Another Manger

Introduction

Well, good evening to everyone. I want to commend Sean for the good work that he has done and leading us in song. Now I get to tell you that my whole plan was upset by Sean yesterday. And if you were looking at our website as to what I was preaching today, you might have noticed that it’s different. I was going to preach a sermon this morning entitled Living for Christ, Why I Want To, which I did not do. Instead, I preached the sermon that said I was going to be preaching tonight seven things about Calvary. I decided that was probably better to go in that order anyway, Sean. But as a result of that switch, I decided to postpone that sermon till next Sunday morning. And then I was going to do a sermon on disturbed Christians.

I knew I would get that reaction in this group. Because some of you would readily acknowledge I am disturbed. Not me, but you. You would acknowledge that about yourself. See, we’re going to have fun with this sermon. But it’s two weeks from now at least. So I decided to go with this instead as a follow-up to what we talked about this morning. And I want to welcome all of our visitors. It’s good to see some of our young people who grew up in the midst of the good folks at Decker Prairie and have come back home to see Mama. And Dad, I guess, too, but mostly mom. And it’s good to see all of you, all of you who are visiting with family. Good to see all of you with us.

This morning we talked about focus at this time of year upon the manger. And so I want to talk to you tonight about a manger. But not that. I want to talk to you about the manger of Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 4. You may not have continued this particular manger before.

Perhaps you have. The ESD says, where there are no oxen, the manger is clean. But abundant crops come by the strength of an ox. The New American Standard says, much increase comes by the strength of an ox. I find this to be an interesting proverb. It actually helps us with the whole birth scene of Jesus anyway when you understand what a manger is. It’s way overglorified when you look at Jesus being in a manger. I mean, we’re talking about the fact that there was no room in the inn, and we’re not even talking about a Holiday and Express. We’re talking about the ends of those days, not the comfort sweets that we enjoy. That’s actually a motel chain. The comfort ends of our time. This was a barn, which they found a place to lay Jesus.

This was an object, whether stone or wood, from which animals eat. And if you know anything about mangers and livestock, it is not a pretty thing to behold. They stick their noses in it. I mean, we’re not talking about etiquette here and napkins and order. It’s a huge mess. It’s rooting around in saliva and growth and mucus. And can I make that sound any worse than the picture I’ve already drawn in your minds? And so, what is this proverb saying where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of an ox. Well, if you wanted a clean manger, if you want it to be pristine and not messy and gross and full of all of those things I described, what you need to do is just get rid of your oxen.

Get rid of all of your livestock, and you’ll have the cleanest manger of any farm around. But you won’t have a crop because the animals are used to produce the crop in the field. You see, it’s a means to an end and a productive end at that. And so one commentator, Derek Kidner, one of my favorites in the Old Testament, said orderliness can reach the point of sterility. The proverb is not a plea for slavinliness is a good thing, physical or moral, but for the readiness to accept upheaval and a mess to clear up as the price of growth. Another commentator said meaningful results of any kind require time, money, and work. And so here’s the point of the proverb. The point is that growing things, good things, productive things, often involve a little mess, a little unpleasantness, a little work to clean up.

But the end result is worthwhile. I tried to remind myself of this when we lived in Auburn. And the members there chipped in because a lot of them were in the building trade and helped us to build a house. And for six months we lived in a duplex in which Shelley later lived as she attended Auburn University. Sort of odd how that worked out. But they built us this house and we moved in. It was about this time of year, a little bit later. I remember about this time of year, five years ago, Sherry and I were painting that house from top to bottom, and that was quite a job. And so we planned this house. We picked out our design. We’ve never built a house before.

And our room was downstairs off the living room. And there was an upstairs that had three rooms, and both of the kids’ bedrooms were upstairs and a bathroom that was connecting to Shelley’s room. And so the neat thing about that, parents, is that when your kids live upstairs and you live downstairs, you’re not a witness to a lot of the mess and a lot of the things that go on upstairs. But every now and then, while the kids were at school, I would walk upstairs to see the status of things, and you know what I found. It was like a bomb had gone off. I’m serious. I could walk into Brett’s room and not see any carpet. There were clothes strewn everywhere. And if you were at our house right now, you would see the same thing here in Tombaugh, Texas, because Brett is home.

Shelley was not quite as bad. But I would try to remind myself when I witnessed that scene that one day, and really that day has come, except for this brief window when bread is here, that a day would come when their rooms would be absolutely pristine and crystal clean. And we would not be the better for it. Because we would miss our baby.

