So today we are in Romans, chapter 12.
If you'd like to follow along with us here, I would encourage you
to look into the Bible with us.
We're going to be in verse number 14 this morning.
That's where we're going to start.
And our goal today is to cover verses 14, 15, and 16.
We've been looking here at what Paul is describing as a life
characterized by the grace of God.
And we're called to present our bodies, our lives, a living sacrifice
wholly acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable or logical
service.
And now he's describing to us what that looks like.
He's talked about the gifts that are given to us by God to use
within the body.
He's talked to us about the authentic love that we're called
to display because we have received the love of God.
And now he's going to talk about some difficult things that
we might struggle with within our Christian life, because the things
that we're going to talk about today are not easy.
And I'm actually going to go a step further and say in the flesh,
the things that we discuss here this morning are impossible.
And what this is not this morning is a list of rules that Paul
is laying out for us to check the box and say, okay, I'm going
to work harder on this.
I'm going to work harder on this.
And then hopefully I'll get there.
This is not a list of rules to be a better Christian.
What this is all about is seeing God work in our hearts and
transform us.
So it's two words I want you to think about in contrast to each
other.
One is the word try or trying.
A lot of Christians say, well, I'm trying to be a better person.
I'm trying to serve God.
I'm trying to love.
I. I'm trying to forgive.
And that's what this passage is all about.
But then I think the more biblical answer, the answer that
I see in Scripture is not to try harder, but to be transformed
to be more like Christ.
So two words, trying and transforming.
Our prayer as Christians should be not to try harder and God
reward that effort, but our prayer should be to, lord, please
transform me so that it's an inside change that manifests itself
on the outside.
We know that because we go back to Romans 12:2, and he says,
and be not conformed to this world.
The idea of that conformity is maybe some of you have experienced
this with your children.
It's the idea of Plato being pushed into a mold Clay being molded
into a certain image.
And what the world tries to do is say, you know what?
It's okay that you feel this way.
It's okay that you respond this way.
It's okay that you don't love the way that you're supposed to love.
Why?
Because I can justify it.
Because life is all about me.
But no, that's not what he says in verse two.
He says, don't be conformed to this world and the ways of this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
The Bible here says that we're to be transformed.
We're to be changed.
The idea here would be metamorphosis.
That's a big word.
And we have the kids in the room here today, and that's a word
that you can take with you and tell your science teacher at school.
Metamorphosis.
It's the idea of being transformed.
A little caterpillar crawls up onto a branch and forms a cocoon
or chrysalis.
And then a certain amount of time passes.
They change their form inside of that.
They break out.
And obviously now they're not a caterpillar, but they're a butterfly.
And that's what the Bible says, is that as a believer, we are
changed from the way that we used to be to the way that we are
now in Christ.
He says, be transformed by what?
Well, verse two tells us, by the renewing of your mind, the changing
of your mind, the washing of your mind, the cleansing of your
mind.
And it's not just about thinking a little bit differently,
but it's thinking completely differently.
And how do we do that?
How do we think and respond?
Well, it says here, because it's the will of God, and God comes
into our life, verse 3, and gives us grace and.
And God gives us hope, and God gives us forgiveness.
And then now we're called to live this way, not because we're
trying harder, but because we're allowing and.
And submitting ourselves to God so that he can transform us in
the way that we live.
Because the reason I say all of that is that this morning the
verses that we read are going to be very difficult for our human
minds to comprehend.
Our culture is not going to understand these verses.
And the fact that we live in our culture, it's going to seem somewhat
grading and, and offensive to hear these verses.
But with all that being said, let's go to verse 14 and verse 14,
15, and 16 and even further on in this passage, Paul gives us these
little short statements.
He.
He gives us These thoughts, these phrases.
And I want to break down each one of these phrases and actually
break down every word.
And we want to see this morning what this means for us.
How can we grow in these areas?
How can we frame our mind to be renewed in this new way of thinking
as a Christian who follows Christ and not as a person who follows
the world or follows the flesh?
Verse 14, he says, Bless them which persecute you.
Right there.
Here it is.
That's the hard phrase.
We start out with the hardest thing.
Sometimes it's better just to start out with a harder thing to
get it over with.
The Bible says here in verse 14, that we are to bless them which
persecute you.
Bless and curse not.
What is he saying here?
What.
What does this mean?
Well, this parallels another passage of Scripture in the Book
of Matthew that we read this morning when Jesus is preaching on
the Sermon on the Mount.
And we're going to get to that here in a few moments.
But he says here in verse 14, bless them which persecute you.
To bless means to speak or desire good toward someone.
It carries the idea of asking God's favor upon them rather than
wishing harm on them.
It's not just about restraint.
So some people read this passage and say, well, you know what?
When someone does something wrong to me, I'm just not going to
do anything bad back.
And even though that's part of it, it's not just about restraint.
The Christian life is not just about restraint.
It's about grace.
