toenails anymore so my grandpa does it for him. Now all the time even when his hands have got arthritis to that is love. Page 5 said love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of various. As for said love is what makes you smile when you're tired Nick is sick said if you want to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate the winner was a boy, age 4. The next-door neighbor who was an elderly man, I just lost his wife and the boy saw the man cry so he went over into the man's yard and climbed on top of the man's lap and just sat there when the boy's mother asked him what had he said to the neighbor and the boy said nothing, I just helped him cry. The last message you saw that would begin the series of messages on the truth about love and we looked at the love manifesto from first Corinthians 13 and reluctantly first three verses of the chapter and there we saw how sacrificial love cannot be manufactured that sacrificial love cannot be produced, but sacrificial love can only be shared as the love of Christ poured into our hearts be merely manifested to others in first Corinthians verses 13 verses four and seven. The apostle Paul goes on to paint a 15 color spectrum of love. Each color reveals a one facet of the sacrificial love, the most important thing about these 15 colors that are painted in this particular verses visiting the Greek language.

They all verbs, even the adjectives are in the active voice is what so big about this. It is very big and let me tell you why I tell you what so big about what the apostle Paul is trying to tell everyone of us is this that sacrificial love is not an abstract or passive concept that sacrificial love is not a mere feeling but it is live in is vibrant and is active. How is that what you don't just feel patients you practice patience. You don't just feel kindness you do kind that it's you don't just believe the truth know you delight yourself in the truth, you rejoice in the truth you defend the truth. That's what I mean and so develop a look at nine of the 15 those 15 colors like a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ is look at these nine that were going to see today. The first one. Paul says love is what y'all said love is and wouldn't you know it is the preacher's Achilles' heel. Can you open the scheduled in the face for years I've been working on this and I'm not there yet and there's one thing about all this preaching, although something you cannot escape the conviction of God before you bring it conviction to people and even gets better or worse depending on your point of view when the New Testament uses the word patience.

It is not patients that have to do with your being patient with your circumstances tough circumstances is not being patient with events that are totally out of your control lamina in this use of the word patience. It has to do with being patient with people. Patience is when you are inconvenienced and you still smile. Patience is when someone takes advantage of you and your relationship with them and you still had the neck when you run into them in the mall. Patience is when someone takes advantage of you over and over and over more than just one's you still had dramatic patience is when someone betrays you, betrays confidence that you interested in them betrays your trust in you still buy them lunch. Patience is when you have the upper hand over a person, but you don't use a hand we put it behind your back. You don't use it.

Patience is when you have every right when you have opportunity to retaliate but you don't do it now. That's it. That's patients in the Greek culture to whom the apostle Paul was originally writing taking revenge was considered to be a virtue really that in fact Aristotle taught that it is a virtue when you refuse to take personal insult and injury that it is a virtue when you strike back in retaliation for the slightest offense done to you see vengeance as a virtue, and so comes the apostle Paul and says what am I asking you to do is to go against the grain of culture.

Here is whether Greek culture was going to also go the other way because sacrificial love does not consider that a virtue sacrificial love says patience is a virtue. Patients love is patience.

Secondly, love is kind. Paul said these are not words the telephone and no one adoptive mother is a well thought words they are building steps they follow each other for a reason. And so he said love is patient secondly goes abusive love is kind. Why because while Patience does not pay back in kind. Kindness pays back the person what that person does not deserve kindness is not just a feeling of generosity, but it is being generous.

Kindness is not just the desire to be gracious but practice graciousness and humor like this is important. This is important. This is how God acted toward his children. This is God how God asked us how God will act in the last day and believe it or not, he can do exactly the same thing through you to connect you connect through me.

The act of kindness.

Listen to what Paul said in Titus 34 but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things that we have done but because of his mercy, God's kindness means that we did not get what we deserve with me tell you something everyone of us deserves judgment, but we didn't get what we deserve.

The portraying for kindness.

The test tube for acts of kindness begins in the home when kindness is ruling supreme in the home it will rule supreme outside of the home is a test for love is not jealous. Now this is the first of eight negative descriptions of love first to give us to positive ones.

This is love is patient, love is kindness now is going to tell us what love is not and he begins by saying love is not jealous, you know, Shakespeare offered to someone who said the jealousy is a green sickness because so many of these things that are in this chapter.

Those color of the rainbow of very opposite of them is respectable in our culture, just like it was in the Greek culture is the apostle Paul anticipated people through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ be able to go against the grain of culture you want I can do that to let me tell you. The bottom line about jealousy.

Jealousy begins when a person says I want what he has. I want what she has, but that's the first, but jealousy never really stays there. It cannot stay there once it's allowed to linger in your life and mine.

Once it's allowed to take hold in our last once it's allowed to take roots in our lives. We will go to the next stage in the next stage is. I wish that they did not have what they have. You see, the second stage of jealousy is more than just selfishness is the dissolving of evil for someone of your jealous that the best way to begin dealing with jealousy is that you resolve in your mind and accept this fact there is somebody out there is better than you. Once you get that under your belt, you can go to the next day. Just get it into your head and into your spirit and into your soul.

But the somebody there was more beautiful somebody that was more successful.

Somebody that was more talented somebody that was more popular. Just somebody there's going to be better than you as a first step, we remember that you go a long way toward dealing with jealousy toward excelling in your walk with the Lord recognizing your identity in Christ and the only measuring stick. You want to use is Jesus, not somebody else. That's the first step. The second step is to pray for the person who is the object of your jealousy.

Just pray for that person the Lord Jesus, I thank you for that person. I know your teeth are going to fall but pushed them back again.

When you start is not to be easy, but you can try then begin to slip Thomas the person who's the object of your jealousy and I'll tell you something you will get blessed in the process. Number four. Paul said love does not brag you notice is the step.

