Sundays bible message
GLORY BE TO OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOUR.
1 Corinthians 13 Love Is Indispensable. To know love is to define it. The below verses describes love like no other. Many, if not all of our sermons revolve around how Jesus loves us and the love we have for Him. Jesus in His love came in order for His children to be saved from sin knowing He was to be crucified horribly. I have read other sources concerning how they define love. Some have broken love into 3 parts. One being brotherly love, unconditional love and sexual love. As I have read through scripture, I in my most humble opinion, have come to a conclusion there is only one definition of love and that is what is defined below. If one starts to define love into types, for me it divides and confuses how love is defined in 1 Corinthisans 13. Jesus sacrified His life because He walked in love did He not. Love never fails scripture tells us, therefore we can say with absolute that Jesus never failed us. We love Him because of His kindness, His patience, His truth and it is His love that we choose to follow and have faith in Him. Anything else is not love.
Sex sets itself apart from love.
Sex could be a sexual union, sexual merger, sexual blending when coming together in a loving or love filled relation within marriage. Love is the good part of you as described above. The love relationship is sharing that goodness or love to one another. Each bearing good fruit. A love relationship does not survive if it does not live in love. It is not dependent on sex nor does the verses in 1Corinthians13 include the word sex in it. It was not important then and is not important now. This sexual revolution going on heavily since the 60’s has, in my most humble opinion, has been extremely harmful to the family unit. By linking sex with love, you therefore can unconsciously believe sex places a higher priority that it should in your relationship. God did not create us to be sexual deviants, by which I mean to misuse the intended purpose of sensual desires between His creations of man and women. Which takes us to Genesis 1:26-28:
God’s love. This is why Jesus is love. This is taken from Luke 7:18-23 John the Baptist sends disciples to Jesus and asks the question are you the Coming one:
And His love represents wholly the meaning of love as written in 1Corinthians 13. As you read those verses, it descibes love very well does it not? Our pastor loves to use agape love which is described as noble and unconditional love. However, I will challenge that Jesus life defined love by the way He lived. He lived one way and loved one way. You can actually feel the kindness, the hope He gave, the patience He had, the truth He shared and the fact that He has persevered to this very day. This is love just as Jesus showed us. This is why we should all walk in the faith, trust and love of Jesus. In other words, be Christ-like minded people.
And I will leave you with this from Matthew 22:
Kelly Anne goes from the darkness into the light. Web address for Youth for Christ is http://www.kalamazooyfc.org
Not long ago our church donated to a very delightful young woman so she was able to do a Youth for Christ camp internship. Note with this article, I took some hastily put together notes and I may have left out some things, however, what I want to emphasize is the transformation this young woman went through. I would also like to mention is the fact that our children and young men and women are being misled and confused by many of our institutions that have taken God out of the picture and replaced our Lord and Savior with the New Age Movement. With my research of the New Age Movement, I will share some key points.
First, a collection of thought systems. New Age is a compilation of metaphysical, Eastern-influenced thought systems. These thought systems unite theology, nature, and philosophy. This movement comprises countless "theologies" that often center on religious tolerance and moral diversity. The main phrases (or "isms") that reveal the focal point of New Age thought are "feel-goodism" (do whatever feels good, as long as you are not hurting someone else), "moral relativism" (situational ethics), and "pluralism" (universal tolerance). Humans are considered to be divine/godlike, as co-creators, and as the ultimate hope for the future of the world. Although New Age is generally tolerant of almost any world religion or philosophy, it is opposed to the "narrow-mindedness" of Christianity that teaches Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal salvation.
Two, The Doctrine of Evolutionary Godhood. The principles of evolution are constantly moving mankind toward god-consciousness, where man and reality connect in unified enlightenment. The "fittest" already understand this reality, while the "unfit" (such as Christians and other proponents of dogmatic worldviews) act as a hindrance to evolutionary forces. Many New Age practices are designed to accelerate the evolutionary push into the spiritual realms. New Age teaches that we are basically good and inherently divine, and ultimately, we can create our own reality.
Three, The Doctrine of Global Unity. There are three parts to this.
- Man Unified with Man. This principle is that we will all realize our proper divine relationship with one another. With economic unity, we can achieve political unity (a single world government) and spiritual unity (a one world religion).
- Man Unified With Nature. This principle is that god is everything, and everything is god. New Age movement refer to the union of earth and nature.
- Man Unified With God. The ultimate goal in life is to fully realize our own divine goodness. The New Age god is impersonal and omnipresent. He (it) has not revealed himself (itself) to mankind, and therefore, mankind is not accountable to any notions of moral law or absolute truth. There is no objective morality in the New Age philosophy. We should have tolerance for all systems of truth, meaning and purpose. We should create a world of pure relativism/doctrine, where morality and religion are strictly relative/comparative to each person's individual notion of reality/truth itself.
Is it any wonder our children our confused and feel lost and unhappy. If God was allowed as a study to compete with evolution side by side, God would be seen in a very different light. The light of truth always stands out if the truth means anything at all to you. I like Romans 1 for this.
Let us go back to Kelly Anne’s transformational story. She started her presentation out by admitting just last year she was in a very dark place where school was her idol. I can only imagine what she was going through. Then a day came when she cried out to God for help to fill her heart and that He did. Then God sent her an opportunity to be a camp intern for an upcoming mission trip for Youth for Christ. God, in all His glory put together everything she needed to make this trip a reality. And, was this mission trip a success; you bet it was.
The first person she met was a blessing and her spiritual leader. It only got better from there. Because mental health has become one of the most talked about issues since covid, for the first time had a specialized counselor available at the camp. In addition, the leadership made sure the activities created laughter and happiness like line dancing. Games like tug of war and crud wars (food fights) were designed to bring these young people the feeling of togetherness, the working together as a team with God leading the way. New arrivals to the camp were given the royal treatment with a massive welcoming as they poured from the bus. No Youth for Christ camp is without music and worship time. It was an intense time but one well received.
The light of love was a constant surrounding these kids. There were small groups and support teams making sure a connection was made during the children’s stay at the camp. But the one thing that stood out to me the most was Kelly Anne’s description of story-time that included skits. My take was this was the key at connecting with the kids. As it turns out, the story tellers were actually telling their own stories. This aided in showing the kids that they were not alone and had many of the same feelings.
Not only did Kelly Anne’s life change and her faith in God, but through this camp she got to see the many transformations of others. One of the ways she experienced seeing these lives change was through what was called the quiet time of prayer. Each one went to a place alone to quietly pray, then after a time anyone could shout out whether or not they wanted to be saved. Did everyone shout out I want to be saved; I would say probably not. However, just one saved is a blessing with the hope of many more to come. Thank you Kelly Anne for sharing. Your passion and new faith was deeply felt.