What is grace?
Giving something to someone that they don't deserve.
The Bible says here that that person who is persecuting us doesn't
deserve our blessing.
But what the Bible says is that we're to extend that grace and
bless them.
Now, this doesn't mean that we do good to them so that they can
keep enabling us.
That.
That's not what this is saying.
What this is saying is it's really tied to the Christian response
to an enemy.
And it's not just about passive restraint, but it's about
active grace.
Most commentators believe that the idea of blessing someone who
persecutes us is the idea of praying for them.
The.
The idea of allowing God to change them, because really that's
what they need instead of me saying someone is persecuting me.
So you know what I'm going to do?
You know what the world tells me to do?
Persecute them.
If they're coming against me, I'm going to come against them.
The Bible says the idea would be the Christian framework of Mine
would be that those who are persecuting me, those who are doing
wrong to me, my desire for them is that God changes them.
My desire for them is that they experience the love and the
forgiveness and the peace of God, because that's truly the answer
to the problem that they're facing.
We're going to see later on in verse 17, he says, don't recompense
evil for evil.
Why?
Because that just keeps producing more evil.
His idea here is this.
To change the situation, God needs to come on the scene.
And so we bless them.
Because the greatest blessing that a person can have is that they
know Jesus, that they understand the love of Christ and
the forgiveness that he gives them.
So he says here, when someone hurts us, our first question shouldn't
be, how can I get even?
Because that's the flesh.
But the first question should be, how can I respond in a way that
reflects Christ?
If someone does something wrong to me, they say something against
me.
And really, this word persecution in this passage is a
broad category.
It's not just someone who physically persecutes.
It's maybe something that someone says to us or something that
someone does to us.
Maybe not physically, but emotionally or maybe verbally.
But nonetheless, it says here that we are to pray and we are to
desire something good for them.
And it fits exactly with what Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 5,
verse 44.
Because I've heard people say, yeah, that's Paul's teaching, but
that wouldn't be what?
I only follow Jesus.
Well, if you say that, first of all, Paul and Jesus are always
going to agree because ultimately the Holy Spirit inspires
the word of God.
And so Romans is always going to agree with Matthew.
Luke is always going to agree with First Corinthians.
We see that there's that unity of the Word.
But I do want you to see here, even In Matthew chapter 5, what Jesus
says about this very same passage, this very same thinking,
this very same Response.
Matthew, chapter 5, verse 43.
He says, Ye have heard that it had been said, thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy.
Jesus is reminding them of something that they already know,
something that they've already heard.
In their culture, it was the norm to love those who are close
to you, to love those who are loving to you.
But then what they would have been told in their culture was this.
You can completely and freely hate those who are your enemy, Right?
If they're your enemy, obviously hate them, obviously be
mean to them, obviously do bad to them.
That was the culture.
That was the prevailing thought process back 2,000 years
ago.
And I would argue it's a prevailing thought process today.
And Jesus says something further, though.
He says verse 44, but I say unto you, you have heard it said.
But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you.
There it is.
Jesus says the same thing that Paul is saying.
He says, those that come against you, those that persecute
you, you should desire to do good unto them.
He says, do good to them that hate you and pray for them.
That's why we see this connection with prayer.
Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you.
He talks a little bit more about what it means to be mature.
And at the very end he says, be therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.
That idea perfect means whole, complete, fully mature.
So for a Christian to grow in spiritual maturity would mean that
we understand the importance of doing good to those that have
done wrong to us.
Again, it doesn't justify the wrong.
Let me be very clear here this morning.
To bless those that persecute you does not mean that I'm going
to overlook their sin in their life, that I'm going to overlook
the abuse that they did to me or maybe to another person.
I'm going to overlook the evil that they said.
No, that's not what this is saying.
This is not justifying their evil.
This is what this is saying is, is that I am not going to allow
the evil that they are doing to dictate to me how I am going to
respond back to them or to others.
Let me give you an example of this.
Let's say this morning I won't use my children as an example because
they're in here today.
And my kids say, don't use me as an example.
So I won't use my kids as an example.
But let's say I was walking up into church and I was having a good
day.
Everything was going my way.
I prayed this morning, I read my Bible, I got my favorite breakfast.
I had my coffee in hand.
I mean, everything lined up for me.
And I was feeling good about life and I was joyful in the Lord,
and I was looking to bless someone today.
And I walk up and someone's walking up to church with me and
they look at me and they say something that cuts deep, man.
Maybe they said, you're really wearing that today.
Or.
Or maybe they say something even further.
I can't believe that you did this or whatever it is.
But they actually, maybe even actively come against us and say,
Something negative, maybe even they lie about us.
We could look at that evil that they do to us and we can respond
in really two different ways.
We could respond in a way that says, you know what, I'm going to
reciprocate that evil back to them.
And actually that's going to ruin me for the rest of the day.
And I'm just going to be no help to anyone.
