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

So I just want to bring our attention to verse number one there, Hebrews chapter 13 verse number one. And if you've not memorised a Bible verse for some time, you've put memorising aside for a moment, it's not good, but let me encourage you to memorise verse number one. Surely you can memorise it. Let brotherly love continue. I'm sure you'll have that memorised by the end of the sermon. Let brotherly love continue, Hebrews chapter 13 verse one. That is the title for the sermon tonight. Let brotherly love continue. I wanted to preach on this topic tonight because, you know, as a pastor there are things that give me a lot of joy, okay. And it's not, you know, having a 200, 300 member church that gives me a lot of joy. You know, it's not, you know, earning the big bucks or something, right, that gives me a lot of joy. Just the little things in Christian's life. And I see Christians take on board the Bible preaching. You know, knowing that, you know, I spend time preparing a sermon preaching and then you see people actually taking on board, not just, hey, that was a good sermon. I mean, that's great, but we're meant to be doers of the word, not just hearers. It's great that you heard a good sermon, but, you know, what's even better is when you actually put it into practice. And when I see brethren show love toward one another, when I see that brotherly love continue, you know what, that gives me a lot of joy as a pastor. And I know it's something that is very important and foundational to any church, you know, especially New Life Baptist Church, especially churches that are smaller in size, like we are, we need to, you know, we tend to, you know, be the same families, the same core group of families and the same people and we need to remember that we need to continue in brotherly love. And so I was encouraged by the recommendation by the brethren up there that, you know, you guys go to a time of prayer and fasting for the brethren down here in Sydney. And I know that seems like insignificant, maybe, maybe like, you know, that's just one little thought, you know, but it means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to the brethren to know that there are believers, there are brethren in Queensland that care enough for us to spend the day, you know, the night, you know, the day not eating, okay, it's not the most comfortable thing, you know, we're so used to, you know, stuffing our faces, but to also be praying and thinking about us, because as I said at the beginning of the service, it is tough times for many of the brethren. And so, you know, we need to remember to let that brotherly love continue. And number one that I have for you tonight is we need to reignite the brotherly love. The reason why it says here, let it continue, let brother love continue, you know, you need to always ask yourself that question, why is that command in the Bible? Why does God say that? I mean, you might think, well, of course, I'm going to love my brethren Christ, but the fact that you're being commanded to let it continue means they can come point in your life when your love for your brethren dries up, okay, where it's not as, you know, as fulfilling as it once was in the past. And we can see the same faces service, you know, every service every week, the same faces and, you know, church might get a little bit, you know, monotonous sometimes and, you know, we may have started with great love, but we need to remind ourselves, we need to make sure that our love continues because we can get to a point where we stop caring about other brethren, and we get a little bit too focused on our own issues. If you can keep your finger there, please go to 1 John chapter two, go to 1 John chapter two, we are going to spend most of our time bringing truths out of Hebrews 13. And I think, you know, Hebrews 13, at least the first few verses here, gives us really a lot of instruction of how we can love our brethren. But go to 1 John chapter two, we know that 1 John deals a lot with loving the brethren. And so it says here in 1 John chapter two, verse number seven, brethren, I write no new commandments unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning, again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth, and he that sayeth he is the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. This is written to the brethren. This is written to the saved, okay? And that new commandment, which is not really any new commandment, but it's the same commandment of old, is that we are to love the brethren, that we are to love one another. And it's so vital in your Christian faith to love the brethren. This is another reason why it's so important to be in church. It's not just hearing God's word, being fed God's word, and to praise God, and that's important, but another important aspect of church is the love toward the brethren. You know, some people think they can replace church with just the live stream, okay? And if you think, you know, I can just listen to the live streaming, I can sing songs, I can hear a good sermon, and I feel like I'm in church, but no, you're missing the fellowship. You're missing the opportunity to show love to the brethren. And the Bible tells us here in verse number 10, hear that love of his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. You know, one sure way to not stumble in the Christian faith, to remain standing strong, to be faithfully serving God, is simply to love the brethren. But when you forget to love the brethren, in fact, sometimes you may even hate your brother. In verse number 11, it says, but hear that hate of his brother is in darkness. You know, and so it's important that we reignite that love for our brethren, that we continue in brotherly love, because if you start to despise one another, you start to hate one another, then you are going to be in a point of darkness. It says, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness have blinded his eyes. You know, I don't know how you feel about each other. You know, I hope for the best, I hope that you all can say, I love, you know, if you look around the church building, you could say, you know, I love my brother in the