Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A geniune Elvis Pressley signature is pretty valuable.

“The King’s” signature on a picture or some other piece of paper is worth about $1500 and if you have a letter or a signed contract with his signature you can fetch upwards of $35,000.

So it is no surprise that there are a lot of forgeries.

People creating fake signatures to make some cash.

There is an entire industry built around authenticating signatures in order to weed out the fakes.

They look at they type of ink and paper that is used to make sure it fits with the time period of the person.

They compare the signature with known genuine autographs to test the flourish and pen weight in various parts of the letters that make up the name.

They listen to the story of how the seller got the item to see if it matches the history of the person.

When the signature meets these requirements it is deemed a genuine signature and is valuable.

In the same way this morning our text tells us the marks of genuine love amongst the people of God—the saints.

Our text this morning is Romans 12:9-21.

If you have your Bible you can go ahead and turn there.

If you don’t have a Bible this morning we have some on the tables up here.

Or you can follow along in the Bible app on your phone and make notes there and even save them for later.

If you need some help with any of this just ask someone next to you and they’ll be happy to help.

We want to be those who have genuine love toward God and geniune love toward people.

And this is Paul’s concern as he writes.

If you are a follower of Jesus then you are called to be a “light on the hill” to be “salt in the food”.

In other words your life is supposed to be lived in such a way that it draws attention.

People look to lights and they notice salt.

Followers of Jesus as Paul said in the beginning of chapter 12 are to be a people who are “transformed by the Word of God, not conformed to the ways of the world.”

Our text will address how we love brothers and sisters in Christ and how we love those outside of the church—even how we love our enemies.

But I want us to be aware as we study through this text that all of this: how we love people is first and foremost an expression of our love toward God.

How we treat those made in the image of God says something about our love for God.

Just like a signature can be authenticated by certain marks so can the life of the follower of Jesus.

Paul opens our text today by saying, “Let love be genuine.”

Transition: Let us first look at genuine love in the body of Christ.

I. Genuine Love for the Saints (9-13, 15-16)

And as we look at this text we are going to see that Paul was not concerned for the preaching styles of 21st century when he wrote Romans.

This text breaks up with Paul talking about love amongst the body of Christ in verses 9-13 and verses 15-16.

For a moment in v.14 he comments on loving the lost, finishes some thoughts on loving the saints before launching into loving the lost again.

So when I skip verse 14 in this section I’m not hiding anything from you.

We’ll get to it.

Let’s read vv.9-13 together now.

Romans 12:9-13 “Let love be genuine.

Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

Romans 12:15-16 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.”

In these verses we see 11 ways to geniunely love the saints.

Abhor what is evil.

Last week we saw in Romans 12:5 “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

We are not just individuals, but we are saved into a body of Christ.

How we live out our life affects the whole body and not just the individual.

One way for you to love your brothers and sister in Christ is to abhor what God says is evil.

To be opposed to sin.

And the word abhor is an intentionally strong word.

The Greek word also means to “hate exceedingly”.

In your own life and in your own walk with God do you abhor, do you exceedingly hate what is evil?

When sin is embraced in a life it is destructive to all the lives around it.

And God calls us to abhor, exceedingly hate what is evil.

But we need to be careful.

Let me tell you two things this exhortation is not

1.

It is not a call to monastic legalism.

One way you could apply this exhortation is to remove yourself from any influence of evil.

And in one sense you may need to reevaluate the things you allow into your mind, the entertainment you watch, the music you listen to.

It is a good question to ask of these things, are they glorifying and promoting sin?

Are they maligning my God?

You should ask that question of the things in your life.

But what you cannot do is live in a Christian bubble.

In order to remove yourself from all evil influence you must leave this world.

And the Bible tells us to be in the world while not be of the world.

2. We also do not develop a hatred for the doer of evil.

Have you heard the saying, “hate the sin and love the sinner”?

Well as people we are prone to “hate the sin and hate the sinner”.

We also must not abhor people who live in sin and commit evil acts.

What this exhortation is calling us to do is to have a mindset and a decisive attitude toward evil.

You and I are to hate evil—because it is an affront to God and because it is a poison for those made in God’s image.

We are to search God’s word and where God prohibits something, where he warns us against something—like lust, laziness, pride—we are to resolve in our hearts to hate those things and to strive to live in a way that is set apart to God as living sacrifices.

Transition: The next command is related to this one.

We are to abhor evil and ...

2. “Hold fast to what is good.”

We don’t want to just put off sin in our lives, but we want to put on Christ increasingly.

Colossians 3:12-14 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

While we move away from what is evil---from sin—we are to move toward and to put on what is good.

We seek to grow increasingly in the fruit of the Spirit.

We pursue involvement with the people of God in the mission of God.

We put on the good things of Christlikeness.

While we put off sin we put on Christ and hold fast to the good things.

Transition: Number 3, We love the saints genuinely by....

3. “Loving one another with brotherly affection.”

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

Jesus says that the way we love each other communicates whether or not we belong to Jesus.

How do you consider the other people @ Covenant Life?

Do you consider them family?

Do your actions prove that?

Do you have a heartfelt and consistent concern for the other people in your church?

If you don’t—you should—and you are missing out if you don’t.

You’re missing out on the gifts that God has given them meant for your good.

As we talked about last week.

You’re missing out on loving God by loving His people.