Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1–8; Romans 8:28
From our scripture, we see that:
– Charity suffers long.
– Charity is kind.
– Charity does not envy anyone.
– Charity is humble.
– Charity does not boast.
– Love exhibits good manners.
– Love is unselfish. Anyone who is selfish has no love.
– Love has self-control.
– Charity does not harbour evil.
Now, love is:
– slow to suspect and quick to trust.
– slow to condemn and quick to justify.
– slow to offend, quick to defend.
– slow to expose, quick to shield.
– slow to reprimand, quick to forbear.
– slow to demand, quick to give.
– slow to provoke, quick to help.
– slow to bear resentment, quick to forgive.
I want you to understand, beloveth, that you cannot give love when it is not in your heart. You can also give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Men and women should listen to this: you by now would have realised that money can build a house, but it takes love to make it a home. There is a difference between a home and a house. Some people complain about being lonely. But the most lonely place in the world is the human heart, where love is absent. Love does not keep a diary of the sins and failures of others. Love does not memorise a diary of wrongdoing.
1 Corinthians 13:5 (KJV): “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;”
Love never harbours evil thoughts. It will not harbour thoughts of destroying someone. It does not keep data, a diary, or statistics of what wrong people have done to him or her. Are you here, and you are quick to point out all the wrong everyone around you has done? It is a lack of love. Love is never resentful; it thinketh not evil. It does not imagine evil. It does not sit down to meditate on injury. It does not blame, nag, or drop suspicion about people.
I spoke to a man roughly many years ago, when I was a young believer. I was not even as mature as this. For some reasons, he just believed the wife was cheating on him, so he kept following her around.
One day, she said she was going to the birthday party of her friend, but he did not believe that. He believed she was going to a man’s house. All the same, he tailed the woman and was following her at a distance. The house where the woman went was close to his. There was a small bush behind the house where the party was held.
Because this man was following his wife, he went into that bush to hide to see what his wife was doing. Unfortunately for him, one of his legs went into a broken bottle and cut his leg deep. He screamed. It was the scream that attracted my attention. So I saw him on the floor and went to him. I asked him, “Uncle, what are you doing here in the night?” He was not talking. He said “Do not mind me; I was just following my wife to see whether she was going to the wrong place or the right place”. Look at the harm he did to himself because of a lack of love. And it is a very serious situation.
A man gave me a call. He just got married. He called me and said, “Well, let me just tell you that today, this woman must leave my house. I do not know what you have to say; I know you came for her wedding, but she has to leave”. That was many years ago. I drove there to find them abusing and cursing each other. So I asked the man what the matter was. He said, “Sir, this woman is very dirty; she does not wash plates or clothes or clean the house, and so I am tired.”
I looked around and said, “But it does not look dirty.” to which he replied, “Ehn, she just cleaned it because she knows you are coming around”. He said, “Follow me,” and so I followed. I found out that he was leading me to their bedroom. I said “No, I do not want to follow you”. He said “No, you must follow so that you see her secret”. So I followed, and he took me to the wardrobe. There on the floor of the wardrobe were the pants of the woman. I must confess that they were very dirty. He was using a stick to bring them out one by one.
But I noticed that as he was using stick to bring out that of the wife, he was pushing his own back inside, because his own was even worse. That is not love. Love thinketh no evil. Love is never happy when things go wrong. It does not tell a person “I know where and how to get you”. The normal inclination of human beings is to fight back. You should understand that you cannot have evil thoughts in your mind against anybody and make heaven. So love gives no account of wrong. It refuses to be insulted or hurt. It cannot be overly sensitive.
It is strange but true; it is lamentable but true that so many sit in the church for years, but there is nothing like the love of Christ in their hearts, and this is why they are fighting their spouses, colleagues, and people all over the place. This is what the Bible is talking about.
1 Corinthians 13:6 (KJV): “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;”
That is, love never rejoices because of wrongs. True love hates sin with perfect hatred. It rejoices in the truth, not iniquity. It takes no pleasure in other people’s sins. It loves to tell the truth. It is never glad when things go wrong. It is never happy to hear that a fellow Christian is backsliding. Love is never happy when it finds out that a child or teenager fell into terrible sins.
True love drags you to your knees and makes you want to pray for that person. I always tell the pastors at Pastors’ conferences that you must learn to pray for yourself. Many who say, “Pastor, I am praying for you” are lying.
Love looks for the good instead of the bad. This is why gossip is one major unloving character. When you are broadcasting evil, it is an unloving character. You have not confirmed the information; you do not know whether it is true or false. Now you are broadcasting it. It is a lack of love. It shows the intention to hurt somebody. This is why gossip is bad. Listen: gossip is a sin for which restitution cannot be made most of the time. You have said it already; how can you take it back?
