The connection between our focus and treasure....

This week, we are looking at a part of perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached to discover the reason why how we handle our treasure is a big deal when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. Yesterday, we looked on as Jesus commanded the crowds listening, and followers of Jesus throughout history, not to center our lives on money, possessions and the treasures of this world. Jesus explained that when we store up treasure here on earth, we are storing up what is temporary.

In addition, Jesus revealed the reality that treasures on earth are easily consumed by the things of the world. Just as a moth consumes cloth or rust consumes metal, or a thief consumes our money, possessions, and treasure by stealing, the things of this world are consumed by the world. Instead of focusing on the accumulation of money, possessions, and treasure on earth, Jesus commanded the crowds listening, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to store up, to accumulate for ourselves treasure in Heaven.

Jesus also pointed out that when we accumulate treasures in Heaven; when we make deposits into our heavenly bank accounts, those investments cannot be consumed by the things on earth. Jesus point here is that while treasure on earth is temporary, treasure in Heaven lasts for eternity. But, why is Jesus coming on so strong? Why does Jesus feel so strongly that He would command us to store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven? Today, we find the answer to this question in Matthew 6:21. Let’s look at it together:

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In this verse, we see Jesus reveal the timeless reason behind His command to store up treasure in Heaven. Jesus here is revealing for us the timeless principle that our desires are revealed by what we invest in. This timeless principle is incredibly important because of how Jesus defines spiritual maturity.

You see, Jesus defines spiritual maturity not by how big of a kingdom that we are building for ourselves here on earth in terms of money, possessions, and treasure. Instead, Jesus defines spiritual maturity in terms of the heart. A person who is involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus will be growing in one’s love for God and in one’s love for others.

Now a natural question that arises here is “well Dave, that sounds great, but how does one define and measure one’s love and devotion to God and others?” If that question is running through your mind, I want to let you know that you are asking a great question. It is a great question to ask because we cannot simply peer into another human beings heart and measure love, can we? So how do we measure our love for God and others?  Jesus point in this verse is that we invest our treasure in the things that we treasure. Followers of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Him respond to all that God has done for them by investing in God’s kingdom mission because they treasure God above everything else. You see, the reality is that we can tell what we love by looking at where our treasure goes. So, when you look at your checkbook, what does it say about who or what you love? Where does your money go? What are you investing in? Jesus then uses a metaphor to hammer His point home in verses 22-23. Let’s look at it together:

"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Now to fully understand the metaphor that Jesus uses here, we first need to understand what Jesus is talking about when He refers to the eye as the lamp of the body. When Jesus uses the word eye, He is referring to our spiritual eyes and what they focus on. This is important because our bodies follow what our eyes focus on.

I learned this principle first hand during a mountain bike trip outside of Kingman. During my ride, I approached a steep downward section of the trail that was covered with baseball sized rocks. Now sometimes when mountain biking, you come to situations where you realize that you have lost control of the speed of your bike. And as I gained speed down this section of the trail, this was one of those times. About ¾ of the way down this decline, there was a boulder that came up to a person’s knee.

Now I knew that I did not want to hit that boulder. But as I came closer to that point on the trail, I was coming closer to the boulder. As you have probably guessed, I hit the boulder square and went head over my handlebars down the rest of the hill. And if that was not bad enough, the bike proceeded to fall on top of me and follow me down the hill. Needless to say, my body was covered with scrapes and boulder rash. You see, because I was focused on the boulder so as to not hit it, my body actually steered the bike toward the boulder.

And that is Jesus point here. With this metaphor, Jesus is revealing the reality that we follow what we are focused on. When Jesus uses the word clear, He is referring to someone who is motivated by a singleness of purpose or focus. Jesus provided that focus in verse 20 when He commanded that we store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. Jesus point is that when our spiritual eyes are clearly focused on storing up treasure in Heaven our whole body will be full of light. But what does Jesus mean when He states that our bodies will be full of light?

The phrase to be full of light conveys the sense of being illuminated by something so as to reflect that light toward others. So in essence, Jesus is stating that when we are focused on storing up treasures in Heaven, we will reveal and reflect Jesus to others. We will reflect Jesus’ generosity. We will reflect Jesus’ desire to love and serve God and others through the money, possessions, and treasure that we have while we live life on earth.

And as we reveal and reflect Jesus to others, the result is that we advance God’s Kingdom and enhance God’s reputation. Followers of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Him are able to make a fundamental shift from asking the question “What honors me?” to the question “What honors God?”

Jesus then contrasts the person who is singularly focused on storing up treasures in Heaven with the person who is focused on storing up treasures on earth. In verse 23, Jesus speaks of the person whose eye is bad. When Jesus uses the word bad, He is literally referring to someone whose spiritual eyes are unhealthy or sick. This person’s spiritual eyes are clouded by greed. This is a person who is focused on making and spending the money, possessions, and treasure that they accumulate on themselves to advance their kingdom and enhance their reputation.

