Hope for the Hopeless Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: In heaven, we will experience God's love to the max. And we will love God back to the max. And we will love horizontally one another to the max. Heaven is a place where the two greatest commandments are fulfilled every single day. To love God and to love your neighbor, and it's a place where love just overflows. That's why love is the greatest. And when you and I love, we are like God. And we connect with God through love.
Larry Nobles: In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the Bible says, "But now abides faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Have you ever wondered why love is the greatest? It is for a good reason. And this is from His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, where today we'll hear the message, "Love Never Fails," and discover why it is so important. Now, today we'll hear part two of this series. You can listen to part one when you go to fromhisheart.org and click the listen link. There too, you can hear all the programs from this month that you may have missed and download a free MP3 of any broadcast. Again, that's at fromhisheart.org, click the listen link. But first, open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and let's seal this truth into our hearts. Because this love, his love, never fails.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, when the Apostle Paul gives his definition of love, it's not really a definition per se, it's more of a description. And he says in verse 4, "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth." And we've talked about all those things. And then today, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." And he says in verse 13, "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Now, our question to consider today: why is the greatest love? Let me give you four reasons why love is the greatest of these. Reason number one: it's because love truly cares about people. Why is love so great? Why is it the greatest? Because it truly cares about people. Look at verse 7, he said, "Love bears all things." That word for "bears," that's translated in the English "bears," is a Greek word that means comes from a root that means a roof. And that word literally means to cover in silence, to protect or keep by covering, to keep secret, to hide or conceal. Love covers by silence. Love throws a blanket on shame and humiliation. And when we talk about love covers a multitude of sins, we have to know that that comes in two stages. The first stage is this: love exposes sin so it can be confessed. There has to be a confession of sin. Love doesn't just cover up sin that's not confessed. Love exposes sin, calls people out of the darkness into the light so that they can come clean, so that they can get right with God. And when sin is confessed, what does love do? Love covers that sin so it can be forgiven and forgotten. The Lord wants us to love like that, to truly care about people, to not glory in their humiliation. Hey, love truly cares about people. It throws a blanket of love on the shame and the humiliation of people. Second reason why love is the greatest: because love believes the best about people. Love believes the best about people. "Love bears all things, believes all things." Now, you can take that to the extreme and say, "Love believes all things, so you tell anything to a person who loves and they're just going to believe you?" I mean, because love believes all things. Was Jesus like that? Did he believe everybody that said anything to him? No. Love is not gullible, and believing all things doesn't mean that you're gullible. The Bible wants us to be discerning. God tells us to be discerning. It means that love is not suspicious and distrusting of people. Have you ever been around somebody that's very suspicious and distrusting? It's not a lot of fun. That's not love. Love believes the best about people. Hey, with your children, with your parents, with your friends, with your neighbors, with the people that you work with. Believe in them. Love believes. Don't don't be suspicious, don't be distrusting, don't be cynical, believe the best and encourage them to be the person God wants them to be. So love truly cares, love believes the best. Thirdly, love doesn't give up hope. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things." Now, hope in the Bible is used over and over and over. Hope literally means a confident expectation that something is going to happen that you're hoping for. Hope is related to faith. Both of them are rooted in the Word of God. See, faith is for right now, at this moment. I'm walking by faith. That's the challenge for all of us. I'm going to walk by faith. That's for today. Hope is in the future. It's kind of faith in the future. So God gives a promise and you say, "Well, I'm hoping in this promise. I have confident expectation in this promise." That's different from the way we use hope. We use hope in English as a wish. Like, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow because I'm planning to do something outside. I was watching the football game yesterday, Texas Longhorns. I hope they can make a play. And most of the time that's just a wish that doesn't come to pass. You know, just I hope they don't lose. I hope they don't have a penalty here. I hope, you know, you just wish it. Hope in the Bible is not a wish. It's a confident expectation that this is going to happen because God has promised. Hey, love hopes all things. Now, if you lose hope, you lose your reason for living. The people who commit suicide, you know why they commit suicide? They lose hope. There's no more hope. Life has gotten so dark, so black, so bleak in their minds that they say, "I can't live anymore." Some years ago, when Jack Kevorkian's name was big in the news. You know, Jack Kevorkian was the suicide doctor. People would be in chronic pain, they'd call Dr. Jack, "Come over to my house, bring your medicines and kill me." "Why why would you want Jack to come over and kill you?" "Because I have no hope of ever getting better. I can't live like this anymore. Just kill me." You lose hope, you lose it all. Here's the good news. You might be struggling with hope, and you're losing hope that your situation's going to change. You're losing hope about a son, a wayward son or a wayward daughter. You're losing hope about some friend. You're losing hope in your marriage. God is the God of hope. Romans 15:13, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound, overflow in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Love hopes all things. A.T. Robertson, the Greek scholar, translates it this way: "Love