Give or Take, Part 2

Well, his name might be difficult to pronounce. He's quite the piano player, though. He was beautiful. Thank you. Well, brethren, we have a number of visitors with us today, and I apologize. It's a part two of a part one that you haven't heard. So that's going to make things a little difficult. We'll do a little bit of catch-up and kind of review. It has been a little bit for everybody, not just you guys. In the last message that we had on this particular topic, this is give and take, second half. We introduced this concept of givers and takers as they ultimately corresponded to the business world. Now, we were looking specifically at business world, interactions between clients and business professionals. And we looked at this idea that some individuals tend to approach every interaction that they undergo with different outcomes in mind. While the taker tends to be concerned with really what they're going to get out of the interaction, how can they benefit, what can they obtain, these individuals often take the credit. They often find some way to personally profit from every interaction. The giver is really a diametric opposite. The giver isn't worried about credit. They're not worried about what they can receive. They're not concerned in the least bit about what they get out of this interaction. They're ultimately concerned with what the other person's needs are. They desire to serve the customer. We might say in the vernacular, they aim to please. As a result, we also mentioned, givers often find themselves at the bottom rungs of the corporate hierarchy. You can imagine, if you're not super concerned about how high up the corporate ladder you're going, you just want to do a good job at work, you're not necessarily going to always find yourself advancing. But again, they're not focused on advancement or getting credit for the job. They want to make sure it's done and it's done right and that the customer is happy. The taker, on the other hand, often are always looking out for number one. They tend to find themselves in more of those mid to upper level management. We also talked last time about this is not a wide across-the-board painting everybody with a broad brush. There are some fantastic givers that have made their way into mid and upper level management positions. But the overall majority of those that find themselves in those places through Adam Grant's research have been identified as takers. Research has shown that these individuals, that the upper echelons of these companies, we take a look at it a little further and remove up the ladder some. Those at the very, very top are exclusively givers, which is interesting. It's interesting. They're not really concerned with advancing themselves. I mean, they are in a way, I guess. But they're concerned about advancing the company. By advancing the company, they ultimately benefit as well. They advance the company, they advance their product, they advance their service. They're not so much worried about their own place and things. They want the customer to be happy. They want to make repeat business. They want to have the customer come back. The company to be successful. And by being successful, they can help a number of other people as well. We also established throughout Scripture that biblically, there are examples of both. We can actually find givers and takers within the pages of our own Bible. We looked at Saul, and we looked at how God called Saul while he was still little in his own eyes, while he was humble. That God chose him and he anointed him as king. But as time went on, we can see in Saul's life, his pride grew. He made some egregious errors, offered to burn offering himself one of the things that he did, instead of waiting for Samuel like he should have.

We saw that he stayed back the best of the livestock after the war with the Amalekites, spared their king. And as his life goes on, we see him consult with a medium. We see him attempt to kill David numerous times in order to solidify his own reign. We looked at Uzziah, and how he served God faithfully for the majority of his life. And like Saul, in a moment of pride, took a censor of incense and attempted to offer that to God. It wasn't his place. It was not his job to do those things.

He may have been king, but even the king didn't have that kind of authority. That was really reserved for the priesthood at that point in time. God struck him with leprosy for the remainder of his days. We looked at Gideon as a positive, kind of an in-between positive and negative example. We looked at Gideon, and after all of his exploits, his refusal to be king over Israel, they offered it to him. They offered it to him. Please be king over us! Establish a dynasty, you and your children!

And he turned it down. He said, no, instead you should return to God, and God should rule over you. He was less concerned about keeping up for himself power and authority and riches and treasures, and more concerned with turning his people back to God.

Though, as we saw, perhaps his attitude changed slightly later in life. We see a little bit of a stumble with the Golden Ifod. We see some stumbling blocks placed before his family and before Israel in that way. But finally, we looked at the example of Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul. We looked at him as an example of someone really who had been in both places in life. He'd been in both places in life. He had this incredible power as one of the leading Pharisees.

Incredible power! I mean, so much so he had paperwork that a lot of them would go to other countries and bound people and bring them back. That's incredible power. But after his dramatic calling, he understood what it truly meant to be a giver. Someone who's more concerned about the needs of others than he was about his own life. A person who served others selflessly, who recognized his lot in life. Really a man who emptied himself with pride and who gave God the glory. He recognized that he was just another tool in the tool shed. That he was just another tool in the tool shed.

And God would use him as he saw fit. And really, as a result, it's very similar to all of our lives. Our wants, our needs, are not as important. He didn't glorify himself because of his service to God. He glorified God through his service to man.

We visited Isaiah 10 and verse 5. Let's turn there for sake of review just briefly. Isaiah 10 verse 5. Actually, let's just go to 15. Let's do 15 and say we won't read the whole section. Isaiah 10 verse 15. Isaiah 10 and verse 15. We see this context here of Assyria, ultimately being this instrument of God's wrath. But again, with Assyria, they're this powerful country, this powerful nation, this powerful people. Everybody's afraid of them, you know, mass conquerors. And they thought, oh, look at us. We're pretty strong. We're pretty powerful. I mean, look what we've done, not recognizing that they were really just a tool in God's hands.

And so the words of Isaiah here are written in this way. 10 verse 15. It says, Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? So, shall the tool itself put itself above the one who is wielding it, is really the question being asked here. Shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it, as if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood?

