Sermon: Seeks Not Its Own

Becoming Agape
#1670B
Bill Onisick
Given 10-Sep-22; 34 minutes

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We are going to begin where we ended last time. You have probably long since forgotten. That was in I Corinthians 13, so you can start turning there. We have spent some time lately exploring the father-child relationship that provides us both an example and a metaphor representing our Christian walk to become spiritually mature in the image of our spiritual Father. As fathers we love our children so much that there is practically nothing that we would do for them that is outside of our control. It brings us great joy to see them grow and develop. And our congregation has been blessed with many children and, God-willing, many more soon.

But a few weeks back my family joined remotely and I want to thank Joe and the crew for all the work they do to make the video happen because, I will tell you, it is a really neat experience when you have to be away, but you have a chance to reconnect with your brethren. And I really enjoyed seeing before church and after all the little kids running around and saying "hi" in the camera. I could not help but think back to my kids when they were younger and I could just visualize them doing the same thing, especially Lizzie. She always had this somewhat silly grin on her face for any picture. She would do her chipmunk imitation or pretend to be a pirate. And I could just see the kids in the room and it warmed my heart.

We are going to begin here reading Paul's admonition in I Corinthians 13.

I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

What is Paul talking about here? Well, I remember when Zach was little, he went through this stage where he would only speak in one word sentences. Everything—yes, no, ba-ba, da-da, mama, ball, never more than one word. And one day we were outside with her neighbor and she says, "Zachary, can you say a three word sentence?" And he goes, "Three word sentence." And we all laughed.

But Paul is describing here his Christian walk as he reflects on his former life as a Pharisee and yet he calls himself a spiritual babe. He was not speaking in three word sentences when he was a Pharisee. He had a supreme knowledge of Scripture, a strong foundation of belief and faith in God the Father. And he had a very strict obedience to the law and yet he calls himself a spiritual child. He says, I spoke, I understood, and I thought as a spiritual babe. It was only (he does not say this but he is basically saying it), after I was blinded on the road to Damascus and thereafter filled with God's enabling Spirit that I became a true spiritual child of God, a true spiritual man with an understanding of what it means to be Godlike. That is when I started to put away childish things. He is saying, let us read on.

I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Again, Paul is describing his spiritual growth into a mature Godlike being. He had made a lot of progress into becoming Godlike, but he was nowhere near complete. He is speaking about his spiritual understanding, and compared to God, he acknowledges his knowledge is very limited, a fraction of what God knows, he says. And he says it was like looking through an ancient mirror, which was basically like a polished piece of metal. You could kind of make out a reflection in it but you really could not see any detail. Or he could be referring to an ancient window. Windows used to be made out of a mica-like substance. If you have ever seen the rock mica, you can peel off a little piece and you can kind of look through it, but you are looking through a glass darkly. Right? You can make out a shape but you cannot see any detail.

Paul was saying that is kind of where he was. As mature as he was spiritually, he still was not there yet in terms of having the same understanding of God's spiritual knowledge. And he points to the future return of Christ that he looks forward to when he would see God face to face. This is when he would be fully developed into God's image. At that time he would know all things, he would understand all things, just like God, and he acknowledges that if he had that capability now, if he had just a fraction more of God's real understanding, he would actually be able to see his imperfections even more clearly today. Simply put, Paul is recognizing that even at his most spiritually developed point in his life, he was still far from God's perfect image.

With that backdrop, let us read,

I Corinthians 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, [agape], these three; but the greatest of these is [agape].

The reason why I do not want to use love here is because we use that interchangeably and it is so far from what that word means. I think we know that there has been a lot of studies on this. It is not even close to what agape means, really.

Now, these three scriptures are Paul's synopsis to an entire chapter on the value of agape, on the value of true spiritual growth and maturity as we look to become Godlike. Our spiritual growth, our sanctification process is simply a process of becoming agape. It is the greatest attribute and it combines a motivation with action. Right? Agape always obeys God's law. There is no conflict there.

Faith is indeed vital because it is impossible to please God, we are told, if we do not know Him and if we do not obey Him and if we do not believe in Him. And we know faith underpins everything. You can read this in Hebrews 11. But Paul is telling us something here that kind of hits you in between the eyes when you really understand what he is saying. He is saying faith, knowledge, understanding, even obedience to God's law are interesting, important. But they are attributes of being a relative spiritual babe. We could have all of those attributes and still be a spiritual babe. He was a Pharisee, he had those attributes. But he was a spiritual babe, he says.

