Injustice vs Truth

We are continuing our series on love this week, / / What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Last week we finished up vs 5 of 1 Corinthians 13, So we are 2 of our 4 verses done, but the next two verses will go much quicker. Today we are going to take on all of vs 6, so, let’s read it together and jump right in.

/ / Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

All of this can bring up some pretty heavy emotions. How do we deal with all of this? How do we make positive and proper changes to move toward loving more like Jesus? We looked at it a little bit last week, but it’s going to play into this week as well - what do we do with our emotions? How does that play into what we’re talking about? And I truly believe:

/ / We must learn to manage our emotions, or our emotions will manage our actions.

We could put it this way, and I like this. But i’ll ask it as a question. / / Do you think there is a difference between how we respond vs how we react?

/ / respond means to say something in return, to make an answer, or to show a favorable reaction, like in a medication, we respond to treatment…

/ / reaction on the other hand is to exert a reciprocal or counteracting force or influence. To change in response to a stimulus [something we have encountered]. To act in opposition to a force or influence, to move in a reverse direction.

I think these things are quite different.

Think of our emotions, and how they rule us or not. Think of how we respond in a positive way to someone, vs reacting out of our anger or fear.

We don’t say we’ve had a knee-jerk response, we have a knee-jerk reaction.

And we didn’t give a well thought out reaction, we gave a well thought out response.

/ / Learning to respond instead of reacting can go a long way in saving and developing healthy relationships.

So, when it comes to the things we talked about last week. / / Love does not demand its own way, it is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

Learning to respond instead of reacting will help in all of those areas. Taking the time to think through, why do I want to do this? Why do I want to say this? Why do I want to react in this way? Is this pushing a button? Is this a trigger for me? Why do I react when this person does this?

Rather than just letting it happen. Rather than being ruled by the emotions we feel, allowing our emotions to inform our responses.

What if Kelley and I were not interested in growing in love, and growing in our relationship? The issue of the cups lying around the house could be something that ends up becoming a major issue, not because it is a major issue itself, but things unchecked fester and grow. You can only clean up after someone for so long before you are really faced with the temptation to either give up on doing it, or you give up on the person you’re doing it for.

Ephesians 4:25-27 says, / / So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

A couple things here.

First of all, if you noticed “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” is in quotes. Paul is quoting King David from Psalm 4:4, / / Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.

The ESV translates Psalm 4:4 as / / Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah.

Selah is a word used in the psalms to instruct the musicians into a sort of musical interlude. A lot of the Psalms were written as songs. If you read in your bible, right under the chapter heading, usually there is a title that has been given to the Psalm, and then an instruction below. So Psalm 4 says, / / Answer Me When I Call To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

So, we know that David wrote this as a song and when it gets to the end of vs four, his instruction to the musicians is, “take a moment and just simply play gentle music to allow the reader, or listener to reflect on what has just been said.”

Now, there could be some confusion here - where the NLT says, / / …think about it overnight and remain silent. It may SOUND like David is saying think about being angry… but let’s just think through that. That actually makes no sense, does it? Why would David say, “If you’re anger, think about it all night, that’s the key to a great night sleep. Oh, and while listening to gentle soft music, Selah guys…” Of course not. I like the ESV because it shows a bit more clearly what David is saying, / / ...ponder in your own hearts on your beds.

Ponder what? Ponder WHY you’re angry. Not ABOUT the reason you’re angry. He’s not saying dwell on the anger. He’s saying, Have a think, ponder why you are angry in the first place, because the anger isn’t the issue, the anger is the indicator. Remember last week I said our emotions are God given. They are a gift, and often times what they are doing is showing us something about our hearts. Maybe something God wants to deal with, OR indicating there is something going on we need to pay attention to.

Anger in particular can be a very strong indicator that there is a problem.

I’m angry because there’s injustice.

I’m angry because someone hurt someone else.

I’m angry because people are sad, or abused, or hurting...

I’m angry because someone did something against me. And it hurts. And I wish they hadn’t.

See, / / Anger isn’t the issue… It’s what we DO with that anger that shows what is really going on in our hearts.

