The Evil of Partiality | Lon Solomon

foreign [Music] this is lon Solomon reporting after my knee surgery and wow uh I I I I I don't know quite what to say uh everybody who said don't worry about it it's nothing they need to be taken out and hung upside down by their heels aha for telling people that we mean it's nothing and are you kidding um to have your knee replaced are you kidding a butt the Lord was incredibly good to me um for some reason my entire knee uh it went numb my son surmises that they hit a nerve while they were in and uh I never had any I haven't had any feeling from the top of my knee down to the middle of my calf uh in in a month I haven't had any feeling it's numb I'm just beginning to get a tiny bit of feeling back well this is like a miracle as a result I was up walking around with no crutches no Walker no nothing um day three day two after my surgery and it I never stopped um so I'm off of any kind of uh opioid painkillers uh except I mean I'm I'm titrating the last little couple quarters of a pill of Tramadol but that's nothing uh never did go on oxycontin never needed it uh praise the Lord off Tylenol uh okay I'm up walking around I'm back to driving so praise the Lord uh was like um one doctor told me and then we're gonna get in the Bible yeah we are one doctor I called him and I asked him a good friend of mine about my knee because it was so it was still numb and he said well can you feel your foot and I'm like yeah he said can you feel your toes I said yeah he said Can You Feel the bottom of your foot when you you know put it down in step I said yeah he said well then why do you care if your knees numb for it's not even your knee anyway it's a piece of metal he said why don't you just relax and enjoy your miracle so that's what I've been trying to do praise the Lord thank you for the many of you who prayed for me many of you who sent me wonderful cards and emails and letters that's so sweet of you honestly and uh last night I went out for a walk uh in the evening when the moon was out um it was later in the evening Brenda had gone to bed I was walking on down the street with my little flashlight just in the moon just going God thank you thank you God here I am out walking what a great God you are so I'm Not Dead I didn't pass away and broke uh and I'm back to teach the word Live this week now got a little bit of laryngitis from a cold uh that I caught on a week or so ago and I'll try to speak not quite so loud and and and if I don't try to project too much uh then it I don't sound like a pre-pubescent boy of 13 years old so um today is going to be a little quieter message but that's okay right that's good so let's pray dear Lord Jesus thank you so much for your loving kindness thank you for the miracle that you gave me for my leg and thank you Lord that I'm up and moving around and and that there weren't any complications no infections no blood clots no nothing and Lord I just pray uh that you would continue uh to give me life and health so that I can preach and teach your word thank you for the many people who prayed for me and who wrote me and Who Loved on me and I I'm so grateful and Lord um I just pray now that you would guide our time in the Bible and use it in our lives in Jesus name we pray amen okay a couple quick things um you know I told you we're doing not a sermon just thought America not a sermon America uh and we just started getting ready to start up in Philly and San Francisco and we just had our third person take a month seventeen thousand dollars for the month for the two cities we have a third person take a month so some of you out there God has blessed you with the resources that you can take a month seventeen thousand dollars and uh boy if we can get 12 people to each sponsor a month a year man that'll that'll help our our uh cash flow a lot so pray about it think about it and if you can't you can I understand uh we all do what we can and the Lord is the provider um also I want to let you know that my wife broke a bone in her foot she fell down she lucky she lied and she's not lucky she's blessed uh because she landed like a a swan a dive right into the concrete in our garage one evening uh uh and uh you know she's very fortunate the Lord was very fortunate that I wasn't out there walking around picking up teeth or something or and taking the hospital for a broken hip so praise the Lord but she's in a boot for five weeks so if you can pray for her I'd appreciate that thank you and uh I'm calling Joe uh it says Satan off uh likey attack job I'm praying against him uh like the Bible says resist the devil and he will flee from you appreciate your prayers now you say long why you sound like The Whole World's wrong with you no everything's good let's get to the Bible what do we study at lawn Solomon Ministries we study what the Bible come on the whole Bible come on nothing but the Bible and what then we apply to our life that's right and so we're going to do that today and I feel like sounding a trumpet we're in John chapter 12 we're finally out of John chapter 11. oh boy and uh here we go uh new King James version of the Bible here we go then six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was who had been dead whom he Jesus raised from the dead and they made him a supper and Martha served but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him with Jesus then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spike in yard anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil then one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son who would betray him said why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor and this he said Judas not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the money box and used to take what