How are you guys doing this morning? Anyone excited to hear the word of God?
Yeah, it is an honor to be with you. It's so good, really, uh, my name is
Fernando, as you guys saw in the video, and John introduced, uh, my amazing wife
Nicole. Our crazy and amazing launch team is here with us this morning too,
which is, yeah, we're, we're crazy, we're crazy, right? To just to plan a church
is crazy, uh, to plan a church in Buckeye is even crazier. And then to plan a
church, uh, a dual language church like English and Spanish, it's even crazier,
right? So to mimic that what we're gonna do, we're gonna do our, our first
service in English and our second one in Spanish. So this service is gonna be in
Spanish. Full disclaimer, I am a holler back preacher. What does that mean? You
ought to participate as the word is being preached. The more you shout, you
preach, you clap, you laugh, whatever it is, the shorter I preach. So if you
want a shorter message, you shout, all right? You can clap your hands. You can
get up and say, oh, that was for me, or you can get up and say, oh, that was for
you, whatever the case. but please participate because uh a silent church is a
debt church and I don't think Mission Grove is a debt church. You guys are
growing, you guys are reaching more people for Jesus Christ, baptizing like
crazy. Come on, can you get up for yourselves? Mission Grove? It's amazing. Wow,
well, even though I grew up in church, uh, my teenage years were difficult. Uh,
my parents had a lot of issues, uh, they fought a lot. There was a chaos at
home. Eventually they divorced and I grew up as a teenager that was just mad at
life angry, bitter, resentful, uh, rebellious. I was so rebellious hear me this.
I was so rebellious that they kicked me out of church. Like for you to be kicked
out of the church, that's like next level mess, right? Has anyone been kicked
out of church here? No, right? That's the place that you welcome people, but
that's how, how um how bad I was really that talks about me, how bad I was not,
it doesn't talk bad about the church, but talks bad about how, how I was and the
wreck I was and, and in this process, I was so rebellious actually with that
when they kicked me out I was like I ain't going nowhere. I'm staying here. And
God used that in his sovereignty to change and transform my life, but he had to
break me first cause how many of you know that for God to bless you, he first
has to break you. He has to break some pride, some. Some anger some just
selfishness. There's a lot of things that God has to break you guys remember
this picture? Have you ever seen that this, this picture where Jesus is carrying
a lamb in his shoulders? Have you seen that? That looks, that looks beautiful,
right? It kind of looks like soft Jesus, so tender carrying a lamb, beautiful
skin, everything, right? Well, let me tell you the real meaning of that picture
that lamb was running away from God. That Jesus had to break his legs in order
to save him. And carry him. That, that this is now the picture of savage Jesus,
right? He's soft, but he's savage too. And sometimes that's in our lives as
well. God has to break us and that's what we're following on here on 1
Corinthians 13. And you guys been uh uh in this series. Pastor John has done an
amazing job talking about how love is our foundation, not a feeling, right? How
God's perfect love empowers our imperfect love, how we have to start choosing
love instead of chasing love. Last week he talked about that love is our future
and our fuel. And today I just wanna, I just wanna. Focus on the last verse of 1
Corinthians 13 verse 13 and it says that these things remain. he's talking about
three elements, three essentials which is faith, hope, and love, and then he
says, but the greatest of these is love. So what's happening in in the Church of
Corinth and I don't know if you've heard through throughout this series is that
they they were going through some issues and, and Paul comes here because he has
to do some demo. He, he has to do an extreme makeover, a remodeling and chapter
12 of 1 Corinthians is talking about the gifts of the spirit and, and, and, and
Paul is actually rebuking them because they've been utilizing the gifts of the
spirit to make up for their lack of love. They were doing some touch ups, right?
