Let's go to chapter 15. Now, we here at Strong have an obligation to bear weakness of those without strength and to not please ourselves. Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, the insults of those who insult me have fallen on me. Verse four, whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from scriptures. Now, may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony one another. according to Christ, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. Let's pray. Lord God, come into our assembly and minister to us through your word. Bless us with your presence. Open the eyes of students who struggle. Instruct us. In Jesus' name, amen. As we look at verse number one, and I was contemplating where I should go and what I should say to you, I went to Mr. Whiting's sermon audio recording and saw that he'd finished up chapter 14. And then I read verse number one of chapter 15. And I read the words, now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weakness of those without strength and to not please ourselves. And at that point I was done. That was enough. That was incredible. Really look at those words. Contemplate the depth of those words. Look what Paul is doing in this text. Contemplate with some sense of seriousness. Forget about just a moment whether you're a Christian or not. Forget about that just a moment. This could be for those that aren't even Christians. You don't even have to be a Christian to look at this and say, that makes sense. Let's realize in this room each and every one of you are in a category of strong or less than strong. Think about what Paul means in that sense. Think about for just a moment the degree to which each and every person in this room is in a category of strong or less than strong. You could do it very quickly with the idea of physical strength, but that would just be ridiculous. Certainly you could have a conversation about physically strong and weak, but is that really all Paul's talking about is just physically strong? Certainly not. Isn't he talking so much more about those who are blessed, those who are gifted, those who are intelligent, those who are rich, those who have so much to offer? Think about that. He's comparing and contrasting two groups, two groups of individuals. Each and every one of you in this room, each and every one of you come from so many different backgrounds. You come from broken families. You come from fully functioning families. You come from dads that are very involved in your lives to absentee dads. You come from broken husband and wife relationships between your mom and dad, divorced parents. You come from so many different varieties and situations. You do, you do, you do, you do, each of you do. And Paul says to us today in verse number one, that those who are strong have an obligation to bear the weakness of those without strength. I began to run my brain through the number of scenarios through which this applies. Think with me, five players on a basketball court, five players on a basketball court. There's never a situation when you have five players that are all strong. There's always somebody who's stronger or better or more capable than others. Think about six girls on a volleyball court. Isn't it the same scenario? You never have a volleyball team where all six are strong. Even on a travel volleyball team, you're still going to have some that are stronger and some that are less. That's true in every situation. A soccer field, a basketball, every possible situation. Are you having a private conversation over there? Is that what you're doing? Because I would appreciate it if you would just give me a little bit of respect. Sixth grade, would you stop? You're still looking back. Stop being rude. Am I wrong on a basketball team? Am I wrong when I say that there are five basketball players and somebody is going to be stronger and somebody is going to be less? Am I wrong? So how well do you get that unit to work together? How well do you get them to operate as a team, a baseball team? It doesn't matter what we're talking about, every single entity. There are stronger players and there are weaker players. And the greater degree to which you as the stronger player focus on the idea that I can help, I can compensate for, I can make up for the infirmities of the weaker player is the greater degree to which that team is going to be a winning team. I don't need to know how to coach basketball to know that that's an equation for success. Because that's an equation for success in life. Pick any grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, pick your class, look at your class, your junior class, your senior class, it doesn't matter what class. And you can quickly identify students that are intellectually gifted. Intellectually gifted. If you're intellectually gifted, if you're intellectually gifted, if God has given you a brain, if you have a high academic success, if you are doing well academically, according to this text, you have a responsibility to help others. To help others. Now ultimately, look at what he's challenging us to contemplate. Do we live for ourselves or do we live for others? You can set God aside for a moment in the equation, for just a moment, you can set God aside. And you can just ask yourself right now, will I be the kind of person who lives for myself all the days of my life or will I live for others? Is it all about me? Because he says that those that are strong should make up for the infirmities of those that are weak and not live in such a way that they live to do what? What are the words he uses there? Look at your own Bible. What's the words he uses? Please yourselves. Each and every one of you have