Expectations of a Congregation

I started off this morning, and of course you might guess the tone of services are a little bit different than usual down in Prestonsburg. I thought there's about 18 people and a couple that aren't normally able to attend down there, so when one member has a tragic loss in their family, that's a large percentage of the congregation. And I thought I'd really, as I was going down to be with Raleigh, I went down Thursday to help him make some of the funeral arrangements and such, and it occurred to me, maybe I should change and do a different subject for the sermon. I'd had one planned out, and I thought, well, if I cover too much, it'll be taken away from what you cover in the funeral anyways, and a lot of the same people would be there. And I started thinking about this message, and I thought, no, you know, a lot of the things I'm seeing are fulfilling exactly what I was planning on speaking of in the sermon. And so I thought I'd go ahead, I wanted to go ahead and stay with the same subject, but I thought I'd preface it by saying, this sermon is not in any way meant to be corrective at all, but rather an encouragement for us to do what we've been doing and really praise to so many in the congregation, really all of us, for such of what we do do.

That's what happens when I'm not going by my notes, but let me set it up by the introduction I had planned. This started several months ago. In the summer, I had a visit request from a young lady who discovered the United Church of God on the Internet, and she'd been contacting me by email and had various questions, and finally wanted me to come and meet in person, partly to discuss things, also because she wanted me to pray with her, anoint her for some ailments. I'm thankful Mr. Call was able to go with me, and we spent some time there with her. And before we were going, I really expected her to ask a lot of doctrinal questions. That's what I expected from someone who hadn't been affiliated with the Church, and she had some, but I was really surprised that one of her biggest questions to me was, what do you want from your congregation? What do you want it to be like?

I wasn't expecting that! I thought she would ask, can you show me about the Holy Days, or what happens in the Second Resurrection? So, as a relatively new pastor, I had to think, well, I hadn't thought much about that. I thought a lot about what I wanted to try to do and be as a minister, but I hadn't really thought about what I expected of all of you.

Now, I did, as I talked to her, I remember telling her that, you know, well, I want the congregation to grow closer to God, to learn God's way, to stay in the Church, you know, and all that. And I'm sure I talked about wanting to serve. And later on, I thought, you know, that might be a good subject for a sermon. What do you want from the congregation?

And part of the reason I thought that is, it's always good to have someone set goals or motivation, you know, things to strive for. And there's what I'm saying, not necessarily things that you don't do, but sometimes it's reminding you of what we're striving to be. I thought of, in World War II, it was common in factories to have these motivational posters put up, reminding us of, you know, reminding us. I wasn't there then, but I've looked at them enough and studied the history, but reminding the workers, we're trying to beat the Nazis, and you've got to do this, and we've got to keep on this goal. Don't slack off. So this is somewhat thinking in those terms. And sometimes it's good to have someone else remind you of those goals. At Ambassador College, when I was in Big Sandy, we had a registrar, Dr. Lynn Torrance, and I don't know if any of you have been around long enough to have crossed paths with him. I had not before then, but he was an older man then, some 25, 30 years ago. And he was sort of crusty around the edges, the way I might describe it. But I think, deliberately so, and we all loved him, because we knew he loved us as students. And, you know, he had his idiosyncrasies that he reveled in. I think he did some things that were a little different, just on purpose. But I remember he told us he had a saying about students that stuck with me. He said, A student will rise as high as you kick him. Now, of course, he wasn't referring to actual violence, but he meant if you motivate someone, push them, they'll rise. And, of course, other people have said it in different ways, but that one stuck with me.

So, in that light, maybe it is good for a pastor sometimes to set some goals and share them publicly, or, as I say, have some motivational things. But, of course, I'm a fallible human being. What type of goals might I set? I might not necessarily set the best ones. It might be a better question to say, what would God want of our congregation? Now, the Bible says a lot about what Christians are supposed to strive for. So I thought, well, that's a little, almost going too far. So I thought, well, what would God want me to want from you? And I thought I'd boil it down and see if I could think about that. And you might think, as I said, the thought first came to me last summer. Maybe I've had too long to think about it. But I've kicked it around to look at different angles, and as I started thinking, it came to me that I could sum it up in one word and then break it down more from there. But that one word would be love.

That's the love underlies the most important things in the direction for our lives. Matter of fact, if you want to turn to Matthew 22, we'll read where Jesus Christ said that. It's what underlies what we call the two greatest commandments.

Matthew 22, beginning in verse 36. Actually, I'm going to begin in verse 35. That sets up the question. Of course, Jesus was teaching, and a lawyer asked him a question to test him. He said, Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. All the law, all the ordinance, the statutes, judgments, all of that are based on these two. Love God with all you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself.

I thought, if I were crunched for time, if I wanted to make this only a sermonette and a short one at that, I could just stop and say, what do I want from our congregation? I want us to be loving people. And that does sum up a lot. But it might be worthwhile to get a little bit more specific. As I said, these two laws sum up all of the law and the prophets, but God gave more detail. So let's look at that a little bit more. The first area we talk about is how to love God. I want us to love God. If you will, turn to 1 John 5.

1 John 5, and we'll read verse 3. We could say, well, loving God isn't just about having warm, fuzzy feelings. It's not just saying, yes, I love God, but it comes down to doing something. And here John sums it up. He says, this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. So it's doing something.

And it's love God, keep His commandments. And they're not burdensome. They're good things.

