INTRO.- We who are strong. I’ve always been interested in strength and strong men. I guess that’s a boy thing.
ILL.- I first became interested in strong men by watching Superman on TV. That was the old Superman, George Reeves and by today’s standards he wasn’t much of a Superman.
My interest in strong men increased when my Grandmother Jones had a copy of the magazine, “Strength and Health” in her house. I saw it and devoured the pictures and stories. Little 132 lb. Isaac Berger was a featured Olympic weightlifter in that magazine. At 132 lbs. he could lift 336 lbs. over his head in the clean and jerk lift. That’s more than 2 and 1/2 times his bodyweight.
There are strong men and there are strong men. The greatest strong men of all are those who walk by faith in the Lord. Noah was a strong man. He was strong in faith because he obeyed God and built an ark like God told him to. Enoch was a strong man because he walked with the Lord and apparently, 24/7. He lived in God’s presence. Is there any better place to be?
Abraham was a strong man. God called him to go to a country he’d never seen. He obeyed God, pulled up stakes and left his home country. He didn’t call United Van Lines to move him either. Joseph was a strong man. He showed it many times during his life. One notable time was when Mrs. Potiphar asked him to lie with her. But he trusted God, refused and ran!
Daniel was a strong man. He disobeyed the law of the land by praying to his God. He was thrown into a lion’s den but God delivered him because Daniel was strong in faith. Job was a strong man. In spite of some of the most difficult hardships in life he trusted God. He endured and did not charge God with wrong. He hurt, but he endured. He questioned and argued with God but surrendered to God’s will for his life. On and on, we have example after example of people in scripture who lived by faith and walked with God. This is the greatest strength that any person can possess and I wish I had known this earlier in life and would have sought it.
I Timothy 4:8 “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
II Timothy 2:1 “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
II Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
These scriptures tell the story. All those years of weightlifting that I did, didn’t hurt me, but all those years of reading God’s Word and preparing sermons did me a lot more good in life!
We who are strong. Are you strong in the faith? We have all our days when we may feel stronger than at other times and we all our weak times. The way to gain strength is to fall down and look up! We gain spiritual strength only in the Lord, only as we humble ourselves before Him. God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble. AND HE GIVES STRENGTH AS WELL.
PROP.- If we claim to be strong in the faith or know that we are strong or maybe stronger than some others, what should we do?
1- We should bear with the failings of the weak
2- We should please our neighbor for his good
3- We should accept one another
I. WE SHOULD BEAR WITH THE FAILINGS OF THE WEAK
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
ILL.- One time a man asked a little boy in church what his name was. He replied, “Willy don’t!” As we all know it takes a lot of patience to raise children.
ILL.- The story is told by a visitor who was once staying with Mrs. Wesley when Charles was a little boy. (She was the mother of 19 children - that alone would test any mother’s patience) Charles came in and asked his mother a question, which his mother patiently answered. In five minutes he came back and asked the same question, which his mother answered patiently as she had done the first time.
The visitor said to her, “Why do you waste time in answering that troublesome boy’s question seven times?” “Well,” said Mrs. Wesley, “because six times were not enough.”
If Child Lives With Criticism
If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love.
True and this may true for adults as well.
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
There are just some things that you put up with in some people. You say nothing. You do nothing. You put up with them and pray for them. That’s the only way for them to make progress in the faith. We don’t have to go around correcting everything in everybody else that we consider to be an error. WE BEAR WITH THEM. We give them time to learn, grow and mature.
Colossians 3:12-14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
II. WE SHOULD PLEASE OUR NEIGHBOR FOR HIS GOOD
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”
ILL.- I like this old story about Sir Winston Churchill, true or not. Late in his life, Sir Winston took a cruise on an Italian ship. A journalist from a Rome newspaper encountered the former prime minister to ask him why he chose to travel on an Italian line when the stately Queen’s line under the British flag was available.
Churchill gave the question his consideration and then gravely replied: “There are three things I like about Italian ships. First, their cuisine, which is unsurpassed. Second, their service, which is quite superb.” And then Sir Winston added, “And then there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.”
Why shouldn’t women and children be first? And why shouldn’t others be first? The gentlemanly thing to do is to allow others to go first. No, the Christian thing is to put others ahead of yourself.
Are you always first in line? Do you always push to get ahead of others? In the grocery store and on the highways and in the home? At church dinners? Or are you looking out for the good of others? Do you consider their interest over your own?
Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Bear. Put up with. Endure. Love.
Galatians 6:9-10 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Do good. Reap good.
