“Promise, Patience, Prayer”

INTRODUCTION

How many of y’all like money? Anyone want some money?

I’m looking around at some of y’all who got money and you seem disappointed—why’s that?

I gave y’all fake money?

Doesn’t it look real?

But ultimately it’s not real. Real money has marks that it’s authentic.

This whole Summer Series we’ve been discussing what real Christianity looks like—marks of true Christianity!

We don’t want fake Christianity, we want the real deal! You wouldn’t be here tonight if you were satisfied with some counterfeit Christianity—just like how you’re not satisfied with counterfeit money!

I think our text in Romans 12 is the perfect text for us to discuss this authentic Christian living.

The first 11 chapters of Romans are rich theological chapters explaining what the gospel is and chapters 12-15 demonstrate how the gospel changes the way we live.

And so Paul starts off this new section with this thesis, v.1-2, which says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Paul is calling his readers to not just practice Christianity, but to live Christianity.

Under the Jewish system there were all these sacrifices that the people had to offer, but Paul calls his readers to put themselves on the altar and allow their transformed lives to be the sacrifice.

Transitioning to our text, verses 9-21 demonstrate what it looks like to be a living sacrifice.

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed how our love must be sincere, how we’re to cling to goodness and hate wickedness, how we’re to be dedicated to serving one another, and how we need to continue to be passionate for the Lord.

This brings us to v.12, which says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Reading this text, I kind of got the idea that this was Paul’s exhortation to those who were struggling in their Christian walk—when these people were at their wits end.

Maybe you’ve felt that way in your walk as a Christian.

You try to be loving, good, hate evil, loyal to others, passionate, but you’re just struggling—I think this text is here to help.

It’s with this in mind that I want us to approach this text, and maybe our theme could be this: “A living sacrifice turns to God when life gets tough.”

I. Joyful in Hope

What is the source of our joy in life?

I love boxing matches—I’m one of the very few people in the world that actually thinks Jake Paul has some boxing ability.

But watching a good boxing match with my brother with some of my favorite boxers really brings me joy.

But man, I get so upset when my guy loses a boxing match—it can really ruin my day

The temporal things in this life that bring us joy are fleeting—and if they’re fleeting then so is joy.

When the only source of joy in our lives are these temporary physical things, then what joy can we really have?

And if the source of our joy are these temporary things that can so quickly be taken from us, what joy can we have when life becomes difficult?

The source of our joy matters.

Paul tells his readers to make hope the source of their joy.

Paul tells us what this hope is in Titus 1:13-14 , “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Notice what he doesn’t say: he doesn’t say to place joy in your present circumstances; your status; your wealth.

He tells them to place their joy in what they don’t presently have but what they’re earnestly expecting.

That’s hard—it’s hard to derive joy out of something that’s in the future.

I think we sometimes struggle with this because we use hope differently than what biblical hope is.

We say “I hope it rains” and it doesn’t rain, or “I hope the Cowboys win the Super Bowl” and they never win the Super Bowl.

We use hope in a ‘it may or may-not happen’ kind of way.

That’s not biblical hope.

Biblical hope isn’t a wish, it’s a promise.

The Hebrews writer says in Hebrews 3:6, “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”

Jesus is faithful.

Meaning if we are offered hope through Him, then we have every reason to hold firm to our confidence in that hope—we have every reason to make our hope the source of our joy.

I like what Paul said in Romans 5:2, “through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”

This future hope that we have is something we can boast about in the present. We can find peace and joy as if it were in our hands today.

I appreciate the attitude of the Psalmist in Psalm 27:13, “Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the LORD’s favor in the land of the living?” (NET)

There can be joy in hope because we know God is faithful.

Life is hard.

Life would be even harder if all I had was this life.

Because there is a life beyond this one that we can earnestly expect, we can derive joy from that.

II. Patient in Affliction

Man, this is a tough one.

I feel like as a whole, we can be an impatient people.

I’m not speaking of patience as you’re waiting for your food to come out but you’re tapping your toe and irritated about the food taking forever.

I’m speaking of being content in waiting—but in this verse, it’s being content in the middle of a tough situation.

Jesus said from the beginning that we are going to deal with problems.

John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

To live is to wrestle with pain, but Paul calls us to be patient in the middle of this pain.

How can we have that contentment in the middle of pain?

There can be patience and peace in pain when you know Jesus paid for it.

Jesus answers that for us in the verse—we can have peace because He overcame the world.

Man sinned, the world was cursed, and there was a price that we were set to pay the price—complete and total separation from God for all eternity.

Jesus came, lived the life we couldn’t live, paid the price we couldn’t pay, so that we could be reconciled to him.

It’s with this in mind that we can look at our present suffering and, like Paul in Romans 8:18, say, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”

III. Faithful in Prayer

The Bible is filled with statements like this one.

“Pray continually” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…” Ephesians 6:18.

“Evening, morning and noon I cry out…” Psalm 55:16.

It seems like God wants us to know that a healthy diet of prayer is important.

The word “faithful” here is important to look at.

We sometimes throw the term “faithful” around and it doesn’t always register.

The word translated faithful here means to busy yourself with whatever you’re doing.

So Paul is saying to allow prayer to occupy your time.

He’s not telling you that you have to be a monk and take a vow of silence and shave your head or whatever, but he is saying that prayer needs to be an integral part of your life.

Prayer is more than a ritual we do before meals—it’s our dialogue with God.

This may be one area that most Christians struggle with.

It’s been my experience that when Christians talk about the things they struggle with, prayer is one of the biggest.

Prayer is something I struggle with.

Relating back to this theme that we’ve had—a living sacrifice turns to God when life gets tough—I’ve heard it said that people, if they were to pray, they only turn to God in the middle of trouble.

I’ve found that to be exact opposite.

From my experience and from what I’ve gathered talking with others, it’s been the case that whenever life becomes the toughest that we forget to pray.

I think part of the issue is that we forget that we don’t serve a God who is dead but a living God who is active in the world and powerful.

I like the way the Gen Z Bible translates Hebrews 1:3, “This Son is the epitome of God’s awesomeness and the exact image of Him, holding everything together with His mighty power…”

Can I tell you something that is radical and that you may not have heard before—as Christians, your prayers are powerful.

This is something I try to tell my kids here at MV.

James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Meaning, when you speak to God, He listens.

Meaning, when you speak to God, something happens.

There is power in your prayer.

Your prayer is effective—meaning something HAPPENS.

Ultimately God is sovereign, and we operate within His will and His plan, but don’t ever for moment think that your prayers just echo into nothing.

There is a loving father who hears you.

What does it look like to be faithful in prayer?

Jesus demonstrates that in Luke 18:1 with the parable of the annoying widow and the judge who didn’t care.

He tells his disciples to always pray and not give up and then tells this story of a woman who kept bugging a judge for justice until the town judge finally gave it to her because he got worried that she’d hurt him!

Jesus says in v.7, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?…”

When we cry out to God in our hard times—when we are faithful in prayer we can know the Lord will respond faithfully.

CONCLUSION

What does it look like when a living sacrifice to God faces hard times? They’re joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and they’re faithful in prayer.

I hope tonight, at the very least, you see that these traits are attainable.

We can have joy in our hope when we realize how great our hope is and how sure we can be that we have hope.

We can be patient and at peace in the midsts of pain knowing that God has done the work to overcome the world.

We can be faithful in prayer knowing that we have a reason to pray—because our prayers do something and that our God hears us.

At this point it’s customary to offer the invitation, and here’s my invitation to you: if you have not yet made the commit to offer your life as a living sacrifice to God do that today.