For that matter, of course, keeping God's commandments is also the way to love our brothers. I deliberately started with verse 3, but if we back up one, we'll see the second great commandment. Back up to verse 2. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.

So it all comes together, as I said, you could roll it up into one tight bundle, and we could spend a lot of time discussing God's law. As a matter of fact, I have been doing that somewhat lately. I had a sermon on the spirit of the law, and we talk about sin. And of course, it's something we should always be looking into. And some people who will be going to church tomorrow instead of today say that, well, God's law isn't something that's necessary to us. That was done away. Or they might say parts of it were done away and parts of it we keep. So it's not my purpose to go into that a lot today. But I will say that a fundamental part of us loving God's law and loving Him by obeying His law means we have to know what it is. We need to study it. We have to know God's word. That means, another way of saying that is we need to know the truth.

So that's what I want to hit on, my take on what God would have us do when He wants us to love Him. I want us to be a people that love the truth. And I'm sure God wants that of us. We're near there. If you'll turn to 1 Peter 1, I think He brings some of these ideas together in a good way. 1 Peter 1 and verse 22. It says, "...since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth," That's that truth, "...through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart." That's something we could set as a goal. "...since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, in that sincere love, love one another with a pure heart." I want this congregation to be people who obey the truth and who love the brethren. And I'm not saying that because you're not. Here I can say, keep at it. We do love the truth and love the brethren. And I'm thrilled. As I said, I've been learning about how to love the brethren from you more than the other way around. And that's a great thing. Let's, if you will, turn also to John, not first John, but the Gospel of John, chapter 4, we'll begin in verse 23. John 4, beginning in verse 23, he said, The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And these things are tied together. You might ask, well, how exactly do we do that? I thought we're supposed to love God by obeying the commands. Well, we want to worship God in the Spirit. I think that means not only obeying His law, but obeying the Spirit of the law. And as I discussed in my sermon, we can do that best by having His Holy Spirit in us. God's Spirit makes it so we can understand and we can worship Him in spirit. But we must also worship in truth, and that ties Him together. John 17, verse 17, you might remember that was the true Lord's Prayer. Jesus Christ, on that last Passover that He spent with His disciples, was there, and He talked to them a great deal. And then He said a prayer that He shared with them, and I guess John thought to write it down or take notes. One of the things He said, and this was one of the easy memory scriptures, because it's 1717. He said, Sanctify them in Thy truth. Thy Word is truth.

God's Word is truth. So if we want to love the truth, we love God's Word. I'll give you a couple others if you want to put in your notes. But Psalm 119, verse 151 says, All your commandments are truth. All your commandments are truth. Remember David wrote that long poem that Psalm 119 is, all about God's law. And he talked about it every way you can imagine. He said all these things about it. But one of the things he said is, Your commands are truth. I'll also mention, without turning there, in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 7, Paul had to turn a phrase that I wanted to quote without going and reading the whole Scripture. But he talked of the Word of Truth and the Power of God. Doesn't that sound... That'd be a great slogan for a poster in a factory. Well, I'm not sure what the factory would be making, but the Word of Truth and the Power of God.

That's powerful stuff. Remember, we need to love God. We love God by obeying His commandments. His commandments are truth.

So it'll be easy for us to do what we need to do if we love the truth. And when you think about it, who wouldn't? Once you have God's Spirit open your mind and you understand the truth, there is a Creator God who made all things for a purpose. You remember the church used to publish a booklet called, Why Were You Born? And some of you might remember back when you first knew the answer to that question. But I thought also... And I wish I could remember. I should have got a copy of it. I wasn't thinking, when Mr. Armstrong wrote Mystery of the Ages, there was a dust jacket. And on the cover, it had all this list of questions, you know. Mankind has been always asking, well, who am I? Why am I here? What's going on in the world? And it lists all these questions that I don't remember exactly.

This is kind of laughable, but one of the reasons I remember that it had those questions is, one year when I was in college, for the dances, we would always have these dances and do these enormous decorations. I guess it's to keep us busy. But for one of our decorations, they got one of those projectors that would... You put something in and it projects it up. And we did it. It made a huge cover of Mystery of the Ages, like 18 feet tall. It made it exactly like the book cover, including those questions. And we were saying they were working. One of the fellows walks up and he starts reading it, and not looking like he's reading, he just asks one of the fellows, Who am I? Why am I here? What's the purpose of my life? But isn't it wonderful when we know those things? When you know you were created, not just happenstance, we didn't just evolve out of nothing. God had a purpose for creating human life because He wants to build His family. And we have a chance to have all of our sins forgiven. He made us knowing we would make mistakes. But the truth is, God loves us and made a plan all along to put away those sins and reconcile us to Him, to make us His children. Who wouldn't love that truth? It's fabulous. So this is something that's a goal for us as a congregation, obviously, to love the truth. Now, one of the ways we do that is know what's in it and study it. If you'll turn to Acts 17, Acts 17 and verse 10, as an example of some people who wanted to prove and know what the truth was. You can't love it if you don't know what it is. And this is a well-known story, but I think it's worth citing. Of course, this is when Paul and Barnabas were traveling, and they'd been in one town and threatened and run out of town. So starting in verse 10, it says, The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And I joked this morning, I was down in Kentucky, I said, That's not Berea, Kentucky, but Berea in Asia Minor. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews, and these were more fair-minded than those of Thessalonica. That is, the people of Berea were fair-minded. They received the word with all readiness. So they listened intently. They were ready to hear it, but they didn't take Paul's word for it. They didn't just trust Silas without checking up. They went and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether those things were so. And of course, it goes on and says, Therefore, many of them believed. They searched the Scriptures to make sure this was true, and they believed. They proved it to themselves, and they loved it. They didn't want to be shaken loose from it. How wonderful for us to be a congregation that searches the Scriptures. And of course, one of the nice things in our modern era that we can, Bibles are abundant. I was looking for something in one of my closets last night, and I had two of them fall out of a box that I didn't realize were there. But when the Bereans were searching the Scriptures, having a copy of the Scriptures was rare. And they had to hold on, and you had to sometimes go someplace where you could get a copy to read. We've got it available. Now, I realize we're not all cut out to be scholars. Some of us love getting into Greek lexicons. Well, some of you love getting into Greek lexicons. I do it sometimes because I need to, but I don't love that. I like reading. And that's the thing. We live in a land where we're educated. We can all read and learn what we can, and we can pray and ask for understanding. And that's what we should do. That's a goal. Let's turn to 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15.

