1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:05,020 Well, good morning everyone. Last week we launched our series entitled Overcoming 2 00:00:05,020 –> 00:00:10,460 Evil from the book of Romans chapter 12 and we return to that chapter today. 3 00:00:10,460 –> 00:00:16,860 We listened to what God says here in the light first of what was happening in 4 00:00:16,860 –> 00:00:24,540 Rome at the time. God’s people had endured in Rome the catastrophe of Caligula. 5 00:00:24,540 –> 00:00:29,780 Now they were beginning the nightmare of Nero when the book of Romans was written. 6 00:00:30,280 –> 00:00:35,700 And we also heard the Word of God not only against the background of what was 7 00:00:35,700 –> 00:00:39,380 happening in the culture which was growing darker and darker. 8 00:00:39,380 –> 00:00:44,480 We also heard the words of Romans 12 in the light of chapter 1 through 11 of 9 00:00:44,480 –> 00:00:49,180 Romans that speaks to us about what it means to be in Christ. 10 00:00:49,180 –> 00:00:52,639 And so throughout this series we will have these two backgrounds in mind. 11 00:00:52,639 –> 00:00:57,200 There’s the grim background of what is happening in the culture that’s getting 12 00:00:57,200 –> 00:01:01,700 darker and there is the glorious background about of what it means to be 13 00:01:01,700 –> 00:01:07,480 in Jesus Christ that we draw from Romans chapter 1 through 11. 14 00:01:07,480 –> 00:01:13,480 And against the grim and the glorious background, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12 and 15 00:01:13,480 –> 00:01:15,900 verse 21 that we looked at last week, 16 00:01:15,900 –> 00:01:19,879 Do not be overcome by evil 17 00:01:19,879 –> 00:01:25,099 but overcome evil with good. 18 00:01:25,800 –> 00:01:29,559 And we saw what good news this is, that God is saying to us, 19 00:01:29,580 –> 00:01:35,320 now look, you do not need to be overcome by the evil that is around you. 20 00:01:35,320 –> 00:01:39,839 Or indeed the evil that may have happened to you. 21 00:01:39,839 –> 00:01:45,220 Anyone who has suffered a great evil in life knows how easy it is for that evil to overcome 22 00:01:45,220 –> 00:01:46,379 you, to dominate you, 23 00:01:46,379 –> 00:01:50,480 to become the biggest thing in your life, to be like a cloud that casts a shadow 24 00:01:51,239 –> 00:01:57,919 else in subsequent years and therefore becomes determining of the way that your life is. 25 00:01:57,919 –> 00:02:02,400 And God says to those who are in Jesus Christ, now, don’t let that happen to you. 26 00:02:02,400 –> 00:02:06,080 No, don’t be overcome by evil. 27 00:02:06,080 –> 00:02:08,839 You are in Jesus Christ. 28 00:02:08,839 –> 00:02:11,779 Something better is possible for you. 29 00:02:11,779 –> 00:02:14,520 Don’t be overcome by evil. 30 00:02:14,520 –> 00:02:19,539 You be the one who overcomes evil with good. 31 00:02:19,559 –> 00:02:24,440 So that’s where we began our series, with the very last verse of Romans chapter 32 00:02:24,440 –> 00:02:29,860 12, and we’re going to be focusing in these weeks on everything that leads up to Romans 33 00:02:29,860 –> 00:02:32,860 chapter 12 and verse 21. 34 00:02:32,860 –> 00:02:37,740 And we will be picking up at various points in the series including today the story of 35 00:02:37,740 –> 00:02:44,500 the church which gives remarkable testimony to how what God said to his people in Rome 36 00:02:44,500 –> 00:02:48,220 in the first century really worked out in practice. 37 00:02:49,199 –> 00:02:53,880 And it is simply a matter of history, and we must recall this for our encouragement. 38 00:02:53,880 –> 00:03:00,240 It is a matter of history that in the years following the writing of Romans around AD 39 00:03:00,240 –> 00:03:07,820 56-57, that the light of the gospel did shine in the dark days of the Roman Empire, and 40 00:03:07,820 –> 00:03:10,339 that the darkness did not overcome the light. 41 00:03:10,339 –> 00:03:16,520 And here we are sitting here today, folks, more than two thousand years after the Book 42 00:03:16,539 –> 00:03:24,539 of Romans was written, and the Roman Empire is long since dead and gone, and the church 43 00:03:24,539 –> 00:03:28,779 of Jesus Christ is alive and well on planet earth. 44 00:03:28,779 –> 00:03:35,460 The light did shine in the darkness, and the darkness, great as it was, did not overcome 45 00:03:35,460 –> 00:03:36,779 it. 46 00:03:36,779 –> 00:03:43,520 Do not be overcome by evil, God says, but overcome evil with good. 47 00:03:44,220 –> 00:03:48,820 Now, we are going to look then, in these weeks, at everything that leads up to overcoming 48 00:03:48,820 –> 00:03:49,820 evil with good. 49 00:03:49,820 –> 00:03:53,080 That’s where we’re headed, that’s what we want to see happen. 50 00:03:53,080 –> 00:03:54,679 What gets us there? 51 00:03:54,679 –> 00:04:02,240 And we begin in verses 9 and 10 today, which really tell us the first step, as it were, 52 00:04:02,240 –> 00:04:07,380 of moving towards overcoming evil with good. 53 00:04:07,399 –> 00:04:12,600 But before I read these two verses, I want you to imagine for a moment that you’re chosen 54 00:04:12,759 –> 00:04:18,380 to serve on a focus group of first century Christians. 55 00:04:18,380 –> 00:04:21,519 Now, I’m not even sure that they had focus groups in the first century. 56 00:04:21,519 –> 00:04:22,519 You understand? 57 00:04:22,519 –> 00:04:25,359 But let’s just let that one go and use your imagination. 58 00:04:25,359 –> 00:04:30,260 So, here you are and you’re in a room with these 12 people who are serving with you on 59 00:04:30,260 –> 00:04:35,660 this group, and the facilitator comes in and she says, now, look folks, the challenge that 60 00:04:35,660 –> 00:04:41,019 we’re facing here today is that there is, obviously, a growing tide of evil all around 61 00:04:41,119 –> 00:04:42,779 us. 62 00:04:42,779 –> 00:04:45,500 Here we are, Christian people. 63 00:04:45,500 –> 00:04:49,619 Let’s face it, there isn’t one of us in this room who would have chosen to have Nero as 64 00:04:49,619 –> 00:04:55,119 our Emperor, but the reality is that’s what we’re facing. 