My name is Ron Ritchie.
There are some complaints about the people coming
up here and not knowing some of your
visitors.
How many are visitors for the first time?
I don't know, what's going on?
Great, yeah.
Some of our visitors may not have a
scripture, make sure they do and just share
yours with them, okay?
Let's have a word of prayer, shall we?
Our Heavenly Father, we desire very much this
evening to worship you and praise you and
tell you how much we love you and
how we recognize that without you we can
do not one thing.
And we realize also that with you all
things are possible.
And Lord, we pray tonight as we open
the word, I pray that you'll give us
wisdom and insight and clarity.
I pray that you'll give your spirit of
peace.
I pray, Heavenly Father, that many who hear
this tonight, your word, will use it as
a mirror in their own life as I've
had to do this all week in mine.
And we've noticed, Lord, that when we hold
the word up to our lives, we continually
come up short.
But that you have given us truth and
given us the power to take the truth
and to apply it to our lives and
then to grow.
You've never given us truth to simply look
at and walk away from.
And so this evening, Lord, in so many
ways that we don't even understand, we pray
that you'll minister to your family through the
word, through those who are going to share
because they love you and want to encourage
one another, that you'll encourage afterwards as we
seem to love to stay and just to
have life upon life.
And we simply thank you so much for
this evening.
And we're going to thank you for what
you're going to do because we pray it
in the name of your Son.
Amen.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing, and we're
not quite sure which letter this is that
he's really writing, but he's writing to a
group of believers of a church that he
had started.
And he writes to them this time and
he says, another letter that I had written
to you is a letter that was filled
with admonishment and encouragement and some things you've
taken quite hard and it's caused pain.
It's caused sorrow.
And then in verse four of 2 Corinthians
2, he says, for out of much affliction
and anguish of heart, I wrote to you
with many tears, not that you should be
made sorrowful, but that you might know the
love which I have especially for you.
But if any has caused sorrow, he has
caused sorrow not to me, but in some
degree in order not to say too much
to all of you.
In this particular case, it comes back to
the 1 Corinthians 12 passage where if one
member is suffering, all suffer.
If one member is rejoicing, all rejoice together.
And so he says, I understand that when
I wrote the sorrow that was caused to
you was not just to me, it wasn't
between just you and I, but all suffered
here.
Sufficient for such a one is this punishment,
however, which was inflicted by the majority.
He had asked that they deal with certain
problems in the church and certain people were
involved in causing, through their disobedience, much heartache
to the other members of the body.
And so he had asked apparently the church
leaders to carry out some form of discipline
by the majority in order that the body
could maintain its health.
And at the same time that this believer
would be brought back into fellowship by recognizing
that God was serious when he asked us
to do certain things and that he did
not have the right, therefore, to stop the
whole body in its action as it was
moving forward in the community and building up
believers and encouraging one another.
Sufficient for such a one is this punishment,
which was inflicted by the majority.
It's enough.
So that on the contrary, you should rather
forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a
one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
Verse 8, Wherefore, I urge you to reaffirm
your love for him.
For this end also I wrote, that I
might put you to the test, whether you
are obedient in all things.
But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also.
For indeed what I have forgiven, if I
have forgiven anything, and in the original it
has the idea, and I have, I have
been in this with you from the start,
I did it for your sakes in the
presence of Christ, in order that no advantage
be taken of us by Satan.
For we are not ignorant of his systems.
We are not ignorant of his devices.
Now it seems quite apparent that when Paul
wrote this, but this was a true statement.
He was not ignorant.
He did not lack knowledge concerning Satan and
how he worked.
He was very clear in his mind to
the activities of Satan.
But for some reason down through the ages,
it is quite apparent, that we have lost,
laid aside, or neglected this truth that he
once knew.
That for many of us we haven't the
slightest idea who is Satan and how he
works.
Many of us have been psyched out by
TV programs and movies and we've lost the
true nature of Satan.
I have a doll on my desk of
Satan with horns and his red suit and
a tail and a pitchfork and he has
great big blue eyes and a beautiful little
smile and I keep looking at him and
he reminds me of my four-year-old.
And I love my four-year-old and
so the manufacturer has created such a doll
that I'm in love, if I'm not careful,
with Satan because when I think of him,
I think, my, isn't he cute?
Gosh, he's just the cutest little fella.
And Paul is not thinking he's cute for
a moment.
And as you study the scriptures, you find
out some characteristics of Satan and just very
briefly, we understand from John that he's a
murderer and a liar.
He's a murderer in the sense that he's
continually seeking to destroy, to cripple, to knock
down and to knock out anyone in his
path.
For the non-Christian, it's quite an easy
target for him.
