Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Christianity 101│ Msg 3044 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Christianity 101│ Msg 3044 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If you have a copy of the New Testament with you,
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Speaker 1: please turn to the 12th chapter of the letter to
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Speaker 1: the Romans. You'll find in your worship folder an outline
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Speaker 1: you may wish to insert here when we finish with
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Speaker 1: the reading. It will help guide you and me both
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Speaker 1: as we work our way through these meaningful words that
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Speaker 1: really do form sort of a checklist. What is involved
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Speaker 1: in being exactly what we just sang today? what it
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Speaker 1: means to be Christ-like. I should warn you ahead of
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Speaker 1: time that this is a very convicting section of Scripture.
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Speaker 1: As I've said to you before, I've lived with it
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Speaker 1: all week, and I thought today I'd share the conviction
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Speaker 1: with all of you. You'll feel it as we work
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Speaker 1: our way through it. Actually, the section that's so great
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Speaker 1: is the last half of the 12th chapter. Not that
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Speaker 1: all of it isn't great. But verses 9 through 21 form,
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Speaker 1: in a nutshell, the Christian life. That's why we've called
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Speaker 1: it Christianity 101. We haven't the time to deal with
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Speaker 1: the last five verses plus verse 14, so we'll wait
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Speaker 1: until the next time for that. But about all we
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Speaker 1: can take in one sitting will be 9 through 16,
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Speaker 1: so let's go there. Will you stand, please, in respect
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Speaker 1: for the word of God, and as we... Listen to
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Speaker 1: it read together if we think in terms of its application.
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Speaker 1: Romans 12, 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what
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Speaker 1: is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to
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Speaker 1: one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another
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Speaker 1: in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit,
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Speaker 1: serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted
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Speaker 1: to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
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Speaker 1: Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.
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Speaker 1: Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
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Speaker 1: Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not
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Speaker 1: be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do
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Speaker 1: not be wise in your own estimation. We are grateful
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Speaker 1: that God has preserved his word for us and we
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Speaker 1: place ourselves under the authority of it together, preacher and
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Speaker 1: congregation alike. Before the morning offering, will you bow with
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Speaker 1: me for prayer, please? We are brothers and sisters, our Father,
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Speaker 1: and the journey is long, and it is often arduous, demanding,
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Speaker 1: full of obstacles, disappointments, tests, and trials. On occasion, the
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Speaker 1: bright beam of Your blessing and favor will break through,
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Speaker 1: but often the days are cloudy and times are hard.
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Speaker 1: And we as a congregation stand before you to pledge
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Speaker 1: our allegiance to you, the one true God, the rock
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Speaker 1: on whom we stand, the one who yielded up his
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Speaker 1: only son for people like us. Of all things. We
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Speaker 1: want to be Christians. Our father deep in our hearts.
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Speaker 1: We don't want to talk about it. We want to
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Speaker 1: live it. We want Christ to reign as Lord and supreme.
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Speaker 1: Over our thoughts. And in the actions that follow those thoughts.
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Speaker 1: We want the masters. to be on display. We desire
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Speaker 1: Father to do so sincerely and without pretense, without a mask.
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Speaker 1: So give us the courage to live like that. We
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Speaker 1: remember many friends who have been in difficult places this week,
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Speaker 1: fighting for their lives, watching their homes consumed in flames.
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Speaker 1: Business is gone. Everything they call dear removed from them.
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Speaker 1: Give us hearts of compassion for these who are going
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Speaker 1: through trials many of us have known nothing about. Find
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Speaker 1: in us deep concern and love. For those in hard
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Speaker 1: places carrying heavy weapons. Handling themselves in the midst of
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Speaker 1: the enemy. We pray for your protective shield. They're awaiting
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Speaker 1: arms longing for their return and we pray for that
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Speaker 1: to be safe and soon. Now our father as we
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Speaker 1: stand before you we give you ourselves first. And then
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Speaker 1: our gifts. Because we want to be Christians even in
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Speaker 1: our giving. May our lives be marked by that kind
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Speaker 1: of generosity. Even as Christ who loved us and gave
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Speaker 1: himself for us. It is in his name we give.
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Speaker 1: And it is in his name we pray. And everyone said.
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Speaker 1: What are you leaving for the next generation? What are
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Speaker 1: you leaving in the minds of those who will outlive
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Speaker 1: you so that their lives are deeper, richer, better than
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Speaker 1: yours has been? Horror novelist Stephen King lived through a
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Speaker 1: horrible experience Even though he is rich and famous, he's
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Speaker 1: also very human. And when hit by a car in
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Speaker 1: 1999 and left in a ditch to die, life sort
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Speaker 1: of passed in review and gave him a whole new
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Speaker 1: perspective on things. Two years after it, he wrote about it.
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Speaker 1: And in the writing, he left all of us with
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Speaker 1: a message regarding that question I asked you earlier. King writes,
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Speaker 1: Couple of years ago, I found out what you can't
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Speaker 1: take it with you means. I found out while I
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Speaker 1: was lying in a ditch at the side of a
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Speaker 1: country road covered with mud and blood and with the
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Speaker 1: tibia of my right leg poking out the side of
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Speaker 1: my jeans like the branch of a tree taken down
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Speaker 1: in a thunderstorm. He is forever the horror writer, isn't he?
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Speaker 1: I had a MasterCard in my wallet, but when you're
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Speaker 1: lying in a ditch with broken glass in your hair,
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Speaker 1: No one accepts MasterCard. We all know that life is ephemeral.
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Speaker 1: But on that particular day, in the months that followed,
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Speaker 1: I got a painful but extremely valuable look at life's
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Speaker 1: simple backstage truths. We come in naked and broke. We
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Speaker 1: may be dressed when we go out, but we're just
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Speaker 1: as broke. Warren Buffett, going to go out broke. Bill Gates,
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Speaker 1: going out broke. Tom Hanks, going out broke. Stephen King,
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Speaker 1: not a crying dime. All the money you earn, all
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Speaker 1: the stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade,
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Speaker 1: all of that is mostly smoke and mirrors. It's still
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Speaker 1: going to be a quarter past getting late, whether you
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Speaker 1: tell the time on a Timex or a Rolex. No
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Speaker 1: matter how large your bank account, no matter how many
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Speaker 1: credit cards you have, sooner or later, things will begin
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Speaker 1: to go wrong with the only three things you have
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Speaker 1: that you can really call your own. Your body, your spirit,
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Speaker 1: and your mind. So, I want you to consider making
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Speaker 1: your life one long gift to others. And why not?
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Speaker 1: All you have is on loan anyway. All that lasts
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Speaker 1: is what you pass on. Everything I have to say
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Speaker 1: now has to do with the final eight words of
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Speaker 1: Stephen King's statement. All that lasts is what you pass on.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to imagine yourself in a
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Speaker 1: most unusual place, but someday you will be there. You
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Speaker 1: are lying in a casket. Your days of life. have passed.
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Speaker 1: Your family is sitting nearby, staring, blinking through tears. Your
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Speaker 1: friends are there, remembering. What are they remembering? I can
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Speaker 1: assure you they are not remembering your financial portfolio. They
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Speaker 1: do not have in mind your possessions or your photos.
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Speaker 1: What you leave the next generation really has nothing to
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Speaker 1: do with anything tangible or measurable or audible or even edible.
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Speaker 1: It's what lives in their minds. It's the memories they
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Speaker 1: take with them. As the lid of the casket is closed.
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Speaker 1: And as it's placed six feet down in the ground.
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Speaker 1: It will be a model of a life well lived.
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Speaker 1: That will enable them to live a life. Quite likely
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Speaker 1: even better than you or I lived. But they need
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Speaker 1: that example. We often search in vain to find that
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Speaker 1: golden list, that set of specifics we would love to
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Speaker 1: use as a guideline to take us from now till
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Speaker 1: that moment we breathe our last. I'm happy to say
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Speaker 1: that such a list has been preserved, and it's not
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Speaker 1: simply the writing of a brilliant man who made a
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Speaker 1: major emphasis and impact on the first century. It's preserved
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Speaker 1: for us by God. It has his stamp of approval.
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Speaker 1: This preserved list is in the latter half of Romans
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Speaker 1: chapter 12, beginning at verse 9 all the way down
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Speaker 1: through verse 21. Time doesn't permit us to take the
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Speaker 1: last subject, which is a subject unto itself and how
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Speaker 1: to deal with those who are difficult to love, those
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Speaker 1: who have hurt and injured us. maybe even persecuted us.
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Speaker 1: So we'll leave out verse 14 as well as 17
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Speaker 1: through 21 today and look at that next time. What
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Speaker 1: we want to see are these core values of life
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Speaker 1: in 9 through 16. Not surprisingly, love takes center stage.
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Speaker 1: It immediately dominates the scene. In fact, I'm convinced that
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Speaker 1: the love mentioned in verse 9 is really unpacked in
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Speaker 1: the verses that follow. In light of that, let's define
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Speaker 1: it so we understand it, what it means and doesn't mean.
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Speaker 1: Let's understand why it's so important, and then we'll analyze
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Speaker 1: the verses and think through them. The best definition I've
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Speaker 1: ever come across is found in 1 Corinthians 13. And
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Speaker 1: sometime when you will take an hour alone, would you
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Speaker 1: just read it aloud again and again and again? First
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Speaker 1: Corinthians 13 is the greatest treatise ever written on love.
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Speaker 1: If I were asked to give one sentence, it would
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Speaker 1: be this. Love is seeking the highest good of the
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Speaker 1: other person. It is seeking what's best for the other person. Sometime, admittedly,
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Speaker 1: love is tough, firm, stern, strong hearted. unwilling to look
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Speaker 1: the other way. It's not making someone comfortable. It's not
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Speaker 1: telling them what they want to hear. It is not
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Speaker 1: treating them like they've treated us. It is not looking
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Speaker 1: the other way when we encounter wrong. This part of
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Speaker 1: love is tough love. It's relentless. There are other times
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Speaker 1: when love must be tender, soft-hearted, marked by compassion, understanding, tolerance.