Jesus then explained to the crowds listening that the end result of having spiritual eyes that are unhealthy due to being clouded by greed is that the person is described as being full of darkness. To be full of darkness conveys the sense of an absence of Christ-likeness in a person’s life. Jesus ends verse 23 with the phrase if the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. Jesus point is that the person whose life is clouded by greed and selfishness and that focuses on storing up treasures for themselves on earth is full of spiritual and moral darkness as well.

Now, I don’t know about you, but sometimes we can find ourselves trying to have it both ways, can’t we? I can find myself tempted to try to have my feet in both worlds, so to speak. So, can’t we do both? Can’t we store up treasures on earth and in Heaven?

Friday, we will see Jesus provide the answer to this question…

How did Jesus talk about money???

This past week, we launched into the first Sunday of February and left the month of January in the rearview mirror of our lives. We launched into a new month, February, a month that emphasizes and focuses on love, after spending the previous month of January emphasizing and focusing on the idea of a new and fresh year where we can make a new and fresh start. And in January, as part of that emphasis and focus, our culture often prods us to sit down and make a list of what we are going to do differently in the New Year. We even have a name for that list, don’t we? We call that list our New Year’s Resolutions.

And, if we were brutally honest, how many of those New Year’s Resolutions involve money or finances? How many of those resolutions involve getting out of debt, getting into the habit of saving money, or planning financially for retirement? And just as it is for us as individuals, as a church, we have a tendency to look at the New Year as a time to set goals for the future when it comes to finances. As a church, we have a financial budget for 2017 that we have set as a goal to follow. In addition, this year as a church we launched our “2020 Vision”, a three year capital campaign as a church that has set as a goal to raise two million dollars to build a new Family Life Center that would enable us to continue to expand and engage in the kingdom mission that we have been given as a church.

However usually by the end of January, what usually happens to those New Year’s Resolutions that we make as individuals? Usually by the end of January, for the vast majority of us, one of two things has happened: Either we have forgotten about those New Year’s Resolutions, or we have broken those New Year’s Resolutions. So, after forgotten or broken those resolutions, we move onto a new month, with a new emphasis and focus.

However, just because we have forgotten or broken those New Year’s Resolutions and decided to move on to a new month that has a new emphasis and focus, that does not mean that the problems that provoked those resolutions have been solved. You see, while we may have forgotten or broken those resolutions and moved on from those resolutions; the problems that provoked those resolutions remain. And when it comes to finances, the problems that provoked those resolutions still linger and haunt us. And the problem of debt; the problem of having no savings for when problems arise; the problem of a lack of financial planning for retirement; eventually and persistently remind us of their presence and the problems that they present and will continue to present for our lives.

But how do we rid ourselves of those problems that provoked us to make those resolutions that we continue to forget or break? How can we escape the problems of debt, the failure to save money, or planning financially for retirement? To answer these questions, as a church, we are going to spend the next seven weeks in a sermon series entitled treasure. During this series, we are going to spend our time together talking about the subject of money and finances. 

Now, as soon as you found out that we were going to spend seven weeks talking about money, you may have immediately began to push back, to resist. Maybe and one or your major objections to the church, and to Christianity in general, is that you believe that the church just wants your money.

If I have just described the objections, the push back, the resistance that you feel to the idea that we are going to spend time in church talking about the subject of money and finances, I just want to let you know, first of all, that we do not exist as a church because we want your money. As a matter of fact, as a church, we don’t want your money.

And we are not doing this series with the goal of guilting you into giving money to the building campaign. Instead, our hope and our prayer as we go through this series is that God would move in our heads, our hearts, and our hands in a way that results in us embracing some timeless truths and principles when it comes to money that will enable us to live our day to day lives in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus head, heart, and hands when it came to the issue of money and finances.

Or maybe you believe that we should not spend our time in a sermon series talking about money because you came to church to hear about what Jesus and the Bible has to say about important spiritual issues like forgiveness, like faith, like prayer. You don’t go to church to be preached at about how you handle money; you go to church to hear about God.  You might be thinking “why should we even bother talking about treasure, about money, about finances. I mean, does it really matter how I handle my finances? Is how I handle my finances that big of a deal when it comes to my relationship with God? What does how I handle my finances have to do with whether or not I reveal and reflect Jesus to those around me?

I believe that how we handle our money and finances is a big deal. I believe that it is a big deal because of how Jesus talked about money. You see, Jesus talked about money and finances. As a matter of fact He talked about money a lot. In the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in our Bibles, there are 500 verses where Jesus talked about prayer. Now we consider prayer an important part of our relationship with God. In addition, there are 500 verses where Jesus talked about faith. And every Sunday morning, at some point, the word faith is mentioned on this campus.

How many verses do you think are recorded for us in the accounts of Jesus life in the Bible that Jesus devoted to teaching on the subject of money and finances? 50? 100? 250? What if I told you that the number was 2,350? Jesus devoted 2,350 verses to the subject of treasure, to money, and how we handle it. Jesus thought that the subject of money and what we did with it was so important that He talked about money almost 5 times more than He did prayer and faith.

But why did Jesus talk so much about money? This week, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a part of perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached. And it is in this part of this famous sermon that we see Jesus reveal for us the reason why how we handle our treasure is a big deal when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.

