Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Gary Copeland

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

That's the case, 211 Timothy chapter 2 verses 212 to 2110, and for context, in verse 2116, Paul has just said, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

So don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.

Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.

He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

For this gospel, I was appointed a Harold, apostle, and teacher, and that is why I suffer these things.

But I am not ashamed because I know who I have I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.

Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Thank you to the AV booth people.

They do a great job.

It was just some miscommunication, probably my part.

Good morning.

I want to describe to you someone from the Bible who was quite the visionary.

And he was very much Very strongly pro-religion.

He advanced the worship of God in his time.

He acted very thoughtfully, not compulsively or impulsively.

He improved the, what we would call the look of religion, maybe you want to call it marketing, but in terms of a visual appeal and messaging, that's important.

We don't want to turn people away just by how we carry out God's religion and how we put into practice Christianity.

He opened up new places that people could go to worship.

He put what we would say nowadays church more easily into the reach of everyone.

He activated more people to get involved in religious service.

He even promoted a new religious holiday.

In fact, he single-handedly established a religious tradition that lasted for 200 years.

And all that sounds great.

His actions are to be lauded.

They looked like proper church, but I'm talking about Jeroboam.

1 Kings chapter 12.

1 Kings chapter 12.

He was a very wicked man.

He lived in ancient Israel.

He became king.

He sinned in what he did in changing God's religion, and he exerted a poisonous influence on everyone after him.

He was cursed personally by God and became the poster child for apostasy.

Apostasy is a departure from the faith, right?

And so this lesson looks at what he did, why he did it, and the consequences, and then makes some applications to us.

And so here's a quick review from my sermon back in September, uh, September 1st, 23, in case you're looking for it on the church website.

It was called Burdening the Church.

And uh so you see all the little people under that massive boulder burdening the church.

We made a point that there are two circles of activity.

One represents the work of the church.

But that's not the same as the sphere or the circle that is the works of the individual.

These things have, they do overlap some, but they have to be separate.

They have to remain as distinct to circles.

And one passage that makes that abundantly clear is 1 Timothy 5:16, where it describes benevolence given to widows, and it actually puts qualifications on the widows that will receive money from the church treasury.

If I can find it in my notes here, I don't have the same excuse that Alan does about foggy vision.

I just have trifocals.

Let me see here.

Um, it says if any believing woman has widows, she must assist them, and the church must not be burdened so that it may assist those who are widows indeed.

And so any widow can be helped by individuals, but only widows who meet those qualifications known as widows indeed can be helped directly from the church treasury.

And so there is a New Testament pattern.

And there's a New Testament pattern in terms of organization of the church, the work of the church, the worship of the church.

And God's terms for salvation.

The pattern is very specific and it is limited.

But many people just say, yeah.

Pattern smattering.

Right, that's my little fun phrase to, to show their disregard for the concept of a pattern.

And what we see in modern times is people who will say there is no pattern for the church.

That's, they argue that, um, and I won't go into those arguments, but they might say, well, yeah, there, we see these things in the New Testament, but, and then they find a way to disregard or set aside the pattern on any number of these points.

I want you to remember that from the very beginning of time, God has always had instructions, including on how to worship.

Moses was warned by God.

He was warned by God.

Hebrews 8:5, when he was about to erect the tabernacle, for see, he says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain.

God has always specified how he wants things done, and we must be careful how we put those things into practice.

And so let's look quickly at Jeroboam's apostasy.

Here's a picture of apostasy from 1 Kings 12.

1st of all, he sought advice.

He took counsel.

That sounds great, but he consulted people, he didn't consult Jehovah.

He didn't look into the word of God that was already expressed, written down, revealed.

No, he asked other people.

Well, he improved the marketing, like I said, Well, he made religion look good.

But you know how he did it?

He made two golden calves.

Oh my goodness.

He learned nothing from the 10 Commandments.

He broke Exodus 123:4 about make no grave an image.

And his excuse was to make it easier on people.

He learned nothing from the people's sins at the base of Mount Sinai, while those 10 Commandments were first initiated.

New places to worship.

Sounds great until you read Leviticus 23:1 Kings 8 and realize that God had a place where he wanted people to gather.

I mean the whole nation to gather there 3 times a year.

Leviticus 23.

1 Kings 8, once the temple was built, that was the place where God's name would be.

That's where it would dwell.

That would, that was where it was connected.

And so him making two new places.

Uh, and I've, um, Not wanting this to go till noon and so I'm trying to speed it along, but you'll notice if you're in 13 Kings 20, 1 Kings 12:28 is where it says he took counsel, verse 28 is where it says he made two golden calves, and he said to them, it's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of.

I mean, that's straight out of what they did in rebellion to God in apostasy.

At the foot of Mount Sinai in Exodus.

And then there in verse 29, 1 Kings 12:29, he said one of these calves in Bethel, and he put one in Dan.

Now, that was very strategic, and we won't go into the map, but basically, he had a territory and he put one on either end of his, the northern and southern extreme of his territory, so the people wouldn't have to go out of that territory to actually go where God had put his name in Jerusalem.

That was mentioned there in First Kings A. Well, he put church within reach of people.

I mean, that's the way we, we talk about it.

But what that looked like in his day was he set up high places, so that every, basically every time you had a, a hill, you'd put something there and that became a place of worship.

Oh my goodness.

He invited on himself by doing that, all the curses from Leviticus 23.

It was a curses on the nation that would put high places and incense altars and idols on these high places.

Do you realize that those were the main reason that God tore the kingdom away from Solomon in 1 Kings 11 to begin with?

And we're only in 1 Kings 12.

And we see that Jeroboam is doing the very things that Solomon had done, some of those things which were specifically mentioned by God as his reason for punishing Solomon.

I said he activated more people.

He got more people involved in religion.

That sounds real good when you read verse 31.

Uh, in 1 Kings 12, uh, he made shrines on the high places.

Listen, and he made priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi.

Anybody who's read anything from the Old Testament has probably come across Exodus 28.

It was Aaron and his sons, in other words, that one family line that were to serve as priests.

And then there's the whole story of the rebellion of Cora.

And how God made the earth swallow him and his family and all his followers and all their stuff whole, and they just got swallowed by the earth.

Jeroboam didn't care about that.

Totally ignored that.

What about number 17?

Where the big question was, wait, who can serve as priests?

And you remember Aaron's rod, he had one rod to represent his family, and then they had rods for all the other families.

And which one blossomed?

Which one miraculously showed God's approval?

Jerobo didn't care about that.

He totally ignored it.

How about this new holy day.

First Kings 113:32 says that Jeroboam ordained a feast on the 15th day of the 8th month like the feast that was in Judah and offered sacrifices on the altar.

So he did at Bethel, sacrificing.

To the calves that he had made, and at Bethel, he installed the priests of the high places which he had made.

So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the 15th day of the 8th month in the month which he had devised in his own heart.

That's where all this came from.

This was not the same feast that God had ordained, that God had authorized.

Joe Bone's just doing his own thing.

Patterns matter. Right?

That was his basic problem.

He just, he doesn't care about God's pattern.

And it looked good.

I mean, he got the whole country, his whole 1210 tribes of the 12 tribes that existed to go along with him.

They did it for 200 years.

It looked good.

It seemed right to the untrained and the undiscerning eye.

It looked fine.

Let's look a little bit more at his motivations though.

First Kings 12:63.

Jeroboam said in his heart, that's where the problem started, right, is his own thought.

He says, he had just been given by the way.

10 of the 12 tribes, God had ripped those away from Solomon, had put Jeroboam in charge, and he said, now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their Lord, even Derayaboam, king of Judah.

And they'll kill me and return to Raabboam, king of Judah.

And so we talk about his motivations, we've got to understand that they were number one selfish.

Number 2, they were fear-based.

He had a fear of losing his following.

Have you ever read Acts chapter 20 verse 30 that says, from among your own selves, talking to the elders of the church there from Ephesus, men will arise speaking perverse things.

To draw away the disciples after them. Right?

In other words, his motivations were carnal and power oriented.

That was Jerobo's thought process.

So him taking counsel and then doing all this stuff that he did had nothing to do with him trying to understand how to be pleasing to Yahweh, Jehovah.

That was not in his thought process.

Andre, the problem with some of these unauthorized things is the temptation to then Just justify what we've already practiced.

Right, I won't tell you the joke that goes behind this, but the point of this illustration is, it's a fun one, where there's a marksman, a sharpshooter that never misses.

He always hits the bull's eye square in the center.

How does he do it?

He says, well, he explains it, he says, you just take your best shot.

And then you go draw them pretty little circles around it. Right?

You practice first and then you go to the scripture and look for some justification for it.

You'll probably find some way to justify what you're doing.

You'll probably find something that you can take out of context.

You'll probably find something that looks like religion that sounds good enough.

To maybe pass the smell test with, if you don't really study.

And so off you go and you've justified your own thing.

I want to look at the consequences of Jeroboam's apostasy.

We just read from 1 Kings 12.

Now these rest, the rest of these, I won't give you time to, to look at them up, and I won't even read them all to you.

I had them at one point and I did like uh Mike Ison, you know, he prepared 30 hours' worth of stuff and then you spend the rest of your prep time trying to make this reasonable to say during one sermon.

But this was a drum beat.

It just came over and over again in the following chapters.

But in 1 Kings 23, God said a prophet to curse one of Jeroboam's altars, and it was miraculously split apart on the spot.

And when Jeroboam tried to intervene and to have the prophet arrested, his arm instantly withered.

I mean, God miraculously said 2 times there, or 3 times, I guess by the time he was healed, on the spot, this is not right.

We must learn, brethren, that God does not accept all worship that we may choose to offer.

We got to follow the pattern.

And then in chapter 14, back to Jeroboam's personal case, a prophet told Jeroboam's wife, listen in 1 Kings 14.

I sent you with a harsh message.

That was verse 6, verse 7.

Go say to Jeroboam, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, You have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and who walked after me with all his heart to do only that which was right in my sight.

You also have done more evil than all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger.

And have cast me behind your back.

Therefore, I will cut off from Jeroboam every male person both bond and free in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam.

As one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.

Pattern smatter.

This is God's opinion when people leave the pattern.

And look, his sons, Abijah died, chapter 14.

Then his son Naab took over as king.

He walked in the way of his father and in the sins, and in the sin which he made Israel sin.

And so another man, Besa came along and he did what was prophesized.

He wiped out everybody in Jeroboam's household.

But he walked in Jeroboam's sins, and so did his son Elah, and so they were wiped out by Zimri, who continued the problem, and then who was killed by Amri.

Or died and then Amri took over.

Amri walked in all the way of Jeroboam and in his sins which with which he made Israel sin, provoking Yahweh, the God of Israel to anger with their idols.

And then Amri's son, Ahab, two of his sons, Ahaziah, Jehoram.

They kept on, they walked in the way of Jeroboam.

So God finally used Jehu to wipe out that evil dynasty.

To 2 Kings 13 by that time.

And it blew me away.

I always thought of Jehu as this great, you know, cleanser of the, the evils of Israel, but the text specifically says in 2 Kings 10:29.

However, as for the sins of Jeroboam and you're like, oh no.

From these Jehu did not depart.

Even the golden calves that were at Bethel and that were at Danver 31, Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his heart.

And so if you do a quick count, If you use Vicky's simplified summary so that you can quickly count, 17 of the 20.

Kings of the northern tribes are said to have, it was either Jeroboam or the other 16 walked in the sins of Jeroboam that he started.

They did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam.

So a great sermon might be Jeroboam's other son, and we could talk about an imaginary son that he didn't have that would have said, whoa, that was not right.

I got to turn this thing back to the way of the Lord.

But Jeroboam didn't have that son.

And so the destruction that was predicted came on more than just Jeroboam's house.

Right, are there additional kings there.

Back in 1 Kings 14:133, the prophecy was that Yahweh will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the river.

Because they have made their Ashura, provoking Yahweh to anger, and he will give Israel over on account of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned and with which he made Israel to sin.

Now, he didn't force them to sin, right?

Everybody chooses to sin.

But all those 10 tribes kept on choosing, kept on for 200 years until God finally wiped out that part of the nation by scattering them to Assyrian captivity.

So do we need to go into detail about modern denominational errors?

Point out how they resemble the New Testament pattern.

They're packaged neatly to look good, seem right.

Can we understand that changing God's religion is sinful and horrible and provokes God to anger?

Apostasy in the church has been happening since the church was established.

And church leaders who continue unauthorized practices are making many people sin in the same way that Jeroboam did.

When I tell you stories about churches that we meet in other countries, other places, whether it's Ecuador or Tennessee.

If we talk about delaying the start of services because they're busy preparing the coffee or women leaving the Women's Bible study to start preparing food, or up in Berryville where coffee and donuts interfered with the greeting of the visitors, interfered with the sermon preparation.

I'm not talking about efficiency.

I'm not talking about preference and opinion.

I'm not just saying about eating in the building.

I'm talking about a problem that is much deeper, brethren.

Once we allow any unauthorized practice.

We have left the New Testament pattern.

Some would say we're on a quote, a slippery slope.

We have failed to establish biblical authority.

We've entered into apostasy.

And all these matters have to do with our collective works.

I, all the members, you have to be able to support the work that's being done in all good conscience.

So these are topics that are fundamental and they affect our worship, our fellowship together, and our work together.

But to give you a quick history lesson from modern times, thank you, Eric for the song.

We see Her, the church, sore oppressed.

1952, yes, that's modern.

Some of you, some of our brethren here were alive then.

The Herald of Truth radio station was established by Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.

It was called Highland Avenue back then.

What a great work preaching by radio.

That's great stuff.

Within a few years, they started receiving funding from other congregations to fund this effort.

That's where they deviated.

The New Testament pattern shows each congregation doing its own work.

Money from one church's treasury was only sent to another church in the case of benevolence.

Acts 21, Romans 22, 211 Corinthians 26 and 22.

But this biblical centralization of funding meant that small churches could send money from their treasuries and have a part in that work.

We'll go into more about that.

But I will say that those small churches had no say in the decisions, and they did not directly participate in that work.

And then the slippery slope starts showing.

The Highland Church established a board of directors for their radio program.

Wait, wait, board of directors.

Obviously not New Testament stuff.

And the brethren who had conscientious objections to that practice were disregarded.

The leaders often didn't care about their opinions or about them.

Because they were about, they were from the minority.

And so when that minority, Said, wow, we can't support this in all good conscience, so they went and formed the congregations.

They were labeled with a pejorative term anti.

Well, just for the record, I am anti a whole lot of things, right?

I'm anti, I'm against leaving the New Testament pattern.

Well, what if the preacher was in the minority?

Well, the congregation out in Texas fired my grandfather, who was their evangelist at the time.

Another congregation canceled an invitation for my father to preach because he was my grandfather's son. Right.

This topic is very personal.

It affects my family.

21 out of the 23 of my of my great uncles and great aunts.

Followed this apostasy.

22 out of the 210 tribes of it, I don't know.

Some of you have the same problems in your families.

I'm just asking you what happened to Unity.

Whatever happened to caring about the pattern?

Whatever happened to say, look, can we sing and preach and pray and do the Lord's supper together on Sunday and take a collection only from our members?

That's what we do here.

And brethren, that's beautiful.

And I promise, I've had a lot of Bible studies of people.

I've never heard one objection, not a scriptural objection to what we do together.

That means we can establish unity based on what we're doing.

So let's do this.

Let's get everybody doing this and we'll be unified.

But these conversations, So often aren't talking about that.

So if they're not looking for unity, then who is the troubler of Israel and who's causing the division?

Now I know the time.

And I want to tell you a little bit more about the slippery slope.

Because you may not be thinking of anything except coffee and donuts in the building, but I promise other people will.

And then they'll put in their dining hall, and then they'll put in their Christian Life Center, and then they'll put in their Starbucks.

Maybe you only want a piano.

But when somebody wants their rock bands, you will have no voice.

Oh, that was a poem.

I like that one.

You'll have no voice in objecting to it.

Because you've already left the New Testament pattern.

Brethren, it's not a slope, it's a cliff.

And churches of Christ have stepped off the cliff and have been falling in slow motion for 216 years.

Give you some examples of churches of Christ in 2024 and 2025.

And my intention is not to Bash anybody or air dirty laundry.

Listen, every religion in the world has its divisions.

That's just a fact.

People end up not agreeing eventually on something, and that's happened in the Lord's churches.

If you want a private study, I'd be happy to get into that.

I'll just tell you that brethren have established association of the churches of Christ on a national level in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nicaragua, and etc.

At the state and provincial level in Ecuador, it's, you think, well, that's the denominational pattern.

Now, you know what it is?

It's the Roman Catholic pattern.

And so at least it takes away autonomy from local churches.

We can't govern ourselves anymore.

Now we got somebody higher up on earth telling us what to do instead of just getting our authority directly from the scripture.

Well, churches have money and money equals power.

Did you know that the Church of Christ Association in Mexico takes 5% of every congregation's collections.

Sometimes more, um.

Conversations with leaders no longer center around Bible study or discovering God's will.

They become about maintaining power and objections and those voicing them are summarily dismissed.

They send their treasury money for so many good works.

Children's homes and orphanage, disaster relief, feeding the community, a wellness clinic, a Christian camp, so-called women's clinic, free medical services, pregnancy tests, schools.

These institutions receive funds from treasuries of churches of Christ to give secular education.

And so we see all this good work being done.

And we forget about the two circles.

And we think that bigger is better.

I'm here to tell you that bigger is not always better, and that the ends do not justify the means.

Just look at Robin Hood.

You think robbing from the rich is to give to the poor is OK because it's giving to the poor.

And so we do something that's wrong to supposedly justify some good work.

Brethren, God has the ends figured out, and he has specified the means.

And so let's just be contented with that.

So when churches from their treasuries send money for these works, See, the work ought to determine the work of the church as defined in the New Testament ought to define our and limit our use of the treasury and that's, it's that simple.

Let me give you another example.

Well, this is a local example.

It it surprise shocked me, so maybe the shock is useful.

Roots Cafe, that's not a Starbucks, right?

They, they went in-house, is our in-house coffee shop that has been open for business since 2012.

We serve several different blends of hot coffee as well as iced drinks and pastries.

Come early to church and fellowship by drinking coffee with a purpose.

All of our profits go to support our global and local mission points.

It's amazing to watch God's math multiply our dollars one coffee cup at a time.

That's local folks.

The New Testament pattern shows only free will offerings collected on Sundays making up the treasury.

The church is not a business, and the church doesn't go into business to make money.

Churches of Christ accept divorce for any reason.

But God said in Matthew, in Malachi 2:16, I hate divorce, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, and Matthew 103:9 has Jesus showing that there's only one acceptable reason for divorcing and then remarrying.

Like, they changed the plan of salvation.

We've had that here.

We've had to withdraw from some from this congregation who start questioning the necessity of baptism.

What about instrumental music?

Local example here.

Instrumental music on the first Wednesday of the month.

The Church of Christ.

They still call it that, but they've left the pattern, they've fallen off the cliff.

So that's unauthorized worship.

There are various arrangements that change roles within the church.

I thought, oh, this will never happen in a Church of Christ. Right.

Here's a local example.

Women participating fully in the welcome, prayers, singing, communion meditations, testimonies, and announcements.

That's local, that's straight from their website.

It's in violation of First Timothy 2:12 says, I do not permit a, I'm sorry, that's my new King James brain.

The, the, uh, LSB says, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

Did you know that in Massachusetts, one of the churches of Christ has female preachers?

You say, ah, That's true.

What about going back to Highland that started a lot of this?

The Highland Church in Texas now has female elders.

And you're like, wait, female, you know, does not compute.

What about the New Testament qualifications in 1 Timothy 2?

Yeah, Paul hated women and so they dismiss it income female elders.

The Pasadena Church of Christ out in California has board members.

Board members, there we go again.

In Pennsylvania, one Church of Christ, according to brethren that I met in Boston last June, promotes the homosexual agenda.

And so this immorality in violation of Romans 11 Corinthians 6.

is where we go with apostasy when we step off the cliff.

And maybe it's falling in slow motion.

Maybe you want to call it a slippery slope and you're just gradually going down.

But brethren, that's where it is ending.

That's where it is now.

Because we don't have book chapter and verse for what we do.

So can we learn from the harsh message to Jeroboam about God's great displeasure when we leave his stated will?

Well, if you're new to the faith, this may be a lot to consider.

Um, I'd be happy to talk to you in private, share my notes, uh, study from the scriptures, all these various points about the New Testament pattern.

But the conclusion is that the New Testament pattern for the church is simple and straightforward.

And what we're doing now and here at this place fits with that pattern, and we can give you book chapter and verse for what we do.

We can be faithful.

We can avoid apostasy.

But we've got to guard our hearts.

We must be content with God's pattern, and we must always give a book, chapter and verse for what we do.

Otherwise we're off the cliff.

So from the scripture reading earlier in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 13 said, hold fast the pattern of sound words.

I Congratulate and laud this congregation for doing just that.

And I want you to know that the New Testament pattern for how to be saved is also simple and straightforward.

In Acts 2, Peter preached the first gospel sermon, and he said, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

And then we have 10 examples in the book of Acts of people doing just that.

And we have an example from a couple of days ago.

If someone here connected to this congregation doing just that.

And so we praise God, and we remember like we sang that Jesus, he the great example is and pattern for me.

And so to close Romans 16, thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over.

If we can help you in your spiritual walk, whether it's by accepting your confession of faith in Jesus and baptizing you for the forgiveness of your sins, or receiving any kind of prayer request, we would encourage you to come to the front while we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

I owe Nathan Wynn an apology for failing to mention his baptism.

I actually had it in my announcement list and it was in red type, so that I wouldn't miss it.

But apparently red is not the color of remembrance, so I'll have to find some other font color.

But I'm appreciative of the fact that Tyler did remember.

That's a time for rejoicing, a wonderful event and uh I'm glad it was mentioned in his prayer.

Have you ever discovered that you seriously misjudged somebody?

It may have been that somebody you thought was your friend criticized you in some What seemed to be harsh way and hurt your feelings.

In fact, you may have said, like I've heard individuals say, I thought you were my friend.

Or maybe it turned out that someone you thought was your friend was really working behind your back to hurt you.

Maybe in the workplace, somebody was Working to take your position or to cause you to lose some influence or power.

Or maybe in your social group.

Somebody was backstabbing you.

And you thought that that person was your friend.

The OJ's sang a song a number of years ago called Backstabbers.

One of the lines is smiling faces sometimes tell lies.

Solomon made an interesting and yet what I think is a counterintuitive statement about one's friends and enemies.

In Proverbs the 27th chapter verses 5 and 6.

He wrote better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

We typically think of those who would wound us as our enemies and those who would offer kisses as our friends.

But what Solomon is saying is often we cannot identify friends and enemies.

By kisses and wounds.

That the one who's really my friend is the one who may wound me to my benefit.

Even though my enemy may act as though he is my friend.

Yet in truth he wishes me harm.

Just because someone is nice to me doesn't mean that he has my best interest at heart.

Just because someone tells me something that frankly, I didn't want to hear about myself, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is my enemy.

The expression tough love is sometimes used to describe the way that people act when they have to take difficult or uncomfortable actions against friends or loved ones.

Tough love, however, is often mistaken.

For meanness or hatred.

It's just as important how tough love is sent as it is how it is received.

The apostle Paul in Galatians the 4th chapter.

As he has said some rather severe things in this letter to the Galatian churches.

He contrast himself with some of the Judaizing teachers who apparently were having some influence among the Galatians.

And so he writes in verse 15, What then has become of your blessedness?