So David says, “ponder in your heart....” and then ads in that “Selah”, he’s saying “OK, take a moment, the instruments are just going to play gently in the background and give you time to connect with God on this.”

This is the reason Kelley made 2 and a half instrumental albums. I say 2 and a half because she has 2 full instrumental albums and then one album that has a good amount of instrumental music on it.

If you know the story of David, King Saul actually asked him to come to the palace and play his harp because he was emotionally and spiritually troubled, and the anointed music of David soothed him, it helped calm him down.

And if I can take a moment to brag on my wife for just a second. She is an anointed musician. Not just a good musician, but anointed, gifted to minister through music, through what David would call Selah moments.. So, we have CDs in the back, if you still have the ability to listen to CDs. Embraced is an Instrumental flute and piano album, and Heaven’s Whisper is the 1/2 instrumental. And they are both online as well. Amazon Music or whatever.

Basically, King David, who we should listen to, and Paul the Apostle, who we should listen to, are both advocating for what we call / / inner healing. Dealing with the issues of the heart that get in the way. Like I said, Anger isn’t the issue, the issues in our heart that make us react to why we are angry - that’s the issue. Maybe that is because of hurts from the past. Or our unwillingness to forgive someone, we’re holding on to the pain and the trauma. It could be demonic oppression or influence. Or Patterns and habits that we need God to heal and deliver us from in our lives.

Alright, both of these guys saying a thousand years apart, “Stop! Recognize WHY you are angry because the issue isn’t THAT you are angry, and it’s trying to point you toward something. Don’t let it sit, don’t go to sleep yet but examine your heart and ask God to work on you.”

Because how many know that the more time we give to a situation, the less important it feels?

The amount of times I’ve not dealt with something right away and then find myself saying, “Oh, I guess it’s not that big of an issue...” Except IT IS, and I’ve just held on to that and put that into my bank account of being wronged. It’s now ammunition in the gun of my emotional immaturity and aggression that’s going to come back at you next time we get into it.

Examine your heart.

So, quickly before we get into our 1 Corinthians scripture for today, because this is going to help us in these things. I’m going to give you King David’s 3 keys for freedom. And remember, King David is someone we should listen to.

David gives us the solution in Psalm 139:23-24. He says, / / Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Ok, so David’s three keys to freedom. First he asks the important question:

/ / Am I Wrong?

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

First thing He says to God is, “Am I the problem?”

He does this by offering himself to God in 3 different ways:

/ / Search Me

means to examine thoroughly

/ / Know My Heart

Two words here of note.

/ / yada [know] - intimate knowledge of someone

lebab [heart] - inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding

Test Me

bahan [test / try (ESV)] to test, prove, try (of gold). To make a trial.

David is saying, / / Look at the evidence (search me), look at my character (know my heart) and put me on trial (test me / try me).

The first thing he is saying to God is, Am I Wrong? AM I the Problem? - get into my business and don’t hold back. If it’s there, find it.

/ / Show me how I’m wrong!

Point out anything in me that offends you...

Now we’re on trial and we’re open to the verdict.

See, it’s not good enough to just say, “Sure, look at my life...” You have to be willing to actually take what God says to you and be willing to fix it.

Remember last week I said the Christian life is built upon this formula:

/ / Revelation + Application = Transformation

So, put me on trial for what purpose? To give me revelation. And I am going to put that revelation to good use. I’m going to apply it.

The word for “offend”, point out anything in me that offends you, means sorrow. David is saying, Put me on trial, find all the evidence in my life that you need SO YOU can show me what in my life brings you sorrow.

Think about it. We’ve been going over this a lot. Romans 3:23, / / For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

What happens when our kids don’t listen? If we’re having a good day we don’t get angry and yell and lose our cool, but we sure are disappointed, right? We feel sorrow. The fact that we saw what was good for them and we told them what they needed to do to succeed, but they chose to not listen. They chose to do their own thing and got hurt, or got a bad grade, or did the wrong thing....and that hurts us.

Remember, the definition of sin is to miss the mark.

So David is saying, / / Examine my life, my heart, my actions, my thoughts, all of it, put me on trial and tell me where and how I’ve missed the mark.

