Father, we come to your word, and sometimes, Father, when we come to your word, we're afraid
to ask questions of your word, because we feel, Father, that it's maybe offensive to
you or maybe we're afraid of the answers.
We confess to you, Father, that sometimes we're afraid of the way others mock your word
or ask questions about your word that we don't know how to answer.
Father, we ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit gently but deeply upon us at this
time and grant us a great confidence in you, a great confidence in your word.
And, Father, as we become more and more confident in your word, help us to listen to the Bible
ever more deeply.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So this isn't a test.
I don't know how carefully you were listening.
When Abby read the epistle, Romans 12, and in the epistle, towards the end of it, she said,
how did, what was it she said towards the end?
She said, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
So here's the question.
A couple of years ago, he wasn't part of our congregation at the time, but I got his permission
to say his name, by the way, just in case you're worried.
Oh, boy, is George going to use my name and me as an example in a sermon?
I got his permission.
A couple of years ago, just before he joined this congregation, a man who's part of our congregation,
Ross Allen, served a tour of duty six months in Afghanistan as part of Canada's fight against
the Taliban.
So the question is this.
Did he sin?
Did he sin to go to Afghanistan to be part of Canada's mission in fighting the Taliban?
Should he be repenting about it?
Should he come under church discipline?
Should we fight ISIS or feed ISIS?
Is that what the Bible text is saying?
So we're going to look at that.
It'd be a great help.
And that and a whole pile of other comments.
It'd be a great help then if you could turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, verse
9 and following.
Romans 12, 9 and following.
Because some of you might, especially those of you who are maybe guests and are seeking,
just trying to search out and seek out what's going on with the Christian faith or making
sense of your life.
And you might have had a whole range of comments about the moral list, the ethics list, the
virtues list that Abby read a little bit earlier.
And it's a very, very deep text, Romans 12, 9.
For some of us, it would be a great thing to take if we wanted to take an afternoon or a
couple of hours someday to just reflect upon our life.
It would be a great text to use to reflect upon our lives, Romans 12, 9 and following.
And let's just look at this whole question and we'll begin.
Actually, if you could put up the first verse on the screen, Andrew.
And we're going to camp here longer on this one verse than all of the other verses between
9 and 21.
And it's partially because in some ways this is a key text to make sense of all of the things
in verses 10 to 21.
This is like a key text that we have to sort of have in our mind.
It's the memory verse which I suggest for the week.
And if you could read it out loud with me.
Love without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil.
Cling to what is good.
Let's say it together again.
Love without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil.
Cling to what is good.
And some of you haven't the vaguest idea in the world what abhor means.
But we'll get to that in a second.
So here's the thing about this text.
And it looks very, very simple.
And in fact, we're going to talk about this more in a moment.
For some of us it even looks like it's commanding an emotion.
Because in our culture, love is often thought of as a very, very powerful and important,
not only an emotion but a disposition to act.
But it's often thought of as an emotion.
So here's the first thing about this text.
Which is, and it's going to be, you know, talking about this ISIS issue and all of it.
Unless we get this verse, the rest of it's going to be difficult to us to understand.
Some of you probably have no idea what abhor means.
And some of you are thinking, I think I know what inestimable meant.
But it's probably, if I asked you how many people used the word abhor or inestimable in the last six months,
probably nobody would put their hands up.
Maybe some of you English majors have used it.
But they're very uncommon words.
And one of the things which is very, very interesting about the Bible
is that when Paul would have written this to the church in Rome,
and it would have been in Greek in the original one,
a lot of the congregation probably scratched their heads
because they didn't know what he was talking about when he said that very first word, love.
Paul chose a very obscure word in Greek when he wrote this.
We're very common with the word now, but I mean the Greeks had other words that we now translate as love,
but this word agape was a very rare word in Greek literature prior to the New Testament.
The word agape, which is translated as love, is in the New Testament hundreds and hundreds of times,
but it was rare.
So virtually every time you read the word love in the New Testament,
you can imagine that the original hearers were scratching their heads,
especially guessing, saying, what on earth is that word?
And they have to go back to their equivalent of their dictionaries to figure it out.
And so the ancient Greeks, they were very familiar with the idea of what we would call brotherly affection,
the word Philadelphia, which is actually in the next verse.
And they were very, they knew about eros,
which is often, you know, sort of sexual attraction,
which is one of the main ways that we understand the word love.
And they were just, they were very familiar with the type of love between friends.
And they had words for all of this, but they had this rare word.
And this rare word means a self-giving,
self-sacrificing,
self-emptying
acts for the good of the other person.
