Key points
- 1
1Be sympathetic — feel what others feel, grieving with those who grieve and celebrating with those who celebrate, whether it comes naturally or not.
- 2
2Be loyal — because spiritual rebirth makes all believers brothers and sisters from the same family, we owe each other the steadfast loyalty of healthy siblings.
- 3
3Be compassionate — compassion moves beyond feeling to doing something, just as Jesus was consistently 'moved with compassion' and then acted.
- 4
4Be humble — humility means understanding who we are in relation to God, putting others' needs before our own, and honestly recognizing our own brokenness.
- 5
5Be forgiving — because Jesus' followers have been forgiven a debt they could never repay, they must refuse to repay evil for evil and extend forgiveness to others.
“Humility is to understand who we are in relationship to God, who we are in relationship to each other, and to recognize our own brokenness”
“I cannot call myself a servant of Jesus if I'm not willing to forgive”
A story from life
Pastor Pat describes a vivid dream in which he throat-punched someone who had wounded him, illustrating the natural pull toward revenge and the struggle to forgive
A story from life
Suns coach Monty Williams publicly forgave the impaired driver who killed his wife in a eulogy, modeling forgiveness in the face of devastating loss
- 6
6Be wise with your words — the tongue carries the power of life and death, so rather than retaliating with insults, believers are called to respond with blessing.
“Forgiven people should be forgiving people”
“What comes out of your life eventually comes out of your mouth, and what comes out of your mouth eventually comes out of your life”
“He didn't just write a letter like thousands of others, and those letters were nice. Sympathy, it's an important one, the first ingredient. He's saying I'm gonna do something”
Illustration
At the 1988 Olympics, speed skater Dan Jansen crashed hours after his sister died; a Special Olympics athlete named Mark sent him one of his own gold medals as an act of compassion
Application
Pastor Pat invites every listener to look honestly at the six ingredients — sympathetic, loyal, compassionate, humble, forgiving, and wise with words — and ask God which one most needs attention in their own life right now. The challenge is not merely intellectual agreement but actual practice: grieving with a friend who is hurting, putting a spouse's needs ahead of your own, releasing a long-held grudge, or pausing before firing off a cutting remark. As a community, Rock Point living these things out together is what will make the surrounding neighborhood take notice — not clever programs or polished messages, but the unmistakable reality of people from every background loving each other the way Jesus prayed they would, so that the world will know.