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Speaker 1: Grace and forgiveness. Both sides of the coin make this
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Speaker 1: love authentic. And you need both tough and tender. Best
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Speaker 1: example who's ever lived is, of course, Jesus of Nazareth. Now,
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Speaker 1: why is it such a high priority? Why is seeking
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Speaker 1: the highest good so valuable in life? It's because it
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Speaker 1: shapes and colors all the other virtues that we admit
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Speaker 1: are important to life. All the virtues I'll mention today
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Speaker 1: are colored by our love, and so we'll return to
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Speaker 1: the word over and over again. When we put love
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Speaker 1: on display, this is the way it looks. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse 9 to start with. Love has two major qualities. Sincerity,
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Speaker 1: which is the opposite of hypocrisy. And second, love has discernment,
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Speaker 1: which is the opposite of gullibility. Let's take them in
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Speaker 1: that order. Let love be without hypocrisy. You see your text.
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Speaker 1: If you carry the New American Standard Bible, you'll notice
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Speaker 1: the first three words are in italics. Let love be.
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Speaker 1: The Greek sentence begins simply, agape anupakritas. You can understand that,
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Speaker 1: though you may not know Greek. Agape, love, anupakritas, from
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Speaker 1: which we get the word transliterated unhypocritical. The sentence begins,
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Speaker 1: love unhypocritical. Right out of the chute, Paul is making
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Speaker 1: it clear, if it's love, it must be real love,
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Speaker 1: it must be sincere love. There's no place for a mask.
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Speaker 1: There's no phony baloney. There's no play acting. There is
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Speaker 1: no think one way, act another. There is no theater.
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Speaker 1: Love is real. Gut level real. It has nothing to
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Speaker 1: do with hypocrisy. John Murray was right. If love is
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Speaker 1: the sum of virtue and hypocrisy is the epitome of vice,
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Speaker 1: what a contradiction to bring these together. Get rid of
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Speaker 1: all hypocrisy and you're on your way to true love.
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Speaker 1: But I will tell you before you start the project,
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Speaker 1: you've got a lifetime of work cut out for you.
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Speaker 1: We are shot through with hypocrisy and Christians can be
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Speaker 1: the worst. Who hasn't been hurt by a hypocritical Christian
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Speaker 1: who signs that harsh letter in the love of Christ?
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Speaker 1: Love must also be discerning. Notice, abhor what is evil.
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Speaker 1: The word means to shrink back, to detest. When love
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Speaker 1: encounters what is evil, it shrinks back. It doesn't embrace it.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't look the other way. Remember, we're seeking the
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Speaker 1: highest good of the other person. It confronts, albeit lovingly.
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Speaker 1: Love abhors what is evil. It shrinks back from the
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Speaker 1: presence of evil. But when it finds what is good, oh,
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Speaker 1: it embraces it. The word is the idea of gluing
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Speaker 1: or bonding oneself to it. So when you pass on
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Speaker 1: that which is worth living out in the lives of
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Speaker 1: your loved ones and your friends, start with love. Let
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Speaker 1: it be. Let it be sincere. Let it be discerning.
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Speaker 1: Before I move on, I warn you about just today's
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Speaker 1: concept of love. Everything is love, love, love. Love in everybody.
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Speaker 1: Love in everything. As one young Christian said to me
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Speaker 1: several years ago, I just love even the devil. Well, sweetheart, stop.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing to love in the devil. There's nothing to
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Speaker 1: love about demonic things. That isn't love. Charles Ryrie said
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Speaker 1: it best. Love is a river. And it must be
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Speaker 1: bordered on each side by the banks of truth and discernment.
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Speaker 1: Guard your love. It must have boundaries. Or like a
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Speaker 1: river that leaves its banks, it floods and does dangerous things.
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Speaker 1: Now there are several other components that as we analyze
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Speaker 1: love emerge. I find seven of them in the verses
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Speaker 1: that follow. First of all, verse 10, be devoted to
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Speaker 1: one another in brotherly love. Paul reserves family words for
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Speaker 1: the first part of verse 10, and I would use
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Speaker 1: the words devoted affection. When love runs its course correctly, sincerely,
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Speaker 1: without hypocrisy, at the same time in a sense of
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Speaker 1: discernment and strength, then it begins to reveal a familial
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Speaker 1: relationship warmth, devoted affection. This is a good time for
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Speaker 1: me to ask about your relationship with your family. How
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Speaker 1: are things with your brother, with your sister? How are
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Speaker 1: you with your parents? And with your children? Forget the ages.
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Speaker 1: Doesn't matter what their age is. How are things with
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Speaker 1: you and your family? Philadelphia. Brotherly love is what's rendered
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Speaker 1: here in those words. Is there a philos, affection, for
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Speaker 1: your brothers, your sisters, your mom and dad, your children,
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Speaker 1: your grandparents, your grandchildren? So starting there, the apostle begins
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Speaker 1: to unpack the concept of that which we pass on
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Speaker 1: to others to make their lives richer. Devoted affection, is
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Speaker 1: followed at the latter part of verse 10 with honor.
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Speaker 1: By the way, they go together, don't they? When there
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Speaker 1: is this kind of familial affection, we give preference to
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Speaker 1: one another in honor. The word means respect. It's a
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Speaker 1: willingness to defer to another. It works its way out
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Speaker 1: in listening when they speak, allowing them to disagree, respecting
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Speaker 1: their opinions. caring how they feel, paying attention to what
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Speaker 1: isn't said, showing gratitude for one another. I've noticed as
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Speaker 1: a minister of the gospel that when I serve families,
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Speaker 1: when they have come to the end of one of
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Speaker 1: their loved one's lives, that I often hear words of
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Speaker 1: great gratitude and honor and respect said, though the deceased
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Speaker 1: is now gone, unable to hear them. And how often
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Speaker 1: I've thought, did you ever tell that person that while
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Speaker 1: they were alive? It does no good to drop a
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Speaker 1: note in a casket. It does no good to stand
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Speaker 1: over the loved one who is gone and tell them
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Speaker 1: what they mean to you. Don't wait. Don't wait. Don't wait.
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Speaker 1: Devoted to one another. Respecting and honor one another. Saying
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Speaker 1: so now. Now. The third is one of my favorite
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Speaker 1: traits in life. And it doesn't surprise you. Enthusiasm and passion.
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Speaker 1: Look at verse 11. Not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent
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Speaker 1: in spirit. The Greek has in mind boiling over. Boiling
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Speaker 1: up as if water were boiling in the pot. Boiling
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Speaker 1: up in the spirit, serving the Lord. It's the whole
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Speaker 1: idea of active optimism, energetic zeal. It's the opposite of
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Speaker 1: lethargy and indifference. It's the thought of living one's life
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Speaker 1: on tiptoe. Benjamin Zander wrote a book I read several
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Speaker 1: years ago, one of the best books I've ever read,
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Speaker 1: called The Art of Possibility. Zander at the time was
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Speaker 1: conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. also professor at New England
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Speaker 1: Conservatory of Music. He writes as a musician, not surprisingly,
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Speaker 1: but he also connects with life as we understand it.
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Speaker 1: He writes a whole chapter on passion, and in that
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Speaker 1: chapter he includes these words. A young pianist was playing
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Speaker 1: a Chopin prelude in my master's class, and although we
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Speaker 1: had worked right up to the edge of realizing an
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Speaker 1: overarching concept of the piece, his performance remained earthbound. He
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Speaker 1: understood it intellectually. He could have explained it to someone else,
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Speaker 1: but he was unable to convey the emotional energy that
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Speaker 1: is the true language of music. Then I noticed something
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Speaker 1: that proved to be the key. His body was firmly
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Speaker 1: centered in the upright position. I blurted out, the trouble
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Speaker 1: is you're a two-buttock player. I encouraged him to allow
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Speaker 1: his whole body to flow sideways, urging him to catch
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Speaker 1: the wave of the music with the shape of his
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Speaker 1: own body, and suddenly the music took flight. Several in
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Speaker 1: the audience gasped, feeling the emotional dart hit home as
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Speaker 1: a new distinction was born, a one-buttock player. The president
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Speaker 1: of a corporation in Ohio who was president as a
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Speaker 1: witness wrote to me later, I was so moved that
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Speaker 1: I went home and transformed my whole company into a
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Speaker 1: one but a company. I thought, what a great motto
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Speaker 1: for Stonebriar Church, a one but a church. People would
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Speaker 1: come from all over to see what went on inside here.
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Speaker 1: Xander continues, I met Jacqueline Dupree in the 1950s when
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Speaker 1: I was 20 and she was 15, a gawky English schoolgirl.
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Speaker 1: who blossomed into the greatest cellist of her generation. We
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Speaker 1: performed the two cello quintet of Schubert together, and I
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Speaker 1: remember her playing was like a tidal wave of intensity
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Speaker 1: and passion. I love those words. A tidal wave. When
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Speaker 1: she was six years old, the story goes, she went
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Speaker 1: into her first competition as a cellist, and she was
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Speaker 1: seen running down the back corridor, carrying her cello high
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Speaker 1: above her head. With a huge grin of excitement on
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Speaker 1: her face, a custodian noting what he took to be
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Speaker 1: relief on the little girl's face said to her, I
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Speaker 1: see you've just had your chance to play. Jackie answered excitedly, no, no,
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Speaker 1: I'm just about to play. Do you take life by
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Speaker 1: the throat? Beethoven said that when he was going deaf.
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Speaker 1: Or do you see yourself as a helpless, pitiless, wimpy,
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Speaker 1: whining victim? Please, spare us. As a friend of mine
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Speaker 1: wrote me when I was whining not long ago, cry
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Speaker 1: me a river, Chuck, we've all got our problems. Please,
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Speaker 1: put that cello over your head. Please, move at that
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Speaker 1: piano bench. Please, show the kind of boiling over passion
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Speaker 1: and zeal described In the words, not lagging behind in diligence,
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Speaker 1: fervent in spirit. Trust me, when I've lost the passion
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Speaker 1: for preaching, I'll step aside. Not until. There is passion here,
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Speaker 1: but there is also the convicting verse that follows, which
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Speaker 1: I had hoped someone would have cut out of my
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Speaker 1: Bible before we got to verse 12. It's the verse
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Speaker 1: on patience. Now let's go on to verse 13, shall we?
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Speaker 1: can't do it. So let's take patience, all right? Look
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Speaker 1: at the three phrases. Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,
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Speaker 1: devoted to prayer. Look at the sandwich. Look at the sandwich.
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Speaker 1: The meat is perseverance in tribulation. But the bread on
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Speaker 1: each side, look closely, is hope in And prayer. How
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Speaker 1: do I get through tribulation? How do I make it?
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Speaker 1: How do I have the patience to endure under the
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Speaker 1: load and the pressure of the trial? I continue to hope,
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Speaker 1: seeing that which has not yet happened, but anticipating it
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Speaker 1: as if it has already occurred. I get there in hope.
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Speaker 1: Someone has said you can live about seven days without water,
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Speaker 1: four minutes without air, but only seconds without hope. Every
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Speaker 1: person who takes his life has lost hope. Hope keeps
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Speaker 1: us going, and then there is the devotion to prayer,
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Speaker 1: which can never be displayed. The secret of any ministry
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Speaker 1: is the prayers of the saints. The secret of every
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Speaker 1: meaningful life is the prayer of a partner, a group
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Speaker 1: of friends. Billy Graham speaks to this day of a woman.
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Speaker 1: He's named her several times. I can never remember her name,
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Speaker 1: which wouldn't bother her at all. An older lady who
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Speaker 1: has followed him year after year in prayer. He says,
28:44
Speaker 1: her reward will be greater than mine. A group of
28:50
Speaker 1: college students went to hear Charles Haddon Spurgeon preach at
28:53
Speaker 1: the London Tabernacle. The day was cold. They were waiting
28:57
Speaker 1: for the doors to open when they were warmly greeted
28:59
Speaker 1: by a man who asked if they would first like
29:02
Speaker 1: to see the heating plant of the church. They weren't
29:06
Speaker 1: particularly interested in the heating plant, but wishing to get warm,
29:10
Speaker 1: they decided they wouldn't offend him and agreed to go.
29:14
Speaker 1: They were then led down a long stairway, and a
29:17
Speaker 1: door was slowly opened by their guide who whispered, This
29:22
Speaker 1: is our heating plant. As the group looked in the room,
29:28
Speaker 1: they saw 700 people on their knees, asking God's blessing
29:36
Speaker 1: on the service that would happen on the floor above them,
29:38
Speaker 1: which they would not even attend. as they prayed through
29:42
Speaker 1: that service. Softly closing the door, the guide smiled and
29:47
Speaker 1: introduced himself. It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This is the
29:53
Speaker 1: secret of the ministry of the tabernacle. What a grand
30:00
Speaker 1: example of being devoted to prayer. No one will know
30:04
Speaker 1: it except you and God. But how deeply you will
30:10
Speaker 1: feel it if you ignore the command. Patience comes from
30:15
Speaker 1: hope and prayer in the midst of tribulations. When you're
30:23
Speaker 1: putting things together to leave to the next generation, remember love,
30:28
Speaker 1: which has to do with devoted affection and honor and respect,
30:32
Speaker 1: enthusiasm and passion and certainly patience. And you would expect,
30:38
Speaker 1: verse 13, generosity. Contributing to the needs of the saints,
30:43
Speaker 1: practicing hospitality. There's generosity written all over it. And unless
30:48
Speaker 1: I miss my guess, many of you immediately think, when
30:50
Speaker 1: I mention the word generosity, you think of your wallet.
30:54
Speaker 1: You think of money. Money isn't even mentioned, though money
30:58
Speaker 1: is certainly included. There's generosity of time, generosity of interest,
31:05
Speaker 1: generosity of attention, encouragement, reaching out to someone in a
31:12
Speaker 1: random act of kindness. Don't you love them? Don't you
31:18
Speaker 1: find yourself delighted when you come across a random act
31:22
Speaker 1: of kindness from a stranger? Cynthia and I were traveling
31:26
Speaker 1: to Orlando, and on the way back, I decided to
31:29
Speaker 1: dress very casually, and I put on a very comfortable
31:33
Speaker 1: Hawaiian shirt, a pair of jeans, and I went through
31:36
Speaker 1: the checkpoint, and thankfully nothing went off. I came to
31:41
Speaker 1: the other side and was standing, waiting for my things
31:43
Speaker 1: to come through, and The fellow in uniform who was
31:46
Speaker 1: greeting people all day long with, you forgot to take
31:48
Speaker 1: your belt off. Is everything out of your pocket? Would
31:51
Speaker 1: you stand over here, please? And listening to people, you
31:53
Speaker 1: should have taken your shoes off and gone. This guy
31:56
Speaker 1: was different. He looked at me and he said, great shirt.
31:59
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, he said, where are you going? Hawaii?
32:05
Speaker 1: I said, no, Dallas. He said, that's a long ways
32:07
Speaker 1: from Hawaii. Never met the man in my life. I said,
32:11
Speaker 1: you do this all the time. He said, all day long,
32:13
Speaker 1: people don't know what to think of me. They expect
32:16
Speaker 1: a frown, and I just decided to give them a
32:18
Speaker 1: little kindness. When was the last time you expressed kindness
32:24
Speaker 1: and a word of encouragement to someone you never met before?
32:28
Speaker 1: I mean genuine kindness. Not the kind where you look kind,
32:34
Speaker 1: like when the cop walks up by your car and
32:38
Speaker 1: And gives you the ticket and you say, thank you. Smile.
32:43
Speaker 1: When you're really thinking, may your day be filled with
32:45
Speaker 1: traffic accidents. Contributing to the needs of the saints. Do
32:54
Speaker 1: you know what practicing hospitality really says? The Greek says,
32:58
Speaker 1: pursuing a love of strangers. Practicing. Pursuing. That means you initiated.
33:07
Speaker 1: You're not responding to the nice words. You're initiating them.
33:13
Speaker 1: You want to pass along something that will cause others
33:16
Speaker 1: to live a greater and better life than you've lived?
33:19
Speaker 1: Go with generosity. Be sure you put that in your
33:22
Speaker 1: bag when you're packing. We leave verse 14 for next
33:27
Speaker 1: time and we come to 15, which is a verse
33:29
Speaker 1: on sympathy. I love the thought of this verse. Rejoice
33:33
Speaker 1: with those who rejoice. and weep with those who weep.
33:40
Speaker 1: Take a look at those words, will you? Just look
33:42
Speaker 1: at the 15th verse. Love, true love, never stands aloof.
33:53
Speaker 1: When love knows that a brother or a sister is rejoicing,
33:56
Speaker 1: then there's a deep down excitement and applause in celebration
34:01
Speaker 1: of the same joy. You say, well, I do that. Really? Really?
34:07
Speaker 1: Let's say that you've got a neighbor that just won
34:10
Speaker 1: the lottery. Are you going, oh, that's so good? Or
34:14
Speaker 1: are you thinking, they missed it by one door? Or
34:19
Speaker 1: how about the guy at work that gets promoted and
34:21
Speaker 1: you thought you deserved the promotion? You go to his
34:23
Speaker 1: party to celebrate? Or do you keep watching him over
34:27
Speaker 1: the top of your glasses, whispering to your friends how
34:30
Speaker 1: much better you'd have been at that job than he is?
34:34
Speaker 1: He's rejoicing. You want to be different in a world
34:39
Speaker 1: that's missing love, here's an example. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
34:47
Speaker 1: And don't forget to weep with those who are weeping.
34:51
Speaker 1: What an old Swedish motto that hung in my home,
34:53
Speaker 1: shared joy is a double joy, shared sorrow is half
34:57
Speaker 1: a sorrow. You double a joy when you share it,
35:02
Speaker 1: you cut a tragedy or heartbreak in half when you
35:05
Speaker 1: share it. Both experiences help bond us together. I found
35:11
Speaker 1: it's easier to do the latter than the former. Work
35:14
Speaker 1: on both. I will too. Sympathy. I'll put in this
35:21
Speaker 1: little verse. Love sings with those who sing. Love mourns
35:26
Speaker 1: with those who weep. Love laughs with those who are happy.
35:31
Speaker 1: Love stays awake with those who can't sleep. All of
35:39
Speaker 1: this sets the stage for the seventh and perhaps the
35:41
Speaker 1: most exacting of the group, and that's verse 16, humility.
35:48
Speaker 1: Be of the same mind toward one another. Last time
35:52
Speaker 1: we were together, we analyzed verse 3 rather carefully. Remember,
35:56
Speaker 1: through the grace given to me, I'll say to everyone
35:59
Speaker 1: among you not to think more highly of himself than
36:01
Speaker 1: he ought to think. Remember the word? Hyperthinking, superthinking. Thinking
36:08
Speaker 1: above others. Don't go there. Here he says the same words.
36:13
Speaker 1: Be of the same mind. I've said for years that
36:15
Speaker 1: all the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
36:18
Speaker 1: There's no status. There's no rank. There's no salary. There's
36:23
Speaker 1: no new or old house. There's no large or small
36:26
Speaker 1: place to live. There's no new or old car. It's
36:29
Speaker 1: all the same. All the same ground level. That's the
36:34
Speaker 1: way we are to live our lives. There is no
36:36
Speaker 1: place he admonishes us against snobbery and status, against pride
36:40
Speaker 1: of birth, pride of training, pride of giftedness, pride of accomplishment,
36:45
Speaker 1: pride of honors. And in other countries, pride of caste
36:50
Speaker 1: and tribe. How foolish to be proud of that. You
36:53
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with that. You are where you
36:58
Speaker 1: are and they are where they are. And the goal
37:01
Speaker 1: is to blend your life and associate with the lowly,
37:05
Speaker 1: not being wise in your own estimation. You know what
37:08
Speaker 1: I've found that helps? Going back to our roots helps.
37:14
Speaker 1: Remember when you were a kid? Remember how big everything seemed?
37:17
Speaker 1: Have you gone back to look at that little place lately?
37:21
Speaker 1: I mean, I went back not long ago and it's
37:22
Speaker 1: a downright dump. And I thought it was a really,
37:25
Speaker 1: really nice place. We had asbestos shingles on the side
37:28
Speaker 1: of our house. I've been breathing it all my life.
37:34
Speaker 1: Cynthia and I drove there several years ago to see
37:36
Speaker 1: our old haunts and places where we dated and her
37:39
Speaker 1: place and mine. My first line was when we got
37:42
Speaker 1: to our neighborhood was, be sure your door's locked and
37:45
Speaker 1: your windows are rolled up like time has passed it by.
37:50
Speaker 1: It really came home to me this past week when
37:52
Speaker 1: I finished a fine book titled My Grandfather's Son. It's
37:59
Speaker 1: the memoir of Justice Clarence Thomas. You must read the book.
38:06
Speaker 1: We think of a supreme justice as a man who's
38:09
Speaker 1: sort of silver spoon in his mouth. We think of
38:11
Speaker 1: him as the Yale Law School honors graduate, which he was,
38:16
Speaker 1: and the Holy Cross honors graduate, which he was, but
38:20
Speaker 1: what you don't know are the roots which made him
38:23
Speaker 1: the man he is. A few excerpts. I am descended
38:29
Speaker 1: from the West African slaves who lived in the barrier islands.
38:36
Speaker 1: In Georgia, my people were called Geechies. Mother was born
38:41
Speaker 1: out of wedlock. Her mother died in childbirth. And she
38:47
Speaker 1: saw little of her father throughout her childhood. I was
38:52
Speaker 1: delivered by Lula Kemp. a midwife who came from the
38:56
Speaker 1: nearby community of Sandfly. Then as now, Pinpoint, which is
39:06
Speaker 1: where he was raised south of Savannah, Pinpoint was too
39:10
Speaker 1: small to be properly called a town. No more than
39:14
Speaker 1: 100 ever lived there. Our lives were a daily struggle
39:19
Speaker 1: for the barest of essentials. He tells in his book
39:22
Speaker 1: that the floor of the shanty was made of several
39:25
Speaker 1: layers of old linoleum sitting on dirt. The bathroom was outside,
39:32
Speaker 1: shared with three other families. He writes, the house in
39:38
Speaker 1: which I was born was a shanty. Kerosene lamps lit it.
39:44
Speaker 1: Water came from nearby where we carried it through the
39:46
Speaker 1: woods in old lard buckets. They were small enough for
39:52
Speaker 1: us to fill up and tote home where we poured
39:54
Speaker 1: the contents into the washtub and larger kitchen buckets out
39:59
Speaker 1: of which we drank with a dipper. In the wintertime,
40:05
Speaker 1: we plugged up the cracks in the shanty, the holes
40:08
Speaker 1: in the walls with old newspapers. That was in the
40:15
Speaker 1: late 1940s and the 50s. Fast forward to the fall
40:24
Speaker 1: of 1991, following his being sworn in as a Supreme
40:30
Speaker 1: Court justice. Imagine. I walked into the awe-inspiring great hall
40:38
Speaker 1: of the court and through the imposing doorway, glancing at
40:43
Speaker 1: the huge brass doors. We walked slowly down the gleaming
40:49
Speaker 1: marble white steps, later lit by the brightness of a
40:53
Speaker 1: beautiful sunny morning. And I thought back to another sunny
40:59
Speaker 1: day when my brother and I went to live with
41:05
Speaker 1: our grandparents, all of our belongings stuffed into a pair
41:10
Speaker 1: of grocery bags. The prophet calls this remembering the pit
41:19
Speaker 1: from which you have been dug. Do that. Next time
41:29
Speaker 1: you're tempted to feel a little stuffy. You know, sort
41:34
Speaker 1: of like as my dad used to say, sort of
41:36
Speaker 1: like you're something on a stick. Remember, you got to
41:42
Speaker 1: put your britches on one leg at a time. Talk
41:47
Speaker 1: about poor, they couldn't even wear underwear in the summer.
41:50
Speaker 1: Had to save it for the colder days. Remember from
41:57
Speaker 1: which you've come and thank him for his grace. And
42:06
Speaker 1: when you do, you'll understand what it means to associate
42:09
Speaker 1: with the lowly. Keep talking to the taxi driver. Keep
42:14
Speaker 1: tipping him well Take care of those who carry your bags.
42:23
Speaker 1: The associates who make your life successful. Say thank you five, six,
42:28
Speaker 1: seven times a day. Forget your title. Carry someone else's
42:36
Speaker 1: belongings for a change. Help them get their things to
42:40
Speaker 1: the car at the grocery store. Associate with the lowly.
42:48
Speaker 1: You live a life like we've just described and I
42:50
Speaker 1: can assure you you'll have no trouble telling them that
42:54
Speaker 1: Jesus is the master and can transform their lives too.
43:02
Speaker 1: Why is this kind of love held back? We hear
43:05
Speaker 1: about it today and we think, oh, that's what I
43:09
Speaker 1: want to leave as a legacy. I'll tell you what
43:11
Speaker 1: holds it back. Two things, neither will surprise you. First
43:15
Speaker 1: is pride. Pride, that most desperate of all enemies of ours. Pride.
43:23
Speaker 1: Too proud to stoop. Too proud to reach out. Too
43:26
Speaker 1: proud to notice. Too proud to learn the name. Too
43:33
Speaker 1: proud to be vulnerable. And the other is fear. We
43:38
Speaker 1: fear the risk. I mean, if you do this, you'll
43:40
Speaker 1: be taken advantage of, maybe. Take away, maybe. You will be.
43:45
Speaker 1: And it's that fear of knowing you'll be taken advantage of.
43:48
Speaker 1: That some may not respect you like they perhaps should.
43:55
Speaker 1: Give it up. C.S. Lewis, in one of his best works,
44:00
Speaker 1: The Four Loves, writes this about it. To love it
44:04
Speaker 1: all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart
44:07
Speaker 1: will certainly be wrong and possibly be broken. If you
44:12
Speaker 1: want to make sure of keeping it intact... You must
44:14
Speaker 1: give your heart to no one, but not even an animal.
44:20
Speaker 1: Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid
44:24
Speaker 1: all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket of
44:28
Speaker 1: your selfishness. And in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless,
44:34
Speaker 1: it will change. It will not be broken. It will
44:40
Speaker 1: become unbreakable. Impenetrable Irredeemable. The only place outside of heaven
44:50
Speaker 1: where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers
44:55
Speaker 1: of love is hell. I'd like you to close your
45:05
Speaker 1: eyes and bow your heads, please. I warned you at
45:11
Speaker 1: the outset that this was convicting. But conviction alone is
45:15
Speaker 1: only half the journey. Conviction must be followed by application.
45:25
Speaker 1: Have you heard something today that stings? It's called the
45:30
Speaker 1: work of the spirit. Convicting you. Of the lack of
45:36
Speaker 1: devoted affection. Honor and respect. enthusiasm, passion, patience, generosity, sympathy, humility.
45:55
Speaker 1: Your prayer upon hearing this message must certainly include, oh God,
46:03
Speaker 1: help me get rid of this pride, this damnable pride.
46:11
Speaker 1: Take away my fear of risk Give me the kind
46:19
Speaker 1: of love that Jesus modeled when to his dying day
46:25
Speaker 1: he was praying, Father, forgive them. They don't even know
46:29
Speaker 1: what they're doing. As we'll all learn next time, we
46:36
Speaker 1: all have someone we could easily hate. There's a better way.
46:43
Speaker 1: If you've never trusted in Jesus, perhaps that's the journey
46:46
Speaker 1: that will start you on your path toward this kind
46:49
Speaker 1: of love. If you've never come to the cross, you
46:54
Speaker 1: don't know Jesus. He's just a historical figure, lived a
46:58
Speaker 1: great life, founded this religion. Good man. No, it's none
47:06
Speaker 1: of the above. He's the transforming master. who's taken away
47:12
Speaker 1: your sins and opened the door to God. But you
47:17
Speaker 1: must receive him. If we can help you do that,
47:21
Speaker 1: we would love to. The doors of our prayer room
47:25
Speaker 1: are always open, staffed by soul care people who model
47:31
Speaker 1: this kind of love. So, our Father, we leave deeply touched,
47:40
Speaker 1: Your word has again done the journey that many of
47:44
Speaker 1: us were afraid to take on our own. You have
47:47
Speaker 1: said what we needed to hear. Now we ask you
47:51
Speaker 1: to help us as we become doers of the word
47:58
Speaker 1: and not hearers. May it make a difference in our
48:02
Speaker 1: relationship with strangers and how we treat one another and
48:09
Speaker 1: how we drive. How we relate to our family members.
48:18
Speaker 1: Open our mouths to speak our words of gratitude rather
48:21
Speaker 1: than waiting until that person we've loved so much and
48:25
Speaker 1: respected has died. Change our hearts, oh God. And fill
48:35
Speaker 1: this church with people like that. That your name would
48:40
Speaker 1: be exalted. For Jesus' sake, we pray. And everyone said, Amen.
48:49
Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
48:54
Speaker 1: commercial use is strictly prohibited. Thank you. use is strictly prohibited.