65 00:04:55,119 –> 00:04:59,200 The task that we have in this group is, I want us to work together to come up with some 66 00:04:59,200 –> 00:05:06,140 strategies for overcoming the ever increasing evil that is clearly all around us. 67 00:05:06,140 –> 00:05:10,760 Now, says the facilitator, all of you have a pad of paper and all of you have a pencil 68 00:05:10,980 –> 00:05:16,839 I want you to take five minutes to write down the top five strategies that you think we 69 00:05:16,839 –> 00:05:22,519 as Christians should pursue in these dark and difficult days in order that we may overcome 70 00:05:22,519 –> 00:05:25,119 the evil that is increasingly around us. 71 00:05:25,119 –> 00:05:27,040 What would be on your list? 72 00:05:28,299 –> 00:05:29,920 Now, I took some time to think about it. 73 00:05:29,920 –> 00:05:34,559 What would I write down, and I’ve actually asked several people in the course of this 74 00:05:34,559 –> 00:05:39,179 week just to check, you know, what would you put on your list if you were asked that question. 75 00:05:39,519 –> 00:05:44,119 If everyone came up with the same thing as I came up with for the top of the list, I 76 00:05:44,119 –> 00:05:46,119 would put, well, we have to pray, right? 77 00:05:46,119 –> 00:05:48,260 How many of you would have said the same thing? 78 00:05:48,260 –> 00:05:51,940 Everyone I asked that, that’s what I put top of my list, we’ve got to pray. 79 00:05:51,940 –> 00:05:53,679 What else would you put on your list? 80 00:05:53,679 –> 00:05:55,839 Well, here’s some things I wrote down. 81 00:05:55,839 –> 00:06:01,339 We need to raise up godly leaders in every sphere of life, the schools, business, arts, 82 00:06:01,339 –> 00:06:03,579 and politics. 83 00:06:03,579 –> 00:06:06,920 We need to teach our children the difference between right and wrong. 84 00:06:06,920 –> 00:06:12,820 We need to thoroughly ground a new generation in a knowledge of the truth. 85 00:06:12,820 –> 00:06:15,600 We need a new surge of evangelism. 86 00:06:15,600 –> 00:06:17,660 We need a new surge of church planting. 87 00:06:17,660 –> 00:06:23,399 I wonder what else you would put down on your list of five strategies. 88 00:06:23,399 –> 00:06:29,519 Now, here is what has been most striking to me as I’ve reflected on this. 89 00:06:29,559 –> 00:06:36,679 Obviously all of these things are good and necessary things, but none of them is what 90 00:06:36,679 –> 00:06:39,859 God says here. 91 00:06:39,859 –> 00:06:45,100 Where do you begin if you are to overcome evil with good? 92 00:06:45,100 –> 00:06:49,299 Here is the first step that’s gonna get us to Romans chapter 12 and verse 21, what is 93 00:06:49,299 –> 00:06:50,299 it? 94 00:06:50,299 –> 00:06:51,299 Verse 9. 95 00:06:51,299 –> 00:06:54,799 Let love be genuine, verse 9. 96 00:06:54,799 –> 00:06:57,239 Let love be genuine. 97 00:06:57,239 –> 00:07:01,760 Abhor what is evil. 98 00:07:01,760 –> 00:07:04,720 Hold fast what is good. 99 00:07:04,720 –> 00:07:17,179 Love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honour. 100 00:07:17,179 –> 00:07:20,600 So that gave me pause, aha! 101 00:07:20,739 –> 00:07:26,040 Friends loving each other would not have been at the top of my list. 102 00:07:26,040 –> 00:07:30,760 Not at the top of my list of strategies for overcoming evil, so it is very, very striking 103 00:07:30,760 –> 00:07:35,799 to me that when God speaks about those things that lead to overcome evil with good, the 104 00:07:35,799 –> 00:07:42,799 very first thing that God says, let love be genuine. 105 00:07:42,799 –> 00:07:46,839 If you want to overcome evil with good, if you want to get to Romans chapter 12 in verse 106 00:07:47,000 –> 00:07:52,679 21, this is where you must begin. 107 00:07:52,679 –> 00:07:54,679 Let love be genuine. 108 00:07:54,679 –> 00:08:00,519 Now another way to say that would be let love be sincere, or of course the word that we 109 00:08:00,519 –> 00:08:04,119 use today is the word authentic. 110 00:08:04,119 –> 00:08:08,679 There must be no pretense, there must be no play acting about this, nothing fake, nothing 111 00:08:08,679 –> 00:08:14,640 false, let your love God says, be the real deal. 112 00:08:15,640 –> 00:08:18,440 Now here obviously is something that is immensely 113 00:08:18,440 –> 00:08:22,640 attractive, something surely that all of us are drawn to all of us are drawn to love, 114 00:08:22,640 –> 00:08:26,559 we all want to be authentic, no one wants to be false, live behind a mask 115 00:08:26,559 –> 00:08:28,519 or be a play actor. 116 00:08:28,519 –> 00:08:34,880 For the millennial generation, the two words, love and authentic are probably the banner 117 00:08:34,880 –> 00:08:39,960 words for an entire generation and culture. 118 00:08:39,960 –> 00:08:44,919 Let love be genuine, authentic. 119 00:08:44,919 –> 00:08:49,479 Now the plain implication of these words, let love be genuine is that we may discover 120 00:08:49,479 –> 00:08:56,559 in the course of our lives, something that looks and sounds like love but proves not 121 00:08:56,559 –> 00:08:59,940 to be the real deal. 122 00:08:59,940 –> 00:09:03,739 So what does genuine love look like? 123 00:09:03,739 –> 00:09:08,320 Well if you ask that question our culture has a very clear answer. 124 00:09:08,340 –> 00:09:10,099 What does genuine love look like? 125 00:09:10,099 –> 00:09:15,020 Our culture says, well it’s acceptance and it is affirmation. 126 00:09:15,020 –> 00:09:23,059 And this is all around us, love the culture says is acceptance and affirmation. 127 00:09:23,059 –> 00:09:31,539 So if you really love me then you must accept me and you must affirm me as I am, and don’t 128 00:09:31,539 –> 00:09:36,580 attempt to change me because if in any way you attempt to change me then you are not 129 00:09:36,580 –> 00:09:37,900 really accepting me. 130 00:09:38,200 –> 00:09:42,780 If that’s the case, you are not really loving me. 131 00:09:42,780 –> 00:09:46,020 Now when we hear that love is acceptance and affirmation. 132 00:09:46,020 –> 00:09:51,080 This is so widely perceived around us in the culture that I think that many people would 133 00:09:51,080 –> 00:09:56,400 have as a natural reaction to say well, of course, what else would love be that we accept 134 00:09:56,400 –> 00:09:58,799 and affirm a person as they are? 135 00:09:58,799 –> 00:10:03,099 Love is acceptance and affirmation, is it not? 136 00:10:03,919 –> 00:10:08,179 Let’s think about that just for a moment. 