The Believer and the Body
Romans 12:9-16 · Randy Peterman · Jul 1, 2007
Romans (2005-07), No. 89
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492603177366

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, this morning we're going to continue in Romans chapter 12. We're going to take a look at verses 9 through 16. I stripped the verse numbers out from here because I find that a little easier when I'm reading. But let's see here. I'm going to go ahead and read it so that sounds nice and clean on the recording. But if you'll all read along in your minds with me, that'll be handy. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil.

Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Alright, I can tell that all of you as I was reading were counting how many stanzas that was, because that's a lot. There's 17 stanzas. So keeping that in mind, I have three quick slides to go over. We're not going to do very much Greek. There's not going to be a lot of depth. 17 stanzas means that we have, I mean, if I had divided that by three and we had 51 minutes, we would have three minutes per section, which we don't have. So no moose jokes.

Where we're going, we're going to be looking at the historical context briefly and kind of take a look at what's going on in the Roman culture. We're going to take a look at scriptural context as far as how this fits in the chapter 12 and then how this fits in with the New Testament, see some other parallel passages, take a look at the exposition discuss that and then have some practical application. So that's a lot to do and in the short time we have so we'll see where we get next here. Oh special request, really really important questions only because we don't have time for rabbit trails.

Raise your hand if I'm teaching heresy or if Wayne's touching you in which case we'll turn the class around and go home. Briefly, looking at the historical context, Paul is writing this, as you may have recalled when this class started with the introduction, Paul's writing this to the Roman capital, thus Rome. There's going to be politicians all around in people's minds. When you're living in Rome proper, you're going to be dealing with politicians. How many of you think politicians have gotten worse over time instead of better?

All right. Do you think they started out fantastic? Okay, so when you see some of the things that we looked at in that reading of the passage, there's some things about moral character that are in there. They're going to stand out in the Roman culture. It's multicultural. When Rome took over a place, that people group would somehow get involved with the Roman capital as well. So you're going to have people coming through. So Paul's writing this to a society with people from different cultures.

It's important to keep in mind. Deception is really common in all of humanity, but is certainly, when we think of politicians, we think of deception or at least modification of the actual facts. Superficiality is very common, especially in multicultural contexts where you can't agree on things because you have different cultures. So instead of actually trying to rectify things and have unity, you're going to have a lot of, well, we'll agree to disagree and we won't actually get into the depth of the problem.

So all of this is part of the cultural context for when Paul's writing these things. You look like you have a question, Donna. No, you don't? Okay. Idolatry and mythology. The Roman mystery religions. Everybody's familiar with the Roman mystery religions, at least a little bit. Basically, a lot of different little tiny mystery religious groups, and the guards had a mystery religion, and the people who did this had a mystery religion. So everybody had their own mystery religions, so there's not a really strong unified theological culture.

And also self-righteousness can be a real problem. I'm sure none of us have dealt with that, but that's going to be part of the historical context. If you're a Roman citizen, and you're in Rome, you have very special privileges. And so there's going to be issues with class and other things as well.

Now, I wanted to take a look quickly at how this passage we're looking at fits into the context of the whole chapter. Verses 1, 2, and 3 tend to be the vertical relationship, and they lay the foundation for Paul's logic as he moves through the chapter. So we've got 12.1 through 3. Then last week, Roger went over Romans 4 through 8, which I consider to be part of the two-by-fours, or studs. In this case, they're columns, because it kind of fit in with the Roman theme. But that is an important part of the structure of the chapter.

It's how the believer interacts with the other believer. Unfortunately, they didn't have the cross beams so much with the columns. This week we'll be looking at 9-16, which I believe is really the rooftop for how the body interacts and how the structure comes together. Next week, I believe, we're going to take a look at 17-21, which is how the rest of the world looks in on the Church.