was put in it stealing then Jesus said let her alone she has kept this the ointment for the day of my burial for the poor you have with you always but me you do not have always I like The New American Standard translation of that last verse for the poor you always have with you but you do not always have me now Bethany is as I've told you it was about two miles from Jerusalem Jesus often stayed there with Mary Martha and Lazarus and now he's on his way to Jerusalem for the triumphal entry which is later in this chapter chapter 12 of John's gospel and so he stops in for the night uh with Mary Martha and Lazarus and at dinner Mary brings out this fragrant oil in those days dead bodies were often anointed covered rubbed with fragrant oil mostly to keep the stench down but also just as a way of of the of bearing people and so Mary had this oil and she brought it out and washed Jesus's feet with it of course feet got very dirty in those days because she wore open sandals on Dusty roads but yet she wiped his feet with her hair that's how much she loved him and Judas Iscariot said we could have sold this oil this fragrant oil for a lot of money he says look what he says he said we could have sold it for 300 denarii a Denarius singular it was a Roman silver coin in fact here is a Denarius Roman silver coin with the emperor's picture on the front as you can see and uh this was equivalent uh to a day's work this is what you would be paid for a day's wages commonly and so 300 denarii was almost a year's salary so in today's money we're talking about I don't know say you make fifty thousand dollars a year um or so give or take um we're talking about that that um uh that oil being worth fifty thousand dollars that's a lot of money of course Judas could care less about the poor he wanted to steal the money and but isn't it interesting what Jesus said he said leave her alone she's doing this in in anticipation of my burial and then he says this uh very interesting again from The New American Standard verse 8 for the poor you always have with you but you do not always have me you can be nice to the poor and generous to the poor anytime you want they're here all the time now this is a very interesting statement of the Lord Jesus Christ didn't he care about the poor yes he did uh do you know how much good you could have done for the poor with a year's salary in ancient Israel you could have helped a tremendous number of poor people right yes you could and Jesus instead was okay with using that money something worth that much to Simply wash and anoint his feet yes he was you say that some wow that seems strange to me you know what folks she was worshiping him and as an act of worship Mary was using this oil Jesus said look if you really care about the poor you can always take care of them but this is something she's doing out of love and worship for me and it's good it's okay very interesting comment of the Lord Jesus now let me just say the taking care of the poor is a very important issue with God in the Old Testament over and over He commands the rulers of Israel care for the poor care for the Widow care for the orphan now of course they weren't Nation and they were the government of this nation and the truly poor people Jesus uh in the Old Testament was commanding them to have a heart to take care of the poor and the orphan the Widow indeed in the New Testament of the church first Timothy chapter 5. he's told to take care of widows who are widows indeed and uh Jesus stopped it Luke chapter 7 in name to heal the son of this poor Widow who would have been reduced to begging with no husband and now no son he had compassion on her Jesus his own mother was a widow okay but don't forget the church is not a nation and taking care of the poor is important for the church as long as it is a means to an end as long as it is part of it is a subset of go in the world into all the world and preach gospel so to take care of poor children like Mother Teresa did near and dear to the heart of God to take care of children and young people with uh just intellectual and physical disabilities like Jill's House near and dear to the heart of God but not to do it as the church for its own sake but to do it as a means to an end not only to care for these people but also hopefully to bring him to Christ any kind of social action Ministry is important as a subset of bringing them the gospel but to do it as an end in itself that is not the job of the church it's not the job of the church job of the church is to go in all the world and preach the gospel you with me and when I was leading McLean Bible Church we did a lot much for orphans widows single parent moms and dads children with disabilities uh on and on building orphanages overseas but always Within context sharing the gospel always as a subset of bringing them the gospel now will every single person that comes to chill cells well every single family come to Christ no we care for him anyway but that's our goal is to get to present Christ to them hopefully and that's the balance that the church must always keep now that's the end of our passage but I want us to ask our most important question now and I don't know if I can yell it with this voice but you know what it is so say it with me come on ready one two three oh what what yeah and I'm so excited to be back with you I gotta tell you I gotta tell you how sweet it is hey baby or as Jackie would say How Sweet It Is praise the Lord now you say Lon what's the takeaway what's the non-sermon just a thought here well I want you to turn with me to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. all right and I want you to follow along as as I read to you James chapter 2 verse 1. my brethren do not hold the Faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Of Glory with partiality for if this should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him you sit here in a good place and you say to the poor man you stand over there or sit here in my footstool have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts let me just stop and say what would those evil thoughts be well evil thoughts are if I'm nice to the man with a lot of money maybe he'll give the church some money or give me some money but the poor guy can't so I'm gonna be nice to the guy who might be able to give us money that is evil intent listen my beloved brethren has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and Heirs of the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him but you have Dishonored the poor man do not the rich oppress you and drag you into courts do they not blaspheme that Noble Name by which you are called verse 9 if you show partiality you commit sin if you show partiality you commit sin why we just said it the only reason to show partiality is because you believe the rich God can do something for you and the poor guy can't now you say yeah that's that's terrible but they shouldn't do that folks do you realize how much of that goes on in our world today do you realize particularly here in America here in Washington DC where where I ministered for 50 years it goes on all the time but not just with people with money here in Washington it goes on with regard to people with power and people with notoriety and people with public esteem and people with political leanings and and and uh uh Power yeah listen we at McLean Bible Church we used to have people all the con Times show up and uh who were Senators congressmen corporate big shots um politicians of every kind uh famous people would show up you know I never knew much about them being there because I never I didn't really care I was going to preach the gospel the same to everybody you know I never knew the giving records of anybody at McLean Bible Church say what do you mean I said I I mean I made it my policy the policy of our church uh that the pastor would never see the giving records of anybody nor would any member of the staff except a finance team why because I wanted to treat everybody the same I didn't want to know how much you gave I didn't want to know who the big givers were and so I was tempted because I'm human to treat them better to treat them nicer to spend more time with them in the lobby other than someone who wasn't a big Giver just because of that so they'd give more no I didn't want to know who who was given what because I wanted to be impartial to everyone and treat people the same because God loves people the same I don't care what you give or what you can't give we do this all the time in the church we do this all the time in uh uh um in Christian organizations where Christian organizations will have a philanthropy Department they will identify people who have significant resources and then invite those people into special events or the special weekends or whatever in the hopes that they'll make large gifts say is anything wrong with that lawn please don't try to convince me of that we are above this idea of of being partial to the rich and the powerful and the prestigious people we're not so and you're not and I'm dying so let me just take the scripture and say to you and me this is a this is a bad thing it's an evil thing James says that the poor are the ones worldwide who are the the rich when it comes to Faith and let me close by reading to you first Corinthians chapter one I'm going to read from The New American Standard because I like their translation of this these verses better than any of the other translations First Corinthians chapter one First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 for consider your call brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty according to the flesh not many noble according to the flesh but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God is chosen the things that are not that he might nullify the things that are that no man should boast before God now God's talking about people here that look what he says not many wise people on on the human level how many phds how many nuclear scientists how many really smart billionaires walk with Christ not very many uh and he is not chosen the mighty according to the flesh how many powerful men and women how many Fortune 500 CEOs how many political power people walk with Christ not many how many actors and actresses walk with Christ not very many moreover he has chosen not many noble how many kings how many queens how many politicians with great power and Royal people down through history have walked with Christ not very many that's the point he is chosen the foolish things of the world poor people Common People everyday people he has chosen the weak things of the world every day common people who aren't rich and they're not Mighty and they're not Noble and these are these are the people who for centuries and even today compose the bulk of people who believe in Christ so that no one might be able to boast before him when they get to heaven they didn't get there because of their riches or their power or anything else and because as James says that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith therefore if we show partiality to anybody you probably ought to show it to the poor and the needy the everyday people the blue collar every day folks let me close with a story about my dad my dad Irving Benjamin Solomon Irving with an i everybody called him buddy because he was a good old Joe he was everybody's buddy only had a high school education my dad and then he joined the army he was a paratrooper the 82nd Airborne