Assyria didn't realize, they didn't recognize that they were just a tool in God's hands, that God had used them for a mighty thing, I mean, he conquered nations with them. But they were just a tool. They were just a tool. Can the saw magnify itself? Can the rod and the staff lift up the one who wields it and swing that person around? No, of course not. Paul recognized this too. Paul recognized he was the instrument. God wielded him, ultimately. And as a result, the instrument doesn't get the glory.

You know, I have some fantastic tools. But if I go and I build something that looks really wonderful, I don't, by the way, I'm not a great builder, but let's just say hypothetically, if I manage to build something that looks really good. You know, the screwdriver didn't do it. The saw didn't do it. It was the skill in the hand of the person who wielded that tool. And God wields us as tools.

And in that case, the wielder gets the glory. And what this realization allowed Paul to do is it really allowed Paul to serve God very effectively as a giver. And we finished up the last message with a general question that we, I told you we'd be left to explore as we further went into this message. And that's really where we're going to spend the rest of the message today.

What about us? What about us? What about our interactions with others? What about our interactions with others? Do we interact with others as a giver or as a taker? Does it even matter? I mean, we have the truth of God. Does it even matter how we interact with other people? Because we know we're right anyway.

Sometimes that can be the attitude that we tend to have. Does it matter how we interact with other people? According to Adam Grant's research—I think we can all, in our head, we can answer that question. Of course it does, right? I mean, we're all on board with that. I think we are. I don't think there's anybody going, no, it doesn't matter. We can just tell them whatever we want.

Of course it matters. And according to Adam Grant's research, it matters quite a bit, actually. He found the majority of time during this taker's relentless pursuit up the corporate ladder that that person managed to burn an awful lot of bridges along the way. You can maybe think of people who have—in your workplace, or maybe people you've known in the past who have worked their way up things—intuitively recognize that you can only snag credit for somebody else's work for so long before people start getting upset. When at all costs leaves collateral damage. When at all costs leaves collateral damage.

If you're only concerned about yourself when you interact with other people, it's going to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. As a result, as you might imagine, takers are not the most well-liked people in the office. They're not. And while it doesn't seem to have a major effect on their rise of the corporate ladder, it does greatly affect those whom they work with. It greatly affects the clients that they interact with. And it affects the clients' perception of that individual and the company whom they work for. It affects the perception of that individual and the company whom they work for.

Brethren, in our business interactions—business in quotes— in our business interactions, when we interact with our church family or when we're out in public about our father's business, our choice of interaction can have a huge effect on the people that we interact with. If we're burning bridges through our interactions with other people, when we talk religion or we talk politics, we talk those two topics that you're never supposed to discuss in mixed company, right? Those two things that everybody's, eh, don't go there.

If we burn bridges, we're not doing God any favors. And not every interaction is a cry aloud and spare not interaction. In fact, we've been reading through the book of Job lately, and Job's friends, their response to Job's issues are very much cry aloud and spare not. They really are. Job, listen, you're wrong. Here's what's going on.

You definitely stand. Here's the issues. And Job at one point—actually, let's go back there real quick. Let's go to the book of Job. I want you to read the words. Job 15. Listen, pertain to the book of Job.

At least I'm pretty sure it's in Job 15. This isn't in my notes. Yep. Nope. 16. Job 16, verse 5.

Job 16, verse 5. He's talking—well, we'll go verse 4 too. I could also speak as you do, he says to his friends. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could heap up words against you. I could sit there and rail against you too and find all of your faults and yell about all the different things that you've done and shake my head at you.

Verse 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. Not every interaction is a cry aloud and spare not interaction.

And what I've noticed—there's been kind of a somewhat fascinating thing lately that I've seen, and it really was the ultimate inspiration for both of these messages. As you've probably noticed, politically, culturally, socially, our country is becoming more and more contentious. You can pop the news on, one night's 30-minute news, and you can see the amount of contention that's going on. Social media platforms have not helped to give everyone a voice, which makes it much easier for individuals to share their opinions on a wide variety of topics.

The past six months in the United States have given us Caitlyn Jenner and a host of transgender-related issues. Most recently, within the last two, three weeks, Washington passed a law that if you're a male, you can use a female restroom as long as you identify as a female. Vice versa—locker rooms, too. On the books in the state of Washington. Just, you know, 45 minutes to an hour north.

We've seen Rachel Dolezal—for those that aren't familiar— a Caucasian woman who was elected the president of the NAACP in Spokane by passing herself off as African-American. People were generally upset.

We've seen continued issues in race relations. You know, we've seen the Oscar-so-white hashtag that everybody's talking about right now. We've seen Black Lives Matter. We've seen all these things, and it's contention. We've seen controversial decisions, which legalized homosexual unions, mandated national health care. We've seen the abortion debate read night—just yesterday or day before was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. We've also seen the beginnings of the 2016 presidential election. The Syrian refugee crisis. The occupation of the Malheur wildlife refuge right here in our own backyard.

The news is full of contention. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. No, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. Back and forth. As someone who exists in two very separate and different worlds in life— I live one half of my life in the really extremely liberal bastion of public education, and then on the other half of my life in the world of conservative Christianity. I have good friends on both sides of the aisle on all of these issues.

