Hope Anew

Monday, November 13, 2023

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.  Psalm 78:7-8

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, makes a very compelling point of caution for each new generation in humankind to set its hope anew on God so we don’t forget His great power, what He’s done, and how we must not be stubborn about it. 

If there is one consistent, and nearly inviolate reality about the human family, it’s the tendency towards promising fidelity lightly, and then breaking promises in favor of a supposed better way.  Israel’s history is a microcosmic rule-of-thumb for humanity’s proclivity to agree with God today, and discard their allegiance when the road gets a little bumpy. 

From Asaph, fast-forward to Russell’s generation, raised in the 1950’s/60’s.  Yes, we’re talking about the hippy-era, free love, LSD, marijuana, or alcohol, your drug of choice, but everybody joins the march against Vietnam involvement.  Yes, THAT generation!  We were going to be different than our parent’s generation.  Everything was going to be different, and much better than the old folks.  Music changed from swing to rock.  Clothing was unimportant, and we drove VW vans, not Cadillacs.  But the truth is we were just making Asaph’s point…every new generation has its own style, but the root of Adam’s nature, rebellion against authority, puts us on a collision-course with our Creator’s authority.  Our arrogant stubbornness separates us like night and day from God’s love and care.  As the cartoon character Pogo once said:  We have met the enemy, and he is us!

Opposite the viewpoint of the “new” generation is the head-shaking disapproval of the “old” generation.  My parents didn’t like my music, and frankly I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I hear and see in the current generation’s entertainment.  And this makes Asaph’s point as well.  It isn’t the style of any generation that matters.  I can say that unreservedly because you won’t find style-police in Scripture.  What matters is not a generation’s style, but whether they will set their hope anew in God.

This brings a Scriptural focus to the so-called “worship wars” down through the generations.  There is enough criticism to fill the universe with nausea about how people worship.  The list includes music style, traditional style, contemporary style, blended style, liturgical vs. free style, fogey or edgy style, robes or skinny jeans, somber or giddy, silent or bedlam, pretribulation rapturist, or anti-rapturist.  Most everything that creates an argument is a tempest in a teapot about style.  And there is a verse in John’s Gospel that tells us what God thinks about all of it:

For You Today 

A prayer for those with whom you see wide gaps of difference, is to ask God to let the scales of criticism drop from your own eyes, and help you to ignore the style of that next (or former) generation, and pray for them to see the magnificent opportunity and blessing they have to place their hope anew in God’s love and care.  Much better to pray for someone’s blessing than against their style.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

When Judgment Falls

Monday

October 31, 2022

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.  But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols.  You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.  I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people.  Don’t even eat with such people.  It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.  God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”  1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Paul was consistently misunderstood and criticized for his teaching on sexuality.  The apostle was even mentioned by his fellow apostle, Peter, as being somewhat hard to understand, but acknowledged that Paul’s revelations were from God, and delivered with the authority of Scripture.  Peter further stated that only the twisted mind (of false believers, not true Christians) mocked what Paul was preaching, and God would take them to task for it.[1]

So…what was it Paul taught that was so controversial?  It’s the very same thing you hear as a criticism (mostly from those outside the church), that Christians are judgmental, and critical of anybody who isn’t as holy as they consider themselves.  It is a blanket condemnation, by unbelievers, that all believers are blanket-criticizers.  It’s a little like the pot calling the kettle black!

Now, if that’s the misunderstanding of what Paul taught, what is it, precisely, that Paul did teach?  He taught just the opposite – that Christians ought not to judge those who are outside the church.  Paul said expressly that he left that to God.  The responsibility of judging (not of motives or ethical commitment) but behavior of Christians within the church is necessary, for the purity of God’s bride.

While Paul focused on sexual sins (sex outside of marriage, including unmarrieds, same-sex, and adultery), because that was rampant in the Corinthian church, he pointed to other gross sins that were demeaning to the character and moral ethic of the people called “Christian”.  Among those were greed, cheating and idolatry.

