Rev. David Holwick Y First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey August 17, 1997 1 Peter 3:8-12 HOW TO GET ALONG ================ I. Harmonica harmony. A. (Play harmonica...) 1) Next instruction in book is on how to do harmony. 2) Celeste tells me I can't do it by myself. B. Harmony requires more than one person. 1) Beauty of Grand Gulch Utah hike, no other humans for two days. Then I try to hitchhike the four miles back to parking lot, and 14 cars pass me by without stopping. 2) Who are the others we need to harmonize with? a) Christians in the church. (insiders) 1> Harmony has a special emphasis on agreeing on truth. b) *Everybody. (outsiders) C. In our turbulent world, we long for harmony and peace. II. Qualities that promote harmony. A. Be sympathetic. 1) Literally, "suffering with." a) Saying by President Clinton - "I feel your pain." 1> Almost a joke. 2> But the Bible says the same thing. b) Romans 12:15 - "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." 2) Pity, feeling others' hurts. a) We cannot know how other people feel, but we can try. b) Listen to their hurts. c) Spend time with them even when you don't have words. -2- B. Brotherly love. [unique word] 1) (Philadelphia, "city of brotherly love...") a) Our culture equates love with eroticism. b) Important that we have feelings for fellow humans. 2) Truest sign of Christian faith, according to Jesus. a) By our love, others know that we are Christians. 1> What do they think about YOU?? b) Similar to a wheel - the closer we get to the hub (Jesus) the closer we get to the other spokes (people). C. Be compassionate. 1) Literally, "have healthy intestines." a) Hebrews placed emotions down here. [point to gut] b) We would say - "be tender-hearted." 2) Compare Ephesians 4:31-32. "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as in Christ God forgave you." a) Compassion involves forgiveness and understanding, and concern for each others' needs. b) It involves giving of yourself for the benefit of another to meet those needs. 1> Even if it means giving up something we want. 3) God wants Christians to truly care about others. Mother Teresa once put it like this: "The biggest disease today is not leprosy or cancer. It's the feeling of being uncared for or unwanted, of being deserted and alone. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity. It's an indifference toward one's neighbor who may be the victim of poverty or disease or exploited and at the end of his life, left at a roadside." #2825 -3- 4) Don't burn out. a) Charities and "compassion fatigue." b) We want to see results, and quickly. c) Christian sympathy is patient. D. Be humble. 1) The Greeks did not see humility as a virtue. a) They saw it as a weakness, like many do today. 2) Christians honor humility. a) We admit that humans are sinners and need God. b) We look to Jesus as the ultimate example of the power of humility. 3) Don't take humility for granted. a) One person has said, "Humility is a trait so rare, when you realize you have it, you've lost it." III. How do we harmonize with rotten people? A. Easy to be in harmony with nice people - real test is rotten ones. 1) The German philosopher Schopenhauer compared the human race to a bunch of porcupines huddling together on a cold winter's night. He said, "The colder it gets outside, the more we huddle together for warmth; But the closer we get to one another, the more we hurt one another with our sharp quills. And in the lonely night of earth's winter eventually we begin to drift apart and wander out on our own and freeze to death in our loneliness." Christ has given us an alternative: to forgive each other for the pokes we receive. That allows us to stay together and stay warm. #3931 -4- B. Almost seems wrong to us - fake our feelings? 1) We can be loving in actions to anyone. a) Rabbi - hard to understand this. 2) A positive approach. a) We don't have to "get even." 1> Let God do it. b) We should even go beyond acquiescence - actively bless. 1> Ask God to be good to them. 2> For evil people, this can create incredible guilt. A> Perhaps transform them? C. Receive a blessing. 1) Even when strained relationships don't end up rewarding, we can still be blessed by God. 2) God's approval is all that should matter to us. IV. Why can't people just get along? A. Los Angeles riots, Rodney King's meek request. 1) We cannot get along just because we wish it, and it cannot be commanded. 2) People have to be changed first. B. God takes moral sides. 