WWUTT 1343 Contribute to the Needs of the Saints (Romans 12:13)

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Romans 12 .13 says contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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Look for ways that you can care for and love one another within the household of faith when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans 12, slowly working our way through verses 9 through 13.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil.

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Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.

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Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal.

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Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope.

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Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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Since yesterday, when we were looking at verse 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer,

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I found this section in Proverbs chapter 11. This was when I was doing some study and some prep for the

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Proverbs study that we're also doing. That's on Thursday. So we'll continue our study in Proverbs tomorrow.

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But I was in Proverbs chapter 11, where I read this, starting in verse 6.

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The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.

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When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too.

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The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead.

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With his mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor. But by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.

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When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. And when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness.

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By the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted. By the mouth of the wicked, it is overthrown.

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Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

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Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

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Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in abundance of counselors, there is safety.

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It's that verse, by the way, verse 14, that you may also hear where there is no vision, the people perish.

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But in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. That's the way the King James renders that particular verse.

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And it's not about having a vision or else, you know, everybody's just going to languish and die.

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It's about listening to God's word and obeying what it says. And if people are not doing that, then they fall.

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A nation crumbles and perishes. But in an abundance of counselors where there are teachers to guide us and help us understand the word and tell us what

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God has said in the Bible, there is safety when we walk according to these ways.

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Anyway, I was reading that and I was drawing a connection right to this section that we've been reading here in Romans chapter 12, where we read to rejoice in hope, to be patient in tribulation, to be constant in prayer.

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This is to live righteously. And remember that we read at the start of Romans, Romans 117, the righteous shall live by faith.

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If we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been given his righteousness.

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What does it mean then to live according to that righteousness? That's what we're reading here in Romans chapter 12.

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It means that we now adding in verse 13, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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In Galatians 610, the apostle Paul says, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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So as we have a chance to be able to show charity to others, we should do that.

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But our priority should be other believers, Christians, our brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. We care for one another in the church, in the body of Christ first, just like you would provide for your own family first.

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For those of you who work, you make a paycheck, you take that paycheck and you pay your bills, you buy food, you buy clothing for your loved ones or for your children, you know, things like that.

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You're going to care for your own first. Right. That's what I do when I make my paycheck. We're giving of what we receive to the

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Lord. I'm providing for my wife and for my children. And then as we have opportunity, I'm going to take what

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I have and I may show kindness and charity to somebody else. Maybe I will give to a parachurch organization.

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Maybe I will directly help somebody. I've shared many times before about my adventures filling up somebody's gas tank.

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Somebody comes by the church and says, hey, I'm I'm out of fuel. I'm trying to head down the road. I need somebody to help me.

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You're the first church I came across. Or I typed in Baptist Church in my phone and and it brought me right to you guys.

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So can you help me out? Can you fill up my tank? Sure, I can take them down to the gas station, fill up the tank, and then

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I share the gospel with them while we're waiting for the tank to fill up. Or I might even take them inside, grab something to eat or something like that.

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See, that's something extra that I can do in showing charity and kindness to somebody else.

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But first of all, I'm going to provide for my family and I'm going to care for the people in my own church, in our congregation.

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This is pretty clear in scripture that this is how we are to consider one another. We are to care for one another's needs in the household of God first, showing kindness to others.

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Yes, love one another, love your neighbor as we should. But remember that when

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Jesus commissioned Peter to do the mission that Jesus was sending him out to do, he said to Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, tend to my flock.

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Who is he talking about? Those who are actually followers of Jesus. There is an obligation for us there to care for the church that we do not have to the rest of the world.

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Even in Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus talked about this in a passage that is often taken way out of context.

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Jesus says the following, when the son of man comes in his glory and the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

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Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. You remember who the sheep are, right?

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The sheep are the ones who hear the shepherd's voice and they follow him. That's Jesus teaching in John, chapter 10.

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Whoever is a follower of the shepherd, we are his sheep. Everyone else will be separated out as a goat and will be sent into destruction.