For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

They, and I think now he's talking about these Judaizing teachers, those who wanted to have Gentile Christians circumcised in addition to obeying the gospel.

They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

They want to shut you out that you may make much of them.

And so here were these Judaizers who were flattering.

They make much of you, but the truth is, they're using you.

Have I?

Paul asked, Have I become your enemy because I've told you the truth?

Sometimes that's the way we behave, is it not?

That when someone tells us something that really is for our good.

We end up considering them an enemy because we really didn't want to hear the truth.

I think like Paul, we want to show others the truth of God's word, according to the scriptures.

But sometimes that puts us in kind of an uncomfortable position.

You don't have to point at people and say, you're, you're lost, you're condemned.

All you have to do sometimes is teach the truth.

And the truth itself will serve to let people know that there are changes they need to make if they're going to follow Jesus Christ.

But if you do that, some will probably accuse you of improperly judging folks.

Who are you to judge me and suggest that I'm doing wrong?

If you condemn others, sometimes we're told.

Then you don't have the love of Christ.

I believe statements like that and there are several that you'll hear maybe as you try to teach people.

I believe statements like that convey at least 3 misconceptions or misunderstandings.

There's a misunderstanding of the actual nature of love.

There's a misunderstanding of the character of Jesus.

And I think there's also a misunderstanding of the purpose for teaching others the truth.

It's not to condemn.

It is in fact to say.

I believe Jesus was the most loving individual who ever lived.

But on occasion, he engaged in what we've already described as tough love.

He said some things that would have been difficult for people to hear.

That would have been uncomfortable in terms of correction.

But if we want to see how love really behaves, we need to take a look at the life of Jesus, and that's what I'd like to do this morning for a few minutes and talk about how Jesus loved.

I don't know that anybody here would dispute that affirmation that Jesus was a loving person.

I think you could probably go out on the street and get agreement with that concept that Jesus was probably a very loving person.

We would expect, of course, that he loved his chosen disciples, his apostles, and his friends.

On the night that he was betrayed.

In John 13:1, we're told that before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Jesus was consistent in that love.

Later on in the same chapter in verse 133, Jesus said a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another.

John in his gospel, for whatever reason.

Describes himself several times as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

I think Jesus loved all the disciples, as we'll point out a little bit later.

But I think maybe there was an affinity between Jesus and John and perhaps Peter as well and James.

And so John describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

But there were others who were apparently close to Jesus.

For instance, Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

The text says in John the 11th chapter that Jesus loved them.

And I think that means there was some sort of special relationship there inasmuch as Jesus, I think loved everyone, and I say that because Jesus showed love even for his enemies.

The people of Jerusalem rejected Jesus.

In Luke 19th chapter, the text says that Jesus wept over the city.

Because he knew what was coming.

He knew the suffering that they would endure because they rejected him as the Messiah.

They rejected his teaching.

He says in Matthew the 23rd chapter that he would like to have protected them like a mother hen will use her wings to protect her chicks, but they were, they were unwilling, they would not allow him to do that.

Even the people who crucified him.

Jesus said in Matthew, excuse me, in Luke 214 chapter in verse 226, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

These are people who are in the process of mocking him.

They've crucified him, put him on the cross.

And still Jesus wants what's best for them.

And I think his statement shows the condition of his heart, his willingness for their forgiveness to take place.

But there's of course a sense in which all of us are the subject of Christ's love.

In First John 227 and verse 227, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

None of this is of any surprise to you.

I think all of us understand Jesus was a loving person, but many people don't really understand that even in that love, that sometimes Jesus was firm with the truth, even stern as he corrected and rebuked others.

Twice he cleaned out the racketeers in the temple courtyard.

In John the 233nd chapter, we're told that uh he said, Don't make my father's house a house of trade.

He turned over uh the money changers tables and drove out those who were uh selling sheep and oxen as sacrificial animals.

And then toward the end of his ministry in the last week of his life once again he cleared out the temple.

You've turned it into a den of robbers, he says, suggesting that not only were they engaged in commerce, but they were actually cheating people, taking advantage of them in this.

In the sale of these things and the changing of currencies.

In Matthew the 223th chapter, you may recall that The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the Pharisees and the scribes because they weren't washing their hands the way that the traditions of the elders suggested they should.

And Jesus does not particularly defend the disciples.

He instead rebukes the Pharisees and the scribes for their own disobedience to the law of God.

And so he says to them in verse 23, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

You have to understand that Jesus is talking to people who consider themselves to be righteous, and the common people considered them to be essentially the epitome of righteousness.

But Jesus said, you're a lawbreakers.

You set aside God's law so that you can keep your traditions.

And he says to them in verses 224 through 234, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, he says, when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men.

Isaiah wrote that 25 years or more before Jesus, but Jesus says what Isaiah said, what he wrote, it describes you.

And your worship is empty.

It's worthless because of the fact that you elevate your own teaching.

Above or even equal to the commandments of God.

I don't know what the the Pharisees and the scribes thought about that, but we're told a little bit later on in the same chapter, chapter 15 of Matthew, what the disciples thought.

In verses 12 and 13, they came to Jesus and said, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the saying?

The disciples believed the Pharisees were offended and they were concerned about that.

And so immediately Jesus apologized and retracted what he had said, right?

If you're looking for that in your Bible, you're not going to find it.

Because Jesus instead said every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

These were people who were in danger of being rooted up.

And so what Jesus had said to them was for their good.

Lest they be lost eternally.

But not just the Pharisees and the scribes.

Jesus rebuked his own disciples.

Do you remember when James and John, the sons of Zebedee, said of a Samaritan village, Lord, do you want us to call down fire to destroy these people?

Because the Samaritans were not anxious to receive Jesus and his disciples as they traveled towards Judea.

And Jesus rebuked them.

Some manuscripts suggest that what he said to them was, you don't know the spirit that you're of.

Son of man didn't come to condemn but to save.

But there were other occasions when Jesus rebuked the disciples and sometimes fairly sharply, I think.

For instance, following his resurrection as he appears to disciples in Mark 16 and verse 14, the text says that as they were reclining at table, Jesus appeared to the 11 and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.

Because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen.

There were those who gave testimony and the disciples were very slow to believe and Jesus rebukes them for that.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you think Jesus loved these people?

That he rebuked Do you think he loved them when he rebuked them, or was Jesus love hot and then cold or maybe even non-existent?

I think Jesus continued to love these people.

But he understood that love meant sometimes doing that which is uncomfortable.

Sometimes it means saying the difficult things.

Sometimes it's tough love.

And that's not easy.

I want to draw your attention to a particular story, David uh read that story of a young man, a rich young man who comes to Jesus, and he asks a pretty decent question.

His focus is on eternal life.

He wants to know how he can inherit eternal life.

It seems to me that a lot of people don't really know how love behaves.

They evidently think that love and firmness.

Or even correction are incompatible.

That love instead is some sort of an emotion, kind of a sugary sweet attitude that doesn't cause any discomfort to anyone.

So it's all very sweet and smooth and, and nobody is upset or hurt.

They see the love of Jesus as a permissive love, where Jesus would set aside or cancel responsibility, sin, and law.

Scriptures don't teach that.

Their misunderstanding of love causes them to misunderstand Jesus.

I want to suggest an argument to you.

It's an argument in syllogistic form.

And so the idea is that if you accept two premises, then the conclusion logically follows if it is a valid syllogism.

And the first premise is that Jesus loves everyone.

Well, we've already suggested that from the scriptures.

The second premise is that love is never critical of others.

That's what a lot of people believe.

And if you accept those two premises, then the conclusion follows.

It's logical to say that Jesus wouldn't be critical of anyone.

Since he loved everyone and love means never criticizing, then Jesus wouldn't be critical of anyone.

But there's a problem with that.

And we just looked at it.

Because Jesus was on occasion, critical.

He even corrected some and so that conclusion is false according to the scriptures.

And what that means is that in a syllogism one of those two premises has to be false also.

And it doesn't take very long for us to figure out which one it is.

Love does involve correction sometimes.

Love sometimes is tough love.

And so this particular argument, and that's an argument that at least Maybe not explicitly, but implicitly people follow.

That's an invalid argument.

Because that second premise is not right.

And that's a key fact that we need to be aware of.

So, to the story of the rich young ruler, if you've turned to mark the 343th chapter or perhaps you'd like to just look at it on the screen, we're not going to go through the entire passage.

I asked David to read all the way through verse 31.

Uh, to see if he could last, I'm just kidding.

I, I wanted him to complete the, the pericoppe.

There you go, Jonathan.

But we're really interested in verses 17 through 22.

Because that's where the young ruler comes to Jesus and and he asks about eternal life and Jesus says, well then keep the commandments and the text says, He said to him, that is the rich young ruler said to Jesus, Teach all these I've kept from my youth.

And Mark's account is the only one that makes the next statement.

The other synoptics record the same story, but they leave out this detail.

But it's important for our study because we're talking about a loving savior.

And Jesus looking at him, loved him.

And yet He then tells this.

Young man, what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life.

You lack one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Did Jesus not have any idea how this would affect this young man?

Oh, I think he did.

In fact, in the succeeding this verses that David read, Jesus says it's tough for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven.

And I think he had focused on the difficulty in this young man's life, that which would keep him from being a, a disciple.

It was his love for his stuff.

And so Jesus tells him what he needs to hear.

Jesus did not lessen the requirements of discipleship for him.

What a, what an outstanding young man.

He is a moral person.

He's kept all these commandments as he related to Jesus.

He's so close.

But on other occasions, Jesus said, for instance, in Luke 14, Verses 26 and 27.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus said, that's the cost of discipleship.

That's what it requires.

Whoever does not bear his own cross, verse 27 and come after me cannot be my disciple.

A little later on in the same chapter, verse 33.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Jesus did not lessen the requirement of discipleship for this young man, even though the text says he loved him.

In fact, The reason he tells the young man what he tells him is because he loves him.

Tough love.

Sometimes uncomfortable.

Sometimes not received well.

And the rich young ruler goes away sorrowful.

We don't know that he ever became a Christian or a disciple of Jesus.

But Jesus told him the truth.

And that's what he needed to hear.

The truth is that love and firmness are not diametrically opposed to one another, although some feel that way.

We've already noted in several passages, the desire of Jesus to protect the people of Jerusalem.

Matthew 23, I would have gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks.

He says, And you are not willing Sometimes love requires firmness or severity, or it doesn't qualify as love.

The writer of Proverbs in talking about parenting.

Made an interesting statement.

You're familiar with this statement.

It is in Proverbs 13:24.

All the kids hate this passage.

But here's what it says, Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

When we decide that we will not discipline our children when it is required or when it's necessary, when it's appropriate, the truth of the matter is we don't love them.

That's what the text says.

Several years ago, it's been quite a few years ago now, had a woman write me a letter telling me she disagreed with some things that I had preached about parenting.

And she cited the fact that I was talking about love and discipline as though these two things belong together.

My response to her was, you're not arguing with me.

You're arguing with God cause that's what the scripture says.

All I've done is preach the scriptures.

You don't have to agree with them, but you do to your, you do so to your peril if you disagree.

The text says, whoever spares the rod hates his son.

Is that because we love to spank?

No, no, not at all.

But sometimes that's what's necessary, discipline so that young people, children can be encouraged to do what is right.

But he who loves them is diligent to discipline.

That's the ESB version.

Here's the nature of love, a biblical love.

It seeks the good of others.

But you know sometimes what people need is not always pleasant.

Sometimes it's difficult and sometimes Tough love is not well received.

When I say tough love, I defined it a little bit earlier as suggesting that it is the way that people act when they have to take difficult or uncomfortable actions in order to pursue the best interests of others.

And I guarantee you that in life, you will probably have occasion where you're going to need to exercise tough love.

Sometimes it's in marriage.

When spouses need to rebuke sinful behavior on the part of the person who may very well be the, the closest should be the closest person to you in your, in this world.

It's tough to have to say to a spouse, what you did was wrong, you shouldn't be doing that.

But sometimes we have to do that if in fact we really love them, as the scriptures encourage us to do.

We've already said some things about parents with children.

Tough love means we discipline when it's appropriate, when it's necessary.

Tough love involves teaching children to work.

How many of you have children that would come to you during the day and say, I know this is playtime, but I would really rather work.

Is there something I can do?

Anybody got children like that?

Because if you do, I'd like to adopt them.

That's an unusual kid.

Most kids want to play.

And you have to teach them that there are times when they have to work.

But if you don't teach them to work and to take care of themselves and to have to give to others, then you're hurting them, not loving them.

Sometimes stuff love means making children suffer the consequences of their actions.

I'm not saying that we just throw our kids to the wolves.

That's not at all what I'm trying to say.

But I've seen parents over the years who protected their children from all the consequences of their wrongdoing, and that's not good for them.

They need to understand that actions have consequences.

That is such a basic lesson and one that absolutely has to be learned if children are going to be successful as adults, if they're going to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

But that's tough, isn't it?

It's tough to see your children suffer.

We want the best for them.

We want them to be happy.

We want them smiling and all that.

We don't want to cause them pain.

But sometimes that's what's really necessary.

Both in discipline or in them suffering other consequences of their actions.

Well, preachers, Preachers need to understand that tough love is sometimes required.

Sometimes a local congregation needs to hear teaching on a particular subject because there's a weakness there.

But unfortunately, Many preachers will soften the message.

If they think that people might be upset or leave if the truth is preached.

I would commend this congregation.

Not to flatter you at all.

For your willingness to listen to the truth, even if sometimes maybe I step on some toes.

But it's for your good.

I'm not your friend if I don't tell you what you need to hear.

And of course, elders.

I got hit 34 times this time.

All four of these.

Elders also sometimes have to practice tough love.

They have to rebuke members of the congregation, and I'll tell you, I think I speak for the other 5 elders.

We don't enjoy that.

It's difficult.

It's unpleasant.

We would rather everybody just got along and everybody did the right thing and we didn't have to rebuke or correct anyone.

But the fact of the matter is, that's not a good shepherd.

Who will not correct.

Look out for the welfare of sheep.

In our day and age, Political correctness demands that nothing be said or done.

That might criticize or offend or make someone or some group uncomfortable.

Whether you're talking about politics or religion, and particularly religion, Political correctness says you don't practice tough love, you just get along.

And so political correctness is really the enemy of love.

Political correctness says don't do what's best for other people.

Just leave them alone in their sin.

Leave them on their journey to Damnation I think Christians, some Christians certainly have definitely been affected by this current way of thinking in our culture.

I think that because sometimes when preachers make corrections or when elders make corrections.

Christians don't support those corrections.

They're critical of the preacher of the elders.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

Sometimes there are members in a congregation that are divisive.

And if that behavior is rebuked, The challenge is not.

To try to help that person.

Do the right thing, but instead, the challenge is against the elders or whoever has rebuked the behavior.

Preachers sometimes do not preach all the truth because some members don't want to hear certain things.

Well, you know, he's too critical.

You want to upset people.

Preach on modesty.

And that's almost a winner every time.

Because more often than not, it'll step on somebody's toes.

If you are teaching what the Bible says about modesty.

And so there are some congregations where you'll not hear those sermons.

You'll hear them here But I know congregations where they need those kind of sermons and they're not hearing them.

Elders sometimes do not shepherd.

They don't take care of the sheep because shepherding involves rebuke.

If we tell him or her or that family what they need to hear why they might leave.

And so people go unrebuked.

That's not love.

Sometimes people offer excuses for why they couldn't be with the saints on Sunday.

And those excuses, and I use that word purposefully, are treated as legitimate, even though it is patently obvious that they are exactly that, excuses.

Over the years I've been amazed at what sometimes people expect brethren to believe.

And I sometimes wonder, do they think God is that gullible?

that God doesn't know the truth about why they were not here or Why they could do everything else, they just couldn't get here.

No one wants to speak the truth.

About those excuses.

Because somebody might leave.

Let me ask you the question.

Are we really doing those people any good?

By keeping them in the pew.

If in fact they are not disciples in truth.

I think we're just hurting them.

In fact, we may be hurting them in the sense that they think they're OK when in fact their souls are in danger.

That's not love.

Oh, it might feel good.

We don't have to be uncomfortable.

We don't have to say the hard things.

But it's not love.

How can firmness or severity even sometimes be in the best interests of those we love?

Well, let's talk about the rich young ruler just a little bit more.

Suppose Jesus had failed to tell the rich young ruler what he lacked.

I think it would have gone on his way.

If Jesus had just said, you know, I'm really impressed with your morality, you've been keeping the commandments, you're good to go.

If Jesus had not told him what he needed to hear.

Would he have perhaps believed that he would inherit eternal life when in fact he was woefully unprepared for

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Lee Tosti

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

This morning, scripture reading will be from the 12th chapter of the letter to the Romans.

Uh, to give a little bit of context here, Paul begins the chapter, uh, by admonishing the Romans and of course the Christians, the brethren there, but by extension to us as well, uh, by the mercies of God to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Uh, and beginning in verse 203, Paul gives, uh, an idea of what that looks like in practice.

So the word of God beginning in Romans chapter 12, verse 3 reads, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly as he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same functions.

So we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy and proportion to our faith.

If service in our serving.

The one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine.

Abhor what is evil.

Hold fast to what is good.

Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit.

Serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

I was told to do 2 things.

When I got up here, The first thing was to turn on my lapel microphone.

I hope it's on.

The second thing was to tell somebody in the back that I want complete control.

Once upon a time in my reading, I came across something.

True and profound.

I'm gonna share this with you in the hopes that we can all learn and grow from it.

This is what I read.

Life is as unpredictable as a grapefruit squirt.

Being somebody who eats a lot of grapefruit, I immediately recognized the truth.

That is contained herein.

This is somewhat humorous, somewhat lighthearted.

And that's a way to kind of Soften the edge, break the ice, get us going.

But what should not be lighthearted.

which should not be humorous.

And what should not be unpredictable is what happens in this hour that we have all assembled here.

And I am glad to see, and I have been built up by the reverence that you have had for the word so far, uh.

The traditions that you follow are not unpredictable.

They're right here.

We do the same thing up in Rhode Island just in case you were wondering.

We read from the same words also, so the rest of this sermon will not be me quoting things about grapefruits at all.

I would like to begin our discussion talking about our sanctification and fellowship, and you might turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Before I get there, uh, it would be prudent and appropriate for me to say just a very little bit about the work in Rhode Island.

Uh, me talking about the work in Rhode Island actually is not what builds you up.

These words build you up, so we're gonna get to these words very quickly.

But as far as the work in Rhode Island, um, I would say it is my perspective that the work there is growing.

In the last year or maybe a little bit over, there have been 6 people who have immersed themselves, uh, have been immersed into Christ, and some of those, uh, stories of faith are just mind-blowing and awesome.

And if you read some of my reports, you'll know some about them.

If you want to know more, then please come talk to me, my wife, even some of the children will be able to expound on that.

Uh, also, some of the existing members who have been Christians for 30 years, they're growing.

Uh, from my perspective, most importantly, I know I'm growing.

Uh, I'm, I'm being stretched in this work more than I ever have been.

I think that's my perspective.

Uh, I think God is saying Lee needs to stretch a little bit.

And in theory, as somebody who has a lot of influence, Uh, naturally in their role as an evangelists, as they grow, then the others will grow with them.

That's part of God's plan.

Uh, I will say this finally, your participation, your fellowship in the work by sending us a check every month.

We are grateful for it.

We need it.

The the work up there, they want to support us fully.

They are not yet able, but that's, that's the idea.

If you want to know more about the work, please ask, call, send smoke signals, whatever you got to do.

Getting back into our sermon here.

So you, I think, are in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

The first part, we're going to talk about our sanctification and our fellowship.

By the way, this will be simple.

That's what you get from me.

That's what will be in these worlds.

I'm gonna illustrate it with this wonderful illustration that I have put together with the help of Apple.

Uh, there's the world here, the people in it.

The gospel goes out into the world.

It's like broadcast from God's perspective, broadcast into the world.

This is not a sermon about how to be saved.

That is a sermon that you need to hear, that is a Bible study you need to have.

If you are unfamiliar with that, talk with the people who are here.

This is not about that.

This is about more the result of the gospel going out into the world.

When the gospel goes out into the world, people hear it, they have the opportunity to hear it.

Some of them accept it.

And what God does is he separates them.

He chooses them.

That's who we're gonna talk about this morning.

323 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Verse 13, Paul says, we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord.

Because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation, through sanctification by the spirit and faith in truth, lot in there.

You could spend a month right there.

Verse 14.

It was for this, he called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14 talks about the process.

The gospel goes out.

And some people accept it again, that's not the focus of this discussion.

Verse 13.

It talks about this group of people.

This is what we're focusing on, more the result of the gospel call.

It says there are two words that I'm focusing on.

It says, God has chosen you.

So, this group of people who accept the invitation become chosen.

And these are words that imply they are special.

There's now a special group of people.

This word chosen implies that.

Uh, verse 13 also uses the word in the New American Standard, through sanctification.

And whatever version you're reading out of, The root idea of that word is God sets them apart.

So, uh, you're still in the harvest area.

Is that where we are?

Yeah, we're, you're still in the harvest area.

So physically, you're here in Northern Alabama, but spiritually, God has taken you and he said, you're over here.

You're special.

You're chosen, you're special.

Again, this is simple.

You all know this.

To add another nuance to this special group of people, John will say, In First John, Uh, verse one, initially talking about the work of the apostles and prophets and preachers of the first century, what was from the beginning?

What we, so this is really the apostles.

What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

John is remembering back to his days with Jesus.

He saw him, he heard him, he touched him.

And the life was manifested, we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also.

So that, here's the result.

In order that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

All right.

Verse 3 talks about several categories there.

The first in importance is fellowship with God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

That's the most important thing.

You are called to have a relationship with Him.

But it also said That you too may have fellowship with us, initially, the apostles, and also, by extension, everybody else that has had fellowship with the apostles and with God and with Jesus.

You all know this already, right?

If you have fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus, then you have fellowship with others.

This word here is implying, this is special.

This is a group, a collection.

This is a fellowship of people who have fellowship, if you will.

You remember Jesus talks about a specific family.

in Mark chapter 3.

In Mark chapter 3, some, his mother and his brothers, they come and they stand outside where he is.

Mark chapter 13 verse 32.

A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you, talking about his physical family.

We get that.

Verse 33, answering them, he said, Who are my mother and my brothers?

And you see, he's doing something here.

He said, yes, I understand biologically, they're my family.

But there's something more important.

Verse 34, looking about at those who were sitting around him, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers.

Not literally, not physically, not biologically, but spiritually.

And then he explains, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.

What you have here is Jesus saying, yeah, there's family, and then there's family.

And this family is what's important, the spiritual family.

People who obey me, my disciples, those are my family.

What we're talking about today, I'm kind of setting the plate to get into what we're really gonna talk about.

Right now, all I want to emphasize is something you already know.

We are a special family.

We are sanctified out of the world.

We become special, we become part of a special group of other special people.

By God's grace, I, I'm not special inherently, that's not what's going on, but by God's grace, as I reply to his answer, to his, to his call, I become special.

And the last passage, Mark chapter 10.

Uh, I'm sorry, not the last passage for the whole summit, just in case.

Mark chapter 10, uh, you remember the rich young ruler says, I'm not gonna give that up.

Peter says, we've given up everything, Lord.

Verse 29, Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive 100 times as much now in the present age.

Houses and then brothers, sisters, mothers and children, and there's more, I get that.

But again, this is the family that we are talking about.

The gospel message goes out in the world.

