A love for people

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to John 13.

And then also mark your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 9.

Because we'll be going there as well.

In Luke chapter 10, don't turn there.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

I wanted to read our purpose statement verse.

People ask us all the time, what is your purpose statement?

And here it is.

It's pretty simple.

Loving God and loving people.

That's pretty simple.

Say that with me.

Loving God, that's who we are.

That's what we are.

And we saw at the very beginning of this mini-series that we're to be salt and light.

And in order to be that salt and light, we've got to love God and love people.

And then last week we started with our first key core value: clear biblical truth, biblical authority.

That everything we do, everything that we are, is based on God's word.

Totally.

I'm the type of person that if I don't have a verse to back up what I'm supposed to do, I don't need to do it.

I've always been that way in my ministry, and I'm not going to change now.

Because sanctify them through thy word.

Thy word is truth.

John 17, 17.

Thy word is a lamp, say it with me, unto my and a light.

So it tells us and directs us in everything that we ought to do if we'll listen.

Now, if you're here this morning, if you do not have a worship guide, please raise your hand.

Anybody?

Everybody's got a worship guide?

Okay.

Good.

Good.

Need a little bit more lights.

Is that what y'all are saying right in here?

So they can.

A little bit more lights right here.

I think this is the dark section.

This is the section I got to preach the hardest too.

You know, when it's darkness, you got to bring light.

Chapter 13, but first of all, let me read to you our verse.

In Luke 10, this is the verse we came up with, verse 27.

Jesus answered and he said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.

That's everything that you are.

And then the second thing he says after how we're to love him is love thy neighbor as thyself.

So that was our foundational verse.

We wanted to plant a church and bring a church to this little community in Westover, Nina.

Everybody's making fun.

Hey, listen, Westover and Chelsea's grown in seven years.

Seven years ago, there was nothing out here.

Nothing.

Except woods, hardly, except SERPRO.

It's been well, Jerry had his place.

Jerry had his uh storage place next to us.

By the way, if you ever need any storage to put a place, there he is.

He'll treat you right.

And he's been a blessing to us.

He's also a certified electrician, and between him and Larry, all the electrical work we've done here in the last three or four years they've been a part of.

So we love you, Jerry.

Thank you for doing that.

And his property is right next to ours.

He's got the same vision we got about this land being used for our community.

So that's awesome.

But in John 13, 34 and 35, Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another.

Now that's a powerful statement.

He's talking about this incredible love that we're to have for one another.

He said that we must love each other just as I have loved you.

Look at it again.

Now, this is unbelievable what he's teaching us.

He said, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.

That ye also love one another.

And then he says, By this shall all men know that you have love.

Well, first of all, you they'll know that you're mine.

In other words, they'll know that you're saved.

Hello.

You know, you don't have to tell people you're saved if you're living your salvation.

But you ought not to be ashamed of your salvation so that you can tell them.

But you ought to be so spirit-filled, so radiant for Christ, that people are going to see a difference and they're going to even ask you.

Every morning when I get up, most of the mornings, I pray, Lord, give me an opportunity to witness today.

And then I pray, Lord, let me be so filled with your spirit and the joy of the Lord radiating from me that people want to ask me a question.

Because, see, a lot of people aren't happy today.

In fact, the majority of people aren't happy today.

And I've had people tell me, why do you smile so much?

Well, I can't help it.

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Nehemiah 8 10.

So he's saying that if you love me like I love you, people are gonna know it.

Wow.

If you love me, church, like I love you, the community's gonna know it.

They know we love this community.

People in this community know we love them.

They're calling us now for the ice cream cruck in every big event.

Bring the ice cream cruck, bring the ice cream cruel.

We just had a business alliance meeting here.

It was packed out of Westover businesses and people in this area.

And uh Jay, uh, my vet, right across the street at 280 Animal Clinic, they've, oh man, they're doing all kinds of things for dogs now.

They got a swimming pool, diving pool for a dog.

Yeah, I'm gonna be a dog.

But I'm gonna take my dog to the swimming pool.

We're gonna, I'm gonna teach you.

They said I can get in with him.

That's what they told me.

And I said, I went home, I said, Bear, we're going swimming.

And he being a retriever, he'll love that.

And and all this stuff for the dogs, and I was sitting there and I was thinking to myself, that's, I mean, and then he said, we need your ice cream truck on all these big events they're gonna be having this year.

Four big events and competition, dogs and people.

I said, Absolutely.

I said, tell Rick, we'll want to be at every one of them, and I'll be there.

I said, I'll bring my dog and we'll just we'll we'll watch the dog swim and run and fetch and eat ice cream.