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The story that Jesus continues to to tell here, we go on to verse thirty four.

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Then the king will say to those on his right, the sheep, remember they went on his right.

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He will say to them, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

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I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

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I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying,

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Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?

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And when did we see you sick or in prison and come and visit you? And the king will answer them, truly, truly,

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I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

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That's Matthew twenty five forty. Now you'll find that verse worded in different ways, in different translations.

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But the interpretation is still exactly the same. The brothers that Jesus is talking about, there are those who are followers of Jesus.

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When he talks about visiting the sick in prison, being a stranger and welcoming, feeding the hungry and giving the thirsty something to drink, he's not talking about all people.

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The least of these are not the marginalized in society. That's not what

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Jesus is talking about. The poor or people of a certain ethnicity, that's not the reference, but that's the way you hear this most often taught.

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In fact, Phil Fisher just did a video. It was a few weeks back, a couple of months ago, I think it was, where he made exactly this connection.

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Now, the thing about that video, I know I mentioned Phil Fisher earlier this week saying it was sad seeing the direction that he's gone.

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But the thing about that video is I was among several other people on Twitter who were correcting his interpretation of Matthew twenty five before he made that video.

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So he heard it from several sound teachers telling him Jesus was talking about in that passage.

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He's talking about his followers, the least of those among his followers, not the marginalized in society.

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So Phil Fisher heard that and he was responding to people who were telling him that. And yet he went ahead and made his video anyway, where he describes the least of these as being the least of all society.

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That's not the reference there. I remember Rachel held Evans teaching that way also and kind of puffing herself up and talking about her righteousness because she cared for the marginalized in society that the church did not care for.

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Now, she was talking about LGBTQ persons. So she interpreted that she interpreted

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Matthew twenty five forty as being LGBTQ persons because the church will not recognize a same sex marriage.

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Therefore, those who are LGBTQ who would identify that way, they they would be the marginalized that Jesus is saying we must care for in order to enter the kingdom of God.

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That is just way beyond absurd because the church should never recognize a same sex union.

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That is an abomination before the Lord. It's not that we shouldn't show them charity.

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We should most especially we should share the gospel with them. But if they will not repent of their sin and follow the

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Christ of the Bible, then they are not among the people of God. When Jesus is talking here about the least of these in Matthew chapter twenty five, he is talking about those who for the sake of the gospel have gone out.

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They have given up everything to go and preach that they are now hungry.

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They're without food there. They would otherwise be without basic necessities because they've given up everything for Christ.

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So they're hungry. Give them food. They're thirsty. Give them drink. They're strangers because they go from place to place.

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They're not in their own hometown where they're known by people. So if you have somebody who is out there sharing the gospel, provide for them, give them residence, a place to stay.

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I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

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I was in prison and you came to me. We're clearly reading about here those who give up all for the sake of the gospel.

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The righteous will say, when did we do all of those things? And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these among my brothers, you have done it also unto me.

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Remember that back in Matthew eleven, verse eleven, Jesus was talking about John the Baptist.

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And he says, truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the

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Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

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It's back in the Beatitudes in Matthew five, beginning in verse three. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Verse five, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Those who are not out to to advance themselves, they don't even want recognition for the work that they do unto the

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Lord. They care for the saints and all in service to God. All of this

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I'm sharing with you to illustrate that as we have this instruction in Romans twelve, thirteen contribute to the needs of the saints.

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This is where our attention is first. We seek to show hospitality. And and you might notice something about these commands that we've been given, these instructions for Christian believers in the church.

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Romans twelve, verses nine through thirteen. You might notice something about these. You cannot do these online.

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You cannot follow these instructions when you are apart from one another. These are things that you do with each other in one another's presence.

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I believe that I made this connection last week as well, but it bears repeating because this is where we are as as a church culture right now, especially in the

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Western world. We have these mandates that have separated us from one another. A lot of churches are still closed down.

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People are not meeting together. You have pastors who I understand there are pastors who have to assess the situation that they are in, things that are going on within their community and act accordingly.

