These are the sermon notes taken by Josh Tapp from Sunday 11/8/2015 Sermon by Pastor Terry Yeager 1 Corinthians 13 1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. We're looking at faith, hope, and love. Verse 13 tells us that the greatest is love. Without love, we are nothing. We don't accomplish anything without love. Do you really believe God loves you? Do you truly understand the depth, height, and breadth of His love for you? All of that love is for you. Pursue the love of God. We will always be vulnerable without God's love. With it, though, nothing can harm us. We lack understanding of God's love. We know God loves us, but we don't understand that love. There's a difference between knowledge and revelation. We have the knowledge, but we need a revelation. This is the essence of what God is... a revelation of His love. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 1
Faith, hope, and love must be connected. Galatians 5 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Faith works through love. Maybe our prayers aren't answered because they aren't through love and with love. Our prayers have to be in love. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 2
If you know God truly loves you and you believe that He loves you, you won't be afraid to ask Him for anything. You'll know how much He loves you, and you'll ask for what you need. Terry and His family went to light up Shelbyville and had a quick encounter with a very young girl selling chocolate bars. She gathered up the courage to walk towards him and ask him to buy a chocolate bar. Terry quickly, without thinking, told her no because he didn't need any more candy after Halloween. But he looked at his wife Diane, and he then knew he better get himself a chocolate bar from that little girl. Terry didn't think anything about it at the time he told the little girl no. Diane's compassion and love got Terry to buy the chocolate bar. God doesn't walk by you and tell you no. He stops and buys a chocolate bar from you. God wants to show you His love. God wants to touch all of us with His love. God shows us His love through others many times. Just like God showed Terry His love through Diane and that little girl selling chocolate bars. 1 John 4 Verse 16 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. The "know" that you see in vere 16 is experiential knowledge. John knows by experience. We know more than what we actually practice. So keep it simple. We don't needto know any more. We need to put our knowledge into practice. John wants us to experience God's love. When we have fear, God shows up for us. He's actuall always there, but our door is open for God when we fear. So we think He shows up then. In reality, He never left. We close our door to God other times. We need to keep it open all the time. People have lost hope in God. Religion has supplanted a relationship with God. Religion is no good. God's never left you. He is always with you. He will always be there in the worst of times. God is love. We have confidence in the love of God. The kingdom of our God will never end. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 3
An inheritance waits for us. We win. You need to believe that love. "God is love. God is love. God is love." God abides in him that loves. We must remain in love at all times. Don't get distracted. I can say to not get distracted from love, but we will always get distracted due to human nature. You will. But God will never pass you by. As He is, so are we in this world. We have the same faith, hope, love, peace, and joy that Jesus has. We are still here. There is no fear in love. Say that. There is no fear in love. Fear is the antithesis of love. Fear robs us from hope. We give up on His love. Perfect love casts out all fear. Grace and love is connected to Christ. What He bore on the cross really belonged to me. Jesus said if you love me, keep my commandments. Love is first. But faith, hope, and love are all connected. Church would be a lot nicer place if we all loved like Jesus loved. We in the Church need to do a better job of loving. 1 Peter 1 Verse 3 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Let's talk about hope now. What is hope? Hope is a desire of something good and knowing you're going to receive that good. Things are going to change. Never give up hope. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 4
The devil will rob you of your hope as he has done to all of us before. When we lose hope, we give up on the love of God. You may have lost a job, a relationship with someone went bad, or you received a bad doctor report. Hope is lost. We then get into an endurance mode where we just try to endure everything coming at us. There is no love when you're in endurance mode. Love is lost. Hope is lost. Jesus will then step in and free you from that. He is always there. Do not focus on your struggles first. When you do, you place all your struggles before Jesus. Your life will go in the direction of your focus. Jesus is and should always be the #1 focus in your life. When you make Him #1, everything else falls into place. You have to see yourself improving. Jesus is THE source of hope. You won't settle or surrender when Jesus is #1. You will always have hope and expect great things. Jesus is as great here on Earth as He is in heaven. He is here with us right now. And He is great. We all have the same resurrection power within us that brought Jesus back from the dead. You have that power because Jesus is within you right now. You need to put your hope in Jesus. This is living hope that will never pass away. There is absolutely nothing God can't do in my life. Fix your eyes on Jesus. It's great to receive an inheritance. Has anyone here received an inheritance? It's great, isn't it? Have you made any withdrawals on the inheritance God is leaving you? No. Because you lost hope. One thing after another may continue bothering you in life until everything breaks loose and everything seems to go wrong at once. This is life, but there's someone much greater than life. Hope is holy and perfect. Hope is protected by the power of God. Faith connects you and is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the person of things hoped for. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 5
Hebrews 11 Verse 1 1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. We hope for Jesus Christ. You have to keep your eye on any good salesman. We're always a little careful of any good salesman, aren't we? Sometimes you have to take a step of faith just like the little girl trying to sell me a chocolate bar for Light Up Shelbyville. That child's faith produced something that day. She had hope I was going to buy one of those bars. Our substance is Jesus. Jesus is my hope and faith. Jesus isn't afraid. We must come to God like little children. Come to Him like a child. Dare to believe. Look for Jesus. Step out to meet Jesus. Our hope is alive! The greatest of all is love. That is where it all begins. God will because He can. Our Hope is Alive! RHEMACHRISTIANASSEMBLY.ORG Page 6