In fact, a really good friend of mine at work. It does not matter what the issue is. I can guarantee if he's for it, I'm against it. Every single time, it doesn't matter what it is. We've yet to find common ground on an argument. But we're peaceable about discussions, and we understand where the two of us are coming from. But for the past several months, as these things have gone on, just back and forth and back and forth, my Facebook feed has been a war zone.

It's an absolute war zone. And I don't know how many of you guys have been in the same boat, but it's just back and forth and back and forth. One side volleying this piece of artillery, and then the other side volleying this piece of artillery, and I'm just in the middle with a flak jacket and a helmet on going, I just want to watch cat videos. Please, please, you know. I'm joking, of course. It's been toxic. It really has been toxic. Over the past few months, I've seen a variety of different types of attacks from both sides.

I've seen the, I'm just going to leave this here, kind of where they post a link to an article or a video that sums up their basic understanding, and then they leave it at that. Just walk away. And then other people are like, really? I don't really agree with this at all, but they never come back to it. They just let the conversation go, and it usually goes south real quick. Usually goes south very, very fast.

The drop the mic, which is similar to the, I'm just going to leave it here. This is, here's what I think, done. And they walk away, and they never come back to it either. And the conversation goes, I don't believe that at all. Here's what I think. And then no one ever comes back to it. No one discusses it.

Everybody just kind of there. But the last one, and the one that I've seen probably a little more frequently, is what I term the sledgehammer. And the sledgehammer is where you tell the person what you think, and you just go, why won't you submit? I'm right, you're wrong! Won't you just listen to me? And it's a conversation that happens kind of between these two individuals, in which one person says all the right things, in all of the wrong ways.

And I think you've probably seen these different varieties of discussions and different things that people have used. And basically it's bashing them over the head with the beliefs over and over and over again, until eventually they submit. Except that people are stubborn, and they're not always going to submit. And so you're just going to keep bashing and getting nowhere. There are a number of other methods. I'm guilty of many of these, as many maybe you are as well. But as I contemplated these interactions that I was seeing in the wake of Caitlyn Jenner, in the wake of the Planned Parenthood thing, in the wake of all of these contentious issues, I had to ask myself, what sort of interaction is this?

Is this give, or is this take? And what I mean by that, is does this kind of interaction ultimately glorify God? Or does it exalt the self? Does it glorify God, or does it exalt the self? Is our goal in winning the argument at all costs, no matter the collateral damage, if that's the case, are we winning it for the right reasons?

Are we winning it so that we can look good? Are we building bridges, or are we tearing them down? There's a huge difference. There really is a big difference. One of these encourages continued conversation, while the other illustrates that you're closed off, and the conversation's over. Brethren, the reality is, we've been called to preach the gospel to the world. Been called to preach the gospel to the world. And sometimes, I think we think that this means the world consists of only those people who agree with us, or those who are of a Christian background, or those who are disgruntled with their own religion and looking for something different.

But, you know, if we look at Christ's example in Scripture, more often than not, it appears He spoke with those who disagreed with Him quite often. He associated with tax collectors, harlots, sinners, the real dregs of society. And He treated them with love, and He treated them with service. He dined with them. He spoke with them. He taught them. And often, He healed them. Let's go to Mark 2. Let's go to Mark 2. See an example of this in Scripture in Mark 2.

Mark 2. And we'll pick it up in verse 15, because there were a number of people who questioned this practice as time went on. You know, seeing this person, this rabbi, this great teacher, associating with these people, what in the world is your teacher doing? What is going on here was the question that many of the disciples were getting.

But Mark 2, verse 15, talks a little bit about this. Mark 2, verse 15, there it is. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, speaking here of Matthew, Levi's another name for Matthew, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples. And if you think about it, Matthew was a tax collector. It's likely the only people that were his friends were tax collectors, because no one else would associate with tax collectors. So, you've got to have friends, right? So you associate with other people that may be workplace colleagues, perhaps. But they also sat together. So let me see. Go back real quick.

Now it happened as He was dining in Levi's house. Many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and the Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and the sinners, they said to His disciples, how is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Sinners, brethren, people just like you and me. We were called out of that life of sin. We were given an opportunity. We were shown God's truth. And we responded to that calling. And ultimately, we're learning and we're working to become more like Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1, verse 16. Let's see if I can find a camp person here. This was one of our camp memory scriptures. What's 1 Peter 1.16? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Young people? Young people? Bueller? Bueller? 1 Peter 1, verse 16 admonishes us to be holy, for I am holy.

Be holy for I am holy. We all know it's not just flipping a switch. It's not like we decide one day, okay, bing! I'm holy now. It's done. It's over with. The switch is flipped. We recognize it's a lifetime of learning. It's continually submitting to God. It's growing spiritually. In fact, the word there in 1 Peter 1.16 for be, the be you holy, B is the Greek word ginomahi. The Greek word ginomahi actually is more appropriately translated to become. It means to become assembled. It means to come into being. So if you think about that, you think about someone becoming holy over time, or being assembled piece by piece by piece to become holy, or to come into holiness as time goes on.

It's not automatic. It's a process. It's a lifelong process. And if it's a process, that process has a beginning. If it's a process, that process has a beginning. It has a starting point. It has a place where someone's heart is pricked and they come to a certain understanding. Brethren, what if that moment is your interaction? What if that moment is your interaction with that person out there? Where? It might be in the coffee line. It might be at the library. Anywhere. What if that is your moment?

The individuals that we interact with on a daily basis, no matter who they are, no matter what they might be involved in. You know, the barista, when we go up to Portland, it's tatted from fingertip to shoulder and piercing so many, you'd set off a metal detector. What if it's them? We never know. We don't know who God might be calling. The people that we interact with on a regular basis, they represent potential members in God's family. They are the world to whom we're to preach the gospel to. And if we're not careful in our methodology, if we're not careful in how we do this, we run the risk of alienating them, leaving a bad taste in their mouth, or burning bridges, or worse yet, tarnishing the name of our Holy Father in their eyes.

Our interaction may result in losing any future opportunity that we had with that person. So today, with the time that we have left, I'd like to spend some time looking further into the life of the Apostle Paul. And the reason I want to look at the Apostle Paul is, Paul's interactions with the Gentiles seem to be the most similar to the kinds of interactions that we would have with people in the world today.

It's really important also to remember that in many cases, Paul had incredible opportunity to interact with non-believers. In fact, we see near the end of Romans, he as much as states it, that he wanted to go places where the gospel had not been heard.

He wanted to go to people who didn't have a background, people who didn't understand the law and the prophets. You know, the rest of the disciples were really sent to the house of Israel and the Jews. Paul wanted very specifically to go to people that had no background. And he was sent because he had what it took to reach them. He was sent because he had what it took to reach them.

He had an incredible amount of empathy and an incredible amount of love, and he had a strong desire that regardless of that person's background, that they came to Christ. It's called Romans 9. Romans 9. Romans 9. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. Romans 9 and verse 1. We kind of see the Apostle Paul's thoughts on this particular subject. Now, with this particular case, context is he speaking of his own people, he's speaking of the Jews, he's speaking of his own brethren. But I want you to think about Paul as a whole and think about what you see with him as he interacts with Gentiles, that he had the same love for them as he had for his own people.

And so you can almost look at this particular statement and think, you know, he'd be saying something very similar to other individuals as well. It says, Romans 9, verse 1. I tell the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, who were Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises.

But Paul was heartbroken by those that didn't see and didn't understand Christ. And in this particular passage, again, his own kinsmen. But when you see how he interacted and how he advocated for the Gentiles throughout all of the other Epistles, his empathy didn't stop with his own people. His empathy and his love was given to the Gentiles as well. And he was so heartbroken in Romans 9, he would himself willingly be cut off, that he'd be anathema if they would just come to Christ. When we see people that we know on social media, or we see people that we work with or go to school with, who are engaging in openly sinful behaviors, or maybe who support those that are in openly sinful behavior, does our heart break?

Does our heart break? Do we wish we could help? Do we want to help them understand in some way? Or do we kind of quickly scan past, thinking, or thanking God rather, that, ah, I'm not like this, you know, robber, evildoer, adulterer, or tax collector? Every day provides us with numerous opportunities. But again, if that opportunity isn't with the right attitude, in the right time, with an established relationship, we'll likely do more damage than good. Paul's examples provide us with some principles that we can glean. Really, in the modern era of the church today, and I told you when we started Part 1, Part 2 would focus on a lot more applicability, that we would try to focus on tangible things that we can do each and every day as we interact with other people to make it more successful and increase the chances that our interactions will bring glory to God.

The first of those things that Paul did—Paul did three different things. And the first of those was that Paul was all things to all men. So the first of those things was Paul was all things to all men. The second thing we're going to look at is that Paul was an expert swordsman, in quotes. He may have been a decent regular swordsman, too, but I'm going to use it in quotes. Paul was an expert swordsman, and Paul did not compromise on the truth. Paul did not compromise on the truth.

So three things again. Paul was all things to all men. He was an expert swordsman, and he did not compromise on the truth. So Paul's approach to his ministry, the very first of these, that he was all things to all men. His approach to his ministry is something for us to consider. He mentions his strategy, actually, very clearly. It's written right in the pages of our Bible.

1 Corinthians 9. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 9, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 19. As we see kind of this is, I don't know, his mission, I suppose, his guiding principles. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19, we see the method to his ministry. 9, verse 19, says, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.

Verse 20, To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law, as without law, not being without law towards God, but under law towards Christ. That I might win those who are without law.

To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Paul strove to understand where his audience was coming from, whomever they may be.

He endeavored to meet them at their level, to kind of meet them where they were. He tried to empathize what they were dealing with, tried to understand what they were going through, what, where they were coming from. And he wove those things into his responses all for one singular purpose. He became all things to all men to save as many as humanly possible. That doesn't mean that in order to reach a drug addict, Paul would have started shooting heroin.

That's not what that means. It doesn't mean that he had to literally become them to understand them. He wouldn't have done anything that compromised his beliefs. He is simply stating that he uses their culture, their understanding, their background to reach them. You know, if I'm invited to go and give a presentation in front of a group of loggers, you know, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to try to say something that's going to speak to these individuals.

