Alright, let's turn to Romans
chapter 12. We're going to just sort of go through Romans 12
and you saw last week how it sort of flows, it preaches itself.
There's not a lot of things here that we have to really worry
about backing up or looking at different type of doctrinal positions.
So let's go to Romans chapter 12 and I will read the first
eight verses and then we'll go from there. I appeal to you,
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing
you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable
and perfect. For by the grace given to me,
I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think. but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as
in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have
the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another, having gifts that
differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them.
If prophecy and proportion of our faith, if service and our
serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who
exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity,
the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy
with cheerfulness. So let's start there and if we
get through that we'll just keep going down through the other
verses. Now I want to bring attention
to your Bible. And that if you have a printed
scripture, or a digital scripture, you may have these things segmented
in the first two verses, the next six verses, then the next
verses, and you might have things at the top of these sections,
such as the true marks of a believer, or true love, or being a sacrifice,
or the gifts of grace. Ignore those things. Those headings
are not for our understanding of the text. Those headings are
for us to just sort of find where the text is. And sadly, the people
who do the editing, not the translation, but the editing, they say, oh,
this will be good here. This is sort of a theme in this
particular text. But it's not where we should
derive our theme. Because the Bible, especially,
except for the Proverbs, the scripture in the epistles, the
letters of the apostles, They're not set up to be, OK, here's
this thing, and now here's this thing, and now here's this thing.
It's not like a fortune cookie learning. It's a continual argument. just like the verse and chapter
headings. They're not significant whatsoever. They're not divine. They're not inspired by the Holy
Spirit. There's nothing in those locations or headings that God
uses whatsoever. So learn to read the Bible without
paying attention to these things. Sort of like the footnotes in
a study Bible. Leave them be when you're spending time in
your relationship with Christ through the Scriptures. And what
we learned last week is that because now Paul has been so
just perfect by the Spirit in His exposition of the gospel
because we know very clearly who we are in Christ and what
God has done in Christ to redeem His people. Because of the gospel,
we now get this appeal. Now Paul is coming to the point
where, as I've already said, There is a means through which
God has ordained His people to live together and the purposes
thereof are found in the apostolic writing of what I call pastoral
theology, applied theology. Because this doctrine is true,
because this theology is true, because this gospel truth is
absolutely certain, therefore now let me teach you how to live
together. And that's what James does with his life. James' entire
letter is written to a group of believing Jews who have been
converted by the Holy Spirit out of the error of false works
and fruitful works and dead works of Judaism into the life of Christ
by grace. And so James writes his letter
to teach them how to treat each other. That's what it's all about.
There's nothing in the book of James that scares a Christian.
Nothing in the book of James that's supposed to make a believer
shudder and wonder if he or she is saved. And there's nothing
in the writing of Peter that should make us doubt our salvation. Just like there's nothing in
the writing of Paul that should give us pause to worry that we
may not be in the faith. Because the hope that we have
is our assurance. The assurance that we have has
an object. And that object, His name is Jesus Christ and He has
accomplished the work of redemption for His people, for the elect.
We are secure in the mercy of God, the grace of God, the work
of God. So now all the rest, all the
rest of this letter to the Roman Christians, to the church there
in Rome, is for us to learn some key points of wisdom and some
key instruction on how we relate together. This is not about the
individual. Listen to me. It's not about
the individual Christian who's supposed to take this writing
into their closet and learn how to be a living sacrifice, because
you can't be a living sacrifice if you're not in the Fellowship
of the Saints. You can't live for Christ if you're not with
Christ's people. It's impossible. Now that doesn't mean you can't
be Christ-like in your interaction with other people or in your
life and your thoughts. Okay, great. But that's not what
the instruction of this letter is talking about. It's not talking
about individual. Neither is James, neither is
Peter, neither is John. It's all about the collective
whole of the assembly of Jesus Christ, of His body. And so the
gospel demands the body because that's what it produces. It produces
the gathered saints of Christ. in the way that the Bible commands
and demands the church to be. And so we see then, but for by
grace, verse three, look there, for by the grace given to me,
I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think. And we looked at that a little bit last
week. So part of being not conformed to the world, but being transformed
is to listen to what Paul is writing. That's what verse two
is talking about. Renew your mind on the things
that I've taught you about Christ and continually renew your mind
on the mercies of God. Then you will be able to test
what you think, what you do, what you hear, what you see,
how you relate to discern if it is the will of God and the
will of God is good and perfect and acceptable. So, a further
explanation of that, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone
among you. Now notice that, he's teaching
the church collective. He's teaching the assembly of
the saints. And he's saying, but by the grace of God, I'm
able to teach these things. This is the gift God has given
to me by his mercy. This is what I do. This is my
only function. This is what God has established
my salvation for your sake. You see that in Paul's writing
to the church of Colossae. I pray that I may fill up what
is lacking in the suffering of Christ for your sake. You see
him say that to the church of Philippi, where he says, I long
to be with Christ. I want to I want to die and see
him and be with him. But it is for your sake that
I remain for to live as Christ to die is far better. But for
your sake, I remain. So God's grace has given Paul
his job, his gifts, his service to the body of Christ and our
service to the body of Christ is the service to Christ. And
that's where Paul's heading. Not only how we relate to one
another, just like he did in the Ephesians and for the Colossians,
but how we relate to the government, how we relate to the authorities
in our world, how we relate to all sorts of things, how we ought
to think, how we ought to perceive one another. And that's where
he starts. I say to you, by the grace given
to me. God and His mercy in me is now
being merciful to you and showing you that you should not think
of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Isn't that
funny? Because how do we typically take
commands? Do this, don't do this. Do this,
don't do this. But Paul doesn't command that
way. He does to the church of Corinth. He does in other places,
but here it's just not an exhortation in the way of rebuke. This is
a way of teaching. This is positive doctrinal teaching.
