The Importance of Empathy (Romans 12:15-16)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.159 --> 00:00:05.120 Let's turn now to the letter of the Romans. It's in the New Testament. 2 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:21.940 Almost halfway through, I'd say, Romans Chapter Twelve. Going to be 3 00:00:22.059 --> 00:00:27.300 preaching on versus fifteen and sixteen, but I'll start reading from verse nine. 4 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:44.570 Let's hear, truly hear, God's word. Let love be genuine. Abhor 5 00:00:44.810 --> 00:00:49.210 what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with 6 00:00:49.530 --> 00:00:55.719 brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in 7 00:00:55.759 --> 00:01:02.079 zeal, be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, 8 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.430 be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of 9 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:14.909 the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless 10 00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:19.540 and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those 11 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:23.980 who weep, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, 12 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:30.299 but associate with the lowly. Never he be wise in your own sight. 13 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:36.769 This ends God, the reading of God's word. Let's seal it to our 14 00:01:36.849 --> 00:02:04.109 hearts. You may be seated. One of the great chapters of the Bible 15 00:02:04.310 --> 00:02:08.909 is First Corinthians Thirteen. Many any people call it the love chapter because it 16 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:14.830 deals with that subject and the word love appears over and over and over again. 17 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:20.219 It's exalted in a very highway and it's also explained. It's the various 18 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:25.659 aspects of love are described. We have something very similar here in Romans, 19 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:32.689 Chapter Twelve. These marks of the true Christian in versus nine through twenty one, 20 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:39.210 are all really surrounding this quality of love. Paul begins in verse nine 21 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:45.479 and he says let love be genuine. And you remember, too, when 22 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:50.479 Jesus was asked about the commandments. They all see what the commandments were, 23 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:53.840 in the most important ones, you remember what he said. He said Love 24 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:58.400 The Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and 25 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:04.189 strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's what it means to live a 26 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:09.949 holy life before God. It means to love, to love. And so 27 00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:17.180 these various exhortations, these various things that Mark True Christianity, mark and I 28 00:03:17.259 --> 00:03:23.300 help us to identify and show us how. They tell us how to identify 29 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:25.780 Christians and tell us, as Christians, how we ought to live. They 30 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:31.090 all are sort of an exposition on love, genuine love, sincere love, 31 00:03:31.849 --> 00:03:38.650 Christian love. Jesus wants us to understand what our lives should look like right 32 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:44.560 now, on the basis of the love that he has changed us by. 33 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.479 Jesus wants us to understand what our lives should look like now, now that 34 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:55.389 we have been forever changed by his love. Jesus is love for us was 35 00:03:55.550 --> 00:04:01.150 genuine, wasn't it? Jesus is Love wasn't an insincere love or a fake 36 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:08.469 love or a showy love just to get points or gain some kind of reputation. 37 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:15.420 Know, when Jesus died on a cross, he wasn't faking his emotions, 38 00:04:15.660 --> 00:04:24.220 he wasn't faking his desire or his will. Jesus was born in the 39 00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:31.930 form of a man. He humbled himself in obedience and obedience to the father, 40 00:04:32.889 --> 00:04:40.839 in going to his death because of love, and he wants us to 41 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.199 be marked by that, to be changed by it. Jesus is love for 42 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:49.680 us is genuine, not fake. It's humble, not proud. It doesn't 43 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:54.269 seek to be served but to meet the needs of others. And these are 44 00:04:54.310 --> 00:04:58.269 all things that Paul has been describing to us, these marks of the true 45 00:04:58.310 --> 00:05:05.670 Christian. This morning he focuses our attention on another very important aspect of love, 46 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:15.939 empathy. Empathy, he says in Verse Fifteen. Rejoice with those who 47 00:05:15.980 --> 00:05:21.850 rejoice and weep with those who weep, but that empathy is strengthened by something 48 00:05:21.889 --> 00:05:29.329 else, what we read in Verse Sixteen, and that's humility. Rejoice with 49 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.050 those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one 50 00:05:32.089 --> 00:05:36.240 another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be 51 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:42.360 wise in your own sight. Now, this may be the first time that 52 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:48.600 you've considered connecting these two things in the broad category of love. Maybe the 53 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:56.670 first time you've considered connecting empathy with humility, but they are very much connected. 54 00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:01.550 We might say that we are to love with empathy that's strengthened by humility, 55 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:08.500 or that we are to be humble in order to produce empathy. Either 56 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:11.819 way, these are the things that we get at. We get at when 57 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:16.180 we look at versus fifteen and sixteen. Now, if you're reading the ESV, 58 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:20.889 it's a little difficult to see how these verses might be connected, versus 59 00:06:20.930 --> 00:06:26.889 fifteen and sixteen because of the way that Verse Sixteen is translated, and it 60 00:06:27.050 --> 00:06:32.160 is a difficult verse to translate. The ESV translates it as live in harmony 61 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:36.319 with one another, and this is not a bad translation. It gets at 62 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:42.519 what Paul is saying, but the connection is clearer in other translations. The 63 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:47.389 connection between fifteen and sixteen. The King James version is a good example of 64 00:06:47.550 --> 00:06:53.069 this. It translates the first part of Verse Sixteen by saying be of the 65 00:06:53.149 --> 00:06:59.230 same mind toward one another, or you might say something like have have the 66 00:06:59.269 --> 00:07:03.139 same mind in one another or with one another. There's this sense of the 67 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:06.300 word, the verb that's used there, has this sense of viewing, a 68 00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:13.180 viewpoint or a way of thinking, a mind set, we might say. 69 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:20.009 In Philippians two there's a sort of a similar passage that deals with humility, 70 00:07:20.689 --> 00:07:26.170 and Paul starts that by saying have this same mind with one another, which 71 00:07:26.209 --> 00:07:31.639 is yours. In Christ Jesus will beans to five. I believe so. 72 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.639 The connection is this, you might put it this way. In order to 73 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:41.120 have this harmonious living, in order to live at peace with one another, 74 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.829 in order to share the same feelings with one another, we need to have 75 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:53.029 a same mind together, and that's really difficult if you're proud. It's really 76 00:07:53.069 --> 00:07:59.339 difficult to connect with someone in love if you're separating from them in pride. 77 00:08:01.899 --> 00:08:07.300 Love is something that binds us together. This is what Paul writes, and 78 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:13.250 Colossians when he says and above all these put on love, which binds everything 79 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:20.170 together in perfect harmony. Think about people who love one another, whether it's 80 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:26.649 a mother and her daughter, or a husband and a wife, or even 81 00:08:26.970 --> 00:08:33.720 neighbors or friends. People who love one another are people who are coming together. 82 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:39.279 They share things, they share space. You know, we have a 83 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:43.830 piece of furniture that we call a love seat, right, because it's a 84 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:48.549 small couch, it's smaller you because it requires you to share space together, 85 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:56.820 because that's what love does. It shares things, love shares time, and 86 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:03.259 we talked about those who are in love, let's say a boyfriend and a 87 00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:11.409 girlfriend. They go on a date together, they share time together. As 88 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:16.490 an aspect of love, people who love each other share money, they share 89 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:24.480 ideas, they share all their share their possessions, and so of course empathy, 90 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:31.879 the sharing of feelings, is going to be a natural part and important 91 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:37.279 part of love. And of course we know that is somebody who somebody who 92 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:43.429 isn't, or two people who aren't sharing feelings, aren't loving one another, 93 00:09:45.750 --> 00:09:48.590 even if perhaps they're doing these other things. You might have people sitting very 94 00:09:48.669 --> 00:09:54.139 close together let's say on an airplane, and yet aren't really loving one another, 95 00:09:56.100 --> 00:10:00.460 they're just sitting next to each other in very close proximity. Or you 96 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:05.539 might have people, a tragic situation where you have two people who are married 97 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:11.529 and living together, sharing all these things, time, space, money, 98 00:10:11.570 --> 00:10:16.649 children, and yet have no affection for one another, no empathy for one 99 00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:24.919 another, no love, at least in in that way. So this applies 100 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:31.759 not just to our human relationships, but are Christian ones as well. We 101 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.389 are called to love one another, to share our feelings with one another, 102 00:10:37.909 --> 00:10:43.470 rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. What does this 103 00:10:43.629 --> 00:10:48.269 look like? Well, it's probably easiest or most dramatically understood with the weeping 104 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:52.379 part. The word that's used, therefore, weep, is is not just 105 00:10:52.580 --> 00:10:58.460 being sad, it's not even just crying, but the word, as I 106 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:01.659 think it is applied in the English as well, there is, is this 107 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:09.049 sort of visible display of sadness. Right, if you describe a friend and 108 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:13.570 you say maybe you're describing one friend to another, and you said she was 109 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:18.200 weeping, and you choose that word instead of crying, you intend to communicate 110 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:24.519 something kind of heightened. Right, tears streaming down the face, audible sobbing, 111 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:31.759 maybe even a wailing. It's the word. It's used about Peter after 112 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:37.230 he denied the Lord and the Rooster crowde three times. It says he he 113 00:11:37.429 --> 00:11:41.830 wept bitterly. That kind, that kind of weeping. It's used many times 114 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:46.110 in scripture to describe various situations and in all of them they disc hide this 115 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:52.940 sort of very emotional state. When you understand that in that way, all 116 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:58.059 of a sudden this command, at least to me, it seems very difficult 117 00:11:58.299 --> 00:12:03.450 to weep with those who weep as not just to sort of feel a kind 118 00:12:03.529 --> 00:12:09.929 of pity for them. Boy, they're going through a hard time. It's 119 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:15.799 an involvement in an engagement, a connection with a person that's on that same 120 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:22.080 level to sort of share in their distress or, alternatively, share in their 121 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:30.309 rejoicing. I'm perhaps you parents know both the the what this looks like and 122 00:12:30.389 --> 00:12:33.590 what it doesn't look like. I know when one of my children comes to 123 00:12:33.669 --> 00:12:39.909 me and they're really excited and I let's say, they've accomplished something, if 124 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:45.299 I'm not really paying attention and I don't have empathy, I don't really join 125 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:48.820 in that excitement. I oh well, that's nice, good job, you 126 00:12:48.899 --> 00:12:52.940 know, and please don't bother me that kind of thing. That's not empathy. 127 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:56.220 It's not even empathy to say, oh, that's really cool and sort 128 00:12:56.259 --> 00:13:01.809 of move on. To rejoice with them as a totally different emotional experience, 129 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:05.529 isn't it? To rejoice with them is to be excited as they are excited, 130 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:13.919 to celebrate in your own heart as they are celebrating, and likewise, 131 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:18.639 to weep with them when they're weeping is to feel those emotions, to take 132 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:22.639 it on as your own to cry with them, not just because they're crying 133 00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:33.629 because but because you feel their pain, you feel their sadness. Now there 134 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:37.629 are, of course, important boundaries in all of this. What and how 135 00:13:37.789 --> 00:13:41.620 we share emotionally with one another will depend on the kind of relationships we have. 136 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:48.620 Husbands and wives will look different than neighbors or long times, longtime friends. 