Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 22, 2024. Let’s talk About LOVE! capital L.
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to “Turning On the Lights!” for Tuesday October 22, 2024.
Today we talk about the ultimate power in the universe – LOVE! Why is love the ultimate power in the universe? Because GOD IS LOVE!
We open 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 so that we can explore this power and how it can transform you and me into actual decent human beings.
I pray that this talk challenges you and edifies you in your walk with Christ. May God bless you and keep you, and we will talk to you again soon!
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This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 22, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 22, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters and welcome. Get the full view here of the to the church town church of God. Welcome of the church town, church of God on behalf of the church town church of God, I welcome you to another edition of turning on the lights. Isn’t that pretty? I have my little space all set up there ready to rock. Tuesdays I’m usually a little late because I run a little late coming over, getting everything ready for the week, that sort of thing. But here we are, oh, and we’re going to talk at least today, maybe the next couple of days about some of my favorite scripture and all of the Bible, the end of first Corinthians 12 and the beginning and then third. Okay, you want me to start the whole thing over? Good morning, Sandy. The end of first Corinthians, chapter 12, and then chapter 13. I like to teach this, I like to preach this, I like to hold this up as an example. To put folks in as an example to the relationship with God and their relationships here on earth, and how we are destined to fail. If we do not pay attention to the teachings through Paul. Also, here we are. It is Tuesday morning. It is a very, very warm week coming after a very, very cool week. You saw the altar of the church. Now there’s the rest of the sanctuary. Good morning, D. Happy anniversary to you guys. Let me fix my tripod here. There we go. Ready to see my ugly mug. Congregational prayer this Wednesday at 7pm. The Congregational prayer this Wednesday at 7pm. I think that’s the only special thing we have going on at the little church this week. At the end of the month, we have, of course, trunk or treat, which has become a wonderful thing here at the church. If you are a church tonian, if you are a church town, Church of God church goer, say that three times fast. You should be participating in trunk or treat. Because it is a light into what can be the darkness of this season of this day in particular, where people can really dabble in things they shouldn’t be dabbling in and then they see the church and the church is lit with bright light in the center of the town and people can come and get a taste. Come and get a taste of the goodness of God. Father, we pray that your word will emanate from your scriptures this morning, through me through us through this medium. And I’m talking about not a medium, like a fortune teller, this medium, which is media to the four corners of the earth, Lord, that your gospel will be heard that hearts will soften. People will repent the kingdom of God will grow. In Jesus name, amen. Oh, Father. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Daniel. Welcome to turning on the lights, everybody. We are right in the thick of first Corinthians. We’ve been really getting after this book over the past few weeks. We’ve taken a couple of detours to talk a little bit about politics and those sorts of things. I posted a very nice video from a teacher that feels much the same way I do as a Christian. And Christians like he, you know, he keeps making the point. Sometimes Christians don’t vote, because we’re like, what’s the point? Everybody’s evil. These people in particular evil, look at the candidates that we have. And that’s not that’s not the point. Scripture makes it very clear that government is evil, right? And secular government is going to be that way because it is infested with human beings. No way around it. As Christians, we need to examine the lives, if you will, and the credentials of the various candidates, we need to vote the best that we can Jesus Christ is not on the ballot. We have to vote the best we can he says, human government, the best that we can do with human government, and this is a great way of looking at it is to slow the decay of human society. So this is why governments constantly turn over and there are different forms of government and this and that over the years, sometimes it’s a short lived government, sometimes they go on for centuries. But eventually, they all take the same cycle, they all take the same route. And so we have an opportunity to examine those candidates that are running for representatives, representatives, and or leadership positions, and vote the best we can. And the best we’re going to do is to slow the decay of human society. And you say, well, that’s a really bad way of looking at and that’s not a bad way of looking at things. If you know anything about human history, and the cycles of history, we do have an opportunity to make it the best that we can. But like I said, Jesus Christ is not on the ballot. So the best that we can do is slow the decay of human society. Go check that video out on my homepage. Not right now, we’re going to talk about Corinthians. But go check that video out. I thought it was very well said. And it’s something it’s a reality that Christians must encompass and embrace. Because the fact is, we don’t vote in large measure. Because of the idea of voting for this person is sinful. That because that’s a sinful person voting for that person to sit. Yeah, just as if you were on the ballot. Shocker. I don’t want to bum anybody out. But just as if you were on the ballot. So what we do is we get the best information that we can. We pray we discern and we vote the best we can. I’ve