100:00:00,000 –> 00:00:07,760Friends, how very, very easy it is to talk on200:00:07,760 –> 00:00:15,120and on about love in general, as long as no actual people are involved.300:00:15,120 –> 00:00:22,000The real challenge is to love the people God makes place around you, to love the people400:00:22,000 –> 00:00:28,520in your home, your church, your work, your street.500:00:28,520 –> 00:00:33,020Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, I am David Pick and I’m glad you could600:00:33,020 –> 00:00:37,799be with us today, and Colin, I think you are exactly right, it is a challenge to do that700:00:37,799 –> 00:00:39,540and to do it with genuine love.800:00:39,540 –> 00:00:40,540Yes, that’s right.900:00:40,540 –> 00:00:44,639I mean, the vaguer our conversation about love, the easier it is to do.1000:00:44,639 –> 00:00:47,840I mean, The Beatles can sing, all that you need is love and so forth, and as long as1100:00:47,840 –> 00:00:51,740love remains a general concept, it’s easy to talk about it.1200:00:51,740 –> 00:00:55,240We all want to be the most loving people in the world, but when you get down to actually1300:00:55,459 –> 00:01:00,660loving people in your own church, your own family, that’s really difficult because you1400:01:00,660 –> 00:01:04,080have to understand that these are really difficult people and so forth.1500:01:04,080 –> 00:01:08,660That’s where the real challenge is, and the exhortation of scripture we are looking at1600:01:08,660 –> 00:01:10,620today is, let love be genuine.1700:01:10,620 –> 00:01:15,519We can’t just be talking about it in vague general terms where our love doesn’t actually1800:01:15,519 –> 00:01:17,699land on any real people.1900:01:17,699 –> 00:01:23,220God calls us to love in a way that He loves and He loves us as we are, sinners as we are.2000:01:23,739 –> 00:01:28,080He loves people in particular and that’s why Jesus Christ came into the world and gave2100:01:28,080 –> 00:01:29,720His life for us.2200:01:29,720 –> 00:01:32,199Today, we’ll see that in Romans chapter 12.2300:01:32,220 –> 00:01:37,339I hope you’ll be able to join us in your Bibles as we continue the message, Overcoming Evil2400:01:37,339 –> 00:01:38,339with Love.2500:01:38,339 –> 00:01:39,339Here’s Colin.2600:01:39,339 –> 00:01:45,820Friends, it is very, very difficult to win people to Jesus if we have branded them the2700:01:45,820 –> 00:01:48,419enemy.2800:01:48,559 –> 00:01:54,139And our calling is to win everyone we can, from every persuasion, and from every walk2900:01:54,139 –> 00:01:58,220of life and from every subgroup within the culture.3000:01:58,220 –> 00:02:06,540Our calling and our task is to win and to woo people to Jesus Christ.3100:02:06,540 –> 00:02:11,779Now as we think about this, we are to abhor what is evil, not only in the world around3200:02:11,779 –> 00:02:16,460us, though is instinctive for us to think about what’s out there first, but we are3300:02:16,460 –> 00:02:22,300to abhor what is in here as well that is dark and that is evil and that is displeasing3400:02:22,300 –> 00:02:23,940to God.3500:02:23,940 –> 00:02:31,419Martin Lloyd Jones says this, it is possible to avoid doing things that are evil while3600:02:31,419 –> 00:02:37,139taking pleasure in them in our mind and in our imagination.3700:02:37,139 –> 00:02:42,820Matthew Mead, who is a Puritan writer, says something that was very striking to me the3800:02:42,820 –> 00:02:45,679first time that I saw it.3900:02:45,919 –> 00:02:55,880It states well an important truth, he said it is less evil to do sin and not to love4000:02:55,880 –> 00:03:01,059it than to love sin and not to do it.4100:03:01,059 –> 00:03:06,320He said here is a person who commits some great sin and then he is repentant and he4200:03:06,320 –> 00:03:08,919hates what he did.4300:03:08,919 –> 00:03:14,300Well it was evil that he did it but it is less evil than this other person who did not4400:03:14,300 –> 00:03:19,139do that deed, but in his mind and in his heart wishes that he could.4500:03:19,139 –> 00:03:21,500How do you learn to hate what is evil?4600:03:21,500 –> 00:03:24,759By seeing what it did to Jesus Christ.4700:03:24,759 –> 00:03:31,059You come and see a particular evil and you say look at what it did to him.4800:03:31,059 –> 00:03:37,100And learn to hate what is evil and cling to what is good.4900:03:37,100 –> 00:03:38,520So there is the first thing.5000:03:38,520 –> 00:03:40,259What does genuine love look like?5100:03:40,500 –> 00:03:44,539Love hates what is evil, around and it hates what is within.5200:03:44,539 –> 00:03:47,740Second, genuine love begins at home.5300:03:47,740 –> 00:03:49,940Notice how Paul says here in verse 10.5400:03:54,940 –> 00:04:00,220And so he moves from what genuine love looks like now to where it is to be practiced.5500:04:00,220 –> 00:04:02,660Who are we to love?5600:04:02,660 –> 00:04:08,580And he speaks particularly here to Christian brothers and sisters about our special calling5700:04:08,699 –> 00:04:11,419to love one another.5800:04:11,419 –> 00:04:14,059Love one another.5900:04:14,059 –> 00:04:15,059People with faces.6000:04:15,059 –> 00:04:25,700Friends, how very, very easy it is to talk on and on about love in general.6100:04:25,700 –> 00:04:28,500As long as no actual people are involved.6200:04:28,500 –> 00:04:36,640You know, my generation, and a bit older, the summer of love in the 1960s and all of6300:04:36,839 –> 00:04:37,440that.6400:04:37,440 –> 00:04:40,279Loving everybody.6500:04:40,279 –> 00:04:45,279We didn’t do so well when it came to loving one woman for a lifetime or loving one man6600:04:45,279 –> 00:04:46,279for a lifetime.6700:04:46,279 –> 00:04:49,220Didn’t do so well with that.6800:04:49,220 –> 00:04:52,040Loving everybody.6900:04:52,040 –> 00:04:57,760The real challenge is to love the people God has placed around you.7000:04:57,760 –> 00:05:06,040To love the people in your home, in your church, in your work, in your street.7100:05:06,040 –> 00:05:10,399To love the people God will bring across your path this week, who right now you probably7200:05:10,399 –> 00:05:14,260haven’t even met, but in some way he’ll bring them across your path.7300:05:14,260 –> 00:05:18,440Difficult though it may be, your challenge is to love them.7400:05:18,440 –> 00:05:19,940To love them well.7500:05:19,940 –> 00:05:25,559Of course God calls us to love all people.7600:05:25,559 –> 00:05:28,640That includes of course even our enemies.7700:05:28,640 –> 00:05:31,519That’s the hardest thing of all.7800:05:31,519 –> 00:05:34,920Loving your enemies.7900:05:35,040 –> 00:05:38,380Where do you begin with regards to something as hard as that?8000:05:38,380 –> 00:05:42,880Well here’s where you begin, in Romans and Chapter 12 and verse 10.8100:05:42,880 –> 00:05:50,619You see, the church is to be an incubator in which we learn and grow the capacity of8200:05:50,619 –> 00:05:56,619love so that learning it amongst brothers and sisters who stand together in grace and8300:05:56,619 –> 00:06:00,160one day will stand together in glory.8400:06:00,220 –> 00:06:05,619Learning it as we learn to love one another will give us the capacity to learn to love8500:06:05,619 –> 00:06:10,820others outside of the body of Christ, where of course the challenges are much harder and8600:06:10,820 –> 00:06:16,660where the antagonism that we face may be much greater.8700:06:16,660 –> 00:06:21,640Learn to love well, the apostle is saying, by loving your own brothers and sisters in8800:06:21,640 –> 00:06:24,739Jesus Christ.8900:06:24,739 –> 00:06:31,160Friends in the family of God start here and let the body of Christ be a place where love9000:06:31,160 –> 00:06:36,140is and then it is going to spill out wherever God’s people go and wherever he sends us in9100:06:36,140 –> 00:06:38,739the world.9200:06:38,739 –> 00:06:43,859Now I found it fascinating to see how this love that was cultivated in the body of Christ9300:06:43,859 –> 00:06:49,820spilled out into the Roman Empire in the years that followed the writing of the book of Romans.9400:06:50,019 –> 00:06:57,000I’m running the story of the church forward a few years now after the time of Nero and9500:06:57,000 –> 00:07:03,559there’s a sociologist by the name of Rodney Stark who points out that after the time of9600:07:03,559 –> 00:07:13,279Nero, Rome was