Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Love Never Fails | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to drive across town. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are working through 1st Corinthians 13, which is Paul's definition of love. We've been going through Paul's famous chapter on love, phrase by phrase. And I find every phrase to be convicting and challenging because it takes love out of the nebulous world where it's kind of vague and it makes it concrete and specific. It takes it out of the warm, fuzzy feeling, and it shows me that love is always actively pursuing the good of other people. Love is enhancing other people's lives.

Starting point is 00:00:47 And today we're going to see that love never fails. That's convicting to me. My love fails far too quickly, far too often. But God's love to us in Jesus never fails. that's good news for all of us who believe in Christ for we are all people who at one time or another have wondered whether God just gives up on us when people annoy us they finally get to a position where we just say forget about it and we write people off does God do that with us does he ever get so tired of my sin my same struggle with sin every single day that he just says

Starting point is 00:01:32 forget it, Keith. I'm going to find someone who's more serious, more committed to me than you are. I want to work with people who make progress and you just seem stuck in those same sins. Does God's love ever fail? Paul says, no, it doesn't. There's a story about God's unfailing love toward us at the end of John's Gospel, the last chapter, John chapter 21. and this story tells us about an encounter, a conversation between Peter and Jesus. Now, there are other people present, but the people who are at center stage are just two, Peter and Jesus. In order to understand John 21, you've got to understand what comes before it in John 18.

Starting point is 00:02:22 There we have the story about how Jesus tells Peter that he is going to deny him three times before the rooster crows. Peter thinks that Jesus doesn't know what he's talking about. Peter, as usual, is very confident in himself and says, and says there's no possible way, I will deny you, Jesus, much less three times. But then Jesus goes on trial, and Peter is standing around watching this trial take place. He's standing next to a fire. Make a note of that. He's standing next to a fire, warming himself, and on three different occasions, he ends up denying that he knows Jesus, denying that he's a follower of Jesus, denying that he has anything to do with Jesus. And when Peter hears that rooster crow, he knows that Jesus was right. He had failed Jesus. At Jesus's most vulnerable moment,

Starting point is 00:03:13 when he needed Peter the most, Peter had let him down. Peter had sinned against Jesus by denying him three times. Peter felt horrible. He ran off. He was humiliated, embarrassed, convicted. He knew he'd sinned against his friend in a really serious way. And Peter just wept. He was so broken over this situation. Now fast forward. Past the time of Jesus' crucifixion, past the time of his resurrection. We have a story recorded in John chapter 21 of a time that Peter and his disciples were back

Starting point is 00:03:50 fishing. You can imagine what that is picturing for us. Peter has gone back to the old life. that he had lived before. He's probably thinking there's no way that Jesus is ever going to use me anymore. No way he's ever going to forgive my sin of denying him, especially when I told them that I wouldn't. So Peter's gone back fishing, and as usual, he catches nothing.

Starting point is 00:04:19 The old life never works. It never works to live our life apart from Jesus. but then the fishermen see someone on shore and the person on shore tells them to let down their nets again. The fishermen are professionals. They know what they're doing, but they let their nets down and those nets become full of fish. And at that moment, Peter recognizes that it's Jesus on the shore. And Peter jumps in the water and swims to shore and we need. he gets out, when he gets out of the water, he sees that Jesus is cooking by a fire. And Jesus goes to

Starting point is 00:05:03 ask Peter three times the same question. Peter, do you love me? Three times he asks it. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? And I think the reason that Jesus asks Peter that question three times is because he is telling Peter that he forgives all. of his sins. Jesus is cooking by a fire while he asks Peter this question. And remember that it was by a fire that Peter had denied Jesus three times? So I think what Jesus is doing with the fire and with the repeated question is he's taking Peter back to his lowest moment and he's saying, Peter, I forgive you. Peter, I still want to use you. Peter, you're my child. child. Peter, I love you. Peter, my love never fails. Jesus wants to take you back to your worst

Starting point is 00:06:06 moment, to every sinful moment in your life, and he wants you to know that as you turn from your sin and put your faith in him, that he forgives you. He forgives all your sin, your past sin, your present sin, your future sin, he forgives it all. Jesus's love. never fails us. This should make us want to bring all of our sin to Jesus, to confess it, to see it forgiven. I want you to think about another person, another disciple who at the end of Jesus' life sinned against Jesus. This, of course, is Judas.

Starting point is 00:06:51 So two of Jesus' followers, two of the 12, two of the disciples, sinned against Jesus and seriously, ways. Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas betrayed Jesus. What's the difference between the two? Both sinned against him. Both sins were serious. But Peter, he returned to Jesus. He wept and he swam to that shore to be with Jesus. He received the forgiveness that Jesus offered him. Judas. Judas, he didn't. He felt bad about his sin, but he didn't go back to Jesus. You might remember that he took the 30 pieces of silver that he had been paid to betray Jesus

Starting point is 00:07:40 and disgusted with himself and the whole situation. He threw that money back into the temple. But he never returned to Jesus. Instead, he kept running away from him. Jesus' love never fails us. but what will we do with that truth? Will we take our sin to Jesus and confess it, be honest about it, repent of it? Come back to faith in Jesus and say, Jesus, will you forgive me?

Starting point is 00:08:12 I want to receive the forgiveness that you offer because your love never fails. Or will we make the mistake that Judas did? And let our sin keep pushing us further and further away from Jesus. maybe feeling bad about our sin, but refusing to come and confess it, refusing to come and ask Jesus to forgive it. Jesus' love never fails. So bring all your sin to him. He forgives, he cleanses, he restores, he is patient with sinners, he promises to use sinners like us. Jesus' love never fails.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Let your soul hear that. Tell it to your soul over and over soul. I've got good news. Jesus' love never fails. My love it fails. My devotion fails. My commitment fails. Jesus' love never fails.

Starting point is 00:09:10 I'm not going to build my faith on my love and my commitment for Jesus. No, I'm going to build my life. I'm going to build it all on Jesus' commitment to me, on his love, not mine, because his love never fails. Amen. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Love Never Fails | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

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