MALICE IN WONDERLAND
I found a bizarre article in the newspaper not to long ago. It read…
“Jimmy Bivins, a heavyweight title contender during the 1940s, underwent surgery after police found him wasting away in a dark, filthy attic. Bivins, 78 years old, was discovered by police who were investigating a neglected-child complaint in a residential neighborhood.”
“Police found the 110-pound Bivins wrapped in a urine-soaked blanket stained with excrement. His body was covered with bedsores and his middle finger had a deep cut in it, apparently from trying to open a can with a fillet knife. Bivins did not know the day of the week but remembered his birth date and social security number. Bivins’ daughter and son-in-law live at the house.”
Q - Isn’t that pathetic?!!
Q - How many know that that’s not the way we’re supposed to treat family?
Anyone!! Let alone family!!
I read things like that and it makes me so mad that people could be that heartless and cold. And yet many times even in the body of Christ we’re no better!! We see people around us that are struggling… maybe spiritually sick… sometimes even spiritually dying… and we look the other way… we ignore them… and we go on with the things that are of a more immediate concern to us personally… things that we don’t have to go out of our way to take care of… and just let them slip away!! (Expound) (Good Samaritan)
Good morning.
(TEXT: 1 John 4:7 - 21)
All throughout the word of God we’re exhorted to love others. To love our neighbor… to love the brethren… even to love our enemies.
Love is the foundation stone of all that Jesus came to accomplish in the earth.
Love was the only thing strong enough to draw the Son of God from the glory of Heaven. Love was the message of the glorious gospel He preached!! And it was love that led Him to suffer and die at the hands of thankless sinners like you and I!! (Expound - all He endured)
And most of us value and appreciate the love of God… but when it comes to turning around and showing others that same kind of love unfortunately many times the body of Christ seems a far cry from what Jesus intended it to be doesn’t it?!!
I heard a story on time about a church in Kansas. It seems that in this church the piano was situated on the eastern side of the sanctuary. For some unknown reason, a group of church members were convinced that the piano would be more strategically placed if it were on the western side of the sanctuary.
After several months of debate within the church, the western party decided to take matters into it’s own hands. So late one Saturday night, several of them entered the church and moved the piano. The next morning those who wanted the piano on the eastern side were understandably upset, but could not do anything without making a scene.
The next week several members showed up early Saturday evening to move the piano back to the east. Each week after that the piano was moved several times on Saturday and early Sunday morning. Eventually, the stress of wondering who was going to move it and when became too great and the church split. Still to this day, it is told, the members of the east and west sides refuse to even speak to each other.
Another story reads… A church in the southern United States no longer exists, due in part to an incident that took place in the church kitchen one Sunday afternoon.
A new family had arrived to take part in their first pot-luck luncheon. The aroma of tuna casseroles, baked beans, and Tater-Tot dishes wafted through the building. The unsuspecting wife cheerfully brought her red gelatin salad to the kitchen, then headed back to the fellowship hall to join her family.
The moment the pastor said “Amen,” hungry parishioners politely charged for the serving line. There were dozens of dishes to sample. “Where’s our salad?” The woman’s husband asked innocently.
“There must be some mistake,” She said. “I’ll find out what happened.” She reached the kitchen door in time to witness the queen of the kitchen ladling the last of her salad into the disposal.
“What are you doing?” The newcomer shrieked. “That’s my salad!”
Without batting an eye, the woman looked up and said, “You’re new to this church. You’ll soon learn we use only real whipped cream around here, not Cool Whip.” She hit the switch. The garbage disposal rumbled and gurgled and sucked the salad down the drain.
That one incident started a significant church battle that escalated into all-out war.
God help us this morning to reflect the love of God in our church as well as out of it!!
Yes, it’s important to love the lost. That goes without saying. But how will we ever be able to do that if we can’t even love each other in here?!!
I’ve always found it amazing what Jesus taught to be the criteria for recognizing a true disciple of His… maybe you’ve read it…
John 13:34 and 35 says,
“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
“By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another.”
It wasn’t… by their love for the lost.
It wasn’t… by their love for the unlovely or the loveless.
It wasn’t even… by their love for God!
Surely as Christians they would know us by our love for God!!
Yet that’s not what Jesus says is it? He says that the identifying mark of a true believer is first and foremost an abiding love for his or her fellow believer.
In essence… to love as He loved.
So for the next few minutes… I want to look with you at the kind of love that Jesus had. The kind of love that you and I desperately need to have working in and through us as well…
I. It’s A Love That’s Sacrificial
It’s a love that’ll cost you. Whether it’s just a little of your comfort, or your time… or maybe even some sweat. You must be ready to pay the price.
I think that if we would worry more about what we could do for others and less about what we wish others would do for us… half of our problems would be gone!!
Paul said in Romans 9:1 - 3,
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,”
“That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.”
“For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:”
Paul is saying in no uncertain terms that there was nothing in all of life that he was not willing to sacrifice for the sake of those around him… that no price was to great for him to pay if it would benefit someone else namely, the brethren…
And don’t you know most of his biggest problems were with the brethren. They would forsake him in the middle of missionary journeys, argue with him over his apostleship, dispute with him on doctrine and the salvagability of the Gentiles.
But this is the heart of the gospel. A sacrificial love… a giving love…
A love so strong that it will pay any price to help another regardless of what’s gone before!!
