Lesson 52c

We're looking at Lesson 52, and we had gotten down to, we were talking a little bit before about Question 8, where the verses are. Somebody got their Bible open? Read 9 through 13, Chapter 12. Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil. Cling to what is good. Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lack diligence. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in affliction. Be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs. Pursue hospitality.

Okay, we're talking about, we talked last week about praying without ceasing and kind of how that goes. And then, so this, question eight says, how intense are the needs of the fellowship to be to us. So the fellowship has a lot of needs, and we're to know about them, for one thing. Does this verse put a responsibility on us to know and pray about the needs of everybody in the fellowship?

What do you think? I mean, you know, there's no question that we satisfy our own needs first, try to anyway. How about the needs, satisfying the needs of your brother in Christ? Come on, somebody speak up. Well, it seems obvious that basically God says that you have the means to help, you know, your brother's hurting. just you would naturally have this bond of love where you would want to help.

Yeah, it's interesting that the needs aren't necessarily financial. We're looking at necessities. The way this verse is structured, we as believers are to make another's necessity as though they were our own. So I don't see you guys coming over and mowing my grass. What's the problem? That's Luke Jekin's job. Or I don't see you coming over and praying over me. It's an interesting thing I got out of Newell.

He said, so to make another's necessities one's own is to relieve them. When you obey this injunction and begin wisely to inquire about the saints' needs, you will be astonished at two things. First, at the actual pressing necessities of many saints all about you. And second, at the way God will supply your own necessities as you minister to them. What I've noticed, especially recently, And I think it has a lot to do with your mom, Winnie. As we minister to her needs, our needs seem so small.

And she's in a nursing home or assisted care facility. And I mean, other than the fact that it's a nice place, it's like being in jail. She can't get out for any reason. And if she escapes, they won't let her back in. And so the negativity of the environment that she's in really weighs on her.

And it's really apparent. as time goes on, so we've decided we're probably going to break the rules a little bit. Don't put that on tape. Yeah, don't put that on tape. Anyway, we've got to figure out a way to interact with her face to face. Last week, Ingrid was talking about having somebody hang out with her dad. That one-on-one face-to-face time Winnie doesn't have any of that and even though we Zoom with her and talk to her a couple three times a day still it's not the same And it's the same way with our body of believers.

You know the sooner we can get back together and face-to-face, that's really important because we're built that way. We're built to be together, and especially in the body of Christ. And I like what Newell had to say, that he said that if you are involved in the needs of somebody else, you'll find that he supplies your needs. Because when your focus isn't on yourself, there's a real tendency to just, well, whatever your circumstances are, they weren't that bad. And he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. And that's one of the problems of being isolated and locked down like we are. We have a tendency to only think about ourselves.

And the body of Christ functions much better if I'm thinking about and praying about you rather than myself. I think God gave us bodies. Turn your mic on, there you go. I think God gave us bodies so we can interact with each other. I've been reading Randy Alcorn's book called Heaven and he says we're going to have bodies in Heaven too so we can interact with each other. I think that's really important. Although we have been, I think we've gotten out every single day. Oh, somebody's clock. Westminster chimes. I've gotten out every single day for the last three months. I'm going somewhere, doing something.

And, you know, I've been careful, but I can't tell you. To be in Home Depot and see other human beings is really, you know, it's therapeutic. So we're built to be social creatures, and especially the body of Christ. But the body of Christ is a little different, because the focus as we grow in Christ is on the other members and not ourselves. And that's really a neat thing.

Okay, question nine. How should we view our possessions as believers? Take an inventory of everything that you own. How should you view them? I see Debbie laughing. We don't own them. We don't own them. We're observing JD's halo. JD's halo, he's got the sun coming in on one side. Hey, this was God's plan, not mine. So how should you view the possessions that you have? They belong to God. So what's your role? We're caretakers, we're custodians, and boy does that change our attitude I think a lot of times about that they're not our own, we're just holding them in stewardship for the Lord and He can use them for whatever He wants them directed.

The first thing your old man says to you is, oh, if I do that, I'm not going to be able to eat or feed my family or, oh boy, I'm going to be destitute. But I think that what we find is, you know, we're not talking about socialism and the community of goods. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about that the Word of God teaches us that we have the rights of personal and private property, but what's interesting is that it doesn't really belong to us.

We're stewards of it for the Lord, and so an attitude that you and Matt, like everything that I'm a steward of, really is I'm like a storekeeper that doesn't have any price on anything. Whatever you want, whatever you need, if the Lord directs, it's yours. So what do you think about that? I think it goes back to our citizenship's in heaven.

We're here. We don't own the property. It's his. And he's free to give it to us or to take it away. And we should look at it that way. The company, my company or anything like that, I've always been relaxed. If he can give me work or take away work or take away the company or do any company, it's all his. It's all his. Yeah. Again, I just go back to citizenship. Our citizenship's in heaven. We're here just traveling through and if we look at it that way, it's not, I mean, we're stewards of his possessions and we should be cognizant of that, but he's free to give it to us or take it away and not be, I guess, attached to it.

