Point 1Live from identity in Christ, not performance
Ebony, thank you so much, such a wonderful song for us to begin here with this morning. Now, I'll preface, before we dive into the text, by saying that our church plant, the reason I'm available to come and worship with you this morning, is because our church plant meets on Sunday evenings. So having done that now for about a year and a half, I'm in the habit of saying, "How's everyone doing this evening?" So when that happens, just humor me. It feels like evening to me, it's kind of nice and dark in here, and I'm used to preaching on Sunday evenings. So as Brook mentioned, I was a pastor here in Pleasant Hill for about three and a half years, and some of my family's sweetest memories are here in this community. I'm very fond of Pleasant Hill, and by extension fond of each of you. Many of you know me, we've gotten to meet over the years, some of you have no idea who I am. Some of you who have met me may have no idea who I am, because when I was here about six months ago I had hair, and Pastor Shawn preached such a powerful sermon that it all fell out. Not quite, but that afternoon I actually went home, and that was the afternoon that I shaved my hair. It wasn't so much that I wanted to be like Shawn, but I wouldn't say that it wasn't that either. You have a wonderful pastor, and sure, he is a bit of an introvert, but as he and I spend time together, I want to remind you of something: Pastor Shawn loves you dearly. He labors for your walk with Christ, his whole being and existence exudes love and compassion for you, and so I want you to be encouraged by that. I'm so blessed that you all have been in Paul's letter to the Romans for as long as you have, not only because I have the privilege of closing out chapter 12 this morning with you all, but because at our church in North Kansas City we're in a series through James right now, much shorter letter that many people will pit against Romans and say Paul says that we're made right with God by faith alone and James seems to say the opposite. He says that we see that it is not by faith that a man is justified, but we see that he is justified by his works. And so it's been a real joy to see that balance, that God's word does not contradict itself. God is not the author of confusion. And so what we see, if you ever flip over to James's letter in your personal reading, or if in the future Echo is going through a series through James, you read that famous verse that says we see by a man's works that he is justified. What James is there saying does not contradict Paul. What James is saying is, how can you see that a person has been made right with God? It's not just because of what he says, it's not just because of what he believes, we can see that he has been made right with God by the way he lives. And that's, I think, what Paul is saying here in Romans chapter 12. So I'm going to read the verses that we'll be considering this morning and then we'll break them down a little bit at a time. We're in Romans 12, beginning in verse 14, and I'm reading from the Christian standard Bible, and it reads like this: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be proud, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil; give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone's eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God's wrath, because it is written, vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. And as we're going to see as we dig into these verses a bit, this is in keeping with what James says. How do we see that a person has been justified? How do we see that a person has been made right with God? It's not just by what they say, it's by the things that they do. Do we have any carpenters or handymen types in the congregation?
At least one. I'm not going to raise my hand, because I'm not handy. The closest to carpentry that you'll find me doing is trying to assemble a piece of furniture from IKEA. Man, when I get those instructions out and there's not even any words on it because it's from Sweden, it's just pictures, I feel like the biggest dunce in the world that I can't figure it out. Why do I feel so unnatural trying to follow these instructions? Do this, do this, do this, and this is the result.