Now, it says, Be diligent. I like the Old King James says, Study to present yourself approved to God. And I wanted to insert there... Now, notice it's important, Study this word to be approved to God, not necessarily to Frank Dunkel, or to Dennis Luecker, or anybody, any other man. Now, if we're following God, all the men who are following God will approve you if you're approved of God. But study to show yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, I know Paul wrote this as instruction to Timothy, who was a young minister. So, in some ways, this admonition applies a little more to me than all of you. But not necessarily that much, because all of us are preparing to be teachers in the world tomorrow. We're to be kings and priests, and God will give us expanded ability, I'm sure, when that time comes. But He wants us to look into this word, spend time reading it. And if reading isn't a good thing, of course, you can get it now in audio and listen to it being said. And that's pretty handy. As Mr. Shoemaker has mentioned, you can be sitting in a deer blind or wherever and listen to the word, if you have the right electronics. So it would be good for us to strive to become good workers, be able to know what's in this book and put it together. The more you read, the more you think about the word of truth, the more you'll love it. I'm confident of this. And I don't, as I said, I know a lot of you have been studying this for a long time, and you do love it, so I don't have to tell you more of that. But I'll just add as a personal note, one of the things I love coming to services was when I see groups of people sitting and talking. And I've seen it here, I've seen it in every congregation I've ever been to, and I've visited quite a few. And you always have groups. And of course, the discussion can cover a lot of ground. You talk about what you did this week and how your health is and things like that. But it's real common for people to come back to discussion, God's word, some aspect of something they've been studying. And what do you think about this particular prophecy, and how does it fit with what happens, what's going on in Washington, or with the drought that's going on in Africa or whatever. And God's people, they want to put the pieces together, and they like comparing notes. I always find that very exciting. Or someone might have a project. If you spent some time studying a particular aspect, I know some people have looked into the Levitical sacrifices, looking for lessons that apply to current day. Or if you want to study the Temple of Ezekiel, and look out the dimensions and map that. Everybody might have a different thing that more suits their taste, but it's fun to get together and compare notes. Of course, yeah, I've got a note here. Such discussions should never degenerate into arguing and wrangling and trying to force someone to accept your opinion, especially if it's something that's minor, and rather a matter of loving God's word and learning about it. I remember a scripture that I heard many times when heresy was beginning to be taught in a church. If you go to Malachi, Chapter 3, Malachi comes just before Matthew. Malachi 3 and verse 16, I would have to confess, I know I had read this scripture, but it never stood out to me before about 1994-95, when we were hearing some things come out of the headquarters of the church that some of us were saying, well, wait a minute, and people were studying and people were talking together about God's word and comparing notes.

And I heard a minister cite this scripture, I said, oh, now I think I understand this scripture a lot more. Malachi 3, 16, it says, then those who feared the eternal spoke to one another, and the eternal listened and heard them. So sometimes we're having these discussions, God might be listening in because he's interested. And so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the eternal and who meditate on his name.

I hope that some of this discussion we have is just for the sheer joy of it. And as I said, you know, I've got a bit of an academic background. Scholars like to get together and talk about their field of expertise and compare research and such. But there's another important reason, though, that we should love the truth. If you'll go to 2 Thessalonians 2, this is another important thing to remember that I also heard cited in those times in the mid-90s.

2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 10.

It says, I've heard that dissected in many ways, but I think it's important to say if you love the truth, you're not likely to be deceived. And it says you could receive the love of the truth. That struck me just as I was reading it recently.

I'm guessing you must receive it from someone, so if you don't have it naturally, we could always pray to God and say, Please, help me to have a love of the truth. I'm willing to receive it if you're willing to give it to me. Help me to grow in this love of your word, this truth, and I don't want to be deceived. We want to love the truth so that we will never be separated from God, so we'll never believe a lie.

And that's something I want to turn and make a little bit personal. As I said, I thought I'd take a little more personal tack on this sermon, which I hope nobody would mind. But, you know, I need this for myself to be grounded in the truth. But one of the things I would want for a congregation, one of the things I'd want for this congregation, is for all of you to love the truth and be so well grounded in it, that if I started teaching something that wasn't the truth, you'd catch me.

