SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: October 6, 2012
Date Preached: October 7, 2012
Church: Oak Park BC (AM)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series: A Series In Romans
Title: The Essentials of True Christian Living
Text: Romans 12:9-13
ETS: Paul gave the church in Rome the essentials for True Christian living
ESS: This passage gives believers today the essentials for True Christian living
Introduction:
The one think that remember about when I joined the Air Force was just how my world changed… in a radical manner…
I can still remember that first night at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX. I can remember just how scared I was when our Drill Instructor came walking down the sidewalk toward us @ 11:30pm and all we could hear was the click click click of the taps on his shoes before we ever saw a body….
I can remember that from that moment until the moment I graduated from Basic training my world and everything in it revolved around this man… He ‘instructed’ us on when we got up in the morning to when we went to bed at night.
He told us when we were going to eat and what we were going to wear… he told us what we were going to do each day and where we were going to go… This man even told us how we were supposed to make our bed and fold our underwear!
Now when I entered the military I entered a world where my individual choices and my individual desires were taken away… And then I was built back up thru the teaching of the Drill instructor who taught me what to do and how to live and be the soldier that my country needed…
Now when I read these verses from Paul to the Roman church my thoughts went back to my time in basic training… and God revealed a spiritual parallel here in this passage!
Now there are many of you here who NEVER experienced the military OR had to deal with something like basic training… but I believe you can imagine what it could have been like!
You see it is like this… when you join the military and go to basic training, you enter into a world where all you were before you got there NO LONGER mattered, but the only thing that mattered was what you were to become!
When we come to Christ… it is very similar. When we enter the kingdom of God, we come to Christ with a past and a way of living that we have set… but that no longer matters!
What matters is that we now are being formed and shaped BY the Holy Spirit and the only thing that matters is what God desires us to become!
We come to Christ stripped of everything...as we surrender ALL of who we are… when we accept Christ we surrender our wants and desires and they are stripped away! Then we are torn down to the very spiritual bone by the Holy Spirit!
Then thru the indwelling of that same Holy Spirit, Christ begins to build us up… to be the believer and servant that we are called to be… to be a warrior willing to grow and expand God’s kingdom!
When I was in basic training, all of what I THOUGHT was right was taken away and I was TOLD what was right in the sight of the US Air Force…
I was shown the right way to make my bed, the right way to fold my clothes, the right way to walk, the right way to talk, the right way to run, the right way to interact with those in my flight…
ALL I knew about what was right or wrong no longer mattered… what mattered is that the US Air Force had brought me on board and now I was compelled to adjust my ways to THEIR ways & leave MY old ways behind me!
I saw so many young men come and go all because they refused to surrender to the US Air Force’s way of doing things and they insisted that they do things THEIR way…
In our passage this morning I can see Paul laying out some basic essentials for living the Christian life that Christ had called them to. Paul had instructed them to surrender their hearts and lives in v.1-2…
Do you remember that instruction that Paul gave? He called the believers in Rome to submit themselves as ‘living sacrifices’ and NOT to be molded by the world but allow God to mold them… and if they would do that they would know the will of God!
Our drill instructor said on MANY occasions… MAGOTS! If you will just listen to me, you will survive this training and you will become the soldiers/airmen that we want you to be… BUT if you choose NOT to listen to me, your life is going to be miserable!
I believe this is what Paul is saying here… He is NOT calling them ‘maggots’ as our Drill instructor did, but he is instructing them on how to live… he is giving them the basic essentials of living how Christ desires them to live…
Paul implies here that if they will choose to follow these basic essentials in their lives then they will know God’s will and be at peace with God… BUT if they don’t their lives are going to be miserable!
Let’s take a look into this passage where Paul lays out 3 very basic essentials for the believer to put into practice in his/her life…
Turn with me or look at the screen and let’s read our passage right now…[read Rom 12:9-13 here – HCSB]
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13contributing to the needs of the saints,]practicing hospitality.
Now Paul understood what it took to serve God and so he is led by the Holy Spirit to lay out these 3 basic essentials for believers and the 1st essential we find is found in v9-10 where Paul tells us about the…
Essential OF Affection – v.9-10
9Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
The NLT translation for this passage reads like this…
9Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
Our affection or love for each other MUST be the real deal… it cannot be just lip service! When we come to Christ in salvation, we have to stop playing games; we are called to stop pretending and called to really LOVE as Christ really loved!
This affection or love that Paul is speaking about here in v9 is the Greek word, agape, and we have come to know that kind of love as a love that does NOT have conditions tied to it, but it loves for the sake of love! This is the same ‘agape’ love God has for creation & Christ has for the lost!
This type of affection is willing to lay down its own life for the sake of another. Here Paul is calling believers in Rome… and ultimately ALL believers to love each other and live in such a way that we always place others before ourselves! As Paul had said earlier in this same chapter… don’t think TOO highly of yourself!
So preacher just what does this type of love look like? Well this love reveals itself in situations where it cannot be mistaken! It loves when loving is hard and difficult… it loves when NO love will ever be returned!
This agape love… simply LOVES… and it does so because that is what agape love does… it loves! There are no conditions or expectations…only love! And we find Paul stressing here that THIS is how we must LOVE each other!