Without raking-over the lewd details of any of that list, let me cut right to the chase this morning.  I am not lambasting 21^st-Century culture for being immoral, and un-Christlike; the apostle Paul’s injunction against pointing fingers at those outside the church still stands.  It is the sin within the camp that strains credulity.  Today’s church (in large percentage) has identified more with the surrounding culture, than what Scripture identifies as the Bride of Christ.  It is the church’s lukewarmness in embracing those who profess Christ as Savior, but live in open, and unapologetic opposition to moral and ethical Christian standards. 

Sexual sins, including all forms of homosexuality, and heterosexual activity between unmarried people, along with every other kind of sin, must be held to accountability within the church before anyone outside the church will seriously take the church as something God-ordained.  You clean your own house first!

For You Today

I am not proposing a witch-hunt to weed out the church membership rolls.  I am suggesting, however, that pastors had better quit trying to fill the seats and grow a Corinthian-infested organization they call a church.  In place, it would be better to return to the practice of the mourner’s bench, to wait awhile until the fruits of true salvation are exhibited in the life of those who profess their faith.  Otherwise Pastors and elders who ignore this might hear from Jesus on that Great Judgment Day:  Depart from me…I never knew you!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions libraryI.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       The Third Day   and   Living in Sodom

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1]  See  2 Peter 2:1-22 and 2 Peter 3:15-16

Pain in the Parsonage

[i]

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

This is a trustworthy saying:  “If someone aspires to be a church leader, he desires an honorable position.”  So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach.  He must be faithful to his wife.  He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation.  He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach.  He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent.  He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money.  He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him.  For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?  A church leader must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall.  Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.  1 Timothy 3:1-7(NLT)

I’m not the only pastor who takes a deep breath when he reads this passage.  It’s a formidable list of qualifications; who, besides Jesus, lives up to this?  I think the one that troubles most preachers greatly is that sticky one about managing his household.  I was going to write a book once entitled Pain in the Parsonage, but decided I’d wait a while on that like Pastor Bruce McIver who wrote the series on Stories I Couldn’t Tell While I Was a Pastor.  Some things are better if you sleep on them and put a little distance between reality and revelation.

One painful memory from my youth is about Dave[ii], who was the son of my pastor when I was just a boy.  This preacher’s kid was just a baby when Pastor Olson and the family hit town.  He was much younger than me, so I didn’t hang out with him.  Dave’s Dad was a great pastor; he hung out with the youth mostly, and the church grew like wildfire.  It seemed overnight the little sanctuary was overflowing.  By the time I graduated high school the congregation had built a brand-new building and parsonage.  But the pressure on Dave was building.

Dave was a sensitive young man and the occasional criticism that came with the job of being a pastor surfaced.  Dave’s Dad, usually congratulated for everything good that happened, was now being vilified for not pleasing everyone.  Some of the older members assumed he should have been visiting them, rather than taking the youth group on a camping trip or playing softball at the children’s day.

When Dave’s high school days came to an end, the open door was too appealing, and Dave left home, hitchhiking to California for a vastly different life than his small-town upbringing.  Pastor Olson took Paul’s letter to Timothy at face value, judging that he had not managed his own family well, so he was disqualified from serving as pastor.  He resigned his position and took up carpenter’s tools to earn a living.  But all the while Dave was in the far country, Mr. and Mrs. Olson kept praying for their son.

One night the phone rang; it was Dave.  He’d had enough of the good life that really wasn’t very good; Dave was somewhere in the Midwest, hitch-hiking towards home.  He needed to know if it was alright to come all the way.  Dave and my former pastor cried together and prayed together on the phone and made plans for the reunion.  Their prayers had been answered.

But, somewhere on the long road home, something happened, and the phone rang again.  This time it was the police; Dave’s body had been found in a ditch beside the highway.  He’d been beaten, robbed and left for dead.  Dave, the blond haired, blue-eyed twenty-something sensitive son of a preacher never made it home…at least to his earthly father’s embrace.