And you'd say, well, I'm not so sure about that. You'd be like the Bereans and study to see if that's true. And you would never let someone lead you astray. Now, there was a time when leaders in the church started teaching things that we didn't believe, and we had to stand up for it. It's fortunate here in Portsmouth, you had a pastor at the time who didn't want to teach those truths.

And so it wasn't as much of a challenge as it was for some people in some other areas. And in Athens, I don't remember who the pastor was at that time. I'm not sure how difficult it was there. But it was difficult for all of us when things were coming out from the leadership of the church.

But I'd like to say that, as I said, I'd hope... Now, a congregation should have a pastor. I'm not saying that I'm going to retire and go somewhere else. But I'd like to think that you'd be self-sufficient, that you could continue on autopilot without me. A pastor is good for teaching and, of course, for official functions like baptisms and weddings and funerals and such, and to help new members come along.

And for all these other things we've been discussing in the pastoral class, they say, you know, sheep without a shepherd will get scattered. And I certainly don't want any of us to be scattered. But what I'm saying is I want you to be so grounded in the truth that I could never lead you away from it if I tried. And more importantly, hopefully you would help bring me back. I would hope I would never be doing it intentionally if I became deceived on a point.

I would hope for help to get undeceived. There is an example of that in the Bible. If you turn to the book of Galatians, chapter 2. Now, this wasn't on a major point. It was a small one. And it's funny, this morning I told everybody to turn to Acts until I remembered it wasn't in the book of Acts. But this is part of the history of the New Testament church.

The occasion was when Paul was one of the leaders in the church in Antioch, and at some point in time Peter was there visiting. So he was there, and the church there in Antioch was made up mostly of non-Jews. They say Gentiles, who had been converted to Christianity. And of course there were Jews there as well who were converted to Christianity. And they had this new faith.

They understood the truth. Now, one of the things that was different, those who had come out of Judaism realized they had a fuller understanding. Because before they came into Christianity, and what was the practice of Jews who weren't converted, is they looked down on Gentiles.

They didn't want to deal with them if they could avoid it. And it was considered unclean to come into the house of a Gentile. You would never sit down and eat a meal. But of course, coming in the church, they realized that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female.

We are all one. We're all spiritual children of Abraham. So with that as the background, let's look in Galatians 2, verse 11. It says, now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. Now, it's interesting. He doesn't say exactly what the situation was, but basically Paul withstood Peter face to face and had to correct him. Now he'll explain what happened. In verse 12, he says, before certain men came from James, now it says James, it means the congregation in Jerusalem where James was the pastor.

So before some men came up from Jerusalem, he, that is Peter, would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. Now, of the circumcision, it means those who had been Jewish. And there were some people in the church that had this idea that in order to become a Christian, you had to first become an Israelite, meaning physically become an Israelite by circumcision, and then you could come in and be a Christian. And of course, they had the big conference in Jerusalem and discussed and saw that there was no validity to that.

But Peter sort of, you know, he slipped into his old ways and he withdrew. And it says in verse 13, the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him. So even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. So they were, you know, getting, well, I can't be eating with the Jews. That's unclean, even though they knew better. And it says, when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, remember we're saying we have to love the truth, I said to Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live after the manner of the Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?

And he continued from there. Now, that's a pretty unusual case. I'll say it's not very often that you have a public correction. I'm pretty sure the reason it was is Peter did it in front of the whole congregation and other people were starting to follow his example. So Paul thought, I've got to correct this in public. And although there's not a record of it right here, we know that Peter accepted that correction and changed.

Matter of fact, one of the ways we know, if you flip back to 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter doesn't address this particular issue, but he says something interesting about the Apostle Paul. And we're almost absolutely certain that 2 Peter was written well after this occasion had happened. Some say it might have even been written after Paul had already been martyred. Paul might have been alive, but in 2 Peter 3 and verse 15, Peter says, "...consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul." He refers to Paul as a beloved brother, according to the wisdom given him has written to you.

So Paul had written many things, including the book of Galatians, and says, "...as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures." One of the reasons I wanted to cite this, this is one of the places we turn to show that Paul's epistles were by that time considered to be holy Scripture, inspired by God.

And Peter was acknowledging that this account of him being corrected in front of the congregation was now part of the Bible. I'm sure Peter accepted that correction because he made a mistake. You know, he got off track and Paul corrected him, and Peter loved him for it. So it's a good thing.

Now, I would hope, as I said, I want you to all be so grounded that if I got off track on something silly, you wouldn't follow me, and that if need be, some would come to help me. Here, Paul was the leader of the church, so that would be a good example. Perhaps Kevin Call or Mike Aret might be the first to come to me if I were off track. And if I wouldn't listen to them, perhaps both of the Jim Calls and Daniel Evans would come as the deacons.

But whoever it would take, eventually, you know, and here I don't mean like it's, we've got to beat you down until you see the facts, but leaders have to help someone who gets off track. Now, I pray to God that will never be necessary. As I said, I don't want to get off track or teach anything that's wrong. But in any event, my sincere hope and wish for this congregation is that you will always study and prove and love God's truth, so that no one could lead you astray, no matter who it is. And of course, as I said, I hope that in love and humility, if someone does get off track, that you would help set them straight. And that leads to the second major area of love that I wanted to talk about. As a congregation of loving people, naturally, as I said, we should first love God with all our might, and that includes loving His truth.

