Love Your Neighbor

The story is told about a man, and we've all been in this position at one time or another, whose car stalled in heavy traffic as the light turned green. So guess what occurs when that happens? Well, all of his efforts to start the engine failed, and there was a chorus of honking going on behind him, and it only made matters worse. Well, finally he got upset and frustrated with all of this, and he walked back, got out of his car and walked back to the first car and driver, and said, I'm sorry, I can't seem to get my car started. If you'll go up there and give it a try, I'll stay here and blow your horn for you. Now, of course, you know, that's it's been a little sarcastic, but when it comes to living life, though, you and I need to learn not to honk the horn so much. You know, we have the opportunity to really edify and to build one another up and to encourage one another, or we can sit back and blow the horn all the time at any mistake, any problem, any difficulty that others have. And I think we all realize that the Christian approach is not to sit there and just honk your horn, but to see what you can do to help. I think that there's probably not a time in the history of God's Church when there's a need for us to be seeking to edify, to build up one another, and to show the proper love and respect for each other that we should. Jesus Christ, you might remember, said, by this will all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another. And so, you know, this is a quality that we all need to have.

Underneath any great goal, there are objectives that have to be fulfilled for us to achieve that goal. I want to focus today on a topic that we all think about. We all realize that we should have more love for one another, that if we're going to be known by having that love, how do you achieve that? Too often, and I found myself doing this over the years, you go, you get down, you pray, and you say, God, I need more love. Give me more love. And we don't do anything ourselves to actually work toward that. And it's almost as if we are expecting through osmosis that God is just going to pour it out on us. And all at once, we wake up one morning, we've got this silly grin on our face, we got more love. And so, therefore, we are loving.

Well, I think all of us have realized that to achieve any goal that you strive for, you have to list what the objectives are that lead to that goal. And they are, in a sense, prerequisites in order to achieve the goal that you are searching for, or the purpose that you might have. So underneath these, underneath any goal that you might set for yourself, there are objectives that you have to strive for. Let me give you an illustration of what I'm talking about. What if a young man decided that he wanted to become a doctor?

Now, let's compare this to, we decide we want more love. That's a nice goal, to become a doctor. But how do you do that? Do you just wake up one morning, you're a doctor? You know, you went to bed one night, you weren't a doctor, next morning you are a doctor? Well, no, there are certain objectives that you have to accomplish in order to accomplish that goal. First of all, you've got to get an education. Secondarily, there might be some financial prerequisites that you have to achieve because it's going to cost a lot of money to go through college and then through medical school. After obtaining a college degree, you're going to have to be accepted into some medical school, probably specializing in a particular field of medicine. You have to serve several years as an intern, and then you need to find a practice or a specialization that will accept you as a practitioner, give you a chance to apply your trade, and if you fulfill all of these objectives, then it's possible that you could become a doctor. Well, the same thing is true when it comes to us as Christians and having the proper love that we need to have for one another. If you were to list from the top down the most primary goals we have, where would you start in the Bible? What is the primary goal that we should have in our lives? I think most of us would probably start in Matthew 6.33.

I remember in Matthew 6.33 Jesus Christ said, seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He said all of these things would be added to you. So if we're going to seek first God's kingdom, how do you do that? How do you put the kingdom of God first? Well, let's go back to Matthew 22. Matthew 22, verse 35.

And you'll notice that in order to accomplish this, of seeking God's kingdom first, that there are some primary sub-goals that you've got to do in order to seek God's kingdom. Beginning in verse 35, notice, they came and they said, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to them, well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all of your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, hang the law and the prophets.

So what you find if we're going to seek the kingdom of God and put that first in our lives, number one, we've got to love God with all of our being. And number two, we've got to learn to love our neighbors ourselves.