This step by step by step by step hanging on each other when the love of Christ fills your heart and fills my heart and you become successful. One of the easiest thing in the world is to start brag about your success and you'll tell others about your success in the new remind him again and again, why does Paul say don't do. Love does not do it because bragging is the flipside of jealousy. Jealousy one thing what somebody else has bragging is trying to make others jealous of what we had jealousy puts others down. Bragging process up.

Listen to me. Nobody likes a break right except we do it. Sometimes we don't know we doing it in the Corinthian believers were spiritual brag us. I mean there was showoffs is that he look at me, look at me me me, though, brag us were vying for public attention. They were caught hammering for prestigious positions that were to come anything for the showing spiritual gifts and Paul said this attitude is contrary to the love of Christ.

This attitude is contrary to love. This is what CS Lewis said about bragging. He called it the uppermost evil at the most evil you know why because it is the epitome of pride which is the root of all sins.

Beloved, I want to tell you only the love that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ can keep us in our rightful place.

Number five, Paul said love is not arrogant. You know the one thing about arrogance is this.

Arrogance is a complete lack of faith, but only by this person is a person who does not believe that everything he has everything she has comes from God. The moment you begin to forget this fact. The moment you begin to think that you got to where you are because all of your personality or because of your superior intellect, or because of your hard work or because of your negotiating skills because of your timing ability because your ability to read the market because of your giftedness never you are a dig of arrogance. Why, because even these things with obese skills or gifts or energy hard work will come from God. To begin with the Deuteronomy said that it is God who gives you energy to create wealth. The moment you forget that you gifts that your talents that your blessings that your energy all come from God. Watch out, because that's when arrogance begin to sit soon.

Number six. Love is not rude.

You know when Christ's love is not in the heart when Christ's love is not allowed to love through us bragging and arrogance will set in and when bragging and arrogance set in.

Rudeness is the outcome rudeness is outcome this thing. Everybody else is less than your ability to imagine somebody a coworker or neighbor somebody you been rude all this time and then one day I decided to go to share the gospel say walk up to the present said let me tell you about Jesus, about his action. Forget it. Seven love does not seek its own.

Someone said you were selfishness and you just have replaced the garden of Eden and the Corinthians motto laws. What is mine is mine and what is yours is mine too. But do not even secular psychologists are waking up to the fact that that isn't giving that is isn't something that mental health is obtained that it isn't grabbing and one thing and demanding and taking is when the health mental health is impaired. Psychologist waking up to this fact that the Scripture told us years ago. Number eight. Love is not easily provoked, literally. It says it is not easily aroused the anger you know the Lord Jesus Christ got angry at times even Paul wrote these words angry at times but never with the angry when somebody criticize them. They only got angry over heresies over teaching over false teachers.

They got angry over sin. They got angry over the dominance of sin, but they never got angry over those who criticize them over those who persecuted them over those who represented them over those who even beat them up.

See when God is your defendant listen to me when God is your defendant. You've got a lawyer that all the money in the world could never buy and so ask yourself when you become angry, angry because somebody assaulted me or is it because somebody reviled the name of Jesus.

Ask yourself the question, I pray that it is a single human being is listening to me now in a person is a critical person has a critical spirit.

I pray to God that you will be delivered from that today that you will head over to the Lord that he will replace it with the spirit of joy and contentment because men women listen to me there's no use telling your spouse that you love them. When you criticize them over time.

There is no use telling your children you love when you cannot find a good thing they do and always putting them down, put down the spirit of the critical spirit is not the sacrificial love in the old days when I was quick on the trigger and I used to say what you know my anger just only goes for a minute and it's all over.

Several decades ago.

Precious brother said to me Michael, you keep saying that your anger flares in this down in a minute.

He said you know so is a shotgun. It takes a few seconds, but the damage is enormous who thought about coming on the conviction I went to the Lord on my face and I said Lord whatever you do deliver me from this the ninth and final. The apostle Paul said love does not account the wrong suffered, the Greek word here is the girls in my from which we get the word logging now this has nothing to do with timber. But when you log down on the ledger blog the numbers down. That's where we get the word from the Greek origin when you record things while you do them when you put numbers, bookkeepers, accountants, when we write the numbers on what he do it to keep permanent record right so you can go back to it again and again right that's what you put numbers down this what you record the gauze ally is what you do in accounting very important. As I got for accountants and bookkeeping is a must. But the relationship never life is too short for keeping records. Life is too short for keeping these ledgers. Life is too short and maybe some of you here today who would need to start burning all of those old ledgers.

Some of you here today may need to destroy these old records and don't start new ones. Those old records that you been holding onto. For safekeeping deep in the recesses of your mind, give them up to Jesus Burnham destroy them reminder from Dr. Michael you set. Life is short. Thank you for listening to leading the way I remaining time is short as well so let me quickly remind you that today's message sacrificial love is available to listen to online and LTW.org that's also we can learn about ways to listen to the podcast LTW.org in addition to the podcast. You can also get all of the details about how to preorder Dr. Michael USF's brand-new book. It's called saving Christianity truth versus partial truth.

So many preachers and so many theologians teaching falsehood under the guise of truth and what causes that defection from the faith.

What causes giving in to this false teaching. Something trying to save Christianity. Christianity does not need to be saved. That is why I want you to get this will saving Christianity because it will show you how false that thought is an homage of all the names of these people are false teachers around us now, not to attack people, but to attack their false teaching. I want to help you galvanize you yourself from the postage. Please you need this book.

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Again, PO Box 20100 Atlanta, GA 30325 the sacrificial and the love of your Valentine today and join us next time right here for another special edition of leading this program is furnished by the way, with Dr. Michael, you can connect with ASCII television you to Facebook, twitter and other social network