a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne he served and got out of the military and then very quickly World War II started and he signed back up again and he never made the jumps in Europe because he had injured his shoulder during a training in Panama and uh he wasn't able to go because he had to have shoulder surgery a win they shipped out to go to D-Day my dad was a blue collar worker he was a jeweler in Smithfield Virginia he had a little jewelry store on Main Street in Smithfield in the 50s in the uh early 60s little town America walk and go over to the diner and get lunch sitting on a bar stool when I would go with him we'd go do that post office was a block One Direction and this was a block the other direction I mean there was nothing there it was just a couple blocks Smithfield Virginia and uh my dad didn't have a big time job with a big time salary and a big time uh uh Power position or big time notoriety he was just we'd go to synagogue on the on the weekends or in Jewish holidays and there were all these a little fancy makama people there who owned factories and owned businesses and owned uh big Shops and and were wealthy you know my dad was not that guy and you know what he taught me everywhere my dad went he always said hello to the blue collar people he would always say hello uh to the gardener hello to the guy picking up the trash you know driving the trash truck and and you know down the street and collecting the trash to people behind the counter at the uh uh uh confectionary store the drugstore in those days where you could eat to the people in the post office to people on the street he spoke to the common people because he was a common person and he always taught me Juan you're not better than these people no matter how much money you may end up with and how much education and he pushed education hard on me because he didn't have any and he understood how important it was but he said I don't care how much education or money you ever have the don't you dare discriminate against these people and he showed me in his actions that now my mother was different my mother had grown up in a family with a lot of money and my mother and you know I mean I'm just being honest to hear my mother was so rude to these people waiters Busboys uh people in the grocery store uh everywhere just the everyday common person she was so rude to them didn't just horrible was so embarrassing now she would they almost were non-existent to her my I'm so glad my dad taught me differently than the way my mother did it and to this day I worked very hard to say hello to the Common Man because he's not common in God's sight she's not common in God's sight and many of these people are the people who know Christ not the big shots I didn't want McLean Bible Church to be a church full of big shots uh the work of the church has never been carried forward about big shots it's been carried forward by common everyday people who are willing to get their hands dirty and serve the Lord and not be waited on and not to expect to be waited on so I want to challenge you to do the same thing to the person at the cash register in the grocery store greet them with a smile speak to the pharmacist or the person getting your prescriptions at the drugstore speak to and ask how they're doing to the lawn service people in your neighborhood learn to uh to reach out and smile at them and ask how they're ask how they're doing and give them a track uh speak to people working in shops in the airport or in the mall speak to waitresses when you go to dinner ask them their name uh ask them about their day you know I go to a car wash here locally in Fairfax where you pull in you know and so things flop all over your car and everything and whenever I pull in there's always somebody standing there you know they kind of spray your card tell you to put it in neutral you know what I'm talking about so you being going and there's one gentleman there I love this guy he I don't know you know much about him because I don't have much time to talk to and they're gonna the water's gonna squirt in my window uh but he's he's hispanic and I always put my window down for just a minute and go como esta and he gets a big smile on his face muy bien and I salute him like this and he salutes me back and I give him a big smile because the poor guy's been standing there all day you know and I give him a big smile and I go much gracias and he says Donata and you know what I'm just trying to add a little happiness to the guy's day I'm sure most people don't even pay any attention to that guy but that's not right the sad guy at 7-Eleven the guy at Wawa behind the counter let's Reach Out and be the friend of the poor and the week and the everyday person and be careful that we're not guilty of the partiality that James talks about let's pray dear Lord Jesus I thank you for getting my throat uh through all the message today and I thank you for my dad who taught me not to look past people and ignore people and treat people like they were invisible but Lord to reach out to them and and and and and and and speak to them and care about them and communicate love and concern to them Lord and just try to lift their day a little bit help us to do that for Jesus sake and then always be ready to give an answer to them about the hope that lies within us yet with gentleness and respect Lord that's the big word here respect for even the most common everyday person expect and we pray this in Jesus name and everybody said amen and amen God bless you it's good to be back see you next week Lord willing on Live Oak Lawn [Music] [Music]

Channel: Lon Solomon Ministries

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Length: 40min 13sec (2413 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023