In the last line of that song is what I'm going to try to preach this morning. Teach me to buy my love, to show, to show you how much I owe. I titled our message this morning here from Romans chapter 12, the passage we read just a minute ago, a new commandment in practice. You remember in John 13 verse 34, our Lord said a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. I have loved you, but you also love one another. In our text this morning, the Apostle Paul gives us a picture of what that looks like when that commandment is put into practice in the life of God's people. You remember, Paul has been teaching us to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto the Lord. It's a reasonable service. And the way we do that, the way we present our bodies, a living sacrifice to the Lord, is by serving each other. The only way we can serve the Lord is by serving His body, serving His people. And the only way we can really do that, the only way we can serve the Lord, the only way we can be of any real benefit to His people is in an attitude of love. We serve each other out of love for the Lord and love for each other. All of our duty to one another, all of our duty to the Lord, it's all summed up in one word. Our whole motivation to present our bodies a living sacrifice is love. I read a quote this week. It's not exactly, it's something like this. I should have wrote it down. I heard of it. If you want to motivate men to build a ship, you want to go exploring out in the sea, you want them to build a ship. Don't motivate them to cut down trees and to make nails and to sew sails. Give them a love for the sea. You know what they'll do? They'll naturally go build a ship. If Lord gives us love for Him, we'll do these things naturally. But even though they would come naturally to us, they've got to be taught. They've got to be cultivated. And that's what we see in our text this morning. If we're going to serve the Lord, serve each other, it's got to be out of motive of love. And here's the first thing Paul tells us. This love's got to be the real McCoy. It can't be a fake thing. Verse 9, Romans chapter 12. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. cleave to that which is good. Everything else Paul's going to say in the rest of this chapter hangs upon this verse. Let love be without dissimulation. And what that means is let your love be a sincere love. This is not just greeting each other at the door as we're leaving and saying, well, I love you and just saying that and then going through the rest of our week forgetting about one another, not praying for one another, not helping one another. This is acting upon our love. showing it in our actions. Look at Matthew chapter 22. Our Lord said, this is the great commandment of the whole law of God. Matthew chapter 22. In verse 35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, master, What is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is likened to it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The whole law of God hangs upon this motivation, love for God and love for his people. And demonstrating our love by our actions is the only way that a disciple of Christ can be identified. Our Lord said, by this, all men know you're my disciples. He didn't say if you got all the right doctrine, if you could just really pound the pulpit and get people's attention. That's what he said. By this, all men know you're my disciples. If you have love one to another. And the only way people will know we love each other is if we show it by our actions. You remember all the gifts that Paul mentioned there about giving to the church. If we would serve each other with those different gifts, we've got to use those gifts in love. Love for God and love for his people. Paul mentioned preaching. How can we be of any use to people if we preach to them in a mean, hateful attitude? We preach the gospel of love for Christ and love for God and love for his people. Love for lost people. But they might come to hear it and believe it. We serve each other, we exhort each other, but the only way you can be able to do that and be of any real benefit is in love. That's just useless without love for Christ. And I can show you that, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Here again, Paul was writing to the church at Corinth about all the different gifts that God gives to different people in the church. In 1 Corinthians 12 verse 29, He says, are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? Well, no, everybody has different gifts. He says, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I you a more excellent way. Do I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love? I'm just a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. If I do those things without love, I'm an annoying sound. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, have not love, it profits me nothing. All those gifts, all those actions are worth nothing if they're not done in love. See, this is where the whole thing hangs upon, isn't it? Look over Colossians chapter 3. Paul has talked to us about being the body of Christ. If we would serve the body of Christ, it's by serving each other. Well, there's one body, isn't there? We're all one body. We're lots of different people with different backgrounds, different interests, different educations, all these different things, you know. But what is it that holds that body together? What holds us together all these years? What has held this congregation together? What holds all the body of Christ together? It's love. Colossians 3 verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. They may have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond, the cement of perfectness. What holds that whole body together is love. That's what holds us together. It's the bond of perfectness. It's love for Christ and love for his people. So Paul says, let this love be sincere. Now, how can I not sincerely love the Lord? How can I not? if he loved me first. That love must be sincere. And if I sincerely love the Lord. How can I not love his people? How can I not love you if I love his if I love him? It's just it's utterly impossible to love the head and hate the body. It's an impossibility. So don't be a hypocrite. This is what Paul don't be a hypocrite and tell somebody you love them. And as soon as you walk out of their presence, forget all about them. That's not real love. Seek for ways, make it your business to find a way to show your love for each other. God's given us this family, our brothers, our sisters, make it your business to show them that you love them as Christ has loved us. How is it that Christ loved us? That's a pretty tall order, isn't it? His love for his people is a sincere love, isn't it? How do I know that's a sincere love? He humbled Himself to take on our flesh. He humbled Himself to obey God's law. God commanded us to obey it. Not only, and we won't, but He did. He did it for us. We have a debt of sin we can never pay. The rebellion, the filth, the wretchedness of our sin. Christ took that in His own body on the tree, and He presented His body. He gave Himself a sacrifice for the sin of His people. He saved your soul. He did for you what needed to be done. Might that motivate us to do for others what they need to have done for them? And if you sincerely love the Lord, you'll hate that which is evil. You'll hate that which is the opposite of Him. and you'll cleave to, the word is be glued to. You just be glued so you can't get away from, be glued to that which is good, that which is Christ. He's the only one that's good. You know, not showing our love for each other. If I just think, you know, so and so's, there they are going through that and I love them, you know. If I don't do anything to try to help them, that would be evil. So see that you love one another Sincerely, be glued to that which is good. Now this love, Paul said, this is the real McCoy. And it is a family love for each other. Show a family love for each other. Look what he says, verse 10 in our text. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another. Now kindly affection means to cherish, just like you cherish your children or you cherish your other family members. Now this sincere love can only come from a new heart that God gives. And Paul is not using an illustration here of family love. He's saying we are the family of God. So show that love, that family love that just comes out of you naturally. Nobody has to be told you ought to forgive your brother. You just forgive him because he's your brother. I mean, I can do some dumb stuff. Jonathan, you just got to forgive me. You're stuck with me. You've got to forgive me. We're brethren. Forgive one another. Nobody has to tell you, go help your sister when she's in trouble. You just do it. You're the brother. You just go do it. You parents when your child is sick. Anybody have to tell you to pray for them? No, they don't have to tell you. You're already praying for them. Anybody have to tell you They got a feeder, put a cold cloth on their head? No, you're already doing it. You just, you run to do that, don't you? It's just natural. When you find out a family member's in the hospital, you don't call and say, well, can I make an appointment to come see you? You just go. You just go. I can go in the room, I'm family. And you won't let anybody say anything ugly about your husband, about your wife. Somebody says something ugly about your children, we got problems. Them are fighting wars, aren't they? And you protect the reputation of your family. They do something dumb, you're not going to be the one telling it. It might be true, but you're not going to be the one telling it. Now see that you love the family of God the same way. Just show that love naturally so that it just comes out of you without you, it's just a reflex, isn't it? Somebody throws something at you, it's a reflex. Make it a reflex action to show your love for Your brethren. Forgive your brethren without even thinking about it. Because you love them. We just read it. Forgiveness. God, for Christ's sakes, forgive them. Just forgive them. Your brethren have trouble, you go help them. And don't you wait to be asked. You just go do it. Because you love them. Christ came to save you, but you asked Him, didn't you? That's what you do. And pray for your brethren. Because you love them. and prefer them, Paul says. What he means there is, you understand, this is a family love. You prefer to be with your family. Janet and I prefer to be with our daughters and our sons. We prefer it. We were leaving yesterday afternoon as hard, wasn't it? Because we prefer it. We prefer them. We schedule Thanksgiving and Christmas. You know, we don't have to be on the day. We're going to have that day whenever everybody can be together. And throughout the year, if we haven't seen each other, you know, a little bit, we schedule time. We'll say, let's meet in Moorhead, have dinner. We all be together. We want that. We need that. Paul says, seek to love one another with that family love. Prefer to be one another. Look for ways to be with each other. Prefer to be with the people of God over the people of the world because they can help you and you can help them. And this is especially true of parents, this promoting one another. Every parent in this room can understand this. We're awful. I mean, we're just awful. We promote our children at all costs, don't we? I mean, we fight to promote them. We want the best for our children. I want the best for my children, not me. I want it for them, not me. I want them to get recognition, not me. I want them to get a promotion, not