Well, good morning. It's hard for you to understand how wonderful it is for me to be here. When I put my hands here, I'm kind of just checking to see if it still has the same indentations that it used to have when I was 26 years old, a new preacher, trying to hold on tight. But it's lovely to see you. It's really lovely to see so many of you. Lovely to see these children here this morning. When I came in, what was it, 1992, I think Andy Moore was the youngest we had in the congregation, and he was probably, I don't know how old, 13, 15, something like that. No other children, so to see what the Lord has done, we just give Him really praise for that. That's fantastic, so wonderful. Let's turn in God's Word. It may seem a little funny to have just one verse here. I'm going to read a little bit more than one verse, but you can turn with me to Matthew 7, verse 12. Matthew 7, verse 12. This is God's Word, and God tells us things He wants us to know and wants us to do, wants us to live according to His Word. As I said, I came here when I was 26 years old as a pastor. I'm now 60 years old. That feels like a lot to me. But what that has done is given me an opportunity as a pastor for 34 years to learn a couple things from God's Word, from experience in the church. And what he's at least been teaching me is that there are certain things that are really, really important in the church life, things that are just absolutely vital. And one of those is that we learn to love each other and to love our neighbor as ourself. This is what he says in Matthew 7, 12. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets. Much later in Matthew chapter 22 verses 37 to 40, it'll say, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. And this is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Both of those sections talk about the law and the prophets, the scriptures as they were known to the people of God. And they are to realize that there are commandments that are really, really important. Someone was asking that question, Lord, what is the most important commandment? And he said, love the Lord your God. You've got to understand that you as a believer have got to put your trust in and reliance upon this holy God. He is to be your all in all. But then you should also know, Jesus said, that if you're going to deal with others in the world, you need to love them as you love yourself. Now back in 1976, when I was only, calculate, I was 11 years old, Walt Disney came out with a film based on an interesting idea. And the idea was this, it's learning how to understand other people's perspectives. There was a movie called Freaky Friday, and the premise of the movie is that a mother and her teenage daughter aren't getting along very well, and that's because they just can't relate to one another. They don't understand each other's circumstances, and they're struggling. And so one day, they're having a big argument in a Chinese restaurant, and they receive fortune cookies at the end of the meal, and somehow this fortune cookie creates some bizarre thing that happens, and that is that the mother switches bodies with her daughter. And the daughter receives the mother's body. It's a strange thing. And now they have to live out their life that next day as if they were the other person, experiencing all the things that that other person experiences, seeing things in life through the other person's eyes. And when that movie is over, finally the bodies are switched back. You have a reconciliation between the two because now they understand each other. Now they really have gotten to the point where their relationship can be mended. They've learned to think about the interests of the other person. Now, interestingly, the theme of that movie must have caught on. So popular that they've decided to make several remakes of that film. They decided to make a male version of it with a father and a son, just to redo it. It's called Summer Switch. In 1995, they came out with another version of the female and daughter story called Freaky Friday Again. It was remade in 2003 again as Freaky Friday Again. Disney Channel Music came out with a music adaptation of the story. One more time, they thought that would be great. And you know what's coming up in August? Freaky Year Friday. I don't know how it could get any freakier, but there it is. The number of success of that movie, or those movies, a series of movies, what accounts for that? What's going on there? It seems it's so popular and so effective because we can relate to the understanding that people don't always understand us. They don't get what's going on in our lives, and they can't talk to us and relate to us because of that. And we don't understand them. And so this idea was, it touches a nerve. Actually, that concept, of course, is not from Walt Disney. That's a biblical concept of putting ourselves in somebody else's shoes and taking into consideration how they think, how they feel. That really traces back to biblical teaching on loving your neighbor as yourself. Think about your neighbor and think of yourself and how those two relate to one another. It was placed by Jesus as the second most important commandment in the world. All the things that we could do, must do, it comes down to the fact that we in fact must learn to love our neighbor, the other. And when you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you're doing to them what you would have people do to you. You're thinking about, if I were my neighbor, putting myself in their circumstances, what would I want to happen? in this situation? What are my neighbor's interests? And I'm convinced that one of our biggest relational problems in this world today is traces back to an inability or an unwillingness in life to look at life from the perspectives of someone else. you're doing to them what you would have them do to you is gonna change that, it's gonna impact that. Because we don't take the time or make the effort to consider what others want or what they need or what they're like, what others may be facing, what struggles and hardships they may be dealing with, we don't treat others well and we run into all kinds of relational conflicts, don't we? Well, Jesus confronts that. This passage in Matthew comes at the very beginning of his ministry, and I've been going through a series in Australia recently to that church talking about what does Jesus come to this earth, and as he begins his ministry, what are the things he tackles right away? What are the things he's teaching? And certainly we have the Sermon on the Mount that begins his, at least from what we see as his beginning of his teaching there. What are we catching from him? And he begins in this area, at least with this particular focus of noticing that we need to learn how to love God first and love our neighbor. He takes the command of God to love your neighbor as yourself and he shows us how we may do that. How can we do that? What is the way to do that? Do to others those things that you would like others to do to you. In other words, put yourself in their shoes. And what would I like to have done to me? Well, this principle has become known as the Golden Rule because it's so valuable, right? Its application is transforming. Indeed, when people apply this principle, it goes a long way in mending human relationships of all kinds. And what I want to suggest to you as a congregation of believers in this location is that as you think about what impact you might have on the world, what is Christianity and its impact on the world? How does it do that? This shows forth a new kind of Christianity, a new kind of transforming power in society, a positive Christianity. Now I'm going to suggest that there are three basic things that we like to, how we like to be treated ourselves. And those kind of lay a groundwork for how we ought to treat others. But before I talk about that, I think we need to correct a common misinterpretation or misconception of this teaching of Jesus as it's been happening over the years, as it's been applied. It's been around a long time, right? Love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others, and so on. But this thing I want you to note before we begin about this golden rule is how it's often applied by us in the negative rather than the positive. Think about it. How do we use the golden rule? Typically, at least in my experience, it's been, hey Johnny, stop slapping that little girl. Or Johnny, stop stealing the toy of this little person next to you because you wouldn't want them to take away your toy. Stop doing something, Jenny. Jenny, you're doing this to this other person. Stop doing that because you wouldn't want them to do that to you. In other words, it's been applied to stop behavior rather than to start behavior. It's a negative approach to what God is commanding here. And that tendency to look at things negatively parallels a common, I think, misconception in the world that Christians are people who merely avoid certain kinds of things. They try to stop behavior rather than start it. And this tends to define Christianity in the negative. What do people think of Christians? Well, it's kind of a negative religion. It stops people from freedoms that they would like to have. It's kind of a legalistic religion. When in fact, what Jesus is saying is, this is summing up the law and the prophets is to love. To take action in love. It's a positive command. Christians are those who do this. They love others. They love their God more than anything else. You could tell that in their lives. They just absolutely are committed to serving God and his desires, his will first, but then they die to self and they show love to other people. That's remarkable about Christianity. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could transform people's view of Christianity in this country, in this world that we live in, from a negative view to a positive view? Christians aren't those who just don't go to this and don't do that and don't do that. These are ones who love other people. They are known for that love. So we must not merely avoid doing things to others, those who we don't want them to do to us, but we must actively love our neighbor by doing things, those things that we would love to have done to us. Now as I mentioned, you could probably put these in three major categories. I think you can obviously alter one up or down on that, but let me give you three at least. And I think the first one that we would all really like to have is that we want to be treated together by grace and patience. Grace and patience. And this goes beyond merely just being treated fairly, which we all want to be treated fairly, but I think we want to be treated with grace and patience. And I was reminded of this one time in a story over in Columbus when I was pastoring over here. in a grocery store in the morning. I like orange juice in the morning. I just like to have some orange juice. And when I go to