From His Heart

Guest (Male): In First Corinthians chapter 13, the Bible says, "But now abides faith, hope, love. These three. But the greatest of these is love." Have you ever wondered why love is the greatest? We'll find out today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, as we begin to close out this powerful month of messages that guide us in understanding what the pillars of our legacy should be.

Today, it's love. Today, part one of an eye-opening message that shares four reasons why love is the greater, even over faith and hope, and how love will endure for all eternity. The lesson is entitled, "Love Never Fails."

If you can't be with us for the whole half-hour program, then listen online anytime at fromhisheart.org. Just click the listen link. Now though, open your Bible to First Corinthians chapter 13. Here's Pastor Jeff to explain why God's love never fails.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Diocletian was emperor in Rome from 284 to 305 AD. Diocletian was a man who hated Christianity. He made two edicts in 303 and 304 AD. Edicts to destroy Christianity, to wipe it off the face of the earth.

The edict said, "Burn the churches and burn all the Bibles and all the sacred writings. Seize any treasures from the church." I mean, it was just open season on Christians. "Imprison Christians, imprison pastors. Bring people out into the open square. Give them an opportunity to denounce Christ. And if they didn't denounce Christ, kill them." That was Diocletian.

He had a coin made. And the coin said that the name of Christianity is extinguished, that Diocletian had extinguished it from the earth. He built a monument to himself in honor of himself. And it's kind of funny how, you know, those Roman guys had a bunch of names.

If you remember Gladiator, you had Maximus, but it wasn't just Maximus. It was Maximus Decimus Meridius and whatever other name he could get in there. And, you know, it's kind of, they had cool names. Well, his monument said this, "Diocletian, Jovian, Maximinian, Herculeus, Cesarius, Augusti, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Jesus Christ."

304 AD. You know what's interesting about that? This guy died in 311 AD. Constantine took over in 324 AD, and he declared that Christianity would be the religion of Rome. And the tomb of Diocletian, they converted that tomb into a church.

Isn't that just the Lord's poetic justice? Oh, you're going to destroy Christianity. You're going to wipe Christianity off the map. Well, Diocletian failed and failed miserably. You know why? Because Jesus never fails. That's why.

His love and his truth and his kingdom will last forever and ever and ever. We have been studying for a number of weeks First Corinthians 13, called the love chapter. But it's not just an ode to love. It's not just this, Paul's writing to the Corinthians and all of a sudden he says, "Let's take a break from everything. Let's, I'm just going to talk about love for a while so you guys can really have fun with this years from now and put it on coffee mugs and and all sorts of things like that."

No, it's embedded in an issue, a problem in the church concerning spiritual gifts. And the people were bragging about their gifts and and thinking, "My spiritual gift is better than your spiritual gift." They loved the sensational gifts. They loved the speaking in tongues. They thought that was the be-all end-all. And Paul's like, "That's the least of the gifts. That's the least of the gifts." Well, let me tell you something you're missing, guys. You're missing love.

Because love is the most important thing. We've titled this series, "The Greatest of These Is Love," straight from First Corinthians 13:13. Hey, if you don't have love, you don't have anything. You have nothing, you are nothing, you gain nothing, he says, if there is not love.

I don't care what you do in the name of Jesus. If it's not done out of a heart of love, it amounts to a big fat zero. Well, today we want to finish this series with a message I've entitled, "Love Never Fails." Now, when the Apostle Paul gives his definition of love, it's not really a definition per se, it's more of a description.

And it's not really a description with adjectives. In the Greek, it's a description with verbs. Love is something you do. And he says in verse 4, "Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Does not take into account a wrong suffered. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth."

And we've talked about all those things. And then today, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." And he says in verse 13, "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

Now our question to consider today, why is the greatest love? Let me give you four reasons why love is the greatest of these. Reason number one, it's because love truly cares about people. Why is love so great? Why is it the greatest? Because it truly cares about people.

Look at verse 7. He said, "Love bears all things." Now, reading that in the English, you could get kind of confused. It's like, "Well, you know, it's there was a cartoon years ago called Grin and Bear It." You know, it's just, "Love bears all things. Love just like, oh, this is horrible. I just just bear it." That's not what it means.

