Turn to your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew 5.
The title of this message this evening is that nice guys do not finish last.
There's a famous proverb in the world that says that if you are nice, you are going to
finish last, never, you're going to be taken advantage of, and so on and so forth.
I believe that's not true.
As a matter of fact, if you're an atheist and you believe that heaven is on this earth,
then yeah, you could say that nice guys would finish last because you would have to stab
the neck of the person next to you to be able to take his stuff.
But guess what, there is a God and there is a heaven, therefore we don't lay up for ourselves
treasures on earth, but rather we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.
So because of that, I believe that if you are a nice guy, you're actually going to finish
first the race.
And the Bible teaches that if we want to be good ministers, we need to serve one another.
Now let me tell you what I'm not going to preach on really quick before I go into the
sermon.
What I'm not saying is be nice to everyone all the time no matter what.
Not saying that, the Bible teaches against that, as a matter of fact it says in Ecclesiastes
3, there's a time for everything.
There's a time for peace and there's a time for war.
There's a time to cast stones and there's a time to bring stones in.
So the Bible is clearly emphasizing that there's a time for everything.
So when are the times we are to be nice?
By deed fault, and most of the times in our lives, 70% of the time, we should be known
as Christian men or women or children to be nice.
People should look at us and think because you're a Christian, you are a nice person.
And that actually is a good testimony to God.
That's what's known as lifestyle evangelism and I'm not against lifestyle evangelism unless
you're replacing that with preaching the gospel.
We should have a good testimony amongst God and men and go out and preach the gospel.
There's nothing wrong with being a nice person, being a good guy.
If we're an ambassador in Christ's stead, Jesus ultimately is the good shepherd.
So we should be good and be nice to people.
So how do we know when to be nice?
Who are we nice to?
Well, let's use Jesus as an example.
Jesus being the good shepherd, he had compassion on the last and he healed people on the Sabbath
and he did all these great nice things.
But who is he mean to?
Who is he rude to?
The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the false prophets.
Therefore that tells me that we are not to be good to false prophets, sons of the devil,
sodomites and reprobates.
They're not my enemy.
Now where I had you turn in Matthew 5 is a famous passage on loving your enemy.
But the Bible says, for instance, that these people are God's enemy.
The Psalmist David in Psalms 139, it says, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee,
and am greed with them that rise up against thee.
I hate them with the perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies.
They're my enemies by default.
They're not my personal enemy.
They're the enemy of God, therefore I hate them with perfect hatred.
We are not to buddy-buddy with them.
Elsewhere it says, you know, shouldest thou help the ungodly?
Therefore his wrath is upon thee.
So if you help the ungodly, such as reprobates and things like that, you're actually going
to have partaken in their evil deeds and God's going to punish you because he's going
to look down at heaven and say, I don't want that to be emulating of me.
I don't want people to look at you and think that I am okay with the sons of the devil,
sodomites and reprobates and things like that.
So that's who we're not nice to.
That's who we don't want to have affiliation with.
But where it says right here in Matthew 5, verse 44, the Bible reads, But I say unto
you, Love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you.
Okay, so who's my enemy?
My personal enemy, your personal enemy, enemies of people are those who are after you.
If you have a co-worker, a boss, a neighbor, a relative or something that is rude or disrespectful
or mean to you, he is my enemy.
I'm not to hate that person, I should love that person.
They're ignorant, they don't understand what they're doing.
Jesus says, you know, when he's on the cross, forgive them, they know not what they do.
They don't even necessarily know what they're doing, they may be having a bad day.
They might not like how I look, how I sound, whatever the case may be.
But I'm not going to hate that person because he doesn't like me, because he doesn't get
along with me or so on and so forth.
And as a matter of fact, a very famous passage in the Bible we turn to when going soul winning
has found in Romans 5.8, it says, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.
What a nice thing for him to do.
What a loving thing for the son of God to come down from heaven to pay for the punishment
of sin that I deserve.
In that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.
That's loving your enemy.
Now when the co-worker, neighbor, relative or something like that is rude, disrespectful
to you, we don't fight fire with fire.