It is really interesting. He had a strong faith in God. He believed in God as a Pharisee. He had a deep understanding of the law, probably deeper than most of us. He had a very strict obedience to the letter of the law. And yet he was a spiritual babe. So, when we think of Paul and all he went through, we likely hold him up on a fairly high platform. But here he is kind of knocking himself down several tiers saying, "I'm just a spiritual babe. I'm still looking through a glass darkly here. I do not still have it all figured out."

And I wonder, how often do we think too highly of ourselves for being in God's church? It is natural, right? We think we are different than everybody else because we have got the truth, because we understand, we keep the Sabbath, we keep God's holy days. It makes us feel good. We are better than all of those other people. And in a lot of respects, from God's perspective, we are adhering to His truth and it is really important, but Paul tells us the most important thing here is becoming like God.

Let us turn to Matthew 18 as we continue this study. We know from parallel accounts in Luke 9 and Mark 9 (we looked at this before), the disciples are on the road and they are debating amongst themselves on who is going to be the greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus is not right there with them, but He perceives what is going on in their hearts, right? He is all knowing, so He knows exactly what they are saying. And he confronts them.

Matthew 18:2-4 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, and he sets him in the midst of them, and He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

To become childlike is to become Christ-like: Selfless, pure in heart and mind, absent of all hypocrisy and pride. Jesus uses an innocent infant to demonstrate what He really wants to see in us. God's children resemble their Father by becoming childlike and selfless. Whereas Satan's children resemble their father by becoming prideful and selfish. (We can tie this right back to Dr. Maas' message that he covered there about the conflicting mind that Paul mentions. Double mindedness, I think Dr. Maas mentioned.) So you have a selfless, which is Godlike, contrasted to selfish, which is childish and like Satan, the father of this world.

We know we are created in God's perfect image but our time in this world has fueled our carnal mind which becomes selfish, like the father of this world. Jesus tells us here in Matthew 18 that we are called to change that. We are called to be transformed into God's perfect image to become childlike in our attitude. This change, again, it is not just about knowledge, right? And I am not refuting that knowledge is not important. Knowledge is very important, just like faith is very important. But again, we can have all of these things but Paul tells us we could still be spiritual babes in the eyes of God.

God makes it clear that He judges the heart. The heart, the underlying heart, our conversion progression that is measured by a change in heart which underpins our attitudes, our thoughts, and our actions. That is what fuels it. That is what He is interested in. The outcome is important but how we get to the outcome, our hearts, is the conversion process. We not only do the right thing, but we want to do the right thing. So we are called to change and grow into the primary attribute of God.

But what is that primary attribute? Well, Paul kind of gave it away for me, you already know, but God does have many superpowers. We know that He is omnipotent, He is omnipresent, He is omniscient, all-knowing. But I say, above all things, God is omni-agape. Above all things, God has one superpower that supersedes everything else. All agape is not all love, because agape is a lot more than just love. I know that that is how we always say it. We say agape and we say love right after because we make it almost a type of love. And it is kind of directionally right but it misses the mark.

Agape is not just an emotion, it is not just a deep feeling towards someone or something, it is an underlying power. It is God's underlying being, His powerful Spirit with an ever-burning motivation that is coupled with action. It is not just a feeling. It is a feeling that is always coupled with action that is always actively working to do what is best for the God Family. Much more than just an emotion. And we can tie this back to the physical father-child relationship that we have been looking into, which is but a shadow of the spiritual God the Father and Son relationship.

As fathers, there is practically nothing we would not do for the benefit of our children. We would readily give up our life if it required it to save theirs. We have this constant motivation to do what is best to properly develop our children. And that motivation is always coupled with action. Sometimes the action is a hug or a kiss. Sometimes the action is in the form of discipline because that is what they need the most. When God disciplines us, it is still agape. Our Father in heaven agapes us, brethren. He is omni-agape.

God's Spirit of agape is constant motivation inseparable from constant action that is always working to build up the God Family, always working for each of us and what is best for us to develop into His image.

Let us go back to I Corinthians 13 and we are going to pick up in verse 5. Today we are just going to look at one of the many attributes that Paul uses to describe agape and hopefully at some point in time we can pick up a few more.

I Corinthians 13:5 [he says]: [agape] does not seek its own . . .

