Well, good afternoon, every one. This is certainly a pleasure to be up here again in Southern Illinois here. And I believe this is my fourth year in a row of picnic coming up here during the summer. And I have to say I say I always receive a very warm welcome here and just feel at home every time I come up and see everybody. So, I just greatly appreciate that.
Also, I want to give a greeting to the Portland Congregation who is watching us and for everyone out there that I like to call DVD Land who will be watching this later when the DVD is sent out. I can kind of relate to that because in our congregation in Dallas, we're basically DVD Land as well because most of the time we watch the DVDs for our services unless occasionally we have a live service. We're kind of in the same boat.
Before we get started, I just wanted to share a brief story will you all. This year, Pentecost weekend, several of us were sitting around just fellowshipping and telling stories one day. And the story, the subject happened to come up of religious groups that will go door-to-door to your house and such to try to convert you to their beliefs and such.
And Nina Copeland, who some of you may know from the Feast, she's a member in West Texas. She got to sharing a story with us of a group that came to her front door and kind of the experience she had with them. So, they knock on her front door and are talking to her. And, of course, they have their pamphlets and their brochures that they want to give to her. And they're kind of being pushy about it and she nicely tries to tell them, "No. No thanks. I'm not really interesting in that." Well, they finally kind of give up on the pamphlets.
And then, they switch gears. Then they want to give her a picture. And they have some pictures of what they would consider pictures of Jesus. So, they're kind of pushing that on her. And they're being particularly aggressive about it. She's nicely trying to tell them, "No thanks." And then, she finally thought about, I think, a very wise way to handle the situation. She looked at him and said, "I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal with you. If you can get me an autographed copy, that one I'll accept!" (Laughter!)
I just wanted to share that. I thought that was a particularly wise way to handle that situation!
Well, Brethren, when we look around at the Church of God today—and understand whenever I use or refer to the term "Church of God," I'm using what I call the Biblical definition. In other words, all of God's people with His holy spirit, wherever they are, whatever group that they are in, because that is how the Bible defines the Church—But if we look at the Church of God today, it's not hard to see we are definitely in the Laodicean Era. Honestly, if you look at the Church of God today, it's honestly kind of a sad picture in what has happened and the situation that we are all in.
We are very divided. You can see hundreds of organizations. Not just different organizational affiliations and such, but oftentimes people in great conflict with each other. They won't affiliate with each other, won't talk to each other because they're in different groups or argue and debate with one another. And there is lots of conflict and strife. There is lots of division. There is every idea in the world that you can imagine. And it's certainly not validating all of that, but there is every kind of idea that you can imagine being taught. And, again, if you look at the description in Revelation 3 of Laodicea, we are definite in that time—again, not a very pretty picture!
But, if we look in the Olivet Prophecy, Christ prophesied for us that the Church in the end-time was going to get into a very sad shape. In fact, what we are going to look at today in kind of a way of a lengthy introduction into the subject we're going to get to is kind of the ugly picture, He painted for us as to what the Church would become. But more importantly what we are going to focus on here is Christ gave us some good insights in that as to what we can do to see that we individually don't fall into these conditions. And that is ultimately what we are going to focus on, but, as I mentioned, we're going to have kind of a lengthy introduction in getting to that particular point.
So, if you would turn with me to Matthew 24, we're going to look at a prophecy that Christ shared with us specifically referring to the Church of God today. And, as I mentioned, we're going to have kind of a lengthy introduction before we get to the main point we're trying to address today. So, just kind of keep that in mind that what we're going through here is, again, just a way to kind of set that up.
We're going to read a section of Scripture I'm sure we're all pretty familiar with. It is Matthew chapter 24 and we're going to start reading in verse 10. It says:
Matthew 24:10. "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11) "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12) "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (NKJ)
Now, we know in looking at this section of Scripture this is specifically referring to the Church of God. And the reason I say that is because in verse 12, it refers to "the love of many growing cold." The Greek word there for "love" is agape. As we all know that is a spiritual form of love that we get from the holy spirit. The only people capable of having their agape love grow cold are those who have received God's holy spirit and had agape love in the first place. I mean it is just simple logic. You can't have something grow cold that you were not capable of having. So, obviously this is referring specifically to the Church of God.
Now, what we are going to focus on again as far as our introduction here is on verse 10. It says, "many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another."
Now, I know in recent years in the Church—and I say even I myself have believed in and taught this very idea, but I'm going to challenge this today—is the idea is this referring specifically, is the fulfillment of this what we are seeing in the Church today? Because, if you notice—I mean it is not hard to see—do we have a lot of people offended and upset at each other and treating each other badly, verbally assassinating one another, lots of conflict and such? Yes, we do! But is that really what this verse is telling us? Is that the full meaning of what this verse is getting at? And, actually, I'm going to show you it is not. And the reason being is if we focus in on what the word "betray" here means and we, again, look at the context of that and everything and we can put together a picture of exactly what Christ was referring to here.
Because we oftentimes use the English word "betray" to have kind of a broad definition. We say, "This person betrayed my confidence." In other words, I shared something with them that I entrusted them to keep quiet and they blabbed it to other people. And I feel betrayed." Or "This is a person that I trusted and I had a close relationship with them, thought they were my friend, they were going to treat me well and they wound up treating me very badly. And I feel stabbed in the back. I feel betrayed." There are various ways like that that we use the English word "betray" in our common usage today.
Now the Greek word here used as "betray" has a very specific meaning. And we're going to see this not only in the meaning of the word, but in the context it is used in. It doesn't have this kind of broader meaning of just kind of being treated badly. It has a very narrow, specific meaning. And to cover this, I'm going to show you the Greek word here is paradidomi (par-ad-id'-o-mee). It is "p-a-r-a-d-i-d-o-m-i." It's Strong's number 3860. And the definition I'm going to share with you is out of The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament by Spiro Zodhiates. And here's how he defines this word. He says:
… to deliver over or up to the power of someone; spoken of persons delivered over with evil intent to the power or authority of others as to magistrates for trial or condemnation…
Now, if you look at that definition, you can see that is a pretty specific definition of what this is getting at. It is not just broadly defining this as a trusted friend treated another badly. It is saying to deliver over to the power of authorities, like magistrates, with evil intent for the purposes of trial and condemnation. Now, if you think about that, again [it is a] very specific meaning.
