If you can turn your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 2, we're gonna continue our series in first chapter 22 through 26. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 22 through 26. I'm reading out of the ESV. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for giving us strength to persevere. We thank you, Lord, for opening our eyes to see Christ and who he is and causing us, Lord God, to desire him. We pray this morning as we've come to worship you that we would worship you with all sincerity in our hearts.

Help us, Lord God, to open our mind and our heart to your word, that it truly would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. I pray, Father God, you would sanctify your church, that your love and your sacrifice for us would never become old. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

You know, some of you guys were fairly new to our church, and those of you who've been around for a while, you know the meaning behind our church name, Acts, it's from Acts chapter 17, 11. And part of the reason why we chose this name early on in ministry is because of the meaning behind it.

Recently, I've been studying, or I've been doing quiet time through Thessalonians, and again, I'm struck of how the power of the gospel really changed this church. And in such a short period of time, they became model churches. They said that Paul describes them as a church that their faith and love for one another was growing abundantly.

And so as a result, this church that Paul ended up coming to sending very, probably one of the shortest period of time in this church, and they became the model church all throughout Macedonia. But even though this was a model church, and we know plenty about the Thessalonian church because there's two whole letters written to them, but the persecution in this city, it got to a point where Paul needed to leave.

But Paul leaves, again, not purposefully, but this is probably maybe not even a city that he would have targeted. He ended up going to this church called Berea, or the city in Berea, because he was escaping persecution, and as he was there, he was preaching the gospel, and people began to come to Christ.

But he says, again, in Acts 17, 11, that this was a church that was more noble than the Thessalonians. And the reason why they were more noble is because they tested to see if what Paul was saying was true. And so the distinction between this model church of the Thessalonians and why this church is even above them is that they were testing, and they put God's word above everything else.

You and I live in a generation where the teaching of the word of God is not assumed. You would assume that if there are Christians, that we would be given to the word of God, that our faith is coming from what this Bible says, but we are being challenged left and right.

And some of you guys may know as much as I do that it's not assumed. You can't just assume, just because it has an evangelical church name on it, that the word of God is the foundation upon which they are building. That is not the case. There are plenty of churches that the word of God is being taught, but that is not a common thing that you see today.

We have to be a church that is committed to the word of God. And when I say committed to the word of God, I'm not just talking about finding the right church and becoming a member of a church that preaches the word. We as individuals in the churches have to be teaching and learning the word of God.

It's not enough that you are hearing expository sermons. It is not enough that you are attending a Bible study where the word of God is open. You yourself need to get into the word of God so that you can test if what I'm saying is true. Or else what ends up becoming is you end up filtering what you believe to be true or not based upon your own personal prejudice, your own personal experience, your own personal memories of what you thought to be true or not.

So after a while, you realize so much of our faith is based upon what I like and what I don't like. And what ends up happening is I happen to go to this church so this is what I believe. I like that preacher so I believe what he preaches.

I like this seminary so I believe what they teach. It is no longer safe in our culture and our generation for us to just rely upon what's coming off the pulpit. We have to be brains. Individually, we have to test the word of God so that if something strange is being taught in the scriptures that you can filter it out.

Before I ever say it, before any of the elders ever say it, that you can say, I don't know if that's biblical. I don't know if that's what the word of God teaches. See, in Philippians chapter one, 12 to 14, Paul actually describes the same situation that he's in in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy, as you guys know, as we've been studying through it, Timothy is timid. He's seeing his fellow co-workers, maybe some people have gone before him, who were co-workers of Paul, starting to fall out. Paul is sitting in prison with a death sentence. A few weeks from now, a few months from him writing this letter, he's gonna have his head chopped off and his life was gonna end.

Now, so the persecution that Paul is writing this letter under was very intense. But this is not the first time Paul writes a letter while he's sitting in prison. And the response that he got from the first letter was extremely different. So again, the background behind 2 Timothy is that Timothy's fallen out or like in temptation of falling out and weak and other people are falling out and Paul is calling them out.

But in Philippians chapter one, 12 to 14, this is what he says. Also writing in prison, also under persecution, he said, "I want you to know, brothers, "that what has happened to me "has really served to advance the gospel. "So that it has become known "throughout the whole imperial guard "and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

"And most of the brothers, "having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, "are much more bold to speak the word without fear." You notice a difference? Why is it that the first time he is sitting in prison, he says, "More and more people are coming to Christ. "It has served to advance the gospel "because they know that I'm in prison because of Christ." And as a result of that, most of the brothers, most of the brothers have become more courageous to preach the gospel.

