← ArchiveSunday, February 16, 2014DateFebruary 16, 2014Speaker—TextRomans 12Passages in this sermonRomans 120:00Romans 14:218:53Romans 89:37Romans 12:1410:122 Corinthians 510:18TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12. In Romans chapter 12, we continue our study and what it is to be a Romans 12 Christian.0:24And as I've stated in the past, to truly understand the response of Romans chapter 12, you need to read the first 11 chapters of Romans. The first 11 chapters of Romans are our doctrine for understanding why we come to be teachable and learners of the life we're to lead in Jesus Christ in Romans chapter 12.0:50We talked about in the first sermon, beginning in verse 1, that how to give God what He wants the most, and that's our surrender. If we're going to come to Christ, we surrender to Christ. If we want to come to God, we surrender all that we are. Surrender means holding nothing back. When I think of the word surrender, I think of my old Western favorites.1:19When, you know, they used to, the robbers used to come up alongside the stagecoats, pull the stagecoats, we'll all take the strong box, and there was always people inside the stagecoats that had watches and stuff, and they'd always try to hide those things, but they made them give air. They had to surrender everything they had to those robbers. Now, that's not the kind of surrender I'm talking about, but that's the completeness of the surrender I'm talking about. Because when we come to Jesus Christ, we don't bargain with Him that we're going to keep certain aspects of our life.1:48He bought all of us. He bought every square inch of who you are and every action and deed that you're accused of. And every action and deed that you've even thought. The next thing that we know is that if we're going to give God our best, we're going to have to have transformation take place in our life. We talked about that.2:17The transformed life, by the renewing of our minds. A transformed life comes by reading the Scripture. It comes by studying the Word of God. It comes by spending time with Jesus Christ. You will, whether you like it or not, begin to pull some of the habits and actions of the people you hang around the most with. If you hang around people that use bad language, you're going to use bad language. If you're not careful. Unless you understand that having spent time with the Lord Jesus Christ and the transformation has taken part in you,2:47you're not a part of what they're doing, but you are who Christ wants you to be where they're at. And then we talked about examination. That's probably the hardest thing that we do, is that self-examination, looking at who we really are in our hearts, in our minds. And, you know, over and over again, the Scriptures challenge us to examine ourselves and know that you are in the faith. Examine yourself before you partake of the Lord's Supper so that you don't do it in a manner that brings disgrace to the table of the Lord.3:18So we examine our motive. We examine our actions. We examine our mindset. We examine our desires. We examine our thought processes. We examine our plans. We examine our vision before the Lord. You know, as I think about what is the vision of this church and what do we want to see God do in this church?3:43We want to see God reach lost people, but we also want to see those that turn their hearts over to the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to live like believers. We want to see people become like Christ. You know, we want to see people shaped in the image of Christ through the various adversities and blessings that God brings into their life. We need to examine ourselves and see if that's happening to us.4:13Then, of course, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the importance of community, and we continue in that endeavor, talking about what it's like to live in the community of faith and to love. Let love be genuine, Paul says in verse 9. You know, there are a lot of people that can fake love. They can fake through the emotions that they have learned through the years to pretend love.4:40Husbands may be pretending love. Wives may be pretending love toward those around them. Sometimes people don't know how to love because they've never met the God of love. I believe there are certain emotions that people have and that are born with that are a part of our academic nature, but they're not the God-given love that he wants us to have and to exhibit to those around us.5:05And so now we come to what I titled the church, the Christian, and our challenges. And that talks about how, when evil is aimed at us, what do we do? Let's read Romans 12, beginning at verse 14. Bless those who persecute you.5:36You know, I've had folks, you might as well shut up now, preacher. Bless those that persecute you. You know, Jesus put it a little differently. He said when somebody slaps you on the right cheek, you turn the other cheek. Bless and do not curse. Wow. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.6:03Now, that's important because it's in the confines of this community of believers that we have, as well as with the world that is our neighbor. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. That's the Christian relationship. Do not be wise in your own estimation. You know, there are a lot of people who think they are a lot smarter than they really are.6:28Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace. With all men. That's your responsibility.6:57Never take your own revenge, beloved. But leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. You know, some people take that the wrong way as well. You got an enemy out there? Somebody that you don't like?7:28I'm going to get you, boy. I'm going to love you. I'm going to put these coals on your head. I'm going to burn you up. Get back at them. I can't hit you and I can't come at you. So I'm going to love you. So God will get you. That's not what this verse means. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The laws of a Christian life, and this is important.7:57The laws of a Christian life deal not only with the spiritual life of the Christian, but with the social life as well. The believer sustains a relationship to the world as well as to the church. Paul has three things to say about our daily contact with those outside of Christ. We are to show the unbeliever sympathy and understanding, and we are to take good heed to our attitudes. And we are to live before men unimpeccable and exemplary lives.8:27This challenge is impossible for the lost man to assume the Christian life and succeed in portraying Christ consistently. In other words, it's impossible for lost people to slip into the church, follow, walk the aisle, say the prayer, be baptized, set his lost people in the pew, and fulfill Romans 14.21.8:53Romans 14.21 can very well be a deciding line, or excuse me, Romans 12, all the way from verses 1 through the end of the chapter in verse 21, compels us to understand that in Christ we are radically different than anybody else in the world.9:20You know, I have heard every excuse in the world as to why we could break every one of those rules. And we can say, well, we're still part of the endemic person, but if you read Romans chapter 8, we're now indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God who leads us through the love of Christ and by indwelling in us to do that which is good, that which is honoring. And we're able to die to the flesh and to self9:48so that the righteousness of God might live within us. Let me say that everything I read to you is impossible outside of being a Christian and being a Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit of God, living their life to honor God and not privileged to live for themselves. I want to back up and give some credibility to what Paul's just said in Romans 12.14 and in Romans chapter 12 as a whole. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he writes this,10:18for we know that if this earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What a promise. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in the tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.10:46In other words, I really don't want to be here. I really want to be there because that's the most awesome existence we'll ever know. I was watching Field of Dreams the other night, last night, just the last part of it, and it's the part where the guy who's built the baseball fields out there, and he's watching the old players come back and play. You know, his dad is there, and he had never really gotten to know his dad, and his dad was a good baseball player,11:16and him and his dad play pitch, and he kind of knows, his dad kind of knows who he is, he kind of knows who his dad is, and he really doesn't. Y'all know what I'm talking about? You remember what his dad said? Is this heaven? Is this heaven? He said, no, it's Iowa. This isn't heaven yet, but until it becomes heaven, we have a responsibility to live like Jesus has challenged and enabled us to live.11:43Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight.12:10We are good courage, I say, and we prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have, we have as our ambition, whether at home or as absent, to be pleasing to him. Do you see how the Bible speaks to itself when we study it? For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body,12:38according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciousness. We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.13:02For if we are beside ourself, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore, all died, and he died for all, so that they who live may no longer live for themselves.13:31Isn't that what Paul just said in Romans 12? But for him who died and rose again on their behalf, therefore, again, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.14:04The old things have passed away. Behold, the things are new. In verse 20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Now, if we're going to be appropriate, and be the appropriate ambassadors for Christ, that Paul says that we need to be right here, then we need to consider the challenges of Romans chapter 12. Surrender, transformation, examination. We need to know that we are part of a community of believers in Jesus Christ14:30that God is called to radical behavior. That means that we do not have the privilege to be rude, crude, mean, or ugly to anybody at any time, much less our wives, or our husbands, or our children, or our parents, because they're the people we're closest to. We are challenged as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, changed by