That word for bears that's translated in the English, bears, is a Greek word that means comes from a root that means a roof. And that word literally means to cover in silence. To protect or keep by covering, to keep secret, to hide or conceal. Love covers by silence.

Love throws a blanket on shame and humiliation. First Peter chapter 4, verse 8 says this, "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins." Now, when we think about love, all the descriptors of love, it's just a a description of the Lord Jesus. He's all these things because Jesus is God and God is love. First John chapter 4.

So, when you look at the life of Jesus, you're going to see all these things in Him because He is love personified. And when we talk about love covers a multitude of sins, we have to know that that comes in two stages. The first stage is this, love exposes sin so it can be confessed.

There has to be a confession of sin. Love doesn't just cover up a sin that's not confessed. Love exposes sin, calls people out of the darkness into the light so that they can come clean, so that they can get right with God. We see that in the life of Jesus in John chapter 4, where He meets the woman at the well.

You remember He's talking to her about living water. He enters into this conversation with this Samaritan woman. She's shocked that He would talk to her. He's a Jew, she's a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans didn't converse, they didn't get along well. And rabbis didn't talk to women. And so, when He's talking to her, she's pretty surprised.

And He talks to her about living water. She's like, "Yeah, ever more, give me this water so I don't have to come to the well and drink." He says to her, "Go call your husband." She said, "Well, I have no husband." He said, "That's right. You're right to say you have no husband because you've had five husbands. And the one you're living with now is not your husband. This you have said truly."

He confronts her about her sin, about her being an adulteress. And, man, she tries to change the subject real quick. "Sir, I perceive you're a prophet. Let's talk about something else." Because it got very close to to her, "You know, you're stepping all over my toes here." But see, love has to expose so that sin can be confessed.

And when sin is confessed, what does love do? Love covers that sin so it can be forgiven and forgotten. The Lord wants us to love like that, to to truly care about people, to not glory in their humiliation. We want to cover over their humiliation.

Give you an example from the life of Jesus, John chapter 8, where the the scribes and the Pharisees get together and they're they're trying to trick Jesus and trap Jesus. They're always trying to do that. You read the gospel accounts, they're always trying to figure out, how can we get this? They hated Jesus. How can we get Him to say something or do something that would cause the crowd to turn on Him?

So they get this woman. They they probably worked this out with some guy to get this woman caught in the very act of adultery. They drag her out of the bed. They bring her and throw her before Jesus and say, "This woman was caught in adultery, in the very act." Question is, where's the guy? She wasn't by herself. "Where's the guy?" Oh, we didn't bring him. Just the woman.

And then they said, "Hey, Moses commands us to stone her with stones for this sin. What do you say?" Now, here's the dilemma they put Jesus in. If He said, "Stone her with stones. Let's do what Moses said," then the people would back off Jesus because they'd say, "Well, man, I mean, He He's harsh. He's hard line and there's no mercy, there's no grace, there's no forgiveness." And that would cause Him to fall out with the people.

But if He says, "Don't stone her with stones," then they're going to say, "This guy contradicts Moses." And Moses, I mean, he's he's big time. He's the brightest star in the Hebrew heavens. Moses was the lawgiver. So they felt like they had Him between a rock and a hard place. What's He going to do?

And so we know what Jesus did. He said, "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." Well, it cut them to the quick. And you just heard all these thuds as the stones started to fall on the ground. And the people all walked out. And then the woman is left by herself.

And Jesus said, "Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." He said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." See, here's this woman and she, can you imagine the humiliation that she has? And she's thrown out in front of this crowd. And what does Jesus do? He throws a blanket of love on her because love bears all things. It covers in silence.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today, and the lesson, "Love Never Fails." When I was young, my father was a builder and he would often say that drywall mud and paint cover up a multitude of sins. And that's true. But a blanket of love covers all sin. The love that was shown to us in Christ's sacrifice. That's a pretty picture, isn't it? Pastor Jeff Schreve continues exploring this truth when he returns in just a moment.

Now this month we've been airing messages from Pastor Jeff's new eight-lesson series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel." And he was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament. He served Israel as prophet, priest, and judge. And we can learn so much from his life of godliness and faithfulness to the Lord.