I'll try to say that again.
I know it's not a lecture,
but this word agape means self-giving or self-emptying
or self-sacrificing
or putting yourself and your needs second
to act in a way which is good for somebody else.
And it was a rare word.
But for Christians, it's in a sense an obvious word.
Paul was a very, very learned man.
And probably, you know, he's maybe just reading,
you know, casually some Greek fiction or philosophy or something like that,
some Greek plays.
And he comes across that word and he says,
no, that exactly describes what Jesus did for us.
What a great word.
Agape.
It describes what Jesus did for us.
How he set aside his glory and his divine prerogatives
and his divine splendor,
his appearance as God,
the honor that was due to him as God,
the prerogatives that were due to him as God,
the worship and veneration and fear that was due to him as God.
He set all of that aside in obedience to the Father
and out of love for human beings
who were rebels and hated God in a sense
and were completely misled.
He set all of that aside
and he didn't stop being God,
but he takes into himself our human nature
and he comes and lives amongst us as a human being,
completely and utterly unrecognized,
eventually rejected by his people,
crucified upon a cross,
which is a shameful form of death.
Everything there is to taste of death.
You can't be poorer than dead.
He comes to be completely and utterly poor.
He rises from the dead.
He's vindicated, but he does all of that
because he loves human beings
and wants human beings to be reconciled to the Father.
There is no better word for love than agape.
And so it's almost any sense in our culture
that love involves a type of self-sacrifice
or putting yourself second
or that it's an action, not just a feeling.
It comes from Christianity.
It's from the Bible,
the Christian faith that it's had.
Whatever presence it has in the culture,
it comes from here.
And so this is really important
because in our culture we're losing this.
And it's really interesting.
Can you say this verse with me again, please?
Love without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil.
Cling to what is good.
In our culture,
we tend to think of love as primarily a feeling.
We don't tend to think of love as a verb,
as an action,
something that we actually do.
Even if we don't have a feeling of love
or affection or anything like that
or friendship,
that it's something,
things that we do.
And so in our culture,
increasingly it's a feeling.
And it's often seen,
it's funny,
in our culture,
increasingly,
if somebody says that there's something
which is good and evil,
which is coming up in a moment,
people say,
well, good and evil are relative.
It depends on if it's good for you or for me.
But if there's one absolute in our culture,
it's the absolute to love.
Like,
loving trumps all sorts of things.
And we know in our culture
that the experience of love in our culture
and in many other cultures,
it has a power to blind.
Like,
how many pop songs
and country and western songs
all go around the type of idea,
if loving you is wrong,
I don't want to be right.
You know?
And love, love, love,
all you need is love.
Like,
just constant
praise of love in our culture.
And the Bible here
isn't undermining the praise of love.
In fact,
I think that the Christian faith
teaches that love
is the soul's food.
We were made
at the very depth of who we are
as in souled bodies
is we hunger for love.
That is what our soul needs.
To thrive.
Because ultimately,
God made us for himself
and God is love.
And only the Christian account of God
makes sense of love.
Because from all eternity,
before any human beings existed
or before any angel existed,
the Father loved the Son.
And the Son loved the Father.
And in some scripture texts
it's described almost as if
the Holy Spirit's constant movement
between the Father and the Son
is the love of the Father and the Son.
And the Holy Spirit is love.
To have the Holy Spirit
be poured out into our hearts
is to have love poured out
into our hearts.
The Bible exalts
this self-sacrificing,
self-emptying,
self-giving love
as an action for the good
of the other person.
And it is our soul's food.
But it can blind.
It can mislead.
It can overwhelm common sense.
And it's not just an emotion.
But the very heart
of these Christian virtues
that all of the other virtues
that are going to follow it
begins with this three-legged stool.
The first part of it is
love without hypocrisy.
In other words,
it's to come from our heart.
It's not to just be something
we do to manipulate
the other person.
And it's connected
to these two other things.
One of them is the word abhor.
In the original language,
the word which is translated
as abhor,
it's the only time
in the New Testament
that this word is there.
And it's a word
that actually has
emotional connotations to it.
It actually sort of
is trying to say
to be the goal
that this verse
is launching us on a quest
in terms of
to live a life
that is actually sane,
intellectually, morally,
and relationally.
And at the heart
of this quest
is that we're going to try
to love without hypocrisy.
And we're going to abhor evil.
And that means
actually have a type of
physical and emotional
revulsion to it.
It would be as if
somebody said
they were going to give you
a tasty roast beef sandwich.
My apologies
to the vegetarians.
A tasty roast beef sandwich
or for the vegetarians,
a tasty tofu sandwich
if you're vegan.
