back to index2017-03-18 Qualities of Biblical Love Part 6
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12. 00:00:08.840 |
We're reading starting from verse 9 all the way to verse 16. 00:00:12.440 |
But our focus today is going to be on 15 and 16. 00:00:36.680 |
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 00:00:48.040 |
Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. 00:01:01.760 |
We thank you for your living word, your very breath that causes us to see, to be convicted, 00:01:10.240 |
as a light onto our path, to know you, to know your voice. 00:01:15.120 |
I pray Father God that from this pulpit that only the voice of Christ may go. 00:01:20.360 |
That your children may hear his voice and follow him and him only. 00:01:28.640 |
All right, so as you guys know, just as a quick review, we're on chapter 12 where Paul 00:01:33.120 |
has made a transition from the indicatives to the imperatives where he was talking about 00:01:39.360 |
the doctrine of justification and then the ramification of that in the life of a Christian. 00:01:44.640 |
And so in the previous weeks we've been talking about the imperatives, the about 20 some imperatives 00:01:49.760 |
that we see starting from verse 9 all the way to verse 21. 00:01:53.260 |
And in these imperatives we can wrap up the whole imperatives in love the Lord your God 00:01:58.960 |
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. 00:02:02.480 |
So remember we talked about how the scripture says that all of the law can be summarized 00:02:15.180 |
When we talk about the gospel there is a temptation for us to skim over the judgment of God and 00:02:19.320 |
get to the love of Christ because it is attractive. 00:02:22.800 |
Christians and non-Christians, if you take a step back and look at the totality of the 00:02:26.480 |
message of the gospel, it's about the God of the universe who created us, who emptied 00:02:32.040 |
himself and became nothing to save sinners who are hostile toward him. 00:02:38.200 |
We can come up with a story and say, "Well, that's a beautiful story." 00:02:43.720 |
There is nothing that comes close to the gospel message and the love that we celebrate, we 00:02:51.640 |
And so we know that the greatest attraction to the church, the greatest attraction to 00:02:57.520 |
the gospel message is this agape love that Paul has been talking about. 00:03:02.160 |
It is central to the gospel message, it is central to the attraction, it is central to 00:03:07.600 |
When we talk about discipleship, oftentimes we talk about being disciplined. 00:03:12.200 |
You know, somebody who didn't do quiet time before to do quiet time, if you don't pray 00:03:15.680 |
to pray, if you haven't witnessed to go witnessing, to do missions, and all of these things are 00:03:22.240 |
But the scripture also says you can do all of that and yet not have love, and it means 00:03:28.740 |
You can be disciplined, you can be a spiritual giant, at least on the surface, and at the 00:03:33.960 |
end, all we are without love is whitewashed tombs. 00:03:38.840 |
We look great on the outside, but inside we're just as sinful, just as selfish, just as self-focused 00:03:47.020 |
So at the core of discipleship is to become like Christ in His love, and that's exactly 00:03:52.260 |
what Jesus says, that the world will know that you are my disciples if you have love 00:03:59.060 |
Now, He's not talking about just any kind of love. 00:04:01.340 |
He's not talking about the kind of love that the world practices, which every non-Christian, 00:04:09.520 |
They practice love with their brothers and sisters, with their friends, and sometimes 00:04:13.260 |
with strangers, but the love that Jesus is speaking about is in Romans 5 way in that 00:04:22.620 |
He gave His only begotten son's life for sinners who are hostile toward Him. 00:04:29.100 |
That is not a love that we see, that is not a love that is taught, and that is not a love 00:04:35.340 |
maybe even valued in our culture because it is so out of the ordinary, it is not practiced. 00:04:42.020 |
So what distinguishes us from the world is not simply that we are nice people who love 00:04:46.400 |
our children and good to our friends and neighbors, but it is this kind of love that the world 00:04:53.200 |
Why would you make yourself vulnerable to strangers and even enemies? 00:04:59.180 |
Our natural instinct is to protect ourselves. 00:05:05.920 |
