Trinity Church Spokane Valley
Romans 12:9-10 - Dan Ferguson
I'm Dan Ferguson, I'm one of the elders here at Trinity and this is my annual make sure you can teach so you can be an elder opportunity. So the pressure is on. No, seriously, I really counted a privilege and an honor to be able to share with you this morning. So as we do each week, if you would stand in honor of God's word as we read through Romans 12, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what 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 in portion to our faith, if service in 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. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal, but fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be consistent in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Peace with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be conceited, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what to do or what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible so as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all, beloved, never a binge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of 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 is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's pray. Father, we just, again, are so grateful for the grace and mercies that you give to us. Lord, as we look at these commands this morning, Father, they are easy to understand, but they're a challenge. We need your spirit working in through us to help us, give us ears to hear this morning. Again, we love you, in Jesus' name we pray, man, you may be seated. I am entering my 40th year of teaching this fall, which is hard to believe. And in those 40 years I have learned a lot of things not to do. And one of the things you should do as a teacher is the beginning of a lesson. Tell your class, hey, this is going to be a really easy lesson. Because invariably there's going to be somebody in there that doesn't have a clue and they're going to go, I thought this was really easy and it's going to make you feel really bad. So with that said, these verses this morning are very easy to understand, all right? But they're hard to do. I think Paul is giving us some straightforward commands. There's no tricky translations. There's no dangling participles. I have no idea what that is, but it just really sounds cool. But it's just it's straightforward, very easy, okay, to understand, but what you're going to see today, I think they're very challenged. It's very hard to do. So let me read the verses again that we are going to be looking at this morning in verses 9 and 10. It says, "Love, let love be genuine. Appore what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor," okay? Just easy to understand. We could give the benediction and go home right now, but we won't. I do love what one commentator said, that these commands and I think in the rest of these verses are not ornaments on a tree, but they are fruit. In other words, these commands are not ones that we can just, we need to just check off. Here's a command I got to follow these, but they are things that should naturally come out of the mercies of God that we have seen in Romans, and they should flow out of us as we interact with one another in the body. They are like fruit in a tree. This passage is very similar to the one. Again, in 1 Corinthians, I know Paul alluded to this last week. Then in chapter 12, Paul talks about the gifts that we have been given to build up one another in the church, and we see that in verses 6 through 8. Same thing. Then Paul follows in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians with love, the big chapter on love, and he does the same thing here in these verses and follows with these statements of love that we are going to look at. I think it's easy to conclude that we can do some amazing things for the body because of the gifts God has given us, but if love is not our foundation, if we do those things out of selfish motivations, trying to get things from that, then like verse 13 in 1 Corinthians says, we are a noisy gong and a clanging symbol. We won't have impact on people's lives other than probably negative. We want to look at these commands about love this morning. Again, says love, let love be genuine, or like some translations say which I like. Let love be without hypocrisy. Now, can I say as a high school teacher, I am very hypocritical of one. I'm talking about loving my students. This is really convicting for me as I was going through this. It's very easy for me to sit up and say, "Man, I love my students," and then in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "You know, that one there is quite a jerk. He doesn't do what he's supposed to do. He's not really engaged," those type of things. It's very easy to be very hypocritical in our loving one another when they don't meet our expectations. When we are hypocritical, when we are not loving genuinely, it's because our focus is on ourselves and what we want out of the people around us, they're not meeting my agenda, those types of things that it's very easy to be hypocritical in those cases. It's so easy to make judgments when I'm putting the focus on myself because maybe that student had a really bad morning. Maybe his parents are going through a divorce. Those things we don't know because I don't spend the time to really love them like I should. I just say that I love them and then if they don't meet my expectations. I think that's very easy for us, truly to love genuinely is to get to know people, to understand them what is going on. We need to get our minds off of ourselves and on the mercies of God and what he has done for a jerk like me, then maybe I can love those that he has put into my life. I can love more sincerely and show mercy to those people around me and I think it's important as we do that, that we show that same grace as we see what God has done for us. We can show that same grace to those that we are rubbing shoulders with, especially those in the body, even when they are struggling in their sin. You may say, "Man, that's really hard, I don't know if I can do that." But I'd say when has God ever given us commands and expected us to do them on our own strength? It is his spirit that works through us and gives us the ability to love genuinely. What does that look like? It looks like to love genuinely. I think Paul just rolls into it in these next verses. We love genuinely one by abhorring or hating what is evil. We love genuinely by holding fast to what is good, by showing brotherly affection to others and by outdoing one another with honor. So as we look through these verses this morning, this is what it means to love genuinely. The first one is that poor what is evil or hate what is evil. I think Paul is still staying with the theme of love here because I really believe that in order to hate something, we have to love something. For instance, I think we would all agree that we hate abortion. Why do we hate abortion? Well, because we love life, because we love infants, because we love justice. Those things we love cause us to despise or to hate that abortion. We love our children. And let's say our children come up to us and they and we know they're lying. If we really love them, we will hate that lie and want us to correct them. But if we don't love them, then we're going to be indifferent to that sin of lying. And I think it's the same in the body of Christ. So if I don't love a person in the body, then I'm going to be indifferent to their sin. And I'm not going to confront them like I should. And to genuinely love is going to confront because we hate the evil or the sin that is in that person's life when we genuinely love them as we should. And as in our own lives, as we dwell on God's mercy, as these verse say, for us, we love Him and hate what God hates. In Proverbs 6, 16 gives us a list of things that God hates, okay? It says, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him. Hotty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discourse among brothers." The more we love God and the more our love grows for God, the more we will hate evil in our lives and in those that we love. This one is to hold fast to what is good. I don't think these are just intelligent choices that we are making. These are deep, emotionals that come out of our love for God. And I think that's what we get here. For example, I don't just choose to love my wife, right? Can you imagine if tonight if we're sitting down and I look into her eyes and I say, "Melinda, of all the women I love, I choose to love you the most." After I picked myself off the ground from her reaction to that statement, I would realize that she doesn't want me just to choose her out of a group of people, right? She wants me and deserves me to cling to her, to hold on to her, okay? To love her and only her, no matter what, okay? And I think that's that same emotion that we should have, okay, to those things that are good in our lives. Christ Himself, the grace and the mercy gives to us, we are to hold fast to those. We are to cling to those. And how do we know what is good? Again, we look back at verse two in this chapter. It says, "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." There it is, right there, right? We need to be conformed to Christ. We need to be transformed from this world because if we're conformed to this culture, we're not going to know what it really is good and we're going to, we won't have that to hang on to. I was reminded this week of the Israelites as they were coming out of Egypt, okay? They saw all the good that God did for them to, as he brought them out of Egypt. And yet what Psalm says, Psalms 106 says is they forgot, right? They forgot and it led them to complain about their circumstances and they didn't hold fast to the good. They did not hold fast. And how easy it is for us to forget what God has done for us when we face difficulties. We need to be reminded daily of God's mercies and hold fast, okay, to those things so that we will, okay, we will be able to continue to not only love God, but love others as we hold fast. The next command there is to love with brotherly affection. So what is brotherly affection? When I was in high school, I played on a city league volleyball team with my sister, her boyfriend and a few friends. And in between games, a couple of my friends were messing around and one was going to kick the other one and the guy jumped all the way and he kicked my sister. Now I'm a very mild person, but I grabbed him and I panned him up against the wall and I said something, which I can't remember what I said is probably something dumb, but I would not have done that. I would not have done that if he would have kicked someone else. I may have said something, you know, to him, whatever, but I would not have reacted that way and the reason I reacted that way is because it was my sister, right? Now, we didn't always get along, but you didn't mess with my sister. And I think that is a picture, right, is a good picture, not the violent part, a good picture of how we are to love each other in the body. There is a special connection that we have as believers. We are a family just like my sister is a family and I was going to react that certain way out of, you know, it was a very emotional reaction. You know, the Bible uses different pictures of what it is to be like in Christ, okay? We are called a body, a picture of a