Neat But Negative (The Other Manger)

Introduction

Okay, the little story to begin tonight. And the story is this. If you were here in 2012, you’ve heard a version of this sermon. This is probably only the second time that I’ve done this in 10 years. Let me tell you how this unfolded. Number one, I realized that most of you were not here in 2012. And those of you that were here in 2012 will probably not remember a word of this. Maybe. And if you do remember this lesson, you get a gold star from Tony, which is worth absolutely nothing. But you will be given the gold star because you remembered. And you know how important that is when you remember a sermon. Another reason is because of the sermons that I was preaching in Jacksonville this past week, this sermon came to me as something that might be beneficial to a smaller work in Jacksonville.

And I preached it on Sunday night, and as I was preaching it Sunday night, and it was going over pretty well, I said, you know, these are thoughts that I really need to share with all the new people at Decker Prairie. And also to be a reminder for the rest of us who were here, the 20 of us that were here, and the two of us that could remember, and one of those is me, the sermon, because I preached it 21 times through the years, so I remember it pretty well. And as I was thinking about it tonight and the amount of material in this outline, I said, I’m not gonna wear you out with this tonight. I’m just gonna give you half of it tonight.

And I’m going to give you the other half next Wednesday night. So, Sunday night. So, I’m not preaching on Wednesday night. It’s been a long day. So, would you give me your attention for a little while tonight? I want to talk to you about the manger. And your first thought is, this is the wrong time of year. Isn’t this like a sermon in December where people talk about the entrance of Emmanuel into the world? The virgin birth, the Son of God taking upon himself human flesh, and the glorious descent of deity becoming humanity for our sakes. And it is a glorious thought. But that is not the manger of this lesson. Actually, when you talk about the time of year of that manger, this probably is a little more appropriate or a little closer to the actual time of year than perhaps the December date that is so often associated with those passages of Scripture.

But that’s not the manger that we’re going to talk about tonight. Instead, the manger that we’re going to talk about is found in Proverbs 14 and verse 4. This is another reason that I wanted to preach this sermon. And that is because we’re reading Proverbs, and we’re going to come to this very shortly in a few weeks. And when we get to Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 4, I want you to actually pause and think about the thoughts that we’m sharing with you tonight. Proverbs 14 and verse 4. Interesting proverb. I had overlooked for a long time. And my friend David Osteen wrote a brief little article on it, and I said, Hey, David, you’re wasting this material in a bulletin article. I said, This is a sermon.

And so I took it and I ran with it. And so I communicated with David this week. Thanks for the idea many years ago. Still using it. And we had a nice little text exchange about it. Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean. But abundant crops come by the strength of the ox. The New American Standard says much increase comes by the strength of an ox.

Now remember, when the manger is so often talked about in relation to the birth of Christ, it is a highly overglorified scene. Remember why Jesus was laid in a manger. It’s because there was no room in the local hotel as they were going to do the census that was required. This is the only place that they could find. This is not a beautiful situation. In contrast to the graphic that looks so comfortable, this is more commonly what a manger might have looked like. And it was not a very pretty thing. It is a place from which livestock feed. It is gross. Have you ever noticed this about oxen or pigs for that matter? Scott’s favorite. Have you ever noticed that it’s not a pleasant sight when they eat?

They stick their noses in it, and there’s mucus and grossness all throughout it as they gobble up the goodies in the manger. It’s not etiquette and napkins. It’s messy. They dive in face first. They dig around in it. And this is the point of the proverb. If you’re the one that owns the manger and the livestock, guess what? It gets really messy. And gets really gross. And you’ve got to come along and clean it up. And listen, we don’t like cleanup generally.

And as you go into a chicken house and start walking in a chicken house, it goes on forever. Miles. And if you’re the one, and one of the guys did this, was the one who had to clean up the chicken house. You start cleaning up all that grossness on the floor of a chicken house, and you go and you go and you go and you get sick of cleaning up the mess. But you know the great thing about chicken houses eggs and Chick-fil-A.

Yeah, Kirby. Yeah.

You know, if I own the chicken house and I supplied all the chicken for Chick-fil-A, I ain’t gonna complain about cleaning up the mess because I’m gonna be filthy rich. Money’s overrated. I mean that. That’s the point of the proverb. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I don’t want the mess in the manger. So I’m gonna get rid of the oxen. Okay, you get rid of the oxen, and you’re not gonna have any crops, and you’re gonna need the crops to survive. So the point of the proverb is this. And my favorite commentator of the Old Testament, he’s not very wordy. That’s what I love about him. Derek Kidner, he says it’s short and sweet and to the point, and it is good. And he says, orderliness can reach the point of sterility.