But to practice this agape love is to abandon ourselves, and that is exactly what it is. 00:05:12.760 |
It is a call to abandon ourselves, to make ourselves vulnerable. 00:05:17.840 |
It goes directly against our natural instinct, and yet the scripture says that that is at 00:05:24.120 |
the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:05:27.100 |
So all the imperatives that we have been looking at in verse 9 through 21, it may not use the 00:05:31.860 |
word love, but at the end of the day it is a means to the goal of becoming a person who 00:05:40.160 |
So we went through all these different principles. 00:05:41.800 |
Today's sermon number 6, we are looking at number 13 and 14 in verses 15 and 16. 00:05:47.120 |
So the first principle, or at least that we are covering today, A. Biblical love rejoices 00:05:52.740 |
with those who rejoices and weeps with those who weeps. 00:05:56.780 |
It rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep. 00:06:00.640 |
This is the picture of a Christian community where Christ is the head and we are all different 00:06:08.200 |
body parts of the church, and this is the picture of Christianity. 00:06:13.400 |
This is the picture of God-centered, Christ-centered Christianity. 00:06:18.840 |
Of self-centered, self-focused individual will not practice this, cannot practice this. 00:06:25.480 |
To be able to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, it requires 00:06:31.720 |
Remember we talked about how at the core of human rebellion is self-preservation, self-gratification, 00:06:44.200 |
So this call to love, it challenges every part of that. 00:06:50.400 |
And when he says to rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, someone 00:06:53.640 |
who is self-centered can superficially say, "You know what, I feel your pain. 00:07:04.640 |
Kind of like on Facebook, thumbs up, thumbs down. 00:07:13.760 |
When was the last time you've really wept for someone else that wasn't linked to your 00:07:21.080 |
It wasn't your dad, it wasn't your mom, but somebody that you don't really know that well, 00:07:25.320 |
that you really were on your knees praying because you agonized over their suffering? 00:07:29.920 |
When was the last time you really rejoiced over something good that happened to somebody 00:07:37.560 |
When something good happens to somebody close to you, that's great, maybe they'll buy me 00:07:43.160 |
Maybe, maybe I'm going to benefit somehow, but genuinely rejoiced over something good 00:07:48.920 |
happen to somebody else without feeling a sense of jealousy. 00:07:54.040 |
See what he's asking us to practice, what he's commanding us to practice, ultimately 00:07:58.920 |
is not something that you can practice in your flesh. 00:08:05.200 |
Jesus obviously is the perfect example that we see in Hebrews chapter 4, 14 through 16, 00:08:10.360 |
or 15 through 16, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our 00:08:18.320 |
But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. 00:08:23.360 |
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy 00:08:38.640 |
And the reason why he can have the same feeling, meaning that he rejoices with us and he weeps 00:08:42.440 |
with us, is because he says in every respect he has been tempted as we are yet without 00:08:50.160 |
And that's the gospel message, that God emptied himself and he walked in our shoes, and he 00:08:56.320 |
You ever wonder why Jesus waited until he was 30 years old before he started his ministry? 00:09:08.960 |
You know in the Jewish community at 13 they have Bar Mitzvah and that's when they officially 00:09:12.920 |
become an adult, but he waited until he was 30 years old. 00:09:17.360 |
It doesn't say, it doesn't explicitly say that that's the reason, but in the Old Testament 00:09:21.840 |
a priest was considered an intern until he turned the age of 30. 00:09:27.600 |
Because he was at the age of 30 where they considered that an individual lived a full 00:09:32.040 |
life, full human life, that you weren't just an adult, but that you experienced what a 00:09:38.600 |
So at 30 they would stop being interns and able to serve at the temple independently, 00:09:43.800 |
because that's the age where they considered them to be able to have experienced life. 00:09:49.400 |
It doesn't explicitly say that, but my guess is that's probably why, that at the age of 00:09:53.600 |
30 that Jesus experienced all that he was able to experience. 00:09:59.840 |