Why do I feel so unnatural following what should be very simple instructions? It's because it's not who I am.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 5:28
I'm not a handyman, I'm not a carpenter, and when we try to build our identity around the things that we do rather than the other way around, rather than saying, because I am who I am, because I am what I am, therefore this is what my life looks like, if we get that turned around, we try to live a life based upon our own performance, and
I've got bad news for you: no matter how hard you try, your performance will never be good enough.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 5:47
It's never sufficient. Have you ever tried to do something that you're not used to? Like a few years ago when I first got into exercising for my health, and the pain in your muscles that you've never used, when you lift weights for the first time, your body creates something called lactic acid. That's what hurts your muscles when you tear those muscles lifting weights, what hurts is an acid that your body is producing, because basically the way that God has designed our bodies is it's telling us, this isn't normal, this isn't natural, this isn't right, what are you doing, stop. Or maybe something a little bit more relatable would be tonight, before you climb into bed and you go to brush your teeth, if you normally brush your teeth with your right hand, brush with your left. It's crazy, it seems like such a simple task, but what happens when you're doing that is that the neural pathways in your brain are going, this isn't what we do. And if we try to follow these instructions from Romans 12 apart from a complete identity change, apart from the empowering of the Holy Spirit, our brains are going to create lactic acid, our brains are going to try to rewire our neural pathways, because it's going to be so unnatural. But thank God that he's given us these instructions so that we know what the Christian life looks like. So my aim this morning is a few things. If you're a Christian parent, I want for you to leave this place today with a sense that the impact that you can have upon your children will look different if, instead of just trying to modify their behavior, you model for them what the Christian life looks like. If you're a Christian student, my hope and my prayer is that what we find in these verses will encourage you to live differently for a different purpose in your school. If you're a Christian employee, when you're mistreated by an employer or a coworker, that you can show truly the love of Christ to that neighbor in a way that is so countercultural and in such stark contrast to what they're used to seeing that they have to sit up and take notice. So what we're going to be looking at in these verses this morning, I almost said this evening and I caught myself, is an acronym: BASIC WAR. I'm going to give you the acronym for BASIC WAR with the idea that Paul concludes with, do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. So BASIC WAR, how do we conquer evil? And the first that we find in this acronym is the letter B. I want to give
Point 2Be a builder, applauder, and sympathetic neighbor
You some identity in Christ, I want to give you something tangible to hold on to, so that when we walk out of this room this morning, you go, this is what it looks like for me to walk in Christ, this is how I conquer evil, is by engaging in BASIC WAR. And that first letter B is, I want you to be a builder. Be a builder. Verse 14 says, Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
How countercultural would it be for us to speak well of those who speak poorly of us?
Pastor Dan Cogan · 9:38
This word that's translated in our English Bibles as bless is where we get the word that we more often than anywhere else hear in the context of funerals, a eulogy. The word eulogy means to speak well of someone. So don't wait until that neighbor dies to say something nice about them. Even that neighbor who speaks poorly of you, find some reflection of the image of God in that neighbor and bless them. So let me tell you a little bit about me. I have three kids, my daughter's seven and my sons are five and three, and my sons are big into Legos. We got them for Christmas a big set of off-brand Magna-Tiles, because the name brand is crazy expensive, but we found an off-brand, and they love building with these little tiles that are magnets, and when one of them builds up this incredible tower, usually because they like Mario, it's Bowser's Castle, when one of them builds up some incredible structure, the other one, like a boy, tears it down, destroys it, and I can be three rooms away and hear the wails and the lament, because when something that you've built up is torn down, it grieves your heart. I believe it grieves God's heart to see the things that he builds be torn down. And so one of our identities in Christ is that we are to be builders, but building up rather than tearing down doesn't come naturally to us. It goes against our very nature as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We've inherited this sin nature, it's woven into the fabric of our DNA that we want to tear down, and if we're to be builders, we can't just, again, modify our behavior. If we are to be builders, we need to find that identity in Christ. It's supernatural. We think about the word supernatural, we think of superheroes. We were just talking before the service that I watched a spider-Man movie with my kids last night. You don't have to be bitten by a radioactive spider to be able to do this. Instead, though, you have to do something that is beyond your nature.
That's what supernatural means, is beyond your nature. You have to be given a new nature, and that can't be earned, it can't be bought by you, it has to be given to you as a gift from God in Christ.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 12:18
Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells us, Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. That's what this being a builder means. We're building others up, not in their sin, but identifying these glimmers of the image of God in them and saying, that's good, that's beautiful, that's right, that's true, lean into that. The second identity that I want to encourage you in is to be an applauder. Be a builder and be an applauder. What do I mean by that? The first part of verse 15, Paul tells us, rejoice with those who rejoice.