Sounds like a winner to me.

And while they're doing that, they got Jesus is awesome everywhere.

Amen.

People know that we care about our community, and that's what Jesus is talking about here.

Two things.

There are two observations that Jesus gives us out of this book of John.

Number one, we are to love others like he loves us.

Jesus, as you and I experience, hey, just as you and I experience this incredible love that Jesus has given to us in our life, we are to turn around and love one another just like that.

And then secondly, our love for others indicates our love for God.

Hello.

Our love for others indicates our love for God.

By this shall people know that you are my disciples?

What?

By your love.

Now, I want you to just stop for a minute and think about what I just said.

We're to love others like Jesus loves us.

Now, I have when you talk about a new commandment, you got to realize what that new commandment really is.

Because a commandment to love God and love your neighbor was not new.

You can go all the way back to Leviticus, the law, and he says we're to love God and love our neighbor.

So, what's the difference in that love in the Old Testament from the love in the New Testament?

Jesus is saying we need to take it a little further than just loving our neighbor.

See, you know what really loving your neighbor is being kind.

That's what loving your neighbor is.

You know, the battery's dead with your neighbor's car, you'll jump it off.

Or they, that any little problem around the house, you'll help them do it.

I mean, that's neighborly, right?

You're gonna help your neighbor.

I'm gonna help my neighbor.

I'm gonna help Jeff.

And Jeff doesn't have a choice.

I'm his landlord, so he's got to help me.

But but but but but we we help each other.

But we want I want to help my neighbors.

I mean, that's just good.

That's what we do, and that's what Jesus is talking about.

But now all of a sudden he says, I got a new commandment.

Love God and love others.

You uh but you all you're sitting there, but yeah, but we that's not new, Jesus.

That's not new, God.

You commanded that.

Oh, yes, it is new.

Because what I'm asking you to do now is gonna cost you something.

Hello.

It's gonna cost you something.

You know why?

Because you gotta love people now like I loved you, and it costs me my life.

So it starts out now.

This new love is not gonna be companion love, it's gonna be costly love.

Amen.

In other words, here's what he said.

Oh, in the Old Testament, you love me and you loved your neighbor, but now you gotta it's gonna cost you something.

Now you gotta take it a step further.

Now, guess what you gotta do?

You gotta love your enemy.

Oh my goodness, Matthew 5.44.

Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.

Uh-oh.

Now it's gonna cost you.

I don't have a problem helping my neighbor.

I don't have a problem helping Jeff or or Clay or Johnny or Paul or Ivo when he lived across.

I liked him helping me, he'd cut my grass.

But now I gotta go love that guy that just cussed me out and just said that preacher's a Jim Jones cult leader.

I had him say that about me a good bit in in uh Tuscaloosa.

Oh, cult leader over there.

He puts them in this big gym and multi-purpose building.

Locks the doors and won't let you out until you give all your money.

That's maybe not a bad idea.

I mean, uh, they would say, wouldn't they, honey?

Oh, I made the first, I made, listen, the front page of the Tuscaloosa paper on Easter morning, the most distributed paper.

Title of the article was Pastor Wants to Ban Book from University.

I did want to ban the book they asked my son to read.

It wasn't university, it's ban books from school systems, what they said.

It was the mice of men.

Everybody, anybody ever read the book of mice of men?

It's a classic.

Well, the copy they gave to my son to read had GD in it 58 times.

I went to the board and I said, Well, this I want something else.

Well, you don't understand.

Well, I see, yes, I do.

Time out.

Don't go there.

I do understand.

You got another version with one without the language.

We do?

Yeah, here it is.

Now, either my son can read this, or he's not gonna read the other book.

Uh uh, uh, well, we're gonna have to vote.

I said, well, you need to vote quick.

Because my television camera will be here in the morning on the front steps of this school, telling the whole state of Alabama.

Was that a threat?

Absolutely not.

It was just standing up for the truth.

So, what they do, I want to ban all the books.

Oh man, I got a I got a letter the next day and said, You are so dumb, preacher, you're crazy, you're so concerned, you don't understand.

This is life.

Oh, that's the way people talk.

I said, No, that's not the way people talk.

I was, listen, when I grew up in school, you couldn't use four-letter words.

You couldn't, you couldn't cuss like that, they'd kick you out of school.

That's life, that's the way people grew up.

I said, I'm as poor as anybody, and we didn't grow up that way.

In fact, if I said some of those words, my grandmother would have washed my mouth out with soap.

And I'm not gonna tell you what my papa would have done.