1) He favors the righteous. a) They are ones who can expect prayers to be answered. b) As a rule, you don't suffer for doing right. c) And God sends his blessings on us. 2) He is against evildoers. a) Against what they do. b) Against you? =========================================================================== TEXT 1PE 3:8 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 1PE 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 1PE 3:10 For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 1PE 3:11 He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 1PE 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." ------------- =================================== CATEGORY: Harmony, Children's Sermon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Zech 6:13, 1 Cor 14:7, Rom 12:16, 2 Cor 6:15, 1 Pet 3:8 Number: 2007 Hard copy: y SOURCE: American Baptist "Peace Sunday" Material TITLE: "Getting In Harmony" AUTHOR: PAGE: DATE: 3/1/92 Typist: ENTERED: 3/27/92 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : Children's sermon on the need for harmony among people. [Play sweet melody on guitar, tune down as you talk, then play melody with flat note.] "I don't like that sound, and God doesn't like the sound of our fighting. We need to work at getting along with each other just as the strings in a guitar need to be in harmony with each other." [Retune the guitar.] "Isn't that better?" #2007 CATEGORY: Charity, Poor, Volunteerism, Community, Neighbor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Exod 12:4, Lev 19:18, Deut 15:4-11, Prov 3:28, Prov 14:21, Prov 27:10, Eccl 4:9-12, Zech 7:9-10, Matt 19:19, Matt 25:31-40, Luke 10:33f, Luke 14:13f, Acts 9:36, Acts 10:4, Rom 15:2,26, 1 Cor 13:3, 2 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 8:9, Gal 2:10, Gal 5:14, Col 3:12, 1 Th 5:14, 2 Th 3:7-12, Jam 1:27, Jam 2:2f, 1 Pet 3:8 Number: 3080 Hard copy: SOURCE: Imprimis, Hillsdale College Newsletter TITLE: The New Welfare Debate: How To Practice Effective Compassion AUTHOR: Marvin Olasky, Senior Fellow Of "Progress And Freedom Foundation" PAGE: 3 DATE: 9/1/95 Typist: ENTERED: 10/11/95 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : A century ago, when individuals applied for material assistance, charity volunteers tried first to "restore family ties that have been sundered" and "reabsorb in social life those who for some reason have snapped the threads that bound them to other members of the community." Instead of immediately offering help, charities asked, "Who is bound to help in this case?" In 1897, Mary Richmond of the Baltimore Charity Organizing Society summed up the wisdom of a century: "Relief given without reference to friends and neighbors is accompanied by moral loss. Poor neighborhoods are doomed to grow poorer whenever the natural ties of neighborliness are weakened by well-meant but unintelligent interference." [filed under #3043] #3080 * CATEGORY: Compassion, Welfare, Poor, Involvement, Charity, Volunteerism, Social Reform ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Gen 24:27, Deut 15:4-11, Prov 3:28, Amos 5:11, Zech 7:9-10, Matt 9:36, Matt 11:5, Matt 14:14, Matt 15:32, Matt 19:21, Matt 20:34, Matt 25:30-41, Luke 4:18, Luke 6:20, Luke 10:33f, Luke 14:13f, Acts 9:36, Acts 10:4, Rom 15:26, 1 Cor 13:3, 2 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 8:9, Gal 2:10, Col 3:12, 1 Th 5:14, 2 Th 3:7-12, Jam 1:27, Jam 2:2f, 1 Pet 3:8 Number: 3079 Hard copy: SOURCE: Imprimis, Hillsdale College Newsletter TITLE: The New Welfare Debate: How To Practice Effective Compassion AUTHOR: Marvin Olasky, Senior Fellow Of "Progress And Freedom Foundation" PAGE: 2 DATE: 9/1/95 Typist: ENTERED: 10/11/95 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : America had successful anti-poverty programs a century ago - successful because they embodied personal, material, and spiritual involvement and challenge. This vital story has generally been ignored by liberal historians, but the documented history goes like this: During the nineteenth century, a successful war on poverty was waged by tens of thousands of local, private charitable agencies and religious groups around the country. The platoons of the greatest charity army in American history often were small. They were made up of volunteers led by poorly paid but deeply dedicated professional managers. And they were highly effective. Thousands of eyewitness accounts and journalistic assessments show that poverty fighters of the nineteenth century did not abolish poverty, but they enabled millions of people to escape it. They saw springs of fresh water flowing among the poor, not just blocks of ice