And you get the roast beef
and there's maggots
and it's rotting
and you gag.
Harder to notice
maggots on tofu.
No, I shouldn't have said that.
Because it's white.
That's right.
Anyway, same type of idea.
And that's what this word is.
That as we,
that the Bible is calling us
to be launched on this quest
that's going to call us
to love,
that self-giving actions
for the good and benefit
of others
that comes from our heart,
that's consistent,
congruent with who we are.
And that part of that
is also going to be
that as we get closer
to loving people
and knowing God,
that there is this,
increasingly,
there will almost be
a revulsion,
a gagging,
as if somebody offers us
rotten meat
when we are invited
to do that,
which is wrong.
And the word here,
I think we try and,
I use in this version here,
cling,
to what is good.
There's,
the word that's translated
here is cling.
It's used in,
in,
in several other places
in the New Testament.
We're not going to turn them
right now,
but if you go to
1 Corinthians 6,
and there's this passage
about why Christians
shouldn't sleep
with prostitutes.
And the word for being
united with a prostitute
in,
in sexual knowing
is the word
that we translate here
as cling.
And when it talks,
Jesus talks about
a union
of the husband
with the wife
that's a type
of sexual knowing,
that,
that holding fast
to the,
to the wife
by the husband,
that's the word
which is translated
here as cling.
In other words,
that the,
this quest
for moral
and relational
intellectual sanity
is going to involve
that we have
this,
that we're propelled
to act
in a way
that is good
for the other person
that means
in potentially
putting ourselves
second.
and it's not
that love
is now
completely
and utterly
blind,
but you can't
love if you're
completely and utterly
ignorant of good
and evil.
And it's very obvious
from talking about this
that this means
that this opens up
a whole can of worms
in our culture,
which I don't have
time to go into,
but I just,
it needs to be seen here.
I'd say,
by the way,
that this,
this is deeply true.
This is deeply,
deeply,
deeply true.
That,
but in our culture,
we tend to think
of right and wrong
as relative,
that we tend
to think of it
in terms of,
sorry,
moment here,
big fancy word,
utilitarianism.
That's basically
how most people
think of right and wrong
in our culture.
And within utilitarianism,
it's the,
you know,
it's whatever's
going to cause
the least amount
of pain
or the most good
for the most people,
that's what you do
for an act.
But the problem,
there's huge problems
with that.
Utilitarianism
has no remedy
against selfishness.
I mean,
it sounds very good
that whenever
we're going
to do an act
that we should
think of what's
going to cause
the most harm
and the most good
for the most people
is some type
of Catholicism.
But here's the problem.
I'm going to be
blindingly honest
with you.
I don't weigh myself
the same as you.
And you don't do
that for me.
In fact,
isn't it very,
very common
for, let's say,
political leaders?
Like,
what went on
in the province
of Ontario
with a whole range
of political scandals?
Did the premier
calculate the greatest
good for the entire
province?
Or did he say
that the good
for himself
and a couple
of his friends
outweighed the
worth of
10 million people?
And I'm not
saying that to pick
on him.
I'm not trying
to make a political
point.
I'm just saying
that's the profound
problem with
utilitarianism.
The fact of the matter
is that every one
of us think
that we're
worth more
than the other
person.
You know,
it's going to
discomfort me
or discomfort
you or the
whole congregation.
I choose me.
That's how it weighs
out in the scale.
And the other
deep problem
with utilitarianism,
even though it
has, I mean,
you know,
partly that obviously
is part of moral
reflection,
but just not
as an overriding
rule,
is that utilitarianism
is what allowed
Stalin to kill
up to 50 million
people in Mao
to kill up
to 50 million
people,
and the rulers
of the Khmer Rouge
to kill a third
of the population
because to move
to a classless
society,
it's just
unfortunate that
a few people
have to die
along the way,
but the end
justifies the
means.
And the Bible
here,
when it's saying
love must be
love without
hypocrisy,
abhor what is
evil,
cling to what
is good,
it's picturing
that the good
is not relative,
that the end
does not
justify the
means,
that there's
the complete
opposite of
utilitarianism,
there is a
profound challenge
to selfishness.
And the fact
of the matter
is,
is that selfishness
is always the
barrier to love.
That at some
point in time
in a relationship
for a husband
and wife,
for the marriage
to last,
because both
are sinners,
I'm a sinner,
Louise is a sinner,
we're both sinners,
and at different
times in the marriage
you have to die
to yourself
and put yourself
second,
for the marriage
to go.
