Thank you, Pastor. What a blessing it is to be here with you all this morning and at the Crossroads Baptist Church in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. As we were driving in this morning, I told Aris, my daughter that's with us today, we have four of them total, but one of them is my travel buddy this weekend, said, we're in Slippery Rock. She said, oh no, we're going to slip. I said, no. And I said, no, there's Slippery Rock on everything. The Slippery Rock Community Center and the town hall and the Veterinary care and everything. So she was just fascinated by the name. It's a blessing to be here today. We're coming from Columbia, South America. We've been on the field now for nine years and now getting back to the field. Lord willing, after the second furlough of ours, we're looking at the end of January, first part of February. So we're at the very end of our furlough. And I'm just praising the Lord for what he's done in the nine years since we've been on the field. We were able to start four churches there. And I had the experience of starting a Spanish church in Georgia. I was on staff at a church there. after Bible college, so I was expecting it to go very slowly, just as it did starting the church in Georgia. I pastored that little work for five years, and it grew very, very, very slowly. But what we didn't expect, as we turned that church over, it was a good, solid church by the time we left, but it was a lot of work. We didn't expect God to work as fast as He has in Columbia. There's been a lot of fruit down there. Hundreds and hundreds of people have been saved and are gathering together in different churches, even this morning. And right now the churches are very strong. And not only that, but there's national leadership that God has raised up, been able to pour my life into a lot of these young men and older men and families. And there's 40 people preparing for ministry in a Bible college. down there and there's people itching to start some more churches as soon as we get back. We're coming alongside of them to help them. And it's exciting. It's a really exciting thing. If I could take you to Columbia, there's a lot of things we could see. I could take you to just right outside of our city. They grow some of the world's best coffee. How many of y'all like coffee? Half of y'all. The rest of y'all will pray for your salvation. We will. You know, I love coffee and some of the world's best coffee is grown right there, right where we live. Actually, in our backyard of the house that we live in, we have coffee bushes growing, and it's just popping out. It's some of the best stuff ever. So we could take you to drink some of that. If you don't like coffee, there's a lot of chocolate. They grow the cacao trees. That's where chocolate comes from. So maybe for those of you that don't like coffee, if you don't like chocolate or coffee, we really need to talk. I don't know. But we could do stuff like that. We could we could actually go to one of the world's longest canyons. And there's a cable car that goes from one side of the canyon to the other. It's the longest cable car in the world. And it's about 40 minutes from where we live and minister there. It's up in the Andes Mountains. And we could take you across this this cable car. And you're in this little tiny thing. It's about the size of a ski lift for about an hour dangling over this deep abyss. How many of you all would do that? All right, so we got some adventure junkies in here today. That's all right. We could do stuff like that. You know, I could take you up to to the Caribbean coast. We could see some crystal clear waters up there, down to the Amazon jungles. And we have sloths, the monkeys and all those things. There's a lot of cool things in Colombia. It's a beautiful place where we live. It's about 75 degrees all year long. Sometimes it gets as low as 70 during the day and sometimes it gets as hot as 80, but it never gets beyond that. No, it's a horrible, horrible place. Y'all pray for us. We're suffering. There's a lot of beauty around us all the time. A lot of wonderful things I could show you. But if I could take you to Columbia, I'd introduce you to the people whose lives have been changed by the gospel. That's what I would most want you to see. I'd introduce you to people like Felix. Felix was a university student. He was an engineering degree major. Very, very smart kid. He was walking by our church one day on the main road between where he lived and where his university was. During the week, we had a youth meeting, and he saw that there were lights on. And he knocked on the door and he said, you know, I don't, I don't really know what a Baptist is, but on the outside on our sign, it said Iglesia Biblical Baptist Church. It says something, he said, it says something about the Bible. I have a lot of questions about the Bible. Am I allowed to ask those here? I said, please do come on in. And so we talked and we sat down and talked for a while and talked again some more a couple of days later. And then he brought some friends and they started to come to church. And most of those friends got saved. And God started to do work also in this young man's heart named Felix. And he started preparing for ministry. And now he's pastoring that first church that he just walked by a little bit over eight years ago, eight and a half years ago. And God has done a tremendous work in his heart. He's got a wife and kid now, even though he graduated with his degree and he could pretty much earn a lot of money at a lot of different places there. He said, you know, my one, my heart's one consuming desire is just to preach this gospel that's changed my life. It's an amazing thing. Because he's realized that money is not everything. Education is important, but it's not everything. The gospel is what changes people's lives. I'd introduce you to people, maybe like Eduardo. Eduardo was a small business owner. A very successful, pretty successful family. But God has, he was watching our services. Somebody shared his, the Facebook live stream or something like that. And he started watching all