And it is the majority of the apostolic teaching outside of
Corinthians or Corinth and Galatia, the region of Galatia. But it
is there. So God's grace has been given
to me to tell you that you ought not think of yourself more highly
than you ought to think. Don't do that. The explanation
there, but to think with sober judgment. Be sober. Have right
discrimination about who you really are. Understand that you
shouldn't have lofty views of yourself, visions of grandeur.
It's not the only place he says that either. He says it to the
church of Ephesus. He says it to the church of Philippi.
Have this mind among you, which is yours in Jesus Christ, who
is God. Who is God? Though he did not
take his divine self, something to brag about, boast about, to
display, but yet he made himself a slave, obedient unto death.
In that same way, you think the same way. If Jesus, who was God,
did not command authority, did not command all the things that
was due him by his prerogative as a human being, then we should
not as well. So the same thing is true. As
Jesus laid His life down for sinners, as Jesus laid His life
down for His enemies, then we also should lay our lives down
for one another. But that's opposite of the world. It's opposite of
the way the world thinks. And when I say the world, the
totality of sensual humanity, that's in context there. When
he says, do not be conformed to the world, be transformed
by the renewal of your mind. We have to change the way we think.
And the way we think is going to be transformed because of
what Paul has written to us, because of what the Lord, through
the apostles, is commanding us and commending to us. So we don't
think of ourselves, we think with sober judgment. We think
rightly. We know who we are. We know what
our gifts are. We know what we can do. We know what we've been
given. But everybody seems in our culture, they want to be
the one in the limelight. You know what the limelight brings?
Great burden. You know what the limelight brings?
Great responsibility. When everybody's looking at you,
you're no longer unique or special. You're everybody's person. Being famous is not special.
You're nothing now. Everybody knows everything about
you. It's not a positive thing. I've met famous people before
and I've never called up to them, you know, but I've always looked
and said, hey, look there, there's John Travolta. He's standing next
to me waiting for a cab. John Travolta. And before he could
get in the car, I mean, oh my goodness gracious, everybody
running around. I'm going, that would drive me insane. I mean, it upsets
me sometimes when I'm just going to the hardware store and I can't
get in there because somebody wants to talk to me about something.
I couldn't imagine being famous in that sense. And that's just
one of many examples. I'm not bringing that out, but
it's easy for us to see. We like the highlights. We like
to be in that area where everybody recognizes not only who we are,
but that we are. And that we actually have a gift
that we're giving. That we actually have some sense
of importance. Isn't that the way it is? Because
it makes us feel better. We think, oh, I'm serving Christ because
I have a greater importance in the body. But what is the greater
importance? Is the pastor teacher the greatest
importance to the church? No, not at all. Not at all. But the problem is we think that
one hour a week of teaching is the absolute totality of the
Christian life together. But that's the point. We're to
equip one another to do the work of the ministry, which runs the
whole week, which goes together in life, which establishes opportunity
for us to minister to one another and to teach and to admonish
and to exhort and to Encourage one another on to love and to
good deeds. As Paul closes this letter out, you'll see that love
is the paramount. It is the pinnacle of Christlikeness.
It is the point of it all. And so we have sober judgment.
We think of ourselves not more highly than we ought to think.
Be real. That's sort of what Paul's saying. You know who you
are. Be real. Don't be arrogant. Don't think that you've got all
that and a bag of chips because the chips might be smarter than
you. But he says each according, each one should think with sober
judgment according to the measure of faith that God has assigned
him. Now this goes two ways. First it goes this way in that
God has assigned me the faith to believe the call of God in
my life to be a pastor teacher. And then God has assigned the
faith to me to be able to study and by the Holy Spirit understand
and proclaim and teach and encourage and exhort and all those things.
through the scripture, for your sake, for your joy, for your
learning, and for your intimacy amongst one another, so that
you may fulfill the law of Christ. But it also goes this way, that
just because God has assigned me the measure of faith to give
my life up for the sake of the gospel ministry, and that's what
it is, that's what the call of a pastor is, it doesn't mean
that your faith, though it doesn't produce the same calling, is
not just as important. Because the measure of faith
that God's given you may be that the main thing that you do is
pray. You know the hardest thing to
do as a pastor? You're not going to believe it. Pray. You know
why? Because we're so busy. The phone's
constantly ringing, the text messages are constantly going
off, the doorbell's ringing. I mean, it's just, it's constant.