And it is in this event from history that we will also discover a timeless principle about how the way that we handle our treasure impacts how our day to day lives reveal and reflect Jesus to those around us. So let’s look at this section of Jesus famous sermon together, beginning in Matthew 6:19-20:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

As Matthew brings us into this section of perhaps one of Jesus most famous sermons, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, we find Jesus focusing for a second time in this sermon on the issue of money. Matthew tells us that Jesus proclaimed to the crowds that they are not to store up for themselves treasures on earth.

Now it is important to understand that this was not a suggestion; Jesus here is giving a command that we are not to be storing up treasures on earth. This phrase conveys the sense of storing up so as to accumulate something. The point that Jesus is making here is that we are not to be focused on the accumulation of treasure. Jesus is commanding the crowds listening, and followers of Jesus throughout history, not to center our lives on money, possessions and the treasures of this world. Jesus uses a play on words that literally means do not treasure treasure.

Now a natural question that could arise at this point is “Why not? Why not treasure treasure?” Jesus gives us the answer to this question in the second part of verse 19 by talking about moths and rust destroying and thieves breaking in and stealing. Jesus here uses the examples of moths and thieves to reveal for us the reality that when we store up treasure here on earth, we are storing up what is temporary.

The timeless reality is that we are only here on earth for a finite period of time and, when our time on earth is over, all of our stuff stays here on earth. The timeless reality is that you never really own anything. You only manage God’s stuff for a period of time and then He gives it to someone else.

But not only are treasures on earth temporary, Jesus here is also revealing for us the reality that treasures on earth are easily consumed by the things of the world. Just as a moth consumes cloth or rust consumes metal, or a thief consumes our money, possessions, and treasure by stealing, the things of this world are consumed by the world.

Instead of focusing on the accumulation of money, possessions, and treasure on earth, Jesus commanded the crowds listening, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to store up, to accumulate for ourselves treasure in Heaven. Instead of focusing on making deposits in our earthly bank accounts and retirement funds in a way that is focused on building a kingdom of money, possessions, and treasure here on earth for ourselves, Jesus commands us to make deposits in our heavenly bank accounts.

Jesus points out that when we accumulate treasures in Heaven; when we make deposits into our heavenly bank accounts, those investments cannot be consumed by the things on earth. Jesus point here is that while treasure on earth is temporary, treasure in Heaven lasts for eternity. But why is Jesus coming on so strong? Why does Jesus feel so strongly that He would command us to store up for ourselves treasure in Heaven?

Tomorrow, we will discover the answer to this question…

Lovingly limiting the freedom that we have for the spiritual good and growth of others...

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled “Won’t you be my neighbor”. During this series our hope and our prayer is to answer the questions “Why should I be a neighbor?” “Who is my neighbor?” and “How should I be a neighbor?” Our hope and our prayer is to answer these questions in a way that enables and empowers us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus in a way that is a neighbor to those that God has already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.

This week, I would like for us to continue to answer the third question that we are looking at in this series, which is “How should I be a neighbor?” To continue to answer this question, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at another section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans. After the section of the book of Romans that we looked at last week, the Apostle Paul challenged this group of early followers of Jesus to practice a lifestyle that exercises the liberty that they had as followers of Jesus carefully.

You see, as followers of Jesus, there are some issues about following Jesus that are closed handed issues that are not open for debate. For example, the fact that Jesus Christ is God-in-a-bod; the truth of the Trinity; the truth that salvation from selfishness and sin comes only by placing one’s confident truth in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader; these are closed handed issues, they are not open for debate.

However, there are other issues about following Jesus that would be referred to as open-handed issues that followers of Jesus disagree on. For example, is it o.k. for Christians to drink alcohol socially? Is it o.k. for Christians to dance? Should Christians participate in any activity that is associated with Halloween? Should Christian children to go to public school or should they be in a Christian school or homeschooled? Should Christians work at casinos?

Now, these issues are debatable, because while the issue is not clearly stated in the Bible as being right or wrong, some people view the issue as morally wrong, while others view the issue as being morally acceptable. And so often, what can tend to happen is that followers of Jesus will engage in heated debate and confrontation over an issue that God has not given us a clear directive on in His word.

And because God has not given us a clear directive, what we tend to do as followers of Jesus is to try to help God out by making a list of rules in addition to the Bible when it comes to these debatable issues. And as a result, we move from living a lifestyle that is based on a confident trust in God to a lifestyle that is attempting to keep a list of rules when it comes to practicing our faith.

So in Romans 14, Paul called the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to carefully exercise the liberty that we have as followers of Jesus by not judging others when it comes to debatable issues. In addition, Paul called followers of Jesus throughout history to carefully exercise the liberty that we have as followers of Jesus by lovingly limiting that liberty for the sake of others.

And it is in the context of how we as followers of Jesus are to relate to others who may disagree with us when it comes to the open handed issues of following Jesus that we are going to jump back into this letter. So let’s jump into this section of this letter, beginning in Romans 15:1-6:

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. ² Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. ³ For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME." ⁴ For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. ⁵ Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, ⁶ so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now to fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand what was occurring among followers of Jesus at the church at Rome, and still occurs in churches today. At the church at Rome, there were some followers of Jesus who were what Paul called weak in faith. This phrase refers to a follower of Jesus who has an inability or a limitation when it comes to experiencing the freedom and liberty that they have when it comes to living out their day to day lives as a follower of Jesus.

