Discover The Word

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal’ (1 Corinthians 13:1).

IDEA: Love makes an impact on those whose lives we touch.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize they can make a difference in other people’s lives.

There’s an old adage that says, “Your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you say.”

Is that always true?

What kinds of actions would get in the way of what we say?

I. Listen to what Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 13:1.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”

Do you think Paul might be saying that my actions are speaking so loudly that you can’t hear what I’m saying?

What do you think the loud gong and clanging cymbal mean?

In the experience of the church at Corinth, can you see how the Christians’ actions could have drowned out their witness? Can you see how that could happen today?

II. Without love, our efforts to communicate the Christian witness is as futile as trying to talk over a loud siren. The noise is deafening.

A woman said of her pastor, “When he is in the pulpit, we wish he’d never get out of it. But when he’s out of the pulpit, and we feel the coldness of his life, we wish he’d never enter it again.”