Sermon
Sharing In Joys And Sorrows
July 3, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our notes, shall we? And for the summer months we are talking about a theme that's been suggested in our Bibles, it's Romans chapter 12, and when you go home today if you have time to read the entire chapter you'll understand why we selected this chapter for our summer lessons. It's a chapter that is filled with many very direct admonitions as to how we're to live out our Christian faith in the world around us, in our homes, and in our church. And we've entitled our sermon series "Behaving like a Christian".

Now the word 'behave' is an old word. I remember as a little boy my mother would say, Donald, you behave yourself! Which meant straighten up, do it right, and act according to her directives. And so I picked up an old Bible and in that Bible at the heading of the chapter it says 'Behaving like Christians', so that gave us the title for our summer series.

And thus we have come to verse 15, and verse 15 simply says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians and says, "But God composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."

Now the next portion of Scripture is taken from what is called the Amplified Bible and it's quite heavy with words, but let me work ourselves through it and you'll follow it. I think it's very interesting. It says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement). Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.

For just as Christ's own sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us. But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo. And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partakers in [our] sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partakers in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement)."

Now you say that's very heavy with words and so go with me to page 7 and I've got the same verses from another translation, and the translation reads: "All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation. For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can encourage you."

Now let's go back to page 1 and at the bottom of page 1 we have added another verse. Paul tells the Galatian Christians: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

Now on page 2 of our notes I've included a large portion of Scripture out of Matthew 25. It's a portion of Scripture that challenges me almost every day of my life. I've used the word it almost haunts me, and I mean that in a sense that it's always there. When certain situations arise as I live out my day these verses just come back to hit me between the eyes.

Listen to them: "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and your gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

Then He will say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'

Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Remember our text: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

These notes are not in your notes. I've added them to mine so I'd like just to make a couple of comments. John Wesley, the great preacher who established the Methodist Church in England years and years ago, had in the front cover of his Bible these words: "Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can." That was his motto for living.

And Longfellow the great poet wrote: "Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine kind words and kind deeds".

Someone else wrote: "To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own, and the greatest pleasure in life is to do a good act of kindness in secret and have it discovered by accident."

The teacher asked her students to tell the meaning of the word lovingkindness, and a little boy jumps to his feet and said, I'll answer it teacher. He said if I were hungry and somebody gave me a piece of bread that would be kindness, but if they put some strawberry jam on top of it, that would be lovingkindness.

Is anybody happier because you passed his way?
Does anyone remember that you spoke to him today?
The day is almost over, and its toiling time is through;
Is there anyone to utter now a friendly word about you?
Can you say tonight, in passing with the day that slip so fast,
That you helped a single person of the many that you passed?
Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said;
Does one whose hopes were fading, now find courage in what you said?
Did you waste the day, or lose it? Was it well or poorly spent?
Did you leave a trail of kindness, or a scar of discontent?

Our text is very simple, but very profound: weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

And now we're talking about good deeds. We're talking about a life that's flowing with kindness. And the reason why I - in a number of our lessons - have come back to this matter of doing good deeds, is because we live in a time where in a certain part of our nation and in evangelical churches it is being preached that all you have to do is say, 'I believe in Jesus Christ', and they say you are saved, and nothing is implied that there is a life change that takes place or should take place because now the love of Christ is within. And that love, if you've really been born again, is going to flow out in your actions and in your words.

Go with me to page 3. Old Pastor James, who pastored the Christian Church in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, he wrote a letter and it's in our Bible. And that letter has to do with this very thing we're talking about. He says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Dead, folks. "But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

Jesus said: "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven." And Paul gives this admonition to Timothy: "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share."

The writer to Hebrews says: "And let us consider how we may spur one another onward toward love and good deeds." And Peter writes: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us."

Now please do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that good works and deeds will save you, but in that you have been saved through trusting in the saving grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, good works will be the natural by-product of your life, your deeds and your words. Good works are the evidence or fruit of true faith and they add or contribute nothing to the meritorious basis of our redemption.

Because Christians are justified by faith alone, their standing before God is not in any way related to personal merit. Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Now I've taken the time to make it clear that good deeds do not save us but because we are saved and the Holy Spirit dwells within us, our lives will reflect the life of Christ who dwells within us. Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."

And Paul reminds Titus, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."

So we're talking about good deeds, and if you ask a nonbeliever, a non-Christian, how a Christian should act, boy they're very quick to tell us. They could tell us how Christians ought to live, and how they would expect us to live even though they are not Christians, but they have some high expectations of us because we say we are followers of Christ. And here's an area of life that leads us into very sensitive relationships, but Paul has said if you're going to behave like a Christian you are going to weep with those who weep and you are also going to rejoice with those who rejoice. You are going to empathize.

Go with me to page 5, down about a third of the page. Empathy describes what Paul is talking about when he speaks of weeping and rejoicing with others. Empathy is the ability to identify closely with someone else, and to make his case your own, and to allow what has happened to him to effect you deeply. But this is not easy to do. We often do it superficially.

