Listen to 2010 version of the 8 part Agape Love sermon series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

[Gary Petty] ...the third in a series of sermons that we've been going through over the last few weeks on what I think is the single most important subject in the Church of God today. And I don't just mean the United Church of God, I mean all the churches of God. We have a lot of understanding of doctrine. We have a lot of understanding of many of the basic teachings of the Bible, many of the teachings that mainstream Christianity doesn't know at all. And we're very good at those teachings. But one section of the Bible that we have not zeroed in on like we should, and because of that, it is something that is not truly understood in the church the way it should be is what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13 when he talks about agape.

Now, over the last two sermons, we've been going through the qualities of agape. These qualities are the qualities of God's character. And so they are to become our qualities. And that's why the Apostle Paul said, "If we understand all knowledge, we understand all mysteries, if we have all faith but we don't have this, then our religion has become nothing." It is possible, as I said before, it is possible to keep the letter of the Ten Commandments and not have agape. It is not possible to have agape and not keep the spirit and letter of the Ten Commandments.

So we're not talking about law. We're talking about who we must become. I explained in the very first sermon that agape, unfortunately, you know, the word there in 1 Corinthians 13 is love. I gave a definition, the English definition of the word love and showed that when we look at a Greek dictionary and the definition of agape, they have no meaning in...I mean, very little in common. Those words don't mean the same. So we talk about love as if we know what 1 Corinthians 13 is all about. And 1 Corinthians 13 has nothing to do with the English word of love. It has to do with a very broad inclusive concept of what the character of God is and what we must become.

Now, we were able to break agape down into a very definable set of terms. And that is that agape involves a way of thinking and motives. It involves a thought process and it involves motives. And that's very, very important. As we go through the qualities of agape, you'll see motives are very important. It's actually possible to do the right thing with the wrong motive and not be honored by God.

We went through and showed how agape involves self-sacrifice. How agape isn't contingent upon how other people treat you. Agape has nothing to do whether other people treat you good or other people treat you poorly. Agape is who you are. It's how you treat others. Agape is an unselfish outgoing concern for everyone. Now, remember, agape is based on doing what is right for the other person all the time. That's why agape still involves justice. Sometimes people have to be punished. In fact, if you love your children, you will at times punish them because they have to learn certain lessons. However, the means that punishment may come about is different with each child. But you still must do that. Justice and agape aren't necessarily opposites. But it's the motive.

Remember, last time, I went through the difference between vengeance and justice and how vengeance is never an issue of agape. And then agape isn't always necessary an emotion. In fact, sometimes to experience and to carry out agape, we must do the exact opposite of what we feel. Now, as we carry out agape and thought in action, that we do experience positive emotions. We do experience positive emotions as we do it, but our emotions aren't the determining factor of agape. It is not doing what you feel. It is doing what is right for the other person in whatever situation you're in.

So far, we've gone through four basic, or three basic qualities of agape, if we go to 1 Corinthians 13 where we left off last time. And we will continue now to pick up and go through basic qualities of something that's so important that Paul said, "You could have enough faith to move mountains, and it counts as zero if you don't have this." That's how important this is. 1 Corinthians, which is interesting because what that shows is it's possible to have faith without agape. If you have agape, you will have faith. You will have faith.

1 Corinthians chapter 13. In verse 4 last time, and so far in the first two sermons, we covered love suffers long. Agape is willing to suffer a long time with somebody else even if that person is wrong. Now, once again, we talked about justice and it doesn't mean be a doormat. We went through all that. But we went through all the scriptures where Jesus and Paul talk about being willing to bless your enemy, being willing to give to someone who is spitefully using you. How does that concept come about? Well, this is why. You're willing to suffer long with somebody else until they give you no other choice.

We went through and showed how agape is kind and how kindness is always expressed in actions. Therefore, agape is very active in kindness. And went through the parable of the Good Samaritan. Kindness is to be given to anyone that comes within your sphere of neighborhood. Anyone you come in contact with, we are to try to act kindly towards. And then we went through and showed how love does not envy, and showed the absolute destructive power of envy in us.

Now, two sermons have got us through a definition of agape and three qualities. That's all it's been able to do in two sermons. I got three more outlined and I still won't cover it all. And when I'm done, I can go back and go through this all over again and cover things we've never covered because this is who we must become. And that's why I say this is the single most important problem in the church today. Because without this, the church will never fulfill what it's supposed to become. We must become this for the work of God to be done in us because this is the work of God.

Now, the next quality that is mentioned is love does not parade itself. Love does not parade itself. Or as the NIV says, it does not boast. Now, when it's talking about parading itself and boasting here, you know, it's not talking about, you know, the fish stories. A bunch of guys talking about fish stories. Well, I caught this one, and I caught this one, and I caught this one. You've ever seen the movie "Jaws"? I love the scene in there where they're all sitting around bragging about, "Well, I got bit by a shark," and they're showing the shark bites. And then the other guy says, "And I got bit by a stingray," and he's showing where the stingray hit him. And then one guy says, "I can beat all of you." Fifth grade, Mary Ann broke my heart.

Those kinds of things are just... That's silliness. We understand those kinds of things. We understand showing the pictures of the grandkids, right? You women all see that. That's not bad. You know, we say, "Well, you're bragging about your kids." "I sure am." That's not what this is talking about. This isn't those normal things as human beings that we feel good about and wanna share with others. This means literally making yourself the center of attention. You need to be the center of attention.

Now, many times in life, you may find yourself the center of attention, in good ways and bad ways, right? But this is a need to be the center of attention. So every conversation is about how good I am, what I have accomplished. Other people don't ever get to talk about themselves. Other people don't get to share. There's never an interest in what somebody else has done. And it's not just in words. Parading yourself can be in the way we act, the way we walk, the way we dress so that we parade ourselves so that when you walk into the room, you wanna be the center of attention. That's why modesty is so important for women. Parading yourself can be the way you dress so that all the men turn their head and look at you when you walk in the room.

Now, does that mean you shouldn't try to look nice and try to look pretty? Of course you should, but there's a difference. There's a line you cross. We all have to understand that line. There's a perfect example of this in Acts chapter 12. Let's go to Acts chapter 12, and verse 20. This is the story of Herod Agrippa I. There's a lot of Herods and Herod Agrippas in the Bible because Herod the Great had many family members and the Romans would put them in charge of different provinces throughout the Middle East, but this is Herod Agrippa 1. Start in verse 20.

"Now, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus, the king's personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king's country." So we have the people of two cities that are sort of independent city states under the Roman rule. And they've been having some trouble with Herod Agrippa's Galilean...I think at this point he was over at Galilee. I don't think he had Judea, but he was over at Galilee. And so they'd had some trouble between those, political problems.

And so what happens here is the people come from those two cities. And Herod is going to get up and give a speech. Verse 21, "And so on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, 'The voice of a god and not of a man.'" Now, it's interesting. Josephus, of course, wrote in the first century and wrote... He may have actually been there. He wrote from first-hand accounts of that time period. Josephus says this royal apparel is very important because what he actually did and he planned this out, he had taken silver thread and made a suit of silver thread. And he had planned it out to the minute detail. And he was in a place where when he spoke, his voice would be magnified, and he called the meeting right at the time.

He planned it out so that when he stood on that balcony, the sun hit him and he glowed. And he said whenever he turned, light would just shoot off of him in different ways. In other words, this is special effects. And they figured out the right time of day to do it. And so Josephus says people were just all struck because the man walked out and suddenly started to glow and then made sure he turned certain ways, light was shooting off of him. And then his voice boomed out and they said, "It's a god." And even Josephus says, "God punished him because he would not stop them from praising him." He wouldn't stop it.

So it goes on and it says here, verse 23, "Then immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was eaten by worms and died." According to Josephus, it took five days of incredible agony for this man to die. Once again, Josephus isn't the absolute historical expert on everything. But there's no reason to discount this story. Here's a man who paraded himself in order to get others to make him the center of attention. The way he dressed, the way he talked, made himself the center of attention.

Now, he was a leader. What's interesting, most of us, we parade ourselves to get noticed. He didn't even have to do that. He was already noticed because of his position. So that's important for us to understand. We could parade ourselves by the way we dress, by the way we walk, by the way we talk. Agape doesn't parade itself. Now, that doesn't mean, once again, that you can't, "Hey, guess what happened to me today? Hey, guess what? At work today, I get the employee of the month." There's nothing wrong with having a certain pride in that, and we're gonna talk about pride next. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with sharing that with others. But you understand what I'm talking about. It's that emotional need.

And as we go through agape, you'll see a lot of the core problems of agape don't just center in thoughts. They center in feelings, emotions. This is why the English definition of love, which has to do with feelings, isn't agape. Because this agape describes how wrong human emotions drive us to do all kinds of things that are not the character of God. So it's okay when your child comes home and says, "Mom, mom, look, I got straight As." You're not to say, "Ooh, you're parading yourself." Okay? That's not boasting.

What's boasting is when they, a few years ago, asked a large number of high school students in the United States. They gave them a list of countries and said, "How do you think you rank yourselves among these countries with their students in math?" I mean, it was overwhelming. All the U.S. students said, "We're number one." Actually, they were way down at the bottom. Now, that's boasting. That's where the whole self-esteem movement takes you. Boasting without anything to back it up.

Now, those young people will not be able to compete with the rest of the world. That's the penalty they'll pay. Feeling good about their math skills won't give them better math skills. Understand. Parading yourself doesn't make you what you're parading yourself to be. Because if you are that, you don't have to parade it. It's simply you are. So you don't have to parade.

So how can we learn? How can we learn not to parade ourselves, not to be boastful? And people say, "Well, this isn't important Christianity." Remember, Paul said all of our other knowledge, all of our other mysteries, all of our other faith, all of our actions must come from this. All of what we learn takes us to this, and this then goes back and motivates everything else we do. If our Sabbath keeping is just because God commands us to do it, and we don't wanna do it, but we have to do it, then we won't receive the benefit of it. If our Sabbath keeping is motivated by agape, and our relationship with God, the Sabbath will be a reward. There's the difference.

First of all, not to parade yourself. First thing we must do is learn to take a genuine interest in other people. For most of us, this is a learned trait. Some people just have it naturally, most people learn it. And this means that when you're with other people, listen to what they have to say. And how you know you're listening is when every once in a while, you ask them a question. Really? Well, how did that happen? Why did your boss do that? Wow, that was exciting. Where were you when that happened? You know you're listening because you ask a question. So your brain has been involved in what they're saying.

So next time you're listening to someone, you know what we tend to do? Is we tend to come up with a better story. It's okay sometimes, you know, when everybody's swapping stories. But I'm talking about this need to be the center of attention all the time. We all sit around sometimes and swap stories, you know, and that's fun. But you understand what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that need to be the center all the time. How you stop doing that? Next time someone's talking, concentrate on what they're saying, and ask them questions about their experience. Wow, man, that must have made you feel bad.

If agape is outgoing concern for the other person, it has to be shown. You can say, "I love you," all you want and punch the person in the mouth and say, "Oh, that's okay because I love you." And the "I love you" means nothing. It has to be an action. And so that's the first step you take, is you concentrate on actually having a genuine interest in other people. And that means listening and asking questions.

Oh, let's go on to the beast power. Well, you know, in a few weeks, you're gonna get a sermon on the beast power, okay? But knowing who the beast is and not doing this makes knowing who the beast is knowledge. It doesn't make it conversion. Conversion is what this is about. That's what Christianity is. Should we know the prophecies? You bet. That's why we try to have about a fourth of all sermons here about prophecy. But, you know, that's not all there is. If I have all prophecies and I have not agape, I am nothing.

The second point is found in James 1:27. James is writing to the church and dealing with the issues within the church at large. This epistle wasn't written to a specific church, but to a group of churches. And one of those verses that's quoted over and over again, but let's go back to the full intent of this verse. Pure religion. Do you wanna have pure and undefiled religion before God? Is that what you wanna have? Is that why you get out of bed in the morning so that you can have pure and undefiled religion before God? Before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and keep oneself unspotted from the world.

We are very good at keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. That's what we center in on. That's why we get so frustrated and upset with the government of the United States. That's why we get so frustrated and upset when we see abortion promoted in our country or homosexuality. We wanna stay unspotted from the world. But what about the other part of the sentence? The other part of the sentence means simply serve those who need served. It was brought out in the sermonette. Simply serve those who need served.

Oh, but I can't, I've got these problems in my life, and if you knew about this trouble, and if you knew... Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. Do you want pure and undefiled religion or don't you? If you want pure and undefiled religion, stay unspotted from the world, know the commandments, know the doctrines, and do them, and serve those who need served. But we don't always go to the other part of that phrase. We jump to the last part of the phrase. This is what pure religion is. It's half right. If you're spotted with the world, if you're out living lifestyles with the world, you can't have agape. You'll be in rebellion against God. That's true. In fact, that's what most of our sermons are about, right? Sin. Don't do this. Don't do that.

These are the do things. Agape is the do things. Serve those who need served. Reach out a hand to those who need a hand. Concentrate on that and your life changes. There's so much negativism in the world. There's so much negativism in the church. When we live 1st Corinthians 13, it's different. It's totally different Christian experience. Serve those who need to be served. That's the second point. First one is learn to have a genuine interest in others. And second is look for opportunities every day to serve those who need served without reward, without thanks. Do it for the joy of doing it.

There are days when I'm discouraged and my wife says, "Why don't you go visit some of the widows?" Because I come back a different person when I do that because they give me something that's a whole lot more than what I give them. And many of you probably didn't realize that, but that's true. I'll visit you sometimes for selfish reasons because when I leave, I have received something from you. But we don't. There's an emotional risk in that. It's easier. It's easier to serve people by donating money. We should donate money, and that sounds good. We're commanded to do that. It's easier to serve people by giving to the Salvation Army. It's easier to bring clothing to the clothing exchange.

Should we do those things? Of course we should. But it's a whole lot harder to serve people in relationship. It's a whole lot harder to suffer with them. It's a whole lot harder to sit and hold their hand. This is pure religion according to James. And he has a lot more authority than I have. That's what he says it is. This is the heart and core of agape.

