Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: Have any of you ever been in a position where you've said this or you've thought this, I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up for this. Being a mother, you know, being a mother. If you do good, there will be people who will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. And here's the word of the Lord, do good anyways. Do good anyways, that's the title in my message today. Just do good anyways. One of the ways of Jesus is simply to do good. When people are critical of you for doing good, almost every day we all can get a report that casts suspicion on the motives of someone who's doing something good, especially politicians. They don't always do a lot of good but once in a while, they hit the nail on the head.
Jacque: Some of them try.
Brian: Yeah. Some of them are really trying. What I've particularly enjoyed, many of you may not know this, but I ran for state senate in 1992. It's like 17 lifetimes ago. Jacque and I were very involved in the political arena here in our state, and I was asked to run for Senate and nearly won the election. Sometimes I'm very thankful I didn't. Since we moved to Corcoran, I have become more involved in, in city politics, which is to me, having been involved on both the state level and in the now a local level, to me, it's much, much more rewarding to be involved in a local level because you really know the people you are working with. Both sides of the aisle, shall we say, come together.
We really work to make our city better. Not everybody agrees with everything, of course, because everybody has differences of opinion, but in our particular case, I just found it very rewarding to get to know the men on the city council, the city staff, people who have served in past years as well. Let tell you something, they do it for no other reason than they want to make a difference. They just want to make our city better. One of the people who attends our church from time to time is currently on the city council. He was telling me the other day how at 5:30 or 6 o'clock in the morning, his phone rings, and it was an irate member of our city who was complaining that the plow dug up his grass a little bit when they were plowing. Most of us wouldn't realize that those are the kinds of calls that our city council fields, but they are. If you get enough of those kinds of calls, you might just have the attitude of, "I didn't sign up for this" and want to walk away. And the only thing that happens when good people walk away from serving is the vacuum is filled with usually bad people. And so we need good people to keep serving.
I was looking at some of the different, shall we say, heroes of the faith in the scriptures. And one of them is of course, King David. But before David became king, David knew what it was like to be accused of selfish, ulterior motives. And we see the story that when the Philistine army, you might remember this, when the Philistine army was coming against the army of Israel and they were setting up for battle. David's father sent David to bring some food to his brothers who were in the Army as well as to the commander of the army. David, as a teenage boy, does what his dad tells him to do. He takes this food, brings it to the place where the Philistines and the Israelites were about to engage in a battle.
David arrives and he starts to ask some questions like, what's going on here? Goliath and the Philistines were on one side of the mountain, and the Israelites were on the other. Jacque and I have been in that spot. It's one of my favorite spots to go to in Israel. I've picked up a number of stones from the very brook that David-- and don't worry, Israel is not short of stones. Anybody who's ever been there knows Israel is like one big stone.
David starts to ask some questions like, what's going on? And who is this guy? Who's this guy that's defiling the armies of the living God? Sometimes we need to get a little bit more backbone in standing up for the, the, the ways of God and the love that God has wants to bring to the world. Well, you never know where his greatest criticism came from, his oldest brother. So let's read it. We find this story in first Samuel 17. This is what his oldest brother Eli said to David when David starts saying, like, what's going on here? He just came to bring food to Eli and his family. And here's what Eliab said.
Jacque: But when David's oldest brother Eliab heard David talking to the men, he was angry. What are you doing around here? Anyway, he demanded, what about those few sheep you are supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle.
Brian: Here's David, you know, our risks, you know, limb and whatever to bring food to his brothers, and this is the response he gets. He is criticized for being good. What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to take care of those few sheep of yours? Kind of being caustic. David had just done what he, his father had asked him to do, and his brother accused him of being conceited. His brother accused him of being wicked. But you know what I love about this story? The accusation didn't deter David. It didn't deter him. And of course, we know the rest of the story. He goes and ends up talking to King Saul. They put Saul's mail on him. And that's not envelopes, by the way. That's armor and all this stuff. He is trudging around like this. He said, "I've never even worn something like this." And so he takes it all off, and we know the story. He gets his sling and goes to the brook, gets five stones. The rest of the story is there was a great victory.
