You get the Dave part, but I'm sure that was a
good thing.
It was 16 years to the month ago that Debbie
and I
moved to Texas.
And our first experience in Texas
was an unusual one for us.
First night here, we went to the Pizza Hut in Lubbock,
where we had arrived, and ordered pizza and said,
we'd like some water, too.
We were surprised that they didn't serve water
with the meal
back home.
And the waitresses looked at us with crossed eyes
and brought out the water.
And then Debbie and I were listening in to the conversation
and thought, these people are obviously
pretending this accent is just too much.
They must know that we're from somewhere else.
But after a while, we understood why
they don't offer water at the restaurants in Lubbock
and came to become accustomed to the accent
and, in fact, even enjoy it.
So much so, in fact, to understand
what to be in Texas and what it is to be a Texan.
Just a bit ago, I shared with some fellow Northwesterners
a clip, an old clip from a speech
that Lyndon Johnson made in the 1950s.
The situation was that we had the A bomb,
and then the Russians had gotten the A bomb,
and we got the H bomb, and then the Russians
had got the H bomb.
And Lyndon Johnson went before the people
to tell them about the crisis at hand.
And he said to the people, he said
that the H bomb is capable of destroying
the major cities of America.
And then he proceeded to list off
the major cities of America.
He talked about Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston,
and San Antonio.
And on he went, and he said, and even, yes,
Johnson City.
And the people from the Northwest didn't understand,
but I knew.
I've been in, I've lived here before.
Some things are familiar on the return to Abilene,
the administration building, welcoming everybody
that comes on the west side of campus,
and the familiar dormitories and the sidewalks,
even the pecan trees, the whole thing just is
so familiar.
And what I think endears all of us who come
from out of town,
whether it be Fort Stockton, Lubbock, wherever
we're from,
to the area is that we're coming back to a
place that
has meant so much to us.
This was a time in our life where
there was a people and an institution that
cared about our emotional and our spiritual
and our intellectual development.
So it's always good to come back home.
Familiar scenes, students with their books in
their hand,
a chapel that calls us to come and worship a
library for some
that says, come and work.
All of these are familiar sights.
And familiarity is so reassuring.
It's such a welcome sight at Abilene Christian University.
I'm really pleased to be back.
Yet on the way back, I know that some things
have changed.
From the east side of campus, my goodness,
Judge Ely Boulevard, things look a lot
different there.
The business building and the Bible building, wow.
Then there's the profs that have changed, too.
Some new faces that I don't recognize.
And then there's the older faces that they've
changed, too.
They're either grayer or bolder than they seem,
than I remember them to be.
And the students, it's an interesting thing
about students, how they tend to look younger
than what I remember students to look like when
I was here.
And if we stayed long enough, we'd
find other things that have changed that aren't
so familiar.
There's different people, there's different studies,
there's different buildings, there's different rooms.
Some of it's unfamiliar.
This evening, I'd like to draw your attention
to 1 Corinthians
chapter 13.
It's a familiar chapter to us.
It's called the Love Chapter.
And so much of the text, indeed, is familiar
that I almost
hesitate to describe it.
We're familiar with this kind of literature,
for example.
We know that of the 27 what we call books in
the New Testament,
20 of them are letters, and 1 Corinthians
is, of course, a letter.
And you and I are really experts on this literature.
We really are.
I'm going to do a little quick survey.
How many here have ever written a novel, a
novel that
was actually published that somebody ever read?
Has anybody here ever written a novel?
A couple hands, that's good.
How about a short story?
Has anybody ever written a short story
that somebody else actually read, not just in
the class,
but maybe for publication? Anybody?
How about a professional paper?
Somebody written a professional paper, a few hands?
That's good.
A book of any kind, a book that's
been written that somebody read, besides yourself.
OK, how about a letter?
Has anybody ever written a letter
that somebody actually read? Unbelievable.
