Embracing Need

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles, this morning to Romans chapter 9. And what we'll be doing now is opening our heart to the Lord and worshiping Him by listening to him as he speaks. Into us his, his wisdom and of his ways. In Christ.

And we come this morning to Romans chapter 12 verse 13 and our study through this part of the book of, of Romans. And if you want to give a title to the message today, it would be embracing need. Embracing need. One of the ways that we'll learn that we should respond to the gospel and express Agape love is by moving toward and embracing.

need. let me start with this. I don't know how many of you have seen the commercial on television. I've been seeing it the last few months.

It's, for the Marine Corps. And, the commercial, lasts about a minute. There's the sounds of chaos and battle, and there's marines that are running into, the smoke and whatever it is that's going on in the horizon. And, and as they're doing that, there's epic music that's playing, and then a guy with an epic sounding voice is doing this voiceover, and he says, he says this, he says there are a few who move toward the sound of chaos, ready to respond at a moment's notice.

And when the time comes, they are the first to move toward the sounds of tyranny, injustice, and despair. They are forged in the crucible of training. They are the few, the proud, the Marines. makes you want to be a marine, doesn't it?

And then after saying that, there is, at the end of the commercial, a question that comes on the screen that leaves you, the viewer, with what is a very good question, and that is, which way would you run? What they're trying to say is that, when, when chaos and tyranny and injustice are threatening, many people are running away from that as fast as they can, but not the Marines. The Marines are running to tyranny. And chaos and injustice and despair, in which way, which way will you run?

The wording on that commercial is useful for us given our topic today with regard to need. In fact, let me reread this using Our topic for today, there are a few who move toward the sound of need, ready to respond at a moment's notice. And when the time comes, they are the first to move toward the sounds of tyranny, injustice, and despair. They are forged in the crucible of the gospel.

They are Christians. That's what should be said. And it may surprise you to know that actually, some of this exact wording was used in the early centuries of the church to describe the early Christians. And some of this vocabulary was actually used by pagans in describing what they observed in the Christians that lived in the Roman Empire.

in fact, one such person is a guy that is referred to, by historians as Julian, the apostate, who was the Roman Emperor from AD 361 to 363. He reigned for about 20 months, I believe. He was famous for a few things, one of which is he lacked pupils in his eyes. I'm totally joking there, but On my sermon notes, I drew pupils on his eyes.

But he, he was seeking in his reign to take the Roman Empire back away from the Christians and to restore, pagan Roman religion that he believed was the true religion. And he sought to do that to call the Romans back to their old faith that the Christians had taken away from them. And yet he was frustrated because he's like, we can, we can worship these, these old gods that our ancestors worship and still be charitable, just like the Christians. And so we need to care for one another.

And yet he was frustrated perpetually by the fact that he could not induce Roman citizens to care for one another, the way that the Christians cared for one another and even others outside of the church. He says, why do we not observe that it is there, the Christians benevolence to strangers, and the pretended holiness? So he acknowledges there's a holiness, he doesn't believe it's real, it's pretended, but he says, why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, and the pretended holiness of their lives?

that have done most to increase atheism.

What he's saying by that is the Christian religion back then was viewed as an atheistic religion because it renounced the worship of the gods. So they viewed that as atheism. If you don't worship our gods, then you're an atheism, atheist. And so what he's saying is the holiness of their lives, their benevolence to strangers, he's acknowledging as a pagan Roman emperor is the single greatest cause of the demise.

Of the Roman religion. He goes on to say this, it is disgraceful that when the impious Galileans, that's the way he referred to the Christians, support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Romans, teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to the public service of this sort. Here's a man who hated Christians, and yet he's pointing to the Christians and telling the Roman citizens, you need to be more like them.

They're taking care of their own. And not only that, but they're taking care of our own better than we're taking care of our own. Indeed, that's way, the way that the Christians were in the early centuries in the Roman Empire, when they would have children and did not want them, they would just leave the children at this wall and leave them to die. In the sun, and it was Christians who moved towards that situation, and would gather up those infants in their arms and adopt them and take them home and to raise them with a good life and to know and to love God.

