Telling the Truth

Pete Fairchild: Today on Selling the Truth, special guest speaker Charles Price concludes a powerful message about love and examines the various ways we can demonstrate love for others as followers of Christ. We'll hear from him in just a moment, but first, everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's guest speaker Charles Price with today's teaching.

Charles Price: If the Holy Spirit penetrated our hearts and all the phonies dropped dead, I wonder if I would leave this platform alive. If I give all I possess to the poor, but have not love, I gain nothing. I am nothing. Talks about giving out bodies to the flames. If I surrender my body to flames and have not love, I gain nothing. This is martyrdom. This is This is as people are being burnt at the stake. We don't have any example prior to this from the book of Acts to to to just see as an example of this.

We have the example of the first martyrdom, which was Stephen. And when Stephen was martyred, it says that his face was like the face of an angel. And when they took the stones and they smashed the bones of his body and smashed his body itself until he lay in his own blood dying. And his last words, he fell on his knees and cried out in Acts 7 verse 16, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep as a euphemism for dying. He didn't feel like falling asleep.

He was just crushed to death. Now that's a man. He's already described as full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom and full of faith. But I suggest that's a man full of love in his dying moments. His body no longer able to stand, broken bones smashed. Lord, don't hold this sin against them. You know, without love, all our spiritual gifts and all our ministries are empty. Without love, someone can preach on this platform and it comes to nothing. Maybe interesting rhetoric, and maybe interesting ideas, and maybe stimulating to our minds, but it won't go anywhere.

It won't accomplish anything. Nobody will be different without that. Without love, we can be a musician. We can play beautiful music, but that's all it will be, beautiful music. It won't do anything in people's lives. Without love, you can be an usher, but all you're doing is just showing people to their seats. There's no communication of your spirit with theirs and investing in a way that seeds into people's hearts and lives. Without love, you can go on a mission team and you'll just be a tourist. Without love, you can be on the staff of a church, but it's just a job.

It become clanging symbols that come to nothing. I once shared a conference some years ago organized by the New England Association of Evangelicals. That's the six New England states. And it was being held in Boston. It was a leaders pastors conference. And one of the other speakers at that conference was was a man called Juan Carlos Ortiz from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Juan Carlos Ortiz had seen the church he went to pastor there grow at a phenomenal rate. He's actually the brother-in-law of Luis Palau, whom some of you will know. And he was about 300 people when he went there.

Within a very short time, it had grown to a thousand and more than a thousand people. And he said, I I felt quite pleased to be known as the pastor of the fastest growing church in Buenos Aires. One Sunday, he had prepared to preach on the text love one another. He said, I had my message worked out. I had the different Greek words for love and the explanation and so on. And he said, during the first part of the service on time of worship, he began to feel I shouldn't preach this message. So I was sitting on the platform and when the worship leader finished a song, said, now our brother Juan Carlos will come and preach us his message.

And Juan Carlos Ortiz said he came to the desk and he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. And he stopped, closed his Bible, and went back to his seat. There was a silence. People weren't quite sure what was happening. The worship leader said, are we supposed to sing another song? He sat quietly. He got up a second time, came to the desk and said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. And when he sat down, silence again. He said his wife was sitting in the balcony and she thought he's flipped.

I knew you would come one day. He got up a third time after some uncomfortable I don't know how many minutes of silence. And he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. Went back to his seat. Said sitting over in the congregation, somebody turned to a person next to him and said, is there anywhere I can love you? Then somebody else began to talk. And before long, the whole church was alive with people talking to one another. And he said this. He said we had 28 unemployed people in the church that Sunday morning.

Every one of them went home with a job. He began to give other details. I was writing my notes quickly as he was talking and I didn't get the numbers. He talked about single parents that were present, how many, what their needs were, what happened as a result. He talked about people who living in absolute poverty. He said I could have preached my message on love. On the way out, they would say, thank you, pastor. That was a good message. I I I enjoyed the distinguishing between those Greek words and all the rest and He said but 28 unemployed people would have gone home unemployed.

And he said, to be absolutely honest, people in the church could not care damn. They just wanted a message. They didn't want truth. They didn't want life. He said next Sunday, he got up and it was time for the message. He said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the same as last week, love one another. Went back to his seat. And people this time stood up and said, who can I help today? He said for three months I had no liberty to preach. Each Sunday I got up and said, my text this week is the same as last week, which is the same as the week before, which has been the same for the last three months, love one another.