And he walked in our shoes, in John chapter 1, verse 14 it says, "The Word became flesh 00:10:05.720 |
We have seen his glory, glory as the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth." 00:10:10.440 |
You know the interesting word here for dwelt in Greek literally means to pitch a tent. 00:10:17.020 |
That he didn't just walk among us, he pitched a tent just like the Israelites who were constantly 00:10:23.680 |
He said that he came and he actually pitched his tent among us, he lived with us. 00:10:29.600 |
He didn't just have compassion from a distance, he actually came and walked. 00:10:33.960 |
You ever wonder why after Jesus is baptized he goes to the wilderness and he's tempted? 00:10:41.840 |
Think about the ridiculousness of this temptation. 00:10:45.180 |
Because Satan himself probably knows, not probably, I'm almost certain he knows who 00:10:54.320 |
His disciples, Satan's disciples, the demons, remember what they did when they saw Jesus? 00:11:03.800 |
"Son of God, why have you come before your time to torture us?" 00:11:08.240 |
They knew that the judgment was going to come through his son, Jesus. 00:11:13.640 |
So why did Satan think that he was going to come and tempt Jesus by saying, "If you bow 00:11:19.800 |
down to me, I'm going to give you this, like this. 00:11:25.240 |
Give me your Lamborghini and I'll give you a Snickers." 00:11:27.840 |
To me, that proposition in and of itself makes no sense. 00:11:37.280 |
But there was something about his incarnation. 00:11:41.400 |
There was something about him emptying himself of the glory and taking on human form that 00:11:46.240 |
he probably would have never seen in his existence if the whole purpose or whole rebellion of 00:11:56.780 |
And there was absolutely no chance ever in human history or in his life that he probably 00:12:04.840 |
One of these days I'm going to just overthrow this God." 00:12:09.240 |
But for the first time in his existence, he saw Jesus in his humanity and thought, "Maybe 00:12:17.720 |
There was something about his humility, something about his human form that made him weaker 00:12:24.440 |
Before his humanity, remember, Satan, even just to be in the presence of God, he needed 00:12:30.860 |
Even if he wants to hurt people, he needed to get permission. 00:12:37.160 |
Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat. 00:12:44.600 |
Yet he was in the presence of this incarnated Christ, and he actually is trying to tempt 00:12:51.520 |
There was something in his humanity, the fact that he walked among us and he's tempted in 00:12:57.200 |
every way and yet without sin, that made him seem weaker than he's ever been. 00:13:09.440 |
A person who lives a self-centered life will never really be able to pray, never really 00:13:20.120 |
You know, I think the struggle that we have with prayer is that we're not passionate about 00:13:30.400 |
I think all Christians pray if it matters, if it really matters. 00:13:35.640 |
If you're in a situation where you're in dire need of something and you can't stop thinking 00:13:40.960 |
You may not be on your knees and you may not have time devoted to prayer, but you end up 00:13:48.520 |
If you can't make your ends meet, you wake up praying. 00:13:53.280 |
You wake up in the middle of the night, "Lord, help me." 00:13:57.400 |
When someone is sick and they're in dire need, you have no other way to turn, you pray. 00:14:02.120 |
You may not have formal prayer, you wake up in prayer. 00:14:08.080 |
There's some college students here who did not study this whole quarter and finals are 00:14:19.680 |
You woke up in the morning and said, "Lord, I do not ask for justice, I ask for mercy." 00:14:29.200 |
It's because we are detached, because our natural instinct in our flesh is self-preservation, 00:14:36.240 |
self-gratification, self-glorification, so when it doesn't come into that circle, we're 00:14:43.000 |
So even when people come to Christ, even though the scripture says that heavens are celebrating, 00:14:52.840 |
We just watch from a distance, it's like, "Oh, that's great." 00:14:58.560 |
Somebody's in dire need and they're suffering, it's like, "Oh, thumbs down, I don't like 00:15:05.640 |
But to really weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. 00:15:11.640 |
This is the community, this is the kingdom that God has called us to participate in. 00:15:16.360 |
If we're in a constant state of self-preservation, eventually you will find yourself isolated. 00:15:24.920 |