Certainly, this Greek word can be used, translated into other English words besides "betray," because, again like a lot of words in context, it can have different variations of meaning, but if you take a Strong's concordance and you look up the English words "betray," betrayed," the various forms of the word "betray" used in the New Testament, what you are going to find is this particular Greek word is what's translated that in every single case!
What you are also going to find is there are basically two contexts that it is used in. One, in the most often how it is used other than three times it occurs, other than those three, it always refers to Christ's betrayal. Now think about that. When the Bible refers to Christ's betrayal, it always has a very specific meaning.
Now, Christ got treated badly by lots of people. The Pharisees were always on His case about something. They were always trying to pick a fight with Him. They were always verbally assassinating Him. Lots of conflict and accusations were going on, but that's not what's referred to when it talks about Christ being betrayed.
When it refers to His betrayal, it's always referring to the actions of Judas Iscariot and what happened at the end of His life. Now how did he betray him? He conspired with the authorities to turn Him over with evil intent for trial or condemnation. If you think about it, that is exactly what happened. And if you look at it in that context, it becomes very clear this is what this word means because that is what Judas was accomplishing when he betrayed Him.
But now let's also look at—I said there were three other times it is used that it is not referring specifically to Christ's betrayal. Those are all in the Olivet Prophecy. One of them, we just read. Now, let's look at the other two and what we are going to see here is these consistently have the same type of meaning as well. Turn with me over to Mark chapter 13 and verse 11. And realize, as I mentioned, we haven't gotten to our main subject yet. This is all setting this up. It's Mark chapter 13 and we'll start reading in verse 11.
Mark 13:11. "But when they arrest you and deliver you up, (NKJ)
Notice how this starts off.
Mark 13:11b. … do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
12) "Now brother will betray brother… (NKJ)
Notice we're using this word "betray," but notice the type of betrayal.
Mark 13:12b. … to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. (NKJ)
And notice, again, we're not just talking about brother treating brother badly. We are talking about being turned over with evil intent to the authorities for trial or condemnation. That is the exact meaning we're getting at.
Now, let's turn to Luke 21 and we are going to see the same type of thing here. Luke 21 and we are going to start reading in verse 12. He says:
Luke 21:12. "But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.
13) "But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.
14) "Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
15) "for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
16) "You will be betrayed… (NKJ)
Now, notice this word being used again.
Luke 21:16b. … even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will [send] some of you to [your] death. (NKJ)
Notice, once again, we're talking about being betrayed, but it's not betraying someone's confidence. It's turning them over with evil intent to the authorities for trial or condemnation. Now, with all this in mind, let's go back to chapter 24 of Matthew, but this time, I'll start reading with the verse prior in verse 9, because if we read the verse before—and again consider all the context of everything else we just read—it becomes a lot clearer what He is saying. Matthew 24 and verse 9:
Matthew 24:9. "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
10) "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. (NKJ)
Again, if you view it in that context and, again, looking at how the other two Olivet Prophecy uses have used this and how it is used in every case when it is referring to Christ's betrayal, we have a very consistent picture here. In this case, it always means being handed over to the authorities with evil intent for trial or condemnation.
That is not something we have seen in the Church of God, yet. But if you look at this picture and what we are about to put together here, unfortunately we have seen a lot of bad behavior in the Church of God. We have seen a lot of conflict. We've seen the Church get into a scary condition. Unfortunately, we haven't seen anything yet. We are going to look at how to avoid this condition later, but let's put together the whole picture here.
Now, let's also look at the whole sentence here. Notice it says, "many will be offended." Let's also look at what that word "offended" means. Now, also think about how we typically use the word "offended" in English. We'll say, "I found that offensive. That person offended me," or such. Oftentimes what we are saying when we say that is "I found this upsetting. This person hurt my feelings. That rubbed me wrong. I was upset by what happened there. That's why I found it offensive or I offended this other person."
That is oftentimes how we use that word, but again, that is not exactly what the Greek word is saying here. It has a different focus. It is not just referring to upsetting or something we found upsetting. Again, let me share with you the Greek word here. It is skandalizo (skan-dal-id'-zo). It's "s-k-a-n-d-a-l-i-z-o." It's Strong's number 4624.
And, again, I'm going to quote from The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament by Spiro Zodhiates. Zodhiates has kind of a lengthy write-up on this word and I'm only going to read to you excerpts from it because he kind of goes through it in different contexts and uses and tenses of this word and the other types of meanings it can have. So, again, just for clarity and brevity's sake, I'm going to go through just some excerpts of this. What you are going to see is even in various tenses and such, there is the same core meaning it is getting to in every case. Again, just reading some excerpts here, it says:
… to cause to stumble and fall. In the New Testament figuratively, to be a stumbling block to someone; to cause to stumble at or in something; to give a cause of offense to someone; to cause to offend, lead astray, lead into sin; be a stumbling block for the occasion of one sinning; to be offended; be led astray or into sin, fall away from the truth…
Now understand we're not just talking about people getting upset with one another. We are talking about something that becomes a stumbling block for an individual that they fall into sin and they fall away from the truth, ultimately. That is the type of offense we're talking about.
So, now if we kind of start putting the sentence together" "and many shall be offended, shall stumble, shall fall into sin, fall away from the truth and shall betray one another, deliver others over with evil intent to magistrates or the governing authorities for trial or condemnation and shall hate one another." Well, if you think about it, if you doing that version of betrayal to someone else, you definitely hate them! If you're putting that picture together, because, again, this isn't just treating somebody badly or saying "I'm more righteous than you or I'm better than you," you are literally delivering someone up to their death.
Now, let's look at something even a little more scary. What does the word "many" mean here. The word "many" here is the Greek word polus (pol-oos'). It is "p-o-l-u-s." It is Strong's number 4183.
And again, I'm going to quote from The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament by Spiro Zodhiates. Now, he has a lengthy write-up on this word as well. As you can imagine, a word that is translated as "many" in the New Testament is used a lot. There are lots of different uses of it. You could say it's used many, many times. And it can have various shades of meaning, again depending upon the context.