Now, praying these things is an open invitation to God that he actually accepts.

Again, in the story of David. In 2 Samuel 12 God sends the prophet Nathan to David, who is at the time the King of Israel. And David has definitely fallen short of God’s standard. The Bible says when all the other kings were out leading their armies in battle, David stayed home. And while he was at home, not out where he was supposed to be, he saw a pretty girl taking a bath on her roof and had his staff bring her to him, he sleeps with her, gets her pregnant, and then has the leaders of his army send her husband to the front of the battle so that he’s killed to cover the whole thing up.

When I say we should listen to David, I don’t mean he did it all right. Remember what Paul says, “Imitate me AS I imitate Christ”, meaning, in the ways that I do it right, but not in the ways I don’t. Same thing with David. Pray the prayer he prayed, “God, search me”, but don’t go sleep with another man’s wife and then have him killed to cover it up...

So the prophet Nathan comes and tells David this story, “There was a rich man, and a poor man, the rich man had all kinds of sheep, and the poor man just had one little sheep. The rich man came along and took that sheep and cooked it for dinner for a guest that was visiting him.” And David responds and says, “That’s terrible. that man deserves to die! AND he should pay back four times what he’s stollen from this poor man.”

Nathan looks at him and says, “Ya buddy, the man is you...”

Praying that we want God to examine our lives and tell us where we fall short requires the next step...

/ / Follow Through

…lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Jesus said, deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me.

The path to everlasting life is in allowing God to show us where we’ve fallen short, how we should live, that’s the revelation part, and then applying it to our lives, actually living by it, walking that road of following the ways and the actions of Jesus Christ, and through that we will be transformed. That is the promise!

Three Keys to freedom.

/ / 1.God, examine me

2. Tell me what’s wrong

3. Lead me to what’s right!

And with each of these things we’re looking at about love, we have to walk this road. Have I been patient? Do I even know how to be patient? God, examine my life and show me where I fall short in this thing called patience, called love… I want to do better. Show me how to walk in a way of love and patience that leads to life! kindness, not holding on to things, not keeping how I’ve been wronged as ammunition for a future fight....

So, let’s continue. 1 Corinthians 13:6, / / [Love] does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

/ / Love does not delight in evil (NIV) / wrongdoing (ESV) but rejoices with the truth.

/ / [Love] does not delight at unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. (Berean Literal Bible)

/ / Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. (TPT)

This is a tough one. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we kind of live in a world where people sort of celebrate what is wrong, and make a big deal out of the difficulties that people go through.

This was a real struggle when we were broken into a few years ago. The church was broken into 2 times, and then the school next door once. My sister in law Kim actually contacted some of the local news stations when it had first happened and 2 of them came out, one even came back the second break in, and so it was on the evening news a couple times. But how they reported it was very interesting.

First of all, they said this of me, “Pastor Robert Augi may be fuming with frustration...”

I wasn’t fuming with frustration. I was frustrated, but fuming was a little much.

And one of the greatest things that came from that time was that we organized a clean up day at the church. We had posted on social media and had about a dozen people come out, people we didn’t even know, to help us clean up. And we got so much done that day. Way more than I had hoped or expected.

On that same day the police came by and gave me the news that they had actually caught the people involved. Which was good news after 3 break ins that at least it wasn’t going to happen again.

I thought, wow, this is amazing stuff. Surely the news is going to want to report this. It’s the perfect follow up from a tragedy. Local church vandalized but the community rallies around them and helps them out. So I called them, explained the good news. No one came. They didn’t show up for the good news. But when we had been broken into they responded in 10 minutes!

Like I said, for me this became a reason to celebrate. Look at what God has done in the midst of what we are going through. But if anything that experience goes to show what people would rather focus on. Bad news sells… We have a saying, “No news is good news”, but I wonder sometimes if that’s backward because what it feels like people mean is… Good news is no news at all.

