Title: Doing Nice Things Can Be Habit Forming
Text: Hebrews 13:1-8 and 15-16
Thesis: It pleases God when we are conscientious about being grateful and doing good.
Introduction
Stephen Ambrose wrote the book, Band of Brothers… it is the story of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division of Paratroopers. Ambrose follows their story from their basic training near Toccoa, Georgia in 1942, to the invasion at Normandy on June 6, 1944, to the occupation of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at the end of WWII on May 8, 1945.
The title for Ambrose’s book and the 10 part mini-series that followed was lifted from Shakespeare’s Henry the V, Act IV, Scene 3 where Henry V gives a speech before going into battle saying:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother…
In keeping with the clear teaching of Jesus Christ, we may say, “Whoever shall be my fellow Christian is my brother and my sister…”
The bible reminds us that one of the good things we are to remember to do is love our siblings in Christ.
I. Remember to do good by loving your siblings in Christ
Continue to love each other with true Christian love or keep on loving each other as brothers. Hebrews 13:1 NLT / NIV
Those who have known military combat known well the sense of brotherhood that exists between those who go into battle together.
The writer of the book of Hebrews speaks of this familial relationship that extends beyond that of being siblings in the literal sense.
• There is that which we think of as brotherly love or sibling love between family members.
• Ambrose likens the familial relationship to that sense of brotherhood that exists between soldiers.
• Fraternities and sororities are named such as brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
• And, the writer suggests that the sense of sibling love may also be likened to the relationships in the family of God between Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
In his book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam writes: Before October 29,1997, John Lambert and Andy Boschma knew each other only through their bowling league in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Sixty-four year old Lambert had been on a kidney transplant waiting list for three years when thirty-three year old Boschma learned that he needed a kidney and offered to donate one of his to Lambert.
While in the hospital together Andy said to John, “I really like you John and I want you to know that I feel a kinship for you and would not hesitate to do this again if I could.” He later told the Ann Arbor News that he liked John before but now he was really rooting for him. They were men of differing professions and generations. They were of different race... but the fact that they were bowling buddies made all the difference.
When you look around the room this morning I want you to be aware of our differences. We are of differing socio-economic groups, generations, races and ethnicities, genders, professions, marital statuses, body-types, personalities… but the fact that we are Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, makes all the difference.
The bible reminds us to remember to love each other as brothers and sisters… we remember to reach out to each other because we are siblings.
The bible also reminds us to do good by remembering to love the strangers in our lives.
II. Remember to do good by loving strangers
Don’t forget to show hospitality to or entertain strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! NLT / NIV
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2 KJV
I don’t know that we encouraged to entertain strangers because we just might happen to get to entertain an angel. But the text does speak to the occasion in Genesis when three strangers, slash angels or as some believe an epiphany or theophany in which God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit made himself known by visiting Abraham and Sarah to assure them of the birth of an heir.
The context from which this teaching comes is from the early years of Christianity when the disciples moved from community to community teaching and preaching. There were no new Savannah Suites just around the corner from church or Double Trees up Sheridan and across Highway 36.
What they did have were more like flop-houses, roadside inns, and accommodations like we might find in some neighborhoods over on Federal. In the absence of any place to stay or suitable places to stay, Christians were encouraged to open their homes to the fellow Christians and particularly, itinerate ministers who were in need to hospitality.
Perhaps another way we might hear and understand the text today is through a story you may have read about in the paper.
The Wenatchee World carried an AP story on June 29,2005 about a wedding a young woman who broke off her engagement twelve days before the wedding. She and her parents had reserved the country club for a reception hosting 150 guests for $6,200. In that the club required sixty days notice for cancellations, the family was required to pay the full amount. So they decided to have a party anyway.
In place of wedding guests, the young woman and her family invited the residents of the Interfaith Family Shelter to the country club for a banquet. So fifty family members joined forty homeless folks for baron of beef, salmon, shrimp cocktail, fettuccine, and fruit. Strawberry shortcake replaced the wedding cake… and after the feast they packed up the left overs and sent it back with their guests to the shelter.
The almost bride was quoted as saying, “We had so much fun!”
Welcoming the stranger for us is about our response to the homeless, the immigrants, and guests among us.
Another way we do good is by honoring marriage.
III. Remember to do good by honoring your spouse (and your marriage), 13:4
Give honor to marriage and remain faithful to one another in marriage or keep the marriage bed pure, for God will surely judge those who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Hebrews 13:4 NLT / NIV
Anyone who knows anything at all about marriage knows that it is not always easy…
I remember a little story about a couple who had been married for over sixty years and at their anniversary celebration, one of the granddaughters asked her grandmother, “Grandma, did you ever think about divorcing grandpa?” The grandmother thought a moment and replied, “I never thought about divorcing him but I thought of murdering him many times.”
Norm Wakefield wrote in Volume 9, Number 4 of Marriage Partnership, “Grace is the powerful ingredient that will bind a man and a woman together when their imperfections pull them apart.”
Writing in Redbook Magazine Judith Viorst stated, “On advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in love again.”
I once heard someone say, “I believe marriage is an institution and anyone who wants to be married should be in one…” However, the mutual love and esteem between a man and a woman expressed through the marriage relationship is precious to God… God is serious about our honoring it. Our book of worship states:
“Holy marriage is instituted by God, regulated by his commandments, blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be held in high honor among all people. Let us therefore remember that God has established and sanctified marriage for the welfare and happiness of the human family.”
Our text reminds us that God will judge those who dishonor their spouse and their marriage vows through infidelity before or during their marriage.
Our text reminds us to honor marriage and to remain faithful to our spouses… we remember birthdays and anniversaries. We remember special occasions. We are thoughtful and considerate of our spouses. We express and demonstrate affection to our spouses. And we enter into no emotional or physical relationship with anyone other than the one to whom we have committed ourselves.
Despite whatever other voices are saying… faithfulness and fidelity in marriage is possible and preferable and pleasing to God.
In addition to loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, loving the stranger among us, and loving our spouses, God now speaks to our affection for money.
IV. Remember to do good by living a life of contentment and trust
Stay away from or keep yourself free from the love of money; be satisfied or content with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail / leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:5-8 NLT / NIV
Money is a tricky topic for most of us… J.C. Ryle said, “It is possible to love money without having it and it is possible to have it without loving it.”
Our text warns us to “stay away” from the love of money. Stay away from or avoid getting caught up in materialism.
When I was a boy growing up on the farm there were things we were instructed to stay away from. We were not to go to the pond alone. We were not to get into the pen with the bull. (I am reminded of a sign I saw posted on a farm pasture gate that read, “If you can’t cross the pasture in less than forty-five seconds, the bull can!” Bulls can be harmful.) We were not to play in the road. We were to stay away from trucks and machinery that were moving around the farm yard. We were to stay away from things that were potentially harmful to us.
God sees the love of money as being harmful to us. God see getting caught up in the pursuit of materialism as a harmful thing. It is harmful not only because the pursuit of things is addictive and enslaving… it is contrary to living a life of obedience and trust.
The first word we receive from this text regarding our love for money is to be satisfied or content with what we have. Contentment is the rule of life for the follower of Jesus Christ.
The second word we receive from this text regarding our love for money is inferred… that word is “confidence.” We can be content with what we have because we are confident that God will be faithful in supplying our needs.
Philip Yancey writing in Christianity Today (March 2206), “I remember reading about a spiritual seeker who decided he needed to slow down a bit so he decided to interrupt his busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. The monk who showed the man his cell said, ‘If you need anything, let us know, and we will teach you how to live without it.’”
God wants us to learn to live in contentment and confidence.
This week, in his Rocky Mountain News column, Garrison Keillor wrote about how “a bump on the head rings up a memory.”
He lives with his family in a grand old home in St. Paul, Minnesota that was built by a family that had a cook and a housemaid who lived on the second floor and were required to use the back stair that led from the servant’s quarters to the kitchen.
Everything indicates that the people who originally used the stairway were short people in that his office now occupies those quarters and he clomps up and down those narrow stairs a number of times each day… occasionally bumping his head on the low overhang part way down the stairs. (I am a little concerned for Garrison Keillor because I always heard that if a man bumps his head in the same place more than once, he is a slow learner.)
Each time he bumps his head he remembers his journalism teacher at the University of Minnesota. His name was Robert Lindsay. He was a gruff former marine who served in WWII and the Korean War… He was bald and there was a dint in his forehead that looked like he had taken a direct mortar hit to the head.
Every time he bumps his head he thinks of Mr. Lindsay and of how it was Mr. Lindsay who gave good value in the classroom. He wrote, “I was not a proofreader when I enrolled in his course and when I got out, I was. I still am. [And] whenever I hit my head hard, I think him.” (Rocky Mountain News, Saturday, September 01, 2007)
Remembering to be grateful for the good in your life is something you do until it becomes an habitual practice.
V. Remember to remember by making gratitude and good deeds a habit
With Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name. Don’t forget to do good and share what you have with those in need for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:15-16
How do we do this:
1. With Jesus’ help and
2. Hard work. Be conscientious about expressing gratitude to God and doing good for others.
To continually do something means to continue to do something without ever abandoning that practice.
Conclusion
DebbieTenzer is the founder of DoOneNiceThing.com. In that Mondays were always bummer days for her, she decided that she was going to begin a new habit of starting her week off right by doing one nice thing for someone every Monday.
Every Monday, Debbie Tenzer and others like her, are deliberate and conscientious about thinking of ways they can do good for others.
There are 18 Mondays remaining in the year 2007. Perhaps you would like to use the next 18 Mondays to make a habit of doing something for someone.
Doing gratitude to God and good things for others can be and should be habit forming.
