Bring Your Brick | Sermon Four

The Greatest of These | 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8

1 Corinthians 12:31 “Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

2 Characteristics of Agape Love:

1. Love is Enriching.

1 John 4:8 “God is love.”

Luke 10:27 “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 

1 Corinthians 13-3 “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 (the flames) that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
2. Love Builds Up.

1 Corinthians 8:1b “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”

1 Corinthians 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

The “common good” is to serve God and edify the church.

“Love is patient”
“Love is kind”

Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

“Love does not envy”

Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice;”

“Love does not boast”
“Love is not proud”
“Love is not rude”
“Love is not self-seeking”
“Love is not easily angered”
“Love keeps no record of wrongs”
“Love does not delight in evil”
“Love rejoices with the truth”
“Love always protects”
“Love, always trust”
“Love, always hopes”
“Love always perseveres”
“Love never fails.”