Church Fam: How to be in a Church family | Romans 12:9-21

Intro

Good morning church family, how are we?

How about them dawgs?

Anyone have that whooping on their bingo card?

65-7 murder ball right there.

Bama fans, y’all probably right us v y’all would have been a better game, buttttt y’all got beat by Tenn and LSU sooooooo, go dawgs.

Anyways, glad to be back here with you on Sunday morning.

If you haven’t guess ready is still out, hip is doing well he is still rehabing it, he’ll be back here next Sunday morning lord willing.

I know he is itching to be back with you as church family.

I do want to say thank you again church family for letting me fill in and a thank you to pastor Randy for trusting me enough to step in to this place here.

So thank you, I am very grateful for all of you.

Y’all ever been on a team where one person is just a nightmare to be around?

So when I was in Seminary, one of my roommates had a baseball background, not as a player, but as a coach. He at one point had a job lined up with the Red Sox’s, but he got to know a ton of players in the minor in the early 2000’s and one of the guys he got to know was sent down to the minors from the Giants. and when this guy was really good, he played on the same team as Barry Bonds. I’m sure most of you know who Bonds is, he was a very controversial baseball player, started his career with the Pirates, then went to San Francisco where he finished his career.

Bonds is famous for hitting the most career home runs in history. He is also famous for defiantly taking steroids. He was for the most part one of the more hated figures in early 2000’s baseball. They hated him because he lied about being on PED’s but also he was not a friendly person. He wasn’t a nice guy.

Hank Aaron, the real HR King, was a nice guy, he did lose it on reporters. what not.

anyways, my roommate knew a guy who played with him, and he asked him, What was Bonds like as a team mate? And he said, “Awful” now I’m paraphrasing, the player used a couple more french terms when he described him. But he said he was awful, he always practiced alone, he made the Giants build him a separate club house room for his locker so that he could have his own space, he never gave advice, he never was kind, and everyone knew he was lying. His friend said it was awful.

He never made the effort to be a teammate, sure he hit dingers but they never won a WS. They never got where they wanted to go.

In JI Packers book Knowing God. Packer talks about two different types of people, he envisions people going down a road and people sitting on a balcony watching the people go down the road.

For me I see the French Quarter of New Orleans, people on the balcony and the people going down the streets.

He groups them in to balconeers and travelers.

The people int the balcony they know the streets, they can see the scenery, they know where the shops are, but they never interact with what is below them. Sometimes they talk to the travelers, but they never really get off the balcony, now the travelers, they’re the ones who get to experience the streets, experience the scenery, they’re not on the balcony over seeing things from afar, but are involved, they actually know the street, and shops, they have been on it.

now, Packer was speaking about this in terms of knowing Jesus and knowing about jesus. Experiencing Jesus or seeing Jesus once a week.

But i think that is true for the church, a lot of us are just looking form a distance, you’re like a facebook friend we see you over there, but we aren’t face to face, we don’t know each other.

So this morning we are going to continue talking about what we talked about last Sunday, basically why be in a church. We took the word Member and reordered it to be more like church family, to look at why you should be in the church family, what allows you to be in the church family. Why should we be in a church family.

This morning I want us to look at the how. Last week was why, this morning is the how, do we go about being in a church family, how are we supposed to act? How to do we interact as individuals and how do we interact collectively with the community that surrounds us?

Context We have been saved now it is time to act accordingly

So last week we were in Ephesians this morning we are going to be in Romans 12. So if yo have a bible go ahead and flip over there, if you don’t have a bible grab the one that’s right there in pew, if you don’t have one at home take it with you. If you do have a bible but it’s at home I have a great new years resolution for you, bring it with you. Don’t be passive in worship, step in to the ring. We want you to have the Word in front of you.

So Romans 12 verse 9

Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and he is going over a ton of different stuff but in this passage, he is talking about the marks of a true christian.

Chapters 1-11 are all about what God has done for us through Christ. Chapter 12 Paul starts answering the now what. What it means and now he is giving what it looks like to be a Christian. What are their marks of a Christian/.

Have you ever gone to a BBQ place and knew it wasn’t the real deal? I spent a summer in New York City working for the North American Mission Board and there was a a bbq place that everyone raved about, so I went to check it out. It was in West Villiage in Manhattan, good reviews, supposed to be authentic BBQ it was called like pork or some dumb hipster name. But I walked in and right off the bat, i didn’t smell smoke, not good, then they brought us water in a glass bottle for the table, and it was really clean and the chef was a skinny white guy, not what you want, not many skinny dude whoa re legit pit masters. So in the first 5 mins, i knew this was not the move.

This is what Paul is getting at here in this section, these are the trait and marks that are going to tip you off to a true christian, you’re gonna smell smoke.

He was writing to a mostly roman audience, where all of the things would have been weird to them, keeping the theme of being counter cultural.

So Romans 12:9-21 Let’s read this whole passage together and then we are going to work through

Pray with me for our time in the word

Romans 12:9–21 ESV

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So look at this passage, first look at how we should be as christians and how we should act toward one another, then the last chunk is how we should relate as a family to our community.

Radical Hospitality v. 9-13

look at verse 9-13, Look at the marks of the christian are:

Be Genuine

Hate Evil

Love Good

Love for another

not slothful

fervent in spirit

serve the Lord

Rejoice in Hope

Patient in suffering

praying constant

not selfish

hospitable.

Now how do we do these things? Because if we look at this we now that this is not the default setting. If we are truly christians then we know that these things are not our default. Because we have been changed.you know what you used to be

We are not going to naturally want to do these things for everyone in the family, maybe to the people we are friends with, but this is not our default settings.

and that’s okay.

Our default settings were rest on the cross.

On New Years day, Randy preach and one of his main point was this, Don’t leave Jesus in the tomb. If you were with me on Wednesday that was also one of my points, i borrowed it Wednesday, this morning i’m just gonna steal it, he won’t care.

That’s the theme we want for this year in the life of FBC, to remember that Christ is actually risen from the dead, and because he is risen that means we are able to live in this way Paul is describing. There is actual power in the risen Lord.

Because of he Gospel we can live like this, that is the Gospel, Christ saved us from our sin. He took our sins upon himself and we have His power through the holy spirit to fight off our default settings.

Our settings get changed around to know these marks should be what we do by default.

So how do we do these things?

Look at two things thing Paul says in that section, he says “, serve the Lord, seek to show hospitality”

All of the things we see as marks, if all of those things are the smoke we need to smell then serving the Lord and hospitality are the wood and the fire.

If you are a hospitable person, if you are serving the Lord, you will do all of those things.

Where does this start? It starts by truly loving one another.

We start going from members to family, when we love one another and that starts by actually knowing one another.

Are you going to be on the balcony or are you going to be on the road. The road is where life happens.

Get to know some people you don’t know, look at what Paul says, Be Genuine, Love one another. Hate Evil and cling to what is good.

Don’t be two faced, don’t be cliquish, fight for what is right just as much as you fight against what is wrong.

Love one another with brotherly affection.

Be kind to one another.

Then look at verse 12, Rom. 12:12

Romans 12:12 ESV

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

This sums up what Paul has just said.

Rejoice in Hope. Because we know who gives us this hope.

Be patient in tribulation, because we know the one who rules and reigns over all things.

Be constant in prayer, because that is how the Father gives peace.

If you hear nothing from me this morning, and that’s pretty possible, hear this verse.

This should be the posture of our lives. That is how we should be — not as individual members but as church family going through life together.

Hopeful, Patient, Prayerful.

Then we find ourselves here at 13, Rom. 12:13 “13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

Look for need and meet the needs, that’s what this is saying. Serve and be hospitable.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, like our house last semester became a study on a Sunday afternoon. Not complicated.

and have of the battle is just opening the door and turning on the coffee pot.

When I met LL I learned that she didn’t like keurig coffee pots, and this isn’t a knock against keurigs, but she didn’t like them because they were too fast. And when she told me that i was like, “i think you have missed the point of he keurig” becasue I had a super nice one, it’s in our office now, and the office is a way better spot for it now.

But she didn’t like that it was over in 30 seconds. She said brewing a pot of coffee gives you space to talk and to breathe. Just brewing pot of coffee was a way for her to be hospitable to roommates friends, anyone, because it makes you sit there and wait, and it slows things down before they start back up.

If you want an easy way to be hospitable at work, put a coffee pot in your office and see if people don’t stop by more often.

It’s easier than it seems.

Let’s keep going

Be with each other.

Look at the next chunk here, 14-15

Romans 12:14–15 ESV

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

This is the harder part of this scripture.

This is where Paul is describing how we relate to the each other and community.

Bless those who persecute, bless do not curse.

Take note he says bless twice. What does it mean to bless?