John said it best when he said; we love because God first loved us! We know that God loves us… but God did not just use His words to show His love! God did not pretend to love us! God took action and showed His love by sending Jesus Christ to this world to die for our sin…
Like God, we are not called to love by words, but we are called to love by action! We cannot pretend to show love, we must ACT out our love… We are called to love those we deem unloveable! Love the unloved!
But Paul does not stop there… under this umbrella of having the Loving or Affection Essential Paul calls these believers to ALSO hate what is wrong as much as they love what is right!
What Paul is saying here is that if we have this love in our hearts… we cannot harbor hate at the same time! We can hate the sin, but we are called to hold to what is right and what is right is that we must love each other and reveal Christ’s love to the lost!
Paul calls these believers to have a ‘genuine’ affection or love for their fellow believers! A ‘genuine’ affection is something that reveals to those around that you are NOT pretending, but what love you have is REAL!
Paul then gives us a result of what happens to believers when we begin to show genuine agape love for one another… we begin to take delight in honoring each other!
Paul understood just how important affection or love was for the believer. Paul was taught by Jesus… and here Paul is doing NOTHING more than reinforcing the teaching of Jesus…[read John 13:34-35 here]
34“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Paul understood that affection or LOVE for each other was the centerpiece for ALL Christianity & without love all else is vain and empty! It is ESSENTIAL to show and reveal love as a believer… it is who we are!
But Paul does not stop there… that love has to have a place to live… somewhere to germinate and grow, and Paul knew this so he reveals a 2nd essential to living the Christian life and it is the…
Essential OF the right Attitude – v.11-12
11not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
Not lagging in diligence provides us with a clue as to what Paul was getting at in this passage! Paul was telling these believers that loving each other was essential to serving God.
The word ‘diligence’ used here is to define as an steadfast application of God’s love… the term diligence indicates a work ethic… it defines a definite attitude about the work of serving God… of loving others!
When one is diligent about his/her job… it’s safe to say that they have the right attitude! Here Paul is calling us to have the right attitude in loving each other! He calls us to REALLY love one another and that we must be diligent about it!
Now we can be diligent in our job but have the wrong focus… we can be diligent and our attitude be self serving and self centered! But that is NOT what Paul is speaking about here… He is saying that our diligence has to have the right focus… our ATTITUDE of service must be seasoned with love for others FIRST!
Loving others is a hard thing to do and there are going to be times when loving someone will require a tremendous effort on our part… so we must be diligent in our walk with Christ to ensure the love of God is revealed!
We also see where Paul goes on to say that we must also be fervent in Spirit and willing to serve the Lord… this is yet another area where MANY of us fail as believers! Sadly, today a lot of professing Christians today want God to serve THEM…they do NOT want to serve God!
Diligent service and a genuine willingness to serve God are ESSENTIAL to being what God wants us to be… ESSENTIAL to living the Christian life! It reveals an underlying attitude of submission and surrender to Christ!
Now we have seen Paul’s first 2 basic essentials to the Christian life… The essential of affection or love and then the essential of having the right attitude of service toward God… diligent and willing to serve! If we have that type of attitude, our love will be revealed as it should be revealed…
But the 3rd essential that Paul speaks about here actually begins in v13 and it is a continuing theme throughout the remainder of this letter… that is the…
Essential of Action – v.13
13contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
v13 begins a list of MANY actions that will truly reveal the love of Christ as well as our attitude behind that love…
There are MANY actions we could look at this morning, but I am going to focus on the 2 actions laid out by Paul in v13! When we look at these actions, we can see that they play directly into what Paul has been teaching all along!
Paul instructs these believers to focus on 1st meeting the needs of those within your fellowship… At the time Paul wrote this letter it was a time of great difficulty for these believers.
Many of them had been ostracized by their families, friends and business partners… they were alone in the world and needed someone to come along side of them and bear them up!
Paul shares here that it is ESSENTIAL to our Christian growth and maturity for us to contributing to the needs of the saints! This is an action that directly reveals our attitude and love in Christ!
Paul gives us an example of what he means by contributing to the needs of the saints… Paul instructs the believers to ‘practice’ hospitality.
The word ‘practice’ here is the Greek word di-oko which is a word of PURSUIT. It refers to the constant pursuing of a thing in order to capture it or come along side of it… it gives us a sense of continual effort toward achieving a particular goal.
Paul says to ‘practice’ hospitalilty… to be in constant and continual pursuit of hospitality… PURSUE it relentlessly! I believe the more we ‘practice’ hospitality the more people we will be able to love!
The word hospitality here is a Greek word that literally means to love strangers… to love those we do NOT know… to love those we do NOT understand!
As believers we are called to relentlessly pursue this sort of love… being diligent in this action revealing an underlying attitude that is fleshed out in loving those around us…
CONCLUSION:
So Paul has laid out these 3 essentials to living the Christian life!
We are called to have show AFFECTION (love) for each other!
We are called to have a diligent ATTITUDE that promotes the love Christ desires us to show!
We are also called to put into ACTION this love that Christ has filled our hearts with…
Affection, Attitude and Action… 3 essentials for becoming the ‘living sacrifice’ Paul calls us to become in v1 of this chapter! 3 essentials for the believer to begin to live out the life Christ desires them to live!
Are you living as Christ desires you to live?
Give invitation here for believers needing to repent…
Give invitation here for the lost in need of Jesus…