1. Practicing Hospitality

And I know what the kids are thinking. This is the best sermon I’ve ever heard. Mom and Dad, I can have a messy room. The preacher said so. No, that’s not what I’m saying. It is not a plea for slovenliness, to quote Kidner. But I want to tell you what this proverb is saying is that sometimes meat is not positive, but negative. And I want to make four applications from this proverb about the manger in Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 4, four simple observations about serving as disciples of Jesus Christ. And the first has to do with practicing hospitality. The importance of Christians practicing hospitality is emphasized regularly in the New Testament, quite often. In fact, in the very beginning, when those 3,000 souls were baptized in Acts chapter 2, it says that they were having their meals together from house to house with gladness and singleness of heart.

Acts 2, verse 46. And then we encounter Lydia, that devout woman who was baptized in Acts chapter 16. And what does she do after that conversion? She prevails upon Paul and his fellow travelers to come into her home. One of the first things she does as a new convert is practices hospitality. And if you would turn to Romans 12, in that chapter that describes many things and activities that Christians are called upon to do, who are living sacrifices and transformed by the renewing of their minds. We’re to be fervent in spirit. More on that later in a sermon coming up. We are to be diligent in our efforts. We are to be devoted to prayer. But another thing that is mentioned in Romans 12 and verse 13 is that we are to practice hospitality.

And then one final text in 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 7 and following, as a result of the fact that the end of all things is at hand. And of course, preachers and I have talked many times before. We’re not really sure what’s in view when he says that. It’s obviously not the end of the world, because whatever he’s describing is at hand. But as a result of that crisis, whatever it is that’s coming, he tells them to be of sound judgment and sober in spirit for the purpose of prayer. And then he says, Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. And then this, be hospitable to one another without complaint. Now, why would anybody complain?

Well, it’s a difficult task. It involves hard work, it involves strenuous effort and sacrifice. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. And as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another. That’s what this hospitality involves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God. And let him do so, whoever serves, let him do so by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. And so that’s just a sampling of the New Testament emphasis on hospitality and how important.

Bill Murph is one of my heroes. We have some folks here from Eastside tonight. I’ve known Bill for a long time. And I don’t know of anybody who practices hospitality like Bill and Elaine Murph. In fact, they’ve already invited me over for New Year’s Eve. I have a previous invite, but he calls me every year to come over for the New Year’s Eve party and other parties throughout the year. Every holiday. I can’t tell you how many times he gets before the church and he says, y’all just come on over. If you don’t have anything to do on this, you come over. We’ll provide the food. Now Bill and Elaine are not able to do what they used to do, and that is to pretty much provide the food.

Now they cater it. They have different places come in and cater. And I realize that involves a financial contribution that they’re able to make to do that. But Bill is all about hospitality. That is his thing. If you know anything about Bill Murphy, you talk to him for more than 15 minutes, he’s going to mention the importance of hospitality. And I’ll tell you, that act alone of hospitality by those two people has contributed immensely to the success and growth of the Eastside Church. They have helped so many Christians. And it has a huge impact on their own family as well. I’ve made this observation several years ago, and I believe it’s true. We lose our young people for two great reasons. One, and probably the most important factor as to why we lose our young people to the world is because of who they choose as friends.

The second thing that I have observed, the young people that we lose often come from families who hardly, if ever, had any other Christians in their homes. And who did not practice hospitality. Now that’s not true in every case, but I have noticed those two things. I’m thankful that my mom and dad regularly had Christians in their home. I remember Halloween parties. I remember that disgusting thing of bobbing for apples. As a kid, I didn’t know how disgusting it was. I loved it. Go to the bottom of the barrel and pin that apple and pull it out. It was fun. See, you’re looking look at what you’re missing because you’re so afraid of germs. My mom also tells the story of one particular party. I’m sort of like this.

When I get tired, I go to bed. Well, I got tired, everybody was still there, and I laid down in the middle of the floor where the party was going on, and I was asleep when the party was going on all around me. And one of the people that was there still loves to tell that story. But let me tell you something about hospitality. Yes, it does involve sacrifice. That aforementioned house that we built in Auburn, one of the things that we were looking at in terms of the size of the living room was that we wanted to have the college devotionals in our home a couple of times a month if we could. And so it was often the case on Sunday night that these 25 to 30, sometimes 40 college students would come to our home for a college devotional, and we would try to feed them.

