Please pray for the sick and all who are suffering with physical ailments of any kind. Please consult the printed bulletin for the current list of those who need our prayers and help.

Our Duty to One Another

Introduction:

A. It's probably fair to say that Americans are not a very history-conscious people, and one of the reasons why we aren't is because we aren't surrounded by evidence of history the way that people in other nations are. In Joliet, if a building is 150 years old, we put it on the National Registry of Historic Places. Most Europeans, though, would look at that and laugh, because 150 years ago is like yesterday to them.

B. In Europe, of course, there are buildings that are not decades, not centuries, but thousands of years old. Like the Coliseum on the screen behind me, many of those buildings were built by the ancient Romans. The reason why those buildings are still around when many newer ones have already fallen into ruin is because the Romans used the arch in their construction. In an arch, every block in the construction is falling over, but the way that they're falling, they're actually falling into each other, so the pressure of the gravity that's pulling them down actually keeps them upright and together. They'll last until their stones crumble to dust or until some outside force like an earthquake or tornado destroy them.

C. In many ways, the arch is a wonderful metaphor for the Lord's church. Just like gravity, Satan is constantly trying to pull us down, and if any of us were spiritually isolated, Satan would surely succeed. However, just like an architect positions individual stones into an arch, so God has positioned individual Christians in His church. Each congregation, friends, is a mutual support society. Just like the stones in an arch, each one of us depends on other Christians to keep from falling. Similarly, every Christian has a responsibility to do his part to keep the others upright, and if we don't do our share, the whole thing may collapse. God doesn't just expect us to take care of ourselves; He expects us to take care of the others with whom we worship. With this in mind, let's spend some time this morning looking at what the Bible says about our duty to one another.

A. The first thing that God requires us to do for one another is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. One of the things that I like to pay attention to in Scripture, friends, are the things that God repeats. Everything that He says is important, of course, but one of the techniques that God uses to emphasize the REALLY important stuff is repetition. Something that's very important gets said twice, something that's extremely important gets said three times, and so forth. Now, the command to love one another is repeated 12 times. I believe it is the most repeated command in the Bible, which may well make it the most important command in the Bible.

B. We see one instance of this command from the lips of Jesus in John 13:34. He tells us here that we are not to love one another in a half-hearted, inconsistent way. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us. Jesus is totally invested in us. He loves us with all of His intellect, all of His will, and all of His emotions. That's the way that we need to love one another: with everything that we can possibly bring to bear. The most important things on this planet to us need to be our brothers and sisters in Christ, because that's what we were to Jesus. In fact, it's fair to say that every other "one another" command is an application of this one.

C. One of these applications is that we are to BE LIKE-MINDED TOWARD ONE ANOTHER. Paul makes this point in Romans 15:5. Here's what he means by this: In the first-century church, there were two main groups of people: Jews and Gentiles. These two groups had never had anything to do with each other before, so in the Lord's church, they still had a tendency to hang back from one another. Paul is telling them that they can't do that. Instead, they have to look at one another and see, not Jews or Gentiles, but Christians.

D. In the same way, friends, we need to learn to be like-minded toward one another. Just as there were in the first century, there are plenty of barriers that divide Christians today: barriers of race, barriers of class, barriers of age, even barriers of shared interest. Friends, we can't let those barriers split us up. In the Lord's church, it doesn't matter whether somebody is white, black, brown, or purple. It doesn't matter whether we live on the wrong side of the tracks or on Easy Street. It doesn't matter whether we were born in 1915 or 1995. We are Christians first, last, and always, and that's the way we need to see one another.

E. We also have a responsibility to CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER. Consider, for instance, Paul's description of Christian interaction in 1 Corinthians 12:24-25. His point is that the church is an organism just like the human body is an organism, and it is the nature of any creature to be concerned for the welfare of its component parts. Our hands don't just idly pick up an axe and start chopping off our toes; in fact, the opposite is true. Our entire body will work together to protect any part of it. That should be our philosophy in the church too. We shouldn't just pay attention to our three or four friends. Instead, we should see everyone in the congregation as important, care about what happens to anyone, and do what we can to help them get to heaven.

F. As part of this, we need to learn to CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER. This is what the Hebrews writer advises in Hebrews 10:24. This is certainly not a trait that comes naturally to other people, and this becomes obvious to us when we consider children. I've never yet known a three-year-old whom I would describe as considerate. Most kids live in a world that revolves around them, and too many Christians act like "big little kids". They have a me-centered conception of the assembly. They come to see what they can get out of it, and if the songleader or preacher or teacher doesn't live up to their expectations, they get upset. That's backwards. We don't come together to see what we can get; we come together to see what we can give. We are here to look at one another, see the needs that they have, and fulfill those needs, not sit back and let others tend to us like an overgrown infant. The point is, friends, that we need to pay attention. We need to ask ourselves who hasn't been at services recently, who looks and sounds like they've had a hard week, who seems lonely like they need a friend, and then help people out in the way that solves their problems. That's considering, or consideration.