So, what’s this all mean? Love does not rejoice about injustice [wrongdoing] but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Remember, I’ve said a few times lately, when there’s a “but” you are being given the issue and the solution, or one side vs another side. So, if / / love does not rejoice about injustice, BUT.... meaning, I’m about to give you what you should do instead, / / it rejoices whenever the truth wins out. There’s a comparison here.

Let’s look at the first half, / / Love does not rejoice about injustice / wrongdoing / unrighteousness / evil / sin...

What does it mean to rejoice in these things?

I want to take two approaches here because I think this is a bigger topic than we realize.

/ / 1. Injustice

The word in the greek is / / adikia and it means all of these words we’ve said here, wrongdoing, unrighteousness, sin, evil, injustice etc...

The first thing I want to address - what we’re talking about here is / / …rejoicing when someone else has a wrong done to them. Rejoice means to be glad. So, one of the things Paul is saying here is, / / when something bad happens to someone else, don’t let it make you happy. And you might say, “Of course not, I wouldn’t do that.”

But the unwritten part is… no matter who the person is or what they’ve done.

if you think they deserve it or not.... if you think justice has been served, if you think they got what was coming to them...

Have you ever said, “Ya, well, he deserved it...” or, “Good, Justice has been served...” or “He got what was coming to him...” or “Ya, karma’s a _______ beast”

Have you noticed that in this social media, digital age we live in now, it seems that people are much more free to say things that they feel, or maybe they don’t even feel it, they just say it? And we have to be careful here.

2022 is of course a major election year. And the carelessness of words comes out in election years probably more than at any other time. Have you noticed that politicians somehow cease to be actual people, and become personifications of ideologies instead? Especially online, it’s like it’s ok to hate a politician like that’s a normal and acceptable thing to do. The person ceases to exist, only the office they hold remains, and if you don’t like the person in the office the person themselves gets all the anger, hatred, nasty words, curses etc...

Now, I keep preaching healthy community. Political standpoints may be the highest divider of community there is. Democrat vs. Republican. Right to Bear Arms vs. Gun Control. Pro-Choice vs. Pro Life. There is no shortage of hills people are willing to die on when it comes to the decisions in their lives.

I think the issue Paul is trying to get to here, in a lot of these things, is that Love chooses to focus on the PERSON, regardless of what differences we may have. To not look at people as less than you based on who they are, where they come from, what they believe etc… But that love chooses to love regardless of those things.

I’m not talking about what God has defined as sin, and removing the consequence of that. That’s not what I’m talking about. We don’t ignore sin. We don’t ignore bad theology or wrong thinking. What I’m talking about is the ability to love someone regardless of what they believe and regardless of whether they are sinning or not, or how different from you they are.

This is what the bible has already defined for us and is truer than true - All have sinned. He died for us anyway. All fall short. He gave us everything anyway. Romans 5:8, / / But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Even when we DO believe, how often are we like the father who said to Jesus, “I do believe, but help my unbelief!” Maybe I understand God’s love in one area of my life, but the rest I’m still catching up to his standard. This is why Paul says imitate me ONLY in the ways that I imitate Christ, because when it comes to be a sinner, I’m the worst of them all!

What makes me better than anyone else? nothing.

What makes me worse than anyone else? nothing.

Our humanity, our inability to measure up, our need for a savior is the great leveler of all mankind. We are all the same. We need a savior, and his name is Jesus Christ!

So, when it comes to someone having something done to them, even if you don’t like them, and there’s something in you that wants to rejoice.....bite your tongue as it pertains to the person.

Let’s take a very current and very difficult situation. And I say this with all the grace, and empathy I can toward those who have gone through this situation in the past week and those who lost someone. The tragedy is absolutely heartbreaking. What we saw happen in a small Texas town this past week. Innocent lives were taken from them, from their families, from their community, and I hope you are praying for that community, that they would experience the grace and the love of God and true healing. There is a community in pain and hurting.

