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1 Corinthians 13:4-8a -- Love’s attributes! By Pastor Lee Hemen February 26, 2012 AM What is love? It is a question that poets, prognosticators, and psychologists have tried to answer. Love’s theme fills hundreds of thousands of books, songs, and blogs. Tina Turner cynically sang, “Oh what's love got to do, got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion? What's love got to do, got to do with it? Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?” Most contemporary songs in today’s society have reduced love to either feelings or lust, whichever fits the needs of the moment. It reflects the shallow and sometimes cynical view folks have for the meaning of love for their lives. However, if we are to understand Scripture we have to answer the question, “What is love?” The Bible does define for us what love is. It begins with God himself when we learn “God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Love’s definition is furthered clarified when he showed what his love is all abou...

1 John 4:10-12 – This is love! By Pastor Lee Hemen February 12, 2012 AM What does it mean to have a servant’s heart? It is more than good intentions or having a strong desire, it is an eagerness to act no matter the cost to yourself because at its core is the willingness to sacrifice. Jesus teaches us firsthand what it means when he related that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NIV) Paul wrote that “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant!” (Philippians 2:5, 7 NIV) There is a greater concern for self-fulfillment in today’s Christianity than there is in self-sacrifice. A servant’s heart comes from loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves! This is a servant’s heart! This is love! In the few verses we will take a look at this morning we are astounded when John def...

John 3:13-18 – The love of God revealed! By Pastor Lee Hemen February 5, 2012 AM The “Blind Men and the Elephant” is a fable that originated in India. It was translated into English in the 19th century as a poem by the writer John Godfrey Saxe. He incorrectly saw it as a means to warn against religious intolerance. Therefore, the story has become widely used in philosophy and religion classes to illustrate the need for either religious or cultural tolerance, thinking that we form our reality and belief system on our limited experiences. In other words, perhaps each religious faith only holds partial truths that make up one part of God. However, the original tale actually dealt with the spiritual blindness of the four individuals and how if blind men could not grasp the physical reality of an elephant they could touch, how are we, spiritually blind people, going to grasp a God whom we cannot see. This brings up a very interesting notion. If people in our day and age have a d...