I'm going to be angry, I'm going to be short, I'm going to be
all these different levels of bitter in my life.
And you know what?
That's just because that person did that and I'm blaming that
person for the wrongs that I'm doing.
Or I could say, yes, that person did that.
But I'm not going to allow their evil, their speech, to dictate
my evil in my life.
I'm not going to use that as an excuse.
I'm not going to use that as any reason to get away from where
God has me to be.
That's what Paul is saying here.
He says, don't allow the persecution to get to a place in
your life where you're persecuting that person or others
around you.
And so the Christian doesn't merely refuse to return evil, though.
The Christian responds to evil with a gospel focused goodness that's
only seen through blessing someone, not just holding back, cursing
someone.
Someone curses me, I curse them.
Well, that's one part of it.
But the other part, as we see here in Romans chapter 12, is that
we're actually to go further and bless that person.
So the first step is restraint to go back with me to Romans chapter
12, he says in verse number 15, Excuse me, verse 14, bless them
which persecute you.
Bless and curse not.
The curse not is the restraint that God gives us in his strength
and his power to not do what our flesh wants us to do.
So restraint is me not saying something evil back restraint is
me not allowing that evil to be reciprocated with another aspect
of evil.
But then there's something more here.
It says and bless.
So the first step of this Christian growth is restraint.
But the second step is Christ likeness by reciprocating not evil,
but giving good them which persecute you.
That phrase there keeps ringing in my mind.
I don't know if you have a person in mind or a group of people
in mind, but I think all of us have something in our minds of what
that persecution is.
And the truth is, is that there are people who are actively
doing something evil against Christians in the world.
We, we know that if you look in the news, maybe you don't see
it in the news, but there's active physical persecution for Christians
in this world.
There are people that are dying for their faith.
If you didn't know that, it's time to wake up.
There are people dying for being Christians in this world today.
Now, thankfully in America, we aren't facing that.
It's not a guarantee that that will always be the way that it is.
But right now in America, we can live as Christians and we're
not facing death, but there are levels of persecution and sometimes
in the world that we live in, we can say certain things about God
and there's verbal persecution.
So the command becomes powerful when he deals with who we're
actually supposed to bless.
It's not just those people that give us a side eye or someone
who isn't loving us actively, but no, it's actually someone who
is persecuting us.
And so the command becomes so powerful because we see that it's
not just about tolerating other people, but it's actually blessing
them.
What I would say in application is this Christian love
is tested really in the clearest sense when the other person
has not treated us lovingly.
Jesus even says back in Matthew chapter five, that's what
the publicans do.
The publicans love people who love them.
Like, it's not hard for me to be kind to someone who was kind to
me.
That's the norm of the world now.
What's the context of the publican?
The publican was seen as the lowest in society.
I mean, they were traitors.
No one in Jewish culture would have liked a publican because he
would have joined up with Rome.
He would have been a traitor.
So for Jesus to say that's what the publicans do, the people
would have completely understood that.
They would have said, well, yeah, okay, a bad guy can love someone
who loves them.
So Jesus says the true test of our Christ likeness is not just when
people are kind to us.
It's.
It's easy to mirror Christlike attributes in our life when everybody
is on the same pages as us, celebrating us, and it's all about
me and everyone makes me feel good.
But a true test of Christ likeness is, is when people are not
actively loving me and when people are coming against me when,
when things don't go my way.
I mentioned I won't use my kids as an analogy.
So when I was a child, okay, this is what would happen.
I would obey my parents all the time when they asked me to do
things that made sense.
Like, hey, you know, if they asked me to do a chore and it actively
helped me, I would say, okay, I'll do that.
That's no problem, you know?
But when my parents asked me to do something that did not line
up with my plans for that day, guess what?
That's when the flesh wanted to come out.
That's when rebellion happened.
That's when talking back happened.
That's when all those things that were really the true test of
whether or not I'm obedient to my parent, it's when it goes against
my plan.
And that's what it means to be Christ, like growing Christian and
a Romans 12 Christian, is, am I going to follow what God has told
me to do and how to live when things don't go my way?
And that's what Paul is saying here.
Bless those.
Why?
Because the natural tendency is to curse those that have cursed
us.
Paul basically is saying this.
Don't let their response determine yours.
Don't let someone's response to you at a store, in your home and
your workplace dictate your response.
They might choose evil.
I can't control that person's decision.
They might choose evil.
But what am I going to choose?
I'm going to choose grace.
I'm going to choose patience.
I'm going to choose Christ likeness.
And that's the understanding that Paul is talking about there.
So.
So this is that understanding.
He says, don't curse, but bless Christianity doesn't just teach
us what not to do.
Because that's a lot of it.
A lot of Christianity is, don't do this, right?
Stay away from this, be aware of this.
But on a deeper sense, it's more about what to do, right?
To love, to give grace, to walk in truth, to walk in faith.
I want to be known more, and I hope you do.