We should be the biggest cheerleaders in the communities that God has entrusted to us.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 13:20
The idea of empathy, seeing when something goes well for someone else and, rather than being jealous of that win in their life, we applaud. When we do that, what we're doing is we're directing their eyes to the giver of all good gifts. We're saying, man, thank God that you got that promotion, what an awesome thing to celebrate and rejoice about, and even if they're a skeptic, even if they're an unbeliever and they say, "I don't even believe in God," you say, "You might not believe in God, but I see God at work in and for you, giving you that blessing in life." What we do in that is we get their eyes off of themselves and onto the giver of the gift. That's why it matters that we rejoice with those who rejoice. What I'm calling here being an applauder. Similarly, though, in the second part of verse 15, he says, weep with those who weep, and this is where we find this third identity to engage in BASIC WAR: be sympathetic. As an applauder we exhibit empathy, we celebrate, we rejoice with them, but in weeping with those who weep, we sympathize as Jesus sympathizes with us. It says in Hebrews that we don't have a high priest who can't understand our suffering, but one who sympathizes with our weakness in every way, yet without sin. I was reminded, as I was reflecting on these verses this week, of one of my favorite passages in the Gospels, John 11, the shortest verse in the Bible. Can anybody recite it? Yeah, Jesus wept. What I find fascinating about that is not the brevity of the verse, the shortness of the verse. What I find fascinating about that is that God himself, in human flesh, Jesus wept. Why am I so intrigued by that? Because he knew that in a matter of moments he was going to call Lazarus forth from the grave, and he still wept. But it's not just crying hard, I think that he did, I think that he cried hard, but this idea of weeping carried with it so much more in the Greek language, that this word that's translated as wept really is this idea that he raged against death. This is not the way it's supposed to be, this is not the way it's going to be. He knew he was going to resurrect Lazarus, and yet he raged against death. That's what sympathy for the Christian looks like, is that when things go poorly for our neighbors, we sympathize, we weep with those who weep, we come alongside of them when we say, "I am so sorry for your loss." Sometimes that's all that needs to be said. "I'm so sorry."
When we fail to acknowledge the suffering that our neighbor experiences, what we're functionally doing is ignoring God's design.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 16:30
When we, in good intentions, come alongside of someone who's suffering a loss and we put our arms around them and we say, "They're in a better place," that doesn't feel good to that person in that moment, does it? Paul doesn't say here in verse 15, weep with those who weep and give them the deep theological platitudes. He says, weep with those who weep, because when we sit down with them and we try to excuse away the grief and the mourning and the sorrow, we functionally ignore God's design and we ignore the way that Jesus interacted with grief, and when we do that, in turn we end up saying something about God that's not true, we end up saying
Point 3Be impartial and coachable, never a know-it-all
Something about God that we don't intend to say. So be a builder, be an applauder, be sympathetic. The fourth identity that I want for us to grab a hold of is in verse 16: be impartial. Be impartial. What do I mean by that? Paul says, live in harmony with one another; do not be proud, but associate with the humble. And that's funny, because as we've mentioned a couple of times already, and not to major on Pastor Shawn's introversion, but I'm a bit of an introvert myself. My wife does not believe me, she's like, "You're totally an extrovert." The technical definition of an extrovert is one who, when they have conversations with people, they get really energized by that. I love people, but it exhausts me. I'm not saying don't come talk to me after the service, I would love to speak with you, I'm just going to, i'll probably be a little tired after. So in that sense I'm more of a classic introvert. Now, what happens often is that when we come into a space like church, is we look around the room, and this happens in an instant and it happens subconsciously, we look around the room for people who benefit us, people who think like us, people who share the same values as us, people who dress like us, people who have the same haircut as us, shout out Pastor Shawn. It happens in an instant, we don't even think about it's self-preservation, but what we're doing is we're showing partiality. We're saying, if I go have a conversation with that person, it's going to exhaust me, and I don't have the energy to spend on that relationship right now. But what Paul tells us to do is to live in harmony and to associate with the lowly or the humble. What would be the opposite of harmony? It would be dissonance. It would be if Ebony were to play a wrong note with a chord that she's playing, I'm sure she never makes mistakes like that, but that term dissonance, it comes from the world of music, as opposed to harmony, multiple notes being played that complement one another. Dissonance is multiple notes that are being played that contrast or conflict with one another. So Paul tells us to live in harmony with one another. Christian dissonance would be showing partiality based on what you perceive others can do for you. But aren't you glad that Jesus didn't treat you that way?
