Transcription
[Music] we're gonna jump into our message today. we're in the book of Romans. we've been in a series on Romans for a long time, and we're in chapter 12. the title of the message is, "Let Love Be Genuine." let love be genuine. let's pick it up, Romans chapter 12, verse 1. this is the kind of the overall principle, and then throughout the remainder of the chapter, from verse 3 on through verse 21, Paul essentially applies this principle, tells us this is what this looks like in the life of the believer.
I appeal to you therefore by the mercies of God. in other words, once you know all that God has done, Romans chapter 1 through 11, the amazing grace that God has poured out, our incredible salvation, all that he's done to reach us in eternity before time began, all the way up to now and beyond into glory. when to understand the greatness, the majesty, the glory, the magnificence of our salvation, is to say, "God, you've done all of that for me. I'm not much, but what can I do for you?"
I mean, Paul calls it our spiritual worship, and we saw it's better, it's our logical worship. the logical response to understanding the grace of God is to present your body as a living sacrifice. to say, "God, you can have all of me. use me up. I'm placing myself on your altar at your disposal. all of me is yours." that's the only logical response to an understanding of grace. to say, "Well, you know what? I can only serve once a month." is the logical, not angry that you do that. said that a little angry on my car, doesn't feel good, but I'm passionate. okay, because the only logical response is to say, "God, you can have every ounce, every, every inch, every fiber of my being because you've done so much for me. it's the least I can do for you."
And don't be conformed to this world. don't get pressed into the mold of the world, but be transformed. in other words, let the Spirit of God, that word "Metamorpho," let the Spirit of God transform you. so the glory he has placed on the inside shines on the outside. is the idea, just like that Transfiguration of Jesus. and only the Holy Spirit can do that. you can't transform yourself. you can't bring the glory out. the Spirit of God does that as you present your body a living sacrifice.
And then it says, "by the renewal of your mind." in other words, the first sign that God is working in you is you begin to think differently about life. I mean, all of us understand that when you got saved, if you went for a while in life before you got saved, you know that once you got saved, you became a new person. you began to think differently. nobody had to tell you to think differently, you just did because the Spirit of God was transforming, he was renewing your mind. he was taking it back to a pre-fall state, if you will, like it was with Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned. so that's the preamble. that's the transformed life.
And once you're walking in the transformed life, then we saw in verses three through eight that that what's gonna happen is it's gonna change how you view yourself and others. so you're gonna understand life's not about you, it's about the kingdom of God. it's about ministering to others. and you're gonna understand the grace of God on your life and the gifts that he's given you to serve him and others. and and that leads to, as we saw, joy.
Now, when you come to verse 9 through 21, Paul makes it very clear that the presentation of our bodies, the sacrifice of our bodies to the Lord, becomes obvious or means that we live a life of genuine love. not artificial love, not fake love, not pretend love, but real love. look at it, Romans chapter 12, verse 9. "Let love be genuine." let it be the genuine article. if there's one hallmark that should characterize Christians and believers, it's love. remember Jesus said over and over again on the night he was betrayed, listen to how many times he talks about love. John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." what is pressing on the heart and the mind of our Lord as we're getting ready to enter into the Easter season? what was pressing on his mind was that you and I would live a life of love. he says in verse 35, "By this will all people know that you're my disciples, if you have love for one another." chapter 15, same discourse, "Now remain in my love." in other words, abide in it, live in it. chapter 15, verse 12, "My commandment is this, love each other as I've loved you." that's a tall order. chapter 15, verse 17, "This is my command, love each other." fifty-three times then the Gospels, Jesus talks about love.
And what Paul does is, rather than just throw that out there and say, "You all need to love one another," or "You all need to live in love," what he does is for the next several verses, he defines it, he directs it, he commands it, he shows us this is what love looks like when it plays out in the life of the believer. for those who are students of the Bible, let me just mention something on the side, that it's very similar to first Corinthians where you have Paul mentioning spiritual gifts and then right away talks about love. chapter 12, the spiritual gifts are placed in the body, chapter 13, love. in Romans, you have the same thing, talks about the gifts, then talks about ministering in love.