doesn't despair." It doesn't despair. You know, if you look up "despair" in the dictionary, you know what it says? Definition of despair: to be without hope. And love doesn't do that. It doesn't despair. David, who had his share, King David, had his share, more than his share of difficulties in his life, especially in the early part of his life. He spent years and years on the run from psycho King Saul who was trying to kill him, and David hadn't done anything wrong. David said this in Psalm 27, verses 13 and 14, "I would have despaired, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." Have you noticed that your timetable and God's timetable aren't the same table? I mean, God, he seems to be so slow on doing stuff. And the the Psalms bear that out because you'll read in the Psalms and the psalmist will say, "How long, oh Lord, will you hide your face? God, why don't you do something? Do you not see what's going on here? How long, oh Lord?" Hey, wait for the Lord. Don't despair. God is the God of hope. Let your heart be encouraged. Wait for the Lord. There's a good little three-letter word that you and I need to remind ourselves of when we're hoping for something and it doesn't seem to be coming to pass. You know, many young people that want to get married, you in your 20s, and you would encourage your daughter as I would, as Debbie would, "Hey, you be you be Ruth. You just keep working in the field. You just keep trusting the Lord. He's going to bring Boaz at the right time." See, "I would have despaired unless I'd believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." That's that's now. That's not talking about heaven. That's talking about here. "Wait for the Lord." And so we would encourage her that way, and we'd encourage her with this three-letter word, yet. "But it hasn't happened." "Yet." Hasn't happened yet. You keep trusting God. You keep hoping in the Lord. You keep bringing a promise before him, saying, "God, you said if I delight myself in you, you'd give me the desires of my heart." You remember yet. "I would have despaired, unless I'd believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." It hasn't happened yet, but it is going to happen because I believe God. Love believes all things.
Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff Schreve will return in just a moment to conclude this last message of the month called "Love Never Fails." Are you appreciating the goodness of God today? Listen, when your days on this earth are done, what mark will you leave on eternity? That's a great question, and one that Pastor Jeff has tried to answer fully this month. Here's a promise you can trust: faithfulness to God is never wasted. Every quiet prayer, every moment of obedience, every decision to stand for truth, to resist the devil, and every investment in helping others know Christ, every effort to bring happiness and joy to others who are hurting. All these are things that echo into eternity, and your gifts to From His Heart this month will help us shine these bright lights of God's love as your legacy of Christian faith. And Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. He receives a salary from his church in Texarkana, Texas. He's From His Heart's chief volunteer. And when you do make that gift this month, we'll send you the complete eight-message series, "Leaving a Legacy, Lessons From the Life of Samuel," in the format of your choice. These messages will encourage you to remain faithful when the culture drifts, to respond to the Lord's calling, and to build a life that influences future generations for Jesus. We may not know what tomorrow holds for our world, but we do know this: God still honors faithful men and women who are willing to say, "Lord, I'm listening." To get your copy of this legacy series, call 866-40Bible. 866-40Bible. Or go online to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for leaving that kind of legacy in your life. Now to the conclusion to the month and this inspiring lesson, "Love Never Fails."
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Let me tell you something. It is better to die in hope than to live in doubt and despair. I'd rather go to my grave saying, "You know, I was hoping for some some things that I from salvation for family members or something like that." "It didn't happen in my lifetime, but God, I just delivered it up to you, but I'm not going to live in doubt, in cynicism, and despair." That's not the way a Christian is supposed to live. We're supposed to live in hope and abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So love doesn't give up hope. And fourthly, love always endures. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. The word "endures," Hupomone in the Greek, it's a military term, it means to remain under. A.T. Robertson translates it this way: "It's to carry on like a stout-hearted soldier." That's what love does. It just carries on like a stout-hearted soldier. It doesn't throw in the towel, it doesn't give up. It endures. And love stands firm against intense opposition. Intense opposition. "I'm not going to stop loving you," love says, "just because the going gets tough." Give you an example. Stephen in the Bible, Acts chapter 7. He's hauled in before the Sanhedrin for preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, the 70 plus one, the high priest. These guys, they they weren't a fun lot. I mean, going before the Sanhedrin is a lot like going to deacons meeting. It's just a tough crowd. Just teasing deacons. But it was it these are guys that don't like you if you're a believer. They hated Jesus. Jesus had to appear before the Sanhedrin. So Stephen is called before the Sanhedrin, and he's called to give a defense, and he preaches a sermon in Acts chapter 7 that just fried their hair. I mean, it was powerful. He told all about Israel and their history. And then he says he he wheels on them and he says, "Let me tell you what you guys are doing. You men who are stiff-necked, always resisting the Holy Spirit." He said, "Who did the prophets in the Old Testament? What did they do? How did they how did the people respond to the prophets? They murdered the prophets, and you are doing the same thing, and you murdered God's Messiah!" You talk about getting cut to the quick. When you tell the religious mucky-mucks that they killed the Messiah, and they are on par with those who killed the prophets, man, they got so mad, they covered their ears, and they rushed upon Stephen to stone him to death. And the Bible says this, "And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen, and he called upon the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them,' and having said