Romans 12, we’re going to sprint through, but really good sprinting, like the kind you remember. All right. Okay, so let’s all queue it up.
Got the camera fixed? All right. It’s very important for my camera angle to be perfect, you know. It haunts me when I think about it. Okay. Okay.
Let’s go ahead and read. Sadly, the quarterly, we only get to cover verses 1 through 13. But in classic Brian fashion, I’m going to read the whole thing because it’s good. And then we’ll study 1 through 13.
So chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship.
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Now, as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way, we who are many are one body in Christ and individual members of one another.
According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, and teaching; if exhorting, and exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.
Verse 9: Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil, cling to what is good. Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence and zeal. Be fervent in the spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in affliction. Be persistent in prayer.
Share with the saints in their needs. Pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud. Instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Friends, do not avenge yourselves. Instead, leave room for God’s wrath because it is written, vengeance belongs to me. I will repay, says the Lord.
But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in doing so, you will be heaping fiery coals in his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
So this is probably top five of my favorite chapters of Bible. So I am sad we do not have an entire quarterly devoted to Romans 12. So that’s a bummer.
So I underprepared on purpose because I knew that if I overprepared, it would be a nightmare. But that’s okay. It’s going to be great. We’re just going to hone in on a few really important things since we only have…
So, what comes to mind when you think of the word worship? What comes to mind? It can be a lot of things, but what comes to mind? Praying. Singing. Giving. What’s that? Yeah, submitting.
The beauty of today is Paul’s really pushing into this idea of what does real worship look like. And it’s not necessarily an act, per se. It’s a heart. It’s a heart of worship.
So the second part of that question, I guess, really is, what does a life of worship really look like? Well, that’s what we’re going to dig into. I think Romans 12 does such a beautiful job. It’s actually what I’m doing this year for my devos in class. Like, we’re working through one verse every week, week and a half or so. Which is… funny because the first two verses are like so incredibly dense you really can’t do them that quickly, but it is okay, we’re working through it.
Um, so let’s go ahead, let’s go and reread one and two. Um, that’s where we’re gonna, this sets the stage for that question of what does a life of worship look like. Um, and then Paul expounds and exposits this thought throughout the rest of today.
So Romans 12:1 and 2, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God,” I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is a true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.
If I had to pick again, like top five passages, those two verses are just in my in my top five. And there’s a few different versions. Um, I really enjoy, I tend to flip through some of the different translations on my iPad version. But especially verse 1. Where Paul says in the quarterly, you know, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship.
Others, like New King James actually says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, which is neat. I like that.
And then a few others, I think ESV drops into, it’s amazing how slow I click when I’m trying to be fast. Here we go. Which is your spiritual worship. So the phrasing, though, is important because whether we call it spiritual worship, reasonable service or true worship, Paul’s trying to help us understand something.
The Hebrews and those who worship Yahweh in this season would have understood the idea of sacrifice. Even the pagans would have understood the idea of sacrifice because they’ve lived in a culture where they sacrifice something to appease the gods. And those that worship Yahweh knew we’re sacrificing. There’s burnt offerings. There’s grain offerings. There’s oil offerings. There’s these things that we’re doing to atone for the brokenness and sin in our lives.
But Paul leans into the idea of sacrifice, and I love it because when he – I mean – oh, I forgot.
We have to read the last bit of 11. So I had it written in my notes and I missed it because I wrote it in the dark part. Okay. Romans 12 is great.
And I was just getting ready to talk about the therefore at the beginning. Therefore, as our linchpin, our turning point. comes out of the very end of 11, which last week we were in 11 and we did not cover this part of 11. And at the very end of 11, after Paul’s been talking about this idea of Israel’s rejecting of Yahweh and how that opened the door for the Gentiles, but God is also not abandoning the Hebrews forever.
Then Paul gets to in 33 of chapter 11, which is this beautiful doxology. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? And who has ever given to God that he should be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
So Paul has been explaining this deep, very overwhelming. I thought last week’s lesson was kind of intense when you think about this idea of being God’s people being rejected and then opens the door. That’s a heavy week.
