I love the TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Because the concept is that they go to someone's into someone's life. And while they are away, they're able to take a broken house. And have a miraculous transformation into their dream home. And that's what we want, isn't it? We wanna go from a, a broken house to a dream home, and that's what we want in our relationships, but my kind of sarcastic joking side is what if they stop the process, right? Because they always have this big reveal move uh moment where it's like move that bus or move that truck like move move the bus and they reveal what if they only demoed the house and said oh we're done, we ran out of time. We gotta, we gotta move on, right? And they're like, move that bus and they move it out of the way and there stands before them is the wreckage and ruin of what was, uh, you know, it seems crazy to think that a show would ever do that, um, although we'd probably tune in, um. And realize that there's demolition involved, but that the, the beauty is in the rebuild. The beauty is in the making something new and building something that's gonna last to take a broken house and turn it into a dream home. Well, some of us are sitting here and the remodel's not done yet. Maybe some demolition has taken place, maybe some struggle and some battles have happened, and you think to yourself, this isn't what I signed up for. This isn't what I long for. This isn't my dream home. This isn't my dream relationship, and you're left wondering, what are we supposed to do? And what are you supposed to do when love feels out of reach or that relationships feel beyond repair? What do you do when the people that you love most feel the farthest away? What do you do when you've tried to talk or you've tried to forgive, or you've tried to change and yet you feel like you're stuck? Whether it's your marriage or your family or a friendship. Or maybe your relationship with God, there's gonna come a moment in your life where you feel like. Giving up is the easier choice. You've ever felt stuck, if you've ever felt. In this moment of in the middle. In between I want you to know that. God's still working and that God's still here. Just as the Israelites left. Egypt and it took them 40 years in the desert before they got to go to the promised land. God was still providing, was still present in every step of the way. So if there's anybody here that's in a messy middle, if that makes sense of a relationship, this message is for you. You see, we have a God that specializes in extreme makeovers. We have a God who takes situations and circumstances that seem abysmal. And yet perfectly placed for his glory to show up. All throughout Scripture you see story after story of conflicts and struggles. And they're not really setbacks, but really they're set ups for what God is going to do. And there is this meaning, there is this glory that comes from the mess and the story that people are telling. And so if you find yourself in the messy middle, I wanna encourage you not to give up. Abraham and and Sarah were too old to have kids, and yet Abraham fathered a nation. Joseph was sold into slavery by his siblings and then thrown into jail for something he didn't do and then was left to be forgotten for interpreting a dream. So all along the way he did the right thing and he found himself abandoned and lost and hurt and bruised, and yet it was in that exact place, in that exact time that ultimately God would elevate him to a place where he actually saved not only Israel but actually his brothers, the same people that betrayed him. Think about David and Goliath, David. Was a shepherd boy overlooked by his siblings left out in the field to fend for himself to to fight off the attacks of a bear and a lion, but yet it was those same attacks that prepared him to take down a giant. And to save God's people. Ruth was somebody we we talk about Ruth is incredible woman of God, and Bo as this, this kinsman redeemer. But we forget the fact that the whole story of Ruth starts with her losing everything and experiencing a tragic loss of everything, and that in the lowest of possible moments, she is gleaning in a field leftovers of crops of what other people have picked. It's in that field at that moment when she meets Boaz. Think about Esther, the queen. Beauty pageant winner, yet actually God placed her in position to have the crucial difficult conversation, the challenge that could have cost her her life. We think having a hard conversation is is tough to have the courage for. What if that hard conversation, if it doesn't go that way, could actually cost you your life. And yet Esther stood up for truth and again saved her people. Peter, a fisherman, gave up his business to follow Jesus, has a 3 year internship, watching the miracles of God, and yet in the moment of need when his time came, when push came to shove, he denied Jesus 3 times. And yet it was Peter who would get restored and launched the movement we know as the church, and then you have the writer of 1 Corinthians 13, the letter that we've been studying for the last several weeks. Paul himself was the persecutor of the church turned preacher for the church, and then here is a man with an incredible dark past and yet writes most of the New Testament as we have it. I share all this because we have a God who specializes in extreme makeovers. And so if you're stuck in the messy middle, I wanna encourage you today not to give up, to trust that God is still working. See, we're in week 4 of our series, the relationship remodel. In week 1, we learned that love is more than a uh a feeling, it's a foundation. And we shared how it's the most important thing in the relationship. Then in week 2, we learned that God's perfect love empowers our imperfect love. And how before love can be something you do, it's actually a person you meet. Similar to how children learn to speak from their parents as people we learn to love by first receiving the love of God. And then last week we shared how we have to start living out these 15 characteristics that were, that are typically read at weddings. And that really we have to stop chasing love and instead start choosing love. And that love is a choice that is based not on our circumstances, but on our calling. And that true love shows up, speaks up, and commits to stay. So if you're taking notes, today's message can be summarized with these few words, and that is this. That God's love is our future and our fuel. God's love is both a description of our destination for the future, but as well as the daily decision that we have to make. It describes where we're going, but also describes the power from which we draw in which we live. We are not only made for God's love, we are moved by God's love, and that the best thing you can do for your relationship is to allow the love of God to flow through you. And as we've been walking through 1 Corinthians 13, we want to read. From starting in verse one, and we're gonna focus on verses 8 to 12 today. But let's continue to build on this study we've done together. So 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clinging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith as to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but I have not love, I gain nothing. And now it's gonna use 15 characteristics to describe the person of Jesus. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all, believes all, hopes all, and endures all things, and here's where we pick up our message for today. Starting here in verse 8. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, they will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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. See, God's love is our future and our fuel. Let's go back through this passage and try to understand what he's telling us. He starts off today by telling us that love never ends or some translations say love never fails. What's fascinating here is that he chooses three activities that were seen as spiritual gifts that he actually recited in the beginning of this chapter. He says prophecies are gonna fade, right? Tongues are gonna fade, knowledge is gonna fade. And he picked 3, but really he could have picked many more. What he's saying here is that there are activities in life that aren't gonna make it. Right Prophecy, if you had that prophetic power, that's, that's pretty cool, right? To not just predict the future but to declare what God is going to do. But you understand that you actually don't need prophecy in heaven. Did you ever think about that? You don't need prophecy in heaven because you're you're there. Right. What teaching ability do you need in heaven when you have all knowledge to God? This isn't a sermon on speaking in tongues, but even the gifting itself is not needed. The purpose of that was to declare the glory of God and the building up of the body, but you're not gonna need that. See, Corinth was a church that was trying to define itself by its success. Culture was trying to define itself by its pleasures, and the church was trying to define itself based on its powers. Right, think of Corinth as like a Las Vegas or in LA or New York City where people would go to try to make it. I mean they had a, uh, um, we had the goddess of love, Epaphrodites. They had temples there and it was just to corinthesize meant to, to act sexually in any way you want, shape or form any shape or form on behalf of this goddess and so live how you want, do what you want. In the name of love and you're OK, he says, no, no, no, it's not that. And then the church comes along and says, OK, well, we're gonna mark ourselves by success. I'm the best. The brightest, they wanted the title, they wanted acknowledgement. He said, no, no, no, it's not about the giftings. It's about the character. It's about the fruit of God. It's about who is God transforming you into? And while it lists 3 things here, I think in modern times. You could substitute it for many other things. Right? Think about what, what else you could put in there. You know, I will only pastor a church for so long. And so if my identity is tied to my vocation, then what do I do when the title or job title of pastoring ends? Some of you have worked really hard in your career to get to where you are. But then the question is who are you when that job stops? Some of you defined your life by beauty. What happens when beauty fades? Some of you have defined your life by amassing things and resources. But so much of life can feel like playing Monopoly that at the end of the game, all the pieces go back in the box. And so what if we take our lives and we don't define it simply by the titles we gain? Right. But the stuff we have. By the praises of men and women that we long for in approval, but instead, Defined our love, our life by a love that lasts. You see, God's love isn't just the end of our story, it's the point of the story. We keep thinking like, well, someday, once I climb this ladder, once I get to this rung, once I get this promotion, once I get this house, once I overcome this situation, then, then I'm gonna choose God. But you're gonna end up in this endless cycle. And then look back on your life and wondering what, where did the time go? What if you could actually embrace a life now? Understanding that love isn't just the end of the story, it's actually the point of our story. See the things in this world, they're gonna fade. But the love of God. Is what you were made for. There's this great verse, and there it says that when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. That word perfect is is Teleios, which really means in here to complete, mature, wholeness, perfect, fully developed, or brought to its intended end. Now some refer in this passage to when the perfect comes to the return of Jesus, and it very well could be, right? It's talking about the love of Christ and who Christ is and when the perfect returns. But I also think it's giving us a little bit of insight of what we've been created for. See, when you live in your teleios, you're living out the purpose for which you've been created. Late great pastor Tim Keller described it this way. He said, you know, whales are majestic animals. If you've ever seen one in the ocean, gliding through the ocean, jumping through the air, that big tail, it's majestic. But when a beautiful massive whale. Gets beached onto the sand, it hits the news. Why? Because it's stuck. And here, it it doesn't matter how much the tail waves, nothing's happening. Why? Because the whale is not living in its attended teleios or purpose. It is free when you are in the context for which you've been created. See where the spirit of the Lord is 2 Corinthians 3:17, it says there is freedom. Says in Galatians 5:1 that you were created for this freedom. John 8:31-32 talks about that if you know the sun, the sun will set you free, and if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. To love people, the way that Jesus loved us is to live out your teleios or to live out your intended purpose. To think. Back to a movie a few years ago that's very theologically rich. You may have seen it, um, Finding Nemo. It's a great little story, a little cartoon, right? The father's pursuit of a son. And at some point, little little Nemo gets stuck in a fish tank. And they're in the dentist's office and they're trying to plan their escape, right? Cause they don't wanna, they don't want to go home with the dentist's daughter. And like they're afraid, oh man, like our life isn't in this fishbowl. But the reality was they were not free. Not just when they left the fish bowl, but when they got to the ocean. And I think some of us feel like we're boxed in, our life feels like we're in this fish bowl. And we think if I just remove myself from the relationship, I would just remove myself from the situation, then I'll be free and I can do what I want. But if I were to put myself in the story and I take Nemo out of the fish bowl, and I just chuck him onto the ground, and I just go, go, Nemo, you're free. And he starts flapping around, you would be terrified and call animal control on me because like, I'm not helping that fish. It's just flopping around, that fish is not free. Why? Because the fish is not in its teleios. It's not in its intended created purpose for existence. See, some of you are living in a way that is outside of your intended purpose. You think I'm gonna live how I want, do what I want, say what I want, but you're not living in the context of God's love. Therefore, you are not experiencing true freedom. And he goes on to describe this freedom with a couple of pictures. He says, look, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I acted like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside childish things. It's a time of year of the different graduation parties and parties in general, and yesterday was no different for our family, did some sports in the morning, went to a little birthday party and then a grad party and uh at at the birthday party it was one of my favorite parts of the day was holding a a a little baby who just just could hold her head up and just learned to laugh for the first time. Have you ever held a baby when they just learned to laugh. It's like the best, right? And like I started bouncing little baby on my knees and she started laughing and it was the cutest thing, but then I couldn't stop because she was like ha ha and I would stop and she would just like stare at me and then and she was cooing and it was awesome it was so cute, right? Um, it's cute. Why? Because it's a baby. I couldn't take Brandon, our worship director and be like balancing Brandon on my knee like. Now giggle, giggle, Brandon. Here comes the airplane, like, like. That would be weird. Why? Because he is an adult. Here's the thing, OK? If you look at culture. Sometimes I'm not gonna point fingers, but sometimes we see people that are really just adult looking children. They're acting like children, right? Being a youth pastor for over 12 years, one of the things I commonly challenged our boys with is that at some point the boy sits down and the man stands up. So in our relationships, we gotta stand up and what does that mean to stand up? It means to love people with a heart of sacrifice and service that Jesus did for us. So there's this picture of a child becoming a man, but then there's this other picture, he says right now we just see in a mirror dimly, but at some point we're gonna see face to face. And this is a great picture because Corinth was actually an exporter of mirrors. And back then, mirrors were just this like form of metal that was kind of reflective and shiny, but it wasn't perfect. It was, it was kind of distorted, but you can kind of tell a little bit of an image. Um, guys in the room, girls probably don't do this because you care about yourselves. Um, guys, have you ever gone and left the house without looking at yourself? I've done that before, right? And like I got something in my teeth and the hair is not done or like I just like I didn't, I didn't look, I just went, OK. And they're saying here like saying in this picture, you have like a somewhat distorted view, but you can kind of tell that it's yourself in this mirror, but at some point, you're gonna get a full view. of God and of who you are. I love that. You see in our relationships right now, there are positive moments. When you, when you get that. You know, kiss from a child or or an encouragement from a friend, right? Like I think about I won't, I won't say which child, uh, to avoid their embarrassment, but, um, one of my three little kiddos when they were little, I remember tucking them in, giving him a kiss, and, and one of them just they just little toddler stay just had this sneaky grin on their face. I'm like, OK, what are you about to do? And then just grab my face, both hands like this. And they just go, biggest kiss ever and just like planted one and it was kind of a little sloppy, but like, but how did I feel as a dad in that moment? Loved it. Why? Cause there was this like face to face, nothing else in the world moment, parent child, just there, right? Have you ever been in a group of friends and there's just laughter and joking and maybe you're doing something and something goes well and it's awesome maybe it's going poorly and you're connecting that way, right? Like, like if you think back to your happiest moments in life, my guess is something involves a person to share it with. Maybe it is accomplishing a goal but it's accomplishing a goal for somebody or with somebody or to share it, right? And so what he's saying here, like, you have a mirror dimly now, right? You get it as corns. But someday you're gonna see this face to face. And this imagery of face to face is amazing because it's seen as the greatest description of heaven. Revelation 224 talks about how, oh, you think no more death, no more mourning, no more sickness, no more betrayal, no more brokenness. You think that is amazing? Someday we're gonna stand before God face to face. Cause you gotta think about the people in the Bible and beyond. Like Moses in the Old Testament could not see God face to face. Why? Because he is perfect, he is holy, he's glorious. And our sin separates us from God. Complete separation. To where you had to interact with God and some other means. So there was like a burning bush or there was a veil of some kind or something like that and like, you could not interact with God. On an even playing field. Moses, or not just Moses, but in the New Testament, you see guys like Peter when he recognizes Jesus off in the distance. First thing he does is fall on his face. John opens up Revelation with his vision of heaven, sees the glory of God, the King of God sitting on his throne, and he falls to his face. Why? Because the response is, because of my sin, because of my brokenness, I'm not worthy. But to be there face to face with the God who loves you, the God who made you, it changes everything because it actually says in here, I don't know if you caught it, there's actually two different verb tenses at the end. Is that someday I will fully know. So I will know as I have been already known, meaning that God knows every possible thing about you. All your sin, all your mess ups, all your struggles, all your doubts, all your issues, and for those that claim him as Lord and Savior, he looks down and says, child of God. And so there's gonna come a day. We're not only, well, God see us because he already does. We will actually see him. Unveiled face to face. And here's the thing, we focus on, hey, prophecies will fade, you know, profits will fade, tongues, knowledge will fade, the job title will fade. You know what will also fade? Cancer. You know also fade hopelessness and brokenness and betrayal and hurt and sickness and pain. All those things are temporary and fade away, and there's gonna come a time where you are fully healed, fully restored, fully nude, uh, not nude, maybe I don't know, Adam and Eve, OK. That'll be a clip somewhere. So I'm in this garden, right? It's there, right? And so when you're back fully clothed and through robes of righteousness with heaven, and when you have in there fully made new of who God is and everything just face to face with the God who loves you. And the beauty that comes from knowing God. Of who he is and what he's done to be fully accepted. Oh what a day. Colossians 1:28. Paul writes, Hi, Christ we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. That same word matures. May we present someone for their fully intended purpose in Him. To live in his love. Jesus praying in the garden, knowing he's about to be killed, to sacrifice his life for the people he loves. Praise this prayer in John 17:3 says, and this is eternal life that they may know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. The best part of eternal life is knowing God and knowing his love. In prison, Paul writes this to the people in Philippi, in Philippians 3:8. He says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered in the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ. And one more uh another passage here in prison writing to the church in Ephesus, he writes these words. Like if you had one prayer to pray for somebody, what would you pray for? We typically think of prayers of safety, right, don't we? Or keep us safe on this trip and we would be blessed, maybe, right? Bless this food to our bodies as we eat all this unhealthy stuff I'm about to put in. Anyway, right, we do it right. We, God bless this food, give us safe travels. Those are not bad things. But Paul, end of his life in prison. So if I could pray one thing, it would be this. He says this in in Ephesians 3:14-19. He says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with his power through his spirit and your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you've been rooted and grounded in love. So all this buildup, right? Like it's a giant ski jump, like he's going downhill, picking up speed, picking up speed. He's saying, with all the power of God's glory, with all the power of God's might, with everything that is in him, to be have everything that is in you, if you could pray for one thing, what would it be? It would be, may you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. If you have one prayer for your kids, pray that they know the love of Jesus. If you have one prayer for your marriage, for your friendship, for your life, may you know that God loves you. Cause when you do, it changes everything. It changes how you speak, it changes how you think, it changes how you live. That's why Jesus in Matthew 6, when he's teaching the disciples how to pray, he writes these words in Matthew 69 and 10. He says, Pray like this Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. See when you have allowed the love of God to wash over you understanding that it's not about success it's not about the titles it's not about pursuing temporary things it's not about the temporary struggles and the health battles and the hurts and the pains it's about. Receiving and understanding and allowing the love of Christ to do the extreme transformational makeover of your life so that just a little bit, even just the tiniest bit, you get to share that reflect that light to the people around you and it changes things. Because God's love is both our future, it's where we're going, it's the best part of heaven, it's face to face with him, and it's our fuel. It's what motivates us, it's what fills us. That even when you face rejection, even when you face hurt, you can turn to the God who will never reject you. And experience his forgiveness and you might be broken, but we have a God who specializes in dealing with broken people. What we see in part will one day be perfected in him. And so if it's not perfect yet, God's not done. So I want to challenge you with 3 questions here. Number one, When you think about your thought life, when you think about the head. Ask yourself, how often do you think about heaven and God's love? And then follow up. Why not more? Because it is so easy and human to be caught up in the to do list. I gotta do this. I got this email. I got this meeting. I got this pick up. I gotta make this lunch. I gotta get laundry. I gotta fix this. This light is broken. This needs to be replaced. I gotta take the car and I gotta go. Have you, do you ever get that way? You get so busy and just the to dos of life and the struggles and you go to bed exhausted and you don't know why. What if you just take a moment? Right? Go away and focused on the love of God. You know who did that? Jesus. Do you think you're more busy than Jesus? Are you saving the world? Even Jesus got alone. Why? To experience love is, think about this, by the way, right? We talk about the value of love face to face. The most painful moment in the life of Jesus on earth. What were the words he said? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Another way to think about that is, my God, why have you turned your face from me? So that one day through the resurrection through his power we will stand. Healed, restored, renewed full. Knowing him fully. And being fully known What if you thought a little bit more about God in heaven? Second thing, in your heart, when's the last time or how often do you express gratitude to God for being fully loved and fully known? Not when's the last time you felt grateful? When is the last time you actually expressed gratitude? Let me go take it a step further and say, when's the last time you expressed gratitude to the people in your life? It's not the only step, but can I tell you it is such a crucial step in your relationships. To focus on what you have versus what you do not. And sometimes you're gonna feel like Christ is all you have. But when you recognize Christ is all you have, you come to believe that Christ is all you need and it becomes the fuel to strengthen you, to enter those relationships, not trying to get something but to give. So we have the head. How often do we think about the next life? Because the people that make the biggest difference in this life think of the most about the next life. We have the heart Are you willing to express gratitude to God who fully loves you? And now we end with the hands and we think to ourselves, what is one thing that you can do this week to share God's love with someone else. Can you be the hands and feet of Jesus? To practically do something in the name of love, not to get their approval, not to get their praise, but simply to do it because God's called you to. What if you did that? And you love people like Jesus did. If you do that. Then you come to understand that God's love isn't just our future but also our fuel to everyday relationships right now. Let's pray. Dear onlyly Father. If there are people in this room who are feeling like giving up. Who need an extreme makeover today. God, I pray that you would just show up in a radical way that your Holy Spirit would fill our lives that you could understand and that you can come in and change our mindsets, our hearts, our actions, God, so that we can love people that the way you have loved us. Knowing that all the things of this world. At its core are temporary, except for your love, Jesus. So may we receive your love, put our personal faith in you, to believe that your Son Jesus is both Lord and Savior, that he died on the cross and rose again. To pay payment for our sins and beyond. And as we receive your love into our lives, when we go and reflect your love, and to share that as others, even as a mirror dimly lit. Knowing that the partial will pass away. And the perfect will come. And that when we love people, we live out our teleios and we live out our intended purpose for this life and beyond. So help us to do that a little more this week and we pray amen.