And the definition I'm going to give you I'm going to put disclaimers on this. I'm not dogmatically saying it has to have this severe meaning, but I'm going to share with you what Zodhiates suggests as a meaning for this section of Scripture in Matthew 24 because when we use the word "many" at a minimum it has a meaning of a significant number. When we say "There was many of this," or "There were many of that," we're getting across the idea that there was a significant number. Now that can be a small number. That can be a huge number, but, again, depending upon the usage or how we use that word. When Zodhiates refers to this, here's the meaning he suggests for this section of Matthew 24. He says:
… also the many meaning the most, the greater number, but implying exceptions.
Now what that would suggest—and I'm saying "suggest" because I'm not dogmatically saying it has to have this meaning—but at a minimum we're saying a significant number of the Church because notice it says "to one another." In the other cases in Mark 13 and in Luke 21, it said, "brother will do this, father, mother, acquaintances and such." And we typically look at that as our unconverted family or friends and such and that is probably accurate. In this case, it is referring to "one to another." So, again, we are talking about Church member doing this to Church member because these are the only people who could have agape love and could have it grow cold.
So, if you look at this, it is possibly meaning "the most, the greater number, shall be offended, fall into sin, fall away from the truth to the point that they would betray one another, deliver others over with evil intent for trial or condemnation and hate one another." That's an ugly picture. Isn't it? If you think, about that, that is very sobering. That is scary. And we know if Jesus Christ told us "This is the prophecy for the Church of God," this is going to happen.
And, again, it doesn't necessarily have to mean the most, the greater number. At a minimum it means a significant number.
But let me just put a couple of other thoughts in here. And I'm just going to couch this as "food for thought," because, again, I'm not trying to dogmatically say that "many" has to mean the most, the greater number. But turn with me over to Matthew chapter 22. We're just going to look at a couple of Scriptures here. And, again, this is food for thought just to consider. No dogmatic conclusions being made from this. Matthew chapter 22, the first fourteen verses here are a parable referring to the Wedding Supper. And basically it's describing who winds up as part of the Bride at the Marriage Supper. Notice the very last verse in verse 14.
Matthew 22:14. "For many are called, but few are chosen." (NKJ)
With that in mind, turn over just a couple of pages here to chapter 20. In chapter 20 here the first sixteen verses are the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Again, as Christ tells this parable, He is saying this is about the Kingdom of God and who makes it into the Kingdom of God. Notice the very last verse, verse 16.
Matthew 20:16. "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." (NKJ)
Again, I'm just putting that out as food for thought. I'm not trying to make a dogmatic conclusion from that. But it is a very sobering picture as we look at it if we think of this being the future of the Church of God before we get to the very end.
Now, let's get to the main subject that this sermon is about. Christ gave us insight in this warning in Matthew 24 of what we can do to see that we don't fall into this category. Because, again, if Christ told us this is what's going to happen in general, we know that is what is going to happen in general. But we are all free moral agents and He wants us all to make it into His Kingdom. He wants us all to succeed and He gives us the warnings and instructions of how to do that. So, let's look at the insight He gave us as to how we can avoid this happening to us as individuals.
Turn back over to Matthew chapter 24. The key we're going to focus on here is verse 12.
Matthew 24:12. "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (NKJ)
What we are going to see here is this is the key to keeping all these ugly things from happening to us as individuals because it is the love of many growing cold that sets up the situation for this whole ugly picture to happen. And what we are going to see here is that not letting our agape love grow cold really immunizes us in many ways from being vulnerable for all this to happen. And if you would like a title for this sermon, it is The Love of Many Will Grow Cold because that's what we are going to focus on here as the solution to, again, avoiding this problem.
So, I've made the claim in the statement here that not letting our agape love grow cold is the key and it basically can immunize us from falling into this problem. How do I know that?
Turn with me to Psalm chapter 119 and we're going to see this illustrated in the Bible. Psalm 119 and we're going to read verse 165. It says:
Psalm 119:165. Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. (NKJ)
Notice what we said "many shall be offended means"—to stumble, to fall into sin, to fall away from the truth. He says:
Psalm 119:165. Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. (NKJ)
If they have a strong love for God and His agape love, a love for His Law, for Him, for His people, that immunizes us, that grounds us. Yes, we will have our problems. Yes, we will get hit with our trials. And, yes, we will have to struggle with our human nature. Don't get me wrong. I'm not painting a picture here that everything is perfect. But that is something that anchors us and keeps us from being blown about. It keeps us from stumbling and falling into this, if we cling to that and we have that character thriving within ourselves, that really immunizes us.
Let's look at another Scripture that verifies this same point. Turn with me over to I John chapter 2 and we're going to start reading in verse 9.
I John 2:9. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
10) He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (NKJ)
Again notice like what I said what offense meant—to stumble, to fall into sin, to fall away from the truth. It says, "He who fully has God's agape love—loving His Law, loving His people, loving Him—and stays strong in that, nothing causes them to stumble." If you don't stumble and fall into sin, you don't wind up betraying others; you don't wind up hating others. It sets off the whole formula. It immunizes us against that.
Why is that? Why is this character trait so incredibly important and is the key to avoiding all of this? Turn over to I John chapter 4 and verse 7.
I John 4:7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (NKJ)
He's saying, "This is the very essence of God's character, His nature. It is the overriding principle of everything that He does." And that is how He wants us to think. That is the very character He wants to build in us because it not only molds us in His image, it anchors us in connection with Him and, again, keeps us from falling into sin from stumbling. Now, that doesn't mean we're going to live a sinless life and we're going to be perfect. We're certainly going to make our mistakes, but again, that keeps us from falling away, from falling off the path, from falling into sin to the point we start endangering our salvation. That is a key characteristic trait. Again, it is the overriding principle. It is the most important thing that we can know and do in our lives.
So, how do we prevent our love from growing cold? Well, let's think about it. What did it say was the cause of love growing cold? "Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."
Now, you don't have to turn there because I'm sure everybody knows it by heart. But I John 3 verse 4 tells us what? "Sin is the transgression of God's law." As a number of translations actually state it, "Sin is lawlessness." In other words, sin and lawlessness are the same thing. So, what is sin? What causes love to grow cold? Sin does. Sin causes love to grow cold. That is what extinguishes it from our lives. What we're going to see today is that there are two major ways that can happen.