I never heard whether they found out exactly what happened, or whether Dave’s murderer was held accountable.  It’s just a fact of life that sometimes there is no such thing as closure; it is only faith that God holds all things in His trustworthy hands, and Dave, having given his life to his Redeemer, did make it to his eternal home with Jesus. 

For now, that is enough.

For You Today

You may have never lived in a parsonage, but you have dealt with pain.  For followers of Jesus Christ, it is our chief blessing that we do not have to shoulder it alone!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:  via Pixabay.com

[ii] This true story is based on my recollections and a recorded program of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family

Blessed Enemy

[1]

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance.  Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion.  I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire.  And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.  They were all holding harps that God had given them.  And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”  Revelation 15:1-4^(NLT)

I have this love-hate kind of adversarial relationship with my radiation mask.  Every weekday for the past few weeks I’ve willingly climbed on the table and two sweet technicians begin their torture routine:

Head back…no not that way…c’mon lift those knees a bit…shoulders down…more…!  Then comes the mask (which was custom-made to fit my facial and shoulder contours) pinning me to the table with little fastening clips that hold a preacher in place so the radiation can fry my vocal cords.  Well, more accurately, so they can fry the tumor on my vocal cords.  That mask presses me down more tightly than ugly is found inside an envelope from the IRS!  I hate that mask; I love that mask!  There are times in life when you wake up to a startling fact:  not everything which opposes you is really the enemy. 

Who we are and What we do

Ambivalence, those mixed feelings, when you despise something, yet there is something redeeming that pulls you towards it…is something we find in many passages of Holy Scripture.  Mostly this is because Scripture deals with who we are, and what we do. 

Human beings are created in the image of God with body, soul, and spirit.  We possess the gift of autonomy, the freedom to choose.  Because we have free will to determine how we live, we are also subject to the outcome of our actions.  We love the freedom and often despise the consequences.  When we find ourselves hating what we are experiencing, but deep-down knowing there is something necessary about it, we have to remember the bad news of our circumstance is often a messenger of hope. 

So, how should you act when that kind of messenger shows up?

When the doctor said it was cancer, and made this barbaric medieval mask to make my treatment more accurate and effective, I did not shoot the messenger!

When a parent violently snatches her small child off the railroad tracks because there is a train coming, that Mom is not the enemy!

When a true friend delivers the news that you’re walking dangerously close to ruining your reputation with something you’ve been planning to do, there’s a reason to stop and listen.

And when God sends the last of seven plagues on the earth, it will not be because He despises mankind.  Scripture declares it will be the signal for unending eternal praise to begin, for God has completed His promise of redemption…and the party is about to begin!

If my doctor’s treatment to address the physical enemy in my throat works the way he planned, in another 19 days my relationship with the mask will come to a merciful end.  A few weeks later I should start to feel a whole lot better.  It will have been a difficult, but blessed relationship with my mask…my blessed enemy!

For You Today

At times in our lives it may seem like God is the enemy, that He’s trampling all the grapes of wrath on your head.  But never despair in that direction; He is the truest of friends, faithful and strong on your behalf.  Be of good courage!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth (own work)

House of Mercy

[i]

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.  Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.  Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.  One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”  “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up.  Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”  Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”  Instantly, the man was healed!  He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!  But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected.  They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath!  The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”  But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”  “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.  The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.  But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.”   John 5:1-14^(NLT)

Come with me as we look over the shoulder of Jesus as He enters the Temple near the sheep gate.  Notice the pools of Bethesda.  There are many columns, supporting the elaborate roof.  They form a colonnade porch leading up to the House of Worship.  The sheep for sacrifice come in this way.  They walk between the pools.  Now Jesus, the Lamb God, walks the way of sacrificial lambs through the gate, and amidst a sea of bodies. 

All the suffering, crippled dregs of humanity are waiting at the pool’s edge for the waters to be stirred.  They believe it is a sign that the angels are waiting – the first person to enter the water will be healed.  Certain televangelist “faith healers” would have made a killing in that environment. 