Lord, I love my sister in the Lord, I hope you can say that with an honest heart, but you know, I'm sure there are times that we get frustrated at each other, you know, and that love may even turn to hate. But you know what, the danger is, if it turns to hate, you will be walking in darkness, you are going to fall, you are going to stumble, you will be like a blinded man, and you won't be able to know which way to walk, okay? Not loving the brethren the way we ought to, puts you in that darkness, and we want to avoid that, you know, definitely as much as we possibly can. Another passage I'll just read to you, actually can you please turn to Romans 12? You go to Romans 12, I'll read to you from 1 Peter chapter 1, you go to Romans 12, Romans chapter 12, and I'll read to you from 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 22. It says, So what is it? We're commanded to have unfeigned love of the brethren. You know, again, why is that in the Bible? Because we can feign our love. What's feign? We can fake it. We can come to church, have a big smile, ah, great to see you brother, and really deep down your heart you have hatred toward that person. Unfeigned love would be the same as being that person in darkness that does not have that true love for the brethren. Again, this is in the Bible for a reason. It's because this can happen to us. This can happen to you, this can happen to me. When we look at it, brother, you know, I'm just going to have to put up with you because you're at church, I'll say hello, I'll say goodbye, you know, so no one accuses me of not loving my brethren, but deep down you have that unfeigned love. It's fake. It's not real. We have to be aware of this. This can happen in our hearts, which is why it then says, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently, okay, fervently, passionately. You know, that fiery love, we ought to have a deep love for the brethren. You know, I can honestly say, and maybe part of this is just because I'm also a pastor and as a pastor you sort of tend to, as a shepherd, you want to look after the sheep, you start to develop a love for the sheep, maybe even a greater love than the average church member. But I can honestly say, you know, when it comes to the brethren out in Sydney or the brethren up there on the sunny coast or, you know what, even brethren that aren't even part of our church, just brethren that I talked to, you know, just yesterday I was able to talk to two brothers in the Lord that do not actively attend either church. I don't think they've even visited maybe either church, okay. But you know, they had some concerns about what's going on with the lockdowns and viruses and I can honestly tell you that I love those brothers in the Lord. I love the brethren, okay. And you know, I need to make sure that as a pastor that I set a good example of love in the brethren, you know, no matter what age they are, sometimes we can tend to get along more with people that we have more in common with, right. I'm a man with a wife with kids and it might be natural to get, you know, spend more time and have a greater love for brethren that are in the same boat, you know, married with kids. But we need to make sure that we love the brethren in whatever state we're in, right. Whether they're married, whether they're singles, whether they're older than you, whether they're your age or whether they're younger than you or even if they're children, you ought to have a great love for the people that make up your church. And you know, sometimes people may develop a love for the unsaved world and you know, we ought to love the unsaved as well, you know, we ought to love their souls, you know, we ought to love our neighbours but we ought to have a greater love, an unfeigned love, a love that is fervent for the brethren. And I hope you can consider this and say, you know, is my love fake? You know, yeah, I go to church with a big smile but do I really love the brethren? Am I showing that love with passion? Look at Romans chapter 12 and verse number 9, Romans chapter 12 and verse number 9. You see, these instructions are given multiple times. Let love be without dissimulation, okay. We think of a simulator. A simulator is something that is not real. It's close to being real, it looks real but it's not real, okay, where our love needs to be real. You know, our love ought not to be something like that is a simulation where it's just, it's not truly, it kind of looks real but it's not really there. Do you notice how many times the Bible refers to this, okay, you know, the unfamed love, love without dissimulation, let brother love continue because God knows we can dry up in our love toward one another. It says, That's how much we ought to love one another, preferring one another. I ought to prefer you over me. You know, you ought to prefer the other people that you look around in church over your own personal needs. And I love how we're to be kindly affectionated one to another with brotherly love. You know, we're to be reminded that we're not just some strangers. We're not just some, you know, just random people that just turned up to church one day. No, we've all been saved by the blood of Christ. This makes us brothers and sisters. You know, I have a great love for my family, you know, and I'm sure many can claim that they love their family, maybe parents or brothers, sisters, you know, especially if you've grown up in a, you know, a solid home, maybe even a Christian home, well, that same love ought to be the love that we have toward our brothers and sisters and Lord. You know, I ought to look at my brothers not as competition, you know, I ought to look at them as my brother. And you know what, if my biological brother had a need, you know, I would do whatever I could to try to fulfill that need, you know, putting his preference above mine. That's how we ought to be with one another in the church. And let's go back to Hebrews chapter 13, please. Hebrews chapter 13, let's continue there. How else can we love each other? Verse number two, it says, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. So what do we learn here? We ought to be people that are hospitable, okay? So we ought to open up a little bit to