It's of the
very nature
of love,
real love,
the soul's
food,
is to be
willing to
die to self.
And it's
deeply connected
to recognizing
what's good
and what is
evil,
and the Bible
here is
obviously
portraying it,
not that it's
perfectly known
by any human
being,
but that there
is something
which is
really,
truly good,
and things
which are
truly evil,
evil,
and that
moral sanity
means that
we gag
at evil,
and we
want to
be as
close to
the good
as we
possibly can,
because using
old language,
you know,
every one of us
has a will,
the food
that our will
needs is
goodness,
is the good.
If our will
is given
over to
evil,
we shrivel
and die.
The will
feeds
on the good.
The soul,
the very bottom
of who we
are,
it feeds
on love.
The mind
feeds
on
truth.
And
the emotions,
the affections,
it feeds
on beauty.
That's the
heart of the
Christian mind
and the
Christian worldview,
and this text
is inviting us
to enter
into a
quest
that's
ultimately
an outline
of sanity.
The Bible
is inviting
us to be
sane
in every
culture
which has
elements
of insanity.
Some cultures
are way more
insane than
others.
Can you say
this verse
with me
again?
Love
without
hypocrisy,
abhor
what is
evil,
cling to
what is
good.
And here's a
prayer.
If you could put it up,
Andrew,
and just,
by the way,
I know that
these,
the other points
will move through
them a bit,
obviously,
a bit more
quickly,
otherwise it'll be
an 80-minute
sermon.
but these
points,
if you're
interested in
them,
all my
points this
morning are
just
invitations
to pray.
And it's
an invitation
to pray
because nobody's
arrived.
I need to
pray these
prayers.
You can
always have
more.
And they'll
all go on
the web
later on
if you're
curious about
trying to
use them
later on
in your
devotions.
Dear
Lord,
please make
me a
disciple of
Jesus
gripped by
the gospel
who loves
without
hypocrisy,
completely
rejects
evil,
and is
inseparably
glued to
what is
good,
all to
your glory.
That's what
this Bible
is inviting
us to
pray.
This text
is inviting
us to
pray.
Now,
there's
one,
some of
you might
be saying,
are you
George
saying that
Christians
are the
only ones
who know
what's
good?
That if
you don't
read the
Bible,
you don't
know what's
good?
That non-Christians
only love
evil things
and Christians
only love
good things.
George,
that's
completely
and utterly
ridiculous.
And some
of you are
saying,
George,
don't you
know that
what's
good and
evil is
often determined
by the
powerful?
ISIS thinks
it's doing
good things
when it
slaughters,
it kills
Christians and
Muslims who
aren't the
same type of
Muslims as
them and
destroys works
of art.
They think
they're doing
good things.
And George,
you haven't even
got to other
things in the
text which are
completely and
utterly ridiculous,
like the Bible
telling you how
to feel.
And there'll
be a lot of
pushback to
this, right?
I mean,
so often when I
think, when I'm
preparing my
sermon, I think
to myself, if I
was to say some
of these things in
my local Tim Hortons
or Starbucks, how
would people react?
Especially if they
were the majority and
I was the only one
reading the Bible.
But here's the
thing, and I know
sometimes, I've had
comments occasionally
that some people in
the congregation don't
appreciate it when I
ask the questions that
non-Christians ask.
And that's fine.
But here's the
thing.
Well, actually,
here, we can't
grow as Christians
without asking
questions.
Andrew, could you
put up the verse
Romans 12, 1 and
2?
All of the ethical
parts of the book
of Romans, in a
sense, it's an
unpacking of these
two verses which
are at a profound
heart of what it
means to be a
follower of Jesus.
Could you read it
out with me,
please?
I appeal to you
therefore, brothers
and sisters, by the
mercies of God, to
present your bodies
as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to
God, which is your
rational worship.
Do not be
conformed to this
age, but be
transformed by the
renewal of your
mind, that by
testing you may
discern what is the
will of God, what
is good and
pleasing and
perfect.
You get nothing
else out of this,
you'll start to
memorize the Bible.
Better to know the
Bible than my
words.
Take that to the
bank, base your
life on it.
And you'll notice
in that text, on
one hand, there's
obviously things about
obedience, like
sometimes Christians
are threatened by
questions because
they say, George,
you just have to
obey.
And that's true.
This text tells us
that obedience is the
bottom line.
But it says
testing.
It says testing as
part of the renewal
of your mind.
And that both means
like in evangelism,
when you try to share
the gospel with other
people, people push
back and ask questions
and that's fine because
sometimes, here's the
thing, sometimes these
questions are very,
very, very, very
honest questions.