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I get that. But there are many other pastors, many more than that, who are they're just obeying the government without being wise as to the decisions that they're making.

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And they're shutting down the church. The government has no say over the church. Stop shutting the doors down and telling people to stay home and watch church online.

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That isn't church. We cannot love one another unless we're meeting together.

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This is an incredibly modern phenomenon here to be thinking about. Well, we can just go to church on the computer.

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I mean, even 15 years ago, we would not be talking about something like this.

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This is something that's only transpired in my lifetime, that we have this notion of going to church online, of even doing communion virtually or anything like this.

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We cannot obey the instructions to love one another unless we are together.

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That's the way the church has understood this for 2000 years. And the advent of Facebook does not change that.

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We have to be together to contribute to the needs of the saints and to seek to show hospitality.

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There is no other way to follow that instruction except that we love one another face to face personally in one another's presence.

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That's how you obey the command of Christ to love one another. As I have loved you,

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Jesus said, so you must love one another. Listen to this in first John three, beginning in verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another from the beginning of what?

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From the beginning of the church, when Jesus called out his own from the world and we are a gathered assembly of saints.

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The message that we've received from the beginning as the church is to love one another.

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Going on to verse 12, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

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And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous.

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Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

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Not the world, not loving everybody else in the world, but the demonstration of our faith, the transformed heart is going to be in the way that we love the brotherhood of Christ.

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If you're trying to be a Christian without the church, my friends, I warn you that you may be exposing that in your heart you are not truly of the people of God.

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If you're not meeting with the people of God, if you don't show love for the brotherhood, the saints, those who are in Christ Jesus, then you are not demonstrating the fruit of righteousness that is in your heart.

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As John goes on to say, whoever does not love abides in death.

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Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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Verse 16, by this, we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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Let me stop there for just a moment. When the whole shutdown thing started happening and people were isolating from one another and there were lockdowns, we were told to stay in our homes.

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I put out on Twitter to go over to your neighbor, go over to your neighbor's house and check on them and make sure they're

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OK. The way you love your neighbor is not to shut yourself up in your home. It's to go over to your neighbor's house and check on them.

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And you would be astonished at the backlash that I got for saying that I was being told by people who claim to be my brother or sister in the

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Lord that I would be potentially murdering my neighbor by going over to their house and checking on them.

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People, that's insane. I can go over and check on my neighbor safely.

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That is possible. You can talk through a screen door, a glass door, and I'm not exposing my neighbor to any harm.

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But maybe I've got a widowed neighbor and I did a widowed neighbor that needs to get groceries.

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So I'm going to go ask, how can I help? How can I how can I go and get something for you that you need?

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That's loving your neighbor, not staying at home. And that's what you heard from everybody when that whole lockdown thing was going on.

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You love your neighbor by staying away from them. That is ridiculous. That was ridiculous when it was first uttered.

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That is not the way that we show love and care for one another. There is not a plague on the planet that should keep us from interacting with one another.

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It's the only way to show love to each other. Remember what Jesus said. I was sick and you visited me.

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We must show love to one another. If we have God's love abiding in our hearts, we ought to show love for the brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Let's continue on. First, John three, verse 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does

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God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

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By this, we shall know that we are the truth and reassure our heart before him.

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For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.

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Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

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Verse 23, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son,

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Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.

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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him.

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And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

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Amen. All this to say, Romans 12, 13, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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There's certainly much more that we could say about this particular passage, but that's our devotional for today.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness and kindness that you have shown to us. In Christ, the love that you've demonstrated,

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God showing his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As we read back in Romans 5, 8, by faith in Jesus Christ, we've been given righteousness.

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And may we live by faith in the righteousness of God that has been given to us, showing love to one another.

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Forgive us for neglecting each other and help us to repent of our tendency that we might have to withdraw from others.

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Help us to know how we reach out to others and show that love and kindness for you reached out to us in our most desperate need and provided a

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Savior who has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Lead us in paths of righteousness for the sake of your great name.

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In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.