Some people say, I want part of that.

God separates them, he chooses them, and they come into a fellowship with others who are special.

This family, all I've done so far is acknowledge what we already know.

Emphasize the existence of this group of special people, of which we have partnership, participation.

Which we consider important also.

All right.

I hope I've made the point clearly enough.

This brings us to part 2.

We'll spend most of our time here.

Part 2.

Our relationship, which we just talked about.

And our responsibility.

Our relationship with each other implies a responsibility with each other.

That's where we're going here.

You can turn to 143 Corinthians chapter 12, and we'll see this very clearly, I hope.

1 Corinthians 12.

Verse 4.

All right.

So, way back in the day, and even many parts of the world, even now, um, they would think wrongly that if there is some special gift, that implied its own God.

There's a plethora of gods out there, and if somebody could do something fancy, well, it was a specific God attached to that.

They come out of that heathen idolatry and Paul here is correcting them.

The spiritual gifts of which there are many manifestations come from one God.

There's the context.

Verse 4.

There are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit.

And there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord, there are varieties of effects of effects, but the same God who works all things and all persons.

Verse 7 is where we're going.

But to each one, those are God gives to each saint, to each Christian, to each person.

To each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

All right.

Paul's gonna begin something here.

Another lovely illustration up on the board.

There is the group considered as a whole, as a unit, as a single unit.

And then the same people, there's the group considered distributively, the individuals.

Like right now, we are an assembly.

Made up of every individual here.

What Paul is going to do in this text is bring out 4 things I'll suggest.

The next what we'll talk about is how the group as a group, impacts the individuals.

We together right now, doing God's things, God's ways by faith, are impacting every individual in here.

We're all impacting each other.

Also, the individuals impact the group.

All right.

So this is a bit like Sentence structure and writing a sentence.

The sentence informs the meaning of the word in the sentence, and the words within the sentence inform the meaning of the sentence.

You ever notice how that goes back and forth like that?

That's what's happening.

That's what we're talking about.

The group is impacted by the individuals, and the individuals are impacted by the group.

Let's build on, Paul's gonna be talking about, you'll see it.

Also, the individuals impact the other individuals.

Forget about the group.

In other words, we, after, after 10 11:173, I guess it is, amen. Amen.

11:15, you all go your separate ways.

You are still going to be impacting each other, or you should be.

That's what the point of this discussion is, right?

So, yeah, we're impacting each other right now, but just because we say amen doesn't mean our impact and our influence on each other stops.

What we're talking about here is 4 things.

Relationship, interdependence, impact, and responsibility.

Those 4 things over and over.

Paul is going to talk about this.

He's gonna talk about it from every direction you can think.

His repetition.

Emphasizes importance.

Well, Paul, why are you talking about this so much, so many different ways?

Well, part of it is so that Lee can get it through his thick skull.

And the other part of it is because this is important, that's why we're talking about it.

All right.

Verse 7, to each, you'll see this repeated through here.

To each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

Some of yours will say all.

I read out of the new American Standard, by the way, 1995.

There you go.

Uh, you can think of the sum of the body.

Verse 8.

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to another, the word of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by one spirit and to another the affecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another distinguishing of spirits into various kinds of tongues and another interpretation of tongues.

But one and the same spirit works, all these things distributing to each one individually, just as he wills.

Uh, a quick disclaimer, I am convinced that these miraculous gifts are no longer available to us.

God could, but he does not.

Uh, that's another discussion.

But the principle that we see, this interdependence is here in this text and remains now.

Verse 12.

For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, you see the interplay, there's a group, and there's individuals of the group, and they impact each other.

And all the members of the body, and they are many, are one body, so also is Christ, or that is Christ's body.

For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.

Paul has just said the exact same thing over and over and over and over again to emphasize, and now we need to understand that this is important.

All right.

So we've established, there's relationship, there's interdependence, there's impact, and there's responsibility.

To each one is given the manifest of the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

If you have something that you can use for each other, y'all better be doing it.

That's the point.

All right.

Having established this relationship, he's now going to go into a discussion about how we value each other.

And it'll begin with undervaluing yourself.

If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason, any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, because I am not an eye, It is not for this reason, any lesser part of the body, and now he'll, so that's, don't think that way.

And here's the explanation.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body just as he desired.

So it's an analogy.

Look at the human body, and yeah, we understand that there are uh lesser roles, but not lesser importance.

That's the idea, right?

So, we look at the human body.

Paul says, look at your body.

And this is how this group here and Christ's body as a whole operates.

Verse 18, God has placed the members, each one of them in the body just as he desired.

If they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members, but one body.

The point being, don't undervalue your influence and your impact in the body.

That's what the point is, summarized.

Imagine there's a husband and wife and they have children and they're successful.

They've got a nice house, everything's going well, and the wife, she stays at home, she raises the children mostly and the husband goes out to work wherever he goes out to work, and she says one day she says to him.

You make the money.

You've bought the house, you buy the groceries, you buy the clothes, you buy the car, you buy the insurance.

And on and on it goes, and she says, I just don't think I'm very valuable here.

What would he say to her?

You would say, you know, that's right.

I, I do go out, I buy all these things, right?

I work so I can do all these things, but don't you ever, ever, ever think that because we have a different role, you are less important.

In fact, your role is staying at home, raising these young children, even in the raising of the children, the man brings a different talent set than the woman does, and you can't get rid of that woman.

You can't, yes, we have different roles.

That doesn't mean we're less valuable than each other.

Instead, we need to learn to value each other.

And here I am, I'm thinking, oh man, I'm just, I'm a foot and not a hand.

And Paul says, get that kind of thinking out of your head.

We are, we have a relationship.

We depend on each other.

We impact each other.

We have a responsibility.

Get to work is the idea.

In verse 113, we have the opposite.

In verses 15 through 20, we have somebody who is A little too humble.

I'm nothing.

In verse 21, we have somebody who is lacking a little humility.

And the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

You see that, here's somebody who says, oh man, I'm, I'm, I do a lot around here.

I sure do.

In fact, I do so much that I don't even need you.

Paul says, get that kind of thinking out of your head.

In fact, it cannot say, I have no need of you.

The opposite of that is, I must say, I need you.

I cannot say I don't need you.

Well, you get rid of all those double negatives and everything and you come up with, I need you.

In fact, in verse 22, on the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are numeric standard uses the word necessary.

Uh One smart person says, This word implies meeting a need, a need.

You're needed.

I'm reminded of Genesis 1 and 2, the husband needs the wife and the wife needs.

The husband, another word by another smart person indispensable.

You're indispensable.

It doesn't matter who you are, you're indispensable unless God takes you, in which case he understands it's time to go.

But otherwise, you're indispensable.

So not only is it not, I don't need you, but it's, I can't live without you.

So that's what we're thinking about each other right now.

I don't know if you were before now when you walked in, but when we read the text, we understand we need to be thinking about each other.

You're indispensable and, and, and so am I. Another smart person says compulsory.

And another one uses what's translated as without which nothing, without you, we're nothing.

And who's that talking about?

That's talking about the hand, the foot, the ear, the head, the mouth, the eye, all of it, without which, nothing.

All right.

So we understand this principle.

The principle is we have a relationship and in a properly functioning group, we are all contributing.

We're all impacting.

We're all involved.

We're all responsible for and with each other.

All right.

Another text, Romans 12, says the same thing.

By the way, I'm just gonna repeat myself now.

So if I die, You've got the lesson.

In Romans chapter 12, Verse 3, and this will sound, it's Paul writing about the same thing as he just wrote about.

Romans 103:3, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

You see, this is the person who says, I don't need you.

No, you need to stop that.

Everybody needs everybody.

But to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of 11 of another.

There it is.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, and the new American standard will supply, your, there's no verb in the original, we don't speak that way.

We need a verb, so we're gonna get a verb here.

Each of us is to exercise them accordingly.

And we understand accordingly.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 220, it was, For the common good.

What what do you have?

What can you do for each other?

If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service and his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, or he who gives with liberality, or he who leads with diligence, or he who shows with mercy, uh, mercy with cheerfulness, or your version will say something there.

But the point is, In my sphere of influence.

There are other Christians.

There ought to be, or I need to move my sphere of influence, right?

In my sphere of influence, there are other Christians, and I need them.

And they need me By the way, I'll make this point here.

So far, these verses are not talking about the church assembled.

They're just talking about Christians.

Yes, they're talking about two local bodies.

They're talking to local bodies, but this would also apply to somebody.

There might be somebody who's not a Christian somewhere that is not a member of your local church, but you still influence them, and they still influence you.

You have a special relationship with this group, but the theory that the principles we're talking about apply everywhere.

If there's a Christian in my sphere of influence, I need him or her.

And she or he needs me.

There are several words in here that will drive this point home.

In verse 232, the new American standard, be devoted.

To one another in brotherly love.

Give preference to one another in honor.

And an alternate translation is outdo one another in showing honor.

You see the, the amount of energy they're putting into this?

I need you.

I'm gonna try to outdo you, or at least I'm gonna outdo myself yesterday.

Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, you read the text again.

All of this is saying we need each other.

Which brings us to the lingering question that should be in the back of your mind already, and it is this.

Am I involved enough?

God has separated me.

He's made me special.

He's put me with a family of special people, and he said, now you guys go be special together cause you need each other.

Am I involved enough with those in my sphere of influence, even this local body?

Hebrews chapter 21.

Hebrews 214, I, I, I've made it through two passages saying the same thing.

We're going to have another, a third passage here saying the same thing again.

Hebrews 217:211.

There's the warning.

Take care.

There's the who brethren, our family.

There's the what that there be.

Not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

Anybody in here want to fall away from the living God?

Nobody raises their hands.

So we need to, I wonder if God has given us something, a tool maybe to help us not fall away.

Look in the next verse.

Verse 103.

But, Here's the what.

Encourage and the who one another.

You see, our relationship, our interdependence, our influence, our impact, our responsibility to each other.

Encourage one another.

This is a prescription, by the way.

Day after day, a doctor, how, how often do I take the pill?

Day after day?

How long, doctor, for how long do I take the pill?

As long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Now again, I'll suggest to you that the author in here is being emphatic.

When he says, encourage one another, day after day.

I would suggest, I might be wrong, if you have a better, if you think I'm incorrect, let me know, but I don't think this is being literal.

Every day, you must make a phone call to somebody.

Every day, you've got to go to somebody's house.

Every day, you've got to write a letter.

I don't think, remember, pray without ceasing, for example?

You ever try that?

You'll end up praying for more, if you try that while you're driving.

You, you understand the point.

Pray with, we, there are some things that are put in there for, let this be your character, habitual.

This is what I believe this is saying.

And the emphasis.

Drives home the importance, day after day means a lot.

We have this relationship.

God put us into it.

We, we depend on each other.

We must influence and impact each other.

We have a responsibility to do this a lot, which again, causes us to ask the question.

Am I involved?

Could I use improvement in this category?

Cause I know it'll help me because God says it will, and it'll help others also.

Another passage, Hebrews chapter 210.

This is actually the first passage, which directly has to do with all these principles.

Applying to this very assembly right here.

All these other passages talk about just me and my life.

Me and my life, I've got to be the kind of person who has influence, who is impacting other people.

I need to be involved.

And yes, I need to be involved here also.

Hebrews chapter 225 verse 23.

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Hebrews 3.

It is about, it's from the negative.

You don't want to fall away.

So encourage each other.

Here it's, you do want to do love and good deeds.

I want to be fruitful for the Lord, so encourage each other.

Same idea.

Encourage one another, uh, stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Not for seeking our own assembly together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more.

As you see the day drawing near.

Again, there's the duration.

Doctor, how long do I take the pill?

Well, as long as the day is drawing near, you're taking the pill.

All right.

Here it says That when we assemble right now, we are impacting.

If we're doing God's things, God's ways by faith.

We are impacting and influencing one another.

You are fulfilling your responsibility.

Keep your finger here in Hebrews 10, just for a few, I'm gonna come back here, so don't, don't, don't worry, I will come back to Hebrews 10.

Right now, 1 Corinthians 14, another passage about when they're assembled.

In 1 Corinthians 17:26, what is the outcome then, brethren?

When you, I'm in verse 26.

When you assemble, that's the same word, by the way, different form, but same word of Hebrews.

Not forsaking our own assembling together.

OK, when you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.

And then it says, let all things be done for edification.

Spiritual bodybuilding.

You want to be built up.

Every single thing you do in this assembly must be done.

If it's God's thing, God's tradition, done by faith, you will be built up.

And again, there's this relationship, there's this influence, there's this impact we're having on each other.

This word edification.

Occurs all throughout this chapter.

You can go and read that on your own.

Only emphasizing again if you're assembled.

What you do will impact you.

You ever notice there are different kinds of assemblies that we have?

Well, in theory, although there are different kinds of assemblies, they all end up with us being built up.

That word edified turned to Acts chapter 20.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Hebrews.

In Acts chapter 20, in verse 32, Paul says, I commend you to God.

And to the word of His grace.

Which is able to, and here's our word again, edified in 1 Corinthians 14.

Let all things be done for edification.

Here's our word again.

The word is able to build you up.

So, yep, when we're assembled Sunday morning for the Lord's supper assembly, we're building each other up through the word.

But that's not the only other, the only time.

Anytime this church assembles and does anything that is God's tradition, but right here, we're talking about studying our Bibles.

So this applies to the Bible studies you're going to have sometime today, I assume, or maybe not, maybe next week.

But this applies to when you get together and open your Bibles.

You will be building each other up.

Am I involved?

Am I here only for the Lord's supper?

Or am I also here for the Bible study?

Uh, this next passage is free.

In Acts 17, the folks in Berea.

So I'll suggest you turn there and listen carefully.

The folks in Berea.

It says in verse 11, these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica.

Now, listen carefully as I read this.

For they received the word, which we know, it builds them up.

With great eagerness, examining the scriptures every Sunday and sometimes on Wednesday also.

Yeah, some of us are smirking because that's not what it says.

It says daily.

And so, if this church right here has, can you believe it, an assembly besides this one, and they're opening these words?

Who's gonna benefit from being at that assembly?

Every person in here.

In fact, if even one of us is missing, and I understand we have life.

I get that.

But the principle is, if even one of us is missing, guess who's missing out?

Everybody. That person and all the people they would impact.

That's the principle.

So back here in Hebrews chapter 10, finally, in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.

Did you hear those words?

Some are habitually Not impacting, not influencing others when God has set us up to get together and impact and influence others.

How can it be?

This brings us to part 3, which will be relatively quick.

Our resolve.

Or maybe I should say, I'll resolve.

We sing the song, I am resolved no longer to linger.

Sometimes it might be more appropriate to say I am not resolved no longer to linger.

Because each of us has to make up in our mind, this is my family.

This is the family that Jesus has set up on the earth.

He died for this family.

I want to get to heaven.

We want to move the ball down the field.

We're having a reasonable conversation with each other about our family and our influence, our impact, our dependence on each other.

We are co-dependent.

And Christ's What he expects of us.

Let me close with some things that I have seen get in the way.

Oh, by the way, somebody said it's hard to build a house with somebody who isn't helping carry the brakes.

Our congregation, we have goals.

We want to be pleasing to God.

And then On Wednesday night, half of them aren't there.

It's hard to build a house.

With somebody who isn't helping to carry the bricks, some unnecessary obstacles.

Maybe this is not a complete list.

Maybe you see yourself, others.

Education I'll put that number one.

By the way, these are not things that are sinful.

I have a friend though.

Who admitted to me after he stopped coming to church for a long period of time because he chose a college that was far away.

He said to me that education has become his idol.

Those are his words.

He admitted it.

School sports.

Programs, clubs, entertainment, work.

Over time You need a house But do you need that house?

Etc. etc. A member of the church where I'm from.

His name is Dave Sutherland.

He would tell you this.

He was a principal at a To paying school, public school in Massachusetts.

And he was having stress one day, so much they thought it was a heart attack.

He goes to the hospital.

Friday morning, he goes to the hospital, stressed.

He thinks he's having a heart attack, and the only thing he could think about the whole time was what about Monday's class period?

What's going to happen for Monday at school?

And people were telling him.

You've got to calm down, Dave.

You've got to, you've got to settle down.

And he said, but I'm making such good money.

And meanwhile, everybody around him is telling him, you don't need the money.

He never went back to that job.

At least he woke up and saw the truth.

Exhaustion We fill our lives with all the wonderful opportunities.

They're beautiful opportunities.

We fill our lives with them.

By the way, God does say that He has given us every good thing to enjoy.

He has given us all those.

This is all about balance.

That's what this is about.

We fill our lives with everything so that when so and so is having a reading or a potluck or whatever it is, we don't make it because we're tired.

Family obligations, I quote from a text message received.

My family will not be at services tonight.

We have a family commitment.

Let me change one word and you'll hear.

This whole sermon in one word.

My family will be at services tonight.

We have a family commitment.

Do you hear the difference there?

Hobbies, misplaced priorities, too busy, misunderstanding responsibility to each other, underappreciating one another's value, neglecting each other's selfishness, laziness, bad attitudes about each other, left first love, grown lukewarm, love grows cold.

Same point from different passages.

Doubt, lack of faith, don't feel like there's a place.

Sometimes it can be awkward, right?

We're not all gregarious and outgoing, not all of us.

I read a shirt recently.

Introverted but willing to talk about Jesus.

Yeah, there are times when It feels awkward to be here.

It doesn't feel quite right to be here, but willing to give it a try.

One more try, one more week.

I feel useless.

I don't feel like it makes a difference.

By the way, a lot of these are simply from lack of faith.

God says go together, do my things my way, by faith, and you will grow.

That's what God says.

Don't see the need or feel that it's beneficial.

Don't think that I will find the support that I need.

I, I'm hurt by somebody.

I don't trust somebody.

I'm upset with somebody.

I'm bitter at somebody.

I'm embarrassed.

I've never been challenged.

That's what today is about.

I've never been challenged.

No, you know, I've been thinking actually I haven't been thinking these things, not specifically, but you put into words what I've been thinking.

Never challenge self pride.

I don't need you.

I don't need you.

I don't need to go be with you.

Deprived of involvement.

Distracted habit, lack of resolve and commitment to God.

To self And to others and then it's just the world, right?

That's what we're talking about.

These are unnecessary obstacles.

This is life, but we don't need to let them get in the way of our resolve.

Somebody said, no one can transform his character while holding to the same old stock of ideas and ideals.

When we change our mind about each other and what God is doing with us here with our family, that will impact what we think about on the way to work, how much time we spend at work, when we come the work we choose, when we come home from work, when we get home from work, what we do with our family, all with new ideas about I am resolved.

To impact and influence those who God has given to me.

We are a special people.

You are special people.

We are a special group.

Thank you for your good attention.

There's an invitation if you are a Christian and you have lacked resolve.

I've been there.

And you would like the prayers of the congregation.

If you're a saint and you have sinned in some public way that the congregation needs to know about, if you are not a child of God and you want to know about this special group of people, you want to know more about that.

Then we invite you to come forward and let us know as we stand and sing the song that's been chosen.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

I suspect that probably all of us at one time or another have wondered what Jesus looked like.

How tall was he?

What kind of physique did he have?

What?

How did his face appear?

So this morning I'm here to help you.

By sharing with you some of the pictures that people have painted or drawn over the centuries to represent Jesus, his appearance as they pictured him.

Some of these pictures, uh, Look Like just kind of an average person.

Some of them look almost a little bit effeminate.

Uh, you'll notice that in some of them, particularly this one here, he seems to have lipstick on almost in that photo.

Um, And so Jesus is often pictured.

As basically a Caucasian European, he has the same features that uh people from that area of the world would typically have.

Some have suggested that picturing Jesus as a Caucasian individual is actually racist.

That in fact, Jesus might very well have been a black man and so you'll see lots of pictures if you were to get on the internet of black Jesus.

Uh, but I would note that although we don't have any specific details about Jesus' appearance, we do know that he was a Jewish male.

And so, I would suggest to you that he probably looked something like that picture, although his skin, I believe, probably was a little darker as is characteristic of people in that part of the world.

And that's really the only thing that we have to judge or to go by if we were to talk about the appearance of Jesus.

Because in almost in an astonishing way, the four Gospels say almost nothing about his appearance.

Isaiah 53 verses 1 and 2 have been cited by some as to suggest that he was actually not a very good looking person.

I'm not sure that's what's being said in verse 2 of Isaiah 53, a Messianic's passage, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

I don't believe that.

Isaiah was saying that Jesus was uncomely, but just simply that there wasn't anything uh majestic or particularly handsome of just an average Jewish male, unlike Saul, who was head and shoulders above all those of Israel or David, who was a handsome young man.

Jesus apparently was just an average Jewish male.

And so what I want you to understand is that the focus of the scriptures is not on the physical appearance of Jesus, but rather on his character.

I want to draw your attention back to the passage that was read uh just a few moments ago as a scripture reading.

Uh, actually, Jim read from verse 3 down to verse 14, but I want you to look specifically at verses 3 through 153.

Ephesians one in these early verses of the chapter contains perhaps one of the most comprehensive summaries of God's redemptive plan from before the foundational world, even to its culmination in our response to the gospel and our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

But read along with me again, if you will, beginning in verse 3, where Paul writes, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy.

And blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

And so Paul tells us that before the foundation of the world, before the world was even created, before man appeared on this earth, that God had already predestined that men and women would be adopted as spiritual children, that they would become holy and blameless in Christ.

Paul would explain further the objective of God's plan in the book of Romans in chapter 8 and beginning in verse 26.

I'm going to just look at verse 29 and 30 as Paul gives this whirlwind summary of what God's plan comprehended.

For instance, he says in verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

And I believe that in the last part of that verse 30, talking about the glorification of those who have been justified, that Paul is actually talking about what will happen in the future to us, to those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

But since God's purposes are not thwarted, Paul writes about it as though it is a fact already.

It is so certain that it will occur according to God's plan.

God foreknew, and he predestined those whom he foreknew.

I think he's talking about people who would be in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

He predestined that those people would be conformed to the image of His Son.

And so people were called by the gospel and justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And of course, will be glorified eventually in heaven with God.

And so, I believe Romans 8:29 and 123 really gives us a broad and uh not a real specific summary, but a broad summary of God's intentions uh in his redemptive plan.

One other passage that I would perhaps suggest for your consideration is 2 Peter the 1 chapter, verses 3 and 4.

In that passage, Peter indicates that God has given us His precious and very great promises, so that through them, these promises, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

And so, if you consider these passages in Ephesians 1 and Romans the 8th chapter and 2 Peter 1, we need to know what the image of Jesus is, because God's plan is for us to be conformed to the image of his son.

Now, that's a huge study.

Some of you are beginning to wonder if perhaps the only reason there'll be one assembly today is that it'll last all day.

There'll never be any break.

We'll just stay here until we would normally leave in the evening.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

I know that's a huge study, but we're only going to talk this morning about two characteristics.

Of the image of Christ.

Two things that I think are significant about the character of Jesus that I want to highlight.

There are many others, but we're just going to look at two, and that is the humility of Jesus and the holiness of Jesus.

Paul would write to the Philippians in chapter 2 and verses 23 through 8.

That they needed to have the same mind as Jesus Christ, who verse 6, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Jesus didn't feel as though it was something that he couldn't let go, but instead, we're told, he emptied himself for 7 by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And so Paul emphasized the humility of Jesus.

Two phrases that are highlighted in that text uh on the screen.

The first one that he emptied himself, and we're told at least in some way, in some sense or aspect, how it is that he emptied himself.

He took the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men, he emptied himself by becoming like us.

And then secondly, being found in human form, he humbled himself, which I think is also implied in the idea of emptying himself, but he humbled himself by becoming obedient.

And so his humility was illustrated or manifested in his obedience to the will of the Father.

That's contrary.

To what seems to be the general tendency.

Among Those who are religious.

And I'm not poking at anybody here or this congregation, but I would remind you that one of the criticisms that Jesus proffered for the Pharisees and the scribes in his day is that they were sinfully arrogant.

And so in Matthew chapter 23, he says to them, uh, he talks about them, I guess I should say, in the early verses of that chapter beginning in verse 5, they do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

In other words, they draw attention to them.

Selves in terms of being religious or spiritual in the eyes of others.

And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

And so these religious leaders were all up about themselves and their uh appearance before others.

In verse 12, Jesus would continue by summarizing whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

These religious leaders exalted themselves, and they were keen on having others see them for their good works, for their Religious exercises.

Earlier in his ministry in the context of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 6 of the Pharisees, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

I believe that Jesus may have engaged in what we would call hyperbole here when he says they sounded trumpets before them.

I don't know that they literally did that.

I can't find any evidence of that historically, other than this passage.

And it may be that what Jesus is trying to say is they just want to make sure everybody sees what they're doing.

When they give, when they do good works.

They want everybody to know about them.

And so their arrogance was criticized by the Lord.

But by contrast, Jesus gave up position.

He emptied himself to live among men, to live among us, and to die for our redemption.

We've looked at verses 5 through 8, but I wanna back up in the chapter so that we can see clearly the connection between the beginning verses of Philippians 203 and these verses that have to do about having the mind of Christ because I believe those early verses helped to define what Paul means when he says, have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus.

So read along with me, beginning in verse 1 of Philippians 2.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, if any of these things are true, and of course, there's no uncertainty in Paul's mind, he's suggesting all of these motivations for them to complete his joy by being of the Same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

And then he begins to talk about Jesus, who put our interest before his own interest.

Jesus, who was not possessed of selfish ambition or conceit, but humbled himself, even Paul says to the point of death, even the death on the cross.

There's another passage in the writings of Paul, which also connects the attitude of Jesus with the way that we ought to behave.

Mind you, we're talking about the need for us to be conformed to the image, the image of Christ, not his appearance, but to his character.

And so in Romans the 15th chapter, having talked extensively about not putting stumbling blocks.

In front of others in chapter 21, Paul continues that discussion in verse 214 of chapter 22.

He says, we who are strong, have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Now, look at the next verse.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

And so as he talks about how we ought not to please ourselves, but that we need to bear with the failings of others, the weaknesses of others, he then moves to Christ and says, and that's what Jesus did.

In a way, Paul is saying very clearly, you need to be conformed to the image of God's son in the matter of loving your neighbor, of pleasing your neighbor, doing what's best for him and not necessarily just for yourself.

Verse 215 may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another.

And so there's the definition, the theme of this, of these verses in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One voice, unity is the issue here.

Therefore, welcome one another.

As Christ has welcomed you.

Be conformed to the image of God's Son.

Act like God's son acted is what Paul seems to be saying here.

We've been studying in the Gospel of John now for a couple of teaching sessions, and we recently, recently talked about John 212, where Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you as he speaks to his apostles on that last night of his life, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another.

Jesus actually said the same thing twice here.

In verse 22, he says, you love one another just as I have loved you.

In other words, you do what I've done, be conformed to my image.

But then in verse 23, he says, if you love one another, people will know that you are my disciples.

A disciple is one who follows, one who is an adherent to the teaching of another.

And so Jesus says, if people see you loving one another, they'll know that I am your teacher, I'm your master.

They'll know that you are my disciples.

The apostle Paul wrote basically the same thing in the conclusion of chapter 22 of Ephesians, when he said, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

And so the first characteristic of the image of Christ or of his character that I want to impress upon you is his humility and specifically that humility being manifested in his obedience to the Father's will.

But I said there will be too, and I want to talk a little bit now about the holiness of Christ.

I mentioned earlier, 25 Peter 217 verses 3 and 4.

Let's read that passage together.

Peter writes, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them, these promises, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

When Peter writes that we will be able to become partakers of the divine nature, he is not suggesting that we're going to become gods.

There's actually a religious group.

That teaches something similar to that idea, but that's not what Peter's talking about here.

He explains his meaning in the last phrase of verse 4, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

The way in which we become partakers of the divine nature is that we can, can become holy like God's Son is, like the Father is.

We are declared righteous, of course, when we're walked by the blood of Jesus Christ, we're baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins, and we become blameless in that sense, holy, but that remaining holy is a task that we must pursue for the rest of our lives as Christians.

Interesting things said about Jesus or that Jesus said about himself.

In the Gospel of John.

Things that indicate that Jesus was determined to do the will of the Father.

That might not surprise us in light of what we know about the unity of the Father and the Son, but listen to the words of Jesus in John 6:38, he says, for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

Do you recall in John the 4th chapter when Jesus stopped at a well there in Samaria, and there was a woman who came to the well, the disciples had gone into a nearby town to buy some food.

Jesus was tired, he was thirsty, and so he asked this woman for a drink.

And the conversation quickly is, as Lucas said this morning, was quickly pushed to the spiritual.

And so Jesus talks to this woman, she identifies.

Him as a prophet realizes uh that he can tell her uh things of the will of God and so the conversation goes well she goes back into the city and begins noising about the fact that she has found uh this prophet.

The disciples come back and they're urging Jesus to eat.

They've brought food for him, which was their, uh, their task.

But Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Jesus said, what sustains me?

That's what food does.

What sustains me is doing the will of my Father.

And as near as we can say the same thing about our lives, we will approach the holiness that Jesus manifested on earth.

It wasn't that Jesus was God and so he had uh some sort of advantage in that sense, because we're told in the book of Hebrews that he became like us.

He took on flesh and blood, and that he was tempted just as we are tempted.

But so often the difference between us and God's Son.

is that our food is not always to do the will of the Father.

Sometimes we do our own will.

But we're told in Hebrews 53:15 that Jesus never did that.

That his focus on doing the will of the Father was such that he was without sin and thus became the perfect sacrifice for our sin.

We read From 2 Peter.

I want to read now from 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14.

Where Peter writes as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Peter, of course, quoting from Leviticus, indicating that God's requirement of holiness among his people continues on into the New Testament period or the time of Christ's kingdom.

Peter exhorts us to be holy even as God is holy.

Conform to the image of God's son.

We spent some time in Philippians chapter 2.

Let's just drop down a little bit further in that chapter and notice that Paul says in verse 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

So Paul joins the apostle Peter in encouraging us to be blameless and innocent, that we can be good examples to others.

As Paul says, people will see Christ living in us as we're conformed to the image of God's Son.

In Romans the 12th chapter, Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

In the Old Testament, you couldn't offer just any animal.

Leviticus, the first few chapters.

They are very specific about the fact that those animals needed to be without blemish.

They needed to be perfect.

Obviously, in a physical way.

What God wants from us is for us to be blameless in a moral or spiritual fashion.

We fall short of that, but that's the goal, that we become more and more conformed to the image of God's Son in His holiness.

The Bible talks about sons being like their fathers.

And you've no doubt seen that in your experience that often you'll see the similarity between father and son.

It used to be that sons would work with their father, often, at least in biblical times, fathers would teach their trade to their sons.

There'd be a lot of time spent together.

And so the son, uh, inexorably would be similar to his father as they spent time together.

If we are going to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

We're going to have to spend a lot of time with him.

We can't do that physically.

That would have been quite the blessing to be able to walk with Jesus and hear his voice and see him physically and spend time with him.

But as we read the scriptures and as we learn more, About the image of Jesus Christ.

We can become more and more conformed to that image.

I think Christians often feel like square pegs in a round hole world.

The fact of the matter is, God doesn't want us to fit in with the world, but the pressure on us is to conform.

To the world.

What God desires is that we conform to the image of His Son, become more and more like Jesus over time.

The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 2 and 20, I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Do you not see in that passage as well the confirmation?

To the image of God's Son.

Paul says, I died.

And the life that I live now.

I live, he says.

By faith in the Son of God, Christ lives in me.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the same apostle said, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Are you a new creature in Christ?

Have you been made holy by the forgiveness of your sins, not by our own merits, not by our perfect obedience, but by the grace of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can be made holy.

And then we can live day after day, becoming more and more like Jesus as long as we live.

Is that where you are?

If not, then I would encourage you and we will encourage you just a few moments in song, to obey the gospel, to express your faith in Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind.

And having confessed that faith and repented of your sins to be baptized in Christ for the remission of your sins, and water is prepared, we would be pleased to help you to become a New Testament Christian, a new creature in Christ.

Most of us here this morning, or at least many of us, are already Christians.

And our task is to continue in that process of being holy.

When we're baptized, when we become Christians, we become new creatures and we're free from sin, but in most cases, that doesn't last very long and we sin occasionally, even as we try to do what is right.

We need to be continually seeking forgiveness that we can be holy in the sight of God and we need to seek to be conformed to the image of God's Son more and more day by day.

If we can assist you in any way by uh baptizing you into Christ or by praying with you for your strength and encouragement, we want to encourage you to come to the front as we stand and sing to invite you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ethan Adams

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Good evening.

I'll be reading from Matthew chapter 25.

Beginning in verse 31.

The ESV is on the screen, but I'll be reading from the New King James version.

In this passage, Jesus is on the mount of Olives.

He's speaking privately to his disciples.

Matthew 25 beginning in verse 53.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of His glory.

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in.

I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you, or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food.

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not take me in naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

Then he will answer them saying, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Well, it's good to see everyone here tonight.

Uh, grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak before all of you, uh, while Alan is away and Grateful to be here with this congregation that you're always an encouragement to me, that it's good to know that there's people of like faith, folks who are striving together in the same direction.

Towards the same goal of serving God and being pleasing to him.

You're all uh regularly in my prayers, both for the thanks for the encouragement you give me and that, uh, God will continue to be strengthened and uh.

Continue on into the goal.

Since the holiday season, as Troy had a couple of weeks ago, there's a lot of classic Christmas films we could be looking at now.

But last year was one that had really caught my attention.

It was A Christmas Carol.

I'd finally gotten around to reading it.

I've seen so many different versions of it, and it's a popular story.

I've adapted almost immediately as soon as uh Charles Dickens had written it.

We've seen in many formats that he delivered it, you know, speaking, radio broadcasts.

It's been animated, made into stage plays, performed by Muppets.

And uh retold in many different ways, uh.

But the story is uh nearly timeless because it talks about a lot of themes uh that are good for us to remember today that Charles Dickens in his day, he was concerned about the treatment of the poor as they converted during the industrial revolution into an urban society in Britain and that at the time there was a lot of struggles during that shift.

There were people who were being left behind, people who weren't being cared for.

And through the lens of Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts visiting him on Christmas Eve, he tells that story about how uh They should open themselves up to charity, to caring for their fellow man, to watching out for them.

It's a story that We do good to remember today that uh Seeing as example that unfortunately we haven't yet done away with poverty, we haven't done away with want even in the modern age, and there's still folks that we need to be on the lookout for to be generous towards to watch out for and to care for and so that's the purpose for a lesson tonight because that's also at the heart of the gospel, the heart of God's nature that We need to care for who God calls the least of these.

It spoke about in Matthew chapter 25, and I thank David for the good song leading, for his excellent song choices, and Daniel for uh good reading of the The scripture reading for the lesson.

So here we have a couple of of objectives tonight but first want to summarize what God's view is of the least of these.

What he has to say about those uh who are in need, those who are suffering from want.

And to defend this view against some common objections, there's some things that people when they Here, you know, this benediction when they hear a call to help those in need, there's some pushback.

And so to answer some of those objections and to identify the ways that we can follow in God's example, because the point of this is to be able to apply it that I want to be able to take the things that we hear tonight, the things that we study, and to make sure that we're living them out in our day to day lives.

So before we talk about how God views the least of these, we have to talk at a broader picture and God's nature in general.

It's first that God loves us, and the God in fact describes himself as love.

We see in 1 John chapter 4 that he identifies himself as love.

And that again in the Old Testament, when God appears to Moses in the cleft of the rock, when he's describing his nature, showing as close a view as anyone on earth has ever come to seeing God.

He describes himself as the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the 3rd and 4th generation.

So God is a God of love, but that is his nature to love us, because of that love, God cares for us.

That we're told in Psalm 55, cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you.

He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

And Lord, in the sermon on the Mount.

Tells those assembled in Chapter 7, or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.

If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask of him?

So God compares himself to our, as our Father, and he says, our earthly fathers know how to take care of us, our earthly fathers.

Who are sinful and who are fallible, that they know how to do good for us, how to give us what we need, what we want, how to care for us.

Then how much more is God as our heavenly Father, able to do the same thing and so much more.

And finally, that God delivers justice that along with his mercy, he is also a just God.

And that he identifies himself in one of his names see in several of these passages as the Lord of hosts.

God is quick to watch out for injustice and to deliver justice to his people.

Isaiah 30:18 we're told, therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exaltself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

And then in a commandment to us in Micah chapter 153, he says, he has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and loved kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

And then again, as God describing his own nature in Romans chapter 12, uh, through the writings of the apostle Paul, he says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

So we're seeing God's nature that He is a God of love, a God of justice, and through both of those attributes he seeks to care for us, to give us what we need to provide for us.

And he expects that of his people that uh he tells us through the apostle Paul, he said, to be imitators of me as I am of Christ, that those who are following God should imitate him, they should seek to follow in his example.

And so we love because God loves us.

In 1 John chapter 4, verse 11, we're told, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

And then the golden rule, yes if we teach our children from a young age, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

And as I preached about earlier this year, the greatest command, one of them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the great in first commandment.

And the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

And then that we're to demonstrate that love through good works that it's not enough to just have a generally a warm feeling, you know, warm and fuzzy to say, oh, you know, I love my fellow man.

It's not enough to just say that, that we love them, that we need to demonstrate it through our actions.

That Paul speaking or speaking to the Galatians in chapter 6, verse 10 says, so then, as we have opportunity, let's do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

And again, the author of Hebrews in chapter 13 says, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

And then again summarize uh from the reading that Daniel did for us, uh, for the lesson.

God tells us that as we did it to the least of our brothers, so we did it to him, that all those things, all the good we do to others is reflected back to God and speaks well of us.

And again, what a striking thing it is that of the few times that God or Jesus in his earthly ministry speaks about the final judgment, that one of the ways he speaks about it is and how we do good to others or how we fail to do good to others.

And the importance of our actions, the importance of demonstrating our love through good works.

And that love is best exemplified by God and how we love the least of these.

Again, and God describing his nature in the Psalms, God speaks regularly of his nature through the psalmist, describing himself as a God of love and God who shows his love by caring for those who can't care for themselves, by caring for those that the world tends to neglect, that the world tends to look down on.

In Psalm 68, God describes Himself as Father of the fatherless and protector of widows as God in His holy habitation.

God sets the solitary in a home.

He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

And again in Psalm 146, God describes Himself as who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoner free.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.

The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the sojourners.

He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked, he brings to ruin.

And then in the prophets when speaking of the coming Messiah, speaking of Jesus and His nature, That we see that he is similarly described and Isaiah chapter 93 verse 4 says, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

And again in Isaiah chapter 61.

This is even a verse that Jesus reads to begin his earthly ministry when he returns to his home town of Nazareth, says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Again, that's not just a physical, that there the Lord is speaking much more of the spiritual.

Again, to look at how God is describing Himself, the terms that he uses to convey to us His nature, to help us understand Him.

By his care for the least of these.

And that continues as we read in the New Testament about Jesus's earthly ministry.

That one of the popular passages, especially for our, you know, younger children as we teach them in Bible class.

Luke chapter 9 says an argument rose among them as to which of them was the greatest and the apostles arguing amongst themselves about who's the greatest.

But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.

But again there's a lot that Jesus is speaking about there and comparing the kingdom of God to a child.

The innocence and the trusting nature of a child, but also that Children aren't exactly the ones in charge.

We don't make children leaders of nations.

We don't make children the head of businesses.

Children don't get to make a lot of decisions for themselves.

You know, a child doesn't have a lot of power.

A child has to look to their parent to take care of them, to provide for their needs, to train them up in the way that they should go.

So as much as he's speaking about, you know, the innocence and the purity, the trusting nature of a child, he's also speaking about the nature of the child is the least of these, and that we need to set in the same mindset to not be looking to make ourselves great, but to be looking to imitate God's nature and the child's nature.

And humbling ourselves.

Then in 1 Corinthians, that uh Paul highlights that as a difficulty that people have Jews and Greeks alike in believing the gospel.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 starting in verse 26, he says, For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to the worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord.

That earlier in the chapter, Paul was highlighting the difficulties of non-believers of the world to understand the gospel, because what person in the world would have made up the gospel?

would have said that a poor man from an unknown region of a small nation.

Of, you know, little training, little pedigree.

Little uh prestige in this world who was nothing to look at, would become the most important person to have ever lived.

And that he would emphasize his importance not by making himself a king, not by making himself, you know, the leader of some big company, the leader of some powerful movement conquering nations.

But by coming as a servant.

By dying a cruel and ignominious death on the cross.

And what movement would you imagine that someone would make of that?

That would it attract?

The powerful, would it attract the rich?

Would it attract the leaders of the world?

No, that it's something that they've struggle to understand, struggle to reconcile themselves to and so rejected.

But as we see so often that it's the poor of this world, those who have so little.

In this world That are interested in this message who understand what Christ has done for them, who understand the great gift that God has given to us, and that is at the heart of the gospel.

That God has called the weak and the small and the neglected of this world, and that through him that we can have hope, we can Trust in the message of the gospel.

What an amazing thing that is for us.

So we see a few people who are called out specifically in the Bible as the least of these that are kind of used.

Uh, as you know, one example for the whole, there's a lot more young people that we could say fall into these categories.

But of many verses that we see when God's talking about the least of these, he's talking about the fatherless or orphans.

He's talking about widows.

He's talking about strangers or sojourners, so people who aren't native to the country they live in, people who have traveled to a new land.

Speaks of the poor and the needy speaks of the afflicted and the oppressed.

That's by various means, whether that's by disease or by the treatment of others.

That they've become afflicted or oppressed.

And we see throughout the Bible how God talks about these people, what God has to say about the least of these.

Some of the earliest verses are God telling his people when he sets them out of Egypt, when he gives them a law, how they are to treat the least of these, what they're to do to one another in this new nation.

The Exodus chapter 22.

He highlights several of these groups.

He says, You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

If you lend money to any of my people with.

You that is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body.

And what else shall he sleep?

And if he cries to me, I will hear it, for I am compassionate.

But here this encapsulates several of the key points to understand about how God views the least of these.

That he speaks of these groups and he tells us to care for them.

And again, because of his own nature, because he is compassionate, because he is just, because he is loving.

And he highlights also that we're to treat one another this way because we can understand, because we've been in a similar position.

That just like the Israelites had been sojourners, they've been strangers in the land of Egypt.

They should care for the sojourners, the people who are going to come into their land and live with them when they inhabited the land of Israel.

That just like they've known how it is to suffer want, that they should care for those who are suffering want.

And again, that God highlights that he will be quick to act that those who don't listen, that he will punish them.

And also the idea of punishing them by the reversal of roles that those who would oppress the widow, those who would oppress the fatherless.

That they are family, that they'll become widows, they'll become fatherless, that they'll be put in the same position of those that they've oppressed.

This idea of, you know, an equal punishment by reversing of the roles, it's highlighted again and again throughout the scriptures.

That we see these laws that God has laid out for His people, that he had set out these specific laws that what he expected of a nation, what he expected of his people, and not just his people, but in their leadership and their government, of how they should treat one another through these laws, says you shall do no injustice in court.

You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

They should be impartial, not give.

Justice, just because someone has the most money, but they can buy off the courts.

You know, we witnessed that so many times it seems like today that justice goes to the person who has the most money, the money to hire the best lawyers.

But God says that that's not how it should be, that rich or poor should be judged alike, that they should be judged by the same impartial standard.

But again in the law, we see how provisions were made for those who can't provide for themselves.

That Deuteronomy 14 we're told about how the tithes are to be set aside not just for the Levites as we so often talk about, but for those who were fatherless, for the widows and for the sojourner, says at the end of every 73 years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you.

And the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns shall come and eat and be filled that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Again, as we've talked about God being You know, just to punish that God is also just to bless those who follow them and he highlights here that if you do obey His commands, that will be a blessing to you.

That will be a blessing to the nation.

But again, another way that he set aside to provide for those the least of these, he says, when you reap your harvest in your fields and forget a sheath in the field, you shall not go back to get it, and it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

But the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again.

It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterwards.

It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, I command you to do this.

That we see in the wisdom literature, especially in the Proverbs, how God delivers the these commands about what His nature is, what he expects of us, and what godly wisdom calls on us to do when we're interacting with the least of these.

He says in Proverbs 14:21, whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

Again in verse 31, whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

In Proverbs 2280 and 2500 says, Do not rob the poor because he is poor or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

Then a similar passage in verse chapter 21 verses 25, do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is strong.

He will plead their cause against you.

So there the idea as it happens less nowadays, but if these boundary stones are making a landmark that would mark the edge of your property.

And you know, they didn't have, you know, fancy satellites or, you know, GIS capabilities back then to go and mark out, you know, where your property line is.

So they had these stones that, you know, it would be a simple enough thing.

To know that, oh well that, you know, person they're an orphan.

Their dad ain't here to look out for them.

So if I just nudge that stone, you know, maybe a few, uh, you know, cubits that way, who's gonna be the wiser and that makes my, you know, feels a little bigger, but God says that he'll know and that he will plead their cause.

And we see in the prophets how God reacted when the people of Israel failed to do this, when they failed to live up to the commands that he had set for them, failed to care for the least of these.

It's so often when we're looking at the prophets and, you know, Israel before they're taken into captivity, we talk about their idolatry as a problem.

We talk about.

You know, the other ways that they've said, but just as much throughout the prophets, God talks about how their failure to care for the fatherless, for the widow, for the stranger, their oppressing of those who are weak and needy.

They're afflicting of their fellow Israelites, that that was also what would led them into captivity.

That's also how they broke the covenant with the Lord.

And one of the verses that really summarizes all that for us is here in Ezekiel chapter 215, verses 29 through 15.

It's a bit of a lengthy reading, but uh I think this summarizes how what so many of the prophets had to say about the matter.

Said the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, say to her, you are a land that is not cleansed or reed upon in the day of indignation.

The conspiracy of her profits in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey.

They have devoured human lives.

They have taken treasure and precious things.

They have made many widows in her midst.

Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things.

They have made no distinction between the holy and the common.

Neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbath so that I am profaned among them.

Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain, and her profits have smeared whitewash for them.

Seeing false visions and divining lives for them.

Saying the thus says the Lord, when the Lord has not spoken.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.

They have repressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the sojourner without justice, and I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them.

I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath.

I have returned their way upon their head, declares the Lord God.

So we see this again that the Lord is just as upset about them not caring for the widow, not caring for the fatherless, for oppressing and extorting the poor as he is about their idolatry as there is about the not following the Sabbath.

They're not, uh, following the pattern that he had set for them in the old law.

That's just as much a reason why they were taken off into captivity.

But then we see uh the hope that's offered to us in the New Testament, the hope that God has and his care for the least of these expressed in the Another sermon on the mount.

In Luke chapter 225, Jesus said, and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For so their fathers did to the prophets.