Yeah, you see, we're talking about the kind of literature
that we're aware of.
We know about this Bible, about 1 Corinthians,
the kind of literature that it is, a letter.
We're familiar with this turf.
Not only have we written letters,
but we've received letters, too.
We get them all the time.
We read them, and we know about them.
Sometimes by the address on the outside,
the person to whom it's addressed.
But when it says, dear occupant, often goes
that way.
If it says your name, you might want to open it up.
Sometimes by the type, you can tell that this
is a process
letter, not interested.
I can tell the difference, for example,
between a letter that's addressed to Reverend Flair,
which is different from the letter addressed to Pastor
Flair, which is even different than the letter addressed
to Brother Flair.
And they're different than the letter addressed
to Mr. Flair,
which are different than my favorite, sweetheart.
That's the letter that I enjoy reading.
So letters, we can tell by the signature what
they're like.
1 Corinthians is a letter.
But it's a letter written to a church
that has some real problems, some big ones.
You know about 1 Corinthians and the doctrinal error
that's going on there, that's described in
chapter 15.
Doctrinal error of such a kind, well, goodness,
they didn't believe that Jesus Christ had
been raised from the dead.
In fact, there's a congregation in our brotherhood
today that believed like some people here in Corinth
are believing, we'd call it heresy, we'd be right.
There's problems in the church like sexual immorality.
So embarrassing, in fact, that I'm a product of
the 90s,
but I'm embarrassed to talk about it,
that Paul describes in chapter 5.
And then what kind of people are these people
here at Corinth?
What kind of foundation is this church built on?
Now, if we're going to talk about building the church,
we think about maybe finding some fellow
Christians who
have a good, strong heritage and build on that foundation.
In the 1st century, maybe find some people
who have been raised in Judaism and have
a long history of faithfulness there and build
on that.
If you can't find people like that,
maybe go out and find some people
that have good morals, even though they're pagans.
1 Corinthians 6, we find that this community has
included those who have been involved with homosexuality.
Paul says, in such were some of you.
That's the foundation of this congregation. Familiar?
Well, sort of, but not quite.
And then consider how Paul addresses this group
of people
that maybe have what we might consider
a shaky foundation or doctrinal error
or some problems with immorality.
In chapter 1, he doesn't call them sinners.
He doesn't call them weak.
He doesn't say that they're heretics.
He says that they're the church of God.
He says that they're saints by calling.
And he says that they are among the people who
call on
the name of Jesus Christ.
Well, not so familiar.
This is a positive identification for people
who have a significant problem.
Unless we get the wrong impression
that Paul's not concerned about doctrinal heresy
and immorality and other problems,
consider the way that he signs on.
When he writes to the Philippians,
he signs on the slave of Christ.
When he writes to Philemon, he signs on a
prisoner of Christ.
The man's a humble individual in those letters.
He wants to identify with his people
so they can understand what he's saying.
When he writes to the Corinthians,
he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, implied,
I want you to listen to what I have to say
because my message is from God himself.
So please listen to these words.
Authority, wow, what a combination.
And this isn't so familiar to us today.
This stern expectation that's coupled
with this affectionate affirmation.
Some of 1 Corinthians is pretty familiar turf.
But the more we look, the more we uncover,
some of it's unfamiliar to us.
Some of it's so familiar, it rings a bell.
We can cite the chapters almost like that.
The first section in response to what he's heard
from Chloe's people, disunity, problems with morality,
Christians going to court with other Christians.
The second half of the letter, so familiar to us,
it just goes systematically from one subject to another.
Questions the congregation's raised, he
responds to them.
Sexual ethics, meet sacrifice to idols.
Communion, the role of women, the resurrection,
giving all of that address, meet sacrifice to idols.
And then in the middle of it,
that passage that just asked to be memorized
and asked to be quoted is 1 Corinthians 13.
And you don't just find it in the Bible anymore,
you find it everywhere.