Watch now, as Jesus suddenly stops and stares at a particularly broken man.  He has been waiting at that pool for 38 years.  (Talk about your long wait in the doctor’s office!).  Jesus was on His way to Sabbath worship, but has singled out this one, crippled, helpless sufferer to prove Who the Lord of Sabbath is; and what Sabbath is for.  The House of God is about to become “Bethesda” the House of Mercy.

Jesus catches the man’s attention and asks, Do you want to be whole?  The man wonders …What a question …I’ve been laying here four decades and this guy wants to know if I’ve had enough?  Can’t he see, I have to lay here and beg; I don’t have anyone in this whole stinkin’ world to help me get in the pool for my miracle.  Everybody else jumps in the pool first.  What can a poor cripple like me hope to do? 

Anticipating the excuses, Jesus says:  Stop your excuses, get up and walk!  And the man, to his own surprise, did just that!

This account of healing is more than a miracle.  It is more than a proof of Jesus’ Lordship over the Sabbath, and the laws of nature.  This is an act of grace, and it is an act of mercy.  The pool, House of Mercy, or Bethesda, was so-named because the sacrificial sheep were herded in that gate.  It is by sacrifice God shows His mercy.  Literally, the name means House of Kindness (Chessedh in Hebrew), which is the covenant mercy God shows to his children.

The radical view of Jesus is so different from most of His followers.  We often say (or at least think) we can’t do much.  But, Jesus said, freely you have received, so go give to others in that same way. 

Our resolve has to change.  What Christ calls us to be and do is to receive from Him freely, and give freely.  We must change from our impotence of We can’t do much, to that which Jesus gave to his disciples on the day he sent them out.  He told them they must do what they saw Him do.  And for us it can be no different – WHAT WE HAVE SEEN CHRIST DO…WE WILL DO!

Now, if this is true that, What we have seen Jesus do, we must also do, then being a House of Mercy is what this church is called to be! 

The next question is fairly evident:  What does a house of mercy look like?  The answer carries several characteristic traits to the front burner.  Before we take a look at the traits, allow me to remind us that the house we’re talking about is not the four walls, roof and carpeting.  The House is God’s tabernacle – you!  What do WE look like when, as children of God, we are a merciful church?  A house of mercy…

#1 Alert to the needs of others

John records that Jesus saw the man and knew the man had been there a long time.  It wasn’t too difficult to figure out who the beggars were.  And, certainly this man was easy to spot – 38 years of begging would make him an obvious fixture at the temple where Jesus often came. 

The difference is that Jesus sensed the timing of this need.  He saw and knew (experienced personally) the need of this man.  That’s how it is in salvation.  Jesus knows our need before we do.  The Scripture declares that Jesus brought God’s love to us by dying for us even before we knew we were in need of a Savior.

If we are to do what Jesus has done, we must understand that we too live within sight of the sheep gate.  Every time you go to a PTA meeting, your workplace, the store, a ball game, mow your lawn, and yes, even on the way to this temple, you pass the crippled, emotionally-bankrupt and hurting of this world. 

Jesus was alert to the needs of one placed in His path.  We must do what the Master did if we are to be the House of Mercy.  We must be alert to the needs of people.

#2 embracing the needy

Many needy people are willing to hide from the embrace.  The man was full of excuses – Jesus embraced him anyway.  The man said, I have no man to help me.  Jesus proceeded to show him that if a hundred others were there, no one could give him more than the One standing in front of him.

However, before you embrace anyone, you had better recognize that there is a cost to this embrace.  Every healing Jesus did, every time He embraced a needy person, it cost something. 

It is true that you cannot help a person who does not want to be helped.  On the other hand everyone has a longing within to know God, and to be introduced to Him.  It’s just that no one has embraced them for so long, they’re afraid. 

Some years ago I buried a 90-year-old man.  Auburn’s wife had died years ago, and he had nobody in the world but his daughter to mourn him.  As a young boy Auburn had traveled with his evangelist-grandfather.  He knew the scriptures better than most.  He heard the plan of salvation hundreds of times.  He rejected Christ and His claims every time. 