If Jesus didn't associate with the lowly, you would be hellbound.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 20:07
He's not only our role model, but he's certainly no less than that. So because Jesus associated with the lowly, me, you, we are to walk in that identity. This is how we engage in BASIC WAR: we show impartiality. But connected with that idea is the fifth identity, the C in BASIC: be coachable. He says, do not be wise in your own estimation, the last part of verse 16. The Christian life, brothers and sisters, is one of dependence and constant learning.
Do not be wise in your own estimation is Paul's way of saying don't be a know-it-all. We're tempted
Pastor Dan Cogan · 21:12
to be know-it-alls, aren't we? I am, and why? Like, who do I think I'm impressing? It's okay to open the word of God and say, I'm really not sure what the answer to this question is, let's find it together. But if instead you say, no, I've got all the answers, I don't need to keep learning, you're not going to be coachable, and you're not going to associate with the lowly, because you'll consider yourself to be above them. If you're not learning, you're not growing. Now, when we recognize this truth, that as image bearers of God who are being remolded into his image because of the work of the Spirit within us, when we become coachable people, it shifts our paradigm so that we no longer look at those who may be a bit exhausting to us in relationship as a burden but as an opportunity to continue to grow. Now, this is a bit confusing in my own mind, maybe it's not to you, maybe you're tracking along and you go, this makes perfect sense to me. I go, doesn't that make that other person still a commodity? All that I'm doing, then, is instead of saying that they add no value to my life, then I move over here and I become a coachable person, and then I just view them as a project, that the value that they add to me is to make me better. That seems self-centered, but I think what Paul is suggesting to us here when he says do not be wise in your own estimation is that it's really putting us all on the same playing field.
The old saying is that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 22:57
The person who has a doctorate in theology is no closer to God because of that than the person who's only just heard about Jesus this morning. I think the most challenging thing in this for me is this idea in Hebrews 5, where the writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. What? He's God, he didn't have to learn anything. Well, do you think he had to learn Aramaic when he was born, or did he come out of the womb speaking perfect Aramaic? I think he had to learn it. What the writer to the Hebrews is saying in chapter 5:8, when he says that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered, was that he was saying, in his humanity he was modeling for us what it means to be coachable. He learned from those who, in their humanity, came before him. So if we find ourselves in a season or a state of life where we go, "I can't learn from my younger brothers and sisters in Christ," I'm not just talking about your biological age but how long you've walked with the Lord, if we ever say, "This person has walked with the Lord for fewer years than I have, so I can't learn from them," we're not reflecting the image of Christ. So this is what it means, and so far this is what we've covered: be a builder, be an applauder, be sympathetic, be impartial, and be
Point 4Be watchful: leave vengeance to God
Coachable. But we move on in verse 17, listen to verses 17–19, where Paul tells the Romans: Do not repay anyone evil for evil; give careful thought to what is honorable in everyone's eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God's wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. So the W in BASIC WAR is this: be watchful. What do I mean? Be watchful. Well, in these verses that we've just read, Paul is saying for us that it's uncharitable, it is ungodly, it is unChristlike for us to pursue vengeance when someone sins against us, for us to respond in kind. It reminds me, in Exodus chapter 21, where the law of God says if someone takes another person's life, they must pay life for life. And we hear it quoted in culture today, and Jesus quotes this next line in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says, You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I think it was Gandhi who responded to that, obviously many years later, and he said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless. That misunderstands the application of the law. Jesus isn't saying if somebody pokes your eye out that you should vengefully go poke their eye out. The whole purpose of the law, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, is that the punishment has to fit the crime. So when Paul here in Romans 12 cites the Old Testament reference, vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, what he's suggesting to us is that though there is a civil law, and an aspect to our relations with one another at a civil level, if someone were to damage your vehicle, for example, in an automobile accident, you can't just go kill their dog. That's the civil law, it says no, the punishment for that crime is restitution, they have to pay to repair your car, and obviously in today's world that's done through insurance. But instead, what Paul's dealing with is not civil law, he's dealing with personal offenses. He says if someone sins against you, it is not your place to go get vengeance.
In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about turning the other cheek. When someone sins against you, he calls us to turn the other cheek, and that kind of a response really warrants honor. If we were to be leaving here today and we saw someone just backhand somebody, "Oh, fight," and if instead the person who just got hit just gets up and says, "You want to do this side too?" We'd go, "Wow, either this guy's a glutton for punishment or he's just really not gonna fight, he has no interest in furthering the argument." So we're called to be watchful in regards to this, where he says to do what is honorable, give careful thought to what is honorable in everyone's eyes.
It is immensely honorable when someone offends you personally for you to say, "I'm just not offendable."
Pastor Dan Cogan · 28:34
Can you imagine how different our lives and how different our society would look if, when someone sins against us, we choose ahead of time not to be offended? If we go about life watching for those opportunities that we formerly would have been offended by, to instead say, "I'm just unoffendable. I know those things are going to happen, and instead of getting up in arms about it, literally, instead of that, I'm going to respond by being at peace and leaving room for God's wrath." Next week, Lord willing, you're going to get into Romans chapter 13, where Paul talks about the governing authorities. He calls them his ministers of justice. This is interesting, and I'm not sure if you'll go down this path or not, but that term that's translated as ministers or servants of justice is actually where we get the biblical term deacon. It says that the governing authorities are deacons. That's different spheres, but the word deacon means servant or minister, and Paul says in Romans 13 that the governing authorities are God's deacons, his servants of justice. Sometimes in our lives justice is withheld until eternity. There will be times when you will be sinned against by unbelievers and believers alike, and you won't see in that person's entire life justice given for that. Sometimes justice isn't given until eternity. For the Christian, justice was fully satisfied when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price for your sin. God is just. Sometimes justice is executed here and now via those civil authorities, those deacons of justice, those ministers or servants of justice.
But what we cannot do is take justice into our own hands.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 30:50
If we take justice into our own hands, we undermine both God's character and his design, because, again, to return to that analogy of someone running into your vehicle, if you go and you seek justice for that person's insurance might pay for the repairs on your vehicle, but you're going to be answerable for your sin of pursuing vengeance, of being a vigilante. But either way, we are called to leave room for God to execute his justice. So when I say be watchful, this is the kind of watchfulness that I'm calling us to look for those opportunities to do
Point 5Be amicable and righteous: overcome evil with good
What is honorable in everyone's eyes and to look for opportunities to say, "I'm sorry, but I'm unoffendable." The next identity for us in our acronym of BASIC WAR, the A in WAR, is to be amicable. Amicable, that's a weird word, isn't it? I only needed to use it so it fit my acronym. Not really, it's actually because of the origin of the word amicable. The Latin root "am" is where we get the word love. We hear it in Latin languages like amor or amorous, someone's feeling especially romantic, we say they're feeling amorous. It's the same root of being amicable, and here's what I mean by this. In verse 20 we find a quotation from the Old Testament, actually from the book of Proverbs, where God's word tells us, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him something to drink. We're called to show radical countercultural love to our enemies. Again, that doesn't come naturally. When someone has sinned against you in grotesque ways, and yet God calls us to feed them when they're hungry and to give them something to drink when they're thirsty, culture has to stand up and take note of that. So when I say be amicable, I'm talking about this radical, countercultural, counterintuitive love.
This goes beyond just refraining from retaliation, right? We can be sinned against and we can say, okay, I'm not going to retaliate, I choose not to retaliate. It goes beyond that and says, instead, I'm going to actively serve this person who has sinned against me. That doesn't come naturally. Try as you might try to walk in these identities that we've covered so far this week, and if you're lucky, you might make it through the week.
You will not last in the Christian life if you're trying to find your identity in the things that you do rather than letting your identity in Christ shape what you do.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 33:52
But what a picture of the gospel when we show love, when we are amicable toward our enemies.