Isolated from your friends, who are friends at one point, isolated from co-workers at 00:15:30.660 |
some point, and at times even isolated from your wife, from your husband, and eventually 00:15:38.920 |
To rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, God calls us to empty 00:15:45.480 |
The second thing that we want to look at this morning, and we're going to spend more time 00:15:48.920 |
in, biblical love lives in harmony with one another. 00:15:53.560 |
Biblical love lives in harmony with one another. 00:15:55.600 |
I want you to look at the NASB version of this text, because I feel like the ESV, you 00:16:02.200 |
The NASB is a bit more clear, more literal to the text. 00:16:07.280 |
In the NASB it says, "Be of the same mind toward one another. 00:16:10.080 |
Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. 00:16:15.000 |
Do you notice the theme that is running across this verse? 00:16:41.760 |
In the ESV it says, "Live in harmony with one another." 00:16:44.360 |
The literal translation is, "Be the same mind. 00:16:47.360 |
Do not be haughty in mind, associate with the lowly. 00:16:51.960 |
So all of it, the theme that runs across this text, is to live in harmony, is to be of the 00:17:01.160 |
And over and over again in the scripture, we are commanded to do that very thing. 00:17:05.640 |
First Corinthians 110, "I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 00:17:09.080 |
all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same 00:17:16.960 |
Philippians 127, "I want to let your manner of life worthy of the gospel of Christ, so 00:17:20.360 |
that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you may be standing 00:17:24.520 |
firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." 00:17:29.800 |
Philippians 2.2, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind." 00:17:34.520 |
Having the same love, being in full accord with one mind. 00:17:37.560 |
1 Peter 3.8, "Finally all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender 00:17:45.880 |
Over and over and over again, the scripture commands us to be of the same mind. 00:17:53.920 |
Do we just decide, like, let's just think the same thing, everybody. 00:18:05.680 |
The scripture says in Romans 12.2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed 00:18:13.680 |
Every single one of us, before we became a Christian, has all kinds of opinions. 00:18:20.040 |
We all have opinions about how to raise our kids, about what is right and what is wrong. 00:18:29.640 |
Because we all have different opinions about what should be and should not be. 00:18:35.800 |
And if we're not careful, we bring that into the church, and we have people who are Democrats 00:18:40.560 |
and Republicans outside of the church who hate each other, and then you're trying to 00:18:49.340 |
And what he's saying is to be of the same mind, first and foremost, our minds have to 00:18:56.960 |
What we consider to be right and wrong has to be influenced and being transformed by 00:19:03.120 |
What we consider to bring joy to our lives, our values, our pursuit, what should be, should 00:19:11.520 |
How do you get people from all walks of life who is not being transformed in mind to be 00:19:20.640 |
You ever try to have five or six different friends who have strong opinions to decide 00:19:29.840 |
I used to have a group of friends like that in college. 00:19:32.240 |
We would get together, and we could never go anywhere together because you don't need 00:19:38.640 |
You have 11 people, but you have two guys who are absolutely convinced that where and 00:19:46.840 |
And so everybody just is waiting, you know, but these two guys just will not let go. 00:19:51.640 |
No, we have to go eat, you know, Chinese food. 00:19:57.360 |
And we would sit there and let them argue it out, but no one loses. 00:20:05.080 |
As I used to joke around when people would ask me, "Hey, Peter, where are you going?" 00:20:07.800 |
I said, "I'm going to go hang out with my friends and discuss about what we're going 00:20:14.700 |
You can't even get people to eat together when you have people who are strong opinions 00:20:19.840 |
Can you imagine building a community, striving after God, making important decisions with 00:20:27.560 |
a church filled with people who are filled with their own opinion who is not being governed 00:20:33.640 |
So first and foremost, he says we have to be of the same mind. 00:20:37.280 |
