Words of Jesus Podcast - Live In Harmony

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Practice putting your ego in-check; esteem others as better. Resolve issues of offense or transgressions with an attitude of humility. First, go one-on-one to restore the relationship. Secondly, if they won't hear you, go to an objective, non-emotional audience. Next, if still no reconciliation, then go to the church for counsel. Strive to get along with one another. Resentment, unforgiveness, and discord block our ears. Fourth, "count the one who refuses reconciliation as a heathen and a publican", not a condemnation; but a path to peace and harmony. ***Ch 53: Jesus Discusses The Need For HumilityMatthew 18:1-35; Mark 9:33-50; Luke 9:46-50Who Is The Greatest In The Kingdom?ON THEIR way to Capernaum the disciples argued among themselves. When he was in the house, Jesus asked them:            “What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?”            The disciples were silent for they had disputed about who was the greatest.            Jesus sat down with them and said:            “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.”            Then he set a child in the midst of the disciples and, holding him in his arms, he said:            “Verily I say unto you, ‘Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.’ Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.” Tolerance Urged John said to Jesus:            “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us. And we forbade him, because he followeth not us.”            Jesus replied:            “Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, ‘He shall not lose his reward.’ Offenses to Avoid            “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or mained, rather than have two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you that in Heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven.For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. No One Is Unimportant In The Sight Of God “How think ye? If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series. I appreciate your attendance here and I hope this is everything that you wanted it to be. It's really no secret. It's not like I have some special wisdom to impart to you. It's just the fact that Jesus said a lot of things on the earth that we have heretofore ignored and done the opposite in many cases. But mostly what I keep finding is that His words that are spirit and they are life, as He said, they just tend to touch every facet of life.

And for us not to utilize our scriptures and to hear the words of Christ and to hear the word of God within ourselves, not read it. It's not he who has eyes, let him read. Okay, now it's time to read um we uh we're talking about the need for humility and how uh humility is a huge part of christianity and it seems to be one of the most ignored and and in all fairness sometimes uh egoism is is a very hideable thing it Sometimes it's so deep, we don't really even understand it. That is, that's the core, that's the seed from which a lot of our troubles are coming.

And I think most of all, the most detrimental thing about egoism is it's so anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Christian, that it has a tendency to obstruct. The promise of our Lord Jesus Christ was that if we keep the commandments, he would come into us and that he would manifest. He and his father would manifest themselves to us and teach us and lead us and guide us from the inside. What a beautiful promise that is. And there's a reason why people call the Bible the word of God. And it's the reason why people memorize scripture. It's the reason why people go through their Bible and look for scriptures in order to repeat or to believe or

to stand on or whatever else they say. It's the reason why they do that is because they simply have no understanding. They don't have any relationship with God himself. They have a good, if you want to call it good, relationship with the Bible. However, to have a relationship with God is a totally different thing because this book is not alive. The Bible says that the Word of God is alive. This is not alive. And for us to have the life of God within us is to indeed have His Word within us. So as we read the Scriptures, if you'll listen, you'll hear the word of God being

spoken to you. Many times, in order to get people to recognize that or to hear that, I usually tell people when they're first beginning this journey of having the Lord teach them, to have one teacher, one rabbi, that you can near about be assured that as you read the scriptures, when they start, the words in that story or whatever you happen to be reading, start to manifest thoughts that apply directly to your life.'re man you are very very close as jesus said very close to the kingdom of god um and when when a person has the ability to to bypass it's not really bypass i i'm trying i try to be careful about what I say because many people like to repeat what I say, and they never get it right. But it's not really bypassing the Word of God. It's actually like seeing through the page.