me. I want the best for them. Paul says that's our love for each other. See that you prefer your brethren. See that you want to see them honored, that you want to promote them above you, that you want the best for them because that's a family love. And like I said a minute ago, don't love them like they're your family. Love them because they are your family. These are your brothers. These are your sisters. Look around you. Look around you. These are the people that you're going to spend eternity with. These are the people that God Almighty sent this son to shed his precious blood, to wash them clean. See that you love them. We are blood family, the family of God. Why thirdly, this love for each other. It must be a fervent love. Verse 11, excuse me. Not thoughtful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. That word fervent, it means hot and boiling. It doesn't just mean warm, it means boiling. Have a boiling love for each other, just that it bubbles up. Boiling water makes a difference, doesn't it? See that our love is fervent, that it makes a difference. Now remember, this love for Christ can only be shown by showing love for His people. Don't be lukewarm about it. You know how you feel if somebody acts indifferent towards you, don't you? You know God hates that too. God told the church at Laodicea, yes, I know your words, but you've become lukewarm. I wish you were hot or cold, one or the other, but you're lukewarm. And you know what He said? I'll spew you out of my mouth." God hates that. Serve the Lord in love. A fervent love. Not because you have to. Not because this is a commandment. But because you want to. When Paul says, don't be slothful in business, he's not talking about your job out there in the world. Now, that applies to your job. You've got jobs, you can go to work tomorrow morning. Be fervent about it. Don't be slothful about it. You be the best employee that's there. And you serve your boss like you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's who you're really serving. I know your boss signs your paycheck. You might have a shirt with a company logo on it. But God, you answer to God. You serve like you're serving Him, because you are. But that's not, I mean, that's good advice. That's good. Good way to live our lives. But that's not what I'm just talking about here. Paul says your business is serving the Lord. It's your business to serve the people of God. It's your business to present your body a living sacrifice. It's just your reasonable service. Well, see that you do that, not in a slothful way, but perfect. Be serious about it. Show your love for your brethren. Not like you're serving the body of Christ. Not like you're serving Christ himself. Do that because you are serving the body of Christ. And do it perfectly. Be serious about this. Now this kind of love does not come naturally to the flesh. The only way we can have this love is if God's given us a new heart. But you know, even that, that new heart must be renewed. It must be stirred up. Isn't that right? Well, you know, the only way that we can stir up this fervent, boiling love in our hearts, there's only one way to stir it up. It's by hearing the gospel priest. You know, a lot of what Paul says here when he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, a lot of that is just showing up. It really is. It's just showing up in the worship service. It's just show up for your brethren in their daily lives. Just show up. Hearing the gospel preached, hearing of Christ's love for His people, hearing of His sacrifice for His people, hearing of His righteousness, His obedience that makes us perfect, hearing of His grace and His mercy to His people that we do not deserve, that stirs up our hearts. That just makes us boil inside, doesn't it? Oh, what a glorious, blessed message. This is the gospel of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior described His love for His Father and His people as a zeal that ate Him up, that just boiled up in Him. It was a hot love. Well, it's hearing of our Savior, hearing of His perfection, hearing of His glory, hearing of His love, hearing that how just His mere presence comforts the hearts of His people. That makes our love boil up and makes us show our love for one another. The only way to stir this love up is by hearing the gospel preached. Then, fourthly, this love. You don't get a day off. It's at all times. Verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. You read that verse and you say, what does this have to do with love? Well, if you love Christ, Paul says, rejoice in hope. If you love Christ, you will rejoice in him. Christ is our hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's a mighty good reason to rejoice, isn't it? That's a good hope through grace. That's why Paul told the church at Philippi, finally, my brethren, here I'm gonna sum up my letter to you, finally, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in him whom we love. Next, Paul says, patient in tribulation. The only way I can think to explain this is this illustration. If you really, truly love somebody, you're patient with them, aren't you? Paul said charity, love, suffers long. It's very patient with those. It bears all things, endures all things, because we love them. If you love someone, you wait patiently for them to come home, because you just want to be with them. You're just looking forward to that time together. And if they're running late or they're not there when you think that they should be there, you wait patiently. You don't run off and go do something else because you want to be with them. You wait patiently for someone that you love to keep their word. And maybe they haven't done it yet. They told you, I'm going to do this. But you wait patiently for them to do it because you love them. You believe them