We can tie this right back to what we read earlier in Matthew 18 where Jesus used that little child and tells us unless we change to become childlike, innocent, pure in heart, selfless, we could say, we will not be in His Kingdom. Agape, simply put, is selfless. Contrast selfless agape and God's Spirit with Satan and selfish. The way of give versus the way of get. It is very straightforward and very simple when we think about it that way. Agape is always actively seeking what is best for each member of God's Family.

But I want to dig into this phrase for just a minute. It starts out with seeks. This is Strong's 2212, zateo, which means to not just seek, but earnestly seek, to earnestly desire, to earnestly endeavor. And I am just going to read a couple of scriptures here just so we get a flavor for how this word is used throughout the New Testament.

Matthew 6:33 [Jesus tells us] "But seek [the same word] first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find."

Matthew 13:45-46 "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant man seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

Matthew 18:12 "If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?"

Luke 15:8 [same word used] "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and [seek] carefully until she finds it?"

This is an earnest seeking. And I am actually reminded of another childhood story for Zachary. Sorry, I am picking on Zachary. But it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I mean it really was. It was many years ago. We were walking through a very crowded Disney and we had all three of our children with us, but we are probably having to pay a little more attention to Lizzie. Anyway, Zachary was about four years old and he got distracted and he wandered off. It was only about maybe 30 seconds of terror. But I ran hard. I ran fast. I looked around that park to find my lost son like nothing else. Right? I was like, "Father help me!" I thought we had lost him. It was only 30 seconds, but some of the worst 30 seconds of my life. We found him only a few yards away, safe and sound and he did not even know anything was any different. He was hanging out with another family. I guess, they looked like us.

But the point here is the word "seek," brethren, is not not a casual search. This is an earnest search that Paul is using here. Let us go to John 5 and see another example.

John 5:30 "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."

Jesus Christ sought not His own. It is a perfect tie back to Paul's description of agape that seeks not his own.

Back to I Corinthians 13:5. Let us keep looking at this phrase, "does not seek his own." We spent some time there understanding that this seek is a diligent seeking. The next word "not" is finally a Greek word that I feel like I can pronounce with certainty. It is Strong's 3756, ou, and it means absolutely negative. No, not, never, none, nothing. And it kind of fits. Ou, no, nothing, never. So seeks not its own. Its own is Strong's 1438, heautou, meaning him, her, my, are your own or its own. So agape earnestly seeks not its own is the definition that Paul has given us here.

And often we find emphasis in the Greek language by what is placed first. We are to earnestly seek not our own will. We are earnestly to seek God's will, not our own desires. The Greek phrase literally means agape does not seek the things of itself. In fact, the Revised English Bible translates, "Agape is never selfish." The Lockman Foundation's Amplified Bible renders it, "Agape does not insist on its own rights or its own way for it is not self-seeking."

Please turn to Matthew 22. We are picking up right after Jesus put the Pharisees in their place regarding the resurrection and one of the chief experts of the law attempted to play "stump the dummy," they thought. And he says, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" (Thank you, Dr. Maas, for covering this earlier.)

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, "'You shall [agapeo] the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall [agapeo] your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

So Jesus quotes here Deuteronomy 6 as He tells us we are to agapeo, that is the verb form of agape. We are to agapeo the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, and all our minds.

We know this is the year of Deuteronomy so let us turn back there.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 "Hear, O Israel" The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Now a few verses later, let us pick up the warning.

Deuteronomy 6:10-14 "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of good things which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you shall have eaten and are full [here it is]—then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around about you."

This ties in nicely the Craig's [Sablich] message as well.

So tying back to I Corinthians 13:5, agape love does not seek his own and God warns us everything we have He has provided. He warns that this world walks to a beat of a different father (as Dr. Maas was talking about), and it influences us to become self-focused and to seek our own. It influences us to forget all the things our great God has done for us. It is way too easy for us to put the majority of our time and our resources on our own things—our work, our homes, our cars. It is way too easy to seek to do things on our own at the expense of our time with God or time with His Family.

Agape is an ever-burning motivation always coupled with actions that earnestly seek first, God the Father and His will, and second, seeks to do what is best for everyone in His Kingdom, in His Family. Agape drives this constant action and service, willing to literally die at His command, if that is what He commands.

Let us turn back to Matthew, this time in chapter 26. We will see Jesus Christ demonstrating this aspect of agape.

Matthew 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

Matthew 26:42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."

Jesus Christ exemplified agape. He never sought His own. He is just like our Father. He is always motivated and actively working seeking the Father's will, helping the Father build up His Kingdom. As a physical man no doubt He did not want to go through this suffering. But He sought not His own. Not My will, but Yours be done, He says. That is agape.

