You are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world
you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world
you are the light of the world
I want that mountain
I want that mountain I want that mountain
I want that mountain I want that mountain I want that mountain
Let every child just express their love for the thing they see Get ready now to drink a gorgeous tea I've come from out the wilderness, I know I'm going to win I want that mountain, it belongs to me I want that mountain I want that mountain
Let the guilty running flow where the great children shall grow I want that mountain I want that mountain The mountain that my Lord has given me
Alright let us pray dear heavenly father God. Thank you for this church and thank you for allowing us to be here this morning and I just pray that you bless the service as we worship your name
and I pray that we just be edified through Pastor Shelley's preaching that you will fill him with the Holy Ghost and so that we can have ears to hear too so we can learn something as we go out to service. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright for the next song, song number 164.
Song number 164, praise him, praise him.
Song number 164.
Song number 104.
Song number 164.
ism
I want to repeat what Hannah said in the After Baptist Church, a little hand nice and high, one of the b woar churchs here can come by and get you
service in so many times. For our Bible memory verse, we're working on verse 11.
Kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth.
Anybody that's age 18 or under that's able to quote that can receive
ice cream at our midweek service. We also have our church stats.
On the right, we have a list of expecting ladies. Continue to pray
for all of those. Also, we have our prayer list and we have several
different prayer requests. Please make sure to be in prayer for
all of our church family. If you have additional prayer requests, please submit those via our
email address. We'd love to add those in the bulletin. On the back, we have
a note about October 31st, which is actually a Sunday
coming up. We're going to have our Texas chili cook-off that
evening. And so, immediately following our evening service,
we'll have a chili cook-off and you'll just need to
bring your chili and like a crock pot or something that you can keep
warm if you want to enter into our competition. So, we'll also have a competition
and there'll be prizes and there'll be winners and losers.
If you put a bean in your chili, you're automatically a loser.
So, let's just put that out there. But, it's going to be a lot of fun.
We'll also have cornbread and other stuff that
goes along with the chili. And even if you're not participating in the competition,
we would really appreciate you going ahead and just bringing
chili anyways. Maybe for all those people that believe in heresy
that want beans in their chili or something, okay? November 13th, we have an
Oklahoma City sewing marathon. Really exciting up there.
December 9th through the 11th, we're going to have another sewing marathon
in Brownsville and Matamoros. That's the
very most southern tip of Texas and right across the border into Mexico.
And so, if you want to participate in that, we'll get
some sign up sheets here pretty soon so that way we can have an idea
of who's going to be traveling with us. But also, we have
the baby shower in honor of Miss Nexus Cooper and her baby
girl, Melody, October 30th from 12 to 2.
If you'd like to bring a snack or dessert, that's great. And if you want to bring them a gift,
you can from Amazon. Congratulations to
Marcella Denise Lugo. Really exciting news.
On the birth
of Ezekiel John Lugo,
Marcella's almost got his whole name spelled with his kids. I know he's getting really close
and he's been trying to do that. I don't know what he does after that, but
at least he's well on his way. October
11th at 9.30 AM, weighing 8 pounds and 3 ounces, measuring
20 and a half inches long. I think he was saying he wanted to have the baby right after the
conference and so it was just like Monday after bam. It was just like perfect.
Worked out really well. I continue to pray for them and
I think there's a meal train online. You can see my wife or Mrs. Milstead
about the information on that. I think they have that. Also, just
continue, if you write a check or you try to give online, please make that
out to Pure Words Baptist Church at this time. That's pretty much all I have
for announcements. We'll go ahead and go to our third
song for the morning, Draw Me Nearer. Song 324
in your hymnal. 324, Draw Me Nearer.
324, Draw Me Nearer.
24, Draw Me Nearer.
25, Draw Me Nearer.
26, Draw Me Nearer.
27, Draw Me Nearer.
28, Draw Me Nearer.
29, Draw Me Nearer.
30, Draw Me Nearer.
31, Draw Me Nearer.
32, Draw Me Nearer.
33, Draw Me Nearer.
34, Draw Me Nearer.
35, Draw Me Nearer.
36, Draw Me Nearer.
37, Draw Me Nearer.
38, Draw Me Nearer.
39, Draw Me Nearer.
40, Draw Me Nearer.
41, Draw Me Nearer.
42, Draw Me Nearer.
43, Draw Me Nearer.
44, Draw Me Nearer.
45, Draw Me Nearer.
46, Draw Me Nearer.
47, Draw Me Nearer.
48, Draw Me Nearer.
49, Draw Me Nearer.
50, Draw Me Nearer.
51, Draw Me Nearer.
52, Draw Me Nearer.
53, Draw Me Nearer.
54, Draw Me Nearer.
55, Draw Me Nearer.
56, Draw Me Nearer.
57, Draw Me Nearer.
58, Draw Me Nearer.
59, Draw Me Nearer.
60, Draw Me Nearer.
61, Draw Me Nearer.
62, Draw Me Nearer.
63, Draw Me Nearer.
64, Draw Me Nearer.
Romans 12, the Bible reads,
that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body, and all
members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body
in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then
gifts deferring according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry,
let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching,
or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it
with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that
showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without
dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is
good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love,
and honor preferring one another, not slothful in business,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing
to the necessity of saints given to hospitality. Bless
them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them
that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same
mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits,
recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight
of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you,
live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so
doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's bow our heads for a word
of prayer. Father, we thank you for the morning service at Steadfast Baptist
Church. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to preach his sermon, give him
clarity of mind, and I pray also that you would help us to pay close attention to the
message so that we can apply this to our Christian lives. In Jesus'
name I pray, Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse
number 10 where the Bible reads, Be kindly affection one to another with
brotherly love. And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Brotherly Love,
Brotherly Love. And I believe in this passage
we have a lot of different indications or practical
applications of what brotherly love actually looks like
here in this passage. So I kind of want to just slow down and kind of
pay attention to some of these verses and talk about the emphasis that
the Bible has on brotherly love. It says in verse number 9,
let love be without dissimulation.
Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor
preferring one another. A slothful in business, fervent
in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing
instant in prayer, distributing the necessity of saints, given
hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse
not. So we have a lot of phrases here, a lot of verses
hidden here, and I feel like each verse kind of has a different
aspect to what brotherly love really entails.
And my sermon this morning, I don't know that it's necessarily completely comprehensive
as far as everything that goes into brotherly love, but I feel like just from this
passage alone, we can learn a lot about brotherly love and we can get a lot better
at having this brotherly type love. So keep your finger here
and go to 1 John chapter 2 for a moment though. Before I get too deep in the sermon
I just want to emphasize how the Bible talks a lot about
loving your brother or loving your sister in Christ or loving
Christians and basically the love that Christians are supposed to have
towards one another. This is a major emphasis of the Bible.
It's a topic that's brought up in all manner of places in the
scripture and it makes some really strong statements in 1 John chapter
2. Look what it says in verse 7.
Those two verses are kind of a mouthful. Let me just explain what he said. He said
what I'm telling you to do is not a new concept, but I am giving you
another reiteration, another commandment that falls
in line with the same concept precept of loving your brother.
So that's what he means by it's a new, but it's not a new commandment.
That's the wording that he's trying to say there. Verse number 9.
...
