October 18, 2026 Gerald Griffin - One Another

Okay, so is that better? We got it now? Anyway, I got in there and no one really told me the order of service in every church. It's a little different. Not a lot, but a little bit. And I'm on the front row waiting to get up there and preach.

Of course, the pastor's gone. No pastor ever hears me preach. Thank you, Mark, for being here. I take that as an as uh indicative anyway so I'm waiting and I bow my guy gets up and prays I bow my head and I I look back up and there is no one on the stage I mean during that prayer the the orchestra left the band left the musicians left the guy in charge left I thought I better skedaddle I need to get up there and so I got up there so anyway that's uh I'm always here thinking okay I'm gonna tell where they put the announcement on so I know when we get here I want to talk to you today about one another let me start off with a quick story a young preacher asked his congregation one time really trying to wax eloquent trying to grab everybody's heart he leaned over the pulpit and he said what do you do with the commandments of jesus and he paused he wanted to really think about it well he paused for effect but one lady thought he was waiting for an answer and so she yelled out i underlined them in red here's what every preacher learns you pause too long and someone will help you and you don't really want the help but that's what she did she does however raise a good question or he does what do you do with the commandments of jesus besides underlining them you know command can be underlined in my bible and still be missing from my life i can underline a lot of things in in the text to do and never do them well i want you to take for instance this one it's the one love one another now i think we saw it pretty well last night i see it every sunday that i'm blessed to be able to come and be with you folks here loving one another is what most of us think we do pretty well in fact we might have a hidden conversation in our own heart saying well y'all I'm a pretty loving person I know some people who need that kind of a message but it's not me I'm pretty good with that so let's just listen one more time to John 13 34 and 35 where Jesus says a new commandment I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you you are also to love one Another by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one one another. Now let me just say, the command to love was not new. God had already told us that.

All the way back in Leviticus, it says you'll love your neighbor as yourself. But this is new because the standard is different. Jesus says, I want you to love each other just as much as I have loved you. So Jesus makes his own love for us the standard for our love for each other. Now, we tend to judge our love by how we treat people who are easy to love, easy to love. Years ago, a book came out, and I didn't know what in the world it meant. The title of it was Well-Intentioned Dragons, and I saw it.

It was a book for preachers, and I didn'T buy it because I didn' t really need another work of fiction right now, so I didn''t know what it was about. and then finally somebody said he's talking about people in the church well-intentioned dragons it's easy to sidle up next to and love people that are very loving towards us and are easy to love but it's not always easy to love people who don't love us very well or don't treat us very well but how has Jesus loved us well he loves us first of all patiently and then secondly at a great cost nobody's going to deny that even when we are difficult we don't put ourselves in that those shoes do we sometimes we're difficult sometimes you know if it wasn't the Lord and his loving nature we'd be hard to love too but that's the love that we have received love that is patient love that isn't a great cause and that is exactly the love Jesus says we're supposed to give to one one another now what's the love look like John has already shown us earlier in the chapter because in the beginning of John 13 Jesus John says that Jesus having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end I mean all the way never a blip never a moment's hesitation invitation never a moment where he lost it just for a little while and didn't love him so much he all the way to the end and so we get in this chapter that they are at supper and jesus rises from the table and he lays aside his outer garments you know the story he wraps a towel around his waist he pours water into the basin and he begins washing their feet and once that that happen of course as always peter has something to say he objects to letting the lord wash his feet but jesus is trying to teach him first off that he needs cleansing that only jesus can give the savior washing their feet will soon go to a cross and bear the judgment for their sin and through jesus's death and resurrection those who trust him receive forgiveness and new life and so jesus is trying to make this point but he's also showing us that we need to follow his example if the lord is willing to take the servant's place to serve to take care of others then none of us are too important to serve we also need to remember that judas is still here and the lord Lord serves him and after Judas leaves Jesus tells the 11 he will soon leave them too and their life together must be marked by the love he's shown them that love Jesus said would identify who they belong to we belong to him and as he does more than give us an example he also then gives us the Holy Spirit to be able to live out what he just told us to do you know if the Lord had not given us the holy spirit to live out the commands that he's given to us there'd be no chance so what we see in jesus should become what others see in us this is one of the one another commandments in scripture i actually think all the other ones flow out of this one this is the most important it's hard to pray for one another serve one another humble ourselves before one another it's hard to do all the others if you don't start with love one another So let me put it into three broad categories. We can look at a few of them today. Number one, I'd like to say we should make room for one another. Make room for one another Romans 15, 17, or excuse me, 15, seven says it this way. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God of God. Think about that just for a moment. Christ has welcomed you. If you belong to him, he's received you. Not everyone is always a most welcoming sight when we see them. It is up to us to welcome them. Jesus has received us because we came needing grace, and now Paul says you need to welcome one another. So let me give you the context. In Romans 14 and 15, believers were disagreeing about a couple of things they were disagreeing about food and they were disagreeing about offering uh excuse me observing certain days and some look down on the others who didn't do what they did just like any other church of any other age there's always someone who has different beliefs about something and sometimes we are tempted to believe they're not quite what we are so paul tells them to welcome those people that god has already received he isn't asking them to approve of sin that's not it at all there were matters which believe believers still needed to understand they could differ in did you know that do you know that we don't all agree on everything i've already heard we don'T agree on sports today but i mean biblical things okay a friend of mine was trying to make this point he was pretty young in his pastorate and i thought it was a brilliant idea he came to the pulpit one one day. And as people were walking into the church service, he had a questionnaire. It's about four pages long and it was single space. And it was questions about what you can and can't do as a Christian. You can do this, you shouldn't do this. You, you could never do this all those things. So he handed it out and they started that service that day, about 10 minutes late and up on the front, it said, fill out, fill up the papers before we go into the service. Well, do you know, he has about 350 people there that day.