of our services. And then one day they just stopped. because the person that was helping me had to move away. Y'all know how that is sometimes. Volunteer staff, sometimes people have good intentions, but then they leave. And that person that left said, Pastor, we gotta go to this other city, but don't worry, I'll continue to help from a distance. Well, that didn't work out. Anyways, this guy watched every service we had ever shared, every sermon that we'd ever preached, and then they just stopped. So one day he shows up and he said, I listened to everything, and they stopped, so I figured I might as well come now. And he got saved, and his wife got saved, his kids got saved, and now he's also preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was seven years ago. Let me introduce you to people like Jaime. Jaime is a different story. Jaime comes from a very rough background. He's from the city of Medellin, which is where Pablo Escobar and the drug cartel, all that was happening. a couple decades ago. It's a very rough upbringing. He's up in his 60s now, but if you saw him, he looks like he should be driving a Harley. Real rough looking guy, got the beard and the tattoos, and he's built like a rock. And he had a rough life. From the time he was a kid, he was in gangs. He eventually worked his way up through the gangs, what they call the office, where you have a boss there and you just do whatever they tell you to. That's what they call gangs sometimes. He worked his way up to be an independent contractor as a hitman. And he would love to tell you his story, because he would say, you know, God saved me from the deepest, darkest depths that there is in the world. He said, you know, the things that I've done, and he shares his testimony freely. He says, I'm not proud of them. You have to understand, he didn't just kill one or five or 10 people, but hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. He was very good at it. But one day, one day, somebody introduced him to Jesus. One day they said, hey, you should go check out that church. And he'd walked by it several times. This is our newest church, our fourth church. And then one day he walked in and just really rough. He had his arms crossed the whole time. He'd never been in to any Christian church before. He was anything. He was Catholic, but just because of his family that he wasn't a practicing Catholic. He just listened. People loved him and people just poured their life into him and shared life with him. And to see the change in Jaime after he got saved, God has done an amazing thing. He just got saved less than a year ago. He just recently got baptized. It took him a little while. He said, I want to make sure I'm saved, because this is a big decision. He just got baptized, actually, last month. I was there a couple of weeks ago. I got to baptize him. He said, there's a lot of people that could baptize me, but I want Pastor Aaron to baptize me. He's the man that's introduced me to Jesus. And to see his change has been incredible. I could introduce you to hundreds of people like these. men, women, boys and girls, teenagers, university students. Most of them are first generation believers. It's an amazing thing. That's why we're on the mission field. to share the gospel with people who are yet in darkness, to share that light with them, to see God change their hearts, to love on them, to share the truth with them in love. And it's a wonderful thing. I would encourage you, if you ever have the chance to go on a mission trip to see stuff like that, you can come down to visit us in Columbia. We'd love to have you down there sometime. I mean, you could pester your pastor about it. Say, come on, we've got to go to Columbia to meet these people, even the hit man. And maybe we can go on one of those dangling cable cars across the canyon, we can do that too. But we'd love to, and if you don't want to, you don't have to. I see several people shaking their heads, no way. He just talked me out of it. Anyways, we'd love to have you down there. Once we get to the field, there's a few things we're praying about. One of the things, we're trying to help start several more churches. We're getting to the place now where we have more people getting ready at a faster pace, really. And we'd like to come alongside of them and help them start. Right now, there's four churches going strong. There's also two or three other Bible studies that meet weekly that are hopefully church plants in the future. There's mission works that we've done going up rivers and up through the mountains and other towns and villages around our city. And so we're just praying as the Lord opens doors that He'll allow us to do that. We're trying to raise support, actually, a little bit more. As a family, we're taken care of. God is always taking care of us. We have not always had an abundance of things, but he's always taking care of our needs. But for our ministry, we're trying to raise more support to help some of these churches get off the ground. We like to come alongside of some of the church planters that we've trained, just for like a temporary support to help them get started. So you'll pray about that. We're also praying, the last church that we started is actually our largest church now. It's kind of funny how that worked. All the churches are pretty stable, but this last one was just two years ago. We started right in the middle of the COVID pandemic when things We actually committed to starting a church before we knew if we could meet again, actually. And we signed a lease on a building. We had a small group of people that were interested. And there was no permission to open up any businesses other than like grocery stores and pharmacies. And it was amazing, just God's timing with the whole thing. And that church has done really well. We're running about 170 people every week now. Most of those are new believers. It's an exciting thing, exciting thing to see people getting reached with the gospel. That church building is actually also where we host our Bible college. And we have a television studio that somebody came and decided to