It's almost like, you know, the words are written on a piece of clear plastic. If you just look, just defocus, defocus on those letters and look through that clear page and see your life for what it really is. Then you're starting to hear the voice of God for yourself. But it's such a mistake to turn words into the word. The word is singular. These are words. They're not valueless by any means. You know, you get accused of claiming, if you don't want to call the Word of God, or give the Word of God its proper due,

as a definition which does not include the Bible. These are scriptures. These are writings. And if you understand what the Word of God is you know exactly what I'm talking about if you don't know what the Word of God is you're in a huff and you're you're getting up from from the television and going and making a cup of coffee or doing something else or I think I'll vacuum the floor while this big mouth preacher is on but you know

don't get don't don't get upset i'm really just trying to show you how to make these things uh apply to your life and it's you know it's the whole jesus and levi's approach you're just putting pants on the scripture these things are they're not hidden from us they're hidden for us they're not uh here they're here for our benefit uh you know paul says everything that the lord left for us is here for our benefit i mean even the ruins of sodom and gomorrah if you ever been to sodom at israel and uh and see you know the ash heaps that are around there and the just piles of ashes and sulfur and where brimstone has fallen he says this is all here for our learning it's all here so we'll understand you can't do wrong and get by and so

what is that he was giving you the word of god see it wasn't just what you saw it's not the picture in your mind it's what god speaks to us on a daily basis and he's speaking to us saying that can't do wrong and goodbye all right um we were talking about uh godlike reconciliation and this is all tying into the humility uh part of christianity that i am trying to get across to you is it's not just really, really important. This is imperative for a Christian, like forgiveness. And as a matter of fact, this talks about forgiveness. Forgiveness, the impetus of forgiveness is humility. It's very seldom that we would go to somebody who we thought was less than us and ask them to forgive us. It always seems to go the other way. Anyway, I guess what I'm telling you is, if you'll analyze these things,

think about them. Think about how you answered that woman when she gave you an answer or answered you like you didn't like, or the way you talk to a certain person or the way you talk down to them or the way you judge people or all the little problems in our life you're going to start finding that humility is at the source of a whole of the lack of humility is at the source of a lot of these problems godlike reconciliation uh we are speaking from the, is it the 53rd chapter? Yes, 53rd chapter of our little book called The Words of Jesus. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more then in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established and if he neglect to hear them tell it to the whole church but if you neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican verily i say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done to them of my Father which is in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. He's teaching here that reconciliation is extremely important between us and our brethren here on the earth. I know that that might seem like an academic thought or, you know, just, well, sure, that's the way it needs to be. But I don't know that we've ever really tied this in with humility. A lot of the things that the Lord asks us to do that are strenuous for us or difficult for us or we're not comfortable in doing those kind of things,

it really doesn't, it's not necessarily showing us that we're sinful. We don't need anything to show us that we're sinful. We know that. What it's trying to do, or what perhaps we should let it do, is show us the deeper problem. And in many cases, it is indeed humility. If you, he goes on to say that if your brother shall trespass against you that you need to go and tell him his fault

between you and him alone. Doesn't the scripture say alone? Yes, alone. That you need to go to you and he alone now friend this is the first thing you do I'm talking commandment wise this is the first thing that you do this is not the first thing that we do this is the first thing that you're supposed to do what this does is it eliminates the gossip aspect of our trespasses against us somehow it's in the human condition to want to commiserate and we want to tell

other people about what somebody else did wrong, how they've done us wrong, or how things would be or should be better or whatever else. We're talking to other people about a problem that we have with another person. These kind of things we need to be very careful of because they don't do much else other than exacerbate the problem. It also brings about an emotive problem within ourselves. We become emotional about it. And soon as you become emotional about something, facts start being skewed. The story gets a little bit worse than it really was or a little bit better than it really was, we start embellishing. We start, we just mess the whole thing up. Look, let's take Jesus' advice. And if somebody has something against you or your brother has trespassed against you,

you need to go to that person alone and talk with them about it. Perhaps you can fix this without it becoming a subject for a group of people or indeed the entire church. He says that if he won't hear you, and that is very common because, friend, let's just face the facts. If we could have worked it out, we probably would have worked it out. But sometimes just the little air gap in between the incident and the time of reconciliation, sometimes that little break, the little breather helps. And we should try to take advantage of that if we can. If you can't, if the situation was indeed as bad as well, you let on or he lets on or they let on whoever they happen to be, then it probably will take some kind of

outside influence, an objective ear, an objective eye, and two or three people, that objectivity gets wider and wider and has more and more value. As the preacher says in Solomon, or in Proverbs, I believe he says, that in the multitude of counselors, there's strength. And I think that that is a fact that if we add some more people to the situation it will give both of you an objective view of the situation. Because somebody's not being objective. Because pure objectivity

