Care For One Another

Introduction

Story about Amy Caring for Her dad

She went up to help care for the needs of her dad and her mom.

It is hard work helping meet the needs of someone else.

it took great sacrifice for Amy to care for her dad the way he needed to be cared for.

Amy had to set aside her own desires so that she could care for him during His time of need.

But what's so Amazing about this story is that Amy didn't even hesitate

She didn't dwell on the sacrifices she would have to make in order to care fro Him she Only thought about Him, Her greatest desire was to care for Him no matter the cost.

Why- Because she was motivated by her love for her father.

I don’t have to preach to you about how hard life can be..

But I can tell you this, that one of the biggest blessings we experienced through this whole trial was that while we were caring for Lee and Jackie, other people in the church were caring for us.

This mornings as we continue on in our studies on the One another Commands, we are going to look at Christ’s command for us , as the church, to Care for One Another.

Have you ever really thought about what it means to truly care for one another in the church?

A simple deffiniton of Caring for One Another in the church is

“to protect One another from both physical and spiritual Harm and to provide for their spiritual and physical needs.

Think about a mother’s care for her children.

Is there any thing too costly that a mother wouldn't do to protect her young children from harm

Is there anything a mother wouldn't do to meet the physical and emotional needs of her infant child?

A loving mother willingly provides for what her children need no matter the cost,

She clothes them,

she feeds them,

she teaches them,

she corrects them,

and she gives them unconditional love.

Jesus commands His church to care for one another the same way that a mother would care for her infant child.

This morning I want us to consider three Relationships of care that each of us have in the church.

the first relationship of Care in your life is that....

The Creator Cares for the Creation

You dont have to read very far into the Bible to realize that the Almighty God is the creator of all things.

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:31 (ESV)

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

But whats amazing about God is that he is not just the creator of all , He is also the lovingly care giving for all of His creation.

look at what Col. 1 says about God the creator...

Colossians 1:17 (ESV)

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Luke 12:6 (ESV)

6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

God is the one who gives life to all things,

He is the one who sustains life in all things,

He is the one who provides for all things,

and He is the one who protects and sustains the life of all things.

We have a creator God Who cares for His creation.

But there is something even more special about our creator God when it comes to his care for you and me.

Look with me at what Jesus says in Matthew 6:26

Matthew 6:26 (ESV)

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

You are special to the creator God.

you are more valuable to God than all other creation.

And what we see throughout all of scripture is that there is no limit to how far God is willing to Go to care for you as his prize creation.

God created you in His own image. He created you special above all other creation, He gave you an eternal soul because He desires to live with you forever in His perfect Kingdom.

He wants to care for you for all eternity.

What need to gasp this morning is that God’s care for you is not based on your love for him.

His care is based completely on His love for you, a love that cannot and will not change.

You see that God created mankind in his own image and placed him in a perfect garden, and Gave Him authority over all other creation, And God provided care for all of his needs.

Understand that There was nothing else man needed for his life because the creator God cared for him.

But the reality is Even with God providing everything Man needed for happiness and peace , Man still chose to try and do things His own way.

The FALL: In Genesis Chapter 3 we see that Man chose to go against Gods’ law .

Man decided that trying to find happiness on His own was better than staying under the care of the Creator.

And so, man disobeyed God, He went against God’s perfect rules. and because of this disobedience man was kicked out of the perfect Garden, The Garden where God cared for man perfectly.

When mankind sinned against God, He was sentenced to death, Both physical death and spiritual death.

But we need to understand this morning that all of our sins carry the death penalty with them.

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death means seperation.

When we die physically our body is separated form our soul forever,

And when we die spiritually in our sin, our soul is separated from the care of God the creator forever.

But there is HOPE! There is a solution.

Even though Man chose not to follow and obey God, - God’s loving care for mankind did not diminish..In fact God put it on display for the world to see.

and so From Genesis chapter 4 -where Mans sin separated Him from God, and condemned Him to an eternity in Hell, God has relentlessly sought out restoration with Mankind.

The entire rest of the Bible is God’s redemption plan for mankind. - God’s plan to rescue you from an eternity in Hell.

God Cares for you so much that there is nothing He is not willing to do to restore your broken relationship with Him.

He sent a perfect substitute sacrifice to pay your debt in Full, to take your place and pay the price of eternal death for you..

Thats how much the creator cares for you!

Do you know what is so special about someone caring for you?

It’s that they do everything for you. They do what you could never do yourself.

When Amy’s dad was in his final days, Amy was right there by his side, When he needed a drink she went and got the water, she poured in the cup, she lifted the cup to his mouth, She held his chin sand opened his mouth for him, she poured the water into mouth, The only part Her dad had i was to receive the gift of Care Amy willingly gave Him.