Romans 12, verse 9, the NLT, New Living Translation, says, "Don't just pretend to love others. really love them." yeah, I mean, you know how this works. you know you're in the gathering, and you're seeing somebody you really don't like because you know they've said some things about you. and so you're, you're sanctified enough, civilized, maybe I should say, enough to not punch them and not to speak your mind to them, but inside, you don't like them. you know what you're doing? you're pretending to love. it's a very tall order. don't pretend to love, is what he's saying. genuine love goes deeper and wider than surface actions.
So what you got to do is, you got to come to terms with that. if, as we're talking about this, there are circumstances, situations, people, and you're saying, "Because as we go through here, Paul's gonna give us like 27 different directives. there's more commands in Romans chapter 12 than in this one chapter than any other chapter in the New Testament." so what we want to do is not just understand what it's saying, but we want to apply what it's saying. and so if I'm talking in this instance about pretending to love somebody, then all of a sudden, if that hits you, you got to say, "Timeout. what am I gonna do about this? how am I gonna love this person? what do I need to change?" and probably it starts with forgiveness. it starts with letting go of hurt. it starts with all the different things. it starts with blessing them. I mean, there's just a whole lot of things that we got to do, right? because we have to have genuine love.
Now, as we look at these verses, and I hope we get through them, we may not. with it's it's really kind of a type of portion of scripture where you can almost cut it off like a piece of sausage and pick it up next time. I mean, it just is one thing after another. so let's divide it into three categories, if you will. genuine love, first of all, exhibits passion. so it's passionate. it's not passive. it's not just an emotion that you feel, but but love is active, and love is zealous, and love is passionate. and you see this when you walk through this.
Look at it, Romans 12, verse 9. "Abhor what is evil." so if you, if you're gonna have real love for God, you're gonna abhor what is evil. "hold fast to what is good." both of those verbs are intense words. abhor means to hate exceedingly. I mean, it's not just like turning away from what is evil. it's like, "I just absolutely exceedingly hate what is evil." I, what, what you're saying is, to love means you can't tolerate at any level evil. you can tolerate it in you, you can't tolerate it in people around you. if you can't tolerate it in the world. you say, "Well, what do you mean?" I mean, it means you absolutely are going to avoid it. you hate it. you hate what it does to people. you hate what it does to you. you hate what it's done to the world. you, you just want nothing to do with it because it is so unlike God.
Now, you see this throughout the scripture. Psalm 101, which I think is such a great psalm. "I will walk in my house with a blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing. the deeds of faithless men I hate." we used to have this in large letters when we were raising our kids, right over the top of the television. we didn't watch much TV, but it certainly explained instantly why the TV got turned off all the time. but I would suggest to you that much of gaming is evil. it's evil people doing evil things in the most graphic, evil way. and you can't imbibe that hour after hour, nor can your child, without warping their psyche. do you just have to think about this? if you hate evil, how can you fill your mind with it? much of the entertainment industry celebrates evil, straight up, it does. I mean, you have to ask yourself, if you're gonna set no vile thing before your eyes, either you're in or you're out. I mean, and this is a real call for people to think this through.
And so when you have genuine love, if you're not gonna have pretend love, you're gonna say, "I don't want." Paul says, "Abhor what is evil." and here it is, "the deeds of faithless men I hate. they will not cling to me." listen, when you're sitting in the theater and you're watching the garbage and the sensuality and the sinfulness and the wickedness and the violence, and you're watching it, and and most of it is just wanton, you're putting it into you. you think it's not clinging to you? think again. I, I just think people have to think about this. I'm not a clothesline preacher. I'm not talking about legalism. I'm talking about a love for God that makes us different than the world. and at some point, you got to decide if you're in or out. at some point, you got to say, "Listen, you know what? how do I deal with that?" and you tell me how you deal with that. I think it's good to wrestle. I, I hope that all of us, I, I read this whole, this whole chapter, it's like, "Whoa, this is strong medicine, man."