been saying that I’ve been saying that through every election cycle, we’ve been doing turning on the lights for a lot of them. So do your part. We’re commanded to do our part. And with your vote, you can make it the best that it can be. I’ve made some of my positions clear regarding when you took it when you look at various political parties from the Green Party and the socialist and the constitutionalist and the independents and the Republicans and the Democrats, there really is only one party that has a part in their plank in their party about let’s get after people and kill them. Now I know across the board, people have different views of abortion and limited abortion and transgenderism and homosexuality and all of those different things. That’s where you have to dig in and discern. And I won’t use the lesser of two evils. If they’re just people and you do the best that you can and you vote the best that you can, and we will create the best government to slow our decay. That’s reality folks. It’s reality. But we’re not going to talk about that today. Last time we were together, we talked about all of the order of which Paul speaks regarding the church. Right? We talked about the order of how people dress the order of how people behave in church men, women, slave free all right. And then we talked about the order the construction of the church one body, many parts, many gifts, one spirit. You know, I get those idols out of here. You’re not bringing anything in that is not of Christ. Because Christ is the cornerstone. He’ll be a stumbling block to many we know that but Christ is the cornerstone of his church. And our job is to keep his bride as unblemished and as pure as we can. Good morning, Barry, here on earth, again, as is evidenced by Corinthians, is it it’s going to be perfect all the time because Christ is the cornerstone? Nope, because he’s working through us. And we’re going to take it upon ourselves whether we use the name of Christ to try to garner power, prestige, whatever, or whether we go off the rails with some other idol or try to create a cult or whatever the case may be, we’re going to have to really be intentional about being faithful to that call. And we’re called to be ordered to be structured to preach right from the word, all of those things. And we are called to church discipline to choose, you know, to picking out the sinful behaviors of individuals that are affecting the church. You say, well, I’m gonna pick out the sinful behaviors of every individual. That’s not what I’m talking about. The ones that individuals may be bringing into sow seeds of dissension in the church, or the ones that absolutely go against God’s order, yet that person’s like, okay, whatever, I don’t care. I’m bringing I’m married to the woman in the back corner, but I’m bringing my mistress. No, you’re not. Right? Those sorts of things. I mean, if you call it out all of the sin in the church, the church will be empty. So he’s talking about all of those stuff. Good morning, Barb. I don’t know where you’re watching from. You may be one of our first overseas watchers. Are you still overseas? So we’re talking about all of those things as Corinth has gone off the rails. And now he’s bringing it back. He talks about order in the Lord’s Supper order in worship. And then he’s talking about, okay, if you want to talk about how the church is built one body, many parts, one spirit, many gifts. And this is where we get into the power of God, the power of love. And I purposely saved the end of chapter 12 because everybody loves chapter 13. Love is patient, love is kind, you know the drill, but you can’t fully understand 13 without understanding where he goes from 12. So here we are. Okay, review. He talks about one body with many parts, and he talks about apostles and prophets and teachers and all those different things. And then he says, but are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not. And it’s a little sidebar here. He talks an awful lot about the order of what we call speaking in tongues. And there’s unknown languages to the church that will serve to edify the church, not be a distraction at something that somebody cannot understand. If somebody is speaking in an unknown language, it is for the benefit of somebody who is there. And the information that is being spoken in a known language, but unknown to this congregation. There will there will be the meaning of which will it will be interpreted by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the church is edified, so that the speaking of tongues edifies the church, so that individuals that are not of the church are walking by just like on the day of Pentecost, walking by they hear this language, perhaps that’s why God is doing it. And now all of a sudden, you hear this Portuguese or you hear this, whatever the case may be, and that individual is what? So there’s an awful lot about the order and the purpose of what we call tongues. We’ve gone off the rails with that big time as well, unknown languages. So I’m gonna babble in what I call an unknown language. I don’t I don’t get it. Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not. So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. And this is the point of discernment when we talk about spiritual gifts. They are not even there to edify the individual who has them. They are there to edify the body of Christ. They are not look at me, look at me, my gifts are better than yours, or I’m going to put myself on display. And again, this is what happens when Paul says everybody’s running around babbling, claiming that they’re speaking in tongues and it’s utter chaos. It’s utter chaos in the church. There’s no worship going on. And to the outsider who’s looking at the Christian church, it looks like idiocy. That is nothing that God intends for the church, nothing. When people that are not of the church walk in that door, regardless of what is going on the ordinances, the preaching, the teaching, the songs, the prayer, there should be this sense of purpose, a directed purpose bound by