Are you listening?

This is what he's talking about.

Taking a stand, but being right, taking a stand for what's right.

America has lost its moral compass.

And partly because the church has bowed down to political correctness.

I've never been politically correct, and I'm too old to start now.

I want to be biblically correct.

Can I get an amen?

And this is what Jesus is talking about.

He's just going on and on about loving him so that you will be seeing the difference.

And and one day as Jesus was was walking, he asked the question a while ago in Luke, after the next first, few verses, who's my neighbor?

And the word neighbor there is an interesting word in the Greek, in the Latin.

It's plasion.

Placyon.

And it literally means friend, but the word nigh in neighbor means to draw nigh or near or to come close to someone.

Our Lord said that we are to love our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength in our neighbor as ourselves, but we're to draw close to those around us, not only to the body of Jesus Christ, but to those outside the walls of this church.

That's what we're to do.

Loving one another is our core value, intimate fellowship.

Now, in the story of John 13 here, chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 are the most intimate chapters in the gospel.

In fact, if you remember the story for you that were brought up in church, it's the last supper, it's the last evening that our Lord spends with his disciples before the Garden of Gethsemane, before the cross.

And he's spending time with those disciples.

And you know what happens?

They come into the upper room.

Back then, they probably had rented the room that you would rent rooms for a supper or dinner.

And for some reason, the servant that was supposed to be there to do what they would do when you would come in to sit down to eat supper, because back then you walked everywhere or you rode a camel, but you had to be rich to have a camel.

That was that was your uh Mercedes-Benz was a camel.

You were very wealthy if you had a camel back then.

You were you were you would you were uh if you had a donkey, you you were doing okay, but you weren't rich.

But but if you're walking, most of us were walking, you had sandals or barefooted.

So when you'd come in, there was a basin, a water there, and a towel, and usually the servant that was taking care of the room, or your waiter or waitresses, would wash your feet.

They'd wash your feet with a towel.

Or you're you'd take your sandals off and leave them at the door, or if you're barefooted and he'd wash your feet for you, then you'd go sit down.

Well, for some reason there's no servant there.

And so here the twelve disciples are with Jesus.

And you know what they're doing?

They're looking around the room.

It's called, they're sizing up each other.

They're si it's called pecking order.

And Peter, James, and John know real quick, especially Peter, because he's kind of the one that gets reprimanded here.

Peter was always speaking before he thought.

I very well know that temperament.

Peter and James and John, Peter's thinking, well, I know it's not gonna be me and James and John.

We're the we're the trio.

We're the trio that God loves more.

And I know John's thinking it's sure not gonna be me because I'm the one that lays on his breast.

I'm the real favorite.

So who's it gonna be out of those other nine?

Who's gonna step up and wash the feet?

Now, all this is going on, and all of a sudden, in the middle of that moment, while they're thinking and they're trying to line up, you know, to see who's gonna step up, all of a sudden Jesus himself steps up, takes off his robe, goes over and gets the basin of water, throws the towel over his shoulder, and then starts at each and every individual disciple.

And he bows down and he washes their feet.

Now when he gets to Peter, Peter says, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Jesus, you can't wash my feet.

You know what he's really saying?

Hey, this isn't your job.

You're the master.

Give it to so-and-so.

He's the lowest man on the totem pole.

Or if he had known it, but he didn't, nobody knew it.

Give it to Judas, he's fixing to be hung anyway.

But he didn't.

In fact, folks, listen to me.

He even washed Judas' feet.

Knowing that he's fixing to be sold out by Judas for 50 pieces of silver.

Wow.

Now that's love.

So this love he's talking about is a costly love.

It cost you something.

It cost, it cost you, hey, a lot of things.

But old Peter says, well, if you're going to go ahead and wash my feet, why don't you wash my whole body?

Verse 9.

See, Peter was in an extremeness.

Whatever he did, he did it extremely.

Remember the boat?

Jesus, if it be you, can I come?

Yes, come.

Now, I would have probably thought about putting a boat out there and rowing out there, or at least a life jacket.

He did, he just jumped.

Impetuous Peter Luce, they call him.

And he says, no, I don't have to do that.

He says, I've already died for you, I've already paid you for your sins.

But all of us get our feet dirty every once in a while, or pretty regularly, don't we?

We mess up and we sin.

And we have to confess our sins.

You're faithful and just forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Just remember, when you ask the Lord to forgive your sins, you know what he's doing?

He's washing your feet.

Isn't that good?

Jesus demonstrated the following attitude that we must have.

Jesus had nothing to prove.

Jesus had nothing to lose.