And so this is why Jesus Christ, you might remember in John 13, we read this every Passover, emphasize that if we're going to be His disciple, we will be known by the love that we have. And so in order to achieve that, you and I have to love God with our whole heart, got to love our neighbor as ourself. So this goal of loving one another is something that we need to strive for. You and I need to set as an objective. And so I'd like to take a look today at the objectives. Actually, there are two. Let's go over here to Romans 14 and verse 19. If there is an underlying objective, and there, let's face it, there are many things that we could do that we could set as objectives and say, if I do this, this will help me to love my neighbor better. But Romans 14 and verse 19, I think, lists two of these objectives. We don't have time in an hour and a half sermon. We'll see how many are listening here. Join a sermon to cover everything, but I think we would have time here to cover these two points. Notice Romans chapter 14 and verse 19. Therefore, let us pursue the things that make for peace. So in order to have peace, you have to pursue it. You know, we have a song, seek peace, pursue it earnestly. And then the things by which one may edify another. These are two powerful objectives that help us teach us how to love one another, seeking first for peace. We're going to love people. We've got to be able to get along with them, and secondarily, seeking to edify one another. So we seek peace. We learn to edify one another. By doing these two objectives, you will find that you'll make tremendous inroads to coming to love your neighbor as yourself. So let's take a look at these two principles, because these are the two objectives I'd like for us to focus on here today. And remember, keep in the back of your mind the objective is to seek, I mean, the goal is to seek God's kingdom. And in order to do that, we have to put God first, and then we have to learn to love our neighbor. And in order to do that, we need to learn to make peace. The Bible is loaded with principles about peace, how to have peace. The Apostle Peter gives us a number of principles about peace. Let's go back to 1 Peter chapter 3.

1 Peter chapter 3. Chapter 3 is full of instructions from Peter on how to pursue peace in your life. He talks about how to have peace in your marriage, how to have peace with your neighbor, how to have peace of mind. These are all areas that we seek for. And we'll concentrate here on verses 1 through 14 of this chapter. And one of the things you'll notice is that there are a lot of imperatives used in 1 Peter. Imperative isn't just a suggestion, it's a command. Imperatives often begin with the word, let's, you know, let's do something. You know, let's follow through with something. So let's take a look at 1 Peter 3 beginning in verse 1.

It says, wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without the word may be won by the conduct of the wives. When they observed your chaste conduct, accompanied by fear. So here we find that a wife, in many cases, can have a very powerful influence over her husband. Your behavior is seen by your husband, and vice versa. The husband's behavior is seen by the wife. And our behavior is also seen by our children, you know, when we have children at home. At least, you know, if a guy has half a brain, he can see his wife's conduct, how she treats him, how she responds to him. Even a carnal man will respond in a positive way to the righteous behavior of his wife, if she's a Christian. I'm not talking about preaching to him, but I'm just talking about being a good wife. Now in verse 3, notice the first let that is mentioned.

Verse 3 says, do not let your adornment be merely outward. That doesn't say don't adorn yourself outwardly. It's not saying being dowdy. You don't worry about how you look, but it says, don't let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing of gold, putting on a fine apparel. So, what it's saying here is don't let or don't get carried away with outward adornment or outward appearance. It doesn't say don't be concerned about that, but you don't make that the focal point. Your focus should be elsewhere. In verse 4 tells us that. Notice the second let here. In verse 4, it says, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. So, we find that the Bible says, that the beauty that a woman displays should be the gentle quiet spirit that she shows to everyone. And if she has that as her focus, and she has that as how she approaches her husband, and her relationship with other people, then that will go a long way to bringing about peace, as we'll see. Sometimes our outward adornment can actually turn people off to us.

The quiet spirit, a make spirit, a humble spirit, is a powerful key to having peace with other people.

Sometimes outward adornment can make others think that we're better than them. You know, if we're all flashy, and we've got diamonds on every hand, we give an appearance that we are above others in how we dress.

It doesn't lead to peace, and sometimes can lead to resentment. But you find that a quiet spirit can be attractive to man, as well as to God. Now let's skip down to verse 8 here.