See, the first time he's writing in the letter, people are not falling out. People are very challenged. But by the time he writes a second letter, people are falling out left and right. In fact, he's afraid that his very disciple, his son of faith, may also burn out and fall out.

What was the difference? Now, obviously, the intensity of the persecution was a little bit different because Paul, in the first imprisonment, was not actually indicted. Remember, they kept him around for a couple years and they took him to Rome, hoping that he would give some kind of a bribe to let him out.

But still, it was no cakewalk. He was being persecuted. He was chained to a Roman guard for over two years. And yet, people respond with courage. You know, oftentimes that happens. When somebody, you know somebody who's persecuted and say, "Wow, that actually gives us courage." But what was happening with the church in the Second Timothy, that they were starting to fall out and fear was coming upon them and people began to actually go back home.

I think the difference between his first letter and the second letter is that when he's writing the second letter, between those years, these false prophets came in to Ephesus. These false prophets begin to have infiltrate into the church and there was some persecution and there was some division and confusion that came into the church and that's exactly what happens.

You know, how does a strong church fall apart? Usually, it's because there's division, there's confusion and doctrine and people are no longer united. And when we are not united, we crumble. And I think that's the difference between the response in Second Timothy and First Timothy. That Second Timothy, he's talking to a group of people who are muddied in their theology, where the gospel was compromised and people were no longer sure about what was right and what was wrong.

If you've ever studied ancient Near East history, you'll find out that Rome was probably one of the biggest and one of the most powerful empires that has ever existed. But if you look at every empire prior to them, they were conquered by a greater nation. So the Syrians came in, the Babylonians came into power, so they got conquered by the Babylonians.

Babylonians would come in, the Persians come in and they become a superpower, so the Persians conquer them. After that comes Alexander the Great and the Greeks come in and the Greeks conquer them. And then Rome comes in, the most powerful of them all, and they conquer the Greeks. But the way that the Rome was conquered is peculiar because there is no superpower that comes in.

I mean, they're considered the greatest power and yet the barbarians were disorganized, very small in number. By the time they came into Rome, they couldn't even muster up a big enough army to fight against them. So in fear, all the Roman soldiers and the politicians, they ended up leaving Rome.

And then the barbarians just walked in, basically conquered almost without a battle. And if you've ever, again, studied the crumbling of Rome, you find out that there were so much internal fighting within Rome that they couldn't muster up enough strength. The government was so divided, they hated each other so much that after about 100, 200 years of this, there was nothing left within, even though they had the structure of this empire, inside they had absolutely no strength whatsoever.

So puny little barbarians, they walk in and they end up conquering them. That's exactly what happens in the church when we are not convicted in our theology. If our conviction is simply based upon, I like this guy or trends that are coming in and coming out, or I like to read this book, or I like this guy, but we ourselves are not convicted of the truth of what the word of God says, then we are weak.

Doesn't matter how much money we have, doesn't matter how organized we are, doesn't matter how much talent is in the church. If we are not convicted by the truth, if the Holy Spirit is not working mightily through the word of God in the individual lives of the Christian, we are weak.

We're divided. That's why it's extremely important for us. When Paul called Timothy to fight the good fight, the greatest thing that he was telling them to do is make sure that you guard the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you don't taint this, that you make sure that you fight.

So when Paul says here in verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversy. You know that they greet quarrel. We may first read that and say, oh, Paul doesn't want us to fight over anything. You know, we should be united. And so there's a lot of Christians that think that any kind of argument about doctrine is being judgmental, we're being farisic.

Is that what Paul is saying in verse 23? Is he telling us that you should just be divided, no matter what? Whether you believe in the deity of Christ or not, or whether you believe in salvation by grace or not, you know, we're Christians and we believe in Jesus, so let's make that our unifying theme and just get together.

Is that what Paul is saying? Now, obviously not, because if you look at 2 Timothy 10, five, Paul describes his ministry this way. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So Paul describes his ministry as destroying arguments, fighting against wrong opinion about God.

In fact, when Paul calls Timothy into ministry, 1 Timothy 1, 3 and 4, Paul tells Timothy, remain at Ephesus that you may charge. Remember that word charge? It's a military term. Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless geniality. Paul called Timothy to fight, fight for the integrity of the gospel, command these people to stop making these arguments.