the morning and open the fridge and there's no orange juice in there, I think to myself, I think I need to go get some orange juice. So I pop in the car and I run down to the grocery store very early in the morning and I'm the only one in the store except for one other person. And that person, when I grab my orange juice, is in line in front of me. And she has a lot of groceries, but she also has a bunch of coupons. And she's working with those coupons to try to get them to work for the grocery list, and it's not working. The computer's not reading them correctly or something. And she's just digging through her purse, trying to get it to go. And it's getting really long, such that other people have now come into the store in the morning, and they're lining up behind me with their groceries. And it's getting a little awkward. And everybody knows it's awkward, because she's having trouble with those things. And so the teller's getting nervous. And she finally gets on her little microphone and says, could I get another teller to come? You guys all know what I'm saying. You've all seen this, probably. Anyway, so another teller comes and immediately starts, opens up the other teller. And here I'm thinking, this is going to be great. She says, I can help the next person in line. And I say, well, I'm, and so I start to pick up my things and start to move the other direction, but the person in the very, very back of the line runs full tilt and jumps to the front of that line and starts, and it just goes in reverse. So the person behind them follow them and they, and so as I try to get in line, I'm the last one in line now. Early in the morning, I'm discovering I can't get my juice. Eventually, I'm thinking about how we can deal with this, and there are many ways I can try to address it. I have to admit, at that moment, as that person ran to the front of the line, I was applying the golden rule in the negative. What should I not do to this person who has just done this to me? And, okay, that's okay. But there are two ways to look at the illustration here, isn't it? There's one thing that I'm not to do. I'm not to respond in kind. That's how we typically apply God's word here in this particular account. But we would not want others to cut in front of us in line when we were first, that's true. I shouldn't do that to other people. But remember, the command is to take things in the positive and to do to the other what I would have them do to me. A universal trait I'm suggesting is that we want to be treated with grace and with patience. And so we look at this illustration positively by asking what would I do to my neighbors when they have treated me unfairly? How would I have people treat me when I have treated them unfairly? Maybe I did so in a very sinful way. I really wanted to be first and I did that. Or maybe it was just purely carelessness, I wasn't thinking, I didn't recognize the needs of others and so on, I just went in front of them. What would I want people to do with me? Well, I would want people to give me the benefit of the doubt. Right? Not assuming that I'm intentionally being the most rotten individual in line, right? But that I have simply been unthinking, I've been careless, and so I'd be patient. Now, I'm not saying Christians shouldn't be interested in things that are matters of justice and try to claim their rights when they have been wronged. I'm not suggesting that. But what I want to do is apply the word of God in a real life situation here. If I'm really concerned with treating the other person as I would want to be treated, then I'm going to bend over backwards to be accepting and patient with them. Instead of saying with my mouth words that are tearing them down, pointing out their faults at every turn, I'm going to take one quietly on the chin and realizing that I don't know the pressures and demands of that person in the back of the line, I don't know their circumstances, and I will be patient. I don't know their motives. I don't know what kinds of stresses and troubles they're under. It's a small thing for me to wait a few more minutes. Well, being patient, being treated fairly is important in the scripture, but the Holy Spirit gave another pointed word of instruction to Christians, to us, in the book of Philippians, when Paul writes in chapter two and tells us about how we're to have an attitude like that of Christ. And that, of course, is what we're doing as believers. We want to learn how to walk like Christ, right? How do I do that? Well, he said this, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider yourself, consider yourself, consider others more important, significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. So it would be easy to focus on the negative and say, you didn't do to me what you should have done. You didn't do what I would have wanted you to do to me. But of course that's taking God's word and twisting it to say it's all about me, right? A situation rather than what God would have me to do on the circumstance. So most conflict I think in this world, and we face conflict all the time, comes from an assertion of what people believe to be their own rights, their own interests. But you and I are called to consider the interests of others as more significant than our own. That's real love for your neighbor. Just as deference to God's interests when we say we love God, first and foremost, I defer my will to his will, right? Just as we do that when we're loving our neighbor