That's why we need to be committed to the Word of God. 00:20:39.080 |
We need to continually be transformed by the Word of God. 00:20:43.520 |
You know, a general principle about all of this is if you're not regularly being transformed 00:20:48.680 |
by the Word of God, it is safe for you and for me to stay quiet. 00:20:56.640 |
Because the more we express our opinion and the more you run into other people's opinion, 00:21:04.560 |
So as a general rule, we need to be saturated with God's Word, the Word of God, and doctrine 00:21:10.440 |
that we need to work toward a unifying understanding of who God is and what he desires. 00:21:17.800 |
But this call to unity of mind isn't just talking about doctrine. 00:21:23.360 |
Because you can have unity of doctrine, unity of thought in what the Word of God says and 00:21:31.360 |
In Philippians chapter 2, 5-7, it says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours 00:21:35.440 |
in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with 00:21:41.040 |
God something to be grasped, but it paid himself nothing. 00:21:45.760 |
Taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." 00:21:48.640 |
So he said, "Have this mind among yourselves." 00:21:51.840 |
The mind he's talking about here is not simply talking about right view of Jesus. 00:21:56.040 |
He's talking about being humble, of emptying himself, considering others better than themselves. 00:22:02.340 |
Having the right mind isn't just simply having right doctrine. 00:22:05.920 |
But the right doctrine calls us to no longer be self-centered and self-seeking and self-glorified. 00:22:21.480 |
I just want you to think about it for a minute. 00:22:24.480 |
I think he was an extrovert because he spent a lot of time in public. 00:22:30.720 |
He preached a lot and was constantly surrounded by people, so he must be an extrovert. 00:22:35.560 |
And then some of you guys who may remember, he would always pull away from the crowd to 00:22:50.240 |
You ever take that test with ENTJ, INSF, ENOW, whatever that is? 00:23:01.080 |
And you might try to apply different things to him. 00:23:15.360 |
Because the scripture says that he emptied himself. 00:23:26.720 |
I became all things to all people by all means that I can save some. 00:23:31.580 |
So who he was before he met Christ was no longer relevant. 00:23:37.240 |
You know, we talk about how when I was younger, there was a book that came out, it was so 00:23:42.240 |
popular, "Women are from Mars and Men are from Venus." 00:23:45.280 |
And all this psychologists are trying to connect. 00:23:49.480 |
How does men from Mars and women from Venus communicate with each other? 00:23:54.500 |
And that's kind of like how a lot of the psychological books and marriage counseling, all this stuff 00:23:58.600 |
came from this idea of we're two completely different people. 00:24:03.120 |
But the premise that is wrong about all of that is that God didn't create us to be on 00:24:17.080 |
And then men drifted to Mars and then women drifted to Venus. 00:24:26.080 |
But we're trying to figure out, like, okay, you have two people who've decided that this 00:24:31.600 |
is who they are and they're not going to budge. 00:24:35.240 |
So how do you get these two people, who are self-seeking, self-glorifying, and self-preserving, 00:24:47.320 |
But what Christ does, he comes and he says, "No, you have been crucified with Christ. 00:24:51.800 |
He is no longer you who lives, so wherever you are at, it no longer is relevant." 00:24:59.840 |
I remember when I was younger, I used to wrestle so much with my own identity because we moved 00:25:06.840 |
I naturally enjoy being with people, but I also enjoy being by myself. 00:25:12.120 |
Some people say, "Oh, you're a hidden introvert," or "You're an extrovert who doesn't know." 00:25:18.080 |
I've been psychoanalyzed by the church, and I don't know who I am. 00:25:24.120 |
But I remember when I was younger, I used to really wrestle with that because every 00:25:29.640 |
And so I had to be a new guy, and of course I don't have any friends, so I have to adjust. 00:25:33.280 |
And so by the time I became 14, 15, I completely, I had no idea who I was. 00:25:37.480 |
So early on in college, I was wrestling with that because with some people, I'm very outgoing. 00:25:45.520 |
And depending on which friends they were, they probably thought, "Oh, Peter, he never 00:25:51.560 |
In fact, I had a group of friends that when I first became a Christian, that they were 00:25:58.880 |