137 00:13:48.659 --> 00:13:54.379 Wisdom matters a great deal here, but it is in view of our 138 00:13:54.500 --> 00:14:01.370 relationship with one another in Christ that we are called to this, without really 139 00:14:01.409 --> 00:14:07.450 a lot of qualifications, or any qualifications. There are qualifications that we might 140 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:11.320 take from other parts of scripture, but my point is that's is a mark 141 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:18.279 of the Christian life. It should be in some way a part of us. 142 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:22.840 The as we love one another. It's not a mere distant love. 143 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:28.309 It's not just pity, it's not just sympathy, but it's empathy. It's 144 00:14:28.429 --> 00:14:39.500 rejoicing with those who rejoice. It's weeping with those who weep. That relationship 145 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:43.860 is founded and strengthened in two ways I want to point your a tension to 146 00:14:43.179 --> 00:14:48.539 before we get to verse sixteen. First, remember that we have unity in 147 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:56.370 our image bearing and simply all being children of God. From one human to 148 00:14:56.570 --> 00:15:03.289 another, we share a common goal, a common nature. We have common 149 00:15:03.529 --> 00:15:09.279 parents, we are under one God, we have we are under his same 150 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:15.919 laws. We experience similar things. This is why a person can travel halfway 151 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:22.990 across the world and have can and feel connected with people, even though languages 152 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:28.070 and cultural experiences and food and all kinds of things can be very different and 153 00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:35.100 separating. Yet you still people, see people angry and frustrated and desperate, 154 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:41.620 fearful and joyful, and we know that. We know that. We know 155 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:46.299 what that is and what that's like. It's why people from different families with 156 00:15:46.419 --> 00:15:50.889 different experiences, who grew up in different places, can come together and fall 157 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:56.769 in love, because there's a similarity, there a closeness that we share. 158 00:15:58.009 --> 00:16:02.889 And if that's true of just being human, how much more so for being 159 00:16:02.970 --> 00:16:08.480 Christians, which isn't contrary to being human, but is a kind of true 160 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:14.879 humanity, to have our humanity lifted out of the curse and into a state 161 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:18.509 of blessing, to share the same spirit, the same Lord, the same 162 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:25.230 baptism, the same faith, to share the same core set of principles and 163 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:30.269 beliefs, to recognize, with people that are very different from you, that 164 00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:37.460 you and me are pilgrims and citizens of a heavenly kingdom, pilgrims here on 165 00:16:37.539 --> 00:16:41.539 Earth, that we share the same status, the same inheritance, the same 166 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:45.220 rules, the same blessing, the same hopes, the same fears, the 167 00:16:45.259 --> 00:16:52.009 same struggles. It's what allows us and to have a closeness with Christians that 168 00:16:52.090 --> 00:16:59.090 we perhaps don't even feel elsewhere. Perhaps you've experienced this, perhaps you've met 169 00:16:59.250 --> 00:17:03.480 been, perhaps a old friend a long time with someone who doesn't believe the 170 00:17:03.599 --> 00:17:08.319 same things that you believe, who doesn't share in the life of Christ and 171 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:14.559 then you meet a Christian whom you've known for thirty minutes and all of a 172 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:19.190 sudden you feel so much closer to them in some ways because you share something, 173 00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:26.109 something very deep and personal. It's on the basis of these relationships are 174 00:17:26.309 --> 00:17:34.660 being brothers and sisters, not just in Adam but in Christ, that allows 175 00:17:34.859 --> 00:17:40.900 us to rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those two weep, 176 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:49.690 to pursue that in love with a real foundation. Empathy is possible because of 177 00:17:49.809 --> 00:17:56.369 these things. It's important and necessary. This love is necessary because of these 178 00:17:56.450 --> 00:18:06.240 things. That being said, it's not always easy. Have you ever found 179 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:11.720 yourself in a situation where someone is rejoicing and you just don't feel like rejoicing, 180 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:15.509 or someone is weeping in front of you and you feel, man, 181 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:22.670 I'm so cold. Shouldn't I feel something about this? Perhaps you should. 