Gifts Without Fruit

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we're going to read verses 1 to 3.
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1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 1 to 3.
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Today's message is entitled, Gifts Without Fruit.
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Gifts Without Fruit.
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
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If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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And Father, in this moment that I have the opportunity to preach your word, I pray first and foremost that you would keep me from error.
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For Lord, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error, and I do not want to do that.
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And Father, this is not just a vain prayer, but Father, this is the prayer of my heart.
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Keep me from that which is wrong.
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Lead me into the paths of righteousness.
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Speak through your Holy Spirit, and may he go out.
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And may the word that goes out be mixed with faith.
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And Lord, may people be saved through it.
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And may the saved be drawn ever closer to Jesus Christ.
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Lord, may we understand that nothing that we do has any value apart from love.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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There are few passages in the Bible which are as universally known and widely accepted as true, even among unbelievers, as 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
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Every year we see these passages being widely used around Valentine's Day.
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There'll be cards that go out that have something from 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient and kind, which is the portion that we didn't get through, we're not going to get to this morning.
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But you'll see something about this particular text being used oftentimes with weddings and anniversaries.
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It's just one of those passages that has gone out into the world, has collected the imagination of many people and been used in many different ways.
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In the history of mankind, I would argue that it is unparalleled in its description of something which is really indescribable.
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Love is indescribable.
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And yet, Paul does, I think, by the power of God and the Holy Spirit, the best in providing for us a definitive biblical statement on the subject of love.
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Yet, though it is often quoted in the church and outside the church, it is more often than not quoted apart from its context.
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And certainly this text can stand on its own.
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1 Corinthians 13 and what it says about love can be taken from the book of 1 Corinthians, placed on its own and still have tremendous value.
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In fact, some even believe that and have suggested that this may even be a hymn that Paul wrote outside of 1 Corinthians and then included it as part of his work because it is so majestic and it does stand on its own in a very powerful way.
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However, I would argue that while the passage can stand on its own, I think we find its fullest sense of meaning when we place it in the context of the book of 1 Corinthians, when it is placed in the argument that Paul is making.
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And I say argument because 1 Corinthians is an argument.
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1 Corinthians is written to a church that has had within it major strife, major division, things that we couldn't even imagine were happening in the church.
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Remember we talked about the agape feast where the people would come and the people who had food would hoard it and would eat it and they wouldn't share with those who didn't have.
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And so in the church there were people who were going hungry and other people who were full.
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Can you imagine a church that was doing that? And so Paul is providing 1 Corinthians as an argument against misbehavior.
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The very first opening chapters of 1 Corinthians he talked about, some of you say I'm of Paul, some of you say I'm of Apollos, some of you say I'm of Peter, some of you say I'm of Christ.
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He's speaking of the division that was in the church.
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And so 1 Corinthians is an argument against this division.
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And one of the things that was causing the division in the church at Corinth was that there were those who felt superior and those who felt inferior.
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And one of the ways that people felt either superior or inferior was regarding their giftedness.
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I can speak with tongues, I'm superior.
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I have the gift of prophecy, I'm superior.
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I can heal people that makes me better.
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How horrible to think such a way, but we know people do.
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And not only that, there was the feelings of inferiority.
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I don't have the gift of tongues.
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Maybe I'm less.
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I don't have the gift of prophecy.
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Maybe I'm not enough.
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I don't have the ability to heal.
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Maybe I'm not all that God wants me to be.
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And so, these feelings of superiority and inferiority had infiltrated the church at Corinth.
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And Paul spends chapter 12 explaining that the hand can't say, because I'm not a foot, I don't belong to the body.
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Which means it can't feel inferior because it's not something else.
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Neither can the eye say to the ear, I have no need of you.
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Because if everything was an eye, you wouldn't be able to hear.
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You need your eyes, you need your ears, you need your hands, you need your feet.
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The argument of 1 Corinthians 12 is simple.
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We need every part of the body to be a full working body.
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And anyone who would look at another person and feel inferior to them, or any person who would look at another person and feel superior to them, are both wrong.
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Because God has placed us in the body for the body, for the purpose of building up the body.
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We are the body of Christ.
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1 Corinthians 12 tells us, now you are the body of Christ.
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Individually, members of the whole.
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And then at the end of the chapter, chapter 12, he says this, earnestly desire the greater gifts.
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And I believe what he means there, and I talked about this last week.
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I believe Paul's statement is that we ought to desire those gifts that build up the body.
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Because in 1 Corinthians 14.5, he tells us prophecy is greater than tongues, because prophecy builds up the body.