By contrast, a person who is strong in faith experiences a sense of strength and freedom that allows them great liberty in how they live out their day to day lives as a follower of Jesus. You see, what was happening in the church at Rome was that people who had the strength and freedom that flowed from their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to exercise their liberty when it came to the debatable issues of following Jesus were criticizing and condemning those who were not exercising their freedom as a result of their relationship with Jesus as being spiritually immature and as second class citizens in the church.

In our culture today, this would be like taking a person who was an alcoholic and had come to have a relationship with Jesus to a bar and saying “well if you were spiritually mature, you could have a drink with me, because the Bible does not condemn social drinking, it only condemns drunkenness, So why don’t you do the spiritually mature thing and have a drink with me”. Meanwhile, the new follower of Jesus is saying “no way, because I know what could happen if I start drinking, so I am not going to drink, because I am convinced that drinking is wrong”.

So, followers of Jesus were getting into conflicts and quarrels with one another over differing opinions on open handed and debatable issues when it came to following Jesus. And followers of Jesus were criticizing, condemning, judging and treating one another with contempt and in competition to who was right and thus more valuable and spiritually mature. Now here is a question: has anything changed? Has anything changed in 2,000 years?

No it hasn’t, has it? There is a cottage industry within Christianity where bloggers and book writers and commentators spend their lives debating and arguing over open handed and debatable issues in a very ungracious manner that looks nothing like Jesus.

Paul responded to what was occurring at the church in Rome by commanding those who had the strength and freedom that flowed from their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to exercise their liberty when it came to debatable issues of the faith ought to bear the weakness of those without strength. Now this word ought literally means to be under obligation to meet certain social and moral conditions.

And the social and moral obligation that they were to meet was to bear patiently and put up with those whose weakness of faith limited the exercise of the liberty that they had as a result of their relationship with Jesus in their day to day lives. Instead of focusing on experiencing pleasure and self-satisfaction as a result of the freedom and liberty that they had as a follower of Jesus, Paul called for a sacrifice of their self-satisfaction and self-interest for the sake of others.

Now an almost immediate objection that could be raised here regarding Paul’s comments here is this: “Why should I have to sacrifice the freedom and liberty that I have as a result of my relationship with Jesus for someone else? I am not sinning; so why do I always have to give up and sacrifice my liberty for someone who is weaker in their faith and won’t exercise the freedom that they have? If Jesus is the one who provides the freedom for me to have a beer after work, then why do I have to limit living in that freedom by not having a beer because of some teetotaler?”

If that objection is running through your mind, I just want to let you know that it is a fair objection to have. And fortunately for us, Paul provides the answer to us in verse 2: “Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.”? Paul’s point here is that, as followers of Jesus, we are to practice a lifestyle that strives to build others up. Paul commanded the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to practice a lifestyle in community with one another that is focused on the spiritual growth and spiritual good of those around us.

Now, as is often the case when we are asked to limit our freedom, the first question that arises, regardless of what age or stage of life that we are in is “why”? Why should I lovingly limit my freedom for the spiritual good and growth of others who are not able to exercise the same liberty and freedom that I have?”

Paul, anticipating this question, provides the answer in advance in verse 3 by explaining that Jesus did not live His life on earth with a focus on pleasing Himself. Paul then reinforces this reality by quoting from a section of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Psalms. In Psalm 69:9, the Psalmist predicted and proclaimed that Jesus faced and endured disparagement and disgrace during His life on earth. And as the accounts of Jesus life in the Bible remind us, when Jesus faced disparagement and disgrace, He never played the God card. 

Jesus did not enter into humanity in order to exercise the rightful freedom and liberty that He had as the Co-Creator of the universe who is large and in charge of everything. Instead, Jesus entered into humanity and lovingly limited His freedom by allowing Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life, so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

You see, Jesus never asks us to do something that He has not already done. Paul then reminded the members of the church at Rome that the Bible was given to us by God to teach and encourage us to bear up and hold out in the face of difficulty with the confident expectation that, in the future, every follower of Jesus will be able to exercise the freedom and liberty that they have as a result of their relationship with Jesus. Until that time, however, as followers of Jesus we are to practice a lifestyle that strives to build others up in a way that lovingly limits the freedom that we have for the spiritual good and growth of others.

Paul then paused, right in the middle of his letter, to pray that God would give the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, the ability to live in unity as a community of believers that influence the opinions of the world around them by enhancing God’s reputation through their attitudes and actions with one another. Because, as followers of Jesus we are called to practice a lifestyle that strives to build others up.

Friday, we will see Paul reveal for us a second way that followers of Jesus are to live in relationship with one another…

When it comes to being a neighbor, we love our neighbor as ourselves when we place our neighbor before ourselves...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans to begin to answer the third question that we are going to look at in this series, which is “How should I be a neighbor?”