I don't know a thing about logging. I had basics. Cut the tree down, tree falls down, makes wood, build houses. Like, that's it. That's all I got. But I'm definitely going to do my research. I'm going to learn as much as humanly possible so that I can try to draw some analogies. I can try to figure out something that I can use that I can reach them with that particular bit of info. It's not unlike in teaching, in many ways. You try to reach the kids where they're at. You try to understand what they know and where they're coming from and weave things in that they can understand.

Paul was good at this. He was extremely good at this. He used their background to reach them. There's actually a really great example. It's in Acts 17. Let's go to Acts 17.

Acts 17, we see a really good example of this strategy.

As he speaks with the Greeks and Athens.

Acts 17.

And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 16. We'll pick it up in verse 16 of Acts 17.

Acts 17, verse 16 says, Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. He walked into Athens. He sees these idols all over. It was like a sucker punch in the gut. Oh, man! I can't believe this! What are they doing? What are they doing? Don't they understand?

So it says in verse 17, So he started with those that had a background, that had an understanding. And in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Trying to reason with them. Trying to get them to understand why this is such a bad thing.

We see he started within the synagogue. That he worked with those who understood first.

Verse 18, He's out here in the marketplace. You can imagine running around. I'm like, don't do that. No, what are you doing? You know, what's this babbler want to say? Others said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods. Because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. Verse 19, So he's got a somewhat receptive audience at this point. Verse 21, Imagine that just sitting around all day, just talking about stuff. Just philosophizing. Just sitting around and talking about things. Somebody brings something new to your ears and you discuss it and run it. Just sitting around this little circle philosophizing all day. That's what they did all day. It's crazy. So here's Paul before a group of men who do this thing day in, day out. They're good at what they do. They sit around and they philosophize. I don't even know if that's a word, but I'm going to keep saying it because I like it. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. He's a great person. I don't even know if that's a word, but I'm going to keep saying it because I like it. They talk about life. They talk about the afterlife. They talk about feelings. They talk about pain, pleasure. Epicurean and Stoics had very different viewpoints on pleasure and on how things operated within that particular thing. Epicurus himself was actually celibate, and there was a bunch of other whatnot. Anyway.

Verse 22. And Paul stood in the midst of the Aeropagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing Him I proclaim to you.

I see you guys are so religious that you have an inscription to a God you don't even know anything about.

Let me tell you about that God. Let me tell you about this God that you don't know and that you don't understand. Verse 24. It kind of gets into the meat of it a little bit. God, who made the world and everything in it since He is Lord of heaven and earth, Does not dwell in temples made with hands. Little subtle dig there, Athens.

They have temples all over the place. Little dig? He doesn't live in stone houses. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, As He needed anything since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. Little dig at idolatry there as well. And as He's made from one blood, Every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, And has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries, Of their dwellings.

Verse 27. So that they should seek the Lord, In the hope that they might grope for Him, And find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. He basically lines out the basics of who God is, what God is, What He desires in us. Notice the next statement. Verse 28. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being. As also some of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. Paul references their own poets, The people who they would know.

He's meeting them right where they're at. Paul was well-read, not just Scripture. This enabled him to be on the same level as his audience. To the philosophers, you might say, he became a philosopher. This increases his credibility substantially. Verse 29. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.

Stop with the idolatry. A little jab. A subtle jab. It's not real sledgehammer-y yet. It's subtle. Verse 30. Truly these times of ignorance, he said, What? Did he just say that? Did he just call us ignorant? I don't know if they thought that or not. But truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Verse 31. Because he's appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, he's given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, We will hear you again on this matter. Notice he didn't win them all over. Some did mock. Some, I'm sure, had a heyday laughing at him. But others were willing to listen. Others were willing to meet with him again. And Paul had this really uncanny way of just meeting people where they were. In this group of idolaters, the basic construction of his argument, if you break down his argument, the basic construction of his argument is this. One, I perceive you're very religious.

He starts out with kind of an almost backhanded compliment, but it's a compliment. I perceive you're very religious. So religious, in fact, that you have an inscription to a God you don't even know. I can tell you who that God is, and I can tell him, tell you what he's about and what he desires you to become. Your own philosophers have touched on aspects of these concepts in their writing. And then five, God will only overlook ignorance for so long.

He expects his creation to obey, and he'll judge the world, according to Christ's standard. Notice his entire argument didn't consist of, You're breaking the second commandment! You are going to the lake of fire! You're a bunch of sinners! That wasn't his argument. That's not how he approached it.

How many of you are familiar with the Westboro Baptist Church? You've all heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. Do they have any credibility? None. None. In the eyes of the world, none. They are a laughingstock. Now, is their message accurate in some regards? Aspects of it? Yes. Other aspects of it? Absolutely not. But they have lost any and all credibility.

And not only that, they have given Christians as a whole a bad name, because of the variety of their interaction. Paul didn't use the word of God as a sledgehammer with non-believers. He didn't. He used it as a sword that it was intended to be. We need to ensure that we have a level of empathy, that we have our hearts break for those that we interact with, and that we temper our emotions and we reason with them in such a way that we don't burn our bridges and leave a bad taste in our mouth.

We want to win hearts and minds. We can't tell people what to think. We need to let that person come to the understanding on their own, provoking them to think about the topic, to mull it over and to come to an understanding that matches the word of God with assistance. They need to be led. They need to be led. We need to lead them to be cut to the heart.

It takes skill. It takes practice. I'm not good at it yet. It takes skill. It takes practice. I am one of those that consistently opens my mouth and inserts foot. And I'm sure, you know, some of you may be able to identify with that, but I am an open-mouth insert-foot guy sometimes. Simply telling them what to believe, or worse yet, just handing them a booklet, is not going to change their heart.

They want to know what you believe. They want to know why you believe it. They want to know how it works in your life. They don't want a booklet. And a booklet, once they've got that information and they're interested, sure. But, well, this is what I think. Tell them what you think. Tell them what you think. Tell them why God is working in your life and how you know He's working in your life.

Speak to their heart. Second thing that Paul did was he was an expert swordsman. It's an expert swordsman. And Paul actually likens the word of God to a sword in a number of places, in his epistles. And you'd imagine a sword is something that people in that time period would be very, very familiar with. And so it's a real apropos analogy for them to be able to look at.

If Ephesians 6, 17 refers to the word of God as the sword of the Spirit, Hebrews 4, 12 tells us the word of God. This message that he's given us in the Bible is a lie that's active, it's sharper than any double-edged sword, and it penetrates through the division of soul and spirit joints and marrow. In 2 Timothy 2, 15, though, he takes it one step further. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2, verse 15.

Somebody took 2 Timothy out of my Bible. Nope, it's there. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15.

In the midst of some admonitions to Timothy himself, as well as those he would ultimately oversee, and obviously all of us down through history. Verse 15 says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and in the New King James Version, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, interestingly enough, in the ESV, and actually a multitude of other translations, it's not just the ESV, in a multitude of other translations, instead of rightly dividing the word of truth, it says handling aright, the word of truth.

Handling aright, the word of truth. The Greek word for rightly handling is orsoumateo, which means to make a straight cut. To make a straight cut. So if we consider the word of God as a sword, if we consider this idea of rightly handling the sword that God has given us, wielding it in a way that we become capable enough to be able to make straight, effective cuts.

I don't know how many of you have ever waved a sword around. It's not as easy as it looks. I'm not a swordsman. I'm not. But I have waved a sword around a couple of times just to see what it was like.

But it takes study. It takes practice to get good at. It's actually a guy, his name is Yoshinoro... No, one more time. Yoshinori Kouno. And he is a modern-day samurai master. In fact, he's probably the closest thing that we have to a samurai today. He has dedicated his entire life to learn and become skilled in the way of the samurai and the use of the katana as a weapon.

We're talking 30 years of dedication to this. This guy's a little bit older, and he's been working on this for quite some time. But he has the following to say with regards to the level of training to become capable with a weapon like a katana. He says it takes decades, decades, to become battle-ready with a katana. I mean, anybody can go into a studio with no one around him and swing around and cut watermelons. I mean, you know, you can do that pretty easily with a katana. No big deal. But if you're going to go into battle against someone with a katana, to become battle-ready, he says, decades, anyone who is less experienced is likely – this is the rest of his quote – anyone with less experience is likely to cut off their own leg or foot on a deflection or a misattack.

Not only must we rightly handle the word of truth, not only must we rightly handle the word of truth, make sure that we know what we're doing with this sword that God has given us, we have to study to show ourselves approved. We have to gain skill with that blade.

We have to practice regularly. We have to study to learn more about how to use it. We have to show ourselves approved to the Master who trains us. To show ourselves approved to the Master who trains us. But that doesn't mean that to show ourselves approved that we have to run out and jump into every fight that comes our way. Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese general and the author of The Art of War, gives the following advice, do not fight a battle that cannot be won.

That doesn't mean that we shy away from the tough fights. It doesn't mean we shy away from the tough fights. We're going to have a lot more tough fights in the future. We are. Especially as more legislation happens, like what happened in Washington in the last couple of weeks. We're going to have a lot more tough fights in the future. It doesn't mean we shy away from them. But we look at the situation wisely. We decide, is there an endgame in this battle? Am I going to be able to actually get somewhere with this discussion?

Or are we just going to do this and then just spin our wheels into the mud? Are we going to be able to have an endgame? Rather than some battles are simply not winnable. And it might be wiser to not engage in the first place. Other battles? The battlefield itself, in other words, kind of our selected method of discussion, may not be conducive to a win. In other words, it might not be the best bet to have these battles on Facebook. It may not be the best battlefield.

Choose your battlefield, right? Just a verse prior, Paul warns Timothy over the dangers of battles over words. He puts Sun Tzu's quote just a little bit differently. And he illustrates the danger in these verbal sword fights. So in 2 Timothy 2 verse 14, he says, Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit.

In other words, fighting the battle that can't be won. Striving about words to no profit. But notice, to the ruin of the hearers. To the ruin of the hearers. The Barclays Study Bible mentions on this particular passage, and I love this quote from Barclays. There's one thing about it I don't like. And I'll bring it up when we get there. It says, discussion. This is what Barclays Study Bible has to say about 2 Timothy 2 verse 14.

Discussion can be invigorating for those whose approach to the Christian faith is intellectual. Like, we all know people like that. They're just intellectually very good at their background. Those who have a background of knowledge and culture, for those who have a real knowledge of or interest in history and theology. But sometimes it happens, and this is what I don't like, I don't like the phrase he uses here, that a simple-minded person, I don't like that phrase, he means somebody who doesn't approach their faith intellectually, super intellectually.