And then Paul just praises God. There’s this moment of doxology, which is really beautiful. There’s a really great Andrew Peterson song that is just that little passage of scripture. It’s beautiful.
But that leads us into verse one, which is where we go. And so Paul just praises the Lord: from him and through him and to him are all things; to him be the glory forever.
Therefore, because of this, live your life in living sacrifice. Like view by God’s mercy has given you the ability to view your life as a life that is a living sacrifice, not a sacrifice. You have to die to be made right with this God, but that you can live to this God, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship or like the new King James.
This is your act of reasonable service, which is I just like because it’s this idea like this is a reasonable response. If you consider what God has done and the majesty and beauty and that all things are from him and through him to him, your reasonable reaction to that is to live your life serving and worshiping him. So I don’t know if that was what the translators intended, but I read that and I love that thought because logically, yes.
And then verse two, which is I say way too often in my mind and to kids at school, do not be conformed to this age. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
So, when you think about sacrifice, not animal or human sacrifice necessarily, but just sacrifice overall, how do you feel about sacrifice?
Well, in the Old Testament, the sacrifice had no choice. Yeah. Now… We have a choice. I love that contrast. We either sacrifice ourselves for God’s purpose, or we don’t.
And holy here means that which is set aside for God’s use. Like genuinely set apart and holy to Yahweh. I love that contrast, that sacrifice, an animal does not have a choice in this, but we have the choice to actually sacrifice our lives for Jesus, which is an incredible contrast.
And that’s the beauty of like this, when people talk about like freedom and then freedom in Christ and how they’re like, well, but you’re, you now follow, so you’re not free. It’s like, no, no, no, but it’s freedom in the sense of… We now chose. It’s a different kind of freedom.
Paul does this really – I love the therefore. Anytime there’s a therefore or because of or as such or one of those pivots, I think they’re worth pausing on because Paul’s such a logical, legal thinker that it’s helping us understand what do we do with what you just told me? How do I unpack this?
And Paul’s therefore – kind of leans out of chapter 11 into chapter 12, which he did not know they were going to be numbered and versed later. But as he’s writing, he’s making this connection to, like, I literally just shared with you that you now have access to the gospel because the Hebrews rejected it. This was always God’s plan, but it’s sad. Don’t boast in that. That was last week. Let’s praise God.
But because of that, now you are brothers and sisters. Like it starts out, therefore, brothers and sisters. They were not. These are not probably Jewish people. They might be practicing Jews, but they’re in Rome. They’re probably not ethnically Jewish. They might be, but the likelihood is much smaller than writing to those that are in Judea.
So he’s connecting that theological statement, the grafting in of the Gentiles to Judaism. Brothers and sisters. Like that would have been a much bigger deal. We read it and it’s like, oh, the body of Christ. I love it. To them, I think deep acceptance of you are now part of this. Because you’re part of this, view your life as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. So then.
I wrote down, or I, from somewhere, for both Jews and Gentiles, sacrifices were slaughtered and burned, but true worship involves, true worship of God involves complete surrender and service to him. Complete. Yeah, Terry.
In verse two, transformed there, the Greek word is metamorphosis, which it happens slowly. It doesn’t happen instantaneously. So that’s kind of, yeah, I was going to say, I’ve seen Transfigure. I’ve seen… There was another one that popped up yesterday, too. Yeah, Transform by the Renewing of Your Mind. Maybe it was… Yeah. I mean, that is in my notes for… Yeah, that was Transform, too. Yeah.
Baptizing ever since getting baptized today is like, yeah, like sanctification is slow and hard, and it’s just… it’s agonizing and annoying and frustrating, and we go backwards and we go forwards, and… and it’s… sanctification is… is hard. A life of obedience is incredibly hard. Transformation is hard. Yeah, no, you’re fine.
The essence of Christianity is explained clearly in Romans. What do you mean by that? Who, God, where, when, why, and how. We did the who.
Now we’re going to do what it means. We’re going to be a Christian in a practical way. We’re going to give you some practical terms. It is such a practical chapter. I agree. There’s targets. There’s things. I’ll just put it. That is a Lanny thing for sure. But he’s right. You do have to figure out what it’s there for. Yep, it’s always tying two things together. Which is such an interesting thing.