So that's how this passage fits into the context of the chapter. But all of the rest of the chapter, since the beginning is the foundation, we need to take a brief reminder look at, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So, everything we're looking at today is in the context of responding to the mercies of God with the understanding that, since we were identified with Christ with His death, burial, and resurrection, we are a living sacrifice with Him. and then we can dig into the passage. Any questions now that I've raced through the first section? They're okay. All questions are open.

In other words, because you're identified of your identification with Christ, resting in your relationship with Him, and positioned in the heavenlies, the rest of this chapter is a logical outcome of His life in you. So we're going to take a look at what that means.

The first First part of verse 9, let love not be two-faced or hypocritical. Does anybody else have any other variation on how love should not be in their translations? The first thing I've got up here is a quote, knowledge in itself does not edify, it is love that edifies, it is love that builds up. How many of you have ever been superficial in your love towards somebody?

I know nobody could raise their hand, but it's possible that it could have happened. In my own life, let me tell you, when I went to an unnamed Bible church in Texas, we walked in for the first Sunday morning and there was not even a hi from anybody. There was no friendliness.

Church got out. We thought, wow, this is great theology. Church got out. We stood up, and people just walked right past us. No relationship there. No desire. Oh, that's a new face. Let's find out who that is. After six months, we finally had an in. We barely would get highs, but they were highs. That was way better than nothing at all. After six months, we stopped asking the pastor to come over for a meal. So relationships can be a bit of a challenge in a church body, but this is really critical. This is the crux for the rest of the section we're going to be looking at.

How genuine is our love for one another? How do we interface with one another and have a relationship and know one another? One quick question, where does our love for one another come from? It comes from Christ, and it's a reaction to His mercies to us, the fact that He first loved us. It's a response that we love other people because of Christ. In the Roman culture, love was a secondary concept. When he talked about love, there's all kinds of politics going on. It was very common for all kinds of sexual perversion to take place, and so the concept of love within even a marriage was weak.

So, this is pretty problematic. The word for love here is based on the agape root. When I was looking through Hal's notes, he actually mentioned that agape love is concerned with right and wrong. It's concerned with, hey, that's wrong. I love you, and I see that that's wrong.

Let's go fix that. In contrast to, hey, I love you, and we're moving along. Moving on to other better things. No, it's involved. The word invasive comes to mind. That's not right. But it's intimate. OK, there's intimacy. Alright, I spent way more than three minutes on that section, which means I'm going to have to haul through something else. The next one is, Abhor evil, cling to what is good. Along the same lines as the first part of this verse, genuine love abhors the wickedness of man. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth.

That's 1 Corinthians 13.6. Of course, that's a love passage there in 1 Corinthians 13.

Evil, okay, you're abhorring evil. Evil is hurtful, evil is selfish, and evil all of is a palindrome. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. It's not a moose. So, when we look at this, how many of you find yourself hating evil? Like when you watch the news, or when you watch somebody cut you off on the road while you're driving, or when you find out that somebody cheated and got away with it, or whatever you may be living in in your life context. It's very easy to hate evil when you're not committing it. When it's not part of what you're doing. When we're walking in the flesh as believers, That's when we find it easy and attractive to do that which is evil. He's not talking about just hating the evil of people doing things outside of you, although that's part of it. It's also part of our own lifestyle.

I had a really great conversation with a guy in seminary and it was asked of him, what do you think is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in all of theology? And he said that he didn't think people understood the wickedness of sin, how sinful sin was. He was later on let go from his job for lying. I think he understood a little deeper after that, the problem of that. But evil being what it is, is a real problem. It's something in our own lives that Paul suggests that we abhor, that we hate.

But instead he gives us a positive command in response to that, which is to cling to what is good. Is that easy to do? Can you cling to what is good? Not by ourselves. We have to do it in response to the mercies of God, like in verse 1. All of this, again, it's just contingent. You have to have that grasp of the mercies of God, and our being living sacrifice, so that all of these things, as Christ lives through us, are not only doable, but they become normative. They're part of the normal Christian life because of the Holy Spirit. Any other questions about abhorring evil and clinging to what is good? I know this is a crash course.

