Published: July 20, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 73 | Scripture: Romans 12:10-13
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We're going to be spending just one more time together in verses 10 through13. I want to reread the passage beginning at verse 9. I'd like to ask Justin if you pray for the ministry of the word this morning.
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this morning. Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhore what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly
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love. Have preference to one another in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in
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tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. practicing hospitality. Let us pray.
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Heavenly Father, we ask that you open your words to us. Pour out your spirit on us
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knowledge and more than anything we would be known for our great love for you for one another. We ask these things in Christ.
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>> If you have a bulletin, you see that the first heading in the outline is Greek grammar geek, which I am not. I I don't get all that excited about grammar and um
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probably forgot more Greek than I've learned, but learned, but this passage, these verses have such unusual grammar even for Paul
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who's notorious among Greek scholars for his um let's say independence in terms of the rules of Greek grammar. This
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passage is is is really from that perspective. If you were in fact a Greek grammar geek of which I do think we have one budding geek among us for which I
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praise God. This is exciting. the these words are this grammar I should say is is just so unusual so tur so uh rapid
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fire that I think it deserves the attention that Paul intends for us to have here I will address the fact that most of us of course read it in English and I don't
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want at at any time to give the impression that somehow something is lost because we're not able to read it in the Greek rather I want to encourage that something is gained if we do have
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the ability to look into the original language or at least to have it explained to us and and see the intensity of Paul's thoughts here because what he is talking about here is
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the essential characteristic of the community of Jesus Christ no matter where it may be in Rome in Corenth in Philippi in Greenville
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this is what it looks like and even the way he begins at verse N love is a noun. It's not a verb. And and as I read from the New American Standard
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or you read from whichever English version you have, realize that from verses 9 through13, you are reading an interpretation. You are reading a gloss.
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Because as I said before, there's a series of series of prepositional adverbs or adverbial prepositions with no verbs to modify.
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There's not a single verb in verses 9 through13. That's not good grammar, but it's good theology. Or at least I should say it's
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good ecclesiology. good ecclesiology. And we'll move, Lord willing, we'll move faster through the next passages. But this is really the foundation of what is to come. As I've mentioned several
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times, he's going to get into the the real nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts of a community of Christ living together. and it is founded on
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love. So what does that look like? Well, we've seen that he is bookending this section in verses 10 through 13. The
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first clause of verse 10 and the last clause of verse 13 use very similar words both employing the Greek word for
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love that we know fileto verse 10 we have Philadelphia love of the brethren verse 13 translated hospitality we saw last week that that's
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somewhat misleading is the word phozenon love toward strangers those two, the love toward the brethren within the community, the love of the
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brethren to those outside the community, strangers, those who are not of our own, even if they are believers, they're not of our congregation, but also and
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perhaps more importantly, those who are not even brethren. The love that we show to one another, the love that the church shows to the world, that's it. That is the most
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unusual feature of the community of Christ that sets it apart from all other human institutions. human institutions. As I mentioned last week, it is not
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uniquely Christian for people of similar socioeconomic, ethnic, or other characteristics to love one another. Philadelphia is not that
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holy. Either the city or the word. Even agape is not uniquely Christian as Deeus loved the world and abandoned
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Christ. But Phoenonian love towards strangers that you don't find that you don't find apart from the work of the Holy Spirit within the body
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of Christ. And so those bookends are themselves very very important. And what lies between them is a description of them. And I want to
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point out here again looking at the Greek grammar that Paul establishes a symmetrical structure of what lies between these two book ends. And let me
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explain how that works. So we saw that the the first clause of verse 10 matches up with the second one of verse 13. So that's the beginning and the end.
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Well, as it turns out, the second clause of verse 10 matches up with the first clause of verse 13. So, what's happening is inside these bookends that themselves
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relate, and this is where I actually considered using PowerPoint, but I remember a statement that was made by a theologian at Fuller Seminary where he
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said, "Power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely." So, we didn't go there. All right? So, you're just going to have to try to visualize this. You got these outer brackets about love.
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Love toward those within the body. Love of the body to those without. Now, let's look at what it looks like. Well, the second clause of verse 10 matches up with the first one of verse 13. So, it's
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like concentric circles moving into the center, which is the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have one clause matching another and then we come in one
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clause matching another. Then Paul does something a little different. He has two triplets, two verses that each contain three
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items. And those two triplets match up and they again center on the serving of the Lord. This is what the body is here on earth to do is to serve Jesus Christ.
