Revive Africa

How to Treat Your Neighbor

Introduction:
This month we celebrate our two year anniversary as a constituted church.  Throughout these last two years we have often studied and referred to the premier commandment to Love God with all of our heart…and rightly so since it is the greatest commandment, today we are going to take a little deeper look at the second greatest commandment…you are familiar with the second great commandment?  ‘‘Love your neighbor as yourself’’ (Matt. 22:39). Jesus said that how we treat our neighbors is second only in importance to our love relationship with God. The word neighbor that is used in Proverbs means anyone from our casual acquaintances to our very best friends. And here is a fact that we really need to remember even if it does not settle well with us…the word used for neighbor in Proverbs is used even for our enemies. It’s a brief passage but it has a potent message for how we treat others…So let’s delve into this second greatest command and how we should treat our neighbors.

Death and Eternity - Matthew 7:13-14

Years ago, I heard someone critically described as a man that was ‘‘so heavenly minded that he was no earthly good.’’ Well, today, for every person who is so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good, there are 10,000 people who are so worldly minded they’re of no heavenly good. We live in a secular age.

How Can I Find God's Will for Me? Proverbs 3:5-6

When Eskimos travel through northern Alaska, they are often in danger, for there are no natural landmarks and few permanent roads. In a snowstorm, even familiar trails are hard to follow, and the possibility of freezing to death is a constant threat. So the trails are marked with tripods, each bearing reflective tape. By following the tripods, the travelers can find their way. As we read the Bible, we continually come across the truth that God erects tripods for His children. This is not only assumed but illustrated over and over. We need divine guidance. Human schemes are wretched substitutes for divine guidance. Life is made up of choices, and very often we have no idea what choice to make. But wise Christians learn to spot God’s tripods.

Blood on Our Hands Ezekiel 33:7-9

The very title of this message contains a terribly frightening prospect for a minister of the gospel: ‘‘Blood on Our Hands.’’ It contains the kind of implication from which, if we followed our instinct, we would tuck our tails and run: ‘‘Blood on Our Hands.’’ Serious thought of the possibility of such a reality is almost enough to overwhelm even the strongest of us: ‘‘Blood on Our Hands.’’ Out of the imagery of the Old Testament comes the idea for the message. All major cities in the Old Testament world had a watchman stationed atop a tall tower on the wall, where a maximum range of visibility would be his. If an enemy army approached the city, the watchman’s duty was to warn the city of an impending attack. If the watchman failed in his duty of warning, and the city was overrun and its citizenry massacred, the watchman would be held responsible.