As a young man he traveled on business, drank, brawled and caused as much trouble as he could.  In his fifties he married, but soon began to beat every member of his family in his drunken stupors.  His wife divorced him, but she died a few years after.   In time Auburn had alienated everyone he’d known. 

In his mid-70’^s he had a stroke that incapacitated him.  No one wanted this pitiful wretch; no one except Pat.  Pat was Auburn’s daughter, the one he’d beaten and driven out of his life.  Pat brought Auburn into her home, quit her job and became his nurse.  For a dozen years she changed his clothes, cleaned and washed him, and gave him backrubs to ward off bedsores.  The only thing Auburn could still do, he did – curse a blue streak!  He was not a blessing!

I met Auburn and Pat in1999.  Pat knew the end was near, and she called me to make arrangements for his funeral.  A few weeks after, I received an urgent message to call Pat.  When she answered the phone, Pat said, Brother Russell, we almost lost him last night.  He died on the emergency room table.  They brought him back twice.  But this morning he’s made a rally.  He’s doing better, but I’m worried about his arrangements.  I said, Pat, we made all the arrangements; the funeral is all set.  Her reply:  I wasn’t talking about the funeral.  I’m concerned about his arrangements with God.  Will you see my father and talk to him?

When I entered the hospital room, I expected a semi-comatose skeleton.  The man was haggard, but very awake.  He looked right through me and demanded, You the Preacher?  I nodded. 

He continued, My daughter Pat said you were coming.  She’s worried about me. 

I asked, Sir, are you comfortable with where you’re heading when the doctors can’t pull you through again? 

Auburn swore and laughed, No!  Man that’s why you’re here.  I need someone to help me.

In a short time Auburn was praying, asking for forgiveness, and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior.  I met a hell-bound, needy sinner in July.  In February I buried a Saint.  The point is, without 15 years of loving care extended to a pigsty Auburn, hell would be one resident fuller today.  Auburn didn’t love his daughter.  He couldn’t; he didn’t even love himself. 

Auburn’s daughter Pat had embraced this cursing, vile, miserable excuse for a man, brought him into her home, and lived the love of Christ for 15 years, before Auburn J. Newsome would ever swallow his pride and surrender his heart to the Lord. 

Beloved, it costs to embrace the needy.  It costs to be part of the House of Mercy!

Alert to other’s needs, Embracing the needy, and…

#3. do it in spite of criticism

When Jesus healed the crippled man, the first reaction we read is criticism by the religious leaders.  It is so today.  Whenever you begin to do what Jesus did, those who oppose Jesus will oppose what you do. 

The creator of the Peanuts cartoon, Charles Shultz, is with Jesus now, but he left us a lot of wisdom about such things as criticism.  Linus asks Lucy, Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?  She answers, I just think I have a knack for seeing other people's faults.  What about your own faults? asks Linus.  Her response is, I have a knack for overlooking them.

One other characteristic trait of those who follow the One who was alert to the needs, embraced the needy, and did so despite criticism:

#4. train those who respond

In the last verse of this story we read that Jesus found the former cripple, and warned him to change his attitude, outlook, and actions in the future.  Jesus had found the man in his filth and helplessness; had empowered him to live a responsible life. 

He then took the time to train him how to live responsibly.  This is the manual for being disciples!  Win the lost, Disciple the Saved, Repeat. 

It’s simple – It just requires work.  Like your shampoo bottle says on the label….lather, rinse, repeat.  You can read the directions all day long – unless you get hands-on with what’s in the bottle, you’re going to have greasy hair!

I had a friend where I served as pastor in Gainesville, Florida who is a former missionary to Ethiopia.  Lynn Groce headed up Southern Baptist’s relief efforts during the worst times of famine during the 70’s and early 80’s.  Having returned to the states because of a son who needs special medical attention, Lynn and his wife founded Christians Concerned for the Community.  They have networked with the local community of believers to find people willing to help those who are willing to help themselves. 

