Living Below With The Saints I Know

In 38 years of ministry, I suppose I've seen just about all the silliness that can happen in a local church. With people trying to live together, trying to get along with each other. I remember a man in a church years ago coming to me all upset because there was a huge problem in the church in his mind. That problem was that his son was not getting enough time playing on the softball team. He was coming to me because he felt like I favored the church basketball team because I played on the basketball team, did not play on the softball team. The softball team played on Thursday nights and that was our visitation night so I couldn't. That was to him the huge problem in the church was his son not getting enough playing time on the church league softball team. For one time listening as a pianist, a church pianist bawled out a church organist because her husband was not leading the music in that church. I remember another occasion where a woman was publicly criticized because when she left the choir loft, she actually walked down the middle aisle of the church to her seat. Rather than doing the godly thing, walking down the back aisle, the side aisle and down to her seat. I remember two families being very upset with one another because one of those families had put candles on the communion table one Sunday and there was this huge fight over that issue. I remember one time a man standing up in a business meeting and saying, I do not trust the people who are counting the ballots for this vote and so he walked behind them as they left the auditorium to make sure they were going to count them correctly. I remember another time this was in the days before projection systems and we would project the words of more contemporary worship courses with an overhead projector on the front wall of the church. Remember those days and I remember a man coming to me in sense that we had to sing these off the wall songs. There is a double meaning there if you did not catch it. None of those happened in this church by the way. I tell those stories when I am preaching other places. But I suppose I have seen just about all the silliness that you can possibly see that people have with each other as we try to get along in the work of God. I think for many of us the theme song of our lives seems to be to dwell in love with the saints above all that will be glory. But to live below with the saints I know, well that's another story. Well Paul deals with how to live below with the saints we know in Romans chapter 12. So I invite your attention to Romans 12. Beginning in verse 9 Paul addresses this issue in what looks like at first to be an unrelated series of short commands just one right after another. Sometimes three in one verse sometimes just two words each in this series of short outbursts of commands if you will. Paul really does have a purpose and overriding purpose in this section of his epistle. The thread that ties all these commands together is basically how to get along with each other in the church, how to get along with each other as believers in the body of Christ. That is overarching subject in this passage. Now I want you to see how difficult Romans 12 gets the further you move along in the chapter. First couple of verses we probably all said wow amen all of us need to be dedicated wholeheartedly to Christ and separated from this world system that would pollute our minds with a world view that's anti Bible. We all need to be transformed from the inside out to be more like Christ. We all said a hearty amen to that that's good. And then even in verses 3 through 8 when we're talking about serving together. Yes we recognize we all need to serve together in the local church but now Paul has quit preaching and he's gone to medley. Because now he's going to say that transformed life is not just about you being changed on the inside. It's not just about you finding your place of service in the work of God and the family of God and being faithful in that. It's also about how you treat each other in the family of God. And now's where it gets a little out of you. And if you think that's bad wait till next time when we get to the end of chapter 12 it really gets where we start squirming a little bit. But today's talking about how to get along with each other how to live below with the same time. And it gives us three keys to living below with the saints we know. The first key to getting along with each other to living together and serving together in the family of God is to love sincerely. To love sincerely. Verse 9 notice what Paul says he says love must be sincere. Now the verb has been inserted in all of our English translations. There is no verb in the original language. It's just a heading. Really it would be most literally translated the sincere love. The sincere love and then Paul begins to address what the sincere love is all about. In fact there are some who believe that that heading controls all of what Paul says through verse 16. I preach this passage that way one time I preached on 11 characteristics of sincere love. You want to hear an 11 point sermon sometime well we'll do that another time. But this morning I want to approach it a little bit differently. I think at least that heading the sincere love covers verses 9 and 10. And he describes what that sincere love is. Well first of all it is love which the word Paul uses means to give of yourself sacrificial for the good of another person. It means to focus on someone else and their needs not mine to be others centered rather than self centered. And he says that love must be