donate equipment to help us set up the studio to get on broadcast television there in Columbia. There's 50 million people in the country. And the third largest television station is based in our city. And it reaches a daily audience of about 10 million people, they say. And so they're going to give us a half an hour a week broadcast on that station. Isn't that incredible? We get to get this message out to as many people as possible. So we're trying everything we can to be faithful with the mission that God's given us. That building that we're based in really right now with all the bigger ministries, especially medical clinics and all sorts of community outreach events, we're trying to raise money to purchase that building right now. Right now it's rented and the owner needs to sell. And so that's a big need we're looking at at the middle of next year, Lord willing, if it's God's will, that we could go ahead and sign a purchase contract on that building. So it's just something to pray about. Down there, there's so many things going on. God's blessing in huge ways. He'll pray for us and our family. I mentioned in the Sunday school hour, as a family, we've gone through quite a few things in the last three years, especially several near-death experiences, both with myself and with my wife. We both had medical issues. There was a gastroenterologist for several months that couldn't figure out some attacks I was having. Just one moment to the next, I'd keel over with lots of pain, and my heart rate would go down in the 30s. Eventually, I changed my diet to be on a full liquid diet, and the doctors couldn't figure out what was going on until I found the right doctor. And a gastroenterologist down there, he said, hey, how long has this been happening? What are your symptoms like? Wow, you shouldn't be alive, he told me. He said, you should be dead right now. Because for eight months, I was having some pretty severe issues. Did a surgery, and I lived through it, praise the Lord. It was pretty traumatic, on my wife especially, just to think she almost lost me several times. Right after that, she had surgery on her uterus. She had some tumors in there. We also lost a son that was on the way. We have four girls. So this was our son. Three years ago, we lost him. It was a pretty exciting thing at first. And then all of a sudden, it was it was just kind of everything crashed down, you know, very hard, especially for Aubrey, for my wife. Right after that, we had our vehicle broken into during the COVID pandemic. And we never had too many issues with crime, but that was Desperate time for some people and we had some other issues go on along that nature just during a few month window Right after that early this year in January almost almost a year ago now. I was driving motorcycle Love driving motorcycles. It's the easy way to get around down there, but there was a delivery truck behind me His brakes went out. We're going down a hill and he just went right over me without any warning And his tires went over my arm. Thankfully, the tires brushed up against my helmet, but it didn't go over my helmet. That would have been a whole different story. But I ended up with several fractures, lots of titanium in my arm. So I'm a titanium man now, I guess. I don't know. But God spared my life again. And it was several months of therapy at the beginning of this year, and pretty traumatic. And we just found out, middle of this year, in June or July, that my wife has some type of autoimmune disease. And I'm still trying to pinpoint what that is. It's been a difficult time. It's been a trying time. The ministry is going great, but you can really tell we're in spiritual warfare. I don't know if you felt that before yourself. I know all of us go through things in life. There's times where you start to wonder, Lord, what are we doing? I thought you were supposed to pour out all sorts of blessing on me because I'm trying to live for you. I thought you were supposed to prosper me because I'm trying to make good sacrifices for you. And yet, sometimes we suffer lack or sometimes we go through trying hard times. Sometimes people turn against us that you love. And those are things that really make us to wonder, to question why we're doing what we do. Today I'd like to share a thought with you from the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to be in chapter number 13. considering this idea of the key to everything. There's many reasons that people decide to serve God. Not all those reasons are good reasons. Some people only want to get into some type of ministry to serve in their local church or even to go out as preachers or missionaries. Some people only even give because they want recognition. And Jesus spoke about this often with the Pharisees. It was a problem in those days that they would stand up and do everything in front of everyone because they wanted that recognition that comes from being in the front. And that's that validation, seeking validation from the approval of others. What did Jesus say? They have the reward. That's not a good reason. Some people serve out a sense of profound guilt or obligation. They feel like they have to. They only give because they feel like they have to give. They only come to church because they feel like they have to come to church. They only even preach or serve in different ministries, use their gifts because they feel like they have to. And that's not a great reason either. Some people serve because of peer pressure. You know, I've been there. I loved going to camp as a young person. I grew up in a Christian home and my parents didn't have that luxury. They both got saved at a later age. But I grew up surrounded by the gospel and had these opportunities to go to Christian camps. Wonderful, wonderful things. But sometimes in those environments, there's so many people wanting to do stuff with their life or saying they're going to do something with their life with the Lord. that there's a lot of peer pressure, and a lot of people surrender to the Lord, in quotes, because all their friends are, not because really there's that real conviction