Love awaits everything

First Corinthians 13, I just want to read a few verses from this Chapter and I want to focus on 4 words from this Chapter. The word says: "If I speak human and angelic tongues and I do not have love, I come to be like resounding metal or tinkling cymbal." Jumping to verse 4: “... love is long-suffering, it is benign, love is not envious, love is not boastful, it is not puffed up, it does not do anything wrong, it does not seek its own, it is not irritated, it does not hold grudges , you don't enjoy injustice but you enjoy the truth”. Verse 7: "everything suffers, believes everything, hopes for everything, bears everything."

I want to focus on the part that says: “...love awaits everything”. They know that we read these words as poetic words and I almost never stop to think what this means, what love always expects everything. Well, let's see what it means today. Let's pray together.

Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you Lord that your love and the love that you want to dwell in us is a powerful love, it is a prophetic love, it is a love that makes a difference in our homes, in our places work and in this city, and here in this church. Your love has the power to change lives, so I ask you to speak to us on this day and teach us what it means, Lord, that love awaits everything, in your holy name, amen.

I want to start with a personal confession. We are ready? I went to California on vacation for a weekend with my wife to visit family and we went to see a baseball game, to a team, Los Angels, who are there Anaheim, how many are baseball fans, we have a few players here . I went to see a team called the Angels, so there are 45,000 people in this stadium, much bigger than Fenway, which is here. They know that it turns out that the baseball team that is there is a team that is in competition with the Red Socks, the Red Sox, to win a place in the playoffs. So they're in competition even though they're not in the same division, with the wild card thing.

Well, me there with 45,000 people and my wife and we all put on our Red Socks shirt to be there. But we were there and everyone is very nice, they are not bad, like Bostonian. There is a lot of sun, everyone is happy. Here in Boston they throw beer at you, and if you have a shirt on. There they smile at you and make a joke. They are very good and calm people. I was there watching the game with some of my wife's friends and mine too now, and when the Angels did well, when they scored or something like that, I applauded with the others but I have a confession for you: inside my heart I wanted them to lose . And there everyone after the game, I'm happy, because they lost. Love is not like that. Love awaits everything. It has hope for the person who is there in our lives.

Let's go to Lucas, 13. We are going to really learn what love is like and what it isn't, because many times we are like I was in that game. We give people a smile, we are very kind but you know what, sometimes deep down we want them to lose. God does not want such a heart. Luke 13, beginning in verse 6, a parable. He also told this parable, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, and found none. A fig tree that did not bear fruit. And the vinedresser said, behold, 3 years ago I came looking for fruit on this fig tree and I can't find it. Cut it down, because it also renders the earth useless. He then answered and said to him: Lord, leave it still this year, until I fit around it and fertilize it, and if it bears good fruit, otherwise you will cut it down later.

When a plant, we have a plant like this in front of our house that is not bearing fruit, we are thinking, when are we going to kill this plant. The person who owns the vineyard said "Cut it down, because it also makes the land useless" that is there. We are going to cut down this tree because it is useless, it does not work. But there was another person there who said: Let's wait another year and give it time, because I have hope that perhaps this tree can still bear fruit and give us figs. Let's wait a little longer, otherwise after a year, cut it off. But if it bears fruit, we have gained a good tree.

Many of us are the ones who say “Cut it out”. Cut it, it's no longer useful. When there is a person that annoys you, a person that you think has defects, what do you say within yourself? If you were the king, the king of Boston with the crown and all or the queen of Boston and you don't like someone, there on the street the traffic cuts you off something like that, what do you say inside yourself? In English “Off with his head!” "Cut off his head!" Let's say it together: Cut off his head. Many of us are like that. That guy is useless, cut off his head. God is not like that, thank God. Because the one who has the power to cut off your head when you fail, doesn't.

The word says that He is very slow to anger, giving time, what seems like thousands and thousands of years to give hope, so that people can repent before being punished. Many of us are not so kind. The team, since we're talking about baseball, the Red Socks, are winning this week. If they lose a single game, everyone will be saying of the manager: Cut off his head. Last year's manager, one mistake all year, Cut off his head and everyone's happy.

In the Bible there were people like that. A prophet who wanted to cut off the heads of his enemies. How many of us know that he did not want God to have mercy on people. What prophet was he? Jonas. He did not want God to have mercy on the people of Nineveh. I didn't want this. He didn't expect them, he wanted punishment for them. So he didn't even want to preach, that's why he got into a boat and ended up in the stomach of a big fish and then preaching there and everyone repents of their enemies. And happy Jonas, who are blessed? Jonah glad that they have changed their lives? Nothing to see. Jonas, there, Lord I'm upset with you. Why do you always have mercy on people? Why don't you cut off their heads like I want you to? Jonas as a spoiled child had to be taught that love expects everything.