One is kind of the obvious. It's the one that we think of probably the most when we think of that Scripture. And, that is, allowing sin to grow in our own lives. You know falling into sin, getting off the path, allowing sin to take hold in our own personal lives. That's certainly a way that causes our love to grow cold.
But there is another major way that happens as well. You see sin has a ripple effect.
Think of it like this: If you were to go down to the pond here and you took a rock with you and you went and you threw it in the water. What would you see happen? You're going to see not only the rock affect the water where it hits right there, you're going to see a ripple effect that comes out in every direction away from where that hit. And the larger the rock that you throw in, the bigger ripple effect that you are going to see because there is basically a shockwave that goes out from that in every direction. And, again, how big it is depends upon how big of a rock you throw in. If you throw in a little pebble, you are just going to see little rings that kind of run around it. If you throw in a big rock, you are going to see waves kind of coming from it.
To play off that same concept, if you have an earthquake in the ocean, what do you get? A tsunami—a big huge wave that goes rolling away from it and can hit the shore and just cause devastation!
Sin is the same kind of thing. See, sin doesn't just affect the individual who commits the sin. Sin has a ripple effect. And, again, the bigger the sin, the longer it goes on, the bigger the ripple effect, the more people that get hurt. And oftentimes, those that get hurt are innocent bystanders. They weren't the person that committed the sin. They weren't the person that they themselves made the bad choices and did that. Oftentimes those actions can wind up hurting everybody who is around them, because, again, that ripple effect goes out and hits them.
So, we're going to look at both these ways that this can cause our love to grow cold today. But for starters, let's start off with, again, what I consider the more obvious one—the thing that we think about typically when we look at this Scripture. And that is, our own personal sinning.
Now, turn with me over to I John chapter 2 and verse 15. It says:
I John 2:15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (NKJ)
Now notice that. Loving the world and a love of God are inversely correlated. In other words, the more you have of one, the less you have of the other. And they always have that inverse relationship with one another and they squeeze each other out.
Let's pick up in verse 16.
I John 2:16. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (NKJ)
In other words, if we love the world that is around us, if we love the things of it, if our focus in on that and on the physical, it naturally just starts squeezing God out of our lives. It extinguishes that love that is so important for us not only in just developing God's character and becoming more and more like Him, but surviving the world that we live in and surviving the circumstances, the trials that we are up against that try to prevent us from being in God's Kingdom. As we see, they can create a very, very ugly picture in us individually and in our future.
But if we are more focused on the spiritual, upon God's will, again the more of His love we have, the less we love the world, the more we want to push the world out of our lives, the more we want to choose differently.
Because we have to think about it you know. If we look at how are we—let's say how are we programmed physically? As physical human beings, we're focused on the here and now. Aren't we? It's just naturally how we are wired. We're focused on we want—immediate results. We want comfort and pleasure today. And we get focused on our own entertainment and our own what we are doing today.
And then Christianity is the exact opposite! Isn't it? Because God doesn't say in the New Covenant, "I'm promising you all blessings and all good times if you obey Me." He says the opposite! He says, "I want you to obey Me. And, yes, I'm going to bless you, but the real important blessings, those are coming after this movie is done." And He said, "I'm going to promise you this is going to be hard and it is going to be difficult. And you are going to have to overcome adversity. I'm going to help you through the whole time and I'm going to bless you, but this ain't gonna be easy! This isn't going to be a bed of roses. This is going to be tough! But let me tell you when it is over, I've got this great reward I want to give you. And it's all going to be worth it." But what is He saying? He said, "This is deferred compensation." In other words, you are going to get paid at the end this great prize when it's over. You're a lottery winner when this thing is over, but right now it is going to be tough! And it's going to be hard"
So, our focus has to be—that's why it says, "the just have to live by faith," because we have to live by the faith that at the end of this movie, there is this great reward. But we have deferred compensation that all gets paid later. And we have to focus on the spiritual now to get us through all of this.
Because let's look at the world that we live in. Let's look at a common Scripture that we often turn to in looking at— Turn to 2 Timothy. I'm sure you are all familiar with this section of Scripture. It's very often quoted when we look at the world we live in today. It's 2 Timothy 3 and we'll start reading in verse 1.
2 Timothy 3:1. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (NKJ)
In other words, get away from that whenever you can! But we live in a world saturated with all of this. It bombards us everywhere—through our entertainment, through people that we interact with, through everything about our society—and it can wear us down.
But we all think about some of these characteristics as "Yeah that is sin." And it is, but you know we can suddenly fall into things like this without realizing it. Because notice it says, "the more we love this world, the love of God is not in us." They are inversely correlated with each other. This can be as subtle as how we prioritize our time in our lives.
Do our careers become more important to us than our relationship with God? In other words, do we spend so much time pursuing getting ahead in life, in this physical life, that we neglect to focus on God in our spiritual life? Do we come more focused on our hobbies or things that we do for entertainment? Again, various physical things that there are nothing inherently wrong with them in themselves. It's not bad to do good on your job. It's not bad to be entertained and have fun in hobbies and spending time with your family. But if we get focused again totally on the physical and what benefits us today and what is pleasurable today and we neglect the things of God, what are we doing? Aren't we loving this world and the physical and what is around us more than we are loving God? And what does that do to us? That extinguishes the love of God in us because the more that we love this world, the less the love of God we have in us.
And, again, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that your career is evil and your hobbies are evil. Inherently they are not, but I'm just saying that we have to look sometimes at our priorities and do we allow those things to squeeze God out of our lives? Do we always make time for those other things in our life, but we don't really make time to have God in our lives, to build a relationship with Him?
Because it can be, it can start that subtly because Satan wears us down over time. We see something and it is small. We think, "That's not a big deal," and, then, we kind of allow ourselves to go there. And he [Satan] slowly locks us in. It's kind of like the analogy you always hear of the frog in the water and you slowly turn the heat up because they don't really notice it getting a little hotter and a little hotter until they are boiling. Well, the same thing can happen to us.