As you've listened this month, you know, Pastor Jeff has unpacked the story of this man of God to show us how his obedience, faith, and devotion to the Lord made all the difference. Samuel's life reminds us that what we do today echoes into tomorrow, shaping the lives of our families, communities, and future generations.

This powerful resource series, called "Leaving a Legacy," is our thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. And you can get it in the format of your choice, a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download. All eight lessons. Call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org to make that gift. And receive the series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel." It has practical insights and biblical truth that will encourage you and challenge you, as well as examine your walk with God, and you'll learn to live a life that counts for Christ.

Now, back to part one of this lesson, "Love Never Fails."

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Now, Proverbs 28:13 is one of my favorite verses. It says, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." Listen, if you conceal your sin, if you cover up your sin, you know what God's going to do? He's going to uncover it.

Numbers 32, "Be sure your sin will find you out." You cover it up, God is going to cover uncover it. He's going to expose it, and it's going to be a shameful, horrible thing. But if you uncover it, bring it to the Lord. Say, "Lord, this is what I did. I confess my sin to you. I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and Lord, you forgave the guilt of my sin." Then He covers it in His blood, in His mercy, in His grace, and in His love.

If we cover our sin, God uncovers it. But when we uncover our sin, He covers it in His blood and in His love. Hey, love truly cares about people. It throws a blanket of love on the shame and the humiliation of people.

Second reason why love is the greatest is because love believes the best about people. Love believes the best about people. Love bears all things, believes all things. Now, you can take that to the extreme and say, "Love believes all things, so you tell anything to a person who loves and they're just going to believe you."

I mean, because love believes all things. Was Jesus like that? Did He believe everybody that said anything to Him? No. Love is not gullible, and believing all things doesn't mean that you're gullible. The Bible wants us to be discerning. God tells us to be discerning. Proverbs 14:15 says, "Fools believe every word they hear, but wise people think carefully about everything."

Jesus was not gullible. John chapter 2 says that the people believed in Jesus, beholding the signs that He performed. All these miracles. And they say, "Wow, this guy, we believe in you." But it wasn't heart belief. It was it was the belief in miracles. Adrian Rogers wrote a booklet one time, says, "Believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus."

Don't don't trust in miracles. And these people were kind of trusting in miracles. And it says, "Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them." Because He knew what was in the heart of man. He didn't need for anybody to tell Him what was in the heart of man. He knew what was in the heart of man. He knew that they weren't really putting their faith and trust in Him.

So He didn't just believe their superficial commitment. He wasn't entrusting Himself to them. He backed off from them. Salvation is when you believe in Jesus and He gives you His life because He knows it's genuine and true in your heart. So, love believes the best is not gullible. Here's what that means.

It means that love is not suspicious and distrusting of people. Ever been around somebody that's very suspicious and distrusting? It's not a lot of fun. I've had to deal with people that are very suspicious over the years, distrusting over the years. They look at you with a jaded eye. It's like, "What's your angle, pal? Somehow, I just know somehow you got something going. You got some ulterior motive here. Let's look at how you're doing the finances of the church because I think you're cooking the books. I think you're doing this. I think you're doing that."

That's horrible to deal with somebody like that. So suspicious and so distrusting and always thinking the worst about people. Hey, we have in America, you are innocent until proven guilty. But some people treat others as they're guilty until proven innocent. That's not love. Love believes the best about people.

Heard a story some years ago about Mildred. She was the pillar in the church. She was the church gossip. She was a mean lady. And she always thought the worst about people. Well, they had a guy joined the church. Name was Frank. He's a fairly new believer. They were having church one day before the service.

A group of them were talking and she came up and she pointed at Frank and she said, "This week, I saw your car, 2:00 in the afternoon, parked in front of the bar." She said, "That tells me you're an alcoholic. Who goes to the bar at 2:00 in the afternoon? Alcoholics. You're an alcoholic." And he looked at her, didn't say a word. Just stood there, stared at her, and then walked away. That night, he drove his truck to her house. He parked it. He got out, walked home, and left it there all night.

Hey, love is not suspicious. Love love believes the best about people. You remember reading about Job and Job's three friends? And you think, you know, were these guys really Job's friends? Well, I think I think they were, but then they became distrusting of Job. You know, Job was hurting so badly.