We would not think of joking at a funeral, for example, and we express our condolence to those who suffer loss. Again, when a friend is promoted we send congratulations and may even attend a party in their honor. But when someone does very well we find it hard to be anything but jealous, even when we are congratulating him or her. It is much easier to weep with those who weep than it is to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Long ago Chrysostom, one of the great writers in the early part of the church, wrote: "It requires more of a high Christian temper to rejoice with them that do rejoice than to weep with them that weep. For this nature itself fulfils perfectly: and there is none so hard-hearted as not to weep over him that is in calamity; but the other requires a very noble soul, so as not only to keep from envying, but even to feel pleasure with the person who is in esteem."

What I'm suggesting...It says rejoice with those who rejoice, but that's hard because what happens is we look at them as enjoying something, a favor, granted above ours and we may make a comparison and say in our heart, we are saying, God, why do You bless them so much and not me? You say Pastor, do you have a problem with that one? Yes I do. So how do you work it out as a preacher? Well, you know, I hear of pastors that God is blessing and the first thing I do is, God, why are you blessing them and not blessing me? I mean that's my human side. And that's why I think that Paul brings this out.

Our humanness makes us very reluctant to esteem someone else and congratulate them and honestly from a sincere heart - God bless you for all the wonderful things that you are enjoying - and not have an ounce of jealousy inside of us. Our human side makes it difficult for us to rejoice with those who rejoice because we immediately start the mental comparison: they have more, God has blessed them greater, why doesn't He bless me?

But the matter of weeping is a different thing. Let's take those two sections of verses that we talked about from that Matthew passage. Jesus gave a startling parable and here is what He is saying, we are going to be judged on judgment's day as to how we handled our opportunities for good deeds in life. He talks about a time of division, the sheep and goats, and to the sheep He says you are blessed because you are going to enter the kingdom prepared for you. When I was hungry you fed Me; when I was thirsty you gave Me a drink; when I was in prison and a lonely you came and visited Me.

And their reaction is very interesting - When did we see You hungry? or when did we know that You needed a drink? or when were You in prison? As if to say, well I did I just simply did because it flowed out of my life. I couldn't do anything else. I sensed a need and I responded because now the love of Christ is flowing through my life, and Jesus said because you did it to those, the least of my brethren, you are really doing it to Me. That's interesting.

Now he turns to the goats and He said, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire: because I was hungry and you didn't respond to My need; I was thirsty and you didn't give Me a drink; I was lonely and you didn't come and visit Me in prison. You neglected the opportunity to show the love of Christ. And He says, depart from Me into everlasting fire.

Now I tell you folks, that's what haunts me. You know as evangelicals we are taught we are going to be saved and we're going to go to heaven just because we believed in Jesus Christ. But here is something that He adds very clearly, and what He's simply saying profoundly so and eternally meaningful in dimension, if I don't live out my Christian faith and my love and let the love of Christ flow through me, then Christ isn't really inside me if I don't respond to human needs.

And you say, Why does this verse get to you, Pastor? Because every time I drive down San Bruno Avenue and I stop in El Camino there stands that man there with his little sign, 'I'm hungry', 'I don't have a job', 'God bless you'. And every time I stop I say, is that Jesus standing there? You say, why do you ask that question? Well in Hebrews chapter 13 it says, entertain strangers for when you entertain them you may be entertaining angels unawares.

Isn't it interesting that Christ puts before us disguised in opportunities an opportunity to live out this Christian faith, and oft times, you know...he just wants another dollar for a glass of wine, or he'll just misuse it, and so we drive on. Right? That's why I say, Is that Jesus standing there today?

When I was a little boy about five years of age I went to church and our pastors, brother and sister Parks, told a story that I have never forgotten. We lived up in Sterling City, which was about an hour's drive up through the Sierra foothills from Chico. You would go down to Chico to do your shopping and then you would come home. It would take about an hour, and it was just a winding road through the forest leading up to our little town. And one night they had been shopping down in Chico and they were driving home, and out there in the middle of the forest, in the middle of nowhere, there was a man standing there with his thumb in the air wanting a ride.

And the first thing that the minister's wife said is well, why would he be out here? We don't know who he is. We were afraid to pick him up and it's the middle of the night, so they excused themselves and drove on. Pretty soon the pastor said, no, no. A man standing in the middle of a forest, late at night, we're going to go back and help. So he turns his car around and goes back and the man is standing there, and he says to him, Can I give you like a ride? He said, sure.

So he gets in the car and is very quiet. When they get up to Sterling City the pastor's wife said, Would you like something to eat? He said, yes I would. So she said, if you'll sit here at the table I'll fix you something here at the stove and I'll feed you. And pastor had gone someplace else in the house. And so sister Loise is there working around the stove and she's cooking and she's about ready to serve, and she turns around and he's gone. He isn't there, and he didn't even go out the door. And she said, you know, to her husband, honey, I think we just entertained an angel. Now that's biblical.
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What I'm saying is sometimes God puts before us the opportunity to show kindness and we use all kinds of selfish excuses to get out of the response. Paul says part of being a Christian is weeping with those who weep and empathizing with those who in need and rejoicing with those who rejoice. That's Christian.