not only takes into account all the facts of the particular incident but it takes into account the facts and the character and the characteristics of the two people that are involved. And sometimes we can't see our own problems. Well, many times we can't. And sometimes another ear, another pair of eyes, somebody else involved in it can fix that now then he says that if you can't make this right if if there is some kind of a problem it does not allow you to

fix this between you and him alone or between you and he and two or three other witnesses more people to help counselors that you need to go and tell the matter to the whole church. Now, if you told the matter to the whole church and the church tells you you're wrong about this, you're not looking at this correctly. Here's something you're not considering. And this could happen if we would go to the church, but we don't seem to.

Well, we don't have much respect for our churches. We feel like that they're out of touch and that they're, you know, that they're archaic or, you know, it's good for Sunday but not good for Monday. Whatever the reason, we just don't simply go to our church for help in this area, but we should. Our churches should be places that we can go for help in this area, but we should. Our churches should be places that we can go for help. You know, there ought to be established times that a person should know.

You know, if you have a situation, you need counseling in this situation with the whole church or with the overseer of the church or with whoever it happens to be, there ought to be established times that these kind of things happen. Why is this so important? We need to get along with one another. And the thing that will help you get along with everybody else

is to never, ever, ever esteem yourself as greater than somebody else for any reason whatsoever. This is going to be difficult for you to accomplish. But without it, I don't have any confidence at all that you're going to be led of the Spirit of God. These are the kind of hindrances that get in people's way. When I talk about to keep the commandments, never disobey your conscience take time every day to hear the voice of god people say i tried that it didn't work i get people that say that it happens a lot and perhaps it hasn't worked for you there's a lot of reasons for this one of them is people try it once they don't even have any idea what they're talking about or what they're doing or why or anything else.

And that's normal. But those kind of things can be worked out on your own too. You don't always need somebody to guide you through meditation or through this time to take before the Lord or explain the commandments to you or understand what it's like to never disobey your conscience. You don't always need men to help you do that. Sometimes you can use counsel of other men.

But a lot of times the Lord works these things out for us. Now, it is just that there is a certain humility that is involved in going before the Lord that not only is humility missing in our everyday lives with one another and with having little problems between us and these kind of things, but we have this problem with Him as well. This is why we go to God and pray. This is why we go to God and we talk and we talk and we talk and we talk and we ask him for stuff and we give him his marching orders or whatever it is this is why

we treat him like a page boy because frankly there's no humility in this none at all and uh you know just just to say something and move on. I know that some people get hung up on things and they can't mentally move on because they're stuck on the last thing I said. But this usually does catch people. And that is, there's a difference in coming boldly and going boldly to the throne of grace. And go boldly requires no humility at all.

As a matter of fact, our preachers teach us over the pulpit that God's obligated to hear you. Just pray, and He'll hear you. And there's nothing further from the truth. And the idea that when we go to God, we've got two people that are supposed to be having communion at that particular point, but really it's just one person talking to another. Like, I have something to tell the Lord that He doesn't know?

What in the world is that all about? So there's a lot of things that hinder our communication with God and our taking quiet time before the Lord. A lot of things that hinder our communication with God and our taking quiet time before the Lord. A lot of things that hinder that. However, I think that one thing that permeates our life that really does start to show up when we do take time with the Lord to hear His voice and to do what He says to do and to essentially take orders from him

it is this lack of humility in our everyday life this ego problem that we have in our life we have an opportunity every day every time youess life. Jesus said that the new life that is promised to us, this everlasting life that, you know, the eating of the bread of life and never hungering again, drinking of the water of life and having a fountain bursting up from within your soul and all the wonderful promises of god all those things even though all those things are promised to us we we will never experience those because we don't take the average daily encounter of our egos getting involved in situations where we have to be the teacher we have to be the the the head honcho we have to be the one uh that you know nobody has anything

to tell us of any value uh because we've been around the block or whatever else whatever reasons you have um this is one of the problems that we have with hearing the voice of God. We don't treat him any differently than we do anybody else in our life. He has nothing to say to us. He's already said it. It's in the Bible. I can read it when I want to. What a horrible attitude that is. But this ego thing that causes so many troubles in so many different areas,