They sat down in the ashes with Job, Job chapter 2, for a week and didn't say a word to him because they saw his pain was so very great. They just grieved with him. But then they start to talk to him. And they start to say, "Well, Job, you need to confess your sin." And Job says, "Well, I haven't sinned." He said, "Oh, of course you've sinned. You need to come clean, pal, because this kind of stuff doesn't happen where you lose all your wealth and all your kids just bam like that. And then you covered head to toe in in sore boils. This doesn't happen unless you have some deep, dark, terrible, horrible sin. Confess it, and maybe God will be merciful to you."

And Job said, "I don't have a deep, dark, horrible, terrible sin." Oh, for sure you do. For sure you do. They weren't thinking the best about Job. And listen, Job was the top guy in the world at that time. I mean, there wasn't anyone else like Job. God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one on the earth like him. He loves me with all his heart. He fears me." But these friends, they didn't believe the best about Job.

I had a friend of mine when I was at Champion Forest, Dick Hill. He was the worship pastor at Champion Forest, a large church. And so he would always have a worship associate, a younger guy that he would mentor and build into his life. And then they they would train that guy up and then he'd be able to go to another church and be their worship pastor.

Well, Dick was notorious for being an encourager. And he would bring these young guys in and he would always tell them, "I believe in you. I believe you're going to do a really good job. I believe God brought you here for a reason and and I believe God's going to use you." And just really build them up. But that was his phrase, "I believe in you. I believe in you."

I remember thinking about that. You know, that's got to be wonderful for a young guy to hear that you have this guy that was Dick was very gifted and and he believes in me. You know, when when you're up on the platform and you're getting nervous, you remember, hey, he this guy believes in me. My boss believes in me.

Hey, the Lord believes in you in terms of He sees what you can be. He doesn't see you as you are. He sees what you can be. What did the Lord say to Gideon? "Hail, mighty man of valor!" Like, "Mighty man of valor? Who are you talking to? I'm I'm Gideon. I'm the least in my family. I'm the least in my tribe. I'm hiding in a hole because I think the Midianites are going to steal my grain. I'm not a mighty man of valor." "Oh, but I see what you can be."

The first name in disciples of the 12 disciples, in any list, the first name is always the same, Peter. But that wasn't his given name. His given name was Simon. That's when they his parents had him, take him home, "What's the baby's name? Simon." That's why Jesus said, He called him Simon son of John, Simon Barjona. Bar means son. Simon son of Jonah or son of John. That was his given name. But Jesus called him Peter. Peter, which means rock.

Peter wasn't a rock. Man, when when Peter when the flame got hot, Peter melted like a snow cone in Phoenix and he said, "I don't even know the man." But Peter Jesus saw what Peter could be. Hey, with your children, with your parents, with your friends, with your neighbors, with the people that you work with, believe in them. Love believes. Don't don't be suspicious. Don't be distrusting. Don't be cynical. Believe the best and encourage them to be the person God wants them to be.

Guest (Male): What an important truth to know that love is neither gullible nor suspicious, but believes the best about people in an encouraging way. You're listening to the message, "Love Never Fails," from Pastor Jeff Schreve's five-message series, "The Greatest of These Is Love." You can find out more about the series or this message when you go to fromhisheart.org. Click the listen link.

Before we go today, a special invitation from Pastor Jeff for you.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Hi, Pastor Jeff here, and I'm excited to announce that we'll be going to Israel in 2027. Our trip is set for April 2nd through the 11th, and we would love for you to join us as we walk where Jesus walked. Hey, this is truly the trip of a lifetime, as the sacred places you've only read about will now be seen up close and in full color. You can find out all the details by going to our website fromhisheart.org and follow the link titled, "Holy Land 2027." I look forward to having you with us for this awesome experience in the land of Israel.

Guest (Male): To find out more about this exciting trip, go to fromhisheart.org. Well, we've taken up all our time today and thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles, hoping you'll be back tomorrow for the last lesson for this month, and it's part two of this message called, "Love Never Fails." Here's a bit of what's to come.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: In heaven, we will experience God's love to the max, and we will love God back to the max, and we will love horizontally one another to the max. And heaven is a place where the two greatest commandments are fulfilled every single day. To love God and to love your neighbor, and it's a place where love just overflows.

Guest (Male): That's on Friday. When Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart.