Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Christianity 101│ Msg 3044

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Christianity 101│ Msg 3044 · 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? what it means
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Speaker 1: to be Christ-like. I should warn you ahead of time
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Speaker 1: that this is a very convicting section of Scripture. As
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Speaker 1: I've said to you before, I've lived with it all week,
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Speaker 1: and I thought today I'd share the conviction with all
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Speaker 1: of you. You'll feel it as we work our way
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Speaker 1: through it. Actually, the section that's so great is the
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Speaker 1: last half of the 12th chapter. Not that all of
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Speaker 1: it isn't great. But verses 9 through 21 form, in
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Speaker 1: a nutshell, the Christian life. That's why we've called it
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Speaker 1: Christianity 101. We haven't the time to deal with the
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Speaker 1: last five verses plus verse 14, so we'll wait until
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Speaker 1: the next time for that. But all we can take
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Speaker 1: in one sitting will be 9 through 16, so let's
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Speaker 1: go there. Will you stand, please, in respect for the
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Speaker 1: word of God and as we Listen to it read
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Speaker 1: together and we think in terms of its application. Romans 12, 9.
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Speaker 1: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling
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Speaker 1: to what is good. Be devoted to one another in
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Speaker 1: brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor. Not
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Speaker 1: lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,
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Speaker 1: rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing
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Speaker 1: to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those
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Speaker 1: who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with
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Speaker 1: those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be
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Speaker 1: of the same mind toward one another. Do not be
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Speaker 1: haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not
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Speaker 1: be wise in your own estimation. We are grateful that
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Speaker 1: God has preserved his word for us and we place
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Speaker 1: ourselves under the authority of it together, preacher and congregation alike.
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Speaker 1: Before the morning offering, will you bow with me for prayer, please?
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Speaker 1: We are brothers and sisters, our Father, and the journey
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Speaker 1: is long, and it is often arduous, demanding, full of obstacles, disappointments, tests,
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Speaker 1: and trials. On occasion, the bright beam of Your blessing
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Speaker 1: and favor will break through, but often the days are
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Speaker 1: cloudy and times are hard. And we as a congregation
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Speaker 1: stand before you to pledge our allegiance to you, the
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Speaker 1: one true God, the rock on whom we stand, the
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Speaker 1: one who yielded up his only son for people like us.
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Speaker 1: Of all things. We want to be Christians. Our father
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Speaker 1: deep in our hearts. We don't want to talk about it.
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Speaker 1: We want to live it. We want Christ. To reign
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Speaker 1: as Lord and supreme. Over our thoughts. And in the
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Speaker 1: actions that follow those thoughts. We want the masters. to
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Speaker 1: be on display. We desire Father to do so sincerely
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Speaker 1: and without pretense, without a mask. So give us the
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Speaker 1: courage to live like that. We remember many friends who
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Speaker 1: have been in difficult places this week, fighting for their lives,
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Speaker 1: watching their homes consumed in flames. Business is gone. Everything
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Speaker 1: they call dear removed from them. Give us hearts of
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Speaker 1: compassion for these who are going through trials many of
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Speaker 1: us have known nothing about. Find in us deep concern
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Speaker 1: and love. For those in hard places carrying heavy weapons,
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Speaker 1: handling themselves in the midst of the enemy, we pray
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Speaker 1: for your protective shield. They're awaiting arms, longing for their return,
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Speaker 1: and we pray for that to be safe and soon. Now,
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Speaker 1: our Father, as we stand before you, we give you
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Speaker 1: ourselves first and then our gifts. Because we want to
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Speaker 1: be Christians even in our giving. May our lives be
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Speaker 1: marked by that kind of generosity. Even as Christ who
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Speaker 1: loved us and gave himself for us. It is in
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Speaker 1: his name we give. And it is in his name
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Speaker 1: we pray. And everyone said. What are you leaving for
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Speaker 1: the next generation? What are you leaving in the minds
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Speaker 1: of those who will outlive you so that their lives
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Speaker 1: are deeper, richer, better than yours has been? Horror novelist
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Speaker 1: Stephen King lived through a horrible experience Even though he
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Speaker 1: is rich and famous, he's also very human. And when
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Speaker 1: hit by a car in 1999 and left in a
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Speaker 1: ditch to die, life sort of passed in review and
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Speaker 1: gave him a whole new perspective on things. Two years
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Speaker 1: after it, he wrote about it. And in the writing,
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Speaker 1: he left all of us with a message regarding that
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Speaker 1: question I asked you earlier. King writes, A couple of
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Speaker 1: years ago, I found out what you can't take it
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Speaker 1: with you means. I found out while I was lying
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Speaker 1: in a ditch at the side of a country road
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Speaker 1: covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of
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Speaker 1: my right leg poking out the side of my jeans
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Speaker 1: like the branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm.
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Speaker 1: He is forever the horror writer, isn't he? I had
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Speaker 1: a MasterCard in my wallet, but when you're lying in
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Speaker 1: a ditch with broken glass in your hair, No one
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Speaker 1: accepts MasterCard. We all know that life is ephemeral. But
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Speaker 1: on that particular day, in the months that followed, I
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Speaker 1: got a painful but extremely valuable look at life's simple
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Speaker 1: backstage truths. We come in naked and broke. We may
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Speaker 1: be dressed when we go out, but we're just as broke.
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Speaker 1: Warren Buffett? Going to go out broke. Bill Gates? going
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Speaker 1: out broke. Tom Hanks, going out broke. Stephen King, not
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Speaker 1: a crying dime. All the money you earn, all the
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Speaker 1: stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade, all
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Speaker 1: of that is mostly smoke and mirrors. It's still going
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Speaker 1: to be a quarter past getting late, whether you tell
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Speaker 1: the time on a Timex or a Rolex. No matter
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Speaker 1: how large your bank account, no matter how many credit
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Speaker 1: cards you have, sooner or later, things will begin to
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Speaker 1: go wrong with the only three things you have that
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Speaker 1: 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
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Speaker 1: passed your family is sitting nearby staring blinking through tears
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Speaker 1: your friends are there remembering what are they remembering I
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Speaker 1: can assure you they are not remembering your financial portfolio.
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Speaker 1: They 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 in 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? 1
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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 the
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Speaker 1: other way. It's not making someone comfortable. It's not telling
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Speaker 1: them what they want to hear. It is not treating
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Speaker 1: them like they've treated us. It is not looking the
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Speaker 1: other way when we encounter wrong. This part of love
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Speaker 1: is tough love. It's relentless. There are other times when
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Speaker 1: 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 anupakritos. You can understand that,
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Speaker 1: though you may not know Greek. Agape, love, anupakritos, 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 Devoted affection. This is a good time for me
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Speaker 1: to ask about your relationship with your family. How are
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Speaker 1: things with your brother? With your sister? How are you
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Speaker 1: with your parents? and with your children? Forget the ages.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what their age is. How are things
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Speaker 1: with you and your family? Philadelphia, brotherly love is what's
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Speaker 1: rendered here in those words. Is there a phyllos, affection,
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Speaker 1: for 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 chapter,
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Speaker 1: he includes these words. A young pianist was playing a
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Speaker 1: Chopin prelude in my master's class, and although we had
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Speaker 1: worked right up to the edge of realizing an overarching
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Speaker 1: concept of the piece, his performance remained earthbound. He understood
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Speaker 1: 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: Zander 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
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Speaker 1: schoolgirl who blossomed into the greatest cellist of her generation.
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Speaker 1: We performed the two cello quintet of Schubert together, and
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Speaker 1: I remember her playing was like a tidal wave of
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Speaker 1: intensity and passion. I love those words, a tidal wave.
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Speaker 1: When she was six years old, the story goes on,
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Speaker 1: She went into her first competition as a cellist and
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Speaker 1: she was seen running down the back corridor, carrying her
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Speaker 1: cello high above her head with a huge grin of
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Speaker 1: excitement on her face. A custodian noting what he took
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Speaker 1: to be relief on the little girl's face said to her,
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Speaker 1: I see you've just had your chance to play. Jackie
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Speaker 1: answered excitedly, no, no, I'm just about to play. You
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Speaker 1: take life by the throat. Beethoven said that when he
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Speaker 1: was going deaf. 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 and tribulation. But the bread on
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Speaker 1: each side, look closely, is hope and prayer. How do
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Speaker 1: I get through tribulation? How do I make it? How
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Speaker 1: do I have the patience to endure under the load
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Speaker 1: and the pressure of the trials? 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
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Speaker 1: woman who, He's named her several times. I can never
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Speaker 1: remember her name, which wouldn't bother her at all. An
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Speaker 1: older lady who has followed him year after year in prayer.
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Speaker 1: He says her reward will be greater than mine. A
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Speaker 1: group of college students went to hear Charles Haddon Spurgeon
28:52
Speaker 1: preach at the London Tabernacle. The day was cold. They
28:56
Speaker 1: were waiting for the doors to open when they were
28:58
Speaker 1: warmly greeted by a man who asked if they would
29:01
Speaker 1: first like to see the heating plant of the church.
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Speaker 1: They weren't particularly interested in the heating plant, but wishing
29:09
Speaker 1: to get warm, they decided they wouldn't offend him and
29:12
Speaker 1: agreed to go. They were then led down a long stairway,
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Speaker 1: and a door was slowly opened by their guide who whispered,
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Speaker 1: This is our heating plant. As the group looked in
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Speaker 1: the room, they saw 700 people on their knees. Asking
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Speaker 1: God's blessing on the service that would happen on the
29:37
Speaker 1: floor above them, which they would not even attend. as
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Speaker 1: they prayed through that service. Softly closing the door, the
29:46
Speaker 1: guide smiled and introduced himself. It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
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Speaker 1: This is the secret of the ministry of the tabernacle.
29:59
Speaker 1: What a grand example of being devoted to prayer. No
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Speaker 1: one will know it except you and God. But how
30:09
Speaker 1: deeply you will feel it if you ignore the command.
30:14
Speaker 1: Patience comes from hope and prayer in the midst of tribulation.
30:23
Speaker 1: When you're putting things together to leave to the next generation,
30:26
Speaker 1: remember love, which has to do with devoted affection and
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Speaker 1: honor and respect, enthusiasm and passion, and certainly patience. And
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Speaker 1: you would expect verse 13, generosity, contributing to the needs
30:42
Speaker 1: of the saints, practicing hospitality. There's generosity written all over it.
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Speaker 1: And unless I miss my guess, many of you immediately
30:50
Speaker 1: think when I mentioned the word generosity, You think of
30:53
Speaker 1: your wallet. You think of money. Money isn't even mentioned,
30:58
Speaker 1: though money is certainly included. There's generosity of time, generosity
31:04
Speaker 1: of interest, generosity of attention, encouragement, reaching out to someone
31:12
Speaker 1: in a random act of kindness. Don't you love them?
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Speaker 1: Don't you find yourself delighted when you come across a
31:21
Speaker 1: random act? of kindness from a stranger. Cynthia and I
31:26
Speaker 1: were traveling to Orlando, and on the way back, I
31:28
Speaker 1: decided to dress very casually, and I put on a
31:31
Speaker 1: very comfortable Hawaiian shirt, a pair of jeans, and I
31:36
Speaker 1: went through the checkpoint, and thankfully, nothing went off. And
31:40
Speaker 1: I came to the other side and was standing, waiting
31:42
Speaker 1: for my things to come through. And the fellow in
31:45
Speaker 1: uniform who was greeting people all day long with, you
31:48
Speaker 1: forgot to take your belt off, take everything out of
31:50
Speaker 1: your pocket, Would you stand over here, please? And listening
31:53
Speaker 1: to people, you should have taken your shoes off and gone.
31:55
Speaker 1: This guy was different. He looked at me and he said,
31:57
Speaker 1: great shirt. I'm like, hey, thank you. He said, where
32:03
Speaker 1: are you going, Hawaii? I said, no, Dallas. He said,
32:06
Speaker 1: that's a long ways from Hawaii. Never met the man
32:10
Speaker 1: in my life. I said, you do this all the time.
32:12
Speaker 1: He said, all day long, people don't know what to
32:14
Speaker 1: think of me. They expect a frown and I just
32:17
Speaker 1: decided to give them a little kindness. When's the last
32:21
Speaker 1: time you expressed kindness and a word of encouragement to
32:25
Speaker 1: someone you never met before? I mean genuine kindness. Not
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Speaker 1: the kind where you look kind, like when the cop
32:35
Speaker 1: walks up by your car and gives you the ticket
32:39
Speaker 1: and you say, thank you. Smile. When you're really thinking,
32:44
Speaker 1: may your day be filled with traffic accidents. Contributing to
32:53
Speaker 1: the needs of the saints. Do you know what practicing
32:55
Speaker 1: hospitality really says? The Greek says pursuing a love of strangers. Practicing. Pursuing.
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Speaker 1: That means you initiate it. You're not responding to the
33:09
Speaker 1: nice words. You're initiating them. You want to pass along
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Speaker 1: something that will cause others to live a greater and
33:16
Speaker 1: better life than you've lived? Go with generosity. Be sure
33:21
Speaker 1: you put that in your bag when you're packing. We
33:25
Speaker 1: leave verse 14 for next time and we come to 15,
33:28
Speaker 1: which is a verse on sympathy. I love the thought
33:32
Speaker 1: of this verse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep
33:37
Speaker 1: with those who weep. Take a look at those words,
33:41
Speaker 1: will you? Just look at the 15th verse. Love, true love,
33:50
Speaker 1: never stands aloof. When love knows that a brother or
33:55
Speaker 1: a sister is rejoicing, then there's a deep-down excitement and
33:59
Speaker 1: applause in celebration of the same joy. You say, I
34:04
Speaker 1: do that? Really? Let's say that you got a neighbor
34:09
Speaker 1: that just won the lottery. Are you going, oh, that's
34:12
Speaker 1: so good? Or are you thinking, they missed it by
34:16
Speaker 1: one door? Or how about the guy at work that
34:20
Speaker 1: gets promoted and you thought you deserved the promotion? You
34:23
Speaker 1: go to his party to celebrate? Or you keep watching
34:27
Speaker 1: him over the top of your glasses, whispering to your
34:30
Speaker 1: friends how much better you'd have been at that job
34:32
Speaker 1: than he is. He's rejoicing. You want to be different
34:38
Speaker 1: in a world that's missing love? Here's an example. Rejoice
34:43
Speaker 1: with those who rejoice. And don't forget to weep with
34:48
Speaker 1: those who are weeping. What an old Swedish motto that
34:52
Speaker 1: hung in my home. Shared joy is a double joy.
34:55
Speaker 1: Shared sorrow is half a sorrow. You double a joy
35:00
Speaker 1: when you share it. You cut a tragedy or heartbreak
35:04
Speaker 1: in half when you share it. Both experiences help bond
35:09
Speaker 1: us together. I found it's easier to do the latter
35:12
Speaker 1: than the former. Work on both. I will too. Sympathy.
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Speaker 1: I put in this little verse. Love sings with those
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Speaker 1: who sing. Love mourns with those who weep. Love laughs
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Speaker 1: with those who are happy. Love stays awake with those
35:32
Speaker 1: who can't sleep. All of this sets the stage for
35:40
Speaker 1: the seventh and perhaps the most exacting of the group.
35:44
Speaker 1: And that's verse 16. Humility. Be of the same mind
35:50
Speaker 1: toward one another. Last time we were together, we analyzed
35:53
Speaker 1: verse 3 rather carefully. Remember, through the grace given to me,
35:58
Speaker 1: I'll say to everyone among you not to think more
36:00
Speaker 1: highly of himself than he ought to think. Remember the word? Hyperthinking, superthinking,
36:07
Speaker 1: thinking above others. Don't go there. Here he says the
36:12
Speaker 1: same words. Be of the same mind. I've said for
36:15
Speaker 1: years that all the ground is level at the foot
36:17
Speaker 1: of the cross. There's no status. There's no rank. There's
36:21
Speaker 1: no salary. There's no new or old house. There's no
36:25
Speaker 1: large or small place to live. There's no new or
36:28
Speaker 1: old car. It's all the same, all the same ground level.
36:33
Speaker 1: That's the way we are to live our lives. There
36:35
Speaker 1: is no place he admonishes us against snobbery and status,
36:39
Speaker 1: against pride of birth, pride of training, pride of giftedness,
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Speaker 1: pride of accomplishment, pride of honors. And in other countries,
36:48
Speaker 1: pride of caste and tribe. How foolish to be proud
36:52
Speaker 1: of that. You had nothing to do with that. You
36:58
Speaker 1: are where you are and they are where they are.
37:00
Speaker 1: And the goal is to blend your life and associate
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Speaker 1: with the lowly, not being wise in your own estimation.
37:07
Speaker 1: You know what I've found that helps? Going back to
37:11
Speaker 1: our roots helps. Remember when you were a kid? Remember
37:15
Speaker 1: how big everything seemed? Have you gone back to look
37:18
Speaker 1: at that little place lately? I mean, I went back
37:21
Speaker 1: not long ago and it's a downright dump. And I
37:24
Speaker 1: thought it was a really, really nice place. We had
37:27
Speaker 1: asbestos shingles on the side of our house. I've been
37:30
Speaker 1: breathing it all my life. Cynthia and I drove there
37:35
Speaker 1: several years ago to see our old haunts and places
37:38
Speaker 1: where we dated and her place and mine. My first
37:41
Speaker 1: line was when we got to our neighborhood was, be
37:44
Speaker 1: sure your door's locked and your windows are rolled up
37:47
Speaker 1: like time has passed it by. It really came home
37:51
Speaker 1: to me this past week when I finished a fine
37:53
Speaker 1: book titled My Grandfather's Son. It's the memoir of Justice
38:01
Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas. You must read the book. We think of
38:07
Speaker 1: a supreme justice as a man who's sort of silver
38:10
Speaker 1: spoon in his mouth. We think of him as the
38:12
Speaker 1: Yale Law School honors graduate, which he was, and the
38:17
Speaker 1: Holy Cross honors graduate, which he was, but what you
38:20
Speaker 1: don't know are the roots which made him the man
38:23
Speaker 1: he is. A few excerpts. I am descended from the
38:29
Speaker 1: West African slaves who lived in the barrier islands. In Georgia,
38:36
Speaker 1: my people were called Geechies. Mother was born out of wedlock.
38:43
Speaker 1: Her mother died in childbirth. She saw little of her
38:48
Speaker 1: father throughout her childhood. I was delivered by Lula Kemp.
38:55
Speaker 1: a midwife who came from the nearby community of Sandfly.
39:03
Speaker 1: Then as now, Pinpoint, which is where he was raised
39:06
Speaker 1: south of Savannah, Pinpoint was too small to be properly
39:11
Speaker 1: called a town. No more than 100 ever lived there.
39:16
Speaker 1: Our lives were a daily struggle for the barest of essentials.
39:21
Speaker 1: He tells in his book that the floor of the
39:23
Speaker 1: shanty was made of several layers of old linoleum sitting
39:27
Speaker 1: on dirt. The bathroom was outside, shared with three other families.
39:37
Speaker 1: He writes, the house in which I was born was
39:39
Speaker 1: a shanty. Kerosene lamps lit it. Water came from nearby
39:45
Speaker 1: where we carried it through the woods in old lard buckets.
39:51
Speaker 1: They were small enough for us to fill up and
39:53
Speaker 1: tote home where we poured the contents into the washtub
39:57
Speaker 1: and larger kitchen buckets out of which we drank with
40:01
Speaker 1: a dipper. In the wintertime, we plugged up the cracks
40:06
Speaker 1: in the shanty, the holes in the walls with old newspapers.
40:14
Speaker 1: That was in the late 1940s and the 50s. Fast
40:21
Speaker 1: forward to the fall of 1991, following his being sworn
40:29
Speaker 1: in as a Supreme Court justice. Imagine. I walked into
40:36
Speaker 1: the awe-inspiring great hall of the court and through the
40:40
Speaker 1: imposing doorway, glancing at the huge brass doors. We walked
40:47
Speaker 1: slowly down the gleaming marble white steps, later lit by
40:51
Speaker 1: the brightness of a beautiful sunny morning. And I thought
40:56
Speaker 1: back to another sunny day when my brother and I
41:04
Speaker 1: went to live with our grandparents, all of our belongings
41:09
Speaker 1: stuffed into a pair of grocery bags. The prophet calls
41:17
Speaker 1: this remembering the pit from which you have been dug.
41:25
Speaker 1: Do that. Next time you're tempted to feel a little stuffy.
41:33
Speaker 1: You know, sort of like as my dad used to say,
41:35
Speaker 1: sort of like you're something on a stick. Remember, you
41:42
Speaker 1: got to put your britches on one leg at a time.
41:46
Speaker 1: Talk 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. Thank him for his grace. And when
42:06
Speaker 1: you do, you'll understand what it means to associate with
42:09
Speaker 1: the lowly. Keep talking to the taxi driver. Keep tipping
42:15
Speaker 1: 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. He 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
43:32
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
44:11
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
44:39
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
44:54
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.
45:24
Speaker 1: Have you heard something today that stings? It's called the
45:29
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
46:24
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. You've never come to the cross. You don't
46:54
Speaker 1: know Jesus. He's just a historical figure, lived a great life,
47:00
Speaker 1: founded this religion. Good man. No, it's none of the above.
47:09
Speaker 1: He's the transforming master. who's taken away your sins and
47:14
Speaker 1: opened the door to God. But you must receive him.
47:20
Speaker 1: If we can help you do that, we would love to.
47:23
Speaker 1: The doors of our prayer room are always open, staffed
47:27
Speaker 1: by soul care people who model this kind of love. So,
47:35
Speaker 1: our Father, we leave deeply touched, Your word has again
47:41
Speaker 1: done the journey that many of us were afraid to
47:45
Speaker 1: take on our own. You have said what we needed
47:48
Speaker 1: to hear. Now we ask you to help us as
47:55
Speaker 1: we become doers of the word and not hearers. May
48:01
Speaker 1: it make a difference in our relationship with strangers and
48:05
Speaker 1: how we treat one another and how we drive. how
48:13
Speaker 1: we relate to our family members. Open our mouths to
48:19
Speaker 1: speak our words of gratitude rather than waiting until that
48:23
Speaker 1: person we've loved so much and respected has died. Change
48:31
Speaker 1: our hearts, oh God. And fill this church with people
48:36
Speaker 1: like that, that your name would be exalted. For Jesus' sake,
48:44
Speaker 1: we pray. And everyone said, Amen. All rights are reserved worldwide.
48:52
Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
49:10
Speaker 1: use is strictly prohibited.