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And contrary to many in the church as to what that word means, this is what it means. This is what it looks like. And so I want to spend some time this morning unpacking that. But before I do
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that, a little bit of a rabbit trail. I mentioned earlier that I do not want to apply in in any way, shape, or form
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that that you lose the meaning of scripture if you don't read Greek. But I also don't want to allow the uh
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the thought that has often come into the church, the the um the neglect of the language in which the scripture was written, the Hebrew, yes, but I'd have
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to say more importantly, the Greek. And so I've said this before and and I want to say it occasionally as I go along in my ministry.
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my ministry. I think it's very important that within every congregation every congregation there be somebody or preferably somebody's who can read the Greek.
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You know I'm not a a big one on seminaries. I I don't advocate seminary as a necessary prerequisite to the ministry by any means. I think that has institutionalized Christianity and it
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has removed from the local congregation their responsibility to teach faithful men who will then teach others after them. Seminaries are not a biblical paradigm. I would say that they are a
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necessary evil at least in my case. But I also you know advocate learning it. It is not something that we can simply assume that we understand. And
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nobody within the congregation digs any deeper. And if we don't have anybody in the congregation who has some ability in the languages, then we become slaves to
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commentaries. And when we become slaves to commentaries, we tend to become slaves to men. to men. And I've shared this anecdote before, but I remember many, many years ago visiting a fellow pastor at his church,
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going into his office and noticing his single small bookshelf on which were multiple volumes from the
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same author. same author. I left praying for that congregation. That's what happens when we don't have those who study to show themselves a
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skilled craftsman. And so I applaud it when members of our body and and there are several who are excited about learning the Greek and and getting into it. It's not for everybody. I'm not a
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gifted language arts person in any way, shape, or form. It was tedious for me to work through the languages. But those who who know the Greek and and
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even the Hebrew, but really most importantly the Greek, and I could get into that in a private conversation, that that is a benefit to the body of Christ. And so that's just a little
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aside just to encourage anybody among you who has that desire, please pursue it and know that that your labor will not be in vain in the Lord. I'll give an
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example of the importance of this. Um just just a small one in in the great commission what is called the great commission Matthew 28 there's actually a statement by our lord it's known as the
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baptismal formula that is in the Greek an irrefutable proof of the trinity rere we read it in the English that as
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they go throughout the earth making disciples they are to baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit spirit. Well, in Greek, that's now known as the Granville
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Sharp rule, where you have a singular noun, name, and then three plural nouns, Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
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That's the Trinity, one God and three persons. And it it flows again irrefutably out of the grammar of that verse. Now, we accept that God is three
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in one, in one, but we're often called upon to try to prove it. Well, there's a little piece of assistance if that occurs to you. And
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so, it is important that we continue to be in the languages and and we can recognize then the layout as I mentioned of Romans 12:es 10 through13.
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The center The center is at the end of verse 11. Serving the Lord or as the literal translation would be to the Lord serving.
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That is what this is all about. Everything revolves around that purpose. And and I I want to point out that in Christian history, serving the Lord has often been
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interpreted and then put in practice as some other occupation within the church like a missionary or a monk or a nun or
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a pastor. that that's what it means to serve the Lord is to is to do something out in the world on a mission field or to go into professional or institutional
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Christian ministry. Paul doesn't make any mention of that here. In fact, serving the Lord is as it was of old in the temple.
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the temple. At the very beginning of Israel's life, God dwelling in the midst of his people, he does so in the tabernacle. And he sets apart for himself a people, a
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tribe, who will serve him in the tabernacle. And he sets apart for himself a people, Israel, who will serve him in the world. But the service is in
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the temple, which is the church. Now that is not to say that some do not go off into the mission field. We see see that clearly in the book of acts that
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many do. We know that the letter of Paul itself to the Romans is an introductory one as he's coming their way and would like their help on his way further west.
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So I'm not disparaging that. But we have to be careful that we don't fall into that mindset that serving the Lord is some vocation that only a few of us have. No, this is for every believer.
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Each and every believer because it follows immediately after Paul's very brief mention of the charismata, the spiritual gifts, which he again mentions
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here in verse 10, I'm sorry, verse 11. This is how the spiritual gifts are manifested within the body. But I want to point out that the body is the venue
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where serving the Lord takes place. Not often some foreign country or not in some professional capacity but rather
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brother and sister ministering to brother and sister. And I would challenge you to to be Berean. Read through Paul's letters. Read through Peter's letters and see if in fact what
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I'm saying is not what you're reading. This is the temple. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so we are where service to the Lord takes place.