It was Christians when everyone else was abandoning those babies, they were moving towards those abandoned. Children and adopting them. There are situations we know in the early centuries of church history, when in the Roman Empire, there would be a plague that breaks out, that was highly contagious, and people were dying by the hundreds, even thousands, and Roman citizens would just, would just flee from the city, even leaving their loved ones behind who were sick to die. And they just would abandon them because they were thinking, I don't want to get the plague.

And even though everyone was running out of the city and abandoning their own, the Christians would move in and at the risk of their lives, care for and minister to the sick and to the dying. This was the reputation. Of the early church observed and commented on even by pagan Roman rulers such as Julian the apostate. Why did Christians behave this way?

Well, there's many reasons why we observe them behaving this way. One of those reasons is because of passages like Romans 12:9 through 13. Where we actually see this very thing in the blueprint. That the early church followed.

And what I want to do is, as we have been doing in recent weeks, is read, to you a literal translation of these verses in Romans 12:9 through the very beginning of 13. Paul says agape. So, love, that's my topic. That's my heading.

This is what I want to describe for you. Walk in love. What does love mean? Agape means no hypocrisy.

hating the evil, clinging to the good, devotedness to one another and brotherly love, leading one another in honor, and diligence, not lagging, and the spirit being fervent, for the Lord serving in hope, rejoicing, in tribulation, persevering, devoted to prayer. And now we come today to this description of agape love, sharing in the needs of the saints. sharing in the needs of the saints. We're gonna spend all of our time on this description of Agape Love.

If you want to be, an effective lover of other people in the Church of Jesus Christ, if you want to walk in Agape Love, then you want to be someone who shares in the needs of the saints. The way we'll frame things this morning is 5 challenges that we'll observe to help us to love one another by sharing in each other's needs, as Paul, provides us the blueprint for in this passage. If we're really interested in loving one another, walking in agape, sharing in each other's needs, then we want to take 5 challenges to heart that I think we can infer from this passage.

Number 1, we should know what needs are.

Does that make sense? if you're reading here, I want to walk in agape love. so what do I need to do? What does love look like?

And Paul says, here's one of the things that it looks like contributing to the needs of the saints. Your question, one of your thoughts ought to be, well, what are needs? Because whatever needs are, I want to make sure that I'm sharing in or contributing to the needs of the saints. we all would acknowledge that we often use the word needs in an incorrect way.

Children more so than adults. Children need everything. there are no wants. they have to have whatever they want, that's automatically because they want a need, whether it's an iPhone or something to eat at an exact point in time.

If there's an appetite or desire, it's a need. And we look at that in our children and we can scold them and instruct them on what a need really is, but we'll often use the word need in a way that if we really stopped and thought about it, really is not accurate. So we want to be careful about, what is a need, because whatever that is, that's what we need to be contributing to. With regard to our fellow saints.

Well, let's think about it. And this is not a news flash for any of us. Here's basically what our English word need means and even the Greek word that is used here. It's a lack of anything essential for life and for godliness.

It's a lack, but it's not just a lack. it's a lack of something essential. For example, I lack a Mercedes-Benz. So like I'm experiencing lack right now.

I'm, I'm lacking a million dollars, but I'm not in need. All right, because those things are not in the category of needs. It is a lack of anything essential. for life and for godliness.

We need to understand that the word need as it's used in the New Testament is a big word that just speaks of any lack of anything essential, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, materially, and, economically, physically. it's the whole gamut. It's a lack of anything essential in any of these areas. It's interesting the way this word is used.

One passage is Ephesians 4:29. Where the word need is not used to speak of a lack of anything material or physical or economic, it's a lack of grace. Grace is needed by someone. It's essential and it needs to be imparted to them.

Paul says in this passage, don't let any unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need. Literally, that it may give grace to those who hear. So Paul is letting us in on the fact that there are times where you will see a brother or sister that is lacking in some aspect of grace that you can supply simply through the words that you speak to, to them. So some sometimes there are needs that can actually be met by the words that we speak.