Yesterday, we looked on as the Apostle Paul commanded followers of Jesus throughout history to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. As followers of Jesus, our relationships should not be driven and motivated by slavery to financial or emotional obligations. Instead, the only debt or obligation that should weigh on our lives and drive the motivation of our lives is the obligation to love one another.

Paul then explained that when love is the driving and motivating force behind our lives, the result is that we will live a life that is in line with God’s commandments. When followers of Jesus willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first out of a selfless and other-centered love for one another, we do not wrong to our neighbor and we fulfill God’s requirements of how we are to relate to one another. And it is in these verses that Paul reveals for us the reality that, as followers of Jesus, we are to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first. Today, we will see Paul transition to reveal a third area where followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission that willingly places ourselves under others by placing others first in Romans 13:11-14:

 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Paul begins verse 11 by providing a timeless reason why followers of Jesus throughout history are to practice a lifestyle of submission to government and are to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first out of a selfless and other-centered love for one another. And that reason was “knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” But what does that mean?

When Paul uses the phrase awaken from sleep, this phrase refers to a state of thoughtlessness, laziness, lethargy, and sluggishness. This morning, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in that place where you wake up in the morning, of after a nap, and you are in an incoherent daze and have no desire to do anything? We have all been there at some point in our live, haven’t we? For some of us, that could be right now. And not only can we find ourselves in an incoherent daze of lethargy and laziness physically; we can find ourselves in an incoherent daze of lethargy and laziness spiritually.

And that is exactly where some of the members of the church at Rome were. And this morning, that may be where some of us are when it comes to our relationship with Jesus and your relationships with others. You may not give much thought or effort into your relationship with Jesus or your relationships with others.

Maybe you are at a place where you spend time with Jesus when Jesus fits into your schedule or when you feel like you need Jesus to come through for you. Maybe you are at a place where you spend time investing in relationships with others only for what you could get from others, not for what you could give to others.

Paul’s response to the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, who had become lethargic and lazy and lived life in an incoherent daze when it came to their relationship with Jesus and others, was this: Wake up! We need to wake up. And the reason why we need to wake up is become salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

By salvation, Paul is referring to the end of God’s story here on earth, when Jesus Christ will return to defeat selfishness, sin, and death, and when we will experience the fullness of the relationship with God that we were created for.  Every day here on earth is a day closer to Jesus return. And while we do not know the exact day and time when Jesus will return, we are to live our lives in a constant state of expectancy for His return.

Paul then explains that we are to wake up and live in expectancy of His return by laying aside the deeds of darkness and putting on the armor of light. Paul’s point here is that in light of Jesus return, as followers of Jesus we are to rid ourselves of the deeds that flow from a life of moral and spiritual darkness.

Instead of thoughtlessly and lazily living a life that is led by our old selfish and sinful nature apart from Jesus that is dominated by attitudes and actions that are selfish and rebellious, as followers of Jesus we are to live a life that battles moral and spiritual darkness with the weapons that God has given us as a result of his transformational activity. As followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence and power, His word in the letters that make up the Bible, and prayer, just to name a few of the many weapons that God desires us to actively and thoughtfully employ in our lives so that we would live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus’ activity in our lives.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us the reality that, as followers of Jesus, we are to practice a lifestyle of submission to Christ’s commands. Instead of submitting to our old selfish and rebellious nature, we are to live a life that is submitted to following the message and teachings of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s point is that as we wait for Jesus return, we are to live our lives in light of His return by embracing a lifestyle of submission to His commands. In verse 13 and 14, Paul explains that whether it is our actions with what we eat and drink; whether it is our actions sexually; whether it is our attitude and actions in our relationships with one another, we are to conduct our day to day lives in a decent manner that follows the message and teaching of Jesus by submitting ourselves to His teaching. Instead of submitting Scripture to our thinking, we are to submit our thinking to Scripture. 

Paul concluded this section of his letter with a command that summarizes verse 11-14: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”? The word provision here, in the language this letter was originally written in, literally means to make thoughtful plans in order to meet a need. In addition, the word flesh here refers to our old nature apart from Jesus that is dominated by the evil and destructive power of sin. Lust, simply put, is a desire for something that is forbidden.

Paul is commanding followers of Jesus throughout history to not make plans in order to meet the forbidden desires of our old nature that is dominated by selfishness and rebellion. Instead of taking the time to make plans to do something that is forbidden physically, sexually, or relationally, as followers of Jesus we are to be spending our time willingly placing ourselves under the leadership of Jesus by placing Jesus and His message and teachings in the forefront of our lives.

And it is here, in this section of this letter, that we discover a timeless answer to the question “How should I be a neighbor?” And that timeless answer is this: When it comes to being a neighbor, we love our neighbor as ourselves when we place our neighbor before ourselves. You see, to love our neighbor as ourselves is to place our neighbor before ourselves. And when we place our neighbor before ourselves, we will do no wrong to our neighbor and we will fulfill God’s requirements of how we are to relate to our neighbor. When we place our neighbor before ourselves, we also place ourselves under the message and teachings of Jesus. And, as we have talked about throughout this series, that is what matters most to Jesus.