sincere. Interesting word. It's the word we actually get our word hypocrite from. Love is to be without any hypocrisy without any two facetness without saying one thing but really feeling and living another. It's very important that we understand that concept Paul does not want us to say that we love each other but then deny it by the way we treat each other or the way we talk about each other or the way we relate to one another. This love must be sincere. It must be without hypocrisy. You know we live in a culture that encourages us to live an image. We live in a culture that encourages us to really maybe say one thing to appear okay but to really be feeling and living out something different. I mean we may get a traffic ticket and at the same time we're smiling at the officer we're thinking in our hearts may your life be full of traffic jams. We're thinking one thing as we're saying something that kind of covers that up. I would not for a moment suggest that we just give vent all of our feelings that would not be good for any of us to do. But the opposite end of that spectrum is hypocritically saying one thing while we live another while we really feel another on the inside. I'm reading an interesting book right now that was loaned to me by David Pat and David keeps me in good historical books and I appreciate that. The team of rivals is the book it's about Lincoln's cabinet and how he put together his cabinet his political genius was to be able to take three men who ran against him for the presidency and four men from the opposite party and form his cabinet a team of rivals. And his political genius was to take differing points of view and to be able to to work with those differing views to be able to gain a forward motion for this country is his political genius was amazing. But in that book Doris good one the author tells a story of his nomination to the presidency to the Republican ticket in 1860. He was not expected to be the nominee. In fact the overwhelming consensus was that William Seward the state senator from New York who really had helped form that party who really was the leading voice of that party in this nation. Everyone expected that William Seward would be the Republican nominee for president the party had only been in existence about four years and he was the real leader and everybody expected it was hands down he will be the nominee. A number of things happened to kind of derail that but when it was announced that Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for president in 1860 this is the first thing that came from William Seward's pin no truer or firmer defenders of the Republican faith could have been found in the union then the distinguished and esteemed citizens on whom the honors of the nomination have fallen. Very gracious words but one of Seward's biographers goes on to say beneath his graceful facade Seward was angry hurt and humiliated here's what he would write it was only some months later when the shock had worn off and hope of a sword had revived that I could say roofily at half whimsically how fortunate was that I did not keep a diary. For if I had there would be a record of all my cursing and swearing when I got the news. Again I'm not suggesting that we just that we just vent everything that comes to mind but what Paul is saying is that we need to be careful that we don't cover up what we really do what we really feel with flowery kind words of a profession of love for each other that love needs to be sincere without any hypocrisy what does that look like what is a sincere love no hypocrisy involved what does that look like Paul describes. What a sincere love looks like for one another he says first of all this sincere love verse nine hate what is evil clean to what is good this sincere love is a godly love. When you love someone sincerely it does not mean that you just sugarcoat everything everything is okay everybody is okay there's nothing ever wrong no sincere love is a godly love that hates what is evil and cleansed to what is good the word hates a very strong word it's the word which means to express a public disgust for a genuine hatred for and then to back away from that because you hate it. If you really love someone there will be times when you have to call them on something there will be times when you may have to review there may be times when you have to correct love just doesn't smooth over everything something that will harm your child you will correct because you love them sometimes love hates it does hate what is evil. If you love a clean house you hate dirt if you love a garden you hate weeds if you love Christ you hate sin and if you love others you hate what will whatever will keep them from growing in Christ. So genuine love is willing to rebuke a brother or a sister from time to time in love graciously kindly tenderly but speaking words of truth because love hates what is evil. But it also cleansed the what is good strong word word clings it's a word that's used in the Old Testament for a husband cleaving to his wife an inseparable union the word literally means a tenacious attachment to. So while love hates what is evil and moves away from it it also tenaciously cleansed to what is good. So sincere love is a godly love it is willing to rebuke evil but it clings to naciously to that which is good morally good biblically good that which is best for the other person. So it's a godly love but also notice it's a family love. Paul says verse 10 be devoted to one another in brotherly love brotherly love is a family love now some of you probably came from a family that was dysfunctional that did