Proverbs 3:27-32 (The Needfulness of Being Neighborly)

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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We all know the story of the Good Samaritan It's one many people's favorite parables that Jesus gave and we hold it dear

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Because it cuts through the pretense of what a neighbor is supposed to be a neighbor is someone who helps when things go wrong and neighbor is not someone who as the

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Pharisees and the Levite the Levitical priest did walks to the other side of the road to maintain their own sense of personal piety a

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Neighbor is one who when we're down or broken or stranded they help That's the kind of neighbors that we want and Ultimately, that's the kind of neighbors.

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I think that we want to be But that's easier said than done at a time such as this when there's so much division in the country right now

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When we just came out of a season of red -hot Politics and the shrieking demons of tick -tock have been screaming their guts out.

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Maybe you've noticed such a thing Where Celebrities broke their promise and they lied to us.

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I thought we were ready for an early Christmas They all promised to leave and then they stayed they lied to us

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That's what they do for a living. They're professional liars. They pretend to be people. They're not Just kidding

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Being a neighbor right now is hard we live in a society that's very divided and broken and It feels sort of like an outdated concept at times like something that can only happen on little house on the prairie or little women

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Or other things that start with little It's a concept that needs reviving in our time neighboring being neighborly

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It's a concept that I think Looms large upon our hearts and also it needs to be reinvigorated in our country

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But the question that I would ask us today is what does it actually mean to be a neighbor? What does it mean to be a person?

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Who is neighborly is that the person who lives next door to us? Is that what our neighbor is?

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Is it? Mr. Rogers saying hello neighbor and being nice and kind. Is that what a neighbor is?

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Or does neighborliness involve something deeper? Something richer and something far more biblical that maybe just maybe

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Has been forgotten in our American context. So with that that's what

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I want us to look at today I want us to look at what does it mean to be a neighbor and who is our neighbor? I want to look at Proverbs 3 27 through 32, which talks about five sins against a neighbor and as a result,

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I want to look at Jesus as our perfect neighbor and In the midst of this

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I hope that we see what it means for us to imitate him as good neighbors

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So with that turn with me to Proverbs 3 27 through 32 We'll read our passage. We'll pray and then we will jump right in This is by the way

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Just in case like if you're one of those people that when you type something into your GPS Before you start driving you look at the whole agenda and you try to figure out like where the turns are before you start going

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So you have an expectation 60 % of the sermon is in point one on what is a neighbor and then the rest of it's gonna flow real nice But if we get to point two and you're thinking that all the points are equidistant from one another

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I just I'm letting you know that that sermons not four hours long point one is long Okay, let's pray or let's read

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Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due When it is in your power to do it

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Do not say to your neighbor go and come back and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you

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Do not devise harm against your neighbor while he lives securely beside you

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Do not contend with a man without calls if he has done you no harm Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways

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For the devious are an abomination to the Lord, but he is intimate with the upright let us pray

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Lord Jesus we ask that you would be with us as we consider what it means to be a neighbor

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What obligations? Scripturally biblically and under the authority of the Spirit that that means for our lives

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Lord help us to be biblical good neighbors and Lord help us

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To not participate in any of the five things that this passage warns against But instead to look to the true and perfect neighbor

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Jesus Christ Who has done all of the opposite of these things perfectly?

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He's been obedient where we never could it's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen So our first point is to look at what is a neighbor?

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We have grown up in an American society. That is defined by pluralism

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And I'm and just for the next few moments I'm gonna be juxtaposing three views of what it means to be a neighbor and I'm gonna call this one the

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American view if you Google the American view of neighboring you won't find anything because I'm making these terms up it's my designation for this sermon, but I hope that you'll see that America and Egypt and Covenant community represent approaches to neighboring that I think will be helpful

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The American approach has been defined by pluralism. What is pluralism? Well pluralism is represented by this metaphor known as a melting pot that if we throw everyone all together into this into this melting pot of warm Melted gooeyness then we'll all somehow be better all for it.

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But the problem with that view is that Connectedness from human to human is not built on shared

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Things that we have in common, but it's built upon increasingly smaller and more pronounced divisions this kind of System of government or this kind of system of sorry society.