And then in Titus 1, verse nine, it goes even broader than that. He says, the qualification of an elder. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So if you wanna be a leader in a church, the first thing that you need to be, you can't simply be a people pleaser.

You don't wanna get into conflict, or even though they're teaching wrong doctrine, you're like, that's not my job. So one of the qualification of an elder is to guard the good doctrine, guard the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you remember Paul in the book of Galatians, he publicly calls out Peter and Barnabas.

Imagine if Peter and Barnabas reacts against Paul's rebuke. Say, how dare you? He's a direct apostle of Jesus Christ. He's a leader among the apostles, and you're gonna publicly humiliate me? Imagine if Barnabas said, I discipled you. The apostles would have never even accepted you if it wasn't for me.

Instead, they see the rebuke, and they actually are humbled. And later on, Peter says, pay attention to Paul, Paul's letters, and he says they're equal to scripture. But imagine if that didn't go well. Imagine if Paul said, you know what, maybe I shouldn't rock this boat. Imagine if people, if this goes wrong.

I mean, the whole church could have been split into three, four parts, and it would have never been this. Imagine if Paul just backed away from this fight. You could say, hey, we should just be united. Let's just say we love each other. And even though the gospel is being tainted, let's just stay together.

Imagine what the church would look like today. See, Paul is not saying back away from the fight. He's not saying if people disagree with the gospel, you should just accept it and just, you know, just get together and say kumbaya and love one another. He's not saying that. Instead, if you look carefully, what he's saying is, he said, avoid, run from foolish arguments, foolish and ignorant arguments.

The word for foolish is moros, where we get the word moron. And I know you probably get a reaction like, moron, that's pretty harsh. It's pretty harsh. The next word, ignorant, basically is unrestrained, unstructured, undisciplined, uneducated, senseless. So to put it in modern English, basically Paul is saying, avoid stupid and dumb arguments.

He's not telling them to don't get into fights, don't stand up for the truth. He said, don't get sidetracked from stupid and dumb arguments. That has nothing to do with advancing the cause of Christ. There's, you know, again, because I'm a pastor, I get, every once in a while, I go to pastor's fellowship, and I really have to guard myself.

The reason I have to guard myself is because pastors are all teachers in their churches. They're all used to having the answers. So when you put 15 pastors together, you have 15 teachers and no students. So it's easily, all you have to say is, what do you think about this?

And for the next two hours, we're arguing over something. So every time I go to something like that, I have to pray. I have to pray in the morning, please help me to keep my mouth shut, no matter what they say. Some of these people say some dumb things and help me not to say anything, you know?

And I have to, because I'm an opinionated person, so, you know, I don't have a problem telling you what I think. So I have to restrain myself. And I, you know, what he's talking about is getting entangled with things that in the end, whether you win or lose, it does nothing but causes confusion.

The first time we went to China, I guess it was the second time we went to China, I went in the winter, and I had an opportunity to go attend an underground Bible study. So I was so excited. And they said a lot of non-Christians were coming, and there was a missionary who came from Tennessee, he was gonna lead the Bible study, went to his apartment, there was about, maybe about 30, 35 students.

More than half of them were not Christians. So I thought, this is awesome, we're gonna be able to participate and see what it's like to build a church in an underground church in China. Whole time that we were there, he opened up and he said, "Why, you can only read the King James Version." The whole time.

He had printouts about why it's King James and nothing else. And then he began to call out the other missionaries. There was a missionary that came from Calvary Chapel, there was a missionary that came from the Southern Baptist, and he's like, "Don't go there "because they don't use the King James.

"Don't go to that Bible study, "they don't use the King James." So I thought, that's a strange, like he has an opportunity to preach the gospel to these students. The whole thing that he's stuck up on is the King James. After the Bible study was over, about an hour and a half, we're walking out and the student, or the girl that we took to this Bible study, first thing she said to us, "Why aren't Christians sold to Bite?" I really had no answer.

And I didn't wanna add to that saying, "Don't go to that Bible study." (congregation laughing) So I was just kind of playing it off. I was like, "Ah, maybe he didn't mean what he said, "whatever." (congregation laughing) We get so caught up sometimes in a church and over trivial things.

Why are you singing hymns? Why are you not singing hymns? How come you're dressed up? How come you're not dressed up? And all these things, in the end, all it does is promote controversies. Is there a motive to advance the cause of Christ? Remember what Paul says to the Corinthian church?