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So there are gifts that build up.
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And he says, so we ought to desire those gifts that build up.
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But, and that's the adversative, he says, but I will show you a still more excellent way.
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And that's what leads us to chapter 13.
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And Paul begins to discuss in chapter 13 the subject of love.
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We've talked about the gifts.
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Now I'm going to show you something more important.
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I'm going to take the good, and I'm going to show you the best.
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Spiritual gifts are good, but love is best.
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Now at this point, I want to make a distinction.
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And if you're taking notes, this might be something you want to jot down.
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Love is not a spiritual gift.
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Love is not a spiritual gift.
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Up until this point, Paul has been talking about spiritual gifts.
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He's talked about tongues.
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He's talked about prophecy.
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He's talked about healing, working of miracles, administration, mercy, all of these different things he's talked about as gifts of the Spirit.
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But now he's talking about something different.
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Love is not a spiritual gift.
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Love is a fruit of the Spirit.
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And it's not the same thing.
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In fact, I want to show you.
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If you'll hold your place in 1 Corinthians and turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, most of you are probably pretty familiar with Galatians 5, but I still want you to see it because I want to show you what it says here about the fruit of the Spirit versus the gifts of the Spirit.
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In Galatians chapter 5, and find your place at verse 22.
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Galatians 5.
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And by the way, Galatians is also a book of arguments because Paul is arguing against the Judaizers, those who would claim that to be a Christian you must first become a Jew.
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You had to be circumcised before you could be a believer.
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Paul is arguing against them.
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And in chapter 5 of Galatians, he's actually talking about the Spirit and the flesh and the battles that go on between them.
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And here's what he says.
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Verse 22.
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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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Against such there is no law.
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Now, I want to make mention of something here.
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There are nine virtues that are all described as the fruit of the Spirit.
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But the fruit of the Spirit, the word fruit is singular.
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So while the phrase love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness is multiplied, there's really one fruit of the Spirit that demonstrates itself in this way.
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These nine virtues are not distinct like you get patience and you get love and you get joy.
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No.
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You understand? It's not like the gifts.
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Because the gifts of the Spirit are that way.
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You might have the gift of mercy.
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You might have the gift of service.
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You might have the gift of this.
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You might have the gift of that.
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But nobody has all the gifts.
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We talked about that already, right? That's what we talked about the last several weeks.
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Nobody is everything, right? I may have the gift of preaching, the gift of prophecy, whatever you want to call it.
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And you might have the gift of service.
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Because we both function differently in the body like a hand and a foot, right? But the fruit of the Spirit is different.
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Because the fruit of the Spirit is universal and ubiquitous.
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All believers have the fruit of the Spirit.
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And it's one fruit manifesting in these nine characteristics.
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And I would even go as further as to say the first fruit is love.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love.
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And then if you follow the line after that, it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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I think that those are all aspects of love.
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You say, why do you say that, Pastor? Well, you go back to 1 Corinthians 13 and Paul says love is patient and kind.
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It doesn't envy or boast.
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It rejoices in the truth, right? So all of those fruits are manifestations of the fruit of love.
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Does that make sense? I'm not saying we can't distinguish between those nine things.
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I think we can.
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But what I'm saying is those nine things are the singular fruit.
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You don't get some of them.
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We get all of them when we are a believer.
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So I want to ask a question.
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Now, you can go back to 1 Corinthians 13.
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I just wanted to show you that in Galatians 5.
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You can go back to 1 Corinthians 13.
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But I want to ask a question.
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What's the difference between gifts and fruit? Gifts and fruit.
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Well, we've sort of already talked about it.
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But I want to break it down.
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When you become a believer, when the Holy Spirit of God opens your heart to believe, you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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We read that in Acts 2.
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Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and you will receive the what? The gift of the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus said, I must go away.
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And if I go away, the Comforter will come and He will abide with you, right? And so that gift, you get that immediately when you believe.
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In fact, what did we learn last week? If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you are not a believer.
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Those who say you get saved and then later you get the Holy Spirit, there is no warrant for that in Scripture.
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There is no warrant for you being an unspiritually filled Christian.
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If you are a believer, you have the Spirit.
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The gift of the Spirit comes in you.
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And the Spirit residing in you results in fruit.
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It's like a seed.
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And when I say it, oh, let me be careful.
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I have to be careful.
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Theological distinctions are important.
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The Spirit is not an it.
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He is a he.
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The Spirit is a person living in us.
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It's not it.