A. As we engage in this pattern of looking to one another's needs, one of the first things we need to do is to RECEIVE ONE ANOTHER. This shows up in Romans 15:7, just a couple verses after a passage we've looked at already today. The point here, friends, is that having the same mind toward one another ought to show up in the way we live. If every Christian is truly important to us, we ought to act like it. It always strikes me as strange, brethren, when I see a Christian whose best friends are outside of the church, not inside it. If our faith Is truly the central fact of our lives, we ought to be looking to associate with people who share it. And yet, so many brethren have next to nothing to do with other Christians at all. That shouldn't be. I guarantee you, folks, that the people in this congregation are well worth spending time with. They're good people, good friends, and best of all, the more you associate with them, the likelier you are to go to heaven. Let's receive one another, then, not just with a "hi" and handshake after services, but by connecting our lives with theirs.

B. Similarly, folks, in the work we do for God, we need to learn to GIVE PREFERENCE TO ONE ANOTHER. That's what Paul is trying to get us to do in Romans 12:10. This is not something that the world will do naturally, but we need only to look at success in the world to see how important it is. Take, for instance, two different basketball teams. One of those teams is full of talented but selfish players. Each one of them wants to be the guy who scores 30 points a game, and if they have a good shot, they'll never pass the ball to a player who has a better shot. By contrast, consider the basketball team where the players care more about wins than scoring, the team where players are willing to do little things that don't show up on the stat sheet if that's what it takes to get the victory. That's the way we need to be. The church has two main missions: making disciples of all nations and then building up those who are already disciples. As long as those missions get carried out as fully as they can be, we shouldn't much care who's doing it. It doesn't matter which Christian seems to be getting the credit, as long as the church keeps getting the win.

C. We also need to learn to SERVE ONE ANOTHER. See Paul's take on this in Galatians 5:13. In context, Paul is opposing this to the idea of those who are motivated by the flesh and seek to bite and devour one another. As we see from the stories of early churches like the church in Corinth, this was a problem in the first century, and it continues to be a problem today. Sometimes, Christians just get the idea that they have to be the ones in charge, that the church leadership must listen to them, and that if other Christians don't treat them just so, then they've been horribly wronged. That's not the point, friends. As Christians, we're here for others, and that's true not just in the assembly, but everywhere. We should constantly be looking to fill the needs that our brethren have. Christ was willing to die to serve. What are we willing to do?

D. As Christians, we also have a responsibility to SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER. Consider Paul's admonition on the subject in Ephesians 5:18-19. As we've been saying repeatedly in our adult Bible class this quarter, one of the primary objects of our singing is to teach one another. The hymns we sing are supposed to build the congregation up and help all of us to do what pleases God. That means, friends, that if we choose not to sing, for whatever reason, we're letting our brethren down. There are times, friends, when a brother or a sister may need not just to hear the truth, but to hear it from us. If we sing a hymn, their relationship with us and their perception of us may be such that our teaching and admonishing gets through to them in a way that no one else's could. Besides, we should want to speak to them. We should want to encourage them to live in a godly way. We should want to tell them about the greatness of God. We should want to because we love them and want to help them. Next to our brethren's needs, friends, our desires for silence shouldn't matter.

E. In a more general sense even than that, though, God has instructed all of us to EDIFY ONE ANOTHER. That's the message of 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Remember, friends, Ephesians 4 teaches that every Christian is responsible for the building up of the body of Christ. Every Christian, not just the preacher, not even just the men of the congregation. It doesn't matter whether we're a 12-year-old boy or an 80-year-old woman; we still have this duty to edify. Part of the way that we carry out this duty is through the singing we just discussed, but that's not all of it. When we consider one another, part of what we're supposed to be considering is how to stir one another up to love and good works. That means, friends, that we should know enough about the gifts and interests of the Christians around us that we can encourage them to serve God in the way that they are best equipped to do. This can be done from the pulpit, but it can just as easily be done with a quiet word or two in the back of the auditorium after services. It can be done with a card, or a brief discussion of a relevant passage over the phone. We should look for ways to make other Christians more Christlike.

Conclusion. If you want this kind of relationship with God and His people, repent and come to Him today. If you need the kindness and patience of God today, come to Him now. He wants everyone to be saved and to enjoy fellowship with the saved. He is ready and willing to save you if you come to Him according to the terms He has given in His word.

The Daring of Daniel

Introduction.