Thats what genuine care looks like, and that is what the creator God offers us as mankind.

He saw our need for salvation, He sent Himself, to pay the debt we owed for our own sins, He hung on that Cross,, He went to the grave, He conquered death on our behalf, and He rose victoriously so that we can life forever with Him.

All we have to do is willingly accept the loving care He is offering in our lives.

The Bible is very clear on how we can accept God’s eternal care in our lives.

We are just like Amy’s dad in the story, We are all laying on our eternal deaths and there is absolutely nothing we could do to save our selves, We need God’s loving Care in our lives, We need Jesus in our lives, We need God to step in and give us the living water that Only he has to give.

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

To accept the gift of salvation you must repent and Believe

Repent of your sinful and Believe that Jesus fully paid your debut in full.

When we accept Gods gift of salvation in our lives, God’s care does nots go away, In fact it grows even more precious in our lives as Believers.

1 Peter 5:6–7 (ESV)

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Charles Spurgeon wrote

If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.

Charles Spurgeon’

If God cared about you when you were His sinful enemy- think about How much more He cares for you now that you are His friend.

I hope this truth is encouraging to you today. If you are a child of God, than you are under His eternal care, He redeemed you and paid your debt in full, and there is nothing He will not do for your good as His Child.

the 2nd Relationship of Care We have in the church is that Jesus Gave us Pastors to care for the church.

The Pastor Cares for the Church

In John10 Jesus describes His relationship with His followers as a shepherd with Sheep

John 10:25–30 (ESV)

25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

The role of a shepherd is to watch over his sheep, to care for his sheep, to feed his sheep, to protect his sheep.

Jesus says that a good shepherd will lay down his own life for His sheep.

Jesus is the perfect shepherd. He laid down his own life so that His sheep might have life.

As the good shepherd Jesus will continually watch over his flock

And so when he left this earth to go and prepare a place for all of His “sheep” to live forever, He didn’t want to leave His flock wondering on their own. so He gave the church shepherds, Men charged with watching over his flock while He is away.

The greek word used in the Bible for these men is poimen which means pastor.

Jesus gave the church pastors to watch over the flock while He is away.

In Heb. 13 tells us that pastors will give an account to Christ on how they cared for His flock while he is Gone. There is a lot of responsibility for the pastor as the shepherd of the Flock.

He is to care for the church the same way that Jesus would care for his church if Jesus was Here pastoring his church today.

First, A Pastor Shepherds the Flock by Leading the Sheep.

Have you ever noticed what Happens to Sheep when they are not being led? When they are left without the care of a shepherd?

Sheep on their own tend to get lost, they get injured, and are vulnerable to the predators that want to devour them.

Jesus says it is the same way with His flock. the sheep need a shepherd who will lead them to where they need to go.

the First responsibility of the pastor, is to lead the sheep in the direction that points them in the direction of Christ, the direction that brings glory to God the father.

A pastor cares for the church by setting a direction for the church to go, and by leading the church down this direction,And He must do this in a way that is worth of following .

I am challenged myself as your pastor by the words that Paul spoke in 1 Cor. 11:1

1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV)

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

A pastor has a great responsibility to be a man who is worthy of being followed. He does this by exemplifying Christ in His life.

To lead like Christ means to desire the things that Christ desired.

To do whatever it takes to save the lost, and to preach the truth of scripture no matter the cost.

My desire as your pastor is to lead our church in the way that Jesus would lead if he were the pastor here to day.

Secondly, A Pastor Shepherds the Flock by Feeding the Sheep.

When Jesus was commissioning Peter in John 21 He told peter 3 times to feed My Sheep.

A pastor Feeds the sheep by teaching and preaching spiritual truth into their lives.

If a farmer doesn’t faithful and continually feed His sheep the sheep will grow thin, and weak. They will become sickly and unhealthy and will eventually die.

The same is true in the church if a pastor doesn't feed His sheep spiritual food they will become sick and week in their spiritual lives.

Jesus Gives the Shepherd of the church the responsibility to wean his sheep from the simple principles of milk that is given to babies, to a diet that will cause them to become strong and fully equipped to do the ministry of the gospel.

Thirdly, A Pastor Shepherds theFlock by Lovingly Tending the sheep.

In a former church I attended There was a sheep farmer - a shepherd. and I would go out on occasion and help him on his farm with the sheep.

As we were walking by a pen of sheep one particular sheep was over in the corner looking through the fence into the field and crying his little heart out,.

And Roger , the farmer looked at me and asked “Why do you think he is crying so much.”? I quickly said because he wants out of captivity and wants to be free to roam in the field.

Roger smiled and said watch this, He then walked over to the sheep and gently turned him around. The sheep quickly ran and joined all the other sheep at the other end of the pen..

