(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

chapter that I'd like to focus on is there in Galatians 6 beginning in verse 9 where the Bible reads, And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. What I want to preach about tonight is treating other people the way that you would like to be treated and being good to other people and loving thy neighbor as I shall. Now, first of all, turn to John chapter 13, if you would. John chapter 13. And what we just read there in Galatians 6 said, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, but then he said this, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So first of all, I want to start out by saying that we should even have more love and we should do even more good unto those that are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, we should be good to everyone. We should love our neighbor as ourself. But God especially tells us over and over again, and He even used that word especially, He said, Do good unto all men, but especially them who are of the household of faith. Now look if you would in John 13, 34, the Bible reads, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Now notice these scriptures are not saying, you know, love everybody. I mean they're saying love one another, and who's the one another? He's saying especially love your brothers and sisters in Christ. He says, Hereby or by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. That's one disciple loving another there, and we should have great love and affection for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for those that are members of our church or other people that are outside of this church that are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. Flip over to chapter 15 if you would, verse 12. The Bible reads in John 15, 12, This is my commandment, that ye love one another, and one another would be our term today, each other. That's what we would say today, love each other. He says, Love one another as I have loved you. Look at verse 17. But these things I command you that ye love one another. You don't have to turn there, but let me just read you some more scriptures that pretty much say the same thing. Romans 12, 10, Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another. Did you get that? Preferring one another. Romans 13, 8 says, Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Romans 14, 19, Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and the things wherewith one may edify another. Wherefore, receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. You know, Christ received us in our sinful condition, did he not? Did we have to clean up our lives before he would receive us in order to be saved? We had to give up this sin and give up that sin, or did he just receive us as we were? And the Bible, not the Bible, but a hymn that we like to sing a lot, one of my favorite hymns, Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bittest me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am. And that is the way the Bible tells it too. You know, we can come to him and he will save us, we don't have to be, the Bible says, but God commanded his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he reaches out to the sinful and disobedient today and says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. So God said that we should also receive one another as Christ received us. That means that Christ received us as sinners. We should receive other people and not expect other people to be perfect, or not expect other people to be living a perfect, righteous, godly life before we can reach out to them and be their friend and show our love to them. Galatians 5.13 says, for brethren, you don't have to turn to these, I'm just going to run through a bunch of them really quickly, a lot of Bible, just listen to the word of God. Galatians 5.13, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Galatians 5.15, but if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Galatians 6.2, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Ephesians 4.2, with all lowliness and meekness, what's that talking about? Being humble, lowliness, meekness, not thinking that you're a big shot, not thinking that you're better than the people around you, but having lowliness and meekness, he said, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. What does forbearing one another mean? Putting up with one another, that's what forbearing means. He said, you know, nobody's perfect, he says in verse 32 of the same chapter, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Colossians 3.13, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. He's saying, you know, if you have something against someone in church, if you have a quarrel or a fight with somebody in church and you get in an argument with somebody in church, the Bible says, you know what, forgive that person. If Jesus Christ forgave you of all your sins, you ought to be able to forgive those in the church that you have a quarrel against and to be able to let things go and move forward and to love one another in spite of differences that might arise amongst the brethren here and elsewhere. It says in 1 Thessalonians 3.12, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even as we do toward you. So again, we see love toward one another is preeminent and then also loving and reaching out to those that are outside of the faith and I'm going to get to that in a little bit. It says in 1 Thessalonians 4.9, but as touching brotherly love, again brotherly love, talking about loving the brethren, loving the brotherhood. You need not that I write unto you for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Hebrews 10.24, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. He's saying be considerate of one another there. 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfainted love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Now is it just me or is this command being repeated a lot? You say why are you reading so many scriptures in a row? Because look how many scriptures there are that are saying the same thing. Love one another, love one another, love, and then another thing that keeps coming up, forbear one another, forbear, forbear, put up with things, forgive, forgive, forgive, be good to one another, be gentle, be kind, be nice is what we would say in our modern vernacular. Be nice to one another is what he's saying. 1 Peter 3.8, finally be ye all of one mind, again talking about amongst believers, amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ here, be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. You see when we say brother so and so and that we're brothers and sisters in Christ, that's not something that we're just saying, that should be something that we actually feel. You know, we ought to love our physical brothers and sisters obviously, and most people do love their brothers and sisters. You know when you're a child you might fight like cats and dogs, but when you get older, and I'm older now, I'm 31 years old, me and my younger sister man we fought the whole time we were growing up. I mean we fought viciously all the time. We did not get along ever, and it was this joke in my family that literally my parents decided to have my younger sister to be a friend for Stephen to play with, and you know we never got along. But I'll tell you what, now we get along great. Now that we're adults we're close friends. We get along very well. I get along very well with my brother. I get along very well with my older sister. But you know what, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ also. You know and just as you love your physical brother, and I hope you do have a brother that you love, and I hope you do have a sister that you love, but love the brotherhood here also. Love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ here as if they were a member of your family. That's how you should feel about them. Like you feel about, you know you've heard the term, blood's thicker than water, and you know you feel strongly about the members of your family, but this is a family too. The household of faith the Bible calls it. He says in, and by the way, do you ever meet someone when you're out, let's say you're traveling or let's say you just run into someone who's a fellow Christian. Don't you feel an instant bond and brotherhood with that person? I mean I've met people that, you know I've never known this person at all, never seen this person, and it's like within a few minutes it's like you've been friends for years. It's like your family because you both have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You're both saved. You're both brothers already even though you've never met because God is your Father and there's that kinship there and that spirit of fellowship between believers and that's what we ought to have and that's the feeling that we ought to have. He said in 1 Peter 4.9, and here's one way to show love, he said use hospitality one to another without grudging. Now what's hospitality? You know this is basically having people over for dinner. You know having people come on over and he says without grudging. When I read this verse I think of a time that I was invited over to a friend's house for dinner and so I sat down at the dinner table and we were eating spaghetti and this is when I was a teenager and you know teenagers eat a lot of food but I loaded up a plate of spaghetti, that was what was on the menu, and I began to put parmesan on the spaghetti and I didn't put a crazy amount of parmesan on or anything like that. Now it wasn't in the shaker, you know you're used to the shaker right? This parmesan was in a little bowl with a spoon. So I took the spoon and I began to sprinkle the parmesan on my spaghetti and then I began to sprinkle a little bit more on it and I didn't go nuts with it or anything, but I put a copious amount of parmesan because I like parmesan. I wasn't bogarting it or anything, but the father of my friend looked over at me and said, do you know how much that stuff costs? And I said, no I didn't really think it was that expensive because I said, you know we always put parmesan on our spaghetti at home and I don't remember my mom making a big deal about it. And he said, oh yeah but this is real, this is real high end fresh grated parmesan and this and that. Now do you think that that made me feel very welcome when I'm being told, do you know how much that costs, what you're eating? I mean good night, how rude. And I'm still holding a grudge, no I'm just kidding, I'm not holding a grudge about it. I let that go a long time ago. I took it to the cross and I left it there, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, what I'm saying is that's what the Bible means by grudging. You know, saying oh man we invite this guy over for dinner and he eats us out of house and home. You know it's one meal and obviously that's part of being a Christian is giving and using hospitality toward your brothers and sisters in Christ. And sometimes it's somebody from out of town that comes and visits our church. Maybe it's not even somebody from our church and sometimes people will reach out to them and take them out to eat or have them over for dinner and make them feel welcome. That's hospitality and God commands us to use hospitality one to another. It should be that when someone comes to Faith Ward Baptist Church they are shown that kind of hospitality. And when we invite someone over for dinner that we show that kind of hospitality and that we have that kind of relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. He said in the next verse, in verse 10, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. What he's saying is you know everything that you have God gave to you. So therefore it is not a burden for you to give unto your neighbor and to feed them and to cook a meal for them when all the food that's in your cupboard is only there because God gave it to you anyway. And so the least we can do is be generous unto our brothers and sisters in Christ. 1 John 3.11 says, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3.23, and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. I mean almost just giving us the most important things there. You know, first get saved and then love one another. I mean those are two keys right there. Believe on Jesus Christ and love one another. And he said it's a commandment to love one another. He says in 1 John 4, and by the way people will sometimes say well you know we're commanded to love but we're not commanded to like. But you know he did say preferring one another. And I mean obviously we should overlook people's faults. What makes us not like someone? Their faults. And we should overlook those faults. We should forbear with people and be kind one to another. He said in 1 John 4.7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. You know the degree that you love your brothers and sisters in Christ and that you have love one for another and that you have love for the unsaved, that is a measurement of how well you know God. Because the Bible says that in order to love properly, in order to have real love you have to be born of God and you have to know God. And those who know God the best are the ones who are the most loving people. Because God is love and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. The Bible says in verse 11 of the same chapter, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4.12, no man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. And it's not in my notes, but the Bible says in 1 John 5.1, I'll try to quote it, he said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. And what he's saying there in 1 John 5.2 is that if we love God, we love our brethren also. Because he that loveth God, or he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And the Bible is questioning our love for God if we don't love our brothers and sisters in Christ. He's saying if you don't love them who are here with you, who you can see and the tangible brothers and sisters in Christ that you have on this earth, he said, how can you love God whom you've not seen? In 2 John verse 5 he said, Now I beseech thee lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. Go to Philippians chapter 2. So I just wanted to blow through that big long list there of scriptures telling us over and over again, love one another, care about each other, be considerate of one another, be kind to one another, forbear with one another, forgive one another, receive one another, use hospitality. So it's not that God just gives us this vague love one another. I mean he gives us some concrete ways that we can show that love. Show that love by forgiving the wrong that people do unto you. Show that love by using hospitality, by feeding them and inviting them over to have dinner and spending time with them. Show that love by not holding a grudge. Show that love by being considerate of them. Show that love in all these different ways, but look down if you would at Philippians 2, the Bible says in verse 3, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, what is that? Humility, being humble. In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. What