And Jesus had nothing to hide.

Wow.

Is that not good?

He had nothing to prove, nothing to lose, and nothing to hide.

Jesus, watch this, knew who he was.

I'm going to give you this.

This is helping me.

And this has helped me for a long time in my ministry.

Because there's so much competitive sometimes even in ministry.

That's another thing after you get a little more mature and older.

We're not in this.

We're not against Double Oaks.

We're not against Liberty Baptist Church.

We're not against any of these churches in our area.

We love these churches.

I love those pastors.

I just met Andy, the new pastor here at the Methodist Church, their gym where we play, right?

In fact, I invited him.

He was here Thursday and I invited him to come over and watch us play pickleball yesterday morning in his gym.

And he did, sweet guy, great guy.

And three children.

And I told him, I said, Andy, look, hey, we're right around the corner.

You got a gym right now.

We're going to have one, but we got a we got soccer and we got all kinds of things that upward sports we're going to be doing.

Love for y'all to get involved with us.

Any way we can help, let us be a blessing to y'all.

You being a blessing to us.

He said, Well, I'm, thank you.

No, you're the only pastor that's freezout.

But he hadn't been here long.

But it didn't bother me that he's a Methodist.

So what?

They sprinkle, we drown you.

Amen.

But but folks, we've got to learn that if you know who you are in Christ, watch this.

He knew who he was.

Hey, secondly, he knew where he's going.

Amen.

When you know who you are in Christ and you know who you have a purpose.

We know our purpose here.

We know who we are here.

We're not threatened.

And when people come here and they worship with us, if they, you know, I always try to go visit them for one reason.

First of all, let them know we love them and can we be a blessing to them?

Is there any spiritual concerns, any physical concerns that we might can help you be a blessing?

Here's who we are to our community.

And thirdly, it's to help them find a church, whether it's our church or not our church.

Does it matter?

Sure, I'd love for them to be here, but God may not want them here, so I don't want them here if God doesn't want them here.

Then it's going to be a problem for both of us.

Amen.

You need to be where God places you.

So know who you are, know where you're going.

And then he knew his mission.

What is our mission?

To be salt and light to this community.

That's who we are, to love God and love people.

Think about it.

Listen to me.

This is so powerful.

In these chapters from 13 through 16, Jesus knew who he was.

He had nothing to prove, nothing to lose, nothing to hide, to the extent that he endured.

Now watch this: the betrayal of a friend.

Judas was his friend.

He, hey, I believe with all my heart he was still, even though he knew Judas was going to reject it.

And the Bible says he was a son of the devil.

He still reached out to Judas.

He washed his feet.

He broke bread with him.

Before he said, go do what you must do.

I think he was giving him an opportunity.

He was giving him an opportunity.

He was showing him the love of Christ.

He was showing him that love that I'm talking about, that new commandment.

Even though I know you hate me, even though I know you're going to reject me, and even though I know you're going to sell me out, I still love you.

Now, folks, that's powerful.

That's the new love.

Costly love.

Committed love.

Amen?

I can't walk out on my wife.

I'm committed to her.

I love her.

It's a costly love.

Yeah, I get upset when I don't get my way.

I've got to give up what I want a lot of times.

Not because I have to, but I want to keep peace.

Hello?

Y'all okay out there?

Oh, the preacher and his wife need counseling.

Well, we may do.

Edmund, you got room.

We may need counseling here.

Hey, don't nobody need so much don't do it.

No, I I know that.

Why do you think I said it?

But hey, what are we talking about?

We're talking about that costly love.

That committed love.

Till death do we part.

Not till my feelings part.

Oh my goodness, you'd have left a long time ago when your feelings part.

Hello, you okay out there?

Man, he's just really laying it out.

No, that's what Jesus is saying.

I want you to love like I love.

Hey, guess what?

You you say, well, I'm loving like the Old Testament.

Hey, love God, love neighbor.

Hey, if you don't like your neighbor, don't love your neighbor, you can move.

Hello.

This isn't about loving your neighbor.

This is about loving your enemies.

Judas was his enemy.

But not to Jesus.

He wasn't an enemy.

See, you may have an enemy, hey, that doesn't like you, but that doesn't mean you don't have to retaliate with that same bitterness and that same anger.

It's amazing how when you respond with love, it defuses the situation.

You ever, you ever, hey, it's hard.

Now I wish I could tell you I could do this every time.

But if I decide I'm not gonna ban her back, it's amazing if I she we we can't keep bantering back and forth if I just hush.

That's hard for me to do.