It's on plaques, posters on the walls,
hallmark cards quoted, the love chapter.
The model, people have that model.
Love never fails.
How many weddings have used this passage?
Couples up there before the minister
are being told to love one another.
It's a familiar passage to us, 1 Corinthians 13 is.
But are you familiar with the original concern
with which Paul wrote it?
Really sandwiched between two other chapters,
12 and 14, where Paul's talking about spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians fits in there real neatly,
like a hand in a glove.
Evidently, the Corinthian church
is really having some problems with rivalry.
People that have things kind of class from high
to low.
And people in the congregation
who had the gift of tongues
thought themselves a cut above others.
And those that didn't have that particular gift
thought themselves less than others.
And so Paul cites this very familiar analogy
in chapter 12 where he says the church is like
a body.
And he says the eyes shouldn't look down on the hand.
And neither should the head look down on the feet.
Now it's geographically located
like it's looking down the nose,
the head looking down the nose to the feet,
and the eyes looking down the nose to the hand.
Don't look down on people.
He says you're all part of the body.
You're a leg, and you're an arm,
and you're an eye, and you're an ear.
And we all need one another, he says.
Don't think too highly of yourself,
nor think too lowly of yourself in chapter 12.
In chapter 14, he discusses the two gifts,
prophecy and the tongue.
Says tongues edifies the self,
the prophecy edifies the church.
Seek the more noble gifts.
But above all, he says in chapter 12 and verse 31,
seek love, the most excellent gift of all.
Seek love.
Christians competing with other Christians,
some thinking themselves a cut above the others,
some having the spiritual inferiority complex.
Paul says seek the more excellent way.
Now does this sound familiar?
Well it should, because it describes almost perfectly
the kind of congregations that we've become
involved in.
Paul put ministers in our congregations
comparing statistics with other Paul put ministers
about attendance figures and giving figures
and that kind of stuff.
Multiple staff churches, our congregations,
multiple staff churches where youth ministers
consider themselves a second class citizen
or are made to consider themselves such.
In our congregations, men who are just devastated,
wiped out of their Christian lives
because they haven't been considered for the eldership.
Our congregations where women are not allowed
to express the gifts that God has given them.
Yes, this situation sounds a lot like our situation.
This is familiar territory.
We know about this.
The Corinthian church was young
and it was vibrant with gifts of the Holy Spirit,
just like us.
And the Corinthian church where the congregation
was wondering and arguing back with one another,
struggling with who had the most important gift,
just like some of us.
And to this congregation, Paul says,
don't seek another gift,
but seek instead the more excellent way.
Just exactly what he says to you and to me this evening.
It's a familiar text.
The excellent way so clearly defined there
in 1 Corinthians 13, the way of patience,
the way of kindness,
the way of not keeping score of wrongs,
the way of believing, the way of hoping,
the way of trusting and enduring,
of never failing, the way of love.
It's familiar to us.
I believe that our churches today
are divided with two different theologies.
One embraced by an older group
and another embraced by a younger group.
And these younger and upstart Christians,
for them attendance isn't what it should be
and the giving patterns are horrendous.
They're the ones who are asking for changes in worship
and who are asking for programs oftentimes
to meet the needs of their children.
And when they give $25 a Sunday every so often,
they're still able to afford a brand new Dodge minivan.
And we wonder about this younger generation
who say that emotion is important
and that feelings are what really counts.
We say that knowledge is to be downplayed
and they're the ones who are saying
that tradition can be ignored.
And they're the ones that are saying
unless changes come about in our congregations,
they're threatening to leave.
Well, what does Paul say to congregations
that are situated like this one that I'm
describing now?
Paul writes, by the authority of Jesus Christ
and by the will of God,
meaning that this isn't just something to pass off
but this is what God wants us to hear.
He says to older Christians,
he says be patient with these people,
love these people, listen to these people.
Don't keep an account of wrong with the younger generation
but endure all things, believe all things
and hope all things is what he says to us.