Alright, be devoted to one another in Philadelphia. You may have in your translations there, brotherly love. Philadelphia means brotherly love if you were in a US history class at some point in time, and I think everyone in this room has been, I hope. then they'll tell you that Philadelphia is a means city of brotherly love or brotherly love.

Devotion goes beyond tolerance. It goes beyond being nice, shaking hands, and just lip service. The things that we kind of see in the first part of verse 9 where he says to be not two-faced or hypocritical in our love. There's an intimacy involved with devotion. This whole passage is going to be involved with intimacy, so get used to that word. What does it mean to you when you think about devotion in relationships? What relationships require devotion? Being a parent. Being a parent, oh yeah, that takes devotion.

The terrible twos are hitting early for Evelyn. Abigail just desperately wants me to take her around the block so she can ride her bike, and that's really great, but it's hot, and she always wants to go at three in the afternoon. It's like, can we go early or late? But it takes devotion.

What other relationships? So parenting, what other relationships? Okay, marriage, that was the one I thought everyone would say right off. Marriage takes devotion. When you say the vows for your wedding, are you making a covenant? You're devoting yourself to this person in a covenant, in an agreement? What does devotion require of a human being? What part of the human being is involved with devotion?

I'm talking about the soul, the metaphysical nature, not arms or something. What does it take? Maybe I'm not... I hope that's not too vague a question. Devotion is an act of the will. You're part of it. It's not a passing sort of a thing. You are mentally participating in that devotion. And so, you have devotion, but your devotion to one another involves brotherly love. Again, that love is part of the will as well. And what does that look like in our own lives?

When we're in our marriage and things aren't going well, because you're arguing about squeezing the toothpaste from the bottom or from the middle. Nobody does that anymore. You all have that pump-top stuff, don't you? That's what it is. It's an act of the will. You say, I'm getting past the toothpaste, I'm getting past the clothes on the floor, or the whatever it is that's causing the argument. I know some of you don't argue anymore, like Bill Cosby was talking about, but it's there. It's an act of the will. Again, I've blown my three minutes.

Give preference to one another in honor. A similar concept. The Greek word for preference there actually has an element of leading in it. Be a leader in your preference to one another, in your honor of one another. Be an example in the body of honoring other people. What does that require as far as character is concerned? if you're leading in preference. Selfless, having a serving heart and mind. So, leading in service and honoring one another.

Honor, of course, has to do with indicating value to someone. When the term worship that we use when we talk about worshiping God comes from the old English word worth ship to ascribe worth to God Okay, we don't worship other men, but we can honor them and we can say hey you're valuable This is another action that involves intimacy Again, this intimacy thing comes up. You know, I I have to confess that in my own life as part of this body, I have not been intimate enough with enough of the believers here. There are some that I know fantastically well.

I mean, Wayne lives down the street. We show up at his house all the time. He's like, oh, the Biedermanns again, I'm sure. What are we eating, Sue? No, no. But honestly, that level of intimacy is there. It's required for this to happen. For you to be able to honor somebody, there needs to be some level of intimacy that is going to develop from that. If somebody, if you've honored them... Oh, go ahead, Carol. Well, fantastic. She's my mom. I'm always glad to hear those kinds of things. I know. Well, I'm glad she's not your mom. That would be awkward. So, preference and honor. Now, this section here turns and gets rather personal. The relationship is not just between one another, but it's vertical again.

Serve the Lord with diligence and a burning spirit. How do you serve the Lord with diligence? Can you do it? Can you serve the Lord with diligence? not in the flesh. But by his mercies you can, huh? As you live a life that is a living sacrifice, then you can serve the Lord with diligence.