137 00:10:08,179 –> 00:10:15,380 If we were all little paragons of virtue, quietly fulfilling everything that God calls 138 00:10:15,380 –> 00:10:23,820 us to do, then a love that is acceptance and affirmation would be entirely appropriate. 139 00:10:23,820 –> 00:10:28,460 But surely the state of the world today makes it very clear to all of us as we observe it 140 00:10:28,679 –> 00:10:34,200 that the world is not filled with little paragons of virtue who are quietly doing everything 141 00:10:34,200 –> 00:10:36,219 that God calls us to do. 142 00:10:36,219 –> 00:10:41,679 Now, the reality of our position, and the Bible makes this very clear, is quite different. 143 00:10:41,679 –> 00:10:51,780 The way God says it is this, all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. 144 00:10:52,140 –> 00:10:58,440 So when Jesus came into the world he was very clear about our position. 145 00:10:58,440 –> 00:11:01,380 He used many analogies to make it clear. 146 00:11:01,380 –> 00:11:03,859 He said, this is the reality of our lives. 147 00:11:03,859 –> 00:11:13,739 We’re like sheep who are lost, we are like patients who are sick, we are like captives 148 00:11:13,780 –> 00:11:21,820 who are bound the power of sin and we are like offenders who are under a sentence of 149 00:11:21,820 –> 00:11:24,580 condemnation. 150 00:11:24,580 –> 00:11:26,859 Now think this through with me for a moment. 151 00:11:26,859 –> 00:11:35,559 If Jesus had embraced our culture’s definition of love he would have come into the world 152 00:11:35,559 –> 00:11:38,299 and would have said something like this. 153 00:11:38,299 –> 00:11:43,419 Well now the truth about you is that you are lost. 154 00:11:43,419 –> 00:11:48,200 And I accept this and I have come to affirm it. 155 00:11:48,200 –> 00:11:52,320 The reality of your condition is that you are sick. 156 00:11:52,320 –> 00:11:57,580 And since that is what you are far be it from me to change it. 157 00:11:57,580 –> 00:12:02,179 The explanation of your experience of life and all the conflict that you find is that 158 00:12:02,179 –> 00:12:04,520 you have been taken captive. 159 00:12:04,520 –> 00:12:11,799 I want you to know that but it’s certainly not for me to interfere. 160 00:12:11,840 –> 00:12:18,739 I want you to know that you are under condemnation and I simply want to affirm you in it. 161 00:12:18,739 –> 00:12:21,239 Now you see, you laugh. 162 00:12:21,239 –> 00:12:27,159 But don’t you thank god with me today that Jesus Christ did not embrace our culture’s 163 00:12:27,159 –> 00:12:30,260 definition of love. 164 00:12:30,260 –> 00:12:33,919 Jesus Christ did not come into the world and say I come to affirm the lost. 165 00:12:33,919 –> 00:12:36,479 He said I’ve come to save the lost. 166 00:12:36,479 –> 00:12:38,599 That’s very different. 167 00:12:38,599 –> 00:12:41,280 He didn’t come into the world to affirm our sickness. 168 00:12:41,280 –> 00:12:43,840 He came to heal it. 169 00:12:43,840 –> 00:12:48,200 He did not come into the world to affirm our captivity, he came into the world, he says, 170 00:12:48,200 –> 00:12:49,200 to set us free. 171 00:12:49,200 –> 00:12:53,340 He did not come into the world to affirm our condemnation. 172 00:12:53,340 –> 00:12:56,099 He came into the world to take it away. 173 00:12:56,099 –> 00:13:01,400 God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through 174 00:13:01,400 –> 00:13:03,000 him might be saved. 175 00:13:03,000 –> 00:13:08,799 So you see, Jesus Christ came into the world to change something that was terribly wrong 176 00:13:08,919 –> 00:13:12,400 in us, and to put it right. 177 00:13:12,400 –> 00:13:14,559 That’s what the love of God does. 178 00:13:14,559 –> 00:13:20,200 And so clearly the Biblical understanding of love is very, very different from our culture’s 179 00:13:20,200 –> 00:13:22,239 understanding of love. 180 00:13:22,239 –> 00:13:24,140 What does genuine love look like? 181 00:13:24,140 –> 00:13:28,320 The culture says it’s acceptance and affirmation. 182 00:13:28,320 –> 00:13:33,979 The Bible says it’s acceptance and transformation. 183 00:13:33,979 –> 00:13:34,960 What does that mean? 184 00:13:34,960 –> 00:13:37,400 God accepts us as we are. 185 00:13:37,419 –> 00:13:42,039 We come to him in all of our lostness, in all of our sin, and in all of our need. 186 00:13:42,039 –> 00:13:43,940 He embraces us as we are. 187 00:13:43,940 –> 00:13:46,739 He doesn’t say, clean yourself up before you come. 188 00:13:46,739 –> 00:13:48,320 He says, come to me. 189 00:13:48,320 –> 00:13:54,140 He accepts us as we are, but He does not thank God, leave us as we are. 190 00:13:54,140 –> 00:13:59,679 And leave us in our lonesomeness and in our sickness, and in our condemnation. 191 00:13:59,679 –> 00:14:06,320 A love that accepts and a love that transforms, a love in which the lost are found. 192 00:14:06,320 –> 00:14:08,039 A love in which the sick are made well. 193 00:14:08,039 –> 00:14:10,099 A love in which the captives are set free. 194 00:14:10,099 –> 00:14:18,520 A love in which there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 195 00:14:18,520 –> 00:14:21,000 Let love be genuine. 196 00:14:21,000 –> 00:14:27,000 And here is what it looks like as you have learned it and received it from your Father 197 00:14:27,000 –> 00:14:30,900 Himself in Jesus Christ. 198 00:14:30,900 –> 00:14:35,760 Now let me simply make three observations about this genuine love. 199 00:14:35,859 –> 00:14:40,359 From these verses today as we try to apply them together. 200 00:14:40,359 –> 00:14:46,580 The first is, that quite clearly, genuine love hates what is evil. 201 00:14:46,580 –> 00:14:49,539 Notice verse 9. 202 00:14:49,539 –> 00:14:57,659 Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. 203 00:14:57,659 –> 00:15:02,840 Isn’t it just striking that love and an abhorrence of evil are put right side by side. 204 00:15:03,359 –> 00:15:08,119 You wouldn’t expect that, but that’s what it’s here in the bible, and that teaches us something. 