Beginning in verse 8, Peter gives a series of steps or characteristics that help us to develop our relationship with others. These steps obviously help us to develop character, but they also lead to loving one another and to having peace.

In the Greek, you'll find these are expressed in a certain way, so let me read, beginning here in verse 8, Finally, all of you be of one mind. So the first thing that is mentioned is that we should be of one mind, or as the meaning is, be like-minded. You and I should be like-minded to one another, having compassion. So the second point is having compassion, or being sympathetic to others.

When people think of you, do they think of somebody who is sympathetic, somebody who really has concern for them, and that who can have a light mind and concern?

And then it says, love as brothers, in other words, have brotherly love, or loving the brotherhood, and be tender-hearted. Do people think of us as being tender-hearted? The word tender-hearted here means to have compassion. Do people think of us as compassionate individuals, and that we are tender-hearted? Then finally, it says, and be courteous, or be friendly. So when you look at being like-minded, sympathetic, loving the brethren, compassionate, and friendly, these five steps lead towards love and peace between ourselves and others. And once again, the more we practice these, the more love we will have for one another. Now let's notice going on in verse 9. In verse 9, it says, not returning evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

So one of the blessings that God gives to us, as it says here, is that we are not to treat each other the way people are treated in the world. In the world, if somebody mistreats you, well, the object is to get back at them. Whereas the Bible says, vengeance belongs to God. So one of the steps or one of the goals that we should have is not to react in a carnal manner. Notice, as we read here in verse 10, Peter is quoting in verse 10 through 12 here, Psalm 34 verses 12 through 16. And notice in verse 10, For he who would love life and see good days, and that's us, we love life, we want to see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace, pursue it. So again, we find that peace is something that you have to pursue, you have to search for. Seek peace, pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

So if we're going to have peace with others, it's an active process. It's not something that we passively do. So these are all the beneficial things that will be added if we truly seek peace.

Now, many times when we seek peace, we think, well, I want to be a peaceful person, but we don't think about, again, what we must do in order to have peace. Let me illustrate by another story. I don't know how many of you've heard of the American landscape artist, his name Ansel Adams.

He studied piano when he was a youngster, and he showed some talent for playing the piano.

At one party, he was playing Chopin's F major nocturne, and he recounted the story. In some strange way, he said, my right hand had started off an F sharp major, while my left hand was just playing F major. So he's a half a step off here with one hand. I couldn't bring them together, and I went through the entire nocturne with a hand separated by half step. The next day, one of the fellow guests who was there, who listened to what he said, gave him an appraisal. He said, well, you never missed a wrong note. And it was very true. Every note he played was a wrong note. Rather than it's easy for us to be missing the right notes in our relationship with each other, there are times that we can be off key out of harmony, just like in music, and we don't realize it. We don't realize that we're out of tune. We're not attuned to others that we can be off key.

We don't realize sometimes how our actions to drive other people nutty. You know, they just get, you know, upset because we're not really stopping and looking at ourselves.

So, in verses 1-14 here, Peter tells us how to be a peacemaker.

This being a peacemaker is something that we all need. We need it now to be able to live in harmony and peace with one another. And we're going to need it in the future and being able to instruct the world and how to live at peace. When you take over your cities in the world tomorrow, and God says, okay, I want you to bring peace to these people. What are you going to do? You're going to go there, pick up your rod, and say, if you don't learn to live together, I'm going to bash your head in. You know, is that the way you will teach some peace? Well, there are steps, again, to achieving peace. Always remember this. If you get nothing else out of the sermon today, any goal you want to achieve, there are steps to achieving it, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. You know, there are certain steps that you have to go through in order to become one. And for us to be a peacemaker as a Christian, there are certain steps that we have to go through. Let me quickly mention four steps to you that if we're going to inculcate being peacemakers that we have to do. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31, I want you to notice.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31, we find, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So you and I, the first step is to make sure that everything we do, we try to do it to glorify God. That we seek to honor Him in our approach and to show love to others. As he explains here, you know, I have a heading back here beginning about verse 23 that says, all to the glory of God. This is in the New King James Version.