I wonder what would've happened to the nation of Israel if David would've let the accusations of his older brother influence him so much so that he just left and went home. Do you ever wonder about that? And how about you? When someone accuses you of misconduct and being conceited or selfish, or you have ulterior motors for wanting to do something, you are just trying to get attention and putting you down for doing something good. Years later, David has now become king. This is maybe a little bit less well-known story than the story of Goliath. But David had a son; his name was Absalom. And Absalom created an insurrection against his own father to try and take over the nation of Israel. He wanted to become king. He raised up an army to seize the throne from David.
David could see proverbially or metaphorically the handwriting on the wall. He could see this pretty large army that had gathered against him from within. I think he was troubled too, that he didn't want to kill his own son. And so David actually fled Jerusalem with many of his officers or officials. He was accosted by someone from the clan of Saul. And we read that in second Samuel 16: 5-8. As David is leaving Jerusalem, he comes to this place called Bahurim. And this man came out and began to curse at him. And let's read it. It's in second Samuel 16:5-8.
Jacque: As King David came to Bahurim, a man came out of the village cursing them. It was the son of Guerra from the same clan as Saul's family. He threw stones at the king and the king's officers and all the mighty warriors who surrounded him, get out of here, you murderer, you scoundrel. He shouted at David, the Lord is paying you back for all the bloodshed in Saul's clan. You stole his throne, and now the Lord has given it to your son, Absalom. At last, you'll taste some of your own medicine, for you are a murderer.
Brian: We all know the story here. David didn't murder Saul. Saul and Jonathan died in battle, not against David, but against the foreign country. And yet this guy was from the clan of Saul. He was angry, he was jealous. And none of the things that this man was saying was true. David actually had been very loyal to Saul, hadn't he? He had the opportunity to take his life in the cave of Adullam and other places, and he refrained from it. One time he cut off part of the robe of Saul when he was sleeping in the cave. David felt just so guilty about that. And yet Saul was the one trying to take his life.
Jacque: He cut that robe off just to be able to show Saul how close he was to him and how he didn't take his life.
Brian: That's right. Here's this guy from the clan of Saul who's accusing David of being a scoundrel, a murderer. You stole Saul's throne, all false, wrong accusations. I find it quite intriguing, the response of David, we see it in second Samuel 16 verses 12 and 13. And here is what David said.
Jacque: Oh God, whom I praise.
Brian: No, that's not-- second Samuels.
Jacque: Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. And perhaps the Lord will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today.
Brian: Perhaps the Lord will see that I'm being wronged and will bless me because of the curses today. Now, I'll tell you what I would've done. God, do you see what this guy's doing to me? Get them. Wouldn't we? Let me just step back just in case you are a little broad with this lightning bolt that's about to come. That's really what would probably in our hearts. But David says, perhaps the Lord will see that I'm being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today. And so then it goes on to say.
Jacque: So David and his men continued down the road and Shimei kept pace with them on a nearby hillside, cursing and throwing stones and dirt at David.
Brian: He says, I'm just going to get out of here. David leaves the guy, follows him, taunting him, throwing stones, throwing dirt at him. And David just says, "Well, perhaps the Lord might bless me in all of this." Later on, David actually writes Psalm 1 09, and I want to read not the whole thing, I'm just going to read the first 13 verses of, of this chapter, where David says, oh God, whom I praise don't stand silent in aloof. How many times have we actually prayed? Right? Don't be silent; answer my prayers. And he goes on to say this:
Jacque: Oh God, whom I praise don't stand silent in aloof while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me. They surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason. I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations even as I am praying for them.