Don’t get Sherry started on the people who would put all of this food on their plate and not eat it, and then there wouldn’t hardly be enough to go around. She can tell you that’s part. But I remember the very first time we had all the college students over. Oh, we were excited. This was great. And I knew it was going to happen. Sherry and I talked about it before it ever happened. In fact, we bought one of those do-it-yourself carpet cleaners before it ever happened. We knew people were going to spill their drinks on the floor. And sure enough. And it wasn’t Sprite or some clear liquid, it was dark olas. No big deal, right? Those guys’ names were both Tyler. No big deal. No big deal.

There was another occasion. We don’t have a dog. We didn’t have a dog at the time. But our neighbors had a dog. And college students don’t always use the sidewalk. And you know God got tracked into our house that particular night. That’s a little unpleasant. And so when all these kids would leave, there would be this mess to clean up. It’d be a lot of work to get ready. I’ll tell you, we make hospitality way too hard. You know, we clean for at least four or five hours. And when you come to our house, we’re going to clean for at least four or five hours before you come over. No, we’re not. You’re going to be lucky if you get an hour and a half out of us.

Because you know what people do when they come to your house, Marthay, you know what they do? They look over here and they go, Martha Minnesota’s us right there in the corner. Do you see that? We’re never coming back here again. Do you think that’s what people do? We make it way too hard. We worry about are they going to like what I’ve offered them? Look, that’s the saying, go. Beggars can’t be choosers. You can’t go around to everybody you’re having over. Do you like this? Do you like this? Do you like that? It’s like, just we’ll make do. If you like peanut butter and crackers, we got some of that. We make that too hard. We just need to be together. And this again is mentioned over and over again.

Practicing hospitality. That’s important. It builds relationships in the local church. Yeah, if you don’t ever have anybody over, you don’t have to worry about the mess that results. You don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re going to like what you offer and serve them. You don’t have to worry about how late they say. Look, I’ve gone to sleep on company before as an adult. I remember watching a national championship game. It was a blowout, and in the third quarter, I was pulled back in third gear on my recliner and I was found asleep. I don’t even know when they left. We used to have a friend over in Beaumont, Mickey Taylor. He’s been here before and he was single and he would come over to our house and Shelley had just been born.

I tell you, when it was time, Shelley went to bed and said, Good night, Mickey. Turn the lights off, lock the door. When you leave, stay as long as you like. But we have to go to bed. We’re raising a child here. And she’s been known to be difficult. But you don’t have to worry about any of that if you don’t practice hospitality. But you may need to be concerned. If in the end you’re going to be invited into God’s home. Because this is something he wants us to practice as God’s people. What have you done in the area of practicing hospitality? Could you make a bigger effort in the future? You can keep the manger clean, but is that necessarily possible? There’s another observation that I want to make about this proverb.

2. The Cost of Leadership and Involvement

As it pertains to the cost of leadership and involvement in the local church. You know, somebody’s got to provide leadership. God wants elders in local congregations to shepherd the flock. He wants men who will teach. He can use men and women in teaching Bible classes. I mean, somebody’s got to provide leadership in the local church if it’s going to grow and thrive. But I want to tell you something about those positions in the kingdom. Is that there’s often a lot of baggage that goes with that. You know, if you serve in some kind of leadership capacity among the Lord’s people, listen to this. Somebody’s going to criticize you. And I’ll just tell you, there’s going to be a lot of people that criticize you. Because you’re visible.

But you shouldn’t be surprised at that. You name me one influential leader among the Lord’s people in the first century who did not receive criticism and trouble. Look at how the Corinthians, ones who owed their conversions to the Lord, to the work of the Apostle Paul. And look at how they turned on him, and he had to deal with that in 2 Corinthians. There were people maliciously reporting about Paul. Let us do evil, that good may come. That’s what Paul is saying. That wasn’t what he was teaching. It’s a malicious report. John, the Apostle John was rejected by Diatrophes who love to have the preeminence.

When it says that they had previously seen in verse 29, Trophimus, the Ephesian in the city with him, and they suppose that Paul had brought him in the temple. Now notice the text says they supposed. That hadn’t happened. And all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They took hold of Paul, and they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. He hadn’t brought Trophimus the Ephesian into the temple. And I love what Linsky says about that. A fine example of what hate does to men’s minds. Any pretext was sufficient for these Jews who knew no bounds in their viciousness, and Paul was ever their target. And so somebody might say, you know, I just want to fill my spot in the pew.