and as soon as they filled them out the people ran off a group and they counted all of them they compared them all and they came back with the notes probably 10 minutes later and laid in front of them and said there are not two people in this whole church who agree on everything not two what he's trying to get across is we just don't agree on anything but we still have to welcome each other we'll still have to love each other and apparently agreeing to attend the same church or the same chapel hadn't settled everything but they could still make room for each other you don't have to be a copy of me to sit beside me to have a place with me we can still help each other that's what we do scripture without accepting accepting every agreement in our hearts we can Still love each other Paul says our welcome is quote for the glory of God and when people who might never have chosen each other and that's the church we might never ever chosen each other choose Christ then that means we've taken each other in and we welcome each other so think about the way we do that I don't know how many times and how many churches I have seen it happen that when people come in you'll see people go off to this corner that quarter and all these kind of people walk around in the middle of they have nothing to do you've seen that before I don'T see that here it's the strangest thing I come in y'all talk to this this person, that person, you keep moving around. It's like billiards. You're bouncing off one another, going to the next person, always doing that. But that is making room for one another. And when you see someone who's not included, you say, join me. Have we met? I don't think we've met. This is the thing that we do. We make room for each other. We do. You know, when I was just a boy in church, I remember some teachers and some lessons, but mostly I remember knowing when when people loved me and received me and when they didn't and I did experience both you probably did too Romans 12 10 says love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor think about the word outdo most of the time it's not used in a good context someone's trying to outdo someone but here the scripture says we should do everything we can and we should outdo one another to make sure that we make room for one another and sometimes when we are in conversations where we're listening to people we outdo one another in our stories i know that i've been guilty of that maybe once and i have to watch out for it someone tells a story and i remember one that's a little bit bigger and a little big grander and a bit more exciting and i tell that and then they tell me one that is a little bigger you know right that's really not welcoming that's not making do the really good thing is when we listen the really good thing it's when we listened to somebody and hear what they have to say and get to know them better Christ has already welcomed us we have a good reason to make room for each other number two give one another room to grow give one room to go once we make room for them we will begin to see more of their lives and when we see more if someone's life, guess what happens? We discover maybe there is some growing that still needs to be done in that person's life. Right? Well, I want to tell you, turnabout is fair play. They're learning the same thing about you. They are learning, of course, that maybe you need to grow some too. See, nobody came into the church the first time you ever attended here or even today. Nobody comes into church finished. Nobody come in with it all together. Nobody Nobody comes in with a perfect walk. Nobody comes with perfect knowledge. Nobody comes it with perfect love. But we do have the perfect Savior that we belong to.