I want you to be known more for not just what you're against,
but also what you're for.
What's Middletown Baptist Church known for?
We're maybe known for all the things we don't do, all the things
we aren't going to do.
But at the end of the day, I think, and I believe that the Word
of God teaches that the church should be known to be a lighthouse
for Christ, that.
That we are standing on him, that he has changed us and that he
has equipped us.
How can we be a lighthouse to a community if we're living the same
way that the world lives like Love those who love you, hate those
who love you, hate you.
That's the way the world lives.
And so if the church is mirroring the world, how can we stand
out differently?
How can we attract people to the cause of the gospel if we're
not living differently?
And that's really what he deals with here in verse number 14.
It's hard because, you know, there is a lot of people that say,
well, so what are you teaching?
Are you teaching passivism?
Like, someone can just hurt me, and I just keep getting hurt
over and over again.
And am I supposed to just endure abuse?
Because that's sometimes how this is taught.
Actually, churches have used passages like this out of context
to allow people just to continue to be abused over and over
again and just say, well, hey, you're not supposed to stand up for
yourself, so just keep taking the abuse.
This is not a passage of scripture that Paul or Jesus is condoning,
just being abused and keep getting abused over and over and
over again.
Why do we know that?
Because even In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is not talking about
being passive to danger around us.
And I'm going to talk to you a little bit about this, and I want
this to be very important because I need this to resonate this
morning because I don't want you to think that I'm taking something
out of context.
What Jesus is saying is that if we are personally slighted, if
our ego is hit, if we suffer for doing right for him, yes, that
is a time and a place to just turn the other cheek.
But if, let's say, for example, I line up all my children
here this morning and someone comes in and they start harming them,
the Bible's not teaching me to say, well, keep harming them.
And let me add another one here.
You know, that's not what it's saying here.
And let's look at Matthew chapter five, because I want you
to see what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 5.
He says to turn the other cheek, to bless those that are persecuting
you.
What is, what does Jesus say when it comes to turning the other
cheek?
He says in verse 38, ye have heard that it hath been said, an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Jesus is speaking to a culture that's all about retaliation.
Like, hey, you know what?
You say something to me, guess what?
I'm going to say something back to you.
And it's going to be even, even more evil.
That's, that's, that's sometimes where I struggle.
So sometimes in my flesh, when someone says something to me, you
know, where I turn, I try to find a gap in their armor.
And I try to say, you know what, let me, let me say something
that hurts them.
But that's what Jesus is speaking against here.
He says verse 39, but I say unto you that ye resist not evil,
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also
turn to him the other also.
Now a lot of people teach this as well.
You know, if you're just getting abused, just keep getting
abused and that's all you can do.
You know, that's not what he's saying here.
Why?
Because remember context, Most commentators understand this to be
that if a person was standing here, now I'm not going to bring
up a volunteer because that could be taken out of context on
the live stream.
So I'm not going to, but just pretend there's a person standing
in front of me.
If I was to strike them in anger, to hurt them, or maybe even
to take their lives, I, and most people are right handed.
If I went to strike someone, I would be hitting them on the left
side or the front of their face.
And the commentators would say that the struck on the right side
is possibly like a backhand slap, right?
Just coming at them in, in a, in a way that is, that is disrespectful.
That's an insult.
So if I was to backhand slap that person, it would hit them on
the right cheek.
And Jesus is speaking here in the context of someone personally
slighting you, coming against you.
And in this case it's an ego hit, not necessarily an abuse thing.
And when we see this, in this passage, Jesus is not saying that
you should always be passive and that you can't protect yourself
physically or that you can't protect your family.
Because we know that in other passages later on in the book of
Luke, Jesus speaks of the disciples having a sword and protecting
themselves.
So what are we talking about here?
We're talking about someone who comes against us and hurts our
ego.
Someone who says something bad about us, maybe someone who attacks
the way that we look or the way that we live or the way that
we are believing.
And so I do want to be clear here this morning.
I don't think that this passage is saying that if someone
is coming after you and hurting you and you just say, well,
you know what, I guess I'm supposed to just put up with this
and bless them.
There is a time and a place to protect yourself and step away from.
There is a time and a place to remove maybe your child or someone
that you know from a situation.
What this is saying, though, is that our prayer for them should
be that they find Jesus and come back to a place of repentance
and conviction and understand what it means to be forgiven.
And so In Romans, chapter 12, verse 14, we see a challenge for
us to do good to those that persecute us.
Not to necessarily put up with their evil, not necessarily to condone
their wrongdoing, but to stand in the truth and want and desire
what is best for them in the Lord.
So now let's move on to verse 15.
He now says something else, and this doesn't seem too difficult.
But when we actually start to think about the implications here
that we see some challenges rising.
Verse 15 he says, Rejoice with them that do rejoice.
Now what is he saying here?
He's saying this.
We should be happy when other people are happy.
This verse is about empathy, feeling their joy, feeling their
excitement.
This requires, though, more than just circumstantial happiness.
He says here, rejoice.
We've talked about this before in other settings.
That rejoice is not just about, hey, everything's going well,
I'm happy.
No, it's a deeper level of joy that comes not from circumstances,
but comes from a standing before the Lord.
So he says here, yes, we should rejoice with those who are
rejoicing.
Rejoicing with someone else requires me to enter into their experience.
It takes a second for me to understand that it's not about me.
Their joy is not centered around me.
Their joy is centered around what's happening for them.
But I shouldn't meet them in that joy.
Happiness is often based upon what happens to me.
But rejoicing with someone else requires me to meet them in
their joy.
It requires me to celebrate something that happened to them.
What does this take for me to rejoice with someone else?
Nothing good has happened for me.
Nothing good, particularly circumstantially, has happened good
for me.
But something for that other believer has caused them joy.
What does that mean for me?
That means that I have to die to my self focus and turn the focus
over to someone else to put their needs, their excitement, their
desires before myself.
And so this isn't just rejoicing for them.
See it with me.
Here in verse 15, he says, Rejoice with them.
Sometimes we can say, well, I rejoice for them.
I'm glad that they got that.
Good for them.
No, this is not just rejoicing for them and ending.
This is rejoicing, rejoicing with them because their Joy becomes
our joy.
That's what true biblical love does.
It enters us into their life, it enters us into their situation.
Somebody else might be experiencing God's blessing in many
different ways.
Maybe they got a promotion at work, maybe they're getting married,
maybe they're having a baby.
Maybe they got a new house.
Maybe they're reaching a goal.
Maybe they've seen a step of spiritual growth in their life and
saw God answer a prayer.
The human fleshly response sometimes is this, why wasn't that
me?
Why didn't I see that happen in my life?
Why did that person get that lesson so easy?
Why did they get that house?
Why did they get that vehicle?
Why did the pastor notice their ministry and not mine?
Sometimes what happens is that when we see something good happening
in someone's life, it brings about a level of bitterness and covetousness
and envy to the place of, yeah, great, I'll celebrate with
them, I'll clap for them.
But in my heart of hearts, I needed that.
I deserve that.
And so the flesh is tempted to compare and say, why them?
Why not me?
Love and grace in the spirit says, I'm going to thank God with
you.
This is one of the greatest tests of spiritual maturity.
Can I genuinely celebrate God's goodness to someone else?
I. I'm just, you know, most of you might say, sure, that's not a
problem for me.
But I think in our heart of hearts, there is sometimes a challenge
to celebrate God's goodness in someone else.
It's easy for me to celebrate God's goodness in my life, and I
want everybody else to celebrate God's goodness in my life.
But am I ready?
Am I willing?
Am I able to celebrate when God is working in someone else's
life and I'm not hearing it from him at that moment?
That's a tough question.
And it can only come through God working in our life and us dying
to ourselves and following him and seeing that we're on the same
team.
So let me give you an analogy of this.
Growing up, my dad and I, we go fishing a lot.
And my, my dad would catch fish, I would catch fish, and I would
catch a fish.
And my dad would be like, yeah, way to go.
And he would catch a fish, and I'd be like, oh, man, why didn't
I catch that fish?
I should have thrown my bait there.
I should have did this.
And my dad used to say to me, I'd rather you catch a fish.
I want to see your joy.
It makes me so happy when you catch one More than myself.
And I never got that.
I'm like, well, no, I want to.
I want to catch the big one.
I want to have the picture.
I want to have the, the, the experience.
Then I understood what he meant by that.
When I had a son, first time we went out, you know, I want.
I want to see my kid get it.
You know, there's joy in that.
There's joy in me seeing that blessing in his life.
Why?
Because I'm connected with him now.
I'm connected with my dad.
And now with maturity, I'm super excited when my dad has something
happen.
But as an immature child, I wasn't.
I didn't have that connection.
There's a different connection with a child.
And when my child has that victory, I'm excited.
It's the same thing within our Christian life.
If I'm not connected to other Christians, I'm never going to be
joyful.
I'm always going to say, why wasn't it me?
I deserve that.
But when I have that connection, that familial love that
the Bible talks about there, when that's my brother and sister
in Christ and they have something amazing happen, it's just
as I'm having something amazing happen.
And that's what it means to rejoice with those that are rejoicing.
It's not about, well, I better start smiling and clapping when they
have something good happen.
It's not about changing the outside in.
It's about allowing my heart to be connected with them as it's
connected with the Lord, so that it's the natural outflow, that
when they have joy, I have joy.
But then the next part of this, and sometimes this is difficult
for us as well.
Some that are gifted in the gift of mercy don't struggle with
this.
But it says, just as we are to rejoice with those that are rejoicing,
so we are to weep with them that are weeping.
Paul reverses the situation.
