While those are being passed out, I want to encourage you to open your Bible or the blue pew Bible in front of you to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4 verses 9 through 12 was where I'll be preaching from today. What I want to remind you is you've gone through this little letter. This is one of Paul's first letters. It could have been his first, Galatians might have been first, but this is a letter in which Paul is seeking to bring encouragement and exhortation to a very young church. The goal, God's will, is their sanctification. Sanctification means that we're being made like Jesus. It is a work in progress. And so there's a phrase in this little letter that Paul uses over and over and the phrase is more and more. He actually is encouraging these people for things that he sees and hears about in their life. But he's saying do so more and more and there's a pastor, one of the pastors of this church, one of the elders of this church is we look out upon our body as we see the men and the women and children of this church. We feel the same way. We see people who truly know the Lord and love the Lord and want to walk with the Lord. They want their life to be one that is growing in the abundant fruit of the Spirit. You long for that. You want it more and more, and that's exactly what this letter is saying. And now Paul turns and speaks of one other aspect of this sanctification and it's called love. Love. And what he says to these people is that you are doing this. In fact, you're doing it well, that's my word, but it's what he's saying. He says in fact nobody even needs to write to you about this, but I'm going to write and he writes with an urging, is that urge you do so more and more. So as we open this text, you're going to be confronted with the question just as I have been in my study, are you, as a Christian, loving well, the other Christians of this body? It's not a question that we ask only this Sunday, it is a question that we ought to consider every day of our life, what it means to be a member of this church. Every time you enter into this sanctuary and every time you leave, can you leave saying, I loved well. In my time together with the body of PCPC, I loved well. You might not believe this because of the reality of sin in our life, but because of God's grace and because of God's love, you can say that. There will be moments in your life when you can say because of his grace and for his glory and because of his love, I loved well, but what does that love look like? You're going to see it today. You're going to see it and you're going to experience it as we come to the table. So let's stand. For the reading of God's Word, 1st uselonians 4, 9 through 12, just a few short verses, listen as I read. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you were doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you brothers do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mine your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, please be seated. Father in heaven, open your Word to us now, holy spirit, illuminate our hearts and inspire in us the kind of love that you carried Paul along to write about. Change us even this day. Give us hope, the hope of love for your saints, and ultimately for you. You pray this in Christ's name, amen. I want you to turn in your Bible right now to 1 Corinthians 13, if you don't have a Bible grab the blue pew Bible, I want you to keep your finger there, we're going to go to it in a little bit, but for now I want you to stay in 1 Thessalonians, it's a very simple command to understand and a very difficult command to live. Our Christian walk gets no deeper than this. Our Christian walk in terms of depth is not defined by how much we simply know, it's not primarily intellectual, it is the action that God calls us to, which is this action called love. You can be brilliant, theologically, and not be very deep. You can have incredible piety, spiritual discipline in your life, and still not be very deep. The depth of a Christian's life really is seen in this act of love. So I'm going to give you three simple headings as we go through this passage. We're going to speak on love today, next Sunday, and the Sunday that follows. I won't be preaching next Sunday or the Sunday that follows, skip a preach on love, and then Paul, global will preach on love. This is a big deal for any church, the church of Jesus Christ. So here's the heading, three, love is God's idea, love is God's idea, second, God teaches us to love, and third, because of God's love, we can love, as he's called us to. So first, love is God's idea. When you're looking for illustrations, as you've been studying a text, you begin to see things all over the place. One captured my eye even this morning, we didn't need another illustration, but I couldn't pass it up. Redeemer Seminary, their little booth, just outside the fellowship hall, has a banner and these little cards, and it says, why love is the greatest thing in the world? Now if I had no context for what that meant, this could be a card distributed all over the place, couldn't it? I mean, it could be in a bar, it could be in just any kind of social gathering, and everybody would have a context for love, but this is a love that is the most significant thing in the world, because it's not just a general love, this is talking about the love of God. Tomorrow, tonight, here in the sanctuary, Redeemer Seminary will hold its graduation, I believe 28 students will be graduating, this is a big deal for this young Seminary, this is exciting stuff, this simple gathering of people to talk about the theme of love as Reverend Bill Burns preaches, it's a meeting that's going to be held Thursday, June 12th, they didn't ask me to make an announcement, I just saw this for the first time, but I'm compelled by the title, why love is the greatest thing in the world? Is that biblical? What is? Because love is God's idea, but God's idea of love, and our idea of love, the world's idea of love is so radically different. Love's command to love is given throughout Scripture, it begins from the beginning with the greatest commandment that we are to love the Lord, our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is so significant to God that he has many different words that describe love, even in our passage today in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 9, it says, now concerning brotherly love, that is the word Philadelphia. It is the kind of love that describes familial love. It is the love that a father and a mother would have for each other and for their children and children for each other. It is a love that's bound by blood and kindred, and he's saying, this is the type of love you, this Thessalonian church, that you are supposed to have for one another, because indeed though you aren't all related by blood, you are related by the blood of Christ, you're related by the spirit of Christ, you are like family, so think about the way in which you as a sibling or as a mother or father or grandparent and uncle, how you think about loving your family members. You don't always get along, we know