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In fact is built upon Differences so you are connected to your brother and sister based off of your

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Intersectional categorical differences and not by actually what makes you same That's how this view is sort of been

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Developed in our modern culture. It hasn't always been true of America, but it's true today that we are increasingly divided and Increasingly defined by our division.

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So that only the only thing that's really holding this country together is an idea and that Idea is pluralism or that idea is we share a country together a geography together.

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Well, that's something we have in common, but that's Increasingly becoming all we're having in common.

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The second way that societies in history have done Neighboring is what

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I would call the Egyptian ethnocentrism model Egypt is a culture in the

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Bible that we can look at and we can say that this is how mostly all ancient civilizations Have done things and there's certain civilizations today like Japan and others that are really truly mono -ethnic and They have decided that neighboring is built upon your similarities and your sameness

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Which means that you share a same history or you share a same language or you share the same traditions or you share a same economy or thinking or mythology of your national origins and Then through that comfort and trust are built

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Now it is interesting to me that countries and I'm not arguing for for a mono -ethnic approach.

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Don't hear me wrong here I'm just saying observationally countries that have more similarities between its society members have less violence have less crime have more social cohesion

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And the reason is because the citizens share more context with one another if you take

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God out of the equation and you just ask what is the recipe for a a

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Secular world that actually would hold together more tightly the Egyptian model in history has worked better and when nations

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Rome tried the American model where everything became sort of a pluralistic Jumble when that happens the decline is happening now both of these systems

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Actually trend towards different patterns of sin. For instance Egypt trended towards ethnocentrism and racism and slavery because their sameness became something that they used as a weapon against other people and America that model that we see

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Trends towards nothingness Nothing is distinct about us at all and there's eventually nothing that actually holds us together.

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So we devolve into chaos and disorder So either you have a sinful tight connection or a loose and sinful weak connection

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But both of those views are actually wrong Now like I said, if you take

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God out of the equation those countries that have thicker connections Which means they share more things in common where the citizens have the same land same currency same common tongue

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Shared values shared mythology shared understanding of what the good life is Shared eschatological vision.

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Did you know every country has an eschatology? Every people has a vision of what the future is going to look like if they win

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The Democrats have an eschatology and I bet you they believe it more strongly than we do ours

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These are the sort of two ways that make that countries or societies have addressed the issue of how do we

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Identify who our neighbor is most nations in human history have adopted the

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Egyptian model so that if you went to a 6th century Assyrian and you said like mr.

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Rogers. Hey, mr. Syrian. Who's your neighbor? He would say what's my Syrian brother?

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Because their society was built on sameness If you look at if you go to a 5th century Babylonian 5th century

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BC Babylonian, you ask the same thing He would say it's my Babylonian brother because they have all of these shared aspects in common

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If you go to America today, what do we even say when it comes to our neighbor? We all live within the geographical boundaries of America, but we don't even have hard boundaries anymore.

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Do we? Even our border is evaporated. So what is it that makes us distinct as a people?

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Is it shared values? No Is it shared currency our dollars being inflated?

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Is it shared borders? No, we just talked about those are being evaporated What is it that makes us distinct and what binds us together as a people?

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And I think that's why just I can only talk about this in summary but you'll see now why division is rampant in our country right now because we have

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Increasingly less and less and less that holds us together the ideas the great ideas that founded this country are evaporating

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So that there's almost nothing now that's holding us together. The magnet has ran out We pray that it is strengthened again in our society we have a common

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Constitution, but even that's being attacked and It has been attack and under attack for the last 20 years

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What the Bible offers I think is better than both the Egyptian model that's based off of rigid sameness and The American model which is based off of DEI and diversity

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I think that the biblical model is better and will actually be the model

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That brings the entire world under the dominion of Jesus and holds it together forever

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What is the biblical model? Well, the Bible does have a different model than the other two and that's different than common

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Constitution It's common covenant It's a covenant that holds the people of God together so that you are my neighbor

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Not just if you share the same ethnicity or the same language or the same space or the same background But you're my neighbor if you are under the same covenant as I am with God and there's a sense of primary

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Neighboring in the Bible and secondary neighboring in the Bible in a secondary sense Everyone is my neighbor on earth

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Because we're all under the same covenant of Adam made in the image of God so that I can look at anybody even the person

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Who lives across the street for me who I share very little in common and say that in a sense that person is my neighbor

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Because we're all made in God's image But there's a primary Kind of neighboring that's based off of covenant inclusion.