And because of that, He is changing us. One of the first verses I ever was told as a young Christian was that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are gone or passed away, and the new is becoming, is the way the Greek says it. it just keeps on becoming new Jesus is changing us and he often uses us each other to change our own lives sometimes we learn things from someone sometimes things encourage us some things convict us about each other but if we stay close enough to help each other grow we'll also need to deal sometimes with hurt and that's why Ephesians 4 20 32 says be kind to one one another isn't it amazing we have to tell the bible had to tell us to be kind to one another one of the first things we were trying to do when um when we had our first daughter ashley is i would come home from church before tammy on sunday nights often because she was going to sing and she'd be practicing something or whatever and so i put ashley in the back seat in her little carrier and she's just a little bitty thing and i say ashley we're going to learn a verse i remember remember I was teaching her, be ye kind one to another. I said, now say it back to me. And she said a little bit. I say, okay, let's try it again. Be ye kind to one to other. Be you kind to one another. So we got home and I said Ashley's learned a verse. And Tammy said, well, tell me baby, what is it? She said, be kind one, to the mother. I like that verse. That's not the right verse. It's not the right verse at all. Paul calls us in that text to use kindness with a tender heart. He's describing the way we approach one another. When someone gets something wrong, can they expect kindness from me as the response? When someone says something to me that upsets me and hurts me, and you kind of feel like they probably did it on purpose, can they still expect kindness? or do we pay repay evil for evil and can someone admit a failure without wondering whether or not someone is going to hold it over my head these are the ways we love one another you know i forgive really pretty well if it's not affecting me i can tell you i forgive when it affects me it changes me some i don't want to be that way when someone crosses me i want I need to have the same grace I preach about and I talk about and I pray about as God in Christ forgave you. God knows the whole truth about our sin. You ever think about that? There's no one else who does. He knows all of it. He knows every corner. He knows everything. He's the one who's going to every door you're trying to shut. His forgiveness is possible because Jesus bore all of that and having received mercy we're called to extend it. I want you to think just for a moment. I mentioned Peter earlier but think about what jesus knew he knew that peter was about to deny him and he told him so but after the resurrection jesus met peter again and he had trusted him with caring for his sheep peter's failure was serious that was a big deal and he needed to face it but jesus still had a future for him in other words his failure peter failure was real and his usefulness wasn't over one of the ways the enemy sidelines us is he keeps us thinking about our failure and not about the forgiveness that we've received and we dwell on what we did wrong and we don't have the strength the encouragement or actually the conscience to go forward anymore so remember that when someone disappoints you and when you disappoint yourself god is still at work Forgiveness means I give up the claim to personal revenge. I entrust judgment to God to ask him to help me seek the personal good of the other person.

That doesn't make me wrong. Excuse me, it doesn't makes the wrong harmless. It still may hurt. And sometimes we have to rebuild relationships.

And rebuilding relationships requires honesty and repentance. Wise boundaries may be necessary with accountability. but we can still take failure seriously and still have hope for the person and i need to be willing to grow too what if i'm the person who did the hurting one of the amazing things about being a child of god is seeing someone who has a behavior that keeps going and one day god just stops it and they begin to change because change is not out of the possibility for anyone so when we hear a sermon on forgiveness don't think i hope they're hearing this i want us to think maybe that was for us james 5 16 tells believers to confess their sins to one another pray for one another there should be relationships among god's people where we can tell the truth and receive help where i blew it today i spoke to you wrongly i shouldn't have done that that's a good beginning and then let the person respond we want to say it and turn and run out of the room no let them respond maybe we need to hear something that's difficult to hear but there is hope when people are willing to take responsibility and keep growing this is how the one another's work we are involved in each other's lives have i decided that i am waiting on someone to repay evil to me or me to repay equal to them or am i waiting to show kindness to them and give kind get received kindness back first thessalonians 5 11 says says, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you're already doing. Paul is reminding believers that our future is secure in Christ, and he tells them to encourage each other as they wait for him. Number three, the last point, carry one another's burdens. This is a pretty big one. Galatians chapter 6 verse 2 says, bear one another under those burdens burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ I was talking to someone last night I looked over and all the tables were being taken down and Trish I'm telling you what fast is the word for how quickly tables and chairs get taken up at that dinner you better grab your plate and keep eating while you walk away but at one point I saw Bobby and Bobby's tearing down a table and I looked looked over and I started laughing. I said, there's a preacher. There's no preacher who doesn't know how to take down tables. Never one of them. And then the second thought I was thinking, I probably should help him. And the third thought was, I think he's got it. Now that's not the burden I'm talking about bearing, but I probably could have helped him. When you say bear one of those burdens, I would really rather the scripture say, say, be concerned about one another's burdens. I'd much rather you just say, think about it, worry about it. Because concern I can do. I can have all kinds of concern. I can show concern on my face. I practiced it in the mirror. I know how to do that. But carrying something may interfere with my afternoon. There's a ball game. Paul says, bear it. The only way you can bear it is if I'd walked over to Bobby.

Galatians 6:2

You can bear it when you get close enough that you can carry the weight. Otherwise, it's just concern. It's just me saying, look at the preacher carrying the table. But when I walk over to him, I'm close enough to bear it.