Don't demand that they live by the standards
that your gifts have given to you.
Allow them to exercise the gifts that God has
given to them
but above all, seek the more excellent way
and love them despite the differences
that they present to us.
And Paul would say, by his authority to us this evening,
love keeps no score of wrongs.
It doesn't keep a ledger of past sins and grievances
that have taken place in our lives.
These people that are calling for change,
the women who are asking for a more spiritual leadership,
the young people who are requesting
contemporary songs,
the young men and women who are questioning
the traditional gender roles that have been
given to them.
You know, one way to rid ourselves of these thorns
in the flesh as they oftentimes present themselves,
whose lifestyle is different than ours,
whose way of thinking is certainly unfamiliar
is to build a case against them
and that's not too hard to do.
Why oftentimes they come off as rude and impolite
and lax and oversensitive
and certainly don't have the characteristics
that we oftentimes associate with spirituality.
And once we've gathered a significant record
against them,
it's easy to divorce ourselves from them,
allow the friendships to melt
and allow them to quietly exit the congregation.
If they don't do it soon enough,
we just might leave ourselves.
But Paul says that we're to love them.
And Paul says that we're not to keep an account
of wrongs,
of grievances from the past.
Love keeps no score of wrongs.
Even when it matters, even when it involves sin.
We hear from Jesus who says of those who are divorced
and those who are unfaithful,
and those who are adulterers
that we're to give them second and third chances.
Of course there's a place for apology
and of course there's a place for repentance.
But there's also a place for love
where we look for and we anticipate
and we even invite repentance
and look for and anticipate
and invite apologies as well.
1 Corinthians 13, it's so familiar.
But when you read it and you apply it to yourselves
and it suddenly becomes strangely unfamiliar.
Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels,
but don't have love,
I've become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but if I don't have love, he says, I'm nothing.
He goes on, he says,
if I give my possessions to feed the poor,
and if I deliver my body to be burned,
but don't have love, it profits me nothing.
He's the greatest gifts in their mind, in my mind.
In their mind, the gift of tongues,
but lacking love, it's nothing.
In their mind, faith and knowledge and prophecy,
but lacking love, it's nothing.
In my mind, in my mind,
the ability to give yourself to some cause,
to give your life, the gift of martyrdom.
But if you lack love, you're worse than a
clanging cymbal.
Paul says, you're immature.
You're not a complete church.
He says, the excellent way is not another gift.
It's the way that we treat one another,
the way that we love one another.
It's being patient, and it's being kind,
and it's trying to move out the scorecard from
our mind.
It's believing, and it's enduring,
and it's hoping in other people.
And everything else, every other gift,
everything else,
everything else amounts to nothing.
It amounts to nothing if we don't have love in
our lives,
if we don't have love in our congregations.
This is familiar territory,
but sometimes when we apply it to our lives
and we listen to what we're saying,
it becomes strangely unfamiliar in elders' meetings.
And when ministers talk,
when Christians gather after church on Sunday
and they have dinner,
and when two guys or two gals are just talking over
a cup of coffee or a glass of tea,
we hear things like this.
You know what this church needs?
I'll tell you what this church needs.
You know what we need is the gift of evangelism.
We need some creativity.
We need to be out there teaching people.
We need to be baptizing people.
That's what we need.
I'll tell you what this church needs.
This church needs volunteers.
Well, I remember back not too many years ago,
we'd have a work day at the congregation,
and people, 75% of the congregation would turn out.
Why, today, if you have a work day,
put it in the bulletin, there'll be an elder
and somebody feeling guilty,
the minister will show up.
I'll tell you what this church needs.
What this church needs today,
what this church needs today are people who give,
people who are givers.
Where are the givers gone?
I'll tell you what this church needs.
What this church needs is biblical preaching.
What this church needs is to cite book,
chapter, and verse.
We bring up new ideas and we give our sermons.