And we just have to look at how we live our individual lives every day and the choices that we make. Are we allowing ourselves to love the world more than we love God? More than we are focused on His priorities and His will, because, again, what that winds up doing is slowly squeezing out the love of God in our lives. And, as we have seen, that movie ends very disastrously. If we allow that love to be squeezed out of us, there is going to be a very, very ugly ending to that picture. But if we allow that love to thrive in us, even if we go through very ugly situations in our lives, we ultimately wind up, again, the lottery winner! We wind up with the ultimate reward. It is deferred compensation. It comes later after this life is done, but we wind up ultimately the winner. But we have to stay focused on the spiritual for that to happen.
Now, I'm going to focus more—as I mentioned, there are two major aspects that our love can grow cold. The first one we tend to see more readily, the one I just covered. It is just sin in our lives and allowing ourselves to be the sinner, allowing ourselves to fall into bad behavior and how that happened in our lives—what we don't tend to see as much sometimes is the ripple effect (how sin has a ripple effect that can affect others) because this can very much cause love to grow cold too. Because think about it. Especially in the circumstances that have happened in the Church of God since the bust up of Worldwide and all the things that have happened. Lots of us have been through very, very hurtful events.
But even if you look at just again, the busting up of Worldwide and all that happened there, what happened to a lot of us—I think the vast majority of us who went through all of this—we didn't cause those events. I mean we realize that there were lots of factors that went into that happening. But what happened? Some of the core events that happened there were as the result of other people's sins. But we got hit by the ripple effects! Didn't we? In a lot of cases we got hit by tsunamis that went through and just kind of wiped out people and devastated things.
I mean think of it like this: If you remember seeing the recent footage of the tsunami that hit Japan. There was an earthquake out in the ocean and this huge wave hit the coast of Japan and it just decimated areas. It just caused great destruction. If you watched some of that footage, you probably also saw what I'll call the "walking wounded." In other words, you saw people walking around sometimes in the footage and their neighborhood is destroyed, their home is destroyed. And you see them with just this deer in the headlights look. They are overwhelmed. They are in shellshock of what has just happened and they are trying to cope with all of this. They are kind of the walking wounded. They survived the whole circumstance, but they are still reeling from everything that has just taken place.
There are many people in the Church of God today in kind of a similar circumstance from all of the waves that have hit them and the tsunamis that have hit them, again, oftentimes from the sins of others because of that big ripple effect.
But how we choose to respond to that is the key to how we get through this. Before we look at that, let's also, again, just look at this whole concept and look at it from both sides because we can be the cause of the ripple effect. We can be the one who sinned that causes the shockwave that hurt others or we can be on the receiving end—we can be the person hit by the shockwaves. And we're going to look at this from both angles.
Turn with me over to Luke chapter 17. We're going to read the first four verses here.
Luke 17:1. Then He said to [his] disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come, (NKJ)
Again, we are talking about stumbling blocks that knock people into sin.
Luke 17:1b. … but woe to him through whom they do come!
2) "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (NKJ)
Now, in these first two verses what He is addressing is the person who did the offense, who committed the sin that hurt others.
Now the next two verses, in verse 3 and 4:
Luke 17:3. "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
4) "And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." (NKJ)
Now, we are going to cover this in a minute, but what these two verses are referring to is the importance of how we choose to respond to these events. Because oftentimes just like the people in Japan, they couldn't foresee that tsunami coming; they didn't do anything to make it happen; they just had to respond to the reality that it did happen. But, again, whether they survive and how effective their lives are after that is how they choose to respond to that event taking place.
But let's first of all look at the concept of us being the one who causes the ripple effect. In other words, how we can commit the sin that hurts others and we're responsible for that taking place. Turn with me over to Romans chapter 14. We're going to look at this concept. It is Romans chapter 14 and we're going to start reading in verse 14, but before we do that, I'm going to kind of set the scene for what's going on in this particular chapter.
If you read through the whole chapter, what you are going to see is what Christ is addressing here is the subject of people that have come into the Church that for religious reasons think that they should be vegetarians. We're not talking about the issue of "For whatever health reasons, I've decided this is a better diet for me and I'm not going to eat meat." That's a completely separate issue, but what he is referring to is this on a religious basis. Because there are people that have come into the Church here that believe on for religious, spiritual reasons that it is wrong to eat meat. And, of course, you have other people that believe it is okay to eat meat.
But here is the important thing that is happening. These individuals are judging each other and kind of verbally throwing missiles back and forth at each other. You know, "My side is right." "No, my side is right!" And they are having division and contention over this particular subject. And this is what Paul is addressing here. So, let's pick up here in verse 14. He says:
Romans 14:14. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15) Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. (NKJ)
Now, notice he is saying, "Your actions can destroy, through the ripple effect, what God is doing in someone else's life, over something as simple as food!"
Now, notice in verse 16 here.
Romans 14:16. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil;
17) for the kingdom of God is not [food and drink], but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18) For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19) Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. (NKJ)
We are going to come back to that verse.
Romans 14:20. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. (NKJ)
Now, notice, once again, he is saying, "Your actions can destroy the work of God in someone else." You can be the sinner. You can be the one who has created, done whatever the event was, but the shockwave can drown them. They can get hit by the tsunami.
In verse 21:
Romans 14:21. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
22) Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
23) But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. (NKJ)
I think one of the most important concepts taught in here, what Paul is addressing here, is—think of it like this and I'm going to word this a couple ways just to make it interesting: You can be right and still not be right, or you can be right and be wrong.
And what I mean by that is look at it like is look at it like this: If you look at what these two groups are arguing about, what is the subject matter? It's about whether or not it is okay to eat meat. Now, if you look at that from a technical perspective of, in other words, who is technically correct in this situation, the meat-eaters have got a very, very easy argument to substantiate. All they have to do is turn to Leviticus 11. Here is a list of meats that are clean and meats that are unclean. By virtue of the fact that there is a list of meats that are clean to eat—touchdown! It is okay to meat. There are numerous other examples that they can substantiate that with as well. It is a very easy argument to win in that regard.
But notice what Paul is saying in all of this. "Let us pursue the things that lead to peace." In other words, it doesn't matter that you are right. Don't let [the fact that] you're eating meat be a source of offense for someone else." In other words, you may be technically right, but how you handle that is the bigger issue. Love is the overriding principle in how we do things!