Sometimes the
questions aren't.
Sometimes the
questions, there's no
person, they're not
asking seriously, they're
just trying to
embarrass you.
They'll ask you a
question that makes
them sound like an
atheist and then as
if they're a Hindu and
then as if they're a
Buddhist and then as if
they're an agnostic and
then as if they're a
rationalist and then as
if they're an empiricist
and you don't know what
some of those words mean
but that's fine.
But the fact of the
matter is that they're
all contradictory.
And when people ask a
whole series of
questions like that, it
often means that they're
actually not serious,
they're not asking
honest questions.
But you read the
gospels, Jesus loves
honest questions.
He never is upset with
an honest question.
Dishonest questions, he
often tries to make them,
to flip it on them to
show their hypocrisy of
the question.
But honest questions,
Jesus loves honest
questions.
Christians should love
honest questions.
And honest questions is
how we grow.
Could you put up the
second prayer here,
Andrew, the second
point?
And it's just an
important thing for us
to pray, especially those
of us?
I know I don't
always like questions.
You know, I get into a
conversation with somebody
and they ask me a
question and I can just
feel my face going red
and I don't know how to
answer the question.
And, you know, maybe
there's a whole series of
I just get red, you know,
and I stand there feeling
a bit embarrassed.
And that's fine.
I mean, it's not, I don't
enjoy it.
But life goes on.
Sunrise is the next day.
And the good thing about
questions like that is it
can propel us to search
the scriptures and search
for wise Christians alive
today or who have been
alive before us who can
give us answers to the
question.
You will come across no
question at a Starbucks
or a Tim Hortons or a
Bridgehead that has not
been asked before that some
wise Christian hasn't
written an answer to.
So here's the second
point.
Dear Lord, please make me a
disciple of Jesus.
This is gripped by the
gospel who daily meditates
upon your word and asks
your word honest questions
so that you will renew my
mind to obey your word and
live for your glory.
For all of us who are afraid
of questions.
And, you know, when I began
this, you know, this question
about whether we should feed
ISIS or fight it, that's a
real question.
That's part of the difference
between Anglicans and
Anabaptists.
That's part of the difference
between an Anglican and a
Hutterite.
It's a real question.
It's a good question to ask
and to meditate upon.
And so this second point, a bit of a
challenge, especially for us
Christians.
I mean, it's a challenge for any
seekers who are here is, are you
asking honest questions or
questions to make yourself look
smart and other people look dumb?
Jesus loves honest questions.
And Christians should love honest
questions.
The truth is your friend.
Clarity that follows questions is
your friend.
So that's why I suggest that we
want to pray, Dear Lord, please
make me a disciple of Jesus gripped
by the gospel who daily meditates
upon your word, thinks about the
word, asks your word honest
questions so that you will renew my
mind to obey your word and live for
your glory.
So let's look.
We've spent a long time on one
verse.
We're going to look at the others.
And does the Bible command
emotions?
Does the Bible say that we should
feed ISIS rather than fight it?
Is the Bible being foolish and
impractical?
Is Nietzsche right that the Bible
reflects a slave mentality?
That's what Ayn Rand said.
Those of you university students
probably are familiar with Ayn Rand's
thinking.
Is it just reflect a type of slave
mentality, doormat mentality?
which isn't appropriate to the
dignity of human beings?
Is that what the Bible's teaching?
Well, let's look.
We'll read verse, I'll read verse
nine and then we'll keep going on.
Let love in, so love without
hypocrisy, abhor what is evil,
cling to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly
affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Now just sort of pause here for a
second.
The first few verses, probably
verses 10 to 13, are really
talking a bit about continuing to
talk about life within the
Christian community.
But then in verses 14 to 16, it
branches into not only life with
our friends, like in our Christian
community, but our neighbors and our
enemies.
But these first ones in particular,
love one another with brotherly
affection.
It's specifically addressed to the
church.
And it means that the type of
relations that we should have in
the church are the type of
relations we should have as if we
were a family.
Brothers and sisters, mothers and
fathers, aunties and uncles.
That's how we're to understand and
try to view the local church and
also the relations between churches.
One of the things we pray about at
the church prayer meetings and the
staff prayer meetings when we pray
for other churches is that there be a
growth of affection, brotherly and
sisterly affection between the
churches.
It's a good thing to pray for.
And it's also then, it's giving us a
bit of a sense now about what does it
mean to love as an action that is
putting ourselves second and is
seeking to do good for the other.
Well, it comes here with love one
another with brotherly affection in
terms of love each other as if we're
a family, outdo one another in
showing honor.
