Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at a passage of scripture from 1st Corinthians chapter 13 but before we do that I wanted to tell you a story.
I grew up on a lake in Northern Minnesota where we spent a lot of the summer swimming, sailing and building sandcastles on the beach. We had a neighbor who used to come over with his boat to pull my family skiing. I didn’t know how to water-ski but one day, I attempted to learn how to do it.
If any of you have ever tried this I think getting up out of the water is the hardest most difficult part. It requires a lot of strength and inner fortitude to hold onto that rope as you sit 5 feet deep in the water bouncing like a bobber with your lifejacket. After many attempts to ski, my skis would simply wobble around and then I would drop back into the lake. Our patient neighbor would circle around me with his boat and throw me the ski rope to try again.
Over and over I tried, and over and over I fell down. I thank God for people’s patience because if anyone needed some, it was me. I’m not sure how many gallons of gas were wasted on me. I’m a slow learner, but once I learn, I usually dont forget how to do it.
One night late that summer, around 7pm, the lake was as calm as glass. Everyone in the boat yelled at me to keep my tips up out of the water. I focused on the tips of my skis as they instructed me to do. When the boat hit the throttle, I tried as hard as I could to do what they told me, and you know what? For a few minutes I was practically walking on top of the water. I felt the cool breeze in my hair on the hot day and watched as the water flowed like a stream under my skis. I never failed at learning how to ski, although it took many attempts to do so.
Learning to love others is like learning to ski. We each need to be patient with each other so that we can overcome our own inadequacies and shortcomings. Perfection in regards to love doesnt happen overnight. It took me the entire summer to learn to ski. In a marriage it can take many years to please and love one another perfectly. If that wasn’t the case, marriage counselors would be out of business.
The bible teaches us that none of are righteous, not any of us. Thank God for the grace, forgiveness and patience to learn how to love Him and each other perfectly. God is love, and love never fails. Like learning how to ski, you try and try again because like true charity for others, it never quits. Eventually it will result in success.
1 Cor 13:8-13
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Can you imagine driving down the highway and having your brakes completely fail only to leave you heading into the ditch and possibly hitting a tree and killing you? Can you imagine being in a helicopter and having the engine fail only to leave you falling to the ground without any hope of survival?
True Christian charity is a love that will never fail. It never quits and it never gives up, the reason why is because God is love and God is eternal.
There are numerous courses in high school that some of us have failed. Maybe you failed a driver’s training test or an exam to get into a college somewhere.
Although each of us are technically failures because each of us are sinners, true charity in Christ Jesus rises above our faults. The love that He possesses is never ending. Its merciful, forgiving, kind and gracious.
Gods love for us is truly a gift that I wish everyone in this world would receive and understand. Just a thimbleful of Gods love found in Jesus can do amazing things in the heart of a wretched sinner.
All of us are lost in the bond of iniquity, but God wants to set us free. He wants to forgive us and reconcile us to Himself.
When we are young children in this world we are filled with the general human nature. As a small child you really don’t have any knowledge. As children we are filled up with maliciousness, hatred, gossip, and in a general way, a desire to do evil to others around us.
Just as a child is taught by their parent, each of us needs to be taught by our loving Heavenly Father. It doesn’t matter if we’re 10, 40 or 60 yrs old. We all need to become teachable like little children once again.
The King James Bible is a book of love. It guides and shows us how to love God and our neighbor. When we fall short of perfect love, God provides us with the grace that we need.
The definition of fail is to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved:
It’s a great thing to know that God’s love for us never fails.
That’s where I’m going to stop.for right now, but Lord willing we will talk to you somethere tomorrow. Till then, bye-bye everybody.♥️
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