He said 300 people left the church.

Pete Fairchild: Charles Price, Teaching About Love here on Telling the Truth. We'll return to his message in just a moment. Did you know you can find more life-giving content from the Briscoes at tellingthetruth.org and on the Telling the Truth app. There you can sign up for daily devotionals, watch videos, read blogs, and access a variety of other resources to help you experience life. And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource as thanks for your gift of support to help share the abundant life Jesus offers with more people around the world. Visit us online or download the app today and experience life with Telling the Truth.

Now here's more from Charles Price.

Charles Price: They left because they said, we employ you to get up there and teach the word of God to us. And you just grab them and for three months have just said this same thing. And he said they were the unloving people. They were very biblical, very doctrinal. Some of them had been around for years. But they just wanted the doctrinal eyes dotted and T's crossed. He said after three months I got up and I said, brothers and sisters, the Lord has given me a new text this morning. And they broke out in applause. He said, my text this morning is love your neighbor as yourself.

And there was silence. Somebody got up, walked out to the door. Somebody else got up. He said within a few minutes that parking lot was empty. People have gone home. He said he, his wife, and two daughters went back to their home, parked their car. They went down their street and knocked on the door and said, is there anything we can do for you? He said it was week before Christmas. He said it was the worst time to do it. We had Christmas presents for one another in our family. And we gave them away to people who had they could need them more than we did.

He said that transformed our church. He said we had all kinds of strategies on evangelism. We had numerous meetings and committees looking at evangelism, and and nothing worked. He said, you want to begin to happen? He said the telephone of the church began to ring. And people said, is that the church that helps people? People came to knock on our door. People started to come in on a Sunday because they were needy people. I'm sure that's a divine moment. I'm not going to try it next Sunday uh because you can't artificially repeat something that God does authentically in another situation.

But I'm very challenged by it. Loving activities, first of all. Secondly, very quickly, loving attitudes because in verse 4 to 8 he talks about these this this wonderful description that is probably the best known of all statements on love anywhere in any literature. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

That's interesting. The first three verses are about spiritual gifts without love, and it comes to nothing. Verse 4 to 6 is about love with no mention of spiritual gifts, and it is powerful. You know, the Corinthian church, you read this letter and you see it was an absolute mess, you know. It was divided. It was broken. Uh there were people who had their own little cliques. Some say I follow Paul. Some I follow Cephas. Some I follow Apollos. Their spiritual was I follow Christ. Paul said, you're all divided there. They they were suing each other, taking one another to court, you read about there.

They were getting drunk at communion. You know, there's none of this symbol of grape juice stuff. They made it a feast and they swigged back the bottles of wine and they got drunk at the communion service. And Paul writes them about that. They got spiritual gifts out of perspective. Some were saying there's no resurrection from the dead. He's talked about all of this in this letter. And he's trying to address those issues one by one as well as they rose up. He says, here's the most excellent way. The most excellent way, it is love. And then gives these wonderful descriptive verses.

Let me make a suggestion to you. You could read those verses, verse 4, and you could take out the word love. And you could put the name Christ there. And I'll read it and see if it makes sense. Jesus Christ is patient. Jesus Christ is kind. He does not envy. He does not boast. He is not proud. He is not rude. He is not self-seeking. He is not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus Christ is not delighted in evil, but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

That makes sense when he put Christ into that. It's a beautiful description of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? Here's a third way to read those verses. May I suggest doing this humbly, not on your knees. Put your own name there in place of the word love. I wouldn't dare put my name there in public and read it, but put your name there. I have read this in my name this week several times. Is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking. It's not easily angered.

Keeps no record of wrongs. Does not delight in evil. Rejoices with the truth. Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. That makes sense when your name is in there. I'll tell you what that tells us. That is the ambition that God has for every one of us. If you want to measure how am I doing my Christian life, just go back and say, Lord, these areas, patience, kindness, not envying, not boasting, no pride, not rude, not etc. These are the most excellent way he's talking about. And then thirdly and lastly, the loving activities and loving attitudes.