ILL.- One man said: After driving up and down several lanes, I finally found a parking spot at the shopping mall. I noticed another man driving very slowly in the same direction and, since he was closer, I gave him the “Are you going to park there?” look.
His responding gestures were very complicated—First he shook his head. Next he pointed at me, then at the parking space and then at himself, his watch and the mall. Finishing off, he frowned, raised his palms upward and shrugged.
Once parked, I walked over to the driver to make sure he didn’t want the space. “You must be single,” he replied. “If you were married, you would’ve known that was the universal sign for ‘Go ahead and take the spot. I’m waiting for my wife.’ ”
Married or not, we all must learn to put others ahead of ourselves. It’s the way of Christ. If He’d been selfish He’d never left heaven in the first place!
What things can you do to please others? To show that you love others more than yourself?
III. WE SHOULD ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Accept one another.
ILL.- Children Benefit From Pets: For children, having a close relationship to a pet has proved of benefit in study after study. Having a pet improves children’s role-taking skills because they have to put themselves in the pet’s position and try to feel how the pet feels. And that transfers to how other kids feel. Children who were regularly given the opportunity to care for a puppy at their preschool, as well as those who had a pet at home were found more socially competent. They were more popular, felt better about themselves, and were better able to understand the feelings of other children.
A study of 309 fifth graders found that for children who had close, supportive relationships with their parents, pets bolstered self-esteem; the effect was stronger the closer the children were to their parents. But for children who suffered from emotional neglect, the pets took on another role: confidantes and buffers against loneliness. “You can’t stay sad when you’re cuddling a rabbit or riding a horse,” a psychologist said. “No matter how rotten you feel, animals are accepting.”
Did you ever have a dog when you were a kid? You know this is true then. A dog doesn’t care whether you look good, smell good, your hair is combed or not. As long as you show it some affection it will shower affection on you! Dogs are more accepting of humans than we humans are of humans! We look at a person’s looks and size them up and sometimes, shove them away.
ILL.- When I was in the first grade and my brother Larry was in the 3rd grade a guy was picking on him. I don’t know what got into me but it made me angry and I went after that kid, kicking at him all the around the school. Did I have a fighting spirit in me? Was I being protective of my brother? Or was I made of different material than my brother? I don’t know for sure, but throughout our lives I was the most daring of all three Shepherd children. I seemed to get into more trouble than my brother or sister. In fact, I don’t think my sister ever got into trouble. She was a true saint next to me and WE ARE TWINS!
How could she have been so good and me, so bad? One thing is sure. Both my brother and sister accepted me into the family. There may have been times when they didn’t like me but they accepted me. In fact, I know there were times when they didn’t like me! BUT THEY ACCEPTED ME. Can this not be true for us who are in Christ as well?
There are probably some things that we don’t like about one another but we accept one another anyway. Why? Just as my brother and sister accepted me because we have the same mother and father, born into the family, likewise we accept one another because we have the same Father.
If God our Father accepts someone as His child, then shouldn’t we also accept them?
ILL.- W. Carl Ketcherside was a Church of Christ preacher from long ago. W. Carl Ketcherside was born May 10, 1908 in Cantwell, Missouri. Baptized at the age of twelve, he began preaching very soon thereafter. By the age of 13 he was already engaged in gospel meeting efforts. He had a great love for books and was almost completely self-educated. He attended a business school for two years, but did not attend college. Carl wrote a book entitled, “The Twisted Scriptures,” in which he attacked many interpretations of the passages he had so long upheld as proof-texts of narrow thinking.
He said that one day he sat at his desk and wrote, "I have been in the wrong about fellowship all my life. Today, I renounce that wrong. I will no longer try to make my increasing knowledge consistent with my past teaching. That teaching was in error."
What was his error? It was a matter of not accepting others who were in Christ. You have to remember that Carl was a solid, strict, non-instrumental Church of Christ preacher! But he finally got to the point where he accepted others who claimed Christ as Lord and Savior whether they were baptized for the remission of sins or not. He said it didn’t make any difference why they were baptized, as long as they were baptized. WE SHOULD FEEL THE SAME! And who knows? There may well be people who claim Christ whose faith is a lot stronger than ours and they live the faith more than we do and yet, they may have never been immersed!
If someone claims Christ then we should claim them! And accept them as best we can without being judgmental.
CONCLUSION---------------------
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
YES, WITH ONE HEART AND MOUTH, let us join together with one another and spend the rest of our days glorifying God and Christ.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