We don’t have time for this rabbit trail, but here we are. I read this week that they’re a little nervous we as a culture are moving into another illiterate age. Not that we can’t read, but that we don’t comprehend.
And they were alluding to this idea, it’s the potential for a dark age, not like we’re going back to playing music on, I don’t know what those instruments are called now, lutes and lyres, and we’re not going to wear medieval garb. But their point was, because people do not read, and they don’t slow down to comprehend… It makes it very difficult to communicate ideas.
It makes it very difficult for people to be discerning or wise because they won’t – and the therefores are very easy for – there was some time this came up recently at school, and I asked the kids if they understood what therefore meant, and they were like, what do you mean? I’m like, well, what is – what’s the point? Like why is it – what’s it – therefore? What’s its purpose? No, like – I don’t know.
And I’m like, it’s linking this idea with this idea. It’s helping you. Like, he’s explaining that. And they’re like, oh. I’m like, guys, I don’t teach English. I feel confident you’ve learned this.
There were a good number who just weren’t talking. They were like, well, yeah, okay. But there were enough of them that were like, yeah, okay. Why? It was bizarre.
But wasn’t it Samuel that goes back and they find the Bible in the… Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
What do we learn from history? Yeah. That we don’t learn from history. That we don’t learn from history because we keep doing it over and over again. Yeah. Every single time. Which is funny because we’re so quick to judge people who do. But yeah, we can go back and see thousands of years of it happening all the time where we don’t learn from the things that we do. Just annoying and true and all the things.
But this idea of being transformed is so important. How are we transformed? This isn’t necessarily in the book. This is just Brian questions. Like, how are we transformed? Well, like based on scripture here, like what does he, how does Paul describe, like, how are we transformed? Yeah, but he, but he says here in scripture though, by the renewing of our minds, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
So how do we renew our minds? We dwell on the things of God. I mean, it’s the most Sunday school answer ever. Like, how are we transformed? How do we renew our minds so that we are transformed?
Well, we disciple ourselves by the only thing that can actually save us. We used to tell kids this a lot. I don’t know if they still do in worldviews class. I assume they do.
We are always discipled by something. It doesn’t matter what it is. We are always going to be discipled by something. It might be news, it might be family, it might be workplace. It could be good things, it could be bad things, but we’re going to be discipled by something. Because naturally, we are going to fall into a flow or a rhythm of life.
Well, if Paul is telling us here, we are to not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we have to genuinely assess this. Is it God’s word? Am I, like Terry said, am I dwelling on the things of God? Is that what my heart and mind go back to? Or am I swept up into the worries and cares of this world? Because again, Paul’s saying, do not be conformed to this age. If we aren’t cautious, we will be conformed to this age. Otherwise, Paul would say that.
Yeah, Jan. I think it’s a daily choice of what you put into your mind. Amen. You know, whether it’s what you read, what you watch, what you, you know, what you see, what you… Amen. Absolutely.
And it’s funny because when I, when we, especially getting into this topic in school this year, since this has been our ego, the the world we live in, and you see it through kids because kids are a little less polished than we are.
They’re not being discipled by the word. They’re being discipled by whatever’s trending this week on TikTok or whatever everyone’s stressed about on, I call it Snapgram, but Instagram or I don’t know if they still use Snapchat. The yellow one, Snapchat. But regardless, those are the things that… Because they’re conforming themselves to that. Because that’s what they spend the most energy and time digging into.
So one of the best ways for us to understand what we’re being conformed to, what are we spending the most time? And when we have… What’s the word? Discretionary time to spend. What are we doing with it? What are we conforming ourselves to?
I think the way… Yeah, NLT said this way for verse two, don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Which sets it very well and frames it, this idea that it is so easy for us to copy the, I mean, look back at the Hebrews.
They literally got everything they wanted. They got brought out of slavery in Egypt. They were brought across the desert. They were made holy and set apart to God. They were given the promised land that they knew was overwhelmingly good and beautiful and rich. And I mean, cities were built and vineyards were there. I mean, it was an incredible gift.