And this whole section talks about that. It talks about inviting somebody to dinner and, you know, not offending them by what you serve. And that we need to make sure that we don't give offense, as verse 32 says, give no offense either to the Jew or to the Greek or to the Church of God. And so, you and I, in whatever we do, we try to make sure we don't offend. Now, there are times that people come into our congregation, and I've had over the years people come in who were vegetarians. And I didn't immediately invite them out and say, let's go have a steak dinner. You know, if I found out they were a vegetarian, guess what?

We would go out and eat vegetables. And, you know, they would have to learn over a period of time that it wasn't wrong. This is the principle that the Apostle Paul is showing here. That if we truly love people, that we will try to do what's possible to bring about peace. We do this by honoring God. And when people look at us, people see God or should see God through you. When people look at you, do they see God? If our focus is always on how to glorify God and what His will is, it won't be on our own selfish motivations and self-centered decisions, because we will be outward in thinking about others.

One of the problems we all have, and I know we have it because I am one, we're all human, is that we tend to think about ourselves and our minds tend to be on ourselves. And it's hard to be outgoing in our thoughts and in our actions. So every time we approach someone, if we think, what can I do to help this person and you're thinking about God, His law, His principle, and get your mind off of yourself, that will go a long way. So step number one is to do everything to the glory of God in our thinking, in our actions.

Step number two, is found back in Matthew 7 and verse 5. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 5, where we read, First remove the plank from your own eye. Then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So step number two in bringing about peace is first of all, look at yourself. Get the log out of your own eye. Attacking others, if you attack others, only invites counter-attacks. And we've all experienced this, where you're talking about someone and they feel that you're attacking them or what they're doing, and they will come back and attack you.

If there's a problem between you and another person, the first, in other words, you're not living at peace with that person. This could be your mate, it could be your family, it could be another member in the church, it could be almost anyone. The first thing to do is to ask God to show you your fault. You analyze the situation and ask yourself, how have I contributed to this?

What have I done to contribute? And if you see that you have actually contributed and you go to God and you ask God to forgive you, you admit your fault. You admit, well, yeah, I knew I was wrong. And how many times have you ever been in a discussion that got a little lively with your mate and had to admit, I'm wrong? And, you know, when you're wrong, you're wrong. I mean, there's no other way around it. Although we like to defend ourselves. But to admit that you're wrong, then you might be able to spot the splinter that somebody else is I.

The problem they might have. So the second step to bringing peace is to look at yourself, get the beam out of your own eye. Then the third step is found over here in the book of Galatians. In Galatians chapter 6, let's notice here, Galatians chapter 6, we'll begin to read in verse 1.

It says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, so any sin, any fault, any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

So step number three, notice it says, gently restore. It says, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. If you have to point something out to another person that they're doing wrong, do it gently. Do it in a loving manner. You're wrong. Why don't you admit it? That's not the way. You might gently point something out. Now, when others fail to see that they've contributed to a problem or a conflict, sometimes you have to point it out to them. If they refuse to respond, then if it's a serious enough problem, a lot of things aren't, but if it's a serious enough problem, then it might be necessary to follow Matthew 18. And take someone with you and go talk to the individual. And finally, if they refuse to hear or listen at that point, they might need to come to the church or to the ministry to help them. But that's not where you start. Again, this is where a lot of people start with the heaviest hand that they can have. But the Bible is very clear that we help somebody gently. Then step number four is found back here in Matthew 5.24, Matthew the fifth chapter, and verse 24. We're told that if there's a problem between you and your brother, and you're going to go to the altar to pray, it says, leave your gift there before the altar. Verse 24, go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. So step number four is strive to be reconciled to your brother, a commitment to restore damaged relationships.

This will take time. It takes commitment to try to restore a relationship. When we forgive others, we're always reminded that God has forgiven us.

And we need to be thinking about how can we help the other person seeking a solution to help to end the conflict. If you follow these four steps, guess what? They will help you become a peacemaker. And if you become a peacemaker, that will help you to become a more loving person. So again, in order to achieve the overall goal that we have of loving one another, and being known for that, we've got to concentrate on being a peacemaker.

You might remember again, back in Romans 14 verse 19, the second objective that was mentioned there, was to edify one another. Let's talk about this second major objective.

How do you go about edifying other people? The word edify means to build up, and everything that we do, we should strive to build people up, not tear them down, not belittle them, but to build them up. The story is told about a man who went to a banquet. He was listening to a well-known politician, and the man was very much admired. He was sitting next to the politician's wife at the banquet, and he noticed how immaculate the man was dressed, and he was a tire. He even had monograms on his socks. I don't know how many of you have monograms on your socks, but this guy did. And when he looked at the monograms, they weren't a typical monogram. You know, you can have a shirt that might have your initials on it, like RH, you know, some monogram, something of that nature.

Normally, a monogram is two or three initials, but in this case, there were four. And upon closer inspection, he saw that it was TGIF.

Now, how many know what TGIF stands for? Well, normally it stands for, thank goodness, it's Friday.

You know, that you're appreciating that it's Friday. So, he mentioned to the politician's wife, uh, why did he have those initials on his socks? And she shook her head and said, no, you got it all wrong. That's not why he has that. These initials stand for Tolls go in first, talking about his socks. Now, she could have been pulling his leg, you know, on that, or she, uh, she could have not known what TGIF really stood for. But the point is, most of us don't have to be told how to put her socks on, do we?

You don't have to have a card there that says, toes go in first. Because how do you put socks on? You can't put them on from the heel, they don't come over the head. You know, you stick your toes in, you pull the sock up. Well, when it comes to edifying, it's just like toes go in first. You and I don't need a whole lot of instruction on how to do that, but when it comes to edifying one another, I do think that we need to be instructed, but we already know what we should be doing. In Ephesians 4 and verse 12, you find that one of the biggest ways the ministry has of edifying the church is through what I'm doing right now. That's speaking through Bible studies and through sermons. You might remember here that the purpose of the ministry, verse 11, it talks about how God is placed in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And in verse 12, it says, "...for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ." The ministry is to build the church up, and it's easy to discourage people, whereas God says that we should be building people up. Now, obviously, everyone doesn't have the opportunity. Most of you don't have the opportunity to stand up here and speak. So, how do we edify one another? There are certain things that we need to do to be able to do that. So, let me cover with you very quickly some of the points that we need to think about, reflect upon in order to edify one another. How do you go about edifying each other? You know these points, but let me point out perhaps what is obvious. Number one is in our conversation with one another, that you and I are to edify and build each other up by what we say. Now, that implies that we need to become good listeners. If you ever talk to somebody, they never look at you. They look at the floor. They notice somebody over here. They look over your head. They look around, and you wonder, well, what's he or she looking at? They're not paying any interest to you. So, one of the ways to truly edify is to listen to what somebody says. Even in our silence, we may not be saying anything, but if a person knows that they're talking to you, they have your undivided attention, and they feel like, okay, he's getting it. He understands what I'm saying. The main point is thinking a little bit before you open your mouth. How often have we opened our mouth and wished that we could take our foot out of our mouth? We have foot and mouth disease.

We have diarrhea of the brain and foot and mouth disease. We say things that we shouldn't say.

The Scriptures point out a principle back here in Matthew 12. In Matthew 12.34, we need to be very much aware of when it comes to edifying other people.

Verse 34 says, Blood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So what's in our heart is eventually going to come out of the mouth.

What we're thinking cannot be hidden. What we think, what's going on within us, sooner or later, if we're harboring evil thoughts and antagonisms, anger against someone, it will come out.

It will be on display. All people make mistakes, don't they? All of us do things that we wish we hadn't. So it doesn't mean that we should stay angry with someone forever if they make a mistake. But human nature, many times, will be exposed, and we may dislike it, but we shouldn't go around holding a grudge against someone for what they say. We may not wish them to be our closest friends, but we still need to be willing to forgive them. If we allow human nature to rule in our hearts, then that's exactly what's going to come out. Remember in James chapter 3 and verse 2.

James chapter 3 and verse 2, we're told this, For we all stumble in many things, and if anyone does not stumble in word, he's the perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body. We do stumble in word, don't we? And we say things. If we're able to control our mind, if we're able to control our thoughts, what the heart holds, we don't have to worry about blurring something out and speaking, because the heart won't be harboring evil thoughts against others. We all recognize that we're human. We all make mistakes, and so we've got to be willing to acknowledge that. So, in order to edify one another, we edify each other in our conversations. Secondarily, we edify one another by our example. Too often we don't think about our example in building people up, but as parents, I think we all realize how powerful our example is, or has been with our children. How do they learn to do things? You know, as our children grow up, they look at you. If you eat with your elbows on the table and you eat without ever asking God's blessing on the meal, well, guess what they're going to grow up doing? If the first thing out of your mouth are angry words, they will grow up, and they will treat other people in the same way. If you want your sons to grow up respecting women, they have to see their dad respecting their mom. If you want your daughters to grow up and be submissive, they have to see the example from the mother. So our example edifies. In other words, our example builds other people up. Our example to those around us speak very powerful words to others. Remember in Matthew 5, verse 14, Jesus Christ said that we are lights. That as a Christian, we are lights set on a hill. And as a light on a hill, the light is not hidden. So what we do speaks very loudly. So if we want people to be edified, our example is part of that process of building people up. And we need to think about that when we come to church here. That leads us to another point on edification. We edify people by our fellowship.

Do we stop and think about how important our fellowship is with one another? Spending time with each other, but not only just spending time, but quality time. How often has it been that somebody new shows up at church? And one of the biggest impressions they're going to have is how they're treated. If we have a new person and you couple walk in the door and they come in and they sort of stand over on the side, nobody goes up and speaks to them, nobody engages them in conversation, they sit down and then they leave. They're not going to feel very welcome. They're not going to feel a part of us. So one of the biggest impressions that we can have on others is how we treat them. I've noticed over the years, especially in congregations where the congregation is a little bigger, I mean we're so small here that on the Sabbath you can get around to talk to everybody. But in congregations where there are a few more people, I've seen individuals who are actually strangers in a crowd. They're there, but no one goes up and speaks to them. Not everyone is outgoing and we need to be able to circulate around. We don't stop and think about how we build people up by simply fellowshiping with them. We certainly discourage them if we don't, and it can work the other way. Another way of edifying people is by encouraging them.

Are we an encouraging type of person? If you listen to somebody's tale of woes, and we all have tales of woe that we have to speak, there's an opportunity when a person has told you maybe about their health problem or their family difficulty or financial difficulties they might be going through, is an opportunity to help encourage a person. We've all heard the expression before that you don't know what a person is going through until you walk the mile in their moccasins, until you walk and you see what they're going through. A lot of times when somebody tells you about their woes and what they're experiencing, you have no idea what to say. Have you ever been confronted and somebody tells you about their health problems, financial problems, and you're standing there thinking, what can I say? Well, sometimes you don't know what to say. There have been many times I don't know what to say. Somebody is telling me their difficulties, and I think, man, what should I say here to try to encourage them? Sometimes the only thing you can say is, I'll be praying for you. We will pray for you. If you can encourage them, in the sense, one of the greatest encouragements is you can recite how God intervened on your behalf.

There are times that people are going through health difficulties, and you can say, well, you know, I experienced something similar. You can recite your story. Anything that we can do to help build their faith, point them to God, for they trust God. They're looking to God. Will be extremely helpful. So we edify people through encouragement. Another way of edifying people is by serving others.

Serving others. There's no saying that a man cannot help another man uphill without getting closer to the top himself. You're going to try to help somebody go uphill. You're going to have to go uphill right along with him. So serving is a great key to edifying others.

You might remember the example of Jesus Christ, the Pass overnight. What did he do? He got down and he washed their feet, and they protested. And yet Christ said, look, you don't know what I'm doing, but he commanded them to wash one another's feet. He was serving them. He said an example. And in Matthew 20, verse 27, we read the illustration here. Matthew 20, verse 27. And he says, if we want to be great, we've got to do the same thing. Now, if you're sick and somebody comes over and cleans your house, mows your yard, helps you, if you have to move and they come over and they help you to move, do you think that that encourages them? But if you're sick and you have to go through it all alone, nobody shows any interest whatsoever, that becomes disheartening. Now, I know as we get a little older, it gets harder to serve, doesn't it?

You're not quite as agile as you used to be. You're not quite as, you know, don't have the same energy and drive and get up and go. But it doesn't matter how old we are or how young we are, we need to be thinking about others. And what can I do to help this individual? How can I help them? You know, do they need help? And so one of the ways is just simply to serve.

Now, there are certain things that we should do, not do. And I think another way that we edify others is to pray for them. You might remember back here in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 25, there are three times in the New Testament that we are told to do this. 1 Thessalonians 5, 25. Paul said, brethren, pray for us. We need to pray for one another.

Paul isn't the only one who needs prayers. I can look around our congregation here. There's not a person sitting here who doesn't need our prayers because of health problems, financial problems, other difficulties. We pray for the sick, and we give you information about those who are sick and ask you to pray for them. But what about when somebody's going through a trial or a test? Do we pray for them? See, this again comes back to why we spend time with each other, why we fellowship with each other. Because the more you learn about a person and they share themselves with you, then the more you can pray for that individual intelligently. And so, praying for somebody and for an individual to know that they mentioned, well, I lost my job this week. And you realize how serious that is, and you'll say, well, look, I'll pray for you. We'll ask God to help you and to bless you. So praying for people is another way that we edify them.

Now, there are certain things to avoid. And one thing to avoid are the negative side. Avoid, you know, just always criticizing other people. Criticism isn't edifying. Now, there are times that somebody might need to have something pointed out to them. But stop and think, who has the ability to edify? If you're not a real close friend of somebody, and, you know, they look on you as a close friend, to correct a close friend or someone you have a real tight relationship with, they will accept it. But to just go up to somebody in the church here that you're not close to, and just, you know, all at once launch an attack on them, so to speak, or to criticize them, or what they're doing, isn't going to help you be close to them. So we have to use kindness with our words. The old saying, you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, or as that flies. You're going to catch more with, you know, kind words, gentle words, and we need to make sure that we go out of our way to do so. So, brethren, what we are striving for, if I could put it all together, the Bible says that we are to seek God's kingdom first. In order to seek God's kingdom, we have to put God first, and that's a given to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all of our soul, and all of our might. But to seek God's kingdom first also implies that we have to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now, in order to love our neighbor, in other words, if we're going to work toward loving our neighbors ourselves, there are certain objectives that we should fulfill. And I mentioned two objectives taken from Romans 14 in verse 19. And those are objectives are to make peace, pursue it, and to edify one another. So, it takes practice. You know, it takes doing something. Now, you could stop and think about making peace, edifying one another, and you could probably come up with several dozen things that would help. The point being that as you inculcate these principles into your life, and you strive to become a peacemaker, or you strive to edify, guess what the end result of that will be? The end result will be that you will be a more loving person. You will be like that individual who decided that he wanted to become a doctor. In order to become a doctor, he had to fulfill certain obligations. And so, it is with us that we can truly then become a loving individual. So, remember what Christ said, that we would be known as his disciples because we show love one for another.