But I proverb says, how can a fire burn if you don't put wood on it?

Hello?

You okay?

I know, that's that new love.

Woo! That's tough.

That's tough, preacher.

Yeah.

Tough to listen.

Love Sister Fluffy Head and Deacon Bedatahead, too.

But he knew who he was.

I was watching an Olympic video the other day, and I, Benji, I wished I could have downloaded it.

But it was from the uh handicap Olympics.

And they're running the 440 relay.

And they're all out there, you know, bless their hearts, just going, giving it everything they got, and one of them fell.

Some of you have probably seen this.

It was a major video.

And when the little boy fell, and he was kind of leading the group, and he tripped up and fell.

And there was about eight of them.

Every one of them stopped.

And all of them went over there and picked him up.

And they finished the race together.

Now, folks, that's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about.

That's the love Jesus is expressing here.

Now let's go quickly to 1 Corinthians 9.

How do we love like that?

How do you do it?

Preacher, you beat me up enough.

How do we love like that?

Well, there was a motley crew at the Church of Corinth.

By the way, the Church of Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11, which is Lord's Supper passage too, is where we get our feast, our meal that we do call the love feast.

That's a biblical principle.

And you see it in 1 Corinthians 11.

At the Church of Corinth, even though the Church of Corinth had had begun to abuse it, they had gotten very clickish instead of getting together like we do every Sunday, fill this room with tables and sit down together.

And that's why I try to tell our members that eat regularly with us, and we'd love for you.

If you never have eaten with our love feast with us, plan one Sunday to eat with us.

And uh you say, well, I and if you got a special diet or something, bring whatever you you need to eat.

If you can't eat, usually we try to be pretty balanced out there.

I know Susan and Heather do that for us, and we got great cooks.

The men are the best cooks here.

And well, I shouldn't have said that.

Now I'm gonna get in trouble with the women, but we got great cooks of men and women.

But uh, and the fellowship, that's why we do it.

To sit down together, to love each other, to get to know each other, to get to know you so I can pray more specifically for you.

How can I help you?

How can I be a blessing to you?

But it's called the love feast.

And they did it every Sunday at Church of Carn.

Well, three or four chapters before that, Paul and Barnabas come to the church, and they already have their pastors and their missionaries.

Paul and Barnabas are some missionaries, and uh they come in, and I think there was some sister fluffy heading deacon potato heads there, probably kind of throwing at them, throwing stones at them, saying, What are these missionaries doing here?

What do they think?

Who do they think they are?

You mean to tell me we got to feed them?

You mean to tell, oh, they want us to give them some money, they want us to have hospitality, they want bang, bang me.

They're kind of letting him have it a little bit.

And then all of a sudden, this new commandment, I said unto you, that you love one another as I loved you, that you also love one another, that they may know that you're my disciples by your love, so that you have the opportunity to present the greatest love ever, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Paul kind of opens up, he knows what's going on.

Can I say something?

The pastors always know what's going on.

I promise.

Sometimes I wish I didn't, but the Holy Spirit, through its means, lets me know what's going on.

I know who's upset.

I know what you're upset about if it's dealing with the church.

Or I'd I find out pretty quickly.

If it's real bad, I'm coming to see you.

But if you just I give it a chance to settle down.

Used to when I was young, I'd just be knocking on the door the time I heard it.

Call you on the phone.

Hey, you got a problem with me?

Come over here.

I'm coming to see you.

That's terrible.

But he gets here and he hears all this, yeah, yeah.

So then he addresses it, 1 Corinthians 9.

Look at what he says.

Pretty, I love this love that he has, but I also love the truth that he speaks.

Am I not I an apostle?

Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

Am I not as called by God as your preachers are?

Am I not appointed by God Himself, me and Barnabas?

In fact, what he's saying is we're here to be a blessing to you, not to put a hindrance to you.

That's what he's really saying.

And then he goes on and he says, if not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of my apostleship.

Hey, are ye in the Lord?

In other words, you know that I'm of the Lord.

If you're in the Lord, we're in this together.

And then notice what he says.

My answer to them that do examine me in this, in other words, they're they're working him over pretty good.

Have we no power, if that's the King James, now if you got the new King James, have we no right?

To eat and to drink?

Another version says, Do we not have the right, you know, to have hospitality from you?

Verse 5, have not we the power, the right?

I'm using that word for reason, to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brother of the Lord and and Cephas?

In other words, do we not have the right to bring our wife with us?

Then look at verse 6.

Or I only and Barnabas have not with power the right to forbear working.

In other words, don't we have a right to exercise our ministry to your body?