I’ll show up on the Lord’s day, and maybe even Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, but as far as leadership and involvement and the cost and the sacrifice that goes with that, I’ll let other people do that. Or I’ll let other people practice hospitality. I’m just going to sit on the sidelines here in the kingdom. I’m going to sit on the bench, and I’ll let somebody else get out on the field and do the work and provide the leadership. You know, we’re going to keep the manger clean. But is that really better? If we have to suffer for the cause of Christ, if we have to endure unjust criticism because we’re visible, because we’re workers of the kingdom, then so be it. The Lord’s leaders of the first century were so treated.

3. A Growing Church and Maintaining Unity

And that leads me really to this third point, and that is in regard to a growing church and maintaining unity. I mean, you have all of these different people coming together in the body. And I spoke about this a lot. And the difficulty that is sometimes presented by trying to maintain unity in a growing local church. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 in this regard. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 3. Paul says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord and treat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, and then this being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Endeavoring, the King James Version says. Being diligent, the new American standard says. We’re going to have to put some effort into this. It doesn’t just happen. Again, we can’t just sit in a pew and mind our own business and sort of not relate to the rest of the body. Everything’s not always going to be nice and neat in the local church. Sometimes people are going to say things in Bible class that are way out in left field. Or there’s going to be a disagreement in Bible, and all of a sudden it gets a little bit uncomfortable because there’s this disagreement about what this passage is each. Where are we going to go from here? There can be upset in the local church that pertains to withdrawal of fellowship and a number of other things that happen in local churches.

And that’s why you have to endeavor. Sometimes it’s not neat. It’s a little messy. Elders have a lot of messes that they have to try to clean up. I love the text in the Sermon on the Mountain, the Beatitudes says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. It has been my observation that elders often have to do this more than anybody else. To find the way to bring peace between people. And between people and a local church. And God wants to make peace with us in regard to our sins and troubles and our foibles. And he wants to bring us in a right relationship with him. And so we become like God. We imitate him as we are peacemakers. That’s why we shall be called the sons of God.

You have two people in disharmony, Euodi and Sintitchi, or who I’m reminded of in Philippians chapter 4. Paul admonishes them to live in harmony in the Lord. And the true comrade who is addressed is encouraged to help them to find that unity and peace. And so sometimes brothers and sisters get at odds with one another. You have all different levels of spiritual growth. You have new converts, and they bring a lack of knowledge in the Turkey to the mix. And there’s young and old, and you know, our young people like the supplemental song book. Those songs resonate with them. And yet sometimes those of us who are older, it’s like, I really don’t like all of those new songs. It really bothers me that we’re singing those new songs out of the supplement.

Is that scriptural to have two song books? Really? Okay, let’s make it all to one songbook. Would that be okay? Really? I actually know of a preacher who said that from a pulpit that’s concerned about churches that had two song books. What? Every song was at once a new song. Do you think they were singing hymns for worship in the first century? They weren’t singing any of those songs. Most of them were written at least 1500 or later. I remember when Adir was a new song. And we were singing it in the aisle at Eastside in Baytown. And it was a new song. Oh, that’s a pretty good song. Add the dear. I bet you like that one now. That used to be a new one.

And then the new song was a new song. You remember that? Go back a little bit further. And some of these songs, and you know what’s I’ve noticed is we’re starting to learn some of these songs that we’re singing out of supper. They don’t seem like new songs anymore. Not all songs stand the test of time and will be used by brethren indefinitely. If that was the case, our songbook would have three million songs in it. And that’s okay. So let’s not get, and some people, I guess got to say, some of them are guys. Who used to never lead out of a supplement? Do so now, Mike. They’ve done that. Even if it is farther along. It’s an old song that’s in our supplement. So we said, well, we’re going to get rid of that new song, but just don’t like it.

You know, but if that has an impact on our young people and helps our young people to have a real and vibrant faith, well, what do we want to do? I’ve wondered something. Are we trying to run off the young people? Or we could get up in the pulpit, you know, sometimes kids run in the building, and that can be dangerous. I understand that can be dangerous. And we need to tell our parents, as parents, we need to be concerned about our kids, your kids, about our kids. Hopefully, mine are not still running in the building. That is a dangerous situation. As a parent, I need to watch that. But you know, if we got up in this pulpit and lambasted parents all the time for the noise the kids are making, they’re running through the building.

Okay, so maybe they’ll go somewhere else and take their kids and take their problems somewhere else. What kind of message are we conveying? We want to be an old church that’s dying. Kids that make noise and kids that occasionally run when they’re not supposed to. I mean, can we really blame them considering the genetic package they got from their parents? They were like that or worse when you were a kid. Yeah. So, what are we trying to accomplish? There are little things that are problems in a local church that are not quite as neat as we would like them to be. But if we’re going to be a growing church, we’ve got to accept some of this. It’s not ideal and perfect all the time. One more application to this proverb.