people and know it's hard. And I'm not saying that, you know what, just make your whole life public. And just let, you know, whoever, you know, interfere with your life, in fact, we'll look at later on in this chapter, that that's not how we ought to behave. But we ought to be willing to be open enough, you know, to be hospitable. You know, in the context of here, we're looking at the context of church, you know, if we have a stranger that comes into our church, a visitor, someone that we're not familiar with, we ought to make sure that that person feels welcome. In fact, that's point number two for me. Point number two for tonight is, you know, make visitors feel welcomed. And you know, I know what it's like, you know, in some ways, again, as a pastor, you have to think things differently, right? If a visitor walks in, I want to make sure I go and greet that person because in a way, you know, I'm accountable for what takes place in the church. But again, I recall being in a normal church, a visitor walking in, all right, and feeling a little bit awkward and not be like, I don't know, I hope someone else talks to that person before I do. And then someone else talks to them like, oh, phew, now I can walk away and talk to my friends. Okay, I've been there. I've been there. But you know what, if we have strangers walking, visitors walking, we have to make sure they feel welcomed in the church. Can you please turn to Genesis chapter 18? Turn to Genesis chapter 18. Again, keep your finger there in Hebrews 13. Please turn to Genesis chapter 18. The Bible says that it's possible that we may entertain angels unawares. You know, God puts this in the Bible, you know, that one day, I don't know if it ever happened. You know, maybe it's happened, we don't even know, where we've had a visitor, random visitor walk into our church, which was sent by God, which was a heavenly angel, just to test to see how welcoming is this church? Okay. Or did we immediately go, well, that's a red flag, who's this guy? Maybe a reprobate when he was an angel sent by God, who knows, right? But you know, God puts this in there so we're aware. Listen, if a visitor or stranger walks in, we also have the mindset, hey, maybe God sent this person. In fact, God definitely sent that person. If they're not saved, we should be willing to give them the gospel. And if they are saved, we should be trying to encourage them to get into church, to learn good Bible doctrine, and to do a great work for the kingdom of God. What did I ask you to turn to? Was it Genesis? Genesis 18? Before I read Genesis 18, I'm going to read to you from Leviticus 19, 33. And I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with this passage. This was important to God, not just in the local church, not just in your house, but also in the nation, in the Old Testament nation of Israel. In Leviticus 19, 33, it says, and if a stranger sojourned with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shall love him as thyself. For ye were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. You see, when we have strangers or visitors turn up, we ought to love them as though they're one of our own. We ought to receive them as one of our own, even if they look a little rough around the edges. Even if they don't necessarily speak or dress the way we would like them to speak or dress in the church. People come in and they need to know that they're welcomed and loved. It's such an important part of church. I've been, again, a member in several churches where you have people come into church, they're excited to be in church, but then they just don't feel welcomed. Nobody seems to open up to them, no one seems to be hospitable, and they might go one week, two weeks, three weeks, but sooner or later, they're gone because people were not willing to be open toward them. During Genesis 18, verse number 1, this is the story of Abraham, where he did, in fact, entertain angels. In fact, not just angels, but the Lord God himself. And you know, we're often told that we're children of Abraham, that Abraham is our father in the faith, and that we've been blessed with faithful Abraham, and that Abraham sets this godly, faithful example for believers. But I want you to notice how hospitable he was as well in Genesis 18, verse number 1. It says, and the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door of the heat of the day, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him, and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground. Now these three people, before I keep reading, one of them is the Lord God, I believe Jesus Christ, because no man has seen the Father. I believe it's Jesus Christ, and the other two are angels, the two angels that end up going into Sodom and Gomorrah to pull out Lot and his family. But anyway, that's a side point. Let's keep going there in verse number 3. He said, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. I want you to notice that Abraham is willing to lower himself as a servant. That is what hospitality is. That is, you know, entertaining strangers. It's lowering yourself and saying, you know what, I, you know, this person, I ought to be a servant to this individual. They ought to know that I'm here to help them and to try to assist them in whatever area or capacity I can. He says in verse number, what am I up to, brethren, verse number 4, it says, Let a little water I pray you be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts, after that ye shall pass on. For therefore are ye come to your servants, and they said, so do as thou hast said. So we have this great example of Abraham literally entertaining angels, literally entertaining the Lord. And one thing we also notice when Christ was on the earth, his first coming, you know, in Bethlehem's manger, you know, he would quite often, in his ministry, be welcomed in people's houses, and he was willing to go and stay and, you know, and fellowship with people that wanted him under his house. We need to be mindful, don't forget the way we treat one another also affects or contributes to the way we treat the Lord God. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ says that whatever we do toward one another, we do it unto him as well. You know, if we were to entertain one another, to lower ourselves, to serve one another, to be hospitable, to welcome others, then we would be doing the same to the Lord Jesus Christ. Back to Hebrews chapter 13 please, Hebrews 13 and verse number 3. Hebrews 13 verse number 3. Verse number 3 says, Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. In fact, this is a verse that came to my mind when I thought about how, you know, you guys were willing to pray and fast for us, because even though we're not in prison, and I know the context here is prison, where Christians just faithfully serving the Lord, preaching in the name of Jesus Christ, as we see in the New Testament, you know, have been arrested, thrown into prison, and you know what, we're being commanded here to remember our brothers in bonds, as bound with them, in the sense that we ought to be thinking, what would it be like if I was in this brother's shoe? What would it be like if I was in prison like Paul was? And that's how we ought to be thinking about one another, remembering one another. The reason it says here, remember, once again, why is it there, is because we can forget our brothers in bonds. And you know, I often like to joke around and have a positive attitude, but the way things are in Sydney, it feels like we're bound. It feels like we're in bonds. You know, we're constantly wondering, is it okay if we can travel here? Is it okay if we can travel there? You know, what's the loophole? Is there a loophole? Can we do it? What's the risk? What are the fines? It kind of feels like, once again, in a prison colony. In many ways, we have lost our freedoms here in Sydney. That's why it gives me great joy that you guys have that brotherly love toward us, you know, and many of you have not even met the brethren here. But you love us, you care about us. And you know, I assume you've put yourself into that position. What if I was the one stuck in Sydney? What if I was the one stuck in my LJ? What if I was Pastor Kevin who just purchased a house up there in Malaney and he can't even cross the border? That's how we ought to think about one another when we're bound, when we're restricted, when we're under bondage or even locked down. Again, it said there in verse number three, of them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. You know, we ought to be thinking about our brethren who are suffering. And again, put ourselves in their shoes. And you know, it's, I guess it's easy, again, the Bible says remember them. It's easy to forget brethren that are suffering, I'm not just talking about the lockdowns. There are many brethren that suffer with many issues, whether it's health, whether it's financial. You know, right now we're dealing with struggling with jobs right now, people not knowing if they're going to have work. Okay, it could be relationships. There are many struggles we go through. Could be illness, sicknesses that people have, chronic diseases. And we need to remember them. We need to remember those that are suffering because it's easy to forget. It's easy to just remember, you know, well, my life is just fine. I've got my issues. I've got my problems. You know, I don't have time to think about, you know, others suffering, but we're committed to this. Making sure that our brotherly love continue is that we remember them in bonds. Can you please turn to Acts chapter 11, turn to Acts chapter 11. Again, keep your finger there in Hebrews 13, go to Acts 11. One thing that I can be very thankful for with the lockdowns is prior to COVID-19, prior to the lockdowns, I'm sure the church up there, you remember that I did not want to have live services. And it's not because it's, you know, what I was concerned about to the honest truth. I was just worried if we just had live services, that people are just gonna make an excuse to not turn up to church, right? They're like, you know, wake up Sunday morning, don't really feel like going to church, we can just listen online. And I didn't want to feed maybe that laziness or that complacency. And so I really did not want to have live services. And our first step was when I realized, well, you know, for brethren that are traveling far away, they can't make the midweek service. So we decided to, you know, have an audio live stream in case people, you know, I didn't want the video, I didn't want it to be like too good, right? Just the audio, you can listen in if you're sick and you're at home or if you live too far away, can't make the midweek service, we started there. And then, thankfully, you know, with the lockdowns, we've been able to, we kind of had our hand forced, right, to get the NBN into the building to do the, you know, update the computers, whatever camera, whatever cabling, Brother Matthew helped me out there. And I'm very thankful I can look back now because it's opened up, you know, for other brethren, you know, other brethren in Australia that don't have a good church, other brethren that are suffering in lockdown to communicate, you know, either sometimes in the chat there in the YouTube or sometimes communicate directly with me. And it's helped me to understand and learn of other brethren that are not part of our church that are suffering and that I can be praying for. And so, you know, I need to consider, you know, the advantages, the, you know, the positive aspects of all the lockdown, and really, you know, our reach has grown, you know, our subscribers on YouTube have grown, our online listeners have grown, the views on our videos have grown. I don't care about attention for myself, but if God's Word is going out there and it's helping brethren, and you know, it's opening the doors for other believers to meet one another, then you know what, I'm just thankful for the lockdown. Instead of whining and complaining, I'm going to look at the positives, and that's how we ought to be. I told you to turn to Acts 11. Before I read Acts 11, let me just read to you from Philippians chapter 2 verse 4, which reads, Look not every man on his own things. It's so hard. Okay? Because our own things are the things we're mostly concerned about, right? We want to take care of our own things. There's nothing wrong with taking care of your own