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Jehovah Witnesses believe that the Spirit is like a force, sort of like electricity that comes in like an electrical force.
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And works its way out.
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That's not what we're saying.
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The person, the third person of the Trinity, makes his home in our hearts.
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That's the gift.
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And because he is implanted in our hearts, he now grows out as fruit.
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Sort of like this.
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If you plant corn seed, what do you get? You get corn crop.
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If you plant green beans, and I'm not a farmer, so if I'm saying this wrong, forgive me.
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I think you plant green beans.
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I guess it's the only way.
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Because I don't want somebody, you know, maybe some of you are farmers and you come up and say, well, actually what you do is something else.
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If you plant a seed, you get that kind of result, right? You don't plant corn and get green beans.
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You don't plant an apple tree and get a pecan tree, right? So the fruit is based on what's implanted.
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That's the point of the illustration, right? So the Holy Spirit of God, what does the Bible say? God is love, right? And if the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, is love, when he plants himself in us, the fruit that comes out of that is in keeping with his nature.
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You understand what I'm saying? That's what we talk about, the fruit.
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That's what's different than the gift.
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Because the Holy Spirit of God chooses to individually give you a gift.
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And I don't know what your gifting is.
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We talked about, there's basically, there's some categories.
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Administration, service, mercy, prophecy, giving, exhortation, right? There's like categories, right? And the Holy Spirit saw you, whoever you are, and he said, when I save this person, when I save Chris, I'm going to give Chris this gift.
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And it's going to be different than the gift I give to Dale, and it's going to be different than the gift that I give to Steve, right? That's the difference between the gift and the fruit.
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Because all of you have the same spirit, and so the fruit manifesting out is because it's all the same spirit.
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So it's all the same fruit, in the sense of it's all, it should manifest itself in love.
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Because that's the primary, that's the fruit.
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Love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness.
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But all that's manifesting itself out.
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But the fruit is different than the gifts.
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Gifts are individual, not universal.
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But the fruit is universal.
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The gifts are diverse.
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The fruit is ubiquitous.
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Now, having said that, here's Paul's concern in the text.
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And by the way, if you haven't been here with us, if this is your first time being here with us, we're in a study of 1 Corinthians.
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So, and we do that, and I know it's Christmas Sunday, but we're going through the text, man.
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We've got places to go.
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We're studying through the text.
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I'm glad you're here with us, but if it feels like this is part of something else, it is.
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It's part of our bigger study.
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We've been doing this for over a year.
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We're studying this text together because it's important.
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But 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is concerned that there are people who are operating with their gifts without the fruit.
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So we've already talked about the difference, right? You've got the fruit of the Spirit.
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That's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.
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They're operating with their gifts.
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Man, they can speak in tongues like the best of them.
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Man, they can prophesy like nobody's business.
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Man, they've got the gifts, but no fruit.
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And Paul says that's a problem.
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That's the argument of 1 Corinthians 13.
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If you've got the gifts, but you don't have the fruit, guess what the gifts are worth? Nada.
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You say, but my gifts are impressive.
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And they may be.
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My gifts are amazing.
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And you may be.
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But without love, it's nothing.
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Now, here's a question that came to my heart.
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I don't know how you study.
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When I study, I always ask questions.
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And oftentimes, that's how I prepare my sermons.
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I'm thinking about the question I'm asking.
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And I say, well, maybe the congregation is asking the same question.
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And so I better try to answer this question because if I were in the audience, I'd want the guy to answer the question.
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If I were part of the congregation and somebody else was preaching, and I'd want to know.
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Here's the question that came to my mind.
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How can this be? How can it be if fruit is the natural byproduct of being filled with the Spirit, how could it be avoided if someone is filled with the Spirit? Because the gifts are gifts of the Spirit, right? So if the gifts are there, then by nature you'd think the Spirit was there.
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And if the Spirit's there, the fruit's not there.
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How can that be? I usually write my sermon early in the week so I can percolate on it all week long.
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I didn't get this one written until like Friday.
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And for me, if you know my wife, you can ask her.
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That's really odd that I'm still writing on Friday because I really percolated on this question.
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Is that the right word? I let it steep because I was having difficulty.
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How could it be that if you have the gift of the Spirit, but the fruit's not manifesting? And I have two answers.
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And I submit to you, as I say these things, I say these with difficulty because this was not an easy answer to arrive at.
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Number one, two answers.
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Number one, I believe that it could be that a counterfeit believer is having a demonstration of counterfeit gifts.
