The Love That Never Fails

Sermon Manuscript

1 Corinthians 13

A message on mature love, faith, and seeing God more clearly as we grow in Christ.

Faith matures as we move from hearing about God to seeing Him more deeply through the journey of love.

Then We Shall See Face to Face (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

Here, the Apostle Paul describes our journey of faith like so: we start like a child and reasoned like a child, but the day will come when we become mature, and the childhood ways will be behind us. What happens when we mature? Paul says its that we shall see God face to face.

Do we have such testimony in us? The God whom we come to believe and testify at the beginning, did we come to know more of Him and become even more convicted in Him the longer we spend our time in faith?

Job 42:4-6

This is the testimony of Job. In his trials and sufferings, the God whom he heard before he has finally come to see him with his own eyes. From hearing to seeing, this is the journey of faith we too should experience the longer we walk in faith.

Paul said we were once like children. How do children act? There is a certain purity in them. Their convictions can be unwavering when you are not close, because they don’t give into reasoning but act on their gut feelings. Yet if they come to trust you, they will believe almost everything you say.

One pastor tried to poke fun at a child in an elevator and jokingly told the child that the woman standing next to him is not his mother. The child looked at the pastor with bewildered face and likely wondered what this person is talking about. After a few more attempts, the child became frustrated and began to cry screaming that the woman is his mother. What is the reasoning for this? The child didn’t need one, he knows surely this is true.

Yet, when we become older, we may not carry the same heart any longer. Reasoning takes over, and we begin to question everything based on the evidence we have. If someone were to sow doubts in us and say something similar, we might take it seriously and think hard whether there is any truth to that. Why does it happen this way? It’s because we no longer like a child basing everything off our intuition alone, but we give into reasoning and are defeated when our knowledge seems incomplete.

What does the Bible teach us? The fall of man came exactly like so. In the garden of Eden, Eve was tempted by the serpent because he told her that not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is because God seeks to keep her from seeing things. He didn’t say to go ahead and eat it because it’s sweet, but he says you are kept from eating it because you think you will die, but you won’t die and rather it’s your eyes that’s kept from opening because you did not eat.

What Did You Go Out to See? (Matthew 11:7)

After John the Baptist spent his days in the wilderness praying and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, the Lord asked did we come to see? Is it a reed swayed by the wind? John the Baptist send his disciples to ask the Lord whether he is truly the Messiah, when long before this he was so sure and convicted that he would tell the crowd that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one whose sandal is too great for him to carry.

In a fateful turn of events, the one who should testify the Lord and make his way straight became the symbol that brought everything about him into question. Instead of meeting the Lord face to face and becoming fully convicted, it became a situation where he finally came see the Lord’s face and rather that sowed doubts in him, and he questioned his initial judgement instead.

Would this be what become of our faith as well? Will what we see or hope for in the Lord falls into utter disappointment at the trials of this world? The Lord who seemed helplessly nailed before the cross, is he truly the Messiah we’ve been waiting for? Wouldn’t we rather become crucified the same way just like him if we follow the same?

The challenge of the world to the church is this: the power of death. Before death, will your convictions still stand? The world saves itself through the sword they wield, and likewise the sword all men become enslaved because it carries the power to determine life and death. The world will say: the sword is my god, and today you will die if the sword should decide to fall upon you. Before a sword of absolute power, can you still believe God would be there to save you?

The greatest fears and despairs in this world lie in darkness and death. It’s a world where you cannot see anything or make sense of its destination. Yet, the Lord is the one who resurrected from the grave, where death cannot keep him there. And he says he is the light of the world that whoever follows him will never walk in darkness.

Whoever Follows Me will Never Walk in Darkness (John 8:12)

Who would people follow? It’s the people of the light. Those who live in darkness long for those who walk in the light, because in them there is a mysterious optimism that they cannot comprehend. Why are you so different from me? Even if I’ve seen all kinds of trials and darkness, there is a hope in you that I cannot wrap my head over. I’d like to know who this God is you believe in.

When it comes to raising leadership in the church, we go through biblical, practical, and theological trainings. But if we do not know the core of this, we might misunderstand that it’s this knowledge and experience that makes us a qualified leader. The reality is that it’s God’s spirit that leads us.

In the event of David and Goliath, David was able to defeat the great Goliath who Saul, a very experienced military leader, could not overcome. What did David say? The Lord who delivered me from the hands of the bear and the lion will also deliver me from this Philistine. The courage of David sounds ridiculous before Saul, yet David shocked the entire nation when Goliath indeed fell before him in battle in such an unsophisticated way. This was when the name of David was sung and overshadowed the leadership of Saul.

What is a true leader in the church? Its someone who can lead people to God. David’s name overshadowed Saul because people saw in him hope from the despair even their king, the greatest among them, cannot resolve. They were led by David to believe God is with them whereas their king could not, and thus their courage and faith were placed in this young shepherd boy instead of their king.

In today’s passage, Paul said there is faith, hope and love, and love is the greatest of them all. If faith is what represents our convictions in the Lord, wouldn’t this be the greatest? Why is love the greatest? It is because love is the knowledge we need for our convictions to pass the test of reasoning.

If the fall of man happened because the serpent reasoned with us and we were defeated, then what is the knowledge that could repel such reasoning? It is to know love.

*Example from my child folding clothes

Why would God who loves us confine us? Wouldn’t what he says be true that we will die when we eat from the tree? Between the serpent and God, who is the one who truly loves me? When you know love, all powers of this world cannot overcome your faith.

The God who delivered me from the hands of the bear and the lion will not forsake me before the Philistine. The God who loved me till now is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. What is the proof of this? That God gave his one and only Son so that we would have eternal life. The one who should embellish in the riches of heaven came onto this earth, lowered himself, to save someone like me when there are so many others who should be at the front of the line when compared. Our God is the one who did not withhold son from us but gave him up at the cross of suffering because of his love for the ones who are the furthest away. Wouldn’t this God we’ve come to recognize through the life and cross of Jesus Christ be the reason for our convictions?

Where do all the gospels point to? It is the love of God revealed to us through Jesus Christ. In parable of the lost sheep, the Lord points out that the love of the shepherd for the lost sheep goes to the extent that he would leave the 99 in the open country to go after the lost one. At your darkest and most distant points in life, what is the truth you must remember? It is this: God loves you even when you are seemly at your furthest from Him.

We are More than Conquerors through Him Who Loved Us (Romans 8:35-37)

In this apostle, it appears no reality is too great or too overpowering when the Lord is at your corner. Even should reality be overwhelming, the Lord who loves us would not abandon us. Rather than falling into despair and let darkness overcome our hearts, the heart that’s convicted in the Lord who loves us dearly would not see defeat in the face of impossible realities, but rather seek expectantly for miracles from Him. Whether in death, or in life, or in all things, there is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. This should be the testimony in us the more we face the tribulations of the world.

Paul said that once we talked like a child and reasoned like a child. But there comes a time when that should be no more, and we come to a matured faith where we come to see God face to face. What does it mean to see him face to face? It is to completely know and be convinced that His love of us is true. Even when the world tells you otherwise, even when their reasoning tells you otherwise, you do not become swayed. Rather, having conviction in the love of God, we will become the ones who can confidently stand and tell them, “Look at us!” You will become the ones who perform miracles in the eyes of the world from all aspects, whether they’d be impossible feats or even the smallest victories gained through persistence rather than falling into despair like all others. In the love of God, you will shine like a beacon of light in this dark world, and bring faith and courage into the hearts of many.