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And so this is what it looks like. This is what true and faithful exercise of the spiritual gifts looks like. And this is what most sets the church apart from
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the rest of the world. And so this is what glorifies God most through Jesus Christ. When the body of Christ ministers to itself by the power of the
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Holy Spirit through the gifts that he distributes severally to everyone, that's what makes the church unique. The problem is throughout history,
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the church has rarely wanted to be unique. How many of us want to be different? Oh, we want to be different, but just like everyone else. And that's the way
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the church is. We want to say that we're different. We want to say we're the new people of God. We want to say that we're redeemed, but we also want to look just like the world. And we want to be respected by the world. And we don't
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want to be persecuted or marginalized. And so what happens is throughout a the ages whether it's the ancient church, the the medieval church or the modern church, you see that it it it
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progressively or I should say digressively becomes more and more like the world. We notice that in England there there are a lot of old churches and a lot of
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beautiful stone churches. And if there's anything still going on in those churches, you can read from the bulletins on their front door that it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
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There might be some spiritual meditation going on or a yoga class. One particular v uh visage that that I remember as you walk up this road, you
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see this beautiful stone church. This was one that was having a what's it called? Ta ta or something like that. some type of mysticism or whatever. But in front of this church is a large
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lampstand and and you just look at the two together and you realize there there's a building that whose lampstand has been
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What will be said of this building? Now I would say that church was probably built in the 18th century. So maybe we got some time. But what will be said of this building in generations to come?
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Will this become a community center for this neighborhood perhaps? Will it become a yoga class? Will they be doing pilateses up here in the main
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room? What will happen to this building? And the building doesn't mean anything, but the congregation does. And what Paul is laying out here is is really the the
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recipe for stability and perseverance because what he's saying here is is very unnatural especially in our day. I
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imagine it was in his day but I think even more so in our day and so that's kind of the basis of what I want to bring out. So he begins the first
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couplet chapter uh verse 10 the second clause verse 13 the first clause. So he says here in verse 10 the second clause in the new American standard give
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preference to one another in honor literally it's in honor outdoing one another. Well how do we do that? What does that
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look like? Do we just go around patting each other on the back and telling each other how great they are? No, that would be disgusting. No, it it that's not what it is. And in
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fact, that's what we basically do in our in our society, all human society. We see that there is a structure that preserves honor with titles.
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Your honor, for example, is what you say in court, right? Your honor. or we refer to a a representative as the honorable soandso. Well, soandso might be right,
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but I'm not so sure about the adjective in many cases in in our founding days when the the constitution was written and the office of president was was
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being discussed. There was a huge discuss and a disagreement as to what the man should be called. His excellency, His excellency, his highness. Hey, I think we call him
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Mr. President. That's very Republican. Titles are a society's way of recognizing a a a difference in honor. Even such titles as doctor or Mr. and
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Mrs.. In many cultures, there are different words, of course, for a woman as to whether she's married or not married. We have that here, Mrs. or Miss. Now, we have Ms., okay? But these
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titles actually are important to social structure. And I'm not an advocate of getting rid of them. This idea of leveling to where everybody is simply called, you know, citizen. That didn't work in France, and it's not going to
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work anywhere else because human society needs that structure that titles do give us. And even Paul said of the high priest that you you are not to raise up
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your man your hand or speak ill of those who are your leaders. So there's a place for that. But what about in the church? What about titles in the church? Well,
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Jesus said, "Let no man or call no man father." And yet within the church, that's exactly what we've done again to mimic the world. We have titles like Reverend, okay? Or monor or bishop or
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holy father. holy father. These are titles and we say, "Oh, well, we honor the title and not the No, not in the church." You see, this is where we can't mimic the world. This is where
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love must be without hypocrisy. And that is we don't we don't hide dishonor and contempt behind titles of honor, but rather we have the real thing, and that
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is mutual honor. And so, what does that look like? How do we how do we do that? Well, I think if we recognize the structure of what Paul is saying here, we do it by the beginning of verse 13,
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contributing to the needs of the saints. Now, the word contributing again in the New American Standard is a translation of the word form coinia,
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participating. The way believers honor one another is by participating in one another's needs. Now, you might think, well, that's kind
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of a stretch. And maybe it is simply from Romans 12. But let's let's go on over to kind of the the supreme example of one who had
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honor but did not consider it a thing to be grasped, but rather emptied himself, taking on the firm form of a servant,
