Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130203.htm

DISCIPLING DIFFICULT RELATIVES AND PRODIGALS
Part I: Shouldering Unconditional Love And Self-sacrifice To Reach The Difficult
(Romans 9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 10:31-33)
  1. Introduction
    1. Some of the hardest people for one to disciple are his relatives and prodigal children.
    2. However, Victorian era Western World missionaries reached Third World people groups in the Holy Spirit's power to disciple them effectively regardless of the enormous human hurdles involved, so, if they of all people could do this, God can then use believers today to disciple humanly difficult relatives!
    3. We view Scripture for discipling difficult relatives and prodigals, noting the first step of shouldering an attitude of unconditional love and self-sacrifice to reach them (as follows):
  2. Shouldering Love And Self-sacrifice To Reach The Difficult, Romans 9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 10:31-33.
    1. The Apostle Paul faced repeat rejection and enormous conflict from his fellow Hebrew countrymen in his effort to disciple them, a fact reported in passages like Acts 13:45; 14:1-2, 5-6 and 19.
    2. Nevertheless, Romans 9:1-3, that was written when Paul was a seasoned missionary (Romans 1:13) and had faced much opposition from his countrymen, describes his attitude of great, sacrificial love for them:
      1. Paul revealed that he spoke the pure truth before the Lord, his conscience also bearing him witness in the power of the Holy Spirit, when he asserted he had "great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart" for his unsaved Hebrew countrymen, Romans 9:1-2, 3b NIV.
      2. Indeed, Paul wrote that he could wish that he were cursed and cut off from Christ to suffer eternal damnation in hell were it to mean the salvation of his Hebrew people, Romans 9:3a,b!
    3. Thus, Paul expressed this love in a self-sacrificing way, doing the best he could to posture himself before his countrymen that he might persuade them to believe Christ's salvation Gospel, 1 Corinthians 10:31-33:
      1. Paul directed believers of the Church at Corinth to do whatever they did for the glory of God, and that in the context of their diet relative to the divisive issue of foods offered to idols, 1 Cor. 10:27-31.
      2. Those with weak consciences, especially those with a Hebrew background who strongly opposed any connection with idols, would readily be offended at one's eating meat offered to idols although before the Lord such foods purchased in the after-market were acceptable for Christians (1 Cor. 10:25-26). It only made good sense then to refrain from eating such meat if it would needlessly alienate one from discipling a fellow Hebrew or a weak believer who had huge reservations concerning such meats.
      3. Indeed, Paul urged that we should not cause Jews, Greeks or the Church of God to stumble by anything we do, but try to please others in every way, not seeking our own good, but the welfare of others that they might be saved, 1 Corinthians 10:32-33. [Paul did not mean we should sin to please others, but that we should do whatever we can in righteousness to build bridges and not alienate others from us.]
    4. However, Paul himself occasionally withdrew from his beloved countrymen for his own protection, cf. Acts 14:4-6; 17:4-10, 13-14. So, though the believer must love in a self-sacrificing way difficult relatives or prodigals, he must shrink back from them for his own protection as the need directs, 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
      1. Paul prophesied that "terrible times" would occur in the latter days of Church History (2 Timothy 3:1), for people would be "lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -- having a form of godliness but denying its power," 2 Timothy 3:2-5a NIV.
      2. From such parties the believer is to "turn away . . . avoid" (apotrepo, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 101), 2 Timothy 3:5b, and as the verb is in the middle voice (Ibid.), this avoiding action is to be done in ways that permit the believer to avoid needless harm from the abusive.
      3. Thus, in discipling difficult relatives or prodigals, though one must have unconditional, self-sacrificing love for them in his heart, he must still limit his exposure to them as necessary to avoid being abused.
    5. The enabling to heed all these directives comes from relying upon the Holy Spirit's power, Gal. 5:16-23.
Lesson: In discipling difficult relatives and prodigals, we believers must rely on the Holy Spirit to exert godly love and self-sacrifice toward them while also avoiding needless exposure to their abuse.

Application: May we follow Paul's and Christ's examples in discipling men, 1 Corinthians 10:33-11:1.