Love Sermon

Not long before I left the senior high group at Christ Community, I gave a sermon on I Corinthians 13. What follows is a sort of abbreviated version of my notes and thoughts.

(read I Cor. 13)

This summer (of 2004) I was encouraged by the unity in our youth group. I am even more encouraged to see us moving back towards that state. But what creates unity?

I speak today in love because I want only what is best for our youth group, church, and community. I am using my talents as a leader and public speaker to get my thoughts and feelings across to my brothers and sisters.

I am not perfect, and neither is anyone else, but that does not mean we cannot strive to be perfect. We should aim for perfection as individuals and as a group. Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Love is not easily angered. This is something I struggle with every day. I don't like that I get angered so easily, but I can control the way I handle it. If I blow up in my friend P.Diddy's face, I am not being very loving. If I let something slide until I can talk to him about it in private, I am loving him and the others around us.

Forgive and forget is what we are called to do. I have been working at forgiving others and then forgetting what they have done. I am still getting better. I see people like me friend Josh, who can't hold a grudge to save his life, and I am amazed at the power given to him by the Holy Spirit.

Hope for the future. That is what I have to do on a daily basis because it has been rough the last couple of months here in this room [due to administrative personnel changes]. But I have a hope that we will pull each other through this and be unified in walking through a new stretch towards heaven. I want there to be something for the freshmen and sophomores in a few years, and something for my little brother to look forward to when he enters high school. I strongly believe that the other seniors are behind me when I say that we are going to persevere through to the end for, and with, this youth group until we are no longer here. This is about more than any one person or small collective group; this is about a group of kids, teenagers, you adults, who get together to worship our God. Isn't that the whole reason this place was created?

Finally, we know that hope never fails. Some of you might say this would never work and that there are things that you just can't change or deal with. Let me say this, that I have been working on this for several months now, and I see a difference already in how I feel towards others, and hopefully that leads to how I treat them. Many of you have seen "Love Her" written on my hand and asked what that means. Well, here it is: take anyone's name and replace "her " with that name. Strive to love that person more. I wrote her only because I need to work on loving my sisters in Christ better. But it applies to the way I love guys, too, as brothers. How can you love someone better this week?