And then they still got in there and they’re like, I really wish we were like everybody else around. And it unraveled them all over again. It’s the same old sin just rebranded in a new way. We want to be like those around us, not to be like Christ, which is beautiful and challenging and hard.
And 94 has a question here. It says, what obstacles might prevent us from offering our lives to God as a living sacrifice? It’s one thing to want to offer our lives as a living sacrifice. It’s one thing to say, like, this is what, but what gets in our way? I mean, it’s like if you want to get in shape, but you don’t really realize how much ice cream you eat every night. Like, you have to know. Like, this is in the way.
I don’t want to talk about it, but. What’s that? And same. There’s a Harvard study that could show you that says ice cream is good for us. In moderation. Yeah. In moderation.
So what obstacles genuinely prevent us from offering our lives as living sacrifice? What gets in the way of a life of worship? Yeah. Yeah.
Our desires show what our heart treasures. The things that we, gosh, I say that so much to kids and they look at me like I have five heads. It’s not three anymore. It’s gone up.
But I’m like, guys, the thing that you catch yourself daydreaming about, those are the things that you probably are more prone to worship than other things. It doesn’t always mean that those are bad things.
But if you’re catching yourself daydreaming about, I mean, even just, oh, I can’t wait till I get to college because then I can, everything will be great. And then you’re going to be discontented. And then you’re going to, be longing for, you know, the job because, you know, all that money you can do all these things with. And then you’re going to realize how expensive everything is. And it’s always going to be that cycle of discontent. And, like, the idol is going to be just this dangling carrot that you’ve never, you can never, it’s your white whale.
Did you know that that is lost on kids? I had one kid the other day who got the, the, what’s the, the, yeah, like whatever the word is, the reference. Like one kid was like, oh, it’s from Moby Dick. And I’m like, you guys, I’m pretty sure read this. And they’re like, I don’t know if we’ve gotten to that book yet, Mr. Malloy. And I’m like, whew. Probably.
So knowing the obstacles that get in the way, knowing the things that we desire more than anything else is important because those desires are likely the very thing that’s getting in the way of us living a life that is surrendered and sacrificed and worshiping with everything we have.
And we are being sanctified. We have never arrived until we are glorified and incarnate. But there should at least be meaningful progress. We can look back and go, better than it was five years ago. Um, we should see forward movement, but obstacles will always get in the way.
If you’ve ever read, and hopefully you have, um, The Pilgrim’s Progress, there are so many obstacles to get in Christian’s way where he’s trying to—he’s trying to get to the celestial city. It’s such a good, um, analogy, allegory, but there’s always going to be obstacles. Sometimes they seem very good and sometimes they seem bad, but they’re still obstacles.
Okay, I wish we could talk more about one and two forever because I love one and two. But alas, we have to move on. So let’s read three through eight. Three through eight.
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Now as we have many parts in one body and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way, we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. If prophecy uses according to the proportion of one’s faith, if service use it in service, if teaching in teaching, if exhorting in exhortation, giving with generosity, leading with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness.
I like this part a lot, and I think most people do, because it reminds us that we all do not have the exact same abilities and gifts, but that we have meaning and purpose anyway. And I think we live in a world where we’re hungry for meaning and purpose.
So I’ve always liked this part because – and Paul only gives a few examples. He doesn’t give a hundred. But I think that giving us – we’ve got prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, mercy. You’ve got seven in just this short little chunk. It’s very easy to see that as like, yes, God has given many gifts and used them well.
I love the idea of stewardship. I taught economics for a long time, so I just love the topic of stewardship to a fault. And stewardship also can be an idol, so be careful.
But when we read this, we have to consider each of these gifts was given to help build up the church. It was given to help build up the body of Christ.
And I think if we had time and we had enough whiteboard markers, we could probably fill out the people that we know who have those gifts that we’ve seen use them really well.
I mean, my gosh, showing mercy with cheerfulness. Paula Sheldon, if anyone remembers Paula, a lot of you do like the most cheerful woman in the world. I mean, her granddaughter goes to Westminster now. Do you know how many people know Miss Paula now? Like, she’s only been there for, like, a couple months. And, like, everyone knows that Paula makes cookies and, like, that she’s always excited. I mean, you’ve seen her. She just bounces. It’s the sweetest thing.