According to the Bible, if you hate your brother or sister in Christ
you're in some kind of a darkness and that darkness is going to cause
problems in your life. It's going to cause you to stumble, to fall,
to make bad decisions and so it's important that we have
love for all of our brethren, all of our sisters in Christ
so as we don't have this darkness blinding us and causing us to go
into worse sin or to damage ourselves or
just to harm the cause of Christ. And you know, one of the best ways to
illustrate this is, I believe with Saul and David, where Saul ends up having
a hatred for David that's completely unfounded, it's without a cause
and because of that hatred he has towards David, he ends up
making all manner of evil decisions. You know, he kills a bunch of priests of God through the hands
of Doeg the Edomite, he inquires of a witch, he's constantly
hunting down David, his life, he ends up ruining the relationship he even has
with his own son and so it's really important that we don't get this
blinding hatred for brothers and sisters in Christ because it'll cause
us to go into worse sin. Look at 1 John 3 verse 9.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for a seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest
and the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. Neither he that loveth not his brother
for this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love
one another. So again, the Bible's reiterating the fact that we're supposed to love
one another. Go to chapter 4 verse 10.
Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved
if God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love
one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected
in us. So the Bible says the way that God loved us is a model
for how we're supposed to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Skip down to verse 19. We love him because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hated his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth
God love his brother also. Notice the Bible tells
us the way that we love God is actually through loving our brothers and sisters
in Christ. So it's incompatible to say that you
love God and yet hate your brother and sister in Christ. Really
it's showing a hatred towards God. It's showing dissatisfaction towards the commandments
of God and the love of God. And so to have a true perfect
love of God, you have to also love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And in fact, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ is the way that you manifest
your love to God. So someone that's really
hateful towards a bunch of saved people really just tells me
they don't love Jesus. They don't love God. They really don't have a love for the Bible.
Someone that's willing to be very gracious, kind, and merciful
to his brothers and sisters in Christ is one who has great love
for the Lord. Okay? Now go back if you would to Romans chapter
12 for a moment. Okay? Now all I did
is just tell you that love's important. All I illustrated for you is that we're
supposed to love God by loving our brother and sister in Christ. And I think
almost every Christian would just hit the agree button right now. I mean they'd just
be like, agree. We all are supposed to love one another. You know, of course.
Right? Doesn't that just sound really obvious? Doesn't that sound really simple?
This is where you end up having a divide is what does it mean to
love someone? What does love actually look like?
What are some practical ways that we can measure if someone's being
loving? Well, let's go back to the Bible. Let's go back to our passage and see
some of the ways that the Bible describes this brother love.
Look again at verse 9. Let love be without
simulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave
to that which is good. So notice love hates that
which is evil. Abhors that which is evil. So if you
abhor something that's evil and then someone's like, oh you're not loving.
Actually that's the definition of love. Actually true love and real
love hates evil and it loves the good. Okay?
It clings to that which is good. It clings to that which is good. And it hates evil. And notice
love's not supposed to be with the simulation. Now the simulation's not
necessarily a real common word. It's not an easy word. But if you look
it up in a dictionary, it says the inclination
or practice of misleading others
through lies or trickery. So if you think about simulate, simulate
is to basically try to pretend to do something or
you're modeling something. And then with the adjective dis there, it's kind of
like showing that there's something deceptive about you pretending.
So loving with dissimulation is you tell people
that you love them but you really don't. I wonder if there's any groups like that.
I don't know. Ones that stand outside churches that say
they're so loving even though they clearly hate you.
I mean that would be loving with dissimulation. Or someone that's really kind to you at
work or maybe a family member or a friend that likes to flatter
you and tell you lots of things that you like to hear. But inside they actually don't love you.
Or they're willing to allow evil to come upon you
while at the same time telling you that they love you. Or doing evil to you
and at the same time telling you that they love you. Go to Galatians chapter 2
for a moment. Go to Galatians chapter number 2. Now some synonyms for the word
dissimulation are this. Deceit, deception,
dishonesty, fakery. I didn't know that was a word.
Fakery. I like it. Fraud, guile. So really
if someone is being deceptive or a fake
about their love then it's not real love. That would be love with dissimulation.
And that's not true brotherly love. True brotherly
love is going to abhor that which is evil.
And it's going to cleave that which is good. Now here's my first point of how we can tell
you know what brotherly love is. And it's through rebuke.
If you love someone you will rebuke them.
And this first point is probably the most important
because most people find that when you rebuke them they're like oh you don't love me.
Oh you hate me. Or oh you're not kind. Or you don't have
love to the brethren. But rather rebuke is a real common thing in the
scriptures and it actually is an emphasis of love.
Because if you abhor that which is evil you're not going to let your brother and sister in Christ
do that which is evil. Because you don't want them to be harmed by the evil. You don't want
them to suffer the consequences of the evil that they're doing. To allow
people to just hurt and harm themselves illustrates no love.
Now one way that I always illustrate this in a carnal example
is when we go soul winning and you go into the real ghetto neighborhoods
you know what you'll see? You'll see a lot of little children just
running amuck. I mean they're going out into the middle of the street
they're running all around. I mean it just seems like there's no supervision
whatsoever. And you know what that tells me? Those parents don't really love those kids
very much. Because the less supervision often
indicates a less love, appreciation and care for
those children. I mean to allow your kids to just run around in the street
going in and out of who knows what house and going and doing whatever
really just either shows a complete negligent attitude
but ultimately not a very strong attitude of love or of care of appreciation.
If you're letting your kids do something really dangerous it sounds like you don't really
care about them or you love them. Now if you love them you'd rebuke them and say
get out of the street. You'd spank them, you'd discipline them, you'd try to correct
them because you actually love them. That's what real love is.
Real love is going to rebuke you when you need it. Now let's see an example of this
Galatians chapter 2 verse 11. But when Peter was come to Antioch I withstood
him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came
from James he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come
he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews, notice this word, dissembled likewise with
him. Insomuch that Barnabas also was carried
away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they
walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel I said unto
Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew liveth after the manner of Gentiles
and not as do the Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles
to live as do the Jews? Now this is such a perfect example
because it not only contains the rebuke but it also contains that word dissimulation again
doesn't it? So what was the dissimulation? Well Peter is being fake
Peter is using deceit and basically distancing
himself from Gentiles which is contrary to the scriptures
which is not a genuine love that he has for the Gentiles because if he
genuinely loved the Gentiles you know what he would have done? He would have eaten
with the Gentiles in the presence of the Jews to let the Jews
know I love Gentiles. I'm with the Gentiles.
Now here's the thing because he didn't the apostle
Paul has to end up calling him out publicly. And a lot of people get
mad about that. A lot of people say oh why would you call someone out
publicly? But here's the thing it was a public issue that he had to
address. You know if Paul had just drug Peter
out into a corner by himself and said hey Peter
don't you know dissemble don't you know stop eating with the
Gentiles and Peter's like you know what I'm sorry you're right. And then we just
go back and nothing changes. Well how does Barnabas get fixed?
How do the public get fixed? How do the Gentiles get
fixed? You know if you're going to make a public
you know action like that a public decision to end up
causing issue here then you have to be publicly called out and has to be publicly
fixed. But you know some people get really mad at this. Go to Leviticus chapter
19. I'll give you a proverb to think about though. The Bible says open
rebuke is better than secret love.
Now it literally says in that proverb love. So that means that
types of rebuke are more loving than some types of love.
Because rebuke can be loving in fact it is a very loving attribute.
Let me prove to you from the word of God that rebuke is
loving. Leviticus chapter 19 look at verse number 17
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor
and not suffer sin upon him.
Not suffer sin upon him. I mean how much clearer can the Bible get?
It's saying if you actually love someone you would
rebuke them to correct their sin to correct their issue
and if you don't correct their issue it's because you actually hate them.
Now doesn't that fit perfectly again with what I illustrated? Kids just playing
out in the street. You're just letting them hurt and harm and damage themselves. That means
you don't really love that person. And so a true brotherly love
will rebuke the sin out of their brother's life.