And Jesus teaching to the people again, he says, uh, in Luke chapter 26, he also said to the man who had invited him, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And we see throughout the ministry of Jesus in his time on earth, he's constantly caring for the least of these that he spends his time with the people that the Pharisees and the rulers of Israel have ignored, that they put down that they look down on.

That he's willing to do things that no other teacher in his time is willing to do to speak to Samaritans, to speak to tax collectors, to speak to prostitutes.

And again, not condoning their actions, not uh Papering over their sin, but to speak to them and convict them of their sin, to turn them from it and to teach them a better way, to transform them to be like his father.

Then when we see uh the gospel described its beginning in Acts chapter 24 on the day of Pentecost, the days following, it says, and they, that is those early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceedings to all as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

With these new Christians, they were following the pattern that God had set for them, the pattern that God had always expected of his people and caring for one another, for looking out for those that are so often neglected by the world.

Not just in their spiritual needs, as you know, of most importance, but also in their physical needs.

They're providing for one another.

You can imagine how radical this was to the people around them, how unlike the world this was when the Christians started behaving this way.

They again emphasized in Hebrews chapter 13, told, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

And that as I took you for the name of this lesson, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Those two things together that we can't just be one or the other as uh you know Greg was hinting at in his talk this morning that we can't, you know, just paper over righteousness, that we can't forget that, you know, just say, oh well, God, you know, just says, you know, generally to love one another, that God, you know, wants us to, you know, just have this general warm fuzzy feeling for one another.

He wants righteousness, but along with that righteousness, he does want that love for our fellow man.

He does want us to care for one another.

And do that as an example of his love.

And so we get into some common objections and you know, as much as I'm preaching to anyone out there, I'm preaching to myself, these are things that I've struggled with as I think about our giving as our generosity.

You say I'm not in a position to give.

I can't really find, you know, the money in my budget, you know, times are tight, you know, inflation's high, you know, the economy is in a rough shape.

I don't know if I can really find the money to give to somebody else.

As we see in the scriptures, you have some uh some answers to that.

That Paul said, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.

There he's kind of setting the standard for us and is that the way that we view, you know, contentment, is that the way we view enough to say, hey, I've got food, I've got clothes, I've got enough, and that, you know, makes me content, than anything else, you know, I can give away anything else is extra.

Though we see again the commended example of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed and a wealth of generosity on their part.

They gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

But there there's uh a famine in Jerusalem.

There's Christians who are suffering need, and the Macedonians, they could have easily said, you know, I'm not in a position to give, but these are poor folks.

That again, they're not, you know, giving out of their excess.

They're not giving from, you know, stuff they could set aside that they could afford to give away.

They gave, even despite that poverty and gave even beyond what they could really afford to give, Paul says.

And if that's a commended example, they're held up as An example of Christian generosity.

That's not saying that all of us have to give beyond what we're able, but that is a standard, that is an example.

It has been said that we should be willing to give.

Not just as reable, but to even go beyond, even give to our herd if necessary.

And then to remember the parable, the talents, and this is something.

Again, when I'm, you know, looking at myself and I'm examining myself to remember this, we've been richly blessed.

We live in a very prosperous nation.

We live in a very prosperous part of this nation.

But God has given us a lot in the parables the talents talks about those servants who have been given much, you know, talent is A good chunk of money, but you know, that's an appreciable uh amount of gold that was given to these men, even a single talent.

And what they were expected to do with it, that they were to go out and to use that and to multiply it to, you know, to maximize what they were given.

And to ask ourselves, you know, to examine ourselves and say we've been given a lot, are we making the most of everything we've been given?

Are we fully maximizing our potential?

And our generosity and what we're able to give and caring for others and using the many blessings that God has given to us and being a good steward of them.

You might also say, you know, I don't want to appear institutional, and I think that can be a concern if a lot of us were to start getting together, it can be a confusing thing, especially, you know, in the community around us that we have lots of institutional brethren, we have uh Other denominations in the area who, uh, you know, regularly pool funds together through their congregations to give.

Churches that are running orphanages or other charitable things or food pantries.

If we were to start doing that, we don't want to lead people astray.

We don't want to teach them.

The wrong message and that can be a concern.

We're getting together to do these good things.

I think we do also have to look that we are commanded to give still they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

And so if we're commanded to give, we do need to find a way to give and also to give in a way that communicates the truth.

I think, you know, that as we're giving, that we can also take that opportunity.

Sometimes I think, you know, it's easy for us to just say, I'm gonna, you know, make that donation, write that check, you know.

Give to this can drive and I'm not really doing anything beyond that.

I'm not going to communicate the why behind what I'm doing that and I found myself doing that so many times to say I gave that, but I didn't really tell them.

I didn't take that opportunity to clearly convey the why behind I was giving.

You know, to teach or take that opportunity to teach the gospel.

I think that's a clear way we can delineate ourselves, that we can separate and explain why we're giving and how we're giving that uh You know, we're not giving on behalf of a church, not gathering, you know, from several churches.

And uh you know, giving our means that way that we're not, you know, organizing, you know, food pantries here through the church, you know, sponsoring, uh, you know, some other, uh, benevolent effort that we can take that opportunity to explain to them and to explain to Uh, you know, to show them the proper pattern, that's the thing that would stick out to people around here that so many benevolent institutions around here are sponsored by churches who aren't following in that pattern, so it would stick out to them to say, hey, you know, I see a lot of y'all from KSR, you know, giving to, uh, you know, this food pantry, this food bank.

I see a lot of y'all, you know, uh giving to uh these children in need, you know, why don't y'all just pull this together and that gives us an opening.

To explain to them, you know, the proper means of, you know, the proper use of the church's funds.

And the way that we are supposed to give and through that, you know, give an opening to correct that error.

And then again that we can only do.

You know what we can do that we can only do our good deeds, you know, try to make it clear why we're doing them, to spread the gospel, and that people are going to take that, how they're going to take that, like it says in the parable of the sower.

They may get the wrong impression in spite of our best efforts, but ultimately, uh, you know, that's up to them that we can only water and plant and God is the one who gives the increase.

And even then that uh yeah, even if someone thinks you're giving the wrong way, that Paul talked about that a little bit in Philippians says more in terms of evangelism, but I think this applies in general to our following of the gospel that he says, what then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

That if it leads people to give God the glory.

That, you know, That's a good thing ultimately in the end.

Even if they don't, you know, come to understand, you know, the truth of the gospel, even if we aren't able to correct that error.

And we'd say, aren't we supposed to give in secret?

I know this is one that's always tied me up and knots say when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

You know, how do I keep my giving anonymous and secret?

I don't want to be doing this for me.

I don't want to do this.

You know, to make people think it's, you know, about elevating myself, I want this to be elevating God.

And so, so often we give in secret, and I know that's something that You know it's really commendable about this congregation that as we've seen recently, there was someone who came in and had a need.

And that it was a race to be able to even, you know, give to, to that need that so many people had volunteered, so many people.

Had you know, offered to help fulfill that need, you know, not, uh, you're trying to bring any attention to themselves, you know, not saying that they wanted to be acknowledged, but they wanted to care for this this person and their need, you know, if there was so much, there was more offered than was even needed, you know, to.

To satisfy this need for the person who was asking.

At the same time, we also have to balance that, you know, while we're not giving to be, you know, to highlight ourselves, to elevate ourselves, you know, to Be looked at well by men that were also supposed to be lights in the world.

We're told the city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Again told that keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Just as much as you know, we should.

Be concerned about, you know, not uh elevating ourselves by doing the deeds.

I want to make sure that we're setting a good example for others that we're showing them the example of Christ.

I think similar to that way if you're not getting things misconstrued when we're giving.

Uh, by those, you know, who might have, uh, it may be the wrong understanding about how we give, but the way that we can alleviate that is by explaining the why behind why we're giving.

To say that we're giving because of how richly God has blessed us, that we're giving.

Because of the love that God has shown to us and how we want to show that to others.

That by highlighting that why we're giving God the glory, you know, even if uh We're worried about, you know, having our name attached to it, even if we're worried about being seen by others and how they might think, but we're explaining the reason behind it and through that, you know.

We're letting our light shine.

You know, sometimes we'd say, I don't see anyone in need.

It was a story that uh hit the news last year and then discussing uh You know some of the aid that uh the state of Michigan gives to children who are food insecure.

One of the senators when they were debating said, you know, that hunger is relative and I don't think I've seen a hungry kid in Michigan.

You know, despite, uh, again, the facts that were presented to him of the many hungry that were in his state, the many children who depended on that program that uh He didn't want funds to go to support.

And I think that sometimes that's just That is a downside, you know, to the privilege, to the many blessings that we've been given, that we don't have want, that we have our needs provided for that, you know, even far beyond our needs, so, so much more.

And that in that position and when so many others around us are in that position.

It's easy to not go looking for those who are in, you know, who aren't in that same position.

For those who have needs, for those who lack, for those, uh, Who may be poor, who may be hungry, may be fatherless or widows.

And so to just highlight some of that need here.

That just looking in the state of Alabama, 1 in 6 Alabamians are experiencing hunger, their food insecure.

They don't know where their next meal is going to come from.

That there's around 7 or 63,000 Alabamians.

who live below the poverty line that they can't.

You know, provide for their families that uh.

They can't meet those needs.

There are around 6000 Alabama children in foster care, about 220 of those children who are waiting for adoption who don't have any parents.

Uh there are around 280,500 widows in Alabama.

So again, just in our state, there's plenty of need.

And we may not see them in our day to day lives and you know that.

is sometimes the ways that our blessings can blind us that uh we're in a position of privilege, you know, to not see those who were, you know, struggling, those who are in need.

But that we need to go out and look for those opportunities.

I think that's something highlighted in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 15.

So see that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good for one another and to everyone.

The idea of seeking to do good.

That's not just, you know, oh, I stumbled upon an opportunity, you know.

Somebody walked right up to me and they said, you know, I'm a poor orphaned widow and uh, you know, please help me.

That we need to be seeking to do good, that the good isn't, you know, those opportunities aren't always going to come to us, that we need to be making the time and putting in the energy to find those opportunities.

And then one that we can hear, you know, especially in discussions of this amongst people of the world, and they say, you know, what if they're not really in need.

You know, what if they don't really deserve my help?

You know, you can see someone, especially in those situations where you see someone out panhandling on the side of the road.

They're asking for money.

And And you hear the assumptions that people make about, you know, any money you give them, they're, you know, just gonna shoot it up into their arm, you know, they're gonna take it to the liquor store.

They don't really need that money, you know, it's not really to provide for their needs and uh.

You know that they've got problems.

Maybe they are dealing with, you know.

Drug problems or alcoholism.

Maybe they are living in a sinful lifestyle.

And we can ask, do they really deserve my help?

Should I really go out of my way to help them?

But then we need to examine ourselves on that.

We'd say, look at the attitude of Jesus, and Matthew chapter 9.

That when Jesus was being criticized by the Pharisees for eating with tax collectors and sinners, when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous but sinners.

That God came To a sinful world, there's not a single person.

Who hasn't sinned and fallen short of the glory of God just because The sins that we struggle with, and maybe, you know, less visible, maybe aren't the kind of sins that uh people in that situation struggle with, doesn't mean that we're any less sinful, that we're any less in need of a savior.

And if we've been given that mercy, that we should be willing to extend that mercy to others.

It's not up here, but again, Jesus in the sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 7 tells us that by the standard we judge, it will be measured back to us.

That if we're looking for mercy, we need to be merciful.

I know I need mercy.

I know there's a lot of things that I need God to be merciful to me for.

So I want to apply that same standard to others and again to remember the parable of the unforgiving servant that emphasizes that idea.

We've been forgiven a great debt in our sins, a debt that we could never repay on our own.

And that after being forgiven of that debt, are we gonna go and be unforgiving to others?

Are we gonna hold them to account for, you know, much smaller debts than the ones that we had before God?

And that recognizing that debt and the fact that we can't pay it, don't we want to be able to lead other people towards God?

How many doors have been opened by people, you know, reaching out that helping hand to those in need.

By being generous to the least of these, how that's led them to know God, to see them through that example.

And that they become curious and they You want to learn more, they'd say, why would somebody do this?

Why would somebody act this way that's so unlike the world.

And that through this generosity, through this mercy, they see God in us and hopefully it will draw them closer to God.

So again, as we're following in God's examples, we want to be like God, as we want to show this love for the least of these.

What are some ways that we can do it?

So look for opportunities to do good.

One of the most important things my uh economics teacher, you know, taught me way back in college, you know, back in the dinosaur days now, and probably the only thing I can really remember from that class as he said, you know, if you take one thing away from this class.

Remember that you need to recognize when there's a choice.

Recognize when there's a decision point, because he said so many people don't do that.

That applies to so many things in life, not just economics, and we need to recognize when there's a decision point, when there is that opportunity to do good, we need to seek to do good.

That uh the people in need aren't always gonna walk into the church lobby here.

And you know, make that need known to us.

The people around us in our day to day lives aren't always going to make their needs known to us.

And so we need to be seeking, we need to be attentive to others and to their needs and to seek those opportunities to do good.

So I encourage you as an application, when you go home tonight, find a way that you can do good for the least of these.

We've highlighted the needs just in our state.

And that if you have questions, you know, there's organizations I could point you to, there's a place I could point you to where you could give, you know, of your funds, where you could sign up to volunteer, to give some of your time, to give some of your energy to do good for the fatherless, for the widow.

For the poor, for the needy, for the afflicted.

And what an amazing thing that would be.

For KSRF, you know, suddenly one of these organizations like the foster closet, you know, down the street who provides for the needs of foster kids, who may leave a rough situation, not even have, you know, clo or more than you know the clothes on their back when they're entering into a new foster home.

They keep an Amazon list of, uh, you know, things that they need to provide for these kids, you know, clothing, you know, toothbrushes, you know, diapers for babies, you know, strollers, car seats.

They keep that list up, you know, on their, their site.

What if they were to come in tomorrow morning and suddenly see, you know, Man, a lot of the things on that Amazon list just got bought.

A lot of that wish list has just been cleared, maybe the entire wish list cleared.

I'd say it's all from these people that, uh, you know, this Church of Christ at Kelly Spring Road.

You know, what led all these people to do that?

If the food bank here, the food bank of North Alabama, you know, the workers, volunteers get in tomorrow and they suddenly say, man, I'm seeing a lot of donations from this people at this Church of Christ at Kelly Spring Road.

You know what led them to do this?

What has led to this generosity, to the spirit of giving.

And the good that that could do.

The ways that that could glorify Christ and leading people to be curious about, you know, what would lead someone to that level of generosity, what would lead people to be so caring for others.

And to make a habit of generosity, not just make this a one-time thing.

But to find a way to make it a habit, that, you know, is making it a regular occurrence.

It doesn't have to be, you know, some big, uh, you know, display it can be, you know, that you set aside money in your paycheck, that every time you give, you're gonna give to uh Yeah, someone who uh helps the, the orphans, who helps uh the foster children in our community.

That you give to those who are in need, to those who are hungry, do something like uh the food bank or some of the food pantries around here.

And that's just a regular thing that as you do that, it becomes easier and easier as it's a habit because you don't have to think about it, that it's not, you know, seeking that opportunity, that just becomes something that you do regularly, week after week, day after day.

That you have built up this habit of generosity of doing good, of looking for those opportunities.

Again, that it's more than just us as individuals that we need to support leaders when they care for the least of these, but we saw that again throughout those verses in the Old Testament that when God was making laws for a nation, how concerned he was for the orphan, for the widow, and the stranger, for the poor and the afflicted.

So that beyond just, you know, our personal lives, the things that we can do as an individual, that when someone else is, you know, taking those opportunities to care for the orphan, to care for the widow, to care for the stranger, for the immigrant.

For the poor, for the needy, that we should support them in that.

And that may lead to some changes.

I know that.

That's not uh The common bent, you know, in politics around here for people, that's not the common cultural understanding in Alabama.

It's often it's an individual thing, but it can see from the scriptures that it's about more than just individuals.

And then to excel still more to seek opportunities to do good.

Again, as I've highlighted, there's so many generous people here.

There's so many people who find opportunities to give, who do things that uh You know, take care of these needs without anyone ever knowing that they're not uh parading it around.

And this sermon has not been You know, say that we aren't doing these things, that people haven't been doing good, but there's always the opportunity to do more, and again, it's, you know, pointing fingers at myself as much as anyone.

That I'd heard you some lessons recently at a study I went to talking about the spirit of generosity and really questioning myself of, you know, how much am I doing to be generous.

If I look at those, you know, things that Jesus commended in Matthew chapter 25, how many of them have I done?

How many times have I fed the hungry?

Have I clothed the naked?

If I visited those in prison?

Have I helped those in need.

And that it makes me question myself to say, you know, am I doing enough?

am I really Utilizing my talents, not being a good steward of the many gifts that God has blessed me with.

So to say excel still more, that even as we're doing these things, there's always more we can find to do.

There's always more opportunities.

That the fields are white for the harvest.

There's so much good that we can go out and do in our community and in our nation and in the world at large.

So to excel still more and reaching out to do good to the least of these.

No, this lesson hasn't exactly been pointed towards an invitation.

But as we had read earlier, uh, in the sermon on the Mount, that Jesus talked about giving good gifts, and he said, if you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask Him?

He was talking about physical things.

He's also talking about so much more than that.

Of spiritual things we've talked about providing for people who are hungry and thirsty.

But Jesus went beyond those physical needs in his earthly ministry that he came to deliver the bread of life.

But we see in John chapter 6, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

And Jesus, when he was speaking to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, speaking of that water of life.

Says, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life that much more than our physical needs, God met our spiritual needs.

But all of us at some point have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That all of us have separated ourselves by that sin.

It's the thing, you know, problem we couldn't fix ourselves that the sentence of that sin is death.

But God being generous, God knowing how to give good gifts to his children, gave to us the bread and water of life.

That we could be saved from spiritual death, that we could be saved from our life of sin and be reborn, to be transformed, to become like Him, to be renewed in a relationship with him.

And that gift is available to all of us today.

That perhaps you haven't taken advantage of that gift.

Perhaps, you know, as we studied tonight, you're realizing that there's some things in your life that you need to make right, that sin has separated you from God, that we'd be happy to study with you.

Speak more on that, or if you're so convicted that we have water right here, and tonight you can be baptized through omission of that sin.

You can eat of the bread of life.

You can drink of the water of life and begin a new life with God.

if you realize, uh, as a Christian that you've gotten off track, you've left the walk, you've gone back into the world and into uh.

The past life of sin, that there's an opportunity for repentance that God has told us to.

We can pray to be forgiven of our sins.

We can confess our sins, that he will forgive us, that we can be restored and brought back into relationship with Him.

We can meet that need, that we can pray with you, we can hear your confession, that we can help you to get back on the right track.

And so that opportunity is available to all of us that come forward as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Eric McKee

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripture reading this morning will be from Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 and 2.

I'll be reading from the New King James, the English Standard version is on the screen.

Isaiah chapter 5.

Now let me sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard.

Oh, my well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choices vine.

He built a tower in its midst, and he made a wine press in it, so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

Good morning.

A fruit tree's purpose is to bear good fruit.

A vineyard's purpose is to bear good fruit.

And a Christian's purpose is to bear good fruit.

Go back to Isaiah chapter 5, the Clark just started reading.

Isaiah 5 And this is the lyrics of a song.

That that I'll be reading.

Like I said, this song is regarding the vineyard of the beloved.

And this is referring to the Lord God.

My, my well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine.

He built a tower in its midst, and he also made a wine press in it, so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done to my vineyard that I've not done in it?

Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

God had done everything for his people.

He had given everything to his people.

And yet they did not serve him.

They did not bring forth good fruit.

And when we really stop and think about ourselves, God has done everything for us.

God has given everything to us.

He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He has given us all things.

that pertain to life and godliness.

And so we ought to abide in Him.

And bear good fruit.

And Jesus said in John chapter 233 and verse 5, I am the vine and you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing.

And so this morning, I want us to continue reading through Isaiah 5 because we thought what we find in Isaiah 5 is the answer to the question that the Lord asked.

When he asked why, when I expected my vineyard to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

Isaiah 5 gives us the answer.

And so we're gonna take a look this morning at 6 reasons why the children of Israel were not bearing good fruit.

And I think what we'll find is these same 6 reasons can keep us from bearing good fruit as well.

And so 6 reasons why Judah was not bearing good fruit.

The first reason is found in verse 8.

And that was covetousness.

In verse 8 of Isaiah 13, we read, woe to those who join house to house.

They add field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land.

These people had been hoarding land.

They've been hoarding property, hoarding houses, and so some possessed far more than they needed to the point where there was no room for their neighbors.

And God condemns them for this.

Jesus had said in Luke chapter 12 verses 15 through 21, Take heed and beware of covetousness.

For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses.

And then Jesus spoke a parable to them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully, and he thought within himself, What shall I do?

Since I have no room to store my crops.

And so he said, I will do this.

I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many.

You have many goods laid up for many years.

Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

But God said to him, fool, this not your soul will be required of you.

Then who's these things?

Whose will these things be which you have provided?

So is he who lays up treasure for himself and not and is not rich toward God.

Like Jim mentioned earlier, we are so blessed.

In our society with all the things that we have.

And so we need to beware of covetousness.

Covetousness blinds us.

It blinds us.

Number one, to the fact that all good things come from God.

You know, sometimes we get to thinking, well, I've, I've worked hard for these things and I wanna work hard for more things, and the harder I work, the more things that I'll get.

But and so covetousness blinds us to the fact that all those things come from God.

If we, if, if it weren't for God, we wouldn't have the abilities that we have.

We wouldn't have the, the capabilities that we have and the things that we have.

James chapter 1 and verse 7, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

We get everything from, from God, and we need to remember that and covetousness blinds us to that fact.

And it also blinds us to the need of others, the needs of others.

When we just think about what we need, what we want, that blinds us to uh what, what others need materially and what others also need spiritually.

So covetous covetousness has, has that danger about it.

There's a song, uh, the lyrics to another song.

Uh, this is written by a group called Dan and Shay.

It's called Bigger Houses.

You've probably, perhaps you've heard this song, uh, but I think it's got a good, a good message, um.

I used to dream about buying that bigger house sitting on top of some hill, losing sleep, about filling my bank account, wondering if I ever will.

But the older I get, I just care less and less about keeping up with people named Jones.

If you don't fill it up with somebody that you love, it ain't never gonna feel like home.

There's always going to be a higher high.

You could chase for the rest of your life, greener grass in the yard next door or a shonda of Chevy a little newer than yours.

You're never gonna fill an empty cup if what you've got is still not enough.

The thing about happiness I've found is, it don't live in bigger houses.

You know Comparison is a thief of joy, they say.

You know, it, it, we're, we're pretty happy until we start comparing ourselves to someone who may have a little better and then all of a sudden we're not happy anymore.

Uh, or we compare ourselves that that have it a little worse, and now we have pride, right?

And so it, it doesn't do us any good by, uh, by focusing.

Our lives too much on those things.

In 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 6 through 10 says Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

But having food and clothing with these, we shall be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

There are 263 ways to live.

The first is to live, living to get.

Living to get And where we draw the line on this can be difficult because we live in a material world where we do have certain needs.

But it's certainly It's going to keep us from bearing good fruit if we're only living to get.

And the second is living to be.

Living to be.

This, this is also related to covetousness.

It's concern for the greatness in our career, greatness in our academics, greatness in our sports, greatness in our popularity, and our accomplishments, greatness in all these things, living to be, to be somebody.

I want to be somebody.