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I couldn't help it as good

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There's a primary sense of neighboring which is covenant inclusion Which is a stronger bond than the sort of general bond that we have with all humans

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What I mean is those who are in the covenant of God in the community of God We have a stronger bond with biblically speaking than the general bond we have with all humanity so in that sense the

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African Christians who lived in the 3rd century AD In a sense are more of our neighbor than those who scream profanities on tick -tock even though we live in the same country

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The Germanic Christians who lived in the Middle Ages the modern -day Christians who live in Chelmsford We're all united by something stronger and deeper and more powerful than even national connection

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Which is Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ is stronger than any connection that has ever been

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I heard Doug Wilson say this that in one sense We have more neighbor connection to a

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Palestinian Christian Than to those today on the modern left

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Because that lady Palestinian woman Who's a believer in Jesus is our sister?

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Not just our countrymen The biblical model is both borderless and timeless because I can be a neighbor

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With a Christian in any country and in any time We're not connected by shared space me and the

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Christian of the 3rd century we're not connected by shared language, I don't speak Latin We're not connected by shared commerce or coin.

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We don't buy things in talents we're not connected by the shared cultural traditions and Yet we are connected by something better than this

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American thinness of diversity equity and inclusion We're connected by the blood of Christ, which is

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Unbreakable, which means that everyone in the covenant of God is our neighbor.

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That's what that means Now here's some Old Testament examples of how this plays out that that the

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Bible doesn't build cultures that are built on Egyptian ethnocentrism and they don't build cultures that are based on American Yeah, whatever that is think about Mount Sinai, who was that Mount Sinai receiving the law of God?

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The children of Abraham, right But who else? The Egyptians were standing there with them.

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Did you know that? Did you know that at Mount Sinai was both Israel and Egypt in Exodus 1238?

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It says that those who left Egypt was a mixed multitude God commanded the

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Hebrew women to go to their Egyptian neighbors and ask them for their gold and they gave it to them which is amazing

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And it says that after that when they left some of the Egyptians went with them because they had just seen

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God Destroy and decimate their entire Polytheistic worldview that he just crushed the

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Pharaoh and then they were like this God must be God So we're gonna go with him and then those

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Egyptians who once served Pharaoh Standing at the Red Sea watched Pharaoh in his army being drowned in the

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Red Sea So the Egyptians who went with him traveled with them. They prayed with them.

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They sang with them They ate with them and they stood at Mount Sinai with them and entered into the covenant with them both

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Israel and Egyptian And it's more than just nationalistic think about who this covenant people is made up of I'll give you a few examples

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Tamar if you remember Tamar is Judah's Daughter -in -law who he promised to give to his son and he didn't

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Tamar was Canaanite. She was in the covenant community Asenath good

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Bible trivia question. Who is Asenath? Joseph's wife Joseph's wife was an

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Egyptian Moses Moses was a son of Abraham. Yes, and amen, but his wife

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Sephora Midianite his father Jethro Midianite Moses his second wife. Here's another here's another good

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Sunday school trivia question. What was the name of Moses his second wife trick question. It's not listed She Was a

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Kushite that's all it's told about her in Numbers 12 1 Caleb you remember the faithful spies

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Joshua and Caleb Caleb was not an Israelite. He was a Kenazite Which meant that he was probably of Edomite lineage

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Rahab Canaanite the Gibeonites remember God brought them into the covenant by this incredible circumstance in Joshua 2 and Joshua 6

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Not Jewish Ruth a Moabite Then you have JL the Kenite it's high the

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Gittite Uriah the Hittite Obed Edom the Gittite name in the Syrian hair the harem of Solomon not ethnically

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Israelite for the most part and then you have the group that returned from the Exiles There were some from Babylon who came with them and then all the proselytize that converted to Judaism Or Yahwism all throughout the

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Old Testament This is unlike any culture in the ancient world in the ancient world you don't do this and yet They were a culture that wasn't made up of ethnic