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laying down his life. Of course, Jesus Christ. Philippians 2. And here we have the example that Paul
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in Philippians 2 says should be in our own minds. Have this attitude in you which we see in Christ Jesus who had eternal honor
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eternal honor but emptied himself of it that he might serve us that he might obey God. And so Paul writes, "Do nothing from selfish
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selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each one of you regard one another as more important
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than himself." That's essentially what Paul's saying here in Romans 12 when he says, "Outdoing one another in honor." Well, what he's saying in and the
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example he gives is serving one another, participating in the needs of one another. That's something that the Christian community ought to do. P
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excellence. There should be no other organization, no other welfare program, no other help group that does it better than the church. And
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I don't mean a denominational structure because I don't think that's what Paul is talking about here at all. As will become evident in chapter 16 when he drives all this stuff home to the church
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that meets at your house and the church that meets at your house. The venue for what he is saying here is right here in this room and in all other rooms and buildings where the people of God meet
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to worship him through Jesus Christ. And so, how do we pursue and outdo one another in honor? In fact, he even kind of makes it a competition when he says
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outdo. Don't let anyone be behind you in showing others honor. Win that race. Be ahead. But we're all ahead. We're all kind of jockeying to show one another
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honor by compassion, by concern, by Unfortunately, there are two enemies.
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There are two enemies of this pursuit of honor through care, through compassion. The first one is apathy or we might say selfishness as Paul does in
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Philippians 2. We just really don't care. We're more concerned about our own problems or our own life or our own comforts to really give much thought to those of our brothers and sisters in
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Christ. The second one is pride. insidious, but I want to say that pride is perhaps
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the the more dangerous because it's more socially acceptable. socially acceptable. I I don't take from others. I pull up my own bootstraps. I make my own way in the
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world. I don't receive help from others because, you know, that would be a weakness. And we all kind of think that especially when we're in times of need, personal need, we can be even and this
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has happened recently, offended by the offer of assistance from the congregation because it's taken as a statement of
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condemnation that you're not over able to take care of yourself. Well, apathy,
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not caring about what goes on in other people's lives people's lives is a sin against one another. But I would say to refuse care
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is to dishonor the Holy Spirit who is sovereign over the lives of every one of his children. He's sovereign over the lives of every human being. But we
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read in the scripture that he is the one who raises up and he is the one who tears down. He is the one who gives the power to make wealth and yet he is also the one that withholds the former and latter reigns.
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latter reigns. Paul makes this clear in 2 Corinthians 8 and9 that there were times when you were in need and your need, especially you Gentiles, your spiritual need was met by the Jewish believers, your brethren. But
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now they're in physical need and it's your responsibility from your abundance to meet their need. You see, the dynamic of the economy of God's people is that there will always be those who both need
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and have the ability to meet the need. And so if either one refuses its responsibility, they sin against the sovereign plan and purpose of God.
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If you refuse to give your brother food and drink and clothing and say, "Go be warm, be fed, but not on my doorstep." That's a sin. And we all say, "Oh, yeah, that's horrible. How callous."
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But how callous and horrible it is to the spirit of God for us to refuse the help of the body when we are in need. Now, Paul makes it clear in Galatians
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that we are to bear one another's burdens, but he also says you're to bear your own burden. So, I'm I'm not advocating a Christian welfare state where we're all very needy. No, there
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there are times there are seasons in everybody's life. And the body of Christ is designed to meet every need of the body through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the gifts of the body
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itself. If one's gift is giving, if one's gift is charity and yet the church refuses it, then the church also sins. So look to your own heart.
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Are are you apathetic? Do you do you just not care? Or are you proud? Are you proud and too proud to receive help in time of need?
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Both are sins against the Holy Spirit. Both are to be repented of. Both are to be disposed of. And so one thing that the body of Christ does so well if it's working the way
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it's supposed to work that the world does not do is it takes care of one another's needs. And by doing so it honors one another. It holds everyone else in esteem. It considers one another
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more important than each individual. It's it's a body thing which is so contrary to our world today. But then he goes on in the the triplets
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that I mentioned earlier, and I'm not going to be able to to unpack them completely, but I want to point out some of the ways that that Paul links
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together the characteristics of the body. The first three where he talks about zeal, he talks about the charismata in in spiritual gifts, and then he talks about
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serving the Lord. That's the first triplet that has to do with the activity of the church. And I think it's very important that he begins with zeal. Now again, the
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New American Standard uses the word diligence. Well, that's unfortunate because zeal had a particular meaning within the Bible.