There were also other disciples John and James, supposedly the disciples of love, John, and they, after preaching in Samaria and those of Samaria, rejected the word and what did they say to Jesus: Jesus, we must call fire from heaven to finish With everyone. You can feel that they are wanting that: fire. I want to see fire, we are going to kill the people who annoy me. Cut off his head. Jesus says to him: of what spirit are you? Love awaits everything.

Moses was not like that. What about Moses? There was a moment when the people of Israel had sinned so strongly that God said: Look, get away from the people because I am going to destroy them all and I am going to make a great nation out of you. Moses instead of saying; Well, finally, they have searched for him... Moses says: No, have mercy on them. If you don't forgive them, erase me from your book that you have written. Because Moses was a man who had learned love, everything expected of people. And he wants mercy for others.

There's a saying you may have heard: It never changes. Never change. It is so, and it never changes. There is another saying that we are going to learn today, the saying that says: There is still hope for you. There's hope for you yet. I never ask you to do stupid things here, but today I am going to ask you to do something stupid. I invite you to look especially, if you are with a family member, to look at the person next to you to say "There is still hope for you." There is still hope for you. This is a line that could be used at key moments in discussions at home. There is still hope for you. It worked. There's still hope for you yet. You're not a totally lost cause. For this there is hope.

There was a man from the Book of Acts, at the beginning of the Christian church named Joseph, and he was such a good man that they gave him the nickname, the nickname, Animo. In Greek, Barnabas, because he gave encouragement, son of consolation, encouragement to others. There was a case, there was a bad guy, a man who was killing people, and then one day he is on his horse, and the Lord knocks him off his horse and says: Why are you persecuting me? And there is an impressive conversion in the life of this bad man. And he comes to the church, but he had been killing Christians, so he comes and appears at the door of the church one day in León de Juda, here. Look, I have a testimony, I want to preach with you. And what does everyone say? You? This never changes. It hasn't changed. We don't trust you. You haven't changed at all. You are making a game to try to fool us. That man was called Saul. But there was a person in the church, José, Animo, Barnabé who said to this man: You know, there is still hope for you. I am not going to judge you for what you have done in the past, because I know that people can change. Let's talk. So Saul tells him his story and after that Barnabas brings him, takes him to the disciples, introduces him to the disciples, says: Look, listen to him. He has changed. And if it weren't for Barnabas, there would never have been a preacher named Paul. If it weren't for someone who knew that love hopes all things, this man would have been left out of the church. How many of us are like this? Someone has done you wrong in the past or was bad before, years ago and you were very upset with that person, and then, years later you still have it there, embedded in your mind, trapped in bad thoughts of that person. This never changes. I am not going to trust that the Lord has done a work.

God has hearts like the heart of Barnabas. There was another case, when Gentiles, non-Jews met Christ for the first time, and all the Jews said: It cannot be, the Gospel is for us, the people of God. But there was one, named Barnabas, who said: I believe there is hope for them, and I am going to meet them, I am going to encourage them. Thanks to him, they accepted Gentiles into the church and all of us, most of us are Gentiles. And if it weren't for someone who had love with hope, we wouldn't be here today. There was another time when they had a young man named Juan, Juan Marcos, who was with Barnabas and Paul ministering there in the streets, and Paul who received mercy before, did not have so much mercy for others sometimes, sometimes. At one point that young man said: I can't take it anymore, that's a lot of work, I'm going back to my house. Can't. The people are harsh, they yell at me, they treat me badly, I don't want to continue preaching. And left them. Then, about a year later, Bernabé and Pablo are about to leave missions again and Juan Marquitos wants another chance. He wants a second chance. What Paul says: Cut off his head. He already failed us once, don't fail me twice. I don't trust anymore. He who had received mercy was not willing to give it. Bernabé, who was also Juan Marcos's cousin, looks at him and he says something else: You know that there is hope for you, I see potential in you and you have a lot to give. Despite your failures and failings and flaws, I know there are chances for you and I'm going to take you. Como se dice en inglés: I'll take you under my wing and I'll give a chance to grow and to become the person that you're meant to be.

So he dates John Mark, and you know where we've seen that young man's name, somewhere in the Bible? Is there a book where the name of this young man appears, that you can think of in the New Testament? The Gospel of Mark. That fearful young man, that young man who had no desire to go on at first, ended up being a disciple who wrote the Gospel of Saint Mark. If it weren't for Barnabas, if it wasn't for a love that waits in people who see his potential, he never would have become the Evangelist who wrote a book of the Bible that he did. We have to be like that.

But I would say that more often than not, we are the ones who have received love with hope in our life, we are less willing to give it to others. You have had this experience, of seeing someone who serves here in the church and the pastor lets him serve and you say: But how? This one's head should be cut off. He must not be serving. The pastor with hope and love gives people a chance to grow and be the person they are meant to be. We can be honest, inside of you, there will be times when you thought inside your heart, they said: how, cut off his head. He has no right to be there. I would say that our church, one of the strongest things we have is that through the years people have been given a chance, a second chance, a third chance and a fourth chance so that we who arrive all dirty and broken can arrive to be the people that God wants us to be.

How many here can say that we received mercy in our days starting here. We were rejected from other environments, but God accepted us here. He gave us the opportunity to grow and be the people we can become. And after being accepted and growing and already flourishing, we say of others: but how? God wants us to have a love that waits on people. I'm not talking, now it's important to say, that I'm not talking about a naive love, a soft love. We are not talking about this. We're not talking about mushy love here. There is a time to cut down the tree that does not bear fruit. A good teacher is not going to give to everyone because he sees potential in the young, but how many of us have received the benefit of a teacher, an adult who sees the potential in us, does not treat us softly, treats us harshly but because the believe in us Wait on us. But it's not soft and squishy and wimpy. He's tough at times, he's also not naive.

The Bible says that Jesus saw what was inside the heart of man. He didn't need someone else to explain to him what a human being is like. He knows that we are sinners deep down, deceit, the heart that is deceitful, above all things. So it is not being, as they have said in English “Love is blind”. We are not saying that love is blind. Love is not blind, love sees the person and sees the defects but also sees with eyes of mercy. The name for Satan, the meaning of the name Satan is "accuser", is that he sees the defects in a strong light that he is looking for the ugly things in you to point them out, saying that: Look, this person has defects. God looks with total light, He sees the defects but also sees the heart and sees the potential that is in the person. And we, how do we look at people? If you look for defects you will find them. If you look for flaws it takes five minutes and you can find flaws in anyone. The person next to you, like the person standing here, you are going to find fault with. But if you look for hope in people, God will give it to you. Because God is a God of love.

Let's go back to the word again in the same book, Luke 6. Why is this so important, 6:37. And we will see why this is so important for your own good, to have a love that awaits everything. Verse 37 of Luke 6 says, “Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and do not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. They will give you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, because with the same measure with which you measure, they will measure you again.

This text is always used when we are asking for offerings. If you give, God will give you a great measure. And this is a true principle, it is fair and it is true that if we are generous, God blesses us. But the context of this verse is not money, it is love and a patient heart with others. It says that if you do not judge you will not be judged. This is for our own good. Because there is a principle that what you sow, you reap. And it is true that if we are very hard with others, do you know what will happen to us, when we have our faults and our defects? They will be hard on us too. It is true that if we are generous with others, when it is your turn, God will raise up a spirit of mercy in others to give you a generous measure, and not a very strict and harsh measure. This is a start, try it. If you try to be hard on others, you will see people will say: cut, cut. Because they are not going to give space to one. It is for our own good that we have hope in people. So I want to give you 3 tips on how to look at people with merciful eyes. Some people say; Gregory, that's for the good guys. I can't, people annoy me. They bother me, I can't do this. Yes, you can and should do it, because otherwise the Lord is going to give it to you and I don't want that. I don't want you to have to get spanked over and over again. I want us to learn hearts of mercy.

1. We can take a long-term perspective with people. It means that although the person in front of me is a scoundrel, he is not as shameless as before. It's better than before. did you say this? Look, you think I'm bad now, you would have known me 5 years ago. I'm better than before, at least this, I'm in the process. When one thinks like this it is easier to have mercy. For him there is hope, because he has progressed a lot and the Lord, who has begun the good work in him, will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's not done with him yet. And he is working and will continue working.

