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Feb 21, 2021

Love and Die

Love and Die

Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-4

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: We Must Love One Another, or Die - Lent 2021

Has anything so central to our identity, like love, been so threatened by our circumstances? Albert Camus’s insight into what pandemics do to a people was prescient. We are liable to turn inward. And while we’ve seen plenty of exceptions, societal struggle makes us think less of others than ourselves. But even Camus couldn’t imagine the additional strains on a society we’ve taken on simultaneous to the threat of a virus. How does love rise again to the surface and prevail? We need to recover both its centrality and its nature. Mostly we need to rediscover the resources that renew our love for one another.

Order of Worship

PRAYER: Prayer of Confession (from The Service for the Lord’s Day)
CALL TO WORSHIP: 1 John 3:1,7,10-12,19
OT READING: Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, Proverbs 19:11, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Psalm 145:5,8
MESSAGE TITLE: Love and Die
CENTRAL TEXT: Philippians 1:9, 1 Corinthians 13:1-4a
RESPONSE: Communion
CONFESSION OF SIN (Based on Psalm 103:3-6)
BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 13:11

Readings & Scriptures

PRAYER: Prayer of Confession (from The Service for the Lord’s Day)
ALL: O Merciful God,
We confess that we have not loved you with
our whole heart, mind, and strength
And have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

In your great mercy, forgive us,
renew us, compel us and lead us,

That we may delight in your will
walk in your ways; find joy in your Word.
Through the finished work of Christ. Amen

CALL TO WORSHIP: 1 John 3:1,7,10-12,19
LEADER: 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

ALL: 19 We love because he first loved us.

Old Testament Readings:

Deuteronomy 6:5
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Leviticus 19:18
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.

Proverbs 19:11
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offence.

Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

Psalm 145:5,8
5 On the glorious splendour of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

CENTRAL TEXT:
Philippians 1:9
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

1 Corinthians 13:1-4a
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

CONFESSION OF SIN (Based on Psalm 103:3-6)
Leader: If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
All: We wait for the Lord, our soul waits, and in his word we put our hope.
Leader: My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
All: Almighty God, our Redeemer,
in our weakness we have failed
to be your messengers of forgiveness and hope.
Renew us by your Holy Spirit,
that we may follow your commands
and proclaim your reign of love,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON (Based on Psalm 103:11-14)
Leader: For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
All: God is merciful. Thanks be to God!

BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 13:11
LEADER: 11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Deuteronomy 6:5;
  • Leviticus 19:18
  • Psalm 145:5
  • Proverbs 19:11
  • Ecclesiastes 7:9
  • Philippians 1:9
  • Romans 2:4-5
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:14
  • 2 Peter 3:9
  • 1 John 3:1; 4:7-12, 19

ILLUSTRATIONS:

InView Media 2.21.21 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What are several ways you’ve seen love kicked to the curb--i.e. deemphasized or discarded--in our day? Where are you seeing the same within the church at large (or, gulp, close to home)?
  2. What do all of the impressive actions that can be devoid of love in verses 1-3 have in common? Have you ever seen public efforts like that turn out to be devoid of love like Paul imagines? Have you ever found yourself doing something like that before? How does one get sidetracked into those kinds of loveless, impressive actions?
  3. Who in your life has most waited patiently for you, suffered long for you? Who’s the first person in your life you think of when you hear the word kindness?
  4. How do you see Jesus exhibiting the marks of love we find in verse 4?
  5. How is His love for us in the gospel the prime example of those marks of love?

Music:

Enjoy this playlist for the season of Lent on Spotify

QUOTES:

  • Find someone who disagrees with you and invite them to your table. . . .Give them a platform. . . .You challenge them. But you don't challenge them rudely or violently. You do it politely and intelligently. And when you do things that way chances are they will reciprocate and give you a platform. So he and I would sit down and listen to one another over a period of time. And the cement that held his ideas together began to get cracks in it. And then it began to crumble. And then it fell apart.  - Daryl Davis
  • We simply forget all this—so busy are we, so immersed in our daily preoccupations—and because we forget, we fail. And through this forgetfulness, failure, and sin, our life becomes "old" again—petty, dark and ultimately meaningless—a meaningless journey toward a meaningless end. We manage to forget even death and then, all of a sudden, in the midst of our "enjoying life" it comes to us: horrible, inescapable, senseless. - Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha

BOOKS / DOCS