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Does anybody remember the the single Levite who was the epitome of zeal? Finas. And how did he do it? By taking a
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spear and shoving it through two sinning people in their tent. And God made a covenant with him so that the acts of Phineas, the zeal of Phineas would never
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be forgotten. Paul says of himself in Philippians 3 that he was zealous. You see, zealous is not diligence. Diligence is what you do on your SAT.
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You just keep going through it. You're not zealous. not zealous. I think we all understand there's a big difference between those two words. Yeah, diligence is required. Diligence, that steadfastness, that steadiness of
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purpose. But what is the purpose? Zeal of which the scripture says of the Lord, zeal for thy house has consumed me. Diligence consumed you. You see what
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happens when we lose the Greek entirely? We just think, oh, I got to be diligent. Wow. No, he's saying zeal.
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And he says, "Zeal, not lagging, okay? Not not lagging in zeal, not falling behind, not letting it not letting it dry out, not getting tired."
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But that zeal is then linked to the beginning of the second triplet where we have hope, we have tribulation, and we have prayer. So the first three have to
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do with the activity of the body. The second three have to do with our own attitude, with our own heart, with our own interaction both with the body and with the world. And they both begin
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coordinately. We are zealous in hope. Now we know there are three, right? Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest
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of these is love. We we sometimes think that we can forget the other two, but there are passages like this where where one of them is brought out and held up and shown in its
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true light. And here he's he does in Romans several places, hope. Hope is something that enervates that motivates the body of Christ. And Paul says, for
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example, in Thessalonians that that in in terms of those who have fallen asleep, he says, "We are not like the world that has no hope."
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And so in Paul's teaching as as in Jesus's there's there is the hopelessness of the world that is cut off from the commonwealth that is without God and what? Without hope in
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the world. That's the world in which we live. It is it is hopeless. I was at the DMV this week. It is
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hopeless. It's like the the the monument to hopelessness of humanity is the DMV. But we have hope. And so, how do you connect zeal and hope? Well, it's not
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that hard, that hard, frankly, because there's often not much to hope for. I mean, let's just be frank. thing things don't often look good either in our lives or in our
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children's lives or in our family's lives or in our work, in our community, in our country, in our government. Things don't ever look good. We think, "Oh, it's worse than it's ever been."
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Well, that just means you haven't read anything about how it's once been cuz it's always been hopeless. It it's always been without hope. And we
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spin our wheels like a hamster in a cage trying to generate hope through this program or or that political party or within the church within programs, preaching series or yoga classes.
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There is no hope outside of Jesus Christ. But within Jesus Christ, there is nothing but hope because that hope is firm and secure and
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has passed through the veil. Now Paul says in Romans that hope that is seen is not hope. And yet we we hope for that which is
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unseen but we hope with a firmness that is grounded in the empty tomb. We don't hope on the basis of our own
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abilities and we don't hope on the basis of of success in numbers. We hope only in the finished work of Jesus Christ
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which secures that hope and takes it right in through the veil to the throne of God himself. It's a hope without doubt. And that's why it's hope not just
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faith. It's it's hope that rejoices. That's what he says in hope rejoicing. That's what fuels zeal. That's what carries us year after year
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in that steadfast walk toward the glory of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That is what it doesn't prevent times of depression. It doesn't prevent times of
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sorrow. Read the Psalms. There are times when it seems that God has forsaken us or has forsaken his church. The same was true in Israel. And yet the psalmist says over and over again, "Yet I will
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hope." Job says that I will hope and I know that I will stand in the flesh and see my redeemer. I know it. And so my hope isn't wishful thinking.
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My hope is grounded firmly in the work of Jesus Christ. And that work is is now in us individually and corporately by
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the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so we're not just diligent. We're not just plowing our row faithfully. There's no room for martyr complexes.
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What there is room for is rejoicing. Because no matter what it looks like here in the church, in our congregation, or in the world,
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Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death. He has bound the strong man. He is now plundering the strong man's house. He is
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seated at the right hand of majesty and all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. Therefore go. Therefore go. That's hope.
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That's hope. And with that hope is zeal. The love of God consumes me. Paul says, I am constrained. That's not just diligence. That's zeal.
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And so really I I think that's that's kind of at the heart of what Paul is saying here in terms of practical application. Look to your own heart. Has
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the zeal flagged? Has the tarnish? And this is often the case, you know, when we we meet a new Christian and they're really excited and they're they're kind of excited in a
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very stupid way and they offend a lot of people and we think h they'll learn. They'll become dead like us. No, don't do that. You you see a believer on fire, pour on kerosene, not
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gasoline because you know that'll kerosene. That's good. You know, fuels the fire. the fire. Obviously, it could be zeal without understanding as as Apollos had, right?
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So, what what did Priscilla and Aquilla do? Did did they did they throw a wet blanket over him and say, "You need to shut up." No, they took him aside and explained the truth more accurately.
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It's a whole lot easier to move a zealous person. zealous person. You know the law of inertia, right? An object object at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon by a more powerful
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force. Well, we don't want objects at rest in the church. We want zealots, but we want zealots with understanding. And so, don't don't put out anybody's
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fire, but nourish it. help control it, help guide it into all the truth. And and when the church
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catches fire with that kind of hopeful, rejoicing zeal, rejoicing zeal, when it has done that, it has turned the world upside down because again, there's
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no other human organization like it because there's no other human or organization that has the Holy Spirit. Well, let's let's come to the end. Um
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the center of it all at the end of verse 11 is to the Lord serving. And again, it may not seem obvious and I I don't have time to go into all the details and all the scripture that will
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tie these together, but it is connected in Paul's poetic structure here with in prayer persevering. prayer persevering. And I think he's doing something by
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again by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit certainly, but also perhaps by his understanding of human nature. We we are programmed
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to program. to program. We are programmed to do things our own way to to measure our success with our own metrics and not with God's. And then
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just to, as I said, bull ahead or be diligent in what we're doing. And if that doesn't seem to work, well, we'll just throw that away. But the words steadfastness and
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commitment and perseverance, they're not in our vernacular much anymore. We live in a throwaway society. We we throw away. We have no fault divorce, for example. Now we we throw
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away I I wonder I'm not really an environmentalist but I but I wonder what psychological impact has been made by the fact that just about everything
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we use now is disposable and there's really no concept of for example darning socks.
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Now we get a hole in our sock and we say darn sock darn sock and we throw it away and buy new ones,
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right? Isn't there something wrong with that? We we are a throwaway society and and and so we give things a try. So I'm I'm going to try out this church for a
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while. I've been told that. That's really that's encouraging, you know, and and really what makes me want to pour out my heart. Yeah, we're going to give this church a try and see how it goes for a few
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months. And well, that's okay. You go ahead and do that. But but think about the mentality of of this whole society in which we live. And then read what Paul is saying when he uses words like
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bearing up patiently under tribulations. For those who would live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. So bear up patiently in prayer, persevere in honor, moving ahead of one
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another. There there there's both fervent, vigorous activity and patient diligence and steadfastness.
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We're never going to see what the church is supposed to be unless we simply hunker down and live it. Rejoicing in hope, zealous in our gifts,
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and persevering in prayer. Now, now that statement really you there's not much you can add to it. There's not much more that could be said. But at the same time, there's there's nothing more that
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need be said in the sense that all of the practical participial adverbs that Paul has mentioned here have to do with
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serving Jesus Christ, but none of them will succeed unless undergirded with prayer. And so there it is. There there's the
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heart of this passage. Serving Jesus Christ by persevering in prayer. Father, we do thank you for these words
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that you have inspired the Apostle Paul to write with with such tur energy and intensity. We pray that by your holy spirit you
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would plant deep in our hearts the the importance of the body of Christ and our individual role by the giftedness of the Holy Spirit that we each have every
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joint and ligament providing what is needed for the building up of the body in love that we might all attain to the perfection the maturity that is in the head Jesus Christ
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by your grace may we have this attitude indeed that was in Christ Jesus. And by that may we be seen to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, the
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bloodbought redeemed people of God, the new humanity of the new creation. And not just here at Fellowship Bible Church, but Father, pour out your spirit, the spirit of revival on all the
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churches, on all your people. And may even those dead buildings once again hear the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. for your glory and for the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We ask in
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his name. Amen. Please stand for the benediction this morning from Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 3. Now to him who is
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able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us.
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Think on that. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.