Keith Battle - Love In Action

The subject that I want to tag this with is called «Love in Action.» I like that term, «Love in Action,» because it’s kind of theatrical, but it’s also important. Love is more than just what you say; it’s not merely words. I believe we should communicate to people in loving ways and express love. People feel love more based on what we do, not just what we say. It’s similar to when Jesus says, «If you love me, keep my commandments.» If you love me, do what I say. Don’t just tell me; show me. I think when we show people love through our actions, it speaks at least as much, if not more, than the things we say about love. So, when I look at this passage, everything in it reflects love in action. I have this little director’s thing now because this passage is hitting me; it’s like when you see one of these on a theater stage or during a shoot, and the director goes like this. It’s like the reason they keep doing this is that someone messed up, and they must keep going like this. You know, «Hey, do it again, ” because someone didn’t do their part right. Somebody missed their line; someone didn’t follow their cue. They had to go like this: „Take it again.“ I feel like this happens over and over in this passage: „Love your enemies.“ No, take two, Keith; you’re not doing this right. „Let people come into your house.“ Take 400. I don’t even want people dropping stuff off at my house! God, you want to? Yes, I know you want to give people money, but you don’t give them your time! So, this whole passage has me doing this the entire time. If you feel that way too, maybe you can go buy one of these or just say in the chat, „I’m with you, Pastor; I struggle with these things as well.“ So, as we walk through this passage, I want us to take a „Christian Sutherland stroll“ through nature. That’s what she says she does. If you’re strolling through nature, you’re just strolling through nature. As we go through this passage, I want you to stroll through it, smell the fragrances, see the colors, and experience the journey. We’re not going to exhaust this passage; we just want to stroll through it and highlight the things that challenge us regarding love in action. Now, before I walk through it, it’s interesting that this passage about love follows verses three to eight, which are all about spiritual gifts. This is the second time the Apostle Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, writes about spiritual gifts and immediately starts talking about love. He did it in 1 Corinthians 12, where chapter 12 is a whole chapter about spiritual gifts: what the gifts are, how they’re to operate, and what you’re not supposed to do. Then he comes out of 1 Corinthians 12, and the first words he writes in verse 1 of chapter 13 are: „If I can speak with the tongues of all the earth and all the angels but don’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.“ In verse three, he states: „If I gave everything I have to the poor, if I used my spiritual gift of giving and sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t have love—if I didn’t love others—I would gain nothing.“ It states that love is patient, it’s kind, love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude, it doesn’t demand its own way, it’s not irritable, it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, love never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Then he says in verse eight: „Y’all, I’ve been talking about prophecy, speaking in unknown languages, and special knowledge will become useless, but love will last forever; it never fails.“ Then he comes to Romans chapter 12 and does the exact same thing. He’s talking about gifts—the gifts of leadership and service and all these gifts in Romans 12:3-8—and then he comes to verse 9 and says: „Make sure you really love people.“ I thought to myself, „Why does he keep doing this? Why does he talk about giving and then about love?“ Because obviously, you can be gifted and not loving. How many of you know that’s true? If that’s true, just hit me up in the chat. You know some people who are gifted and grumpy; they’re anointed and annoying. They’re talented and turbulent. You can be uncanny and unkind at the same time.