LBC Sermons & Messages

Romans 12:9-13

Last week we discussed the first three attitudes of collaboration: love for God and others, a can-do attitude, and passion. I would like to look at the latter two and add another if time allows.

Romans tells us to not be lazy or slothful in business but fervent in spirit. This carries two ideas the first of which is a can-do attitude. If God be for us, who can be against us, Romans 8:31? To understand this, we need to be mindful of a couple things. First, God is bigger, period. If God wants us to do something, what or who can stop it? Therefore, be not afraid. Secondly, God works in mysterious ways. When Joshua went to Jericho with the children of Israel and walked around the town so the walls would fall that is fairly mysterious. Once again, be not afraid!

Now let us look at being full of passion or fervent in spirit. When I think of spirit, I think of David when he sees Goliath. He is outraged that the Philistine was defiling the name of their Lord. His passion fueled him to the point that He forgot about his own agendas and wellbeing and went right to the defense of truth with great confidence.

I also think of Peter who was known as a man who continually put his foot in his mouth, but he did it with passion. His passion at first was misplaced but once God focused him, he turned the world upside down. Peter’s passion even forced him to try to fight a band of soldiers by himself in which he even cut off a soldier’s ear. His passion pushed him to attempt the impossible. What will you attempt for God today? What will you attempt this week? What will you attempt this year? God wants so much to use us so let us set our affections on heavenly things, I Chronicles 29:3, Col. 3:2.

Romans 12:9-13

This afternoon I would like to look at the next attitude of collaboration, which is servitude, serving the Lord. This is on the heels of passion so we are to passionately serve God. What do you serve passionately? Joshua served the Lord passionately, Joshua 24:15.

There are so many things in our lives that battle for our attention and for our passions. It is easy to be sidetracked and that is what Satan tries to do, Gal. 4:8-11. A distracted Christian posses no threat to evil. To serve God passionately, we need focus. So, what can we do to be focused?

I think one thing we can do is make sure we are spending time in the Word on a regular and continual basis. Reading and digesting the Word is a skill and like any other, it grows greater with work and repetition. As our knowledge of Scripture grows, our understanding will grow proportionately. We also get ourselves into the habit of making time for the Word. However, as other skills, the less we use it, the more dull we become.

I also think church is very important to service. Now this might sound a little redundant but many people think church is something we do and church, the body of Christ, is not something we do but something we serve. When we serve the body, we serve God. To serve, one must be there and must be involved. So, how is our service to God today and what are we going to de about it?

Romans 12:9-13

Just prior to these verses, Paul tells us to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God through Christ. This is the key to the whole passage and to living the God honoring Christian life. Then we are to use the gifts that God has given the church. God tells us to be humble, 1 Peter 5:6, but there is nothing wrong with boasting in what God has given the church to bring honor to Him. We need to know our strengths to use them and we need to know our weaknesses to supplement them.

Next, Paul tells us what we must do individually so that the church corporately will work together bringing honor to God. He gives us the attitudes of collaboration. We have already discussed the first few, love without hypocrisy, hating evil and loving good, loving each other, and preferring each other. Now let us go on to the next few.

Paul continues to tell us to be vigilant in business. We must have a relentless, can do attitude. Proverbs tells us much about being vigilant, Prov. 12:24, 13:4, as well as the New Testament, Phil. 4:13. It does not say I might be able to do what God wants me to do but I CAN. Too many times, we are defeated even before we begin by having the wrong attitude. Whether you think you can or you cannot, you are usually right. The first attitude of collaboration is love, vs. 9-10, and it is followed by a can do attitude, for attitude, not aptitude, will determine our altitude. We must stop worrying about how to do things and we need to start asking ourselves, what God wants us to do. If God calls us to do something, He will make a way, we simply need to follow. What do you know God has asked you to do? Are you fulfilling it? This year, where do you want to go in Christ? Where would you like to see the church go?

1 John 1, Romans 12:1, 2

Today we are back in Romans 12 verses 9 and 10 and we will add 1 John 1:5-7 to our study. The ideas wrapped in these few verses are probably the most pivotal ideas of the church next to Christ and Him crucified. If we can grab a hold of unity, it would truly revolutionize the church.