205 00:15:08,119 –> 00:15:13,400 To abhor of course, is to have a horror of something. 206 00:15:13,400 –> 00:15:17,580 And of course, when you think about it, if you love what is good, you have a horror of 207 00:15:17,580 –> 00:15:20,020 what would destroy the good. 208 00:15:20,020 –> 00:15:23,260 If you love truth, you’re going to hate lies. 209 00:15:23,260 –> 00:15:26,820 If you love peace, you’re going to hate war. 210 00:15:26,840 –> 00:15:33,700 To abhor what is evil, to have a horror of what is evil, is part of loving what is good. 211 00:15:33,700 –> 00:15:39,900 Now here’s something very important in this verse that’s open in front of us, friends. 212 00:15:39,900 –> 00:15:50,280 Notice that God says abhor what is evil, what, not who. 213 00:15:51,099 –> 00:15:58,719 Peter Kreeft who is a Catholic writer that I found very very helpful in many places, 214 00:15:58,719 –> 00:16:01,239 and I’m summarizing what he says here. 215 00:16:01,239 –> 00:16:09,000 He lists folks that Christians have often identified as the enemy, and he says this. 216 00:16:09,000 –> 00:16:18,960 Abortionists, homosexual activists, pornographers, school boards and the media are not the enemy. 217 00:16:18,960 –> 00:16:23,919 They are the victims of our enemy. 218 00:16:23,919 –> 00:16:28,659 And you see, the reason he says that is because of Ephesians chapter six and verse twelve, 219 00:16:28,659 –> 00:16:33,039 we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. 220 00:16:33,039 –> 00:16:43,859 Our battle is against the invisible dark powers, the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. 221 00:16:43,859 –> 00:16:47,719 Let’s go back to the first century, because sometimes it’s easier to see a point from 222 00:16:48,619 –> 00:16:50,900 when you are right up close to it. 223 00:16:50,900 –> 00:16:56,599 But how easy it would have been, you see, for the Christians in Rome to think, if we 224 00:16:56,599 –> 00:17:02,080 could just get rid of Nero, he’s the worst we’ve ever had. 225 00:17:02,080 –> 00:17:06,199 How did we get to a place where we had him as the emperor? 226 00:17:06,199 –> 00:17:09,839 If we could just get rid of Nero, you see. 227 00:17:09,839 –> 00:17:15,819 And that’s instinctively how we think, we live in the culture of personality, and of 228 00:17:15,939 –> 00:17:21,579 course the reality that Christians in the early church understood was that Nero was 229 00:17:21,579 –> 00:17:24,219 not the problem. 230 00:17:24,219 –> 00:17:29,800 That behind Nero, there were dark powers. 231 00:17:29,800 –> 00:17:34,280 And that these were the powers that were at work in the world, that needed to be overcome. 232 00:17:34,280 –> 00:17:41,380 And for that purpose, the Christians must put on the whole armor of God. 233 00:17:41,380 –> 00:17:45,119 So the song, Oh Church Arise, which we’ll sing at the end of the service this morning 234 00:17:45,119 –> 00:17:52,500 has a couple of lines in it that I think are profoundly helpful and very, very important. 235 00:17:52,500 –> 00:17:54,780 Our call to war. 236 00:17:54,780 –> 00:17:57,520 What’s the fight that we’re in? 237 00:17:57,520 –> 00:18:03,239 It is to love the captive soul. 238 00:18:03,239 –> 00:18:08,000 And to rage against the Captor. 239 00:18:08,000 –> 00:18:12,520 Here’s the great struggle in which we’re involved, if we’ve understood it properly, we are to 240 00:18:12,520 –> 00:18:18,119 love the captive soul, we are not to rage against the captive soul. 241 00:18:18,119 –> 00:18:25,119 You don’t rage against those whom Satan has taken captive, you love the captive soul and 242 00:18:25,119 –> 00:18:27,640 where do you put your rage? 243 00:18:27,640 –> 00:18:29,160 Where does the abhorrence go? 244 00:18:29,160 –> 00:18:35,359 It goes towards Satan himself, towards the evil one, towards the dark powers that work 245 00:18:35,359 –> 00:18:40,079 in the world, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12. 246 00:18:40,140 –> 00:18:48,579 We are not called to rage against the captive soul but to love the captive soul and to rage 247 00:18:48,579 –> 00:18:57,479 against the captor, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil and cling, hold fast to what 248 00:18:57,479 –> 00:19:00,640 is good. 249 00:19:00,640 –> 00:19:09,079 Friends, it is very, very difficult to win people to Jesus if we have branded them the 250 00:19:09,660 –> 00:19:10,839 captive soul. 251 00:19:10,839 –> 00:19:16,420 And our calling is to win everyone we can from every persuasion and from every walk 252 00:19:16,420 –> 00:19:23,420 of life and from every subgroup within the culture, our calling and our task is to win 253 00:19:23,420 –> 00:19:29,640 and to woo people to Jesus Christ. 254 00:19:29,640 –> 00:19:34,319 Now as we think about this we are to abhor what is evil not only in the world around 255 00:19:34,880 –> 00:19:38,400 instinctive for us to think about what’s out there first. 256 00:19:38,400 –> 00:19:44,160 But we are to abhor what is in here as well that is dark and that is evil and that is 257 00:19:44,160 –> 00:19:46,640 displeasing to God. 258 00:19:46,640 –> 00:19:47,680 Martin Lloyd Jones says this, 259 00:19:48,160 –> 00:19:57,079 it is possible to avoid doing things that are evil, while taking pleasure in them in 260 00:19:57,079 –> 00:20:01,420 our mind and in our imagination. 261 00:20:01,420 –> 00:20:05,760 Matthew Mead who is a Puritan writer says something that was very striking to me the 262 00:20:05,760 –> 00:20:12,719 first time I saw it, and it states well an important truth. 263 00:20:13,040 –> 00:20:23,439 He said it is less evil to do sin and not to love it, than to love sin, and not to do 264 00:20:23,439 –> 00:20:24,439 it. 265 00:20:24,439 –> 00:20:29,599 He said here is a person who commits some great sin and then he is repentant and he 266 00:20:29,599 –> 00:20:32,239 hates what he did. 267 00:20:32,239 –> 00:20:37,699 Well it was evil that he did it, but it is less evil than this other person who did not 268 00:20:37,699 –> 00:20:42,599 do that deed, and in his mind and his heart wishes that he could. 269 00:20:42,599 –> 00:20:49,260 It is less evil to do sin and not to love it, than to love sin and not to do it. 270 00:20:49,260 –> 00:20:53,500 So he is saying to do sin is evil even if you don’t love it. 271 00:20:53,500 –> 00:20:56,800 Even if you hate what you did. 272 00:20:56,800 –> 00:21:05,439 But to love sin is more evil, even if you did not do that after which your heart and 273 00:21:05,439 –> 00:21:07,839 your mind anchored. 274 00:21:07,839 –> 00:21:14,560 And let’s face it, friends, how easy it is for us to pick on certain evils, which 275 00:21:14,560 –> 00:21:21,239 will invariably be the ones of which we are not guilty and to hate only them. 276 00:21:21,239 –> 00:21:26,660 How easy it is for the sexually pure to hate promiscuity. 277 00:21:26,660 –> 00:21:32,079 How easy it is for those who live simply to hate greed. 278 00:21:32,079 –> 00:21:36,640 How easy it is to hate what we can see very, very clearly in others and to be completely 279 00:21:36,859 –> 00:21:40,339 and utterly blind to the dark places within our own souls. 280 00:21:40,339 –> 00:21:43,719 How do you learn to hate what is evil? 281 00:21:43,719 –> 00:21:46,540 By seeing what it did to Jesus Christ. 282 00:21:46,540 –> 00:21:53,400 You come and see a particular evil, you say, look at what it did to him. 283 00:21:53,400 –> 00:21:59,479 And learn to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. 284 00:21:59,479 –> 00:22:00,979 So there’s the first thing. 285 00:22:00,979 –> 00:22:02,699 What does genuine love look like? 286 00:22:02,859 –> 00:22:04,339 It hates what is evil. 287 00:22:04,339 –> 00:22:07,219 Around and it hates within. 288 00:22:07,219 –> 00:22:10,500 Second genuine love begins at home. 289 00:22:10,500 –> 00:22:12,939 Notice how Paul says here, verse 10. 290 00:22:12,939 –> 00:22:16,619 Love one another with brotherly affection. 291 00:22:16,619 –> 00:22:22,979 So he moves from what genuine love looks like now to where it is to be practiced. 292 00:22:22,979 –> 00:22:25,839 Who are we to love? 293 00:22:25,839 –> 00:22:32,180 He speaks particularly here to Christian brothers and sisters about our special calling to love 294 00:22:32,380 –> 00:22:34,400 one another. 295 00:22:34,400 –> 00:22:37,020 Love one another. 296 00:22:37,020 –> 00:22:39,119 People with faces. 297 00:22:39,119 –> 00:22:48,839 Friends, how very, very easy it is to talk on and on about love in general. 298 00:22:48,839 –> 00:22:51,859 As long as no actual people are involved. 299 00:22:51,859 –> 00:23:00,719 You know, my generation and a bit older, the summer of love in the 1960s, and all of that, 300 00:23:01,319 –> 00:23:07,800 loving everybody, we didn’t do so well when it came to loving one woman for a lifetime 301 00:23:07,800 –> 00:23:09,479 or loving one man for a lifetime. 302 00:23:09,479 –> 00:23:12,780 Didn’t do so well with that. 303 00:23:12,780 –> 00:23:13,780 Loving everybody. 304 00:23:13,780 –> 00:23:21,400 The real challenge is to love the people God has placed around you. 305 00:23:21,400 –> 00:23:29,800 To love the people in your home, in your church, in your work, in your street. 306 00:23:29,819 –> 00:23:34,280 To love the people God will bring across your path this week who right now, you probably 307 00:23:34,280 –> 00:23:38,400 haven’t even met but in some way, he’ll bring them across your path and difficult 308 00:23:38,400 –> 00:23:43,839 though it may be, your challenge is to love them, and to love them well. 309 00:23:43,839 –> 00:23:49,199 Of course, God calls us to love all people. 310 00:23:49,199 –> 00:23:52,719 And that includes, of course, even our enemies. 311 00:23:52,719 –> 00:23:55,599 That’s the hardest thing of all. 312 00:23:55,599 –> 00:23:59,239 Loving your enemies. 313 00:23:59,319 –> 00:24:02,479 And where do you begin with regards to something as hard as that? 314 00:24:02,479 –> 00:24:03,920 Well, here’s where you begin. 315 00:24:03,920 –> 00:24:11,540 In Romans chapter 12 and verse 10, you see the church is to be an incubator in which 316 00:24:11,540 –> 00:24:19,339 we learn and grow the capacity of love so that learning it amongst brothers and sisters 317 00:24:19,339 –> 00:24:24,640 who stand together in grace in one day will stand together in glory. 318 00:24:24,719 –> 00:24:30,160 Learning it as we learn to love one another will give us the capacity to learn to love 319 00:24:30,160 –> 00:24:35,459 others outside of the body of Christ, where of course the challenges are much harder and 320 00:24:35,459 –> 00:24:41,400 where the antagonism that we face may be much greater. 321 00:24:41,400 –> 00:24:46,319 Learn to love well, the apostle is saying, by loving your own brothers and sisters in 322 00:24:46,319 –> 00:24:49,599 Jesus Christ. 323 00:24:49,599 –> 00:24:51,280 Practice in the family of God. 324 00:24:51,280 –> 00:24:53,640 Start here. 325 00:24:53,640 –> 00:24:57,800 And let the body of Christ be a place where love is and then it is going to spill out 326 00:24:57,800 –> 00:25:03,780 wherever God’s people go and wherever He sends us in the world. 327 00:25:03,780 –> 00:25:09,000 Now I find it fascinating to see how this love that was cultivated in the body of Christ 328 00:25:09,000 –> 00:25:15,040 spilled out into the Roman Empire in the years that followed the writing of the Book of Romans. 329 00:25:15,040 –> 00:25:22,239 So I’m running the story of the church forward few years now after the time of Nero. 330 00:25:22,239 –> 00:25:28,459 And there’s a sociologist by the name of Rodney Stark who points out that after the 331 00:25:28,459 –> 00:25:38,839 time of Nero Rome was hit by a whole series of epidemics and they devastated the population. 332 00:25:38,839 –> 00:25:42,459 These illnesses that just took over populations. 333 00:25:42,459 –> 00:25:50,199 Stark says that at one point wrote in the city of Rome alone five thousand people were 334 00:25:50,520 –> 00:25:54,739 illness epidemics every day. 335 00:25:54,739 –> 00:25:57,619 Five thousand a day in one city. 336 00:25:57,619 –> 00:26:04,339 He says that in many cities a third of the population was wiped out by these epidemics 337 00:26:04,339 –> 00:26:12,920 and in some cities as high as two thirds of the entire population wiped out by epidemics. 