Now here's what I want you to see.

What must we do to love as Jesus loved?

Well, Paul gives us these clues.

Number one, abandonment of rights.

We got to give up our rights.

Notice, I've got the right.

I, I, my right, my right, my right.

We're all guilty of that.

How many times have I said to Susan, I'm not gonna say that.

I'm not gonna say that.

But how many times have we gotten in the position where we say, well, it's my right?

I work hard all day long.

It's my right to sit here and watch a football game if I want to.

I've been talking all day.

It's my right.

I don't want to talk anymore.

Are y'all getting this?

Uh are y'all have y'all already caught what I'm trying to say without me getting in the doghouse?

You with me?

We all been there.

Can we all say owe me together?

And ladies, you've been working all day, cleaning the house.

It's your right to watch what you want, and I want to watch the Hallmark channel, and I want a nice love story and all that crying stuff.

It's my right.

Now sit down here, buddy, and shut up and watch this thing with me.

It's my right.

We've all been there, haven't we?

Yes, we have.

Everybody's saying, have you been following me, preacher?

No.

I'm just no me.

We've got to, we've got to abandon all those those rights.

Now notice verse 3.

When people question me, Paul tells them, I have the right, I have the right.

Verse 11, I have the right.

Verse 12.

Look at verse 11 and 12.

If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing or a great right?

If we shall reap your carnal things, in other words, hospitality or benefits or taking care of us, if others be partakers of this right over you, are not we also?

Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but suffered all things lest we should, he says, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

He says, okay, I'm not gonna, look, you don't have to give me a thing, you don't have to take care of me.

God's gonna take care of me.

Because I love you and I don't want to do anything to offend you so that I cannot preach the gospel to you.

Is that not beautiful?

Same thing with Jesus in the upper room.

They're bickering.

Well, I'm not saying they're bickering, but they're talking.

Who's gonna wash the feet?

They're doing the pecking order.

Nobody's hey, I wonder how long, here's the question I'm gonna ask Peter.

How long did Jesus have to wait before he got up to wash the feet?

He probably didn't wait long because he was fixed, he already saw, he already knew what was going on, and he was really, I believe in his heart he was a little hurt.

Because he he had been three years with them.

He'd shown them.

How many times did he told them?

Well, send them away, Jesus.

We can we don't have enough money to feed them, and there's not enough food around here to feed them anyway.

Then he had to look them right and say, hey, we're gonna feed them.

So he'd make a plan.

That's when Andrew said, Well, Lord, there's a little boy here with a lunch.

I don't know how far to go, but I had something.

At least he had his idea.

The others would say, send the problem away.

Folks, we got a lot of problems.

Is anybody in here that's never had a problem?

If you do, you're gonna come preach right now.

Our life is filled with problems.

Why do you think the church is such a haven?

It's where you bring your problems.

If it's a real loving church, you bring your problems because you know people are gonna love you.

They're not gonna judge you, they're gonna love you and help you.

But they're also gonna tell you what's right.

Now, I'm not talking about compromising the truth.

And we're gonna see that right here in a minute.

But what anyway, abandon your rights.

Look at number two.

You've got to accept your responsibility.

You've got to accept your responsibility.

That means, and when you look at verse 16 and 17, you see their responsibility.

Paul says, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.

In other words, my responsibility is laid upon me.

Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

In other words, I'm in trouble if I don't carry out what God's called me to do.

Know who you are, know what you're supposed to do.

And then he says in verse 17, for if I do this thing willingly, uh-oh, right attitude.

It's one thing to hey, to accept your responsibility, but you gotta accept your responsibility willingly.

Oh, you mean I gotta do that?

I gotta wash the dishes.

By the way, we need some help washing dishes.

We do, we really do.

We do.

That was David today, because I think David's supposed to help wash dishes today.

Today.

This food, we fix it, we serve it, doesn't cost you a dime, but we need people to help us clean up, set up, take down.

That that's for for you're gonna pay a minimum of$10 a person wherever you go to eat.

Right?

I'm just being, I tell you what, I'm confessing up today.

I meant, or more.

You're gonna spend$25, every time we eat, we spend$20 to 30 bucks.

That's just what we do.

That's even at McDonald's sometimes.

Unless it's breakfast.

So what I'm saying is, and we don't want, just just help us.

Just help.

Just help.

That's all.

I meant, is there a gift of washing dishes?

It's called service gift.

Yeah, it is.

Any kind of service.

And you're gonna see this in a minute.

Oh, I'm gonna go ahead and bring it in right now.

Do you know what Jesus said about that?

Now watch this.