on their own life. The problem is that each of these motives lacks the key ingredient. The most important element of everything in the Christian life is love. Love is the mark of the believer. It's the most indispensable ingredient to know God and to serve God. Each of our relationships should be marked by true love, and that love has to flow out of a relationship with God. And so we're going to be in the book of 1 Corinthians, and just to understand a little bit of what the Corinthians were going through, the Corinth was a very pagan culture. And this Greek empire, very highly influenced by the Greeks and some by the Romans here. The Corinthian society was so sinful. I mean, there was so much going on outside of the church. And when there was a church established, some of that crept its way into the church. This pagan culture, this division, even some type of sensuality and fornication going on in the church. There was fighting in the church. There was comparing going on in the church. There was confusion in the church. There was even boasting about the spiritual gifts. And there's another thing that's really ironic to me. They would celebrate the Lord's Supper. I'll mention you're celebrating that this evening. What an important, solemn, wonderful thing that we get to do as churches is to commemorate what Jesus did for us when he shed his blood and in his flesh was was given on our behalf. But on the Lord's Supper and the Corinthian church, it became more like Kind of like Black Friday and Golden Corral Buffet combined. People, I don't know if they still do that in America, but it used to be on Black Friday they'd open the doors and people would just rush and knock people over to get the best. Do they still do that? Now it's all online, I don't know. We've been out of the country for a decade. It used to be. Y'all know what I'm talking about? They would go to these big shopping centers. Well, that was happening during the Lord's Supper because they would form this line and they'd have the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine there to commemorate Jesus's death and sacrifice for us. And people would barge in from the back. Big old linebacker sized guy from the back knocking over all these old ladies and trampling over the kids and pushing everybody aside. And then they get to the front and gobble everything up and not leave anything for anybody else. So that's not in the Bible. It's in chapter 11. It's right there. That was happening. And then the Corinthian church was so many things like this going on. It was a carnal, worldly type church. And ironically, they were boasting about how gifted and spiritual they were. Who spoke more in tongues? Who prophesied more? And so Paul, he's dealing with this issue of the gifts, and he comes down to the first few verses of chapter 13, and really gets back to the heart of why we do everything as Christians. And I wanna spend the next few minutes here in 1 Corinthians 13, just focusing really on these first three verses. This is what the Bible says. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity. This word charity is that word agape. It's a word that's translated love in many other texts as well. It's that love that only comes from God. It's this perfect love, this love that's a commitment to meet somebody else's needs. It's an undying love. This love that isn't based on merit. It isn't based on feelings. It's a decision. It's a commitment, and it's a love that even loves when the other is undeserving, especially when the other is undeserving. So he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Let's pray. God, I thank you for your gospel, for your love for us. No over yet sinners, Christ died for us. I thank you that you came to us when we couldn't come to you. As we spoke about in the Sunday school hour, Lord, we think of how you, Jesus, you gave your life as a ransom for all to be testified in due time. And we heard that message. Somebody shared that with us. And we saw your love. We saw how much you cared about us and you were moved with compassion for us. And Lord, we were drawn to you. As we heard the gospel, we believed And your word says that we were sealed with your spirit. And now that same spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts. That same love has been given to us. And I pray that it would invade every corridor of our thoughts and minds. Lord, that even today you would open us up and that you would perform some type of open heart surgery, this spiritual awakening to help us understand why we do everything we do as Christians. but what our purpose is here on earth, and even as we celebrate Christmas, to see your love for us, that it would move us to not just love you, but to love those around us as you love them. Lord, I pray that everything that we do would be done for your glory and your praise. In your name we pray, amen. There's several things that we see in 1 Corinthians 13 about the Christian life. And when in our Christian life we're missing this ingredient, this key element of love, there's different effects that it has. And so the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes here, first of all, that speaking without love is noisiness. Speaking without love is noisiness. Look again with me in verse number one. He says, though I speak, with the tongues of men and of angels." What is he saying? I could speak in all the different languages, all the different tongues, because that was the context here. They were fighting over who spoke more in tongues. He said, you can speak in all of the human languages, all of the human tongues and of angels. Just say, let's throw those in there, too. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity. I'm become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. You can speak in all the tongues, but without love, it's just noise. It's kind of like that dog next door. Maybe your neighbors have a dog that just barks all night long. You ever have a neighbor like that? Maybe you are the neighbor. Maybe that dog is yours. I don't know. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. You know, he's just, oh man, that's my dog. Yeah. You know, sometimes an animal or a dog that barks and barks and barks and barks, at first it's cute, but then it becomes a bothersome noise. When I would read this text initially, it says, I've become a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. I imagined an orchestra, you know, the big orchestra with the brass section over here and the cymbals. You know, you got the dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, That's the only time. But as that cymbal goes, it adds a nice effect. But just imagine that cymbal going and going and going and going, not just for a few seconds or a few minutes or a few hours, but for years. Dong, dong, dong, clash, clash, clash. It's bothersome. Isn't it? It's just noise. And unfortunately, a lot of times the world doesn't care about our message, not because the message isn't relevant, not because the message isn't what they need or what they really are longing for. It's not because it's not even true. And it's not because we don't have great skills and orders. It's because they don't hear it shared and loved. They don't see love in us. And when there's no love in us, all of our speaking becomes noise. Speaking without love is noise. That old adage is true. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Isn't that true? The more you know, doesn't mean that people automatically grant you permission to speak into their life. They need to know that you really care about them. There's a lot of noisy Christians out there. We talk a lot, but the world needs to see love in us to pay attention to what we have to say. We're called to speak that truth in love. Book of Colossians, it says in chapter four, verse three, as Paul is sharing a prayer request with this church, a colossal colossal, he says, with all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. Pray for me that I could speak this mystery, speak this gospel. I'm in chains. I'm in bonds. I'm in jail because of this message. He's writing this from jail. He says, pray that I can continue to preach the gospel. But then he says in verse four, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Not just what to say, an opportunity to say it, but how to say it. Then he turned it to them. He says in Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. There's a world that needs the message that we have. There's a world that needs to hear the gospel. Amen. But they need to hear it and love it, because if there's no love in our speaking, it just becomes a bothersome noise. Mahatma Gandhi was recorded as having said, It's not Christ that I have a problem with. It's not the Bible I have a problem with. It's all the Christians. He considered becoming a Christian, this greatly influential messenger of peace. Imagine that. He considered Christ, he considered being a Christian, but then he met the Christians and he said, you know, it's not convincing enough to me. That ought to scare us a little bit. You know, the world is watching you. You go out into your workplaces throughout the week and they see you. and maybe they know you're a Christian, maybe they don't, but they're watching you, especially if they have some type of understanding that you're a believer, that you go to church on Sundays, that maybe they see your Bible every now and then, maybe they hear you mention church and how that's important to you, but they need to hear love in you, because if they don't, they won't pay attention to anything. You have to say, here's the thing that convinced Jaime, this man I shared the testimony of, this ex-hit man, The thing that convinced him to convert to Christianity started with meeting some loving Christians. He was very open to the message of Christ once he met the loving Christians. That ought to be the way it is. Amen. It's not always that way. Even in our ministry in Colombia, sometimes the flesh rears its ugly head. We're just human beings. We have to be reminded of this. Is there love in our speech? Is there love in our speech? Go again with me to 1 Corinthians 13. We'll look at the second verse here. Consider this idea that spirituality without love is emptiness. Speaking without love is noisiness, but spirituality without love is emptiness. He says, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." You know, Paul mentions several big things here. Prophesying God's message, to preach the message, understand all mysteries. Could you imagine understanding all the mysteries? I love this book. I really do. I dive into it. cover to cover just dozens of times of reading through the Bible. And I just every time I finish, I just go back and start again. I love studying it. I've dedicated my life to studying this book and I try to memorize it. I try to make it a part of who I am and I try to get deep into the word. But, you know, there's still some mysteries in there. Some of you that have been saved longer than I've been alive, maybe you find that there's still mysteries. And one day I look forward to asking the Lord about all those mysteries. I used to ask my parents, I'd say, well, what about this? What about that? What about this? What about that? And they said, you know, you're just going to have to ask God about that someday. So I started making a list of all the things I was going to ask God. I wanted to know. I've always been a curious person trying to learn things. And I've come to realize that that list probably isn't going to mean as much when we get to be with him in glory as it does to us now. Wouldn't you just love to understand all the mysteries? There's people that they've got, they've got more degrees than Fahrenheit, somebody said. They study, they learn, they've got their doctorates and their extra doctorates and whatever comes after those two, and they just know everything. You have any question about anything with theology, they just kind of already have an answer. But without love, it's empty. Without love, it's empty. He says, if I could prophesy God's message, if I could understand all mysteries, then I understand all knowledge. That's to know everything there is to know about everything there is to know. Could you imagine that? Even the world's smartest people recognize we're just scratching the surface on all the knowledge that's there. Who knows everything? Only God. But the apostle Paul says, if you did know everything, hypothetically speaking, if you did know everything, And without love, it's empty. You could have all faith. Wouldn't you like to have all faith? Not just a little bit. Jesus said you just need the faith like the size of a grain of mustard, a mustard seed. Could you imagine having all faith in any moment of any situation and circumstance? I know the Lord's got this. Never wavering, never doubting, having all faith and moving mountains. Wow. But without love? It's empty. All of these things are for the most super spiritual people, but without love, it's worth nothing. All of these were topics in the first 12 chapters of 1 Corinthians. And Paul says, listen, you can have all of this apparent spirituality. They were proud of their apparent spirituality, as we are many times, but without love, it's empty spirituality. It's emptiness. Imagine if you're taking notes, or if you have a piece of paper, just even in your mind, maybe you can write the number one on the left side of a piece of paper there. Write number one, or just imagine it if you don't have a pen and paper handy. You got the number one then, you can put a zero to the right of that. That one becomes a ten. You can add another zero and it becomes a hundred, then eventually a thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, a billion, add a few more zero, it becomes a trillion. I have a hard time comprehending a trillion. That's a lot. A trillion is a million millions. Counting to a million, a million times. That's a lot. Let's add a few more zeros. It becomes a quadrillion, and a quintillion, then a sextillion, a septillion, an octillion. These numbers that are far beyond what we can really understand, humanly speaking. But if you take this ginormous number, and you scratch out the one, you erase the one, what do you get? zeros. And it's worth absolutely nothing. And that's what the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is teaching us here. That all of our spirituality in our life, if it lacks love, it's nothing. It's zero. It's vanity. It's smoke. A lot of times we focus on most of our Christian life on all these other things. And these other things are important. There's a time to speak God's message and there's a time to study and understand mysteries and to have knowledge and to have faith. But if we're missing love, it's worth Nothing, you know, missions has to be based in love. Our Christian life has to be based in love. We can have all the correct doctrine and serve tirelessly without love. Even Christ himself turns against us. There's a sobering passage in Revelation chapter two as Jesus is sending letters to the churches there in Asia Minor. The church there, one of the seven churches that received the first letter of the church at Ephesus. These were literal churches. Some people believe they represent church ages, and they very well may be, but they were also literal churches that received a letter. Revelation 2, verses 2 through 4, it says, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. and has tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted." Now he's saying to this church at Ephesus, 70 years after it was started, they got this letter, and a couple generations go by, and they're still holding fast to the right doctrine. You know what Jesus says? That's great. You're doing a good job. I see you. I know how hard it is. You've got the right doctrine. And not just that, they're serving tirelessly. He says, I know how much you're working and you're bearing and you have you have patience. In fact, you're even suffering for my namesake sometimes. And yet you're holding fast. And I see you. I know how hard that is. I see you. Could you imagine hearing that from the Lord Jesus? Maybe you've been serving in some ministry for decades. for years and you feel like nobody else sees you. Well, God does. Amen. He sees you. He sees you every time you push a vacuum cleaner on the building on a Saturday when nobody else is here. He sees you when you wipe those snotty nose on the kids, especially those kids that should have stayed home with the cold. But you're there thinking, oh, man, I'm going to get sick, too. But there you are helping those kids. He sees you when you're at your workplace and they're making fun of you as a Christian. and you're bearing it. He sees you as you witness. And maybe people don't really want to hear, but He sees you. He sees you as you serve the needy and you help the poor. Nobody else might see you, but he sees you. He sees the sacrifice you make as you as you give your offerings and help support the work of missions and help to support the work of this church around this area. He sees you and he knows it's not easy. And he says, I know your works. I know how hard it is sometimes. I see you holding fast to that right doctrine. But then it says in verse number four, nevertheless, I don't know about you, but if I was in that church and they were reading the letter that day, hey, we got a letter from Jesus. That's what he says. I know thy works and thy labor, and you're doing all this, and good job, good job, good job. And then when they come to that one word, nevertheless, let's just stop right there. Let's hold that one off for another day, okay? That first part was nice. Then he sees us and he knows us. Then he says in verse four, See, it happens to a lot of us. It's the tendency for the human being for Christians to fall into these ruts of maybe we're doing the right thing, but we've lost the reason why. Maybe we're still in the right place, but we've forgotten why we're there in the first place. Maybe we're going through the motions and we've fallen into some type of rut. See, that happened in the church of Ephesus. That church, 70 years had gone by, and now two generations of believers basically It's not just the people that were saved and not just their children, but now their grandchildren that are