As I thought about it - how does love respond? In light of what we are looking at and learning, how is love even supposed to respond to a situation as evil and horrible as this? And I am incredibly grateful that the perpetrator was stopped. Incredibly grateful. Who knows what damage he would have done if left to do it. But what I can’t do is rejoice at his demise. I don’t think there was any other way at that point. What you think about all the political issues that have arisen from it don’t matter in the moment. The man needed to be stopped and I don’t wish the decisions that people need to make in those moments on anyone. And it was the heroic action of an off duty border patrol officer that ended this tragedy. And as horrifying as what he did was. As unnecessary and as tragic as it is. I don’t rejoice at his death. Listen to what I am saying, because this is difficult, this is where scripture meets reality and it’s not always easy. I am glad he was stopped, but I don’t rejoice in his death.

We read Ephesians 4:26 earlier, and the ESV says it this way, / / Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

...give no opportunity to the devil.

Emotions, especially anger, unchecked, uncontrolled, unmanaged, can cause us to sin just as easily as the thing we are angry at. And the enemy loves to use any sort of opportunity to try and get us to sin.

If he can’t get you angry, he’ll get you happy over it - whatever it takes to get you to sin, to fall short of God’s standard, which is love.

Love doesn’t have to accept the sin, it doesn’t have to change its morals, it is simply called to love in the face of the situation. If we truly want to be like Jesus, can we say in the face of being treated wrongly, unrighteously, unjustly, and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?” Which is exactly what Jesus prayed as he hung on the cross, brutally beaten and mocked...

Love doesn’t rejoice in these things, or take pleasure, get happy, over wrongs done to someone else....even if they deserve it.

The second aspect of love does not rejoice that I want to look at is:

/ / 2. Evil Itself

The other side of this is that: Ever since there has been sin, there have been those who advocate for it as an acceptable way of life.

Since there has been a recognition of what is right and wrong, there have been those who would live their lives choosing to live in what is wrong.

Isaiah 5:20 says, / / What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.

Even Paul warns Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, he says, / / For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

The book of Colossians 2 warns of this as well. Again, this is Paul writing and in vs 6-8 it says, / / And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

Listen to how he says that. High-sounding nonsense. He knows it’s nonsense, but it’s confusing for people who don’t have a solid foundation of the Truth because the enemy is no fool, he makes deception sound like truth. That’s why it’s called deception and not just the straight up lie we all know that it is.

And this isn’t just outside of the church, it’s not always obvious. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, / / Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.

A prophet is one who speaks on behalf of God, a false prophet is one who comes acting like they are speaking on behalf of God but are actually speaking their own words, or the words of the enemy.

This is why we continually take the posture of Romans 12:2, / / Do not be conformed to this world...

Do you recognize that the world, the system, the enemy will continually try to conform you to its’ standard. But we are not called to live by the worlds standard, we are not even called to live just above the world’s standard. We are called to live by God’s standard. That is the standard to which we have been called, and anything less than that is falling short of it. It might sound harsh, but the reality is we are called to holiness, righteousness, following the way of Jesus above all else. To deny ourselves for the sake of following Christ. Not following what the world says is good. Not following what the world says is right. But what God says. The truth as defined by God.

The rest of Romans 12:2, / / … but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Going from one belief to another. From what I see as true to what He says is true.

/ / Love does not rejoice, get happy, in a lie parading as the truth.

Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, in evil, in sin, in unrighteousness. It’s not cute. It’s not, “oh, it’s not big deal”. No, Love takes this seriously and chooses to live a life of righteousness and holiness before God.

That is the comparison here. Paul says, / / Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing BUT… remember, that means listen up, I’m about to tell you what to do instead… BUT rejoices in the truth.

It’s interesting, the first part of this verse has a few different words that are used. wrongdoing, injustice, evil, sin, unrighteousness, But in the second half of the verse of the 27 translations that biblehub gives you up front, 25 of them say the same word rejoice [rejoices / rejoiceth], and all 27 of them use the word truth.

And I find that a little strange - / / Is truth the opposite of wrongdoing?

I would’ve thought if we were doing opposites here it would be evil, or sin, or wrongdoing vs good, righteousness, living an upright life. But instead Paul says truth. And what he says here is that love rejoices IN the truth, or some translations say WITH the truth, the NLT says, / / love rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

This is a really important distinction, because love and truth don’t always feel like they mix. We live in a world where people claim “my truth” that is in direct opposition to The Truth, and in that they claim love. “This is my truth, and you have to accept me for who I am. And isn’t that what Christianity is all about? Love? How can God go against this if I enjoy it, if it feels good, if it feels right?”