not operate right and there was not a lot of love shown there may have been real heartache and tragedy in your family. So it's difficult for you to relate to the family aspect of the body of Christ and how a family ought to work. So let's try to think this morning in terms of a good family a biblical family a family that really loves each other with parents who genuinely love their children children who genuinely love their parents and brothers and sisters who love each other. It's kind of family I grew up in and I'm so grateful for it I thank god for it all the time because in that kind of a family people are warm they're close they have a bond that is inseparable they are committed to protecting each other to helping each other they're faithful to each other they're selfless with each other there is a family bond that will take you to the point of dying for someone else. If need be that's kind of love Paul saying well I have for each other family love a few years ago at the end of the decade the Chicago Tribune newspaper ran an issue that had a lot of pictures of significant news events in the city of Chicago over the past 10 years of that decade. And one of those pictures was a picture of a firefighter carrying the limp body of a child outside of a house that had burned and the story of that tragedy was indeed tragic. Firefighters arrived to think they had a routine house fire but when they got inside they found the mother huddled with her five children on the kitchen floor all of whom had died of smoke inhalation. The firefighters surmised that she probably could have made it out of the house herself maybe even carried one or two of the children with her but she would not leave any of them behind. Hoping against hope that firefighters would arrive in time to rescue them she huddled with her five children while the blaze surrounded them and they all died. That is a family love a commitment a selflessness that says I will do whatever is needed for you because I love you you're my brother my sister in Christ. So this this love this sincere love should be a family kind of love but notice Paul says thirdly it is also an unsalphished love verse 10. Honor one another above yourselves the word honor meaning to respect or to show kindness for others above yourself in other words others come first their needs come before you even expressions of kindness and respect flow to others before you expect them to flow to you. It is really a selfless unsalphished kind of love. You know most of the time when people visit our church and we send them information and we always include in their first impressions card and they send it back to us some of them do and give us their first impressions of the church and most of the time we hear comments about how friendly and how kind everybody was occasionally however we'll get a different response occasionally we'll hear someone say nobody spoke to me. Nobody said anything to me nobody welcomed me and occasionally we'll have someone that will visit the church for a while and and they may leave with that same kind of feeling. I have to be very careful how I express this but what I really want to say to them is did you speak to anybody. Did you go out of your way to be friendly now I know the bulk of the responsibilities on us who are already here to welcome new people. But what Paul is teaching here is that our first response should be I will first of all smile at you I will extend my hand to greet you I'm not waiting on someone to do that for me I'm going to honor you first and then if it comes my way fine but my place in the body of Christ is to put you first and to honor you. And to honor you above myself so that I'm not looking for strokes for myself I'm looking for people that I can reach out to I'm wanting to honor others that's got to be our focus in the body of Christ. We're at about a gentleman in London who was going to propose to his girlfriend and he wanted to do it in as many people do a unique way that would be remembered forever in the annals of history as the most unique proposal ever made and so he decided to take his twelve thousand dollar engagement ring and put it inside a balloon that would be then filled with helium. And he was going to take a little stick pin and literally pop the question and there would be the ring well unfortunately he lost his grip on the balloon and the balloon took off for two hours he tried to find the balloon jumped in his car thought it was going over this way so he took whatever roads he tried for two hours tried to find of course it vanished and the twelve thousand dollar ring was gone. When he tried to explain to his fiance what had happened she literally blew up I mean not literally but figuratively blew up lots of metaphors you could use you hit the ceiling you know all those her concern was not for him in fact she broke off the relationship her concern was not for him not for the expense that he had given in love and lost it. And was was overcome with sorrow because of that and unable to show his lover her concern was simply was she did not get to wear that twelve thousand dollar diamond ring on her finger. You know we we kind of laugh at that which if you were the one giving the ring you wouldn't but we kind of laugh at that but that's exactly what happens in the church. So I'm going to put myself centered in our expectations rather than saying I will take the first step toward you I will be the one to greet you I will be the one to smile at you I will be the one to serve you I will be the one to pray for you if that never comes back to me that's okay because I'm putting