Corinthian church was a church that Paul literally risked his life to bring the gospel. And initially they were doing well. People were coming to Christ. But by the time he writes the first letter to the Corinthians, the Corinthians are messed up. And the reason why they were messed up is because they were all measuring each other to see who was better.

I follow Apollos, he's a great preacher. I follow Paul because he's a great evangelist. He's finding churches everywhere. I follow Peter because Peter is a direct disciple of Christ. And then some of them even more superior. I follow Jesus. Basically, in the sight of God, it's like people comparing centimeters, who's taller?

It's like, I'm taller than you because I'm five feet eight. Oh, I'm five feet eight and a half. I'm better than you. It's silly arguments in the sight of God in the end. So what does it produce? You know how Paul deals with that? He said, all this chaos that's coming into the church because you guys are trying to one up each other spiritually and you think it's godly because you're talking about godly things, but it has nothing to do with God.

It's your own pride. And so you know how Paul deals with this? He said, how many of you were from noble background when you became a Christian? How many of you were really wise? How many of you had some significance? Don't you know that God deliberately chose you because you were nothing?

God deliberately chose you to demonstrate the power of the gospel so that somebody who had nothing will become something in the eyes of God. So why are you who deliberately, God deliberately chose you because you were nothing, now you're trying to be something in the church? And don't you know that that's the reason that the church is being destroyed?

That was the argument. I mean, that's as humbling as you can get. Proverbs 18, two, it says, a fool does not delight in understanding, but only revealing his own mind. In other words, when a fool gets into an argument, his goal is not to pursue Christ. His goal is not to pursue, you know, the greater cause of the good of the gospel.

His only desire is I want to know if I'm right or if you're wrong. Basically, he wants to know if he's right. All he's doing is revealing, this is what I know. These are the books that I read. This is the theology, these are the degrees that I got.

But his ultimate goal is not to advance the cause of Christ. And that's what Paul is saying. He says, don't get caught up in these silly, stupid arguments. And all it does is produces more pride and chooses confusion and dissension in the church. In 1 Timothy 1, four through seven, it says, don't devote themselves, these people devote themselves to myths and endless genealogy, which promotes speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

Are the things that we are pursuing, are the things that we are standing up for, is it because we want to advance the cause of Christ or is it because we've been offended? Is it because we got in an argument? I remember, you know, used to go on campus at UCI younger, a long time ago, and I would get into arguments with people.

And typically, I would get into argument and usually a lot of arguments end up becoming about the evolution, about science and faith and all that. So I remember reading a Time magazine and one of the articles of the Time magazine basically said that because now we have computers and they can calculate the possibility of evolution, and basically the article basically said that it is improbable, the odds that a single cell can mutate to something completely different, macroevolution.

And he said, it is so improbable that you can't say that this is a fact. At best, it is a bad, bad theory. And again, this was written in Time magazine by a secular author. So I said, awesome, so I copied this. I copied this, so whenever I went on campus, I had that in my back pocket.

So whenever I got in an argument, I was boom, bam, right there. Read it, right, let's talk afterwards. So I actually used to carry that around. And I was there, I'm just waiting for, it's like evolution, boom, evolution, right there, okay. But the whole time that I've done that, I've never had somebody read that article and say, wow, I didn't know that.

That's so awesome. Let me know about this Jesus that you're talking about. Typically what would happen is they would get offended because I would humiliate them. And even the way I would talk to them, it's like, shh. That's all you got, right? And I would get into this argument with them, and after a while, I got pretty good at it because I know what they would say, I know how to answer these things.

So I would get into an argument, and I would give them this and that, and then after a while, it's like, oh, okay, okay, I guess you know your stuff. But what ends up happening is they go back home, they wanna do more research to argue what I said.

And all I did was to give them more motivation to go poke holes at Christianity because I humbled them. I've been in so many situations where you see Christians debating against the scientists, and sometimes the scientists win, sometimes the Christians win, but at the end, I realized all they're doing is to see who's a better debater.

It's hard to get through all of that because in the end, here's this guy who's a champion debater and he could debate that the banana is green if he wanted to and then convince everybody 'cause he's just so articulate, he's funny. Every time he says something that, these facts add up, he would say something funny and poke fun of him, everybody laughs in the room, the end.