A. The other day at work, my wife had an interesting conversation with her boss about the way that God works in our lives. He described a time when, in his words, God compelled him to do something. He didn't know there was a need, he didn't know what had to be done, but God picked him up like a human sock puppet and used him to do what God wanted done. Lauren, by contrast, described the Biblical version of Christianity, where we learn about God's will from His word and then look for opportunities in our lives to carry out that will. Certainly, we can expect help from God in that, but the basic decision is our own.

B. These two stories represent two opposite visions of Christianity, each one of which has massive implications. Are we prompted by the word to do good ourselves, or are we picked up and moved around by God like a pawn on a chessboard? If we believe in the pawn-on-a-chessboard theory, that completely absolves us of responsibility for doing anything ourselves. We're not spinning our wheels; we're just waiting for God to possess us and do something with us. By contrast, if we're the ones who decide what we do, then all the weight is on our shoulders. We're the ones who are supposed to take the initiative to do good, and if we don't use what we have been given for God, then He's going to hold us to account for our laziness.

C. That's the Biblical way of understanding Christianity, but it's also the scary way. It means that we are expected to be constantly productive, and if we aren't, we aren't doing what God wants. Often, this search for ways to be useful leads us to do things we haven't done before, and that can be especially scary. It takes courage to step up to the plate and do what's right, especially when what's right is uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Thankfully, the Bible is filled with stories of courage that can encourage us. Let's look at one of the most famous of these stories this evening. Let's look at the story of the daring of Daniel.

I. Daring to Stand Out.

A. One of the first places we see daring appearing in Daniel's story is in the way he dared to stand out. This becomes apparent from the description of Daniel in Daniel 6:1-3. To fully appreciate what this says about Daniel, we need to recognize where he came from. Daniel had come to Babylon as a slave, one of the captives carried off triumphantly by the Babylonians during the last days of the kingdom of Judah. He didn't have any status other than what he earned; he didn't have any friends other than the ones he made. Despite that, here's what we see of Daniel during his later life. He had risen to the position of one of the top three officials in the entire kingdom, and he was doing such a good job that the king was considering making him the first, putting him over all the others.

B. Friends, that's an example that any servant of God can learn from! Daniel wasn't content to be a mediocre captive somewhere living out the mediocre days of his mediocre existence. As this passage says of him, he had an excellent spirit, and he wanted to excel. In the work we do, we should want the same thing. Remember, friends, Paul instructs us in Ephesians 6 that we should serve our employers with the same level of intensity with which we serve Jesus. We shouldn't just work when they're watching and then loaf when their backs are turned. Instead, we should work as though we were under the eye of an all-seeing God, because we are.

C. One of the greatest compliments to Daniel's work ethic, though, appears in Daniel 6:4-5. He was so competent and so honest that when his enemies investigated him, looking to dig up some dirt on him to smear him before the king, they found absolutely nothing. He had such a pristine work record that even people who were examining it with evil intent, even for anything they could twist against him, came up empty.

D. Would that be true of us? Let's be honest here, friends. If we had an enemy who was looking for a reason to discredit us at what we do, would he be able to come up with it? Is there something we do on the job that we don't want our employers to know about, that would embarrass us if it came out? Are we honest and hardworking all the time, or just when we know somebody's watching? This is a test we need to pass, friends, not just for our own sakes but for the sakes of those around us. If people on the job know that we're slackers, they're not going to be interested in what we have to say about spirituality. Let's be like Daniel instead.

II. Daring to Defy.

A. As this passage says, Daniel's enemies soon realized that the only way to get at him would be to get at him through his God. Their plans from this point forward highlighted another facet of his daring: his daring to defy. Look at the way that the story unfolds in Daniel 6:6-9. Apparently, the Persian king at this point in time is something of a silly, vain guy, and Daniel's enemies decide to play on this. They persuade this foolish king to pass a decree that anybody who recognizes any authority but the king for a whole month is to be thrown into a den filled with hungry lions. This was specially calculated to destroy the God-fearing Daniel.

B. Thankfully, none of us have enemies who are able to persuade the President to enact laws specifically targeted at us, but that doesn't mean we're safe. As we consider the changes in the world around us, it soon becomes plain that the devil is shaping our entire culture as a tool to destroy righteousness. This is most obvious in the message that our culture is sending to our young people. In high school, the message comes through loud and clear: they are expected to drink. They are expected to rebel against their parents. They are expected to practice sexual immorality before marriage. To some extent, the same challenges face all of us.

C. We see how Daniel reacted to the anti-God pressures of his day in Daniel 6:10. Basically, he didn't react at all. He knew about the law, all right, but he didn't change his behavior one little bit. He didn't stop praying to God, and he didn't even try to hide the fact that he was praying to God. He had to have known what was going to happen next, but it was more important to him to do what was right than to do what was safe.