you first I'm going to prefer you I'm going to honor you first. See I told you it was going to get kind of rough through here these commands are not easy to live but what Paul is saying is if we are going to love and love sincerely not just with words but love sincerely and that's the way it's got to look. So love sincerely secondly Paul says if we're going to dwell below with saints we know we need to live faithfully in verses eleven and twelve he deals with living faithfully I think the point here is this if we focus on living faithfully for the one we are seeking to please our God our great God if we are focused on living faithfully with him we're not going to have a lot of time. To be looking at other people and criticizing and complaining about what's happened if our focus is on living faithfully for him that's going to take the majority of our time in fact you know I find in my own life this is a full time project to keep John King straight it's also a full time project for my wife so it takes two others to do this and she does it very graciously in kind of it takes me all my effort to make sure I'm living faithfully when I get my eyes off of that it's easy to get my eyes on others and become critical but when I live faithfully that helps me to keep the focus correctly. Now notice what Paul says about living faithfully first of all he says we need to be faithful in our service look at verse eleven never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord the controlling idea in this is serving the Lord that's the thrust of the passage he's talking about how we serve Christ and the way we serve Christ is with zeal and passion so we need to be faithful in our service. Don't be lacking in zeal he says don't come short on enthusiasm and zeal for whatever God has for you to do it's easy to get run down and worn down and Paul is saying keep the zeal meter high keep the zeal level high and he says you do that by keeping your spiritual fervor the word fervor is an interesting word it's a word which literally means to burn to burn. It can mean boiling over but it can be it can also mean to be on fire to burn it has the idea of a burning passion for something something that grips your life in your heart and it keeps you motivated and it keeps you in the task you keep you doing what you need to do it's what we call passion. What I ask you this morning what burns inside you what is it that really burns inside you. Is it all the stuff of this world that will someday be burned up but the judgment seat of Christ is that what gets you up every morning motivates you to do what you do keeps you going drives you is your ambition in life is that what burns inside you. Where is there something that burns inside you that has to do with serving the Lord to develop an awareness as Jesus said. Seek first the kingdom of God his righteousness all these other things that you worry about will be added to you God will take care of those but you put as the priority of your life seeking him his righteousness and serving him and if that's the overwhelming passion of our lives God will take care of you. Christ God will take care of the other things they don't take care of other people too but I've got to make sure that the fuel of my heart is directed towards serving him toward living faithfully in my service for him keep that fire going that should be a matter of prayer every day of our lives that God keeps that passion and fire going to serve him. So be faithful in our service. I read about. Southern Baptist missionaries who were training and discipling believers young believers in China to evangelize their own country and there's some wonderful folks doing that in a tent maker kind of way like Pete and Delilah Auldridge in China who are working in a university. There are other missionaries who are doing that as people come out of China and they train them to go back to their own country and this was one of those kinds of settings where young believers were being the cycle to go back and reach their own people by missionaries and in that discipleship process each of the people in the training was asked to make a list of a hundred people they would like to see come to Christ. They could be family members neighbors associates co-workers acquaintances just anybody you can think that you would love to see come to know Christ and of course in that kind of a setting where unlike us not many of your friends would be believers not many of your neighbors or co-workers would be believers pretty easy to come up with a list of a hundred people. One of the young ladies who was being discipled had made her list of a hundred people in the missionary then said to her, how many of these people do you think you can actually win the Christ and she look kind of stunned and surprised and then she said why all of them why also would I make the list. Now you got to love that kind of simple passion don't you why would I even put someone on a list if I didn't if I didn't endeavor to win them the Christ if I wasn't going to make the effort to win them the Christ. Sometimes the passion of young believers in difficult countries far outweighs ours mine the passion to see other people come to Christ what about my neighbors what about my co-workers well co-workers I think most of them here are already in the family but anyway what about what about my relationships. I think most of them are already in the family but anyway what about my friends and acquaintances do I have that same passion to see them all come to know Christ and I'm going to make the effort to reach out to them you see Paul wants us to be