hit by a whole series of epidemics and they devastated the population.9700:07:13,279 –> 00:07:16,880These illnesses that just took over populations.9800:07:17,000 –> 00:07:24,940Stark says that at one point in the city of Rome alone, 5,000 people were dyeing from9900:07:24,940 –> 00:07:27,279illness epidemics everyday.10000:07:27,279 –> 00:07:31,7995,000 a day in one city.10100:07:31,799 –> 00:07:38,399He says that in many cities a third of the population was wiped out by these epidemics10200:07:38,399 –> 00:07:46,079and in some cities as high as two-thirds of the entire population wiped out by epidemics.10300:07:46,420 –> 00:07:52,359Now you try and imagine the street that you are in, you think of the houses 1, 2, 3, 4,10400:07:52,359 –> 00:07:58,2005, 6 and think of two in every three house completely empty because the people there10500:07:58,200 –> 00:08:02,519their lives have been taken by some epidemic illness that has just swept through the entire10600:08:02,519 –> 00:08:03,720town.10700:08:04,119 –> 00:08:06,540Absolutely devastating.10800:08:07,299 –> 00:08:18,660And once the contagion arrives you imagine the fear and the panic Now Stark quotes a10900:08:18,660 –> 00:08:26,619description of the heroic nursing efforts of early Christians and this is from a letter11000:08:26,619 –> 00:08:28,859of Dionysius who is a bishop.11100:08:28,859 –> 00:08:34,799This is now around the year 2060 and he’s looking back on the testimony of Christian11200:08:35,080 –> 00:08:38,119believers in Rome and other places through these epidemics.11300:08:38,119 –> 00:08:39,119I quote11400:08:39,640 –> 00:08:49,039Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty never thinking11500:08:49,140 –> 00:08:52,719of themselves and thinking only of one another.11600:08:53,679 –> 00:09:01,179Heedless of danger they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering11700:09:01,179 –> 00:09:07,840to them in Christ and with them departing this life, serenely happy.11800:09:07,840 –> 00:09:14,460For they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness11900:09:14,460 –> 00:09:20,739of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.12000:09:20,739 –> 00:09:31,299Many in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.12100:09:31,299 –> 00:09:37,700Then he continues by saying the heathen behaved in the very opposite way.12200:09:37,700 –> 00:09:45,760At the first onset of the disease they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their own12300:09:46,580 –> 00:09:53,559dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses12400:09:53,559 –> 00:10:01,719as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease,12500:10:01,719 –> 00:10:06,900When you see what he is recording here it is simply a matter of history.12600:10:06,900 –> 00:10:16,500Where there was love, when the crisis of the epidemic came, it manifested itself in a way12700:10:16,500 –> 00:10:21,739that showed that Christians were extraornarily different from the heathen who were throwing12800:10:21,739 –> 00:10:26,919their own family members out in the street in order to avoid catching the contagion from12900:10:26,919 –> 00:10:27,900them.13000:10:27,900 –> 00:10:30,359They were Christian brothers and sisters.13100:10:30,359 –> 00:10:34,500There was this nursing, there was this caring.13200:10:34,520 –> 00:10:37,400There was a community in which there was love.13300:10:37,400 –> 00:10:42,679In the middle of this appalling darkness there was a light that was shining and over time13400:10:42,679 –> 00:10:46,380people began to see the difference.13500:10:46,380 –> 00:10:50,880When the days get darker, God says, here’s what you must do, you must overcome evil with13600:10:50,880 –> 00:10:53,580good.13700:10:53,580 –> 00:10:55,059And here’s how you do it.13800:10:55,059 –> 00:11:01,760You’ve got to begin with love and it must be genuine and that’s what the early Christians13900:11:01,760 –> 00:11:02,760did.14000:11:03,400 –> 00:11:06,820And let me give you a second example.14100:11:06,840 –> 00:11:12,520Another great evil of these days, and of course there is still resonance with this today,14200:11:12,520 –> 