God’s Holy Spirit and purposefully worshiping our holy God, and an individual should come in and say, again, regardless of where stage the church is in, then we talk about this with our service of the ordinances, would this look utterly bizarre to an individual? Or would they sense this purpose, this divine purpose in what we are doing. That’s why we immerse ourselves in prayer, and we submit ourselves to the Lord, when we do these things for the edification of this body, and for the edification of the church universal, and for to the attraction of non believers. That’s a responsibility. That’s a responsibility that we have. And that’s the responsibility of the church leaders have. We need to take that seriously. Paul talks about all of that again, in Corinthians, when he talks about how it has absolutely taken these little nuggets of what should be and you’ve gone completely out and left field with them. Good morning. It’s okay, you don’t need a note from anybody. Now let me show you a way of life that is best of all. So he’s talked about the gifts of the church. And these are big gifts. Apostle, prophets speaking the Word of God, teaching the Word of God, preaching the Word of God, the power to do miracles of healing. These are important things. And they are certainly of God’s Holy Spirit. But then he says, let me show you a way of life that is best of all best. Because now he’s going to bottom line it. He’s going from the gifts of the Spirit. He’s going right down. Gotta go, Barb, God bless you. Be safe. Can’t wait to see you again. And he’s going to go right down to the foundation again. When you read this, let me show you a way of life that is best of all. Read it knowing that God is love. If I could speak all the languages of the earth, there’s that idea again, languages of the earth and of angels. Sorry, I got it. If I can speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but did not love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. Because the power of God brings order and purpose into those behaviors. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans, and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. Because God’s love, God’s power, God’s presence through Jesus Christ, his son, brings purpose to all of that. And that purpose will edify the body, will edify the church universal, and will attract non-believers. God is love. And if I had all of the knowledge, like basically if I had the knowledge of God, but I did not have this love of God for his creation, then I’m nothing. I’m wielding a sinful sword, hell-bent on destruction, because I have not God. You see the power now in these words? I know we like to needle point them and hang them on our wall, and it’s beautiful poetry, beautiful wording in nearly any translation that you can find. This is a beautiful, beautiful section of scripture. And when I sit down with young couples and we read this, I say, “Isn’t that beautiful?” And they go, “Yes, that’s beautiful.” And I say, “Do you know that it is also impossible?” Like if you’re going to base your marriage and you’re going to try to do all of these things that we’re about to read in your own strength, you’re going to disappoint one another and you’re destined for failure. You need to understand the foundation of your marriage. The foundation of your relationship is your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The power of God is the power of love, and it is the only shot we have to behave this way, because I am none of these following things. And we say he has one more example here. “If I gave everything to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. That’s the paragraph right there. Now insert your name in the place of love and see how many of those little attributes you can check off. I can check them all off for a few minutes at a time. Maybe. Kids are running around screaming this morning, waiting for the bus. Do you hear that? Get him in here and start the choir. Good heavens. You might be able to kick them off for a few minutes at a time, but that’s not you. Let me give you an example because this isn’t me. It’s not how I live consistently without the power of God. If left to my own devices, could I even begin? Brian is patient and Brian is kind. Brian is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Brian does not demand his own way. Brian is not irritable and Brian keeps no record of being wrong. That’s not a human being. He’s not talking about a human being. He’s not talking about your definition of love and that you say, Oh yes, that is my love. I can generate that from my heart and I can totally be all of those things. No, you can’t substitute God as we know God is love. Let’s turn this thing around. Who is Paul talking about? What power is Paul talking about this love? Listen to this. God is patient and God is kind. God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand his own way. God is not irritable and God keeps no record of being wronged. God does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up. God never loses faith. God is always hopeful and God endures through every circumstance. The power of God. God, the power of God. Now we got a whole new perspective on this. Now we have a whole new understanding of what it means to be indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit and we’ve got a whole new understanding of what it means to behave as though we are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit. Well, maybe that’s a poor choice of words. Behave as though we are. No, no. It may be that you could interpret that as being pretending but we’re behaving the way God intends as we are indwelled by his Holy Spirit. Only by the power of God am I not irritated by little circumstances in life that get in my way. Only by the power of God do I wake up every morning and look at my wife and say, I love you. Will you marry me? Right? Only by the power of God am I patient when people are imposing in upon me. If I can say that and all the circumstances apply to you only by the power of God am I not rude with my tongue to individuals who might be irritating me. All of that we can treat each other better by the power of God and that goes for believers and non-believers alike. It begins within the church and the understanding within the church and the understanding and the demonstration of how believers treat other believers. He’s speaking into the church saying this is how you can behave the way I’ve been talking about in this letter. Only by the power of God. We talked about all of those gifts of God that are given to you as a follower of Jesus. But if you are not grounded in faith of the completed work on the cross of Jesus Christ, don’t bother. Don’t bother you won’t have any of those gifts. As a matter of fact, you won’t even be able to tolerate one another for very long because you have not love in your heart. He who knows God. Knows love. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. So you are you picking up with Paul is putting down here. He’s saying you can talk about all the churchy stuff and I’ve talked about a lot of the churchy stuff in the Christian church. I’ve talked about the Lord’s Supper and I’ve talked about order and I’ve talked about discipline and I’ve talked about sin. I’ve talked about the gifts of the spirit talked about all of those things. But if you are not grounded in Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ is not the foundation of your body right, the church local if Jesus Christ is not the foundation. It’s all fake. If there is anything that even looks like that, it’s all fake. You can say I have the power. I have faith that can move mountains, but you’re nothing you can have all the wisdom and all the knowledge and all that, but it’s useless. For you’re not using it for God’s purposes, large and small God’s purposes. 1 Corinthians 13 is a powerful scripture that speaks right to the heart of congregation speaks right to the heart of the individual and as I just mentioned to the body and now we expand that to the church universal and I keep saying what would that look like to non-believers? When a non-believer comes into a church body and experiences the power of God’s love that is being demonstrated between believers and that non-believer says there is a point. There is a purpose. There is a power here. What is it? Why are these people behaving this way? Do they behave this way out of church? I hope so because the power of God does not leave you when you leave the church walls. That’s what’s attractive. You can have all your seekers sensitive garbage that try to drum up some sort of seekers sensitive church that looks like a secular rock concert. You can do all that all you want. Give me this. Give me this. Give me the power of God through my submission to Jesus Christ. That’s seeker sensitive. That’s what people are looking for. It’s a broken, lost, hurting people are looking for. It’s what they’re looking for when they’re finding all of these identities. They’re looking for their identity. The Christian church should be a real choice when an individual human being is looking for their identity because we know that their identity is found in Christ. We should be a real choice. Prophecy and speaking and I’m just gonna finish out by reading this. I think I’ve made the point for today and then we’ll finish off 1 Corinthians and you can let me know where you wanna go from here. Is there another book of the Bible that you would like to take a look at examine a letter a part of gospel an entire gospel a prophet you can let me know and I’ll begin to study it and look at it and we’ll have some directed conversations here and turning on the lights. Let me read the rest of thirteen. It’s a short short chapter. First, I wanna start back with the now that you really have the impactful power of God. This is only possible by the power of God for God is love. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wrong. Praise God Jesus Christ. My sins are forgiven when God looks at me. He sees the righteousness of Christ. There is no record of my sin. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. Love never loses faith. It always hopeful it endures through every circumstance prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless, but love will last forever. God is eternal now. Our knowledge is partial and incomplete and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture that is speaking the word of God as we are doing right now, but when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless because we will know God. We will be in his presence. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see imperfectly like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love faith, hope and love. What is your life grounded in grounded on what is the church you attend grounded in grounded on faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love and God is love. He is the source of our discernment, our wisdom, our knowledge, our spiritual gifts. He provides us with God, his Holy Spirit to lead us in faith, lead us in prayer, lead us in understanding and even so we will only understand partially now, but the day is coming when all will be made complete. And those who died in Christ will rise with Christ in the age to come. Amen. Father, we pray that your word will will go to the far reaches of the earth that people will hear the good news that their creator lives that their creator has provided a way for them to be in relationship with him to know who they are their identity, their true identity. Lord, we pray this good news will go out throughout the earth. Hearts will be changed. The people will repent and they will be brought into a right relationship with you. Thank you Jesus for what you did. It’s in your holy name that we pray. Amen. God bless you guys. Thank you for hanging out with me on a Tuesday morning. It’s gonna be another warm one. We’ll see where we go from here, but good Lord willing in the river don’t rise. I’ll see you Thursday morning for turning on the lights.
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