And so I only spoke Korean to them, and one time I was at a birthday party, and I was 00:26:03.280 |
trying to share the gospel in English, and they turned around and said, "Oh my gosh, 00:26:08.920 |
And then I remember turning around, I was like, "What? 00:26:14.240 |
But the whole time, because that's who they were. 00:26:18.680 |
And the end of all of that, my conclusion was, "So what?" 00:26:26.480 |
I remember a speaker a long time ago gave a message saying, "Everybody's trying so hard 00:26:30.280 |
to find who they are, and they're looking inward." 00:26:33.720 |
And then he said, "What if at the end of the day, you spend all your life trying to find 00:26:37.560 |
who you are, and you find out that you're an onion?" 00:26:55.920 |
Our new life and new identity is found in Christ. 00:26:59.000 |
And the reason why we are divided is because of our self-preservation. 00:27:03.680 |
This is who I am, and I am looking for people who are going to adjust to me. 00:27:18.520 |
This is who I am, and I want you to adjust to me. 00:27:22.440 |
We are divided by age, by race, by socioeconomic backgrounds, style of worship, how we do discipleship, 00:27:30.680 |
the preaching style, how we dress, what Bible translation, what theological persuasion that 00:27:37.240 |
are not core issues, what school a pastor graduated seminary, how we raise our children, 00:27:44.080 |
what kind of social justices are important to us. 00:27:47.480 |
I mean, it takes so little to divide us when we start with the core of ourselves. 00:28:00.160 |
A high-minded person will never associate with the lowly, physically, economically, 00:28:06.520 |
socially, and even spiritually, because he is looking for somebody who is equal or better. 00:28:16.720 |
He says, but associate with the lowly and do not be conceited. 00:28:21.920 |
You know, in India, they have this caste system. 00:28:30.600 |
But obviously, it's practiced because a lot of the caste system is inside their heart. 00:28:34.120 |
So they have about seven different caste systems, but on the top of that are the Lingayats. 00:28:39.200 |
The Lingayats are the priests, the Hindu priests. 00:28:43.680 |
If you are a Lingayat, you pretty much made it. 00:28:46.320 |
If you are born into the Lingayat family, you can pretty much marry whoever you want 00:28:51.440 |
to marry because everybody wants their daughter or son to marry a Lingayat. 00:28:56.240 |
But rarely will they intermarry outside of the Lingayats because to them, it means to 00:29:01.240 |
And then the lowest of the totem pole, they actually call themselves the Untouchables. 00:29:06.420 |
And I thought they were kidding when they first said, oh, we're Untouchables. 00:29:10.340 |
But that's the actual name for that group, Untouchables. 00:29:13.920 |
So you can imagine which group are more receptive to the gospel. 00:29:25.200 |
It's the Untouchables that first come to Christ. 00:29:26.760 |
So superficially, you may look at that and say, oh, maybe because they're uneducated. 00:29:32.360 |
And you can socially explain all of that, but the Bible has a better explanation. 00:29:37.480 |
It says it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven because the rich man 00:29:45.440 |
He's got too much to lose to associate with the lowly. 00:29:49.800 |
If you're a slave owner and you go there and you're hanging out with slaves, former slaves, 00:29:56.560 |
And so the Lingayats are very reluctant to come to Christ because they're unwilling to 00:30:06.680 |
The Untouchables, on the other hand, meeting Christ means everything. 00:30:12.560 |
And that is not different because whether you are rich or poor, every single one of 00:30:15.440 |
us, that's why the law came to show the utter sinfulness of mankind. 00:30:21.400 |
That whether you are rich or an aristocrat or whether you are a Roman citizen, whatever 00:30:25.220 |
you were, whether you were the lowly of the human beings, at least according to this world, 00:30:30.620 |
the law came to make sin utterly sinful in order to humble all of us. 00:30:35.800 |
Wherever, whatever standing, no matter how good-looking you are, no matter how much money 00:30:39.680 |
you make, the starting point of the gospel is to bring us down and humble us, to empty 00:30:47.400 |
And until we are empty, until we recognize who we are, until we lose confidence in our 00:30:52.240 |