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Identity or genetic bloodline. They were a culture that was made up of covenant inclusion

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And unfortunately, if you read the New Testament correctly You will notice that one of the main reasons

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That the Jews fell and were destroyed at 80 70 is because they forgot this they forgot that what matters is being included in the covenant with Yahweh and not their ethnic purity as you have the

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Jews in the New Testament hanging up signs in the temple saying that if you're a Gentile and you enter into the temple courtyard will kill you

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As they wrote in their Talmud that the rest of the world the Goyim are the dogs and the scum of the earth

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They lost their sense of covenant connection to God and they traded in for Egyptian Ethnocentrism The thickest connection among people that was ever created was spilled at the blood of Christ on Calvary So that that is what holds people together better than anything that is the biblical view of neighbor not

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Primarily the pagans that are living outside of your country That the commercials tell you that you need to give money to and not the unbelievers who live inside your neighborhood

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Although in a general sense, we've already said that everyone on earth is our neighbor but the most profound and pronounced and primary neighbor that you have is

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Those who are part of the covenant community of God Which means that inside your family?

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That's your neighbor But also to your left and right this morning is your neighbor because we share a covenant with Christ The family of God is bigger than the family that sits at your living room table

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New Testament also talks about this and the New Testament is not advocate an

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Egyptian model or an American model it Follows through with the exact same thing that we've seen in the

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Old Testament for instance Jesus his disciples had two men in it that functionally should have never been together

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You've got Matthew who's the tax collector and you've got Simon who's the zealot? Matthew Was a tax collector.

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What does that mean? That means that in the situation of the first century Rome was asking for a lot of money

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From the Jews to continue to pay for their palaces and all of their fine things upwards of 40 % taxes from the

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Romans Herod the Great and his children also were asking for ridiculous sums of money

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So now on top of the Roman tax you think? 60 -70 % of your income now has gone to taxes in the first century then on top of that Because that situation caused families to starve how many among us would lose some weight if our tax rate was 70 % right

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So families were starving and in their desperation They were trading in their fidelity to their own country and they were signing up to be tax collectors

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Which meant that as they took that 40 % tax They could skim some off the top and charge a little more and there was nothing that the citizens could do about it

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So if you were the unlucky one who got the bigger skim Then tax collectors were taking another 10 -15 % on top of that.

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So your income now is being taxed at 80 85 % Unsustainable and unbelievable and then you had

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Simon the zealot. That's Matthew a traitor to his own country a man who fed his family by sticking a knife in the back of his own countrymen and Then the other one

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Simon the zealot Which if you know the word zealot it wasn't Simon the peaceful He was a man who hated

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Rome and if you know something of Josephus's work the Jewish war it was the zealots who took over the city of Jerusalem in the late 60s and as they took over the city, they they installed kind of a brute force so that they would go around the city murdering people in the broad daylight because they

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Were accusing them of being favorable to Rome So Simon this man who hated

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Rome so much that he would be willing to kill them at a moment's notice and The man like Benedict Arnold who turned his back on his own country in the same 12 men discipleship community

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Which lets me know that there is something more important than nationalism

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That binds us together and that is Jesus Christ because only Jesus Christ could hold these two men together this would be like the president of the

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Proud Boys and A BLM activist or maybe the president of the

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BLM Being a part of the same church small group and going and planting a church together Maybe worse

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It's Jesus who brings those who have all of these broken and dissimilar aspects together think about this the woman at the well

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Woman at the well was a Samaritan a hated class of people if you've if you've read or watched anything on modern -day,

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India She was in the lower caste system and would have been considered a deplorable or a dog to the

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Jews They called them half breeds. They hated them They would actually go out of their way to walk

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Miles and miles and miles of additional walking not to walk through Samaria, even if it were a direct route

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And it was Jesus who said in John chapter 4 that he had to go to Samaria No Jew ever said that I have to go to Samaria and yet he did the disciples were confused.

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They go to the market he ever been in a situation like when you go to the hospital and and Everyone around you was coughing and sneezing and hacking and you feel like oh my goodness.