The person you have said it to has also said it to somebody else, and the cycle goes on. Just gossip all over the place. There is someone on social media now who said “Dr. Olukoya has 10 houses in Banana Island”. I do not even have a boys’ quarter in Banana Island, let alone 10 houses. And this is a situation where people start gossiping, which is wrong.
So are you here and you gossip? Spread information about people you have not confirmed? Let me say that you are getting heaven angry because you have become a broadcasting station of the devil.
The purpose of a broadcasting station is to spread information. Now you have become a satanic BBC, a satanic CNN, a satanic LTV, and a satanic NTA. This is a very serious matter, and it is sometimes the reason people complain about hindered prayers. If you are a gossip, then you are the one praying, and you are the one cancelling your prayers. Unfortunately, human beings find it easier to believe lies, falsehoods, and terrible news than good ones.
One day, somebody called me at home and said, “Dr. Olukoya, are you there? Put on Lagos Television (LTV)”. “They are talking about you there”. I did not even know how to get to the station. So the person taught me, and I did it, only for me to see a programme going on called “Oromiro.”. There was a woman reporting to the judges there that she is my younger sister and that when my father died, he had built 30 houses. That Dr Olukoya is sitting on all 30 houses and not giving her one. So that is why she is reporting him. I had never met her before; I do not know her. And strangely enough, the panellists believed her because it is easier to believe bad things. So I just heard on TV “I am asking my fellow Nigerians, if you know when Baba Olukoya is, please tell him to see us on this programme.”.
So I quickly gathered the publicity committee of our HQ to go there and tell them it is lies, that my father built only one house and it took him 25 years to build it because of household wickedness, and when he was going to die, he told me that it is his family house and not my own. That is the only one I know about. And this woman said I have 30 houses. I told them to tell the judges that if it is true, I am ready to give the woman the whole 30 houses.
Members of the publicity committee went there and told them, but they still believed the woman. So until the next show, when they began to call me that they were looking for me that the woman said, “Panel, excuse me, one more piece of information. Out of those 30 houses, Dr. Olukoya has given 25 to one pastor in London”. It was then that it dawned on them that the woman was not well and that she needed medical attention. But it was easy for them to believe those things. So do not broadcast evil about anybody. Do not spread any information you do not know about. Heaven will put your name under satanic broadcasting.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (KJV): “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
Meaning that true love does not collapse under strain or tension, whether mental, emotional, or physical. People get married, and all of a sudden, the enemy that does not want that marriage to succeed begins to attack the couple because the enemy sees their marriage as a danger signal to their kingdom. And then, if the couple is not intelligent or wise, what the enemy is trying to do is turn them against each other, so they fight and scatter everything.
True love will survive under the stress of poverty and a lack of money. That is, true love has a sustaining power. You get married to a woman; the woman has an accident and has broken a leg. Now, the husband begins to say “I don’t like a woman walking about like a crab”. That is not love.
“…believeth all things.”
That is, always trusting. Love does not exhibit or think of suspicion. True love has good motives, which is why it stays.
“…Hopeth all things…..”
Always hopeful that it will be better, that things will improve. Always believes that things will change for the better. Always expecting the best.
“…Endureth all things…”
True love endures. It endures through time, never getting fed up and tired. All the “I am fed up of you” people say is lack of love.
1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV): “Charity never faileth….. ”
True love never fails. If you are exhibiting true love to one person and he is repaying you with evil, eventually true love will triumph because God sees that what is in your heart is true. You will always triumph. True love always triumphs at the end.
For true love, Romans 8:28 is always applicable. It says:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Listen carefully, beloveth. Love is one thing that will last, no matter what happens. When everything is gone, love will last. That is something you should know. There are other scriptures talking about how we should love each other, be our brothers keeper, exhibit love, listen to each other, and solve each other’s problems.
===> I pray that the Lord will help us, in the name of Jesus.
We are going to stop here; we will continue next time.
PRAYER POINTS.
1. Rain of shame assigned to fall upon my life, backfire! in the name of Jesus.
2. Every power disguising to destroy my portion, your time is up; die! in the name of Jesus.
3. Miracles that will take old testimonies from my mouth, manifest in my life! in the name of Jesus.
4. Powers saying “Leave him; he cannot go far”, die! in the name of Jesus.
5. Battles that surface when my testimony is about to surface, die! in the name of Jesus.
6. Battles that want me to be lost in the crowd, expire! in the name of Jesus.
7. Glory, that left my life in the middle of the night; come back now! in the name of Jesus. (a sevenfold amen).
MFM H/Q Sermons