own judgment, our personalities, our looks, our money, until we lose absolute confidence 00:30:58.160 |
in all of that and come before that in repentance, in humility, you cannot enter the kingdom 00:31:05.960 |
The beginning point of salvation is to be empty. 00:31:10.800 |
See that when he says not to think of yourself haughty, he's not talking about fake humility. 00:31:16.400 |
He's not talking about walking around saying, "I'm the humblest." 00:31:30.080 |
Tim Keller says in his short book, "The Gift of Forgetfulness," true gospel humility means 00:31:40.040 |
to stop connecting every experience, every conversation with myself. 00:31:47.760 |
The freedom of self-forgetfulness, the blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings. 00:31:52.560 |
He also says superiority complex and inferiority complex are basically the same. 00:31:59.240 |
Whether you think you're superior to other people, whether you're constantly telling 00:32:02.240 |
yourself you're inferior, the starting point is the same. 00:32:08.400 |
That there is too much attention on yourself. 00:32:16.280 |
Self-preservation, self-gratification, self-glorification is at the root of superiority complex or inferiority 00:32:27.360 |
He also says the way the normal human ego tries to fill its emptiness and deal with 00:32:32.240 |
its discomfort is by comparing itself to others all the time. 00:32:37.920 |
He quotes C.S. Lewis from "Mere Christianity," and he says this. 00:32:43.720 |
"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next 00:32:51.520 |
We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good-looking, but they are not. 00:32:56.600 |
They are proud of being richer or cleverer or better-looking than others. 00:33:01.000 |
If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good-looking, there would be nothing to 00:33:13.880 |
And it is our self-focused life that causes us to keep people who are difficult to love 00:33:20.760 |
See, at the root of agape love is the gospel message. 00:33:32.320 |
"Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? 00:33:40.320 |
"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight." 00:33:55.560 |
This church was divided because a group of them was saying, "No, no, no. 00:33:58.960 |
Peter is the guy that we need to be loyal to." 00:34:02.920 |
You can understand their logic behind that because Peter was a leader among the apostles. 00:34:12.920 |
Apollo seems to know the Old Testament better than anybody else. 00:34:16.440 |
He was expositing and he was pointing to Christ before he ever even met Christ. 00:34:20.760 |
So Apollo clearly knows the Bible and we need to be loyal to him." 00:34:24.280 |
And then some people were saying, "Apostle Paul was the one who's risking his life being 00:34:28.600 |
He's the one who brought the gospel to Corinth." 00:34:34.880 |
And so every one of them were fighting for their opinion of who they should be loyal 00:34:41.200 |
And this division in the church has caused all kinds of problems in the church. 00:34:51.400 |
People who had spiritual gifts were speaking out of turn and they just would not let go. 00:34:58.880 |
As a result of that, Paul writes this nasty letter to them, "Shall I come to you with 00:35:05.000 |
And because they didn't want to hear what Paul had to say, they started questioning, 00:35:12.200 |
That's why he's saying, "Oh, if he really was an apostle, he would recognize that we 00:35:15.760 |
And then he has to write a second letter defending his apostleship because they didn't want to 00:35:23.880 |
And it's in that context he's writing this letter and he says, "Let no one deceive himself. 00:35:29.080 |
If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he 00:35:36.440 |
For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. 00:35:39.400 |
For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness.' 00:35:41.800 |
And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise. 00:35:49.360 |
You notice how he says, "He catches the wise in their craftiness." 00:35:53.600 |
Basically, what he's saying is people who are wise in their own eyes or wise in the 00:35:59.320 |
eyes of the world, they use their wisdom for craftiness. 00:36:07.160 |
They use their wisdom, they use their wealth, they use their influence to further their 00:36:14.080 |
cause, to further their rebellion, self-centeredness, self-gratification, self-glorification. 00:36:21.960 |
And what Paul is saying is, "Do you not know that God called you because you were weak?" 00:36:29.560 |
