Tuesday, July 18, 2006
"Love does not parade itself" (1 Corinthians 13:4).
IDEA: Boasting puts us in competition because it feeds on comparisons.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize why it is wrong to boast.
Do you like to go to ball games?
Why do people go to games?
Have you ever thought that attending a ball game can be, for some people, a way of boasting?
Why do people boo the umpire or one of the players on their team who makes an error? The people in the stands somehow feel that if they were out there, they wouldn’t make those mistakes.
I. We like to boast because it makes us feel superior. Superior to what?
Boasting feeds on comparisons. We brag about being richer, cleverer, more gifted than someone else. That’s a wrong judgment about life.
Most of life is commonplace. You seldom meet people who are good at everything, or people who are inept at everything. All of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses.
People who boast tend to believe that their strength is the only important strength. They overlook completely the strengths of others. In building themselves up, by statement or implication, they put other people down as being inferior or unnecessary.
Therefore, boasting isolates us because it uses other people as platforms to display our strengths.
II. People who love, value one another.
Paul recognized that we are like members of the body (1 Corinthians 12). Every member has its contribution to make. No matter how strong we may feel we are, we really can’t go it alone. Boasting forgets all about that.
We will be less likely to boast when we come to appreciate the contributions that other people can make. That is a way for love to control us.