182 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.859 I know I felt in this I've been in this situation and felt in this 183 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:30.740 way, and it certainly seems like, as with all of these other marks 184 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:34.779 that we've explored the some people seem to be stronger in these than others. 185 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:41.369 You might consider prayer, hospitality, zeal, any of these other things we 186 00:18:41.410 --> 00:18:45.930 might say some people are very strong or naturally gifted, and others of us 187 00:18:47.369 --> 00:18:52.569 a struggle. Nevertheless, it should be a mark among us and something that 188 00:18:52.690 --> 00:18:57.880 we can go to God for help and strengthen but why is it hard? 189 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:06.759 Why is showing love in this particular way hard sometimes? I think one reason 190 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:12.150 is because we don't understand and or we don't really apply that that first sentence 191 00:19:12.309 --> 00:19:17.430 in verse sixteen, to live in harmony with one another or, as I 192 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:23.500 said earlier, to be of the same mind toward one another. When we 193 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:30.859 are like minded with someone, isn't it much easier to be empathetic, to 194 00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:37.420 love them in that way? Maybe you saw someone upset once, maybe even 195 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:41.250 someone that you're very close to, and you say, you come to them 196 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:45.130 and you say, why are you crying? At this point you don't really 197 00:19:45.210 --> 00:19:48.849 feel empathy. Maybe you feel sympathy, you feel pity or you're concerned that 198 00:19:48.930 --> 00:19:53.359 they're upset, but you don't really understand yet. You don't have a like 199 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:59.240 mind with them, you don't share the same mind yet and so rightly you 200 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:02.440 ask them. You say, what's a matter? Why are you crying? 201 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:07.150 And then they tell you. And as they tell you, you've got one 202 00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:11.509 of two options, as I said earlier. You can sort of let it 203 00:20:11.589 --> 00:20:14.869 go in one ear and out the other, or you can do what Paul 204 00:20:14.910 --> 00:20:18.670 says to do and that's to strive to have the same mind with them. 205 00:20:18.910 --> 00:20:22.859 To use a phrase that we use, sometimes you sort of step inside their 206 00:20:23.019 --> 00:20:30.900 shoes. You you take on their life as your own by listening, by 207 00:20:30.940 --> 00:20:37.970 imagining, by connecting with it. When we do that, it allows us, 208 00:20:37.970 --> 00:20:41.890 in a much easier way, to understand. This is why the power 209 00:20:41.890 --> 00:20:48.289 of stories is this is why stories are so powerful, why Jesus uses them 210 00:20:48.369 --> 00:20:55.079 in his parables to help us put ourselves in the shoes of others. It's 211 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:57.759 why we are given history in the Bible. It's why we are, I'm 212 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:04.910 given not just principles and examples, but real history and life examples. It's 213 00:21:04.950 --> 00:21:10.190 why we have the psalms, which put on display for us and show for 214 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:15.390 us the heart of someone, that we might learn to share in those things, 215 00:21:15.470 --> 00:21:22.420 that we might be like minded. John Steinbeck once wrote, well, 216 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:26.819 paraphrase a little bit here, something like it means very little to know that 217 00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:33.089 there are a million starving people unless you know one starving person. There's truth 218 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:38.210 in that, isn't there? There's something about when you identify a particular person 219 00:21:38.289 --> 00:21:44.849 and know their particular struggles, how the food was hard to get, why 220 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:49.400 it's hard to get what is fear scary about that why it makes them fearful 221 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:53.079 the particular struggles that they have. When you know a person like that, 222 00:21:53.160 --> 00:22:00.880 it changes