Rom 12-How to Enjoy People
| How to Enjoy People! Romans 12:13-21
June 8, 2008 (NIV) 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. PRAY Scripture Memory:If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. – Romans 12:18 (NIV) Intro: People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.Loneliness is an extremely painful emotion, and we can easily feel VERY lonely even in the midst of many people, even people we know…This morning: How to enjoy people, even those who are hard to enjoy… 1. The Motive2. The Method3. The Madness 1. The Motive: (for enjoying people)Love for “J. O. Y.” (The key to JOY)☞ Love for JesusThe greatest commandment & the 2nd commandmentMatthew 22:35-4035An expert in the law, tested [Jesus] with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”1 John 4:19-21 (NIV) – 19We love because He first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Jn 13:34-35 (NIV) - 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”Just as we wouldn’t listen very long to an orchestra whose instruments were out of tune, neither will the world listen to Christians who sound forth the gospel against a background of divisions and quarrels.If we are growing in our love for Jesus…If we truly DO love Jesus…The difference between duty and love is that the first represents Sinai and the second represents Calvary. Richard Braunstein The key to loving, or to growing in our love for Jesus… (1 John 4:19 – We love because…) ☞ Love for OthersI think most of would really LIKE to love others more, just as we desire to be loved. We need to remind ourselves often that we REALLY DO want this.Loving others means FAR MORE than merely loving those we find it easy to love. – We have all been blessed by others who have loved us, despite us.We need to become true LOVERS of PEOPLE, rather than merely lovers of those we enjoy.Mat. 5:43-46 (NCV)43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.’ 44But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. 45If you do this, you will be true children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on good people and on evil people, and he sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong. 46If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that. 47And if you are nice only to your friends, you are no better than other people. Even those who don’t know God are nice to their friends.Then there’s the man who said, “Lord, maybe Charlie Brown is right when he says he loves mankind, but it is people he cannot stand. You see, I love people in general more than I do individually.“Lord, it is like the joke about the father who yelled at his kids when they walked in the wet cement of his sidewalk; he can love them in the abstract, but never in the concrete.“Maybe I need to see a little more of You in them. And maybe I need to see a little more of You in me.” The Christian church is a society of sinners. It is the only society in the world in which membership is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership. Charles Clayton Morrison ☞ Love for You (ourselves)It is MUCH more enjoyable to love and to enjoy others than to dislike or hate them. The more we enjoy others, the more enjoyable they become – People can often sense when we find them difficult.Life is, in general, MUCH more enjoyable when we are in harmony with others… 2. The Method: (vv. 13 & 15) (for enjoying people)Open Lives, Open Homes & Open Hearts,☞ Open lives – Share with God’s people who are in need. – Investing in ministry; A Truth: We will find that we are far more attached to people when we invest in them, than vice versa.God has designed us to find true fulfillment in meeting other’s needs. ☞ Open Homes – Practice hospitalityHeb. 13:2 – Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.The value of hospitality in the church…Both lists of the characteristics of elders (1 Tim. 3:2 & Titus 1:7-8) include this. ☞ Open Hearts – 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.sharing others’ joy, sharing others’ pain, Women vs. men…This is one of the reasons it is SO important to support each other in our ministry attempts… | | A few years ago at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win.All, that is, except one boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times and began to cry.The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. They all turned around and went back. Every one of them. One girl with Down's Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, "This will make it better." All nine linked arms and walked across the finish line together.Everyone in the stadium stood - and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story. Why?Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What truly matters is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course. 3. The Madness: (vv. 14, 16-21) (of enjoying people)v. 21 – Overcome evil with good"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate," – Nikka - age 6 ☞ Be Committed to be a Blessing to ALLv. 14 – Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. We have a natural tendency to desire blessing for those who deserve it and not for those who don’t…THINK ABOUT THAT for moment… in light of the gospel… ☞ Be Committed to being a PeacemakerMatthew 5:9 (NIV) – Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God.James 4:17 (NIV) - The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving.vv. 16-18 – Live in harmony with one another…. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.The “3 F’s of Cheek Turning· Forbearing· Forgiving· Forgetting ☞ Be Committed to Humility v. 16b – Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.James 4:6 – God is opposed to the…But gives grace to the…· Pride: Thinking about oneself too much / · Humility: Thinking about oneself less· Conceit: Forgetting the gospel ☞ Refuse to Give In to Evil. vv. 17, 19-21 – 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil…. 19Do not take revenge…. 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.Whenever we allow anyone to motivate us to evil, we give them power over us.What does it mean for us to be “motivated to evil?”· Motivated to resentment / bitterness· Motivated to seek retribution/revenge· Motivated to hate (extreme dislike)· Motivated to refuse to love (have nothing to do with, write off, extend no grace…)· Motivated to fear· Motivated to pride (“Thank you, God, that I am not like…”)The examples of Jesus and of Stephen (Acts 7)An Armenian nurse had been held captive along with her brother by the Turks. Her brother was slain by a Turkish soldier before her eyes. Somehow she escaped and later became a nurse in a military hospital.One day she was stunned to find that the same man who had killed her brother had been captured and brought wounded to the hospital where she worked. Something within her cried out “Vengeance.” But a stronger voice called for her to love. She nursed the man back to health.Finally, the recuperating soldier asked her, “Why didn’t you let me die?” Her answer was, “I am a follower of Him who said, ‘Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you’ ” (Luke 6:27).Impressed with her answer, the young soldier replied, “I never heard such words before. Tell me more. I want this kind of religion.” Summary / Review:Remember our primary Motive: Love for GodThe Method: Loving those around us The Madness: When we overcome evil with good, we bring glory to God in one of two ways:Either we see a sinner won over to give the glory to God…Or, we will see God’s justice all the more glorified when we stand before Him (as well as His grace in our own lives and actions)Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. A Truth to Remember: Loving God and loving sinners are integrally bound up together such that we cannot truly do either without doing both. A Challenge to Consider: Are we actively and intentionally striving to love those whom we find most difficult to love, especially within the walls of the church? One thing I heard this morning was… |