00:11:19,039was the low value that was placed on human life.14300:11:19,039 –> 00:11:26,840Stark describes some of the gruesome early attempts at abortion, which of course most14400:11:26,900 –> 00:11:34,359often took the mother’s life as well as the life of the child that she was carrying.14500:11:34,359 –> 00:11:40,900And for that reason abortion actually was somewhat less, and what was more common was14600:11:40,900 –> 00:11:46,039infanticide, that the baby was brought to birth and then simply left.14700:11:47,000 –> 00:11:49,500Again I quote from Stark.14800:11:49,500 –> 00:11:58,840It was common to expose an unwanted infant out of doors, where it could in principle14900:11:58,840 –> 00:12:04,559be taken up by someone who wished to rare it, but where typically it fell victim to15000:12:04,559 –> 00:12:09,200the elements or to animals and birds.15100:12:09,200 –> 00:12:18,400Not only was the exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and15200:12:18,400 –> 00:12:26,000advocated by the philosophers, see both Plato and Aristotle advocated infanticide as state15300:12:26,000 –> 00:12:27,299policy.15400:12:27,299 –> 00:12:36,820Now let me quote to you in the light of that, a letter written by a man by the name of Hillarion15500:12:37,020 –> 00:12:41,340to his wife Alice who was carrying their child.15600:12:41,340 –> 00:12:47,599This is a letter that has survived from these very early days and has often been quoted15700:12:47,599 –> 00:12:53,739because it shows the extraordinary contrast between this man Hillarion’s obvious love15800:12:53,739 –> 00:13:02,159and affection for his wife, and his joy at anticipating the possible birth of a son and15900:13:02,219 –> 00:13:08,679his complete disregard and contempt for the possibility that his wife might bare him a16000:13:08,679 –> 00:13:16,140daughter. I quote this letter, Hillarion writing to his wife,16100:13:16,140 –> 00:13:23,760Know that I am still in Alexandria and do not worry if they all come back and I am still16200:13:24,760 –> 00:13:32,500here. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son and as soon as I receive payment16300:13:32,500 –> 00:13:40,880I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered of a child, before I come home,16400:13:40,880 –> 00:13:49,559If it is a boy, keep it. If it is a girl, discard it.16500:13:49,559 –> 00:13:55,880You have sent me word. Don’t forget me. How can I forget you? I beg you not to worry.16600:13:55,880 –> 00:14:04,799So it was not unusual for little babies, and especially little baby girls16700:14:04,799 –> 00:14:13,640to be left out in the streets. And when that happened, Christians often were the ones16800:14:13,760 –> 00:14:22,760who took them in, rescued them, loved them, and raised them as their own.16900:14:22,760 –> 00:14:33,760Do not be overcome with evil. Overcome evil with good, and here’s where you begin.17000:14:34,760 –> 00:14:39,559Love! But it must be genuine.17100:14:39,979 –> 00:14:43,719You’re listening to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called17200:14:43,719 –> 00:14:47,640Overcoming Evil with Love. Part of our series simply called17300:14:47,640 –> 00:14:51,479Overcoming Evil and if you ever miss one of the series don’t forget you can17400:14:51,479 –> 00:14:54,119always go back and listen again or catch up17500:14:54,119 –> 00:14:57,000by going online to our website openthebible.org.uk17600:15:00,080 –> 00:15:02,440Back to the message now we’re in Romans chapter 12.17700:15:02,440 –> 00:15:03,659Here’s Colin.17800:15:04,559 –> 00:15:09,400Genuine love heats evil. Genuine love begins at home.17900:15:10,359 –> 00:15:14,859Genuine love thirdly and lastly lifts other people up.18000:15:15,200 –> 00:15:16,359Notice verse 10,18100:15:16,359 –> 00:15:20,080Out do one another in showing honor.18200:15:20,659 –> 00:15:23,400Now this clearly relates to the way that we speak to one18300:15:23,400 –> 00:15:27,559another in the body of Christ and it relates to the way that we18400:15:27,559 –> 00:15:31,000speak about one another in the body of Christ.18500:15:31,559 –> 00:15:35,479We live in an age you don’t need me to say it’s so obvious