And at the end of that, a lot of these events, I find Christians standing up there clapping. Ah, you made an idiot of that guy, that guy doesn't know nothing. And I remember sitting in the back of one of these things, about 1,500 people, and I was thinking, was that the purpose of this?

Was this the purpose to humiliate these people? I wonder if this did anything to bring somebody closer to Christ. All we did was show we know, and this guy's a master debater, and that guy knows nothing. Was that our goal, to reveal what we knew? See, that's what Paul is saying, that you get into these quarrels, and all it does is produces divisions.

So why, why should Christians avoid these things, and why should we, it's in verse 24. Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently, enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. Now, you remember when Paul is saying that, remember the background of this man.

He's sitting in prison, and he had people preaching the gospel just to make it harder for him. That's mind-blowing, why would somebody preach this awesome message of sacrifice, and do it deliberately, use that message to hurt this guy? And yet, Apostle Paul was a recipient of that. He goes to Corinth, and he preaches the gospel, sacrificing, risking his life.

In fact, he says when he came to Corinth, he was trembling in fear, discouraged, being beaten up, thrown into prison. Every city he goes to, he goes to Corinth, and understandably, he's discouraged. Jesus speaks to him and said, "Have courage, continue to do the work. "I have many people who are my disciples here." And so Paul, despite his discouragement, risking his life, preached the gospel, and he was very fruitful in Corinth.

But by the time he writes 2 Corinthians, many people in this church was questioning, this guy, this guy's not speaking from God, he's not an apostle. So the whole letter is him convincing them. You think they're apostles, but I am more, and he's going through his credentials of how much he suffered, how he almost died, and he said, "This is crazy." The fact that he's even having to defend himself.

And so when he says to Timothy, "You must be patient with these people, enduring evil." This is a man who endured a lot of evil. Inside the church, we're not talking about outside, inside the church, and at the end, he's encouraging his disciple. "You must endure, you must be patient." And again, Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 3, 9, "Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, "but on the contrary, bless, for to this you are called, "that you may obtain a blessing." See, the greatest evidence that a person is a recipient of grace has to be grace.

Greatest evidence that you and I receive grace is grace. That if we are recipients of grace, that we would also be people known to be gracious. God, when Jesus told his disciples that the world would know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another, as I have loved you.

If you have any secular friends, and I'm sure many of you do, and you probably have non-Christian families, do your non-Christian mother and father love you? Of course they do. Do you have a non-Christian brother or sister? Do they love you? Of course they do. So what is so unique about this love that Jesus says, "To love one another as I have loved you." The whole world practices love.

Mother loves father, father loves the mother, that they love their children. I don't know too many people, Christian or non-Christian, who doesn't love their kids. Or don't love their parents. They may be dysfunctional, they may have problems, but they still naturally love their family, their friends. And even their coworkers.

There's a lot of people giving to the orphans, who aren't Christian. So what is so unique about this love that Jesus says, "That the world will know that you are my disciples, "if you have love for one another." What love distinguishes us? Well, the love that the Bible talks about, is this love, people that don't deserve it.

In this, God demonstrates his love, that he loved us while we were yet sinners. He died for us while we were yet sinners. He loved people who didn't deserve it. Where God's love shines the best, is when it is the darkest. When it is the darkest, it's when God's love shines the best.

If you look at Israel's history, there are some dark periods in Israel's history. There are periods in Israel's history, where they actually make human sacrifices. These are God's people, who have the law of God, who've seen God in his glory, who've received the law of God. God spoke to them.

He moved with pillars of fire. I mean, when they were hungry, he fed them with miracle bread. When they were thirsty, he would open up a spring and feed them, or cause them to drink miraculous water. And yet, in Israel's history, if you look at all of the kings during Israel's history, majority of them were idol worshipers.

They sacrificed human beings. In fact, a lot of times, they would bring these idols inside the temple, this holy temple. There are some dark periods in Israel's history, but the darkest period in Israel's history was the period when Jesus was led to the cross. These recipients of the greatest love of God, they couldn't recognize their own king.

So when they came, Jesus gave his work. He preached, he performed miracles to demonstrate to them who he was. And yet, they didn't recognize him. Not only did they recognize him, they rejected him because he didn't fit what they thought the Messiah would be. And then when he goes into Jerusalem, he didn't just, he wasn't just hung on the cross by the Romans, he was forced to be hung on the cross by the leaders of Israel.