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I need to go home and take a shower. I Used to feel that way when I would do laundry at the jail

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And I was having to wash all of the inmates clothing. I was like, I just have to go home and take a shower This is how the disciples probably felt in a

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Samarian some in a Samaritan market and they come back and they see Jesus not only sitting there where they left him, but talking to and Evangelizing and ultimately winning over this lady and her entire town and bringing them into the covenant community of God and his disciples would have looked at That and they would have said

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How powerful is this Christ that even he can unite you and Samaritan back together again? You think about Peter and Cornelius?

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Peter has this great vision of the of the sheet dropping from heaven and all of these unclean animals

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Being on that sheet and God says Peter rise up kill and eat which is like a great breakfast verse in the morning

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Rise up kill and eat. That's like my breakfast motto But Peter But Peter says no

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Lord, I've never eaten anything unclean and yet God challenges his understanding of what the gospel is and in that moment

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Peter not only Goes to Cornelius, but he goes into his home and he sits down at his table and he eats with Cornelius Which no one would have ever done at that time, which means that God's what means that Jesus's power is more powerful than Jew Samaritan It's more powerful than Jew Gentile.

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It's more powerful than man woman It's more powerful than anything. It's what holds the church

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Together and it's what creates the very best neighbors You think about the

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New Testament Church itself, what was the New Testament Church Jew Gentile slave free male female child adult

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It was the most ragtag assortment of people in the entire Roman world held together by Jesus So when we ask ourself, what is it that makes a neighbor?

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It's not the 50 feet between you and your neighbor or between you and the man who lives beside of you

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It's the blood of Christ is what primarily and perfectly makes a neighbor

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If we were in Egypt or if that if this happened in Egypt none of those people would have been neighbors with each other the

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Samaritan woman the Ethiopian eunuch none of them if we were in modern

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America It would have been a diversity equity inclusion conference and everyone would have went home confused on who they were but because the church celebrates the distinctions of people and the church celebrates our diversity and Yet connects us with something stronger than that, which is the blood of Christ It's the church alone who can teach the world what neighboring actually means?

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It's only the church that can teach the world what neighboring actually means this is why the New Testament tells us

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I don't know if you've ever looked up the one another verses. There's many of them There's like 50 of them look that write a note to look them up the one another versus I'll give you a snapshot that we're to that Christians are to serve one another pray for one another care for one another be kind to one another protect one another

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Serve one another repent to one another pray with one another There's all these passages that are talking about the one another's and it's not your secular neighbors.

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It's the church It's those who are part of the covenant community of God. That's your family and that's the people you're called to love primarily

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Secondarily, we're called to love everyone, of course but our most ferocious love goes to our family and to the church and to that family that God has brought us a part of The point

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I'm making here is that we are a neighbor to everyone in a general sense, but we're also called to be ferociously

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Committed to neighboring with those who we share a covenant with and because of that Proverbs has five things to teach us about things

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We should not do as neighbors as men and women who share covenant with one another There's things that we should not do to one another or against one another in order to protect

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The bonds that hold us together These are the negative examples of what we should not do and what we'll see in a moment is the positive examples what

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Christ actually Has done to make us into a family of God But I want to for a moment look at the five things that Proverbs forbids number one

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It says this do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it

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Solomon is writing to people who are in the covenant community talking about how they are to react and live in accordance with people in the covenant community

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And he's talking about do not withhold good when it is in your power to give it

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The Hebrew phrase here al -timna tov Means do not hold back in giving the good the the word tov here means blessing

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Do not withhold blessings from one another because you're under this thing.

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That's more powerful than national identity and Intersectionality you are held together by the love of God.

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So therefore do not withhold the love of God from one another Do not withhold blessings

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From God's people that's the command and We have no right of refusal when it comes to this

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We often treat giving sharing and pouring out of ourselves as if it's an option that We would like to participate in so long as it fits our calendar

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So long as it fits our budget and so long as it fits our opinion or our mood if we're in a hangry mood then maybe we withhold good from you because there's a better good that exists down the road where I'm gonna get some fried chicken and Then I'll feel better like that's not what the scriptures are teaching us to do the scripture telling us that we are not allowed to neglect the need of other believers and Others who are in the household of God.