But, feelings can be deceptive, which is why Paul says, Be angry and do NOT sin. Don’t let your feelings, your emotions, what you sense and feel be the avenue that the enemy uses to get you to sin!

The Life Application commentary says: / / Through their relationship with Jesus Christ, believers possess the one and only truth [ John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life]. Those who love should remain untainted by evil. Instead, they ought to always seek truth, desire that truth wins out, protect the truth, and proclaim the truth whenever possible.

We’ve talked about this before, in John 8:31-32 Jesus says, / / “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

/ / Knowing the truth comes after being faithful to the teachings of Jesus because in the teachings of Jesus IS the truth. We don’t get to define truth. We don’t get to claim our own truth. Yes, there is what seems true. Yes, there is what has happened, which is true. BUT, even in the face of rejection, I was rejected, it is true, I am NOT rejected because I am loved and accepted by God, “Jesus loves me this I know...” I am loved and accepted by my Heavenly Father, the Love of God has been poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit. THAT is the truth. So regardless of what I have experienced. EVEN if that means I have experienced rejection in a situation, I am NOT rejected - I am loved… wholly accepted by God.

So there is what is true to me, and then there is the truth, and the truth is what sets you free. It being true that I was rejected doesn’t set me free. It being true that I have suffered rejection at the hands of many people does not set me free. But faithfully pursuing, embracing and living by the teachings of Jesus, which in this case would be realizing, understanding, encountering and receiving the Love of God - that DOES set me free.

It is true that I have a propensity to eat sugar. It is true I have a human, earthly, sinful desire to eat sugar and carbs like nobodies business. But that never set anyone free, did it? No, of course not. Accepting the truth of my addiction didn’t set me free. Accepting the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and being FAITHFUL to his teaching that leads to life is what sets me free! And like Colossians 2 says, Just like I accepted Christ, accepted that truth I must CONTINUE to follow Him. I must continue to pursue truth. I must make truth a goal, a purpose.

Love rejoices with, is happy with, focuses on the truth!

Here’s the thing, it’s not always easy. Sometimes looking at the truth is hard to do. I don’t always want to look at the truth. I’m quite comfortable living in my own mess, my own stuff, my own sin… we even say, “Ignorance is bliss...” I was perfectly healthy before I went to the Dr and he told me what was wrong with me...

But, this is the thing, the more I see the truth and the more I realize the standard of God for my life, the more I realize that he doesn’t give us a standard to put a damper on our fun, or to control us, or to have his own way. He does it because he truly knows what’s best for us. And he doesn’t tell us to do it on our own - we get to walk OUT of our sin following Jesus Christ.

To go back to the story of when the church was broken in to. One of the reason that it bugged me so much that the news stations didn’t come out when the news had turned good, was because I wanted our community to be able to rejoice in the good news. I wanted the focus to shift from what people were commenting about the kids that broke in, “who breaks into a church...” “what kind of ingrates...” etc… which was just adding fuel to the fire of condemnation on these kids who for whatever reason were inclined to do this in the first place. I mean, they were 13 and 14 years old. But rather than continue to condemn them I wanted to see them set free, because condemnation never set anyone free, only the truth can do that...

Ultimately, what 1 Corinthians 13:6 comes down to is a choice. When wrong happens, when sin happens, when something bad happens, what will focus be and how will we handle our response? What will we speak? Will we join with the negative, or will we bring in the truth?

Every time we are faced with a situation where we can condemn or speak life…choose to speak life!

Philippians 4:8 is one of my favorite verses, it says, / / Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

I would imagine you have had this experience. I think it happens often. Someone comes to you and says something about someone else. How they hurt them, how they were a terrible person, what they did wrong. And like I said, this year being a big political year, we’re going to have a lot of finger pointing, a lot of people talking about other people.