He doesn't mean somebody who's less intelligent than someone else, per se. But it sometimes happens that a simple-minded person finds himself in a group which is tossing heresies about and propounding unanswerable questions, and his faith, so far from being helped, is upset. It may well be that that is what Paul means when he says that word battles can undo those who listen to them. The normal word used for building a person up in the Christian faith, for edification, is literally the same word as building a house.

The word that Paul uses here for ruin, cotastra fae, is what might well be used for the demolition of a house. And it may well happen that clever, subtle, speculative, intellectually reckless discussion may have the effect of demolishing and not building up the faith of some, again, simple person who happens to become involved in it. And that's on page 172 of the Berkeley Study Bible. If we stick with our sword analogy, if we're a beginning swordsman, you don't challenge a blade master. You don't challenge somebody. We're not going to necessarily run out after we've just...

and sometimes we do, after we've recently become converted. We're so excited we want to talk to everybody about it. We don't go start picking fights with PhDs in evolution on the topic of evolution. I remember sitting in a college class one time, and this young man, you've got to give him an A for heart. I mean, he was just not having it.

Every single thing the teacher mentioned on evolution, he would come, and it was just a constant, constant thing. And finally, the professor just had enough, and he just, boy, he put that kid in his place. I mean, really, really put him in his place. And it was one of those things where it was... in the class, you see him there going, Oh, ooh, ugh. You know, it was cringe-worthy at times. And it was just... the kid did not have enough background to be able to go against this person.

He just didn't. He wasn't ready. He picked the fight too early, and he was humiliated. He really was. And we want to ensure that we know our stuff when we take people on. We want to make sure that if we're going to go toe-to-toe with somebody, that we really know our stuff, and that we go about it again with the right attitude. Our discussions and debates over the truth of God are really not unlike a sword fight. They consist of, like, a natural give and take.

They consist of a natural give and take. At times, we may find ourselves on the defensive. And it's just parry, parry, parry, parry. You know, and just everything we can do until we find an opening. And then we move. Once we have our opening, then we can move. Maybe we're parrying, we're evading, we're turning their movements against them.

Just waiting for that opening. Other times, we may have the advantage from the beginning, and they're on the defensive. And it's just, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep kind of driving a little bit. But regardless of where we find ourselves in this, it's important to recognize throughout this entire process, on the other end of that sword is a potential member of the family of God, whose time of judgment may not be now.

That may change, it may not. But the most important piece to remember is, for us, our time is now. And so for us, the how of our interaction is as important as the result. We need to study that we might show ourselves approved, and rightly handle that word of truth. Lastly, in our last point for today, the Apostle Paul did not compromise the truth. He didn't shy away from the truth, he didn't shy away from difficult topics at times. He didn't compromise what he knew to be true. And we'll see a couple of examples here where he most certainly didn't shy away from really, really, really tough conversations.

There were times when he was more forceful with people. There were times where maybe we might say that he used the sledgehammer, so to speak. But notice when those times were. Those times when he would use those kinds of maneuvers were when it was addressed to people who knew better.

Those were times when he was addressing people who knew better. His own people, believers within the Church. 1 Corinthians 5 is one such example. And we won't turn there. Most of you know the situation at 1 Corinthians 5. If you don't, you've got some homework. It's one such example of when he goes in and he takes the congregation to task over their acceptance of an individual living a life of sin.

And we see later on, 2 Corinthians, that he's so thankful that it worked, that this person repented and everything's good again. And it was one of those things where it was a bit of a sledgehammer at the time. But it was with people, again, that knew better. Another of those, one of my favorites, personally, is in Galatians 2.

Let's go ahead and turn over to Galatians 2. We'll go to that one. Galatians 2. Galatians 2. And the book of Galatians, as a whole, addresses the believers in Galatia who were really kind of being bombarded on both sides, very similar to that artillery volley from one side and artillery volley from the other. On one hand, they had a group of Judaizers who were basically telling the believers in Galatia that they had to become Jewish in order to become Christian, that somehow being a Gentile Christian was a secondhand Christian.

On the other side of that, their friends, their family, and society was trying to pull them back into the holidays of the Roman calendar. Kind of those weak and beggarly elements that he refers to in Galatians 4. So these new believers are being pulled this way and that way and this way and that way. And you can imagine that some of them are just getting fed up, like, forget it, I'm done, I'm out of here. This is crazy.

I can't keep doing this. On one hand, I can't do this, I can't do it right because I'm not Jewish. And then on the other hand, my family wants me to come back and celebrate Caesar Day and I don't want to celebrate Caesar Day. And how do I rectify these things? So they're being pulled back and forth and back and forth. And Paul's words and empathy and concern for the brethren are beautiful as he reasons and constructs this argument in Galatians within this letter and not only constructs an argument but encourages them and strengthens them and corrects those of the circumcision that were creating the problem.

In Galatians 2, we see a reference to a problem that Paul had to step up and correct. Paul had discovered that Peter and Barnabas, while visiting the group in Antioch, separated themselves from the Gentiles when the Jews showed up. So they separated them from the Jews at the...or separated themselves, I'm sorry, from the Gentiles when the Jews showed up, fearing their response if they were to eat with the Gentiles.

Now this action really only reinforced this idea again that you had to become Jewish in order to be Christian. That somehow as a Gentile, again, you were a second-class Christian, which Peter himself knew wasn't true. Peter himself knew that wasn't true after the vision that he had, meeting with the centurion. But out of fear of the Jews, he allowed himself to compromise what he knew to be true. Paul wasn't having it. Paul was not having it. Galatians 2. We'll pick it up in verse 11. It says, Paul got in Peter's face about this. He was stood him to his face. Imagine this was a conversation where Paul's passion showed through a little bit.

Where his passion showed through a little bit. He couldn't believe what he was seeing from Peter. He knew that it was wrong. He called him out on it. To his face, in front of a crowd of people. You can imagine, it was probably not a comfortable conversation. You can imagine being out on the outside of that, just kind of going, Okay. They're yelling at each other now. Maybe they weren't yelling.

It's easy to read into things. Maybe it was a very reasoned-out response and passion was in check. But you read this and it probably got a little heated. I think it got a little heated.

But when you read Paul's words to the Brethren in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 5, that was also a sound rebuke. That was also where some passion showed through. He kind of let him have it because they knew better. Now, does that mean that we run around and let all of our brethren have it every time we see them doing something wrong? No. Again, cry loud and spare not is not the right thing for every single interaction. It works beautifully in certain things. In other things, it can drive wedges between people. But Paul didn't react this way with individuals that didn't know the truth. He was patient. He worked with them. He led them to the truth of God like a shepherd. But again, he also didn't shy away from correcting believers when it wore it in himself. He spoke the truth in love. Let's go to 2 Timothy to finish up today. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. I should have had you keep a finger or a bookmark or something in there. It would make it easier to turn, but I forgot. I'm sorry. 2 Timothy 2.

And we'll pick it up in verse 24 through 26.

2 Timothy 2 verses 24 and 26, just a little bit down the page of where we were at earlier. 2 Corinthians. Don't go to 2 Corinthians. 2 Timothy 2. And verse 14 says, or I'm sorry, verse 24.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who were in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do as well.

Paul instructs Timothy that as servants of God, we must not be quarrelsome. Can't be out looking for fights. Can't be looking for every opportunity that we have to jump in and correct somebody and show them how they're wrong. I don't know if you've ever seen the picture, but the wife's calling the husband to dinner, and he says, Just a minute, honey!

There's someone wrong on the Internet! I have to take a second and tell this person why they're wrong. We can't approach life with that sort of attitude. We need to be gentle to all, believer and non-believer. We must be apt to teach, which means, again, we need to know the material we're teaching. We need to be patient. We need to be humble as we make corrections. With the ultimate goal, the big goal here being that the person recovers themselves from the trap that they find themselves in. And honestly, a trap that they might not even be aware that they're in.

At times, they might not even know. The world around us is becoming increasingly more hostile towards God, towards those who profess to follow Him. Again, take one look around, and yeah, that's the case. The world is becoming significantly more hostile towards those who profess to follow God. And frankly, the world's tolerance of our beliefs is waning.

I don't remember how many of you remember this. Those of you that are my age will. Early 90s, everything was celebrate diversity. If you remember the celebrate diversity movement, I remember having the hardest time getting time off for the feast in elementary school. And then the 90s hit, and it's like, hey, we're taking off to go to the feast. Cool! Oh, that sounds great! Celebrate diversity! Well, I'll tell you, it's going the other way now. You know, I've had more difficulty in the last little bit. Some of the other teachers in the room know how this is as well.

Our district in particular, Salem-Kaiser, gave us some really hard times over the last couple of years. And thankfully, that's a little better now. But with each passing year, more and more, society is becoming less and less tolerant of what we believe. And as society goes, so goes the nation. As goes the nation, so goes the church at times. But just because things are becoming more hostile, just because our viewpoint is considered by some to be antiquated, outdated, potentially hateful, bigoted, or fundamentalist, it doesn't change our mission.

God expects us to preach the gospel to the world. That requires us to approach every interaction that we enter into with an attitude of give, with love in our heart, and with our words seasoned with salt. We need to wisely choose our battles, become all things to all men, attempt to reach people where they are, meet them where they are, reason with them in a way that they will understand and that will lead them in a shift in their thinking, carefully and thoughtfully.

We need to train ourselves again in rightly handling the word of truth, becoming a master in our blade. We need to know this thing front and back inside and out. Inside and out. Front and back. Every word. Study the opponent's strategies. Study the opponent's strategies. Understand what argument they might come back against you with.

Be ready to have an answer for that. Be ready to have an answer with the next logic. It's like a chess game. Think five moves. I'm really bad at that, by the way. I lose every time. My kids are getting much, much better at chess. But study the opponent's strategies. Become versed in them so that you can counter them more effectively. We can't compromise the truth. We cannot compromise the truth. But we do need to speak the truth in love. Every day we're given opportunities to interact with others from the moment that our eyes open to the moment that they close.

Each day we are about our Father's business. How will we treat those interactions? Are we in it for us? We're trying to win the argument so that we can exalt ourselves. Or do we have the concern of the other person's forefront in our mind? As we close services today, I'm going to leave you with a question. What will it be, brethren? Is it going to be give, or is it going to be take?