It's so important to remind ourselves where you started us today in 12.1-3, right? It's our position, and that life is lived out by faith that ultimately demonstrates our relationship to all these others. It's a life, it's a will, but that's based on the life, right? The willful decision is merely to abide in that relationship, and the result of that is going to be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. When we serve the Lord with diligence, that word diligence there, when I think about what I have to do at work, I'm like, oh, I have to be diligent, I've got a deadline, I've got to do it, do it, do it. This is the life of Christ.

How do we diligently do that? That's a question that involves resting. The answer is, really, you diligently rest. Diligently don't be in the flesh. And some people have a tough time with that. You tell them to rest, and they say, I'm not doing anything. And that's one of the things that the Lord wants us to realize, that trusting and walking with Him, resting with Him, is the life. Another good way to remind ourselves is to ask yourself how you're doing. Yeah, how are you doing? The self is not doing well.

A cross-reference for that is going to be in Ephesians 5.18. Do not be filled with flesh, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. The word filled there actually means filled to capacity, to overflowing, crammed full of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, if the Holy Spirit is working in us, there is an essence of diligence there. There's not a half-heartedness, it's a devotion. Again, instead of to one another, it's a devotion to the Lord in relationship.

And you don't get any more slides, apparently. Nope. You know, Randy, one of the verses that has helped me out a lot in this area has been Colossians 1.29.

Colossians 1.29?

Yeah. where it says, for this purpose also I labor, striving, so there's the idea of being diligent, according to his power, which mightily works with him. So there's both. He's called laboring, and he's striving, the idea of diligence, but according to God's power, which is working with him. And 1 Corinthians says the same thing in chapters 15 and verse 10. It says, by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace, towards me in the not-true vein, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." So there's God's grace entering in, there's the laboring, being diligent, yet not him, but the grace of God.

So we're actively involved in submission, but that submission does sometimes require intense exertion. Obviously Paul was beaten, if you read 1 Corinthians 11, where he lists all of the things he suffered. Obviously he was involved, there was intensity involved, but it was in a lifestyle of submission.

I don't know what it is, but we'll not worry about it. Something but what what about hope what is hope besides my my second daughter's middle name? Yeah Yes, the hope is the excitement and anticipation over that which is going to come. In Christ, that hope is not laid in something like, geez, I hope that I win an iPhone, or some modern contraption that's going to bring happiness to the world. Yay! No, no, no. Your hope is in the certainty of Christ. Sorry, the iPhone was released on Friday and it just caused all kinds of a stir in the tech world. Yeah, we don't need to go talking about Macintoshes. So, the question we need to ask ourselves is, who are we hoping in? If we're hoping in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's a very serious and genuine hope that gives us something to rejoice in.

That's pretty awesome in contrast to, you know, everything else that the world tries to sell us so that they can sell us the upgrade next year or the year after or whatever the time frame is. Hoping that brand new car that will make you feel like you can climb into the mountains. If you watch those commercials, they got the SUVs and they always end the commercial with the SUV at the top of the mountain looking over a valley. You will be good until you get a flat tire, until you get whatever your hope in earthly things isn't going to be fulfilling, which your hope in Christ will be. The next section there is Persevere in Tribulation.

Now, Persevering in Tribulation, Hebrews 12.2, if somebody wouldn't mind turning to Hebrews 12.2 and go ahead and read that for us.

When we talk about persevering in tribulation, I think Christ is the ultimate example of persevering in tribulation. We see it from a flawed human perspective. Christ came down in a perfect human perspective. and endured the tribulation and the trial that was there, what was it that he was focused on? He was focused on his father, it says, for the joy set before him, he did those things.

If we have that rejoicing and hope, when the time of tribulation comes, when we endure that tribulation, Is it going to be hard because you have nothing on the other side? Often one of the accusations against atheism is there is no hope. I believe that we got here by accident and we're getting better. Okay, you're suffering, you're being tormented by something, where's your hope? Human goodness. I'm good. Right. Sure.