"A perverse heart will be far from me." if you're gonna keep people in perversion far from you, then then that means you're gonna say, "I'm not even getting close to that stuff. I'll have nothing to do with people." just much of, much of what is pervade through the entertainment industry, through gaming, through through different things, it's just, just absolutely evil all the way around. Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 13 says this, "To fear the Lord is to hate evil." God says, "Hey, pride and arrogance, evil behavior and speech, God hates evil behavior." so why would you fill your mind and your heart and your eyes and your ears with evil behavior? why would you watch it? why would you, why would you want it? how does that in any way edify, build you up, draw you closer to Christ? it's something we need to think about.
"Hold fast then," as Paul talks about, "hold fast to what is good." it's, it's the idea of "be glued to what is good." "agathos" in the Greek. it's it's good in quality. it's inherently good. genuinely good. truly good. in other words, you're running away from evil, and you're holding fast to that which is genuinely good. so whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, Philippians chapter 4, verse 8, all of those things we could look at. but the idea is, we're gonna avoid evil. we're gonna hope as to what is good. that's the first aspect of walking in genuine love.
Then he says, Romans chapter 12, verse 10, "Love one another with brotherly affection." a very, very interesting thing because you've got two words for love, "agape" and "brotherly affection." and so in the original, it could be "be lovingly loving." and the idea is that within the church, because that's what he's talking about in this passage, is how we treat the people in the church. later he's going to talk about how we treat people in the world. but the idea is that we treat everybody with a family kind of love.
Now, we all understand if you, you know, if you have family, that that when it comes to family love, you, you don't love your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your mom, your dad, your son, your daughter, because they're necessarily attractive by the world standard, though they may be or they may not be, or because they have the most winsome personality. I mean, it's great if they do, maybe they don't. you love them because they're family. and even if they're a bit unusual, you're like, "I love you. they're family." I mean, that's is how it is. you're, they're not having to earn your love. they're family. you stick up for one another. you defend one another. you look out for one another. they're family. that's what Paul says it's supposed to be like in the church. that we got one another's back. we're family. I mean, somebody messes with. I can remember when I was growing up, I was a bit of a, you know, I was when I met Debbie, I was 165, or I was 130 pounds and just, you know, five seven. I was I was not tall and I didn't weigh a lot and I was a little kid with a big mouth, kind of. so that never works well with with bullies. and so I needed a brother who could defend me. and praise God, I had one. but probably even when he thought I deserved it, he defended me. when or when I didn't deserve it, he defended me. you know what I'm saying? my family sticks up for family. family defends family. the last person you ever ought to be running down, and we shouldn't run down anybody, but the last person we'd ever think badly of or or have crazy comments about would be anybody in the family of God, right? we defend one another. word for one another.
Now, watch this. Romans chapter 12, verse 10. "Outdo one another in showing honor." now, this, this is really interesting because yeah, I do the idea of outdoing one another and showing honor is it's the idea of like, have a high appraisal. you know, like you have something you're gonna sell, and so you're gonna go get it appraised, and what are you hoping for? you're hoping they appraise it really, really high, right? I mean, that's kind of the thing. people watch Antiques Roadshow. how many watch Antiques Roadshow? and you know, you watch it, the people bring their stuff in, and and you know, they bring in, you know, the big blanket, and and the person says, "What are you doing with the blanket?" "Oh, I bought it on a garage sale. let the dog use it." but then somebody said, "That might be worth something." and then they hold it up, and the appraiser says, "Oh my goodness, you have a national treasure. that's not a Navajo blanket, worth half a million dollars." you know, I mean, and they're all of a sudden very, very happy, right? the dog is not sleeping on that blanket anymore.
What this is saying is, put a high value estimate on people. what love does is it esteems people. it treasures people. it says, "You are incredibly valuable." you know, if you have a, if you have something or someone. I mean, I can remember when David was born, taking him home from the hospital, and you know, prior to him being born, I had a little bit of a heavy foot. I, I think I had like three speeding tickets in six months. some of the officers are pointing at me. that's my past. once I got him in the car, everybody was a crazy driver. what's the matter with these people? got a baby in the back here. go slow. haven't had a ticket since. why? because I put a high value. that's how it's supposed to be in the body of Christ. we put a high value on everybody. do you understand how, how revolutionary this is? do you understand that? I mean, how often do we really think about esteeming and valuing people at a level that is just like, like you are literally priceless? and just viewing people as priceless, viewing people as valuable, viewing people as as incredibly, incredibly priceless. and you know, the world is full of experts at tearing people down. we should be experts at honoring people. there's so countercultural to show honor when nobody else is doing it. I mean, when nobody else is honoring your boss, and you go in and you show value, that's countercultural. that's genuine love. honor. and what happens is your honor literally will turn this situation. your honor will bring life into that situation. why? because you're bringing God into that situation. he needs the God of life. he's the God of power. if you want to transform a circumstance, then begin to operate in genuine love in a way that honors and prizes and values people, and let that come out of your mouth, and instantly you'll see things really radically change.
Well, here's another. Romans 12, verse 11. "Do not be slothful in zeal." don't be lazy in zeal. Romans 12:11. "Never be lacking in zeal." never. you know, sometimes we give ourselves a pass. you know, is everything? you know, I'm just tired, or you know, you know, my allergies are really messing me up, or or you know, I'm kind of taking a break. I'm just kind of, you know, and we give ourselves all kinds of reasons why we don't have to be passionate. well, you know, I'm just not, I'm just not that kind of person. well, you better get that way. I mean, I guarantee you, if you're a football fan, and I drop you in the center of Arrowhead, you get passionate in a hurry. we'll say, "Who are you?" let's thank you. let's not give the Lord less than we'd give our favorite team. let's not give the Lord less than we give our favorite hobby. I mean, some can get up really early and sacrifice everything to go fishing, to go hunting. nothing wrong with fishing and hunting, but can you get up early and sacrifice everything to serve God? that's what that's what we're talking about. that's love.
And there's never be lacking in zeal. never. take a break. never give yourself a pass. never say, "Oh, well, it doesn't matter." no. pay attention to your passion for Christ, or one day you'll wake up and wonder why you don't have any. some of you that you just never, you never cultivated that. you never guarded it. yeah, how did it one time? you're like, "Oh, I remember when I was saved, I was so excited." what happened? you gave yourself a pass. and an hour turned into a day, and a day turned into a week, and a week turned into a month, and a month turned into a decade. never be lacking in zeal. I mean, this is this amazing. be excited about God. big sighted about what he's doing. I mean, come on. we got a lot to be excited about here, right? I mean, God's doing some pretty amazing things. I'm glad I'm in a church where so many exciting things are happening because I've been in a church where it wasn't quite like that. and is even worse, I was the pastor that is fat in it. never be lacking in zeal. we got so much to be excited about, so much to thank God for, to change lives, the personal turnaround, the influence in our area, the preschool academy. we haven't even talked about this exciting. I mean, come on. I mean, look at how God is helping us. we launched a campus in Joplin, and it's running, you know, seven, eight hundred people. I mean, come on. we're trying to find the building. we're trying and trying and try and try, and we can't get anything to happen. and then it dawns on me, "Hey, you've never asked the people to pray." and it's like, "Oh, man. we're gonna start praying." I tell campus pastors, "Come on, we're gonna start praying." and so as soon as we start praying as a church, boom. I mean, we get, we get a wonderful building under wonderful circumstances. I mean, God is so, so good. lot to be excited about.
I mean, think of this. and I, we told this story. I've given up trying to finish the message. it's flat. gave up. [Music] but you know, I mean, Cherish Kids, for example. so we've been talking a lot about that. but you know, a couple weeks ago, and some of you have heard the story because you're home Wednesday night, but everybody's heard it. I just think it's an amazing story. there was a father who contacted the church kids office, and he said, "You know, I've," and let me just say this, I think we want to be careful to apply the standard of love to everybody in this story, okay? so let's be careful. but the father calls, says, "Adopted this boy years ago, was 13, but I don't want him anymore." and so the church kids office says, "Listen, give us some time. we'll, we'll figure it out." the father posts on social media that he doesn't want his son anymore, and that's how the son finds out. the father drops him off a couple days later, two or three days later, at the school and says to the son, "I will not be coming back to get you." the school counselor, guidance counselor, says the principal, "You know, we should call Cherish Kids." they call Cherish Kids. Cherish Kids gets a family to pick the son up, and they're working on adopting him. you know, that's, that's enemies. I'm just telling you, if you could see the things that go on day after day, week after week here at the church, and you could watch how God is changing people's lives, how God is meeting people's needs, and what he's doing through you, man's not through I mean, hey, we're all, we're all a part of this, but I wasn't a part of that. somebody else was doing that. but it's exciting to watch the grace of the Lord as he's working in this place in a myriad of ways, touching people's lives, transforming people, drawing people to Christ, strengthening them in Christ. listen, this is very, this is a very exciting thing.
I'm gonna tell you what is very, very exciting. are you excited? I mean, I realize that as we're, as I look across this auditorium, that there's gradients of enthusiasm. some are very excited. you're about ready to jump out of your seat. it's like, "Oh yeah, come on. I'll tell a story or two because God's done some amazing things you haven't even mentioned." there's others of you, and you're like, "How? that's good, man. I mean, that is exciting." and then there's some of you, and you know, you know, you're like, and you feel like you're the outside looking in through a window. and scripture is clear, "Never be lacking in zeal." never be lacking in zeal. cultivate your enthusiasm. I like what John Maxwell says. he says, "This is one of the greatest things you can do is to get excited about your life and start to live in the," we see escalate day after day. and I mean, that's that's in general, but in specific about the Lord, your whole world will improve. if you wait to get excited until some lucky outer event happens, guess what? if you wait, what does life do? it waits. and if you hold back until a more appropriate time to get excited, what does life do? it holds. if you're going to hold back on enthusiasm, develop lots of patience, because you're going to wait a long time for an exciting life. you know, if you want an exciting life, get excited. I mean, and if you meet some of these ideas, we've had an exciting life, say, "Come to James River. it's exciting." I use that word a lot. people tease me. I'm sort of in the exciting. well, it is exciting. I don't know what else to say. it's biblical. it's exciting. I pray you get excited about what God is doing in this place, in your life, in the way he wants to use you. I pray that you come to a place of knowing the reality of the scripture of "Never be lacking in zeal."
Well, next part of the verse. good night. we've only made it to two verses. wow. so much for the preaching schedule. okay. "Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." the word fervent means boiling, red-hot. the spirit there, unfortunately, is is in lower case. it should be upper case. you don't say "be red-hot in the spirit." be red-hot. be on fire. don't be cold. obviously, don't be lukewarm. Jesus had a lot to say about that in Revelation chapter 3. be red-hot in the Holy Spirit. have, be on fire for God. be on fire for the things of God. have a, you know, fan into flame. Paul said to Timothy, "Said Timothy, the fled the flame. he had a little weak there. come on, blow on it. bend it into flame. remember what God has done. be on fire for the Lord. be aglow with the Holy Spirit." let people see this person has something that is unique, something that is different. they have a choice that isn't human. it's from the Lord. they have a power that isn't natural. it's supernatural. it's from the Lord. they are on fire. they are aglow. they are boiling hot with a passion for God. listen, did you understand that's the norm, not the exception? so if you're thinking, "Well, I know somebody like that," then the the issue is that, well, do you know somebody like that? the issue is, why aren't you like that? and and if you're not, then you have to recognize that no matter how you fell off hell, "I'm a very loving person." well, if you have genuine love, you'll have a genuine fire and zeal. if you don't have a genuine fire and still, you don't have genuine love, period. I mean, let's not, hey, I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not here to baby you either. you know, it's probably why I'm not a great counselor. you know, here's what the Bible says. if you do, do this. here's what the Bible says. if you don't, now go do the right thing. you know, for, and there's different graces. I'm praise God for counselors for able to process people and lead people through that. but it, the Bible is very, very clear here. and Paul's really throwing down. Paul saying, "If you understand grace, here's the way it plays in your life. you get, you, you have love." and if you're in love with God, and here's the thing I want to challenge every single person. if you've really met Jesus, if you've really met him, you remember what it was like. you remember. and if you have no memory of a life-changing, passionate love for the Lord, then maybe you were never saved. honest. I've just gotta be honest with you. but if that's not there anymore, then maybe Revelation 2, where Jesus says to the Ephesian Church, "I know your deeds, I know you hold of the truth, but I have this against you. you've left your first love." because in the bottom line, what God cares more about than good works and sound theology is a heart that's on fire with love for him. do you know what he prescribes to people who have left their first love? repent. turn around. say, "God, somewhere along the line, I got things backwards. somewhere along the line, I lost sight of the things that matter most. God, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. renew a right spirit within me. God, give me a passion. let me be on fire for you. and may people see me burn. may people see me aglow."