4. The Efforts We Make in Evangelism

And it pertains to the efforts that we make in evangelism. Grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head, even Christ, speaking the truth in love. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15. And I’ll just say about that verse. I’ve heard some preachers say and seem to indicate that as long as you’re speaking the truth, that you’re speaking it in love. And if that’s the case, then it wouldn’t be necessary to say what he just said. There is a proper manner in which the truth needs to be spoken. It’s not enough to simply convey the truth. To convey the truth without compassion, as Jesus portrayed in Mark chapter 6. He had compassion and taught them many things. Jesus was always concerned about the soul salvation of his audience.

I could tell you a lot of truth and not be loving as I do it. If I do not want what’s best for you, if I don’t want your well-being and salvation, I have to think about that every time I preach. How is this message going to be received? Is it going to encourage everybody to do the right thing and to want to go to heaven? Or am I going to be a stumbling block by the way I present the message? So when I talk about this business of evangelism and trying to save folks, we’re talking about speaking the truth in love. There’s a proper manner and way to do it. Now, a lot of times our thinking is, and I’m guilty of this as well, let’s not dirty up the manger.

Because the minute you introduce the subject of religion, faith, and salvation, the walls go up. And the tense and uncomfortable situation occurs. It’s just a lot, we can even disagree about sports, but that’s a lot more comfortable. We can even disagree about politics, and people get intense about that. And we can disagree about a lot of things. Hey, we just talk about the weather and popular events that have happened, and we’ll have a much more pleasant interchange and conversation with people. You introduce the soul and what people think about God and what the truth of the Bible is. Then things get tense, and we get uncomfortable. Have you ever tried to confess your faith to someone? There it was the open door, and you walk through, and you say what, even if you say what needs to be said, how it needs to be said, it’s still uncomfortable.

Because you know you’ve introduced faith into the discussion. And that this may be a person who does not agree with what you know the Bible teaches. And so a lot of times we’re reluctant to bring it up with the coworker, we’re reluctant to bring it up to a neighbor, or even reluctant to bring it up with someone that we have a great deal of influence upon because they are family. Because we don’t want to mess up the relationship. We want to keep things rocking along smoothly. But is that better? You know, if I bring up the subject of someone’s soul’s salvation, and I believe they’re not in a right relationship with God, if I bring this up, they may get mad at me. They may say, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

It can get tense.

You have caused our relationship to be damaged. That could be the reaction. Somebody could decide, I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want you talking to me about this anymore. Boom, shut you down. That’s potentially the case. That’s not pleasant. That’s not desirable. But is it better to say nothing and just let them be lost? Is it better to let them continue in their sins? Or is it better to be bold and love it in the confession of Jesus Christ? I want to say more about confession in a future sermon. I was put on to something about confession that I want to preach on, and I’ll get to that in the new year. But let’s not be guilty of thinking. You know, if we introduce this subject, the manger gets dirty.

But when you think about it, somebody’s welfare, their soul’s welfare before God, that’s just a whole lot more important than exchanging presence and having turkey and dress it together. It’s just more important than that. I’m not wanting, I’m not wanting to push them away. But the gospel might.

And so you can keep the manger clean, but what about the potential cost to souls? Is that positive? Sometimes me.

Conclusion

What is your status with the living God? Could there be somebody in our audience tonight who’s not ready to meet the Lord? I know we have big plans and enjoyable times with the family approaching, and our kids are all excited, and it’s great when you have little kids this time of year. It’s a wonderful thing. We’re approaching this holiday season with plans with family and friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, and all that is a wonderful thing. But look, if we’re not ready to meet the Lord, ultimately all of that is meaningless. And there may be somebody in this audience tonight who has not yet obeyed the Lord. And you have sin on your account. You’ve not been washed in the blood of Jesus. And taking care of that is more important than what your next meal is going to be or what your next activity plan is.

We’re not baptizing a lot of folks. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that. I have. It’s discouraging. We’ve got to start bringing more people to the Lord. There may be even some in our midst who need to be further taught. Who needs to come to the truth so that their souls might be saved? Let’s arrange those discussions and those studies. So perhaps you’re in this audience tonight and you’ve been putting off what you know needs to be done. The salvation of your soul is your most important concern. Have you decided to follow Jesus? And won’t you decide now while we stand and say?