The very people he came to die and to save, they hand him over and they demand that he gets crucified. There's some dark periods in Israel's history, but there's none darker than what that period that led Jesus to the cross. But it is at the darkest period of Israel's history where God's love shines the brightest.

It was while we were yet sinners, while we were hostile toward him, he pursued us, he loved us. And so at the cross, you see the darkness of human history, as dark as it can possibly get. But the greatest hope is also found at the cross. The greatest love was revealed at the greatest sin.

And so when he says, the world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another as I have loved you, he's talking about the cross. As I have loved you. So the love that I want you to practice is different than what the love the world practices.

You love people that don't deserve it. You love people who absolutely deserves justice. And that's why he says, a Lord's servant, not just anybody, but a Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. If you end up having to fight everything because of your own pride, you just become known as that guy.

You fight about everything. So after a while, when you really need to fight for the truth, you've been disqualified. Because you're just a hot-tempered guy. So Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to everyone, patiently enduring evil. When the love of God shines the brightest is when we practice love with people that everything in our heart yells no.

And no one would blame you for hating that person because they deserve it. Who would blame God for destroying Israel? Many times over, who can possibly stand before God and say, why didn't you destroy these people? When they were cursing you, they brought idols into the temple. After all the time you've shown them mercy, they continue to blaspheme your name, continue to forget, continue to drift, and you still love them.

Who would blame God if he walked away? And yet, he came and he pursued us. And that's why he says, the world will know you're my disciples. With each other, we can say, you don't know my circumstance. You don't know what my parents were like when I was growing up and now they yelled at me.

You don't know the abuse that I got. You don't know my background. The reason why I behave this way is because of what's been done to me. And in the world, we can understand that because that's all they've known. They've grown up in a sinful world that was tainted by sin, where sin reigned.

The God of this age is Satan. And so we can understand an individual saying, you've been hurt, so therefore I'm hurtful. I've been abused, therefore I tend to be abusive. But no Christian could possibly stand before God and say that. We love because he first loved us. No Christian can stand before God and say, I'm doing this because they did this to me.

And the first thing that God would say is, what about what I did with my son? So for us to stand before God and say, I do what I do because of what they've done to me, it's like saying, you gave me Jesus, but that wasn't enough. Any Christian who believes that the son of God stepped off his throne and died for sins, deserving of hell, could not possibly stand before God and say, and justify our sins.

You can't. No Christian who confesses to believe in Jesus Christ can use your circumstance as an excuse to be disobedient, to be harsh, to not to be gracious. We're gracious because he's gracious to us. That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, 1, 5, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind.

Well, is Paul talking about another level of Christians? Here's a bunch of Christians that you believe in justification by faith, and you have faith, and then here's another group of Christians who have been encouraged by Christ, comforted by his love, have participation in the spirit. Well, let me tell you, Paul is not talking about degrees of Christianity.

There is no Christian who has not found encouragement in Christ. There is no Christian who has not been affected by the love of Christ. I say, oh, I don't know what you're talking about. You believe Jesus died for you, right? Yes. Then how can you say you haven't been affected by the love of Christ?

There is no Christian who doesn't fall under every one of these categories, participation in the spirit. If the spirit is not in you, you are not a Christian. He's not talking about another level of Christian, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind. In other words, he's reminding the church, look what you have in Christ.

Even in this great church, there was some division. These two prominent ladies were fighting, and it was beginning to affect the church, and he said, don't forget what it is that you have. You have encouragement in Christ. You have comfort from his love. You have participation in the spirit.

You have affection. You have sympathy. Then complete my joy by having the same mind. What mind is he talking about? Same mind as Christ. Having the same love. What love is he talking about? Same love as Christ. Being in full accord with one mind of Christ. And so therefore, he says, looking to Christ.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. How can any Christian stand before God and say it is not enough? You don't know my circumstance. You don't know what it's like at home.

You don't know what it's like at school. Every single one of us has been given the greatest gift. Even if we become homeless, and we couldn't pay our bills, and we become diseased, and we die, there's not a single person in this room that can stand before the throne of God and say, Lord, it wasn't enough.

Son of God was given for us. Sometimes we forget that. It just becomes a passing thing. Yeah, he died for us, but what else you got? And that's why Paul says that a Lord's servant must not be. If you've been affected by the grace, you have to be characterized by grace.