Well, one last. I got room for the last part of this verse, at least. okay. "Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." why are we like this? why, why are we never lacking in zeal? and and why are we boiling with with the spirit, red-hot with the Spirit of God? because we're gonna serve the Lord. that's why. being zealous, being on fire in the spirit, is all so we can serve not ourselves, and not our, you know, chart our own course, but it's so that you and I can serve the Lord. and this is how we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. "God, I'm all-in. I'm wholeheartedly yours. and I'm very passionate about doing that." listen, today's the first Sunday of Go Track. if you haven't been in it, you need to get in. if you're gone through a class but haven't finished it, you need to finish it. and and part of that is just saying, "You know what? I'm gonna passionately serve the Lord. I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna put it into practice, and I'm gonna get in it. I'm gonna get on it." and you watch what God will do in your life. watch what God will do in the church. watch the way God's going to work. I mean, there's a lot of things in life we can get excited about, but honestly, I can't think of anything that's worth getting excited about more than the Lord, more than his goodness, more than this gospel that is the power of God for the deliverance and the salvation of everyone who believes. that when you and I are working, it's a life-changing business we're in. everybody is. we're all in it together. I mean, the the psalmist said this way, all the way back in Psalm 100, "Serve the Lord with gladness." I suppose you can serve Him grumpy. I don't know why you'd want to do it, but serve Him with gladness. serve Him with joy. never be lacking in zeal, but keep your your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. I mean, if you're not serving God with passion, then I would suggest, cuz some people say, "Well, what do I do?" well, I think first of all, there's a matter of repenting, acknowledging, "Listen, I'm not red-hot for the Lord. I'm not boiling hot for Him. and I'm not really zealous." and so that's not good. in fact, it's it's bad, and I need to turn around. I need to change the direction of my life. I need to jump in and begin serving and say, "You know what? God's doing a great work here, and I'm gonna be excited about being a part of it, and I'm gonna do that." and then for some, honestly, you're with the wrong crowd who empower you in your lack of passion. and it's sad, really, because you're with people who all they want to do is criticize, all they want to do is hang back, all they want to do is throw rocks, all they want to do is end or or they're involved, but they're negative, and they have no passion for the Lord. they just have a passion for criticizing people. bang. you're in the wrong crowd. you just gotta, you gotta say, "I'm gonna get in the right crowd. I'm gonna get around the group who are excited about the Lord." and can I just say this? because as I'm speaking to people that aren't passionate, let me just say this. here's my view of the church. my view of the church is not that James River is a group of dispassionate people. my view of James River is this is one passionate, wild group of people. I mean, honestly, when people ask me, people ask me, "What do you love about James River?" I put it this way, around my country boys, so you'll understand. I put it this way. here's what I love about the people of James River. when you say, "Giddy up," they go. I mean, you know it is. you, "Hey, we're gonna start a church in Joplin. let's do it." "We're gonna start a preschool downtown." "Oh yeah, bring it on." I never have people saying, "Why? how come? what are you doing that for? why waste money?" I mean, people are like, "We're gonna have up. we're gonna have a big Easter egg hunt, and we're gonna, we're gonna just turn this whole building into a fun land." and people like, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna be there too." I mean, it's so awesome. you're so excited. you're so passionate. you're so full of life. and I'm simply along the way talking to the people who had a struggle or two with that and I'm saying, "Man, you're missing the fun. you're missing the party. you're missing the joy. you're missing the blessing. you're in a place where God is doing amazing things. come on, join on in. you're gonna love it." and then a man, and I didn't even get through point one, but God is so good, and the church is alive, and God wants what you felt in this service, in this room, to be something you fill every day of the week in your heart, in your life. you say, "Is that possible?" it is. "Never be lacking in zeal." no room for a day off or a timeout. be zealous. be passionate. be beyond fire with the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord. get excited about serving Jesus.