Maybe a brother or sister is in need of encouragement or comfort or consolation, or they're in need of some reminder or some gospel perspective. Maybe they are in need of rebuke. Or admonition, but they need some words to be spoken by you to supply something that is essential that they're lacking in that moment. And I know we're told in scripture to love not only in word, but also in deed, but I do want to make sure that we don't underestimate the enormous power of words.

They are hugely powerful for good or for evil. And Paul is saying your words are so powerful that they can actually supply things that are lacking. And your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 says to the Thessalonians, when it comes to loving one another, you don't need anyone to write to you.

and implied in that is Paul saying, there are other Christians that I could not say that. There are other Christians I would look at and say they need someone to sit down and write a letter and write words that supply something that's lacking in them, and that is a lack of really loving one another, but you guys don't need that. In that same letter, he says, you guys, regarding the times and the epochs. You don't need anyone to write or anything to be written to you because you guys have this down and implied in that is that there are other Christians that might need that to be written to them but not you guys.

And so just understand that the word need can include a lack of essential grace. It could speak of a need for exhortation or a need for instruction. But having said that, we do well to understand that most of the time in the New Testament that this word need occurs, it is referring to a lack that is physical or material, a lack of food or clothing or, or shelter. Look at some of these passages.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, make it your ambition to work with your own hands so that you may not be in any need. So work with your hands as hard as you can, make it your ambition, be known as someone who is ambitious and working with your own hands to do something to generate income, so that you will not unnecessarily be in any need. In Ephesians 4:28, Paul says, let him who used to steal steal no longer, but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.

Clearly speaking of material and physical, economic need.

In Acts chapter 6, verse 23, we talked about this last week, where the, the early church was ministering to the widows and some were being overlooked. And so the apostles realized we got to put someone in charge of, of this, this task. And the apostles say to the congregation, select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit, and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this literally need. This is a need.

These widows are suffering deprivation, and they're not able to provide fully for themselves. And so we need to address this need and we need to administrate it well. We need men whom we can put in charge of the addressing of this particular need. First John 3:17, whoever has This world's goods and beholds his brother in need, clearly referring to physical and material need and closes his heart against him.

How does the love of God abide in him? There's other passages that we'll actually look at this morning, but just understand that most of the time this word occurs in the New Testament. It is referring to physical and material need. Having said that, let me just throw this your way, that when we think of somebody who is suffering need, is in a season of what we would consider to be poverty, we want to be careful to not view Their poverty or poverty in general as simply and only and always a lack of resources.

I think we render a great disservice to those who are poor when we think, oh, there's a lack of resources, so all right, let's meet that need. Let's give them stuff, let's give them money, let's give them resources and thereby address really the poverty that's going on in their life. Our ministry of charity, when it's reduced to just providing resources, is impoverished by that. Robert Chambers, wrote a work where he was explaining the anatomy of poverty, and his work is cited in the book Total Church that we as elders and I believe the college ministry is going through.

And he, defines, poverty as including, yes, a lack of resources. but also physical weakness, isolation, powerlessness, and vulnerability. Someone who is poor is someone who is experiencing most or all of these. for example, he explains, like an infant, an infant has physical weakness, and powerlessness and vulnerability, but we don't look at infants and view them as poor.

If there's a family and a mom and a dad who are loving and caring for them and supplying what is lacking in the area of physical weakness and powerlessness and vulnerability. but someone who is experiencing all or most of these is someone who is experiencing poverty, and we need to see the poverty as multi-textured and try to address not just the lack of resources but also some of the other needs. In the book Total Church, they cite a woman that was the recipient of great kindness from the church.

They've given her a bunch of stuff, and she basically said, eventually, I don't mean to be ungrateful.

I appreciate all of that has been given to me, but what I really want is a friend. And what many who are in poverty also want is, is for this isolation to be rectified and for them to be able to participate and be involved in something that is larger than themselves, to be welcomed in. And so it's easy to see someone who is poor, for example, at a gas station and give them $5. Here's $5 go on your way.

but is that really addressing their need on every level? I would add to this list that there are times where poverty is the result of sin, past sin, and also ongoing sin. When I worked in the secular workplace, there were people who made just as much and even more money than I did, and they were living in conditions of poverty because hundreds of dollars every week was going towards sinful habits. Of drugs and and what have you, they were bound.