338 00:26:12,920 –> 00:26:16,020 You try and imagine the street that you are in. 339 00:26:16,020 –> 00:26:21,160 You think of the houses one two three four five six and think of two in every three 340 00:26:21,160 –> 00:26:26,280 houses completely empty because the people there their lives have been taken by some 341 00:26:26,280 –> 00:26:30,979 epidemic illness that has just swept through the entire town. 342 00:26:30,979 –> 00:26:33,800 Absolutely devastating. 343 00:26:33,800 –> 00:26:38,760 And once the contagion arrives you imagine the fear. 344 00:26:38,760 –> 00:26:43,020 And the panic. 345 00:26:43,319 –> 00:26:52,420 Now Stark quotes a description of the heroic nursing efforts of early Christians and this 346 00:26:52,420 –> 00:26:58,520 is from a letter of Dionysius who was a bishop this is now around the year 2060 and he’s 347 00:26:58,520 –> 00:27:03,739 looking back on the testimony of Christian believers in Rome and in other places through 348 00:27:03,739 –> 00:27:15,339 these epidemics. I quote, most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty 349 00:27:15,339 –> 00:27:22,540 never thinking of themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger they 350 00:27:22,540 –> 00:27:30,219 took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ 351 00:27:30,300 –> 00:27:38,140 with them departing this life serenely happy. For they were infected by others with the disease, 352 00:27:39,339 –> 00:27:46,219 drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors, and cheerfully accepting their pains. 353 00:27:47,900 –> 00:27:53,900 Many in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves 354 00:27:54,140 –> 00:28:00,219 and died in their stead. Then he continues by saying 355 00:28:00,219 –> 00:28:08,540 the heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease 356 00:28:08,540 –> 00:28:13,979 they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their own dearest, 357 00:28:15,339 –> 00:28:22,140 throwing them into the roads before they were dead, and treating unburyed corpses as dirt, 358 00:28:22,939 –> 00:28:29,500 hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease. 359 00:28:31,260 –> 00:28:35,979 You see, what he is recording here is simply a matter of history, that where there was love 360 00:28:37,900 –> 00:28:45,579 when the crisis of the epidemic came, it manifested itself in a way that showed that 361 00:28:45,579 –> 00:28:50,780 Christians were extraordinarily different from the heathen who were throwing their own family 362 00:28:50,780 –> 00:28:55,420 members out in the streets in order to avoid catching the contagion from them. 363 00:28:57,020 –> 00:29:01,020 They were Christian brothers and sisters, and there was this nursing and there was this caring, 364 00:29:01,020 –> 00:29:08,300 and there was a community in which there was love. In the middle of this appalling darkness, 365 00:29:08,300 –> 00:29:12,780 there was a light that was shining and over time people began to see the difference. 366 00:29:14,619 –> 00:29:19,900 When the days get darker, God says, here is what you must do, you must overcome evil with good. 367 00:29:21,020 –> 00:29:27,099 And here is how you do it. You have got to begin with love, and it must be genuine. 368 00:29:29,099 –> 00:29:34,060 That is what the early Christians did. Let me give you a second example. 369 00:29:35,260 –> 00:29:40,619 Another great evil of these days, and of course there is still resonance with it today, 370 00:29:41,260 –> 00:29:46,380 was the low value that was placed on human life. 371 00:29:47,900 –> 00:29:54,619 Stark describes some of the gruesome early attempts at abortion, which of course 372 00:29:55,579 –> 00:30:02,060 most often took the mother’s life as well as the life of the child that she was carrying. 373 00:30:03,020 –> 00:30:08,939 and for that reason, abortion actually was somewhat less and what 374 00:30:08,939 –> 00:30:14,780 was more common was infanticide, that the baby was brought to birth and then simply left. 375 00:30:16,459 –> 00:30:20,140 Again I quote from Stark 376 00:30:32,140 –> 00:30:36,699 where typically it fell victim to the elements or to animals and birds 377 00:30:44,540 –> 00:30:51,579 it was justified by law and advocated by the philosophers, see both Plato and 378 00:30:51,579 –> 00:31:01,339 Aristotle advocated infanticide as state policy. Now let me quote to you in the light of that 379 00:31:02,219 –> 00:31:06,780 This is a letter written by a man by the name of Hillarian 380 00:31:06,780 –> 00:31:14,060 to his wife Alice who was carrying their child and this is a letter that has survived from 381 00:31:14,060 –> 00:31:20,699 these very early days and has often been quoted because it shows the extraordinary contrast 382 00:31:21,579 –> 00:31:25,660 between this man Hilarian’s obvious love and affection for his wife 383 00:31:26,540 –> 00:31:29,500 and his joy at anticipating 384 00:31:29,500 –> 00:31:35,180 the possible birth of a son and his complete disregard and contempt 385 00:31:35,979 –> 00:31:42,060 for the possibility that his wife might bear him a daughter. I quote this letter 386 00:31:43,180 –> 00:31:44,719 Hilarian writing to his wife 387 00:31:56,619 –> 00:32:00,540 I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son 388 00:32:01,339 –> 00:32:04,219 and as soon as I receive payment, I shall send 389 00:32:04,219 –> 00:32:08,939 it up to you. If you are delivered of a child 390 00:32:08,939 –> 00:32:18,699 before I come home, if it is boy, keep it. If a girl, discard it. 391 00:32:19,619 –> 00:32:23,060 You have sent me word, don’t forget me, 392 00:32:23,060 –> 00:32:27,859 how can I forget you? I beg you not to worry. 393 00:32:27,859 –> 00:32:31,780 10 So it was not unusual for little babies 394 00:32:31,780 –> 00:32:37,380 and especially little baby girls to be left out in the streets 395 00:32:38,979 –> 00:32:45,219 and when that happened, Christians often were the ones 396 00:32:45,219 –> 00:32:52,500 who took them in, rescued them, loved them and raised them 397 00:32:52,500 –> 00:32:59,540 as their own. Do not be overcome with evil. 398 00:32:59,540 –> 00:33:05,500 Overcome evil with good and here’s where you begin. 399 00:33:06,140 –> 00:33:11,579 Love, but it must be genuine. 