things. But it says, but every man also on the things of others. So as we see our brethren suffering and struggling in different areas of life, we need to put ourselves in their shoes, remember them, and think, boy, is there a way that I can help them? Is there something that I can do? And then it says in verse number five, Let this mind being you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Wow. You know what? That Christ Jesus had his mind on the things of others. This is of course why he was able to go to the cross. He didn't need to do that for himself. He did that for the sinners. He did that for you and I. You know, he laid down his life and opened the doors of salvation. You know what? God could have just as easily wiped us out, judged us. You know what? Back in Noah's day, God could have easily just used the flood, wiped out the entire world. You know what? And no, God is merciful. He looks at the needs of sinners and thank God that, thank God that he's looked upon our needs. Otherwise I'd be on my way to hell. You would be on your way to hell and Christ has given us salvation. You're in Acts 11, please. Acts 11, verse number 27. Acts 11, verse number 27. We have this story here of the saints and the communication between the saints in Jerusalem and the saints in Antioch. I guess I kind of think about Jerusalem as Sydney because Jerusalem was the biggest city, right, in the nation and that's what Sydney is and then you go Antioch and maybe that's like the Sunshine Coast. So it says here, and in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. So a great dearth is a great famine, okay? Then the disciples, every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. What a great illustration here of brotherly love. You know, people of one church, people in Antioch hearing that the brethren in Jerusalem are about to suffer a great famine, a great dearth and they come together and say, well, you know what? Let's go and send some aid, right? Some of that is money. We read about that in some of the epistles of the collection that they're doing together. I'm sure some of it might be nonperishable items and things that would help the brethren down there and I think about this because I think about how you guys once again were willing to, you know, go without food to pray for the brethren down here. You know, we don't need, you know, that level of aid I guess, you know, right now I think most of us are doing okay just fine, okay? We do have our concerns. We know the Lord will find a way and open the doors and for those that are looking for new work, I'm sure the Lord can provide the needs but the need that we need the most is prayer. We need your prayers. We need you to remember us. We need you to lift Blessed Up Baptist Church up in prayer and for that I'm very thankful. I'm thankful for what you guys are doing. That shows again the great love, the brotherly love which you are continuing and let me tell you just, I don't know, I'm sure I'm speaking for other brothers in Sydney that knowing that there are brethren praying for us is just sort of this burden that gets lifted off your shoulders as well. You know, I was able to share online with some of the brethren in America the struggles we're going through in Sydney and many of them have come through and said they're going to pray for us. Once again, the great burden, great lift, you know, being lifted off our shoulders, knowing that the Lord is not only hearing prayers from us locally, not only from Australia but from across the world as well. Back to Hebrews chapter 13 please. Hebrews 13. Point number three, sorry I didn't even say it but you guys I guess picked it up. Point number three was remember them that are in bonds, okay, remember them that are in bonds. Okay, look at verse number four. It says, marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Point number four brethren is, as I said there, marriage is honorable in all. What's a marriage? When a man and woman get married, what is it? It's a new family. It's a new family unit. And so the fourth point that I have for you today is honor each family unit. One great way that you can show brotherly love is to honor each family unit. Okay, so what are you talking about? I'm saying that each, all of our churches are made up of individual families, okay. And you know what? I'm sure we've learned this as we spent time together. We don't always think the same way. We don't always do things the same way. We don't raise our kids the same way. We don't educate ourselves the same way. We don't have the same hobbies, okay. We don't eat the same food. We all do things differently. And I personally think that's a wonderful thing. I like the differences. I like, you know, respecting that each family, you know, mums and dads, husbands and wives have come together and they've created that family unit and they've taken the principles that they learned from the Bible or the commands they see in God's Word and they've, you know, they've done some great things with their family. You know, their relationship, the way they believe their relationship ought to be, raising their children. You know, my job as a pastor is to preach, you know, good family truths, you know, to honor families, to honor the head of the house, the husband, you know, I strive to do that. You know, I don't want anybody to see that I'm some type of boss over each family when I'm not. The husband, the father is the head of the home and ladies, you ought to obey your head. Children, you ought to obey your parents. This is right in the eyes of the Lord, okay, He promises you a long life. You know, each family is special, each family is different and we ought to honor each family. You know what, you know what that means? That means you're going to look at one family and you're going to go, man, that's a bit odd. The way they do that, that's a bit odd but you know what, what honoring is, is say, well, you know what, God has given them the freedom to decide how they're going to carry out their family business and it's not for you to step in and go, well, let me tell you the best way to do this. Let me just get in there, you're having issues with your husband, well, let me tell you what you should tell your husband. You know, men, you're having issues with your wife, let me tell you, I'll fix up your wife for you. You know, I'll come into your house and sort things out. You know, I'll recommend this for that, you don't need to change this, you're eating that and you need to eat like me, you need to cook like I do. That's not honoring each family, that's not, you know, understanding those boundaries and each family unit has been given that authority by God to operate within their own system. You know, it's, we ought to honor each other and not step on each other's toes. You know, that's also a demonstration of love. Sometimes people think that brotherly love is just being heavily invested in other people, telling other people how they ought to live, right? And essentially you become a burden on other people because others have been like, well, what are they going to think about me? If we do X, Y, and Z, what's brother so-and-so going to say? What's sister so-and-so going to say? That's not brotherly love, that's not honoring marriage, that's not honoring the family unit. Can you please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And I'm going to read to you from a very familiar passage, Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 31. And let me just remind you what a marriage is, let me remind you what a family is, okay? Even though we're brothers and sisters in the Lord, we're not part of each family though, okay? Even though we're brothers and sisters in the Lord, spiritually speaking, it doesn't mean you're just somebody that can just turn up to my house and run my life, or I can't turn up to your house and just run your life. We ought to honor each family unit. Ephesians 5, 31 says, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. You know what a marriage is? It's one flesh, right? It's not like, well, I like the husband in this family but I don't like the wife, they're one flesh. You can't like one and dislike the other, they're one, they're one unit, they're one flesh. I like the wife but I don't like the husband, no, they're one flesh, okay? And again, a man leaves his father and mother, you know what the in-laws are extended family now, okay? The in-laws ought to, you know, not interfere with the lives of those that decided to get married. They've become one flesh, they've become one unit. It says in verse number 32, this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church, then verse number 33 says, nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Wives, you ought to reverence your husband, to revere your husband, you ought to look up to him, you ought to think, God, you've given me a good man, God, you've given me a man who goes to work and provides for the house and he shows, yeah, you know, maybe he could show me more love but Lord, help him to love me more but you know what, I'm going to reverence him and even if he does something wrong, even if he does something that I don't like, I'm not going to go to my friends at church, I'm not going to go to the other ladies at church and bag him out because if you bag him out, that's not reverence in him, okay? And ladies, if some woman comes up to you and wants to bag out her family and bag out her husband, just say, you know what, I'll be praying for you, please don't tell me that's not for my ears, I don't need to know about that, please take it to Jesus Christ, please pray for your family and I'll be praying for your situation but it's not your job to get involved. Why does conflict develop in a church? It's because people get too chummy, people get too invested in other families, okay? It's good to get along and be friendly but then what happens is one family wants to change something in another family, they want to overstep their mark, they want to cross the boundaries and before you know it, it creates conflicts and it should create conflicts because that's not how we're called to operate. You know what, husbands and wives, we've got a family unit, you're one flesh, you have your children, in accordance to God's Word, you know what, I honour you guys to decide whatever it is that you want to do for your family, you know, you've got God's Word as your guidance, I hope you take on board the things that I preach but we're commanded to honour each family unit, marriage is honourable in all. Where did I get to turn to? First Corinthians 7? Look at First Corinthians 7 verse number 32. You know, we could do a lot in the church, we could do a lot of work for God, you know, some people feel that well, you know, obviously if I wanted to neglect my family, I could go to some foreign field, I could go to some Philippines or something like that and, you know, be there for years and years winning souls unto the Lord but neglect my family and some people think, you know what, that's a righteous act but the Bible tells us in First Corinthians 7, 32. But I would have you without carefulness, he that is unmarried, carer for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. Brethren, if you're single, you know, we've got a lot of young ladies, young men there, you know, as children that are growing up, your priority ought to be, what is it that I can do to serve the Lord? But notice verse number 33, but he that is married, hey, that's me as a pastor as well, he that is married, carer for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. You know what, my job, you know, is to make sure that my family is sound, is taken care of, that I'm meeting my family needs even as a pastor. In fact, you cannot be a pastor without a wife and God recognizes if you've got a wife, you need to make sure that you please her, that you take care of her needs. You know what, my attention is not just on the things of God, but my attention is on my family and my wife. In fact, that is the commandment of God that I need to be carrying out, that is part of my responsibilities. I want you to remember this for those that are married, you know, your spouse is of utmost importance, importance, okay. You need to give them time, give them attention, you know, and, you know, stop worrying about, you know, getting invested in other people's matters when there might be issues within your own family that you