Paul is very specific about what it is. What is it? This is the LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind,
and coming to you from Riverside, California, podcasting since 2004, I'm Steve Webb, your OG
Godcaster. This is the podcast that comes to you every single day of the week, and we're reading
the entire Bible together in a year. I'm so glad you're here. Welcome. The website is
lifespringmedia.com. And this is National Opposite Day, so I'm out of here. And this is, in reality,
Epistle Sunday. We'll read 1 Corinthians 13 and 14. After that, we'll have an On This Date in
Church History, and being Sunday, we'll have a time of prayer. Are you ready? Let's begin.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your Word, and we thank you specifically for the
reading today. Pray, God, that we can make this a part of our hearts, our lives, our daily experience.
Help us, Father, to do that. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I've done, but I don't
have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever. Love is patient. Love is kind. It isn't jealous. It
doesn't brag. It isn't arrogant. It isn't rude. It doesn't seek its own advantage. It isn't irritable.
It doesn't keep a record of complaints. It isn't happy with injustice, but it is happy with the
truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. As for prophecies, they will be brought to an end. As for tongues,
they will stop. As for knowledge, it will be brought to an end. We know in part,
and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, what is partial will be brought to an end.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child.
But now that I have become a man, I put an end to childish things.
Now we see a reflection in a mirror, then we will see face to face.
Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been
completely known.
Now faith, hope, and love remain, these three things, and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 14. Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and above all that you may prophesy.
For the person who speaks in another language is not speaking to men but to God,
since no one understands him. However, he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.
But the person who prophesies speaks to people for edification, encouragement, and consolation.
The person who speaks in another language builds himself up, but he who prophesies builds up the
I wish all of you spoke in other languages, but even more that you prophesied.
The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in languages,
unless he interprets so that the church may be built up.
But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in other languages,
how will I benefit you unless I speak to you with a revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
Even inanimate things that produce sounds, whether flute or harp,
if they don't make a distinction in the notes,
how will what is played on the flute or harp be recognized? In fact, if the trumpet makes an
unclear sound, who will prepare for battle? In the same way, unless you use your tongue for
intelligible speech, how will what is spoken be known? For you will be speaking into the air.
There are doubtless many kinds of languages in the world, and all have meaning. Therefore,
if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker
will be a foreigner to me. So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in
building up the church. Therefore, the person who speaks in another language should pray that he can
interpret. For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
What then? I will pray with the Spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding.
I will sing with the Spirit, and I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise, if you
praise with the Spirit, how will the uninformed person say Amen at your giving of thanks,
since he does not know what you are saying? For you may very well be giving thanks,
but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak another language more
than all of you. Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding in order
to teach others also than ten thousand words in another language. Brothers, don't be childish in
your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking. It is written in the
law, I will speak to these people by people of other languages and by the lips of foreigners,
and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. It follows that speaking in other
languages is intended as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers. But prophecy is not for
unbelievers but for believers. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together, and all are
speaking in other languages and people who are uninformed or unbelievers come in, will they not
say that you are out of your minds? But if all are prophesying and some unbeliever or uninformed
person comes in, he is convicted by all and is judged by all. The secrets of his heart will be
revealed, and as a result he will fall face down and worship God, proclaiming, God is really among
you. What then is the conclusion, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm,
a teaching, a revelation, another language, or an interpretation. All things must be done for
edification. If any person speaks in another language, there should be only two, or at most
three, each in turn, and someone must interpret. But if there is no interpreter, that person should
keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God. Two or three prophets should speak,
and the others should evaluate. But if something has been revealed to another person sitting there,
the first prophet should be silent, for you can all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn
and everyone may be encouraged. And the prophet's spirits are under the control of the prophets,
since God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be
submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, they should ask their
own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church meeting.
Did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only? If anyone thinks he is a prophet
or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord's command. But if anyone
ignores this, he will be ignored. Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid
speaking in other languages, but everything must be done decently and in order.