You’ve seen those who serve. There are many in this room who are incredibly servant-hearted. The drop of a hat would be there for anybody who needed something.
There are those who have taught classes. I mean, Mike, you teach when you guys are traveling. You guys lead your study. There’s so many.
We could list out people that fall into each of these categories, and that’s why God gave us the gifts was because they were meant to build up the body of Christ. But he also starts it so well.
For the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should. There’s this call to humility.
We live in a world that does not prize humility. It just doesn’t. It’s not the thing that gets you clicks or attention or likes. Humility is rarely something that we hear aspired to. It’s a word that a lot of people I don’t think actually know really the depth and meaning of humility. But humility protects us from falling into selfishness because humility is the opposite of pride.
The Quarterly makes this comment, and maybe it makes it in yours too. It says, Paul emphasized humility as we labor together because humility protects us from pride. Rather than yielding to arrogance, we exercise wisdom when we think and act with sober judgment.
Um, it goes on, and we see through this passage this really beautiful call, verse four: “Now as we have many parts in one body, all the parts do not have the same function. In the same way, we who are many in one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, that there’s this divine mystery where, because of the gifts and because of the Spirit, we are being continually knit together and formed.”
Um, and and we should just go to the question. There’s a really good question on 96. It’s long, so I’m going to shorten it in a second. But on 96, it says, how does your exercise of spiritual gifts contribute to the overall spiritual maturity of the church? I would add to that question, maybe the preface for that question, do you know your gifts?
I added a spiritual gift sarcasm. Don’t listen to Mike. Mike is incorrect. I will very often jokingly, like whenever someone’s doing something obnoxious at school, be like, it’s their spiritual gift. Going to the bathroom 12 times a class period is your spiritual gift. Things you can say at a Christian school and kids still stare at you like you’re crazy. But that’s okay. I don’t care what they think.
We don’t always take time to understand what gifts we have. Yeah, Terry. In verse 3, it says, allotted to each a measure of faith. Hmm.
It always reminds me of the parable of the ten talents. When the master gives ten and five and one and then he goes off and then he comes back and the one who had ten used it and made more of it, and he was given far more responsibility. And it’s in Luke, and I’m blanking. It’s toward the end.
And then the one with five does the same thing, and the one who had one talent just hit it in the ground because he knew his master was a serious man and wouldn’t appreciate it being lost, so he just hit it. And he was the one that was cast off because he didn’t take his measure and use it well. And that always reminds me, at least, of that parable that Jesus taught. All right. Yeah.
Kind of an answering question, but a little different, is I think one of the things, because sometimes we don’t realize how our gifts impact others because we don’t tell others how their gifts impact us. Yeah. And I think we should do that more. Amen. I’ve thought that. Because you don’t know. Yeah.
I’ll just give you an example. I had someone, when I was done last week singing and walking around, he just kind of looked at me in the atrium and said, thank you so much for what you do. It touches me, blah, blah, blah. And I do it to hear that, but when I hear that, it encourages me to know that I need to keep doing it because it’s impacting, not as impacting people through it.
And I don’t think we do that enough. We don’t tell someone what they’re doing, no matter how small it seems or big, it doesn’t matter. But we don’t do that enough because I think that would help us understand what our actual gift is. And how they all kind of come together and how they’re beneficial in their own way. I agree. I’ve thought that before, and I’m still bad at it.
Because it’s one of those, I think we almost have to get in the discipline of like, noticing those things in people and just finding a way to gently say it, and like, not make a big deal that it boosts their ego, but just simply, uh, hey, it’s really neat seeing God use you this way, and then moving on. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly, because I think that helps us understand the mystery of the kingdom, you know, the mystery of you.
When Paul says, what verse was that? Verse five? In the same, same way, we are many in one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. That’s a bizarre phrase, that we are individual members of one another, but we’re part of the body of Christ. But it helps us understand that mystery of how God uses the diversity of the body to actually reflect. Yeah, Terry.
Brian, as you know, I struggle with participating in class because I don’t want people to think yeah. He’s saying you guys should talk more. Yeah. Yeah.
What’s your note that you got? Oh, I thought you had a good note. Oh, you’re just talking in general of this idea in the body. I thought you had a really good little one-liner waiting on it. That’s like, don’t leave me hanging.
I think all of that is correct. And Jan, you’re right. I think… That should be a big takeaway is how do we just build people up? I mean, we’re called by Paul many times in his letters to use our words to build others up.
Well, if we see spiritual gifts being used for the kingdom in them, let’s say it. Let’s just make it a habit. It does not have to be awkward or a big deal. It can literally just be the simple someone catching someone in the hallway. It’s an easy thing to do. I mean, especially now in the age of technology, even just to shoot a text. Like, hey, it was really cool seeing you do that. It was neat that God’s using you.
Like, simple things go a really long way. And the more someone’s built up, not in an arrogant ego way, but like in a I understand how my gift impacts the body, they’re usually more encouraged to use it better for that and to steward it better. But part of that is also knowing our gifts and taking the time to understand our gifts. Okay.
Okay, let’s read 9 through 13. Worst time frame ever. Okay. Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil. Cling to what is good. Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence and zeal, but be fervent in the spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in affliction. Be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs. Pursue hospitality.
A lot of Bibles will call that section Christian ethics. But again, it’s Paul. The word expositing is this idea of like you’re taking scripture and you’re trying to unfold it, unpack it. So like you’re explaining the depth and meaning of it.
And Paul’s first couple statements are the first two verses one and two. Really, he spends the rest of Romans 12 expositing like this is what that means. Like this is if you want to understand the therefore, like live a life of sacrifice and don’t be conformed.
Here’s what the fruit of that would look like. Like, here’s how this should play out, which is beautiful. And that’s what we see in kind of his final thoughts here of 12. Like, you know, let love be without hypocrisy. Like, detest evil. I think, I don’t remember what version of scripture I was looking at, but it actually uses the word abhor evil, which makes it sound even tougher. Abhor evil. Like, do not tolerate evil. Not be okay with evil. Abhor it.
Cling to what is good. Love one another deeply. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence. Be fervent in the spirit.
It’s just so many one-liners that are incredible. But yeah, they’re all together, which makes it even harder to unpack them in a short amount of time.
But I love the quarterly made this comment. I’m going to steal it from them because in the sake of trying to summarize it, part of showing love is avoiding what is evil. But it also involves showing honor and respect for others.
We serve diligently, we trust the Spirit’s guidance, we nurture hope, we endure persecution, and we demonstrate hospitality. So to a world that desperately needs believers to be Christ followers and to be like Jesus, Paul’s helping us understand, like, hate what is evil, but show great love and honor, respect, trust the Spirit, continually hope, understand, reframe your persecution as God’s refining and then be hospitable.
There’s a question there on 98 and it says, how can you be more diligent and intentional in your service to the Lord and his people? It’s a good question, but it’s kind of broad. I wrote down in my notes, like anyone can do it when it’s easy, but can you do it when it gets hard?
Like Paul’s walking through, you know, let love be without hypocrisy. Well, that implies if he’s reminding us, it’s real easy for love to be a little, oh my gosh, hypocrisy. Yeah, hypocritical. Wow.
It was like just total blank. Like what’s the other version of that word? Thank you. It’s easy for it to be a little hypocritical. It’s easy to not hate evil. It’s easy just to ignore evil. It’s difficult to cling to what is good. It’s hard to love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. It’s hard to take the lead in honoring one another. We wait for them to do the right thing.
So we see him unfold this. And I think that question of like, how can we be more diligent and intentional? I think, again, it goes back to, I can do those things really well when it’s easy.
But Paul’s not… the quarterly is not asking me to evaluate Paul’s words when it’s easy. He’s asking me to evaluate like when those things are hard and those things are often hard.
Um, mom and I were talking yesterday about something and she was like, you probably would feel different depending upon who that was. And I’m like, good point. It’s just because it’s, it’s, that’s not much context, but you don’t need it for the
There are times it is easy to be diligent and intentional in our service, and there are times it’s going to be hard. Sometimes it’s the circumstances. Sometimes it’s the people. Sometimes it’s the time of day. Sometimes it’s because I didn’t eat enough.