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That there are people who counterfeit the gifts and because they're doing it without love, they're demonstrating that they don't have the Spirit.
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I mean, if a person appears to have a gift of the Spirit but doesn't bear the fruit of the Spirit, that may be an indication that they're devoid of the Spirit and everything they're doing is a counterfeit.
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Does that make sense? We know this happens today.
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There are people who claim to have the gift of prophecy who do not, but they claim it.
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There are people who claim to have the gift of healing and they don't, they are frauds, but they claim it.
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There are people who claim to have the gift of tongues and they don't.
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They're fraudulent.
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There are people who have the gift of all kinds of things and they're fraudulent.
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And I think that could have applied to the Corinthians.
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I think Paul could be addressing the fact that there are people who are just straight up frauds.
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There are people who claim to have the gifts of the Spirit, they're seeking to be working in the ministry of the Spirit, but they're doing it for this reason and this reason only.
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It provides for them a place to show off and a place to get recognition and sometimes even a place to get money.
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How many preachers on TV claim to have gifts, but you've got to buy it? You can have your healing, but you've got to send that seed money.
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How dangerous.
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You can have my gift, but at a price.
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How dangerous.
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How absolutely dangerous to claim to have the gift of God and to be a counterfeit.
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But how would we know? Without love.
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Paul tells us, without love, it's nothing.
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So that's the first thing.
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Now, I want to say a second thing, though.
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And again, this is where I was struggling.
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Because I do believe that, yes, I believe that it could be that a person's faking the gift and they don't have the Spirit, and that's why they don't have love.
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But I think there's a second possibility.
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This one hurts me more.
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Because how true it may be, it hurts me to believe that it could be true.
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I think it could apply to genuine believers.
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You say, how? I believe it's possible that a person who has the fruit of the Spirit may at some point in their life and in their ministry may not be operating in the fruit of the Spirit, but rather operating in disobedience.
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And that's why they're not showing love.
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Here's the thing.
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No Christian, no Christian, including all of us, none of us have ever operated perfectly in the fruit of the Spirit.
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Because we battle the flesh.
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Amen? Do you agree with that? Galatians 5, where we just were, it says, The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.
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The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
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For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
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There's a battle that rages in us between the flesh and the Spirit.
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And Jesus said this, He said, The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
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So if a genuine Christian is using his or her giftedness and is doing so devoid of love, they are doing so in disobedience to God.
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Can a Christian be disobedient? Yeah.
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It's like Paul Washer.
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I was listening to Paul Washer preach this week.
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And he said, From the time I got up in the morning to right now, I've committed enough sins to be deserving of hell just today.
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Two passages I want you to think about.
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And you can write these down if you're taking notes.
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You don't have to turn there because they're real short.
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1 Thessalonians 5.19, the Apostle Paul says, Do not quench the Spirit.
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What is quenching the Spirit? Being disobedient.
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So it goes along with what I'm saying, right? A believer can have the Spirit within him and choose to operate in the flesh at that moment.
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That's quenching the Spirit, right? 2 Ephesians 4.30, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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Paul tells us you can grieve the Spirit even though He's in you.
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He must be in you because He sealed you for the day of redemption according to that same verse.
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He's there and He's operating and you're grieving Him.
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Let me ask you, do you ever do anything and afterwards you say, That grieved the Spirit.
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Please tell me I'm not the only one.
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Or that Spirit was urging me and I quenched that because I didn't want to do it.
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At that moment I didn't want to do what I knew I should have done.
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Alright, that's going back to Galatians 5.
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The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and they're opposed to each other and they keep you from doing the things you want to do, the things you know you should do.
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The things you know should be done are not done because of that battle that's raging.
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So it is possible, I believe and I submit to you today, I believe it is possible for a believer to have the Spirit and for whatever reason at that moment operate in disobedience to the Spirit.
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Whether it be through quenching, whether it be through grieving.
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However, and that's not good.
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I'm not giving you that to get you off the hook.
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I'm not telling you that so that you go, Oh wow, I can leave today feeling much better about myself for all the times I grieved the Spirit.
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I'm going to leave today feeling much better about myself of all the times I quenched the Holy Spirit.
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No, Paul's admonition to us is if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I'm quenching the Spirit of love.
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I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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I used to be in the band.
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I was in the band for seven years.
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It all started because I didn't want to go to gym class.
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Lori and I talked about that this morning.
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But then I went and I enjoyed seven years of band.
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And I remember the percussion section.
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And boy how cool the percussion section was.
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Those guys, we'd have football games.
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They'd have band drumline contests.
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And our drumline always outperformed the rest.
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They were just so in rhythm and everything was cool.
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And every once in a while, Keith, who was a baritone horn player, not a percussionist, would sneak his way back there to the drums.
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And I would pick up those sticks.
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And I would fancy myself a percussionist for about a hot minute.
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And it didn't take long before the rest of the band was like, Foskey, get off the drums.
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You don't belong there.
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You barely belong in the horn section.
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And if it wasn't the drummers who were calling me down, or the other band members who were calling me down, it was the director who was very kindly telling me to get myself back where I belong.
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So now you've got an idea of what Paul's saying here.
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No matter how eloquent the speech...
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And by the way, I don't want to go too far off.
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Paul says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels...
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And there's a big question, what is the tongues of angels? Is that speaking in tongues? Is that an angelic language? I think it could be hyperbole.
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Because later, Paul says, if I know all mysteries, or if I have all faith to move mountains, I think it's just an exaggeration of terms.
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I don't think that there is an angelic language.
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Even though, when we get to 1 Corinthians 14, we're going to talk more about the gift of tongues, and what the languages are, and what that meant.
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But he says, even if I could speak in the tongues of men and of angels, if I do it without love, it is like Keith Foskey playing the drums.
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It's no good.
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It doesn't have any value.
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It doesn't add anything to the symphony at all.
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Then he says this in verse 2.
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He says, If I have all prophetic powers, all mystery and knowledge, if I have all faith to remove mountains, but have not love...
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And he says, I am nothing, which is pretty powerful.
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Because he goes from simply saying it's a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, which even those can have some value.
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You know, even the broken clock is right twice a day.
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You know, there might be some value in noise.
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No value if there's no love.
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So he drives the point home.
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And then the third time in verse 3, If I give away all I have, if I deliver my body to be burned, which are the two, if you think about the two greatest ways somebody could really show themselves as a believer, is to give away everything, right? And to not want any earthly comfort and give away all their possessions.
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If you saw somebody do that, somebody in this church that I'm saying, I renounce everything.
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I'm only going to keep enough to keep me alive.
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And everything else is going to the church.
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Everything else is going to the homeless.
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Everything else is going to people, missionaries.
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You'd be probably a little impressed that somebody was willing to give up everything and give it all.
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Or if somebody, like we see these people in China who are going to jail for their faith, right? These are people, my heart is knit to these people because they're standing for truth in a place that doesn't care.
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And we'll just as quick put them into prison as anything else or even death.
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And so I am, and rightly so, I am amazed at their faithfulness.
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I'm amazed at a faithfulness of a person who gives everything.
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I'm amazed at the faithfulness of a person who's willing to be burned.
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The story of Jan Hus, who was the predecessor of Martin Luther.
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He was burned.
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You've heard the phrase, your goose is cooked.
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Jan Hus was called the goose.
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That was his nickname.
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And he was burned at the stake for preaching the gospel.
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And that's where that phrase, your goose is cooked, comes from.
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And he was burned.
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And I look at that as a hero.
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He didn't falter.
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He didn't fail.
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And he died singing.
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Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
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That's amazing.
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But if he has not love, it profits nothing.
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Alistair Begg, pastor I enjoy listening to.
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He said this, he said, take the number one and put three zeros behind it.
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What do you have? A thousand.
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He said, add three more zeros.
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What do you get? A million.
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He said, add three more zeros.
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What do you get? It's a billion.
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He said, now take away the one.
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And it's nothing.
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The sum of zeros is zero.
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The one thing makes everything else have value.
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Right? That's what Paul is saying.
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There's one thing that gives everything else value.
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And it's love.
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And if you have not love.
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No matter how valuable you may think yourself to be, no matter how valuable your gifts may be, if you have not love, it means nothing.
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Now, I want to consider this as I draw to a close because this is on my heart this morning.
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Something Paul says here is so important.
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He doesn't say, and hear me now, because I want to be clear.
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Paul doesn't say, if I show not love.
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He says, if I have not love.
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He said, wait a minute, what's the difference? Love is first a possession that God gives us.
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And that manifests itself out in how we live.
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So the first problem is not that we're not showing love.
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It's that we don't have it.
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What was the worst indictment that Jesus gave to the Jewish leaders when he was ministering? You whitewashed tombs? You hypocrites? No, I would submit to you the worst indictment Jesus gave was in John chapter 5 verse 42.
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John chapter 5 verse 42, Jesus looked at the leaders of the Jews and he says this, I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
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I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
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That's the worst thing that could be for any of us.