400 00:33:13,300 –> 00:33:20,459 So genuine love hates evil. Genuine love begins at home. 401 00:33:20,459 –> 00:33:25,859 Genuine love, thirdly and lastly, lifts other people up. 402 00:33:25,859 –> 00:33:30,660 Notice verse 10, outdo one another in showing honour. 403 00:33:30,660 –> 00:33:33,939 Now, this clearly relates to the way that we speak to one another 404 00:33:34,420 –> 00:33:38,099 in the body of Christ, and it relates to the way that we 405 00:33:38,099 –> 00:33:42,219 speak about one another in the body of Christ. 406 00:33:42,219 –> 00:33:44,699 We live in an age, you don’t need me to say, 407 00:33:44,699 –> 00:33:49,380 it’s so obvious where more and more we see people pulling 408 00:33:49,380 –> 00:33:51,979 other people down. 409 00:33:51,979 –> 00:33:54,640 And for all the good that has come through social media 410 00:33:54,640 –> 00:33:57,439 in terms of connecting people together, and there are wonderful 411 00:33:57,439 –> 00:34:02,140 ways in which that has been a blessing, is it not grievous 412 00:34:02,319 –> 00:34:05,939 to our hearts that platforms are given for all kinds of 413 00:34:05,939 –> 00:34:09,179 anger, and invective, and hatred? 414 00:34:11,179 –> 00:34:16,179 Now God says to us, living in the world of the attack ad, 415 00:34:16,219 –> 00:34:18,899 the attack web site, and all the rest of it, 416 00:34:18,899 –> 00:34:22,100 let it be different among you. 417 00:34:23,620 –> 00:34:28,340 Among you, here’s how it must be, outdo one another 418 00:34:28,340 –> 00:34:31,820 in showing honor, in other words, show more respect 419 00:34:31,820 –> 00:34:34,500 to other people than they show to you. 420 00:34:36,219 –> 00:34:40,699 Think more highly of other people, than they think of you, 421 00:34:40,699 –> 00:34:43,540 that’s what it means, in other words, 422 00:34:43,540 –> 0034:46,739 Christ is calling us to be a community of people 423 00:34:46,739 –> 00:34:49,260 who lift one another up in a culture 424 00:34:49,260 –> 00:34:51,739 where people are pulling one another down. 425 00:34:53,020 –> 00:34:55,580 And that’s why the New Testament says don’t let 426 00:34:55,580 –> 00:34:58,219 any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths. 427 00:34:58,219 –> 00:35:01,419 But only what is helpful for building up 428 00:35:01,439 –> 00:35:04,820 others up according to their needs, 429 00:35:04,820 –> 00:35:07,840 that it may be helpful to those who listen. 430 00:35:07,840 –> 00:35:10,439 It’s part of what it means to love is the way 431 00:35:10,439 –> 00:35:14,100 that I speak and the way in which it brings 432 00:35:14,100 –> 00:35:19,100 lifting up of others and not putting down of others. 433 00:35:21,500 –> 00:35:24,899 Well, let me conclude in these last moments 434 00:35:24,899 –> 00:35:27,379 just by telling you two stories that you will know well, 435 00:35:27,379 –> 00:35:30,540 but they really illustrate, I think, well, 436 00:35:30,540 –> 00:35:33,540 how in a world of anger and division, 437 00:35:33,540 –> 00:35:37,060 which characterizes our days increasingly, 438 00:35:37,060 –> 00:35:42,060 God calls his own people to pursue love and reconciliation. 439 00:35:44,139 –> 00:35:45,500 And the two stories of course, 440 00:35:45,500 –> 00:35:48,379 are the stories of Babel and Pentecost. 441 00:35:48,379 –> 00:35:51,100 Do you remember what happened at Babel? 442 00:35:51,100 –> 00:35:53,520 Men wanted to make a name for themselves, 443 00:35:53,520 –> 00:35:55,379 so they built this great tower. 444 00:35:55,379 –> 00:35:57,739 Here’s the thing that will bring people together. 445 00:35:57,739 –> 00:35:59,100 They’ll all come to the tower. 446 00:35:59,219 –> 00:36:02,060 It will be the great center of our culture. 447 00:36:03,540 –> 00:36:05,139 And you remember that God came down 448 00:36:05,139 –> 00:36:07,139 and he confused their languages. 449 00:36:08,199 –> 00:36:10,399 And the result of that was that people scattered. 450 00:36:10,399 –> 00:36:11,600 They just left that place 451 00:36:11,600 –> 00:36:14,000 and they went north and south and east and west. 452 00:36:14,000 –> 00:36:15,179 Of course they did. 453 00:36:15,179 –> 00:36:17,419 Can you imagine being on the building site, 454 00:36:17,419 –> 00:36:19,939 been working beside these people 455 00:36:19,939 –> 00:36:21,300 and suddenly they turn up 456 00:36:21,300 –> 00:36:24,080 and they’re talking gibberish as far as you’re concerned. 457 00:36:24,080 –> 00:36:25,679 You can’t understand the word they say, 458 00:36:25,679 –> 00:36:27,600 you say, they must’ve gone mad. 459 00:36:27,639 –> 00:36:28,979 I was talking to him yesterday 460 00:36:28,979 –> 00:36:31,719 and now I don’t understand a word he’s saying. 461 00:36:31,719 –> 00:36:33,659 So immediately you say, I gotta get out of here. 462 00:36:33,659 –> 00:36:36,120 And you find all these other people are speaking 463 00:36:36,120 –> 00:36:37,639 in ways that you can’t comprehend. 464 00:36:37,639 –> 00:36:40,959 And finally you find someone who is talking sense like you. 465 00:36:42,120 –> 00:36:44,239 And you say at least there’s two of us that are sane. 466 00:36:44,239 –> 00:36:46,419 And then you find a few others. 467 00:36:46,419 –> 00:36:47,520 So now there’s a little group 468 00:36:47,520 –> 00:36:48,959 that all talks the same language, 469 00:36:48,959 –> 00:36:50,199 and you say we’d better get out of here. 470 00:36:50,199 –> 00:36:51,260 These folks are nuts. 471 00:36:51,260 –> 00:36:52,379 So off you go. 472 00:36:53,399 –> 00:36:55,520 And what’s happening all over, 473 00:36:55,620 –> 00:36:58,040 is everyone’s gathering over time 474 00:36:58,040 –> 00:37:00,459 with people that are speaking the same language 475 00:37:00,459 –> 00:37:03,199 and they go north and south and east and west, 476 00:37:03,199 –> 00:37:05,159 and they carry within their hearts 477 00:37:05,159 –> 00:37:10,159 all the seeds of distrust, alienation, 478 00:37:10,439 –> 00:37:14,620 all the seeds of all the future wars that will ever happen 479 00:37:14,620 –> 00:37:17,879 are there right there at the Tower of Babel as they leave. 480 00:37:19,719 –> 00:37:21,620 Division, fragmentation. 