as ourself and showing that they have more significant, I defer my will to their will. That's what God calls his people to do. Let's look at one more way that we want to be treated. I suggested we want to be treated with grace and patience, but we also want to be shown thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness. And that applies to Philippians 2, 3, and 4 as well. It seeks to look out for the interests of others. How do you know when somebody loves you? How do you know when they care about you? Isn't it when they show you somehow that they've been thinking about you and your needs? They thought about you when they didn't have to think about you. They think about your interests. Maybe they call you when you happen to be sick or you didn't show up to something that they were planning to see you. They go out of their way to give you a gift that they know you particularly like. They've been thoughtful to think about it and it actually is not just a gift, it's something that really means something to you. Maybe they give up their time to meet a need of yours or they remember those things that are important to you. I'm gonna give you an example of this that was really vivid to me, and some of you may know who I'm speaking about, but when I was growing up, there was another pastor in the denomination in the RP Church. My father was a pastor, and so I was just a young boy under my dad, but there were other pastors of his generation around, and one of those was named Ed Robeson. Ed Robeson was a good friend at some point with my wife's grandparents. My wife lost her father in a car accident when she was two years old, which means that her father's parents, her father's mother particularly, was grieving significantly at the loss of her son, okay? And Ed Robeson knew her. Now her husband had died as well, so now she's alone, she's a widow, but she has this memory and this experience of the loss of her son in a tragic car accident. And every year, Ed Robeson would call her on the anniversary of that car accident and would show care to her, show that he was thoughtful of her situation and realized that that day was gonna be a hard day for her. In one sense, after maybe a year or two went by, you could maybe forgive him for forgetting that that was the date of that. But Ed didn't forget. And Ed every year, for year after year, called her and said, I know that today's a rough day for you. I'm sorry. It meant a lot to her. It showed that he was being thoughtful of her. It communicated that he loved her. Years later, when Ed actually moved closer to where she lived, he'd take her out for lunch on that day, and he would just show her care. Well, that's just one example of what you and I are to actively do to show love to our neighbor. We must be thoughtful of them, put ourselves in their shoes, and consider how they feel, consider their interests. And that thought process is an active thing, it's an intentional thing that says, before I take an action here, I need to think. Before I just act, which is so typical for us, we're just gonna do what we're used to doing, God's calling us to take a moment and say, be thoughtful of their circumstances and what impact this will have on them. So it'll keep us from being self-centered, it'll be actively communicating love. Now, one more that I wanna talk about, and let me end with just one more way that we wanna be treated, and that is that I think we wanna be treated with understanding and appreciation. We want desperately for other people to appreciate us for who we are and what we do. And since I can't think of how to put this for all of us in the plural, let me just talk about myself if I may. I know that I am loved when other people make an effort to understand what being Andy McCracken means. what it's like for him to live in Australia. What is it like in the circumstances of having to leave his children, some of them in the United States, to go do that? I want them to understand the circumstances in Australia so they understand what I'm going through. And this is what I'm saying. I just want them to be thinking about those things. What does it involve to be you? And you can put your name in there and say, how do you know love? And I think it's when someone takes the time to understand your challenges, your struggles, the things that make you you. You know you're loved when another person seeks to understand you. If we're thinking, and if we're going to turn that around and learn to show that kind of care to others, that kind of love to others, doing to them what we would have them do to us, then we must be training ourselves, training our minds to think of others instead of our own interests all the time. We're so used to dealing with all of our own challenges and things that we deal with our interests, but learning to train ourselves because we love our Lord above all else to love our neighbor as well. We want people to understand and appreciate several things. One, we want them to understand about our work and what our work involves, what our struggles are, what we're doing with our lives, what have we invested in. is our lives. We want them to understand how challenging it is given our struggles. Maybe it's a medical thing, maybe it's a mental thing, maybe it's a relational thing. It could be all sorts of things, but we want them to understand and be sensitive to our challenges. And then third, we want them to appreciate our accomplishments, the things that we've done. Going back