I don't believe the Bible teaches that, but they're going to ignore the Bible and the whole anyways. So, as believers, how do we persevere in tribulation? It's not a trick question, we've already been over it. Right before that it says rejoice in hope. Because if we're focused on that, then our tribulation is just a bump in the road on the way to that hope. We're being conformed to the image of Christ, and this is not our eternal home. We are sojourners on this place. We may be diligent, resting sojourners in this place, but we are going and persevering through tribulation.

I think one of the things that I learned best from Hal before he got the cancer was that I was able to listen to the series that he did on trials and suffering. Fantastic. And then to see it in his very life with the cancer, and I'm sure we've all seen this in various other places, hopefully not as severe, but in cases just as severe or worse, the believer that perseveres in that knows it's beyond this earthly frustration as much as that may be intense. I watch my little girls and I pray that the Lord will keep them safe and secure. I pray the same for my wife and I pray for myself so that they don't have to deal with anything happening to me. But if it does, we have a heavenly home and we have a heavenly hope and we know that. We've had various things that we've been through in our own lives and if it wasn't for the strength of the Lord, I don't know how we would have dealt with it.

When we had our miscarriage, when Jessica first got pregnant, it was devastating for her. I called in work. I said, OK, Jessica's had a miscarriage. I'm not going to be in the rest of the day. And it was the most intense thing that she had been through in her life. And as a husband, I just got to watch. I could be sad and hurt.

But we prayed together a lot, because that was the only place that our hope was in. We could probably spend, well, Hal did a whole series on persevering through tribulation. Be devoted to prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5.17 says, pray without ceasing. When I was younger, that confused me like nobody could explain it to me. How do I pray without ceasing? I sleep. For goodness sakes, I have to focus on schoolwork. How am I going to pray without ceasing? How am I going to be devoted to prayer? Monks do it, that's right. So how do we as believers be devoted to prayer or pray without ceasing?

What, Roy? It's relationship, it's fellowship with Christ continually. It's exactly that. I thought, well, maybe I can train myself to pray while I sleep. have half my brain be doing math homework, and the other half can be praying, or whatever it is. Instead, the concept of devotion to prayer is a lifestyle. It's relationship with Christ. Again, surprisingly, in the context of this passage, there's that intimacy issue. If it's not with us, or between us as believers, it's heavenly-oriented, and that prayer life is exactly part of that.

As you're driving, instead of reacting with frustration and anger because the weasel cut you off, it's immediately, Lord, we pray for the sanctification of the weasel. We come before you, and instead of seeing this person as somebody who's rude and inconsiderate, we come before them and genuinely pray, Lord, we pray for that person's sanctification. The worst one is the Christian bumper sticker on the back of the car that cuts you off. Then you're like, Lord, we pray for their sanctification. Don't put a bumper sticker on it.

The results of a praying lifestyle are someone that is constantly seeing opportunities for prayer. When we come together for prayer requests, we're not necessarily, I want to pray for the guy who cut me off, because we've already prayed for him and we moved on. It's a gracious attitude also. to prayerfully come into life in every life situation.

Next section here. Contribute to the needs of the saints. What is required first for this verse to be fulfilled? How can you contribute to the needs of the saints? Roy is smiling. Spiritual wealth, okay, that's there. That's actually not what I was thinking of, but that's a good answer. We should put that on the list. Spiritual wealth, okay, that's going to involve relationship with the Lord. The other side of that is that requires relationship with one another. There has to be a level of trust, so that when you have need, people know you, and therefore then they can know that you have that need. That's an important thing. Ruth. By through Christ, you know me. Yeah, by through Christ. Exactly.

In fact, if you were to look at the logical process building up to here, if you have been abiding and doing everything up to this, there's going to be an intimate relationship with people, so that you will know that that person has needs. The person won't have to be on the side of the street with the cardboard sign saying, give me your money, or whatever they might be saying. And they're not also going to have to just hope somebody guesses it. There's going to be a level of trust there. The Holy Spirit does work in lives sometimes to provide things that are unspoken. I'm not going to take God out of the equation. But as believers, there needs to be a level of intimacy and trust so that that can happen.