What matters most to Jesus is that we live a life that loves Him with our total being and that demonstrates our love for Jesus by loving our neighbor like Jesus. And when we love our neighbor as ourselves; when we love our neighbor like Jesus, we are perfectly positioned to be the vehicle God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to those around us as we live a life of faithful obedience to Jesus.

We will live a life of faithful obedience because our faithful obedience flows from a life that loves God with our total being and the loves our neighbor as ourselves. And that is what matters most to Jesus. What matters most to Jesus is to be a neighbor that reveals our relationship with Jesus through how we love and treat our neighbor that leads us to be able to lead our neighbor to a relationship with Jesus.

So here is a question for us to consider: How are you doing when it comes to loving your neighbor as yourself by placing your neighbor before yourself? What are some ways that you can love your neighbor as yourself by placing your neighbor before yourself? What are some ways that you can put this truth into practice in your home, with your family, at school, in your workplace, and your relationships?

Because the timeless reality is that when it comes to being a neighbor, we love our neighbor as ourselves when we place our neighbor before ourselves...

"How should I be a neighbor?"

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled “Won’t you be my neighbor”. During this series our hope and our prayer is to answer three specific questions. Our hope and prayer is that we would answer the question “Why should I be a neighbor?” “Who is my neighbor?” and “How should I be a neighbor?”

We launched into this series by asking the question “Why should I be a neighbor?” In other words why should followers of Jesus be a neighbor to the people around them?” To answer this question, we spent our time together looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, where we discovered the timeless reality that we should be a neighbor because being a neighbor is to be what matters most to Jesus.

Last week, we spent our time together asking the question “Who is my neighbor?” To answer that question, we spent our time together looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke, where we discovered the timeless reality that when it comes to being a neighbor, we are to view and love everyone as our neighbor.

We ended our time together by recognizing that a natural question that could arise at this point could be “Well Dave, if that is the case, if everyone is my neighbor, then how am I supposed to love everyone as my neighbor? How should I be a neighbor?” So this week, I would like for us to spend our time together by beginning to answer the third question that we are going to look at in this series, which is “How should I be a neighbor?”

To begin to answer this question, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans. So let’s jump into this section of this letter, which a man named Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus, beginning in Romans 13:8:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Now to fully understand, what the Apostle Paul is communicating in these verses, we first need to understand the context in which these verses take place. The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to early followers of Jesus who lived in Rome, Italy. And the point of the book of Romans can be summarized in one simple statement. And that statement would be that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right.

In Romans 1:1-17, Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right; and the extent that we are right when it comes to living in a right relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads, hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is right. And this reality is revealed to all humanity through the message of the gospel.

The message that that while all of humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. The message that reveals that God responded to our selfish rebellion and sin by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

The message that reveals that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of the Holy Spirit’s transforming and supernatural activity in order to be our Lord and Savior. The message that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

After the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, Paul begins to reveal the reality that the fact that God is right is not only based on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do. Beginning in Romans 12, Paul reveals the reality that the fact that God is right is also revealed by how followers of Jesus practice their faith. When followers of Jesus live a life that genuinely and authentically puts into practice the message and teachings of Jesus, we are used by God to reveal that He is right. 

In Romans 12 Paul revealed the timeless reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God. Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response of surrender. Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response of service. And Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response toward other Christians.

Then, in Romans 13, Paul begins to reveal the timeless reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission.  When Paul uses the word submission, this word, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first. And in Romans 13, Paul reveals three areas where followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission.

In Romans 13:1-7, which we looked at throughout the “Vote for Jesus” series, Paul revealed the reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission to the government. And, it is in this context, after providing three reasons why followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission to the government, that Paul transitions in Romans 13:8 to address a second area where followers of Jesus were to practice a lifestyle of submission.

Paul begins verse 8 by commanding followers of Jesus throughout history to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. Now the word owe here literally means to be under obligation to meet certain moral or social conditions. Paul’s point here is that as followers of Jesus, the only obligation that should be the driving and motivating factor in our lives is love. As followers of Jesus, our relationships should not be driven and motivated by slavery to financial or emotional obligations. Instead, the only debt or obligation that should weigh on our lives and drive the motivation of our lives is the obligation to love one another.

Paul then explains that when love is the driving and motivating force behind our lives, the result is that we fulfill the law. When Paul refers to the Law, he is referring to the first five letters that are recorded for us in our Bibles, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law or Torah. The word fulfilled means to bring something to a designated end. Paul’s point is that the person who practices a lifestyle of love that willing places ourselves under others by placing others first, will live a life that is in line with God’s commandments.

And to reinforce his point, in verse 9, Paul points the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to the seventh, sixth, eighth, and tenth of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses for the Jewish people. In addition, Paul reminds the readers of this letter of God’s command to the Jewish people that is recorded for us in a letter of our Bibles, called the Book of Leviticus, in Leviticus 19:18.