The third thing we need to do and not parading ourselves is that we need... And remember I said agape begins in our relationship with our families and in the church. We are to exhibit this to the world. But you and I can never exhibit agape to the world if we aren't exhibiting it to each other. So if we are not exhibiting agape to each other in the church, we are failing Jesus Christ. If we are not exhibiting agape to each other in the church, we are failing Jesus Christ. Because by this will all men know that you are my disciples because you have love, one towards none. That's how important this is. That's how important this is. So we must have it among ourselves.

So this brings us to our third point here, Romans 15. Romans chapter 15. And let's go to verse 1. He's talking to the church. Now, we could go through all the reasons for this. It has to do with vegetarianism. It has to do with fast days. It has to do with all kinds of issues they had at that day. But let's just move it to us today. You can fill in the blanks, whatever issues you have in your life. He says, "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves."

In order to begin to have agape in the church, and this is point number three, we have to learn to help the weak instead of condemning the weak. It was said many years ago, the Church of God is called the Army of God. We're the only army in history that shoots our own wounded. I just remembered that. We're the only army in history that shoots our own wounded. Those who are strong should work with those who are weak. Part of the problem is, brethren, that sometimes all of us are weak. So we're not helping each other, we're just hurting each other.

He goes on, he says, "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification." Remember the definition of agape? It is doing what's right for the other person in spite of what you feel. It is doing what's good for the other person. Which means you have to consider and know what is good, and then you must do what is good. Isn't that what verse two says? Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. Now, what kind of authority does he go to to come to that statement?

Verse 3, "For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." If we're not in the Scriptures, we're not gonna have patience and comfort. We're not gonna have agape. Now, may the God of patience and comfort... He is the God of patience. He is agape. So if you need patience, I need patience. We have to go ask for it. But understand, asking for patience means asking for a trial that goes on and on and on and on. Because if it goes on for 12 hours, it doesn't take a lot of patience. If it goes on for 12 years, that takes patience.

We want comfort. Well, if you want comfort, it means you have to have a problem. But He is the God of patience and comfort. But you know what? You and I don't have to ask for those things. We already have them. We have to ask for the patience and comfort. We already have trials that go on and on, right? We already have troubles, and we need comfort. He is the God of those things. He is the God of the resurrection. He is the God of the Sabbath. He is the God of the Ten Commandments who thundered them down from Mt. Sinai. He is the God of grace. He is the God who will throw people in the lake of fire. And He is also the God of patience and comfort.

He says, "Grant you to be like-minded towards one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth," do what? Here is the goal of what these kinds of relationships are supposed to build. Does it mean we always agree on everything? This is what it says. Does it mean you have to get everybody in the church to wear the same color shirts? That's not what it says. It says that with one mouth, glorify God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Glorify the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The purpose is to praise and glorify God.

If we don't have agape, we keep the doctrines and we push Jesus Christ outside. And He knocks on the door and we don't hear Him because we're too busy either arguing, parading ourselves, or patting ourselves on the back. I know this feels corrective, but you know what? This also should be exciting. This is why you were given the Holy Spirit. This is what you and I are supposed to become. Boy, I don't know about you, but I'm a long ways from 1 Corinthians 13. But I wanna go there. I really wanna go there. So we must learn to help the weak in the church, instead of condemning the weak in the church.

Now, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 13:4. We looked at does not parade itself. Let's look at the next quality, which is these things are connected. These two qualities are connected. Because in verse 4, it says, "Agape is not puffed up," or as the NIV says, "It is not proud." Once again, we get a good definition of proud. Puffed up is an interesting translation. That means you're just full of hot air. Pride isn't... You know, there's a right kind of pride. There's a pride that says, "Wow, I did a good job here." There's a pride that says...when you finish playing the piano and you say, "That sounded great. I practiced and practiced and that sounded wonderful." That's okay. Coming home from work and saying, "I did a good job today. I worked hard and I feel good about the work I did today." That kind of pride, because we'll say, "Boy, he takes pride in his work." That's not what he's talking about here.

What this pride means, and you will find pride mentioned throughout the Scriptures. It's amazing how much pride is talked about in the Scripture. And I would like to do a sermon sometime in the next year on humility and pride just on this subject again and go through Scriptures that we're not gonna go through today because it's such a broad subject. Pride is simply having an over-high opinion of yourself. So once again, you're motivated. Pride is a deep, strong motivation. It is an emotional belief that your beliefs, your opinions, your ways are always the right opinions, the right beliefs, the right ways.

When we are filled with pride, we always are ready to challenge anybody that somehow disagrees with us. We're always ready to confront anybody that hurts our feelings. Because we won't take anything from anybody, and we harbor ill will towards anybody that has hurt us or bothered us or contradicted us. And that ill will drives us because my pride was hurt. And when we get to that point, that my opinion, my belief, my way, is the way and anybody disagrees, they have a problem. And, you know, all of us have met somebody who is really a proud person. If you've had to work for somebody like that, if you've had a relative like that, an uncle or something, you know how hard it is to even interact with that person. They're always right.