Now there's a lot of caveats to that but in general principle
this is an important concept. Verse 18 it says thou shalt not
avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy
people. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord.
So notice again the next breath is talking about you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself.
So loving someone is rebuking them. Now
I'll say this the Bible also teaches that if you're going to judge your brother
or you're going to correct your brother you need to first cast the beam out of thine own eye
before you try to remove the mote that's in your brother's eye. But you know what it says?
It says go ahead and cast the beam out so that you can actually do it. It doesn't say like
never do it. It just says don't be a hypocrite about it. Obviously
no one wants to be corrected by someone that's got the same issue or even worse.
You know the guy that just stumbles out of the bar drunk
doesn't really want to hear from you about being sober.
You know the guy that's a thief, the guy that's a liar, the guy
that's a drug addict it's hard to hear from that guy on the same
issue. You know the drug addict telling you not to take drugs it's just kind of like yeah
really why don't you go ahead and look in the mirror first right? You know and so it's
important not to be a hypocrite when you're judging, when you're rebuking
but at the end of the day it's still a loving attribute to want to rebuke someone.
You want to correct them and improve their behavior. You know today
rebuke has become a byword. It's become something that's negative. It's labeled as
hate speech. You know what hate speech is? Silence.
Notice how the Bible describes it. Isn't hate speech
silence? Not saying something. So what's actual love?
Correcting someone, rebuking them openly, publicly. Go to Matthew
chapter number 18. Let me show you some more examples of this. Matthew chapter number 18.
Again point one is super important. If we're going to have true brotherly love
in our church you have to be able to rebuke
your neighbor, rebuke your brother when there's an issue. Now this is important for a lot of reasons.
Number one so they can get problems fixed. Number two
so issues can be resolved. If you never correct somebody, if you never
tell someone they did something wrong then you're just going to have a lot of unresolved
issues, conflict, bitterness. I mean
it's really difficult to be around someone. You have some kind of
an issue with them and you're not talking about it. It becomes the elephant in the room
doesn't it? It becomes some kind of this unresolved tension, this unresolved
matter and really it needs to be dealt with. You know even in a marriage
this is really important. It's important that in a marriage that both husband
and wife can express their concerns, their issues with one another on a regular
basis and resolve them so that they can have
their perfect restoration. So that they can move on, they can go on with their life,
go on with their marriage. You know marriages start to deteriorate
when the husband and wife are not communicating their grievances to one another.
When they're just bottling it up, ignoring it, moving past it.
I had heard somebody talk about a couple
and they said they had known some couple that was telling them, hey
we never fight. He's like this couple
is bragging about how they've never fought before, they never fight at all.
And he's kind of like, you're lying.
But it probably was true that they pretty much almost never fought
or rarely ever did and he's thinking like man what's
wrong with me? But then a few years later they
end up divorcing. So they never have a fight but then when they finally
do divorce is on the table. And that's why it's important not to bottle up
your emotions, that's why it's important to resolve issues so that when you finally
do get to some kind of a conflict it's not this major
epic problem where it's just like, well you've been treating me bad for 20
years. Well why have you never said anything? Well why did you never
let me say anything? Well you just, it just like blows up
and just becomes this huge fight, this huge spat. No it's better
to just always constantly put the issues on the table and get them resolved.
And so this is my philosophy. If I have a problem with someone
and I can just let it go, it's not a big deal, just let it go.
That's when you should do like 90 some percent of your issues. Just let them go, ignore them,
move on, just forget about it. But if it's an issue
where you say, you know what, I can't just move on, I can't just let this go.
Then what you need to do is you need to address it with the person. Okay? And
Matthew chapter 18 tells you how to do that, look at verse 15,
thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother.
So the Bible says in most issues, if someone
does you wrong personally, if you can't let it go,
if it's something that's too big of a deal, you need to just go to that person in private
the best of your ability and say, hey, you did this, you said this,
or something happened and it really, it hurt my feelings or it caused
some kind of grievance or it's caused me some kind of money or whatever the issue is and try to
just resolve it one another, not publicly necessarily. Now again,
this is not saying that every issue has to go through this method.
Because sometimes you do have to just, it is a public issue and it has to be resolved publicly.
There's sometimes church discipline issues, that's completely separate. But in a lot of cases when it's just
a minor trespass between you and one other person, you try to
resolve it. It's also not saying something criminal, okay? This is not saying like,
oh, he killed your little, your brother, just go and try to resolve that privately.
No, you need to call the cops, right? If someone commits a serious
crime, you have to report that. In fact, it's actually a felony not
to report felonies, okay? So if you think you're going to come to pass a show
and report felonies, you know what I'm calling immediately after? The detectives
and the police department will be like, this guy committed a felony, okay?
I need to tell you that. Because I'm not allowed to keep that kind of information private if
someone's coming with felonies or whatever. So again, you have to get the context of
Matthew chapter 18. This is not every single issue that could ever
possibly arise. It's just saying the majority of issues that are a minor
issue between brothers, try to resolve them. If you cannot
resolve it, notice what it says next. But if you will not hear thee,
then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth
of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.
This is important, too, that we slow down and pay attention to what this is saying.
If there's an issue where you say, me and brother Ben have an issue,
okay? Beans and chili. I mean, this is an important issue, and we got
to get this resolved, right? And he's not hearing me, okay, privately.
Then I grab a couple other church members, a couple other guys, and you say,
who? Well, he that's least esteem in the church is able to judge, okay? So
we can just grab two other guys. And basically, they're going to hear from me,
they're going to hear from brother Ben. Now at that point, essentially the
two witnesses are going to help remedy the situation in the sense that they're going to
obviously know that you don't put beans in their chili, and they're going to side with me.
And then it's going to change from one on one
to three on one, okay? Or four on one
depending on how many witnesses you have. And this also will help because if your issues
are really silly, like non-bean and chili issues, ones that are actually
minor in consequence, then the both witnesses could just tell you, like,
this isn't a big deal, guys. Just move on, right? Or if you
think you're right, and you're actually wrong, the two witnesses could help be like, whoa,
you're actually the one that's making the mistake here, you're the guy in the wrong, and they can kind of
help get it settled. So it's kind of a consensus, right? But at the point that it's three on one,
at the point that someone's clearing the wrong, and everybody on the other side is
like, look, this is a serious issue you need to fix, and they won't,
then it escalates to the next level, okay? Look what it says in the next
level. Verse 17, and if ye shall neglect to hear them,
so notice it says them there, meaning that all parties are in agreement
that this person is in an issue, has a problem. Tell it unto the church,
but if ye neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen
man and a publican. So it's saying this is how you resolve issues.
You basically go to them privately, if you won't hear it, then you have witnesses,
if you won't hear everybody in a small group, then you have to go to the
church, and at that point, if he's just not willing to hear it for the church,
then that person would be excommunicated, and this could be all manner of
issue. It's really just, it's saying in a church we can't have
unresolved tension. Why? Because we're supposed
to be in unity, and you know, how are we going to do the work of the Lord when it's like
everybody has these unresolved issues and problems with everybody in the church?
Now that doesn't mean you have to like everyone, okay? But at the end
of the day, you know, if someone did a serious trespass against you, and it hasn't been
resolved, they haven't fixed it, it should be, in church, there should be
a vehicle, there should be a mechanism by which you can get that resolved.
And doesn't that sound great? Doesn't it sound great that you can go to a church and know, like
if there's a legitimate issue I have, I can get it resolved, rather than being
in a church where you have all these unresolved issues and nobody will do anything about it.
And look, that actually happens. There's plenty of times where people are in a church, they have a serious issue
with another church member, a problem with another church member, and they're having a problem
even going to the church because that person's there, but they won't resolve it.