to the work for a minute, to be underappreciated has driven some people in our society to do some remarkably horrible things. Nobody appreciates me, you see. I've worked so hard and nobody gets it. They've done some pretty radical things. They've become hard to deal with. But there's more to it than just that. If you flip it around and turn it the other way, when you do show appreciation for a hard worker, what happens? They become better workers. Right? They produce more. They are at peace. Now, appreciation doesn't have to come in monetary form or in big rewards, though we don't mind that, do we? But it can come in a simple way. When somebody simply comes up to you and says, you know, I put, I know that you put a lot of time and effort into that. I know that was hard, but you did it, and you did great. I appreciate your doing that. That makes all the difference in the world. It can light your line. It puts gas in your tank. It makes you go farther the next day. You can keep going. That's the first thing. What about our difficulties and our struggles? Do we understand each other's struggles? Well, another thing we want people to recognize and appreciate is that. The difficulties we have. How hard it can be to be walking before God in this world. And the only thing worse than struggling through something alone is being misunderstood or criticized while you're doing it. Right? Criticized while you're trying to deal with all this stuff you're dealing with. Unfortunately, that happens all the time. Unfortunately, that happened in the grocery store when I was waiting for my juice. I was criticizing in my mind that person for all the things that they did to me, but I didn't understand their circumstances. I didn't have any idea why they were rushing to the front of the line. You know, maybe there was a real good reason for that. Maybe they had a child who was sick at home and needed medication. Maybe they were meeting all kinds of things that I just don't know. And so for me to turn and say, what are you doing? It's all about me, you see. That's rough. Without knowing why a person is doing what we're doing, we often criticize them. Though people will say to others, trying to be kind to them, you know, I understand what you're going through. I really do understand what you're going through. If you're the other person, that's what you want more than anything else. If you will just understand how hard it is for me to do this in life, that will help me so much. We want someone to know what we're going through. We want others to swap places with us. Get the little fortune cookie, if we could, and swap bodies for a little bit. You live my life for a little while, and then you'll understand. We want others to understand how we're having a hard time paying our bills. Or we're having a hard time raising our kids or dealing with the pressures at work or at home. We feel actually quite lonely. Or we're regularly in physical pain and are not sleeping very well. Do you understand that? We want people to understand that we're struggling to be cheerful, to fulfill our responsibilities without grumbling at work. We're struggling to love our spouse. as we should. We're struggling not to be depressed all the time. And on and on we could go. Do people understand us? Friends, as believers, isn't that what makes Hebrews 4.15 such a valuable, powerful verse for us? It says this, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. And then a little earlier in the chapter, in chapter two, it had said this, therefore he, that's referring to the same one who we're talking about, whoever this high priest is, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he's able to help those who are being tempted. Who are we talking about? We're talking about Jesus Christ. This is what makes Jesus Christ so incredibly valuable to me. He understands what it means to be Andy McCracken. He understands what my circumstances are, all the things that are challenging to me, all the things that are difficult in my trying to serve him. He knows all of those things. He is a faithful high priest. We appreciate that about him. He knows what we're going through. A goal for us then, to be like our savior, is that we want to learn how to deal with other people, so seek to understand them before we deal with them, before we respond to them, before we talk to them or act. We want to understand, right? So that's the second thing, understand. And then finally, in a similar way, we want people to acknowledge our successes, the accomplishments and achievements, and rejoice with us. You know, maybe you get a five-star rating or some kind of evaluation report. That's really nice. But to have others know about it, to be aware of that and say, hey, I saw that you got a five-star rating on that, and that's really good. You did well. That changes things. It's really good to know that, right? We love that. We love that. So turn it, right? Turn it around. How do we show that notice of others to them? We've understood their struggles, we see that they've been challenged to do this, but they've done it and done very well. We have to learn to labor, to think of others in this way. Have to be watchful for their hard work, see what they're doing, know their circumstances and what they are, and at the same time, we have to show interest in knowing what they're going through. How do you do that? I mean, you're a congregation of quite a few people here, and you can't know everybody, you can't know