Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32

I have some breaking news for you.  Some people are difficult to be kind to.  I will wait a moment while you pick yourself off the floor after that “breaking “  news.   Actually, of course, I am being  I am being mildly sarcastic.  We all know that there are difficult people out there.  Looking at our verse for today I don’t  see any postscripts that say, “Be kind unless they are difficult.”   As a matter of fact,  in 1 Peter 3:8-9 it almost says the opposite.

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” 

When the verse says not to repay “evil for evil” or “reviling for reviling”  it is actually saying that there will sometimes be people who do evil and reviling things.  I know that is no surprise to you either.  But as we look at the above verses we realize that God has left us very little wiggle room when it comes to showing kindness to others.

According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man’s feet and gave him food and drink.

The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, “Don’t you worship God?”

The old traveler replied, “I worship fire only and reverence no other god.”

When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his tent into the cold night air.

When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, “I forced him out because he did not worship you.”

God answered, “I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?”

We may not have thrown someone out into the night lately, but how many have we turned out of our lives.  How many have we decided were not “worthy” of our time and goodness.  There are many ways we can turn people away without physically removing them.   We must know that if God has tolerated them for this long we might be part of the plan to bring them kindness.    It did not say in the story above, but is it possible that  God could have said to Abraham, “What came of the man I sent to your door tonight.  He has been turned away by so many, but I knew that you love me, so you would love him also.  How did it go.”  Boy,those would be harsh words for Abraham to hear from God- for us as well.

A few years ago we were on our way back from a camping trip and our oldest son and his family were following us in their car.   We passed  a young man walking the opposite way along the road.  He was wearing some raggedy clothes and carrying a well-worn backpack.  I did not think much of it as we see many young people  along our highways and byways in this day and age.

I looked in my rear view mirror and our son was pulling off the road and making a u-turn.  I pulled off the road and waited for them to return, thinking maybe one of the kids tossed a hat, a toy, or maybe a brother out the window.   We waited for a bit and along they came and our son pulled over behind us and jumped out to see what the matter was. 

Chris said, “Did you see that guy back there.  He didn’t have any shoes.  I didn’t need mine to drive, so I went back to see if he needed them.  It was great.  They fit.”   Well, I was really proud of Chris, but realized that I had not even noticed that the man was shoeless.   Even if I would have, I am not sure I would have stopped.  I learned a lesson that day.  Don’t just glance at appearances because God might just send a need my way and I need to look with that in mind.

Today on my way to town I was in a left lane with about thirty cars packed bumper to bumper because the right lane was closed ahead.  I have a pet peeve and sure enough it came to pass.  I huge truck came barreling along in the right lane passing all the cars in the left lane dutifully staying in the open left lane.  That man in the speeding truck had to rely on the kindness of at least one driver who was willing to ignore  an obvious infringement of etiquette and let him in.  Well, up ahead the man got his break and someone let him in.

Allegorically speaking, that is what we are called to do in today’s verses.   We are called to be kind whenever possible to the irritating, the obnoxious, the difficult, and even cruel.   After all, they are the ones who may need kindness the most.

We sometimes look at the great people of the Bible as super heroes who God enlisted in a task because they were fearless and would do anything they were told unflinchingly and without any hesitation.  But that was not so and the wonderful thing about the Bible is that it shows all sides of the people it portrays.  Even from the most obedient men and women we see reluctance, doubt, and fear.  We see also the great crutch of excuse-making that we all have used and will continue to use to avoid taking on tasks, taking on responsibility, or taking on criticism.  Someone once said that excuses are like arm pits, we all have them … and they all stink.  Well, the men and women of the Bible had arm pits, too.

It doesn’t take long perusing the Bible in our minds to find some excellent examples of excuse making.  Moses was called to “set his people free,” but argued that he was not the man for the job.  In Exodus 3 God tells Moses, “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you…”  In the following verses clear into chapter 4, Moses has a series of excuses that God must address.  Things like, the Pharoah is too powerful to I can’t speak well enough, are faulty reasons that Moses gives to God.  Until Moses took his eyes off his own inadequacies and his difficult circumstances, he could not be used of God.  When he finally gave God the reins and the reign, Moses led his people to the promised land.

But, of course, Moses isn’t the lone example in excuse making. Arguably, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets was Jeremiah.  Surely, he must have tackled his task without hesitation. Right?  Not quite.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak;  I am only a child.”