You know, the church won't resolve it, or the pastor won't take care of it. And look, I will
take care of this. And we've had people have to go through this method before,
and you know, if need be, we will. But you know, it's more loving
to try and fix these issues than just let them just fester and create
bigger problems. Go to Mark chapter 16, go to Mark chapter number 16.
Now, here's
another proof text of the fact that rebuke is loving. What's a synonym to rebuke?
How about upbraid? Now what's upbraid? Is it to scold
or say something really harshly to someone?
Now here's a question. Do you think Jesus was ever in violation of the commandment
to love thy brother as thy neighbor? No, he never sinned. He was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, right? So if Jesus does
anything in the New Testament, it's always on the table for us
because it was never a sin. Nothing that Jesus
did was ever a sin. So therefore, I can do it
and it's not a sin either, okay? You're understanding my logic,
right? To say that I can't do what Jesus did is to say that he did something wrong.
To say that he sinned or something. Look what it says in Mark chapter 16, verse 14.
Afterward, he appeared in 11 as they sat at meat
and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
Notice this is Jesus rebuking his own disciples
upbraiding them which is to harshly criticize them
being like, what is wrong with you guys? How can you not
have already believed in me? Why did you not believe? How can you not
believe in the resurrection? You guys are hard-hearted. You guys need to
increase in your faith. He's rebuking them and upbraiding them and look,
that's because Jesus loved them and he
knew that they had an important job, an important task to do and they were going to have to get that issue
right. Go to Revelation chapter number 3, Revelation chapter 3. So if I rebuke
or upbraid one of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,
that doesn't mean I did anything wrong. In fact, it could be
just because I love them. And I'll be honest, there is definitely
people in my church, even in this room, that I have upbraided
at times. Multiple people.
And you know what? Almost no one in this room even knows about it except for that person.
Why? Because there's no need to make a big public deal
about it. But some people say like, oh, these guys when they have an issue with a
person, they just throw them out of the church and rail on them and
basically destroy their public persona. That's not true.
I have living proof. I could bring you
person after person after person that I've had to correct, reprove, rebuke, upbraid
and they still come to my church. And you know the reason why I did that? Because I love
that person. Not because I just want to be mean to them or tell them
off. And look, all of us need some time to be upbraided. You know what?
There was a point where I got upbraided really harshly by my pastor, Pastor
Steven Anderson. And you know what? I needed it. And you know what? I didn't look
there and think like, oh, you're so mean. Oh, you're just a meanie pants.
I thought, no, this guy loves me.
This guy wants me to get something right in my life.
It's silly to think that someone criticizing you harshly hates you.
The person that hates you won't say anything to you.
Revelation chapter 3, verse 19. As many as I love,
I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Notice Jesus
just says it real plainly. Hey, if I love you, I rebuke you.
You know who he doesn't love? The people that he's just silent to.
All the unsaved. He's not talking to them. He's just going to throw them in hell.
Go to Proverbs chapter number 9. Go to Proverbs chapter 9. I have a lot of verses just for my first point
this morning and then we're going to move on to some more. But I think this is a really
important one because a lot of the other points I'm going to make, most everybody
already agrees. Most people will already be like, of course, yeah, that's a loving thing.
But you have to realize that rebuking is loving.
Now, again, let's define two words.
Rebuke and rail.
Now, let's first start talking about their synonyms. They're both harsh.
They're both scolding. They're both going to say
something really negative. They're both potentially corrective.
But here's the huge difference between rebuking and railing.
Rebuke is true, railing is false.
So while you can say something really negative about someone
and you can criticize them harshly and it's
loving, the most important factor is is it true?
Because if you start criticizing someone harshly and yelling at them and making
fun of them and it's false, now it's changed from rebuking to railing
and railing is a grievous sin. So the most important thing is
if it's true. It's always, if someone's saying something about me, this is
the only thing that really matters, is it true? I don't sit here and wonder
like, was that kind of mean how we said it? What about the tone?
What about the delivery? And this is what people do.
They criticize how people deliver the message rather than the
message. It's like, oh, did you do that through
a text message? Who cares? Who cares if it's a text? Who cares
if it's an email? Who cares if it's a meme?
He's such a meme person, he does memes. Well, is the
message true? Yeah.
Well, maybe he deserved it. And at the end of the day, does it really matter
if it's true, does it really matter the content delivery or does it matter the message?
The message is the only thing that really matters, okay? It doesn't matter
what medium, what forum, which way. Now, obviously
there's better ways than others, right? If someone has a problem with me,
I'd rather them just tell me in my face, right? Or
maybe call me rather than sending me a letter, you know?
Or rather than sending me a Facebook Messenger post or something. I hate
Facebook Messenger messages, okay? I feel like it's the most informal way to communicate.
But it's like, at the end of the day, I should care more about the message,
the content, than the delivery method. Because the delivery method doesn't really matter.
Think about how Paul delivered most of his condemnation through letters.
It wasn't even in person, okay? But, oh, this is a letter,
we can't, you know, what a mean person. He sends these scolding letters or whatever.
Like, who cares how he did it? He should just care about the actual message
and which is being delivered to you. Look at Proverbs chapter 9, verse 8.
Reprove not a scorn, lest he hate thee.
Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
Now, reprove is a little bit different than rebuke.
To reprove someone means to correct them, but to rebuke them means
to correct them harshly. That's saying someone that's just a bad person,
someone that's just not willing to learn, someone that just has a bad heart,
they can't even take a light correction. But someone
with a really good heart, no matter how mean it was,
no matter how harsh it was, no matter how scolding it was,
they loved it. You know what? That tells me
the way that people respond to criticism tells me what they're like
as a person. So, if I can't take
a really harsh rebuke, that means I have a problem.
And notice, the people that can't even take a light rebuke or a light correction,
those people have serious issues. And it's saying reprove not a scorn.
Meaning, once you've identified this person as someone that can't really take criticism,
you should just stop criticizing them because it's only going to cause more problems.
And the person that is willing to take correction, man,
just rebuke the pants off of that guy. Just kick him while he's down
so that he can get it right. Go, if you would, to Titus 2.
How about this passage of the Bible? This is an
instruction for pastors. Preach the word, be instant in season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke with all
long suffering and doctrine. Now, riddle me this. How is a pastor
supposed to rebuke people by the commandment of God if it's not loving?
You know, the Bible says speaking the truth in love. And you know what's one of the most loving
ways you can preach to someone? Rebuke them.
Oh, man, Pastor Shelley, I don't like listening to your preaching. It sounds like you're yelling at me for an hour.
It's the most loving thing I can do.
Not be silent on your issues. You know, refuse
to talk about things that are actually real. Refuse to talk about your issues.
Refuse to talk about real practical applications. You know, that's the person that actually doesn't
love you. The person that loves you will spend a good amount of effort
and time and energy at making it real specific and clear
what your problems are so you can actually fix them. That's the person that loves you.
Now, look at what it says in Titus chapter 2 verse 15. These things
speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee.
That's a really important phrase. Because the Bible is telling again the pastor,
telling the leader, you need to rebuke people with all authority. Meaning you have all
ability, all authority has been given to you, rebuke.
That's your whole job. That's your whole point. Why have a preacher if he won't rebuke you?
Look, the preacher is not a motivational speaker.
He's supposed to tell you that you have problems. He's supposed to make it clear
that you have sin. He's supposed to make it clear that God's mad at you about things.
So you can fix them. Now what happens when you preach like that?
People don't like you. People end up
despising you. What happens when you call someone out by name and you make it clear what their
sin issue is? What do they do? They'll end up despising you. You know what?
It's not right to allow those people to despise you. You should continue to call them out.