Roger then explained to me that the sheep thought he was all alone because He couldn't see any other sheep .

He had wondered away form the flock and needed the shepherd to help turn Him around.

The sheep needed the shepherd to instruct him where to go.

Sometimes we need our pastors to step into our lives and correct our vision. We need a shepherd to tend to our spiritual needs

A good pastor is man who knows the sheep, who knows their aches and pains, Who walks through the joys, and sorrows of every member of his congregation,.

In Hebrews 13:17 We see that a pastor tends his sheep by watching over their souls

Hebrews 13:17 (ESV)

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

God gave us pastors as a gift so that we have someone tending to your spiritual needs.

Pastors tend to the needs of their flock

By praying fervently for the flock

By walking through Hard times with the flock,

& By lovingly stepping in to Correct the wrongs in the flock.

Jesus gave the church pastors to tend His flock- to encourage the sheep ,and to see to it that they grow to the fullness of maturity in the life of Christ, becoming more like Him in all they do.

When the good shepherd left his sheep to go back to heaven, He didn't stop caring for His flock. Instead, He equipped men with the special gifts to shepherd and care for his sheep in the same way He would care for them if he were here today.

Finally the third relationship of Care we all have in the church is

The Church Cares for One ANOTHER

God’s design for the church is that we care for One another.

We dont just rely on the care from our creator or the care from our pastors we are called to care for one another.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul tells us that everyone who is a Christian has been given special gifts to serve the church.

In verse 24 Paul begins to wrap up his teaching on these gifts and He says that even though some of the gifts may not seem as important in the church , every gift is equally needed in order for the church to be a healthy church.

and now we come to 1 Cor 12:25 where Paul tells us Why God gave each of us gifts that are different but equal in value?

1 Corinthians 12:25 (ESV)

25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

God gave each of us spiritual gift so that we could care for one another the same way that God cares for us.

When we all use our gifts to care for one another the church becomes unified as one body. the way God intended the church to be.

Look with me for a couple minutes at what the result in the church is when we care for One another.

1. When We care for One another it builds unity in the Body of Christ

Philippians 2:1–5 (ESV)

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

Our Care for One another is what builds up the unity in the body of Christ

2. When we care for One Another we are serving Jesus with our gifts.

in Matt 25. Jesus foretells a story about when everyone will stand at the final judgement. - a time when all our works will be judged before the Righteous God.

Listen to what Jesus says about this judgement..

Matthew 25:31–40 (ESV)

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 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. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

When We care for our brothers and sisters in the church we are not just meeting needs but we are serving Christ with our lives.

the third result of caring for one another in the church is that

3. When we care for One Another it proves our own salvation

1 John 3:17–18 (ESV)

17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

John says your genuine care for one another is the proof that you are a believer in Christ.

this verse is pretty simple to understand… If you dont have a heart to of compassion for others in the church, If you ignore serving brothers and sisters in Christ, it is the evidence that proves you are not really a Christian yourself.

finally…

4. When we care for One Another it Proclaims Jesus Christ to the World

a first century Christian historian named Tertullian said this

It is our care for the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. “Look!” they say, “How they love one another! Look how they are prepared to die for one another.”

Tertullian

The world notices when a church cares for one another

Jesus said in Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Our care for one another is a picture of Christ gospel care for the world.

Church family, The way we care for one another matters...

We care for one another so that the unity of the church grows, so that we can serve Christ, So that our salvation is proven, and so that the world see the gospel Message that Jesus cares for them.

BRING IT HOME

What should our response be for the care that God bestows on us through the church

1. Our Response to the care of our Creator should be joyfully praise-

We Praise our creator God for His unwavering care in our lives, for the gosple that cared for our eternity, and for the gospel that continues to care for our needs,

2. Our Response to the gift of our Pastors should be fervent Prayer

Satan is a trophy hunter and He loves to defeat the shepherds watching over the flock of Christ, so that the sheep become vulnerable prey.

- we should pray for protection for the pastors in our lives as they Care for The flock in the absents of the Good shepherd.

we should pray with Thanksgiving that God didn’t leave us on our own but gave us shepherds to lead us, feed us and tend to our needs

3. Our Response to the care of the church should be to willing participation.-

Get excited to participate in caring for One another because this is what we are called to do., this it what brings Christ glory in your lives, this is what proves your salvation, and this what points the world towards Jesus.

My question in closing for you is this: What do your Actions (the way you care) say about you today?

Pray.

CLOSING :One of the ways that we care for one another ris through a special offering that we take every month., its called our deacons fund offering. this money is used to help meet financial needs in our church family.

Right now there are some financial needs in our church and our deacons fund is low so

As we sing our closing song I ask you to consider this opportunity to give financial to care for others in the church who are in need.

DEACON’S FUND OPFFERING