One must remember verses 1 and 2 to retain the key of the verses that follow. Paul pleads with us to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God and to be conformed to Him not this world. Over the last few decades, the church has tried to walk hand in hand with the world and with God but when one does, they simply become worldly, Matt. 6:24. 1 John also bares this out for we will not be in fellowship if we are not walking in the Light.

Verse 9 tells us to love without dissimilation or hypocrisy. Christ is the ultimate example of true love. This is the very core of Christmas itself. Since Christ came and loved us, now we can love others the same way. Christ gave, now we can give.

Verse 10 tells us to be kindly affectioned one to another in brotherly love and in honor to prefer one another. To have kindly affection means to have tender love. Compassion is not just something we should have when helping others, it should be the very force that drives us to help others.

We are also told to prefer others in honor. This simply means to put others first. This concept rolls off the tongue and has been the central theme for many movies but is very difficult to live out. So, if you want to impact the world for Christ, practice putting others first.

This afternoon we will look at two phrases in the middle of verse 10, brotherly kindness and fellowship. The first is brotherly love, Philadelphia. How is this different than preferring one another over ourselves? When we have compassion and we prefer one another, it has to do more with the reason and the command of love. When we have brotherly love with compassion, it has to do with our attitude. We are to be kind as well as compassionate. It is one thing to put others first but it is another thing to do it with the right attitude. Remember, obedience is not just doing what we are asked to do, but doing it with the right attitude.

Then we move on to fellowship. This word does carry with it the idea of being in a ship together. However, it means a little more than that. It means participating and contributing to each other.

With this in mind, how does this affect our fellowship with God? God wants to fellowship with us and participate with and contribute to us. He wants to be active in our lives and He wants us to be active in His life.

This also should affect our fellowship with each other. We are not to merely see each other on Sunday and then go home, we are to participate and contribute to each other. Early in the New Testament, they went from house to house eating and contributing to each other daily in the Word. So, will you and I have brotherly love and fellowship this week, or will we put ourselves first?

I John 1, Romans 12:1, 2

Over the last 100 years, the church has fallen asleep. If you look at the history of America and the world, events and changes in cultures have been lead by the church, God’s people. What has the church done in the last 100 years? We are no longer a threat to the worldly way of life because we have fallen asleep.

We must awake! I John 1 tells us to wake up because God is real. John tells us that he is writing about one whom he handled, heard, walked with, ate with, spent time with, etc. God is not some being that is far away. He is very real and personal and in Him is no darkness.

Our problem is that we try to walk with God on Sunday but we want to leave Him at home when we go to work Monday. We cannot serve two masters, Matt. 6:22-24. We must get sin out of our lives and walk right. Christ died for our sins so let Him take them and move on, I John 1:8-10.

So, what can you do? Prayerfully make a prioritized list of six areas you know you need to improve to walk godlier with verses for each rung. Also, find someone to encourage you as you walk through each step one at a time. Remember to not get discouraged about climbing fast or not making it all the way through the list. If you only make it through one or two rungs, that is okay for you are still better off if you are walking closer to God. So, let us change the world together with our godly walk!

This morning we talked about walking in the Light personally. We cannot walk as a church if we are not walking personally. Once we get walking in the Light personally, we will be able to walk in the Light corporately.

God has also blessed this church with people who have a willing spirit. When there is a job to do, many jump in. The misconnect comes when there is no direction or knowledge on what to do next which falls
on the shoulders of leadership.

There are a few things that we need to work on this year. First, is in the area of witnessing and this is probably true of most churches in America. This however, is a personal responsibility more than it is a corporate responsibility.

Next, is our interpersonal relationships with each other. We have no problem loving on people and visitors, but we tend to get busy when dealing with each other. I think one simple thing we can do to help resolve this problem is a prayer chain. This will keep us in touch and praying for each other.

Thirdly, we need to visit each other more often. I realize that visitation might bring up some not so good feelings, but the fact of the matter is, a visit means much more than a call or an email. We need to be calling, in person, on each other especially those who are going through hardships.

Lastly, we discussed the idea of missions. God has blessed us with a giving attitude. However, I feel we can do more in the area of missions. God seems to really reach down and bless the missions minded churches. We will be looking into faith promise in the near future and praying about what God wants us to do next in missions.