Blessing (Part 2)
Romans 12:15-16
Emmanuel Christian Church 8.20.23
INTRODUCTION: God wants to “trans” the world! From it’s current broken, distorted and sinful condition- back to the original created order He named “good”.
He challenges those of us who walk in His way, and call on His name, with these words:
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
God’s Word tells us that one of our greatest tools for spreading that TRANSformation to this decaying world is the act of “blessing”.
Last week, we considered the command of Christ to,
Luke 6:28 “...bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
This week, two more verses are in focus on the subject of “blessing” as we continue on in God’s Word found in Romans 12:15-16:
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
PROPOSITION: To make it as simple as possible to understand, we’re going to associate one word with each of these two verses to describe how God wants us to be a “blessing” to others.
The word for verse 15 is “empathy”. The word for verse 16 is “intimacy”.
For the next several minutes, we’re going to zoom in on just two verses and two words.
Verse 15: “Empathy”
- “Empathy” is defined as “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”
- Two such feelings are specifically mention: “rejoicing” and “mourning”. - “Rejoice with those who rejoice.”
- That sounds easy! After all, everybody loves a party- RIGHT? Well, as long as they are the “guest of honor”!
- What get’s in the way of “rejoicing with those who rejoice”? Jesus told this story...
Luke 15:11 “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
Luke 15:13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
Luke 15:17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Luke 15:21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
Luke 15:22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
Luke 15:28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ Luke 15:31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
So, what gets in the way of “rejoicing with those who rejoice”? JEALOUSY!
What can we do to avoid that evil trap?
- Resist (actually “repent”) of selfishness.
- Ask God to “rewire” your own desires so that they are connected to
the desires of others around you.
Here’s the second challenge to empathy: “Mourn with those who mourn.” - This one IS tough! Why? Because mourning is painful.
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- We have a hardware programming from God that automatically moves
us away from anything painful. It’s there to protect us from being injured
in flesh or spirit.
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- In order to “Mourn with those who mourn.”, we have to make a
conscious effort to override that hardware program and expose
ourselves to the danger of sharing in the pain and suffering of others.
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- That SOUNDS self destructive! And it would be, except for this truth
drawn from Scripture:
2 Corinthians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Wow! That’s quite remarkable! We can share in the pain of others EVEN IN THE MIDST OF OUR OWN TROUBLES when we rest in the comfort and compassion that comes from God- Who is the source of all comfort and compassion!
APPLICATION: “Empathy” has nearly vanished from our graceless, godless culture. I am convinced that the source of our current escalating “mental health” crisis in this country is at least in part, due to the misdirection of empathy. Instead of “sharing and understanding the feelings of another”, some have become neurotically focused on only the feelings of themselves. Scripture is absolutely clear- that’s just plain sinful, and it only ends in disaster for everybody.
So let’s move on to our second verse and our second word:
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
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- The word is “INTIMACY”.
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- “Intimacy” is simply defined as “closeness”.
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- So, look at the first sentence in that verse- “Live in harmony with one
another.”
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- This is an interesting verse that could be translated, “live together
together”!
- A group of people can be “together” in one room, but be separated inspirit. Just think of courtroom scene!
- I’ve witnessed marriages that have been completely drained of
“intimacy”! Two people, under the same roof- but emotionally, spiritually completely separated! More like a business arrangement than a marriage!
- To be “together, together” is the idea of being of “one mind and spirit”.
- Back to the word “INTIMACY” for just a second- that word has been so lowered by our culture to mean nothing more than...... “sex”. How SAD!
- And the things that we do today in pursuit of real intimacy (“or closeness”) actually end up getting in the way of it!
- Casual sex breaks hearts, destroys trust and leaves people unable to enter into genuine relationships with those of the opposite sex.
- Social media superficially connects people, but only at a distance- leaving them actually disconnected from others and unable to honestly relate their true feelings in face-to-face circumstances.
- So, what does real INTIMACY look like?
- “Do not be proud...”
- The concept of the word “proud” is “lofty”. So what do you end up doing to others when you are “lofty”? It’s simple: you look down on them!
- So what should keep us from looking down on other people in our attempt to be connected with them? Remember what we call have in common!
- We are all members of ONE RACE, the HUMAN race. Any differences between us are purely cosmetic and SUPERFICIAL.
- We have all been created after one pattern: God’s own image! That means, regardless of wether we are handsome or not, intelligent or not- we ALL share one very important thing: a life that is SACRED.
- God has a purpose for the life of everyone you meet. It doesn’t matter whether you think that purpose is significant or not- it is to God, and that makes everyone SIGNFICANT.
APPLICATION: Remembering that everyone we meet possesses a life that is SACRED and a purpose that is SIGNIFICANT will keep us from thinking too much of ourselves- and make it much easier to live “together, together” with them! Remember this command from God’s Word that we heard just a few weeks ago:
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
- “Be willing to associate with people of low position:”
- The key here is the word “willing”. So what makes us “willing” to
associate with people of “low position”? REMEMBERING! - Listen to these words from God’s Word:
1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Wow! THAT certainly sounds like a list of “low position” people! And then, we read the very next verse- and it is that verse which speaks to our motive for “being willing to associate with people of low position”!
1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
God’s Word get’s right to the point when it says this:
1 John 4:19 We love because he first LOVED us. (WASHED, SANCTIFIED, JUSTIFIED)
Jesus said this:
John 15: 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
CONCLUSION: Our EMPATHY and INTIMACY, for and with other people are automatic responses when we ourselves have received them from
God.
We can transform the world with the power of blessing when we
ourselves have been transformed by the power of God’s blessing.
On the other hand, you can’t give what you’ve never received. So, have you yet to receive the blessing of God’s grace through Jesus?