Now, again, I’m not suggesting in making this argument, I'm not validating every heretical idea that's out there. Understand that there are parameters in this. But what he is saying is that the overriding principle is love and how we handle what we know. It isn't just a matter of what we know. It is how we handle that!
And we have to think about that in how we interact in the Church of God today, especially in the environment we are in with, again, so many different groups, so many different ideas and everything. (And, again, please don't get me wrong. I'm not validating every crazy teaching that is out there. That is not my point by any means.) It is more in terms of how we handle ourselves and how we address this, because look at it like this. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us what? "… we know in part, and we prophesy in part." In other words, our knowledge is partial. We don't understand everything. We don't have the full picture. And we never do in this life! Because think about it! We are commanded to always grow in grace and knowledge. How could we do that if we ever came to the point where we understand everything perfectly and there is nothing else for us to learn, there is nothing else to discover? We couldn't! There always has to be more that we don't know.
So, I don't personally believe that anyone is ever going to be able to get to the Marriage Supper and say, "You know what? In my physical life, I understood everything perfectly in the Bible and I taught it all exactly right." Actually, I'll correct myself. There is one person who lived as a human being who will be able to say that. His name was Jesus Christ. He will be able to say, "I understood everything perfectly. I taught it exactly right. And nothing I taught could be amended or updated or tweaked in anyway because I had everything correct." Christ will be able to say that. I don't believe any other human being will ever be able to say that with what they have accomplished in this physical life. So, we have to consider that.
Again, when we are dealing with conflicts and interacting with other people, it may be that we may know something more than they do. Maybe they know something more than we do. Maybe their understanding is better than ours, but we have to consider that in how we interact with others.
And, again, understand I'm not validating every crazy idea that is out there. I'm just saying it is important in how we interact with others that we pursue the things that lead to peace because we can be right and still be wrong. In other words, in how we handle what we do and how we interact with others. And we can wind up causing a source of offense in others that, again, as he said, can destroy the work of God in others for something as simple as food!
Because something that wasn't a salvational matter, can become one. If someone lives all their Christian life and they don't eat meat because they think it is wrong, is that going to keep them out of the Kingdom? No. But if we are stepping on other people and destroying them and being callous about that, that's a much bigger problem. So, we have to think about that in terms of how we interact with others.
Let's also now look at how do we respond if we are on the receiving end? What if we have been the one hit by the shockwave? And, I think, in one way or another that applies to every single one of us—especially in the Church of God these days! We've been hit by the sins of others in one way or another. And in some cases, again, we've been hit by multiple tsunamis and our areas have been devastated and we are the walking wounded.
How do we respond to that? That is very important in terms of how we survive this. Turn with me over to Luke chapter 17. We are going to go back to where we were at a second ago here. It's Luke chapter 17. We are going to read verse 3 and 4 again because this emphasizes the importance of how we choose to respond to the ripple effect, the shockwaves, or maybe even tsunamis that we have been hit with.
Luke 17:3. "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, (NKJ)
In other words, you aren't the originator of the sin. You didn't cause it, but you got affected by it. You got hit by the ripple effect.
Luke 17:3b. … rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
4) "And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." (NKJ)
In other words, it's emphasizing for us the importance of being able to forgive and let things go when we have been offended.
Now, let me clarify one thing here. If you look at it in a number of Scriptures in the Bible—I'm not advocating the idea here that if someone is constantly abusing you and they just keep hitting you and telling you they are sorry, but they just keeping hitting you again that you should just stay there and keep taking it and not remove yourself out of that situation. That falls under what I like to call "Einstein's Definition of Insanity"—continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Because we are not going to take the time to go through this, but if you look through Matthew 18, it lays out a process of reconciliation, but it gets to the end of it and says, "If multiple things have been tried here, and you are not getting anywhere and this just keeps happening again. The person keeps doing this to you. We are required to forgive in terms of not harboring hatred and resentment toward someone, but that doesn't mean that you have to keep sticking your hand in the fire." There are times where you realize, "Okay, this is habitual. This just keeps happening. So, as it says, 'Let them be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.'" In other words, how did they treat heathens and tax collectors? They got away from them. They separated themselves from the situation.
Because if you are in a situation and you keep getting burned by a fire because you keep sticking your hand in it, after a while, you kind of go, "You know, if I stop sticking my hand in that fire, I'm going to quit getting burned. And if I don't have good reason to believe the fire is out, it's probably just as hot as it was last time." So, again, I'm not suggesting signing yourself up for abuse and always taking it in that regard. But, again, the important thing is how we choose to respond to these events.
If we look at the Church of God today, again, all of us whether it is a personal situation in our lives or events that have happened through all of the upsets that have happened in the Church of God, we've been hit by lots of waves. In a lot of cases, we have been hit by multiple tsunamis. And it has been very hurtful! It can be very upsetting. It can leave our scars on us, but we have to effectively be able to process those things, learn the lessons of history, but let the baggage go and move on with our lives!
Now, let me share with you a personal example, from a friend that I knew that I went to college with, to kind of illustrate this point. Now, for our purposes today, we are going to refer to my friend as "Bob." That is not his real name. And I'll tell you up front for just a full disclosure, a few of the details of his life have been changed—minor just to protect identity. But outside of that, I can assure you I knew this individual well and the core of everything I am going to tell you is true. But again, I'll just be upfront with you. A few things have been altered here simply to protect identity.
But as I mentioned, Bob and I attended Ambassador College together. Bob was a second-generation Christian. He was born into the Church of God. I want to say, if I remember correctly, his parents were probably baptized a decade or more before he was born. So, he was raised all of his life, until the time I knew him, in the Church of God.
Even though his parents were in the Church of God, and, again, were Christians all of his life, he still had a very difficult, very painful childhood. His parents were not ideal parents by any means. They were often harsh. They were emotionally unavailable. I think you could even call them as verbally and psychologically abusive to him.
This left a lot of scars on Bob. He had been hurt very deeply much of his life. And, again, as I got to know him in college, we went together. And we got to be friends. We kind of worked in the same department and we got to know each other pretty well.