And again, sometimes it's hard to know where to draw the line because we have to have careers and, and things like that, right?

But we cannot bear good fruit for only living to be.

And, and then the third way to live is living to serve.

This is what Jesus did.

Jesus lived To serve And Matthew 20:28, the Son of Man did not come to be served.

But to serve And to give his life a ransom for many.

John chapter 13 verse 15.

He said, I've given you an example.

He was talking about the, the washing of feet.

I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you.

Jesus served us and he wants us.

To serve Living to serve So the first reason that they weren't bearing good fruit is because of their covetousness.

The second reason we're told that they weren't bearing good fruit is drunkenness.

Down in verses 11 and 22.

Isaiah wrote woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till wine inflames them.

And then in 22, woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink.

Drunkenness has been a problem since the beginning of time.

We read over in the Old Testament times in Genesis chapter 9.

Noah became drunk and he did things that he wouldn't have done otherwise, had he not been intoxicated.

We see that in the New Testament, the drunkenness was a problem.

And Where, where it's listed in Galatians chapter 5 as one of the works of the flesh.

And then we also find that the drunkenness is a problem today.

I mean that's not a surprise to anybody.

An estimated 323 million people struggle with an alcohol use disorder in the United States.

More than 65 million Americans report binge drinking in the last month, binge drinking.

So drinking to become drunk in the past month, which is more than 40% of the total current alcohol users.

And so many people who socially drink become drunk on a regular basis, is what, is what that's saying.

33% of people aged 12 to 20 report having drank at least one drink in their lives.

And so we're talking about people that are not legally able to drink.

They're not legally allowed to drink, but they are drinking alcohol.

At 33%.

What the Lord is saying to his people in Israel is that drunkenness results in people not bearing good fruit.

And the reason for that is number one, alcohol has an enslaving power.

It has an enslaving power.

It's addictive.

Scientific studies have shown that some people are more acclimated to become an alcoholic than others.

Maybe I'm one of those people, I don't know.

But guess what, you cannot become an alcoholic if you do not drink alcohol.

And there have been sad situations where babies have been born and have had addictions because of their mother, which is a sads those are sad situations.

But, but we have to remember that we have some choices in this.

To to prevent becoming in prison, we have to avoid the prisoner.

So, to prevent becoming captive, we have to avoid the captor.

Number 2, alcohol has a perverting power.

It tends to take things that are good and twist them into, into something that's not good anymore.

It causes people to say things that they wouldn't have said otherwise.

It causes people to do things that they wouldn't have done otherwise.

It destroys relationships, it destroys families, it destroys careers.

It destroys lives.

It has a perverting Power.

And the third thing is it it blinds us to the things of God.

And that's found here in, in Isaiah 5.

And Isaiah 5, you look down in verse 173, verse 12, Isaiah 5, wine is in their feasts, but they do not regard the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of his hands.

They're intoxicated.

They're not thinking about God, the things of God.

And this is why the Lord tells us to be sober minded.

Ephesians chapter 5 verses 17 to 18.

Do not be unwise.

But understand what the will of the Lord is and do not be drunk with wine which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.

You know, some will try to justify social drinking.

They're gonna justify social drinking and they're gonna argue that, you know, one or two beers doesn't hurt anybody what I do in my home that is nobody's business and, and that kind of thing.

You know, back when I turned 21 years old, I'm, I may have been right around 20 or turning 21.

I worked with uh a person uh back in those days, and he always tried to convince me that there was nothing wrong with his drinking.

And he always, he would try to make religious arguments and, and, and things like that.

That person is now 50 years old.

He was, he was a little older than me.

The person is now 153 years old.

It almost destroyed.

I, I have no idea when, at what point in his life he let it get out of control.

I don't know.

I, I moved away and I didn't see him again.

But he's, he's, you know, but you know things from social media.

He, he almost let it destroy his marriage.

His career, he almost lost his 3 kids.

Because of his addictions.

It's, it can be a dangerous thing.

I drunkenness that's being discussed here in the Bible as a sin.

Is this talking about the, the legal limit on uh for driving under the influence of alcohol, DUI or driving while impaired, uh, DWI, a blood alcohol level of 0.08%.

Is that drunkenness?

Is feeling a buzz.

From an alcoholic beverage, is that drunkenness?

Is the point when your mind is impaired to the point where your guard is let down and you, and you do things you wouldn't have done otherwise?

Is that drunkenness?

Is it reaching the point that you can no longer hold down a job, it destroys your marriage, destroys your family, and now you're homeless?

Is that, is that who this scripture is talking about?

Your drunkenness is a progressive thing.

When a person has drank 6 drinks, they're 6 drinks drunk.

When they've drank 4 drinks, they're 4 drinks drunk.

If we've drank 1 drink, we're 1 drink drunk.

And to try to, and to try to balance these things is, can be a dangerous thing.

And so I'm not gonna stand here and try to convince anybody that taking a sip of wine in your, in your house is a sin.

That's, uh, and that's not why I'm up here.

But I will say this.

Proverbs 20 verse 53 says, wine is a mocker.

Strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

And so I'm not gonna touch this stuff.

We have an influence on the world to be the light of the world.

The city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

We Otherwise the world.

And we don't need you to to mess around with things that are, are going to Uh, have a terrible influence on, on others.

The these Israelites, these people of God weren't bearing good fruit because of drunkenness.

The 3rd thing.

The third reason they weren't bearing good fruit is because they were piling sin upon sin with no remorse.

In verse 18, woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope.

And so I believe what what the image here is of a of a person who has harnessed themselves.

With a cart rope to a chariot of sin.

And now they are, because of their habitual sinful behaviors, are dragging this weight of sin behind them.

Because if we sin and we don't repent of it, it's going to invite more sin into our lives, and then more sin, and it's going to start piling on and piling on and, and dragging us down and feeling like this enormous weight that is on us.

This, this ball and chain that we're, that we're dragging around.

In Romans chapter 6 verse verses 223 and 21 and then down in verse 226.

Paul writes, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

You know, grace, grace will clean us up.

So if it takes a little bit of grace to clean us up, if we sin a whole lot, it's gonna take a whole lot of grace to clean us up.

So should we continue to, to sin to sin that grace may abound.

Paul says, certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin.

Instead of being harnessed to sin, yoked to sin, we need to cut that rope and let it go.

Not being enslaved by it.

We can't run a race if we're wearing a 232 pound backpack.

We're not going to be able to compete in a race wearing that thing.

We have to shed that off.

Hebrews 217:215, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

These people of God weren't bearing good fruit because they were piling sin upon sin.

With no remorse.

The 43th reason they weren't bearing good fruit is because they were calling good evil and evil good.

In verse 24 woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

The reason people begin calling good evil and evil good is because they are using a standard that's not from God.

You know, how can we call sugar sour, and how can we call vinegar sweet?

How, how could we do something like that?

It, well, it's because we're using a dictionary that's different, that defines words differently.

How could we call light, darkness and darkness light?

Well, first, we'd have to find a dictionary that defines things differently.

How could a person called a woman a man and a man a woman?

Well you have to find a different way of defining things that aren't in reality with God's laws, the way God set things up.

Isaiah chapter 25 verse 24.

Says as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness and their bosom will ascend like dust. Why?

Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

They were calling good evil and evil good, and our culture attacks.

The truths that God has put in place.

Our culture attacks marriage.

The way God set it up and the family, the way God intended it to be.

And the church, the way God, the way we find it, read about, uh, the way we read about it in the New Testament, and even the anatomy of the human body which God created and Jesus himself said, Have you not read that in the beginning he made them male and female?

I mean these are truths that God Set up and people will try to be twisted and call good evil and evil good and we, and we must, uh, we must not be guilty of that.

They were not bearing good fruit, these people of God, because they were calling good evil and evil good.

And the 5th reason we're told that they weren't bearing good fruit is that they were wise in their own eyes.

Verse 21, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.

Again, the world has a standard and God has a standard.

And sometimes we think we know what is best for us.

But if that is in contradiction of what God has given to us, then we're in the wrong.

In Proverbs chapter 12 or 14 verse 12, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 357.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

And Isaiah 53:8 through 9.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

They weren't bearing good fruit because they were wise.

In their own eyes.

And the 6th reason that they weren't bearing good fruit is because they justified the wicked.

In verse 23, woe to those who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man.

So they were not only justifying the wicked, they were justifying the wicked for a bribe.

So that they could have something that was benefiting them.

They were justifying the wicked, and then they were condemning the innocent for their own personal gain.

Uh, Israel had a problem justifying the wicked, saying someone had done right when they had in fact done wrong and then turned around and saying that a person had done wrong when in fact they had done right.

They were perverting. Justice.

And really that's the natural response that we're going to get when we call evil good and good evil.

And that's, that's what, that's what's going to come out of that thought process.

And in Romans chapter 1 verses 26 to 32, we read that God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness, they are whisperers, bag bitter, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobed.

Interference, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful who, knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

And so it's not just doing these things that Paul has listed here, but it's also approving of those who practice.

These things, making excuses for not only our own sins, but making excuses for the sins of others.

You know, we have a, a situation in our country right now where we have this person, this individual that has Shot of a CEO of a, of a healthcare uh insurance uh health insurance company, uh, shot him in the back, murdered him, he had a wife and children, uh, this, this man that was murdered, and there's a lot of people that are sympathizing with this person, saying that he's a hero, saying that he's, uh, that he's in the right to have done what he did.

God said, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

That man is a murderer.

We don't need to justify the wicked.

You know, we, we shouldn't find ourselves justifying the wicked.

Proverbs 17:15 says, He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

Um, the, these people of God, they weren't bearing good fruit because they were justifying.

The wicked Got it.

And so the, the image of the vineyard in my life and and in your life is this.

that God has prepared a vineyard for us.

On a very fruitful hill.

He has dug it up and cleared out its stones for us.

He has planted the vineyard with the best grapevine for us.

He has built a tower in its midst for us.

He has made a wine press in it for us.

He has given us all things.

That pertain to life and godliness, and so he expects this vineyard to bring forth good fruit.

That's what he expects in my life and yours.

But whether or not that that happens, that that's up to me in my life.

In Isaiah chapter 5, verse 4, we, we find what the result is or what the result was of the people of Judah for not having brought forth good fruit.

And Isaiah 5:4.

Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

And now please let me tell you what I will do with my vineyard.

I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned and break down its wall and it shall be trampled down.

I will lay it waste.

I will, it will not be pruned or dug.

But there shall come up briars and thorns.

I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are its pleasant, His pleasant plant.

He looked for justice, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry for help.

Since God's people did not take care of the vineyard.

Since they did not bear good fruit, they were taken off into Babylonian captivity.

And the same could happen to us.

We could be taken off to the captivity of sin, the captivity of Satan, the captivity of hell.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

We can have the freedom that comes from the mercy of our Savior if we abide in Him.

To bear good fruit, I need to keep covetousness from ruling my life.

Instead, I must be content with the things that I have.

To bear good fruit, I need to keep drunkenness out of my life.

Instead, be sober, be clear headed, be alert.

Be filled with the Spirit of God.

To bear good fruit, I need to keep iniquity out of my life.

Lay aside every weight and the senses which so easily ensnares us and run with endurance the race that is set before us.

To bear good fruit, I cannot call evil good and good evil.

I must recognize that God made everything and so God gets to define everything.

Sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, light is light, darkness is darkness.

Good is good, evil is evil.

And it's because God said it.

To bear good fruit, I cannot be wise in my own eyes.

Instead, I must trust in the Lord.

And lean not on my own understanding and to bear good fruit, I cannot justify the wicked, but I must always strive to stand for what is right.

If you're here tonight or this morning, I'm sorry, if you're here this morning, and if you never Become a Christian.

You have the opportunity to do that.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and you're willing to confess that before Men before those that are here.

Repent of the things you have done in the past.

Turn away from those things and, and strive to, to follow after God.

You can be baptized into Christ to put on Christ, to rise to walk in newness of life.

Your sins would be washed away.

You can do that this morning.

Or if you are a Christian and need the prayers of the brothers and sisters here, make those things known while we sing together.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripture reading tonight will be from Titus chapter 2.

Titus chapter 2, verses 7 through 8.

And I'll be reading from the ESV Titus 183.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Good evening.

It's a pleasure to stand before you and be able to preach the word of God and It's a, uh, it's a true honor to be able to have this opportunity to speak before you all and be able to show God's message and I want to thank Tyler for his choosing of songs that are gonna help prepare, prepare us for the topic this evening, and that is being a good example.

And this evening I want to do 2 things.

I really want to showcase 3 ways that we can show that we can be good examples of Christ.

And then after that, I'm gonna explain why it is so important for us to be examples as Christians.

So the first way that I want to go over that really kind of, for me, kind of first came to my mind whenever I was thinking about how we can be good examples.

is oftentimes we as Christians are characterized by our speech.

And in the young adult class, a year or two ago, I believe, Brother Nicholson taught the book of James.

And of course, as we were getting into chapter 11 of his questions that he asked was, you know, what, what sets us apart?

How can somebody in a room full of, you know, people we don't know, what is one way that we can show ourselves to be different?

And of course, our answer was our speech.

In James chapter 1 verse 26, James says if anyone thinks he is religious, And does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

And oftentimes our influence in the community can not only change a person's perception of how they view you and your individual families, but, but your actions and your words can truly change how people view Christians everywhere.

And oftentimes when people get into, you know, biblical debates, they tend to maybe get riled up and, you know, have their own words used against them, which can hurt your influences.

Hurt your chances of influencing others around you.

If you would turn over to Colossians chapter 4, I'm gonna be reading verse 6.

In the ESB So let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

And of course, as Daniel read for us in our scripture reading Titus chapter 2, verses 7 to 63, so show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.

So that an opponent may be put to shame in having nothing evil to say about us.

bridling our tongue and understanding that our words truly have an impact on the on the ones around us, can really show that we are separate from the world, and that we are different and that we are of Christ.

And secondly, I believe that our conduct is something that should define us as Christians.

And of course, your first question may be, well, you know, Ian, what kind of conduct are we instructed to have?

Ephesians chapter 5, I believe illustrates this perfectly for us.

If you would turn over there to Ephesians chapter 5.

I'm gonna be reading verses 1 and 2.

Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children.

Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

And people who don't know us, people who don't know who we are, you know, what we stand for.

Oftentimes they may wonder why we behave the way that we do.

And of course, as many of you know, I haven't always preached full time.

I, for a period of almost 3.5 years, I worked at a power sports dealership in South Huntsville.

And You know, being there for that long, the management had really gotten to know me and, you know, maybe and who I was, and they knew that I acted a little bit different than say some of my co-workers.

And one day during my, I believe it was my lunch break, I found myself in his office.

We were just, you know, shooting the breeze and of course, as most conversations tend to do, took a spiritual turn.

And about halfway through that conversation, he admitted to me.

That he had not been living his life the way that he should have.

And then he knew he should be living it.

And he felt safe telling me this, whereas, you know, he was an upper-level manager and I was just a base-level employee.

So there was a, you know, a big difference between our, our power of influence in the building.

And he asked me specifically how I was able to maintain my faith while working in a, you know, a little bit of a rougher industry like power sports.

And really, I don't tell that story to pat myself on the back.

First of all, the, the glory is to be given to God that I was even put in that position.

But it was probably one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do as a Christian is working in a place.

Where God really wasn't thought of to be put first.

What was put first was thinking about making as much money as possible.

And so, Sometimes whenever you work in an environment like that, you often wonder, does my influence even matter?

Does my conduct.

Which is obviously gonna be different from everyone else's.

Is it even going to make a difference?

Especially to somebody who has been in the business for at least 15 years.

Knows pretty much everybody.

And I tell the story because I didn't think my influence had any.

I didn't think that I had any influence in that building, let alone from a manager.

And so Whenever we go back to school, I know most of the young people are on Christmas break and maybe some of the adults are getting a Christmas break themselves, but Whenever we go back to our schools and our classrooms or back to our work offices, I think it's important for us to remember that It doesn't matter how long you've been there, it doesn't matter how long you've known everybody there, your influence, whether it's your 23st day or your 17th year in the, in the office.

Your influence matters, and it can change anyone.

And the last evidence that I want to go over this evening is one way that we can show the world that we belong to Christ is through our ability to love.

And what does the world say that love is?

Well, love is a feeling, you know, it's a chemical reaction in our brains.

We really don't have a control over it.

It just kind of happens.

Everybody's preferences are different.

God says otherwise.

God tells us that love is a choice and it is a decision that we make individually every single day.

If you would turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses, and I'm gonna be reading verses 22 through 22.

This is a pretty common passage to find in, in homes, and I know me and Kayle have this hung up on our wall.

And it's a and it is a good reminder of what the true definition of love is.

Starting in chapter 218 and verse 26.

Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing.

But rejoices with truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease.

As for knowledge, it will pass away.

So now that we have a true comprehensive idea and definition of what love is.

We as Christians are called to love our enemies.

And the world may believe that our ability to love our enemies is a weakness.

But in fact it's one of our greatest strengths.

If you would turn over to Matthew chapter 218.

I'm gonna be reading verses 26 and 53.

In this passage, we see Jesus starting in chapter verse 25 of chapter 220, he says, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

And some might ask why.

Why would I Why would I love my enemies?

Why would I love somebody who wants me to fail?

Both secularly and spiritually.

Why would I pray for somebody who every time I go to school, they make fun of me for who I am and what I believe.

Or for that one co-worker who can't seem to get past that you're a Christian.

Why should I love that person?

And I'll tell you why.

Because we were once enemies of Christ, but he still loved us enough to die for our sins.

Isaiah 220:2 says, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.

And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Brothers and sisters, if our sin has separated us from God, Then we have all been at one point in time of our lives.

We have been separated.

We have been enemies of Christ.

And I know for some of us that's, that's hard to think about.

We don't like thinking about at one point our sin has separated us from God.

But I think Paul in Romans chapter 5 in verse 10, he gives us a solution.

He says, for while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And so Christ gave his life for us even when we were still enemies of his, and we needed reconciliation, and that's truly, truly powerful.

So now that we have kind of gone over 3 different ways that I thought were important of how we can be good examples to our families and our communities.

Why is it so important?

Why is it so important that we set ourselves away from the way the world acts?

And I know in Titus chapter 2 verses 7 and 203 was our scripture reading, but I think Titus chapter 2 verses 2 to 13 is a very much more comprehensive view of what kind of way that God expects us to be.

So in Titus chapter 2, Starting in verse 2.

Says older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled in behavior.

Sorry, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves too much wine.

They are to teach what is good.

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.

They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So now that of course we see that God has commanded us to act this way, I think it's important to add another element to it.

Others are continually watching us, especially our young people who may tend to imitate us.

My uncle Eric, a couple of years ago at West Rogersville, I went to go hear him speak and he had cited a poem that has stuck with me for years and And I think it really sets the tone for how we need to behave.

And what kind of example we need to be for our children.

And our young people It starts off by saying a careful man I ought to be, a little fellow follows me.

I do not dare to go astray, for fear you'll go the self same way.

I must not madly step aside where pleasure's paths are smooth and wide.

And join in wine's red revelry.

A little fellow follows me.

I cannot once escape his eyes.

Whatever he sees me do, he tries.

Like me, he says he's going to be.

The little chap who follows me.

He thinks that I am good and fine.

He believes in every word of mine.

In the base, the base in me he must not see the little chap who follows me.

I must remember as I go.

Through summer sun and winter's snow.

I'm building for the years to be.

A little fellow follows me.

And I think as the years have gone on from originally the point that when I'd heard it.

It has taken on a different meaning, especially with me about to be a father myself.

And That poem is a little hard to read.

Because I think sometimes as adults and even young adults with younger people looking up to us, we We often forget what kind, what kind of sponges young people are.

Mike Ison and me were talking months ago and we were talking about the middle school and elementary school classes and just how they are like little sponges.

They just take everything they hear.

And they make it their own.

And they imitate what they hear, what they see.

Everything from a slight mumble under your breath to maybe an eye roll, they see everything.

And I think for me about to be a father, that's something that kind of terrifies me a little bit.

But it's also a good thing because it gives us an opportunity to be an example for our young people.

And we're also told in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 6, what kind of consequences there are for people who may cause some of these young ones to stumble.

In Matthew chapter 18 and verse 6, Jesus says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck.

And to be drowned into the depth.

Depths of the sea.

Jesus is very protective over his children.

And I think we need to be as protective as he is over us for our children.

And I hope that The information presented this evening was beneficial to you all and It gave y'all something to think about for this coming week.

And I know even though I said we may not be going back to our schools or back to our offices on on Monday, but even just being in the world, we are to be, we are, we are to be a light as we sang just a moment ago.

And maybe You know, we, we've talked about ways that we can show ourselves to be a good example.

But one thing oftentimes that people forget about is you can't prove Anything Unless you're a child of God.

You can't prove anything.

And in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, versus uh starting in verse 20, Paul is imploring the church at Corinth to be reconciled to God.

Because that's what it takes in order to be a child of his.

He says, starting in verse verse 20 therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making His appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who know who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And of course, your next question may be, well, I, how, how do I reconcile to God?

How do I make that decision to change?

Well Christ lays out his steps for us to be reconciled to the Father.

We must first hear the word of God.

Then we must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Thirdly, we must repent of our sins.

And we must confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.

And finally we must be baptized for the remission of our sins.

And maybe you've already followed these steps.

Maybe you've already done what's necessary to be a Christian.

But you're not being the example that God would have you to be.

Maybe you've been slipping in some areas.

Christ is able and willing to forgive you if you implore Him to do so.

If you need the prayers of the congregation or anything at all, we are all here to help you.

There are many abled men and women who would love to study with each and every one of you.

If you would come to the front as we stand as we sing the song of invitation.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

I'll be reading Mark chapter 7, verses 1 through 53.

I'm gonna be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible.

And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands, that is unwashed.

For the for the Pharisees and all the Jews.

Do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders.

And when they come from the marketplace, they do not, they do not eat.

Unless they wash themselves.

And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.

In the Pharisees and the scribes asks him.

Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

But eat their bread with defiled hands.

And he said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.

Leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men.

And he was also saying to them, you are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

For Moses said, Honor your father and mother, and he who speaks evil of father and mother is to be put to death.

But you say If a man says to his father or his mother, Whatever you might benefit from me is Corbon, that is to say, given to God.

You no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother.

Thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down.

And you do many such things as that.

It is very good this morning.

To be with you And to worship with you.

And to teach God's word.

And that's how I've been teaching for the last 2 weeks in little chunks, which is the way you have to do it with some translators, and that was virtually the only way I was able to teach was through a translator.

But I am certainly glad to be back with you.

I have missed the opportunity to sing with you and to see your faces.

To be encouraged as we meet together.

I can't sing with the brethren in Tanzania.

They sing in Swahili.

And I know two words, 3 words in Swahili, Karibou, which means welcome, and as sante, which means thank you.

I never did learn the word for bathroom.

But it makes it difficult to sing.

Uh, the prayers were translated graciously by some translators, but, uh, you feel kind of disconnected from the worship when you can't understand a lot of what is going on.

But it's good to be back with you, and I pray that this morning, some of the things that I will say will make sense.

I spent well over 30 hours traveling the last couple of days.

Some of my thoughts are not very clear right now, but hopefully you'll be able to understand what I'm, what I'm talking about.

One of the things that uh is a consequence of having chickens is that I've become a hand washer.

And by that, I simply mean that anytime I go out to the chicken coop and I gather eggs, or if I have anything to do with the chicken coop, when I come back in, the first thing I do is wash my hands.