In other words, in much of the
world, we outdo one another in
trying to get promotions and trying
to get the credit.
How many of us work in situations
where if things go right, the boss
gets the credit, things go bad, who
gets the blame?
I know you can all share scars
afterwards during coffee from those
times when it just, you know, and
we've all worked with people who just
seem to be on one hand Teflon when it
comes to problems and magnets when it
comes time to compliments.
And the Bible says that's not the way
to live a life.
In the Christian community, we should
try to praise each other.
Verse 11, do not be slothful in zeal,
be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Just a bit of a pause here.
The sin of sloth is the sin of being
lazy about the things that matter to
God.
It's probably one of the biggest sins
for churches in the year, for
Christians in the year 2016, where we
can be so busy, like those of you who
are parents, you can be so busy taking
your kids to 63 different activities a
week, and you're both working on jobs, and
you're both really, really harried, and
before you know it, you've been really,
really busy doing really, really, really
culturally good things, and you haven't
prayed once all day, all week, all month,
all year.
And busyness is a sign of sloth.
Because sloth isn't laziness, it's
laziness and indifference to the things
that matter to God.
It's, you know, in a sense, saying, you
know, maybe as a parent, I should put my
kids in fewer activities, and just let
them play, and maybe take a few minutes
to pray and read God's Word, or have time
to do something loving for others, outside
of the family.
Verse 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in
tribulation, be constant in prayer.
It's very easy for people, and in fact,
this text has often been used to justify
people staying subservient, like in a
slave-like position.
It's not justifying that at all.
And, you know, because it, the other texts
are all full of action words, right?
It's filled with, is my mic going in and
out?
No?
Okay, it sounds like it's going in and out
to my ear.
So it's filled with action words.
It's not saying that you don't get out
of trouble, or you don't try to do what's
good, or it's not saying that you just
always let powerful people step on you.
That's not what it's saying here.
But it's talking about the fact is that
sometimes we just have lots of
tribulation in our lives, and there's
sometimes there's nothing you can do
about it.
There really isn't.
And you just have to be patient, and
you have to be present in those
difficult times, not with optimism,
because optimism tells us things are
going to get better.
You know what?
Sometimes things don't get better.
Sometimes the arthritis stays.
Sometimes the news of the cancer, it's
not going to be healed.
You know, sometimes you get the bad
news on the phone, and it's going to
describe an aspect of your life for the
rest of your life.
And the Bible here isn't telling us
about optimism.
It's telling us about hope.
And the difference between hope and
optimism is optimism is a worldly
belief that things will get better,
often by our own power.
Hope is saying yes to the promises that
God makes to us.
It's a very, very different thing.
It's similar, but very different.
And so the Bible here is encouraging us
to know the promises of God and read
them and pray them.
And even if we're saying, Father, I
believe in this promise, help my
unbelief.
So it's in the Bible.
Pray it.
You know?
And it's one thing to go through long
seasons of pain and long seasons of
having not much money or long seasons of
loneliness or a whole range of other
tribulations.
But to have a sense of the promises of
God.
That you're chosen by Jesus.
You might not be choice, but you're
chosen.
That he hears your prayer.
That there's a new heaven and a new
earth.
That there are things in your prayer life
that can make a difference for others,
even if it's just going to be an act of
love and put yourself second and people
don't even notice it.
And you can go on and on and on.
But it's an invitation, not just to
believe that things are going to get
better, but to believe that God has
made promises and he kept them in
Jesus.
He'll keep them for you.
And we can start to learn them and ask
that God would help us to believe them
in the midst of our troubles.
What verse was I on?
Just keep going through them.
Verse 13.
Contribute to the needs of the saints
and seek to show hospitality.
That's sort of an obvious one.
The main thing about hospitality is
hospitality in the New Testament is
dealing not with being hospitable to
your friends, but to strangers.
The other.
People who are different than you.
For a person who's involved in a
certain type of youth culture, maybe
with lots of tattoos and piercings, it's
being hospitable to old, to old,
middle-aged white guys like myself.
And vice versa.
It's the stranger, the other, which we're
to primarily show hospitality to.
Continue on.
Verse 14.
Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse them.
This is really inviting us to deal with
the problem we have with anger and
hatred.
That when people hurt us, our natural
reaction is to hate them, to be angry
at them, and want to not just see them
punished, but to see them obliterated.
How many people in the U.S.
want to see Trump be completely and utterly
obliterated?
How many Trump supporters would love to
see Hillary Clinton completely and utterly
obliterated?
I'm taking the U.S.
example, but I'm doing it because
we can get the point.