The first group of people that he called into the church and established the church is because 00:36:41.920 |
The first group of people that came was to demonstrate the power of the cross and not 00:36:55.040 |
In order that your faith will not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power. 00:37:00.640 |
So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas 00:37:05.800 |
or the world or life or death or the present or the future. 00:37:09.000 |
All are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God. 00:37:13.480 |
He says, "The root cause of division and hatred in the church is the same thing, the 00:37:23.600 |
same principles that we lived by before we became a Christian and we're just applying 00:37:36.040 |
But at the core of our motivation is self-glorification, self-preservation, and self-gratification. 00:37:48.240 |
In Jeremiah 45, 5, it says, "And do you seek great things for yourself? 00:37:54.520 |
For behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord, but I will give 00:37:59.040 |
you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go." 00:38:15.040 |
This agape love that he commands us to practice, that identifies us as Christians, is a rebellion 00:38:45.880 |
The only remedy to a broken relationship is not justice. 00:38:52.120 |
You have two people who are declaring justice. 00:38:55.840 |
But one person's idea of fair is not the same as the other person's idea of fair. 00:39:02.400 |
Two people who are having difficulties, who have conflict, cannot be reconciled by justice. 00:39:12.960 |
We can't even agree what is right and what is wrong. 00:39:20.080 |
The only way that the world can be reconciled is by agape love. 00:39:27.880 |
The only way husbands and wives can be reconciled is by agape love. 00:39:32.840 |
The only way that relationships can be reconciled is by agape love. 00:39:37.920 |
When we talk about Christ and what He has done, a typical question that people come 00:39:42.360 |
up with is, "I can't believe that your God destroyed the world in this flood." 00:39:51.600 |
When you see it from a biblical perspective, from a real perspective, everybody should 00:40:03.000 |
If somebody commits a crime and they don't get punished, you see people out on the streets 00:40:16.800 |
If you see a crime taking place, do we understand what happened? 00:40:23.560 |
Because if you see it from God's perspective, we can understand why He did that. 00:40:27.960 |
He created these human beings to worship and they're rebelling against Him. 00:40:34.400 |
When was the last time you had a bunch of ants coming into your home and out of annoyance 00:40:40.520 |
you crushed them and then you couldn't sleep at night because you were worried about the 00:40:43.440 |
ants' family and their children, their genealogy. 00:40:46.800 |
It's like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe what I did. 00:41:08.560 |
So the distance between us and God is far greater than the distance between me and these 00:41:19.160 |
And the only sin that they've committed was they annoyed me. 00:41:28.480 |
So if you think from God's perspective, the flood should make a lot of sense. 00:41:39.400 |
And what does not exist in this world is the cross. 00:41:44.240 |
Why would a holy God empty himself and take on human form all to save rebellious sinners? 00:41:59.120 |
There's nothing that we can relate to to say, "Ah, that's what God's love is like." 00:42:13.000 |
What he did on the cross is at the core of redemption. 00:42:18.560 |
It fights against our natural instinct for self-preservation. 00:42:27.400 |
It fights against self-gratification because we die to ourselves. 00:42:31.580 |
It fights against self-glorification because the gospel humbles us at the core. 00:42:44.220 |
Not just for justification, but for sanctification. 00:42:49.300 |
The only hope to reverse the curse of mankind is the love that he gave us, unconditional, 00:42:59.340 |
Again, as our worship team comes, let's take some time to reflect and ask the Lord to judge 00:43:15.740 |
the thoughts and intentions of our heart with the word of God that you've heard. 00:43:22.780 |
That if you have grudges in your heart, divisions, hurtful things, maybe even within your own 00:43:34.220 |
See if there's any hurtful ways in us that the aroma of Christ may be rich in our lives. 00:43:39.180 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.