Secondly, we must love our fellow man. And that means especially our spiritual brethren. Now, it says, love your neighbor as yourself. That doesn't specify those in the church. In Galatians, it does say, let us do good to all men as we're able, but especially the household of faith. So there is something serving those in the church. Usually, you'll have opportunity more first. But I thought of this topic especially after what I just discussed, as I said, hoping you would never let me lead you astray because you love the truth so much.

But that reminds me, correcting a brother who is an error is an act of love when it's done in the right way. Let's look at 3 John, Chapter 3.

I want to discuss this way of showing love first and spend more time on it than some other things because it's one of the most difficult and most tricky. And I went into this thinking, Frank, you'd better balance yourself right, because the last thing you want is to give the wrong impression. So realize that I know that there's a fine line here. But 1 John 3, verse 11, says, That's interesting. The opposite of loving your brother is hating him. And this says that's about as bad as murder.

And that fits in with what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter 5. It talks about the spirit of the law. Just as you shouldn't look on a woman to lust after her, that's about as bad as adultery. Hating your brother is as bad as wanting to kill him. But in this passage, John refers to that story of Cain and Abel. Let's look back there at the original. I think it makes a clear demonstration and gives us an important point. That's in Genesis, Chapter 4.

I find that in some places I'm going from near the front of the Bible to near the back today and missing. I guess that's sort of the equivalent to flyover country. Not that the stuff in the middle isn't important. But Genesis 4 will begin in verse 3. Now, there's so much in here, and it's interesting to remember that the first 9 or 10 chapters of Genesis covers anywhere, we believe, from 1500 to 2000 years of history.

So I say that as premise because I thought it says, in the process of time, I wonder how much time it had been. When you initially read this, you might think Cain and Abel were 12 years old or teenagers. Do you think all this happened quickly? But for all we know, the process of time, they might have been in their 40s or 50s or 60s by the time this incident happened. And I'm not saying that it did, but that's one of those interesting discussions when you're, as I said, at church and you're discussing different interpretations because you love the truth. You can look and say, well, I wonder what it was.

But in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the eternal. We see from the instructions in Leviticus that the fruit of the ground, basically plants, would typically be a thank offering, not for redemption from sin.

But Abel brought of the firstborn of the flock and their fat. He brought a sin offering. And the eternal respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering. Now, we think perhaps it was because Cain was not acknowledging the need for forgiveness and redemption. But we don't have to go into that today, but I wanted to touch on it.

But Cain was very angry as countenance fell. So the eternal said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? Notice he tried to gently correct him. He didn't say, You get out of here, you scumbag, you're no good. Instead, he says, If you do well, you'll be accepted. And if you do not, sin lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

So God, I think, was trying to say, Cain, you can straighten up. It's okay. You can do it the right way. But as we know, Cain did not respond. He says, Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. So he let his anger just get so out of hand, he said, I can't stand this anymore.

And he killed him. Then the eternal said to Cain, I don't know if it was... probably not immediately, because he says, Where is your brother? He couldn't have come and talked to him right then, but probably not long after. Where is Abel, your brother? He said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And of course, then the eternal goes on and confirms that he knows. He says, His blood is calling to me from the ground, and he punishes Cain.

So I don't want to go on from there. But God never directly answered the question that Cain had. Am I my brother's keeper? But you could say, if you read all through the rest of the Bible, although that was a rhetorical question, I think we know the answer. Are you your brother's keeper? Yes! Yes, we are to be our brother's keeper.

And there's a number of ways that we can care for our brethren. And I want to get to some of the more physical concrete ones later, but I want to harken back to the subject I was just addressing. One of the most difficult is correcting someone when they're out of whack. And out of whack. That's a deep theological term. If you'll go back to 1 Peter, when someone's in error, when they're getting caught up in a mistake or a sin, we tend to, it's funny, I guess I'm affected by modern media.

I want to euphemize everything. 1 Peter 4 and verse 8. One of the toughest ways to show love to our brother is doing what Paul did for Peter. But if you love someone, you want to help them avoid the penalties, both the long-term and short-term that can come. 1 Peter 4 and verse 8. And we see this is in a context of love. But above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Have love for one another. Love will cover a multitude of sins. And by the way, this is quoting from Proverbs 10 and verse 12, where there it says, Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

Now, if we stopped right there, you could possibly get a wrong impression. You could be saying, well, because you love someone, just ignore their sin. Sweep it under the rug. Just don't mess with it, because you've got to let it go. Now, it does require love to forgive your brother when they're not repentant. And I think I discussed this some time ago. Sometimes you do have to forgive for your own sake, even if someone's not repentant. But you usually want to do that after you take these other steps. It's not love to just ignore when someone's doing something wrong, especially if it's harmful to themselves, especially if you could do something to help them.

So rather than reading this Scripture alone, let's go over a few pages to James 5, James 5 and verse 19, and we'll see a little further instruction. As I said, when it says, love covers a multitude of sin, you're not showing love to your brother by covering up his sin.

James 5 and verse 19 says, That's one of the definitions of repentance. Turn back, turn around. But this is talking about helping someone. Someone turns him back. Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death. That sounds like an act of love. And cover a multitude of sins. So this isn't talking about covering up someone's sin. It's talking about helping someone to turn around and change their way so that their sin will be covered by the blood of Christ.