He just starts the process of murder and
men and women finish it, many by killing
themselves.
With the Christian, cannot be possessed, but he
can be influenced.
He can be hassled by Satan.
He can be hassled very dangerously.
And Satan is a liar.
He takes something and tells you it's the
truth.
And when you try it out, it never
comes up to your expectation.
You say, I've been deceived.
Something's wrong.
That's what he is, a deceiver, a liar.
And Satan is an accuser.
He's constantly accusing us, telling us things that
are not true about ourselves to such an
extent that many times we believe that what
he says is true.
And this influences our life to such an
extent that we cannot be available to Jesus
Christ.
We're put aside by our own feelings.
And he's an adversary, one who goes around
as our enemy.
He declares himself as our enemy.
And Paul says, I am not ignorant of
Satan and I am not ignorant of his
devices.
Now, he says, the reason I want you
to know about Satan and the way he
works is because if you don't know who
he is and you don't understand how he
works, he will move in and take advantage
of you.
Where?
In the weakest part he can.
Where you are the weakest, he will move
in and take advantage.
When I was in the Air Force and
we were going through war games, I was
constantly amazed that we would set out in
a field trip and we would evaluate the
enemy and we would spend days evaluating the
strengths of the enemy.
And then the colonel would say, OK, we
know his strengths.
Where is he weak?
Because that's where we're going.
And every time we moved on the weak
area, we won.
And every time we moved into the strong
area, we were defeated.
Satan does not move in on strong areas.
He moves in constantly in our weakness.
And so Paul looks at the immediate situation
of a brother in Corinth who has been
disciplined by the body.
And he apparently has repented because Paul says
to him, sufficient for this one, this punishment,
which was afflicted by the majority.
That's enough.
Bring him back.
And he says, I want a little body
life.
I want you to move in on this
fellow's life, for he is sitting somewhere and
sorrow is starting to build.
He says, listen, I want you to move
on into him.
Because I don't want such a one to
be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
I don't want to lose this brother.
And so the first thing he asked the
brothers and sisters to do in order to
defeat Satan, he says, I want you to
forgive them, forgive him so that there will
be no opportunity for disappointment on the part
of this brother so that he will not
be disappointed in the grace of God, so
that he will not be disappointed in the
love of God, so that he will not
be disappointed in his brothers and sisters as
he understands how they're to move in constantly
and to be with him.
I want you to go and I want
you to forgive him.
Now, within ourselves, we do not have the
power to forgive people.
We say we forgive people.
But you know, when the pressure really builds,
we always seem to bring out that very
thing that we told them we forgave them
all about.
It's amazing.
We don't plan on it.
We don't work at it at all.
But we always seem to come up with
that thing we said we forgave.
Because within ourselves, we do not have the
ability to forget like Jesus Christ forgets.
Jesus Christ not only forgives us, but he
forgets our past sins and encourages us to
move on.
And so he says, I want you to
move in.
And I want you to move in understanding
your relationship with Jesus.
Move in and forgive this brother so that
there will not be a time of disappointment.
Now, you know, excuse me.
Disappointment is a very, very interesting thing.
It's the concept of a feeling that what
you expected from someone or something does not
measure up to your expectations.
I've been amazed as I think this through,
what has happened to me over the years,
that up until about a year and a
half ago, I really didn't understand something.
I used to go around and look for
a friend, and I would really work at
looking for a friend.
And I would have, quote unquote, a certain
person.
I'd pick them out and I'd start working
with them and talking to them and having
lunch with them.
And you know what happened?
Just a matter of time, a couple of
weeks, a month, pretty soon, I'd look at
them and I'd say, gosh, they sure disappointed
me.
I'm just so disappointed in them.
I just thought that they were of a
better caliber, better character than this.
Gosh, am I disappointed.
Boy, you go through a couple of years
like this, like maybe 10, time after time
after time, and you get pretty disappointed in
people.
To the point that you don't want to
have a friend anymore.
It's too trying on you.
And you're just tired of being disappointed.
And so you hold off.
You don't really get to know anybody.
So I was sitting with Ray Steadman up
in a lodge up in Mount Hermon one
day, and this thing really got to me.
And I said, Ray, I want to tell
you something.
I was looking in you for a friend.
And boy, did you disappoint me.
I said, I don't want you to go
commit suicide over this.
But you just really disappointed me, Ray.
I just expected more from you.
And in his beautiful wisdom, he said, Ron,
what were you looking for?
And I said, well, my idea of a
friend was true and honest and kind and
gracious.
Never judged me.
Always loved me.
Was, you know, open, patient, long-suffering.
Had tremendous self-control.
Always bragged about me to all his other
friends.
Only I was serious, see.
But he was, I could see him starting
to chuckle.
And that didn't, I just, I just saw
it.
I said, see, now you disappoint me again.
You're not even listening to me.
I've just grown weary over this thing.
And he said, Ron, you know who you
really have just described?
And I said, well, I was hoping it
was you.
And he said, never.
Forget it.
He said, you have just described Jesus Christ.
That everything that you wanted in a friend,
Jesus Christ was the only one that could
come through like that.
And like, you know, like clay falling off
my eyes.
I realized this tremendous desire I had.
I was looking in the wrong place.
I had it the whole time and couldn't
see it.
I kept expecting it in people.
Knowing the word, but not really believing it.
Always thinking maybe there was one of you
out there that would come across as a
real friend.
And then I found out that once I
realized that Jesus Christ was my friend and
had all the characteristics that I needed in
a friend that satisfied all my desires.
Then the Lord taught me to look at
others as brothers who are growing in a
process.
They're being molded to become like Jesus, but
they haven't arrived yet.
And then all of a sudden I had
to do that terrible thing that all of
us hate to do.
I had to look at myself and I
realized how disappointed I was in myself.
And I learned the most important lesson to
see one another as Christ sees us.
And that will never bring you disappointment.
It will bring you praise.
You'll just start to see their sense of
worth, your brothers and sisters.
You'll be able to see their tremendous value
in God's sight.
You'll see them as God sees them.
Brothers, sisters, growing as you are growing, being
molded into the very image of Jesus, but
not having arrived yet.
And you'll never be disappointed when you learn
that lesson.
And it comes from a forgiving spirit.
And that forgiving spirit was demonstrated to us
by Jesus Christ.
We are to forgive in his power and
to forget in his power and to move
in on one another.
And that's what he says.
I want you to stop disappointing.
I don't want this fellow to be disappointed.
So I want you to move in and
forgive him.
That's number one.
So that Satan will not be able to
take advantage of him in this area.
Then the second thing he says is, I
want you to comfort him.
I want you to comfort him so that
there will be no opportunity for Satan to
move in and to cause resentment.
Resentment is just the next step from disappointment.
And the idea of resentment is a feeling
of ill will, which is felt as a
result of a real or an imaginary offense
against you.
A real or an imaginary offense.
Now, most of us, if we're really honest,
have imaginary offenses against one another.
We build up things in our minds that
are unreal.
You can't believe as you think it through
how Satan moves in on you and causes
a spirit of resentment to come into your
lives so that when you open your mouth
toward a friend, you can't even believe what
you're saying.
You can't believe what you're hearing.
It's you speaking.
A friend of mine's here in the audience,
and I'd shared this with him earlier, but
last week he came over the house, and
he had phoned me earlier in the day
and said, hey, do you mind if I
come over the house?
I said, no, delighted to have you.
Gee, I'll be home waiting for you.
And I was very excited about him coming
over, and I was just looking forward to
it.
So I was waiting all day, and I
thought, gosh, he's coming over tonight.
That's just great.
We'll play some chess.
Maybe we'll just talk some things through, and
it'll just be a good brother-on-brother
thing.
My wife was away.
His wife was away.
And it was going to be a good
evening.
So I came to the door, and I...
Something slipped out.
Oh, okay.
I'm a Christian.
Come on.
And so I came to the door, and
I opened it, and I was so glad
to see him, and he brought another friend.
He said, hi, how are you?
And I said, well, whatever.
You know, come on in.
So he sat down, and we started talking,
and I couldn't talk to him.
And I was angry inside.
It was resentment building up because I never
told him on the phone that I wanted
him to come alone.
I assumed that he knew that I wanted
him to come alone and spend all his
time with me.
He's not dumb.
He's an adult.
And he came, and not only was I
disappointed in him, but by toasty, I was
really resentful.
And I started to realize what Satan was
doing to me.
At no time had we ever made a
statement that he was to come alone, and
this was going to be our evening.
I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm
in trouble.
So anyway, back to the plot.
As a result of an imaginary offense, had
I seen him two days later, I don't
know what he would have thought if I
opened up on him.
But fortunately for me, he called on a
Tuesday and said, hey Ron, I want to
talk to you about something.
And I said, listen, before you say anything,
and the Holy Spirit just moved in and
said, get this thing squared away before this
gets even more dangerous.
And I said, hey buddy, I don't think
you know a thing what's happening, but I
want to tell you how resentful I was
towards you the last two days.
And he said, well, I knew there was
something wrong, but I didn't want to ask.
Have you ever done that to people?
They just don't understand.
But you've got all this going on in
your head.
You've got all these imaginary things against your
brothers and sisters.
And they come at you, and they're just
loving you, and they're trying to walk in
the Spirit.
Boy, you just cut them off.
It's a dangerous place to be.
Satan moves in right there when you're the
weakest.
He moves in so beautiful, and he just
tries to destroy you.
And then the last point he says, I
want you to move in on this brother,
and I want you to move on him
and reaffirm your love.
I want you to go.
He knew that you loved him before this
situation happened.
He should have known that you loved him
through the situation.
But just in case he doesn't know this,
I want you to go, and I want
you to reaffirm it.
I had a gal Thursday night come to
me, just quietly.
We were in a house, and parents were
there, and we were just kind of talking
around.
They went out to the other room to
see something, and she just quietly came up
to me, and she said, I just want
to tell you how much I love you
as a teacher and a friend, and just
a friend of the family, and walked out
of the room.
And I just stood there, and I just
ate it up.
Because you don't hear it that much, and
it's such a shock, you can't move, you
know.
Not really.
But you know, you never get, you never
say to people like that, oh, shut up.
Boy, you say, you usually say, excuse me,
I didn't hear you.
You know why?
Because we so desperately want to be loved.
We so desperately want to be appreciated in
spite of ourselves.
That a person could see me and know
me that close, and say that they really
appreciate me.
Boy, that has to be Jesus Christ flowing
through the life of that person.
Because we don't have it within ourselves to
do that.
Not a genuine love is Christ intended it
to be.
And so, he says, listen, I want you
to reaffirm your love so that there will
be no opportunity for Satan to move in
and give you the root of bitterness.
The root of bitterness.
I often think of the root of bitterness
as like my danty lines.
I have danty lines all over my lawn.
I got a danty line eliminator.
It's a pronged instrument.
And I go in and I cut them
down.
And a week later, they're all back.
And I look at my eliminator and I
say, what happened?
I paid good money for that.
And I plug that in again and I
cut them out again.
And a week or a week and a
half later, they're up again.
Just tons of them.
And I look and I say, now what
in the world is danty lines all about?
So I went and I set out a
couple of them.
And I put the danty line eliminator in
there and I cut it off.
And then I looked down and boy, there
was a root enough to choke a horse.
It just kept going down into the soil.
So I started digging the hole.
And I couldn't believe why.
I mean, I couldn't believe that a danty
line goes that far down into my lawn.
And so all I was doing was just
taking off the top of the problem.
I wasn't dealing with the root.
And Paul says here, I want you to
reaffirm your love to this brother who now
is to come back into the family.
I want you to reaffirm it so that
no root of bitterness will come in.
That Satan will not allow that to happen.
That God will not allow that to happen.
That Satan will not be have that advantage
to come in.
And so our great desire this evening is
just to say to you as a brother,
that if there are some in this family
that have had a difficult time and you're
not pleased with them, and in fact, you
have been disappointed.
I'm hoping tonight through the power of the
Holy Spirit and the conviction of the Holy
Spirit, not me, because I got some to
work out, that you'll go to the person
that has disappointed you.
And through the power of the Holy Spirit,
forgive them and understand that they're in the
process of growing too.
And I'm hoping that there are those of
you who know of brothers and sisters that
are having difficult times, that you will go
to them and comfort them so that resentment
doesn't set in.
Don't watch them crumble.
Don't watch them struggle.
Move in and comfort them.
Put your arm around them and say, I
understand.
I'll be praying for you.
I can't understand everything about it, but I
want you to know I'm with you through
this problem or this trial or this difficulty.
And thus help them to eliminate any sense
of resentment.
And if there are some of you who
look around and you can see across the
room different friends where the love has broken
down, through the power of the Holy Spirit,
ask Him to set you across the room
to that person and to take care of
that issue by reaffirming your love.
Walk around afterwards and say, listen, I haven't
told you, but I really appreciate you and
I don't want Satan to take advantage of
you in any way.
I want you to know I appreciate you
and I don't want any root of bitterness
to start in your life.
Our Heavenly Father, we pray that through the
power of Your Spirit and Your love and
comfort and forgiveness that You'll help us to
move in on one another in a true
sense of bearing each other's burdens and loving
one another as You have loved us.
And Heavenly Father, I pray that You would
be so pleased to make us quite aware
of Satan's devices, of his systems, how he
works as a murderer and a liar, as
he works as an accuser and an adversary
who seeks to destroy us and to keep
us out of fellowship with You while we're
busily fighting among one another and resenting one
another and disappointed in one another and bitterness
springing up between one another.
And set us free, Lord, from this by
obeying Your Word and really experiencing body life
as You taught it to us by loving
one another as You have loved us.
Thank You for what You're going to do
this evening.
Thank You that You're our Lord and our
power and our ability.
In Jesus' name, amen.