But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’   You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.  Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”  Jeremiah 1:4-10

Jeremiah was not too different from us.  “I can’t” or “It’s too hard” or “I don’t know how” or “someone else is better, stronger, smarter…” are just some of the excuses that he and we use to avoid uncomfortable tasks that we face.  Jeremiah and Moses, fortunately, overcame their excuses and took their tasks on and served God faithfully.  But some of us let our excuses stop us from doing those things we should do (or shouldn’t do).  This is especially dangerous when it comes to spiritual things.  Excuses abound… “The Bible is too boring and hard to understand.”  “I am really too busy for God.”  “I can’t talk to others about God, I don’t know enough.”  “When things get settled down, I will get more serious about God.”  The list goes on.

The prophet Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh, a huge city and the avowed enemy of Israel, and call them to repentance.  Jonah had all kinds of excuses for avoiding that task.  He might be killed, it was a long journey, he didn’t have the “right stuff” to do it, and a classic excuse that he didn’t want to go because he knew God would forgive them and that would make him mad.  “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”  So, Jonah didn’t want to go because God is good and would forgive Jonah’s enemies if they repented.  That’s really reaching deep in the excuse barrel.

These are just a few examples of excuse making in the Bible, but there are countless others from Eve blaming the serpent and Adam blaming Eve all the way up through Revelation.  Many of these people were called directly by God, but most of us are called by the Word of God.  We know what we should do, but so often we come up with excuses (and not such original ones at that) to sit on our hands. We should only marvel that God continues to call us to service when are so slow to act. We are like reluctant middle schoolers lining the walls of the gym at their first sock-hop.

We need to remember that God has plans for us and he will only give us tasks for which we are equipped. If we don’t do what we are called to do, someone with lesser skills, but a more obedient heart might have to take over that job.  We all know those people.  The ones who will tackle anything because there are so many who will tackle nothing.  It is better that we be one of the former than the latter. There is an old saying that a poor workman always finds fault with his tools. If we do not take on the spiritual tasks that we are called to do, we are really faulting God because He is our power to achieve.

There are usually three excuses for our inaction or our bad actions. First, we deny that we are being neglectful or that we are doing anything wrong. Second, we fall back on the “it’s not my fault” excuse that is always quite handy.  Third, we admit that we are wrong, but it is our circumstances that are at fault. So excuses are just that, they are not reasons and we can’t shape them to be reasons. We look to blame others, so we don’t have to look toward ourselves. We can’t just admit that we just don’t want to do what we are called to do or we just don’t want to stop doing what we shouldn’t do.   Like the outfielder who misses the ball and holds up his glove toward the sun to tell everyone the sun was in his eyes, we hold up our excuses, so everyone knows we are not at fault.

We will close today with a few humorous examples of excuses that have come in on accident reports to the police.

“As I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision.”

“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.”

“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I attempted to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”

“The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

Sometimes our excuses are as ridiculous as these.  I hope God isn’t publishing them somewhere for people to read.  Remember, excuses are the nails for building houses of failure.  Let’s avoid excuses; let’s avoid failure.

“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”  Ephesians 6:10

We have had tough times and in the midst of those we have had others who have tried to encourage us to “be strong.”  Although the counsel is certainly not bad advice, it is often easier said than done.  It is much like the PE teacher who runs his kids, lines them up, and then says, “Stop sweating.”  Some things seem a bit out of our control.  After all, if we could just “be strong” we probably wouldn’t need encouragement to do so.

Paul is advising the Christians in Ephesus (and us) a much more practical way.  Rather than a glib “Hang in there,” he is actually telling them from whom they can draw their strength other than reaching “deep from inside.”  He is saying that they need to focus not on the problems, but on The Lord, and from Him they will be able to draw strength.  When Paul wrote to the Philippians he reminded them, as well, that they “… (could) do all things through (Christ) who gives (them) strength.”  (Philippians 4:13)  Paul does not just give encouraging words but encouragement through solutions- that is truly encouraging.

Herbert Johnson was a fledgling missionary going to school who was assigned a car by the local missions board.  The only trouble was that the car would not start without a push.  Herbert learned to park on hills or at least slight inclines so he could get it going. On occasion he would have to enlist others to help him fire up the engine with a good push. After two years, when he was finally going to go off to the mission field and decided to leave the car to another young missionary and told him the car’s malady and how he had solved the problem through the years.  The missionary looked under the hood and remarked, “It seems this cable is loose,” and he tightened it, stepped into the car, and it started right up.  We are often like Herbert.  We have access to power, but still try on our own strength to get things done.  Paul is checking under our hoods and telling us that if we just tighten the connection between us and God we will have the power to go forward.