What a great picture of the gospel that is, because it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 34:13
He didn't just refrain from retaliating against our sin, he actively chose to take the punishment for our sin upon himself. And lastly, to overcome evil, to conquer evil, be righteous, the R in WAR. Be righteous. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. Here's the thing about righteousness, just like with behavior modification, we can't change our standing with God no matter how hard we plead, no matter how hard we try. The only way that we can be righteous is through the righteousness of his Son. What does Genesis 15 say about Abraham? He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Be righteous. And here's what righteousness in this context looks like: of not pursuing vengeance, not seeking to get our own. I was reminded of Martin Luther King's famous statement, "I've decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." I'm not pointing to Martin Luther King as a great Christian example, much of his belief about who Jesus is was incorrect, but again, we bless those who persecute us. We can look at someone like Martin Luther King, whom God used greatly to bring about equitable treatment of all image bearers of God regardless of their ethnicity. We can look at that and say, that was a good thing, I bless that, I celebrate that, I applaud that, without compromising our doctrinal convictions that Jesus is truly divine, that he was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he truly died and was buried and resurrected on the third day. We don't have to compromise any of those to recognize the good things that Martin Luther King said and did. One of those things was, in the face of radical persecution, he said, "I've decided to stick to love, because hate is too great a burden to bear." And then in the 1980s the Irish band U2 wrote this verse about MLK: "Early morning, April 4, shots rang out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride." Christian, what is your pride? If you're to boast in anything, don't boast in your own righteousness, because you have none. Your pride is Christ and him crucified. So we can be righteous not by our own merit but by the merit of Christ. And the greatest resistance to our enemy is love. Not just fuzzy feelings, not just trying to make sure that everything's okay, that no one's at odds with one another. No, we can do those things at the surface level and have no impact upon eternity. But instead we're called to this, what the Bible calls agape love, the perfect love of God that we see modeled again in the book of Hebrews, where the writer says, Hebrews 12:3–4: Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. Consider that, brothers and sisters, so that you won't grow weary and give up in struggling against sin. The writer to the Hebrews says, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
As long as you're upright and breathing, as long as you're on this side of the dirt, you're still engaged in BASIC WAR.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 38:21
And I believe that at the very least we find in these verses several identities that God calls us to in Christ: be a builder, be an applauder, be sympathetic, be impartial, be coachable. What was my W? If I can't remember, how do I expect you to remember it? Be watchful, be amicable, and be righteous. Don't go out and try to do those things. You'll deceive yourself into hell if you go out and try to do those things. Rather, recognize that these are the things that Christ models for us in his ministry. This is the way, walk in it. So, Christian parent, what kind of influence could you have on your children if you fight the temptation to merely modify your children's behavior, and further, if you fight the temptation to merely modify your own behavior? If instead you pray that the Spirit would empower you to model for them what the kind of living you desire for them is, this BASIC WAR. Christian employee, when your coworkers or boss are enduring themselves a difficult situation, you can create an opportunity to show and share the love of Christ by weeping with those who weep. My day job is with a Christian nonprofit, but my supervisor, the CEO of our company, recently endured a great personal loss, and it was an opportunity, though she knows Christ, it was a great reminder and an opportunity to simply share and show the love of Christ by putting my arm around her and simply saying, "I'm so sorry." Because do you know how many people tried to encourage her by saying those, again like we talked about earlier, those well-intended "they're in a better place"? Well, the problem is, Jack, that better place is not here, and I miss him. So when your coworkers or your employer is going through a difficult situation or a season, you have an opportunity to show and share the love of Christ by genuinely weeping with those who weep. To the Christian students here, what kind of impact could your testimony have if you were to respond to the abusive, bullying behavior that you encounter at school with kindness? It's challenging, because the way that we're wired, the way that our human relationships, all of them, work is, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, even in the best human relationships. But I often say
God doesn't have an itch, and even if he did, you couldn't scratch it.
Pastor Dan Cogan · 41:35
But because all of our human relationships are like that, even the best of them, we tend to, what's the word I'm looking for, we project that kind of a relationship onto our relationship with him, instead of recognizing, no matter how hard I try, I can never make myself right in your eyes, that can only be given as a gift from Christ. So that's what I want to encourage you in this morning, to walk in those identities, those eight identities of BASIC WAR.
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