If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13
1. Love is patient, 2. Love is kind, 3. Love does not envy (not jealous)
4. Love does not boast, 5. Love is not arrogant (filled with pride), 6. Love is not rude
TONIGHT
7. Love does not insist on its own way
A. The Appearance of Selfishness
1. Satan in heaven: Ezekiel 28:11-19, Isaiah 14:12-15
2. Humanity in the Garden: Genesis 3:1-7
B. The Qualities in Selfishness
1. A life lived self-pleasing: 2 Timothy 3:1-5
– A selfish life lived self-pleasing will be a lover of money
– A selfish life lived self-pleasing will be a lover of pleasure
2. A life lived self-serving: Genesis 3:6, 1 John 2:15-17
C. The Manifestations of Selfishness
1. Whose interests rule our lives?
Phil. 2:20-21, Phil. 2:4-5
2. How close are we to the Lord Jesus?
2 Cor. 3:18
3. What captures our affections – the world or eternity?
Col. 3:1-4, Psalm 73:25
D. The Defeat of Selfishness
1. A life controlled by the love of Christ: 2 Cor. 5:14
2. A life putting to death self: Rom. 8:12-13
3. A life Gospel-centered: Rom. 6:5-11