2. Take a broader perspective of the person's context. Consider the context of the person. Some day a friend has treated you grumpy for no reason but grumpy, grumpy but bad, treats you bad and then the next day you learn that this person had a terrible toothache. Or you just got bad news that mom is sick in the hospital. It is that people bring their context, bring their situations and we do not know everything that this person has suffered, everything that the person is experiencing. If we adopt a perspective that takes into account the context of the person we will be more willing to have hope and patience for them. If I myself were in his place, maybe I would be even more bad than him. If I had suffered everything he has suffered, if my tooth also hurt as it hurts him, I would be even more grumpy than him, and know it and know that we are going to give space. Let's give this person hope for that. It seems hard, it's hard because when someone bothers you, it's not that easy to step back and apply these things.

3. Remember your own shortcomings and failures. Jesus says we are very quick to take a little piece of another person's eye and there is a whole beam in ours. We have to remember; Look, I'm not one to criticize. I am not anything. God has had mercy on me. Many times those of us who have been forgiven a lot criticize a lot. We criticize a lot. God wants us to be aware. God has forgiven me so much, I am going to give space to this person, and know that there is hope for him. So to consider my own flaws that I have and remember that when God called me I was broken on the street, emotionally destroyed and God brought me here, so I'm going to give hope to others too.

Love too, and this is the last strong, love sees with eyes of faith. Let's skip to First Samuel 16. But before I read it I want to tell a story from one of my favorite books, favorite movies, I'm going to be honest, I saw the movie, I didn't read the book, but hey, let's talk about it. , which is called Les Miserables, which is a very Christian book that has very beautiful beginnings. In this story there is a priest who believed in God, he was filled with the holy spirit, everything good. A priest who had his house and there was a man who appeared at the door one day to this priest, a man who had just been released from jail. He was all dirty, he had a big beard, all ugly, he hadn't bathed, he smelled of excrement, he was dirty and ugly and he appears at the door. The priest receives him and takes him and he sits down at the table and dines with the priest and his maid and later at night he was given a bed in the house. That man lay there and during the night that man got up and stole all the money in the house, with the forks, the spoons, all the money that was there on the table, that man stole it and ran out into the street. After a few hours the police search and find this man. They don't look for him but they find him in the street with all the money there, grabbed and they see, it's the good father's money in that street.

So the police take him to the priest's house and he is tied up there with the handcuffs he had and he enters the door and there he is dirty and the policeman tells the priest: Look, father, we found that scoundrel with all your money there on the street. The priest, and the man with fear and horror because they were going to put him in prison again. The priest says: My friend, Juan, you have forgotten the silver candlesticks and he gives them to the man. You have forgotten, why did you go out without this, it was part of the gift I had for you. And the policeman says: It means that this man has a gift, that he didn't steal all this from you. The priest says: Yes and why didn't you bring the chandelier too. So the policeman says: Oh, forgive us father. We are wrong a lot. And the guy there, scared and amazed looking with big eyes, "How is he going to do." The policeman leaves the house and the man there stunned, in shock. The priest tells him: With this money I bought your soul and I give it to God. That man became a great Christian, a great leader of his society and I am not going to tell you about the rest of the book because there is much more that happens. That is the scene to open the movie. God wants us to have eyes like that. I see potential in you, I see that you have hope, that you can change, that you can be different and I don't give up. I am going to be faithful to you with a love that awaits everything.

But many times we don't look with the eye of the heart and the eyes of the soul, we look with the eyes of the flesh, we look at first Samuel, 16 verse 6: The prophet Samuel is trying to choose or anoint the next king of Israel, so a man made all his sons pass before him: “... and it came to pass that when they came he (Samuel) saw Eliab and Samuel said: Verily you are anointed before the Lord. And Jehovah answered Samuel: Do not look at his appearance or at the greatness of his stature, because I undo him, for Jehovah does not look at what man looks at, for man looks at what is before his eyes but Jehovah looks at the heart .”

In Hebrew, and I don't like to talk about languages but in Hebrew there's a very interesting construction here. He says that man looks with his eyes, but the Lord looks with his heart. It's like an expression they used to look at what's inside. But the idea is that God does not only look with our eyes, He looks at us with eyes of faith. He looks at us with his own heart, to say that although he doesn't look very good, because he is dirty, small, humble now, I see a king in front of me.

How many of us are like this? When you see people here in church or at home, can you look with carnal eyes or with eyes of the heart? To know that there is more here. We all know the story of Jacob in the Bible and I refer you to this, we are not going to go into that too much. But the character of Jacob in the Bible in the book of Genesis, he was a bad guy, a deceitful guy, a real scoundrel who was lying, cheating, very clever, always to steal something, but there was one thing that he had: the he valued the things of God, so much so that he stole his brother's blessing. And God looks at this guy, that boy, who all the others say: Look, I want to cut off his head, because he stole my money or annoyed me, he lied to me. God looks: Yes, he has to suffer for his sins, he has to be disciplined and punished but I see in him a heart that loves God and wants the things of God and I am going to give him space to grow. And that man Jacob became a man named Israel. And the nation of Israel comes from the name of this young, spoiled, misbehaved, and became Israel itself in the Bible.