everything, but how do you really show love to one another? I suggest that you can't unless you know the circumstances. So how do you know? You have to ask. You have to take the time to lay aside your own interests for a moment and ask about others. There's a gentleman, and I won't mention his name, in my congregation who struggles terribly with this. I could mention his name is Andy, but I won't. I do. I struggle with this. I like to have people think about me. I like to have people listen to me, listen to my interests, the things that I'm interested in, and appreciate me and show interest in me. I like that. But this gentleman also has struggle in that area, and often when you talk to him, he will speak about himself, he'll talk to you immediately about the things he's doing, and never once will he ask you about yourself and what's going on in your life. He'll just keep going, okay? Anybody in here like that? I'm like that. I have to intentionally stop myself and ask a question of the other person. and say, tell me about your situation. Tell me about your life. How are you doing? Do you have to do that? You see, that's how we learn to love our neighbor as ourself. Stop thinking always about your own interests and consider your neighbor's interests as more significant than your own. Now that's basics. Basic Christianity 101. We have to learn how to do that well. Put the interests of others first. And that's getting rid of old habits. How encouraging it is to have somebody ask and then really show that they meant it by following up later and talking about it again. Genuinely interested. One of the best examples, I think, of what we're talking about in this sermon today that I find in the scripture is a man named Jonathan, Saul's son. David's best friend. Why was he David's best friend, I wonder? It's because in every circumstance, it seems that we see in the scripture, Jonathan puts David's interests above his own. Sorry, Jonathan, he's got the crown rights on his shoulder. He's supposed to inherit the kingdom, all those things, but everything you learn about Jonathan is his seeking to help David, value him, show interest in his things. And I want to suggest to you that doing this, dying to your own interests and living for righteousness is the hardest demand of the Christian life. It's the hardest part of being married. Yeah? Are you married? Do you know that? Dying to your own interests and upholding your spouse's interests? It's hard, but it's what God calls us to. It's the hardest part of being a parent, taking care of children, Dying to my interests and putting that child's interests first. It's the hardest part of being a godly employee. And it's the hardest part of life, all of it, all of it. All of human relationships, dying to self, putting the interests of others first. Doing unto others what you would have them do to you. Jesus calls you to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, your strength. and to love your neighbor as yourself. He calls you to regularly consider what it would be like to walk in other people's shoes. As you do so, he calls you not merely to avoid doing things to others, those things that you don't want done to you, but to actively look for ways to do to others what you would love to have done for you. So to do that, I think you're gonna have to be in a good relationship with your Heavenly Father. You're going to have to knock. You're going to have to ask. You're going to have to seek him. Go to his door. Open and cry out to him, Lord, help me do this, to give you that heart attitude and give you a heart that loves him and loves your neighbor. In so doing, you're going to become a church. If individuals within this church are doing this, more and more you'll become a community in this community of Bloomington and beyond that begins to transform the earth Salt and light, right? Light of the world. How is that light seen? It's seen in the love of Christ. He has loved you, you're showing it to others. Now that's the fundamental thing. There are so many other things that we can get involved in in Christian life and we can get caught up in thinking about this particular minutia of Christian faith. And it's not that those things aren't important, but they're not the most important. If I've learned one thing in 34 years of pastoral ministry, it's the most important thing, is loving God and loving my neighbor. And if we can do that, we're gonna transform the world by God's grace. Let's work at that by his help, let's pray. Father in heaven, this is a wonderful picture for us. It's golden. And we pray that we might apply it not just negatively, but learn to seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, and understand them, and to appreciate them, and to know their needs. Be patient and gracious. Show us how to do this every day, Lord, we pray, as we go from here. And we do this not just for our own sakes, but because it's your calling for your transformation of the world, we pray. Help us so that your name is glorified in us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's sing to God's praise. We're gonna use Psalm 119H at this point. 119H, so much of Psalm 119 is God's focus on God's law. But again, it's his commandments and we've been thinking about the most significant, the first two of those. We're asking him to show us how to walk in those ways and to reverence him and to walk in his statute. So let's stand and sing Psalm 119H and remain standing for the benediction.