You know what? If someone slanders you or rails against you or
lies about you or is using deceit or fraud or loving with the simulation,
you need to call that out and say, hey, you're not supposed to be despising me.
I'm your brother. You're supposed to love me.
Oh, I don't like these people that are so mean and they call people out.
The new IFB calls people out. Well, you know what? You sound fake and you don't sound like
you have any love. And it sounds like the new IFB is full of love.
It sounds like its pastors are really loving since they actually
call people out, call them by name, make it manifest what they believe.
And you know what? If you think that I'm a mean person,
you might be a scorner. There I said it.
Because the mean person will tell you that you're doing
good when you're not. The loving person will tell you that you suck
when you suck. Go to John chapter 18.
Look, if there's not a legitimate reason
to despise a pastor, you're not allowed to.
That's what the Bible literally teaches. You're just not allowed to.
It's not acceptable to hate them or to have hatred
in your heart or despise them. You know, be like, I just don't like
that about it. No! You're not supposed to do that.
And you know what? The pastor is supposed to get up and rebuke that attitude, rebuke that mindset,
call people out. You know, against another, receive not an accusation
but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all
that others also may fear, is what the Bible says. Look, when someone's just going to make railing
accusations against a pastor, one witness or one testimony,
they need to be called out because you're not allowed to accept that.
And you know, that makes a lot of people uncomfortable because they're thinking like, well, what if I'm
that one witness? Keep your mouth shut. Because you know what?
There's a lot of people that want to attack men of God or pastors or preachers or churches
and they would love to just take their one little witness, their
lying mouth witness and try to destroy a church with that.
That's why you're not allowed to use one witness. That's why you have to have multiple
witnesses. And that's why even, look, it's not just me, it's not just
Steadfast Baptist Church, it's you too. Because I know a lot of you have come to me at times
and said, look, I have this witness against this person. And I say, do you have another witness?
And they say, no. And I say, I can't do anything.
Give me more evidence. Give me more witness. Or at least
thanks for telling me so that when the next witness comes, I can actually do something.
And so it's important to still pass that information along per se
but I'm not going to use one witness against you so you don't use one witness
against me or other men of God or other people.
That's why it's important. And look, there's plenty of pastors that I've heard all kinds
of horrible things about them from one witness.
And what I try to do is just pretend like it's not true.
Even if I believe it. Even if I know that it's probably true.
Because I'm not going to go and attack someone even if
I don't like them. Even if they're a bad person. Just because it's not
good to go around and rely upon one witness testimony.
And it's funny because whenever you call someone out
and they're like, oh, you're just a bad person. You're mean. You're evil.
I don't like you. You have a bad spirit or whatever.
You know what you're supposed to say? Okay, well then what did I do?
And it's not acceptable for them to just make general accusations against you.
Now I'm going to prove this in the Bible and this is the exact same thing that they did to Jesus.
Because they always made general accusations against him.
If he were not a malefactor, we would not have brought him. It's like, wait a minute, what did he do though?
Right? And look, if you have a real legitimate
problem with someone, you should have to bring forth the actual evidence
statement or whatever. Just going to be like, this person's a bad person.
That's not legitimate. Look what Jesus says in John chapter 18 verse 23.
Jesus answered him, if I have spoken evil,
bear witness of the evil. But if well,
why smitest thou me? Notice when they were falsely
accusing Jesus and they're saying, this guy's a blasphemer. This guy's
wicked. He's like, hey, what did I say that was wrong?
Oh, and if you have nothing to say, then why are you punishing me?
Why are you persecuting me? Why are you hitting me if I haven't
said anything wrong? Just go ahead and tell me. Where's my accusation?
Where's the thing that I did? And look, this is what bad people
do is they'll just throw these general accusations at people. This guy's
just a railer. Oh yeah, what did he say? He's a railer.
This guy's a liar. It's like, what did he lie about?
He's a liar. It sounds like you're the liar.
It sounds like you're the railer. And nobody that
actually has any real evidence uses this tactic or this method. They
always just bring to light immediately what was said or what happened. They're like,
this guy said this about me and it's not true. That's what a normal person
would say. They wouldn't just be like, you lie about stuff. Oh yeah, what did I lie about?
Stuff. Lots of stuff.
Just a liar. It's like, how do you defend yourself against that? You can't.
That's why it's important to make a really specific example. And look, when someone's
attacking you with a lie, you have the right to call forth
the evidence and say, testify of my wickedness. Testify of the evil.
Bear witness of the evil. Where's your witnesses? What actually happened?
And you know when the person won't come forward with the information, they're the bad person.
They're the unloving person. No, the
loving person will not allow men to despise them. Notice what he said in Titus
chapter 2 verse 15. You're not allowed to hate me for no reason.
You're not allowed to be angry with me without a cause. Testify of the evil. Bear witness
of the evil. Don't just make these random, generic, slandering comments.
Go back to Romans chapter 12. So what's point number one?
Brotherly love will rebuke his brother.
Brotherly love will rebuke his lover. But you know what he won't do? He won't rail on his brother.
He won't lie about his brother. He won't slander his brother.
He won't speak evil of his brother. No, but he will rebuke him
when needed. He will reprove him when needed. He will correct him when needed. And the
person that hates his brother will be silent. Here's number point two
I have. Verse 10. Be kindly affection one to another with brother
love and honor preferring one another. If you're going to
really have brotherly love, you must honor them
above yourselves. Honor them. You're going to rebuke them
when they're wrong, but you're going to then also honor them.
You're not going to honor yourself. You're not going to praise yourself. You're not going to lift up yourself.
You're going to glorify other people, not yourself. Go to 1 Peter chapter number 2.
You know, a real famous proverb comes to mind. Let another man praise
thee and not thine own mouth. A stranger and not
thine own lips. According to the Bible, it's not
seemly. It's not comely. It's not appropriate
or it doesn't make people feel good when you just brag about yourself.
You know, and pretty much athletes, sport athletes and celebrities
and politicians. I can't think of any that would do that.
Await all of them. Virtually. I mean,
probably the worst is probably Donald Trump. I mean, this guy
talks about how he knows everything. You know, nobody knows the Bible like I
know the Bible. You know, it's like, everyone knows the Bible better than you.
Virtually. I mean, speaking. I mean, this guy gets up and
pontificates about knowing more about nuclear reactors and foreign trade
policy and sports and just any and every topic.
It's, I mean, there's all kinds of clips where he's just literally going down the line
saying he knows more about every single topic. Just topic after topic after topic.
And you're just like, you don't know the most. I mean, you don't know
anything probably. I mean, it's just a big talking point.
Now, obviously, I'm sure Donald Trump is smart and he probably does have expertise
in some areas of his life. But even the areas that he truly was the
best, even if it was the truth. Maybe he was really the best real estate investor ever
or something. Maybe he's the best businessman ever. I don't believe it. But I'm just saying, even if he
was, you don't go around singing your own praises. You don't go around pontificating
and telling people how great you are and how wonderful you are. You're supposed to let other
people do it for you. Because this is what I've noticed. If you're really great,
everyone will talk about you. You know who's not going around
singing their own praises and everybody else is? How about Michael Jordan?
Now, maybe he sings his own praises, but I mean, a lot of people are constantly talking
about how great Michael Jordan is because he's great. You know, the
people that are really great, tons of other people tell everybody how great they are. I mean,
people are going left and right telling you how good Tom Brady is or Wayne
Gretzky is or Tiger Wood was or Wilt Chamberlain was.
Anybody who is truly great, they had plenty of people
telling about how great they were. And a lot of times, they'll talk better
about you than you would yourself. You know, you probably wouldn't even consider
yourself the greatest of all time. But then you have these fanboys that'll be like,
oh, greatest of all time, you know. They say it about everybody.