It's a natural part of being human
is that there are people that we hate,
that we're angry, that we want to
obliterate them.
And this text is directly challenging
that as the way to deal with human
beings.
Verse 15.
This is the one that some people would
say that it's commanding us to have an
emotion, rejoice with those who rejoice.
I mean, and people might say, well, how
silly is the Bible commanding us to
rejoice?
You can't command somebody to rejoice.
You can't command a feeling.
But if you look at the text again, and
you just think to yourself, well, maybe
the text isn't stupid.
Maybe it's smart.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep.
It's calling us for empathy.
In a very, very concrete way, it's
calling us to try to look at the world,
walk a mile in somebody else's shoes.
To try to look at the world from their
perspective in their eyes.
Doesn't mean that everything they want
to do is right, or everything they want
to do is wrong.
But it's calling us to not put ourselves
first and see ourselves as the center of the
universe, but to actually try to look at the
world from another's point of view.
Verse 16.
This is a really important verse for those
of us who live in a government town,
where if you go into a meeting with
others, you know, maybe in politics, or I
guess in business as well, or a political
meeting, and the tendency is to want to
flock to the popular, the powerful, or the
up-and-coming, and treat as toxic those
on their way down.
You know, we've all been in those types of
receptions where their eyes are just
dancing around, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but they're looking for somebody way more
important, or cool, or hip, or beneficial
to themselves to spend time with.
And this next verse is saying, notice the
wall weeds.
A wall weed is a wallflower, but not as
pretty.
Far more plain.
Notice the toxic, the wall toxic people,
the weak people.
Notice the servers.
Notice the waiters.
Notice the janitors.
And notice them.
And the working class and the lower
working class.
And notice them.
And walk towards them, not away from them.
Verse 16.
Sorry, I guess I skipped it.
Oh, yeah.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, which is excessive
pride, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight.
A major problem with all of us is that
we're legends in our own minds.
And most people don't share our own
legendary status in our own minds.
Now we're going to get to the part that
deals with ISIS.
And I see my time is running out.
I'll have to, we'll deal with this in a
sec.
But look at the ISIS thing here.
Repay no one evil for evil.
Verse 17.
But give thought to do what is honorable
in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God.
For it is written, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, says the Lord.
To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry,
feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
For by so doing, you will heap burning
coals on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
And, um,
how do we understand this text?
You know, one of the problems we have,
this isn't a text,
remember I said at the very, very beginning
that it's verse 9 is sort of like the
toehold.
If you were rappelling down a mountain,
this is where you'd hammer something into the rock
so that you're not going to go crashing down
the mountainside when you go rappelling.
That the rappelling would actually work
because you have this firm anchor
in solid rock that helps you to understand things.
And the common human problem is,
in fact, which is often characterized,
not entirely fairly,
it's by the modern left,
but, you know, there's an element to it
that on one hand,
there's a whole way of thinking in the West
that people are basically good.
That, um,
what can be good for me can be,
you know, there's a type of moral relativism,
a type of belief that at the same time
it's a bit of contradictory
that things are right or wrong
depending on who you are,
but contradictorily we also believe
that people are basically good
and that it's basically that
the enemy needs a type of therapy
or a type of lesson
and it's very, very powerful,
especially in university settings
and people who have degrees.
It's a very, very common type of way
of viewing the world.
The other way of viewing the world,
which is very common,
is to basically see war
as a type of god,
like a love of violence.
In the time that Paul was writing,
there was actually a god of war.
Like, in fact,
that the,
many of the, um,
Roman, um,
like the armies,
they'd actually worship a god of war,
different gods of war,
and there can be a worshipping of violence
and a worshipping of war,
and the Bible here
is going in between the two of them.
In fact, interestingly enough,
the Bible isn't here saying something
which is black and white,
it's causing us
to take a step back
to try to say,
it's very, very obvious
from verse 9
that the Bible doesn't believe
that things are relative
and it doesn't believe
that, um,
that people are basically good.
And at the other hand,
it's also saying
that you definitely don't want,
you have to completely
and utterly dethrone
and take away as an idol
anything to do with war.
And it's definitely the case
that there are times
when a gentle answer
turns away wrath.
And if this was
the only text in the Bible,
it might be that
that's how we would view it,
that we should,
should just sort of
give in to ISIS.
But the very, very next verse,
which we're going to look at
next week,
talks about the state.
It talks about the role
of the state
in having the sword.
It's a,
it's a,
it's a complete rejection
of pacifism.
Although the type of pacifism
espoused by Hutterites
and certain Mennonites,
I think is very noble
because they would be willing
to be slaughtered.