does esteem mean? Well, esteem is related to the word estimate. Now for example, if I were to call up a plumber and I were to say, hey, can I get an estimate on getting this work done at my house? What am I asking for? I'm saying what is the cost of this work? What's it going to cost? Well, when the Bible uses the word estimation, it means the same thing. It's talking about the value or the cost of something. And so what he's saying here in Philippians 2 when he says, let each esteem others better than themselves, what he's saying is that other people have more value in your eyes than you have in your own eyes. That you're considering other people more important than you. You're esteeming them better than you esteem yourself. And you hear a lot of talk about self-esteem, don't you? And it's funny because the only time that the word esteem is used in the Bible in that way, he used the word estimate and estimation, but when he says here esteem, he's not telling you, man, get some self-esteem. He's saying, esteem others better than yourself. You know, esteeming yourself means you realize that you have value. And I'm not against self-esteem. Because let me say this, we do have value. And we need to understand that. Because people who don't understand their own value, they end up trashing their life because they don't think it's worth anything. And when we have proper self-esteem, it needs to come from a biblical perspective. For example, not a worldly psychological perspective, but a biblical perspective. Here's where I derive my self-esteem from. I'm a child of the king. I'm an ambassador of Christ. That makes me pretty important. Not because I'm somebody special, but because I am his son, and because I am his ambassador, and because I am his servant, that makes me important. I guarantee you that ambassadors today are considered important people wherever they go. They're probably surrounded by bodyguards. They're probably shuttled around. They probably don't fly coach. They probably fly first class. And they're usually treated pretty well no matter what country they're in because they're important people. Because you don't send someone who you don't trust to be an ambassador. I mean, if somebody's being sent to a foreign country to represent an entire nation, you're going to send somebody who's a pretty high class individual who can put a good foot forward there in that nation, making our country look good. And that's the goal of an ambassador, is to represent our interests abroad. And Christ has made us his ambassador. The Bible says we're ambassadors for Christ. We have an important job today. Not only do we have an important job, but we're in a royal family. I mean, you know these royal families and everybody's snapping pictures of them everywhere they go. You know, we're more important than that. The Queen of England, get real. This is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's our bloodline. That's the family that we're in. And so that's where I derive my self-esteem. Not looking at myself and thinking about my ... I can't even think of anything. But not looking at myself and thinking about my talents and my abilities and my looks and my personality. You know what? It's about who we serve that makes us important and our value. And a lot of people have said this, oh, we're all expendable. I don't believe that. I don't believe that for one second. We're not expendable. There's a job that if I don't do it, and if I don't do it for God, nobody will do it. If I don't do the job that God has for me, it's not going to get done. And you know what? There are a lot of people not doing their job. That's why there's a lot of preaching that's not getting done. And we need to realize that we are important. We are significant. We have value. We are a chosen generation. We're a royal priesthood. We're a peculiar people. We're ambassadors for Christ. But with all that being said, we need to esteem other better than ourselves. We need to look at the person next to us and say, you know what? I'm important, but they're even more important. And if one of us has to fail, it's going to be me. If one of us has to suffer, it's going to be me. I want to put them first. I want to put other people first. That's what he says here. Look at verse 4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He's saying, don't always be so wrapped up and concerned in your own things. Why don't you think about the things of others? Instead of just always worrying about your finances, your situation, your problems, think about the problems of the people around you. Think about the issues that they have. When you go to prayer, obviously we ask things for ourselves, but you know what? Pray for other people. And sometimes when you pray for others, God will give you things you didn't even ask for. God gave Solomon things he didn't even ask for because his prayer was for others. He wasn't worried about enriching himself. Solomon said, I want to help the people. I want to judge your people. I want to have wisdom and knowledge to do a good job for them. And God gave him what he didn't ask for. You know, you think of Job. The Bible says God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. He prayed for his friends and God fixed his situation. And so we ought to care about other people, think about other people. Not only that, but we ought to treat other people the way that we would like to be treated ourselves. This is what's known as the golden rule. Let me read it to you from the scripture. Actually turn there, Luke 6. Turn to Luke 6, we'll get the whole passage. And while you're turning there I'll read you Matthew 7, 12. The Bible reads, therefore, listen carefully, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. God is saying that the law and the prophets are pretty much wrapped up in the concept that you should treat other people the way that you like to be treated. You don't want to be killed. You don't want to be stolen from. You don't want to be coveted after. You don't want to have people commit adultery with your spouse. You don't want people to bear false witness against you, and on and on. He's saying, do unto others. Look if you would at Luke 6, 31. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Now I'm going to read the rest of the passage. Stay there in Luke 6, but before we read that, let me just say this. I'll read this for you, you don't have to turn there, but Psalm 142 says this. This is David speaking. I looked on my right hand and behold, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul. So here we have David saying, you know what, I looked around and nobody would know me. Nobody wanted to acknowledge me, is what he's saying. And nobody cared for my soul. No man cared for my soul. Now, if you think about this, I would never want people to be ashamed that they knew me. Now if you remember there was a time when Peter became ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, remember? And he was confronted. Hey, you're one of his disciples. Now, shouldn't he have been proud of that? Looking back today, don't we consider that a great honor, that Peter got to be one of the twelve disciples, one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb? But you know, at the time he didn't think it was such an honor because in fact he didn't want to admit it. He was ashamed of Jesus there because they said you were with him in the garden. Thou was with him. And he's saying, I know not what thou sayest, I know not the man. Now wouldn't it be terrible if you were confronted with me in public somewhere, right? And we were out somewhere, we were in a group somewhere, we were in a business meeting somewhere, maybe we were at a church service somewhere, just whatever the scenario. And you walked up to me and said, hey Pastor Anderson, how you doing? It's me, so and so. Insert your name here. And I just acted like, I don't know who this is. You know, because I was embarrassed of you. Or maybe I was with some people talking, right? And you saw me and made a beeline to come over to see me, right? And as soon as I see you, I'm like, I'm out of here. I don't want to be seen with, you know, with Brother Dave, you know what I mean? I don't want to be embarrassed by him, or whatever. How would that make you feel? I mean wouldn't that hurt your feelings that Pastor Anderson is embarrassed and ashamed to acknowledge you and to say that he knows you? Or let's flip it around, the more likely scenario. Let's be a little more realistic. Hey, don't you go to Faithful Word Baptist Church? Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. Wait a minute, weren't you with Pastor Anderson in that soul-wanting demo? I don't know what you're saying, I don't know what you mean, I don't know what you're talking about. You know, how do you think that would make me feel? That shows that you don't love me and that I don't love you. If we won't acknowledge you and admit that we know you and claim you and say yes, this is my friend, yes I stand with you, yes you're my brother in Christ, yes you're my sister in Christ. So David's saying nobody would know me. No man would know me. I'm looking around and it's like nobody would stand with me and know me and acknowledge me. He said no man cared for my soul. We ought to care about people who other people don't care about and acknowledge people who other people don't acknowledge. Now one thing I want to just briefly touch on, and this is something that I have to touch on from time to time, and it seems like about every 6 months or so I have to ring this bell, if not maybe once a year, once every 6 months. And you know, that is being friendly and reaching out to visitors that come to our church. Now our church is usually good about this, but honestly, if I don't keep emphasizing it, I notice it slips. And that's where we're at right now, let me tell you. Because usually our church is really good about being friendly, but I've noticed, and I'm not talking about today, but just over the last few weeks, I've noticed big time over the last couple weeks, visitors showing up and people just go and they just talk to their buddy after the service, after church. You know, it's just the same people chatting with one another. And you know what, do whatever you want, talk to whoever you want, but I know this, I'm the pastor of the church. I'm trying to preach a sermon, I'm trying to play the piano after the service, I'm trying to get with one visitor here, I'm trying to deal with this and that and the other. And even I'm doing a better job sometimes of going and talking to people, but you know what, I can't do it by myself. And honestly, I don't know about you, I don't know if we just have a different mentality here, but I don't know about you, but when I see a visitor walk through the door, my goal is to talk to that person. And I'm not just talking about giving them the gospel. That's important. That's key, obviously. Every person that walks through the doors, yes, we should check their salvation. That's critical, that's important, that's vital. We should come up and ask them if they know for sure they're going to heaven and offer to give the gospel. You know, someone, one person should do that for sure. But let me say this, there's more to it than that. How about just caring about people beyond that? Just because somebody's saved, it's like this, if they're not saved, oh yeah, we're there to win them the Lord, right? But if they are saved, it's like nuts to them. But isn't the Bible saying that we ought to love the people that are already saved more? You know, so it's almost like the person that's not saved, we do a great job of caring about them, and we should. And we go out and we knock the doors, why? Why do we go out and knock doors? Why do we go out and sacrifice hours of time and go in the heat and in the cold no matter what, we don't have the cold here, but if there were cold we would do it anyway. But you know, we go out and we do all this work, why? Because we love people. Why do we go out so many? Because we love the lost. And it's great to love the lost, and it's important that we love the lost, but you know what, we're supposed to love the saved too. You know, and when somebody walks through the door of our church as a visitor, you know, my goal, and sometimes I can't always get to them because I've got people coming up to me about this, that, and the other, I've got responsibilities that I'm dealing with, you know, but my thought in my heart is I want to get to that person and make them feel welcome. I want to be friendly. I want to let them know that I'm glad that they're here. And you know, I want you to have that same mentality that cares about people that you don't know, and not just to care about your friends and your group, but to just care about everybody who walks through that door and want to reach out, want to be their friend, want to at least show them that you acknowledge them and that you're glad that they're here. And you know what, I see a lot of times people just, that's not even on their mind. It's like they just, it's literally, they'll just walk right by visitors, walk right by new people in our church, and just walk right by them like they don't even exist, not even say hi and just go to their friend that they want to talk to and be with. You know, I'm glad you have friends here, and I want you to have friends here, and I think it's great to cultivate close friendships, but you know what, you need to branch out a little bit and reach out to other people outside your little group of friends and make everybody feel welcome. Because you know what, I've felt unwelcome before, and I'm not talking about here, you know, I always feel welcome there, but I'm the pastor, okay? But let me tell you something, I've felt unwelcome many times in my life and it's a terrible feeling. Have you ever walked into a church and felt unwelcome? How many times? And maybe some of you just haven't really been on that side of the coin, so that's why you don't really understand why I think this is so important and so critical. But I can tell you something, I've visited a lot of new churches in my life. I've done a lot of traveling, and my family moved a few times, and we switched churches a few times. I know what it's like to walk into a new church, and many times I know what it's like to walk in alone. Because when you go to a lot of churches it's broken down by age group, right? So it's broken into the adults, the teens, and so forth. And so when I was a teen, you know, we'd show up at a new church and it's like, okay, you go over here to the teen group. I can honestly tell you this, I went to a church that had a big youth group, about 100 people in it, in the youth group. Just the teens alone was 100 people. And this is when I was a teenager, I was about 13-14 years old, and I walked into that youth group every Sunday morning for about a year and a half to two years, and no one ever talked to me for two years straight. I mean I would come in, I'm not kidding, the youth leader would come over and talk to me a few times, and that's the equivalent of a visitor showing up and me the pastor going up and talking to him, isn't it? But you know what? I kind