Many times those who are on the bubble, economically and socially are just one embrace shy of succeeding.  Lynn asks social workers from local government agencies to alert him to men and women who are physically able, and desiring to get off welfare.  He then links them with a successful Christian in an appropriate field to be a mentor and friend for a year.  Several years ago the success rate was phenomenal.  Over 90% of the links produced former welfare recipients, who moved into the workforce, and became mentors themselves.

You might ask, Pastor, if that is what the disciples of Jesus Christ did, are we supposed to be doing that too?  If you want to be obedient to the command of Jesus, yes, by all means; freely you received, freely give!

When do we quit, or rest from that?  When the last lost soul in Randolph County is brought into the family!

committment

Commitment is a foreign word today.  People don’t want to commit.  Brides and grooms prefer a commitment until the new wears off instead of ‘til death us do part.  Employees enjoy a commitment of the boss to pay a good salary and benefits, but let’s not talk about a hard day’s work.  Children expect freedom, but prefer not to hear about the commitment of honoring parents.  And some Believers want the victorious life, the benefits of Heaven, without the commitment to discipleship – following (doing) what the Master did, and bids us do.

At the pool of Bethesda that day, a crippled man experienced a transformation in the House of Mercy. 

It cost him his old, irresponsible lifestyle. 

It cost Jesus another step closer to Calvary’s cross. 

The question is, will it cost each of us something? 

Yes….IF the needy of our community are to have a House of Mercy right here, it will cost everything. 

The Master of Mercy is speaking again, to us.  As He said it to the crippled man, He now says to each of our hearts,

You – Stand up….take up your bed and walk!  Amen!

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen

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Notes

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[i] Title image:  By Berthold Werner (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Love Each Other - Part 1 of Series: The "Each Other" Teaching of Jesus

[1]

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This is my command:  Love each other. 

John 15:17^(NLT)

Stop the first one hundred people you meet on the street and ask them this question:  "What's wrong with the church today?"  You will get plenty of answers! 

It's so easy to criticize what others are doing.  If you look diligently enough you can find something wrong with everything.  

A farmer's neighbor was so negative, criticizing everything and anything.  The farmer bought a new plow, the neighbor said it would rust soon.  The farmer remarked how it was good to have more rain this year, and the neighbor lamented that his crops would rot at the root with all this rain.  It went on ad nauseam. 

The farmer determined he would find something to cheer up this bottomless pit of despair.  He went out and purchased the finest hunting dog, and secretly trained him to fetch by walking on the water, instead of swimming.  When hunting season came the farmer invited his sour neighbor to go with him.  When the first flock passed by, the farmer and his friend shot several ducks each.  The farmer yelled to the dog, Fetch!  The hound darted, his feet barely skimming the surface of the lake.  He scooped up four ducks from the water and was back in an instant, dry as a bone.  How 'bout THAT? questioned the farmer.  Remarked ol' sourpuss, Cain't swim, can he?

Well, the church is something else altogether.  If we are honest we can see that most churches are 98% wonderful; the other 2% we manage to mess things up.  The problem is that unbelievers, and even critics within, focus on the 2%, and not the productive 98%.  It is wrong to judge all ministers by the few who fall into gross sin.  It is wrong to judge all committee members by the few who do nothing or just cause trouble.  It is wrong to put all members in with the hypocritical few who aren't faithful to their Lord.

We ought to judge the church at its best, not its worst.  The church's best are the ideals and principles upon which it was founded by Jesus. 

Jesus addressed his disciples, with the command (the word means to point out the goal), to love each other.  To love means to seek another's highest good.  Our goal is to find ways to lift each other in the church.  That puts us at a fork in the road.  You can criticize, or you can build up, but you cannot do both.

So this morning we want to talk about our goal as a church:

Loving...as Christ also loved...

A deeper study of how to love each other is contained in Paul's letter to the Ephesian church ^(5:25-32).  The passage deals with marriage, but we can see how Paul points to the relationship that brings blessing in the church family.

Jesus loved the church (us), and He saw potential for good in each of us.  He called us branches of his own vine.  In fact, the word "member" is synonymous with the Latin root for "limb."  Each of us who are members of the local church, the body of Christ, is a limb.  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.  The Lord expects to see fruit produced; He wants us to be great limbs, bearing wonderful fruit.