need to figure out and sort out, okay. The other thing that we learned there in verse number four, marriage is honorable in all and the bed of your father says, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Why is that mentioned there? Well, number one, we ought to make sure that our marriages, our relationships are pure. You know, God loves purity, but I also want you to remember in church, because we, you know, we tend to get along and have a laugh, you know, this is, we ought to be careful to avoid, you know, flirtatious behavior, okay, where, you know what, if you're a husband and you know what, I don't think there's anything wrong with talking to another lady, okay, you don't want to be doing it privately, you don't want to be put aside privately where, you know, some accusation might be made about you, but you know what, if your wife comes up to you, men, and says, you know what, I don't like you talking to that lady, you know, and you're like, oh, come on, honey, you know, you know why she's feeling that way? Because she's feeling jealous. You know what, the Bible says jealousy is a righteous attitude, it's a righteous, you know, emotion. In fact, God is jealous, okay, His name is jealous, and you know what, if you're just, you know, just in church, and you know, you might be laughing with the opposite sex, and you know, in your mind, it's innocent, your spouse might see it as flirtatious, okay, you know what, you're commanded to please your wife. You know, if your wife says, you know, honey, please stop talking to so and so, okay, you know, it makes me uncomfortable, you ought to be like, you know, don't put it down, okay, you're commanded to love your wife, you ought to be saying, you know what, honey, you know that I meant nothing by that, but you know what, I'm going to respect your wish there, because you are a jealous woman, and I, in fact, I love the fact that you're jealous, because the last thing I would want is to see you go around being flirtatious with some other man in church. This is why it's brotherly love, we ought to be looking at each other, and acting with one another, with brotherly feelings toward one another, right? And we ought not to open the door where we may allow, you know, some whoremonger, some adultery to take place in our church. You know, being careful about these things, brethren, is part of brotherly love. Hebrews 13 verse number 5, Hebrews 13, so point number 4, brethren, was honour each family unit. Hebrews 13 verse number 5 says, let your conversation, Bible conversation, it means your lifestyle, your behaviour, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for he have said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So our behaviour ought to be without covetousness, rather, we ought to be content with such things as you have. Now, why is this important? You know, we need to be careful about when we come to church, that we come and we demonstrate that our lifestyle, that our behaviour is one of contentment, okay? Not covetousness, not desiring other things and maybe desiring great wealth or great prosperity, great, you know, materialistic things, but that's not just covetous alone. You know, covetous is basically, someone that is covetous, they're not content, they're not happy with what God has given them, which is why they want more. Why is this so dangerous? Why are we not to be people that are covetous in a church? You may recall that in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, you don't need to turn there, but you may recall that being covetous is one sin that will get you kicked out of church. Say why is that? Let me just quickly read to you from 1 Corinthians 5, 11, it says, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. Okay, so the covetous person, we are not to have them in our church. You say why? Because earlier in that chapter in verse number 6, it says, your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A little bit of leaven is going to spread across the whole church. These kinds of sins are contagious. It's the delta variant is what it is. It's the COVID delta. It spreads like wildfire and so when you have someone that comes into church and they're covetous and they're not content, you know what that's going to cause? It's going to cause that to be bred throughout the whole church. That lack of contentment. The person that comes constantly whining, complaining, things are horrible, I'm down, I wish things were better, lockdowns, the masks, the vaccinations, and people are sick. You know what happens? That just spreads misery in the whole church. We ought to have that out of our conversation. In fact, we'd rather be content. You know what that means? That means we ought to have a positive mindset. Instead of coming to church and complaining about how bad everything is, how about consider how much God has blessed you and go to church with the conversation, the behavior, the lifestyle, the communication, thanking God, letting people know how God has blessed you, being positive minded, being thankful, rather than being whining and complaining because once again, that's something that spreads a little leaven, leaven of the whole lump. Contentment is contagious, but so is covetousness. So what kind of influence do you want to be to your brethren? Do you want to cause your brothers to be covetous and not content? Or do you want them to be content? That would be an example of let brotherly love continue, you know, considering that you whining and complaining will cause misery upon your brethren as well. Look at verse number six. It says, so that we may say boldly, the Lord is my helper, and I would not fear what man shall do unto me. And so when we're happy with what we have and we look at our life and we're thankful, you know, we can boldly say the Lord is my helper. That's how we ought to come to church, right? Brother, how was your week? Yeah, it was good, right? You know, you had some challenges, but you know what? The Lord saw me through, the Lord is my helper. I'm happy with what God has given me in my life. And again, that'll be contagious. You know, someone that might be down when they hear your positive attitude, when they see you thanking the Lord and