everything. It's why anecdotal evidence is so powerful, because we say, 223 00:22:00.509 --> 00:22:04.150 Oh, yeah, I knew someone like that. We tell stories like 224 00:22:04.269 --> 00:22:08.509 this all the time. You know, somebody tells us about their you know, 225 00:22:08.589 --> 00:22:11.829 a heart condition or something, and immediately, where does our mind go? 226 00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:18.059 Two stories, two examples, two things and that we've experienced, because 227 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:23.539 we've embodied those things, we feel them deeply. It allows us to connect 228 00:22:23.579 --> 00:22:29.500 with that person to say, Oh, I know what you're going through and 229 00:22:29.660 --> 00:22:36.049 that's hard. When we don't share that like mindedness and then we try to 230 00:22:36.170 --> 00:22:41.809 be empathetic, it's not a real, genuine love. Proverbs twenty points at 231 00:22:41.849 --> 00:22:47.440 this. Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off 232 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:56.440 a garment on a Cold Day. It's like vinegar on Soda. To sing 233 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:00.509 songs to a heavy heart, to say Oh, things are great when they're 234 00:23:00.549 --> 00:23:07.269 not great, is a hurtful thing, a hard thing. But on the 235 00:23:07.349 --> 00:23:15.059 other hand, when we speak in a situation and help in a situation based 236 00:23:15.099 --> 00:23:19.220 on true empathy, when it's very apt it's a wonderful thing. Proverbs Fifteen, 237 00:23:19.380 --> 00:23:23.579 twenty three says a man has joy in an APP to answer, and 238 00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:30.809 how delightful is a timely word. But it's really impossible to give an APP 239 00:23:30.890 --> 00:23:34.769 to answer, to give a timely word, without empathy, or at least 240 00:23:34.769 --> 00:23:41.329 it's really hard. You've probably felt this when you are, let's say, 241 00:23:41.369 --> 00:23:45.960 weeping and you're struggling and somebody comes in and gives you three or four or 242 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:52.759 five or twelve solutions to your problem and part of you says, well, 243 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.789 of course that makes sense. You you say, well, I understand why 244 00:23:56.829 --> 00:24:00.549 I should probably do those things. And yet the advice doesn't feel apt, 245 00:24:02.109 --> 00:24:03.549 it doesn't feel right. There's a way in which you don't trust it. 246 00:24:06.069 --> 00:24:11.819 Why is that? I think the answer is because of empathy. If somebody 247 00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:18.019 isn't empathizing with you and it's just offering answers, well, it's hard to 248 00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:22.500 imagine that they really understand the problem, that the answers really fit the problem. 249 00:24:23.259 --> 00:24:27.369 But when somebody empathizes with you, when somebody rejoices when you rejoice and 250 00:24:27.529 --> 00:24:34.809 weeps when you weep and then they speak, then there's validity to those things. 251 00:24:34.890 --> 00:24:41.880 There's a trustworthiness that's been built. There is love that binds that those 252 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.640 two people together. That makes the answer apt, it makes it truly wonderful. 253 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:55.509 All this is really impossible, however, without this kind of likemindedness, 254 00:24:55.710 --> 00:25:00.789 sharing the same mind with one another. And that's why Paul says this, 255 00:25:00.950 --> 00:25:08.019 I believe, verse sixteen. The obstacles to this follow after this. After 256 00:25:08.059 --> 00:25:12.380 he says be of like mind with one another, he says don't be high 257 00:25:12.579 --> 00:25:19.819 minded, or, as it's translated here, don't be haughty. Being high 258 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:25.490 minded is the opposite of being like minded. As I said earlier, love 259 00:25:25.609 --> 00:25:30.490 binds us together. But what is pride do? It pulls US apart when 260 00:25:30.529 --> 00:25:33.130 we are high minded. Or why? Is? In our own eyes we're 261 00:25:33.369 --> 00:25:41.319 separating ourselves purposefully. We're separating ourselves from someone else. I know what's right, 262 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:49.349 I know what's best. I'm different than you. And so Paul says, 263 00:25:51.710 --> 00:25:57.309 do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Be connected with 264 00:25:57.990 --> 00:26:04.220 the lowly. Never be wise in your own site. We are to come 265 00:26:04.299 --> 00:26:10.940 alongside each other by coming alongside each other. There's like no other way around 266 00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:17.059 it. You can't shortcut to empathy by being prideful. You can't love someone 267 00:26:17.259 --> 00:26:26.170 by separating yourself from them and saying your problems are not my problems. Paul 268 00:26:26.289 --> 00:26:32.650 wants us, especially as Christians, to say your problems are my problems. 