A prideful person tends to always see the negative in others. They always see the negative in others because it justifies their superiority. So a prideful person almost never sees the good in anybody else. And so they love to talk about the bad traits in other people. They constantly talk about bad traits in other people because it reinforces their pride. It reinforces their need, emotional need, to be superior.

Let me give you a few points that we need to understand about pride. And then I wanna talk about some ways to deal with pride in our own lives. First of all, pride is one of the core problems of corrupt human nature. This goes down to the core of who we are as people. We always have almost an immediate defense of ourselves in almost all situations. Now, there is a time to defend yourself. But we're back to, what is the motivation? Is the motivation for defense based on what's good for the other person and what is right, or the motivation for defense is that I was hurt and I'm not gonna take it? Because if it's that motivation, it's not agape.

And I don't know, maybe you're all different than me, but there's been times in my life I defended myself because I was hurt and nothing good has ever come from that. Every time I've done that, nothing good's ever come from that. I mean, I can remember as a teenager coming home with a black eye because nothing good came of it, right? I also learned early on that I probably should take something else up than being a boxer because I wasn't going to survive. That's another story. But it is one of the core problems of corrupt human nature.

The second one is pride is one of the great destroyers of relationships. You can't even have phileo when pride is involved because it destroys affection. It destroys any good feelings that people have. It destroys brotherly love. Because when pride is involved, you must always be the one on top. You must always win. How many times have you seen a husband or wife locked into, you know, mortal combat because one of them just won't back down? How many times have we seen children and parents estranged for years, best friends, based on pride? And you can see it, right? You say, "Well, that's just pride. Go say you're sorry." "No, not until they say they're sorry." And you shake your head and say, "Boy, that person has a lot of pride. I thank God I don't have pride."

Third point is, and this is real important, I want you to really listen to this one, pride motivates us to make emotional and irrational decisions because pride motivates us to be angry and to be hurt. And because we're angry and we're hurt, we make emotional and absolutely irrational decisions. Something that if you weren't caught up in pride, you would never make. I'll show you an example. 2 Kings 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. This is about a man who is offered a great blessing from God and almost misses out on him because of a simple issue of pride in his country, pride in his nation as better than other nations.

Verse 1 of 2 Kings chapter 5. "Now, Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper." Here's a great man, the greatest general of his time, of his country, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. And she waited on Naaman's wife. Then she said to her mistress, "If only my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria, for he would heal him out of his leprosy."

Now, this is Elisha that she's talking about. And Naaman went and told his master, saying, "Thus and thus said the girl who was from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Now go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he departed and took with him 10,000 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, "Now, be advised when this letter comes to you that I have sent Naaman, my servant, to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy."

So he sends this huge ransom of money and sends his general to the king of Israel. Now, of course, the King of Israel panics. "I can't heal him. What am I supposed to do? He just offered me the general of a country we keep going to war with. Maybe I should kill him. Maybe he's trying to set up for a war."

Verse 7, "And it happened when the king of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, 'Am I God to kill and make alive, that this man sends to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider and see how he wants a quarrel with me. He's trying to set up a war.' So it was when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the king saying, 'Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me and he shall know that there's a prophet in Israel.'"

What is his motivation? Let him know who God is. I'm a prophet of God. He'll know that there's a prophet of God here. Let's praise God through this. Let's not panic, King. Let's praise God. Remember what I read there in Romans? Agape always leads us to what? Praise and honor God. When we don't have agape, we're centered on ourselves. We're centered on other people. Agape leads us to be centered on God.

So verse 9, "Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood before the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, 'Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.'" So Elisha doesn't even come out of his house. The servant comes out. A servant to the greatest general probably in the Middle East at the time. A great man, honored throughout the Middle East, and he's sitting out in his chariot, and the Prophet doesn't even come out.

But Naaman became furious, verse 11, and went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy." He says, "I had faith in that God, and I had faith that that man was of God. And what did he do? He didn't come out and do a big ceremony, and I was cleansed, and I was gonna ride my chariot back to Syria and say, 'Look, the God of Israel and his man cleansed me.' He wouldn't even come out of the house."

You talk about rude. You talk about dishonoring. But there was a test here for this man. And then verse 12, "And are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" I know my country's got bigger rivers than that little Jordan. It's just a creek. Well, we don't even call that a river where we come from. I gotta go dip in that and somehow seven times? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. God had offered him a blessing, but because he didn't feel like he was getting enough honor, because his pride was hurt, he was in a rage, he was angry, and he's leaving. And he's still a leper.