Greatest movie ever. That comic gets thrown out really loosely.
And at the end of the day, though, in the Christian life,
we also don't want to go around singing our own praises. Hey, I want to let you know
I'm really loving. I want to let you know I'm the most charitable
Christian I know, FYI. I do the most soul winning and the
most Bible reading and I'm just the greatest. This would be
a foolish attitude. The Apostle Paul mocks this whole attitude in 2 Corinthians 11 constantly.
Look at what it says in 1 Peter 2.
Verse 17. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood.
Fear God. Honor the king. Notice again, he's saying honor
all men. Love the brotherhood. Go if you would to Romans 16.
And look, you have to read the
Bible in balance. You have to understand how the Bible
operates. When it says honor all men,
don't take this overly literally. What it's basically
saying is that your default is that you would honor every single person.
That you appreciate every single person. Now obviously it's not saying a serial rapist
you're going to honor that person. That person is supposed to be put to death. But that's
not an individual that you're isolating. It's just saying in this situation or this
circumstance. There's obviously going to be criminals and reprobates and people like that
you would not honor. But if they had never done those atrocities,
they have never performed those wicked actions, of course you would have honored that person.
And we should try to honor even politicians and government
officials and police and whoever it is to the best of our ability.
Obviously sometimes those people cross a line.
Obviously I'm not going to go around honoring Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.
But at the end of the day, not because he's Pharaoh, because he's throwing the
men's children into the river. At that point you're kind of like,
no thanks. I'm not going to necessarily honor you. And in fact
that's what even Moses' parents do. They refuse the king's commandment
and hide their child and actually preserve the life of
Moses by not honoring the king. But if he wasn't saying throw your children
in the river, you honor them. You do that which is right. You do good.
And really brotherly love, we should honor one another in the church. You should honor
every brother and sister in Christ. The only caveat would be
you find out they're a reprobate, they're not really a brother or sister in Christ. Or they commit
some kind of atrocity that you have to say, you know what?
You need to be punished for that. You need to get what's due for your recompense.
Romans chapter 16, now I love this chapter and I'm not going to read all of it.
But let's read a little bit. It says in verse 1, I commend unto you Thebe our sister,
which is a servant of the church which is at Chancria.
The receiver in the Lord has become a saint, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath
need of you. For she hath been a suckerer of many,
and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Achilla, my helpers in
Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom
not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles."
Now if you read chapter 16 in depth, well you know what Paul does?
He honors everybody but himself. He's just honoring
this person and that person and this woman and this couple, and in fact
the Bible gives us a little insight to let us know that Priscilla and Achilla
were not just honored by Paul, but notice this, all the churches of the Gentiles.
Meaning everybody's singing their praises. There's no need for you to go ahead
and sing your own praises. And this is why people often sing their praises, because
no one else is. But there's a reason why no one else is.
Because there's no praises to be sung.
That's why it's important not to sing your own praises
and not to go around and blab and talk about how great you are.
Really, you should just have a humble opinion of yourself and you should try to identify
the good in others and praise others for the things you appreciate about them.
Now, don't be a flattering hypocrite
about it either, though. Go back to Romans chapter 12.
Just because you don't want to sing your own praises doesn't mean you should go around and tell people things that are
insincere. Like, oh man, you're the greatest preacher I've ever heard, brother so and so.
I bet you say that to all the preacher boys, don't you?
Don't say something that's not true. Don't say something that's insincere.
So if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, right?
Unless you need to rebuke them. That's my caveat. But at the end of the day,
we should try to find the good in others and love the brotherhood and try
to appreciate other people. You know what this will do? It will make you love other people.
You know, when you start singing your own praises, you know what you start thinking? I'm just better than all these
losers here. Why isn't everybody treating me better?
Because I'm like the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'm the greatest thing in this room.
You know, when you start thinking about the good in others, you start thinking like, oh wow, I really appreciate this person.
I love this person. I should be thinking about this person and praying for this person.
And you start appreciating other things more than yourself.
Here's number three, Romans chapter 12, look at verse 11.
Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving
the Lord. Now go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number four. Go to 1 Thessalonians
chapter number four. So another way that we can show brotherly love is by
not being lazy. Now on the surface, you kind of
think like, how are those connected? But the Bible literally teaches that this is
directly connected, one to another. That loving your brother is
related to you not being a lazy person, okay? Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter
four verse nine. But as touching brotherly love,
ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God
to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren
which are in all Macedonia, but we beseech you brethren that ye increase more
and more, and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own
business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you,
that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without,
and that ye may have lack of nothing. So notice the Bible teaches
that a way to increase your brotherly love is by
working hard and providing for all your own needs.
By being lazy and having to
always ask for handouts and being a needy parasite
on the brethren is actually not loving them. Loving is actually
working hard, being quiet, doing your own job,
that's actually true brotherly love. And you know the Bible talks about
in Proverbs, you know the poor is hated of his neighbor. Why? Because he's always bumming
stuff on them, you know? He's always asking for something.
And you know you start questioning someone's friendship to you when every conversation
is just, can you give me money? It's like they walk up
to you and they're just like, hey how's it going? How's your family? Do you have 20 bucks?
You're like, did you want me to answer the question about my family first or
did you just want the money? Cash is good, you know.
It's like, you know, when you're not getting money from anybody
when you're not getting any kind of handouts from anybody, when they're not benefiting you
in any carnal way, it actually makes you feel like this person sincerely loves you, doesn't it?
They actually care about you more than just what they can get from you
than some kind of a handout. And look, I'm not saying just because you need a handout every once in a while
or because you're down on your luck that makes you a bad person. What I am saying is
that if you don't have to have that, if you're
working hard and you're providing for your own needs, it's showing a greater brotherly
love than the person that's being lazy, that's not providing for
their own, that's always kind of needing these handouts or trying to get
money from other people. Go to Hebrews chapter 13. I'll read another
verse for you. The Bible says, whosoever believeth that Jesus the Christ is born of God
and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten
of him. By this we know that we love the children of God and we love God and keep his commandments
for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments
and his commandments are not grievous. So the Bible says one of the ways that we show our love towards our brothers
and sisters in Christ is just following God's commandments.
So every commandment is brotherly love. All of them.
Whether it seems to directly relate to your brother and sister in Christ,
it does. It still is loving your brother.
And so it's important to make sure you're following all of God's commandments, including
working hard, including providing for your own needs.
Now look at Hebrews chapter 13. This is my fourth point.
The Bible had said in Romans 12, I'll remind you, rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation,
continuing instant in prayer. If you love your brother, you're going to pray
for them. You're going to pray for them. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 1.
Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds
as bound with them and then which suffer adversity as being yourselves
also in the body. So it brings up brotherly love in Hebrews chapter
13, but then it says in verse 3, remember.
What's the point of remembering? So then you can pray for them.
So you can have that fellowship with them and their suffering
and their evil. Go to 1 John chapter 5 for a moment. I'll show you another
verse here. But I would think this one's pretty easy on the
surface, but I think we need a constant reminder to pray for the brother. If you love
the brethren, you'll pray for the brother. Now this one's completely private
because we don't know. We don't know how much you pray for other people
or you pray for your pastor, your church or other pastors
or your family members or whatever. That's between you and God.
You know what? The person that loves their brother is going to pray for
their brother and what's a really important aspect of that is remember.
Because you know, sometimes you want to pray for someone, you forget.
And that's why Paul even brings up in some of his epistles of Timothy
that he's glad that God's always bringing him in remembrance. So that what?