269 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:38.319 Think of the analogy that he uses of the body. Paul describes the church 270 00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:42.119 as a body with many members, head, fingers, hands, eyes. 271 00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:51.910 What happens when you smash your Pinky? Does your arm say, no, 272 00:26:52.029 --> 00:26:56.789 big deal, spinky's problem. No, every part of you says we have 273 00:26:56.950 --> 00:27:00.859 a problem. Full alert. Every part of you sympathizes with the other part. 274 00:27:04.539 --> 00:27:08.980 It's like that in the church. When one of us is hurting, 275 00:27:11.339 --> 00:27:15.730 if we are a true body, if we are loving one another, the 276 00:27:15.569 --> 00:27:22.049 rest of us ought to hurt. When one member is rejoicing and celebrating and 277 00:27:22.250 --> 00:27:26.690 happy for the blessings God has poured out on them, we ought to rejoice 278 00:27:26.809 --> 00:27:33.720 and be happy. Pride undercuts this when somebody is blessed with something and we 279 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:37.480 said, well, I should have been for me. They don't deserve that. 280 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:45.589 That's separation right, it's thinking highly of ourselves. It's not love. 281 00:27:48.910 --> 00:27:53.750 So we've heard the command we've heard of the obstacles and sort of the way 282 00:27:53.869 --> 00:28:02.019 of fulfill me fulfilling it humility and mortifying our pride, our highmindedness and these 283 00:28:02.059 --> 00:28:08.900 kinds of things. But what's the remedy if you find yourself to be cold 284 00:28:10.380 --> 00:28:17.490 in your love, to not connect with others that you know you should connect 285 00:28:17.529 --> 00:28:22.890 with, to not take on their burdens and their troubles and are not even 286 00:28:22.009 --> 00:28:29.880 want to? How do we grow in this way? I think we can 287 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:34.519 start by being humbled by our own needs. When we remember our own needs, 288 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:38.920 when we remember that we're just like them, that we have the same 289 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:44.549 sins, the same fears, the same struggles, that we're not above them, 290 00:28:44.710 --> 00:28:49.029 really it helps us. It helps us not to be so prideful, 291 00:28:51.309 --> 00:28:56.180 to remember that we have these struggles and these challenges, that we also rejoice 292 00:28:56.299 --> 00:29:02.059 and weep, and that we are not sort of eternally strong and immune from 293 00:29:02.099 --> 00:29:08.059 all things affecting us. It reminds us that we are very much like them. 294 00:29:10.049 --> 00:29:14.049 It's also reminds us that we perhaps not out of part right now, 295 00:29:14.210 --> 00:29:18.650 in the moment, but in the future may need what they need, that 296 00:29:18.769 --> 00:29:25.960 kind of empathy and love. In addition to being humbled by our own needs, 297 00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:32.519 it's also critical, especially as Christians, that we recognize how those needs 298 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:38.349 are met. When we find ourselves in a low estate, when we find 299 00:29:38.430 --> 00:29:47.230 ourselves entangled up in our sins, suffering under persecution, feeling the weight of 300 00:29:47.349 --> 00:29:51.869 the trials that God has placed in our life, whatever it is, when 301 00:29:51.950 --> 00:29:56.819 we feel on those needs press on us, how where do we find the 302 00:29:56.019 --> 00:30:02.299 support and the strength for those needs? Well, first and foremost and most 303 00:30:02.339 --> 00:30:07.730 importantly above all things, we find them in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's 304 00:30:07.769 --> 00:30:12.329 where our strength comes from, and I might be even more specific when we 305 00:30:12.569 --> 00:30:18.609 when I say that we find them in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, 306 00:30:18.690 --> 00:30:26.519 the empathetic love of the Lord Jesus Christ. How does Jesus Take Care 307 00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:32.680 of US as Christians? Does he do so by staying up in the heavenly 308 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:37.230 places, keeping his distance from mankind and all their sinfulness and all their struggles, 309 00:30:37.309 --> 00:30:41.710 all their stupid mistakes, and they're not listening? Is that what Jesus 310 00:30:41.750 --> 00:30:49.339 did? It's not, is it? The Bible says that Jesus humbled himself 311 00:30:49.380 --> 00:30:56.819 and associated with the lowly. If you think you or associating with the lowly 312 00:30:56.940 --> 00:31:00.900 by going to some fellow creature who's also struggling with the same things you're struggling 313 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:07.890 with, imagine how much different. Consider how much different it is that the 314 00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:15.769 god of the universe became man and associated with the lowly association, there being 315 00:31:15.809 --> 00:31:23.440 an incredibly weak word for describing what happened in the incarnation. This is how 316 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:34.150 Jesus loved us. He came down from heaven to become us. There is 317 00:31:34.390 --> 00:31:41.029 never been a greater and more, I'll just say, greater expression of love, 318 00:31:41.029 --> 00:31:47.109 of empathy, if we can put it in that