zealous no lacking of any enthusiasm but boiling over on fire on fire to see the work of God go forward that kind of passion what he's talking about. He's going to be faithful and service but we're also to be faithful in our character he deals with that in verse 12 he actually gives us three tests of character three character builders in verse 12 again these are short commands are so much in them verse 12 could be a full message in itself but I promise it won't be joyful in hope he says joyful in hope what a character builder hope is faith trusting for the future what God has promised. And typically when the word hope is used in the New Testament it's referring to our heavenly hope to the inheritance that we have in heaven read Romans 8 read first or second Peter 1 you know there are lots of passages about that but that hope that hope of what he has waiting for us should produce joy in our lives I'll be the first to admit I don't always live joyfully it's easy to get our eyes on the mundane or the difficult in this world and to get our focus off of the hope and off of heaven and off of all that God has for us and off of what it will mean to invest this life so that we will be pleased to be judged by him when we are in heaven the hope be joyful in that hope but then notice he says also be patient in affliction patient in affliction the word patience means literally to bear up under it's a missing concept in our Christian world to bear up under affliction to bear the load I mean just listen to most of our prayers mine included when we start going through hardship we ask God to be delivered from it right and that's not always God's purpose God's purpose is most of the time for us to bear up under it so that as we push against the load as we bear up under it we develop some spiritual muscle we grow we become more like Christ that's why James says rejoice when you intermanifold temptations because you know what it will produce that's why Paul says in Romans 5 that we can be joyful in Christ and we can be joyful in trials if we remain under them if we allow God to give us the strength to grow through them be patient in affliction in 1955 Winston Churchill delivered his last public address as he spoke to a university commencement ceremony there in England near death at that point actually infirm could not make it to the platform by himself had to be helped to the podium and as he stood there with his head low and his body bent over that lectern grabbing both sides of it it seemed like an interminable period of time before even lifted his head and started to speak but when he did speak this was his speech never give up never give up with those words his head dropped and he had to be helped away from the lectern for a while the crowd was stunned that's his speech and then they realized no no that was not his speech that was his life that was his life that he just poured out in those nine words and the crowd erupted in thunder a applause to honor a man who had lived that out three times in the world three times he'd been kind of shuttled out of public life into obscured in three times he came back to lead that great nation through the World War II he was the single voice that rallied that nation to be strong and to keep the fight going to not give up to not give up when they were being bombed crazily every night never give up was the way he lived and that's what Paul saying to us here never give up when the load becomes heavy ask God for the development of spiritual strength and Christ's likeness to bear up under the load and come through that trial stronger than you were before be patient bear up under the load in affliction third character builder verse 12 be faithful in prayer the weakest link in our spiritual lives is prayer for most of us I guess it is prayer be faithful in prayer consistent discipline in prayer faithful not sporadic not just throwing up an arrow of help me when I'm in trouble but consistent in prayer faithful in prayer those are character builders I don't know about you but I think I think I know myself well enough to know that if I am focused on living faithfully in my service for Christ so that I'm continually having that fervor and and zeal and passion to do what God wants me to do and when I'm focusing on the building of my character for the glory of God I don't have a lot of time to be critical of other people that's a pretty full time job and when all of us do that you see what it means to the body of Christ how we get along with each other and move forward together so Paul says to live below with the saint I know I need to focus on living faithfully for the one to whom I will give an account someday you do it faithfully but then notice he also says to live below with the saint we know I'm sincerely live faithfully but also give on selfishly and these next few verses is very interesting there are two things you actually says to give two things you says to give up all of them have to with giving but two things we need to give away two things we need to give up and there's a difference one of the greatest destroyers of dissension and disunity in the church is an attitude of selfless and disinformation selfless giving will go a long way toward providing unity and focus in the body of Christ and getting along with each other what is it that we need to give first of all two things we need to give first 13 we should give our material blessings first 13 says share with God's people who are in need the word shares the word we get our word fellowship from it's the idea to become a partner with to share in someone's life and here it's to share