You'll see, oh, there's a need, because you'll know that person well enough to do it. If I don't know you, or you don't know me, then you'll never know. It'll just be another hopefully smiling face at church on Sunday morning, as we go passing by, and don't say hi, or whatever it is that might be the experience.

Any other thoughts on contributing to the needs of the saints? Most definitely. Those things that we're not going to talk about are not going to be prayed for. Certainly the Holy Spirit is capable of sustaining us, but there's something about the prayer that adds to that somehow. For those of you listening on the recording, Gail mentioned that prayer is one of the most important needs, and we need to know everybody well enough so that we can share the prayer requests. Now, following right along on the coattails of contributing to the needs of the saints is one of my personal pet peeves.

Because I got burned by it, I stopped asking the pastor to come over to our house for a meal after six months at this one church that I went to. Practice hospitality. We lived a mile down the street from the church. And the guy lived 90 minutes away. I said, will you please come over to our house after church and rest, and we'll feed you, and you can relax, and we'll just have some time together and just fellowship. And he refused week after week after week, so we just stopped asking.

Practice hospitality. I can look around the room, and I've been to many of your houses for meals. Some of you have been to my house for meals. What does hospitality require as far as the attitude of a believer? for it to take place. An attitude of service, again, a servant heart. It's you are giving of physical things most often because you're gonna have something to drink, have some food. Here's a chair at our house. Sometimes they break, watch out. That's kind of a joke. I had a chair break on my father-in-law and my brother-in-law.

But what are some of the benefits of hospitality in body life? in any things in your own life or that you've experienced as a host or as a guest that are benefits for the body. Of course you get to know people a lot on a different level. You don't really have that time to sit down and really get to know who they are. Yeah, it's really valuable for seeing how people live and operate.

We went over to Roy and Gail's house for dinner, I don't know, it was the beginning of the year, and they had grandkids just climbing all over the place. And when Roy said, excuse me, I'm being interrupted by my grandchildren, I knew exactly what he meant. Because he had grandkids about the same age as my children. Both of us had a great understanding of what each one of us was going through dealing with the little munchkins running around being active busybodies.

I've been a guest at the Eccle home multiple times, and I've been a guest at the Poole's house multiple times, and I've been a guest... I won't go through the list, because if you're not on the list, then I feel bad. But I've been a guest at your homes, and I've seen your lives. I've seen that your Christian lifestyle isn't just in the pews, or just in these desk chairs.

It's genuine, and I see it. So, we need to have hospitality as part of that, so that many of these things can be known. You will know the needs of the saints because you're there. You're involved with their lives. Next one, this is an interesting one. Bless those who persecute you.

Do you think this has anything to do with the church, or do you think this just has to do with the outside world invading in the lives of the believer? It's unfortunately a both. It really is. Sometimes in the church, there is factioning that goes on. It's unfortunate.

But when that happens, how are we to react as a saint, as a believer, as a person abiding in Christ? Do we prayerfully pray for God's blessing, or do we hope God smites him? God, you take him out! Do we have that attitude? Obviously, according to this text here, that's probably a bad attitude to have. Instead, we should be blessing.

And that blessing is a pretty significant attitude adjustment for our own lives. I myself, let me tell you, I have been an angry youth. I'm still getting over being an angry youth. I'm just an older angry gentleman. No, I try not to be angry, but when something goes not like I want, if I'm not abiding, the flesh kicks in, And you can imagine the results are not saintly results. I think we all experience that. Except for Dave. I don't think Dave experiences it. No, we all experience that.

And when persecution comes from the outside or from within the church body, again, being devoted to prayer is going to be a critical element in our reaction to those persecutions. Moving on, rejoice with those who rejoice. Again, that's an intimacy urging. I urge you all, at the beginning of this chapter, that requires intimacy to know that that person is rejoicing. Because not everybody walks into the room going, Hooray! Oh, are they rejoicing? I don't know. Let me go find out. Hey, what's going on? And we can rejoice.

