Jesus is love, and is the fulfillment of the law. And love is the fulfillment of the law. If we aren’t loving those within our church or outside our church with a genuine love we aren’t fulfilling what God asks of us.

In 1 Corinthians 13:8 Paul states Love never fails. Paul is making the argument that it isn’t speaking in tongues and all these trivial fights we get in at church that matter. What matters is how we love. It is the way we love that will continue on in the lives of those we loved, not if we have the “gifts of the spirit”. In the end it is love that never ends, or fails.

This week we are focusing on 1 Corinthians 13:7. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. This poem in the original text was another one of Paul’s ways to show us that love looks differently than we think it should. Love covers others, love has confidence in the goodness of men, love believes in who you can be before you are that person, and love endures through better or for worse. Our love towards others is one way that we can show the world that we are Christians. When our love looks like it is of the world we aren’t showing them anything different.

This week we talk about how love does not rejoice in injustice or unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. That means we can’t rejoice when someone is facing a trial, even the people we like the least. We need to mourn unrighteousness.

We are asked to show love to all, including those who have wronged us. As we look into the passage of the prodigal son we see a Father that runs to reconcile the relationship. The son wants to be a servant but the father accepts him back into the family, fully reinstated as kin. The father was patient, kind, and kept no record of wrongs. Do we love that way?

Love doesn’t envy, is not proud and does not boast. So love is humble and builds others up. Jesus showed love by washing his disciples feet. He even washed the feet of Judas. Jesus gave us a new command which was to love one another. We are asked to show love the way Jesus showed love, and sometimes that means we have to wash the feet of someone we know will betray us.

They will know we are Christians by our love. (John 13:34-35) If 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is what love should look like how close are we to reflecting love as Christians?We are called to reflect the image of Jesus onto this lost and broken world. We are called to love. Love is patient, love is kind. Are you showing love?

Being a parent calls us to be self sacrificing. Jesus asks us as disciples to pick up our cross daily and to lose our life. But that doesn’t mean we are supposed to literally crucify our own bodies. In order to be used by God we have to make sure our basic needs are met. And as Christians we need to be making sure the basic needs of others around us are being met as well.

We are called to imitate Christ. That means we are called to be forgiving. Anger will cause us bodily harm that is why God calls us to let go of anger and forgive. In our humanness that is hard but that is the new life we are called to, to be kind compassionate and forgive others as we have been forgiven.

Proverbs 27:19 states our live is a reflection of our heart. Our life should reflect our Creator and we should be participating in the mission our Creator has given us. Over the next few weeks we will be touching on a few attributes of Jesus that Paul speaks about in Ephesians. These are attributes we should see reflected in our lives.

Proverbs 27:19 states our live is a reflection of our heart. Our life should reflect our Creator and we should be participating in the mission our Creator has given us. Over the next few weeks we will be touching on a few attributes of Jesus that Paul speaks about in Ephesians. These are attributes we should see reflected in our lives.

Proverbs 27:19 states our live is a reflection of our heart. Our life should reflect our Creator and we should be participating in the mission our Creator has given us. Over the next few weeks we will be touching on a few attributes of Jesus that Paul speaks about in Ephesians. These are attributes we should see reflected in our lives.

In order to understand the power of the cross we need to understand what the cross stood for at the time of the crucifixion. When we understand that we understand how God truly flipped the situation on its head. God showed that He ultimately had power, not the Roman government or death. What was once a symbol of Roman power has turned into a symbol that God has more power.

Sometimes situations and people aren’t what they seem to be. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, his posture was one of bringing peace and wholeness to God’s people. They were in a drought and praying for rain, little did they know Jesus was there to give them living water.

God created man to tend the earth to prepare the soil for growth. Isaiah 61:11 states that a garden causes seeds to grow. Maybe if we worked to make earth look a little more like heaven, maybe if we extended a little more grace, we might see a little more growth.

Tonight is the sending service for Pastor RJ as we wish him well at his new church. Tonight also marks the installation of Pastor Marci as head pastor of Chariton Church of the Nazarene.

Tonight we honored our past during our final service at the building on the corner of 12th and Braden in Chariton. We are so thankful for those who have gone before us serving in the same location for over 100 years! We are also celebrating the new thing God is doing!

The church plays a vital role in Thy Kingdom Come Culture. So we as the people of the Church, the Body of Christ play a vital role in the Thy Kingdom Come Culture. Our attitudes towards those outside the church are important but the unity and attitudes inside the church are important as well. What kind of role are you playing?

Jesus said He came so we can have life to the fullest. God is working towards restoration in our lives, our churches, and our community. Let us be dedicated to playing our part as part of the Body of Christ.

Our growth benefits our community, our family, the town we live in, the church we attend. We need to allow God to mold us into Christlikeness.