I was at a red light one day and there was a man there, came to my window, asked me for some change. And for whatever reason he started telling me about this guy over at a restaurant that wouldn’t let him in. He points over because the guy is now in the parking lot cleaning up and he does not hold back… starts telling me how much of a _________ the guy was, how rotten he is.

Talk about a perfect example of 1 Corinthians 13:6… In that moment I have 2 choices:

Agree with him, because I want him to feel good, even in my misguided attempt to brighten his spirit by agreeing with him, I’m actually condemning the other person, and really what I’m doing is rejoicing in the wrongdoing.

Thankfully I felt God’s heart in the moment and I just say, “Ya, but you can’t hold on to that, can you? That’s not going to get you anywhere, is it?”

Ya know what happened? He looks at me and says, “Ya, man, you’re right, I need to forgive this guy, don’t I...”

Certainly not saying I get it right all the time, I don’t even know if I get it right half the time. But, in that moment I was able to rejoice in the truth. You don’t have to stay angry, hurt and bring that into someone else’s life. You can be free, but you have to let it go... The bible says we are to forgive, just as God has forgiven us. That’s the truth! And whether this guy believes in Jesus or not - or for ourselves when we have the opportunity like this. Choosing NOT to forgive puts us in a prison of our own making. But when we apply the truth, forgiveness sets you free.

The other way just fuels the anger and resentment.

The ESV translates John 8:31 as, / / If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Abide means to remain in, to dwell, to make your home in…the truth.

/ / If love rejoices in the truth, or WITH the truth, then love is happy every time it has the opportunity to present the truth, whether that is in word, action or deed.

Here’s what it is:

Our lives become a representation of the truth because as we follow Jesus, as we abide in his word, in his teachings, our lives exemplify His truth, and that is what love does, it marries itself to the truth, it connects itself, it does everything it can to own the truth and live by it, live in it, live out of it.

If you abide in his teaching. think about it, abide means to make your home in. So think of yourself being surrounded by the teachings of Jesus. The truth as defined by God. Then everything you do is filtered through that.

What happens IN your house (in your life) is based on, surrounded by, centered in His truth.

What you receive into your life, has to come through the front door of the truth, you receive into your life based on His truth. Which means, when deception comes, if you are abiding in His truth, in His teachings, then it won’t get past the door!

What you put OUT of your life, or, everything that comes out of your life. When people experience you, what you say or do, will come out of His truth.

I’ve said this before, I think it is absolutely critical that you understand this. If you do not know the truth, if you are not abiding in it, living in it - when testing comes you will be swayed and pushed around like the waves in the sea, which will cause you to make decisions based on feeling, not foundation.

That’s what Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-25, / / Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.

When I know the truth, and I have already decided that my life is to live by that truth, then when any decision needs to be made I already know the answer. I already know what I’m going to do. I’ve already decided.

I have decided, to follow Jesus, I have decided, to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, still I will follow...

The world behind me, the cross before me...

/ / To rejoice in the truth you must know the truth and for the truth to set you free you must not just simply know the truth but like Jesus says you must be faithful to it....

Let’s stand up this morning and I want you to pray with me. I can’t answer for you, but I know for me, this series is just a little bit triggering. It’s pushing the right buttons, asking the right questions, making me look at and analyze my life and asking, “Am I truly following Jesus? Am I really living by the way of love? If someone sees my life, would they say of me, ‘Yes, that’s a disciple of fJesus, that’s a follower of Jesus, I can tell because of how they handled that situation. I can tell because of what they just did. I can tell because of what they just said when they could have said something else.’”

And that’s not a bad thing at all my friends. If Jesus can show me the truth and change the way I think and give me the courage to apply those things to my life, then I will be transformed. And so will you if you do the same!

Can you pray with me:

Heavenly Father, I want to represent you. I want my life to represent the way of Jesus. I want my life to show the love you have for people. Help me to not rejoice when others are wronged. Help me not be happy when things go wrong for those I don’t agree with. Help me see wrongdoing, sin, and evil for what it really is. Would you give me a desire and a passion to seek your truth. Give me courage and strength to live by that truth. Give me grace and mercy to love out of your truth, regardless of who it is, or what they have done. I want to rejoice in the truth. In Jesus name, Amen.