you identify God as the helper of the brethren, you could cause that person that was miserable to be, you know, lifted up, you know, to be edified and to be, once again, thankful and content with what the Lord has given them. So point number five, brethren, is communicate, not with covetousness, but communicate with contentment. What time do we have here? 7.30. All right, let's keep going there. Verse number seven, verse number seven. And now this is about me. It says, remember them which have the rule over you. And again, why? Why we've been commanded to remember them? Because I think we can forget them. Okay, we can forget the pastor, we can forget the person that has the rule over you. And notice again, the Bible is just saying the rule over you, you need to remember that your pastor has authority in the church, okay? You ought to be respectful. And look, I don't have a problem with that, you know. You guys know I'm pretty easy going down to earth and you know, no one really mistreats me or anything like that. But you know what, as far as remembering your pastor, you need to remember that they have the rule over you in the house of the Lord, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation, the end of their lifestyle, the end of their behavior. You know that a pastor ought to, you know, this is why a pastor ought not to be a novice, someone that's new to the faith or doesn't know his Bible doctrines. You know, you ought to be able to prove, not just that the pastor got proven to get the position of a pastor, take on the office of a bishop, but they continue in their life to prove that they're, you know, fruitful, that they're blessed and how they live out their lives and raise their family and conduct themselves actually is beneficial. That you see, you know, your pastor prospering spiritually that is and doing well because, you know, that's the example of a, it's supposed to be an example of a mature believer. It says whose faith follow, this is why you need to remember your pastors because it's important for us to have examples in our life that we can look up to, okay. And we know that men struggle, you know, your pastor has the same temptation, struggles with the same temptations that you're going to struggle with, okay. They're going to have the same hurts that you suffer with, okay. And so your pastor is just a man, the pastor's family is just another family, okay. And so you need to be praying for them, remembering that person because they're trying to set a good godly example and they know if they mess up, it's going to hurt the lives of the church, okay. So please remember your pastor, there's a high responsibility, not just the authority of the church but to set that good example whose faith you ought to follow. Please turn to 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, point number 6 is remember your pastor, remember your pastor. I don't feel like I've been forgotten, I'm not preaching this because I feel that way, it's here in Hebrews 13. So again, why is it here? It's because we can tend to forget, okay. We can tend to think well everything's fine with the pastor and when really pastors have the same struggles as any other family does in the church, okay. First Peter chapter 5 verse number 1, it says, the elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you. So why should we remember our pastor, why should we pray for them? Because their job is to feed you the word of God, feed the flock of God. This is the job of the pastor to make sure the Bible is being preached and people are absorbing, learning something new from God's word and this is part of your growth and if your pastor is not feeding you, you're not going to grow, okay. Taking the oversight thereof, not by constraints but willingly, not a filthy lucre but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, then we see it again, but being ensembles to the flock, okay. This is a hard job, being an ensemble of the flock, you know, I hope that people can look at my life and say, hey, that's a good example of a good pastor. I hope you can see my wife and say, hey, you know what, she's a good wife. She's not the pastor's wife, she does not have the office of her pastor's wife, she's the wife of the pastor, she's my wife. I hope when you look at my kids, you can say, hey, you know what, they're doing a good job of raising the kids, right, they're teaching them, they're disciplining them when they're wrong, you know, that's a good example and, you know, we can see that it works, we can see that the kids are happy and involved and friendly and, you know, they're sitting at good example but you know what, if you're not praying for me, you know, and I fall into the same temptations and struggles that anybody else does, then, you know, not only will I hurt myself but I could hurt the entire church and, you know, I've been given the honour of a pastor in two churches, I can hurt two churches, okay, and this happens, you know, this just happened recently. Some pastor up there in northern, you know, Rockhampton, Queensland has, you know, disqualified himself, I'm not going to go into all the details right now but, you know, he's acted wickedly and it's all it does, it brings great hurt upon God's people. And so brethren, let me just go through once again, you know, the title was Let Brotherly Love Continue. You know, please make sure your love for the brethren is not fake. Maybe you have been faking it. You know, it's time to confess that to the Lord and say, Lord, I've been faking it, please give me the great love. You know what, to love the brethren means you have to receive the love that comes from God, okay, the love of the Father needs to be in you, okay, and if you can love the Father, you can love Christ. I mean, Christ again laid down his life, the Father sacrificed his son and that same love ought to be the love that we have in our hearts toward our brethren. So what were the points once again? Number one was reignite your brotherly love. Number two, make visitors feel welcomed. Number three, remember them that are in bonds. Number four, honour each family unit. Number five was communicate with contentment and number six was remember your pastor. Okay, let's pray.