Are You A Provocative Christian

[00:00:00] In Jesus name this morning, every time I say that or hear it said, I think about it that when I greet someone in Jesus name, especially in this kind of a, under these circumstances, what I'm saying is I am coming to you as a representative of Jesus. If someone would come from Japan and say, I greet you in the name of Japan, they would be bringing a message from, you would not think of just them talking to you, you would think of, this is from Japan. [00:00:38] I guess that puts a real burden, not a burden, but it's my responsibility to truly have a message from the Lord. And I, this morning again, I thought I knew where this sermon was going. When I got to studying it, it turned off to a different way. So, let's turn to Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. The title of my sermon this morning is The Provocative Christian. Are you a provocative Christian? Hebrews 10, 24 through 25. [00:01:24] And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but assorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. We are all provocative Christians, whether we are provoking to love and to good works or whether we are provoking the other way. [00:02:09] I'd like to break this down into three sections. The first verse will be broken down into three sections. The first one is, and let us consider one another. Have you ever heard someone say, I don't care what others think, because what God knows about me is more important than what others think about me. That can be true if you're in a group where the peer pressure or where the influence is, let's go do something bad or let's go get in trouble, let's do whatever. [00:02:44] But usually that is an attitude of, I can do what I want, I can be like I want, and it don't really matter how it appears to other people because down inside I'm sincere and that's all that really matters. It's me and God. It doesn't matter about what anybody else thinks. This is between me and God. And here again, if the attitude is right, that can be right. But that is a real dangerous, acting as an individual, I'm doing my own thing, and there's that song, me and Jesus got our own thing going. [00:03:22] That's really not right. What you do affects others. Maybe they say what I do only affects me. Those who set bad examples, though they may repent themselves, yet cannot be sure that those who they have drawn into sin by their example will repent. It is often otherwise. I still have feelings, I think I've shared this before maybe, [00:03:54] Someone that I have no reason to dislike, no reason to think a bad thing about that person. But because when I was 7 years old or 10 years old, I heard somebody say they don't like so-and-so. And that can still affect me today when that person's name comes up instinctively because at that time I formed an opinion about that individual [00:04:24] because if you don't like him, then I don't like him. We need to be very careful how we talk, what we do, how we act towards other people, towards anything that's going on. People will pick up on that and we all have people that look up to us. Love. No matter who you are, there is someone that looks up to you and sees you as someone to follow. What you do does affect others. So we need to consider one another. [00:05:05] Number two, to provoke unto love. Consider one another to provoke unto love. The word provoke means to call forth, to summon, to excite, to doing or feeling, to incite, to stir up. Some opposite words would be quell, like you would quell a storm Allay, someone would allay your fears Pacify, calm, quiet [00:05:37] Those are not very good A Christian needs to be a calm individual in the way that they are not a worrisome person But we do not want to be known as a dead people A quiet people that does nothing. Some examples of how this word is used is 2 Peter 1.13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. [00:06:10] 1 Kings 21.25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. There we see two opposites. Jezebel stirred Ahab up to do evil and he followed her example. And then in Peter he talks about trying to stir you up to good things. What does provoke unto love mean? That's an easy thing to say, but what does it actually mean to provoke unto love? [00:06:43] When I talk about someone, does it make others appreciate that person? Do I provoke them to love that person? If someone is saying something about someone, I can have an influence on that conversation one way or the other. You know, I really appreciate what he does, or so on and so forth. Or, yeah, that's one thing about him that I just don't really like. By saying it one way or the other, I am influencing what the person I'm talking to feels about him. [00:07:15] We need to provoke them to love others. Does my conversation in general promote a loving spirit in those that hear? Do I come across as an angry individual? I worked with a man at Victorian one time that just every day he was mad. It just didn't matter how the day went, how things went. If anything at all happened that was not in his thinking, in his way of thinking, he just was mad. [00:07:51] He always had a very bad attitude and each one of us probably people could mention our name and right away we would have an idea how that person views life, how he goes about his daily life, what kind of attitude he carries with him. Do we promote a loving spirit in those that hear us? Number three, to good works. [00:08:22] To provoke unto love and to good works. How can I provoke to good works? Let's turn to Matthew 5, 13 through 16. Matthew 5, 13 through 16. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewithal shall it be salted. It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden down under foot of men. [00:08:56] Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Verse 16 says, shine before men that they may see your good works. That kind of goes against our way of thinking. [00:09:26] We try to do everything, let not your right hand know that your left hand is doing. But it is okay for others to see us doing good works if it's for God's glory. That's the key part. That they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We don't do good works to promote ourselves, to bring honor to ourselves. We do it to provoke others to good works. If I'm doing it, maybe someone else will pick up on it. [00:10:01] Last night we went out and played ball. And we had fun playing ball. If one or two people's out there, it's not much fun. But if more and more come out, pretty soon we'll have a game going, and it's a lot of fun. If you want your... One thing Terry Meyer said that I just... it really stuck with me. When you want to have a witness to anyone, they need to see you enjoying doing whatever you're promoting. [00:10:33] If a salesman comes around with a health product and he's weak and sickly, you're probably not going to buy his health product. If we think about ourselves as salesmen, we have a product, we have the gospel, we have the message of Christ, and we are trying to promote this product to people. They need to see us enjoying living a Christian life. They need to see me enjoying a life of good works. [00:11:05] If you want your neighbor to see what the Christ Spirit will do for him, let him see what it has done for you. One example is worth a thousand arguments. Nobody will know what you mean by saying that God is love unless you act it as well. Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me. We've all heard the saying, you are the only Bible some will ever read. [00:11:39] We need to be able to show others that we are doing good works. They need to see our good works and by that be encouraged to do good works in order to go on and glorify God through that. Okay, I'd like to go to verse 25. 5. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. I learned something when I was studying this. I thought exhorting would be more like telling you, or preaching would be exhorting, which it can be, but it has more the idea of asking. [00:12:25] Exhort is interpreted, I mean the same word here that's used for exhortation or exhorting Is also interpreted beseech, desire, entreat, pray, or comfort That word comfort was interesting too because it's, we don't think of that as fitting in there But by doing all these other things we comfort people We can make them feel included. [00:12:58] 1 Thessalonians 4.18 says, Wherefore comfort one another with these words. The first part of that verse is talking about coming to church. We would take that as the assembling of ourselves together would be when we come to church. We assemble together to exhort one another. We don't just come to tell each other what to do. We come to comfort each other, to pray for each other. to, to mesh as a group, to get our batteries charged, to, to, uh, to grow. [00:13:33] I've got a list of questions, I guess. I think you would, uh, it'd be good if you could write them down. Um, and I don't have, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail or that kind of thing. I guess I just wrote them down and I'll read them and I'd just like for you to think as I read them. Why do I come to church? Is it habit or tradition? [00:14:07] Why do I skip church? And I say skip church not as in miss church because there was something you couldn't make it. But skip church because, well, why do I skip church? I guess, I'm sorry, I should have, my question was, do I skip church and then why? Does my skipping church cause others to skip church? Are we provoking to good works? [00:14:40] Why is Sunday morning mandatory, but Sunday night and Wednesday night are optional? Do I come to church to be entertained? If the service on Sunday night sounds boring, do I look for something else to do that night? And I've been guilty of reading the bulletin to see what's going on that night, to see if I want to come to church or not. [00:15:11] And I can say, honestly, that, well, I've mentioned this before, since I've been ordained, of course I come to church. But there is a real blessing in being at church every time there's church. It's just, you never leave church thinking, what a waste of time. There's lots of times before church when it'd just be easier to stay home, it'd just be easier to do something else. But when you come to church, put in the effort to come to church and be here, there really is a blessing in being at church. [00:15:47] And there again, I want to look at that in light of provoking others to good works, to doing what is right. I'd like to read Philippians 2, 1 through 15. Philippians 2, 1 through 15. And I guess I'm just going to, here again, it's just going to be kind of a, this comes to each person in a different way. [00:16:27] And I'm not going to say, I'm going to read this and then I'll close with this. Philippians 2, 1 through 15. And thinking about doing good works, promoting good works, and doing it for the glory of God. Philippians 2, 1-15 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, [00:17:02] Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. [00:17:45] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow Of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord To the glory of God the Father Wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed [00:18:16] Not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure Do all things without murmurings and disputings That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God Without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation Among whom ye shine as lights in the world Holding forth the word of life [00:18:46] That I may rejoice in the day of Christ I guess that passage just spoke to me that we are to do things for the glory of God, for His pleasure, and not to do them with grumbling, with disputations. Well, I had a feeling it was going to be short, and it was. [00:19:18] I guess I'm going to close with that, and I guess I would just challenge you to think, why am I doing good works? Am I doing them for the glory of God, and am I doing them in a way that others can follow? Let's stand for prayer. Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you, Lord, that we can be together like this. [00:19:50] I pray, Lord, that you would help us to live our lives for you, to walk close to you. I pray that you would help us to do things in a way that others can see and be challenged to walk closer to you, to bring you glory. I pray, Lord, you'd help us as a congregation to just be what you'd have us to be. I thank you, Lord, for caring. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. [00:20:21] Amen.