How many of us know a Jacob in our lifetime? How many of us know a person who is difficult to wait for, that there is hope for this person. God calls us to look with these eyes because when we do it is more than a feeling, it has a prophetic power in the life of the person we love. In this story that I told you about the good priest, he says: I see hope in you and the love of this priest transformed man to become everything God wanted him to be. And for us it is like this: a child, a young person, a husband, a friend, a brother, a cousin, a person we know is often waiting for someone to wait on them. Look at that young man and say: I believe in you. There is hope for you.

When I do marriages, many times when I do the marriage ceremony I always like to say especially to the wife, but to both of them, that they have a perspective of faith for the other person, that they encourage the person because the man is going to become what it is in your eyes. Because the wife is going to become what she is in your eyes. The son will become what he is in your eyes. We have to adopt prophetic eyes to look at what is in people and call it to be updated and fulfilled in the person's life.

I like what the angel says when he appears to Gideon. Gideon in the book of Judges is a man full of fear, full of anxiety, he is hiding from his enemies doing little jobs in a cave and an angel appears to him and looks at him and says: The Lord is with you strong and brave man. And I imagine that this man full of fear, crouched there saying "brave and hardy man, where is he?" The angel prophesied, the angel of the Lord that I believe was Jesus, prophesied to Gideon and said: The Lord is with you and you are, although you cannot see it right now, but you are a strong and brave man. And I don't see anything bad, I see a king in front of me, a great leader. So we also have that call to look at people with eyes of faith and hope.

A story that I really like, that I saw in one of these programs on Star Treck TV. Forgive me Lord, I look at Star Treck. There was a man dying, an old man, and there was his old, very old wife, with the man in her arms. The man says: Oh, my love, my love with golden hair. She says: Silly old man, he's all grey, he's all gray now. And he says: I only see gold, and he dies. God wants us to have eyes of love. Love that awaits everything.

This is easy to listen to now, but tonight, tomorrow morning I have to apply it. Say inside your heart, and maybe to the person if you want: There is hope for you. There is still hope, although the person is going to know that you are already saying that they have already screwed up in some way. There is still hope for you.

I am going to lose hope because we have seen miracles in this church of husbands who have not known Christ for many years, who after decades know Christ and are an example of what it is to be a man of God. There are children who have gotten out of the way and have walked in the street and have done barbaric things and have ended up in jail, and after all they end up praising God and serving the Lord and preaching the word of God. Many times, because there was a mother, a friend, a teacher who told him: There is still hope for you. So let's pray that the Lord gives us such a heart.

Let's stand up. I invite you to close your eyes and think of someone, it can be an unconverted family member, it can be a friend, it can be a son, a husband, you know that this is very rare but it can be yourself, if it has to be, and I want you to close your eyes and tell yourself there is still hope for him, for her, for me. There are still. There are still. Love awaits everything. Thanks, Dad. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you Lord to unleash the power of blessing in the families of this church, to bless our children and family and friends, to proclaim words of hope prophetically, that they be fulfilled in due time . We cancel spirit of curse that says contrary things. Lord lift up love, love like you have, the love that you, Lord, showed us, Lord. When you saw us, Lord, fallen people, Lord, with defects and you said that there is hope for them. Thank you, Lord, that you have been patient with us. You have really waited a lot, and Lord continues to wait on us. I ask you to unleash that same love here among us. I ask you, Lord, that in the name of Jesus, that there be testimonies that come out of this prophetic moment, testimonies of people who change, who are saved, who are released through the faith of a loved one. Thanks, Dad. We trust you, Lord. We trust you. Thank you.

There is hope for you too. Hope for you. God is not done with you, he is not done with you, he has his plan. He is not discouraged. He's willing to stick with the long program here and get you where you need to be.

I also want to invite you to close your eyes once more and if you want to respond to the love that awaits in you, the love of hope that God has for you. I invite you at this moment to raise your hand and say Lord Jesus I receive you as my Lord and savior and I receive your love for my Lord. Thanks, Dad. God bless you, God bless you. There is hope for you, brother. There is hope. There is hope. God sees you, there is hope for you. He doesn't say that He is already frustrated with you and give up. He's committed tp the whole project. He who began the good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus.