I love my car. I love my car.
I love my car. Good morning. It's doing a goofy
thing here. Try again. There we go. Okay. Let's go live now. Yep. I can't see anything else. No, no, no, just like I gotta
ask him what he's saying. Yeah, yeah. Okay, your parents
don't know what you're saying. I'm going to bring a couple blankets
here for you, Christine. I got two extra. My winter pants, these are big.
Everybody's married, Joan, and that's the thing. Everybody knows
Mary. Except my, I actually probably am going to be a bride soon. She's born, and my parents are
single. It's just mine. It's still like
your circle. Yeah, all your siblings. Yeah,
my siblings are not married yet. Oh yeah, I didn't want to talk
about that. I'm not married yet. We've got to get Julian. We've got to get Julian. Do you want to go, Christine? Do you want to go down? I think they can sit down. Yeah, I think Christine's in
the back. Oh, okay, so you just want to
swap them. I know, I have to see how that
works. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. We're going
to be in Romans 12 this morning. Romans 12, and we're going to
look at verse 10, and if we have time, Get into verse 11. Last week we were looking at
loving one another and we focused specifically on verse 9. Romans 12 9 which said, let love
be without dissimulation, which means hypocrisy, not sincere. Abhor or hate that which is evil. Cleave or glue yourselves to
that which is good. We looked at that verse in the
context of Paul addressing us that we should love one another,
that there should be a love that brethren have one for another. And we understood it as an actionable
love. It was love that has action to
it. It's a love where we're doing
something, not just speaking in word only, but in action and
in deed. With that understanding, we interpreted
The verse, verse nine there, as let love be sincere, avoid
or hate that which is injurious or hurtful to others, to our
brethren. We don't want to do anything
that's hurtful or injurious to them. Earnestly endeavor to do
that which is kind and useful. So we were seeing that, right? That there's action to that and
there's a care that we take for our brethren. And even in that
passage of love, 1 Corinthians 13, it uses the word charity,
charity. And when we think of charity,
we think of actually giving or doing something, right? In love,
we give of our resources, don't we? Sometimes that is money or
financial things, but a lot of times that's skill sets and time,
right? Just being here, and doing what
we can in support of the body that the Lord has established
here locally. And so charity is a good word
in that sense of love, where it puts in our mind there's an
action there for it. Now today, I want to continue
looking at Paul's tracing out of our love, one for another. At the beginning of chapter 12,
deals with our consecration and our devotion to our God and Savior,
right? That we're living sacrifices
to Him. And then we saw the devotion
or consecration of our bodies in the offices of the church. And we saw even how that spoke
to all of us in the body. We all have a part in this body
in which we minister to one another. And then especially this part
from verse 9 to the end of the chapter is how we love one another,
especially them in the body of Christ. So I've titled this The
Walk of Affection. The Walk of Affection. You know, last week we were looking
at the action of love and we spent some time considering that
it's apart from the feelings. It's not necessarily inclusive
of the feeling that you may have for your spouse, for example.
There's a special love for your spouse and for your children
there. But that doesn't negate the fact
that we can show love and demonstrate love for our brethren as our
own body and with care for them in the sense of showing them
love and sacrificing ourselves because they're brethren. They're
brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for them just as we believe
that he died for us. We that believe him. We saw that,
but there is a feeling, there is a feeling of love and affection
that does grow in the brethren as we spend time with one another
and as we labor among one another, we learn things about one another. We see the sacrifice and the
care and the giving of our brethren and there is a sense of love
that is born out of that. When Brother Scott became very
ill, we felt that love. We thought about him and thought
about the times that we've spent with him and we could hear his
voice and his way that he says things and the joy that he brings
to us and just his presence being here. We felt that love and felt,
I don't want to miss I don't wanna lose him, right? There
was that selfish sense, in a sense, right? We know that he would
go to a better place, but we still felt, wow, he's so important
to this body and this work here. We want the Lord to restore him
to health and to restore him to be with us there. All right,
so there is a feeling, and I believe that's borne out in this next
verse, verse 10, Romans 12, 10. He says, be kindly affectioned
one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one
another. So that kindly affectioned love
that we're to have toward one another, it expresses a feeling,
right? And our ability to prefer another,
that's not easy to do for someone that you hate, right? To put
someone before you. to genuinely put someone before
you and their needs before you, that's a hard thing to do for
someone that you despise and don't like. And so there is a
feeling of affection there. And we see it's contained in
this brotherly love, meaning that it's directed toward our
fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ. There's a
brotherly love there. There's a number of verses that
do express the tenderness that brethren have for one another. There are a number of verses
in the scripture that do describe our love and affection for one
another in a very tender way. The Lord tells us these things,
not because in the flesh we're capable of doing that, right? Just to love someone that you
naturally would hate, that's not something that this flesh
can do. But the Lord tells us to love
our brethren. He tells us to love our brethren.