Matthew Poole’s Commentary says,
“… out of zeal to the glory of God, and love to his brethren, (Paul) was willing to be damned, that they all might be saved.”
We find the same heart in Moses… though he endured nothing but problems from the children of Israel… he would have given his life for them!!
We know the story… Moses goes up into Mount Sinai… gets the stone tablets with the 10 commandments… comes back down and finds his people already violating 5 of them!!
Exodus 32:30 - 32 says:
“And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin.”
“And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.”
“Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.”
One translation puts it this way,
(If You will not forgive them) “…then kill me instead of them.”
Q - How far are you willing to go for your brothers and sisters?
John 15:12 & 13 says,
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.”
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Secondly,
II. It’s A Love That Expects Nothing In Return
Jesus gave everything He had knowing full well that we had nothing to give back.
That may run cross grain to some people’s theology… or their self-perception… but it’s true…
Romans 5:6 says,
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Expound)
Think about it… what could we offer Him for His love… I don’t know about you but when Jesus found me I was what the Puritans called “spiritually bankrupt”… I had nothing to offer anyone… let alone Jesus. Giving Him my life was the least I could do as pathetic as it seemed…
He gave with no thought of repayment… and without a guarantee that a single soul would be saved because of it!!
He knew that the price had to be paid… and a way of salvation had to be made… and even if no one ever accepted His sacrifice on the cross… His love wouldn’t let Him do otherwise!!
If my wife was in a burning house… nothing’s gonna hold me back from going in after her. Sure there’s no guarantee… sure it’s a risk… but that’s not gonna stop me from trying!! There’s always a chance!!
“It’s probably too late. Oh, well.”
Bag that!! I would put everything I had into saving her… and losing my own life would be the least of my worries!! And even if I died trying and she still didn’t make it out it wouldn’t have been a waste. Not as long as I had done all that I could.
Jesus went to the cross with no guarantee.
And when you think about the world of the year 2000… and when you expand your thinking beyond Christian minority and even the church in general you’ll find that the vast majority of people alive today really don’t give a flip about what He did for them.
And yet His love was so strong that He came and died for humanity anyway... willing to risk it all...expecting nothing in return!!
Romans 5:6 - 8 says,
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.”
“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 John 3:16 says,
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
But most times we’re too busy thinking about what we can get out of the situation to ever give unconditionally with no strings attached.
“Will someone see me give?”
“Will it motivate someone to give to me?”
“Who can I tell about all I gave?”
Love is love. It gives to give. And that’s it.
It’s not trying to earn anything or get something in return. It’s just love.
And when you have the kind of love that God wants to put in your heart you’ll give just to give. Spend just to be spent. You’ll be happy just to help. And you’re reward will be in knowing that you made a difference and you were Christlike.
There’s a revelation… amen! Just being Christlike. And it won’t seem like such a big thing to think not on your own things… but to think on the things of others.
Lastly,
III. It’s A Love That’s Quick To Forgive.
It’s incredible how long some people can hold grudges.
(Like family feuds in the deep south) (Hatfields and McCoys)
“They did me wrong, Jethro! And I ain’t never gonna forget it!!”
Unforgiveness has the ability to blind your mind and turn off your common sense. And all the while it can seem so logical.
We see it as just a beef with another person… someone that may have hurt us. Or insulted us. Or that we think did something to us.
“So-and-so didn’t smile and look me in the eyes when he shook my hand so they must be mad at me and so now I’m mad at them.”
Or maybe it’s really a major thing that they’ve done… but you know what… you still don’t have the right to hold anything against anybody!!
After all that we’ve been forgiven… how could we even think of not forgiving others. (Expound) (Man who needed forgiveness)
But it seems like such an innocent and natural reaction that we don’t think about what’s really going on… the problem is that in the big picture the grudge is not only driving a wedge between you and that person… but also between you and God.
Colossians 3:12 - 14 tells us,
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering;”
“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
“And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.”
Verse 13 from the Living Bible puts it this way,
“Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges…”
I don’t know about you but I’m glad that Jesus didn’t hold anything against me or put any conditions on my forgiveness!! I couldn’t have lived up to them even on my good days… and don’t you know those are few and far between.
Jesus is eager to forgive.
The parable of the prodigal son tells it best.
The picture Jesus portrays of Himself through the allusion of the prodigal’s father is unbelievable.
He’s waiting… earnestly longing… eager to forgive his son. He’s watching the road and hoping against hope that his son will return. I can imagine that his heart leapt at the sight of anyone on the road... and sank when it turned out just to be some traveler or the farmer from down the way. But finally that glorious day comes and when the figure of his son appears he cannot contain himself and runs to him. Embraces him.
It’s not “look at your clothes… all torn… and you smell like pigs!”
It’s not “if you ever pull a stunt like that again you can forget about coming back here, buddy!”
He’s not taking advantage of how humiliated his son must feel!
He’s not rubbing his son’s nose in it like some pet dog.
He unconditionally forgives him! On the spot. Doesn’t have to think about it for a day or two. Doesn’t have to cool down first. Doesn’t have to be begged and pleaded with. He simply forgives him.
The love of God is quick to forgive.
Ephesians 4:31 & 32 in closing,
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”
“And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
** ** ** ALTAR CALL ** ** **