They were enslaved to sin and their money was largely going towards that, so they were living in poverty as a result of such addictions and sins in their lives. Sometimes there's the sin of laziness that, that is involved in a person's life. Paul says regarding such a person, if someone does not work, then don't let them eat. So there's a point where mercy limits mercy.

And if you see that someone's lazy and they're able to work and they're not working, Paul doesn't say just forget about that person and have nothing to do with them. No, he would say show them mercy and minister to them by ministering to this particular need of laziness. Give them the instruction and, and the challenge and come alongside of them and help them. In thinking differently and finding employment, come alongside of them and be a help to them in more ways than just throwing money at them.

And so the word need, I think we're seeing is a big, it is a big word that is inclusive of all of such things. So if we want to walk in agape love and be sharing in contributing to the needs of the saints, then We need to know what needs are, and I think we've covered that. But secondly, we, we should just go ahead and expect to encounter needs in our fellow saints. That's implied in this.

Paul says you want to walk in agape love and be contributing to the needs of the saints. If If you read that, let's say you got saved 5 minutes ago, and you've never been inside of a church, you've never been a part of a body of believers of brothers and sisters, where there are fellow saints, and you're reading this, and then you're about to go into a church to really become a part of a community there. If you knew nothing, Except what you're reading here, you would know simply by reading this, that wow, it must be the case that in God's providence, Plan A is that as I link my life up with my fellow saints, my fellow saints are going to experience a lack of things essential.

this will happen.

This is apparently the plan of God. And so therefore, I will not spend my time looking for saints who have no needs. I will not spend my time looking for a church wherein all the people have no needs. No, I will expect to encounter genuine and painful lacking inside of my fellow saints of things that are essential, materially and physically and spiritually.

So just expect this. Number 3, a third challenge is that we should allow ourselves to become sharers in the needs of our fellow, saints. So we know what needs are and we know now to expect that we're going to see and encounter these, needs in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. But in order to live out what Paul is saying, we should make a decision to allow ourselves to become sharers in the needs.

of our fellow saints, look what he says contributing to The needs of the saints. Now, the word that is translated contributing to, like I would suggest, and other commentators suggest that contributing to, that's a legitimate translation of this word, but it's only legitimate in the sense that, it's by way of application. It's not the precise root idea of this term. Anyone who does do what Paul is precisely calling for will indeed contribute to the needs of the saints as a byproduct of what he's precisely calling for.

Paul is calling actually for something deeper and that lies a little bit upstream of actually contributing to the needs of the saints. The word that he uses here is the verb koina neo. Koinano. We've used the term koannea that speaks of fellowship and having things in common.

Literally. Paul is saying that you need to coin a neo in the needs of the saints. OK, what does that mean? this verb, genuinely means to, like, let's get the idea of contributing for a moment out of our, out of our minds.

It means to see the needs in our fellow saints and to move towards those needs and partake of those needs, to share in those needs, to become a participant in those needs, to fellowship with and commune with those needs. Basically what it means is to look at the needs and your brothers and sisters, and to point to them and say, you see those needs and my brothers and sisters, those are mine. Those needs are mine. And we move towards their need and actually become a sharer in the experience of that need.

We allow ourselves to become a participant. Does that make sense? just two passages real quick, where the same verb is used in Hebrews 2:14. The writer of Hebrews says since then the children share in flesh and blood.

That's us, we share in flesh and blood. He himself, Jesus, likewise, also coined ode. Of the same. The writer of Hebrews is not saying he donated flesh and blood.

No, he took on flesh and blood. He entered into the experience of having flesh and blood. He became a participant in flesh and blood. In Romans 15:27, Paul says if the Gentiles have shared Koinanode in the Jews, spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

basically, you look at the heritage of the Jews and the promises that were given to them. not all of the promises come to us, but some of the promises we get to receive benefit from, and the Messiah that came to the Jews, we get to be saved through that same Messiah. And by virtue of believing in Jesus, we become a participant in the spiritual things that belong to the Jews. We're not donating anything.