And for obvious reasons, chickens can carry some kinds of uh diseases, and so it's important to maintain cleanliness.

So it wasn't all that hard for me when we arrived, Rick, uh Westbrook and I traveled together and he left Moshe, but I went on to Mortoorro and medicine, one of the translators who is involved in a medical field, said, I have some information for you as we arrived late that evening in the hotel.

He said, in Moragoro right now, there are a lot of people who are having intestinal issues.

Uh, diarrhea and that sort of thing, and he said it's important that when you go out and talk to people and shake hands with people, we went house to house, uh, type evangelism, that you wash your hands before you eat anything.

And so I paid close attention to that because I did shake a lot of hands as we were out and about.

And so, being a hand washer was not a difficult thing for me.

I think we have become a nation of hand washers, sanitizers, automatic hand sanitizers are now found in a lot of public places, airports, restaurants, restrooms, even in the church building here.

You will see them, and there are some even in Tanzania, although sometimes there's no sanitizer in them, which makes them less productive.

A lot of you women probably carrying your purses, maybe just a little bottle of hand sanitizers so that if you're out and about and there's no way to clean your hands, sanitize your hands, that you may do so with just a squirt of some sort of substance.

Every year, the flu bugs that make their rounds remind us of the need for sanitation, hand sanitation.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day were also concerned about hand sanitation, but for a different reason, as the reading that Ed did in a few moments ago, uh makes it very clear.

They were concerned about ceremonial cleanness.

Now, they talked about physical sanitation, but for them, that physical sanitation even had religious connotations or implications.

You could become ceremonially unclean and thus not able to worship God.

The way you should.

And so they were very careful, the Pharisees were, to avoid touching anything that was considered unclean.

They considered Gentiles in general to be unclean and anything that had to do with Gentiles or associated with Gentiles.

And so that provides the background for the text that we're going to consider this morning in Mark the 7th chapter as was read to you by Ed just a few moments ago.

I relate very well now to mark the 7th chapter in verse 3, or verse 4 rather, when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

And so that's uh kind of what I was paying attention to over the last couple of weeks.

Their concern for cleanliness, for sanitation of the hands had led to some criticism of the Lord's disciples, who the text says were eating with defile that is unwashed hands.

So what I want to do this morning is talk about Mark 7 and note that the emphasis of the Pharisees was at least to some extent, misplaced.

They were concerned about something that really wasn't the real important thing and to encourage us to focus on the cleanliness, the purity that is really much more important.

Well, as verses 1 through 83 of Mark 7 tell us, The Pharisees were criticizing Jesus' disciples because they ate with unwashed or defiled hands.

And Mark explains, since he appears to be writing to a Gentile audience, in verse 3, he explains their custom for the Pharisees, and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.

In verse 5, it seems though that maybe the disciples had in fact washed their hands, but not in the proper way.

If you look at Matthew's parallel account in Matthew 223th chapter, it'll tell you that they didn't wash their hands according to the tradition of the elders.

Whether that refers to just the idea of washing their hands in general, or whether it had to do with the way that you washed your hands like this, not like this.

Uh, is a little bit difficult to determine, but at any rate, the Pharisees, Pharisees considered the disciples to be eating with hands that were still defiled regardless of what they had done.

And that physical defilement, the fact that their hands were dirty.

Had spiritual or religious consequence.

But Jesus responds to the criticism, beginning in verse 223, by noting the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who would leave the commandment of God to keep their own traditions.

He doesn't talk so much about washing hands, but he gives a different example.

Read along with me in verse 225.

If you will pardon me, I'm going to reread some of the things that Ed read, since this is our text.

He says, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain, they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men.

And so for them, the traditions of the fathers were just as valid in terms of religious law as the very laws that Moses had uh delivered for, uh for God.

For laying aside the commandment of God, verse 226, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things, you do.

So it wasn't just that they were observing these traditions as being uh incumbent upon anybody to observe to be acceptable to God.

They were actually setting aside some of God's commandments, so they could keep their own commandments.

And Jesus gives an example there in verse 227 and following.

All too well, you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

For Moses said, here's the law, honor your father and your mother, and you who curses father and mother, let him be put to death.

But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you may have received from me is Corbin, and again, Mark explains to his Gentile audience that that word means a gift to God.

He says, if you say that, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do.

This is just one example, Jesus says.

So here's an individual who has declared that whatever he might use to help his parents in their older years as they might need financial help, or you, that's, that's a gift to God and notice the language here.

He says, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother.

It wasn't just you don't have to, you may not use what has been devoted to God, a gift to God.

You can't use that for such a mundane purpose as taking care of your parents.

And so what they did is they basically voided the commandment to honor father and mother by this Can I use the word loophole that they had devised with their own tradition.

And so the consequence was that essentially they set aside God's law to keep their own tradition.

Down in verses 25 and 8.

Jesus says, and when he had called all the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear me, everyone, and understand.

Here's the principle.

There is nothing that enters a man from outside, which can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, the disciples will get some uh uh additional information.

In verse 223, they ask him about the parable, that is the comments that he'd made earlier in verses 226 and 265.

He says, are you thus without understanding also?

Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him in the sense of religious defilement because it doesn't enter his heart, but his stomach and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods.

And he said what comes out of a man that defiles a man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things come from within.

And defile a man.

And so Jesus gives this list of some sins, it's not intended, I don't believe to be a comprehensive list to show the extent of the evil that can come out of a man's heart.

What is the application for us?

Well, as I said, we've become a, a, a nation of hand washers.

We're very concerned about our hands being clean, and I think there's legitimate reason for that.

We don't want to get sick.

We understand, uh, from scientific research that that's one of the most common ways of uh communicating disease or germs from one person to another is through physical touch, the washing of, or the shaking of hands and that sort of thing.

So I'm entirely in favor of hand washing.

How many of you still go to all you can eat buffets where you serve yourself at the buffet?

There are a few brave souls here.

Some of you are probably already asleep.

Some of you are just not going to answer.

Because you're ashamed to answer, but some of you had admit, have admitted that you will go and you will ladle onto your plate using a utensil that who knows who has touched, and you put that food on your plate and then you will go and eat with your hands, food that was ladled onto your plate by people who ate with their hands and touched the utensils.

I made a big deal of that cause I wanted your skin to crawl.

I want you to think about the transmission of germs that takes place at the buffet.

Debbie and I confession.

They and I used to eat at buffets some time ago.

But I just about have to drag her kicking and squalling into a buffet anymore.

She just doesn't care to do that because it's just not very sanitary in terms of the transmission of germs.

But I wonder If we are as careful with the condition of our hearts.

Because Jesus' point is, what's more important than just the outward sanitation of our hands or our bodies is the condition of our hearts.

Because if our hearts are defiled, that's going to be reflected.

In our conduct in the way that we behave, and of course the biblical heart is our mind.

Our intellect Sin, Jesus says, originates in the heart, from out of the heart of men.

One of the things that I had the opportunity to teach this last week or the week before that, was that we need to, as Christians become a new person.

We need to put off the old man and put on the new man.

And one of the things we talked about or that I talked about was how do we do that?

How do we transform ourselves into new people?

And the answer is you change the way you think.

You have to change the condition of your heart.

In Matthew the 18th chapter, And in verse 8, Jesus said, And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, Cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or 2 ft to be thrown into the eternal fire.

But I understand Jesus to be speaking in a figurative way here, especially in light of Mark 7, where Jesus says that what defiles a man is not eating with unwashed hands, but having defilement or corruption in one's heart.

So when Jesus says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

He's not contradicting what he said in Mark the 7th chapter by suggesting that here's where sin originates.

And so if you're sinning with your hand, then cut it off and that'll take care of the sin.

But what Jesus is saying instead is make whatever sacrifice is necessary for you to stop sinning.

Because the thought of cutting one's hand off.

Or as Matthew 5 talks about plucking out one's eye.

Just as an extreme sacrifice.

But that won't solve the problem of sin, cutting off a hand or plucking an eye.

Because that's not where sin originates.

Sin originates in the heart.

James tells us basically the same thing in James the first chapter and verses 26 through 15, where James talks about how temptation arises, how it works.

He says in James 1 and verse 13, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

God's not the source of temptation, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

But James says, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

And so the biblical heart, the seat of emotions and intellect, our minds, that's where temptation comes from.

When we are lured by our own desires, sin originates.

In the heart, Jesus said, out of the heart of man comes those things that defile Him.

And so while it is certainly important for us to wash our hands, sanitation, I'm not saying is unimportant.

I wonder if we're nearly as careful.

About the condition of our hearts.

What we hear.

What we read.

What we watch.

In media Because that's going to determine to some extent the condition of our hearts.

You can't take evil into your heart all the time and expand, expect them to have a good treasure from which you can bring forth good things.

You have to purify the heart.

You got to keep it clean.

The Pharisees were concerned about the cleanliness of their hands.

But apparently they had failed to see.

The uncleanness of their hearts.

In Matthew the 23rd chapter, one of the most scathing rebukes of the Lord of the Jewish leaders in his time.

He says in Matthew chapter 23 in verse 25 and 26, he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

A hypocrite is an actor, a pretender.

The hypocrite wants to give you an impression.

It's not actually accurate.

He wants to build a facade behind which he can hide and be entirely different.

And Jesus says, for you, cleanse the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Some of Jesus' illustrations are almost humorous, if it were not for the seriousness of the topic.

You can imagine as uh the woman of the home or the man of the home as, as he cleans up or she cleans up the table and we've eaten all these dishes and so the, the individual then goes and carefully wipes the outside of the, the cup, leaving whatever dregs of what was drank out of the inside of the cup which the skin crawling again.

I'm not finished.

And there's the plate, and we'll wash the bottom of the plate, but we leave all of the old food, whatever's left on the plate so that it can be used again.

There's There's a scene in one of the Chevy Chase movies.

Where Chevy and his wife are washing the dishes.

And because there's conversation going on, you may miss what's going on.

But Chevy's not even, they're not even washing the dishes.

He's just taking the plates and putting dirty plates back in the, in the cupboard to be used the next time.

That's what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about people who are more concerned with the appearance of the out, outward appearance of things than they are the, the necessary sanitation of those things.

You blind Pharisee.

First, clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

All illustrations at some point break down.

You can't make the outside of the cup clean simply by eating or cleaning the inside of the cup.

But Jesus is now already into the application stage of this illustration.

If you and I will cleanse the inside of our hearts.

Our conduct will also cleanse itself.

It will become pure.

It works from the inside to the outside, whereas the Pharisees were just concerned about the outside and failed to take care of the inside. Continue.

on in verse 27, Jesus says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men, dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

So you also outside.

Outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

And so another illustration.

Tombs that were in the area of Jerusalem would be whitewashed during the time of the festivals, Passover and Pentecost in particular.

So that pilgrims who were coming from other places and maybe unfamiliar with the location of various tombs would not accidentally defile themselves by touching something that was considered unclean, rendering them unacceptable in worship.

And so they whitewashed the tomb.

Place of dead bones.

Corruption A place of uncleanness, but they made it look pretty so that It looked like it might be clean.

The Pharisees focused on the exterior man.

And I believe that Jesus indicated that they must think about the condition of their hearts, and I would suggest to you that we should as well.

It occurred to me over the last couple of weeks that we are people who are much more concerned about sanitation, personal sanitation than a lot of the world is.

And some of that may be that people just don't have access to clean water or sufficient water always to cleanse themselves, but I know that I shower every day.

But I'm fairly certain that I work with people, I, I shouldn't say work with, that makes it sound like Rick and Ed Brand, but I was teaching people who I'm fairly sure were not concerned as much about sanitation.

I wonder if we're concerned as well about the condition of our hearts.

We wouldn't go out in public with dirt on our face if we can avoid it, we're aware of it.

We would make sure that we look clean and Yet sometimes I think we go out into public or among others.

With hearts that are full of evil thoughts.

Sinful desires, sinful attitudes.

What's the condition of your heart?

Is it pure?

Is it clean?

Or have we just sanitized our hands?

And forgotten about the more important issue.

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in the beatitudes, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Matthew the 5th chapter and verse 8.

It's interesting that the word that is translated pure there, catharras is the same word that is translated clean in Matthew 23 and in verse 26.

May I read that passage, that verse again to you?

You blind Pharisees, first clean, that's the verb form, uh Caross, the verb form of that.

First, clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be.

Pure, clean is the translation.

It's the same word.

Blessed are the clean in heart, for they shall see God.

Those who are citizens of God's kingdom must have clean hearts.

I'm 65.

By the time most of us reach that age or even sometimes somewhat younger.

Our hearts have started to develop some problems.

There are some issues perhaps.

And unfortunately, we can't always take care of some of those issues.

Some of those things are irreversible.

But the beauty of the gospel is that those of us who have Uncleanness in our hearts.

Those uh those of us who are guilty of sin, who have the stain, the blemish of sin against God's law, that can all be wiped clean.

That we can be made pure again.

That's not to say that we don't have to continue to cleanse and purify our hearts, but we can start out as new creatures in Christ.

Watched by the blood of Jesus.

If you need to do that this morning, if you need to respond to the gospel to be forgiven of your sins by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that you can be pure and holy again.

Then we want to encourage you to think seriously.

About expressing your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God this morning.

And having repented of your sins, be buried in water with Christ into his death that you can be cleansed and be pure and holy again.

And for those of us who are Christians, Maybe we've worried more about our hands than our hearts.

But God is interested in pure hearts, clean hearts.

And if you need to purify your heart, if it's something that is public, something that you would like to have the, the brethren pray with you, we invite you to come to the front as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Troy Nicholson

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Scripture reading will be from Ephesians chapter 4.

I'll be reading from the New King James version.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Well, as always, it's a privilege to be able to stand before you and I pray that our time together tonight can be beneficial as we open and study God's word together.

My computer always seems slower when I'm up here.

So let me see if I can get it up and get it going for us.

And let's get the mic turned on.

I guess you can hear me now.

If you've read the book or maybe seen the short movie featuring this guy, Well then you know as the title indicates how the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But if you've seen this guy, And you've seen the longer movie, then you know a little bit more.

Not only do you know as this is also titled How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you also know something else.

You know why.

The Grinch stole Christmas.

The first one tells you he's a mean one.

And also use a vial one.

That's the end of my da Trux impression tonight.

But it doesn't really tell you why he's mean and vile.

It also tells you that his heart is too size is too small, but it doesn't really tell you what led to his heart problems.

It's when you go to the other movie.

That some of the details are filled in and we learn a little bit more.

And I know dealing with, uh we're dealing with a fictional character tonight, but I believe there's some real world issues that are dealt with, and I pray that by looking at those, they can help us in our daily lives to be more like Christ would have us to be, and as we've even sung this evening, to be more like Christ.

Well I wanna look at an issue kind of a smaller issue, first of all, and that is why he hated Christmas.

If you just look at the first book in the first movie, uh, it tells you the Grinch hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season.

Now please don't ask why.

No one quite knows the reason.

Well, again, the second movie tells us a little bit more about the reason.

In fact, it goes back to his childhood.

And by looking at his childhood and how he was dealt with then, we get a little more insight into how he ended up the way that he was, especially how or why he hated Christmas.

Uh, one of the reasons that he hated Christmas was because of jealousy.

Now, it wasn't his own jealousy, it was the jealousy of someone else.

I'm gonna assume that some of you have some familiarities.

I'm not going to fill in all the details.

If you haven't seen it, maybe it won't totally ruin the movie and you can go back and fill in the details by watching it.

But at a young age before he became mayor, the child who was going to grow up to be mayor had a problem with jealousy.

He was jealous because his girlfriend Martha, liked the Grinch.

And that just wasn't going to work.

And as we consider the jealousy that he had, we just pause here for a moment and be reminded of the fact that jealousy is not good for us to have in our lives.

Several passages talk about this.

We look in 1 Corinthians 93, jealousy indicates a fleshly mindset or carnal mindset as we mentioned and described it this morning in our class on prayer.

And we look at Galatians chapter 5 and we think about the works of the flesh, and there again, we're warned against jealousy as part of those works of the flesh.

And in James, James chapter 3, it's associated with selfish ambition and also notice leading to every evil thing.

And I believe this is one of those occasions that we see jealousy lead to evil things.

Because not only was jealousy a problem here that led to him hating Christmas, it's what that jealousy led to, at least in part.

Cause not only do we see jealousy playing a part, but we also see cruelty and ridicule playing a part in him hating Christmas.

As a kid, the mayor made fun of the Grinch because she was 8 years old and had a beard.

I don't know too many eight year olds with a beard.

We probably don't, but we don't have to treat them like the mayor did.

Today, we'd probably call it bullying, the way the Grinch was treated by the mayor and some of the others.

And the Grinch really got into the Christmas spirit one year to make Martha a gift.

The teacher told everybody to look their best, so he decided maybe it was time to shave.

But that didn't go so well.

So he shows up with his gift.

And also his lack of a great shaving job.

And the mayor went to work on him.

Yelling to everybody, look at that hack job.

When he took the bag off his face and they could see the terrible job he had done shaving.

And is after the way he was treated that the Grinch said, I hate Christmas.

I hate it.

And Martha being interviewed years later, said about the event there.

It was a horrible day when they were so cruel to him.

And you know it's always a horrible day when we're cruel to other people and we say hurtful things to them.

Ephesians chapter 4, part of our reading tonight.

Says let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God and Christ forgave you.

Paul doesn't just tell us this in Ephesians and also other books, even Peter tells us the same admonition, essentially, if you look in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter said, finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another.

Love his brothers, be tenderhearted.

Be courteous.

And Jesus in the sermon on the Mount gave us a great principle that applies to this in so many other areas when he gave us what we sometimes call the golden rule there in Matthew 7:12.

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

Kermit the frog said it's not easy being green.

But try to imagine being green.

8 years old with a beard.

And not having a dad to show you how to save properly.

How would you want others to treat you if you were in that situation?

And just take that and apply it to the situation of so many people in our lives, so many people we may know who are a little different in one way or the other.

Before we're quick to join in the ridicule, stop and think.

What if we were the ones who are different?

How would we want others to treat us?

Every day we have situations to apply this golden rule.

By trying to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes instead of joining in the ridicule and the, and the, the, the um lack of compassion that we show toward them.

Stop and think.

What if we were them?

How would we want others to respond to us?

And we cut Martha some slack because she was a kid at the time this happened.

But what about when we face situations where we see others, maybe belittling others or making fun of them.

Do we just sit back quietly?

Or do we come to their defense?

What would we want others to do?

Wouldn't it be nice sometimes, maybe when we're the ones that the, the run into the jokes to have somebody else to just take a stand and help us out a little.

How many people do we know are just having a bad day because they're green?

That we could step in and help them out a little bit.

A few quotes I want us to consider.

Well, no one could justify why the Greeks became what he did.

Maybe if we just take the time to try to understand and extend a little grace toward him.

Can we do that?

And again, not only with him but applying that to others in our lives.

How many of you, I'm not asking for names, but maybe know somebody who's a little grinchy.

Somebody who's a little different from others, maybe somebody who has issues in their lives, things that we just don't understand.

How do we respond to them?

The Grinch said to his dog.

Fetch me my sedative.

Now to take care of those pesky memories.

And how many people today turn to drugs to help deal with those pesky memories?

People often turn To appeal or to a bottle.

Or to a his Or some type of drug and some type of some way of administering it.

Whether it be a head, a pill or a smoke.

And we may look at them and Not agree with what they're doing.

But again, do we ever try to put ourselves in their shoes and try to figure out what led them to that point?

Why are they engaging in that behavior?

And maybe you've seen people like me, you say I just don't understand how they could let the bottle control their life like they do.

I've known Christians that I've wondered that about.

I've known deacons that I've wondered that about.

And probably all of you have had similar situations.

So what we need to remember is we're right when we say that we can't understand.

If we haven't been there and we don't have their chemical disposition, we don't know what it's like to face the issues that they have.

Maybe they've turned to the wrong solution.

But can we extend some grace to them and trying to help them overcome it?

When we see people who are turning to a sedative or something else to deal with those pesky memories, what can we do to be a better solution to them?

How do we talk to people like that?

We just point out you shouldn't be doing that.

You need to quit.

In Passians 23:5, Paul said, walking wisdom toward those who are outside.

He said, let your speech always be with grace.

Seasoned with salt.

The Grinch also said why for 53 years, I've put up with it now.

For 53 years, he put up with what?

A few harsh words when he was 25 years old.

Cause that's what Martha tells us that, that on that occasion when he was 218 years old, and he said he hated Christmas and he left, she said they never saw him again.

For almost 218 years.

He's been harmed and hurt by those words that were said to him.

Do we stop and think about the power of our words?

And again, I know this is a fictional character.

But how many of you maybe can remember some hurtful things that people have said years ago to you?

Or maybe you know people are dealing with issues now because something that was said or done to them tens of years ago.

When you stop and think about the power of our words.

And how we can harm somebody for life.

With the hurtful things that we may say, But then on the other side of that, What about positive things that can be said?

Have you ever had something positive that was said, that has stayed with you for years?

Maybe you're going through a difficult time and somebody gave you the encouragement you needed?

See, words can work both ways.

They can tear somebody down and do permanent harm or they can do permanent good.

The things that we say we'll stick with people.

Again, as we consider A few quotes.

This is when Cindy Lu who came to him.

And he said, I don't know if it's that adorable twinkle in your eye.

Or that nonconformist streak that reminds me of a younger, less hairy me.

But you've convinced me.

Who knows?

This hubilation could change my entire outlook on life.

Now think about what Cindy had to overcome, and we'll touch on that a little bit more in a moment.

To get up the courage even to go and invite him.

Besides the courage of nominating for this award.

And yet he realizes this, this invitation from this little girl could possibly change his life.

How many people do we see every day that maybe an invitation from us could change your life?

He's talking about going to a hubelation, changing his life.

What if we invited people to worship?

How could that change their lives?

Somebody who doesn't know Jesus and we bring them into contact with Jesus, that's really changing their lives.

All because she got up the courage to go and invite him.

Do we get up encouraged to invite people and maybe make the difference in their lives?

As we think about the power of our tongue and the good that it can do or the harm that it can do, maybe we're reminded of James in James chapter 21 where he talks about the power that's in the tongue.

And he also talks about how at the same tongue we bless and curse and that it shouldn't be that way.

But we know it can There's a wise man, Solomon said in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 29, Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Think about that the next time you go to open your mouth to say something to someone else.

Maybe someone who's a little different, a little greasy, going through some issues in their life.

Do you want to bring life or death?

That power is in your words.

What you say may stay with him for the next 33 years or longer.

You could lead them to a sedative or you could lead him to the Lord.

Which do you want to do?

Go back to the idea of why.

Why did the Grinch steal Christmas?

Well, one issue I believe was the prejudice that he constantly had to deal with.

The way that others thought about him.

There's a boy uh saying to a girl about the Grinch.

They say he lives up here in a big cave and only comes down when he's hungry for the taste of hoo flesh.

Well, I would ask, who said this?

And why?

Has there been a confirmed account of him coming down and, and devouring somebody?

Not that I'm aware of.

But you see these kind of things get started and said about him, and pretty soon that's what everybody believes, whether it's true or not.

Just like we can have preconceived ideas about people.

Maybe based on their color, their nationality, their gender, all kinds of issues, and we just jump to conclusions about people.

And maybe they're no more true about us than they were about the Greens.

Yeah, if we're not careful, we can let prejudice.

Innuendo our lives.

But fortunately, when it comes to the Grinch, as we've already mentioned.