Christian love doesn't just enter someone's happiness, but it
also enters into their pain.
And weeping isn't necessarily about literally crying.
I don't want you to feel guilty if you're like, well, I was
with someone and they were weeping and I just, I. I couldn't
shed a tear.
It's not about literal, like moisture coming from your eyes, even
though that might be the case.
But really what it is is that it's identifying and being willing
to feel the weight of another person's sorrow, to be with them
in that process.
If it's a mourning process or if it's, if it's a session of weeping,
if it's a session of listening, if it's just a session
of being present with someone, it's the idea that I am going to
again identify with their needs, stop what I am doing, die
to myself, die to my wants and my desires and meet them in that
place to show that number one, they're important, but also that
their need and their struggle is important as well.
It's not just about, well, I'll pray for you and move on.
That's sometimes the Christian cliche that we all use.
And it's not a bad thing if we're truly praying for people.
But don't just think, and this is sometimes where I get into trouble,
don't just think that if you say you'll pray for them and pray
for them that everything's going to be okay in their life.
We should pray, but also at the same time, we shouldn't allow
for another brother or sister to suffer alone.
Paul doesn't say, here, fix those who are weeping.
That's what the, that's what the teacher or the prophet or someone
who's all about getting the truth out there, hey, you know what,
you're weeping, but hey, look, we can go do this and fix this.
And with like that sometimes as, as, as a person who is that way,
sometimes my thought is, if someone's crying, let me just fix
it.
But we know that that's not always the answer.
It's meeting them in that place and they need presence, they
need the power of God, they need the love of God.
And so sometimes it's just somebody willing to sit beside them
in a valley.
This is what really the church should look like.
The church should be excited when things are happening to people
in a good way and we should be sorrowful when things are happening
sorrowful in other Christians lives.
This is what it's all about.
We get so locked in because of our culture.
We get so locked into.
Life is about me.
And if I'm, if it's convenient for me, I'll help that person.
If it's convenient for me, I'll be joyful with them.
If it's convenient for me, I'll cry with them.
But at the end of the day, it's all about me.
But what this passage is teaching us is that it takes a sense
of selflessness to notice those around us and be willing to
meet them in that place.
And that's what he says in this very next verse, verse 16.
He ties it all together.
He Ties it all together with rejoicing with those that rejoice
and weeping with those that weep.
Because he says in verse 16, be of the same mind toward one another.
Paul gets underneath the behavior.
He goes deeper.
How do we actually become people who can rejoice with those
who are rejoicing?
How can we be people who are weeping with people who are weeping?
How can we be people who are blessing those that persecute us?
How can we be people who love other people?
Well, it starts with how we think about other people.
He says, be of the same mind, think alike in the sense of having
the same heart and attitude towards one another.
It doesn't mean that we agree with everything.
It doesn't mean that we follow the same teams.
It doesn't mean that we look the same.
It doesn't mean that we can agree with different preferences.
But it's this that I see your value in God.
And we value one another.
We're not competing against one another.
We're brothers and sisters in Christ.
We're on the same team.
That's what he's saying here.
He says the way to understand these hard truths is by seeing other
people through the right lens.
And that is that there's value in you.
Not because of your talents, not because of your money, not because
of your skill sets, but because of who you are in Christ
and who we are together in Christ as brothers and sisters.
And so Christianity isn't about having the right attitude,
but really kind of seeing people as separate and different.
No, it says here, be of the same mind toward one another.
So Christianity is more than just having the right theological
understanding.
It's about, yes, believing the right things, but also it's about
how I treat people around me.
The person sitting beside me, the person who disagrees with me,
the person who might annoy me, the person who's different, the person
who can't do anything for me.
That's where Christianity becomes visible to the world around
us.
And that's what he says, mind not the high things.
Now, what does that even mean, mind not the high things?
The most basic way to describe that is don't be obsessed with status.
Don't be totally consumed with what does that person do?
How much do they make?
What's their standing in society?
Don't constantly seek what's impressive to the world.
Don't try to associate yourself with people just so that
they can make you look important.
That is a terrible habit to have in our lives.
Oh, great, I'm going to meet you.
Let me.
Let me because in the corporate world it's called networking,
right?
We need to find what you can bring to me and if you're with me,
how does that look to other people?
And we've got all these clicks and associations and it's all about
drawing attention to ourselves.
Don't allow ambition to make you overlook God's people.
So, so in modern language, to mind not the high things, it means
this.
Don't be too impressed with yourself.
He, he even go back with me to see that they're in verse three of
Romans chapter 12.
He says, For I say through the grace given unto me to every man
that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think.
That's what he's saying here.
Don't get so self inflated.
Don't allow your ego to dictate how you treat other people.
Then he says this phrase here in the King James.
It's a little bit misunderstand.
There's a little bit of misunderstanding that could come
about because of the word condescend in our culture today.
But it says, but condescend to men of low estate.