And then it says in verse 13, "And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, 'My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more than if he says you just go take a bath?" Come on. If this God is the true God and this is His servant, you would have done some great dance. You know, you would have done a ceremony. You would have sacrificed animals. Surely you can do something this simple.

So verse 14, "So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." So then he goes back to Elijah and says, "I get it." This man was led to an irrational emotional decision because his pride was hurt. This is the great danger of pride. One thing pride leads us to, it leads us to a lot of anger and it eventually leads us to depression. Now, the fourth thing to know about pride is that pride blocks your relationship with God. If we have pride, our prayers are hampered.

You know, it's interesting in James 4:6, it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." It doesn't say God ignores the proud. It says God resists the proud. When we go before God in pride, He literally pushes us away. But when we're humble, we receive His grace. So which do you want? But the problem is our own pride won't let us do what we have to do. And so, he resists us. He pushes us away. And we just get more and more angry because our pride is hurt.

The fifth thing is pride motivates us to harshly judge others and ignore our own weaknesses. Galatians. We harshly judge others and ignore our own weaknesses. Now, we know there are times we have to make judgments. There's times when you have to go to a brother who has sinned. We're told to do that. But pride motivates us to do this in a wrong way. Galatians 6:1, "Brethren," Paul writes, "If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness."

In other words, if the person repents...you know, in Corinthians, Paul condemns the church for allowing sin to be practiced in the congregation and the people weren't repentant. No, people who are practicing sin should be removed from the congregation. What he says here is if they repent, bring them back. You know, if somebody repents, you don't even have to remove them from the congregation, right? What's God looking for? Repentance in all of us. So he says, "Look, you find somebody in a sin and they repent, you restore them in the spirit of gentleness." Pride isn't very gentle, by the way.

Now, notice the rest of the sentence, "Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted." See, the thing about pride is we're harsh on others, but we're a whole lot...we give ourselves a lot of leeway. We give ourselves leeway that we won't give others. And so what we do is we judge others harshly, but we don't consider our own weaknesses. Notice what he says in verse 2, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." We want to fulfill the law, we want to do the law. Part of doing the law is carrying each other's burdens. And this is in the context of somebody who has done something wrong.

This is in the context of someone who has done something wrong and is repentant. Carry that burden with that person. This is the hardest Christianity will ever do. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work. This is where we need to go. Where am I with God? What is my attitude? Am I living agape? And if not, where do I need to change? Let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another, for each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught with the Word share in all good things with Him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. And it's easy to look at that in other people.

Paul says in verse 4, "Look at yourself first." And then the last point here in understanding pride is pride leads us to feel like a victim and to suffer anger and depression. I gave a sermon about six months ago on the victimization, how we feel like victims, and what that does to us. And now as Christians, we're not supposed to feel like victims. God is giving us victory. But pride causes us to constantly be hurt, constantly be angry because we're never getting what we want. We're never getting what we think we deserve. And so in that, we constantly look at life through frustration.

Now, how can we then deal with pride in ourselves? Because this is a core issue of human nature. We all struggle with pride. Well, the first thing is found in Philippians 2. First point is in Philippians chapter 2. How important is pride in being a spiritual deterrent? Think about the symbolism of the Days of Unleavened Bread. We have an entire Holy Day season about being not puffed up, on not having pride. Pride is a primary motivation for all kinds of evil. Primary motivation. It is in my life, it's in your life. So we have to recognize that. The wrong kind of pride.

Philippians 2:1, "Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy," he says, "If this can be in your church in Philippi, if this can happen there, something else is gonna have to happen." If this is gonna happen in our church in San Antonio, our church in Austin, our church in Waco, if it's gonna happen in the United Church of God as a whole, if it's gonna happen in the churches of God as a whole, then the same question is gonna have to be or same process is gonna have to be thought through.

If there is any of these things, verse 2, "Fulfill my joy by being like-minded and having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." How do you do that? Does that mean we have to agree on everything? Of course it doesn't. If people expect that, that's not in the Bible. Even the apostles didn't agree on everything. And I don't think any of us have reached that stature of Christianity yet. But even they didn't agree on everything. That's what he's talking about. This one-mindedness comes down to a certain viewpoint that has to do with agape, with love.

Verse 3, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit." We're back to this pride, this belief that your opinion is so important, it must be heard. I have lots of opinions, and many of them are as valuable as anybody else's opinion. Now, God's opinions, they have weight. They have meaning. Sometimes I'll have an opinion I find that's a good one. I hang on to those. It doesn't happen very often and I enjoy it as long as I can. And I have to be careful because I start bragging about it. I also have lots of opinions that over the years I found out were absolutely stupid. Okay? But that's life, right? We all formulate opinions based on some knowledge, based on experience. Some of them are good opinions, some of them are bad opinions.