481 00:37:22,280 –> 00:37:26,780 One group unable to comprehend the other. 482 00:37:28,479 –> 00:37:29,899 What happens at Pentecost? 483 00:37:31,360 –> 00:37:32,699 Exactly the opposite. 484 00:37:34,379 –> 00:37:36,600 At Pentecost, it’s not man that’s being lifted up, 485 00:37:36,600 –> 00:37:39,179 it’s Jesus Christ who is being lifted up 486 00:37:39,179 –> 00:37:43,379 and Peter is declaring Him to be the risen Lord. 487 00:37:43,379 –> 00:37:46,040 And there are people from every nation 488 00:37:46,040 –> 00:37:48,479 on the face of the earth, the book of Acts says. 489 00:37:49,060 –> 00:37:50,760 The known world at that time 490 00:37:52,139 –> 00:37:53,639 and they’ve come in their diversity, 491 00:37:53,639 –> 00:37:56,239 from different cultures and they speak different languages, 492 00:37:56,239 –> 00:37:57,439 so all these people, 493 00:37:57,439 –> 00:38:00,139 they’re not going to be able to understand each other. 494 00:38:01,600 –> 00:38:03,780 They live in cultures that are alienated 495 00:38:03,780 –> 00:38:08,159 from each other, subgroups, and what does God do? 496 00:38:08,959 –> 00:38:12,419 In His great mercy, He, in a miracle, 497 00:38:12,419 –> 00:38:14,639 overcomes the language barriers 498 00:38:14,639 –> 00:38:15,979 so that as Peter speaks, 499 00:38:15,979 –> 00:38:18,080 everyone is able to understand. 500 00:38:18,100 –> 00:38:19,820 It was the most extraordinary miracle 501 00:38:19,820 –> 00:38:21,580 and what happens as a result? 502 00:38:23,000 –> 00:38:25,139 People who are divided 503 00:38:25,139 –> 00:38:29,840 across all the great divisions of society, 504 00:38:31,060 –> 00:38:34,580 divided by gender, divided by race, 505 00:38:34,580 –> 00:38:37,699 divided by economics, they’re brought together 506 00:38:37,699 –> 00:38:38,939 and how are they brought together? 507 00:38:38,939 –> 00:38:40,939 They’re brought together under the sovereign Lordship 508 00:38:40,939 –> 00:38:43,540 of this wonderful savior Jesus Christ. 509 00:38:44,020 –> 00:38:48,399 See if we lift up who we are, 510 00:38:50,179 –> 00:38:52,840 all we’re left with is that we’re male and female 511 00:38:52,840 –> 00:38:55,340 and black and white and rich and poor. 512 00:38:55,340 –> 00:38:57,879 We’re people who are pulled apart 513 00:38:58,800 –> 00:39:01,459 and what you have is an endless battle 514 00:39:01,459 –> 00:39:04,659 to see which group is gonna prevail over the others. 515 00:39:05,600 –> 00:39:07,300 Jesus Christ calls us to something 516 00:39:07,300 –> 00:39:09,060 completely and utterly different. 517 00:39:10,060 –> 00:39:13,580 Our calling is to lift up who Jesus is 518 00:39:14,719 –> 00:39:16,520 and when that happens, people who would have 519 00:39:16,520 –> 00:39:18,219 very little in common in this world 520 00:39:18,219 –> 00:39:19,899 find themselves brought together 521 00:39:21,040 –> 00:39:24,100 at the foot of this gracious Redeemer. 522 00:39:25,419 –> 00:39:27,820 Now, in a world of growing anger and hatred, 523 00:39:27,820 –> 00:39:30,719 God overcomes evil with good and how does He do that? 524 00:39:30,719 –> 00:39:33,060 He does it by planting communities 525 00:39:33,060 –> 00:39:36,219 of people who genuinely love one another 526 00:39:36,320 –> 00:39:39,899 and at the center of these communities is 527 00:39:39,899 –> 00:39:41,139 Jesus Christ. 528 00:39:42,520 –> 00:39:45,239 Does the church always do this outstandingly well? 529 00:39:46,540 –> 00:39:47,580 Not always. 530 00:39:48,959 –> 00:39:52,560 Too often it becomes about us and what we want 531 00:39:52,560 –> 00:39:53,919 and who we like 532 00:39:55,879 –> 00:39:57,360 and when that happens, we simply become 533 00:39:57,360 –> 00:39:58,959 a mirror of the world, don’t we? 534 00:40:01,120 –> 00:40:03,840 But Christ says, here’s what you’re called to 535 00:40:03,919 –> 00:40:06,280 namely love your neighbor and especially 536 00:40:06,280 –> 00:40:11,060 when the world gets darker, let love be genuine, 537 00:40:12,620 –> 00:40:16,760 abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. 538 00:40:17,780 –> 00:40:20,639 Love one another with brotherly affection 539 00:40:22,500 –> 00:40:26,260 and out do one another in showing honor. 540 00:40:27,360 –> 00:40:28,879 Let’s pray together, shall we? 541 00:40:33,899 –> 00:40:37,479 Our Lord Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you. 542 00:40:39,340 –> 00:40:44,340 That you love one another, just as I have loved you, 543 00:40:44,979 –> 00:40:48,120 you also are to love one another, 544 00:40:49,719 –> 00:40:54,719 and by this, all people will know that you are my disciples 545 00:40:58,159 –> 00:41:03,159 if you have love for one another. 546 00:41:04,580 –> 00:41:09,419 A call to mind, the faces of those God calls to 547 00:41:15,080 –> 00:41:18,580 especially to love, if you’re married. 548 00:41:18,580 –> 00:41:21,560 The circle of your family including where there 549 00:41:21,560 –> 00:41:23,800 may be a relationship that’s hard. 550 00:41:25,659 –> 00:41:30,659 Colleagues at work, friends for there may be tension. 551 00:41:34,360 –> 00:41:37,439 The fellowship of believers here, your neighbors, 552 00:41:39,600 –> 00:41:42,040 the person whose face you don’t yet know 553 00:41:42,040 –> 00:41:44,320 because they haven’t yet come across your path 554 00:41:44,320 –> 00:41:47,340 but God is going to bring them across your path this week. 555 00:41:49,520 –> 00:41:52,959 He’s calling you to love these people well. 556 00:41:56,320 –> 00:42:00,639 Lord by Your grace and because we are in Christ, 557 00:42:00,719 –> 00:42:05,379 help us to pursue something that is radically different 558 00:42:05,379 –> 00:42:07,360 from the world in which we live, 559 00:42:09,159 –> 00:42:10,580 that comes from the heart, 560 00:42:10,580 –> 00:42:13,280 is expressed in our words and in our deeds 561 00:42:14,639 –> 00:42:16,840 and reflects the great love of Christ 562 00:42:16,840 –> 00:42:18,340 with which you have loved us 563 00:42:18,340 –> 00:42:21,840 and in which increasingly you are changing us 564 00:42:21,840 –> 00:42:24,379 into His likeness. 565 00:42:24,379 –> 00:42:28,979 Hear our prayers in Jesus’s name, amen.