Now in our modern vernacular, condescend means I'm going to kind
of like belittle you.
But that's not what this means.
Literally, condescend means to come down to a place, to lower myself
to an equal status with them.
And so Paul is not saying that I need to talk down to people.
Paul is saying here, associate with the humble and lowly people.
In other words, don't be too important to spend time with people
who aren't important in the eyes of the world.
James talks about this, right?
Someone comes into the church and they're dressed to the nines
with everything with gold.
And back in their time there was gold and robes and things like
that.
And we look at them and go, obviously they've got a lot of resources,
so come get the nice seat.
And now back in that time, nice seat was up front, back today,
you know, that Noah sits up on the front, you know, but that's okay.
The, the idea would be though that there were some people that
were dressed in such a way or, or were perceived in such a way that
they didn't have status.
Well, no one, no one noticed them.
We should never look at someone and make a judgment call
of what their status is by just the way that they look and then
treat them differently.
That's what Paul is saying here.
He says, Jesus met those people in their need.
Jesus talked to the woman at the well.
Jesus talked to those People that, that were lame, that were blind.
And it's not to say that, hey, you know what?
We neglect other people that have status.
No, we are just to treat people the same way that God treats
people.
Standard across the board.
They all are in need of Jesus Christ.
If they are saved, then they're my brother and sister in
Christ.
Jesus repeated this over and over again as he did his earthly
ministry.
Then we get to the end of verse 16 and he says, be not wise
in your own conceits.
What's he talking about here?
Well, this is his final warning, at least in this passage
that we're talking about today.
There's more warnings here, but he says, be not wise in your
own conceits.
What is he saying?
If I could put it in a way that we would understand today, it's
don't think you know everything.
Don't assume you're always right.
My, my fleshly assumption is that I know everything that I need
to know.
I.
That I'm always right.
Like, was like, you know, my way is the right way.
Like, you know, if the way that my house is run, my kids do
it a certain way, or someone does something within the church
and I look at and go, yeah, that works.
But that's not my way.
Because my way would be this, this, and this.
The understanding that Paul is saying here is he says, don't put
yourself in a place where you are always right.
Don't become so impressed with who you are that you can't listen
to anybody else around you.
And that brings us back to Romans 12:3.
Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
So the progression here is.
Is a difficult but yet beautiful process of seeing God work.
He takes us from a place of humility that he brings us to with
his greatness.
That humility that he brings in our life brings us to a place
of empathy, to rejoice with those that are rejoicing, to week
with those that are weeping, to bless those that are persecuting
us.
And then he brings us to a place of unity.
Because when we're that way and see each other from that perspective,
we're unified.
And then that is manifested through Christ, like love.
So I want to take you through one last summary here, and then we'll
be done.
I think we could look at it for four tests of Christlike love
in this passage.
Four tests.
Four tests of Christlike love.
And we'll start with a question, and then we'll look at
the answer.
Number one, how do I respond when someone Hurts me.
That's the first evaluative question I think we should have here
in this passage.
Remember back verse 14, bless them which persecute you.
How do I respond to hurt?
Well, Jesus told us, Paul told us, the Bible tells us, bless those
that persecute us.
So the way that we could properly respond to that is this.
Christian love blesses instead of retaliates.
That passage in context is talking about not retaliating.
How do we know that?
Because it's where we're going to start next week.
In verse 17.
Recompense to no man evil for evil provide things honest in the
sight of all men.
So how do I respond when someone hurts me?
The Christlike love response is to bless instead of retaliate.
Second question, how do I respond when someone else succeeds?
We talked about rejoicing with those that are rejoicing.
How do I respond when someone else sees a blessing from God?
When someone else is the winner, so to speak?
Well, Christian love, spiritual sacrifice celebrates instead
of competing.
Celebrates insteads of competing.
Meaning when someone else has a victory, I celebrate it.
I don't compete with it.
I don't think about, well, how can I make them go down or how can
I look better?
It's not about competition, it's about celebrating.
Then we see number three.
How do I respond when someone else suffers?
When someone else goes through a trial, well, he says, weep with
them that weep.
Love, Christian love.
Spiritual sacrifice enters into the pain of another instead
of avoids it.
Our natural response is avoiding other people's pain.
The Spirit filled response is to enter into their pain, enter into
their sorrow, enter into that weight of, of that situation that
they're going into or that they're in.
And then the fourth one.
How do I view myself in relation to others?
Well, Paul says, be not wise in your own conceits.
Love humbles itself instead of elevating itself.
The idea for us as Christians would be that if I'm following Christ,
it's not about elevating myself, it's about humbling myself
and elevating others and ultimately elevating the Lord.
And so when I'm hurt as a Christian, living in Christ means
that I am going to love him enough to bless others.
When someone else is blessed, I'm going to rejoice when someone
else is hurting.
We weep.
In every relationship that we have in our life.