We share opinions. We have to make decisions based on opinions. But opinions are opinions. They're not always the truth. They're not always even the right way to do something. So he says, "Don't let anything be driven by this ambition or conceit in ourselves. But in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself." Now we're back to agape. Do what is best for the other person. That's the motivation. That's not why most of us are motivated most of the time, doing what is best for the other person.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but for the interest of others. He didn't say never look out for your own interest. Notice that. Selfishness doesn't mean never having your own needs or your own interests. It means how you prioritize things. He says, "So let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but for the interest of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ." We go back to the authority, to the example of what this means and why this is the core idea of what you and I must become, or we're just practicing Christians, we aren't truly Christians.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." What a statement. He was divine. That's what that means. He wasn't just a man. And being found in appearance of a man...oh, no, verse 7, "But made himself of no reputation." He was involved in the decision to go from divinity to humanity. He made himself, understand. He's involved in the decision to come to the Earth and become what he became. It's very important.

He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance of a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even to the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven, and those on the Earth, and those under the Earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

Once again, he starts out with if Christianity works within a congregation, it works because we are not driven by ambition, we're not driven by conceit and pride, it's because we are willing to give and suffer for each other. And because we always go back to the example in praising the one who gave us the example. He's not outside the door knocking, He's inside leading. He's inside leading and we are following.

So the first great point in dealing with pride is understand that pride is one of the great destroyers of spirituality. It destroys our ability to interact with God, and it destroys our ability to have the right relationships with other people, whether it's in our family, in the church, or those outside the church. Our relationship with those people deteriorates because of pride. So it is one of the great destroyers of spirituality. So you say, "Okay, we're talking about dealing with it. So now I know that I have to go to Christ as my example here. I know it will destroy my spirituality. What's the next step I take?" Okay, so that's first step.

Second step is you have to go pray and fast for humility. You have to pray and fast for humility. In the Bible study last week in Austin, I read from Isaiah 58. Let's go to Isaiah 58. Isaiah chapter 58. I'm not gonna go through everything I went through in the Bible study there, but I wanna look at briefly this passage because I want you to study this passage and understand what is being said here. We must pray and fast for humility. Much of the time, our fasts, or many times, I can't say much of the time, that's an exaggeration, our fasting is not accepted to God.

When you fast before God, it's like bringing a sacrifice. He either accepts it or He doesn't. When He accepts it, something happens. If He doesn't accept it, nothing happens. Why is it that God does not accept our fasts sometimes? Well, He tells us why. Isaiah 58:1. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob, their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways." These people pray to God every day. If they were in Jerusalem, they went to the temple every day. There were sacrifices taking place every day.

So seeking God daily didn't produce what they wanted, and it didn't produce what God wanted. Why? He says as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching God. "Why have we fasted," they say, "And you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?" The people say, "Wait a minute, we fasted and God didn't take care of that problem. We fasted and God didn't fix that. We fasted and we didn't see God do anything. Why is it, God, that you're not responding to our fast?"

Verse 7, here's why. This is God's response. In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your labors. First thing they did was when they fasted, they continued to do what they wanted. They would continue to be driven by their own motives during their day of fast. Verse 4, "Indeed, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high."

Here's why they were fasting. God's gonna listen to me and God's gonna fix that other person. You fast for strife and debate with the fist, okay? So that you can be heard on high. The reason they fasted was so that God would get and punish and correct other people. And God said, "I will listen to your fast."

Ever fast so God will fix somebody else? I mean, there's a time to pray for somebody else. There's a time to fast for somebody else. But he's talking about a motivation here that's based in our motives. And our motive is only to get somebody else fixed. He says, "Is it a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?" He says, "So, it's a big ceremony and you fast and you suffer so that you can make me hear you."

The purpose of fasting is not to prepare God for our will. The purpose for fasting is for us to be prepared for the will of God. It all has to do with pride. We go to God for Him to do what our pride demands. And fasting is to go to God to be humbled so that we are prepared for God's will. So if we have pride, you wanna deal with pride, you must go fast for humility. You must go fast for God to change you. You must go fast and beg God to take rid of your pride, to help you see your pride. It's not the main reason we usually fast, is it? And that's why God doesn't honor the fast.

He says, verse 6, "Is this not the fast that I have chosen?" Here's why God wants us to fast. To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke. He says, "When you finish fasting, what God wants in your life is that there's a freedom from sin. There's a freedom from pride. There's a freedom from anger. There's a freedom from that yoke." When we come out of a fast and we're just as filled with hatred as we were as we went into the fast because God didn't punish my wife. Right? God has resisted the proud, and your fasting was for nothing. He says it here.