Brian: Have you ever really loved somebody, and that person that you have a heart for actually is, is accusing you of the very wrongs that you've never done? Wow. It's one thing to be on the receiving end of someone who is like an about enemy, maybe even someone you don't have a relationship with. It's a whole other thing to have loved somebody, and they now treat you in this way where they are making accusations against you.
Jacque: They repay evil for good and hatred for my love. They say, get an evil person to turn against him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty.
Brian: It's kind of like Jesus, right? They created false stories about Jesus. They brought in false witnesses against Jesus, even the disciple’s slander and then to pronounce guilty.
Jacque: These are all things they are saying against David.
Brian: These are things that are being said against David.
Jacque: Count his prayers as sins.
Brian: So this is almost like somebody praying to God to bring curses down on somebody. Count his prayers as sin.
Jacque: Let his years be few. Let someone else take his position. May his children become fatherless and his wife a widow.
Brian: How would you feel, guys, if that was prayed or stated about you? I pray that your children will be fatherless. You know what they are saying? I want you to die. That's what they are saying. I wish you were dead. Wow. Has everybody ever wanted that for your life?
Jacque: May his children wander as bakers and be driven from their ruined homes.
Brian: It's not only bad enough that they want this guy to die, but they also want his children to wander as beggars in the land.
Jacque: May creditors seize his entire-- they just went over everything. May creditors seize his entire estate and strangers take all that he has earned. Oh, they were bitter. Let no one be kind to him. Let no one pity his fabulous children. May all his offspring die, and may his family name be blotted out in the next generation.
Brian: I can honestly say that even though through the years there have been people that have talked against me and be critical of me, what I've experienced pales. This is much worse than what I've ever experienced, isn't it? I don't know if it's as bad as you've experienced, but I've never experienced anything like this. Here's David's response. We see it in verses 26 and 28.
Jacque: Help me, oh Lord, my God. Save me because of your unfailing love. Let them see that this is your doing, that you yourself have done it, Lord. Then let them curse me if they like, but you bless me.
Brian: He doesn't say make them stop cursing me. He said let them curse me if they want to. Let them do it. But you just bless me.
Jacque: When they attack me. They will be disgraced, but I your servant will go right on rejoicing.
Brian: So his determination is this, regardless of what they say about me, in spite of this horrific stuff that was said, I am going to go right on rejoicing in you, Lord. I'm not going to let what they say about me get me to start either believing it or thinking it's true, or let it affect my emotions. I'm not going to let it take rid of my heart. Now listen, we all have been designed by God to work in two ways, to love and to be loved. And when we are not loved, we can start to feel f feel bad, can't we? We can start to feel sorrowful even depressed. But the answer that Jesus brings to all of us is we can have the most horrific beginnings to our life. We can have parents that abandon us. You know, we can have terrible teachers in school. We can become the victims of abuse. We can suffer all these terrible things that nobody should wish on anybody. But when Jesus comes into our lives, he is the divine equalizer. He is the one that makes all these things go away if we allow him to and makes our life right.
None of us start at the starting line equally. That's just not life. Some people get a head start on others. That's just life. But Jesus is the divine equalizer. He can take our lives no matter how far behind we started, no matter how abused we have been, no matter how sorrowful a life we've had, how many things go wrong in our lives? How many people have put curses over us when Jesus comes into our lives, he is the divine equalizer. He is a divine equalizer. And that's why--- Yeah, let's clap for that. That's why he is the hope. That's why Jesus is the answer for the world today.
Jacque: Oh, can I say something?
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: And He is, our healer. When we pray healing, healing, healing. I think so much about the deep heart healing. He is our healer. He heals our emotions. He heals our memories. He heals our lives, our souls. He is our healer.
Brian: That's right. That's right. Jesus was accused of selfish behavior. Can you imagine that Jesus was accused of selfish, ulterior motives, yet he healed the sick, didn't he? He fed the hungry, comforted the outcast, consistently helped people. And yet the Jewish leaders accused him falsely, had him arrested. And we know the rest of the story there too. Eventually, his life was taken because of hatred. Now we also know it was part of God's divine plan. It was said that he opposed painting taxes to Caesar. When he had said, well, who do you see on the coin? We'll render unto to Caesar what is Caesars and give unto God what is god's. He was very clear about that.