this, he fell asleep." So much like what Jesus said on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Stephen was like that. "Lord, don't hold this sin to their charge." He loved those people that were stoning him. He understood, "They don't know what they're doing. They are blind, and God, they desperately need to come into the light." Now listen, in this political season that we've been in, it's divisive, and it can create... I mean, you thought you were friends with somebody and all of a sudden you become enemies, and social media is horrible for that because you say things that that are, you know, firebombs that you're throwing. And it can really divide people. We need to be careful with that. I'm speaking to myself. You need to be careful with that because people are not the enemy. Listen, the enemy is at work, the the prince of the power of the air. He is at work. And just like it was in Diocletian's day in the 300s AD, the devil wants to come and eradicate Christianity. He wants to shut it down. He wants to remove freedom of religion from America. He wants to to make it a crime to be able to open the book and preach the book. He'd love to get all the Bibles and burn them. He he works overtime to do that. You have to always remember, I have to always remember, people are not the enemy, the devil's the enemy. People are the mission field. And people who are very, very ugly to us if we stand up for the truth, if we stand up for the unborn, if we stand up for Israel, if we stand up for law and order, if we stand up for truth. You know, as I told you, truth is hate to those who hate the truth. And people who hate the truth, you can start seeing them as as your bad people, and we don't like you, and I don't like you, and and uh, "Lord, should we James and John, should we ask God call on the Lord to send down fire from heaven and consume them?" Jesus said, "You don't know what spirit you're of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And so we need to see those people as, "God, open their eyes to truth. They don't see the truth. They don't see the truth. And Lord, don't hold this sin on their charge. You don't don't put that on their account. God, open their eyes." See, love stands firm against intense opposition. To be able to pray for the people who are stoning you to death is the love of God at work in a man's heart. And then lastly, love lasts for all eternity. He sums it up in verse 8, "Love never fails." It never falls, it it it never drops off. It survives everything. Love never fails. He says, "If there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away." All these spiritual gifts, they only last for this life and then they're gone. "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, when we go to heaven, the partial will be done away with and faith will turn to sight. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known." In heaven, you're going to know things fully, just as God knows you. And he says in verse 13, "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Now, love is the greatest, as we've said, because love truly cares, love believes the best, love doesn't give up hope, love always endures. But let me tell you something else about love. In heaven, that's what dominates, is the love of God. Faith is not needed in heaven. Why? Because faith is there when you can't see. But when we go to heaven, faith turns to sight. So there is no reason to have faith. And hope it's not there in heaven. Why? Because hope is faith in the future, and the future is right before us, forever and ever, all eternity. And so the only thing, of faith, hope and love, the only thing that we have in heaven of those three is love. And here's what you're going to experience. See, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. In heaven, we will experience God's love to the max. And we will love God back to the max. And we will love horizontally one another to the max. And heaven is a place where the two greatest commandments are fulfilled every single day. To love God and to love your neighbor. And it's a place where love just overflows. That's why love is the greatest. See, love connects us to God because God doesn't, he doesn't have a need for faith. God doesn't have a need for hope. But God is love. And when you and I love, we are like God. And we connect with God through love. God has a love that will not let you go. Paul said in Romans chapter 8, he asked the question, "What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall it be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." "Oh love that will not let me go." And can I tell you something that is just mind-blowing? That love that God has for you dwells in you to love other people. Because Romans 5 says that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the person of the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us. God lives in our hearts as believers, and he can love through us to other people. So that we could cover their shame with a blanket of love, so that we could believe in them, so that we can hope about them, so that we can endure with them and for them and concerning them. Do you realize that this love resides in you if you're a believer?
Larry Nobles: If you're not a believer in Christ, are you willing today to begin loving others with an enduring love that's described in 1 Corinthians? That starts with surrender. Jesus said, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." That means when you surrender to him in repentance and faith, he will come into your heart. He will give you purpose and peace, and a place to rest from the failing strivings that you have in your life today. But how do you know how to become that surrendered child of God? How will that change you? Good questions. And Pastor Jeff has some answers for you when you visit us online at fromhisheart.org. Click the "Why Jesus" link. Start today by visiting that link and begin your Christian journey. When you do go online, would you consider a gift to support this outreach? If God impresses it upon your heart to join us financially, this month we'll say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's eight-message series, "Leaving a Legacy, Lessons From the Life of Samuel." Yours for a gift of any amount. Call 866-40Bible. 866-40Bible. Or go to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting that you'll be with us next month for some inspirational teaching from the series "Life Goes On." Hey, no matter what you're going through, God will go through it with you. Join Pastor Jeff Schreve next time when we'll again open up the Word of God and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His Heart.