Title: Without Hypocrisy, Part Two
We will pick up where we left off last week, now looking at the last five of eight characteristics of a health Christian that Paul lays out for us. Again, let me remind you that all eight of these things fall under the umbrella of Paul’s main teaching that our love must be without hypocrisy.
This idea manifests itself in two ways:
1. Our Love toward Christ must be without hypocrisy.
2. Our love toward each other must be without hypocrisy.
Last week we looked at the first three ideas and their applications:
1. Abhorring what is Evil, clinging to what is good. (Be desperate for holy behavior, flee from evil.)
2. Being affectionate AND timely in how we meet each other’s needs.
3. (Possibly most difficult) Be Fervent in Spirit. Have the attitude of Christ in all that you do.
Today’s five points:
4. Rejoicing in Hope
(Shawshank Redemption: “Be careful about giving someone hope…hope is a very dangerous thing…”)
How often do we forget to do this? How often do we forget to rejoice in the hope that we have for our soles because of Jesus?
How often do we look at someone we care about who is lost, and instead of having hope that Christ can save and change them as He saved and changed us, do we resign ourselves to quiet sorrow over their state?
If the greatest commandment is love, surely the greatest emotion for us must be hope. And the neat thing about hope is that is grows the more, the longer, the deeper we know who God is. Far too many believers are down-trodden and sullen, and I must ask, where is your joy? Have you no hope?
5. Patient in tribulation
This is a difficult teaching because, while we all have had trials in our lives, I don’t know that any of us here have experienced the tribulation that Paul probably had in mind when he wrote this to the church in Rome.
My life has never come close to being in danger because I claim Christ. I can’t say that this will always be the case. God could move me to a much more hostile territory, or this territory could become much more hostile toward me, but it hasn’t happened yet, not even close.
I think of my lack of patience, and, for me, it comes in another kind of tribulation. It comes when my life is not what I want it to be. It comes when my discipline, when my joy, when my hope, when my giving, is not where my convictions lie. My tribulation resides in the fact that I am a hypocrite.
I stand before you week after week, completely unqualified to bring this holy word to you. My life is riddled with sin, and I am rarely the man I am called to be. I believe that God can deliver me, but in our fast food culture, I want deliverance, I want it now, and I want fries on the side. I have no patience, I do not want, to wait, to endure, to be patient. And yet Paul says I must.
6. Continuing Steadfastly in Prayer
I could make two line graphs of my life, the first representing the general peace I have, and the second the quality of my prayer life, there would be definitive evidence that I am most at peace when I am most at prayer.
That is not to say that when I am most in prayer my life is easy, or worry-free. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. I am, like many of you, often driven to prayer by the overwhelming nature of my life.
But when I am in good prayer, constant prayer, I feel up to any task my Lord would have me do. When I am close to God, life makes sense, because my priorities make sense.
7. Distributing to the needs of the saints
This gets back to the idea of serving one another. Charity within the early church was a huge part of the ministry. And it’s a shame that our society seems to have taken a negative view of the word charity and that view has polluted the church.
Paul tells us to look out for our own, to take care of those of lesser means, to treat each other like family by the name of our father in heaven.
We can only do this if we know the needs that we have. We can only know those needs if two things happen:
1. You decide you are going to be transparent with this fellowship. (Easier said than done!)
2. You make a deliberate effort to connect with others in this congregation in a way that hold fellowship outside this building!
8. Given to hospitality
While this does relate to number seven, it has an emphasis on hosting. When we host someone at this church, are they esteemed, or are they an afterthought? When you host someone at your house, are they welcomed in every way, or are they made to feel they are in the way.
I’ve visited thousands, literally thousands of people, families, and homes, both for Heritage and for Hospice, over the last 10 years of living in this community and I will definitively say this: Not every home, or person is as inviting as they should be.
For a believer, this is unacceptable. We are not told in Scripture, “Just be yourself, if others don’t like it, it’s their problem!” That is a worldly and selfish ideal. Instead in scripture we see Paul tell us “When I was with you, I became like you, so as to win as many as possible to Christ.” We see James say in Chapter two of his book , that we are foolish sinners if we treat the rich man who comes into our congregation in a different manner than how we treat the poor man.
This may surprise you, but this has actually been an issue I’ve had to deal with as the minister of this church in the past. I’ve had to tell people when they were putting themselves and their preferences above everybody else’s and therefore making others uncomfortable in church.
On the other hand, I can’t tell you how many of you in the congregation this morning have told me that what most attracted you to Heritage on your initial visit was the warmth and hospitality of the people. This isn’t just a suggestion, this is instruction on how a Christian ought to behave.
Pray
Q/A