Here's some loving aspirations in verse 8 to 12. Aspirations what we look forward to. And uh there's several things here that we are looking forward to. But but he begins in verse 8, love never fails. Some translations put it love never dies. Never is a very very long time. Never. And the great thing about agape love is it never ends. It lasts. It doesn't end in failure. Now conditional love may end when the conditions change and the object of our love. Now we don't know how conditional it is until we run into stretching difficulties and our love gives up, turns away.

But agape love never gives up. It never fails. Certain things do fail. Certain things don't last forever. Certain things will pass away. Verse 8, where there prophecies, they will cease. Where there tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For now we know only in part. We prophesy only in part. When the perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. So he says, prophecies, which he's been talking about earlier, which are important, but they will cease. So do keep them in perspective. This is not a never-ending thing. Tongues will be stilled. So keep them in perspective.

Knowledge will pass away. So keep it in perspective. All these have a shelf life. They will go. But love has no shelf life attached to it. It will never fail. It will never pass away. Now the big issue for you and me is not what do our minds say about God and therefore about people. It's how do our hearts connect with God and therefore with people. And this is the permanence of this love. So our aspirations in the Christian life may be to grow in skills. That's good, but it will pass away. To grow in gifts in us that will pass away.

But ultimately our goal must be to grow in love. That's our goal. Not that I know more, I do more. I'm better equipped and more able. But I love more. That's the engine, the dynamism of what we do. And it is progressive. He says in verse 11, when I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. Of course, we do when we're a child. But when I became a man, I pulled childish ways behind me. Here's a picture of of growth and it's slow plodding growth where you don't see much difference today to the difference you saw yesterday.

But in a year you may see a difference. In 10 years you see a difference. And as we mature, we're putting away some of these childish things. So we've still got those childish things. I I I'm childish at heart. Still have some childish things, but as we grow and mature spiritually, those childish things get put into their right perspective. And we grow. Now we see, he says in verse 12, but a poor reflection as in a mirror. But then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.

I I I love that phrase. I will know fully, but I'm already fully known. Do you know when we can quit pretending? We can strip ourselves of any managed externals. So we know we're fully known and we're secure in the fact that one who fully knows us loves us fully, totally with all the junk that is at work within us. And equally then that love from us. People don't have to dress up to be loved by us. They don't have to look good. They don't have to put on a front. Don't have to pretend things.

They love because of who they are. And their love is costly, of course. I finish with this little story. In 1949, the Communist Revolution of China had taken place. There were many Western missionaries over many years who had gone into China for about a century been one of the main areas for the sending of missionaries from other parts of the world. But by 1951, every one of them had been driven out of the country. That year, 19 1951, 24 leaders of what was known as the China England mission is now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship was founded by Hudson Taylor, great pioneer missionary.

But 24 leaders of this mission met in Manila in the Philippines to consider the future of their personnel who had been expelled from China. All of them safely, fortunately, not every Western blessed, some died. And of course, as the leaders have concerned about the risks and the future of the work, and as they met and talked, they had no sense of direction. They had no sense of God leading them. But visiting Manila at the same time was the last surviving daughter of General William Booth, who was the founder of the Salvation Army. Her name was Kate Booth Clibborn.

And because she was in Manila, they invited her to join them for one of their days discussions. Found us listening quietly to their discussions. And then at one point she said, may I ask a question? How do you spell love? And there was an embarrassed silence as eyes met eyes around the room. And somebody was just about to say the obvious, l o v e. But before they said it, she said, would you allow me to tell you how to spell love? It is spelled s a c r i f i c e. Sacrifice. That's how we spell love.

I have not spelled it that way in my marriage. I have not spelled it that way in my home. Not always spelled it that way in my work. But this is the nature of love. I take you back to that verse of Jesus, as I have loved you. How did you spell the love of Jesus? s a c r i f i c e. We partake of communion as a reminder that his love was a broken body, poured out blood. As I have loved you, now you go and love one another. But if you want to protect yourself, fine, but you won't love.

That means everything you do will just be a noise, just a noise. After a while, obnoxious noise it gets in the way, noise. It doesn't produce fruit. Do you really know that God loves you? And out of that, do you love one another? These three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Pete Fairchild: Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. Everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like it's always going to be this way or I'll never overcome this. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened.

In it, Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing. You'll learn that even in trouble times, you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, and joy. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Come back tomorrow for a special message from Jill Briscoe about walking with the Holy Spirit on the long road of life.

Experience life next time on Telling the Truth. Fairchild.