of looked at that as, well yeah, he's coming to greet me because he's the youth leader, right? You know, if another teen would have reached out to me, it would have meant a lot more to me than just the youth leader reaching out to me, because I'm just thinking, well it's his job, that's why he's reaching out to me. And a few times he'd come up to me and talk to me and try to chat with me. But I am not exaggerating, I sat there for years, and I was there every Sunday morning, and because it was a big crowd, it was about 100 people, everybody had their group, everybody had their friends, everybody had their clique, they all went to the same schools, I went to a different school, I didn't know anybody, I sat there, and let me tell you something, I hated going there every Sunday, I hated it. Are you listening? You say, why did you hate it? Was it the preaching? Why did you hate it? No. The reason I hated it is because I did not feel welcome, and I felt awkward going in this big group of people and sitting down and being ignored by everyone, and nobody even acknowledging that I even existed or even caring that I'm there. And it makes you feel uncomfortable. Now you might not understand that, and maybe you're different. Maybe you walk in and everybody ignores you, and you're fine with that. I don't know. Maybe you feel differently than I do. But I'll tell you something, I hated it every week, and I hated going there, and I was glad when we went somewhere else. Because I felt like nobody there, and you could say, oh, Pastor Anderson, you should have walked around and made friends. Okay, but you know what, I didn't. Okay? Yeah, okay, yeah, I probably should have, but as a 13 year old kid, you know what, I didn't. And guess what, a lot of people aren't going to. And you can sit there and say it's their fault. It's their fault, why don't they come talk to me? But you know what, you ought to be the one to go talk to them, and not expect every visitor to come in. And some visitors are like that. Some visitors and new people, they come and they're real friendly and just jump right in. And that's how I am now. When I got older, when I was an older teen and a young adult, and I matured, yeah, okay, I got to the point where I would just waltz into new churches all the time. And today if I walked into a new church, I wouldn't be embarrassed at all. I'd march in and hey, but you know what, most people aren't like that, and I didn't used to be that way. I just got that way over time with experience. But let me tell you something, it's a miserable feeling to sit in a church when nobody's acknowledging you, nobody's being friendly to you, nobody cares about you, nobody talks to you, nobody is reaching out. You know what, and I'll be honest with you, if my parents weren't taking me to that church, I wouldn't have gone back. Why would I go if I hated it every time? If it made me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, and it's not that I was just a super shy person. I was probably just about as shy as every 13 year old. I don't think I was any more shy than the average 13 year old. And I'm not the shyest person in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I was embarrassed and awkward and felt uncomfortable. And the longer I was there, the more awkward I felt. You know, the first week it's kind of like, okay, it's the first week, whatever. But you know, the longer I'd been there, it's like the awkwardness increased. Just the uncomfortableness and the embarrassment of being there just kept getting more so. And so I hope you understand my heart tonight, that we need to reach out and acknowledge people and love people and show them that we care and greet them. I mean, how about greet one another? How about salute one another? Say hi, be friendly, talk to people. It's not that hard. And you know what, not even just visitors. How about people who come to our church that you don't even know, that you don't even talk to? You ought to reach out to other people that already come here instead of just ignoring them. And you know, I'm all for you having close friends, but I think you should be friends with everybody and include everybody. Because you know what, I know what it's like to not be included, to be left out. You know, and a group develops and then certain people are kind of left out and they feel uncomfortable, they feel like they're not in the in crowd. You know what, we should reach out to people like that and bring them in. And I'm telling you, it makes a big difference. And I guarantee you that there are people who'd probably still be here if people would have been really friendly. Because I remember one time I showed up at a church and the people were super friendly. And I loved it. And I looked forward to going there. And you know what, that makes people more receptive to the preaching. You know what I mean? Because they go into it with a good attitude, thinking, hey, this is a nice place. This is a friendly place. They go into it. And I'm telling you, how you go into preaching spiritually is a big determining factor on whether you can receive the preaching or not. You know, a lot of the things that I preach are difficult for people to receive. Not because I'm being difficult, but it's just the Bible that's supposedly being difficult. But a lot of the things I preach are difficult to receive. And when somebody walks in and they already have an attitude because of the way people are treating them, they're going to bristle at the preaching. Whereas if somebody comes in and they're treated very well and people are reaching out to them and being friendly and loving, you know what, they're going to be a lot more likely to soften up to the preaching and to give it a chance. And look, that's all I want. I just want people to give it a chance and to open their Bible and see whether the things that I'm saying are really true. That's all I want. I don't want people to be hardened going into it. And we ought to be friendly and love people and care about people. Not just so that they'll keep coming to our church, but because it's the right thing to do anyway. Why is it the right thing to do? Because if you walk through that door, you'd want people to greet you, you'd want people to be friendly to you, and all things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, you should do even so unto them. That's what the Bible commands. And so if you want everybody to ignore you next time you go to a new church, then just do that. And if you want people to ignore you and not care about you and not be your friend, then that's how you should treat other people because that's what God's saying. Do what you want other people to do to you. And it's very important. And so yes, we need to be concerned with the souls obviously. If somebody walks in and brand new and we don't know if they're saved, that's like shooting ducks in a barrel. That's a great opportunity to win souls right there. But it needs to go beyond that too. Once you get the answer that they're saved, you should still have an interest. It shouldn't just be like, oh great, you're saved, see ya. It should be now that you're saved, now I care about you. So what part of town do you live in? So what do you do for a living? So how'd you hear about our church? So what are the kids' names? Take an interest in people. Love people. Because people matter just like you matter just like I matter. We should esteem them and realize these people have value in our sight. Now look down if you would at Luke chapter 6 here, verse 31. Hopefully that'll do us for the next 6 months or a year. And some people are