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We are not allowed to fail to serve one another We have no permission to do that If we know that someone has a need and we refuse to meet it, aren't we like what

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James says? That if you go to someone who's freezing and you say Oh be warm.

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That's false religion. That's fake Christianity That's not true faith We do this all the time.

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I do this all the time someone will share something with me and Then I'll say

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I'll pray for that And I forget or how about when we refuse to help

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When someone has a need I've got something going on you ever done that someone needs your help and it's gonna be hard and you're gonna have to break a sweat and You're like you're looking at what you're doing, which is nothing.

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You're just sitting on the couch And you're like, I'm actually really busy right now That's withholding blessing from God's people because we're trying to uphold some sense of personal autonomy or freedom or Entitlement Dear Christians, we are slaves at the core of our identity

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We don't have a right to say that I'm taking a me day Every day belongs to Jesus and it's his prerogative on where he sends us and what he calls us to do

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We don't have a right to refuse him you think about I think about it this way

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Here's an example that doesn't get talked about a lot joining the church as a member Are we not withholding good from other people in the church if we have a slight and very tenuous connection to the local body that God has called us to How about this if we leave early?

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We receive the blessings of the church service and we leave are we not withholding from others and robbing them of our presence and our time and The good gifts that we could give to them by being here and the good gifts that they could give to us by us being here

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Imagine that if we leave habitually early and We refuse to relate with one another.

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We're not only robbing others of the things we could give to them We're robbing them of the good that they could give to us

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That's why one of the most important aspects of This church that I love so dearly is when we leave it is not a title wave for the door

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I thank God that it's difficult to get out of this place There's there's a bottleneck that you

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I thank God for that Because some of the best ministry happens

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After we do the Commission and we're in here Relating with one another loving one another

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Talking with one another spending the Lord's day doing the Lord's work in each other's lives We're not allowed to withhold good when it is in our power to do it

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Solomon's call is urgent and it's unrelenting and God expects us to meet the needs of the people that's the first thing the second thing is he does not say to you you do not say to your neighbor come and go back and Tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you

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That's the second sin that crushes neighboring that kills a community is

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A kind of spiritual procrastination or just an outright lying

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That we intend to do something that we never intend to do The Hebrew there are tomorrow on the real car.

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Yeah, it sounds so fun to say. I'm a little kid. I Love I love just trying to say it it

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I stand in front of the mirror my sorry When we say things like tomorrow,

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I'll give it I think what we're doing there is we're wanting to be perceived as though we're helpful and that we're loving

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And let's let's be real honest because we've all done this Okay, we want to be perceived as the kind of person who is helpful without the intention of actually being helpful

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What that's called in the Bible is lying What that's called in the Bible is deception and it must not be marked among the people of God Kindness or this this kind of behavior is kindness

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That manifests itself as avoidance cloaked in sugary sweet platitudes to make ourself feel better There's no difference in this and the virtue signaling that we see in the left

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This is exactly what politicians do they say one thing and they do another this is what hypocrisy actually means

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This is convicting because when we say that we're gonna do something and we don't do it We've not only withheld the good, but we've lied.

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I was thinking about this today. I make so many excuses for myself. I Forgot I got busy

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Let's just say what it was it wasn't a priority. Let's be honest with ourself. It wasn't a priority I didn't do it and I need to repent for it

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When someone tells us that they're struggling with a particular sin and the Lord God puts them on your heart and you don't check in with them is that not a

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Promising that you're going to be there and available for someone and yet not fulfilling it Isn't that what this is talking about as far as killing communities?

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We must not withhold good and we must not promise and not deliver. Those are the first two things. The third thing is plotting harm

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It says do not devise harm against your neighbor while he lives securely Beside of you the

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Hebrew in this passage means don't plot or plow What does it mean when you plow?

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Well as a farmer not as a farmer if you were a farmer My inclusive terms today are a little too broad

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I need to If you're a farmer you plow your field before you so You're prep.