where18600:15:36,000 –> 00:15:41,140more and more we see people pulling other people down.18700:15:41,340 –> 00:15:44,159And for all the good that has come through social media in18800:15:44,159 –> 00:15:46,760terms of connecting people together and there are wonderful18900:15:46,760 –> 00:15:48,599ways in which that has been a blessing,19000:15:50,119 –> 00:15:53,599is it not grievous to our hearts that platforms are19100:15:53,599 –> 00:15:58,239given for all kinds of anger and invective and hatred?19200:15:59,239 –> 00:16:04,359God says to us living in the world of the attack ad the19300:16:04,359 –> 00:16:09,200attack website and all the rest of it. Let it be different19400:16:09,239 –> 00:16:10,440among you.19500:16:12,080 –> 00:16:12,919Among you,19600:16:13,400 –> 00:16:17,359here’s how it must be out to do one another in showing19700:16:17,359 –> 00:16:21,280honour. In other words, show more respect to other people19800:16:21,280 –> 00:16:22,679than they show to you.19900:16:24,559 –> 00:16:27,340Think more highly of other people.20000:16:28,479 –> 00:16:31,099Than they think of you. That’s what it means.20100:16:32,400 –> 00:16:32,940In other words.20200:16:33,000 –> 00:16:36,039Jesus Christ is calling us to be a community of people20300:16:36,039 –> 00:16:39,200who lift one another up in a culture where people20400:16:39,200 –> 00:16:41,039are pulling one another down.20500:16:42,359 –> 00:16:45,200And that’s where the New Testament says don’t let any20600:16:45,200 –> 00:16:48,299unwholesome talk come out of your mouth but only what20700:16:48,299 –> 00:16:53,280is helpful for building up others up according to their20800:16:53,280 –> 00:16:57,080needs that it may be helpful to those who listen.20900:16:57,200 –> 00:17:00,760As part of what it means to love is the way that I speak21000:17:00,820 –> 00:17:05,400and the way in which it brings lifting up of others and21100:17:05,400 –> 00:17:08,640not putting down of others?21200:17:10,839 –> 00:17:14,939Well let me conclude in these last moments just by telling21300:17:14,939 –> 00:17:17,319you two stories that you will know well but they really21400:17:17,319 –> 00:17:21,900illustrate I think well how in a world of anger and21500:17:21,900 –> 00:17:26,760division which characterizes our days increasingly God21600:17:26,760 –> 00:17:32,079calls his own people to pursue love and reconciliation.21700:17:33,500 –> 00:17:36,880And the two stories of course the stories of Babel and21800:17:36,880 –> 00:17:41,199Pentecost. You remember what happened at Babel. Men wanted21900:17:41,199 –> 00:17:44,040to make a name for themselves so they built this great22000:17:44,040 –> 00:17:46,900tower. Here’s a thing that will bring people together.22100:17:47,099 –> 00:17:49,780They’ll all come to the tower. It’ll be the great center22200:17:50,119 –> 00:17:51,260of our culture.22300:17:52,920 –> 00:17:55,540And you remember that God came down and he confused their22400:17:55,540 –> 00:17:59,680languages. And the result of that was that people scatter.22500:17:59,760 –> 00:18:02,260They just left that place and they went north and south and22600:18:02,260 –> 00:18:05,500east and west. Of course they did. Can you imagine being on22700:18:05,500 –> 00:18:09,920the building site been working beside these people and suddenly22800:18:09,920 –> 00:18:12,560they turn up and they’re talking jibberish. As far as you’re22900:18:12,560 –> 00:18:15,479concerned you can’t understand a word they say. They must have23000:18:15,479 –> 00:18:18,760gone mad. I was talking to him yesterday and now I don’t23100:18:18,760 –> 00:18:22,339understand a word he’s saying. So immediately so I got to get23200:18:22,339 –> 00:18:25,239out here. And you find all these other people are speaking23300:18:25,699 –> 00:18:28,979babbling in ways that you can’t comprehend and finally you find23400:18:28,979 –> 00:18:33,020someone is talking sense like you. And you say at least there’s23500:18:33,020 –> 00:18:36,540two of us there scene and then you find a few others. And so23600:18:36,540 –> 00:18:39,219know there’s a little group that all talks the same language and23700:18:39,219 –> 