the power of God,14:59to live like Jesus. Let me tell you why the world is lost, dying, and going to hell. It's because there's too much of the church, or the world in the church, instead of the church in the world. My friend, we've become more like the world. We're using the gimmicks of the world to draw the people into the church, and they're thinking that it's okay to be like that, if it's okay to be like that in here. And it's not okay. We need to be different.15:29We need to be the called-out ones. We need to be those who look strange and funny. We need to be those who talk strange and funny. We need to be those who may drive a little slower than others. We need to be those who are looked at awkwardly because we don't use the same language as the world. We need to be different in everything we do. We need to be different in our family life. It's amazing. You heard,15:58You heard, in the church, the divorce rate is bigger than it is in the world. The drop of a hat, people get divorced. Well, the world comes into the church, and they say, well, what's any different? Y'all do the same thing we do. Y'all don't fight for marriage. You don't fight for the oneness of God? Why do we even put, you know, I've heard this, and I've really never had the struggle with it. You know, I probably do less weddings16:27than at any other time of ministry because I just, you know, I require a lot more. But for a while, this was it. If you're going to put some mint, or let me say it this way. If you're going to put some mint in there, I'm not going to use that one. Well, then go somewhere else. Because I only think we can use the Bible. The Bible's our guideline for marriage.16:55I'm not your guideline for marriage. The Bible's your line. I had a guy come to me one day, he said, I'll tell you what, it's good that a woman ought to obey her husband as unto the Lord. Why do we have to love her like Christ loved the church? If God says that, she's got to do that anyway. I wanted to slap him. It's a drop of a hat.17:25Marriages are dissolved. Without the challenge of God, why don't we just take this out? What God had joined together, let not man put? Yeah, let's take it out. We don't believe it? Let me tell you, we need to fight for our relationships.17:52We need to dig in for our relationships just because we've got an enemy that is tracking us in his sights and he's looking at every opportunity he can to take your integrity, to take your character, to take your empowerment, and to take your love, and to take your witness, and throw it to the dogs.18:22That's what he wants. There's challenge number one which concerns our enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. And I said our enemies because most of the time it was the enemies that were persecuting the Christians. If we look at this in the text that it's given, we understand that Paul is living in an era when Christians were literally abused as Paul was by the Jews themselves where they were a dominant Jewish community.18:52They didn't want Christianity being taught so they abused them. What would it be like today if you have a Christian that's in Iraq or that's in Afghanistan and they're living for Christ and they're surrounded by these Muslims that don't want any Christians in the area at all and they're persecuted and they die and we want to go over there and shoot them all. That's not what it says. Well, that's our nature. Our nature needs to be put19:20to the cross and die that our Christian life might be so radically different that we can get off a plane in Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Africa, anywhere and walk with the glory of the Lord down the streets with our enemies on all sides knowing that they could slay us at any time. But if that's what God has called us to do, we're to be a blessing to them so we take the gospel. We take life to them.19:48When you take the gospel of Jesus Christ to a community that is lost, you're taking life to that community. When you take the gospel to a lost man or woman that's your neighbor, you're taking life to them. I dare say that if any of you lived next door to a home that caught on fire and you thought that you had the opportunity to put the fire out, that you would grab whatever means you could and rush into that house and get those inhabitants of that house out and put that fire out20:17as quickly as you can with whatever means you have. My friend, the world is on fire and we have the gospel of Jesus Christ that can put it out and we quit. very few people are witnessing anymore. Very few people are inviting people to church anymore. Very few communities want you to come into their communities. There are communities you can't go into. We can't go into20:47Ashley Manor and share the gospel of Jesus Christ because they don't allow that there now. I want to tell you, I believe there's enough believers that ought to be able to share with their neighbors that it'll start a fire. We've got to find where we can go and we've got to go and we've got to love our enemies and not curse them. We've got to love our enemies enough to want to give them life. Bless those who persecute you. The reality of the challenge though for this is not just for those that were persecuted and drug out. Drug out into the arena of the lions21:16and the tigers and those things. I want to