Or, it could be crummy. Because the next verse is, Weep with those who weep. And weeping there is not just a little boo-hoo. That's actually outward, intense crying. Usually with a little noise. Don't put the Bose headphones on that are noise cancelling. And tune it out.

You want to be involved. If there's rejoicing going on and you know about it, rejoice with them. Celebrate. Yay! This is going on. In my own life, I've had a good beta release going on at work this last week. And let me tell you, it's a lot to rejoice about, because beta usually means broken, somehow. So, when it's not broken too bad, you get a little happy. But there's been other areas and times in my life, and I talked about the miscarriage wherever, where we struggled. It was difficult. I know that other people here have had miscarriages or other difficulties like that, and you know what?

We put our arms around, and we cry together. I'm sorry, what? Yeah, yeah. You know, too, Randy, I was going to say that we can't weep with those who weep unless we've wept ourselves. I mean, that's part of the tribulation purpose. Sure. The Lord has us going through those trials to prepare us so that we recognize when someone else is hurting in that same way. It's not like we can weep for them. I mean, we're really weeping with them. Yeah.

We understand what they're Did everybody hear that? The weeping with others who weep, I know in my own life, I've been able to encourage people and they were surprised. For some reason, people thought I'd never suffered. And they were like, I didn't know that you went through a hard time. Do I come across as the guy on the cover of the Wheaties box or something? I don't know what it is. But I've been through those things, and then yes, because of those experiences, we can have those times of weeping together. The next one, this is pretty critical.

Be of the same mind. That is going to counter the persecution from within the church. If that time comes, if there is that trials that are coming from within the church body, if you're of the same mind, that's going to prevent that from happening. But when it does happen, you respond to it prayerfully. But be of the same mind, that's pretty important.

Can you imagine participating if the elders all taught something radically different theologically in the body? You know, one person's telling you that you have to do it. You've really got to go and be a good Christian. and another elder saying, you've got to rest, and the other elder saying, well I don't know which one it is. That would be just immense turmoil. Imagine that times everybody in the body. We need to be like-minded. Does that mean that we all know and understand the same thing? No, because we all grow progressively.

The Lord reveals things to us. I have to learn from my brothers and sisters in Christ at the body here, because the Lord may have taught you something He hasn't taught me yet. And I'm going to learn from you those things. And that's humbling for me. I'm very honored to be here this morning, simply because I know that I don't know everything.

Well, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, so that you not only have perfect understanding, Yeah, the mind of Christ in us. The next two stanzas are blending together, because I've got five minutes left. We're going to take a look at these. I think they're pretty obvious.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, and do not be wise in your own eyes. Very similar concepts. Basically, don't think more of yourself than you ought. If you're associating with the lowly, what does the lowly mean? That's a tough one. Because that means you have to think about somebody in a negative way, or in a way that may possibly be considered negative. You might find out that that person is lowly because they need something, and you have to go be with them because you're providing for their need. They're lowly.

Oh no, not lowly. I pray, and I honestly genuinely pray this, that the Lord would make me as lowly as He needs me to be, so that I may learn. and that hurts sometimes to think about what that might mean. Oh no! What if it's not a yippy-skippy happy thing I go through to learn?

But that lowliness is where I have most often learned, and it's often because someone else was willing to come beside me and talk with me. Sometimes they weep with me, sometimes they rejoice with me, but they're there with me in that state of lowliness, being intimate again, for my growth, and often for their growth as well. The Lord uses that. Being wise in your own eyes, what is true wisdom? It's the mind of Christ. The Lord is wisdom in our lives.

So really, after looking at this, we've got a little bit of time left. What does this look like? We're not going to turn to it now, but please, at home, in your own time, take a look at Acts 2, 42-47. You're going to see the very first church. The evangelism call gets sent out, people respond, and you're going to see much of these very things lived out in the very first church. There was a lot of intimacy between the believers. More importantly, for our own right-here-right-now sort of situation, let's take a quick look at 1 Timothy 3, 1-7. And I'll go ahead and read this for the recording. It is a trustworthy statement.