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You're preparing your field. You're prepping it for the harvest. It's the first step before you plant the seeds

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So don't do things in the life of other people that is preparing a sinful harvest later

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What's an example of this? Have you ever tried to pull someone over to your side in a conflict and you share the story like you're the hero and The other person is the criminal

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You are plowing that person's heart hoping that they will end up sinning with the same bitterness that you have and It must not be marked among the people of God when you flirt with someone

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Who's not your wife because in the moment you think well, that'll make me feel better about myself. I've had a bad week

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You're plowing that person's heart to sin against their spouse and against their God When we do anything and you can write in what that thing is

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That is preparing someone else to come alongside and sin with us We've plowed their heart in a way that is not neighborly and is not kind and it's not good

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I think about this with flattery. I have met I have met many people in my life and I and I I Susceptible to this because who doesn't like someone to tell you that you're doing a good job

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I've met many people who with silver tongues Will flatter today and with a silver shank will stab you in the back later

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It's a way of flattery is a way of plowing someone's heart for a future when

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The words aren't so sweet anymore it's a way of Extracting from them power that you think that you need or do not have

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I think about The keyboard wars that go on online

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I think about How we are plowing so much in Our passivity and disagreements.

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This is something that I hope that the Church of Jesus Christ in America learns how to do Well is to disagree

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Godly respectfully You know when the scriptures say in Proverbs and we'll get to it that iron sharpens iron

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We forget that when iron sharpens iron sparks fly and that's a good thing There are times where sparks ought to fly when it comes to matters of truth and those things sharpen us but yet When we treat disagreements with passivity when pastors treat disagreements in the church with passivity

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Refusing to deal with it refusing to preach about it refusing to say anything about it. He's plowing the congregation for future sin.

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That's coming And it should not be marked among the people of God The Lord Jesus says that the world should look at us and say oh how they love one another

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That's what we're supposed to be marked by We're supposed to be marked by how densely

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Passionate our love for one another is the scriptures do not say that that they will be known by how much they are

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Invested in social justice missions It doesn't say that we will be known by how big our bank accounts are

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It says that we will be known by how deeply and how densely we love one another and the one another there is your brothers

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And sisters in covenant relationship with God That's the third number four

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Do not contend with a man without cause if he has done you no harm This is a one that happens all the time in the church.

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Don't be argumentative For no reason there are times to argue there are times to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the

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Saints That's in Jude. Amen, but don't be a jerk Don't argue for the sake of arguing.

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We've heard the metaphor of cage stage. Have you heard that? We're a man after You know coming to Calvinism and seeing this big

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God theology now is insufferable And no one wants to be around him because he's trying to jam

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Calvinism down everybody's throats The reason they call it cage stage is because the best thing to do with that man is to put him in a cage until he calms down that's contentiousness that's argumentativeness and That destroys community.

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I've seen a church that divided over head coverings

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Where a few ladies were so passionate about this and let me just I haven't got to this passage in the scriptures

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Yeah, but I'll tell you where I'm at. I think head coverings are a wonderful thing I think that's what the Bible says. I think it's a glorious thing.

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I think it's a beautiful thing I haven't preached on it yet, but that's where my view is. Just let you know, but it's not worth dividing a church over I've seen it being used a thin little piece of cloth being used as a weapon

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For one group to look down their nose at another group and then the church eventually that wasn't the only reason but it was a

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Contributing factor the church breaks apart because love had withered because of a scarf on top of a head

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I've seen it all throughout my time in the church. We're contentiousness in the church.

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I can't believe he said that Or I can't believe so -and -so did this and then you ask did you go to so -and -so and you ask them about it and call them?

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on their sin, no Really? We're going to whine and complain about each other's sin but we're not going to do what

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Matthew 18 says when a brother sister sins against you go to them and Call them to repentance

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We're inviting contentiousness and argumentativeness in the people of God and it destroys community in the book of Corinth or in the book of Corinthians in the church of Corinth There's this great phrase where Paul is sort of mocking the church by saying that there's some of you that say

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I am of Paul and I'm of Apollos. We have the same thing today. I am of Moscow.

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I am of Ogden I am of Escondido I Am of Grand Rapids. We have these

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Christian tribal communities that don't get along when they share so much in common and it's foolishness the spirit of division is alive and well in Christianity and I would ask you to remember who is the author of division and it is not

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God We are a part of the kingdom of God the citizens of God the body the bride the covenant people and it's our responsibility to be neighborly

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Even in our disagreements, it's okay to disagree. It's not okay to be Argumentative and mean to those who belong to the people of God our love for one another is telling a story

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It's unavoidable. What story is it telling? Is it telling the story of the hope in the gospel of Christ?