that, that's why there's another word for love. It comes also in this text, it's a gophing love, it is an unconditional, sacrificial love, it's a choice to love, even when you don't feel like loving, it's the love that God has for us, He describes His love for His people and the work of sending Christ to the cross. Love is God's idea, and the love that He's talking about for the church is a love that goes beyond the surface, depending on a person's experience on any given Sunday, if they're new to this church or they've been around this church a long time, they might say it's not a very loving church, or their experience might be the opposite, that's the most warm and friendly church. Either way, and it's always going to happen depending on a person's experience, that's not the kind of love that we're ultimately called to, it's not the kind of love that we just have as a surfacy friendship, a warm and friendly place, it's part of it, it's part of it, but that's only true if it comes from something much, much deeper, in that much, much deeper love is a love that says we as Christians open those doors wide that people might come in and hear about the love of God, we have a love for one another and a love for our God that is so profound because love is His idea. It means that the dirty, filthy, addicted men and women struggling in their marriage, men and women whose marriage is over, practically, many women whose marriage is over. It means that people who come whose children weren't compliant and obedient on the way to church who didn't wake up this morning and say, oh, father, thank you for taking me to church today and then throughout the week they said, how can we have more family devotions? How can we have more intense prayer? This is a body where people come in, broken, fallen, spiritually plateaued, depressed, anxious, full of worry, sadness, some celebrating that their children are going to college, some so sad that the mess is about to be empty on any given Sunday. This is who we are, no matter what we look like on the outside, the truth is inside, we're just like every other person that would walk through these doors and what every person that walks through these doors should experience, every person that walks through these doors should experience is a collection of God's people who want their eyes lifted up so high to see His glory and His transcendence who are overwhelmed by the goodness of the gospel which says that our God is a God who pursues us, not when we finally get our act together but he pursues us, demonstrating His own love for us and this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. So any person that comes through those doors, if they know the Lord or if they don't know the Lord, there it is, see the love of Christ, the love we have for God but also the love that we have for one another that's not just a surfacy, friendliness, we could create that but a deep love that says, I am going to make myself available today to love another well, I am going to make myself available today to love another well, not just on Sundays, but every day you got what it takes because of the grace of God, not just like that English, you and I because we're in Christ by His grace and love we have what is necessary to love that way and so we say by His grace, by His love for His glory, I long to love another well today but what does that mean? There's ways in which we stop loving people that come way before the act of love is absent. Let me give you an example. When we decide to no longer participate in things that the church has, that will cause love to go further. That's a lack of not loving someone. You see, love requires our presence. I need you to be here. I need you to be present. I need you to be present when you are here and you need me. You need the brothers and sisters that are sitting around you and they need you but one of the ways in which the enemy keeps us from loving is by causing each of us to be so consumed by our own schedule, our own preferences, our own desire that we so often say not going to that. Don't need that or for those who have burned around this church a long time, I've done that already. Oh, I bet you hate those words of Paul more and more because you see there's never a moment in our life where we can say, I'm done. I've arrived. I can retire from loving others because I served in the nursery for all those years. I taught middle school, sunny school. I went on a middle school retreat or a middle school lock-in. None of us ever reached that place where we can say we've loved enough and if your regular pattern is to say no to lots of things that the church offers, that's not loving. It's just not. That's also not loving to say yes to everything so that you're so frazzled, you have no time for any of the people you're around. What is loving is to regularly go before the Lord and ask Him, are you calling me to be a part of this? Because if you are, I'm going to do it because I know that that's an opportunity for me to love others well but also, and this is very important, it's an opportunity for you to be loved by others well. Don't you see when we are together as a body, we miss being loved by others and we miss loving others. This is what we need. This is what the body must constantly be about. You can give all the indications externally that you want to love others, but you've also got to be in position to receive love and love is risky, isn't it? It's not easy. It is sacrificial but it's God's idea. Love is God's idea. Love is God's idea to change the world. Not with just the simple shallow kind of love the world knows but the deepest kind of love that says you can be forgiven of your sins. We can seek reconciliation when we've crossed swords. We can love as the Lord has taught us to love which is my second point. Love is God's idea and God teaches us to love. Look with me back at First Thessalonian. Paul writes, now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God. That's a great phrase. The only time in the New Testament that phrase is used, taught, nowhere else, taught by God. So what Paul is saying is that you have been taught by God himself through the carrying on of the Holy Spirit that you're to love one another. Well just as they were being taught thousands of years ago and Paul is affirming that guess what's happening this morning? I'm being taught. You're being taught. We're being taught to love as God would call us to love because God it's his idea. So now I want you to listen to Paul's teaching on love and another letter to a church that wasn't loving that well and there we are in 1 Corinthians 13. Look with me at this very familiar passage but as you look to it, imagine that you had never heard this. Imagine that you don't have a well-grounded definition for love and listen to what it says. Paul writes verse 4, love is patient and kind. Loves does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things. Listen to this phrase. Look really listen. This is God's love, his idea of love. Love bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. Now going down to the very bottom, last verse in chapter 13 which