There’s a million reasons, but Paul doesn’t say just do it when it’s easy. He’s asking us to do those things, period. And that’s an important reality.
So before we run out of time, okay. Wrapping up all the things. If you remember everything we just covered really fast.
Think about where you see pressure conformed to the world’s patterns. Verse 2 is the one that said that. Do not be conformed to this age. I think you could… You could rephrase that.
Don’t be conformed to the world’s worries or the world’s priorities, the world’s fears, the world’s way of thinking, the world’s way of building a personal identity, the world’s view of conflict, the world’s view of the world, the things the world loves or the things the world finds like, you know, meaning and value.
But instead, what does it look like to have a renewed mind? I think there’s anything in today that I think is really like, vitally important. It is that idea: what does it look like to have a renewed mind? What does it look like? Because we have to get there.
We’re—I mean, think about where we’re the most tempted, and it’s different for everybody, but there are general things like, are we more tempted by the world’s worries? Like, all—it’s an easy week to worry. Half the country’s worried about something else. It’s really a bummer, but it’s easy to get caught up in the worries of this world. Like, this isn’t our final home.
It’s—it’s also easy to get caught up in the priorities of this world. It’s easy to adapt. Again, just like the Israelites, looking around them from Jerusalem and seeing all the things that the other nations were worried about or prioritizing or the things they were fearing. It’s easy to take on the world’s fears. It’s easy to take on the world’s values. So I say all of that.
If we want to have a mind that is transformed to be more like Jesus, I made a list. This is where we have to wrap up because it’s 9:57.
Our anxiety, a renewed mind, an anxious mind would turn into a trusting mind. Anxiety moves to trust. Pride moves to humility. Self-centeredness moves to service. Revenge moves to forgiveness. In a renewed mind, comparison, that is the language of the world these days, moves to contentment. And control moves to surrender. And popularity moves to faithfulness. And fear of man moves to fear of God.
So we have, I think, a really neat charge from Paul. I mean, the first two verses are where we’re going to reread because they are, I think, the core of what today’s passage is about.
That we are, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship.
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
And I think when we understand what a renewed mind looks like, when we see the anxious pride, self-centered revenge, comparing control, fear of man, move to a mind that has been renewed, that’s a view of the good life that the world desperately longs for. They just don’t know it. They don’t understand what a renewed mind can be. Because they too live in darkness and sin. The light has not come to them.
Yeah, Terry. Verse 11 is kind of important because it says, Not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent in spirit or effective in spirit, serving the Lord. Mm-hmm. This is not a textbook system. Mm-hmm. This is one that we live out daily, and it’s hard, like you said. Yeah.
Yeah, the NLT changes the… It’s a little more thought for thought than word for word. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. It’s really easy. I mean, everyone’s gone on a diet. Everyone’s tried to save money towards something. Like… It is really easy when we’re just worn down to be like, ah, I’ll try again tomorrow. Or next Monday.
But Paul’s exhorting us here, don’t be lazy in pursuing the things of God. You can’t be. Because when we’re lazy pursuing the things of God, when we’re not being transformed by the renewing of our mind, by walking and abiding in God’s word, it’s going to go backwards. There’s no, you know, just hanging out. It’s backwards or it’s forwards, which is hard and real, and it’s 10 o’clock. Man. Okay. All right.
It’s a good thing I didn’t put more notes in there. All right. Any last thoughts before we pray and we head out to the atrium? Okay. Let’s pray.
Father God, thank you for today. Thank you. Even though it was a shorter time than normal, God, you are good, and Romans 12 is such a blessing and a treasure.
God, I pray that as we walk out, help us to see the gifts you’ve given us. Help us to encourage others in their giftings. Help us to, with deep humility, to live within our gifts and to serve you and others in the body well.
And God, more than anything, day after day after day, help us to find ourselves back in your words so that we are renewed and transformed by you. Not by the world, but by you. God, we love you. We praise you. And we ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right.