better about this than others, but honestly I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just saying this is something that we need to really make a priority. And I can tell you right now over the past few weeks, there are some people who don't care about that at all. And if that's you, you need to, and don't try to think, oh he's talking to so and so. You need to think, you need to look at yourself and ask yourself, do I greet visitors? Do I smile and shake their hand? Do I talk to everybody at church or am I just continually talking to the same person and ignoring and not even giving the time of day to certain people? Reach out to them. But Luke 6.31 says as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? You say well whenever anybody comes and talks to me I'm friendly to them. He said no, I'm not going to thank you for loving those that love you. He says sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again. And by the way, whenever I lend I always hope for nothing again. Because whenever you, and here's my policy with people, because I've loaned people money, I've loaned people items a lot, and I always give people the same advice. And I've got it from the Bible right here. If you're ever going to loan something, everybody listen very carefully, if you're ever going to loan something to someone, especially if it's somebody at church, whether you're loaning them money or property, always be prepared to kiss it goodbye or don't loan it. I've loaned my car to people at church. Who's driven my car before? Put up your hand if you've been behind the wheel of my car. You see a lot of people have driven their car. But every time I hand you the keys, I'm ready to kiss it goodbye. Are you listening? I'm ready to kiss it goodbye. Because you know what? I don't want to hate my brother and sister in Christ or grudge against my brother and sister in Christ or have anger toward my brother and sister in Christ. So if there's something that I'm not willing to lose, if there's something I'm not willing to give up, I'm not going to loan it out. Do you understand? Because I lend hoping to receive nothing again. You know, just understanding I may never see this again. You know, don't loan somebody money if you can't survive unless you get that money back. You know, if you're going to loan somebody money, it needs to be money that you have extra. And I'm not saying, obviously no money is really extra, is it? It reminds me of when my dad in the 60s, people used to always walk up to him and ask him, hey do you have an extra cigarette? And he'd always say the same thing, nope, just the 20 that came in the pack. Nothing extra. And so what's he saying? Obviously no money is extra in that sense. But you know what? You need to be able to live without it or don't loan it because you know what? There's a chance that they're going to stiff you. Now the Bible says the wicked borroweth and payeth not again. So obviously it's not right to do that. I mean it's not right to borrow stuff and not return it. You know, whether that be things or money or whatever. It's not right to borrow things and not return them. But I'm talking from the lender's perspective here. From the lending perspective. And you know the Bible says give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. So it's a good deed that you do and God does tell us that we should lend and be generous and God tells us to do that. But wait a minute, you need to be willing to kiss it goodbye. Meaning that if I give you something and you don't give it back or let's say you give it back to me broken. Does that ever happen? You loan somebody stuff and it comes back broken. You know what? What is God commanding me to do? What is God commanding my attitude to be? Love, forgiveness, forbearance, letting it go. Isn't that what the Bible says? Letting it go, forgiving, and not holding a grudge. You broke my... Should people break your stuff? No. Should people borrow money and not give back? No. But you know what? Be ready to kiss that blender goodbye when you loan it. Be ready to kiss that lawn mower goodbye. Kiss that weed eater goodbye. You know my friend Mike told me one time, he said whenever I loan anything to anyone I go out and buy a new one the next day. He's just kind of being silly but in a sense that's a good attitude to have. And that's what the Bible is saying here. That you ought to love one another and not hold a grudge against one another and to understand, you know what? Sometimes you give someone something and you do something for somebody and they do you dirty, they don't give it back. But you know what? Love them anyway, is what he's saying. He says, love your enemies, do good, lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great. And you shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. You know, you ever do something for somebody and they're not thankful? God says, yeah, welcome to my world. Because God, he does things for unthankful people all day long. He does so much for us and we're probably not thankful for half of it. So he says, when you do good for other people and they're not thankful to you, they don't even appreciate. I cooked them a meal and they didn't even say thank you. You know what? Welcome to God's world. Because that's what he does all day long. You know, he does good things for people, he's nice to people and they don't say thank you. Remember when he healed the ten lepers? One said thank you. And Jesus said, where are the nine? Only one person came and thanked me? So we need to have the attitude that God has in that way. He's kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. And you know, sometimes people don't say thank you but they're still very thankful in their heart. Everybody makes mistakes, they forget to say thank you, they forget to say please. You know, nobody, you've made the same mistakes before. And so be forgiving and patient with others who make those type of mistakes. Go if you would go to Luke chapter 10, the last place we'll turn, Luke chapter 10. This is a famous passage in Luke chapter 10 and I'll read it for you. Luke chapter number 10, the Bible reads in verse 25, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? So Jesus kind of turns it around on him. Well, what's the Bible say? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. Now you say, whoa, wait a minute, is this teaching work salvation? Well, here's the thing. Jesus was also asked a similar question of the rich young ruler, do you remember? And he was asked, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And he said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that's God. Because obviously Jesus is God or else he's not good because there's only good but one, that's God. And so he said, you know, thou knowest the commandments, and he said, he gave the commandments, he lists them off, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit. And the rich young ruler said this, all these have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? And Jesus said, if thou will be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and take up thy cross and follow me. And of course he went away weeping because he had great riches. Now, this is not teaching a work salvation. Let me say this, let me just break this down to you. There are two ways that the Bible teaches you can get to heaven. Okay? And let me explain to you why. There are two ways. Because of the fact that the question is asked, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in the house. That's one way to get there. And then the other question is asked that, you know, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And the other answer, the different answer was to keep all the commandments. Here, this man is being told, if you love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, and you love your neighbor as yourself, and remember the Bible says that on those two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. He said, if there be any, he said this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not kill, he said, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And what he's saying is, if you love your neighbor as yourself, you will fulfill all those commandments, and if you love God with all the heart and soul and mind and strength, you will have no other gods before him. You will not take his name in vain. You will remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, obviously, in that Old Testament commandment. And so what we see here is that both of these guys are pretty much getting the same answer from Jesus, and really this guy supplied the answer himself, Jesus just told him you answered right, but this guy is saying that if he loves the Lord with all his heart, all his mind, all his soul, all his strength, and his neighbor as himself, that he will have eternal life. And the other guy was told if you keep all the commandments, you'll have eternal life. And in Romans 2, Romans chapter 2 is a great chapter on this, Romans 2 very thoroughly and in depth explains the fact that if you do good and do what's right and don't sin, you will have eternal life. And so there are two ways to get to heaven, my friend. One way is to be perfect. And that's what Jesus said. You're not perfect. He said I've kept all the commandments from my youth up. He said no, you're not perfect. Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and by the way, why aren't you following me? Take up the cross and follow me. And I submit to you tonight that there are two ways to get to heaven. One of them is to keep all the commandments. The other one is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, news for you. You're not going to keep all the commandments. And guess what? You've already failed. And that's why Romans 3 is there. See, Romans 2 tells us, yeah, if you live a good life, you'll make it. Problem is, you get to Romans 3, he says there's none righteous, no, nigh none, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none that do with good, no, not one. And then he says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, for example, Jesus Christ, you know, he was in this category. He fulfilled the law. He was good. He kept all the commandments. He loved God supremely and he loved his neighbor as himself. He could have just waltzed into heaven on that. I mean, Jesus wouldn't have gone to hell. He didn't sin. Why would God send you to hell if you don't sin? I mean, do you really think that if you never sin your whole life, God's going to send you to hell? Why do people go to hell? Because he said all liars. He said the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sorcerers, he's listing sins and saying these sins will wind you up in hell. If you don't commit any of those sins, you're not going to hell. But the problem is every person in this room has committed those sins, or one of them, or some of them. And guess what? Everybody in this world has committed sin. That's why really there's only one way to be saved, through Jesus. But theoretically and biblically there are two ways. Be perfect and get in on your works, or else believe on Christ. But guess what? Your works are not good enough and you're not going to make it in. And I'll tell you this right now, if you try door number, because remember two ways, believe or works. Try to go through on works and you know what? God will judge you by your works. Because the Bible says that every unsaved person one day in Revelation 20 will be judged every man according to their works. Now, who wants to be judged by your works to see whether you're good enough to get into heaven? Who wants to have your love of God the Father and your love of your neighbor measured as a measuring stick for letting you into heaven? Who wants to go this route? Not me, man. I'd rather coast in on the blood of Jesus Christ, go by grace through faith. And so people misunderstand this passage because Jesus, when he was on this earth, he spoke a lot of cryptic sayings. He spoke a lot of dark sayings. He used parables and dark sayings. He didn't always get explicit, did he? He didn't always just walk around saying I'm the Son of God, I'm the Savior of the world, believe on me. Now, he did say those things mainly toward the end of his ministry is when he started saying those things. And when you read the book of John, the book of John heavily leans toward the end of his ministry. Most of what you read in the book of John, the vast majority, is the end of his ministry where he's being more explicit and he's starting to reveal the salvation plan more and more clearly. But you won't see the apostles and the book of Acts and the epistles telling you, you know, work your way to heaven. You'll see them very clearly telling you it's through Jesus, you've got to believe. Jesus, the reason, you say why would he say something like this? Because Jesus is trying to show people their lost condition. He's trying to get people to think, you know, yeah, you can go to heaven by being good, but are you good? There's none that doeth good but one and that's God. That's what he's trying to show that young man. I'm good, you're not. That's what Jesus was saying. And so Jesus didn't always open his mouth plainly and the disciples even questioned him. They said, you know, why do you speak to us so clearly and explicitly but then you speak to them in parables and dark sayings? You know, that was what he did while he was on this earth. Our job is not to, and I've heard people rebuke me and say, well when people ask you to be saved, you give them a different answer than what he gave the rich young ruler. Yeah, but that's because Jesus didn't tell me to talk in parables and dark sayings. He said to clearly preach the Gospel to every creature the good news and that's what I'm going to do. I'm not trying to play the part of Jesus. And look, other people will say, oh, they're a different type of salvation at this time. No, salvation's always been by faith. Abraham believed God and it was imputed on them for righteousness. Everyone who's ever gone to heaven went by grace through faith because guess what? People aren't good enough to be saved today, they weren't good enough to be saved in the Old Testament either. It's always been by God's grace, it's always been through faith. It's not a different mode of salvation, it's just Jesus teaching that. And I got off on that tangent, it really has nothing to do with my sermon tonight, but I just wanted to point that out and I got carried away. So let's jump back into it here. So Luke 10, this is the last place. So he gets this answer of hey, if you love God with all your heart, did he say just love God a little bit? He said no, you've got to love Him with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength. And the Bible tells us if you do that you keep all the commandments because this is the love of God that we keep as commandments. And love your neighbor as thyself which means you're never going to steal, you're never going to lie, you're never going to kill, you're never going to covet, you're never going to commit adultery. Watch what he says in verse 29, but he's willing to justify himself. See how this guy thinks that he's doing that? He actually thinks that he's going to get in on his works. He actually thinks he's going to get in on loving God and loving his neighbor and keeping all the commandments. So he's willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Let me see whether I'm going to make it or not. Who is my neighbor? So here's Jesus' answer, because it says in verse 30, Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his remnant and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. This is like the visitor and people pass by on the other side. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, and likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence, and that's about two days wages according to the Bible. That's a few hundred bucks, that's a decent amount of money. And said unto him, take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee. Which now these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus and him, Go and do thou likewise. What's he saying there? He's saying it's not about having a neighbor, it's about being a neighbor. Because notice how Jesus turned it around. The guy asked the question, well who's my neighbor? Meaning who am I supposed to love and care about and take care of? Who is my neighbor? But Jesus turned it around and not saying, you know, who is your neighbor but who are you being a neighbor unto? Notice how his answer is phrased differently. He said, who's my neighbor? And he said, well who was neighbor unto? The man who fell among thieves. And he said obviously the one that showed him mercy. And Jesus said unto him, Go and do thou likewise. So we need to reach out to people, first of all especially the household of faith, especially our fellow church member, especially our brother and sister in Christ, to love them, to help them, to be kind to them, to be forgiving to them, to be good to them, to be nice to them, to help them out in time of need. But he said not only that, we need to just reach out to people that are outsiders. You know, like this guy in the ditch. I mean this is just a guy, and I mean this could be an unsaved person, this could be a saved person, this is definitely not a member of this guy's church or a friend of his. No, he's just reaching out to people and just showing them the love of Christ. And that's what we do, first of all, soul winning is a big one. Because what more loving thing can we do for somebody than to bring them the gospel? I mean that's what they need the most. And I think that the church that does the most soul winning is the most loving church. You know a lot of churches talk a lot about love, don't they? But where are the deeds? A lot of churches, oh love love love love love love, they're so loving and so smiley. But where's the soul winning? Where's the caring about the lost? Where are they not pulling someone out of the ditch, but how about pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh? So soul winning is big. But you know what? How about when you go to work, do you care about other people? Or is it just all about you? Do you care about helping others? I mean, do you care in your heart? I mean, do you just look at other people and just want to help them? And want to be nice to them? And want to do good things for them? Don't you want them to succeed or do you just not care? And God is telling us to have compassion. And what does the word compassion mean? You know if you just break down that English word, the compassion, what is passion? You know it's a strong feeling. Compassion, it's the same type of word as companion or company. And what it means is that you have compassion meaning you feel their pain. As the Bible would put it, you rejoice with them that rejoice and you weep with them that weep. That is compassion. It's when you care about other people. Do you care about the people at your work? Do you want them saved? Do you want their marriage to go well? Do you want their kids to turn out right? Do you want them to have food on the table? Do you want them to excel at the job or do you want them to fail and lose their job and mess up their life? Do you just want success for other people? Now there are people in this world who have no compassion for others. They're called politicians. They're our governors and rulers and they don't care who they hurt. They make themselves millionaires and billionaires while destroying people's lives, putting poison in the food, poison in the water, trashing everything for us, trashing the financial industry so that everybody can suffer and lose their job and have a bad outlook for their finances while they're millionaires and billionaires and they don't care who they hurt. They're heartless. There are people like that in this world. Go to third world countries, it's even worse. You have this ruling class that is heartless, that is saying let them eat cake as the masses are starving to death. They just don't even care. But as a Christian, that should never be your attitude. You should care about other people. You should care when people in our church are struggling, when their baby is in the hospital or when they're losing their job or when they can't pay their water bill or when they can't put food on the table and when they can't, it should hurt you. And when they're weeping because they lost a loved one and they can't get to work and they don't have a way to provide and they are having strife with their family and they're being persecuted by their family, they're being persecuted at school, they're being persecuted on the job, weep with them when they weep. Care about them. Have compassion on them and don't just think, well that's their problem. No, it's my problem because it's my brother that's in pain. It's my sister that's hurting right now. You ought to care about other people and you especially ought to care about the people at church, but you should care about the people outside of church also. Not just a superficial way, but to really love them and notice what keeps coming up, your heart. Your heart, that means you really love them not just, well I'm going through the motions. Well you know God commands me to love, I don't have to like them, but God commands me to love. That's just going through the motions. Why don't you get a feeling in your heart that says, you know what, I really want him to succeed. I really want God to bless her. I really want them to thrive and succeed and be happy. And you know what, when they're in misery, I'm in misery too. And when they're happy and when they're rejoicing and when they're successful, I'm going to be rejoicing and happy too. That's what this is about. It's about when you see the guy in the ditch, you love him, and you want to pull him out of that ditch, not just, I don't care, somebody else will do it. And so get that heart that was in Christ. Get that spirit that says, I love my neighbor as myself. When they're in trouble, it's like I'm in trouble. And I feel it. I feel the pain when they're hurting. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please help us to love as you have loved. And of course that's a great prayer request because it's a very tall order and none of us will love quite like you loved us and you are the epitome of love, but help us Father to get just a little bit of the love that you have and help us to be more compassionate and more loving and more caring and to really take an interest in people and not to just always obsess over our own things but to think on the things of others as well. Help us to all increase in love one toward another and also toward all men, toward those that are the lost in the ditch of this world. Help us to love men.