I mean, this doesn't take a lot of interpretation to Isaiah 58. Verse 7, you know how you'll know when your fast is honored by God? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? That you may bring to your house the poor who were cast out. When you see the naked, that you cover him and not that you hide yourself from your own flesh. If you come out of a fast and say, "Yes, I am motivated now to go fix the person I'm angry at or whatever I have to do," we are to come out of a fast and you know God is honored because what are you motivated to do? To go serve someone in need. That's what it says. Right? I'm not making it up. That's what verse 7 says. You know this is a fast I have honored because you find yourself now motivated to go take care of somebody in need.

Agape becomes part of what you want to do. But God, I fast that you would bring down the President of the United States. Well, I'll take care of the president, you take care of the widow. I'll take care of the president, you take care of the person who's depressed. I'll take care of the president, you take care of the family that's suffering from sickness. We know God has honored our fast when the pride is broken. And when the pride is broken, we find ourselves wanting to do something for somebody else. See why I say this is the biggest problem in the church of God?

Then verse 8, "Your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. And the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard, and you shall call, and the Lord will answer, and you shall cry, and he shall say, 'Here I am.'" This is what we want, right? We want God to say, "Here I am, come. Let's sit, let's talk, son. Let's talk, daughter. Come. Sit at my feet. Let me love you. Let me share with you. Let me forgive you. Let me heal you. Let me take your burdens off."

He says that will happen if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness. "If you stop speaking wickedness and fast and humble yourself, I will answer," God says. "If," verse 10, "You extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn as in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in droughts and strengthen your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." You want that in your life? Then go ask God to give you humility. I'm not saying it will be painless. I'm saying it's the only way to have that happen. Go pray and fast for humility and you will change.

And then the third point is you must learn to forgive quickly. We cannot harbor long-term resentments. Agape requires, if we're not gonna be filled with pride, we have to learn to forgive quickly. Pride keeps us from doing that. Pride demands that we don't do that. Yeah, we have to. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2:18, Peter says... Well, let's start in verse 18 so we can sort of get the context of why he says this. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also the harsh. He says, you know, in life, you're gonna work for people that are good, and you're gonna work for people that aren't so good. He says, "And learn to deal with that properly for it is commendable if because of conscience towards God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully." This is commendable if someone does something wrong to you and you handle it properly.

So the whole point is your pride is hurt. The whole point here isn't that you've been treated... I mean, let's face it, you've been done wrong. That's the point. So how we deal with that is either commendable or uncommendable to God. How we deal with it. We either deal with it with pride or we deal with it with agape.

Verse 20, "For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." You know, when you and I do something wrong and we receive punishment and we take it well, God says, "Huh. At least the kid took the punishment well." He doesn't pat you on the back, or me on the back, for taking the punishment well. When we suffer wrongfully and we take it well and not through pride, God commends us. That's a remarkable thing.

Can you imagine you could be commendable to God where God says, "Hey, notice what my kid did today, and it's not something bad?" When God says, "Hey, look, Joe did it right this time." And the angels say, "yeah, but he was mistreated." "Yeah, but look how he took it." And God commends us. Is a whole new concept of what we're used to as human beings. Where does he go for his authority? Verse 21. I mean, we were at James and Paul. Now we're in Peter. They all go to the same authority.

For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps. Committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten but committed himself to Him who judges righteously. Now, we can go back and look at where Jesus didn't always take being mistreated. He stood up to the Pharisees and said, "You know what? You people are a bunch of white supplicants. Why did He do that? Because it's what was best for them. That was part of His ministry at the time. There were other times He did not stand up for himself, but what we do know is He forgave.

If you read through the rest of this chapter, He says, "Because it's by His stripes that we are healed." And he just doesn't mean physical healing, he means everything. Spiritual healing, emotional healing, physical healing. He was willing to take that abuse because it's what was best even for the people who were abusing Him. That's agape. He knew when to stand up and when not to stand up. And the motivation when He didn't stand up was because it's best for the people who are abusing me. It's best for all humanity that I do not stand at this time. It's best for humanity.

Where do they keep going to their authority in each case we read? It's to Jesus Christ. There it is. There's Jesus Christ knocking at the door of the church. Knocking at the door of the church saying, "This is how we do this, folks. This is how we as the children of God do this."

Of course, we could go to Matthew 18 and show about forgiveness. The basis of forgiveness always says, "God has forgiven us, so we should forgive others." Because we are forgiven, we have the ability to forgive. We wouldn't have the ability to forgive without God forgiving us. It's not in us. But because of God's forgiveness, we can forgive others.

Agape cannot flourish where boasting and pride are primary motivations. Agape requires that we humbly put the welfare of others before our own welfare. Jesus Christ served the weak, helped the poor and sick, stooped down and washed the feet of His disciples. He left us the perfect example of caring service and humility. We also cannot harbor bitterness. We cannot be driven by pride. We cannot be driven by an unforgiving attitude. Because if we do, we cannot have agape.

Well, three sermons, we've now gone through one verse of qualities. Three verses of introduction and one verses of qualities. Next week, we'll start on verse 5.