So can I have your truck? I was just going to say, every kid wants my truck. No, I want your truck, JD. It's nicer. The answer is no. But I may come over and do your lawn for you. Oh, that would be great. Bring your edger while you're at it. Okay. The Lord take it away, not you guys. That's true.

You know, I really do think that's one of those principles that you learn, especially we Americans who have so much. But it's a principle you learn as you grow in Christ that, you know, you really are just sort of taking care of stuff. It's like, should I just stand on the corner and take all of my accounts and turn them to cash and just hand them out? No. I'm a steward, and a steward has a responsibility. A responsibility to be diligent about the use of whatever the Lord has made you a steward of.

So that's really kind of neat. It ties into that whole, and I use the lower capital version of Lord, Lord over the earth. I mean, we are stewards, like you said. That's how we were designed originally. It's not ours, but we are responsible for taking care of it. There's lordship from a creation perspective.

Yeah. Well, I think also taking that attitude just gives a lot more peace in this life. Sure does. If you're not attached to it, if it's gone or if you do take my truck, it's not a devastating thing if you're not attached to it. Right. It gives you a lot more peace in everything. I know that the Lord's going to take care of me one way or the other. Sure.

He takes care of the birds in the field and feeds them and does everything. He can take it all away or do whatever, but he's still, and it goes back to my isms, he's in control. So if he takes it away, I know it's his. And he's not doing it out of malice, that he loves me. So whatever he does is done in love. And again, that gives, you know, peace of heart, rest, all those different things if you're not attached to the things here.

Yeah, it's an important point. Okay. There's something in my mind regarding, you know, like you were talking about, like just giving away your money on the street corner kind of thing, but there's also not only the stewardship of our possessions, but we have the stewardship of our relationships and our families and who we're taking care of. Yeah. So we're keeping that in mind too. Yeah. Good point. Yeah, that's a really good point. That's a really good point. All of a sudden, we're getting there. We're getting there.

Steve needs to mute his. Well, and I'm trying to get this mouse to work because there's somebody else that wants to come in. It's a little late, but we'll see. So let's do the last question. We've got a couple of minutes. The last question is, are we to go out into the world and seek to help non-believers? What do you think? As the Lord leads, it would not be anything less. If you try to do it yourself, it's going to mess up. I'll ask the question another way.

Should the focus be on Should the focus be on believers, our own body? Like somebody comes in the door at church and they need a handout, and are we to take care of that situation, or should we be more concerned about the needs of the immediate body of believers that we're involved in? So in this scenario, are you asking somebody that we suspect is an unbeliever that comes into the church and needs something, say gas, versus the body of believers that we're familiar with and we know, and they need something. So how do we balance that need?

And I put it this way, I think believers come first, whatever need that they have were to share one another, because what does righteousness have to do with unrighteousness? Yet at the same time, this last verse with respect to the needs of the saints, being a sharer with them, eager for opportunities to show hospitality. Notice in an expanded translation from Wiest, he refers to, with respect to the needs of the saints. But it doesn't mean that if somebody knocks on my door that I've never met before and they wanna sleep in the basement, I'm not gonna let them do that.

Oh, that's for sure. I've seen you, Mike, do a lot of things for a lot of people over the years, and I think that for the unbeliever, you're simply meeting an immediate physical need in order to meet a bigger spiritual need. Yeah, and that's good, Jake.

They need the Lord Jesus, and that's their ultimate need, and maybe they need a loaf of bread, or you have to kind of read between the lines. It can get a little hairy sometimes, the situation. For the believer though, it may be spiritual as well. It might actually be. It might actually be. Wow, that was weird. I heard myself. Did you hear myself speak to myself? Yes, I did. That was nice. I'm going to stop talking. I'll leave it at that. Ingrid wants to share a verse.

I just saw Galatians 6.10 says that, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Yeah. That just goes along with what you were saying. Sure. Family first. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you know. If you, if, like, if, Steve, do you want to say something? It's like this, you know, somebody comes into church, you should refer them to Roger and I. And what do we do?

Ask them what their need is. Most people come and they want cash. We're not gonna give them cash. But whatever their need is, like if they need a tank of gas, fine, we'll go to the gas station, we fill up their tank and let them on their way. Until they tore down the motel over here, I was on a first name basis with the desk clerk over there, but now the motel's gone, I don't know what to do. But nobody has asked for a room lately, but food and that kind of thing, you know, I don't know.

Funny quick story. So Mike says, I'm going to, I got to go take care of these guys and get them some gas. So Laban and I drive up right behind these guys and we wait for Mike to fill us up too. Yeah, I do It's gonna be that giving family first, right? Yeah Well, what you guys didn't see was the little girl in the back seat of the car I was filling up kept sticking her tongue out at me the whole time. I was filling her up We gotta get ready for the main service.

Hopefully it'll work. So let's close in prayer. Father, how we thank you for the, at least we had some time together. We sure appreciate that. We trust you with this next service that Roger will encourage us with the message that he has and that the electronic platform we're working on will work fine for everybody. And we thank you, we praise you, and we pray in your son's name, amen.