To understand what Paul is communicating here, let me ask you this question: If you loved your neighbor as yourself, would you ever sleep with their spouse? Kill them? Steal from them? Desire what they had? Wish that they did not have what they had? Would we ever sin against one another if we lovingly placed ourselves under them by placing them first? No we would not.

And that is Paul’s point here. Paul then hammers his point home in verse 10 by stating that love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Paul’s point is that when followers of Jesus willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first out of a selfless and other-centered love for one another, we do not wrong to our neighbor and we fulfill God’s requirements of how we are to relate to one another.

And it is in these verses that Paul reveals for us the reality that, as followers of Jesus, we are to practice a lifestyle of submission to one another. As followers of Jesus, we are to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first. Paul then transitions to reveal a third area where followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission that willingly places ourselves under others by placing others first in Romans 13:11-14.

Tomorrow, we will discover what Paul will say next…

When it comes to being a neighbor, we are to view and love everyone as our neighbor...

Last week, we were looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. During this event from history, a lawyer responded to having the tables turned on him by Jesus by asking Jesus a second question. "And who is my neighbor?" We talked about the reality that the lawyer thought that he had trapped Jesus because there was great disagreement when it came to the answer to this question. And the lawyer believed that however Jesus answered this question, Jesus would end up offending someone.

You see, in the Jewish culture of the first century, Jewish rabbis often taught that the Jewish people were to love their neighbor and hate their enemies. We see this in another account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew in Matthew 5:43. In other words, Jewish people who were right with God were under obligation to love other people who were insiders that were right with God, but Jewish people did not have to love people who were outsiders who were not right with God.

So there was great debate when it came to who was an insider and who was an outsider. There was a great debate when it came to who was right with God and who was not right with God. There was great debate over who needed to be shown love and who did not need to be shown love.  There was great debate when it came to who should be considered a neighbor. And now Jesus was being forced by this lawyer to enter into this debate. Luke then reveals for us how Jesus entered into this debate in Luke 11:30-32:

Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. "Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Luke tells us that Jesus replied to the lawyers question with a parable. Now a parable is an earthly story that is designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. Jesus began this parable by explaining that as a Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. To fully understand the context of this parable, however, we first need to understand something about the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

You see, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a dangerous road frequented by robbers. The road descended 3,000 feet over 17 miles. This road would be very similar to traveling from Golden Valley to Bullhead City. There were many places along the road where robbers could hide in wait of unwary travelers and attack them by surprise.

Jesus then explained that the Jewish man who was on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by robbers who robbed him, beat him, stripped him naked and left him half dead on the side of the road. The robbers left this man on the side of the road to die of exposure or attack from wild animals after taking everything that this man possessed.

However, by chance a priest happened to be traveling on the road to Jericho when he came upon this half dead man lying on the side of the road. This priest was a Jewish religious leader who was a direct descendant of Aaron who had the position, privilege, and responsibility to lead the Jewish people in following the Jewish sacrificial system. This religious person would have been considered right with God and would have been the insider of insiders. In our culture today, this man would have been like a Senior Pastor of a church.

Yet, when this insider of insiders saw his fellow Jewish man beaten, naked, and left half dead on the side of the road, he responded by moving to the other side of the road. This insider of insiders responded by distancing himself and walking right past his fellow Jew to instead continue on to Jericho. 

Jesus then explained that just by chance, a Levite happened to be traveling on the road to Jericho when he came upon this half dead man lying on the side of the road. This Levite was a Jewish religious leader who was the priest’s assistant and was responsible for the less important tasks at the Temple. In our culture today, this man would have been like an Associate Pastor of a church.

Yet, when this insider saw his fellow Jewish man beaten, naked, and left half dead on the side of the road, he also responded by moving to the other side of the road. This insider also responded by distancing himself and walking right past his fellow Jew to instead continue on to Jericho.  Now I want us to imagine ourselves in this event from history in the crowd listening to Jesus as He has this conversation with this lawyer. I want us to place ourselves in this scene for a minute. If you were there in the crowd listening, would you think that these insiders were very loving to their fellow insider? If you were there in the crowd listening, would you think that these insiders were acting like insiders when it came to having a relationship with God?

Or, if you were there in the crowd listening, would you think that these insiders were acting like outsiders when it came to having a relationship with God? How would you have responded to what these insiders did when it came to their fellow insider? Would you view these Jewish religious leaders as being very neighborly to their fellow Jewish neighbor? You would have been disappointed in them wouldn’t you? Jesus then continued His parable by revealing a third character in verse 33-35:

  "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. "On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.'

Now if you were a Jewish person in the crowd listening to Jesus parable, at the moment Jesus referred to a Samaritan, you would have gasped in disbelief. You would have gasped in disbelief because of who the Samaritans were. You would have gasped in disbelief because of how Jewish people felt about Samaritans. You see, Samaritans were people who lived in Samaria. And at one time, Samaria was a part of the northern Kingdom of Israel.

Then, in 722 B.C., the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In order to help control the regions that they conquered, the Assyrians developed a strategy that involved deporting large numbers of Jewish people and replacing them with large numbers of people from the nation of Assyria. The Assyrians who moved to Samaria worshipped false gods and simply added the worship of the One True God to their worship of their false gods.