Why does he tell us to love our brethren if in this flesh that's
not something that we can just cultivate of ourselves spiritually,
truly, affectionately, actionably loving our brethren? Well, he
tells us this because he's revealing his will to us. He's letting
us know that this is the will of God, that we love our brethren. If he didn't say it, we wouldn't
know it. If the spirit didn't teach it
to us, seeing it in the word, hearing it preached in the declaration
of the gospel, we wouldn't necessarily think about it. We wouldn't know
unless the Lord told us, a new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another. And he tells us that so that
we hear it and then when we see in ourselves, in this flesh,
that there's a gap there between what the Lord's saying should
be and what I feel or what I do, then we see, wait a minute, something's
not right and we're taught, take it to the Lord. Lord, why am
I cold? Why am I hard-hearted toward my brethren? Why don't
I care?" Right? And so we see that in the flesh. The flesh goes through that,
right? We feel those. We feel and we think thoughts
that are not loving toward our brethren in this flesh. We know
that. We know it to be true. And so
the Lord tells us, love your brethren. And then we know, Lord,
I'm not right. What's wrong with me? Lord, have
mercy on me. Help me. Teach me, Lord, to love
my brethren. as you say to love my brethren
in your word. And so the Lord tells us, here's
a verse in Galatians 6.10. He says, as we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith. All right, we look for and We
pray that when there is opportunity that we see it. A lot of times
we miss things, especially guys, we tend to miss a lot. And so we pray, Lord, help us
to see those opportunities, to hear what my brethren are saying,
and if there's something I can do, right? No one's asking us
to just go and pay one another's bills or to do something that
no one asked for, but there are opportunities, right, that come
and we can, And we can show our love and affection for one another
and do things that are necessary just in the course of our dealing
with one another there. And so we want to seize those
opportunities in a way that isn't offensive to our brethren, but
it does show and demonstrate love and kindly affection for
our brethren. And so the Lord says this, because
we're not Some can hold on to grudges and some can hold on
to harbor ill will towards people and there's no place for that
in the body and for our brethren. Because when you're doing that,
it doesn't produce good fruit, right? How often have you been
angry with someone or resented someone and that it yielded good
fruit? right, where it was positive
and that there was blessings there for you and for them in
your hatred of them. There isn't, right? It's corrupt
fruit. It's barren or worse. It's corrupt fruit that produces
things that are ugly and not helpful to the body. But instead,
we want to be quick to hear our brethren, right, to speak with
them because you hear You hear them, you hear, I know how to
pray for this brother or sister now. And it is good for us to
pray for one another, to remember one another, because it does
warm the heart towards them and makes us mindful of what they're
going through or might be going through and cultivates that love
in us. All right, and then another one
is Ephesians 4, 32. Ephesians 4.32 and Ephesians
5.1 says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
And so we see that there's that tenderness that the Lord does
speak of in his word. He is telling us these things,
that we would have a tender heart and be mindful not to be harsh
and demanding with our brethren. And he says in 5.1, be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children, dear children in the spiritual
body of your Lord Jesus Christ. I was speaking last week after
the message, and a brother said, we were taught that we are to
show action, show the action of love, and the feeling will
follow. You show that action, you do
what you're supposed to do, and the feeling will follow. And
that may be. There may be. There's something
to be said for doing that. But what we see spiritually in
the word When we show love toward another, it actually creates
a feeling of love in them toward us. When you recognize someone
has made a sacrifice for you, that really touches you. All
right, that will touch you. And so when you show love, you're
likely touching them in a way that creates a tenderness and
a kindness toward you and a willingness to show you that same love and
affection if they can in some way. And we actually see that
in the next verse of Ephesians 5, verse 2. says this very thing,
it says, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and
hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God
for a sweet smelling savor. All right, we We only love our
God because he first loved us. Naturally, we know what's in
us, right? The scriptures and the spirit
in us has revealed the truth of that word, which says that
in the natural man, there's enmity with God. There's enmity that
we have, which that word enmity means a deep rooted hatred for
God. And that's what we are naturally
in Adam. When Adam rebelled against God,
that deep root, that root took root and that hatred became deep
rooted in us and that's what we are in the flesh against the
true and living God and His revelation except He give us light and life,
spiritual life to receive that and to hear His word and to behold
what manner of love is this. that God should sacrifice himself
for a sinner like me. And so him having done that action
of love, not just saying, I love you, I wish you guys would do
better. No, he came and obtained eternal redemption for his people
and the spirit communicating that to our hearts with power
helps us and makes us to see he loved me. And he died for
me and gave his life for me. And I'm not worthy of it. And
it creates in us that love back toward him. You see, and that's
why I say really what we see in the Christian, what Christ
is born in us is that action of love pairs that feeling of
love and affection for our brethren. And so when we do the same thing,
right, when we sacrifice it for one another, it's seen usually. It's typically seen. We typically
recognize when our brethren do something sweet and nice for
us. You know, I think about, you know, my own love and marriage
to my wife. If I'm always taking from her
and just taking and taking. Or I speak harshly to her often
without any cause. And how is my wife going to love
me if I don't do anything for her? If I don't hear what she
says at all and take to heart what she's asked of me and says,
I really appreciate when you do this, it's better for me to
hear that and to remember that and to do those things that show
her, that demonstrate to her, I love you, and I hear what you're
saying. And then when I do those things, it's so much easier for
her to love me and to do those kind things for me, because I've
shown her the action of love, rather than just saying, I love
you, honey. It's OK. I love you. That only goes so
far. That lasts, what, the first date,
and then After that, you know, it gets old really fast. So it's
very easy for us to love when someone shows us that they love
us and they're there and they hear us and it's very easy then
to love them. And so, you know, that's what
we endeavor because we see how Christ sacrificed himself. We
see how he gave of himself while as yet we hated him, while as
yet there was no love for him he came and sacrificed himself
for us to to give us the gift of eternal life and to give us
his spirit and to wash us of our sins and to present us in
a beautiful righteous robe with which we are presented to his
father holy and spotless blameless and without blemish where we
stand perfect before our god because of his great sacrifice
for us and And seeing that and believing what he's done, we
have love for him. We have love for him. Then he says there at the end
of the verse, in honor, preferring one another. So in other words,
when you see and recognize what needs being done, do it, and
do it with humility. Do it with humility and willingness. And there's actually a play on
words, because usually the one who is the servant, usually the
one who is the lowest among us, is in the back. When we speak
in human terms, they're in the back. But he's saying, take the
lead. Take the lead. You that are the
least, take the lead in sacrificing yourselves and serving your brethren,
preferring one another, putting them first. You know, it's showing
that honor and that respect for our brethren, that kindness to
the spiritual body of Christ. And so we take the lead in being
the least of our brethren. so as to show them kindness and
to be a help for them, right? Not in a manner that says, look
at me and be like me. I wish you guys would be like
me, right? That's not at all. That's in
your face and arrogance. And you know, people see through
that, that fakeness, right? That falseness, if we're doing
it just to be seen and to say, I'm angry with you. And so I'm
going to show you what I want you to do. just start doing what
I'm doing. No, that's not it, but rather
truly be willing to serve, even if you're not being served back,
or even if no one's done that for you yet. Christ said in Matthew
7, 12, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. You know, it requires being willing
to be taken advantage of sometimes, all right? You're putting yourself
out there. If you're acting first before
someone has shown you respect and you're showing them respect
or you're deferring to them before they've ever showed any deference
to you, it can be hard on the flesh, right? Especially when
pride is there and you're thinking, I'm not gonna, you know, show
them that kind of respect, they should be showing me that respect.
And I would imagine that could be really hard, you know, especially
with like an elder and a younger person or someone in the body
of Christ longer than someone new to the body of Christ. But, you know, the Lord, there's
still a, um, there's a willingness to be taken advantage of. But
typically if, if they're the Lords, they're learning and growing
in grace, and they're seeing your kindness. And even if they
don't acknowledge it, I mean, how many people have you met
in the body of Christ over time where you didn't see that first,
but you look back over their consistent love and kindness
toward you or the people in the body and you think, that's a
faithful person. That's a faithful person. Lord,
help me to be as kind and generous and gracious as they are. No
one looks back on them who, when you've been touched in your life
by someone like that, you don't look back and say, boy, what
a miserable soul that is. Boy, that person just is horrible. They just get taken advantage
of. No, you look back and say, That's amazing how much the Spirit
dwells in them and just oozes out of them in their willingness
to serve their brethren, even though others don't serve them.
But that's okay because if they're your brethren, they'll be touched
by your kindness. And the Lord maybe will teach
your brethren as well. There's others, right? As we
age, if we're a hand in the body, as we age and become arthritic
and hard and unable to do the things we did once, there's others
that the Lord raises up behind us and they're touched in that
same way by the love they saw and demonstrated in you. And
so they become that strong hand then, you know, in the body or
whatever it is needed in that body there. All right. So, It's
never, you know, we don't do it expecting to receive. That
isn't the goal. If your goal is to do it expecting
to receive, well then, you know, the Lord said you're no different
than the Pharisees or those, you know, in the world because
the world does things, right? We do things for our children.
We make great sacrifices for our children, expecting nothing
from them. But when it comes to others,
we expect, you know, if I'm going to do this for you, I expect
you to do this for me. And that's a natural, It's a
natural thing in us, but we shouldn't do that. I remember there was
a word I learned when I was in online school, and the teacher
always spoke of reciprocity. She said, you know, remember
reciprocity? And it sounds nice. It's actually,
well, it can be very nice, where, you know, we were expected to
write a, when we did the lesson, we had to put up our thoughts
on the lesson, and then we had to respond to two others who
also put something, their thoughts on it. And her point to reciprocity
was if you take the time, like don't just say, good point. Say,
that was a really good point because of, you know, and explain
yourself. Because the hope is that they're going to do the
same to you. They're going to show reciprocity in speaking
with more, you know, helpful words and, you know, something
insightful back to what you're saying. But reciprocity can be
a negative thing as well. So, you know, it's typically
used in business. I'll wash your back if you wash
mine, you know, or scratch your back if you scratch mine, you
know. Or like, you know, you go to the airport and you have
these Hare Krishnas that give you a flower because they're
expecting you to then in turn give them a little something
better back. You know, there's a gain to be had in this showing
kindness. But that's not what the brethren
should have. You may give way more than your
brethren ever give, and that's okay. The Lord who sees in secret
knows what you've done, and he promises he'll reward you richly
for it, and we can trust him, and that takes faith. It takes
faith to not immediately receive back what you put into it, but
the Lord teaches his people that. He teaches that genuine love
for one another. All right, and then there's a few other verses
where we see that we're to take that position of being a servant,
and it's throughout the New Testament. In Philippians 2, verses 3 and
4, Paul says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
right? Sometimes we just get angry.
No one's doing this, fine, I'll do it. You know, and we just
do it in a spirit of bitterness. But don't do that. Don't do that
just to prove a point. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. in people's business, but being
mindful that others do have needs and being willing to defer to
them and to give them precedence, right, to prefer them above yourselves. And then over in Luke 22, we
see there, Luke 22 verse 24, It says, and there was also a
strife among them, the disciples, this is now those with the Lord,
which of them should be accounted the greatest. You know, that's
Luke 24, which means this is at the end of the Lord's life,
of his ministry on earth, his earthly ministry. It's the end,
at which point we know he's going to the cross. He's going to sacrifice
himself. He's going to take the least
position. He who's the head and the greatest
of us all is going to sacrifice himself and give up his own life
and die our death and take our place Him who is the greatest
takes the least spot for us who are really the least, and he
does that for us. And so this is when they're arguing
about who should be the greatest. It's just quite a clash of what
should be, if you will. And then verse 25, and he said
unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. and they that exercise authority
upon them are called benefactors, all right? You only have good
because I'm willing to show you good, right? It's the kind of
thing that's coming to America here, right, with UBI, they call
it, universal base income, right? It's stripping us of the means
or the ability to provide for ourselves so that we are dependent
on the benefactor, the handout of the government, right? The
universal base income so that I have some money. That's a benefactor. And he says that's what the Gentiles
do, so that they have some lever to control you with, you know,
and get you to do what they would have you to do rather than you
being able to do it for But he said, that's what they do. But
ye shall not be so. You don't hold levers over your
brethren. That's not how it is for you. But he that is greatest among
you, let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that
doth serve. For whether is greater he that
sitteth at that meet or he that serveth. Well, it's him that
sits at me, right, and is served. But our Lord, who is the greatest
among us, said, I am among you as he that serveth. I'm here,
and I'm the greatest. He's our God and creator. He's
our Lord, our head, our husband, our savior, and yet he came to
serve us. And if he can do it, right, then
the spirit which he gives us By that same spirit, we can serve
one another in that same way. And that's not something of the
flesh. We must be born again. It's a
work of the Holy Spirit in us. It's a regenerative work that
only God himself works in us. Only he can bear that fruit where
we are made willing to be a servant to our brethren, whatever station
they are, or whatever part they play in it, that's what the Spirit
makes us in regeneration. We must be alive in the Lord.
And we're in the Lord by His sacrificial work. When He died
our death, or He took our place and died under the wrath of God,
that was our due that we might go free in liberty, having life
and fellowship with God and are reconciled to God by the blood
of Christ. So remember, brethren, how our
head, the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is greatest, served us. And in that spirit, we pray and
ask the Lord, help me, Lord, to serve my brethren in that
manner and be kind. and tender and gentle with them
in that same spirit. So I'll stop there, and I pray
the Lord bless that word to you, brethren. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy to us, how patient you are with
us, and yet, Lord, we see how over the years, In grace, you've
taught us and you've settled us in Christ. And Lord, being
settled, we pray that you would draw our roots down and fixed
in the vine of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we might bear his
fruits, even in service to one another, being gentle and gracious
and kind to one another, Lord, help us to see those opportunities
that you present in your body for your people in helping us
to labor among one another in the spirit of love and kindness. And we pray this in the name
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Okay, brethren, we'll take a
15 minute break and then we'll come back and meet for the worship
service.