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The worst thing possible this morning would not be that you don't have a special spiritual gift that's used of service in the church of Christ.
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It's not that you don't have some special talent that's being used to build up the body.
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The worst thing would be that you do not have the love of God in your heart.
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So my question to you and the question I would say you should ask yourself, do I have the love of God in me? Do I have the love of God in me? Now in the weeks ahead, we're going to talk about what it looks like.
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We're going to talk about how it manifests.
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We're going to talk about all those good things.
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Paul says patience, kindness, all those things.
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But the question that begins it all is do I have love? Is it a possession? Is the love of God in me? How do we know? How do we know? I'm going to say this.
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And just remember when I say I'm drawing to a close, it's a draw.
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I'm getting there, I promise.
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One thing that you will realize if you have the love of God within you is that it's not just an emotion.
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The love of God changes your heart toward him and toward others.
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If you have the love of God in you, your attitude towards God changes.
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The Bible says before he changed our heart, we were his enemies.
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We heard his word.
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We didn't want it.
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We heard his commands.
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We rebelled against it.
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We heard his statutes and we rejected them.
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We were at enmity with God.
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And when he changed our hearts, our disposition went from hating God to loving God.
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And somebody says I've never hated God.
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Let me read you a little bit about God and see how quickly you'll say that's not the God I worship.
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That's hatred of God.
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I don't believe God would ever send anyone to hell.
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That's misunderstanding God.
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I don't believe I could worship a God that would send people to hell.
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That's hating God.
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I don't believe you.
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That's what the Bible says.
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It says that we are at enmity with God.
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We're at war with God and he comes in and changes our hearts.
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And our hearts go from being enemies to being lovers from enemy to friend.
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Are you the friend of God? Has God changed your heart to love him? And as a result, do you now have that love that makes you want to love others, even the people that you don't like? Let me say this about this and this is very important.
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Like is not the same as love.
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Because we don't really choose what we like.
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I like vanilla ice cream.
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I like pizza.
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I like to go to the movies.
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I don't like collard greens.
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Well, no, I guess I kind of do.
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I don't like okra.
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I don't care how you make it.
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People say you should try fried.
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It don't matter.
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It's no good.
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And I don't like the disposition of certain people that are mean and hateful and spiteful.
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I don't like that.
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Love is a choice.
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Like is not a choice.
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Love is a choice.
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And that choice to love overflows out of a heart that's changed.
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John Stott said this.
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He says love is a servant of the will, not a victim of the emotions.
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Love is a servant of the will.
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I choose to love.
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My emotions are up and down all the time.
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But I can choose to love.
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I can't choose to like a person who is hateful and spiteful and vindictive, but I can choose to pray for them.
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I can choose to seek the best for them.
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I can choose to live at peace as much as it depends on me with them.
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I can choose to forgive them when they've wronged me, and I can choose to stand ready to reconcile the relationship when so ever they are ready.
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I can choose to love because the love of God is in me.
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If I were a victim of my emotions, I couldn't.
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And if love were a victim of my emotions, it wouldn't.
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But love is not a victim of the emotions.
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It is a servant of the will.
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God gave you a new will.
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When you got saved, you got a new heart.
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My professor used to say it's a new wanna.
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He said before you got saved, I wanted this, I wanted that, I wanted the other.
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But now that you've been saved and God has come to live in your heart, there's a new wanna.
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And the wanna begins with love.
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Don't be disobedient to it.
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Don't quench the spirit.
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Don't grieve the spirit within you.
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Love God and love one another.
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Let's pray.
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Father, your word is so wonderful and it calls us to love.
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And Lord, we're going to talk more in the weeks ahead what that means and how that operates and how that works out in our lives, what it means to love.
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But we know first and foremost, Lord, this has to be something we possess.
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It's got to be the love of God in us working out toward others, not just something that is wrought up from the inside.
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It's got to be from the outside, Lord.
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It's got to be from you.
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The desire, the want to has to be from you.
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As St.
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Augustine prayed, Lord, we pray as well.
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Lord, command what you will and give us the ability to do what you command.
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Your command is to love.
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Lord, give us the ability to love one another.
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Give us the ability to love you.
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Give us the ability to love those who don't love us back.
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Jesus told us what value is it in loving someone who loves us back? There's great value in loving those who do not love us.
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Father, may we overflow, not with gifts.
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But with the fruit of the spirit.
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Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.
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Self-control, Lord, overflow us with love.
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In Christ's name, Amen.