That's not his point. But that we actually enter into the experience of and become a sharer in many of the blessings that at one point, only belong to the Jews. So this is actually, guys, an instruction by Paul. regarding Agape Love, and he's saying one of the characteristics that you will observe in the life of someone walking in agape love is that they move towards need.

When other people run away from need, they're moving towards need. And they look at the needs in a brother or sister, and they own that need and say that need right there, that is mine. And I'm going to embrace their need, as if it were my own. And I will set about to meeting that need with the earnestness and urgency that I would engage in if that were my very own need.

It is often the case that, In the church, that, if, if we're all really honest, we would acknowledge that a lot of times, we just don't want to move towards need. Even after the service, we run, we're walking by someone, hey, how's it going? We may know a lot's going on in their life, but we're thinking, Lord, please just have them say, I'm doing fine. I don't, I don't want to get bogged down.

I don't want, I, I don't want them to get into a lot of detail here. and sometimes we get freaked out by need, the depth of need that we see sometimes in our brothers and sisters in, in the Lord, and sometimes just out of pure selfishness, we just back away. I don't want anything to do with that. I got enough going on.

In my life, but sometimes we back away out of fear. A fear that says I don't know what to do. I don't. I don't know what to say.

I've actually heard people say, what, so and so, they, they're going through a great crisis in their life, and I, I never reached out to them. I was afraid to talk to them because I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. We think that we don't have anything in us to address the need that is in them and so we move away from their need.

This instinct is in all of us, and Paul says, listen, if you're walking in a God they love, rather than moving away from need, you will move toward need and share in that need and make it your own, really owning. The needs of others. You ever had someone, you've been going through a time of need in your own life, and someone genuinely, they just so entered into that need, and you could just tell, you could feel it, that they made your need their need. And they ministered to you from that vantage point.

You can feel. The difference. There are times where someone tries to minister to your need, but they're outside of that need and maybe trying to throw something your way or just do a little bit to help. And then there are those that are really with you, and you feel that, you feel that participation of them deeply with you in your need.

Paul says this is the way of agape love. And then that leads, we're now going downstream. If you really, See, Paul doesn't even need to say contribute to the needs of the saints literally in the Greek. All he needs to say is become a sharer in the needs of the saints, because if we do that, he knows we're going to address those needs that we become a participant in.

And so the fourth challenge that we can observe here is that we should actually contribute toward meeting the needs of our fellow saints. And so the aspect of this term that some translators will translate as contributing can be brought out by way of application. And so we have this coinano, this commonness, this entering into the needs of others and making those needs your own. Combined together with what we do as a byproduct of that, and that is addressing those needs in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I want you to notice in Acts 2 and Acts 4, how we see these two terms come together. In Acts 2, Luke tells us that all those who had believed were together and they had all things in coinos. Same root word. And you might say, yeah, that means that all their possessions were in common.

It does include that. But a part of what it also means they had all things in common, including needs. OK, they, they viewed needs. As common property.

They viewed deficits and lack in each other as common property and the common responsibility of all. And so as a byproduct of that, they met the needs that they were owning inside of their brothers and sisters, and they began selling their property and possessions and we're sharing them with all as anyone might have need. if, if, if in someone's life, just in the normal world, they've got a need in one area, like my kids are going through college right now. And so we need funds for that.

So I'm going to liquidate some assets over here in order to supply for that. People do that without even thinking. And it was in the same way that the early Christians thought and behaved this way. Well, there's a need in the life of these brothers and sisters, and those needs are my needs.

And so I need to liquidate these assets in order to address these needs. You read Acts 24, and 5, and it's very clear that no one put this upon the Christians. This was not communism, socialism that was imposed upon them. In fact, in Acts chapter 5, when Ananias and Sapphia sold some of their property, and then they withheld a portion of it and donated only a portion of it into the offering to meet the needs of the saints, their sin was not in holding back a portion.

Their sin wasn't acting like they were donating everything. And Peter even told them, you could have held that back. That was not a problem. Even after you sold it, was it not your own?