D. In the same way, friends, we need to learn to have a defiant attitude toward the world around us. Our society might have changed a lot over the past 50 years, but God's law hasn't changed, and that means that we must not change either. We need to live in the same simple, honest, righteous way all the time, whether the people around us approve of that or openly condemn that. There's no reason for us to act weird for the sake of acting weird, like the religious groups around us who adopt funny-looking clothes just so everybody knows they're different. However, when the world expects us to sin, we must defy that expectation and be righteous.

III. Daring to Believe.

A. We also see the daring of Daniel revealed in his daring to believe. This appears in Daniel 6:11-12. As the Bible tells it, Daniel's enemies pounce on his unlawful prayer as soon as he utters it. We see what happens from there in Daniel 6:16-17. As the law directs, they take Daniel, throw him into the den of lions, and seal it up until presumably he becomes cat food. What's interesting about this segment of the story is Daniel's calm in the face of apparent disaster. We see the foolish Persian king doing everything he can to find a loophole in the law, but there's not even a hint that Daniel tried to escape his fate. We don't know what Daniel thought was going to happen. Instead, it's quite apparent that Daniel mainly cared about what had already happened. He had done what God expected him to in the face of temptation, and the result was up to God.

B. That's the attitude we need to have too. Sometimes, we get too caught up in worrying about the consequences of doing the right thing, instead of focusing on the act itself. Folks, that way of thinking is pointless. The only thing that it will accomplish is to lead us into sin if we think the price for obeying God is too steep. Instead, we need to have spiritual tunnel vision. Consequences are God's problem, not our problem. We must obey God and trust in Him to sort things out for us. We must have the faith of Daniel.

C. The consequences of Daniel's faith are revealed in Daniel 6:19, 21-23. He'd spent the whole night in the midst of hungry lions, but didn't even have a scratch on him. He was saved because of his faith. Sometimes, perhaps even usually, that's the way things will work out for us physically if we trust in God. If we dare to do what is right without regard for the consequences, very often the problems that Satan tried to use to scare us never materialize. Very often, we get respect for taking the high road instead of being condemned for it. Even if not, though, even if we suffer for doing what is right as so many in the first-century church did, obeying God is still the best choice. No matter what trials we have to undergo here, God has an eternity to repay us for our sacrifices, and there will never be a faithful Christian who gets the short end of that bargain. What we need to take from Daniel is this: sooner or later, doing the right thing is going to work out.

IV. Daring to Succeed.

A. Of course, the story continues after Daniel's miraculous escape from the lions, and it reveals the final aspect of Daniel's daring: his daring to succeed. Look at the first sign of Daniel's success in Daniel 6:24. God sees to it that the enemies of Daniel and the enemies of God are destroyed. This should teach us an important lesson: just as doing the right thing always ends in success, so too doing the wrong thing always ends in failure. Whenever we give in to the pressure that is placed on us, whenever we let Satan muscle us into sin, there are consequences attached to that. Satan's a liar, folks. He never follows through on his promises. There will always be one more sin we have to commit, one more way we have to betray God, before we can be safe and happy. It's not safety and happiness at the end of that road, though. It's destruction. The right choice isn't just the tough choice. It's also the smart choice. It's the easy, evil choices that will kill us.

B. Even beyond avoiding the punishment that God metes out, though, we also find success in promoting the name of God through our righteousness. Look at what happens in Daniel 6:25-28. After Daniel emerges unscathed, Darius makes a proclamation to the entire kingdom. He makes sure that everybody knows what a great God Daniel has. When we live righteously, even when it's hard, our lives will have the same effect. When we go to the movies, what kind of movies do we like to see? Movies where the main character is a wimp who gets stomped on by the challenges that face him? Or movies about the hero who succeeds in the face of impossible odds? People don't just like the hero, friends; they want to BE the hero. When we use our lives to take a stand for righteousness, and when the people around us see it, we're showing them the path to spiritual heroism. That kind of shining example can lead more people to Christ than a hundred sermons, and it works on our co-workers, our friends, and especially our children. Let's be sure our example has that effect.

Conclusion.

If you haven't been living courageously for God, now is the time to stand up and be counted. Believe in Him, believe in His Son Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Repent - make up your mind to leave sin behind and live for God. Confess Jesus as the Son of God, as Lord and Christ. Obey His command to be immersed for forgiveness of your sins, thereby calling on the name of the Lord. He will saved you, add you to His kingdom, His church, the body of the saved. Live courageously for Him all your days, looking for the promise of eternal life with Him in heaven.

Elders: Joe Bunch (815-725-4951)
John Meyer (815-730-0035)

Deacons: Jeff Andrews, Josh Collier,
John Hamon, James Hensley, Matt Sterba.

Bulletin Editor: John Meyer 815-730-0035

Preacher: Matt Bassford