And Bob was an individual who had responded to all of the hurts that he had gone through in life by really putting walls around himself—out of fear and self-protection. I mean it was really a fear of "I don't want me to get hurt. I don't want to go through this again of all the pain I went through growing up." But Bob wasn't just someone who kind of kept people at a distance, he severely built walls.
And I'm going to share with you a kind of a conversation I had with Bob one time. Understand, when I use this, Bob was a person who had kind of an off-the-wall sense of humor. So, I was kind of appealing to his personality in relating to this and I was purposely kind of being ridiculous to make a point, but, again, I also, again understanding his personality and his sense of humor knew that he would relate to this because he was laughing as I kind of said some of this.
I said to him one time, I said, "Bob, you are a person, you just didn't build walls around yourself. A lot of people kind of do that when they've been hurt and they are real cautious." I said, "You built a castle fortress." I said, "You put big stone walls around yourself to keep people out." I said, "But you didn't stop there. After you built the castle walls," I said, "you went and dug a moat all the way around the castle and you filled it full of water. But that wasn't enough for you either." I said, "In the moat, you put alligators to make sure they would eat anybody that tried to swim through the water." I said, "And, then for good measure, you went out in between where the moat was and where the wall started and you made that a mine field!" I said. "And, you planted mines all the way around there to get anybody. And, just for good measure, you went on the outside of the moat, you built a chain link fence up," I said. "And, then, you put one of those spiral barbed-wire things like you see around prisons," I said. "So, if anybody tried to climb over that, they would get cut by the barbed wire." I said, "And just in case anybody just happened to be lucky enough to swim through the moat around there not getting eaten by the alligators, successfully make it through the mine field and start climbing up the walls of the castle," I said, "you positioned snipers up there to make sure they got anybody who made it through all of that—just to keep them out!"
And, as again, understand Bob had a goofy sense of humor. He was giggling at this point, because he knew it was true. But that is kind of how he lived his life. See one of the things that happened, and, again, realize Bob got into this situation not because of sins he had done himself, but because he had been hurt again and again and again very deeply, very severely. And this was a way to try to protect himself from going down this road again because that fear began to kind of run his life of "I don't want to re-live this. I don't want to go through this again."
But here is a major thing that happened that Bob didn't realize. And it typically happens to individuals who do this. See, for a while in his life Bob deceived himself into thinking that he built all of this around him, this fortress, to keep other people from hurting him, but he thought God was inside that fortress with him. And he thought God was in there and "Me and God are closed units—me and Him against the world." What he didn't realize is, in reality, God wasn't in that fortress with Him. God was outside with everybody else because he walled God out too, because that's what tends to happen.
How do we know if we have passed from death into life according to I John? Because we love the Brethren. Because we connect with them. What are the Ten Commandments about? First, a relationship with God and, then, a relationship with our fellowman. And when we wall up and push everything out again as a reaction to being hurt like that, what tends to happen is a package deal and God gets pushed out as well.
And what happened then is that it began to affect everything else in Bob's life because you can't really fix all the other problems if the chief thing that is going to help you do all of that, you've walled out as well. Because what is the chief ingredient he needed to use—just like all the rest of us—to solve all of his problems and fix all of his other relationships? Well, that was God's holy spirit and God being actively involved in his life! Well, if God is outside those walls as well, you can see where the problem is.
Because, you see, this is a common thing in the Church of God today and it was prophesied to be such. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 3. I'm sure a lot of you are ahead of me in knowing where I am going here. I'm going to the Letter to Laodicea. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20:
Revelation 3:20. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (NKJ)
This is Jesus Christ talking to the Church in our time. Notice the picture created here. Where is Christ? He is outside the walls. He's knocking on the door trying to get back in. He's not inside the walls with that person and everybody else is locked out. He's outside with everybody else and He has been "walled out" outside those walls.
It tends to come as a package deal because when we shut everyone else out, we tend to shut God out as well. As we are going to see, we transfer a lot of feelings and concepts here (unknowingly) of how we have interacted with people to God. It's a natural connection with us.
And, again, if you look at Christianity, it is about relationships. If you look at the Ten Commandments, those alone will tell you the story. Where do the first Four Commandments about? They are about our relationship with God because that's the most important thing. That is what enables us to do those last six. But what are those last Six Commandments about? Our relationships with other human beings. It is all about how we get along and function with others. That is what the core of Christianity is about.
But if we push all of this out of our lives, what happens? We start spiraling downward because we are pushing the love of God out of lives.
See, here is another interesting thing that happened in Bob's life. As I mentioned, what caused all of this in Bob's life is he was deathly afraid of re-living the pain of the past. That's where all these walls came up. That's where the fear came from. That's how all of this happened. And there were lots of hurts. There was a lot of honestly unresolved anger associated with a lot of the hurts and offences he received in his life. There were a lot of unprocessed emotional issues there. But, again, out of fear of not having been hurt like this again, that is what caused all these walls to come up. What he was most afraid of was being hurt again as his parents had hurt him.
What he tended to do though was sometimes transfer a lot of those issues and project them onto situations where they didn't really exist.
For example, after we graduated from college, Bob got married. And I knew his wife as well. And when he got married, in the early years of his marriage, one of his biggest fears was "My wife is going to hurt me like my parents did." And he would oftentimes overreact when situations would happen that kind of felt close to that or hit a trigger. And he was oftentimes accusing his wife of "Well, you're going to treat me like they did."
And his wife was very frustrated dealing with this because oftentimes she found herself in situations where she was getting this emotional reaction and she's thinking, "How did I get here? How did this happen? How did we get into this situation?" And she probed and she found really the core of this was Bob's fears about the relationships with his parents.
But here is the most ironic part. After several years, they both figured out the only person in that marriage that was anything like Bob's parents was Bob.
Because see what tends to happen when people get frozen on hurts of the past and how they've been wounded inside, they don't effectively deal with that and process those things. What tends to happen is they become the very thing that they are so opposed against. I've seen it oftentimes in parent-child relationships.
I've even seen that in the Church of God, especially in all the issues that have happened in the Church of God. I've watched that same dynamic play out where people have unprocessed hurts, issues that have offended them and really deeply cut them. And, again, legitimately so! But if they don't effectively deal with that, learn to forgive and let those things go, and move on in their lives, they let it fester and they let it build up inside themselves and they kind of obsess over it and let it affect their whole lives. Very often they wind up becoming the very thing that they are so opposed to, that they are so concerned about, that they are afraid is going to happen to them. They wind up doing it in their own lives!