It was yours. And so this is an apostle, a leader in the Jerusalem church, who's talking to people in the church saying, this is yours. But even though people looked at other stuff and said that's yours, they all looked at their own stuff, and said, my stuff is yours. It was voluntary.

And that's the beauty of this. This is no superimposed communism or socialism. Basically, the way the early Christians thought was, they would look at other people and say, your needs that I see in you, those are mine. My resources that I have that can contribute to addressing your needs, those resources are yours.

The resources I see that you have, those are yours. And I emphasize that because there are times where we encounter somebody who is experiencing need and they are dependent upon help from other people, and they have this entitlement mentality that I have the right to lay claim. To what is yours, and they will guilt people into being generous to them, but that's, that's, that's not the way the early Christians thought. They had all things coinos, and as a result they met each other's needs.

In Acts 4 it says, in the congregation of those who believe were of one heart and one soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were coin to them, so all things were common. To them, my stuff is yours. Verse 33, and with great power, the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant or mega grace was upon them all. Why?

Why was there such power in the preaching of the apostles? Verse 34, because there was not a needy person among them, it's the way they cared for one another. For all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. How do you resist?

The message being proclaimed by a people that are living this way. And 300 some odd years later, there's a Roman emperor saying, it's this ethic that is like the number one cause of the demise of our pagan religion. Notice in the book of Acts how much of a theme this is of contributing to the needs of the saints. In Acts 2, I just read, they're meeting each other's needs.

Acts 4, they're giving to meet each other's needs. At the end of Acts 4, Barnabas is giving. And laying it at the apostles' feet in Acts 5, we have a story about what happens to two people who use deception in giving. Of their funds to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters, and in Act 6, we've got the situation of them caring for the widows.

charity was not just something that they did, and they just tagged, tagged it on to everything else they did. It was central to who they were and how they lived out their gospel ethic as they were coming to understand that. That leads us to a 5th challenge that I want to leave you with this morning. And that is that, please, please, please, do not walk out of here and say, all right, I'm gonna, I'm going to be more generous.

I, I, that's what I'm learning here. I've, I've got to enter into the needs of other people, and I've got to start donating to meet needs. All right. God help me to do that.

If it kills me, I'm going to be more generous. so that's what I'm taking away from this message. Please don't do that. take this final challenge to heart, and if you do nothing else, do this, OK?

And that is remember how Christ embraced our need and paid the ultimate price to meet it. Paul would say, now, now why I waited over 300 verses into this book before I gave you this description of agape love. Now why I waited until I fully laid out for you the gospel, and what I've laid out for you is essentially the story of how you were in dire need yourself. And I explained to you in chapters 12, and 3 what the depth of your need was as a sinner condemned by God under His judgment and condemnation and totally unable to save yourself or to rectify your lost condition by obedience to the works or to the law of God.

And then I told you the story about how God has devised an incredible plan. to save you and to deliver you from that lost condition. And he sent His Son into the world to live the life that you never could have lived, and to die the death that you deserve to die so that by believing in him, you can be saved from your estrangement from God and be brought into right relationship with God. You can be delivered from your condemnation and have forgiveness for your sins and be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus.

You can be delivered from your helplessness and powerlessness, and now have power before God and before man and to live the life that God calls you to live. That's your story. You are, you, you should look at yourself in the mirror and say, I'm the biggest charity case I know. I had a great need, and Christ entered into my need.

He came into this world, into this broken place and lived amongst us, and he hungered and he thirsted, and he felt pain, and he died on the cross. And on the cross, He bore our sorrows and our griefs and even the sins that we've committed, all of them, he had those placed upon him, and he died the death that I deserve to die. He literally placed himself underneath our need. In order to do what we were totally helpless.

To accomplish, and that is to save us. We were helpless. We were helpless. Totally unable to save ourselves.

We were rebels against God. It says in Romans 5:6, Paul sums all of that up by saying, while we were helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, while we were helpless, Christ died. That word helpless doesn't mean that like you could have done 95%, and then you just needed that little extra something to push you over the edge and to get you fully saved. Helpless means you could do nothing.