We humble ourselves and submit ourselves to the Lord and see others
as God sees them in such a way that either one, they need Jesus
as their Savior and they need to come to A place of conviction
and faith and salvation.
Or if they're my brother and sister in Christ, then it's this.
They're saved.
And they might need help, they might need teaching, they might need
encouragement, they might need edification, or they might need friendship.
Whatever it is, I want to provide for them what God wants to
provide for them in this moment.
And so Paul in this passage is not just teaching us how to behave
better.
I could see this passage being taken out of context and saying,
okay, you want to be a good Christian, check off these boxes.
But it's not just about performance.
It's not about trying.
But what it's about transformation.
He shows us what a transformed life like Romans 12:2.
It shows us what a transformed life looks like when the mind of
Christ, the renewing of the mind, begins to shape the way that
we deal with other people around us.
Transformed, renewed, changed.
That's it.
It's not trying, working, and then eventually performing.
It's about allowing God to do the work in us.
And so, counterintuitively, it's not about trying and working.
It's about submitting and allowing God to do his work through
us.
Now, it's not passive on our side.
We don't say, God, work through me now.
Let me just sit around and focus on myself.
That's not what it's about.
It's about focusing on God, allowing God to work, and then moving
when he calls me to move.
So how is this going to look?
Well, for me, I'll tell you how it looks.
I'll preach a message on compassion, and then God will put
a situation in my life where I need to extend compassion.
And it's a decision that I need to make.
Am I going to follow what God has clearly stated in His Word to
exercise this compassion on this person, or am I going to choose
what I feel like in this moment?
It's a matter of flesh or spirit.
Am I going to allow the Spirit of God to speak to me through his
word and through circumstances, and then obey?
Or am I just going to say, yeah, I know I should, but you know
what?
I'm busy.
Or you know what?
I don't know if I could help that person.
If God reveals an opportunity for you to exercise these things
in your life, trust him and take a step of faith and obedience,
to say, lord, I'm going to do what you've called me to do, and
you're going to give me everything I need to see this blessing
in my life.
Because again, it all starts with that sacrifice that he calls
us to have why?
Because of everything that he's done by the mercies of God.
He calls us as is reasonable to give him our everything.
And that's what it looks like.
We'll come back next week and we'll look at verses 17 through 21,
which gets a little bit more detailed when it comes to this idea
of forgiveness and vengeance.
And it's tied together certainly with what we've talked
about today.
But a lot of times we need a secondary help when it comes to that
idea of, yeah, but I want to get even.
And we'll talk about that more next week.
So I'm going to ask if you're able to I'm going to give you a chance
to respond if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed,
every eye closed as the music plays here.
In a few moments, we're going to have a time of response.
This isn't necessarily a sermon to say to you, this is where
you need to be and this is where you're not.
So fix that and get that right with God.
Today, though that might be an element of it really, at the deeper
sense, it's a matter of am I allowing God to transform me to that
which he has called me to live in my life, though it'd be difficult,
though it be opposite of the world?
Am I open to that transformation process, or am I closed
off, thinking it's about trying and working and making it
all make sense in my mind.
Folks, I'm going to tell you here today, none of us, and I'm going
to take a stand on this.
I don't think any of us have these verses down perfectly.
All of us need to rejoice more with those that are rejoicing.
All of us need to weep more with those who are weeping.
All of us need to lower ourselves to a place of humility
in cases in our life.
All of us to some degree, need to understand what it means to bless
those that are persecuting us.
And so this isn't a matter of are you there yet?
Because I think all of us could understand.
None of us are at perfection.
All of us need growth.
So the true question for the believer this morning is, am I seeking
the Lord's transformative power in my life to do these things
that are beyond my power, beyond my comprehension?
But I think the greater question is that, number one, do
you know Jesus has your Savior?
You can't perform any of these things in your life.
You can't see any of these things happening unless the spirit
of God is moving through you.
And the Spirit of God does not indwell us unless we come to him
in faith and trust in Him.
Recognize our sin, recognize our need for a Savior, recognize
that Jesus can be that only Savior.
And trusting in his perfect work on the cross and through the
resurrection to to give us salvation, forgiveness and eternal
life.
Folks, if that's something that you need today, it's the greatest
decision that you can ever make.
It will change the way that you live.
It'll change the way that you love, it'll change the way that you
deal with problems within your life.
And most importantly, it'll change where you're going to spend
eternity.
All of us are going to spend eternity somewhere.
The question is, is I'm going to trust?
Am I going to trust in Jesus today and know without a shadow of
a doubt that I will spend the rest of of my life here on this earth
and ultimately for eternity in heaven with Him?
May that be your prayer and your desire to follow him today.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation working hearts
and lives.
We're thankful for this challenge, Lord.
We're thankful for the fact that the freedom that we have knowing
that we can't do this, but you can and we turn it over to you today.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.
We thank you for all that you do for us.
We ask all these things in Jesus name.
Amen.