Now there is that other passage we read from 2 Corinthians where Paul says we go through experiences and God encourages us so that in that experience and in the encouragement that God gives to us, then some place down life's journey we'll run across somebody who's going through the same experience and what we learned, how God helped us through that experience, we can share that with others. So that gives a very positive side to a difficult time in life. If we look at it and say, God, I don't know why this is coming to me, but I know I want You to teach me the lesson You want me to learn because later on the lesson I learn and the encouragement that You give to me, I can give to someone else.

I know this one, and again, I share a personal story. At the age of 27 I pastor a church and I had nearly 1200 people in our church. And one day the elders of the church decided to fire me, and they didn't do it in the office. They waited to a Sunday morning when the congregation was jammed and the service was moving along, and they had one of their elders come up and right in front of 1200 people say, Mr. Sheley, this is your final check, and when you finish your sermon you are to leave the premises and not to return.

And I'll tell you, for a 27-year-old lad that's a little hard to take. God gave me the strength. I had an experience of...you'd say you're crazy pastor, but no this is honest. We had a great big choir loft that seated 300 people, and a big pipe organ, and somehow - I'm standing there just about ready to preach and I prayed - I felt I went up and sat on the last row of the choir and I watched myself preach. And when it was all over the entire congregation was weeping. And I preached my last sermon and walked away filled with bitterness.

We moved out to a little one-room apartment over Sachs Realty just behind American Savings on 19th and Noriega, and I would walk the streets at midnight. God, You are not fair, and I almost lost my faith, and I almost quit the ministry. I went to work at Safeway's down on Market and Debois stocking shelves and cleaning garbage pails from midnight to nine o'clock in the morning.

And one morning at about three o'clock on one of those wet, damp, dark San Francisco mornings I'm washing garbage pails and I brake and I begin to weep and I couldn't control myself. All this bitterness, all this hurt, that had come to me, and when the sun, the light, started to come over the horizon I just looked up and said, God, I'm going to make a deal with You. I said I will never again serve human beings. I will serve You with all my heart, and in serving You human beings will be blessed, but You are going to be the object of who I serve and not man.

That was 49 years ago, nearly half a century ago, but I learned through that the encouragement that God gave me, the blessings. That's why I have such a deep love for hurting pastors. And over the years, when I learn of a pastor who's been mistreated by congregation or who has fallen because of some sin and lost his ministry, I immediately go for him, and I'll seek until I find him. And over the years we've brought in maybe I think eight different pastors who we've been able to nurse back into ministry.

Many years ago I was preaching in Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa, and Vernita called me on a Sunday morning, she said, Don; she said, Stan has been dismissed from his ministry and he is very hurt and he's been at church, and she said, what shall I do? I said you put Stan on staff and when I get home I'll work out the details with him. So when I got home I said, Stan, tell me about it. He said, Pastor, my wife left me and she's married another man, and in the denomination that I'm in they take away your license. You can't preach any more if you have a divorce.

We were just weeping. He was a marvelous preacher. So I said, Stan, you're on staff, you're full pay, but you don't have to do anything. You just cry when you need to cry, and if you want to cry come to my office and we'll cry together. But you heal, and when you've healed and when you feel that you want to start preaching, you come to me and say, Pastor, I'm ready to preach. And about six months later Stan came to me and said, Pastor, I'm ready to preach. A great preacher. He looked like a little teenager, but when he started preaching he sounded like Spurgeon, and God blessed Stan; God blessed the church, and God gave Stan a wonderful wife and a nice family, and Stan has moved on in his ministry. And quite frequently I'll pick up the phone on Saturday night and we'll have prayer together.

But the pain that you go through knows exactly what others are going through, and Paul says God allows us to have these experiences so that as He encourages us, we can take that encouragement when somebody else is going through the same pathway and journey, and we can help them.

So there are two sides to our lesson today. If you're going through a difficult time in your life, look at it from a very positive way, God You're taking me through this detour in my life's journey and it hurts. It really hurts, but help me to learn the lesson that You want me to learn so that later on in life the encouragement that You have given to me I can give to someone else.

That's one side to our lesson, the other is this, when we stand before God on judgment's day He's going to judge us as to how we handled the opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ to others. That's part of the judgment. And I pray after hearing this message every time an opportunity arrives and your heart is touched, you respond positively. Do something about it; in so doing, you're showing the love of Christ, and that is Christian. Amen? Let us pray.

Father, Your word is so clear. We can't miss the message and You've told us today that we are to weep with those who weep and we are to genuinely rejoice, without jealousy, with those who are blessed and rejoice. And I pray that we as Christians, as a congregation, will live out this directive, this command, today that you have given to us as Your children. But would You forgive us for all the opportunities that we've pushed away, please forgive us. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. God bless you.