There was a Cindy Luho to the story, and sometimes I think maybe we need a whole sermon about how we need to be more like Cindy Lu who.

But, but she, she said.

And, and this was one account when, uh, in the movie, if you remember the Grinch had an opportunity to save her.

His dog talked, talked him into it with a little persuasion, and so he saved her from a machine there at the post office.

And so this is Cindy Lou who going through really a struggle within herself.

Sweet Cindy Lou or sweet Cindy didn't know what to do and her head bum tumbled a conflict or two.

If the Grinch was so bad, then why did he save me?

Maybe he wasn't so bad. Maybe.

Just maybe.

And we've already talked about how she really overcome any prejudice to take the action that she did and offer the kindness toward him, but nobody else would.

Can we overcome prejudice to extend kindness to others?

And again, maybe make the difference with them.

And 23 Timothy chapter 29 and verse 218, Paul gives this warning to Timothy.

I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elected elders that you observe these things without prejudice.

Doing nothing With partiality.

Do we do things without prejudice?

Without partiality, without judging a book by its cover, without judging somebody by the color of their skin or their ethnicity or anything else.

Maybe sometimes we need to be reminded again, going back to our, our songs to be more like Jesus and his uh children often sing and maybe we as adults need to sing more often to be reminded of red and yellow, black and white, and may we insert green even though it doesn't rhyme.

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus doesn't see color when he looks at people.

He sees souls.

I mean we have that kind of vision ourselves.

To see others who are in need of salvation and realize they're just as deserving as we are.

And extend to them the grace that God wants to extend to them.

We need to remove prejudice from our lives.

And also we see with the Grinch, one of the reasons he stole Christmas is partly because he saw how really abused it was in a sense by them.

The idea of materialism and avarice.

Uh, one scene in the movies, we see a cashier cramming money into a cash register just as fast as he can.

It's just a hustle and bustle going around.

And again, Cindy Lou who.

And her childlike innocence and wisdom.

Ask the question.

Does this seem like a bit much?

Well, your dad at the time replied, Well, this is what Christmas is all about.

And so then she said, I look around at you and mom.

And everyone getting all kurbobbled.

Doesn't this seem superfluous?

I don't have a dictionary definition for kebabble.

I'll let you define that as you will.

But I can help you with superfluous a little bit.

The word superfluous means excessive or unnecessary, exceeding what is sufficient or necessary.

And so that's what she was able to see taking place around her.

And that's part of what irritated the Grinch when he looked around him and he saw the way everybody was acting.

In fact, he goes on to say himself.

You wanna know what happens to your gifts?

They all come to me in your garbage.

The avarice never ends.

I want golf clubs.

I want diamonds.

I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored, and sell it to make glue.

Now you look at that maybe laugh a little, but What's gonna happen in a few months with our Christmas gifts?

Maybe the next morning, the boxes are sitting by the curb.

How much longer does it take for those items to be in the trash?

You know, we get so caught up in the materialistic nature of our society and especially now, you know, I want, I want this, I want that.

Yeah, what's the real value of those things?

In one sense, when I look at what the Grinch said there about what was going to happen to the gifts in the long run, I think about what Jesus warned in the sermon on the Mount Matthew 6:19.

You remember what he said on that occasion?

Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroyed, and where thieves break in and steal.

Principles basically the same.

Those things that mean so much to us are soon gonna be gone from our life in one way or the other.

Either we'll lose interest or something will happen to it.

Yeah it's so easy, especially this time of year to get caught up in all the materialistic nature of our society.

If we're not careful, we can be like the prodigal son, at least at the beginning in Luke chapter 15.

Just like the Grinch, saw all the who's saying, I want this, I want that.

That was basically his attitude there in Luke 15:12.

Give me.

Now fortunately, we see a change come about in his life.

But it's so easy for all of us if we're not careful.

To get caught up in that.

And especially when we live in this luxury society that we do here in America.

I mean, everybody else has things.

Surely I deserve what everybody else has.

I'm trying to keep up with the Joneses.

So I deserve more.

I want more.

You remember some of the warnings of scripture.

And 1 John 93, the warning there, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father.

But is of the world.

And I'm not saying this tonight to say you need to go home and return all your Christmas gifts.

That's not the point.

But don't get so caught up in the materialistic things.

Remember, where is our true love?

We make that wish list for Christmas, things we really want.

As long as you're a member of the unwritten things may be on that list, what we really need the most is to be right with God.

And all those other things are just blessings from Him that should be used in service to Him.

Don't let our love be shifted to the wrong thing or the wrong person.

As Paul says, again, looking 1 Timothy chapter 6 now.

So now godliness with contentment is great gain.

Before we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and clothing with these we shall be content.

And we probably will all be receiving more than just food and clothing in the coming days and weeks.

But again, what's our focus?

What's our priority?

If something happened and our house burned down and all the Christmas gifts with it, would we still be content?

As long as we still have God in their lives and the relationship with Him.

In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5, let your conduct be without covetousness.

Be content with such things as you have.

For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

When the Grinch looked around at the materialistic attitude of the who's, it just got to him.

Maybe at times we just need to take a step back and look at our lives and let it get to us and make sure we keep our priorities in the right order.

Well, skipping ahead a little bit and what actually happens in the story, I want us to think for a moment about when he returned Christmas.

Because we see he had a change of heart.

And decide to take everything back.

And so when he did, he took everything back and he goes into town and he goes up to the officer says, you got me, officer.

I did it.

I'm the Grinch who stole Christmas and I'm Sorry.

He brought everything back and said he's sorry.

So how is he going to be received when he brought everything back?

Well, it depends on who you were.

When he brought everything back.

Remember the mayor who had such a great attitude all along toward him?

Well, this is a perfect opportunity for him.

The mayor said, you heard him, officer.

He admitted it.

And we know what that means.

Arrest him, throw him into jail.

Throw away the key.

But fortunately, the officer looked at him with a little more grace than the mayor did.

He said, Yes, I heard him all right.

He said he was sorry.

What do we hear?

When people have done wrong, maybe even members of the church.

Maybe they've done some terrible things or at least things we thought we'd never do ourselves, but then they have a change of heart.

And they're sorry.

And they come forward and they repent or they come to us trying to make things right.

What is our attitude toward them?

Are we ready like the mayor just to lock them up and throw away the key?

Are willing to show the kind of grace and mercy toward them that the officer was willing to show toward the Grinch on this occasion.

We mentioned a few moments ago that prodigal son, and he had the wrong attitude at first when he says give me.

But then when he finally hit rock bottom, maybe you remember he came back to the Father and this time he said, make me.

And so what did the father do?

The father met him with open arms.

He's ready to forgive his son and restore him.

And But then brother came home.

And what would you do if your brother had gone off in this frivolous, prodigal, wasteful living.

And then returned home.

Well, if you know the story, you know the brother wasn't.

As forgiving and merciful.

As the father was.

Maybe think of other examples in scripture that helped make this point.

In Matthew chapter 18, we see the merciful master and the unmerciful servant.

I'm not gonna take the time to read the whole account there, but maybe you remember the, the one servant who owed an exorbitant amount beyond what he could ever repay, and he goes and begs for mercy from the master and the master has compassion and forgives him.

But then that exact same servant goes out and somebody who owed him just a pittance in comparison comes to him wanting mercy and grace to be shown.

But there was none to be shown.

And so I ask you, how do we treat those who are trying to turn their lives around and are sorry.

Do we have the attitude of the mayor or do we have the attitude of the officer?

My guess is we want mercy in return to us.

Do we show mercy and return to others?

Fortunately, God, It's like the officer.

He is the father.

In the prodigal son story.

He is the master.

Who was merciful in Matthew chapter 18.

And as John tells us about the Father in 1 John 1 and verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And Peter also tells us along the same line, whoops, I went too far.

I guess Didn't put that on my overhead.

I meant to.

2 Peter 3 and verse 9.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering, not toward us, not willing that any should perish.

But that all should come to repentance.

Our heavenly Father is waiting for us to confess our sins.

He's waiting for us to repent.

And he has open arms.

For us to return and make things right.

And before you're hesitant to show that same kind of grace and mercy toward others, may I remind you of it in Matthew chapter 18.

When that unmerciful servant wasn't willing to show it toward others.

The master held him accountable.

And that's what the Bible tells us that God will do to us.

If we're not willing to show mercy toward others, we're not gonna receive mercy from him.

We all need The grace and mercy of God, and God's willing to show it.

But we need to remember others needed as well.

And may we extend it to them.

Who knows if we learn to treat others with grace and mercy and kindness and compassion.

Maybe there'll be a few, fewer grinches in the world.

Maybe there'll be a few more people who we can turn their lives around.

Not with a hubilation.

But with the grace and mercy of God extended to us, it's also extended to them.

And if you're here this evening and you need the grace of God extended to you, maybe it's because you've yet to become a Christian, and you need to repent of your sins.

You need to make that life-changing decision to put God first.

To have your sins washed away in the waters of baptism and begin a new life for him.

Or maybe you've done that.

But you drifted back into the world.

Fortunately, God is still waiting to forgive you when you repent.

And if we can assist you in any way this evening, In receiving the grace that God has in store for you, we encourage you to come now as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Tim Smith

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

If you will, turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2.

Reading the 1st 10 verses of that chapter also be available up on the screen.

We're reading out of the English standard version this morning.

Here, uh, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians is getting to, it's one of the first central points of his message about how we've been saved by grace through faith.

Again, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

And you were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Good morning.

I want to extend.

Or reinforce the welcome that Gary gave at the beginning.

Uh, we're glad that you're here.

And we've come to, to worship our God and to consider a message from his word at this point in time.

I decided To leave the clicker at, at where I was sitting.

What happens when you take your vest off at the last minute and have stuck the clicker in your vest.

When Mike and I were uh teaching the Ephesians and Colossians class, uh, we were In, in looking at the, the first chapter of both Ephesians and, and first chapter of Colossians.

It occurred to me the magnitude.

Of God's grace I've preached probably.

Somewhere anywhere from 1 to 73 to 5 times a year for the last 45 years.

And went back through the lessons that I have preached over those years.

Now, my filing system is not that good.

But I don't know that I've ever preached a lesson entitled grace.

One that's focused solely on on God's grace.

I scrolled the website uh for lessons that have been taught here over the last year and didn't see grace in any of the titles.

Uh, now, John may have some kind of program that will, that will uh invalidate my point there, uh, but I didn't see it, so if, if there is one, please forgive my oversight.

But lest I be misunderstood.

The fact that there haven't been less lessons entitled Grace is not intended to imply that we don't talk about grace or teaching.

When we trumpet the love of God and marvel at His mercy.

We're talking about grace.

As Craig led us this morning, when we focus on the sacrifice of Jesus, as we commune, as we protect the Lord's supper, we are emphasizing God's grace.

When we preach on forgiveness, We're emphasizing God's grace because he's the only one that can forgive.

Forgiveness is granted by God.

When we speak about God's eternal plan, as, as Craig alluded to it this morning, we're preaching about God's grace.

Craig inadvertently uh introduced uh one of, one of my introductory points when he read Ephesians 1 and verse 2, when it talks about the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, in all of his letters begins and ends with grace.

Peter in his two letters begins and ends with grace.

John in the revelation begins and ends with grace.

They're in the beginning and, and ending verses of those books.

When the apostles described the message that they preached in Acts, Peter in Acts 15, as he was uh talking to the council there in Jerusalem, he said, Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

That's in verse 8, but in, in, down in verse 11, it says, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, just as they will.

He said, both Jew and Gentile are gonna be saved by grace.

Paul, when he had the, the elders from the church at Ephesus come and meet him and Melis.

Described his message this this way in Acts 2024.

He says, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself.

If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Grace is a term.

Or a concept.

That lights up the pages of the New Testament.

Ironically, Jesus never used the word grace in his teaching.

Uh The only, only times that grace is used in, in the Gospels describes Jesus, and especially in John the first chapter.

But I would assert to you that the message of the gospels is grace.

And I would further tell you that it's spelled Jesus.

What is grace?

Did it even give my title up there?

OK, I've, I've animated it somehow but it, it uh confused me there.

Uh, what is grace?

Here's some quotes that I, I found useful.

Grace is love that cures and stoops and rescues.

Grace is God's free and unmerited favor shown to guilty sinners who deserve only judgment.

It is the love of God shown to the unlovely.

It is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against him.

The shorthand for what grace is.

Mercy, not merit.

Grace is the opposite of karma, which is about getting what you deserve.

Grace is getting what you don't deserve and not getting what you do deserve.

Christianity teaches that what we deserve is death as the price of sin, which separates us from God, who is life.

Grace is God's best idea.

His decision to ravage a people by love, to rescue passionately, and to restore justly.

What rivals it?

Of all his wondrous works, grace in my estimation, is the magnum opus.

Now, I had to look up Magnum opus.

Uh Magnum opus is the best or most important work of some, of an artist.

And Max Cato here says that grace is God's most magnificent work.

Now, this is what some men have said about God's grace.

And I think these snippets.

Uh, really reflect what, what the message of, of the, of the New Testament is they agree with what scriptures tell us, but I'm not gonna give you quote after quote after quote from, from men from here on out.

I wanna show you what the scriptures teach.

In Romans the 3rd chapter.

Uh I've broken into the, to the middle of, of the, of the passage here, uh, the paragraph.

Beginning in verse 173, however, says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3, beginning in verse 21, the reading that I made.

After concluding That all men are sinners, both Jew and Gentile.

That there is none righteous.

Paul pointed to the only way for people to be made righteous, to be justified.

God's grace.

As a gift This gift was manifested in the propitiation or the appeasement that Jesus made through his sacrifice.

Worked out the enmity between God and man.

This is not based on the merit of the ones that have been redeemed, the ones whose sins are being remitted.

But it is in, in fact, it's in spite of the merit or whatever merit that we have.

If you flip over a couple of uh chapters into Romans 5, Lest we think that, you know, God owed this to us.

This is the state that man was in.

While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

Much more now that we are reconciled, we should be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Look at, look at where we were.

We were weak, we were without strength.

We were ungodly.

We were, in fact, we were enemies of God.

We were sinners.

What did Grace do?

Christ died for the ungodly.

God demonstrates he shows his love for us.

Once again, it says that Christ died, we have been justified by His blood.

We've been made right.

We were, we were in the wrong.

We were, we were without hope, and God uses the death of Jesus to justify, to make us right.

We have been saved from wrath that which has been reserved for those that are ungodly.

We've been saved by his life.

We have received reconciliation.

We've been, we've been brought back into a right relationship with God.

One more quote.

The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners.

Contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit.

It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.

It is surely clear that once a man is convinced that his state and need are as described, the New Testament cannot but sweep him off his feet with wonder and joy.

For it tells us how our judge.

has become our savior.

The one who is Has The capability to Condemn us desires that we be saved.

Our judge has become our savior.

Can we get this in our heads?

God's grace is undeserved.

It is his unearned gift to mankind.

We do not, and we cannot earn his grace.

It is freely given It is what it is him reaching out.

I want to address one more aspect of God's grace.

And then make some applications for us.

I thought, I thought Craig was, when he said Ephesians 1, I thought he's gonna read the whole chapter and I don't know about to say anything here, but, but you, you went over to the second chapter so I got the stuff in between to talk about.

This is in the The passage where we see God's eternal plan.

Beginning in verse 3, and this, this shows beginning at the end of verse 4.

So I'm gonna read beginning in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

According to the purpose of his will.

To the praise of His glorious grace.

With which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood.

The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.

Which he lavished upon us in our wisdom and insight.

God's not stingy with his grace.

The word there and lavished is the idea of abundantly supplying.

Uh, I, I get the, I get the idea of something just sort of overflowing is what it, what it represents.

And that message is emphasized in the second half of Romans 5.

If you want to turn there out, I'm gonna read a few verses.

And this is where We, we see When Adam did and what God what Christ has done and the Sin being brought into the world and grace coming through Jesus.

I'm picking up in verse 15.

But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Can I, I forgot to tell you as, as we read through this, look at the ideas of much more are bounding.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, if one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.

Whereas by the one man's disobedient, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So then, So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin was present, but grace overwhelms.

It's bounding yet the free gift.

It was more than adequate to deal with our sin.

Now, the, the question that Paul raises after that is, should, should we continue in sin that grace may abound even more and that's not the message that he's saying, but he's, he's saying that when you, when sin and, and, and grace Locked up in combat, Grace one.

Grace overwhelms sin.

reminded Of the psalmist who said in Psalm 73 12 as far as the east is from the west.

So far does he remove our transgressions from us.

I just said this grace overwhelms sin.

It doesn't just even the score, it results in overwhelming victory.

Those of you who've been in mine and Mike's class, in any classes I've taught recently.

So what?

What, what does this mean for me?

This is all, all good academic stuff.

This is, this is good information.

What, what does this mean to me?

What is, what is grace gonna mean in my life?

It's going to cause us to be thankful.

It's going to cause us to offer praise, uh.

The idea of to the praise of God's grace in in Ephesians 1 and verse 6, but here what the Psalmist says, I will give thanks to the Lord, the thanks, I will give to the Lord, the thanks due to his righteousness.

I will sing to praise the name of the Lord, the Most High.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

In God, we have boasted continually and we will give thanks to your name forever.

We give thanks to you, oh God, we give thanks for your name is near.

We recount your wondrous deeds.

Note the number of verses that that this next one is, uh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.

You think the Psalmist wanted us to, to know that?

Uh, I bow down to your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

The theme continues in the New Testament.

This first First in Luke 27 is talking about the Samaritan.

There were 250 lepers who were healed, and 250 came back.

And he was a Samaritan.

He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

Now he was a Samaritan.

There were 2100 people that were healed of leprosy.

And one came back to give thanks.

Jesus Provided grace to 27 people and only 217 came back to thank him.

Just a little beyond the, the context of, of what we've been talking about in Romans 73 and 27 at the end of Romans 270.

We see, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard teaching to which you were committed.

We have gone from slavery.

To sonship And that should, should elicit thanksgiving and praise.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amazing Grace How sweet the sound that saved.

A wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I found.

was blind but now I see.

We've been there 21,000 years, bright shining as the sun.

We've no less.

Days to sing God's praise is what I have here.

I thought it's a grace there.

I, I misread it.

than when we first begun.

Those words should mean something to us.

And God's grace.

should be reciprocated our Thanksgiving and praise.

I would suggest to you that a second thing.

That God's grace causes us to do.

is to respond in faith.

Uh Ethan read to you from Ephesians the 2nd chapter.

And he read beginning in verse one.

I want to begin with uh With Kevin's favorite verse, verse 4.

But God Being rich in mercy.

Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved.

And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works.

So that no 1 may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We're justified by faith.

I want to bring back the Romans the 5th chapter, just a couple of verses at the beginning of the chapter.

Which amplify on this message.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So our faith based on the, the sacrifice of Jesus.

What our response in faith brings about peace with God, which, which Craig talked about, uh, we didn't collaborate at all, but we probably should have.

Uh, through him, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace or into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So faith causes us to access the grace of God.

And it is in that grace that we stand.

Faith is the idea of whatever God requires of or whatever I'm requesting in trust, I'm going to do what he says.

What God, whatever God requires.

I'm going to trust him And do it.

And finally, God's grace is gonna cause me to forgive.

We're familiar with the The parable of the unforgiving servant.

In Matthew 18.

That That parable was introduced.

When Peter came up to Jesus and said, Lord, How often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him.

As many as 703 times.

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you 7 times, but this is the English Standard version 77 times or 70 times 7 in the King James and New King James.

The message is not count up to this number, and after that, don't forgive.

Messages, it's unlimited forgiveness.

And then he tells the parable of the of the trusted.

servant who blew through more money than we can ever imagine.

And he is dragged before the king and begs mercy and says, uh, I, I've forgotten the exact, exact terms because uh.

Says have patience with me and I'll pay you everything.

Yeah, right.

You got the The The debt of the United States plus some, and you're gonna go off and you're gonna, you know make that right.

Give me, give me time and I'll pay everything.

Uh, but, but the king said, I forgive you.

And then he goes off after receiving this forgiveness.

And find somebody who owes him 50, 50 days' worth of or 100 days' worth of wages.

And he begins to choke him and say, Give me, give me what you owe me.

And Be the man begs him.

Same way, have patience with me.

I'll pay everything.

He had this other guy had an opportunity, had had a chance of actually paying it off.

And yet He, he was unmerciful and had him thrown into prison.

The King heard about this.

His master summoned him, the man who had been forgiven and then not forgiving.

And said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Let me say this very clearly.

We desire Forgiveness and mercy and grace.

Measured B Olympic swimming pool volumes.

We, we won't And And then what we want to do.

is we want to dispense it.

In small syringes.

To others, And we really want to make certain that the needle's on there too.

We desire grace.

For ourselves.

But we're going to administer justice for everybody else.

That shouldn't be That's not what God has provided His grace for us to go off and do to others.

Jesus concluded his model prayer by saying, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you not, do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

That scares me to death.

When I Puff up and, and say I'm not gonna forgive.

You know, they can, they can do whatever they want.

I'll never forgive them.

I'll never forget that.

I hope you can remember it for eternity.

Because that will send you to hell.

That attitude I'm not saying it's easy.

In fact, Peter May have gotten his 7 times from this statement.

Luke 17 Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you 7 times in the day, And turns to you 7 times saying I repent.

Think about it.

Think about forgiving him.

Now it says you must forgive him.

Understandably, The the disciples, the apostles said, Lord, increase our faith.

When we have been wronged.

And we've been wronged by the same person.

We've been wronged by the same person doing the same thing, and they come back and say, Please forgive You say well uh first time shame on you, second time shame on me.

We're afraid of being taken advantage of.

We're afraid of being, I'm gonna use a 70s term, we're afraid of being considered a chump because we willingly have released someone of the debt that they owe us or the debt of their sin against us by forgiving them.

And we We are Quick to to count.

We're quick to Uh be Make certain that That, that, that injustice, that, that sin against us doesn't outweigh the, you know, the, the good against good that they've done.

What I'm telling you I be willing To be taken advantage of.

Be willing to be vulnerable.

I'm not saying forgive people who, who've not repented.

It says here that if he repents, forgive him.

But when they've repented, Don't up the ante and, and ask, tell them they have to do beyond what, what repentance requires.

Well I came to the conclusion of In Teaching Colossians 1.

Are these These thoughts here.

I was trapped and imprisoned in sin.

It was my own fault.

I couldn't do anything on my own that would get me out of that predicament.

None of my peers could help me.

Only God could do it.

And he did.

It costs more than words can describe.

It was a gift.

I owe him everything.

Now the question this morning is how will you, how will I respond to God's grace?

On their Pentecost When the crowd was cut to the heart.

They asked what they needed to do and what was the answer.

Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Access to the grace of God.

was not Was, was based on God forgiving people who had killed his son.

Peter though didn't say God's grace You don't have to do anything.

God's heart, God's handled it.

He said, repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, but, but the thing is, Who's doing the remitting of sins?

Who is forgiving sins?

It's not the act that we that we do.

It is God.

Taking the faith that we are demonstrating.

And applying the blood of Jesus.

To forgive us from our sin forgive us our sins.

And this morning I ask you, if you have not taken advantage, if you have not availed yourself.

Of the grace of God.

There's no better time to do it than this morning.

If you've never obeyed the gospel, you know what you need to do, as Peter said, repent and be baptized.

Uh, or if you have sinned in a way that, uh, That is public and needs to be confessed in a public way.

Please avail yourself of God's grace.

Uh, repent.

Pray to God.

We ask you to do that as we stand and as we sing.