Over time, the Jewish people began to intermarry and adopt the religion and culture of the Assyrians. The Samaritans rejected all of the Old Testament except the first five books and refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt Gerizim in 400 B.C.

Now as you might imagine, the Jewish people did not respond well to what was happening in Samaria. And over time a great deal of animosity built between the Jewish people who lived in southern Israel and the people who lived in Samaria. The closest cultural comparison to how the Jewish people viewed the Samaritans would be that the Samaritans were viewed in a similar way to how a black and white married couple would have been viewed in the southern United States in the 1950’s.

The Jewish people came to view the Samaritans as “half breeds” and wanted nothing to do with them. So, if you were a Jewish person you would have gasped at Jesus introduction of a Samaritan into this parable. Samaritans were viewed as outsiders. Samaritans were viewed as people who were far from God. Samaritans were viewed as those who did not need to be shown love. Samaritans were not viewed as being neighbors. Instead, Samaritans were viewed as the enemy ethnically, culturally, and religiously. And as a result, Jewish people did not believe that they needed to be neighborly to Samaritans.

However, this Samaritan did six different things for this injured Jewish person that demonstrated that he loved this Jewish person as a neighbor. First, the Samaritan took the risk to engage the injured Jewish man. After all, the robbers could have been hiding in the distance waiting to attack him as well. Second, the Samaritan took the risk to bandage the wounds of the injured Jewish man. Third, the Samaritan took the risk to anoint the cuts with oil and wine, which would have soothed the wound and disinfected the wound. All of these actions would have taken time and would have exposed the Samaritan man to potential danger.

Fourth, the Samaritan took the time and effort to load the man on his mule while he walked alongside the mule. Fifth, the Samaritan took the time and effort to take him to the inn in Jericho. And sixth, the Samaritan took of his own resources to provide care and comfort to the injured man by staying the night and paying for his future care by giving two days wages. In the culture of the first century, two days wages would have paid for the injured Jewish man to stay at the inn for twenty four days in order to recover from his injuries.

You see, as Martin Luther King famously pointed out in his sermon on this event from history: "I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”After telling this parable, Jesus then asks the lawyer a very pointed question. Luke reveals for us Jesus question in verse 36:

 "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?"

Now this morning can you imagine the scene as Jesus asked the lawyer that question? Can you imagine the tension that would have been present? Can you imagine the tension that comes from knowing the right answer but not liking the right answer? After all, Samaritans were outsiders. Samaritans were far from God. Samaritans did not need to be shown love. Samaritans were the enemy. Samaritans were not viewed as being neighbors and were not viewed as needing to be treated as neighbors. Can you imagine how long it took for the lawyer to provide the answer to that question? Luke then reveals how the lawyer answered Jesus question in verse 37:

And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

This morning, did you notice the lawyer’s response? I mean, he could even say the word Samaritan, could he? Instead the lawyer stated "The one who showed mercy toward him." However, Jesus does not let the lawyer off the hook, does He? Instead, Luke tells us that Jesus commanded the lawyer to go and do the same. Jesus commanded the lawyer to love just like the Samarian loved.

You see, Jesus commanded the lawyer to love just like the Samarian loved because love is not a noun. Love is a verb. Jesus commanded the lawyer to love just like the Samarian loved because love is proved, or demonstrated by our actions. Jesus commanded the lawyer to love just like the Samaritan loved because being a neighbor is not about location or racial or ethnic identity. Jesus commanded the lawyer to love just like the Samarian loved because being a neighbor is about our actions regardless of location or racial or ethnic identity.

And it is here, in this event from history, that we discover the timeless answer to the question “Who is my neighbor?” And that timeless answer is this: When it comes to being a neighbor, we are to view and love everyone as our neighbor. The timeless reality is that being a neighbor is to love everyone as our neighbor, because when we love everyone as our neighbor, we provide the proof that we love Jesus with our total being. Being a neighbor is to love everyone as our neighbor, because when we love everyone as our neighbor, we reveal and reflect the love of Jesus to our neighbor. And being a neighbor is to love everyone as our neighbor, because when we love everyone as our neighbor, we are doing what matters most to Jesus.

You see, what matters most to Jesus is that we live a life that loves Him with our total being and that demonstrates our love for Jesus by loving our neighbor like Jesus. And when we love our neighbor as ourselves; when we love our neighbor like Jesus, we are perfectly positioned to be the vehicle God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to those around us as we live a life of faithful obedience to Jesus. We will live a life of faithful obedience because our faithful obedience flows from a life that loves God with our total being and the loves our neighbor as ourselves.

And everyone is our neighbor. The people that live next door are our neighbor. People who are just like us are our neighbor and people who are nothing like us are our neighbor. The obnoxious guy or that girl who is so full of herself that sits next to us in class is our neighbor. The brownnosing coworker that we always covering for because he does not get his work done is our neighbor.

Now a question that arises at this point is “Well Dave, if that is the case, if everyone is my neighbor, then how am I supposed to love everyone as my neighbor? How should I be a neighbor?”

Tomorrow, we will begin asking and answering that question....