it also is the nut, it's the seed of that discontent that we have with one another in the church. This is so important. It's not even reconciliation at this point, when you go and tell it to the whole church if he hear not the church and what that's saying is we've gone these three ways gone alone gone with gone with close friends now we've got it to the whole church and there's still nothing have nothing's been reconciled here we have a fourth option that we have to take i don't care what a bleeding heart liberal cry

baby you happen to be i don't care how bad you want to fix it between you and so and so i don't care how many tears you shed or any of the rest of the emotional part of this the fourth step is as big a part as the other three steps you will will, I'm adding to the scriptures here, oh my goodness, but Jesus says if you do these three things, then you will, it's implied, you will count that person as a heathen and as a publican.

What does that mean? It was not uncommon for the publicans, these tax collectors that were in Israel hired by the Roman government, to be absolutely rejected. Matthew suffered through this. One of the disciples was a tax collector. He suffered through this

to the point that you probably noticed if you read the story that he invited Jesus to come home with him. And guess who was at the dinner? Jesus and all the other tax collectors in Jerusalem. Why was there such a klatch, a clan? Why was it just them that were at this dinner? They had no other friends.

There wasn't anybody inviting them to any dinners, so they had dinners on their own. This was an out-and-out, blatant rejection of a brother, because you have to understand that publicans were not Romans. They were Israelites that were hired to collect taxes just to keep the peace. So people weren't handing money to a Roman soldier or to a Roman official. And just exacerbating the hatred and that kind of thing. So they did it for reasons of peace. But what it did was it absolutely alienated the poor Israelite from the rest of Israel.

They rejected him totally. Another thing that was repulsive to an Israelite was a heathen, a man who worshipped no God. He cared nothing about the things of God. He was just a just a human being out to get whatever he could get were there americans back then no but pretty close they were just they were you know for for old looking out for old number one right and uh just trying to put money in our pocket and

send our kids to school and just get it all done. You know, bodies dropping one side or the other. You know, that's tough. Shouldn't have gotten away. That kind of a guy. These are heathen. These are people that feel like they'll never have to stand before God and give an account of themselves.

Were there Americans back then? Hmm, I don't know. But nevertheless, this is a prevalent thing in society, the heathen. Matter of fact, there's heathen Christians that haven't even discovered themselves yet. They don't even realize that they're heathen, and they are. but these people were so repulsive to the Israelite that although you could have dinner with a publican because he was an Israelite, you couldn't have dinner with a heathen. They were the Gentile nations they were the people who weren't supposed to go into their homes

the Bible taught. We were supposed to stay away from them because they had things to offer us that were going to be detrimental to our relationship with god and so here we have two prime examples of people that are rejected so jesus is saying you did one is saying, you did one, you did two, you did three, now you got to do four. What is that? You're going to have to reject this person and count them as a heathen and a publican. Didn't say they were heathen. Didn't say they were a publican. What did it say? You're going to have to treat them as if they are. Why would you do that? would jesus tell us to reject anyone why would he tell us to to engage in that repulsive behavior that would repel someone that i mean that's another human being like i say you can be all crybaby about this if you want to but jesus is saying there's something more important than you being reconciled to heathens and publicans and

people who care not a whit about god there's something more important than that what is it harmony it's harmony people they they suffer with harmony and and they've replaced unity with uniformity. They've done, they've tried every trick in the book to try to everybody get along. We just want to get along. Look you want to know how to get along? Lose the ego thing. Just lose the ego. When the ego is gone, this is not a problem. This isn't a problem at all. It's no wonder Jesus made such a big deal out of it. That's how to enjoy God-like reconciliation. And then he talks about forgiveness. We've talked about this. Forgiveness is absolutely predicated on humility. But forgiveness has a little characteristic about it that reconciliation doesn't.

The Bible doesn't say that even though you're reconciled to God, if you don't reconcile with your neighbor, that God is not going to count your reconciliation to Him. He's good about that because he knows how impossible that is in some situations. But forgiveness, totally different thing. You will forgive every man from the depths of your heart or you will not receive from our God forgiveness for your sin. That's a rough way to walk out of the program, but it's time to go. We'll see you next time. Until then, Think Red Ink, my friend.

You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you