sitting in a perpetual winter of multi-generational welfare dependency. And the optimism prevalent then contrasts sharply with the demoralization among the poor and the cynicism among the better-off that is so common now. What was their secret? It was not neglect. It was their understanding of the literal and biblical meaning of compassion, which comes from two Latin words - "com," which means "with," and "pati," which means "to suffer." The word points to personal involvement with the needy, suffering with them, not just giving to them. "Suffering with" means adopting hard-to-place babies, providing shelter to women undergoing crisis pregnancies, becoming a big brother to a fatherless child, working one-on-one with a young single mother. It is not easy - but it works. [filed under #3043] #3079 CATEGORY: Lack Of Love, Indifference, Compassion For Poor, Mother Teresa, Caring, Loneliness ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Ps 25:16, Ps 88:8, Prov 29:7*, Ezek 34:2, Zech 11:16F, Matt 9:36, Matt 25:31-46, Heb 4:15, Heb 10:34, Jam 2:1-6*, 1 Pet 3:8 Number: 2825 Hard copy: SOURCE: Dynamic Preaching Disk TITLE: Why Do We Call Him Good? AUTHOR: Dr. Ronald Love PAGE: Jul 4 93 DATE: 6/1/93 Typist: ENTERED: 9/13/94 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : Mother Teresa once put it like this, "The biggest disease today is not leprosy or cancer. It's the feeling of being uncared for or unwanted, of being deserted and alone. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, and an indifference toward one's neighbor who may be the victim of poverty or disease or exploited and at the end of his life, left at a roadside." #2825 * CATEGORY: False Compassion, Life & Death, No Fear, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Civil War ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Jam 2:16F, Matt 14:14, Matt 20:34, 2 Cor 1:3-5, Col 3:12, 1 Pet 3:8, 2 Sam 21:9-10, Heb 2:15, Ps 23:4, 1 Cor 15:54-57 Number: 1851 Hard copy: SOURCE: Christian History Magazine, #33 TITLE: "Did You Know?" AUTHOR: PAGE: 3 DATE: 2/1/92 Typist: ENTERED: 2/24/92 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : Salvation is important, but so is life itself: During the Civil War, a chaplain asked a severely wounded youth if he was a Christian. The soldier gasped, "Yes." The chaplain said, "Then you have nothing to fear," and left to die the future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. #1851 * CATEGORY: Influence, Impact, Teacher, Compassion, Encourage, Make A Difference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEXT: Ps 112:4, Eccl 11:2, Hos 14:3, Zech 7:9F, Matt 9:36, Matt 25:33-40, 2 Cor 9:11F, Col 3:12, 1 Pet 3:8 Number: 2764 Hard copy: SOURCE: Dynamic Preaching Disk, Winter 1993 "A" TITLE: Lord, When You Came Down To The Jordan AUTHOR: PAGE: Jan 2 93 DATE: 1/1/93 Typist: ENTERED: 8/17/94 DATE_USED: ILLUSTRATION__________________________________________________________________ : It's like a high school English teacher from Texas that I heard about. A few days before the start of a new school year one of her former students visited her in her classroom. She did not recognize the young man who knelt down beside her to thank her for all she had done for him. "I have a good job, a wonderful wife, and two little girls," he told his former teacher proudly. She desperately wanted to remember who he was, but she couldn't. Over the years there had been so many students that she lost track. "I came to tell you that I graduated from high school because of you," he told her. "I knew you loved me when I was your student because you would walk around the room while you lectured, and you would stop at my desk and put your hand on my shoulder." This teacher made a world of difference in the life of this young man. "When you returned my papers and they weren't very good," he told her, "you always wrote something encouraging." This young man's high school years were very difficult. His father had shot and killed his mother in a drunken argument. "The other teachers acted as if they despised me," he said, "but you kept on treating me as if I was somebody. I wanted to thank you for loving me. It's made all the difference in my life." The teacher hadn't even known that this tragedy had happened to this young man. She had simply loved all of her students. (3) When we are baptized, we align ourselves with Jesus, loving other people as Jesus loves us. ------------------------- 3. Jane and Robert Handly, The Life Plus Program for Getting Unstuck (New York: Rawson Associates, 1989), pp. 56-57. #2764