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Eugene Prewitt

Courtesy of Cheer

And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.

That would probably be a good cheery thing for almost everyone.

Half cheery, to know he's going to live is a good thing.

Verse 25, Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as was told me." Then verse 36, then were they all of, what does it say?

I just want to present us 2 simple thoughts this morning and 1 of them is illustrated well in this story.

An atmosphere, it may be charged with the life-giving power of faith and hope and love, which is such a beautiful quote that it can nearly become a cliche because we say it and stop thinking about it.

But what I mean by that is that it's very nice to be around happy people.

And it's just a simple step from that common sense to realize that it's courteous to be nice.

There is a time when this type of courtesy requires no self-denial.

It's easy to be happy, for example, when you're given a carob coconut cookie.

But there are times when being happy requires more self-denial.

For example, when you're about to jump into an ocean with angry waves and little pieces of your ship break into pieces with a bunch of other criminals and mean soldiers that wanted to kill you just a few minutes ago.

For example, and what did Paul say to all those people, mean soldiers and bad criminals?

I recommend it to you too, be of good cheer.

He said, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.

And then he said, in the world you will have...

And then comes that be of good cheer, doesn't it?

You have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

That's the first point, and I guess I'm half done.

When I say the courtesy of self-denial, I really just mean that.

Now There is a special place in the Bible where you can find a bunch of practical instruction.

If you have Bibles, turn there to Romans chapter 12.

Romans chapter 12 is just full of all kinds of little tidbits of wise ideas about how to live.

Romans 12, and we're going to look at verse 8.

But we're going to skip the first 7 words, because they don't make any sense if you start in verse 8, and we don't want to start any earlier than that.

So we're going to go to where it says, He that giveth.

He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.

Or if you have a marginal reading there, it says liberally.

In other words, if you're going to give, do it generously.

To give pitifully is just not really giving.

And he that ruleth, let him do it with diligence.

Now listen to this last part, it's so interesting.

Have you ever said or heard something like this?

I just want to present to you that when you forgive people like that, with the sound of your voice, like, okay, I'll forgive you.

When you forgive like that, it doesn't feel like to their person that he's forgiven.

So are you supposed to show mercy to people?

You should, but how should you show mercy?

That's courteous, because you don't necessarily feel like that.

Be kindly affectioned 1 to another with brotherly love in honor preferring 1 another.

I almost guess you'll hear more about this sometime, some other time this week, because it's such a, such a feminine verse, to be kindly affectionate.

Men, this verse says that we should be kindly affectioned 1 toward another.

That doesn't mean 1 toward another, right?

This involves when I have that feeling, I had an illustration in my head, I have time for it.

I was looking for a specific, but I'll have to be general.

There are times when there is an unwanted item, maybe a piece of trash, for example, and someone ought to dispose of it.

So someone will pick it up and say, here, this is a gift.

And they'll give it and suddenly you have it.

And If you are responsible, you'll say nothing and go put it in the trash.

But if you're playful, you'll give it to someone else.

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Courtesy of Cheer

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