The greek word for bless is where we get our word for eulogy. It means to invoke praise, and to pray for our enemies. Pray for not against those who prosecute you.

Why? Why should we, other than, because the bible says so. Like why would God want us to be this way?

CS Lewis says this thing about prayer ,you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.

Praying for someone is a loving thing to do, and if we are praying for our enemies, if we are blessing them, if we are behaving as if we loved the, we may actually come to love our enemies.

And it is the only way enemies are brought in to the kingdom.

Look at ourselves. We were sinful people, who God being God, brought us in, he took his enemies in to His home and made us family. That’s the gospel.

Romans 1. Among Believers (12:1–21)

The Christian experience is not one person against the world but one great family living out together the mandate to care for one another

look at the next verse, this is a famous verse in this passage.

Romans 12:15 ESV

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

how do you do this? It’s easy to celebrate with one another, something good is going on, party time. Georgia won, woohoo! Bama Lost, woohoo!

Somebody is having a baby! Let’s go.

When I was in new Orleans, it was the best place to tell good news, because the people will use any excuse possible to have a party. You got a promotion, party time, you won the softball game party time, it’s a random friday, party time.

Thats the easy part.

the weep with those who weep is the hard part.

Someone passes, miscarriage happens, divorce comes up, someone gets fired. It’s hard to sit in that with people. It’s easy to make a casserole and to drop it off, call me when it’s better. It’s tough to do.

Partly because we are a people who are inclined to try and fix things. We pretty much want to walk in to a room and have the solution. We want to see how we can fix the problem. That’s a very American thing.

We are fixers. and there is not a ready answer to grief. You can’t fix grief.

We don’t know how to just be.

One of our professor how taught a class called death loss and grief would say, show up an shut up.

That’s what we have to do.

Your presence is far more comforting that a dry chicken casserole. We need each other.

Overcome evil with Good.

Let’s keep going, verse 16 to the end.

Romans 12:16–21 ESV

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul here is really showing how we truly relate to outside the church. First half is how are we church family in here, this half how are we the church out there?

Look at what he says.

first thing, don’t be snooty, don’t act like you’re are better.

For us there there is no task to low or person to low that we can’t do or be around. Because all of us at one time were dead in our sins.

Paul says be about them.

Second, our goal is never to offend people just to do it. now we probably are going to offend people because the gospel is offensive. But we aren’t supposed to set out to offend people.

And you know what I mean, “dudes who are just like, that’s just how I’m wired, I’m naturally offensive to people” yeah, you are, it’s called being a turd. or to quote Randy, a horses potute. stop it. you were made new, act like it.

One of my friends in Nola would always say that if he was going to offend someone, let it be about the Gospel .

The Gospel is the only thing worth being offensive with.

Third, and this is where the hard part is, it’s don’t get even. Think how counter cultural that is today, and in roman times. Like if some one wrongs us our default reaction is let’s get them. In Rome the whole world was conquered cause someone made them mad. Eye for an eye, was real then and ral now. But the Lord is say, nope. and then says i’ll handle it.

And that is where we can take comfort.

You remember when you were little and always thought you know, your dad could beat up someone else dad or your brother could beat up their brother.

We have that here, our Father can kick around their dad. It’s a GA v TCU thing.

Take comfort that in time every wrong will be righted and everything sad will come untrue because the Lord our Father reigns.

P2Christ - what does it look like?

So how do we do it?

Through this scripture we see a pattern for love and through christ we have the power to love.

and we need it, this world can be hard to love. The world can be wild and brutal and tough and cold.

SO how do we do it.

Serve, be hospitable, and preach the gospel.

That starts in here, we are called to be a family that goes through life together.

and the first step is to come. If you are going to say you are in the family be in the family.

Don’t be a dead beat dad. Don’t see what we are doing from afar and act like you are in the middle of it when you want to be.

Don’t be the family member that shows up when the will is read.

First step to being in the family is to be here with the family.

That is the whole reason we do the Church Covenant Class, it is so that when we have a new family join we have talked to them and 1. know they are christian and 2 tell them what it means to be in the family, what we believe and what they believe and see how they match up.

And when you are here, be involved, get to know people, be vulnerable.

Family is tough, but it is through family the church grows. Through the community of the church the kingdom is advanced.

This is our mandate here on this earth, Serve, Be hospitable and Preach the gospel.

Y’all pray with me.

pattern for love and the power for love