a desire at this stage, because I remember when I was your age, to have amazing marriage. I know this because I came from dysfunctional, broken marriages. Those of you that heard me share my personal story, four years old, four and a half years old, put on a plane from San Diego, California to Boston, Massachusetts by myself. flew that flight from California to Boston. My Oma picked me up at the airport and she raised me for the first year of my life in public school kindergarten because my parents were completely dysfunctional in their marriage. Both of them having affairs, each on their own accord, mess. And I remember in middle school, I remember in middle school laying in bed in eighth grade crying. because my parents were one end of the United States to the other end of the United States, and they weren't together, and I wanted parents that were together. And I said to myself, I am not going to go through this with my wife. And today we're working on 28 years of marriage. And this verse right here is how you have a good marriage. This verse right here is how, This is not a Christian thing right now. I'm just talking about how you can have an amazing marriage. If you live to please yourself and your marriage, if you live to please yourself and your marriage, if your marriage is all about yourself and how you please yourself, if your intimacy is about pleasing yourself, if everything is about pleasing yourself, you won't have much of a marriage. You will not. In any situation, husband and wife situation, in any different scenario, there's always one aspect of marriage in which one partner is stronger than the other. Take finances, Mr. Woosley. Normally in a husband-wife relationship, one is better than the other in finances. That is the managing of finances, the controlling of finances, the keeping track of it. So if you happen to be the one that is the better manager of finances, your husband would be wise to hand that over to you. But many times males are too embarrassed to give that over to the wife because they somehow feel as though they're losing their masculinity if the wife manages the household finances. But yet, if she's stronger in that area of management than the one that's weaker, now we use weaker in such a negative way, don't we? We use weaker in such a negative way, has such negative connotations to it that we don't ever wanna be classified as weak. There are lots of areas that I'm weak at. For example, pronouncing words. I am incredibly weak at pronouncing words. You have to assess what your strengths and weaknesses are. You have to personally assess that. Stronger and weaker. Stronger and weaker. Know what your weakness is. Know where your strengths are. If you have a strength, then maximize it. What do we mean by maximize it? Use it to help others. In a husband-wife relationship, in your friends' relationships. Are you intellectually gifted? Are you solid? That is to say you don't have any neurological problems. Do you know there are some people that are born with legitimate neurological problems? They have neurological problems. We struggle with this. Maybe sixth grade's too immature to pay attention right now. We struggle with this. If someone is a full-blown retard, I'm not saying that in a negative way, I'm saying that they struggle with hand-eye control. You'll see someone, they're hitting themselves. Do you know we immediately grant them incredible awareness, man, they're retarded. And it's though we think in our terms that either you are perfect neurologically or you're retarded. We actually don't understand that there are spectrums all along there. Spectrums. Do you know how I'm using spectrums high school? Spectrums. You may end up working with someone like that. You may end up serving in the United States Army with someone that isn't as intellectually solid. You may have someone at a place of work, a student. You don't know the number of scenarios in which there are weaker and there are stronger people. And if you are stronger, if you're stronger, if you're stronger, if you're stronger, if you're stronger, the question is, will you live your life in such a way to help others? or will you live your life to please yourself? Will you live your life to please yourself? Because I promise you, if you'll live your life for others, you will not die with regrets. People who live for themselves die very lonely lives. Why do people who live their lives for themselves Die very lonely people. Contemplate what I'm saying there for a moment. Why is it, somebody tell me, give me a legitimate answer. Why is it that people who live their lives for themselves die lonely people? Yeah, no one wants to be around someone who's consumed with themselves. Paul says to us in these words, they are incredible. Now we, plural pronoun, who are strong, have an obligation to bear the weakness of those without strength. If God gives you money, if you become wealthy, if you become a wealthy person, If you get those promotions, if you become the CEO, if you become that person who has a six-digit income, if you're making $100,000 a year, if you're making a half a million dollars a year, if you're those kind of individuals, you have a responsibility to be generous. You have a responsibility to say, I'm blessed. How can I help? If you're gifted and you can read a sentence and immediately figure out the grammatical errors and you flow quickly, you can immediately identify where the disconnects are between subject and verb agreements and all that. Help somebody. If you can tear apart those X, Y, and Z equations and you can work letters and numbers on both sides and take that giantly complicated equation and just work it down line by