share, the reality also is a challenge for those who've been raped. Have you ever tried to explain to someone who was raped as a child bless those who persecute you? Could you imagine what it'd be like to try to share the love of Christ and how a person that's a believer is to love someone that abused them? Could you imagine to share with someone who's just been beaten by a group of people21:46that they are to love that group of people? Can I give you the greatest example I know that's given in scripture for us in those cases? One of them was Stephen. Stephen being stoned was able to lift up his eyes and forgive those who were stoning him because Stephen had a radical change in his life when he met Jesus Christ22:15Jesus Christ and the testimony of Stephen was that he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Could you imagine what it would be to be bullied and forgive your bully? You know, I know we've got schools that are unindated now and they're covered up because people are going there talking about being bullied. I want to tell you, Christians, one of the best ways I know to deal with a bully in your school is to really tell them you love them and if they hit you, just tell them you love them more. Eventually,22:46Eventually, they're going to run from you. What does this say about all those, the radio has been covered up with a young man who played football for Missouri and he's come out as a homosexual and you know, there are people that are up in arms and where does the church, we know where we stand. Let me ask you something, did God die for that young man? Yes, he did. Does God love that young man? Yes, he does.23:17Should we love that young man? Should we keep our opinions to ourselves?23:30Yeah, because everybody's got one of those. You got a nose. Do we share truth with them? Absolutely. God and his infinite love for them died for him just like he died for you and he died for me. Challenge number two concerns those closest to us. Notice he says rejoice with those who rejoice23:59who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And I thought about that and I looked and I studied that passage and you know, I see it as being those that I'm closest to in the church and you know, sometimes the hardest thing in the world is to rejoice with somebody you're ticked off at. You know, why did they win the lottery when I needed it the most? Why did they get this when I wanted that? You know, I've gotten to where every now and then I go to a conference,24:29a men's conference, whatever our men's conferences pass, you know, they give out tickets. I'm going to quit getting them. I don't ever win. I'm going to say it's rigged, I never win. I mean, I can pick a ticket up somewhere and they say, we're giving away door prizes, here, get your ticket, I get a ticket, I go there. No, I don't win. I just want to quit. I want to say, why did he win? Who is he? I wanted that. And say,24:59And say, man, I'm so glad you won that. That's awesome. I'm glad you got it. Like if Brother Rick and I were together somewhere and he would run around to golf, I'd look at him kind of crazy. Tell him I wanted it. But I'd rejoice with him. We weep with those who weep. There's a time of weeping. There's a time of hurting. There's a relationship. We live in a community of believers that are not afraid to feel with one another. They're not afraid to feel the emotions of one another.25:29They're not afraid to feel the cares of one another. They're willing to open our hearts up. And you say, look how dangerous that is. Yes, it's very dangerous, but that's because of the radical challenge that God has brought into our lives. In other words, we're to match the moods. Match the moods with those around us. Challenge number three, concerns now. We relate to one another. Be of the same mind toward one another. Be of the same mind? That guy's crazy.25:58How am I going to be of the same mind? Listen, I want to tell you something. We walk in this building, we ought to love everybody in this building with an equality of love and not have that love changed by the standard that that person may hold or the privilege that that person may have or in the way that that person may be able to bless me against another person. Does that make sense?26:28In other words, I don't come in here and go over to the person I think is the richest, wealthiest, and most able to help me and pass four other people up that are right over here that don't look like they can help me nearly as much and say, man, we're so glad you're here. I'm so glad. Scott, I'm glad you're here. I'll tell you what, you got all the gold in the world. They're hanging from your ears and your fingers and you're everywhere else. Man, you got to be rich and so I go over there and I want to hang around Scott and Lord, there's the right to where they're poor. Well,26:58Well, they got girls so they got to be. But we do. We kind of focus and we begin to focus if we're not careful, we focus on those that can bring us more. We want the influence that a person brings us rather than finding somebody when we first walk in and just need a hug and a love and we go hug them and we go love them. We reach out to them. We don't care about what they look like. We don't care about what they smell like. We don't care about how they walk.27:28We don't care about