If you've been affected by the love, your life should be characterized by love. Finally, he says, why this needs to happen is God may perhaps, if you're gracious and if you're gentle, God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

In other words, don't forget the ultimate charge is love. 1 Timothy 1.5, Paul, after commanding Timothy to teach these people to stop teaching false doctrines, he says, remember though, the aim of this charge is love, which comes from a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith. Not simply to win, not simply to say, oh, I win, I know the Bible more than you, I know the gospel better than you.

The goal of it is love. Possibly to win them over. If they're going down the wrong path, our goal should not be to humiliate them and say, look at that, look at what they're doing. Instead, he says to go in gentleness, hoping that they will return. Galatians 6, one and two.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For me, I know that the Bible teaches church discipline, but sometimes I see the way that church discipline is being carried out, it's almost like vengeance.

You did wrong, and we're gonna repay you. See, I'm always cautious about that, and the reason why is because I know my own heart. If you slap me, I don't turn the other cheek, and I say, what this one? That doesn't happen naturally. You strike me, my fist is coming up, and I gotta put it down.

It's like, okay, don't do that. People are watching, you know what I mean? If we're in a black alley, maybe, you know. That's not my natural response. My natural response is vengeance. So if somebody does something to hurt me, I'm in a position where I can hurt them. I can hurt them much harder than they can hurt me.

And so I'm always cautious, 'cause I'm afraid of my own heart. So the standard that I use to test my own heart, because sometimes even I'm confused, would I do that to my own son? Would I publicly humiliate him if he was my own son? Is there some way to win him over?

Because my desire, if it was my son, is there any way possible that I can turn him around and see repentance? Because that would be my desire, not to hurt him. So if I wouldn't do that to my son, I shouldn't do that to anybody else. Because my ultimate goal ought to be to win him over, to desire what is best, not to hurt him because he hurt me.

And that's why he says, the spirit of gentleness to win him over, who knows, he may repent. He may come to know Christ. He may be saved from the snare of the devil so that he may be won over to Christ. Let me wrap up my message this morning with this.

Because if we lose the big picture of what we are doing in the church, we can easily just become self-righteous, Bible-toting hypocrites if we're not careful. Like I know better than you, our church is better than that church, if we're not careful. You know, typically when we talk about the prodigal son, you'll hear two different levels of interpretation.

The first level is the prodigal son. You know, we've all strayed and the father is waiting and so God is a God of mercy waiting for his son. And then if you go to a Bible-teaching church, it's, oh, that's not what that's about. It's about the legalistic older brother.

He's in the background when they're celebrating. Why is he being celebrated? So that really is about legalism. That's the second level. But there's actually a third level of interpretation of this. If you look at Luke chapter 15, you'll notice that Luke chapter 15 begins by saying that Jesus is with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners and the Pharisees are saying, if you're the Messiah, how can you possibly be hanging around with these sinners?

And Jesus, in response to this rebuke, gives three parables. And the prodigal son is the third parable. The first parable is a parable of having 100 sheep, one goes away and he leaves a 99 to chase after the one. So he gets the one, puts him on his shoulder, brings him back, and at the end of the parable, there's a celebration.

Everybody rejoiced, we followed. What is the point of that parable? God cares for these sinners. They went astray and he loves them so much that he went and sought them out. And when he came back, we celebrated. Second parable is about the lost coin. He loses a coin and the owner goes and he sweeps the whole house looking for this coin.

And when he finds it, he's so happy, and I don't know how much this coin is worth. But he says it was just a coin, maybe it's made out of diamond. But he brings this coin back, and what does he do? He doesn't put it in a banquet, a bank, he has a celebration with the coin.

So what was the point of this parable? That that one coin, it may seem like nothing to you. That one sheep, it may seem like nothing to you. But when the owner finds it, he celebrates. So he wasn't even about the sheep. I mean, you're gonna have a whole celebration to celebrate the coming return of one sheep?

I mean, just mathematically, right? Financially, it doesn't make any sense. The one coin, you find that, and you come back, and you're gonna blow all your money because you found that one coin? So you missed the whole point of that. That may seem worthless to you, but to the owner, it is precious.

And after that, he gives the parable of the prodigal son. So the parable of the prodigal son is the same. The other one's, one's a sheep, one's a coin, this one's a human being. He leaves, he rebels, but he repents, and he comes back. And what does the father do?