category. And as 319 00:31:47.220 --> 00:31:52.619 Jesus does this, as he goes to the cross, he takes us with 320 00:31:52.660 --> 00:31:56.339 him so that our sins would be put to death, so that all that 321 00:31:56.339 --> 00:32:01.809 the blessings of the inheritance that he earned for us could be given to us. 322 00:32:04.049 --> 00:32:08.089 That's our union with him, and it all happens in this great love 323 00:32:08.369 --> 00:32:15.049 that he gives to us. And in all this, Jesus actually changes us. 324 00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:22.359 Titus three, three through four says we ourselves were once foolish, Disobei 325 00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:28.279 edient, let us stray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our 326 00:32:28.359 --> 00:32:35.589 days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. That 327 00:32:35.789 --> 00:32:42.069 was our old selves, before we were before we were united to Christ by 328 00:32:42.150 --> 00:32:47.059 his work. That's verse three and tightest three three verse, for says. 329 00:32:47.539 --> 00:32:52.099 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, 330 00:32:52.779 --> 00:32:59.890 he saved US and changed us. How is it that we changed? How 331 00:33:00.049 --> 00:33:04.250 is it that we became those who are not just not hated by others and 332 00:33:04.450 --> 00:33:08.289 hating one another, but those who are loved by others and loving one another? 333 00:33:09.450 --> 00:33:15.519 It's because of the love of the Lord Jesus. And so if you 334 00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:22.920 find yourself, whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, struggling to truly 335 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:29.390 weep with those who weep, to rejoice with those who rejoice. If you 336 00:33:29.750 --> 00:33:36.990 struggle and suffind yourself doing the opposite things, separating yourself in pride, refusing 337 00:33:37.109 --> 00:33:42.539 to be like minded with them, having a cold heart and protecting your own. 338 00:33:43.980 --> 00:33:49.180 The only way to be truly changed is by knowing the love of Jesus 339 00:33:49.220 --> 00:33:53.619 Christ. That changes us, that has the power to change us, and 340 00:33:53.819 --> 00:33:59.329 that's why we shouldn't we should and must all go and start with faith in 341 00:33:59.450 --> 00:34:04.890 him. We have to put ourselves before him and say, my heart is 342 00:34:05.089 --> 00:34:08.809 wicked, my heart is cold, I need your help, I need your 343 00:34:08.929 --> 00:34:15.639 strength, I need you to identify with me, because I am weak and 344 00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:22.840 struggling and when we and when the Lord weeps with us and dies with us, 345 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:27.670 we find that we are also raised with him that we might rejoice with 346 00:34:27.750 --> 00:34:32.510 him. This is the message of the Christian faith and this is, of 347 00:34:32.590 --> 00:34:37.619 course, the message which saves us. It's the promise God gives us that 348 00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:43.579 we that our hearts can be changed and that we can be changed from people 349 00:34:43.619 --> 00:34:50.940 who hate to people who love. It means that we don't have to manufacture 350 00:34:50.980 --> 00:34:58.409 feelings anymore, but that we can feel true a true empathy toward one another 351 00:34:58.530 --> 00:35:02.929 or, as Paul says in twelve, verse nine of Romans, genuine love. 352 00:35:05.849 --> 00:35:10.000 And I'll finish by saying this, when we as Christians who have experienced 353 00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:15.159 this love, who know it not just at the beginning of our Christian life, 354 00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:19.800 but every day of our Christian life, as the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes 355 00:35:19.880 --> 00:35:24.030 for us and watches over US and loves US and knows every struggle and every 356 00:35:24.190 --> 00:35:30.150 rejoicing, he knows every pain and every moment of happiness. When we are 357 00:35:30.230 --> 00:35:35.739 living in this let it, living in that life, and then we go 358 00:35:36.059 --> 00:35:42.780 and love others, we are proclaiming him, we are showing people, in 359 00:35:42.820 --> 00:35:47.579 a small way, what he is like and as we do that, we're 360 00:35:47.739 --> 00:35:55.250 offering them not only our empathetic support and love, but we're offering them the 361 00:35:55.969 --> 00:36:04.960 salvation of Jesus Christ. When we match our words to his actions, when 362 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:10.960 we bear forth the fruits of the Gospel that is proclaimed, people will learn 363 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:17.949 to see the love of Jesus being manifested in us as people who are changed, 364 00:36:21.030 --> 00:36:27.309 who as people who are changed both in love and to love. And 365 00:36:27.469 --> 00:36:30.309 so that's my exhortation to you, from the word of God. Let us 366 00:36:30.349 --> 00:36:35.260 learn to love one another in all the ways that we've heard thus far in 367 00:36:35.340 --> 00:36:39.739 Romans and in this way as well, and let us do that through the 368 00:36:39.900 --> 00:36:46.409 love of the Lord Jesus, proclaiming him whenever we do, let's pray