Because what Bob discovered was he was the one treating his wife the way he was so afraid he was going to be treated. He wound up becoming the very thing that he was so afraid of!
Again, I've even seen that in the Church of God through all the events that have happened since the bust up of Worldwide in the early to mid-nineties. I've seen a number of situations where people have been through very difficult circumstances, been hurt very deeply, treated very badly—again, legitimately so—but if they don't process that well, what has happened over times, oftentimes, is I've witnessed some of those same people turn around and treat others the exact same way that they were treated! And, again, the very things that they are so on guard for they wind up inflicting on others because that pain, again, begins to rule them. And it begins to draw them like a magnet towards that behavior.
The key to all of this, again, is learning to let those things go, learning how to forgive, and let God's love live in our lives.
Again, we learn lessons from the things we go through. That's part of life. We go through pain. We go through hard times. We go through lots of trials. We're promised that as Christians. But, if we don't want our love to grow cold, it is very important we learn how to process those things and deal with them and move on with our lives and be very effective with them.
See one of the things that can happen to us is when we carry those hurt feelings about people and we don't deal with them effectively, they can start affecting our relationship with God. Because we are physical, we are human beings. And God is a spiritual Being that we can't see and we can't— We can talk to him through prayer and He talks back to us through the Bible, but we don't sit down and have a conversation with God. We don't get to see Him and touch Him and feel Him and interact as we understand physically and is how our brain works.
So, what tends to happen sometimes is (You will especially see this in people that have grown up in family relationships where they had a very harsh father or maybe their father was emotionally unavailable or harsh or cruel with them.) you'll find that they struggle with seeing God as a loving, caring Father because they transfer those feelings they have towards their physical father towards God. Because, again, as you are a child growing up, it is kind of how you develop the concept of what God is. What is a father? What is— You kind of get some of those concepts physically—from what we experience physically in our physical relationships. That tends to get transferred over to God.
Let me illustrate some of this. Turn over to Luke chapter 18. It's Luke chapter 18. We're going to read the Parable of the Persistent Widow, or oftentimes referred to as the Parable of the Widow before the Unjust Judge. Luke chapter 18 and verse 1:
Luke 18:1. Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
2) saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3) "Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, '[Avenge] me from my adversary.'
4) "And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
5) 'yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'"
6) Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said.
7) "And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? (NKJ)
Now, notice verse 8. There is an interesting comment made here.
Luke 18:8. "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (NKJ)
Now, notice He is specifically referring to the time of the end. That's when the Son of Man comes. It is when He returns at the very end. And He is asking, "Is He really going to find faith on the earth?" In other words, is there going to be faith in our time? Why does He ask that question at the end of this Parable? And what is the connection here?
Now, obviously, it is referring to having faith in God and continually praying and being consistent with that. But there is a relationship; there is a correlation between injustice and how that can affect our faith. Because when people deal with a lot of injustice in their lives, it tends to make people angry. It tends for them to have a lot of times hurt feelings. They tend to be barbed and have a lot of time repressed anger.
In fact, one of my favorite definitions of the concept of anger is "an emotional reaction to a real or perceived injustice." Because if you think about it, when you are angry and upset about something, it generally boils down in one way or another to injustice. Either we feel that we have been treated unjustly or have been treated wrong; or somebody we care about we feel has been treated badly or unjustly in some way or another. And, again, that can be real or that can be perceived. It can be truly unjust or we can just feel that it is unjust from our perspective. But, again, that is how we emotionally respond to it.
If we let that kind of become bitter and build up in us, what happens? We lose our ability to trust other people. Isn't that typically what happens? When people get barbed and kind of cynical, they don't trust anybody. And they are really standoffish and they kind of get hardened in that and want to push everybody away because they're afraid everyone is going to hurt them. Again, I'm not saying "Be Pollyanna and not be appropriately cautious in life." But I am saying, "Notice how that can affect our trust and our ability to connect with others," because see we can then turn around and transfer that idea to God. Again, very often how we kind of see our relationship with [others]—whether we conceptually realize it or not—bleeds into how we see and connect with God because we are physical! That's how we relate to things.
So, again, if we are harboring that within ourselves and not getting over the pain of the past, we unknowingly tend to push God out of our lives because we treat Him the same way. When we build up walls around ourselves for protection, we don't just shut out people. We shut out God as well! And we unknowingly deceive ourselves that God is inside the walls with us. And it's "Me and Him against the world!" but in reality that is not the case. As he [the apostle John] said, "How do we know if we have passed from death to life?" If we love the Brethren! In other words, it is kind of a litmus test. So, if we are pushing out the Brethren and we can't connect or love the Brethren, we are pushing out the love of God, pushing God out as well! Those kind of connect together.
So, if we think of it like this, as I mentioned it in kind of the lengthy introduction I gave, Jesus Christ prophesies for us a very disturbing ugly picture of what the future of the Church of God is going to look like before it is over. And because Jesus Christ told us, we can know for sure that that is going to happen. Again, will it just happen to a significant number? Will it happen to the most, the greater number? That's debatable. But we know for sure it is going to happen to a significant number of people. But that doesn't have to be us as individuals. As we know, God is not willing that any should perish. He wants us all to make it. He wants to be there with all of us and be able to put a crown on all of our heads. That's His will for us, but He is not going to make us choose the right thing. As He tells us in Deuteronomy, "I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. I really want you to choose the right thing. I really want there to be a good outcome, but I'm leaving the choice up to you because I'm going to make you choose one way or the other." So, we have to choose how we are going to respond, how we are going to live our lives, what our priorities are, and how we are going to choose to respond and react to the things that happen to us outside of our control that we didn't originate or choose in the first place. It is very, very important in terms of how our love functions in us and whether or not our love grows cold.
So, when we think about this, Brethren, let's make sure that we're making the appropriate right choices that our love not grow cold because we want our movie to end with a positive, ride off into the sunset, happy ending. We don't want ours to be an ugly scary picture.
Transcribed by kb September 26, 2011