He even said he claimed to be king. As a matter of fact, when the people of Israel wanted to take him and make him king by force, he kind of just slipped right through their midst. He said, no, that's not the kind of king I'm going to be. There were all sorts of false things said about him. Did that stop him from doing good? No, not at all. Then the apostle Peter comes along later, and he understood that when we do good, we can suffer for it. And we see that in first Peter 2 versus 20 through 23.
Jacque: Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong.
But if so, so what, what put Peter's really saying here, and I find this really interesting, that Peter, the guy that tried to cut off Malchus' ear and the servant's ear and he was just this kind of reactionary kind of guy. He is talking about suffering for doing wrong. And he says you don't get any credit if you are patient for suffering when you do wrong. Because basically you deserve what you are getting when you do wrong. But he goes on to say this:
Jacque: But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you, for God called you to do good, even if it means suffering just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threatened revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly.
Brian: Isn't that a better place for us to be in? In this world, you are going to have tribulations. In this world, you are going to have people talk against you. In this world, you are going to have people question your motives. Isn't it better just to keep doing good and let God take care of the other? Let God take care of the other. I recently had a conversation with a person who is really upset about a circumstance. This person started to make a list of all the things he was going to do to this person. And my response to them was simply, don't you think it would be better for the Lord to take care of that instead of you? Let the Lord deal with it, and you just focus on being good. I have a hard enough time being good without having to undo all the bad that I can get myself into. Wouldn't our lives all be better if all we did was focused on doing good anyways? Let's just do good anyways.
Jacque: Last night I was kind of complaining to Brian about a situation. He said, "Be sure and listen to my sermon tomorrow." Thank you dear.
Brian: You are welcome. You are welcome. Judgment begins in the home, I guess, right? Peter goes on to say this in chapter 3, verses 13 through 17.
Jacque: Who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?
Brian: That's a good question. Like, who would ever stop somebody from doing good? Who would want to hurt you for doing good? And I think the answer to that question is not very many people. Most people are going to be okay with you doing good. Most people are; however, Peter says this:
Jacque: But e but even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong1:13:00.
Brian: I can't promise you that you'll never suffer, but if you are going to suffer, suffer because you did good, not because you did bad. Isn't that good advice? I can't promise you that you'll never suffer. We live in a fallen world. The reality of our world is that everything is not fair. That's why we sometimes cry out for justice. The fact of the matter is, there are some things that will never achieve justice in this life even if you go back to an Old Testament standard, for example, the old eye for eye type of thing, or if you take a person's life, then your life needs to be forfeited. That was thought of as to be justice. But what if you took three people's lives? How could you ever have justice? You can't.
I think that the better desire for us, not that we shouldn't try to fight for justice to bring justice. We should, especially through our lives. We should always seek to treat people justly. This is what the prophet Micah said. Oh Lord, what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. I'm not saying that justice isn't something that we shouldn't seek and try to cultivate. It is. But let's not deceive ourselves. If somebody killed my son and they were executed for it, I probably wouldn't feel okay, I'm fine now.
There is only one place where justice will ever fully be met. And that's in eternity. That's an eternity. We need to put our eggs in that basket and live a life of being good, live a life of being a follower of Jesus. Being good or doing good anyways, is one of the ways of Jesus. The sermons that Pastor Jeff and Pastor Robert and I are trying to bring to you, starting a number of months ago, and probably throughout the rest of this year, are the ways of Jesus. This is one of the ways of Jesus: to do good anyways. Even when we don't feel like it. Even when we've been treated unfairly, even when the world seems to be against us. Let's figure out how can I do good in this situation? How can I take the high road in this?
Jacque: I think about Jesus; when he was accused, he was silent. Yes. He didn't try to defend himself. And what do we want to do? As soon as somebody says something, I get a word that somebody is saying this, I want to defend myself. I want to try to fix it. It's unfixable. But I thought of that verse, the Lord is our defense, and the holy one of Israel is our king. And we have the best defender in the universe, and he is our defense. Lord, help me to just be silent like Jesus.
Brian: There's a kind of a saying in the judicial system, and that is if you defend yourself or you are your own attorney, you are what? You are fool. Only a fool goes to court and defends themselves. You hire a good defense attorney if you go to court. Well, wouldn't it be better to let God be our defense than for us to be our defense? If we become our defense, I think we are foolish. If we let God become our defense, he knows how to take care of what belongs to him. And you belong to him in a good way.
Jacque: When my heart is right before him, I please him. I want to please him more than anybody.
Brian: The Apostle Paul weighed in on this, and we'll just finish with this in Galatians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. Paul says this to the churches of Galatia.
Jacque: So let's not get tired of doing what is good.
Brian: Some of you, have you gotten tired of doing good? I'm tired. I don't want to do it anymore. And here's this verse from Galatians 6, verse 9 that Paul encourages with. And he says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good, because--
Jacque: At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing. If we don't give up,
Brian: What are we going to get?
Jacque: A harvest of blessing
Brian: A harvest of blessings. I like that. Not just one little carrot pulled out of the ground. A blessing, a harvest.
Jacque: Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone.
Brian: So how many people are everyone?
Jacque: Everyone, all people.
Brian: Okay. So whenever we have the opportunity, do good to--
Jacque: Everyone.
Brian: It's amazing what goes through people's minds. I was going to forget it was a store, a food place. I think it was Leon Chin's, but I can't remember. And I'm walking and this guy's walking with his wife and I could just see what was going through their minds. Who's going to get to the door first? I kind of rushed up to the door and then opened it for him and said go ahead. It was like, oh, thank you. But we have so many opportunities to do good, different, little, tiny ways. The countenance, it was incredible. It was like somebody just put a smile pill in this guy's mouth and he swallowed it and all of a sudden, he was smiling. Every opportunity, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone. But there is a little caveat that Paul says here.
Jacque: Especially to those in the family of faith.
Brian: Yeah, we need to look out for each other in the household of faith. We need to look out for each other. We need to know each. That's why it's so important for us to stay connected as a community and even on our online community. We are trying to come up with more and more ways for us to be connected to our online community and to be a blessing in more than just the teachings and so forth. How can we be connected? And in our in-house family of faith, it's really important that we think of ways in our conscious of how to be intentional about doing good to each other.
Jacque: When we are intentional to do good always, there is a joy and a peace in our hearts. I want to live that way.
Brian: I don't have the scripture here, but Psalm 37:3 says, trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good. Let's not just stop at the trusting in the Lord. Trust in the Lord and do good. Be the person that God wants you to be: a person who does good anyways. A person who does good regardless of your circumstance. Being a follower of Jesus is where we will really find this deep personal meaning in our lives. We'll find it. And if we do good, there will be people who will question your motives. There will be people who will put you down for it even. There will be people who will think you have ulterior motives. And I would just say one of the ways of Jesus is to do good anyways. Just do good anyways. Pastor Robert.
Robert: Praise the Lord. Come on y'all. Praise the Lord. That was a good word. Thank you, Pastor Brian Jacque. That was, that's more sermon material, man. I'm telling you. That's good stuff. That's good. You know the word was very special to me because I was sharing with my wife and I have shared with her before, I went through a season of slander and accusation and persecution and turmoil and I mean, if I shared it with you guys, your mouth would just drop to the floor. But it was studying David that got me through it. I had a book called The Treasury of David and it's a commentary on the Psalms.