00:18:41,699you say we’d better get out of here. These folks are nuts. So23800:18:41,699 –> 00:18:45,719off you go. And what’s happening? And all over you see23900:18:45,739 –> 00:18:49,119is everyone’s gathering over time with people that are24000:18:49,119 –> 00:18:52,400speaking the same language and they go north and south and east24100:18:52,400 –> 00:18:55,839and they carry within their hearts all the seeds of24200:18:55,839 –> 00:19:02,780distrust, alienation, all the seeds of all the future wars24300:19:02,780 –> 00:19:06,119that will ever happen may there right there at the tower of24400:19:06,119 –> 00:19:13,839Babel as they leave. Division, fragmentation, one group unable24500:19:13,839 –> 00:19:21,319to comprehend the other. What happens at Pentecost? Exactly24600:19:21,380 –> 00:19:26,020the opposite. At Pentecost is not man is being lifted up,24700:19:26,020 –> 00:19:29,239it’s Jesus Christ who is being lifted up and Peter is24800:19:29,239 –> 00:19:34,420declaring him to be the risen Lord and there are people from24900:19:34,420 –> 00:19:38,300every nation on the face of the earth, the book of Acts says,25000:19:38,300 –> 00:19:42,420the known world at that time. And they’ve come in their25100:19:42,420 –> 00:19:44,719diversity from different cultures and they speak25200:19:44,719 –> 00:19:47,239different languages, so all these people they’re not going25300:19:47,239 –> 00:19:51,939to be able to understand each other. They live in cultures25400:19:51,939 –> 00:19:56,739that are alienated from each other, subgroups, and what does25500:19:56,739 –> 00:20:02,920God do? In his great mercy, he, in a miracle, overcomes the25600:20:02,920 –> 00:20:06,459language barrier so that as Peter speaks, everyone is able25700:20:06,459 –> 00:20:09,459to understand. It was the most extraordinary miracle and what25800:20:09,459 –> 00:20:16,359happens as a result? People who are divided across all the25900:20:16,459 –> 00:20:23,500great divisions of society. Divided by gender, divided by26000:20:23,500 –> 00:20:27,199race, divided by economics. They’re brought together. And26100:20:27,199 –> 00:20:29,199how are they brought together? They’re brought together under26200:20:29,199 –> 00:20:32,400the Sovereign Lordship of this wonderful Savior Jesus Christ.26300:20:35,400 –> 00:20:41,079See, if we lift up who we are, all we’re left with is that26400:20:41,079 –> 00:20:44,359we’re male and female and black and white and rich and poor.26500:20:44,619 –> 00:20:49,619We’re people who are pulled apart. And what you have is an26600:20:49,619 –> 00:20:52,939endless battle to see which group is gonna prevail over26700:20:52,939 –> 00:20:57,420the others. Jesus Christ calls us to something completely and26800:20:57,420 –> 00:21:03,079utterly different. Our calling is to lift up who Jesus is. And26900:21:04,079 –> 00:21:06,560when that happens, people who would have very little in27000:21:06,560 –> 00:21:10,500common in this world find themselves brought together at27100:21:10,500 –> 00:21:15,880the foot of this gracious redeemer. Now, in a world of27200:21:15,880 –> 00:21:19,199growing anger and hatred, God overcomes evil with good. And27300:21:19,199 –> 00:21:22,599how does he do that? He does it by planting communities of27400:21:22,599 –> 00:21:26,760people who genuinely love one another. And at the center of27500:21:26,760 –> 00:21:32,699these communities is Jesus Christ. Does the church always27600:21:32,699 –> 00:21:39,900do this outstandingly well? Not always. Too often, it becomes27700:21:39,900 –> 00:21:45,660about us and what we want and who we like. And when that27800:21:45,660 –> 00:21:47,979happens, we simply become a mirror of the world, don’t we?27900:21:50,319 –> 00:21:54,599But Christ says, here’s what you’re called to. And28000:21:54,599 –> 00:22:00,219especially when the world gets darker, let love be genuine.28100:22:01,959 –> 00:22:07,579Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Love one28200:22:07,579 –> 00:22:12,920another with brotherly affection and outdo one28300:22:12,920 –> 00:22:15,459another in showing honor.28400:22:16,380 –> 00:22:19,339Good to be reminded that