Prayer Service 4-1-26
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Let’s begin with this reminder:
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Open in Prayer
Needs from our Bulletin:
Needs from our Bulletin:
August’s Grandmother: Leukemia
Amy Renfranz: Breast Cancer
Anna Riddle's Infant Son
Jonah Bird: Complications from diabetes.
Joe Holder: Recover from Knee Replacement Surgery
Joshua Kamps: Mending of Broken Bones.
Peggy Trost: Terminal Cancer Diagnosis
Iva Lee: Multiple Health Issues
Allen Garver: Ongoing Health Problems
Kip Adams: Cancerous Tumor on Foot
Lelia Walters: Cognitive Decline and Other Health Concerns.
Joy Stewart: Lung Cancer
Oliver Farley: Chronic Lung Disease
Cathy Stewart and Julie Orr: Breast Cancer
Layce’s Cousin, Crystal: Aggressive Spinal Cancer
Hope Sanders: Liver Disease
Anna’s baby & Kennedy’s Baby:
Safety and Health
The Lord’s Blessing Upon His Life
Repentance and Faith at the Appropriate Time
What Else?
The Advancement of the Gospel/The Church in China
Strength, Courage, Power, Zeal
Wisdom and Guidance into Biblical Truth
Safety, Protection, Freedom, Peace
Protection from Sinfully Pragmatic Compromise
What Else?
Pursuing Peace & Resolving Conflict
Pursuing Peace & Resolving Conflict
Comprehensive Pericopes
Comprehensive Pericopes
You may want to...
...turn in your Bibles to Romans 12.
9 Let love be genuine...
Literally: “without hypocrisy”
Some translations render...
...what they believe...
...to be implied in the text:
9 Love must be without hypocrisy...
Remember this:
In classical Greek drama, the hypokritēs (actor) wore a face-mask. The Christian’s loving behavior should not be playing a part or wearing a mask, but
Remember what John said:
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Back to Verse 9:
9 Let love be genuine...
Here’s an important qualifier:
(especially for our society today)
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
That word “abhor” (only used here) means...
Lexham Theological Wordbook ἀποστυγέω
ἀποστυγέω (apostygeō). vb. abhor.
That too, is our Christian duty!
Consider:
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil! . . .
On the other hand...
...we also have the responsibility, to...
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
1. kollao (κολλάω, 2853), “
It’s the same word that Jesus uses in:
7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,
The responsibility is pretty clear:
9 ...Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Verse 10:
10 Love one another with brotherly affection...
The two “loves” here are not agape (as in Verse 1)...
But, philadelphia: (Specifically: Brotherly love)
And that first one...
...has the connotation of “sincere devotedness and commitment”
The CSB brings out...
...the essence of the Greek very well:
10 Show family affection to one another with brotherly love...
(That is our relationship, brethren!)
The Apostle calls us to...
...act like it!
Then he says this:
Outdo one another...
Is Paul promoting competitiveness...
And the pride that...
...often motivates it?
Quite the opposite!
10 Outdo one another in showing honor.
Simply put:
10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
He goes on:
This one is primarily regarding...
...our vertical relationship...
...but it has...
...horizontal implications too:
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
“Fervent” means to boil!
I’ll let John Gill explain this one:
Ver. 11.
men
but
such as preaching, hearing, reading, praying, and other ordinances of God; yea, we should be ready and forward to every good work, and particularly, and which may be here greatly designed, ministering to the poor saints in their necessity;
in doing which we shew that kind, tender, affectionate, brotherly love, and give that honour and respect . . . required in the foregoing verse
That was the best summary of that...
...that I was able to find.
Our next verse...
...is one that we open with often...
...at the beginning of prayer service:
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
No need for much elaboration there.
That should be...
...the ongoing posture...
...of the Christian heart.
It’s humble, faithful, dependent, and hopeful.
-Verse 13 gets back to...
...the theme of our study:
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints...
“Contribute” is “Koinonia”
Remember what it means:
κοινωνία (koinōnia). n. fem. fellowship, communion, sharing, participation. A term that conveys a sense of commonality, solidarity, and shared responsibility among households or individuals.
You could translate that first command:
13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need...
Why?
Because you have a partnership with them in the gospel!
John said:
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
-Let’s read on in Verse 1:
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
(Those two aren’t exactly the same)
1.) “Hospitality” literally combines:
The word for friend
The word for stranger
“you treat the stranger as your friend”
Remember the context:
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 12
In Paul’s time, teachers and philosophers—and Christian missionaries—traveled from town to town, relying on local residents for food and lodging.
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 12
Paul also relied on such hospitality during his missionary journeys (e.g.,
2.) We’re told to “seek” to show it:
That word is fascinating:
1503 διώκω (diōkō) . . . pursue, follow in haste . . .2. . . . press forward . . . persecute, to systematically oppress and harass . . . strive to, do something with an intense effort to a goal
That’s strong language.
This is important to our Lord!
-And so is this:
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Why do I say that...
...that’s so important to our Lord?
It was a central teaching of His...
His Apostles carried it forward:
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
We’re reading Paul...
But Peter also said:
9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
This is radically CHRISITAN!
It makes no sense to the unregenerate.
I thought McDonald made a good point, here:
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. In Relation to Society (12:9–21)
We are called to show kindness toward our persecutors instead of trying to repay them in kind.
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. In Relation to Society (12:9–21)
It requires divine life
-Now, if you thought that one was scandalous...
Wait until you read Verse 15:
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
What do we call that?
EMPATHY!!!
I know that godless people...
...try to weaponize that against us today...
...when we take stands for biblical morality.
But we mustn’t let that...
...causes to react in such a way...
...that we fall out of obedience...
...to the command found in our text!
remember that “Love”. . .
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
MacDonald is convicting, here again:
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. In Relation to Society (12:9–21)
Empathy is the capacity for sharing vicariously the feelings and emotions of others.
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. In Relation to Society (12:9–21)
Our tendency is to be jealous when others rejoice, and to pass by when they mourn.
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. In Relation to Society (12:9–21)
God’s way is to enter into the joys and sorrows of those around us.
And remember Verse 9...
...when it comes to empathy:
9 Let love be genuine...
My point?
Don’t just pretend to care...
ACTUALLY love them enough to care!!!
That’s the calling!
-Verse 16:
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.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