Don't miss this.

Oh, this is good.

He said, I don't care what you do, and I don't care how little it is, washing dishes, picking up a chair, setting up a table, opening a car door, smiling.

I don't care how little it is, if you do it as unto one of my little ones.

What did he say?

It's as if you did it to me.

Wow! Woo! Say that's good, preacher.

That means if you go in there and wash dishes today, you pick up a chair, or you just turn around and smile it in and say, I love you, brother, and he's down, and it makes him smile back at me.

Thank you.

I got him to smile.

Hey, hey, hey, listen, listen.

It's like you did it to Jesus.

You know what happens when you do something.

To Jesus, whoa, he writes it down.

Hello.

Can you imagine one day when you get to heaven and all these people start coming up?

You don't know what that meant to me.

You don't know what that meant to me when you played pickleball with me and I couldn't play and nobody else would play with me.

We were talking about that yesterday.

Hello?

Are your toes hurting as bad as mine?

Huh?

See, y'all don't understand.

Preacher gets whooped the worst.

I've been having to live with this all week.

I've been studying the word and it's just whipping me, whipping me like a dog.

You've done it unto him.

He writes it down.

So in there washing those dishes.

So whatever you do it, you say, whoo, Lord, am I washing your dish clean enough?

Whoo, Lord, is this okay?

It doesn't matter.

I'm doing it for you.

And he says, it doesn't matter, just keep doing it for me.

That's all that matters.

It's all that matters.

Accept your responsibility.

We need help around here.

We need help in Iwana.

We need help.

And get ready, Sunday school teachers.

This is why we have Bible, Sunday school, and Bible classes.

And I want you this year, if you're not coming to find a class, get involved.

I want to see some Sunday school classes and Bible classes.

We're doing good.

We're between 80 and 100 on Sundays, but we're going to have more room here in a little while.

You know why?

You get a group of 20 or 30 people.

You got your family.

You got your big family, but then you got your intimate family that you can go like they did this past Friday, the amazing grades.

And some of you that are, how old you got to be to be in amazing grades, Steve?

50?

55, what?

55.

Whew! I'm in.

Y'all missing, y'all missing one of the best groups in the church.

They meet here on Wednesday mornings, they do stuff.

They're worse than the teenagers.

They have more fun teenagers do.

But you need to get involved.

Why?

So when you're hurting, you're sick, you're at at Sumbersy, where uh Somerset, where Brother Don is.

Wherever that is.

But I've been there.

I know how to get there anyway.

But but when they're there, we know it, you're ministering to them, you're going to see them, you're helping each other.

Folks, that's that's what Jesus is saying about this costly love.

It costs you something.

You gotta stop your schedule and go help somebody else.

Can I get an AO me?

We're in a world today, it's not about anybody but me.

We're all guilty.

They don't know what you're talking about, Brother Don.

Well, the majority do, because we've been on Facebook.

He's the one that had the major stroke, one of our faithful members.

He was gone, moved back to Dothan, but now he's back here.

And we're all visiting with him and loving on him.

But that's what a group of people do.

And I know David's Bible class, and I know Rosemarie and their small group.

When something happened, they already are ministering before I even get to call.

That's the way it's supposed to be.

We're all to help each other.

Minister to one another.

Accepting our responsibility.

Number three.

Acceptance of the role of a servant.

Look at verse 19.

I am not anyone's slave, but I have become a slave to everyone so that I can win as many people as possible.

In other words, look, he says, I willingly submit myself.

The highest authority is not the law, the highest authority is love.

He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

He does not show partiality.

And if you went on and go and read, he says, To the Jew, I became a Jew.

To the Gentile, I became a Gentile.

To the weak, I became weak.

Now he wasn't saying he compromised the truth, okay?

What he was saying was, when I'm with the Jew, long as they don't go against what God's word says, hello, I won't eat the pork.

I'll sit down and eat with them whatever they want me to eat, whatever they're serving, I'll be a guest.

And then when I get with the Gentile, I'll eat all the ribs they'll bring me.

And then when I'm with the weak, if I know if I did this, even though it may not be wrong, but if I did this in front of them, it would cause them to stumble.

Then I'm not gonna do it.

I'm not gonna do it.

Not with them.

Are y'all, you under, did I explain that okay?

You understand that?

That's what he's talking about right here.

Paul said, I know you, hey, I have the right for you to pay me.

I have the right for you to give me hospitality.

I have the right, I have the right, but I'm not gonna do this because it's obvious several of you have offended already.

So I'm not even gonna ask you for anything.

Now that's a bad testimony on the church of Corinth.