line and someone else is struggling, Help them. Don't live to please yourself. Help them. I took algebra in college and struggled every day with it. I couldn't wait for that class to be over with. Man, it was miserable. It was hard for me. Hard. I relied on help from others because I was weak. weak in the area of algebra. I needed someone who was stronger. Those are little microcosmic situations, micro situations. What are you strong on? What are you strong on? What are you strong on? Where are you strong? Where are you strong? If you can do your job well, help someone else learn the job. Help someone else. This is a way of living. This is not just for a day or a week. This is the way in which you embrace life. How can I help others? There are some of you that can take incredibly good notes in college. You'll be able to take really good notes. You pay attention, you take good notes. Those notes can be incredibly helpful to someone who's not gifted like you. You will find in college, you'll find freshmen, sophomores, juniors in college, you'll find students that are struggling academically. They don't score well on SATs. They are just trying to get a degree. It's hard for them neurologically. They're not gifted like you are. And Paul says to each of us this morning that our stronger helps someone who's weaker. If you live to please yourself, if you live to please yourself, if you live to please yourself, your life will be miserable. Your life will be miserable. Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men on the planet, has started this giant foundation. And the giant foundation has as its objective to find this category of individuals. Single-parent households, low-income minorities. Single-parent households, low-income minorities. And he, his foundation, is paying for four years of college for these students. You know what he's trying to do? He's trying to make a difference. He's trying to break the cycle. He's trying to deliver students who otherwise would not have a chance. He has a target goal of these single parents, minority, so you're a child of a single parent, you're a minority, low income, and then the fourth criteria that they're looking for is your mom and dad didn't get a college degree. Your mom and dad didn't get a college degree. And his thought is that he can catapult that family unit out of poverty by breaking the cycle. by breaking the cycle. Do you understand the cycle that I'm, certainly you guys are old enough to grasp this concept, right? College students, students with a college education earn twice as much money per average than their counterparts with a high school degree, twice as much. So when you have peers in college that are struggling academically, Will you live for yourself or will you live for others? This is kind of deep, isn't it? We're not used to thinking like this, are we? Aren't we normally just thinking about ourselves? What makes us happy, what feels good to us, what we enjoy doing? What kind of person are you? The words are so clear, look at it. We who are strong, are you strong? Are you intellectually gifted? Are you physically fit? Are you neurologically sound? Are you academically strong? Are you financially blessed? Have an obligation to bear the weakness of those without strength and to not please ourselves. Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good to build himself up. This is very, very, very simple, very practical, very, I give you an example, just a tiny little example, maybe just a little tiny example. I have a neighbor. I wanna be a good neighbor to my neighbor. My neighbor was out working on his backflow preventer. Most of you have no idea what a backflow preventer is and you never even care if you ever see one or know what one is, but I'm gonna tell you anyways. So backflow preventers, this device costs about $400 when you get it installed that you use for irrigation. He's out there working on his, Mr. Woosley. He turned it on, water shooting out of it, and he's just disgusted because it broke again this year. Pipe busted. $400 down the drain. Well, when I was down at Hubbard Plumbing working on mine, the plumber down there at the Hubbard Plumbing says, you ought to put it on with these coupling things right here, and then When the wintertime comes, bring yours in the house. You're just spinning off these coupling things, and that way it doesn't crack during the wintertime. So my neighbor's working on his, and you know what I did, because I love my neighbor and I want to make sure I don't live for myself. I went inside my garage and said, hey, Derek, you need to use these things right here, and you'll never have to worry about replacing your backfill preventer again. He said, what are you talking about? And I explained to him how they work. and how they can spin off and you could take yours inside the house during the wintertime so it doesn't crack, bring it back in in the spring, reinstall it, use it all summer, bring it in in the fall. The next day he sent me a text message. It worked exactly like you said. I can't believe you shared that with me. I'm telling all my buddies at work about it. That's just a tiny little thing. It only took five minutes of my time. Five minutes, nothing. Not some big thing on me. It's an idea of being aware of your neighbors. He didn't know about that. In that case, I was strong because I knew something that he didn't know. He was weak. I bring him aware and now he knows about it. Will you live for yourself or will you live for others? Do you live for yourself or do you live for others? The leukemia stuff that you guys were doing, that's living for others. People who have leukemia are weaker. They have a disease