What this church needs is a faithfulness to our heritage
and respect of our traditions.
What this church needs is a Sunday school program
that will attract the young people in our communities
to bring their children in.
What this church needs,
and Paul says, by the authority of Jesus Christ
and by the will of God,
Paul says, if you baptize thousands,
and if people are reading their Bible every day,
and if they even every Sunday affirm the existence
and the importance of the millennial harbinger,
but if they lack love, they're like a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
Paul, by the authority of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God says,
that if you have 200 Sunday school teachers,
and you have the greatest programs in the
entire city,
but if you lack love, he says, your church is nothing.
Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God says,
that if everybody turns out,
when you clean up the church yard,
if everybody gives 11% in the congregation,
and you cite book chapter and verse at every Sermon
and you lack love, he says, you're nothing.
You're immature and you're not complete, he says.
Well, love is the excellent way that he wants
us to go.
And no wonder that the beloved apostle John
would say
in his letter, little children love one another.
Now, I don't have the gift of prophecy.
Usually my predictions come wrong
if I ever am bold enough to make it.
But I really do believe that our churches today
are at a crossroads.
I really believe that.
I really believe there's two ways of looking at things.
One that an older generation is taking
and one that a younger generation is taking.
And what are we gonna do?
Which way are we gonna go?
Are we gonna be emphasizing church growth?
Are we gonna emphasize spirituality?
Are we gonna try to appeal to the young families
in our community?
Are we gonna go back to the old paths?
Which way are we gonna go?
And Paul would say, there's an excellent way.
And that's the way that we should take.
32 years ago, this month,
at the Abilene Christian College lectures,
there was a speech presented.
When I arrived in Lubbock, I had a goal.
Soon after the book goal,
I wanted to get all the ACC and ACU lecture books.
And I accumulated quite a few and I stagnated
and never have completed my collection.
But one of the first that I purchased was the
1960 edition,
edited by J.D. Thomas.
An article in here by Everett Ferguson,
who had recently returned from Harvard,
was talking about how good the ACU graduate
program was,
encouraging Christian scholarship.
Roy Osburn, an article.
J.D. Thomas, an article on evolution.
Several good articles are found here.
But the one that fascinated me the most
was one by what I considered a very timid
and meek individual, Carl Spain.
And you're familiar with what Carl Spain said
in his lecture at that lectureship in 1960,
calling for the desegregation of Abilene
Christian College.
And in the climax of his speech, he said these words.
And this indeed is the climax.
It's been a couple of pages of very strong preaching.
He said, are we moral cowards on this issue?
There are people with money who will back us
in the last-stitch stand for white supremacy
in a world of pigmented people.
God forbid that we shall be the last stronghold
among religious schools where the political,
economic philosophy of naturalism
determines our moral conduct.
He called for the desegregation of the college,
timid, meek, Carl Spain.
What makes my copy of the ACC lecture book interesting
is that someone, and I think it was a woman,
by her handwriting, wrote in the margins.
And here's what she said on the first day.
She says, this argument was well-received
by those who heard it, but it remains to be seen
how they will act upon their outward show of approval.
And then the next day, on the other margin,
she makes this entry.
Brother Spain has been challenged by a preacher
of the church in the past 24 hours to debate
this question.
Brother Spain said that he would only preach it,
and he wished not to debate it.
He approached the issue in 1960,
when our church was at a crossroads,
with the attitude of love.
And I call us this evening to go back home
to the congregations that you represent in Loving,
and in Fort Stockton, and in Abilene,
and in Temple, and wherever you're from,
and to go back and to the church
and to go back and to address the situations
that you face,
not with one of the various philosophies
that are offered today, and so many of them
are so attractive and are so good,
but with the recommendation of the beloved
Apostle John,
and with our Apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, Paul, who says to us this evening,
to choose the more excellent way,
to choose the way of love.
Let's stand and let's sing together.
One, two, three.