You could contribute absolutely nothing to your salvation. You were totally helpless. Rick Holland helps us understand this word helpless, with this analogy. He says, think of it this way.

It's like we're trying to pick up an FM signal with an AM transistor. Imagine that. And the transistor radio has no batteries, and it has a broken antenna, and every wire has been cut, and the knobs have been pulled off, and there is no on and off switch. And we have no hands or arms to reach for it, and the radio is on the moon.

And we're dead. That's what it means to be helpless. And yet Christ entered into our need and did what we utterly were not able to do, and He saved us. We were helpless and what guys, we didn't deserve to be saved.

We didn't deserve this charity from him. We often, use the expression, the deserving poor. How do we minister to the deserving poor? And I'm not going to say that that language has absolutely no place.

But we need to realize that we were the undeserving poor. And sometimes we get so tight and stingy, it's like, well, I don't want to help those people out because they're in their state because of sin. and you weren't in your state as a result of sin? well, they, they don't really deserve it.

Oh, and you deserve the grace that Christ showed to you. So, what, I helped them a few times and they weren't thankful. Oh, and you're always thankful to God for every blessing, everything he gives you, everything. You're always thanking him for that.

Well, I helped him out once and they used it for what I gave them for selfish purposes. Oh, and you never use anything God gives you for selfish, sinful purposes. You're always spot on, just perfect with your gratitude and what you do with what God gives to you. Again, I'm not saying that there's no room to think through these things and how we minister care and provision to the poor, but we need to start our train of thought with a fundamental awareness.

That we were in dire need, utterly helpless, totally undeserving, and Jesus Christ entered into our need. He became a sharer in our need, and he made the infinite donation of Himself so that we might be saved. And now we ought to look up and look around and not be afraid to enter into the needs of other people. We should be released from our selfishness and, and begin to move towards the needs of others saying, I am not afraid to enter into your needs, whatever they may be, because Jesus entered into mine.

And this Jesus, who is my Savior is still with me, the God who did not spare His own Son but delivered him over for us all. He will freely give me all that is needful, not only to live as I ought to live, but even to serve you. And to help address your needs that I wish to enter into. And what, guys, we also ought to move towards each other's needs, become sharers in each other's needs, because we, we never look more like Jesus than when we do that.

The father looks at us and says, I recognize my son in you. I see Jesus in you. As we seek to mirror the reality of the gospel and our relationships with one another, and as we seek to serve those and do good to those who are presently outside of the faith. We have so much to learn, so much to learn, but Paul just gives us this aspect of the blueprint for walking in agape love.

May God help us to live this out. And help us to learn together how we as a community can do a better job of living this out. let's pray together and ask God to help us. Lord, I can't preach to a passage like this without just being so thankful for so many in our church that are living this out.

Donating to the Agape Fund to enable us to have funds in place to meet the needs of others in our church body. I think of our care groups and people coming together in the care group context to donate funds, sometimes in the thousands of dollars to meet the needs of their care group members. And then so many individually just sacrificing time and their resources and their giftedness to enter into the needs of others. I'm so blessed to be here at Cornerstone where I get to watch these.

Very things on display. I read the blueprint here and then I lift up my eyes and I see brothers and sisters wonderfully living this out. But I think, Lord, we would all unite our hearts this morning and looking to you and just saying, there's got to be ways that you want us to learn more and go further. Help us, help us, help us, Lord.

To Fully be delivered from the vestiges of selfishness and laziness and fear that Might exist in us that keep us from really entering into And contributing to the needs of our fellow saints and even others, And thereby mirroring the glory of the gospel. It'd be awesome, Lord, if the gospel is being preached clearly by all of our members. And then also, the gospel is being lived out. And the reality of the gospel is being visibly seen as we display the incarnation, the entering into the needs of others and start doing for others exactly as Jesus has done for us.

Help us to mirror the gospel with the same clarity with which we may seek to preach it. Thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds, receive the funds that we give to the Agape offering. In a few moments also as we're dismissed, receive all these funds, Lord, and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We ask all these things in His name.

And all God's people said,