where they came from. We don't ask them where they live. We go to them and we love them. We have a radical love about us. We're the same mind. Do not be haughty in mind but associate with the lowly. You know, the Bible then declares that there are those of this standard and there are those of this standard. Is he talking about lowly in spirit? No, he's not talking about lowly in spirit. He's talking about lowly in status. There are those that don't have nearly as much as those that do have and when they don't have that, you don't walk by them.27:57You love them. Do not be wise in your own estimation. You know what I think he's saying there? Don't be somebody who thinks you can discern better than anybody else which is which. Just begin loving everybody equally. I want to tell you something. We want to be a church. You want to, if we want to grow, we just need to start loving each other with the genuineness of God's love in us. We need to look around and move around and find out where other people are and love them28:27and care for them and seek to find out how we can minister if we need to be an E or take them to dinner or invite them over for dinner. Listen, we're a family that lives in isolation for the most part. We're isolated in our own worlds. We work ourselves to death. You know, it reminds me, we're moving into a much like a social standard that I liken unto the one28:56that I saw in the Dominican when I go down and visit in the city and the folks in that social economic system work six days a week for the most part, 10, 12, 14 hours a day and then they come to church on Sunday and they have very little time for anything else but that. They don't take their kids out to Little League. They don't take their kids out to soccer practice. They go, they do that. Their mothers are doctors, they're attorneys29:25they're attorneys and they're working and they're working and they're working but I want to tell you the one thing that I did find that was really important with them was it was important that they had a community of love and likeness together. They did a lot together. They had marriage conferences together. They had little dinners together. Not just a Wednesday night meal where people spread out all over the place and not like we're spread out all over in here. You know, I'm serious, I'm going to cut off29:54a couple of sections one Sunday, rope them up and spray water on the seats and then we're going to have to sit together and you say, well, I get hot and they stink. That's okay. Put Vic's vapor up your nose. Folks, we are called to a radical life in Christ. We're called to be like30:24Jesus. Challenge number four relates to me personally and to us personally, individuals. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. I tried practicing that coming back from our trip this past week when somebody would fly by me and then cut over in front of me. I didn't fly by them and cut back over in front of them and stamp on my brakes. Has anybody ever done that before? I have.30:55I have. I really, I really have. I made one guy eat the bumper up on my car one time going. We were coming back 75, traffic everywhere. He couldn't go nowhere and I just tapped the brakes and he slammed his own. But then he flew around me and then Gail's going, stop it, stop it. I said, I can't. I'm in the drone. It's a fool and I'm going to show him what another fool31:23looks like is what I should have said.31:34Instead, now I I do it a little differently when they go flying by after I've been in a line of traffic and they think I'm the one that's slowing them down and they go by, I'll look over and they'll look at me and I go, I got to quit that because I'm getting to feel evil about that too.32:05Folks, we're we're a unique body of people called to love each other with a very radical love that you don't have unless you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are called to care about people that nobody else cares about. We're called to love on people that nobody else will love on. Challenge number five32:35number five relates to our actions. If possible, so far as it depends on you. If it depends on you to be at peace, then you need to go do whatever it takes to have peace with whoever it is that you don't have peace with. That could be someone in your family. It could be a relative. It could be a brother. It could be a sister. It could be a neighbor. It could be a co-worker.33:03co-worker. And you say, well, what if I don't know how they're going to respond? That doesn't matter. What matters is how you handle your side of it. I'm sorry if I've offended you. Would you forgive me? And they look at you like a calf looks at a new gate. They look at you with indifference. They look at you with anger and malice. They look at you like they could shoot you or stab you or beat you up. That's okay. You do33:33You do what God through his Holy Spirit is challenging you to do and that's to be Christ-like in the matter. And sometimes that's the hardest place to be as far as it depends on you. Be at peace with some men. Thank you. all men.34:01all men. Well, brother Chris, you don't know my father abused me. I understand. Now, my father didn't abuse me. But I know that the only way you'll ever be able to forgive that father and live at peace with him is if God has done a radical work in your life. But when34:31But when God does a radical work in our life, we can face our enemies. We can face our greatest fears. We can face our greatest oppositions. And we can love them. And we can pray for them. And we can move on in life with them or without them that be their choice and not ours. But that's how we live. Because of who he is. That's what Paul said. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ.34:59of Christ. I got tickled. They said that Obama had appointed three ambassadors. One of them didn't even know what kind of government that he was going to be an ambassador to. The other one admitted that he didn't know much about the people or the place where he was going. And the other person wasn't even sure about what language they spoke. I don't know all the issues there were, but it was kind of humorous. My friend, we don't have that privilege. We are ambassadors of a God who has come to dwell in us so we will35:29we will know him personally, intimately, his mind. We know the mind of God because we have the mind of Christ in us through the work of the Holy Spirit. We don't need someone to tell us when we need to be nice. We know we're to be nice at all times and all occasions. It's when we decide that we're going to step out and be the example of someone else rather than the example of God and Christ in Scripture. Challenge number35:59number six concerns our challenge to repay our enemies with good. Never take your own revenge. Get it burn. You know, that one hurts because I can do it without knowing it. You know what I mean? I could really take some good revenge and get by with it. But it36:30But it don't say in certain situations. That word never covers it all. Never take your own revenge. Beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. I like that one because it's like I'm a holy Christian. You did it by Jingle. God going to get you because I'm going to pray. I had an aunt and my36:59and my mother's here to vouch for this that disliked her son-in-law so much that she prayed he'd die. Am I right, mom? That's right. And he did. Eventually. But I never could figure that out. She's still a good godly, I'm a Christian woman. But pray for somebody to die? God, I want you to37:29pray. I want to pray, Lord, that if there's anybody in here today that's going to leave with a bad attitude about my sermon, help them have a flat tire or blow their engine up on the way home. Thank you. Amen. Do all y'all feel good now? I feel much freer, much better. And Lord, those that stayed home today, would you just, Lord, if they stayed home and they're not really sick, would you give them the flu so they'll really be sick?37:58be sick?38:06God, you know that boss I don't like? If they broke their leg and didn't come to work for six months, it'd be all right with me. Have you ever caught yourself thinking that way? Am I just weird?38:28Never take your own revenge, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I'll repay, says the Lord. In other words, let God be God and see the bigger picture of eternity. You know, it really ought to break our hearts that there are those folks out there that are bringing such hurt and harm into our lives. And we know what the end is. You know, I know38:58I know that Iowa ain't heaven. I know Iowa isn't heaven too. I know that. I know Alabama's not heaven. I've lived in Tennessee. East Tennessee, they say, this is God's country. And I say, because he tried to give it away and nobody39:28and nobody else would take it. No, I'm kidding. But we've got an eternity that we understand from Scripture built into the picture of the Garden of Eden, of this beautiful union with God that was messed up by sin. But God sent an answer to take care of that sin's mess.39:58mess. In the likeness of himself, he enters into our world through flesh and blood to die. But before he dies, he takes upon my sin. And he becomes sin who knew no sin. And he's buried. And he40:28And he says before he goes, if I go, I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there, you may be also. To be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. And I loved, I was listening to David Jeremiah, he was talking about paradise and everybody gets caught up in paradise, heaven is heaven and paradise. And he said, you know, and he gave a great explanation, I don't have time to preach that sermon today as well, but this is what he came up with. He said, I really don't care. He said, but one thing I know that is sure about every one of those places is that the40:58Bible says, I'll be with Jesus. I'll be with Jesus. Think about it. I'll be with him. Challenge number seven, be real. We talked about that last week. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty,41:28thirsty, give him a drink. You do it out of compassion. You do it out of love. You don't do it so that you will heap hot coals on their head. You know, it's almost like I'll do all those things because I want to watch them burn. That's not why you do them. You do them because you know when somebody I want to share a very personal story that I almost thought about sharing it and thought about not sharing it. Gail and I41:57went out to eat this past week. We went to Captain Dave's and it wasn't very crowded and we sat down and there was an older gentleman that was sitting to our left and he was sitting by himself. And I looked at Gail and I said, Gail, there's that guy sitting there by himself. And he had his salad and we had just gotten there. And I said, I wonder if we should invite him over to eat with us. I thought probably not. That wouldn't be the right thing to do.42:27So our waiter came by. We talked about it. Our waiter came by and I said, hey, listen, I said, would it be offensive in this restaurant? Or what do you think if I invited that older man to come over here and sit my wife and I and just eat with us? And he said, man, I think that would be awesome. Go for it. Okay, God, you spoke through him. I'm going to do it. I walked over and I leaned over the rail and I said, sir, my name is Chris Burns. You don't know me. He said, hello, Chris, what do you want? I'm43:00I'm all right. I said, my wife and I are over here. We're fixing to get our meal and we notice you're sitting by yourself and we just want to invite you to come sit with us. He said, well, Chris, my name is Ryan. And he said, I'm learning to solo. My wife died last week, last year. And I said, Ron, we would love to have you come sit with us. He said, no, Chris, that's fine. I'm fixing to get my meal. I'll be okay. No, no problem. I said, well, we'd love to have you. No,43:30No, no, no, thank you. I said, okay. So I went back and I sat down. And I didn't realize the commotion that it would start around us and the people. But then Gail and I are sitting there. The waiter comes back and he made a comment. That wasn't it. The gentleman got through, the older gentleman got through and he walked over and he stood by our table. And he said, who are you? I'm not, where are you from? I'm not44:00not used to anybody being nice to me. What does that say about who we are as believers? I'm not used to anybody being nice to me. I said, well, I'm Chris. This is my wife, Gail. He said, Gail, I'm Ron. And that is the name one is it? Because you said you had a brother named Ron. Gail's crying now. She's squalling. And44:30And then, and I thought, my goodness, how desperate we are for revival in the church. That if we live in a world where people say, who are you? I'm not used to anybody being nice to me. Now, I didn't tell you that, so you go out of here and go, oh, that's our preacher boy, ain't he good? Because I almost didn't do it if it hadn't been for a44:59a waiter. Because the true message that came to me was, you and I live in capsules as believers when we ought to live outside the capsule. You and I live under our own desires and wants in this world when we should live under the command and love and surrender of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. And if there's anybody that's different in this world, it ought to be us. If there's anybody that's going to show somebody grace, it ought to be us. If it's anybody45:29anybody that's going to give anybody some bread and some milk during the ice storm, it ought to be us. If there's anybody that's willing to reach out and love somebody that nobody else is loving on because of the sin that they possess in their life, it ought to be us. If there's anybody that's standoffish because of a person's appearance, maybe they don't look like us, maybe they got more tattoos than we're comfortable with, or maybe they got more piercings than we're comfortable with, or maybe they don't wear the clothes that we are comfortable with, I want45:59want to tell you something, God help us be the church. Let me back up and tell you, you can't be the church unless you're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And you can't be a Romans 12 believer46:29believer consistently without having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Eventually the real you will show up and mess everything up. Let's pray. Father today help us be real. Help us be real believers. Help us be real lovers of those46:59of those around us. God help us not to be less critical but to quit being critical. God keep us from judgment and let us let the judgment stay with you. Help us to love those God that are less lovely by the world. God help us to reach out to those that are hurting and God help those47:29those that are hurting know that they can be loved here. And if there's someone looking for a church home and you brought them here then God let them come that they may be part of a body of love and forgiveness and care and concern and weeping and laughing and hugging one another. God help us be radically different. Help us not be like the world.47:59world. But Lord help us be in the world giving that radical light off and that life that this world needs to it. God I pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. You stand for our hymn of invitation. As you stand our hymn of invitation is for you. If48:29If you're not a Christian if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ you're struggling in doubt struggling concern you don't know I invite you to simply just step out and come that we may meet you and pray with you and talk with you today if you're looking for our church home and you believe God's brought you to this place then I invite you to just simply step out and come that you might be a part of the fellowship that God is growing here at Bethel we look for you to do what God is impressing on your heart to doMore sermons on Romans →