body, we are the flock. But when the Bible talks about a family, that is a reality. It's not a picture. It's a reality that we are a family. And, you know, there are some that have, you know, families that are dysfunctional. But God's family is a reality and that's who we are. And when someone hurts, okay, we hurt with them. When there is a need, we should want to fill that need. When there's rejoicing, we rejoice. We are a family. And so we need to love with a brotherly affection. And so why do we need this type of level? Number one, God commands it. We see that. God commands that is because we are a family. First John 5-1 says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. Love for the Father will show itself in love for the children." Also, when we love one another with brotherly affection, we are showing a picture of Christ and what He is like. John 1334 says, "Jesus says, 'A new command I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.' And then finally, it is a way we glorify God to the world around us. And again, this affection should be fruit as a result of the mercies of God in our lives. Finally, the last one there is, "Out do one another in showing honor." Now, I don't think Paul wants us to have a contest to who can outdo others with honor. I think it's more the idea of preferring honor over being honored. And this one is, this is a very hard one for me because I want to be honored. I want people to tell me I'm doing a good job, right? So this is really hard to do that. I've got to cultivate a love for honoring others over being honored to be honored. And so, if you happen to talk to me afterwards, you may just say, "Hey, thanks, but I've heard better." That would be really helpful for me. But we also need to be careful as we are honoring that we don't do it with the wrong motives. It's easy to honor in expecting something in return or to just honor certain people. And I like the example in James chapter 2 verses 1 through 6 that shows how honoring one type of person over another really displeases the Lord. As we say, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention, show honor, to the one who wears the fine clothing and says, "You sit here in a good place." Well, you say to the poor man, "You stand over there or sit at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him. But you have dishonored the poor." We have to be really careful not to show favoritism as we honor. And then again, as we heard last week, we've been given gifts to build up the body. So we need to be honoring, okay? We need to be honoring those as they use their gifts, whether they're speaking or serving. And again, that reason for honoring is very similar to why we show brotherly affection, right? One, God commands it, again, it's a picture of Christ, and it brings glory to God. But I think there's another reason when we honor other believers, it strengthens and confirms their faith, okay? That they are in the family and that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, using the gifts that God has given them. As the school year kind of ended down this year, there was an issue that caused me to kind of question, "Is God asking me to, okay, is it time for me to be done, do something else, maybe retire or whatever?" I had questions in my mind going into the end of this year. I coach baseball, and so at the end of the year we always get together with the parents and players. And it's a time where I get to honor the players for their hard work, their accomplishments in the season. I get to say really nice things about them, okay? All true, although some seasons are harder than others, but all true. And usually at the end of the evening, it really is a great time, and at the end of the evening you say, "I get parents that tell me thank you," and that. But this year was a little different, and the parents really honored me, and I walked away from there saying, "Okay, this is what I'm supposed to be doing," and it just was a reminder that when we honor people, especially as they're using their gifts, it's confirming for them that this is what God has given me and what I should be doing. And so very important as we choose to honor them, that we see that opportunity that we can have an effect on people. So in closing, how do we love and honor those in the family of God? If you're like me, again, it should come natural, it does not, all right? So we need to, in order, we need to genuinely love our brothers and sisters, not because they're living to our standards, but because Christ has accepted and loved us just as we are. We want to do that same to those in the family. Number two, we need to preach to ourselves that other believers, no matter how imperfect are family. We are all God's children. And number three, we need to pray regularly that God would do whatever He has to do to conform us to the likeness of His Son so that we would be more affectionate and honoring people. So remember how this chapter begins, "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God." Yeah. "By the mercies of God, we love each other with brotherly affection, and by the mercies of God, we will outdo one another in showing honor." Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your mercies to us. Father, I would pray for myself and all of us, that Lord, it would flow naturally that we love one another, that we honor one another. Father, it is not easy. We need Your Holy Spirit. We need Your Spirit working through us to really, truly love like we're supposed to love. Again, we thank You for Your grace, Your mercies, Father, for the opportunities that You give to us to display, to glorify You to the world around us in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen.