August 6, 2006

Farewell Message

Rev. Brian Hawes

·      Last Sunday night we talked about how we need to learn to love one another again.  So I felt led to share 1 Corinthians 13 from The Message with you this morning.

·      1 Corinthians 13 – If we speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.  If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.  If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.  So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.  Love never gives up.  Love cares more for others than for self.  Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.  Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.  Love never dies.  Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.  We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.  But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.  When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant.  When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.  We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!  We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as he knows us!  But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.  And the best of the three is love.

·      Our Thursday morning pastors’ prayer group often prays that our churches will learn to love like this with God’s love.  It’s been my prayer for this church since I first arrived over six years ago.  And yet it’s time for my journey with this church to be over.  It’s time for you to learn to grow in God’s love without me.  I’ve learned much about my own strengths and weaknesses.  I’ve grown much as well.  I’ve taken great joy in seeing your growth in Christ as well.  I’m proud to have served such a wonderful body of Christ as this.  I’m proud to count many of you as my friends.  And I’m thankful for the love that has been shown me and my family.

·      This isn’t an easy time for any of us, but God in His infinite grace and mercy will see us through stronger than ever.  I firmly believe that God will pour out His Spirit on this church.  I firmly believe in His ability to make this place a shining light in an area of great darkness.  But this will be my last Sunday with you.  I resign with a grateful heart for God’s many blessing in my life and on this church.  I wish all of you God’s richest and best.  May His love pour out on you and bless you, and may this place overflow with His glory.  God bless!