now old. There they're having their own families and they're still coming to church, but they don't really know why they still believe the right doctrine, but they don't really know why they still serve, but they don't really know why they've lost that first love. Have we been there today church? I think we've been there. I've been there in my life. I've fallen into ruts in my life where We're going through these motions, but we've lost the whole reason. The key to everything, as the Apostle Paul said in our text in 1 Corinthians 13, is charity. It's this love. It's this agape, God-centered love. And if we miss that, it's empty. All of our spirituality is empty, and all of our speaking becomes noise. The most extravagant display of talent and service is nothing when it lacks Matthew 7, Jesus turns his attention to people who had never accepted the message in the first place. Listen to what he says at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. He says in Matthew 7, 22, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name has cast out devils, in thy name done many wonderful works. Same ideas. doing all sorts of spiritual things, prophesying in his name and doing works in his name. He says, and then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. What happens, church, there's a lot of people that sometimes go through these motions, but they never had a relationship, a personal relationship with Jesus. I think sometimes that happens. We see these people and many will say to me, he says, there wasn't many that were saying to Jesus, Lord, Lord, in those days. But he says in that day, oh, there's going to be a lot. They'll recognize who he is. They'll be living lives for him, doing things for him in his name, doing all these things. But there had never been actually a relationship. Is there a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in your own life? Do you know Him? Does He know you? And as we serve, as we give, and as we live our Christian life, let it be out of that relationship. Not to achieve a relationship, not to achieve acceptance of God, but out of that relationship because everything changes. He doesn't love you because of all the things that you do. We do all the things we do because he already does love us. Amen. We don't do all the things that we do. I'm not a missionary so that God would save me or so that God would accept me so that God would love me anymore because he can't. He already loves me. He loved me to the uttermost. I serve and I live because he already does love me and it changes everything. Is there love in our speaking? Is there love in our spirituality? Thirdly and lastly, we'll look at this third verse, 1 Corinthians 13, three. This idea that sacrifice without love is useless. He says here, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. And though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Speaking without love is noisiness. Spirituality without love is emptiness, but sacrifice without love is useless. It's a useless sacrifice. These are two big ideas that he presents here. Two big sacrifices, enormous sacrifices, giving up all of our money for the cause. Can you imagine that? He says, though I give all, bestow all my goods to feed the poor. Just imagine, put yourself in that situation. One day you say, all right, Lord, I'm going to give everything back to you, to your work and to help the world, help the missions, help the poor people, the needy all around, people in the church, outside the church. I'm going to give everything I have away. So you go, you come in today and maybe you say, all right, I emptied out my bank account. That's not all I have. Here's the deed to my house. Went into my house and went into the kitchen. Sold all those appliances and all those dishes and plates and all the stuff in my fridge and all my cabinets. I just emptied it all out. Went into my living room and got my TV, sold my TV and my couch and furniture there. I sold all that stuff, even my favorite chair. I cut that too and sold it off. I went into my closet and I sold all those clothes, the clothes that fit me and the clothes that I'm hoping to fit into one day. I sold them all. And we all have those in our closet, don't we? I sold all those clothes, all those extra pairs of shoes. I only kept the clothes on my back. Everything else I've given away. I went into my garage and sold all my tools and all my cars and vehicles and everything else I have there. Went in and sold everything. On my retirement, I emptied it out and here's everything I own except for the very clothes on my back and here it is for the cause. That would be a huge sacrifice. Can you imagine? Who does that? Who does that? Why would they do that? But then Paul takes it a step further, and he says, though I give my body to be burned, I could become a martyr for the cause. Eventually, he was a martyr. He wasn't burned, but he was beheaded. Paul was beheaded for his faith. Several of the disciples were crucified, some of them upside down. So they didn't feel worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus was. Others were stoned. Others were beheaded. Some of them were like like John. They tried to kill just one of them survived this attempted martyrdom. They tried to kill him. They put him in a vat of oil, as tradition says, and he survived. And so they put him on this island in exile. You imagine giving up your life for the cause. But he says without love, It's useless. I think sometimes of 9-11. We mourn the death of over 5,000 people that died that day. Muslim attacks, extremist attacks, terrorist attacks. But I think often on the lives of those who gave their life. Thinking that it was for a good cause. So to be a good Muslim, as they teach, you have to keep the five pillars of their faith. to say their profession of faith or their declaration of faith. You have to pray five times a day and you have to give money to the poor and you have to do Ramadan once a year, that's a month-long fast, and you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca or help somebody else. And so you do all those things to be a good Muslim, but even then you don't really know for sure. There's facets of this faith that say the only way to know for sure is jihad, it's holy war. You have to give your life, killing the infidels, and then you automatically just go to paradise, automatically. So some of these young Muslim men hijack a plane, knowing they're gonna die. And as they closed their eyes on death, they didn't open them in paradise. Just like the man in Luke 16, he opened them in hell. Why? Because it was a useless sacrifice. There's people that sacrifice in churches sometimes. Their time, their talents, their treasure, but we kind of miss it too. And the biggest sacrifice without love, we just miss it. It's a useless sacrifice. 2 Corinthians 8.8, as Paul is talking about a missionary offering, he says, I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. The whole reason we support missions is because we love. We love the Lord and we love We want the world to know that love of God. It's not because we have to. The reason we give here in our church isn't because we have to, it's because we get to. We love the Lord. We don't give begrudgingly or out of necessity or out of want. We give because we love God. I remember when I started to have a paradigm shift, a change in my mindset about the reason I do everything. The reason I come to church isn't because I have to go to church. It's because, man, I get to go to church. I love the Lord. I love his message and I love his church. The reason I serve isn't because I have to, it's because I get to. I love him and I love that I get to do this. You know, it keeps us going on the mission field. It's not because we love Colombian food even though it's pretty tasty. It's a meat and potatoes type of place They have a lot of meat a lot of potatoes lots of fresh fruits Delicious food. It's not spicy like Mexican not like you'd think maybe in Latin America, but it's delicious delicious food. I love it But that's not what keeps us on the field. It's not because of the Spanish language. I love Spanish I think in Spanish I dream in Spanish I study in Spanish and read in Spanish and In fact, the Sunday school message I was sharing with the pastor, it was from a Spanish outline. Sometimes I struggle to think of what the English word is for some things. But I love Spanish, but that's not what keeps us on the field. All the cultural things there. The weather's pretty nice, but that doesn't keep us on the field. The people are pretty nice, most of the time, but that doesn't keep us on the field either. You know what keeps us on the mission field? It's what we see in 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us. That means it holds us captive, kind of leads us along. It constraineth us, because we thus judge, if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. What does he say? He loves me. Man, I want to live for him now. He loves me. You know, He loves you today. God loves you with a love that will never give up. It's a love that's not based on what you do for Him. He just loves you because He's love. It's a love that can't be changed on your good days or your bad days. He just loves you anyway. What an amazing God. Wow, He loves you. Now that love, if you could ever get a hold of that, it changes everything. Everything we get to do as Christians is just to love Him back. As 1 John says, we love Him because He first loved us. What's the greatest commandment? To love God with everything we've got and to love our neighbor as ourself. You know, that's the key to the Great Commission. It's the great commandment. When we love God and we love our neighbor, we're gonna try to reach the world with the gospel, amen? One theologian said, love is a servant of the will, not merely a victim of the emotions. Some days you don't feel love, but you decide to love anyway. And that'll help your marriage. We've only been married now for coming up on 14 years. We praise the Lord for that. And I'm looking forward to the next 40, 50, 60 years. I don't know if we'll live that long, but I'm looking forward to being married to my wife for as long as we live. And every day we gotta choose to love. When you serve in your church, some days you don't feel like it, but you see God's love, and you love him back, and that drives you to action. Get a hold of that love. Jesus said in John 13, last text we'll read today, John 13, four and 35, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. What did he say? The world's not gonna know that you're a believer just by the way you look. The world's not gonna know you're a believer just by the church that you go to or the sign that's on the outside of your church. The world's not gonna know you're a believer just by all the fancy theological terms that you know. By the spirituality of your life, the world's gonna know you're a believer if you love as he loves. Could we love some more today? Amen. In this Christmas season, as we think of how much He loved us, He loved us so much that He died for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. As we think of that love, what could we give Him back? As we love Him, what could we give? How could we live? What could we do? Because speaking without love is noisiness. Spirituality without love is emptiness. and our sacrifice without love is useless. Let's pray. God, I thank you once again for your gospel. Thank you for letting us be here today to talk about your love. Lord, help it not to just be words. Help it to be real. In the heart of every person that's here today, if they've been born again, Lord, help them to know that you love them perfectly. Lord, that's the key to overcoming temptation That's the key to living a generous life. That's the key to being a light in this world. It's the key to forgiving one another. It's the key to not holding on to bitterness and anger, to all the worldly, fleshly things, Lord. It's the key to responding to persecution. It's the key to everything. If we could get a hold of this love, Lord, it would change the world, starting here in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Lord, I pray that you'd work vitally in our hearts.