because you love them. Well, this is what the Lord's telling us. Those who love the Lord will be patient. They'll wait on Him patiently, even in a time of tribulation. Everybody here has been in the midst of it, haven't you? Just in the midst of a dark, dark, crushing time. Scripture speaks of those times as being narrow, just as squeezing you. You don't know when there's going to be an end to this thing. You don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. But what do we do? We wait patient for the Lord to deliver us. Patiently. You know why? He promised He would. We love Him. We believe Him. So we wait patiently for Him. When our hearts are broken, we wait patiently for Him to comfort us. Now, hopefully, when our hearts are broken, our brethren will come around. They're with us. They just showed up. And it's helpful, isn't it? But you know what will comfort the heart? crushed heart. It's his presence. We just wait patiently because he promised he would and he's all we want. He comforts when he gives us a sense of his presence. We have peace, we have comfort. Someone said rejoicing in hope is placed right between serving the Lord and being patient in trial because nothing will motivate the believer to serve God, and nothing will motivate the believer to patiently endure trials like a hope of being made just like Christ. We have a good hope. So we can be patient. We don't have to be in a hurry about this. We don't have to run around like a chicken with our head cut off. We can be patient because of the one whom we love, the one whom we trust. And if we genuinely love the Lord, we will pray. Now you just don't have to be commanded, pray, you know, this many minutes a day, or no, Just think about the people that you love. If you love them, you want to talk to them. You need to talk to them. You like to talk to them. Well, that's a believer. We have to pray. Because praying is not a religious ceremony. Praying is simply talking to our Lord, talking to our Father. And when we pray, that's when we rejoice before the Lord. We rejoice in everything that He is. When we pray, that's when we thank the Lord for everything He's done for us, everything He's given us. And when we pray, that's our time to ask the Lord for what we need. Now, rejoicing and thanking the Lord, that shows our love for the Lord by showing our admiration for him, that we rejoice in him, that we praise him. And making our petitions known shows our love for the Lord. But just like what that article I read for the children, it shows our dependence upon him, just like a child is dependent upon their parents. So this love for the Lord and love for his people is at all times in every situation. And then true love, love that would serve the Lord and serve his people is a generous love. See that your love is generous. Verse 13, distributing to the necessity of saints, giving to hospitality. And we talked a good bit about giving last week. We're to give so that the gospel will be supported. Because we love it. We want the gospel to be spread. We're to give because we want the glory of our Savior to be spread to other people knowing. We want the gospel to be supported so it continues to be preached, so God's people will be fainted, edified, and comforted. We give because we want the gospel to be supported. Because we want those that we know, those we love, those in our community to know the Lord. And the only way they're going to know Him is by hearing this gospel preached. But we're also to give so that our brethren can be helped in a time of need. If one of you is in need, we're going to take care of you. If something goes wrong, we're going to take care of you. Because that's what family does for one another. And we're going to do it cheerfully and we're going to do it generously. Love is not stingy. Love just gives the best that we have to those we love. And all parts of the body join in on this. You think, well, you know, I can't do much. You know, maybe I'm just a tote. I mean, yeah, I just, I'm not much. I'm out of sight. I don't really contribute much. But you know what happens when you crush your finger with a, with a hammer, your toes curl up. I mean, just every part of your body is involved in this thing. The body of Christ works the same way. Just be generous in what you do for one another because it's a blessing. It really is a blessing to be able to help our brethren here and other places. You hear traveling saints coming through town. Open up your home to them. Just make your home a hotel. Make your home a restaurant for them. They can come have lunch. Friday morning, late morning, my phone rang. It was Joe Terrell. Joe said, are you home? And I said, no, I'm not. And he said, well, that explains why nobody answered. And I knocked on the door. We were already up in Lexington with the girls getting ready for the conference. And I was just sick about that. I was just sick about it. Oh, Joe could have come in and Janet could have fixed us some lunch. What a blessing that would have been for you to get her to fix us some lunch. We made our home a restaurant for you. That's what we're due for each other, conferences and people traveling through town. Listen, it's a lot of work. You gotta get your house company clean, don't you? You gotta get company. But do it. Do it. I promise you, you'll receive far more of a blessing from it than I will. What a blessing that is. You'll serve God's people that way. Do it generously. Now the gospel. The gospel tells us love for Christ. It tells us love for the brethren. However we're to treat our brethren. But you know, it also tells us How to love those who are without. How to love our enemies. Look at verse 6, or I mean 6thly, verse 14. It's to love our enemies. This love is the love for our enemies. And that's best done by keeping in mind how Christ loved us. When we were yet his enemies. Keep that in mind, verse 14. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Now if someone persecutes you for the gospel's sake, don't you curse them. No, you bless them. Isn't that what the Lord did for the people that He loved? People who were His enemies? People who cursed Him? People who persecuted Him? Even from the cross, at physically His worst hour, when people were persecuting Him, so that we cannot imagine it, what did He do? He didn't curse Him. When someone mistreats you, That's what the Savior did, isn't it? And you know that's the best way to permanently solve the problem? Pray for it. If the Lord gives him a new heart, you've got no more problems with that person. Now you've got a friend. Here's a good piece of advice. We've got this one done for. We were talking about this yesterday. Treat unbelievers like they're believers. Treat them like they're your brethren. Some of them are. They don't know it yet. They've not been born yet, but some of them are. Treat them like they're your brother. In verse 17, he says, Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. When someone does you wrong, they do you evil. Don't do evil to them trying to get even with them. Really and truly, two wrongs don't make a right. When someone does you wrong, you do right. No matter what happens, you do the right thing. That's what Paul means when he says, provide things honest in the sight of all men. He doesn't simply mean being honest, although we ought to be, but he means do the right thing, not the wrong. No matter what happens, don't, don't just ask yourself this question. What's the right thing? And that's what you do. We know the right thing. Our problem is doing it. Pray for the grace. God give you the grace to don't seek revenge. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. So wait on Him. Solomon said, Vengeance belongs to God. You wait on Him to save you. He will. Look at verse 19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it's written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Now, vengeance belongs to the Lord, so don't seek vengeance. Don't try to get revenge. Don't try to get even. Instead, do something nice for them. Do something nice for them. If they're hungry, feed them. If they're thirsty, give them a cold drink. When I was a couple summers ago with this thing about gay rights and homosexual rights, all these things were coming up, and they were, gay rights people were protesting outside all the Chick-fil-A's. You know what the manager, they were protesting with all these ugly signs, you know, all this ugly stuff. And it was summertime, August, hot and humid. There they are, blocking the way, making it hard for customers to get in. You know what the manager of that Chick-fil-A did? Took a big old thing of ice cold lemonade and a bunch of cups out there and said, here, you all might be thirsty. Thought this might refresh you. I would have done that, but I wish I had thought of that, you know. Here this says, if you do that, you'll heap coals of fire on his head. I'd go out there and do something nice for them and make hell hotter for them. I just want to love that. Now you know good and well that's not what that's saying. What attitudes, how contrary to grace and love could that be? You know what that's saying? Your anger, your warfare, you just go out there and take a hammer and hit them in the head, it's not going to change their attitude. It never will change the heart of your enemy. Your anger won't. You're not going to change their attitude by hitting the head with a hammer. But you might show some of that fervent love. You might melt them down a little bit. God might be merciful to them. You never know. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. You just be kind to them. You never know who it is you're showing kindness to. You might. You just might entertain angels unawares. Hebrews 13 verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Now look back at Matthew chapter 25. Entertaining angels unawares. You might not even know it, but you're serving the body of Christ all along. You didn't even know it. And I can make good on that. Matthew 25. This is when Christ returns, puts the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto them 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 in hunger and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger. That's strangers. You entertain strangers unawares. I was a stranger. You took me in. naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came unto me. And then the righteous are going to answer him and say, Lord, we didn't do any of that. When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and gave you drink? When did we see you a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when did we see you sick and in prison and came unto thee? You're confusing us to somebody else. We never did any of that stuff. And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, as much as you've done it unto the least of these my brethren, and one of these strangers, You've done it unto me. Doing those things enabled us to serve the body of Christ all alone. So verse 21, back in our text, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. When your enemies do evil things to you, nothing wrong with that making you mad. It's fine to get mad about it, but don't act on it. Stop just a minute and don't be overcome of evil. Don't let evil start guiding your actions, but wait just a minute and let your actions be guided by good. Think, what is best? Really, what's best in this action? What's best for Christ? What's best for the reputation of his gospel? What's best for his people? And act on that, cleave to that, be glued to that which is good. Then verse 15, love so much that your one heart, one heart. I believe, Jen, I've been married long enough. We got one heart. We're just one. See that you love one another. One heart. Verse 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Love so much your heart feels exactly what your brethren feel. If they rejoice, you rejoice with them. And I mean truly, truly rejoice with them. Don't think, oh, I wish that was me, not them. No, rejoice and be glad it's them and not you. Rejoice with them. And when they weep, you weep with them just like it happened to you. I'm telling you, we gain strength from each other that way. Love so much that you're of one heart and love so much that you're of one mind. Verse 16. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Now having the same mind, it means wanting the same thing. You got the same goal because you're all in love with the same person. Our goal is the glory of Christ. It's the spreading of the gospel. It's the good of his people. So that's our goal. Just whatever it is God's given you to do, present your body living sacrifice to do it. And don't mind high things. And all that simply means is this. Don't be a snob. Don't be a snob. Don't think you're better than anybody else, because you're not. We're all part of the same body. We're equal. Don't be wise and young and conceited. Don't be a smart aleck and think you know more than everybody else does, because we don't. And condescend to men of low estate. Just bow down to be on people of whatever level that they're on. And a good example is our children. Our children are small. They're weak. haven't been educated in so many things yet, you know, they just haven't had time. And they're short. So we bent down to be on their level, to talk to them. We think of the things, what they know, what they can do, you know, as we talk to them. And we don't think less of them for it, do we? I saw little Daisy yesterday. And I love children. And of course, I'm a stranger to her. So I go out and talk to her. And she's like, I don't know about this. And Don was holding her. He said, well, he said, Did you tell Mr. Frank hi? And she took a bite of a cracker, so her mouth was full, so she couldn't say hi. But he said, can you give him a high five? Is she like that? Boy, she gave me a high five. That's her level. That's wonderful. I got that interaction with that baby. But now, when I saw my good friend Marvin Stoniker, he didn't do that. No, we talked to each other on a different level, didn't we? Condescending men of low estate deal with people on their level. Matthew Henry said the word here is a metaphor for travelers who are traveling in a big group. You know, that time they traveled on foot or they might have had one little cart or something, you know. And the stronger people, the faster people, they slow down. So they stay with the sick and the weak and those who can't go as fast because everybody's better off if we're all together bearing one another's burden. Be of one mind, have one goal. It's not that I get there first. It's that we all get there together. Isn't that what the Lord our shepherd has done for us? He condescended to men of low estate. David said he remembered us in our low estate. He didn't go too fast. No, he condescended to us. That's what we should do for each other. And then last, this love that serves one another will seek and promote peace. Verse 18. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. And it's just not possible to have peace with this world. It's utterly impossible. It's certainly not possible to have peace with this world if we've got to compromise the gospel to do it. No, sir. If that's what it takes, we're not going to have it. But if you can do something without compromising the gospel to have peace, do it. Do it. Don't ever give somebody a reason to have a quarrel with you. Don't give them a good reason to get mad at you. And if they want to fuss and fight with you, they come just cuss you out. Just keep quiet and let it die. Now somebody can't fight if they're just one. Nobody's fighting back. Just promote peace every way you can. But especially for your brethren. Especially for your brethren. Promote peace. Do what you can to promote peace in their heart. You know what would give peace to their heart? Show them you love them. Show them you love them. Get together and talk together. And talk together about all kinds of things. Whatever it is of interest, you talk about sports and whatever interest you have. I don't know, quilting or whatever. I don't know, whatever it is that interests you. Get together and talk about that. But the conversation always will come back around to this. Christ our Savior, mercy, grace, and that will give peace to the heart. Then our hearts are going to be knit together in love and peace when we serve each other in this love. Oh, may God give us the grace. Show our love for one another as we love him who first loved us. Let's bow together. Our great God, how we thank you. for your unmeasurable love for your people, that you loved us while we were yet in our sins. You chose sinful people to save and gave them to your darling son to put their sin away, to make them just like him. Father, how we thank you. We know we don't deserve it. We can never deserve it, but we thank you. Father, we pray for the grace to show our love for one another, enable us to have opportunity to serve you by serving your people, showing our love to them, cause our love to be in action, to help one another, to promote your gospel, to promote peace and love and unity. Father, bless us, we pray. Bless us for your great namesake, for this one great cause of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not that we would be promoted and noticed. but that he'd be promoted and noticed so that people know him and come to him and find eternal life in him. It's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.