They were doing some add-ons that were actually they, they were necessary and
they were actually not helping. They were being an obstruction to God's
construction to what God wanted to do. The, the, you know, the, the, the, the
church of, of Corton had a good curb appeal. It looked nice from the outside. It
looked attractive. They had all these gifts, prophecy. Tongues, what are these
things, right? Crazy, but they were lacking love, so Paul's like, uh, I need to,
I need to do some deep work here. We need to go back to essentially we need to
strip everything away and he starts in verse 1 of this chapter 13 saying if I
speak the tongue of men or of angels, oh, that sounds. That sounds a deep,
brother for like tell me more the, the, the tongue of men and angels doesn't
that sound like mystic to you? He said he, he's talking about like these
tongues, but then he says, if I don't have love, I'm a resounding god or a
clanging cymbal. If I have the, the, the gift of prophecy and and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have the faith that can move mountains but
do not have love, this is, this is hard language guys this is tough it says I am
nothing. It's not saying I don't have nothing. It's saying it's saying I am
nothing if I'm doing all these things, but I don't have love. And if I give all
that I possess to the poor and give my body to hardship that I may boast but do
not have love, I gain nothing. The Church of Corn was utilizing all these gifts
of the spirit, but they were neglecting the fruit of the spirit. The gift of the
spirit, which is, you know, the the the the healing of the sick, the prophecy,
the gift of tongues, even there's a gift of faith as well. They're practicing
all these, but they were neglecting the fruit of the spirit which is love,
patience, peace. Forbearance, endurance, faithfulness. Isn't that funny? Like,
when we hear someone preach loud and and prophesy and, and pray in tongues, we
say, oh, that person is full of the spirit. Right? But when we meet someone that
is self-controlled, we don't think that way. Because when we think of full of
the spirit, we think of gifts of the spirit, we don't think of fruit of the
spirit. And I don't know about you, but I met people that can prophesy, but
they're mean. I mean people that can, that can pray and speak in tongues, but
they gossip in English. Like that, that part of loving others is not, it's not
their forte. Hey, let's go out and, and just share the gospel and, and
evangelize. No, no, no, I'm gonna stay here inside. I'm gonna bring out my
shofar and pray and and rebuke principalities and all these crazy things like,
bro, God is calling us to this. He's calling us to love one another. I remember
back in the day I I grew up Pentecostal, so I love my Pentecostal brothers,
yeah. I remember this event where we there was an altar call and there's there
the there's a lot of people coming up front and and and and a lot of people were
receiving the gift of tongues and I remember this person had a keys uh to his
Honda and he put it in his pocket right here so the, the, the, the preacher
comes to him and just lays hands on him, but it was a little too much where he
was like bending back, right? And all of a sudden the keys fall off the his
pocket and he just shouts out my keys to my Honda and they're like, you receive
the gift of tongues. Amen. He was just shouting that my keys had fell. Right?
And sometimes it feels like this subculture. Sometimes churches can be this way,
like, oh yeah, we, we, we speak in tongues in this church we go profound, we go
deep, they speak of the, the, the, the, the tongue of man and angels, woo,
right? Kind of sounds like going to REI for the first time. Any any outdoors
people like REI is amazing store, really cool, but the first time you go in
there, you immediately feel like you don't measure up. Right, it's like, oh my
God, like, and then they come to help you and they're like, yeah, I'm just
looking for a backpack. Oh yeah, what, what do you need your backpack for? like
that's just, just books and my, my laptop, like, oh no, no, you don't need that
backpack, right? I remember buying a a a a camping tent. It's the first time
going camping and we were so excited we, we, we get to the campground and I, I
pulled this thing out and it was the tent cover only. I was like, yeah, let's
put this back. Let's go to the hotel. We are not called to this like, right,
let's go glamping. I like glamping. I don't like camping, but Sometimes churches
can be that way. This subculture we don't understand and, and, and, and no
matter the style we pick, no matter the things we say. We can't deliver. The
other person on the other side can't understand what we're saying. It says that
it sounds like a, what what does it say? I like this verse resounding gong or a
clanging cymbol. Where where's Kicksia? Is is Kicky around here, the drummer,
she around here still? All right, let's, let's do an example here. Imagine that
I'm preaching to you. Come on, give it up for Kicksia. Let's go. I want you to,
as, as I'm trying to preach, you just hit those symbols hard as you can, right?
So God loves you and he has a purpose for your life and he has had on my side of
the. That's, that's how it is. That's a, a picture of when we're trying to do
all these things, but we're lacking love. Our message is not delivered
correctly. Come on, thank you. Thank you for that. You wanna do a solo? I'm just
kidding. So then 1 Corinthians 13, the last verse is saying, hey, what remains
is faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Let's go through
each one of them faith. If the Greek word is pistis, which means more than just
a belief, it's an active trust. Can you say with me active trust? Galatians 5:6,
I love what it says, what matters the most is faith working through love. This
is a faith working through love. That's how faith really looks like. James 2:17
says that faith that doesn't lead us or that doesn't produce good deeds is all
alone and dead. So faith will always end up with good deeds. It's not one or the
other. Deeds, the good deeds, the good works are not a substitute of our faith.
They're actually proof of our faith. Because faith always ends up in good deeds.
If you want to see the tangible of faith, It's good deeds. The tangible of our
faith is good deeds. It's not about a faith that produces love, but it's about a
love that produces faith, and then he continues talking about hope. This is the
second essential, the second fundamental here. Paul has to strip everything
back. Let's start again at the at at the bottom at the foundation. The most
important things it's like building a house. What are the most important things
you need? You need the foundation. You need the frame, right? And then what
else? Any builders in the house? What would be the like the three most important
processes or things of a house frame and then putting the roof, right? The
foundation. So if we miss these things. We can go on and start trying to paint
like the church in Corn was doing. They were painting flashy colors with all
these spiritual gifts, but they were painting over but there was mold. No matter
how many coats of paint you put that stink will show up again. There's some
serious issues going on in the Church of Corn. There was division. They were
fighting over who was the favorite apostle like if there was a Street Fighter
characters and you can pick and choose which one's your favorite one. This one
fights better than the other one. This one has spa like special traits. There
was sexual morality going on. There was a dude sleeping with his stepmother is
crazy. There's pride. And they were they were trying to cover all these things
up with oh we speak in tongues, brother. We got some deep issues, but look at
our to look at our gifts. We can prophesy. Come over here. I'm a bright child
but y'all I don't know why they speak like this, but They start off like and
they end like. And hope is this Greek word Elpis, which means confident
expectation of a good future. It's not just wishful thinking. Jeremiah 29 says
that, for I know the plans that I have for you. These are plans for good and not
evil to give you a future and a hope. But how do I develop hope? How can I, how
can I develop hope in my heart? Look at what Romans 5:3 says that we rejoice in
our suffering. That's hard. Rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces
hope. And the key word here in these verses is endurance. That's a tangible of
hope. It's this spiritual grit. It's this way of saying, I am not giving up, I
am not backing down. It's this attitude. Of standing strong. Actually, the Greek
word for endurance is hupoone. Hua Moe. Like I wanna get that tattooed in my arm
like hua Moe. It's this strong fortitude, like this strong standing. I'm not
giving up. I'm not backing down. I'm gonna do everything like it depends on me,
but I'm gonna pray like it depends on God. Humon. This attitude of, of
resistance and resilience. Have you ever heard that term that says, oh, don't
keep your hopes up. Yeah? You can, that can lead into disappointing if you're
having your hopes up that the Cardinals are gonna win the Super Bowl. You can
keep your hopes and get disappointed if you're you're, you're depending on the
stock market to keep increasing and that give you the, the secure future that
you're waiting for. But here's the difference we as believers in Christ, we
don't keep our hopes up. We keep our hope in Jesus Christ. For those who hope in
the Lord, for those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall
fly and soar their their wings like the eagles. They will run and not fade. They
will walk and not grow weary. Those who wait on the Lord. That is hope And
actually Romans 5:5 and saying it finished saying this, Hope does not put us to
shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us. So the tangible of hope is this grit, it's this
endurance. And then this third element, love. Love the Greek word is agape. This
sacrificial self-giving love that is rooted in God's character. This is the
essence of God. First John 4:8 says that the one. Who does not love does not
know God because God is love. And and God is eternal so that's why Paul is
saying out of these three things, the, the, the most, the greatest one, the most
important one, the one that lasts forever is love. So that's what we're talking
about today. A love that lasts, not a love that is lost. Because I want to jump
to Revelation chapter 2, and here we see John speaking to the Church of Ephesus,
and Church of Ephesus was very similar to the church in Corinth. It was a major
city. There was a lot of uh commercial life, a lot of wealth, and they also had
a big temple. Ephesus had this temple to uh called Artemis that they worshiped
Diana and uh the priest there they would dedicate themselves there was priests
and priestesses that they would dedicate themselves to prostitution. That was a
spiritual ritual for you to be cleansed, isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy?
You, you can probably say, yeah, yeah, that happened back then. That, that
doesn't happen now. In America, we don't, we don't, we don't struggle with
sexual immorality. What you talking about? I'll let the Holy Spirit speak to
you. Just go on to the next topic. Revelation 2. John starts off this letter and
I'm sorry I'm jumping into the next year. I didn't even know you guys were
having this next series of this letters, man, like I hope I get invited again.
So I'll do a short. But John starts by commending, by celebrating the church.
And he starts by saying, I know your good deeds. Your hard work and your
perseverance I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people and that you have
tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. You
have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary.
Wow. He starts by commending them. For these things, if I can categorize all
these things, he commending them, you fall into these two categories. The Church
of Nephesis had good deeds and good doctrine. Wouldn't you say that that would,
that's that's what characterizes a mature church, or a church that has good
deeds and good doctrine, and he's commending them for that. You have good deeds.
You've worked hard, you're you you persevered, you, you've endured, that's hope.
You have these 3 elements. Well, actually, these two firsts, deeds, faith, hope,
endurance. I'm commending, I'm commending you for that. I see that in you, you
have good doctrine too you have tested those who are not true prophets. And you,
you, you, you've kicked out those wicked people. But look what verse 4 says, yet
I have this against you. That you have lost your first love. You have lost your
first love, and I know that Paul in Corinthians is talking about this love, this
agape love that is comes from God Himself. John, he's talking about this love
for one another. You've lost it. And when you start losing your love for one
another, you actually start losing God's love too. Do you remember like John is
saying, hey, Your first love, do you remember when you were crazy in love with
me the first time you met me? Do you remember when I saved you, you gave your
life to me? When you're just crazy in love with you, you actually believe the
Bible and lived it out? Hmm? You were quick to forgive, you're quick to serve,
you were quick to give. I'll do anything, just put me to stack chairs, whatever
it is, I'm in love with Jesus. Right? Do you remember the first time you were in
love? Right? The person you were dating. Spend hours on the phone just like, oh
baby, what's up? What's your favorite color? Blue, oh, my favorite color is blue
too. We have so many things in common. 2 hours on the phone. You hang up. No,
you hang up. No, you hang up. No, you, all right, let's hang up at the count of
31230, you didn't hang up. Remember that? What happened to the first love? You
don't have to speak. I just wanna hear your, your breathing. Right. True story,
I, I once fell asleep and Nicole can still remember that he's like, hey, I was
there on the phone waiting and you just fell asleep. I was tired. I'm sorry.
First love, where is your first love? But 1 Thessalonians 1:23 says, we recall
in the presence of our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor
motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
When I removed love from the equation, his love for me and loving other people,
all of my faith and all of my hope just becomes effort-based, legalistic, and we
missed the whole point. We missed the whole point. But what I love about this is
that God doesn't leave us just with the correction so we can feel bad about
ourselves. No, he gives us a practical way so we can recover our first love. You
ready for this? Who wants to recover the first love? I wanna recover my first
love. This, this message is such it was so challenging for me and I, I, I come
to you as, as a younger brother. I'm not here to like. Talk down on you, please.
No, like, I, I, I, I'm the younger bro. I'm, I'm after you guys. You have
planned it, you have launch, you guys are here. Many of you were faithful since
the beginning where you got to set up and tear down. You remember those days
they were, they were hard waking up at 4 a.m. on Sunday. That means that you
can't do anything on Saturday. You have to sleep early, like, you know what I
mean? It's like, oh, my whole weekend is ruined, but you were in love. That was
your first love. And if I may, I, I, I come here kind of like the younger
brother that's starting this thing to remind you of your first love. I don't
mean that your first love is, is setting up setting up and tearing down again
because that's, you guys are over that season, but do you remember when you used
to wake up early to see God? Just having this quiet time, you and God. Remember
when you had this devotion, this passion to see God. When you wanted to serve in
any capacity, but I just wanna be part. And this is the practical way that John
gives us that God is giving us to recover. Our first love. And it says,
remember. How far you have fallen. That's the first part. Remember. In order to
recover our first love, we need to remember. There's power in remembering. Can
you, can you remember your testimony? If someone were to ask you, what's your
story? Do you have that story fresh in your memory, you can share it real quick.
I don't know about you, but I, I don't wanna be far away from my testimony.
There's people that I hear them talk about their their past life without Jesus
and sometimes I I feel like they're boasting like oh man like. Money, drugs,
bottles and bottles and there's like they're all pumped and like, dude, I, I, I
don't get it. Are you, are you sharing your testimony? Are you missing your old
life? like, right? I don't wanna be away. I don't wanna walk and grow away from
my test. I wanna be, I wanna stay close to that. I don't want to miss the all
for God. His redemptive grace, how he saved me when I was a mess when I was a
wreck and how his love has changed and transformed me. I don't wanna grow out
away from that. He continues his number 2, repent. I know this word can sound a
little weird. What, what does this mean? Repent simply means change of mind. And
the change of mind will actually change your posture, your direction if I used
to think and I used to believe that God was angry at me, well that would make me
run away from God but once I realized that God is for me, that makes me run
towards God. There's a change of mind that makes your your posture and your
direction change as well repent, we are all called to repent. Change our mind
there's there's things that need that God again needs to break, and many of
those things that God needs to break are are just patterns of thinking. And
we've been thinking wrong all this time and there's God is calling us to repent.
And the last point here says, do the works that you did at first. I call this
the 3rd point redo. We do. Do the things you did at first. When you you first
met God. When you were crazy in love, when you were in your first love. When you
were helping a church plant. And it was exhausting. It was tired, it was, but it
was so worth it. We are not called to a a comfortable Christianity. Comfort and
calling do not go together. And I see sometimes this dynamic in the church that
the longer we are as Christians we we tend to forget our first love. Remember
that first time you sat at the table with Jesus it felt like a a huge banquet.
It's like this is amazing like rib eye, right? Tomahawk steak like mashed
potatoes, beans. I love beans. It's like, can you tell it's like. Tortillas But
then the longer. You spend as a Christian, all of a sudden that banquet you you
you you start getting familiar, a little bit too familiar with it. You're like,
yeah, rabbi again. Tomahawk again? Yeah, service was good, but uh again, same
song, same preacher was the pastor. Right, it's like That's a perfect sign for
you to know that it's actually time for you to step up, stand up, leave the
table and give that room for someone else and you serve banquet for the new ones
to come. So let's remember, repent. And redo. Father God, thank you for your
word. This morning, thank you for what you're doing in our lives. Thank you for
challenging us and love. In correction thank you that we can always go back to
our first love we can always recover our love you are the source of love you're
not just love but you are the source of love and every time that we see that
we're lacking love we can just come back to you. You are our source of love.
Help us love one another because that is the true mark of a disciple that we
love one another. It's in your precious name we pray. Amen.