We fight fire with kindness.
With a soft voice we can turn down wrath.
When they're coming after you and you actually are loving to that person and kind to that
person and show respect, you know, actually what you're doing is glorifying God which
is in heaven.
And it says that in verse 45, it says, that ye may be the children of your father which
is in heaven, for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth the
rain on the just and on the unjust.
So when someone sees you getting picked on by someone who doesn't like you and as a Christian
you should have thick enough skin to be able to handle it.
I used to know a saying growing up, if you can take it, you can make it.
You should be able to take it.
We should not be soft skinned people.
So coming down our throats, you know, let it go, water off a duck's back, let it be
what it is.
And then with that, be kind to that person, you know, buy them lunch, do something nice
for them.
And I know that when I was growing up and I was mean to someone and then they were nice
to me, I felt like an idiot.
They're going to feel stupid for what they're doing.
And others will see you doing that and they're going to say, who is your God?
Why are you acting this way?
And that way God gets glorified in it all because when they see us emulating as ambassadors
of Christ what God would do, they want to know God more.
They're like, okay, you are a Christian and you're being nice to someone who's being mean.
You should punch that guy in the mouth and do X, Y, and Z.
But you know what?
I'm not going to fight fire with fire.
I'm going to love my enemy.
And that's what the Bible teaches us.
And elsewhere it says in verse 46, for if we love them which love you, what reward have
ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
So it's saying that we should not just be only budding and hanging around people that
are our personal friends.
We should be in the world but not of the world because we're not of this world.
We're pilgrims and sojourners traveling as we go.
And okay, I get it.
We don't want to be friends with the sons of the devil or sodomites, okay?
And my personal enemy at work or my neighbor, you know, I should love that person.
What about your brothers and sisters in Christ?
There's 300 something people in this church.
Are you personal friends with each and every one of them?
Do you get along with everyone?
The Bible says that if you hate your brother without a cause, you're a murderer.
Now I will say this, that I'm not personal friends with everyone in this church.
There are some brothers who have been mean and disrespectful and rude to me, but do I
then fight fire with fire?
No, I love that person.
Whether or not they know what they're doing, we don't try to parrot what they're doing.
We want to be different.
We want to be separate as the Bible teaches.
And I have a personal testimony, I'm not going to drop a name, but when I first got here
and I was getting a job, there was a brother who was ultimately being disrespectful and
very rude to me.
And I was training to be in a job and he was doing it in front of the client.
He was trying to bring me down to lift himself up.
Oh look at this rookie, oh this first timer, I remember my first job and blah, blah, blah.
Trying to boast himself to be this great cool person and trying to slam me down.
Now if it's just me and him doing it, I can take it, whatever, I don't care what you think.
But in trying to glorify yourself in front of a customer, that was very rude and disrespectful.
Did I come down his throat?
Did I get rude at him and mean to him?
No.
I just let it go and understood that maybe he doesn't know what he's doing and loved
him for that.
I didn't take it upon myself to be mean back to that person.
I love him.
And whether or not that person knows what they did, I'm going to make sure Jesus looks
at me and knows that what I'm doing is right.
And we are known in the IFB movement to be hate preachers or haters and people think
that we just hate everything.
And I will say that I do hate every false way.
I do hate false prophets and I do hate false doctrine.
But I love flowers, therefore I'm going to hate weeds.
I love children, therefore I'm going to hate sons of the devil.
So therefore, if people of the world are trying to point at you and say, you're not loving,
you're not kind, you need to base what we believe to be nice from the word of God, not
from the world.
The world doesn't know what, they're at enmity with God.
The Bible says that if you have the love of the world in you, the love of the Father is
not in you.
So we as Christians need to be nice.
What's the saying?
Don't take my kindness as weakness.
Like I said, I'm a sinner, we're all sinners, we're all not perfect and we may slip from
time to time.
But in all cases, 70% of the time, most of the time, in default, try to be a good person.
Try to be a nice person.
Let others look at you and glorify God which is in heaven.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.