If any man aspires to the office of overseer or elder, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceful, or peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. I'm looking at Donna, and she's going, no, no, no. She's not saying that at all.

The elders are in our own lives a living example of not just what we just read there in 1 Timothy, but many of these very same things that we read in chapter 12, verses 9 through 16, we're going to identify in the elders. They're going to be doing those things and living those things already. What does this look like is not just some hypothetical. There's shoes wearing out those very concepts. In your own lives, have you seen these things that we've looked at in the life of believers as they abide?

Is this foreign to the church at Holly Hills? I hope no. I hope that's not the case. Is that the five minute or is that the last one? Did I miss? That's the first one. We've got five more minutes. So, we hauled Heine through this passage here. We looked at the historical context and looked at the wonderful things that the people who are receiving this letter were living in. We looked at the scriptural context as far as this chapter is concerned, as well as the New Testament. And then we briefly asked, do we see this in our own lives?

But the question that you should have the answer to when you walk out of this room is, how do we do this? How do we fulfill these urgings that Paul is urging us to do? In Christ. By the mercies of God, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is the logical lifestyle that should come out of that. Now here's a bonus question. Bonus questions are always good.

How does this fit in with the New Testament not having a law? The New Testament not being a law-based, like the Old Testament law, lifestyle, how does this fit in with that? If we don't have a law, and we live by the Holy Spirit, how does that apply to this passage? Exactly.

The Lord has given us this new instruction to love one another, and this is the living advent. If we're abiding in the Holy Spirit, we don't have to think about, am I doing this list? We can look at it, and we can see it, and know that that's the life of Christ working in us, but we're not walking around with a checklist. I gotta make sure I got my four pages of checklist, because I gotta make sure I'm doing it. God didn't have to provide special revelation that we should always drive the speed limit when we get our cars, because that would confuse the snot out of the New Testament Church.

He gives a special revelation, you know, you're reading through the Bible, and they're going, what is this car business? or God didn't have to create a new New Testament for this time frame because the principle of abiding in the Holy Spirit and walking a life that is in relationship with the Lord exceeds any need for any number of laws. So that's a bonus. Any other thoughts or questions? I'm done racing through the material I had planned. Gail?

I just keep coming back more and more, I think, in my life to a recognition. It almost has to be minute by minute sometimes, but I do not want to recognize anymore. I have been placed again by forgiveness, a new nature, a new life, and I belong to him, and I am a living sacrifice, whether I want to be or not.

It's a purpose for me, and it's recognizing him. takes away the feeling of keeping a list, and gives me recognition that this is what God is to me. And it's somehow that makes it easier for me. Sure. Well, when you understand the context of where your life is in God's hands, it sure does make it easier, especially when it's trials or tribulations. I happen to know somebody who likes to micromanage. like nobody's business. They just want to fix everything that happens in their own lives, in their kids' lives. It's just got to be fixed. I've got to do it. I've got to fix it.

And it's like, no, no, no. As a believer, rest. Let God fix it, and let it be in His hands. He may use you to fix it, but it's not up to you to fix it yourself. It's a resting, waiting thing. As a parent, I keep that in front of me all the time, that I have to rest. I don't want my girls to ever get a scrape or a scar. Oh, don't let them get hurt.

It's like, no, no, no, that's not... What if the Lord is going to use that scrape or that scar or that experience? I don't want them to be severely injured in any way, but if that's what the Lord uses, then that's what the Lord uses. So yeah, obviously those are my own personal small things, but as a believer, we're not ours.

That's the second bell. We should close in prayer and enjoy some fellowship between now and the next service. Heavenly Father, we come before you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this list of things to help us identify your work in our lives. We ask that you would help us to abide in you and stay focused on you so that we may live out your life and be your agents. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.