You could see 1 John 1.7 as a reference to having our sins covered by the blood of Christ. I'm not going to turn there. So turning a sinner back. And as I said, it sounds terrible when you say, oh, you love your brother. You don't want to call him a sinner. That's why we like the euphemisms. But helping someone if they're going off track, saying, hey, let me help you.

Let me point this out to you that you might not see. That's in the business of helping someone become reconciled to God. Now I will. I do want to add this, though. Sometimes it's an act of love also once maybe you've pointed something out. Or if you think they know but they're struggling, sometimes you have to give that space.

Waiting is an act of love as well and being patient. But not waiting forever and never doing anything. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, if you will. 2 Corinthians 5, and we'll start in verse 17.

I purposely wanted to focus on that word, reconciliation.

Because that's sort of the business God is in, and that's what Paul is talking about here. Breaking into the thought, he says, God has reconciled us to Him. That means He's helped us see our sins repent, and because of Christ's sacrifice, we're reconciled to God.

And finishing that verse, it says, I'm going to have to start wearing those glasses.

Now, that's a mouthful. But as I said, a lot of what it's saying is that God is all about reconciliation. About leading people back from sin. And He wants us to be in that business too. It says He's given us the ministry. That means the service of reconciliation. Helping people be reconciled. Now, of course, for someone to truly be reconciled to God, they have to have that calling. You know, if you have family members that God hasn't called and you try to bring them to God, they might resist. That's why I say we can focus especially among our brethren, who you know want to be close to God. And sometimes, as I said, you slip into something, or you have a weakness, and you're having trouble getting over that hump. Having a brother give you help can go a long ways.

Of course, this goes both ways, as far as that reconciliation and turning to God. Let's go to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, and we'll begin in verse 23.

This is where I want to put those qualifiers, because I've been talking about how much you're going to help your brother. But there's a place we start to look at the first thing you want to do.

Because being reconciled isn't only about someone else changing from their sin or turning back. Matthew 5, verse 23.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, now we don't bring animals to an altar, but we go before the throne of God in prayer. And if we're ever going before God, and we remember, it says there, remember, your brother has something against you.

Not you against your brother, but he has something against you. It says, Leave your gift there before the altar. Go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother. God has given us a ministry of reconciliation. It says, Be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.

A big part of showing love to our brethren is to help them to stop sinning and thus be reconciled to God.

But we also need to be reconciled to our brethren.

But ceasing any sin or any offense is something we have to do first.

Sorry, I was going to say that. I thought, if I read it the way I wrote it, it will be clearer, and it wasn't.

And I said, We can help them. We need to look at ourselves first.

You want to be reconciled to your brother. Sometimes, I'm saying you, but I mean me, all of us. Sometimes, we have to look at ourselves and see what we're doing, and then change that.

And it's interesting because you might think, Oh yeah, so-and-so, he's got that problem, she's got that problem. But have you ever noticed, we tend to notice problems in others or faults in others that we have ourselves?

I'm not sure. I think God might have built it in that way. My first instinct is especially in spokesman's club, where we have to do evaluations.

And I've noticed, if you're evaluating someone's speech, you want to find things that you think they can do better and help them. Well, the things I have always noticed are the things I have the most trouble with myself. I might not notice any other problems, but if someone gets up and he talks too fast, you better believe I noticed that. And I'll tell him. You kind of speak a little rapid, and sometimes you stumble over your words. And we do that in life. If we are having a certain problem, we see it in others, sometimes more clearly than in ourselves.

That's okay, but what he's saying here is, be reconciled to your brother. Look at yourself first. We don't want to make our primary focus turning our brother back from his sin. We want to make our primary focus first finding our own and fixing that.

And then, in love, we might be able to help our brother. In love, we must be willing and ready to help a brother who has been caught up in the sinful behavior. Let's go back to Leviticus 19.

Leviticus 19 and verse 15.

This is part of a lot of instruction, basically for the people of Israel, how to live, how to govern their nation and govern themselves.

He says, That's interesting because we know there's a place where Jesus said, judge not, that you be not judged. Matter of fact, we're going to turn there in a little bit. But it goes to show, we're not to condemn others, but we have to exercise judgment. We can look and see if a behavior does or does not match with God's instruction. And we have to do it in righteousness. In verse 16, Now, that's interesting. You shall not hate your brother. How do you not hate him? It says, That's where I said, letting someone just continue to sin when you could help him is the same as hating him. Because you know where it's going to lead him. Sin, the wages of sin are death. So, as I said, it's a tough thing to do in love, but sometimes you have to say, Hey, you've got to stop this.

That's interesting. That's the second greatest commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. And it's in that context right there next to, rebuke your neighbor. But not rebuke him, saying, you dirty so-and-so. And of course, keep in mind there's within limits. It crossed my mind this morning. Usually it's not our neighbors that were rebuking on things about God's way. Like, if you know Christmas is not really celebrating Jesus' birthday, so you're going to go show your neighbor that he doesn't need those Christmas lights. And you're going to, you know, you are taking those down, and you might find them wrapped around your own neck. So, you know, you have to exercise moderation and understanding of what you can help someone with and what you can't.

Let's go. As a matter of fact, we want to keep the right attitude. If we look in Matthew 18, Jesus gave some instructions of how to go about correcting someone in a certain case. And it matches with one of the things we just read.

And Jesus explained how, as I said, rebuke is a strong word. There's a way to go to someone who is in error that shows how to do it in love. I think I just said the same thing over again, but I'm trying to, as I said, this is where there's a delicate balance, a fine line. Matthew 18 and verse 15, it says, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

We just read in Leviticus, it said, don't go about as a tail-bearer. If someone does something against you, don't go to everyone else and say, can you believe what he did? I'm so upset. You know, pick up the phone or get on Facebook and tell it to everybody in the country. Then, no, you go to your brother, you and him alone. And if he hears you, you've gained your brother. You've gained your brother. It doesn't mean you've got the best of your brother, or you showed him up, or you straightened him out in a thing or two.

Gains your brother means you've got your brother back. You've reconciled. You've brought him back, and you've come back to him. So you've got him back. That's your goal. The whole goal of this procedure is not to get someone in trouble. Because you go on to the next phase. If he won't hear you, take one or two more. Still not a whole bunch of people. Keep it private and help him to see. If he still won't hear them, then tell it to the church. That's a ways down the line. And if he won't even listen to the church, then you treat him as a heathen or a republican.

Now it doesn't say cast them out, don't stone them. But they're showing they're not interested in being part of the church, so you treat them as though they're not a part of the church. That doesn't mean you treat them badly. We all have neighbors and family and friends who are not part of the church. We don't despise them or spit on them. But we have a different conduct with people who are in the church than those who aren't. But we, probably the vast majority of times, it never comes to that.

If you go to someone in love and say, hey, I've got something against you, well, sometimes it's going to turn out you're the one wrong in the first place. And I've been in that situation myself. So you have to look at yourself first, which is where we're going soon. But the goal is to get your brother back. Reconciliation. Matter of fact, let's go to Matthew 7. And as I said, I'm only pointing this out because loving brethren, sometimes if we love each other, correcting someone you love is the toughest thing. And it's very difficult to do well. I'm not going to present myself as an expert on it by any means.

I'm learning and growing as all of us. And some people are better at it than others. But there's one thing that Jesus has said that you do have to take care of first. Matthew 7, starting in verse 1, Judge not, and here it means condemn not. Don't condemn someone that you'd not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you'll be judged. And with what measure you use, it'll be measured back to you.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and don't consider the plank in your own? And the Old King James, I think, says beam, and that seems more figured out. I think like a big old fence post. Didn't Basil Wolverton had an illustration like that of someone there? And it's just the hilarity of it. You're trying to help someone get this little speck out of his eye, and you've got this big thing in yours.

And it says, you hypocrite. First remove the plank or beam from your own eye, then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Here, it doesn't say you should never help a brother get something out of his eye, but it says put first things first.

Check your own eyes first. Take a glance in the mirror. You might have a problem that's so big that you couldn't help him anyways. You turn to look at the speck in his eye, you'd knock him down with the beam out of your own. So to help our brother, we have to be working on living up to the highest standard of God's way of life that we can. Let's turn back to Galatians 6, if you will. Galatians 6, in verse 1, tells us a little bit more about this.

It says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, not you who just happen to know about it, but you who are spiritual, so work on your spirituality first, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. So gentleness, considering yourself, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? Love God with all your heart, soul, and might.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Remember, Jesus also told his disciples, By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. So this is definitely one of the things I would hope to see in our congregation. People that love one another, that are willing to bear one another's burdens. As I said, I've been focusing on being our brother's keeper in a spiritual way, and sometimes correcting him if he seems to be going off the path. But of course, there are other spiritual aspects of showing love. One, of course, is praying for each other.

And we do that all the time. We have prayer requests, and I know people pray, and I know the power of it. As I said, I heard that muscle in my back this past week, and I didn't send an announcement to everybody, but I know a number of people were praying, and I'm fully confident that made a difference.

And I say this, and it's a personality difference in my mind. I think some people want to have everybody pray because they feel that connection and want everybody to know about something. Some people say one or two people praying is the way I want it. God doesn't work like American Idol, where the more people who pick up the phone, the more likely he is to give you what you want. But God does notice when people care about other people, and so it's not wrong to ask as many people as possible. Like I said, it's partly the way you view it, but of course we want to pray for each other and do so sincerely. Of course there's other words encouraging each other. I mentioned when I was talking about spiritual gifts recently that being able to encourage someone is a spiritual gift. God gives some people that ability to say the right word at the right time, and if you have that gift, certainly you should share it, because not everybody does. And if you don't have it, you usually become aware of it, and you learn that sometimes the gift is to not talk, and sometimes to just listen or be there. That's a thing to do in love. But we started on this track in 1 John chapter 3. Let's go back there, if you will, because there are other ways of showing love to our brothers, and this is the one, or this area I purposely decided to leave to later and spend the least time on, because it's the one that we excel in. But it's still worthy of mentioning and bringing out and showing that we do this, and we want to continue to do it, and realize that it's not just fulfilling an obligation, it's showing love. 1 John 3 and verse 17, Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? You see, someone has need, and you just, nope, that's not love. He said, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth. And I've said before, I think it might have been a little more clearly if they'd put the word only. We can love in word and tongue, but not that alone. We love in actions, indeed and in truth. If we go over a few pages to James 2, I think it makes it abundantly clear the type of action we're discussing. James 2, beginning in verse 14. What does it profit, my brethren? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him? And, of course, he's talking about faith, but that goes hand in glove with love. Say, if a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food, and one of you says to him, Ah, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you don't give him the things that are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead. So love and faith both require action. Now, and there's where I said I've seen that and been moved by it in the past week. Of course, all those who gathered at the calls to split wood. There was a need, something to be done, because Kevin has a broken leg, he can't get out and swing that mall around.

As I mentioned, I'm sure Jacob would have knocked himself out. He and Ethan both. Actually, I'm impressed by how hard such a little guy can work. I was working hard to keep up with him. But still, that's a lot. When the man of your family is hurt, other people pitch in, and of course, people just did it willingly and lovingly. But that's not the only time. I've seen it again and again. People have a need, and often others do it. As I said, we all knew about this one, so that's an example I can point to. And I'm not trying to criticize anybody who wasn't there. We all have things we can do. And things we can't. Matter of fact, I should qualify the statement by looking what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 13.

This happens to me over and over again. I have a sermon that I'm pretty sure is going to run short, and then it doesn't. 2 Corinthians 8 and 13. This is a case where there was a famine and people in Jerusalem were going hungry, so churches in other regions were making donations, sending money. But Paul, although he was encouraging people to give, he put a qualifier on it. He says, I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but by inequality. That now, at this time, your abundance may supply their lack. That their abundance may supply your lack. That there may be inequality.

Now, Paul was not saying that he wanted to propose communism. He didn't mean that the government should forcefully take away from people and make sure everybody had the exact same thing. But he was saying, if you have an abundance, you've got extra of something, and someone else is lacking, in love, you can share. Now, in some cases, that might be physical things. You can give stuff. But other times, it's, can you come and donate some of your effort, some of your time?

I was just, I guess I was humbled by the actions of some of the brethren down in Prestonsburg this week. As I said, you know, Raleigh, he had Dudley got sick and collapsed right in front of him. And, you know, we tried to call people and it turns out a lot of the brethren there lived far away. But there's a couple, Tom and Lou Anne Hogue, who lived nearby, and they dropped everything and got over there, and they stayed all night.

And they stayed until the next morning. Orville Bumgardner drove an hour and a half to get there, and he stayed with him all the next day. He was there already when I arrived and stayed till after I left. Now, they didn't give him a lot of stuff, but they gave him what they had, their time and their effort. I was pleased, and it's not limited to people in the church. Raleigh had neighbors come up from the street, brought grocery bags full of food, and said, you're going to need to eat here. And they brought him things like that. Because I said it was moving to me, and I'm only pointing that out, because that's an example, and they don't know I'm giving their example. But all of you have done things like that at one time or another. As I said, I'm only pointing out to you what we do and what I want us to continue to do. As I said, what's my goal for us to continue doing this? I've learned a lot about giving in love, and people do it all the time. As I said, they sometimes pick up the phone and call someone, give an encouraging word. People send a card, they help people move furniture, they do whatever. Those are important things. And that's what I'd like for us congregation to be, a group of people that do for each other as they can, because they love each other. What do I want us to be? I hope that we'll be a group of people that love God, that love God's word and will never be deceived. And at the same time, a group of people that love each other, that'll go out on a limb for each other sometimes, and correcting a brother in love when needed, but helping each other out in physical ways when needed. Now, these goals aren't uniquely mine, and really, they shouldn't be. I'm the one that gets to stand up here and talk, so it's important that I share some of the things that I want, but one of the things I remind myself, and I've caught myself on this, a lot of times when ministers get together and they're talking about back home, they talk, oh, my congregation back here. And it's okay to use that turn of phrase, but I remind myself that it's not my congregation. You're not my people. You belong to God, and I'm here to serve you. So we should have goals. We all belong to God. He has goals for us. And I remind myself, these goals that I'm saying that I'd like to see in us, I need to be those things.

I'd love for us to be a warm and friendly group, but you know what? You're already warmer and friendlier than I could already hope. I've been learning about that from all of you since I came here, and some churches naturally have that more than others. And so I'm learning, and that's good. I'd like for us to be a group of people that genuinely cares about each other, like spending time together. I think we have that. I think it's worth, as we're wrapping up, think, what would you like the congregation to be? Probably all the things that I already said, there might be some small thing or big thing that you would think of. What I would encourage you is the thing I thought to myself, as I'm thinking, what do I want the congregation to be? I need to be that. If there's something you'd like the congregation to be, work on being that yourself, and it'll spread. I'm not sure if I'm quoting it exactly, and I don't often quote Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, the leader of the revolution or the movement for independence in India, but I think the way he said it was, be the change you want to see. You want to see a change in a group, you be that first. Now, that means you have to set the proper goal. I'm not proposing that we fight for independence from the British Empire. But the things we want us to be, we want to be a loving people, let's all be that. We want to be enthusiastic, positive. We want to, you know, if you want to have better potlucks, bring better food to the potlucks, you know. And I'm not complaining about the potlucks. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. No, I love the potlucks. I'm saying, if there's something, you know, whatever it is you'd like to see different, you start it and do it that way, and others will join. And that's why I mentioned the planning meeting. You think we need to have more of a different type of activity? Well, then let's get together and help put it on. I want to work harder at the things that I want us all to be and encourage all of you. Because that, I think, will be a group of people, a loving people that loves God and loves each other.