He watches him, eagerly embraces, he rejoices, just like the other parables. And then how does the parable end? Rejoicing, he calls everybody, my son has come back. And what is the response of the older brother? Why do you celebrate with this guy who rebelled against you when he comes back?

And so, yes, it is about legalism. It is about this guy who, the older brother, he's bitter. He said, oh, it's about legalism. But if you look at the larger picture, it goes beyond that. It's about the nation of Israel who have forgotten their call. The whole reason why they got stuck on this legalism is because they started measuring themselves with other people.

We're better, those are sinners, and we're not. You don't go to that city because this is where it's pure, and that's where it's dirty. And they forgot the whole reason why God called Abraham in the first place. He promised him in Genesis chapter 12, I will bless you, and through you, many other nations will be blessed.

He called the nation of Israel a royal priesthood, a kingdom of nation, of priests. In other words, that God was going to lift them up, and then through them, all the other nations will be blessed. But they completely forgot about that. And if you look at the story of Jonah, it was the same thing.

You know, ah, these are dirty people, these are bad people, they shouldn't be in any, and then when they come to repentance, what does Jonah say? I knew you were gonna do that. And that's not what I wanted. Remember how that book ends? Why do you care that these people, they can't even determine from left and right that I have mercy on them?

And the book ends like that, with a rebuke. Rebuke to Jonah, rebuke to the nation of Israel. You forgot why I pursued you. You forgot why I blessed you. And so the rebuke in the prodigal son is that you should be pursuing these sinners. You're concerned that I'm hanging around with these sinners, but you don't know I came to seek and save the lost.

You're the one who's wrong. They, these sheep, this coin, this person, was so precious to me, and you're so caught up thinking about, am I right? Am I clean? And you've forgotten about who our God is. He's a God who does not delight. In punishment, it says, he came to seek and save, though even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

So if our church ever gets caught up, oh, we have this program, we're doing this, and we're doing that, and our church is growing, we got a large facility, people love each other, and it may be a great church on the surface, but if we're not vitally pursuing the lost, you have forgotten the whole reason why you and I are here.

It's not for us to be here and be clean and be righteous, and then compare with other people and look how great we are. If we're not broken for the lost, you missed the whole point. When Jesus told his disciples, I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me, and in the next I am statement, he says, I am divine, no one bears fruit unless you abide in me.

What was he telling his disciples? If you follow me, you have to do what I'm doing. If you abide in me, you will bear fruit. Keep coming. And that's what the scripture says, if you have love for one another as I have loved you, the world will know you are my disciples.

And what love is this? Loving people who don't deserve it. Strangers in this world, have you forgotten what it was like before you met Christ? Have you forgotten the darkness that you were in? The utter hopelessness of not knowing why you existed? Having sin in your life and guilt in your life, and you didn't know what to do with that.

And how it weighed you down, how you were utterly hopeless, lonely, and dejected before you knew Christ. The whole world is under the reign of sin, and the only hope is Jesus Christ. And for us to forget and to be satisfied because our bills are paid, and because our children are healthy, and there's no war, and there's no disease, and we get so wrapped up in these trivial things, and we forget the big picture.

We're on the boat because we got saved, but what about those people who didn't make it? See, that's what Jesus was saying in the prodigal son. The father is celebrating because my son came back. Of course the father's gonna celebrate. Why aren't you celebrating? Why aren't you helping me out?

Why are you in the back and just pointing fingers? If you miss this, you miss the whole point. We're not here because like, oh, we have the right doctor. We have the right word. We have the right church. We have good friends. Don't ever forget what it was like before you met Christ, because the rest of the world is under that bondage, and you and I have the key to release them.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, I pray that that conviction will move you and change you into obedience, to take the cross, go to the nations, and make disciples. Would you pray with me? Take a few minutes to pray for the loss that you love, your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, a coworker, a friend.

If you've forgotten what it was like to be lost, and because of that, your heart has become callous, that there's no sense of urgency, whether they come to Christ or not, that you would first come before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Lord, forgive me for having a callous heart.

Forgive me for giving up and not trusting in you. Forgive me for not seeing the consequence of not abiding in Christ. That come before the Lord in genuine repentance. Lord, I wanna be a true worshiper. Lord, give me your heart, so when I see the multitude, that I may have compassion be broken, that the power of the gospel would not simply be a safety net or a security blanket, but it'd be a power that saves.

So let's take a few minutes to come before the Lord and confess and ask the Lord to bless us and strengthen us.