Now, as any gardener will attest, a crop must be cultivated.  It doesn't just happen. 

Churches are like that.  We are a collection of branches, and the Lord can certainly grow us, but there is also some cultivating that needs to be done.  Given the right care, the church can be grown and built up like a vineyard.

So let’s look at the kind of love we can have towards each other; the kind of love that bears 

fruit in the Father’s vineyard:

Sacrificial Love

 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.  Ephesians 5:25^(NLT)

Jesus sees that kind of potential in you and me.  We are the embodiment of the heart of Jesus Christ.  That heart is filled with all kinds of good things.  What kinds of things? 

In the heart of Jesus was the willingness to be a sacrifice for the whole world.  In the church you will always find members (limbs of the body) who are ready to give.  Jesus wasn't selfish, and his true, fruitful limbs never demand their own way.  One of the things that warms my heart is the generosity of God's people.  It is a common sight to see a Christian put another's need before his own.

Purifying Love

 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.  He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.  Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  Ephesians 5:26-27^(NLT)

Among the many reasons Jesus gave himself for the church is that the church might be cleansed of things that harm and drag us down.  The guiding principle is uplift!  Jesus lifts us out of the anger and selfishness of the world.  Think of the blind man Jesus healed.  With the hand of love the man received his sight, and his life was never the same again. 

Jesus cast demons out; he forgave a woman who should have been stoned to death.  He even met a murderous young Pharisee named Saul and turned him into a mighty preacher of the Gospel. 

Jesus is still touching lives like that with his purifying love.  He does it through his limbs – the church members, filling them with the Spirit of hope and forgiveness and purity.  This purifying love makes the church a sparkling jewel.

Caring Love

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  Ephesians 5:29^(NLT)

A husband is charged with the responsibility of cherishing his wife.  Jesus cherishes his bride, the church.  God has seen to our physical needs, and gives as He determines will be good for us.  But this verse emphasizes the spiritual nourishment of the soul. 

The church meets physical needs sometimes, but our main diet is the building up of the spirit with caring.  Groups gather for fellowship, study of God's word and prayer.  We become aware of each other's needs.  We worship together, building up the spirit with praise.

Unifying Love

As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  Ephesians 5:30-32^(NLT)

If there is one thing a body needs in order to remain healthy and useful, it is wholeness.  Wholeness means together as a unit.  We are the body of Christ, a unit.  We are not all the same.  Just like this world, which has a rich variety of different people animals and plants, there is also great diversity in the church.  There are more varieties of Christians than opinions in a committee meeting.

Now, in spite of all this diversity, there is one unifying, glorious force:  The HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD.  It is the Spirit of God who teaches us this unifying love; one Spirit – one body. 

We are not all the same, but we are all one in Him. 

We may not all act the same; but in Him we can all act in love.

The church, with this unifying love is much like a football team; there are eleven men with different talents, different assignments, but ALL with just ONE PURPOSE:  get the ball over the line.

Armies are composed of thousands from all walks of life, but every soldier has only ONE OBJECTIVE – win the war!

Bands have different instruments producing different sounds, but only ONE GOAL – follow the director to play the song.

This is the same as the church with its unifying love.  We build together or we fall apart.

Lord Nelson of England was about to enter an important battle.  He heard that two of his officers were at odds with each other.  He called them in and said, Gentlemen, give me your hands.  The two captains put their hands in the Commander's hands, and he squeezed them with a tight grip.  Men, he said, Remember the ENEMY is OUT THERE!

The love God wants for his church is tough, enduring, and sees beyond human emotions and selfishness.  It gives, uplifts, cares, builds and unites. 

The Psalmist said it this way: 

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  Psalm 133:1^(NLT)

Sacrificial, purifying, caring and unifying love.  That is the kind of love Jesus had in mind when He said, Love each other.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

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[1] Carl Heinrich Bloch [Public domain], via Wikimedia