is verse 13. So now faith, hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love. I want you to do something for me this week. It's not going to be hard. I promise it will be edifying to you. If you have a computer or a tablet or a smartphone, I want you to go to PCPC.org. I want you to go to the section that says about PCPC. From that section, I want you to go to the section that says who we are. And then I want you to click on a video that says our history. This is the month that we celebrate the 23rd anniversary of this church. You know what? Easy that is for me to remember. You know why it's easy? Because my wedding took place at the same time that this church was starting. Today is my 23rd anniversary. I remembered. It wasn't hard. My wife is not in this service. So be in the next. Love started for us before that day. But before God and the witnesses that were there, we made a vow to one another. This church started. Over 23 years, there's many things that could be said about this church. In the video that I want you to watch is the same video that we showed three years ago over at SMU. It's a video of a collection of phrases, quotes taken from sermons that have been preached throughout the history of this church. But one thing I want you to see, I didn't notice it before, is that that door is a big part of the video. That door opens up and the camera moves in. Is the word of God has been faithfully proclaimed from this pulpit. And it shows the body, called to love God with all their heart, so strengthen mind, taught to love one another. And then the camera exits through the door. It looks back in. I want you to go and be reminded of what this church is about. And I want you to be inspired to think about your love for other people in this church. And are you able at the end of each Sunday? And is it the desire of your heart each day to say, Lord, help me love the people in this body well? Well, what does God's love look like? What would he teach us? I just read the most beautiful definition of love in the world. It's 1 Corinthians 13. Are you patient with one another? Do you envy? Are you self-seeking? You know, we all fall short, don't we? I don't think there's a passage of scripture that makes me think about my sin more than 1 Corinthians 13. I fall short loving every day. But the desire of my heart is that love, because I believe what the gospel says, the greatest of these is love. Love is God's idea. God teaches us to love. Lastly, because of his love, we can love others. I want you to hear that because I want you to be encouraged. This love is a sanctifying process where we can grow to be more like Jesus. You can love in ways you never thought possible. You can forgive in ways you never thought possible. You can connect to people that you never thought you could connect to. You can make sacrifices that you never thought you could make. You can use your home and your money and all your stuff and waste for God's glory out of love that you never even imagined. By his grace, because of his love. And that's what's happening in this little church. This is no again to what Paul says. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. And then verse 10, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Now that would be so deeply encouraging to hear from an apostle to say you are loving well. Do you hear the encouragement from those words? I can say it as a pastor. I see people in this body really loving well seeking to give their lives away from the sake of Christ. But like Paul and because it's this side of heaven any preacher would have to proclaim the same thing. And this is what he says. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more. Okay. I want you to begin to think about what this church would look like as those doors open and you don't think about anybody else for a moment. You as a Christian began to love one another. Others more and more. The you and your wife, you and your children, you and your small group, you and your Sunday school community. All of us, every Sunday were together and every day we lived. We really believed that we could love more and more the way Christ called us to. What would it look like? What will it look like? You can't deny as a Christian how beautiful that will be. When each of us as his saints says Lord from your love to me teach me to love all more and more. Let my love for you and my love for others influence the way I think about what I will say yes to and what I will say no to because my friends as a saint, as a Christian this body needs you to show others love and you need this body to show you love. You need the kind of love that God's describing here, the kind of love that he has taught us. We all need it. It's his idea. It's his idea for deepening the church and widening the church and changing the world because that the root of it is what?
This table, this table, a table of communion where we come to remember the greatest love of all. When Jesus taught about love, he did so in two ways. He taught with words, affirming the words of God throughout all of scripture. He said to the disciples, a new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another. All men, I love this verse, all men will know that you are my disciples if you want. Love one another. That's what he taught. He also taught that the greatest love is when one lays down his life for his friends and so Jesus's words turn to actions, actions of the holy triumphant God. Romans 5.8 but God demonstrated his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And that's the message we have to give. We're coming to this table this morning as a family, a family that needs that brotherly love. We come to this table as believers in Jesus Christ. If you this day know in your heart and mind that you do not believe in Jesus Christ, I must warn you not to come forward and protect the elements, unless you would eat and drink judgment on yourself. But take a moment to consider the love that I've been describing today and may this be the moment where you would come to salvation. This table is for all Christians. It is not for people who have suddenly cleaned themselves up, good enough to come. It is a table where we come, reminded of our brokenness, but reminded of the perfect righteousness of Christ. It's for you to come to be fed, to be full, to be transformed. And so I want you to come hungry and thirsty for Christ Jesus. As we come today, let's come present. Let's not worry about the clock. Let's not worry about what will be next. Let's come to be fed. Some of you come this day and you know that you need prayer and prayer is powerful. It's one of the most loving things that we can do for each other. In this corner and over in this corner, a couple of our pastors and a couple of our elders will be there to pray with you. Simply step up to us. Tell us what you need prayer for and we will gladly pray. For the rest, after the words of institution, we will come forward down these aisles and we will partake of the elements together as a family expressing the love of God in profound ways. Let's now prepare to come to the table. Would you please stand?