This proverb is not a plea for slavenliness. Oh, great, there’s a big mess. No. It’s not a plea for slavenliness, physical or moral, but for the readiness to accept upheaval. Now, hold on to that thought. That’s the one I want you to get. The readiness to accept upheaval, mess, work to do, cleanup, and a mess to clear up. As the price of growth. Kidner further encourages a farmer’s outlook rather than that of a curator. Sin Buzzle in his commentary says meaningful results of any kind require time, money, and work. Three things that our culture really doesn’t like in terms of expenditures. Meaningful results of any kind require an investment of time and money and effort. And so the point of the proverb is this. Good things, growing things, productive things, can often cause a little unpleasantness, a little discomfort, and may require some cleaning up.

And we need to keep that perspective about things. Let me help you with this. When I first preached this sermon, I lived in Auburn, Alabama. Yeah, we got some Auburn grads in here. We have an Auburn recruiter now. This is getting really good around here. When we lived in Auburn and built our house there, Brett and Shelley’s rooms were upstairs. The only two-story I’ve ever lived in my life. And what happens when your kids’ rooms, and Shelley was a teenager at the time, and Brett was in middle school. When your kids’ rooms are upstairs, you dare not go up there very often. Because when you do, it is an absolute disaster what you behold. And so I remember the time that I said, okay, I’m going to check on what’s going on upstairs.

And so I walk upstairs and I look in Brett’s room. And it appeared as if a bomb had gone off upstairs. And what I remember about that distinctly is, and young people, you can relate, I’m looking at the floor of Brett’s room. And this was a pretty good-sized bedroom. And I could actually see very little carpet. That’s how much stuff was strewn absolutely everywhere. And so you know what a parent does when he sees that. He blows up. Son, get up here. Clean up this room. What are you thinking? We don’t live like animals. Tend to business. You’re getting lazy. Get off that Xbox or whatever. But I gotta tell you what I thought that day. And kids, you’re gonna like this. Now listen. This is not a plea for slavinliness and mess.

You can’t go to your parents and say, Tony said we can keep our rooms dirty. I’ve got approval from the preacher. Take that, mom and dad. That’s not the point. Okay? Disclaimer. Let me tell you what I thought. And I hope I can get through this. Because I’ve been emotional lately. Okay. Here’s what I thought. One of these days, I’m going to go into what was my children’s bedrooms. And everything is going to be absolutely picture perfect. Pristine. Not a piece of paper on the floor. The bed is made. Everything is going to be absolutely perfect. And I will not be the better for it. I walk into Brett’s bedroom. Shelley only lived there for a short time, but I walk into Brett’s bedroom where he lived for three years.

I miss my boy. See, I told you I was going to get emotional. I miss my. I wish there was stuff strewn on meat is not all that it’s cracked up to be. That’s what the manger is about. Neat, but negative. The dirtier the manger, the more likely you’ve got crops in the field, and you’ve got an abundant increase as a result. In an agricultural society, that’s the point of the problem. Now I want to make four applications, unless I think up a new one for next week. Two tonight, two next week. Just a few thoughts. And these thoughts that I have, these four thoughts, not really related too much to each other in terms of concept, but just this proverb fits them. Point number one.

1. Practicing Hospitality

I want to talk to you tonight about practicing hospitality. And every time I make this point, I think of one man. Brad Walker knows him well. Great Uncle Bill. Bill Murph. Baytown, Texas. Here’s the only guy I’ve ever known who built a barn just to entertain people. My 40th birthday party, just a few years ago, was at Bill Murph’s house before the barn. And I think nearly the whole church was there. In his latter years, Elaine was an incredible cook. We always said through the years, Elaine’s amazing. Bill invites everybody, gets up, hey, it’s 4th of July. Anybody want to come over from the announces it from the pulpit? Want to come over to our house? Just come on. And then Elaine’s left mixing all the food.

But in the latter years, Bill got smart. He said, we’ll make this easy. We’ll just cater everything. But do you realize the cost of that? We’re going to have fajitas. We’re going to have a fish fry. We’re going to have fried fish. Just order it and have it show up. Pay for it. Feed the whole church. And as Eastside continued to grow, as some of our folks are from there, we had some big gatherings at the Murph’s. And so when you talk to Bill Murph, Bill, I bet he told me this a hundred times. He said, you know what? You know what’s really important? Hospitality. It was his thing. At his funeral, I talked about hospitality because that was Bill Murph. And you know what that resulted in?

It resulted in a congregation that was more united. We were actually close to one another. I don’t know why John and Micah come to mind as I talk about this. But it’s always at Micah’s place. He gets extra credit.

Do you realize? And I know everybody can’t do that. Hold on. Hold on. You realize how much the New Testament talks about hospitality. They ate their meals together with gladness and singleness of heart at the very beginning. In Acts 2 and verse 46. In that list of things that the one who is a living sacrifice and who is no longer conformed to this world. That person, you know what he does? Yes, he is devoted to prayer. Yes, he’s not lagging behind in diligence. Yes, he’s fervent in spirit. But in 1213, it says he practices hospitality. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 8. You think there’s just one or two references? Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. Because love covers a multitude of sins.

We want to help each other go to heaven. We talked about that this morning. We need to stay fervent in our love for one another. That’s what’s going to bring people to their senses at times to cause them to continue walking on the path. Part of that is be hospitable to one another without complaint. Did you see that? Oh, sorry.

That’s better than spiking the remote, Jacob. But this is probably going to be a meme. Okay. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. Now, why do you think it says that? Because it’s hard. It requires an expenditure of yourself. I mentioned the house in Auburn. One of the thoughts that I had was when we picked out the house, the size of the living room. They did regularly like we do here with the high school kids, but it was with the college kids. We didn’t have a lot of high school kids. In fact, we only had about four. And one of them was my own daughter. So she was going to be there. And so we had college studies on Sunday night, like we do with our high school kids.

And about 40 to 50 would show up. I remember ordering 12 pounds of ground beef just to have enough to feed them, and it was gone. Okay. And so you build this new house, and the carpet was really cool. It was brown, and it had a neat little design in it that you can see. I love the carpet. But I thought immediately, when we have all these college kids over, it’s going to happen. It’s going to be all over the place. So before the house was even built, I went out and bought one of those steam cleaners. Do it yourself. I still have one at my house. They’re awesome. First night, we have all the college students over. Big red. Spilt all over the carpet. Oh, that’s not the worst of it.

Some of the kids parked out on the street, walked through the yard into the house with you know what on their feet. And I don’t even have a pet. It was one of the neighbors’ dogs. That’s really annoying. So the first night.

Not to mention the cost. But do you know what it’s like? To have 50 college students huddled around in your living room. As we did the last song every time. My buddy Andrew Hall would lead the group and our God He is alive. We would stand together and pack in a circle in the living room and sing our God He is alive. It’s worth every penny. It’s worth the dog mess. It’s worth the big rat. If you don’t practice hospitality, a lot of work, a lot of mess to clean up, might take you hours. Oh, and by the way, when you have people over, we make this way too hard. When we have people over, you know what they do routinely? There’s a little piece of lid and dirt in the corner that they missed.

I’m never coming back here. When they vacuumed, do you see that? And that’s what we act like. Oh, don’t look too closely behind the toilet. Do you really inspect someone’s home? Good luck with that in my house. Does that really matter? We need to be together. You ever brought somebody into your home? You don’t have to bring the whole church like Micah does. John. Start with somebody. Pick somebody that you need to get to know better. I’m visible. I get a lot of invites. Pick somebody that needs some attention. Spend time with them. Get to know your brother or sister. Love. It’s worth the effort. I don’t I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted any time with members in my home. It’s always good. Always builds relationships.

That’s what we need. If you don’t have anybody over, you don’t have to worry about whether they like the food you provide. Seriously? It’s one meal. They’re not gonna die. You don’t have to worry if they like the drinks that you chose to serve or the dessert you had, or didn’t that? It doesn’t even matter if it’s a bring your own food occasion. We just need to be together. And here’s the thing. Your company may stay a lot longer than you want them to. That’s the real problem. I go to bed at 10. We routinely had a great friend of mine, actually talked about him before services in a different setting, but he was single and young at the time. And he would come over and just stay and stay and stay.

And so we just say, hey, brother, when you get ready to leave, turn the lights off, lock the door, we’re going to bed. Have you ever gone to sleep in the recliner when somebody was in your home? I did that once during a national championship football game.

I know of two major reasons. There’s a lot of reasons. We most often lose our young people because of the friends they choose. I think that’s such a critical. But secondly, I’ve noticed we lose a lot of young people from families who never ever have other Christians in their homes. When I look back on my life, some of the richest memories I have is when my parents had Halloween parties in our basement, and most of the church came. When gospel meetings happened, and great men like Robert Jackson and Dee Bowman and other gospel preachers sat at our table and ate with us. Those are special memories that have influenced my life ever since. Okay, so your company stays too long. It reminds me of the Far Side comic about the Arnolds and the Wagners.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this one, if you even remember the Far Side comics or not, but the Arnolds in the picture are laying on their backs with their feet up in the air, and the Wagners are just standing there. And the Arnolds are feigning death. Because the Wagners won’t go home. And it says, sensing the sudden awkwardness of the situation, they are compelled to leave. And if that’s what it takes, just feign death, maybe they’ll go home. But a loss of a little sleep.

2. The Cost of Leadership and Involvement

Don’t worry about the dirty manger. And the other observation tonight is the cost of leadership and involvement. I may come back to this next week. I carried on a little bit with hospitality, but that’s a sermon in and of itself. Let me just introduce this and I’ll finish it next week because I want to wrap this up.

Too many people, too many people among the Lord’s people are content to sit on the sidelines and let somebody else do the work. Somebody else needs.

Like we talked about this morning. And do the work. Regardless of the cost that’s necessary. Let me tell you something about being a leader among the Lord’s people. And our elders, our elders know this. When you lead, you set yourself up for unjust criticism, rejection, judgment, and pain. And there’s not a leader among our people who has gone through life escaping that. Not a single one. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know why people think that they can be armchair quarterbacks in the church and nitpick every decision and every little thing that the leaders do that rubs them the wrong way. They’re putting themselves on the line. They’re making sacrifices. Oh, I know there can be bad leaders. I understand that. But this happens to good leaders and genuine men who serve the Lord’s people.

Who sit in meetings. It’s just happened tonight. Trying to make our work more efficient. Trying to care for souls the way they need to be cared for. I don’t like the way Charles does his job. I’m just glad Charles works. He works. I’m glad our elders care for souls. I know that. They care for souls. They tend to souls. They work. And I can nitpick them to death if I want to. Please understand. Treat others as you would have them treat you. You walk in their shoes. You put yourself out there. Because everyone who does pays a price. That’s why we should submit to our leaders as they give an account for our souls that they do not have to do so with grief. Do you read that in Hebrews chapter 13?

Sometimes our leaders are grieved in the work that they do. Let’s hold up their hands. Huh. That sounds like the sermon this morning. Moses, Aaron, and her up on the hill. Young people. No matter the cost. And this isn’t just men I’m talking about. I’m talking about women who teach Bible classes. Some of our women work so hard to teach our kids. And I’ve been teaching for many years. And they have methods and ways of teaching our young people that I could not begin to touch. And they work hard for you. Like Mary worked hard for the church in Rome, Romans chapter 6. I don’t know who Mary was, but Paul mentioned her. She worked hard for you. People who lead get criticized. People who lead sacrifice.

So I just want to tell you, young people, understand, it goes with the territory. You will not escape it. And so many say, I’ll just be, I’ll just be the guy who shows up a couple times a week, maybe three times a week, as I’m supposed to. I’ll show up three times a week. I’m going to let somebody else do the hard stuff. Elders who serve well are worthy of double honor. Now we can debate what all that’s about, but our leaders deserve respect. Our leaders put themselves through difficulty for us. And we need to be grateful for that. But young people, serving in the Lord’s cause in whatever capacity you can, regardless of the cost, is worth every effort. And that’s where I want to finish tonight.

Conclusion

We’ll come back to this next week. Every moment of discomfort, every sacrifice for his great cause, every soul influenced toward faith in him. It’s huge. It’s huge. It’s so worth the effort. And it’s so much less than what the Lord surrendered for undeserving me. And it is, despite the grief, despite the pain that sometimes attends, it is so indescribably rewarding. Why do you think I do this? Not just because it needs to be done, not just because God’s word is true and wonderful, and I love it. This is an indescribably rewarding work that I do. And it is my hope, and it is my confidence that if I continue in faith, that it will one day be indescribably rewarding in a way that I cannot even now begin to fathom.

Every sacrifice we make, every act of service, every time we put ourselves out for others, every prayer we pray for others, is worth the cause. You can keep the manger clean, but your life will not be better for it. And really, the decision to obey the gospel is a decision to serve the Lord, no matter how messy it gets. I tell you what, you live in the world, the devil might just let you have a heyday out there. I’ll just tell you straight up. He’s not going to stand in your way. Now, some other things might. Consequences of your own sin, the behavior of others, but the devil is going to love it that you don’t serve the Lord. But the minute you come and say, I’m going to serve Jesus Christ, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He loved me and He died for me, and I’m going to sign on to His cause because the rewards are worth everything.

You make that decision, and you’ve got instant opposition. And there’ll be a cost. And Jesus talked about it in Luke 14. He warned people. Have you calculated the cost? There’ll be a cost. The manger will get a little dirty. Let’s roll up our sleeves together. Do the good work. Like they did in the days of Nehemiah. You might have to hold a weapon in one hand and a shovel in the other. They were working with one arm. That slowed things down. But with God’s help, they got it done. And we can too. Sign on to serve the Lord regardless of the cost. Listen and sin.