We can’t always will ourselves to just “be” a certain way.  “Be happy.”  “Be strong.”  “Be encouraged.”  The effort to do those things on our own can be exhausting.  When we rely on our own efforts and our own wisdom, we are tapping into limited resources. Instead we should be tapping into the unlimited power of a mighty God.  Years ago one of my football teams gave me a wonderful plaque with this verse from Isaiah: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”  Isaiah 40:29-31  It has been an encouragement to me every time I have read those words because it reminds me that it is “He” who gives true strength.

Of course, even turning toward God seems beyond us sometimes.  There is a wonderful song that says, “when you don’t know what to say, when you don’t know what to pray,  just say Jesus.”  Christ makes it easy to come to Him; it is us who makes it hard.  We fight through every scenario in our life on our own until we finally give in, lying sweating and out of breath on the coliseum ground, and finally ask God for help.  Why must we reach that point?  Why don’t we ask God to help us before the battle and during the battle, rather than in desperation at the end of the battle.  Only God can give us the power we need to successfully battle against sin, against self, against selfishness, and of course, against Satan.  He awaits our call, armored up and ready to go, stronger than anyone or anything that we might face, not because He has to be ready to come to our side, but because He wants to.

The Word says, “if He is with us, who can be against us?”  Well, the answer is everyone can be against us, but the truth is no one can stand against us.  It would be futile for anyone to try to test our Warrior King who “never rests, never slumbers,” but instead sits on the right hand of God waiting to empower us.  Let’s quit jump-starting our lives with senseless self-effort and instead connect closely to God and let Him move us. That is so much more sensible.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”  John 14:6

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

Jesus warns us that the path to truth is narrow and so does Luke, and so does  Paul,  In fact almost every New Testament writer tells us the same thing.  Regardless of that, we live in a world that adamantly denies the narrow path and is trying to open up the gates to heaven to non-citizens in a way that is strikingly similar to the US and its southern border.  People use the same arguments for allowing anyone into heaven as do those who argue for open borders in America.  See if any of these arguments for open borders seem to fit the “everyone should get to go to heaven” argument.

“It is is not fair that we should get to have (this country) (heaven) just to ourselves.”

“There are a lot of good people who deserve to be in (our country) (heaven).”

“They should get to be in (America) (heaven) to avoid the terrible conditions they will face elsewhere.”

“(Our country) (Heaven) is a most wonderful place, so we should be able share it.”

“(We are) (God is) good and (good people) (a good God) would not keep people out.”

“The (constitution) (Bible) does not have the right to decide who can enter, and besides, the (constitution) (Bible) is outdated and written by people who are out of touch with the times.”

So let’s face it.  Many people believe that heaven should have open borders and there should not be any requirements or restrictions on any who enter.   Of course, the only way we can say that is to ignore the Bible’s teaching, or to decide the Bible is not the inspired Word of God.  The Bible says that salvation comes only through Christ, but there are many false alternatives that the world accepts for entrance into heaven.  Some even think intelligence should be a factor. After all, how could so many smart people be wrong.  But Paul warns Timothy in I Timothy 6:20: “O Timothy, protect what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and absurdities of so-called ‘knowledge.’”

Others believe that if we keep the law we will be saved, but Galatians 2:16 says, “yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

But surely if we are good people, we deserve to go to heaven.  But what does the Word say? “For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8)

“But I have been baptized” say many, “surely that will get me into heaven.  But Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:17  “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless.”

Even giving to a church, going to church, building a church, or even pastoring a church, does not get us into heaven.  Well, what does, then?   Salvation is through grace  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.”  (Titus 2:11), which is proceeded by faith:  “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1), and followed by the Savior’s peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Unfortunately, the learned and stubborn of this world have defined faith as “blindly following,” but that is not faith. It is not opinion or acceptance of that which flies in the face of evidence.  It is a sense of knowing.  True faith is as real as anything can be and it is faith in Christ that leads to salvation.  Nothing more; Nothing less; Nothing else.  It is this faith that comes by the Word of God: “Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17), and we change our minds about God, so that we might please God: “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6), and thus there is only one way to be saved. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)  “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all …” (1 Timothy 2:5)   Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

In other words, as much as people want it to be so, heaven does not have open borders.  There is a step that one must take to become a citizen.  Good intentions are not enough, and the never-changing Word of God lets us know the truth and no matter what others want to think, there is only one way and that is through Jesus Christ.  It is not in the Bible, but there is a saying that says, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” and that is true. People who preach that all roads lead to heaven, may be well intentioned  (but I doubt it), but their words, if taken as true, lead people away from heaven. As Paul said, “If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.”  He doesn’t have a plan B attached to that!