By the way.

Amen.

I'm not, hey, Paul's not trying to be a smart aleck here.

Paul, in his own way, is really reprimanding the church.

Don't ever take your, don't, don't raise a flag and say, whoo, I like, I'm gonna do this because of the church of Corinth.

Woohoo, don't do that.

They didn't do too much right.

Amen.

So, and then number four.

Adjustment to the people's needs.

Look not every man on his own thing, but on the things of others.

And I just explained that to you in verses 20 through 22.

In other words, he adjusted himself to the situation God had put him in.

Is that not good?

Say that's good.

That's one thing over the years I can tell you.

In my maturity, it took me years to mature to be able to do that.

Because I used to think, well, if in the word of God it's black and white, and that is the real principles.

But I don't have to push that principle on somebody.

If it's a cultural thing and they're not breaking the word of God, I don't have to make them to try to be like me in my culture.

You with me, church?

Because when you do that, it's called legalism.

That's all I need to say about it.

This is exactly what Jesus did.

Paul said, I'm willing to adjust and adapt my methods based on need, culture, priorities, interests, hurts, and concerns.

Anything to be able to reach people.

That was his, whoo! Man, that's good.

And that's exactly what Jesus did.

And when he left heaven to come to earth.

You talk about a hey, a severe adjustment, uh, uh severe adjustment.

The creator of heaven and earth became a baby.

The son of God became the son of man so that we who are the sons of men could become the sons of God.

I'm always amazed at the attitude of Christians.

Christians are so many times unwilling to be inconvenienced, me included, to give up my likes and my priorities and my warm fuzzies.

Show the love of Jesus Christ to lost people.

That's convicting folks.

And then number five and number.

Paul said, Look at these, these are powerful folks.

We gotta abandon our rights, accept our responsibility with the right attitude, be a servant, number three, and then adjust, be adjustable.

Don't be hard-nosed.

And then lastly, anticipation of rewards.

Folks, we're gonna be rewarded one day.

Gets back to that cup of water, cold water given in Jesus' name.

Wow.

And he talks about the rewards there too.

Verse 24.

You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize, so run this race to win a prize.

Now, he's not talking about only one prize given.

That's not what he's talking about.

What he's talking about, we all are running for a prize.

And what is that prize?

To glorify and to honor God.

Can I get an amen?

To fulfill that purpose in our life.

And what's this?

What is that purpose?

What is that purpose?

To be light and salt.

And how do we do that?

Loving God, loving people.

And how do we do that?

We stand on the biblical truth, the word of God, our absolute authority.

And how do we do that?

Oh, a new commandment.

That we love each other like Christ loves us.

And that was a costly love.

It was a committed love.

Watch this.

Which made it a complete love.

A lot of us love without being complete.

You can't love completely without sacrificing.

Can I get an amen?

We all sacrifice if we really love each other.

You know why though?

It's not because we have to.

Here's the conviction: it's because we want to.

It's hard to put somebody else first.

Now, some people are better at it than others.

But we all have that problem.

We're all selfish.

That's part of that sin nature, by the way.

So don't think there's something wrong with you.

I can help you.

There is.

So get over it.

I mean, deal with it.

You gotta deal with it.

You gotta learn how to walk in the spirit instead of the flesh.

Amen.

Because that's how you keep that selfishness down.

I walk in the spirit.

Amen.

There was another guy that had the opportunity to do what was right.

The word basin there.

Remember where he took the basin and watched the disciples' feet?

It's one other place it's used.

By the way, it's used right here, too, in this love letter in these chapters.

Pontius Pilate that Holland crucified.

He knows that there's nothing wrong with Jesus.

Jesus is innocent.

And he knows he ought to let him loose.

But because of the peer pressure and the political correctness, he says, Bring a basin.

And he takes that basin and he puts his hands in there and he does, brings his hands out of that basin and does like this.

You know what he was saying?

I wash my hands of this responsibility.

This is not going to be on me.

Oh my friends.

I wished it was that easy, but it's not.

As a Christian, when you say I do to Jesus, listen to me and I'm through.

We are our brother's keeper.

Amen.

I need that.

I need your love.

I need your accountability.

And we all need to fulfill our responsibility.

We all have a place in this body.

I know ultimately the body of Christ, the worldwide body.

But I'm talking about in this community.

That's why we got five or six people going through the covenants class.

We're asking God to send us people that really want to be a part of what I'm preaching my heart out.

You want to be a part of this family, this community.

You want to laugh when we laugh together, cry when we cry together.

We want to bear one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ.

That's what we're all about.