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Or is it telling the story that we're just as divided and broken as everyone else? That's the fourth thing.

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The fifth is imitating evil It says do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways the word violence there come us

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Doesn't just mean Aggression against another person. It's a sinful kind of violence that brings destruction to things

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It's sin ultimately doing violence against God when we as people

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Imitate evil when we look at the world and we let the world disciple us Instead of us discipling the world and we bring evil into the camp of God We're destroying the community that God has called us to preserve to build to be fruitful and to multiply in five sins

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Withholding good from one another when it's in your power to give it promising good and failing to deliver it plotting and plowing sin and harm for future harvest adopting an argumentative spirit and Imitating evil and bringing it into the household of God these five sins destroy communities and Every one of us are guilty at least of one of them

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So the question is as Solomon ends this passage. What where do we stand if you like basketball?

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What's the final score? Okay, let's look at it the final verse verse 32 for the devious or an abomination to the

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Lord But he is intimate with the upright It doesn't say that he's intimate with the partially upright.

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He doesn't say that he's intimate with the casually upright He doesn't say that he is intimate with the sometimes upright.

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He says that he is only intimate with those who are upright Which means those who are not false in any way

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Which means those who haven't what have never withheld good? From someone when it was in their power to give

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So far, what's the score anyone still anyone still on the board? He'll be intimate with those who've never withheld good.

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Okay He'll be good for those who've never promised and failed to deliver He'll be intimate with those who plot who've never plotted sin in the heart of another person

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He'll be intimate with those who've never adopted an argumentative spirit. None of us Are there and He will be intimate with those who have never imitated evil so what we come down to is a score of absolute zero and the only way

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That you and I can have any sort of hope is If something outside of us and better than us more holy than us

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Does what we could not do and that's where we get to the gospel, which is Jesus Christ Think about what we've just talked about today

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Jesus is the only one who never withheld good when it was in his power to give it and he didn't withhold good even to the cross

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Dying for his enemies Jesus is the only one who never promised good and failed to deliver

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Everything Jesus has promised. He's delivered right on time and right on schedule He's the only one

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Who didn't plow sin in the heart of another person waiting? For a sinful return and actually he invested into the hearts of his people so that he would get a spiritual return of 50 ,000 more

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He's the only one who never adopted an argumentative sinful spirit. He's the only one who never once imitated evil for a second

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So here's what we have here The Devious raise your hand if you don't you're lying and you need to raise it now for the devious

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You are an abomination to God But he's intimate with the upright. Here's what happened on the cross

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Christ who deserved the intimacy of God traded it in to become an abomination for you and You who deserved the wrath of God?

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Now receive the intimacy with God because Christ gave it up willingly so that you could have it

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That is the gospel and That is what holds us together as a people and that is what ensures that we will become good neighbors

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Your salvation is not about perfection yours Your salvation is about his perfection and now brothers and sisters as men and women who are saved

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Who are now feeling and tasting the intimacy of God. It is our job now to share it with others

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Though we once were people who withheld good Now as Christians filled by the

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Spirit of God, let us be generous with one another Though we were liars Who would promise things and not deliver them now as a

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Christian with the Spirit of God. Let us be honest And let us tell people what we can and what we can't do

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While we used to be people Who were argumentative at the core let us now be peace of peaceable gentle humble truthful and Let us be the kind of people who allow the grace of Jesus Christ and the intimacy of Almighty God Through the poured out of the

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Holy Spirit Be the thing that changes us and shapes us into good neighbors and our families in this church and to the ends of the earth

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Let us pray Lord Jesus we thank you for the biblical view of what a neighbor is and How that is only possible through Jesus Christ the only one who actually

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Was a neighbor the Lord help us as his followers

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To learn how to imitate him instead of imitating evil Let us learn how to be diligent in the things of God eager for the things of righteousness joyful and doing good and Lord let us be the kind of people

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Who pour out in our homes in this church and to the ends of the earth?

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the good gifts and the blessings of God so that we can show the world the veracity of Who this