I watched a rerun of the Biggest Loser the other night and as usual it was a tear-jerking event (well, for me anyway).  It was a special one that featured ex-athletes, many of whom I have seen on the professional circuit in past years, trying to get ahold of their lives again.  The difference between their current condition and their glory days was stark.  As athletes they were in peak condition and now they are well over 200 or 300 pounds and very obese.  As I watched I was asking the same question that I am sure many others at home and probably the athletes themselves were asking- How did that happen?  How did they go from winning Olympic gold medals, Super Bowls, and Tennis championships to barely being able to walk five minutes on a treadmill.  What had brought them to that point? We will talk about the how later, but first of all we should realize it can happen to anyone.  In the Biggest Loser it is mostly physical, but that kind of  slow but drastic change can also take place in other parts of our lives.

The people on the Biggest Loser had one advantage that we don’t have when we degrade in areas other than physical.  They have mirrors.  They could look in the mirror and see the differences.  None of them got there overnight just like none of us turn flabby in our spiritual life overnight.  Unfortunately we don’t have a mirror to reflect our spiritual condition.  We can’t see where we are or where we were by looking in a magic mirror, but there are some things that can help us see our spiritual condition.

Gaining weight might happen over a period of months or years when we have neglected to push the plate away like we should.  Gaining spiritual flab might also happen over a period of months or years when we have been pushing God away rather than running towards Him. Throughout the journey with the people on the Biggest Loser we heard how they got to where they were.  How seemingly suddenly, but not really, they rolled out of bed one morning and had moved up eight sizes and could no longer tie their own shoes. This morning, however, we will look at how we can avoid spiritual obesity that can just as easily sneak up on us and steal the pleasure that we can have in life.

Let’s pretend we have a magic mirror for a minute- that we can look into it and see our spiritual condition.  What would be staring back at us? The Apostle Paul that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) In other words, if we want to see a spiritually fit person staring back at us, we need to be in the Word of God. One of the early signals that we’re moving away from God is a diminishing desire to study His Word.  Just like someone physically degrading by not eating the right foods, we are not consistently taking in the nourishing food of Bible.  We are caught up in the junk food of the world.

Another symptom that we are losing control of our spiritual condition is a diminishing desire to be around God’s people.  Being around loving, spirit-filled, people of God, gives us accountability, strength and support.  It is like hanging around a gym for our physical well-being.  Being around the right people encourages us to stay on the right track. The right kind of fellowship strengthens us, just as much as the wrong kind of fellowship weakens us. In fact, that truth is repeated throughout the Bible. Ecclesiastes says it this way: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

Finally, if we find ourselves increasingly thrilled over the things of this world, we are probably moving into spiritual obesity. The Apostle John said in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all this is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  If we replace prayer and service, reading and fellowship, with the things of the world it will affect us.  We cannot eat like we want, avoid exercise, and not treat our bodies right and expect good results.  The same thing goes for our spiritual lives.

So there are remedies against getting out of shape spiritually.  Routine Bible study and church attendance will yield great results.  Prayer and service will help us stay in shape. If we do these things we can be alert to the traps the world sets for us.  Where we put our time will be what shapes us.  Lust, an unhealthy desire for things in this world, can do more to kill a relationship with Jesus as anything I know. Paul told us if we “walk in the spirit…You shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) Peter said it even more strongly “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)

That is the unfortunate thing about both spiritual and physical obesity.  People are unhappy, but continue the same habits that keep them there.  People are afraid to give things up because they think that those things give them true happiness, but they usually aren’t happy.  The 1/2 pound of chocolate makes them happy for the moment, at least until they walk by a store window and see their reflection or walk up flight of stairs and have to stop every other step.  The sin that we are involved in seems great at the time, at least until we have a moment of reflection and realize that it’s fun effects were temporary and we are still not content on the inside. Satan’s lie is that the alternatives to fattening foods are tasteless and the alternative to sin is funless.  Both lies, but we fall for them.

So we need to be spiritual biggest losers.  Losers of those things that hold us back and make us spiritually flabby.  If we are in a spiritually fit condition, we will be happier and will finally find a purpose in our lives.