with them my material blessings to partner with others who have need and that's one of the hallmarks of the body of Christ is that when others have a need those who have resources help with that need and the other way around there may be someone else who has an emotional need a physical need not just financial here but here it's talking about material blessings share with them who are in need we we chip in to help each other and notice how he says it at the end of verse 13 this is one way you do that practice hospitality hospitality literally means the love of strangers it means to be willing to give of your resources for those who have needs even if it's someone in the church and in the context he's talking about others in the body of Christ even if it's someone you don't know well be hospitable hospitality is the willingness to share of your resources maybe your home maybe your money it may be other things that you can get to help someone to be willing to share of your resources to help others practice hospitality the word practice is a great word it literally means to pursue pursue you must run after it not just hope maybe someday it'll come along and I could do a little something run after it look for opportunities to be of help to others I love the story in Genesis 18 of Abraham you may recall the story of where the angel of the Lord who was probably an Old Testament appearance Christ Himself comes down along with two angels to pay a visit to Abraham they're going to explain to Abraham the Lord is what he's going to do in judging Sodom and Gomorrah it's a great story but in the first couple of verses it says Abraham looked out one day from his tent he saw these three strangers standing out there good ways away from his tent and so he ran to them to ask them to stay and have a meal with them and then it says he purried to Sarah and said come on make some of that sarahly bread that you make let's get some of that going and then it says he ran to the flock to get an animal to kill for dinner I mean three times it says he ran he hurried there was no lack of there was an eagerness to help these people next the idea here look for opportunities to provide hospitality those are in need in case you're wondering where do I start looking you know we got a great opportunity this summer I we've mentioned it in bulletin announcements already Dr. Wheeler our missionary that we sent out from our church is coming back from Ukraine for a brief furlough she needs a place to live in the Princeton area doesn't need a mansion all she needs is a place that would have a place for to set up an office and a place to sleep if you would have a garage apartment a basement apartment attic apartment whatever it might be extra place a home that's not being used and you could say I want to practice hospital I want to pursue hospitality I want to take the initiative to make available to her who has a need by the way one of the greatest reasons for hospitality the New Testament was visiting preachers and Christians who were disinherited from their homes once they became believers and so others chipped in to take care of them so Miriam has a need as a visitor to the house and they're going to take care of them visiting missionary that's that's pray that someone will pursue pursue the need to be hospitable and help with that need give material blessings notice the second thing where to give down in verse 15 is to give sympathy rejoice with those who rejoice mourn with those who mourn give sympathy when someone is blessed and favored by God what is your first response be honest you don't have to tell anybody but be honest what's your first response is it sometimes to be a little envious or to think well they must not be doing something right or maybe even to be critical I'll never forget a story that I heard Andy Stanley tell when I was a moody one time at a Founder's Week conference and he was preaching and Andy Stanley's the son of Charles Stanley and most of you may know Charles better but Andy went to the northern suburbs of Atlanta and started a church which just exploded in growth and runs 16 to 20,000 people now he was telling a story one time the story that I heard about a pastor who called him one day and this other pastor said for the Stanley you probably don't know me but I passed through the little church right across the road from where your church is and every Sunday morning I get stuck in the traffic jam that of people going to your church as I'm trying to get to my church and Andy started to think oh no here it comes another criticism for what we're doing in the growth of this ministry and he said the guy went on to say I just want you to know that as I'm stopped in traffic watching people try to get into your parking lots I pray for your church and I pray that God will continue to bless your work and help you to reach many people for Christ and impact the world for Christ and Andy Stanley said it just blew him away because that's very rare in the church world sad to say it's very rare when God blesses someone else can we rejoice with them or do we start looking for things that they don't do this they're wrong about that there or can we say God thank you for what you're doing in that work when God blesses another believer can we rejoice with them but can we also mourn with those who mourn weep with those who weep like Jesus did when he looked out among the multitudes and was moved with compassion because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd or when he's at the tomb of Lazarus and he knows he's going to raise him from the dead but he looks around it morning family and he breaks down in tears can we be moved with the needs of other people like that like Jesus was with compassion can we mourn with those who mourn I love what Chuck Swindall has said when you rejoice with someone that doubles the joy when you mourn with someone it halves the sorrow I love that rejoicing with someone multiplies the joy mourning with someone takes away some of their grief and halves it rejoice more gives sympathy quickly two things we need to give up back to verse 14 we need to give up revenge bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse again there are some who say this is talking about unbelievers I don't think so in the context he's talking about fellow members of the body of Christ he'll get to unbelievers in verse 17 and if you think chapter 12 is hard now wait till we get there how we deal with unbelievers and how they treat Christians sometimes is a very difficult thing but here he's talking about other believers who may mistreat you may say things do things that hurt you and they have hurt deeply how do you respond to that do you curse them it's one of the options Paul talks about and he's not talking about profanity to curse someone did not mean to wish that God would punish them have you ever done that have you ever just kind of secretly wish someone who has hurt you would get hurt themselves or you'd even like to help God do it Paul says that's not a transformed life that's not a renewed mind a renewed mind blesses those people oh wait a second Lord couldn't I just get by with not cursing them couldn't I just get by without you know trying to not express hard feelings toward them no no God says you need to go a step beyond that you need to actually do something positive toward them bless them the word bless learning means to speak well of and to speak well toward when someone really gets at you when someone really hurts you what Paul is saying is turn around and speak well of them to other people what an acid test of Christ likeness maybe one of the most difficult tests of Christ likeness in the Bible but we do not have a renewed mind and a transformed life unless we can live that way Paul says when others persecute you mistreat you bless them don't curse them speak well of them speak well about them to other people speak well to them when you speak to them give up revenge and then lastly give up pride when we have the time to really deal with this when we're 16 he talks about three times a pride live in harmony with one another that's the pride of deviceiveness I'm always right and so we end up dividing don't do that he says live in harmony with one secondly do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position that's the pride of ambition I will only associate with people on my intellectual level or on my professional level with nose up in the air I will not associate with whoever that's pride that's pride of ambition Charles Evans Hughes was the Supreme Court Justice from 1930 to 1941 when he moved to Washington he joined the Baptist Church in Washington DC and as he and many others were being presented for membership that Sunday one of the first people up to the front to be presented for membership was a Chinese laundering man now remember think the 1930s Chinese laundering and then there are all these other distinguished people that are coming up to be presented and there on the other side of the church is Chinese laundering man is over all by the way Chinese laundering man is over all by himself and when Charles Evans Hughes came to the front he walked right over to that Chinese laundering man put his arm around him you're my brother in Christ I'm the the chief justice of the Supreme Court your Chinese laundering man we are equal in the eyes of Christ that's what he was saying and he was doing exactly what Paul tells us to do here we're finally give up the pride of conceit do not be conceded don't think of yourself more highly than you ought he's already said don't be conceded Paul is telling us through these series of seemingly unrelated commands if we really have a transformed life if we really have a renewed mind this is the way it's going to look in our relationships with each other as we relate together as we get along with each other we live below with the saints we know we will love sincerely no hypocrisy we will be able to say I love you in our actions back it up we will live faithfully with a focus a concentrated focus on serving Christ passionately and developing our character for him not being critical of everybody else and we will give unselfishly of our material blessings are sympathy giving up revenge and giving up pride and when we do that when we live that way it is unbelievable what our testimony will be these kinds of relationships such relationships in the church provide a powerful testimony to a watching world powerful testimony to a watching world Jesus said by this all men will know that you're not a cypals if you love one another it's the one another relationship you see that shows to other people that we are truly followers of Christ would you buy with me in prayer Father thank you for your word your word is a sword that pierces into our innermost thoughts and tense of our heart certainly you've done that with us this morning as you've helped us to see what we need to do in relationship to one another how we need to live to show that we are really being transformed and renewed in your image so we ask Lord very simply help us to be more like Christ in the way we relate to one another for your glory and the growth of your work in this world we ask in Jesus name amen