I was religiously in that book and religiously studying the life of David. And out of that, one of my nightly prayers and sometimes this prayer was on a tear-stained pillow. And my prayer was this: "God, you are my vindication. You defend me. Amen. You know what I've done and what I haven't done. I don't need to defend myself. I don't have to defend my name. I don't have to defend my reputation. You know me. You defend me, you be my vindication." And I tell you, I had to wait patiently. But God is a great vindicate and justice is that he will bless you when others are cursing you. He will bless you. And my life is fruit of that. I am not a perfect guy. I know. Don't be disappointed. I have my issues.
Brian: I haven't seen any yet.
Robert: I have my issues, but one of my issues is not how I treat people because I was determined long time ago my enemies and my friends will not know the difference between the two. I never retaliated against one enemy. That's not a brag or boast. That's a testimony to witness to you. My enemies and friends will be sitting next to each other, and they won't know that. They won't know the difference because I didn't treat them differently.
I've had to minister to a lot of people. When I first came to hope, I used these terms. You guys gotten used to my terms. One I used to talk to you about is a tainted heart, not having a tainted heart. Because when you have a tainted heart, it freezes you. It paralyzes you. You are not allowed to be used by God. I have had to be at the sick bed of people that I know have slandered my name, and I freely went to pray on their behalf for healing and to be raised up joyfully, cheerfully, not remembering the things that I know that they've said about me. Because those people, that person doesn't determine whether I go to heaven or hell or not. There's only one judge that determines and that's who that I want to please.
The book of James chapter 4, verse 17 says, to know to do good I do good and not do it is sin. We are presented with opportunities to do good all the time. My prayer for you in this household of faith online community, my prayer is that when the Lord gives you the opportunity to do good, always choose his way. Don't have a bad memory. Don't hold on to your pride. Don't justify your anger. Trust God and do good anyway. I pray for your strength in that hour of temptation when you can choose to do or not. I pray the only memory that you would have is God's goodness towards you. And that he will always be pleased for you doing the good thing. I pray this for you in Jesus' name, amen.
Brian: Keep Dave Thompson and his family in your prayers these next two weeks. And do your best to come and celebrate a life well lived on Saturday May 6th. We also have another service this coming Saturday at Sally Melchel's father. He was another life well lived and he was a good friend to this church. We are certainly going to miss them both. Deb is our neighbor literally. They are our neighbor to the east of Jacque. Our neighborhood felt a little lonelier last night with her no longer being a part of our neighborhood. But I know that this is not our home. Earth is not our home. It's all that we've ever experienced, and so we cling to it very tenaciously, don't we? We fight to stay here. We are very reluctant to leave. I think God has put that in our hearts in a good way and for a reason.
But when the Lord's will overrides our desires and it, it feels to us as though it's a mystery, it doesn't make sense. In those moments, we have to trust in the goodness of God. We have to believe that this infinite God knows more than this little finite being here and we can't always explain everything. In America, we want answers for everything, don't we? There are other cultures around the world that are more okay without having an answer that makes sense. But that's not how we are in America. And sometimes I think that hinders our trust in God and our faith in God. But there are mysteries to God that we have to be okay with not knowing. We just have to be okay with not knowing. But one day the Book of John says this. One day we will know as we are known.
One day we will know. And when we see the big picture and all that God is going through and working in our lives and working on the earth, things will align and make more sense to us. But let's not let the things that we don't understand about God and his ways hinder us in what we do understand and know yes about God. We see in part; we don't see in whole. We see in part. And so today, I encourage you if you have questions, that's okay, but don't let those questions undermine what you already know and believe to know is true about the love of Christ and what he is done for us. Let's raise our hands together.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. may the Lord make his faces shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be comforted with the gift of the Spirit of God, the gift of our Father. This we pray the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you for being here today. Thank you all of you online for being with us as well. We love you and we pray to connect real soon. God bless you. Bye-bye. One quick announcement. Dave and Lou will be over here serving communion and we do have people to pray for you at the altar as well. If you want communion, we'll serve it right over here.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 4-23-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.