He can then pray for him. And it's important to try to remember
people that are going through evil. You know, thinking about people like brother Matthew Stuckey
who I don't see in the flesh, but putting in our prayer bulletins
so that way you can be reminded because they go through hard talk, hard stuff.
They're being oppressed. They have evil happening to them. They're being bound in their capacity
of being able to preach the gospel and have church regularly and so we're supposed to
remember them and then pray for them. Look what it says in
1 John 5 verse 16. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death. I do not say he shall pray for it.
This is a great verse to tell you what the word pray means, ask.
Because it uses ask at the beginning and then it uses prayer
at the second. So what is prayer? Asking.
It's not just talking to God, it's asking. And in fact a lot
of like legal documents, I've recently
had to look at a few of those. You know whenever you're talking to the
court, it'll say I pray. Because that's just how you speak.
And legalese is you say instead of saying I ask, you say I pray because
they're synonyms, they mean the same thing. So when we go in our prayer closet,
what are we supposed to be doing? We're supposed to be asking God for things.
He wants us to ask constantly. God wants you to talk to him and say I need
help. I need courage. I need strength. I need wisdom.
But not just I, I, I. Also give them strength.
Give them mercy. Give them health. Give them courage.
Pray for other people and encourage other people
and ask for good for other people. And in fact beyond just what they need
normally, even their sin. Notice it says if you see your brother
sin. And you know this one's a hard one. It's hard to
see your brother sin and then want to pray for them. Especially if they sin against you.
Especially if they sin in a way that you don't like.
You know what, the right response is to say you know what God, give them
mercy because I know I need mercy for my sins.
Now I'm not a type of person that just wants everybody to get exactly
what they deserve because I don't want to get what I deserve.
You know what I mean? So when you see someone screw up, instead of being like
God punish them. Especially if it's your brother or sister in Christ, maybe you should be like
God be merciful to this person. Bless this person. Give this person
grace. Give this person long suffering. Pass over their
transgression. Help them get it right. Help them change their
heart. Help them change their mind. Whatever it is that they need.
Obviously there's a caveat even in this verse. Obviously if the guy's
killing someone or committing adultery or whatever. Some kind of
grievous capital punishment type sin. It's not really right
to then pray that they get away with that. It's not really right to
forego the normal consequences of sin in a civil
society through prayer. It's not like
oh this guy murdered 20 people. Let's just pray for him. It's like
no, no, no. We'll pray that your
death is quick. We'll pray that your death is as painless as possible.
But we're not going to sit here and pray that God just skips over that kind of a transgression.
So there's always a limit. There's always a caveat. Go to
1 Peter chapter 3. So I've covered a lot of areas.
Number 1, if you're going to love your brother you're going to rebuke him. Number 2, you're going to honor him. Number 3,
you're going to work hard. Number 4, you're going to pray. Number 5, you're going to provide for them.
You're going to provide for them. The Bible said
distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality. Now I like how
it's worded in verse 13. Distributing to the necessity of saints.
What does necessity imply? The need.
It's not just like every whim, wish, and want.
It's your needs. What do the Bible teach your needs are? Food, clothing,
things that are going to be related to that. Not just
everything you could ever want. Take me to Fogo de Chao.
It's like, is that a necessity? Sometimes. But not necessarily
every time. So you want to be careful how you
behave yourself but at the end of the day if there's a necessity of the saints
you want to help them. Then beyond that, given to hospitality. Now that's going above
and beyond necessity, that's just being kind and generous and blessing
people financially, providing for them. 1 John 3 verse 15
Whosoever hated his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life
for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath
this world's good, and seeth his brother out of need, and shutteth up his bowels
of compassion from him, thou dwelt the love of God in him.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Now this is great that we're covering all these topics in the same
sermon so you can balance them. Right?
Let's do some scenarios. Because you have to use discretion to interpret the Bible.
Let's say your brother is a lazy jerk who won't
go to work, refuses to work, and is
suffering because of that. Which verse are we going to apply this morning?
Are we going to apply the, oh let's provide for him? Or are we going to
rebuke him? Rebuke was the right answer. Okay, sorry
you soft-hearted people. Now let's take another guy. He works
70 hours a week. But you know what? His employer
just fired him for no reason and
his car broke down and he's going through a hard time. What do we do?
Do we rebuke him? Or do we provide for his needs?
So you have to use some discretion. You have to think about the scenario
and think about what's best for the person. It's always just whatever's best for the person. It's not
best for the person that's lazy to just give him food and money. It's best for him to get
a kick in the pants and say go work. The guy that's wanting to
work, trying to work, trying to provide, but then just has a bad situation happen to
him out of nowhere. What's the best thing for him? Provide
for him. Not just be like, be warm and filled. See you later.
So you have to use a little bit of discretion. You have to think about what's the absolute best for this person
and that's how you actually have love. Real love thinks about
the person, thinks about what's best for the person and does that for that person.
People get mad at me all the time like, oh you don't want to give the homeless people food? No, I don't.
I'll tell them to get a job.
And look, everyone's hiring. Normally
you can say that. Right now it's literally true. Everyone is
hiring. Most restaurants are closing down or limiting their
sections where you can eat in because they can't hire enough people.
I mean there is jobs everywhere. And look, if someone comes
up to me and says, Pastor Shelley, I can't get a job anywhere. Give me money.
I'm going to say, go get a job. I don't believe you.
You know, it's not, now obviously
if you're on hard times or whatever, yeah I'd love to help my brothers and sisters in Christ
out and we try to be a blessing to people. You know, if someone's in a really bad situation
and they can't change that very easily, then let's help them out. Right? But if the person
is just being a lazy jerk, refuses to work, you know what, that person needs to be corrected.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 3, the last place I'm going to return, alright?
So what do we cover? Again, rebuke, honor,
work hard, pray, provide. Here's the last thing that we should do if we're going to have brotherly
love, is we're going to bless our brothers and sisters
in Christ. We're going to bless them. Now, this is not optional.
Romans chapter 12 will remind you, it says, bless them which persecute you,
bless and curse not. Now, again,
what's the context of Romans chapter number 12? Wasn't it all about brotherly
love and loving the brother? Does that say there,
you know, bless reprobates? No, it does not say that, okay?
Does it say, bless the devil? No, it doesn't say bless the devil.
Okay? It doesn't say bless the demons and bless the devil and
bless child molesters and bless false prophets.
We always know we'd never bless them, okay? But what's the context?
The context is the brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, here's my opinion,
and it's not just my opinion, it's really what the Bible teaches, that you're supposed to
bless all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, period.
No caveat. And then everyone that's unsaved
that has the possibility of being saved, right?
Which is like 95% of the world, my friend.
95% of the world fits in those two categories. That's why your automatic default
is blessed. Now, some people don't like that, so they'll say,
oh, I bless everyone. I love everyone. But you know what they really are?
Their 5% that they don't bless are people like me.
They're like, I love everyone.
What about me? Well, I hate you. But I love everyone else.
And it's like, look, they're just shifting their percentage of the people that they hate
to a different group. Everyone hates someone. Everyone dislikes
someone, okay? But at the end of the day, we're supposed to try and bless
as many people as possible, and this context is really specific to Christians.
Now, I'll agree with you all day long. You can only bless your brothers and sisters in Christ.
That's your only button to press, okay? Anybody that's teaching you should curse your brother and sister
in Christ. I question if a devil said that out of their mouth or where that came from, okay?
Now, look what it says in 1 Peter 3 verse 8.
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one another,
love his brethren, be pitiful, be courteous,
not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing,
but contrary-wise, blessing, knowing that ye are
thereunto, called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
Be that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil,
and his lips, that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil,
and do good, let him seek peace, and ensue it.