Helping carry it means we're willing to give some of our time and some of our strength so they don't bear it alone. And I want to remind you, he's young and strong and able. anyway you know in that text in in Galatians Paul has already started in verse 1 talking about someone who's caught up in a sin that's the context Paul tells the other believers to help restore the person by using a word that is translated in such a way to describe setting a broken bone that's to restore something, restore the person that's in the sin, restore them to a place of fellowship and usefulness. When Brittany was just a little one and I was heading up the church and she'd gotten skates and she wanted to practice on the new skate she got and she had never been on skates, so they weren't expensive, I'll tell you that. They were just something from Toys R Us, if y'all that place and we went up there and we had a little roundabout that she could skate on and I was meeting with someone and we're outside we're talking and all of a sudden she made a noise and she went over and I walked over to her are you okay and she held her arm up and it went a weird angle and she said it doesn't feel right and I swallowed down the nausea and said let's get in the car arm. And so I called a doctor friend of mine. He said, meet me up here. And we went up there and he started looking at it and he said, we're going to do an x-ray. And he's holding, and he was holding her so gently. She's just a little girl. And they went and did the x- ray and it was broken and they had to do, it wasn't hard to set it because it wasn'T bad, but he did that. And I'm thinking, man, I'm glad two things. Number one, I'M glad he's gentle. number two I'm glad he knows how to set a bone because I don't and anything I tried would not be gentle so that's why the scripture tells us in this text there are certain people that can do that and even when they know how to do it they're to do It gently that is part of bearing one another's burdens you see I really do understand I really Do believe that if you're away from Christ christ you're a christian but you're not following christ i think that's a burden on you and i think your life would be lighter and better if you didn't have that burden so that's why paul begins that chapter about restoring and he tells all of us to bear one of those burdens so when we can help someone who's struggling we're just gonna have to know it's going to cost us something but that's putting love into practice and that care reaches into the burdens people carry in the work that i do now with pastors i'm learning more about myself i already knew some of this but i'm learning a little bit more a pastor starts telling me what's wrong and i have to tell myself to not solve the problem because many times i've already been through that and i know the answer for that but I'm not meeting with them to solve the problem I'm meeting to bear the burden there's the difference and so what I'm learning to do is sometimes just ask the pastor not what's wrong but what's bothering you the most I was talking to a gentleman a pastor a few weeks ago and he was talking about about particulars, details, something he needed to do. And in the middle of all that, I'm thinking he ought to do this and he oughta do this. And he oughtta do this, and finally I stopped before I said it and I said, but what's really got you the most concerned? And he said, I am afraid I'm gonna blow it. It wasn't the thing, it was I'm not gonna handle it right. And I said what if you blow it, what happens then? Well then the people would see this and they'd wonder about this. I said so So what you're really concerned about more than anything else is you're going to look bad. Yeah, you look bad, you can get fired.

Okay, totally different discussion. I wanted to bear that burden, not fix the problem. Sometimes people are trying to decide whether it's safe to tell us what's really going on. Once we understand what they're carrying, we can offer to help carry that thing.

We can't always make the burden smaller, but we can help make sure they're not carrying it alone And by the way, it works both ways For all of you that are going through issues and someone asks you how are you doing and you know, you're not doing well You say i'm doing great Oh, i'm, doing okay. There's times when you give strength. There're times when when you need to receive strength strength let somebody do for you what you would gladly do for them and that is bear their burdens jesus said by this all people will know that you're my disciples if you love one another we do not earn our place with jesus by loving him well we receive salvation through faith in him but belonging to him should change the way we love each other if you receive christ begin there there excuse me if you need christ begin there come to him with your sin he's the only savior there is he can take your sin and give you cleansing and you can have eternal life through him but for those of us who belong to him through this whole message did anyone come to mind did perhaps the holy spirit bring any person to mind and if so start there there. Maybe you're thinking, I need to call them. That's good. This is a good week to do it. Last week was a good day. We could do it too, but this is a good week. We still got this one. Ask the Lord to help you follow through. And if you need help, let someone bear your burden with you. Love one another, Jesus says. Let's pray together. Lord, I'm reminded that you called us sheep. Sheep don't always know the right way to go. sheep can bite sheep are not the cleanest animals sheep are not the smartest animals but we're sheep and you love us dearly and you are the great shepherd and what you told us to do was to love one another pray for one another bear one another's burdens be kind to one another other all the things lord that are a part of being your hands this is the remarkable thing about the church nothing on this earth nothing ever has looked like the church a place where people are bonded together over their love for you and who are led by and empowered by your very spirit in our hearts and are guided by your eternal word and are led by our heavenly father in excursions and missions and in adventures that we could never dream of if we just walk by faith and obey your commandments. So Lord, let us start with the most simple things we can do and obey those and move on from there. let us begin by truly loving one another and we ask this in jesus precious name amen