And there's no naivete
about human beings
being basically good
or that ISIS
is basically good.
No naivete
in true Anabaptist thought.
But it's not
a biblical good
to allow innocent people
to be slaughtered.
It is a biblical good
to do what you can
to prevent the slaughter
of innocents.
Thou shalt not kill.
And it's,
it's not a biblical good
to allow yourself
to be slaughtered.
And the Bible here
is not saying
that the good
can be determined
by evil people
because obviously
from ISIS's point of view
it would be a good thing
if we laid down our arms
and allowed them
to walk over us.
But there's no real way
that you can understand
that that could ever
possibly be a positive good
to allow people
who would completely
and utterly suppress
religious freedom
and oppress women
and people who have
sexual orientations
which the Bible say
are wrong
but they're still human beings
for which God died
and there's no
biblical justification
to murder them
because of their
sexual orientation
or to hate them.
There's no biblical warrant
for any of that.
And it is not at all
even remotely loving
to see this text
as meaning a capitulation
to any type of responsibility
to defend the weak
and the innocent
and to defend
religious freedom
or prosperity.
So the text
is calling us
to a type of
in some ways
uncomfortable middle place
that calls for prayer
and reflection.
It's out of texts
like this
that this idea
that there can be
a just war
has developed
and I know
there's complications
with it
but it's vastly wiser
than naively believing
that human beings
are basically good
or worshipping
the idol
and the god of war.
I've gone beyond my time.
Let me just say
Andrew,
could you put up
the third prayer?
We'll do the last two
very quickly.
Dear Lord,
please make me
a disciple of Jesus
gripped by the gospel
who is dying
to all of the sloth,
envy,
unforgiveness,
greed,
anger,
and hate
in my life
which is why
Jesus died for me
and help me
to live free
and whole
for your glory.
That's what the Bible
wants us to do.
It's outlined insanity.
Here's this final thing
I was going to go through.
I don't have time
to do it
but there's another
powerful motivation
for a Christian
when they read this
because if we read
this script by the gospel
what do we understand?
Who showed love
to me
but Jesus?
Who died
on the cross
for me
bearing evil
because he hated evil?
That was Jesus.
Who died
clinging
to what was good
by obeying the Father
and seeing the good
that this was a good creation
worth dying for?
That was Jesus.
Who did not
repay evil fruit?
Like you go all the way
through this text
we have to read
this text
as a follower
of Jesus
understanding
what Jesus did
for us on the cross
and if you look
at this text
from a different thing
Jesus
blessed those
who persecuted him
we persecuted him
but he blessed us
he did not curse us
you know
he came to identify
with us
to take upon himself
our human nature
in a sense
to rejoice
with those who
rejoice
and weep
with those who weep
he died
so that we would be
at peace with God
because we were
enmity with him
he became humble
he was the opposite
of haughty
so that he would
die upon the cross
he associated
with me
when I was completely
and utterly lowly
he did
what was good
for all
could you put up
the final prayer
Andrew?
Dear Lord
please
sorry I have to
turn the page
Dear Lord
please help me
to remember
that in wrath
I treated you
as my enemy
please help me
to remember
that you showed
me mercy
when Jesus died
upon the cross
in my place
please help me
to live
in humble gratitude
to Jesus Christ
crucified
and then live
for the good
of people
and for your
great glory
this entire text
only makes
sense
to be launched
on a journey
on a quest
of moral sanity
understanding
what Jesus
did for us
we
were the violent
ones
we
were the ones
who clung
to evil
we were the ones
who wanted him
rejected
and he
died
for us
please stand
father we
ask that
your holy
spirit
would do
a deep
work
within us
that you
would deliver
us from
all fear
of honest
questions
that you
would deliver
us from
a fear
of the
truth
that you
would grant
to us
father
a love
of the
truth
a love
of clarity
a love
of honest
questions
that you
would grant
us father
a love
of your
word
but most
of all
father
we ask
that you
would make
us
disciples
of Jesus
who are
gripped
by the
gospel
who
father
live our
lives
out of
gratitude
for the
mercy
you showed
us
on the
cross
that you
father
would daily
humble
us
as we
meditate
upon
your
mercy
shown
to us
in the
person
of
Jesus
and as
father
your
holy
spirit
humbles
us
by
helping
us
to
meditate
upon
the
mercy
shown
to us
by
Jesus
help
us
to
live
for
the
good
of
people
and
for
your
glory
and
we
ask
this
in the
name
of
Jesus
your
son
and
our
savior
amen
им
we
to
God
him
to
him
and
to