There's always something to study, always something to read, always
somebody to talk to, always something going on and prayer is a constant
state. So how do we pray? Well, we write
it all down. That's what I do. I keep a journal
of prayers. I keep a list of prayers. I keep
things written down so that I can remember to pray and the Lord
prompts me sometimes three in the morning, sometimes four in
the morning, sometimes two in the morning, sometimes in the middle of the
day, sometimes in the middle of my preaching. I will pray while I'm talking
about someone specifically in front of me. How do I do that?
I don't know. The Holy Spirit just gives me the measure of faith to do
it. It isn't like I have to have the conversation as eloquently
as most people think prayer must be. I can just, in the consciousness
of my mind as the Holy Spirit, say, OK, pray for Levi, you know? Pray for Sherry. Pray for Ben. We can be faithful to know that
God is faithful in knowing the needs of our fellow Christians,
of our brothers and sisters in Christ. If I were to make all
this up, you would know it. Why? Because verse four starts
with the word for. So when we see the word for, we know that
the explanation of what is meant is about to be expanded. Clarity
is about to be presented. For as in one body, we have many
members. So just like in my body, I have
many members. We have two arms, two legs, two
eyes, two ears. I wish I had two brains, but
that would probably be conflicting. So what happens with the body? There are a lot of things working
together. Until I hurt my shoulder, I had no idea there was so many
things that work together in the shoulder. That is one of
the most complex joints in the entire body. I think maybe the
knee would probably be as well. But there's some stuff going
on in there. And because mine is injured,
I've compensated in some way in certain areas of other parts
of the skeletal muscular system there. And now I've got some
other problems. And after time, with the right
therapy, it may work out. It may not work out. But just
imagine that. Imagine our arm. You know one
of the hardest things I have to do at home with this injury
is to turn out a light, a lamp. I have four lamps in my living
room. And two of them stand about this
tall. And you have to reach under there.
And you have to flip that little rolly thing. What's that? A switch.
You have to flip that little switch. You have to click, click.
You have to do two clicks. That is the hardest thing to
do. with this. I can pick up a bucket, I can
carry, I can swing a hammer a little bit, but to turn a switch of
a light. So I have to reach over here with the left hand, which
is getting extremely, the dexterity of my left hand is getting a
lot better, and I flip it over with my left hand. So now I've got where
I don't even reach with my right hand to do anything anymore. I'm just
flipping with my left hand, flipping with my left hand. I'm going to be ambidextrous
before it's all done. So thank God I have other members
of my body that can do the same function because something as
simple as that would be impossible. Getting something out of your
back pocket could be impossible. Understand that your body has
many members. I mean, people say, well, I got ten fingers,
ten toes. Great. Well, cut one of them off. There's
a problem. A friend of mine lost the pinky toe on his right foot
one time. He was forever on crutches. He never got his balance back.
Even with prosthetics, he never got where he could actually stand
on his right leg. And without the, not the crutches,
cane. Without the cane, he would topple over sideways. It was
the strangest thing. It was the strangest thing. The
same thing when you lose your thumb or something, you know,
your hand just sort of, it's like a flipper. It doesn't really
have a whole lot of function when you're used to functioning
correctly. So as the body needs all of its
parts to function healthily and fully, Paul uses that same example
to say that the church, that the assembly of the saints are
necessary, it's necessary to have each one of us. Somebody
asked the question, I think, yeah, the question about why
it's important to be in the fellowship of the saints. And I remember
about five years ago, somebody was sort of debating with me
in the fellowship of why, why was it even necessary to be in
the body? Why was it necessary to be in an assembly? And I explained
to this sister in the Lord that, you know, God has ordained the
body to be together. And so when you're not here,
there is a great void. We can't turn off the lights.
We can't get anything out of our back pocket. We might not be able to stand
up straight. But see, everybody thinks, well, the preacher's
here, that's enough. No, it's not. It's not enough.
Because if you're not here, then what would I do? And if you're
not here for one another, then what's the point of being here
to begin with? You see? And you might think, well, I've
got to be serving. Well, see, our culture has decided
that serving in the church is to be committed to a program
that functions in some sense to establish assimilation within
an institution. But that's not what service is.
Service is to be available with your giftedness at the measure
of faith that God has given you for the person or persons or
group or individual that God has given you the task to minister
to. So what does it look like? We
don't all have the same function. So the we are one body in Christ
and individually, notice that, we are one body and individually
members of one another. I used the example before that
if my left hand just started slapping people as I walk down
the street, I don't know what's going on, my hand's just slapping
people. I mean, they're not going to arrest my hand and charge
my hand with battery, they're going to charge me, my person,
my body. They're going to charge who I am. James is going to be
charged with battery, not the left hand of James. So in the
same way, if my hand starts to punch me, I'm going to say, what's
wrong with my hand? There is a problem with me. The
body is not separated from itself. When something happens to the
body, it is not as if it didn't happen to us. When something
happens in the body of Christ, when something is given to the
body of Christ, when there is a gift in the body of Christ,
it is for us, we benefit from it, and when that is not there,
we suffer because of it. Now we got to see, in verse 6,
the point of it all. Having gifts that differ. Having gifts that differ according
to the grace given to us. Let us use them. You see, this
sort of helps understand why Paul says, don't think of yourself
more highly than you ought to. I think he probably first points
that to the pastor teacher, to the people who are up front and
always in the limelight, always being visible, always seemingly
serving the body. But that's why preaching and
exposition is given, the prescription of that is given to us by the
word of God and by God himself. We don't get to decide how it's
done. We are only faithful when we're faithful to the scripture.
not to our own pet peeves, not to rob God's glory for a 20 minute
service on violence in America, not to rob God's glory for a
spectacle of a play or something like that on an assembly, not
to rob God's glory. So pastors need to think not
so highly of themselves, but with sober judgment. We are mouth
houses. For those of you who know me
and have heard me talk about the training of pastors throughout
the ministry, I like to say it this way, that we are, if we
can, be half as faithful as Balaam's ass, who spoke the oracles of
God. Because that's really all we
are. We're not special people to be lauded over and just embraced
as celebrities. We are to be seen as just one
small part of a very important body, without which there would
be a great chasm. But the same is true for all
of us. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given
to us. So when we don't like our giftedness, we're saying
to the Lord, we don't like that which you've given us. I wish
I was a hand. I wish I was a head. I wish I
was a foot. Does that sound familiar? Yeah,
Paul's already had that argument, hasn't he? What are the gifts? Well, he
doesn't give. There's nowhere in the Scripture that gives all
the gifts. There are some lists of some gifts, but they all relate
to one thing. They all relate to how it helps
the body. God has put us together. So there
are some, if prophecy in proportion to our faith. What is prophecy?
Proclaiming the Word of the Lord, not seeing the future. When I start to tell you that
God has told me something that's not written in the pages, you
better kick me right on out the back door there. Or at least
slap me real hard to bring me to my senses. Prophecy is teaching
that which the Lord has said. The Lord has said His Word, so
we teach the Word. That's what prophecy is. So if
we have the faith in proportion to our faith, we teach. If service,
then we serve. What is service? I don't know. Go look in the bathrooms there.
You see any rings in the toilet? One of them. See dust on the floor? See? There are some ways of serving,
just physical serving. Nobody knows who does these things.
People just serve. Nobody knows about a lot of stuff
that some of you do. It's okay. That's not the point. We serve. What about food? What
about care? What about when sisters in the
church have children? What about when they have surgery?
What about those things? That's when the body serves.
And it's not like we give a ticker tape parade and say, look at
me, I'm going to serve somebody. We show up undetected, slide
a meal on the table, scoot out. Sometimes the person that they're
going to feed doesn't even know who left it. What about service
in other ways? Being there for counsel, being
there to listen, being there to pray. Sometimes service is
not noticed at all. The one who teaches in his teaching,
the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity.
I mean, are we all equally wealthy? No, we're not. We're not all
equal in the context of what the money we have. And then some
of us who make a lot of money might have a lot more kids than
the rest of us. And so there's times when some people are able
to give and some people are not. That's why I despise the abusive
teaching of a tithe as a mandate. I despise it. And offer it. You decide. You decide what you
can and what the Lord is pressing your heart to give in that context.
But some people have the gift of generosity. They get a little
extra money and they don't think, man, I'm going to buy me a new
truck, or I'm going to buy me a new dress, or I'm going to,
I want to help somebody else with this. You would be shocked
at the number of people who contact me in a year and say, I just
got a bonus at work. Is there a family in need? And
there's never not a list in my head of people who could need
the $300 or $500. There's always somebody in my mind who has said,
and I'm down on my luck, or my tire blew out, or whatever. There's
always somebody in the church who could use 50 bucks. And so
God gives us the gifts. And that's never flaunted, you
see. Some congregations like to put
little plaques up. Some congregations like to give
little presentations. Well, here's Sister So-and-so,
and she's been given $1,000 a month for the last 12 years to this
family. Poor family, you just starved to death if it wasn't
for Sister Selfless. So we're going to put a plaque
on the wall over there for her. Praise the Lord. And you know
what? God's glory is usurped. Do not let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing. You see? That's the reward. Now I'm
not saying it's Sister Selfless' fault. Some congregations just
do that. You ever been a part of one?
I mean, I remember being in a church one time and every hymnal had
a plaque in it. Every plate had a plaque in it.
Every chair had a plaque in it. Every window had a plaque on
it. The piano had a plaque on it. In memory, in honor, donated
by the family of such and such and such and such. I mean, that's
not the gift of generosity. That's not the gift of contribution.
That's not the gift of humility. That's thinking highly of oneself.
So you see how that works? Someone teaches, they think they're
all that and a bag of chips. I've said that twice tonight
now. They need to humble themselves a little bit. Somebody who's
generous, they need to humble themselves in that context. Now,
what does that mean? We know, we feel the pride when
it falls out, right? We start feeling, and here's
what it works out. You know, I've cleaned this church
seven times in the last nine weeks. And I hadn't seen Ben
here yet cleaning the church. Why didn't he clean the church?
You think I'm joking? It may not happen amongst us,
but it happens. It happens. I'll never forget a person that
helped maintain the property one time upset with me because
I actually did certain maintenance around the day. I'd see some
things and I'd just fix it. It's just in my genes. I have
the skills to fix certain things. I have certain skills. And carpet
stains? Oh, no, no, no, no. We don't watch carpet stains.
I just clean them. Well, you know, the third weekend
in July, we always did a deep cleaning of the carpets. We're
not going to have to do that anymore. That's what I enjoy doing. I
said, I didn't know, my friend. I'm sorry. You know, so there's
always possibility of conflict. There's always something. But
in all of this, we need to recognize that God has given us a measure
of grace. We don't begrudge one another. We don't feel haughty
toward one another. We don't feel frustrated with
one another in that sense. And it all leads up to verse
9, as we'll see in a minute. So here, the one who leads with
zeal. What does that look like? This is one of the biggest problems
that I've had in the 21 years of ministry. I've had people
leading in leading positions, leading other people, or giving
oversight to certain things in the congregational life, but
they're bitter, they're frustrated, they're burned out. Next thing
you know, they're just bah humbug. There's no joy. And you know
what I learned to do a long time ago? Take away the pain. I'm
not a healer, but I can take away pain. You hate this supper. You've been doing it since God
was a boy. I'm going to give it away to somebody else because
you need to have joy. And you know what's crazy? Almost
100% of the time, with maybe one exception, the people have
said to me, I don't want to, I don't want to lose this. to
which my response is, then shut up complaining. Shut up complaining. If this is your gift, then do
it with joy. Do it with zeal. Do it with cheerfulness, as it
says in verse 8. The one who does acts of mercy
with cheerfulness. There's nothing worse than someone serving someone
as an act of kindness, but having a complaining attitude about
it. You ever been there? Oh, I'm at the first of the line.
I am at the first of the list. If there's a list in heaven,
people who served with complaints, I'm going to be in the top five.
I promise you. It is in my nature to be cynical,
to see things done in a way that should have been better. It is
in my nature. It is in my blood. But the Lord
is merciful. The Lord is merciful. And as
we grow, and as we grow together, God just sort of shaves some
of that kind of stuff off. How does He do it? By the renewal
of our mind on the gospel of grace, to know that because of
Christ, we have been given the gifts we've been given for the
sake of one another. So verse 9. Let me read. I'll
just read and go as we go. Let love be genuine. Abhor what
is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Now
that's sort of proverbial, isn't it? It's like it should have
been in Proverbs. Love be genuine. What is genuine
love? That means it's not self-serving.
How do we know that? Well, not only does it say it
here, we see John talking about love in other parts of the scripture.
We see Paul teaching the church of Corinth about love. The whole
13th chapter of 1 Corinthians is about love. What does love
do? It keeps no record of wrong. That's what forgiveness looks
like. If you do the same thing to me tomorrow that you did yesterday,
I've forgiven you, so it's a new offense and we work on it from
that point of view, not from a camel. that's piled up with
straw. Let love be genuine. If you love me and I love you,
there is little that we could do to actually destroy our relationship. Little. And in that sense, because
love is genuine, we abhor what is evil. We hold fast to what
is good. What is evil? A lot. Most things. I have been so angry in my spirit
today because I'm trying to help some people who are just down
on their luck would be an improvement. And our government and the laws
of our state and the laws of our federal government has put
them in a position where they are in a catch-22 that is endless. And the only way out of it is
to fabricate the truth and to loophole the system in order
for them to get on their feet again, which I will not do. And so I'm in a conundrum. I've
seen a lawyer. I've talked to a judge. I've emailed my congressman. And something must be done. But
you know what? It's evil, and I abhor it. So
hold fast to what is good. What is good? The gospel of free
and sovereign grace, Christ Jesus, the truth of Him and His redemption,
the church of Jesus Christ. So in that way, we are to love
one another in brotherly affection. We just keep on seeing this.
We love one another with brotherly affection. Do not love what is
evil amongst us. Paul would say that. What does
he say? Kick out the one, the evildoer, to Corinth. That's
why church discipline is terrifying and horrifying, and it breaks
us. But it is necessary because people who refuse intimacy and
who refuse correction destroy the fabric of the gospel power
in the life of the church. They destroy it. They tear it
up. They keep it in shambles. This this instruction here, if
something If most congregations would teach this and hold to
this, we would see their love one another with brotherly affection.
Have you ever been mad with your brother or sister or sibling
or cousin? You ever been mad with a parent? Yes. Does it put on a typical
day, does it put them out of your life? Now, I'm sure there
are examples where the anger is because of something heinous
that destroys. But I mean, for us, I've been
angry with people before. I've been angry with people that
I don't even know. I've been angry with the drive-thru attendant
at a fast food restaurant. Why? Because they just needed
a little help understanding English. Seriously. And I'm not saying
that to be, I'm just being honest. I've been angry, did you not,
what did you say again? I said I want a diet coke, they
give me a Sprite when I get up there. Hello, where's Josiah? Get this straight please. I mean,
you know, he's laughing. We get angry, we don't even know
them. But so we can have brotherly affection? You ever been mad
at somebody helping you around the house that you hired? You
ever been mad? Yeah. It happens. I remember
somebody washing my car one time in a car wash and scratched it.
I was angry. And I look at him like, this
is good. Oh, I'm so sorry. We'll try to buff that out. Come
back by next week or something. I'm going, you shouldn't have
been so dumb to let the rag drop on the ground and put a rock
on my car. That's what happened. Dropped the sponge and then washed
my car with the rocky sponge, you know. That's great. Why did
that make me mad? Because I'm a sinner. And for
that moment, my car was more important than that person. And
my sense of having more common sense than he, to know to wash
off a sponge, He should have had the same common sense. I
have no idea who he was. I have no idea what he's been
going through. He could have just come from a very bad day. His
loved one could have just died. His marriage could be in shambles.
He could have just gotten news that he was going to die. That
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The point is that at that moment
I thought more highly of myself than I did of this man. Then
I had to come to the conclusion that his soul was worth so much
more than any car that I'll ever own. Now see how all that stuff
worked. Does that work out in your mind?
How long did that take? A couple of seconds. The feelings carry, the thoughts
carry. And if we're doing that in the
community, how much more so should we have brotherly love with our
true brothers and sisters in Christ? Outdo one another in showing
honor. Now, this isn't a competition. It's just be honorable. If someone
that you know is very honorable, emulate them, plus one. That's
what Paul's saying. Be honorable. Do not be slothful
in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Spirit,
serve the Lord. When we serve one another with
zeal, we serve the Lord. Are you sometimes so tired in
your body and in your heart that you just don't feel like doing
anything? Yes. Tell the truth. Yes. We don't
want to read the Bible. We don't want to pray. We don't
want to be in fellowship. We don't want to help somebody.
Somebody calls. We go, Oh, I'm so tired. I don't even want to
talk to my... I don't want to talk to myself. You know? And we just get overrun
with work and life and family and school and friends and enemies
and dogs and fish and air and cleaning and bathing and everything
else that's concerning life down to the smallest little thing
that just can drive us to a place of despair in our physical well-being. Don't be slothful in your zeal. In other words, if you feel the
drive to serve, then do it. How? Fervent in spirit. Know
that because the Lord... What do you think the Garden
of Gethsemane shows us? What is the Garden of Gethsemane?
It's the place where Jesus prayed before His arrest. And He told
His inner three. He said, I want you to stay here.
I am troubled. My heart is troubled. My soul
is grieved. Keep watch and pray for me. And
they fell asleep. Why? Because they were just lazy
bums? Stayed up the night before a
video game and all night? No, they were fatigued. Their spirit
was willing, but the scripture says the flesh was weak. Why
is this important? Because the culture of false
Christianity will give you a picture that you cannot fulfill. And
that most people are either in one of two places. They are absolutely
deceived thinking that they fulfill all of these things or they are
liars and actors. And I'd say that most are in
the second category until they lie and act so much that they
actually believe their own act. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. When we see things that are hopeful,
when we see the hope of God, we rejoice in it. When we see
things that are good, we rejoice in it. But we also rejoice in
the fact that we have our hope in Christ. We rejoice that God
has established all things and given all things to Christ, all
authority, all honor, all glory, and He has satisfied God's judgment
for us. So we are rejoicing in the hope. I love 1 Peter 1, where it talks
about the inexpressible joy in the midst of being refined like
gold and fire. Sometimes even inexpressible,
we have a joy. That is the rejoicing that we
have when we think and we put our minds and we renew our minds
on the hope that is ours in Christ. And in that same way, Paul commands,
be patient in tribulation, just wait. We have a definition of
patience in my house and I love for my five-year-old to always
get the answer to these things because some people don't believe
she understands them, but she does. What is patience? Waiting
without complaining. That's what we define patience
as in our home. And Abigail, when I say what
is patience and she's being impatient, she knows she's being impatient
because she's a human being with a cognitive function. And she knows, and she'll say,
I don't want to say it. I don't want to say it. Don't
say that right now. And there's another word she
hates when she's being discontent, and that's contentment. Be patient. Just wait on the
Lord. Rest. Don't complain. In that
same vein, be constant in prayer. You know, I find that when we
learn the discipline of prayer as the Bible teaches us, not
as the culture teaches us, we find ourselves in a place where
the flesh is not as alive as we thought it was. See, we believe in sovereignty
so much sometimes we're like, Lord, do what you're going to
do. That's a prayer that I pray often. And you know what that
is? That's a prayer of obstinance. That's a prayer of just me being
a jerk, just saying, God, he's gonna do a giant. They're gonna
pray, not asking the Lord to work on this, not asking the
Lord to work in me, just going, whatever, do what you're gonna
do. And what happens? Romans eight,
we've already learned the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf
and praise when we cannot pray. And it's just a short time. Most
of the time where we find ourselves praying again correctly, quickly,
be in constant prayer, continue to the needs of the saints and
seek to show hospitality. You know who doesn't show hospitality?
I was thinking about this today and talking with a sibling in
the Lord, and there are a lot of lambs who hate being lambs. I mean, think about if you had
to pick what animal do you want to be? You know, In fact, I think
I might teach this. If I ever get invited back to
a chapel with elementary kids, I'm going to ask that question.
What animal? It could be any animal. What's
it going to be? You know what you get? I mean, I've had this years ago in smaller
classes, you know, 100 or so. But kids will say, I want to
be a tiger. I want to be a T-Rex with my little arms. I want to
be an eagle so I can soar high, you know. I want to be a shark
or a dolphin or an elephant. I get that a lot. Powerful. A
bull. I want to be a bull. You know what I've never had?
I want to be a lamb. I want to be a cuddly, little, weak, insignificant,
in need of shepherding, in need of help, in need of care, lamb. Nobody's ever said I want to
be a goat either. I have had people say they want to be a
dog, but nobody wants to be a lamb. And in that sense, a lot of times
we have our brothers and sisters in the faith that need to understand
what verse 3 means in this context. We need to continue in the needs
of the saints and contribute to them and seek to show hospitality.
You know what animal is not hospitable? A bull. And on the farm that
I grew up on, the property behind my grandmother's house was always
full of cattle. cows. And there were those egrets that
always stayed with the cow. I don't see them anymore. I used
to see them all the time. Cow birds, we called them, but they're
North American egrets. And they would sit on the backs
of the cows and they would eat bugs off the cows. and neat. You got there trying to catch
one, it'll drop a plop on your head and then you step in a plop,
a cow plop, and then you're in big trouble because you're not
supposed to be in the cow pen to begin with or the pasture to
begin with. But there was a time though that they would put the
bull in. I didn't understand why they
put the bull in when I was a kid, but I know now why they put the
bull in every now and then. Because they want calves. And
when the bull was in, not only did they intensify the electricity,
see when the cows were there, there'd just be like one little
electric fence. smaller than this, and they'd get in here
and they'd just come on and move. They were scared to death of
it. That wouldn't hold a bull. So they'd reinforce the fence,
they'd put wood up, they'd put chains up, they'd put running
chainsaws up, and it didn't matter. When the bull wanted to come
out of the pen, it came out of the pen. It cut its own head off. It'd
still be out of the pen. It didn't matter. And egrets never landed on bulls.
Now they may do that, but the bulls that I saw growing up,
never. Because as soon as something landed on the back of that bull,
it would buck it off. And if you were standing there,
it would just kill you because it would kick you right in the face. And
as a matter of fact, there were only one or two people who could
go into the pen when the bull was there. And I don't want to
get on to this little, you know, livestock lesson. But the point
is this. A bull does what it wants to
do. It thinks about itself. It's never considerate of others.
And nobody can stop it because it can defend itself. And you
better get out of its way. And that's the way a lot of Christians
act. They think they're right. They think they've got the end
run on God's divine, superior challenge. As a challenger, I'm
the ambassador of God to right the evils of the heresies that
He permits. I'm going to show these sinful
sheep just what's what. Now, it's really bad when a man
who says he's called of God to be a shepherd is a bull, because
a bull is not qualified to be a shepherd, and a bull is not
qualified to open his mouth to speak the truth of Scripture,
and a bull should be bridled and pinned. But a sheep, on the
other hand, see, a sheep shows hospitality. A
sheep is skittish. It sort of runs away until they
hear the shepherd's voice. or till they see another part
of its flock and then they go and they gather together in that
and they eat together and they look after each other and they're
just together they seem to do well, apart they don't do well
at all. Hospitality keeps us together.
Hospitality has nothing to do with serving crackers at snack
time. Hospitality has nothing to do
with fixing a meal together. Hospitality is a central essence
of one's heart and mind that they want to serve somebody with
whatever gift that God has assigned them. And I know some people
say, well, God's made me a bull. God doesn't make bulls. Bulls
are born of the flesh. And bulls, if they can't be sheepish,
need to be cut away from this flock. So what does a sheep look like
when he's being hospitable? Look at that. Verse 14. Bless
those who persecute you. Do not curse them. Rejoice with
those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Do
you see the essence here? Oh man, aren't you having some
trouble? Oh well. Stinks to be you. I mean, is
that really the attitude? Oh wow, the Lord The Lord did
this. The Lord showed you this. You're
rejoicing. Awesome. Oh, well, who cares, man? Quit
wasting my time. I've got more things to do. I mean, you see
that. Not that we say those things, but sometimes we feel that. We
think. To renew our mind is to be transformed. What is the mind being renewed?
On the person of Jesus. See, this isn't about obedience.
This is about affection. This is about intimacy. And I'll
be honest with you, brothers and sisters, there's a lot of
people in our culture today who claim to be in Christ who hate
this teaching. They will ignore chapters 12
through 16. Because they don't want to be
bothered with life together. Because they've got something
else more important. And guess what? If we can't do this, we're
not called to anything else. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep. Live with harmony, in harmony
with one another. What's that sound like? Pun intended. Get along. Be at peace, work
together, have a synergy working together as the Church of Jesus
Christ. Do not be haughty. What's haughtiness? Thinking
you're better than somebody. Haughtiness is like, I don't
really want to go to church with them. I don't really want to
engage with them. I don't really want to minister to them. I want
to minister to those people, not these people. Because these
people, I mean, look where they live. Look at that house they
live in, man. They'd probably tip me for bringing them some lunch.
Here you go. Do not be haughty, but associate
with the lowly. This was the accusation they
gave to Jesus. He eats with sinners. He ministers
to sinners. That's who He came for. 16b there, never be wise in your
own sight. Don't think you know it all.
You better get counsel. And it better not be a counsel
that you've gathered up to agree with you. It better be within
your local assembly in the sense that you are able to be told
you're wrong. Don't be wise on your own side.
Repay no one evil for evil. Somebody cusses you out, you
don't get the authority to do the same. Somebody sins against
you, you don't get the authority to be sinful. Somebody steals
from you, it doesn't give you the right to steal back. That's just silly. It happens
every day in the body of Christ. But give thought to do what is
honorable in the sight of all. You know, that might be next
week. We might have to just take a pause and think, what does
it mean to be honorable? What is honor? Because as a culture,
do we know what honor is? Friends of mine that live in
Asia, all the different countries there, and for the most part,
most of them live by some code of honor. They don't speak a
certain way because they want to be thought well of by others
because they represent not just themselves, but their household,
their job, their career, their business, their street, their
family, their lineage, their generation. What would happen in the United
States of America if just the Christians thought about honor
and how they were displaying honor? Do we not have a greater
call than our own family, our own name, our own lineage? We
give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ who purchased us with
His blood. If possible, 18, some people
would say, well, you know what? You don't have to live with this
guy. You don't live in the same town with this other dude. These
people are hard to live with. Well, that's what verse 18 tells
us. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably
with all. But you know what typically happens
in relationships? What happens there? We feel justified in how
we're going to act toward someone else because of the way they've
acted toward us, and we're not doing anything to reconcile.
If they refuse it, that's not on us. We know what triggers
some people, yet we'll say it anyway, won't we? Our spouses,
we're good to do an act to them. I know every button in the control
panel for Robin. I know how to have the instant
anger switch, the instant sad switch, the instant depressed
switch. I know where they are. And she can't stop me. So I have
to, by the Lord's mercy, not push those buttons. As far as
it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge
yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. someone sins against
you, and you don't feel like the justice that they got was
enough, leave it to God. For it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your
enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something
to drink. Because by doing so, you heap burning coals on his
head. I had this conversation with myself and out loud in part
with Ruby on the way to the building this afternoon. She may not have
even recognized it. But it is so easy for me to just be inundated
with frustration. And my answer to that was, you
know what, if I just do what I'm supposed to do to serve these
people, let them burn if they don't like it. But why would
I do anything to antagonize them? Let these people see me doing
what I'm supposed to do and let them be enraged. That's what
we do. Guys, that's antithetical. That's
like breathing under the ocean. It is against every natural element
of our flesh. So we must renew our minds to
these things. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. See, when we permit other people,
and I'll close with this statement, when we permit other people to
change how we behave, we are actually a slave to them. rather
than being slaves to righteousness by remembering the passion of
our Lord Jesus, who lowered himself in mockery and abuse and persecution
in death when he was the God of all the cosmos. Let's pray. We love you, Father, and we are
so glad to be able to just learn these things. Father, it's overwhelming
and I know that in my flesh this very second, Lord, I find, Lord,
I find that it's easy to forget what we've learned the last 64
weeks about the gospel and about the law and about your purposes
and about Christ. It's so easy for us to just fall
prey to this idea that now we've got to mold our lives into this
way and then we'll be doing well. Father, help us to know that
though we are called to be friendly to one another and to serve one
another, when we fail, it doesn't change who we are before you.
It doesn't change our status before you. It doesn't condemn
us. And it is never going to be a
time, Father, we know that there's never going to be a time when
we're going to be without conflict or suffering. So in that, Lord,
help us to rejoice and be patient. To rejoice in hope and be patient
in suffering, even when our suffering and our hopelessness sometimes
is because of each other. Lord, when we get along as you've
prescribed, we prove the power of the cross. We demonstrate
the suffering of Christ in our suffering. And none of us have
been tempted to the point of shedding blood. So, Lord, in
that we have an advocate with you, your son, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, that we are now called your righteousness. In
his name we pray. Amen.