The Bible makes it really clear, you're only allowed to bless the brethren,
you're not allowed to return evil for evil, railing
for railing, you're not supposed to give them any kind of guile,
and in fact, you're supposed to continue in verse 11, eschewing evil,
meaning abstaining, refraining from, having nothing to do with evil,
you don't want to be evil. Let's get our balance.
So, if they give me evil, I can't give them
evil back, but what could I give them? Rebuke.
I could give them honor,
I could pray for them, I could bless them.
And those are the things that you should do. Someone gives you evil,
someone slanders you, someone rails on you, you know what you should do?
I'm going to rebuke you, and then I'm going to pray for you,
that God will bless you. And the person,
you're just so mean, look at these people rebuking me online,
it's harsh. Maybe you deserve it.
Now, someone's lying about you, no one deserves that.
Lying's never good, lying's never beneficial, you know what, the truth's never going to hurt you.
The truth shall make you free, is what the Bible says. And ye shall know the truth!
And the truth shall make you free! Free from sin, free from
consequences. It doesn't matter the delivery method. It doesn't matter
how insensitive it seems to you. If it's the truth, it's the truth.
And you know what, people need to start embracing the truth today, and loving the truth.
And hating evil, and hating lies.
You know, what's going to help our country, going to help the brethren, what's going to help
Christianity, is loving the truth, is loving that
which is right, regardless of feelings.
You know what, I'm sure the apostles and the disciples' feelings were hurt by
Jesus a lot. You don't think that
Peter's feelings were hurt when he was weeping bitterly?
And you know what, it came from a face from Jesus, Jesus was just like,
that could have just
easily been a meme. It could have just been a picture of Jesus looking at him harshly.
You know? And he wept bitterly. Why?
Because of his sin! Look, the apostles and
Jesus called Peter the devil!
He rebuked him! He rebuked the devil out of him! He's like,
hey, Satan hath a desire to sift you his wheat!
Get thee behind me, Satan! How do you want someone to say that to your face?
Literally call you the devil. Literally call you Satan.
You don't think that hurt Peter's pride a little bit? It might have hurt his feelings a little bit?
You know what, it's because he loved him.
And at the end of the day, no matter what happens, telling the truth is never
cursing your brother, it's blessing your brother.
Now, I'm going to go beyond rebuke. You know, I hope that good
things happen to these people. You know, we're supposed to pray that God gives them not just
a change of mind and a heart, but just favor. You know, bless them financially.
Help them to be right. You know, at the end of the day, there's going to be times when
Christians don't agree, but you still want things to go well for them.
I mean, when Paul and Barnabas disagree on John Mark, you know
it would have been wrong for Paul to be like, well I hope their missionary journey fails, and then
Barnabas comes back on his knees and is like, Paul, I'm so sorry
you were right about John Mark. He abandoned me again.
You know what Paul should have been like? I totally disagree, but I hope
it goes great for you guys. I hope you get everyone saved.
I hope the Lord blesses your ministry. Even though I don't want to do it, even though I'm not going to do it,
even though I have good reason not to have fellowship with you or separate from you,
I still hope a great work is accomplished by you. And you know what, even if
there's a pastor or a church at some point in time, then we have to say, you know what,
you have a lot of issues. You've done a lot of harm.
You need to get that right. And I can't be around you right now. You know what I still hope?
I still hope they get as many people saved as possible.
I still hope God gives them mercy and grace. I mean, look at the churches in the New Testament.
They've got all kinds of problems. We would think
we would never want to have fellowship with some of these churches. They've got women preachers.
Right? I mean, they've got women preachers. Some of these churches have people that
don't even believe in the resurrection. Some of these churches have all kinds of serious
issues that are going on. Right? They're teaching false doctrine. Some of them
are teaching false doctrine. They've got all kinds of major sin issues. They've got all kinds of
fellowship issues. I mean, we wouldn't want to touch that church with a ten-foot pole.
But it's not that I don't want that church to succeed. I want it to succeed still.
I want them to be blessed. I want good things happening. And let me give you
a real specific example of this. And I'll be finished. Okay? I want to give you
a really specific example. And I haven't brought this up publicly because
there's no need to. But, you know, Pastor Boyle
of Revival Baptist Church took our church plant
in Jacksonville. Okay? And Pastor
Boyle has taught some things that I strongly disagree with.
You know, that's why we're independent, vulnerable Baptist churches. Okay?
You know, let's talk about some things that are going on in Jacksonville. Number one, we all know
they're King James only. I mean, if there's one doctrine we're certain
about is that they're going to have a King James Bible in their hand when they come through the door, right?
Is that really a bad thing?
Maybe they don't have good arguments for why they use it, but at the end of the day, we know they're using it.
Hey, they still believe salvation is by faith, right?
It's the best of my knowledge. They're still going soul winning.
Look, that already met all of my criterion for fellowship anyways.
Didn't it? Now, again, do I have other issues with them?
Sure. I don't need to bring that up publicly. It doesn't matter.
You know what? I hope God blesses that church. And when people contact me and they say,
hey, I live in Jacksonville. Do you know a church I should go to? I say go to
Revival Baptist Church in Jacksonville.
Are you his friend? It doesn't matter
if I'm his friend or not.
At the end of the day, we should, just because someone's not my friend or even if they
did potentially do harm or evil to me in the past, who cares?
Why don't you just bless them? Why don't you hope good for them? Why don't you hope good for the
people in that church? Why don't you hope that God gets a lot of people saved
through sinner's hands? Because guess what? We're not the only righteous people in the world.
Because there's none righteous. No, not one.
Did you forget? I'm sure we have problems too.
We really have to ask God, hey God, only bless us if we're perfect.
That sounds dangerous. Don't we want to say like, you know what?
I hope that God blesses and uses our church even when we have a lot of problems.
Even when we have a lot of issues. Even if we do something wrong. Even if I say something amiss.
Even if I had something off doctrinally. You know, if I had something off doctrinally, I knew about it.
I'd fix it. Obviously I believe everything we believe as a church is right.
Otherwise I wouldn't believe it. But at the end of the day, you know what?
We shouldn't look at people that aren't exactly like us and be like, well God can't bless you unless
you're exactly like me. And you have everything locked in.
You know, what is the exact number of
days after the abomination of desolation that the people are going to be raptured?
If you have that wrong, you're not saved. It's like, what?
What are people talking about? It's like, don't get this overly enthusiastic
zeal for the truth that you start hating good people.
That you start hating your brother and sister in Christ.
That you love the brethren by rebuking them, honoring them,
praying for them, providing for them, blessing them.
Let's go to prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this church. Thank you for this opportunity to
come together and hear the word of God being preached. I pray that we would show our love
to God by loving the brethren. And that we wouldn't get so
bitter and we wouldn't get carnal and we
wouldn't allow the devil to do a work where he just destroys
God's people through just simulation or
evil. I pray that we would just have a tender heart towards those that are saved.
Towards those that are the children of God. And that we would follow all the proper
protocols. That you give us the discretion to handle all these situations appropriately.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, for the final
song. Song number 315. Song number
315, Take My Life and Let It Be.
Grab a hymn book and turn to song number
315, Take My Life and Let It Be.
Take my
life and let it be
Come save great and Lord to me
Take my hands and let them
bloom At the impulse of
my love At the impulse
of my love Take my
feet and let them be Swift and
beautiful for Thee
Take my voice and let me see
Always only for my
feet Always only for my
feet Take my silver and
my gold Not of my
blood I withhold Take my
omens and my days Let them
come with ceaseless praise Let
them come with ceaseless praise
Take my will and make it
thine It shall be no longer
mine Take my heart
it is thine own It shall be
thine royal throne It shall
be thine royal throne
Amen.