In the 13th chapter, which is often called the love chapter, Paul continues addressing
the Corinthian church in regards to division and spiritual gifts. What he tells them is that it
doesn't matter what gift you have if you don't have love. If there is love, you won't have the
problem of fighting over who has what gift or which gift is better. And to make it clear,
he delineates what love looks like. Love is not that mushy feeling of butterflies in your stomach
you got with your first high school crush. Love is much more than that, and Paul is very specific
about what it is. I hesitate to even begin to boil it down into just a few words because his
description is so right on, but I'll do it anyway. Love is not about what makes me feel good. Love is
about what I can do for the benefit of the object of my love. Even when it's difficult or when that
other person is unlovable, love keeps going. Now, beloved, we don't see much love in the world today,
do we? We're living in turbulent times. What we do see is a lot of hate, I'm sorry to say.
If we want peace, if we want love, we're not going to get it by arguing or confronting.
We need to pray for changed hearts. How are hearts changed? Only by the Spirit of God.
But He uses people to bring His message to people, planting seeds so that the Holy Spirit can cause
them to grow and bear fruit. Paul said in Romans 10.17, So then, love comes by hearing, and hearing
comes through the Word of God. Hearts are changed one at a time. Now, I was saved as a teenager.
I can point to a church service I was in when I publicly declared my faith, but I had really made
the decision much earlier. It was from dozens and dozens and dozens of conversations with my friend
Del Brixey, who invited me to that church, and from listening to our pastor's message,
and from attending a Christian kindergarten, and from seeing faith in Christ lived out in so many
people, and on and on. My faith was built a little at a time from hearing the Word of God
in many different ways. Beloved, we should be praying each and every day, asking God to show
us how we can love our neighbor, how we can share the message of hope, love, and good news. Because
until we do that, hearts are not going to be changed. The world needs God now more than ever.
What do you think? Tomorrow we're going to read Exodus 5-8.
Today's verse of the day is 1 Corinthians 13.1.
If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels, but I don't have love,
I'm a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal.
On this date in church history, January 25th.
In 1841, the Oxford Movement reached its boiling point.
While still an Anglican, John Henry Newman published the final and most controversial of his
Tracts for the Time, known as Tract 90.
In it, he argued that the 39 Articles of the Church of England were actually compatible
with ancient Catholic dogma.
It was a bold attempt to reconcile Anglicanism with its historical roots.
But the backlash was so intense that it eventually set Newman on the path to leaving the Church
of England altogether.
And also on this date, in 1915, we celebrate the birth of Gladys Aylward.
She was a working-class British woman who was told she was unqualified for the mission field,
but she wouldn't let that stop her.
Gladys spent her own life savings to travel to China by train across Siberia.
Her courage became legendary during the Japanese invasion
when she led nearly a hundred orphans on a dangerous journey across the mountains to safety.
Her life remains one of the most well-documented examples of evangelical missionary grit in the 20th century.
Well, beloved, we have no new prayer requests or praises today, so let's just go to prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, You show us what love is every day.
It's about giving ourselves for the benefit of others.
Help us, Lord, to make that a reality in our own lives.
Help us to think less of what we want and more of how we can serve others.
I pray, God, that You would bless the Lifespring family today.
Where there are needs, I pray that they would reach out to you and that you will hear them.
Jesus said that we have not because we ask not.
So instead of trying to do it all on our own, help us to see that you are the answer to our needs.
Remind us, Lord, that in those moments that you are there, it will just reach out to you.
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, if you have a prayer request or a praise report,
our next time to come together like this in prayer will be Wednesday.
If you'd like to share something with the Lifespring family, go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com.
You'll find an easy to fill out form there.
Just takes as much time to fill out as you want to take, but it can be very quick.
If you want to remain anonymous, just let me know.
There's a place right there on the form to do that.
Or you can send all that stuff to my email at steveatlifespringmedia.com.
Or of course, you can text me or leave a voicemail right here.
Lifespring family hotline.
951-732-887.
3511.
Beloved, in a world where we see so much hate, we're called to be different.
Like my friend Del, who planted seeds of faith in my life through dozens of conversations,
you have the opportunity to show the world what Paul's description of love really looks like
in action.
Let's pray every day for God to show us how to love our neighbor.
Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly.
Thank you so much for making me a part of your day today.
I'm Steve Webb. Bye.
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The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production
hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster since 2004.