Let us turn back to Genesis 22. We have been exploring this father-son relationship for a while now and I think about our great love for our children, and with that great love we can appreciate all the more what we are about to read here in Genesis 22. Abraham and Isaac did not know the Greek word agape. It was not even spoken back then, but they both knew and modeled God's agape Spirit. It is estimated that Isaac was between 17 and 35 years old, probably around age 25. He was by all rights a grown man, much stronger and faster than his probably century-old father. And I want us to put ourselves in the place of Abraham and Isaac as we read these scriptures.

Genesis 22:6-7 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" and he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

Isaac connected the dots. He knows what is happening here.

Genesis 22:9-10 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

And of course, the Angel of the Lord called him from heaven and he stopped him. Abraham sought not his own and was willing to give up probably the thing that meant the most to him in this world at that time. No doubt, just like any of us fathers, he would have much more gladly slit his own throat than to sacrifice his son. But he did what God asked. How about Isaac? Again, he knew what was happening. He was no dummy. I mean, he could have run away, right? No. He submitted to his father's will. He sought not his own. They were both willing to give everything in obedience and trust to their Father.

And as we reflect on our lives, brethren, are we seeking not our own in the spirit of agape in order to align everything to God the Father's will? Remember, agape seeks earnestly to find and serve the great God in any way possible. Our conversion process is not about knowledge. Knowledge is interesting. It is about becoming selfless and developing God's Spirit of agape. If we are not constantly serving, if all we are doing is just taking up space in His church, we are not progressing. We need to be very careful about turning down an opportunity to serve or missing an opportunity to serve in any capacity to serve God and to serve His Family. We are not to seek our own.

As our agape builds, everything else in life becomes secondary. It is like that glass, that sheet of murky mica, starts to clear up and we start first seeing only dimly through it, but over time we start to see through it more clearly and we are more able to choose and serve God first; to seek not our own. As Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

We are not going to turn there for sake of time, but I will read a few scriptures from Romans 15, because they fit in perfectly here. Jesus came to do the will of God by undertaking the work of salvation. He did not seek His own personal comfort. He denied Himself to promote the welfare of others and He endured whatever trials and pain were necessary to seek God's will.

Romans 15:1-3 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me."

Romans 15:5-6 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We can tie this message back perfectly to Richard's sermon last week, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." If we are walking in God's Spirit of agape and not seeking our own, we will always be peacemakers. We cannot possibly take offense if we are walking in God's Spirit of agape.

Brethren, we are created in God's perfect omni-agape image and it is a beautiful thing. But our time in this world has fueled our carnal mind to resemble the father of this world that selfishly seeks its own. This is the double mindedness that Dr. Maas was talking about earlier. Jesus makes this clear that we must change and become childlike, selfless, and humble to be great in His Kingdom. He adds that the first and second great commandments are both related to agapeo, first, God the Father and His family. Paul makes it clear that above all things, above faith—I mean, think about that, above faith—above knowledge, truth, above obedience, even above hope, the thing that is most important in our conversion process is to become like our agape Creator.

All those things are required, of course, to begin the conversion process. But if that is all we have got Paul says we are like a stupid, clanging, annoying noise that God really does not want anything to do with. I mean that is basically what he is saying and it is time that we really take that serious—all of us, myself first and foremost.

We are called to change our heart and actively work with God to develop in us His agape Spirit that seeks not its own. Agape is a powerful Spirit of God that creates this ever-burning motivation in us. The motivation that is always coupled with constant action, action of self-sacrificial service to God and service to His Family. Agape is always actively working towards what is best for the God Family. Agape seeks not its own.

As we head into the fall holy days now and to the Feast of Tabernacles, let us work hard to seek not our own. Let us carefully evaluate how we spend our time and God-given resources to seek not our own. Yes, it tells us in Leviticus that we can do whatever we want, we can buy whatever we want, but remember, if we are walking in God's Spirit of agape, what we want is what is best for God's entire Family, not just what we want.

It is very interesting when we think about it that way. The Feast is not a time for vacation, relaxation, or separation. The Feast is a time of self-sacrificial service to God and His Family. The Feast is a time to seek not our own.

So let us end now in I Corinthians 10.

I Corinthians 10:24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being.

I Corinthians 10:33 Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Colossians 3:1-2 [This is about putting on the new man.] If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

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