by Pastor Colin that our calling28500:22:19,359 –> 00:22:23,540is to lift up Jesus. The Bible tells us that when Jesus is28600:22:23,540 –> 00:22:27,780lifted up, he draws all mankind to himself. You’ve been28700:22:27,780 –> 00:22:30,500listening to OPEN THE BIBLE WITH PASTOR COLIN SMITH and a28800:22:30,500 –> 00:22:34,699message called OVERCOMING EVIL WITH LOVE. It’s part of our28900:22:34,699 –> 00:22:38,420series Overcoming Evil, and if you’ve missed any of the series29000:22:38,420 –> 00:22:41,479to date or if you ever want to go back and listen again, you29100:22:41,479 –> 00:22:44,699can do that by coming online to our website, openedthebible.org.uk29200:22:44,699 –> 00:22:49,739or you can find all of Pastor Colin’s messages that have29300:22:49,739 –> 00:22:53,140already gone out on air as a podcast and those are on all the29400:22:53,140 –> 00:22:57,300main podcast sites. Simply search for openthebible.uk and29500:22:57,300 –> 00:23:00,180subscribe if you want to receive regular updates.29600:23:00,520 –> 00:23:04,619Open the Bible is supported entirely by the generous gifts29700:23:04,619 –> 00:23:07,380of our listeners, and if that’s something you’ve been29800:23:07,380 –> 00:23:11,780considering to do, then we have an offer for you this month. If29900:23:11,780 –> 00:23:15,060you’re able to set up a new direct debit to the work of Open30000:23:15,060 –> 00:23:18,939the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more, or a30100:23:18,939 –> 00:23:22,739one off gift of fifty pounds or more, we’d love to say thank you30200:23:22,739 –> 00:23:27,420by sending you three copies of Pastor Colin Smith’s devotional30300:23:27,420 –> 00:23:31,959green pastures, still waters, comfort in dark times, from Psalm30400:23:31,959 –> 00:23:36,06023. Colin, this devotional comes from a sermon series that you30500:23:36,060 –> 00:23:39,459preached a while back, and as you prepared for the series,30600:23:39,459 –> 00:23:43,300what was the main thing you took away from it? Oh, that single30700:23:43,300 –> 00:23:47,300word, encouragement. I mean, I can’t think of any better place30800:23:47,300 –> 00:23:51,219to go when a person feels down or jaded or just generally30900:23:51,219 –> 00:23:55,380exhausted. If you need encouragement, Psalm 23 is the31000:23:55,599 –> 00:23:59,680place to go. And God has been using this Sermon to encourage31100:23:59,680 –> 00:24:03,760his people for 3000 years and I reckon that’s probably the31200:24:03,760 –> 00:24:06,800reason why this is one of the best known and best loved31300:24:06,800 –> 00:24:10,800chapters in all of the Bible. I mean, to know that in Christ,31400:24:10,800 –> 00:24:14,479you have a shepherd and that in the shepherd, you have31500:24:14,479 –> 00:24:18,000everything that you need, that is the greatest joy and that31600:24:18,000 –> 00:24:21,680will renew your strength. So, I’m absolutely delighted that31700:24:21,680 –> 00:24:24,479we’re able to make this available as a devotional. You31800:24:24,540 –> 00:24:28,540can read it over 31 Days and it will renew your strength. It31900:24:28,540 –> 00:24:32,619will refresh your soul. Psalm 23, one of the best known and32000:24:32,619 –> 00:24:35,979best loved chapters in the Bible. Well, if you’re able to32100:24:35,979 –> 00:24:40,060begin supporting Open The Bible with a gift of £5 per32200:24:40,060 –> 00:24:45,180month or more or a one off gift of £50 or more, we’d love32300:24:45,180 –> 00:24:48,859to thank you by sending you three copies of Green Pasteur32400:24:48,859 –> 00:24:52,540Stillwaters, Pastor Colin Smith’s Devotional, Based on32500:24:52,680 –> 00:24:54,239당32600:25:01,280 –> 00:25:06,719That’s at OpenTheBible.org.uk for Open The Bible and Pastor32700:25:06,719 –> 00:25:09,920Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. Thank you for joining us today32800:25:09,920 –> 00:25:13,819and I hope we’ll see you again next time.32900:25:17,380 –> 00:25:21,380You can remember days when you were on fire for the Lord but33000:25:21,459 –> 00:25:25,939now you feel a bit sluggish. Find out what you can do about it33100:25:25,979 –> 00:25:30,619next time on Open The Bible.