that is different from what you have. You're aware of it. You help others, you give, you're generous. You could save every penny for yourself and live for yourself. You could never give away any of your money. You could hog all your money for yourself. Or you could say, God has blessed me. Now those of you that consider yourself Christians, and I'm well aware of the fact that there's some that don't. I'm well aware of the fact that some that don't give a rip about Christ. But those that consider themselves Christians, you would say, yeah, I'm a Christian. Look where he goes in our text. He takes us to the ultimate example, doesn't he? He takes us to the ultimate example. Who is the ultimate example of being strong and making up for the affirmatives of the weak? Who is it? Yeah, it's Jesus. That's where he goes. It's amazing where he goes with that. Immediately, he goes right to Christ. And he says, each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good to build him up, for even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, they were spitting in his face. They were spitting in his face. They were spitting in his face. They were hurling insults at him as he was dying for our sins. So how in the world can we who name the name of Christ, who call ourselves Christians, yes, I'm a Christian, I know that some of you aren't, I know that, but each of us in this room that do claim the name of Jesus, how in the world could we live for ourselves? How could we dare do that? How could we not realize that we need to live for others? So who are the people that you will live for? When you get married, you'll live for your wife. You'll live for your husband. You'll live to please your husband. You'll live to please your wife. You put a husband and wife together in a marriage and each are living to please the other person, you're gonna have an incredible marriage. You're gonna have an incredible marriage. All you that are struggling with divorce situations, you know right now that the situation is they are living to please themselves. They're not living to please others. This is adults. We have a missionary right now struggling with this. We have adults everywhere struggling with this. This is not, this is all adults. Your mom and dad struggle with this. You see your mom and dad struggling with this right now. You've witnessed plenty of fights in which they're not pleasing each other. They're living for themselves. Is that the marriage you want? Is that the marriage you want? Is that the marriage you want? Is that the marriage you want? Is that the marriage you want? You want a different marriage? How many of you say, I'd love to be divorced three times. I'm looking for three divorces. I think three would be a wonderful number. None of you do it, right? You thinking that way? Three? Three's a good number? No, right? No, no. How many of you guys want for divorces? None? None or one? What do you think? One or two? What do you think? What's reasonable? Madison, how many divorces would you like to have in a lifetime? None? Then you gotta live for your spouse. You gotta live for your spouse. And this is what I think happens. We live for ourselves all our middle school years. We live for ourselves all our high school years. We live for ourselves all our college years. Then we get married and we decide I'll be different now. You don't change. You don't change. So you got this man who's been living for himself, and you got this woman who's been living for themselves. You got it? And now they get married. For the last 10 years of their life, they've been living for themselves. The last 10 years of their life, they've been living for themselves, and now suddenly they get married. And what kind of marriage do you think that they're gonna have after living for themselves for 10 years? Any ideas, Clark? Not a good one. Why not? Mr. Peek, why won't they have a good marriage? Why isn't selfishness good for marriages? It puts your needs in front of others. One of the key components to having a good marriage is the word compromise. The word compromise. Now what you do in your little high school dating relationships is you just dump each other. That's what you do, you just move on. You move on. Some of you can think of four or five relationships that you've had over the high school years. You know what you're setting the conditions for? Dump, dump, dump, dump. And then you wonder, when you get married, you've been in a habit for the last eight years of your life of dumping anybody anytime they don't do what you like. Well, he's not doing what pleases me. Dump him, dump him, dump him. And then you wonder when you get married why your marriage stinks. You've been doing that conditionally. That's the norm. That's how you've been living. That's why when I read this verse, I was like, man, this is it right here. This is hard. This is hard. This is all aspects of life, okay? Marriage, friendships, work, ball teams. Doesn't matter where. Let's pray. Paul's words are that when we do this, this glorifies God. So if you care about glorifying God, if you're one of those in this room that cares about glorifying God, if you actually believe that there is a God and you want your life to glorify God, if you're one of the minority students in this room that actually cares about glorifying God, then you have to take to heart this message. This room is full, full of stronger rather than weaker people. You are blessed. You are uber blessed. Seniors, when you graduate, are you going to keep living for yourself or will you finally make a transition to others become more important? Lord God Almighty, give us a maturity to where we live for others. In Jesus' name, amen.