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Feb 28, 2021

Beyond Compare

Beyond Compare

Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:4

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: We Must Love One Another, or Die - Lent 2021

Keywords: shepherd, elders, chief shepherd

There’s an aptitude we begin learning at birth, must cultivate in order to mature, and which we inevitably practice for the entirety of our lives. And yet it has the greatest potential to darken our worlds and our stories unless something else keeps it in check. Left to itself we lose sight of love and lose the capacity to love. So how do we escape from something that is both so natural in us but can become so dangerous to us?

*We apologize for the audio disruption in the video livestream. The audio playback is now available by clicking the Listen button above.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION:
OT reading - Exodus 3:1-5
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Mark 9:2-9
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

PRAYER w/ CALL & RESPONSE

Prayer of Adoration: Psalm 27:3-4
3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to enquire[b] in his temple.

Prayer of Confession: Psalm 130:1-4
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

Prayer of Petition: Matthew 7:7-11
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Prayer of Illumination: Psalm 73:1-3, 16-17
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;then I discerned their end.

Psalm 119:17-20
17 Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. 18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. 19 I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! 20 My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.

CENTRAL TEXTS:
Philippians 1:9
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

1 Corinthians 13:4b
Love does not envy or boast.

Response: The Lord's Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.

BENEDICTION: 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

Genesis 37:11 / Acts 7:9
2 Samuel 11
Proverbs 14:30, 23:17
Ecclesiastes 4:4
Matthew 27:18, Mark 15:10
1 Corinthians 4:7
James 4:2

Illustrations

InView Media Album, 02.28.2021

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Which have you fallen more into during your life--envying or bragging? Can you remember an example? What did you feel? How did you move past it (assuming you did!)?
  2. How are envy and bragging distinct? But what do they share in common? What do they indicate about what we’re believing deeply?
  3. Why are each the opposite of love? Why does that matter?
  4. Part of repentance from any sin--including envy or bragging--includes imagining where the sin could take us if we let it run wild. Where can envy or bragging take us?
  5. The foundation of all repentance though is identifying what the sin has led us to believe, and how the gospel offers a different belief. What does the gospel argue which may serve to stifle the temptation to envy or bragging? How do you apply that to your heart? What is the Holy Spirit’s role in that work in you?

 

QUOTES:

  • Humans, as a species, are constantly, and in every way, comparing themselves to one another, which, given the brief nature of their existence, seems an oddity and, for that matter, a waste. Nevertheless, this is the driving influence behind every human's social development, their emotional health and sense of joy, and, sadly, their greatest tragedies. It is as though something that helped them function and live well has gone missing, and they are pining for that missing thing in all sorts of odd methods, none of which are working. The greater tragedy is that very few people understand they have the disease. This seems strange as well because it is obvious. To be sure, it is killing them, and yet, sustaining their social and economic systems. They are an entirely beautiful people with a terrible problem. Donald Miller, Searching For God Knows What
  • Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity 
  • Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all. C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
  • It is like water in a channel-if it once breaks out, it will have its course. . . Ask envy what it would [really] have - murder and destruction is at the end of it.  John Owen
  • As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.  Chrysostom
  • Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. TS Eliot
  • The more people think that you’re really good, actually the stronger the fear of being a fraud is. David Foster Wallace
  • “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.” And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.” And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.” Kurt Vonnegut

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: