Behave Like a Christian

Introduction

Well good evening and welcome back!

It is May 10, 2020 and hopefully all of the mothers had a good Mother’s Day, even though we are still in the midst of this whole thing of social distancing and isolation.

But the glorious thing is that we can continue to come together and worship God no matter where we are or what we are doing.

God is everywhere and God’s church is everywhere God is!

And that is an awesome thing and a blessing to us all.

Tonight we are going to continue our “Walk Through Romans” and we are going to begin looking at Romans 12:9-21, picking up where we left off last Sunday night.

And if you haven’t viewed last Sunday night’s service, when this one is over I would encourage you to go back and view that service.

But just a very quick and brief summary of last week’s service, we started in Chapter 12, looking at the first 8 verses of that chapter.

And those verses were in a nutshell a challenge to us all.

A challenge for us to do as God says and to offer ourselves fully to God.

Fully to Him for His use and His purposes.

And we learned that by us offering ourselves fully, we are in essence replacing our worldly ways and our worldly will for God’s ways and God’s will.

We are in a sense sacrificing our selves—selves being our flesh— to God saying, “God I am yours, use me and make me, mold me into who You want me to be.”

And it is through this act of sacrifice—this giving of ourselves—we demonstrate our worship to God.

In fact, worship in itself is not singing songs or preaching messages.

Worship is giving ourselves fully to God.

And that is why we can worship anywhere.

Yes, we can worship in our church buildings.

But we can also worship in our bedrooms, our living rooms, our showers, our cars.

Anywhere we are at can become a place of worship, because like we already said, God is everywhere and everywhere God is the Church is.

And everywhere the Church is, there is worship.

However, as glorious as this is, this opens us up though to some pitfalls and challenges.

And those things are realizing the gifts that God has given us.

And operating within those gifts and using those gifts for God’s glory, which was the second part of last week’s message.

And all of this though was leading up to what Paul is going to get to now in the second part of chapter 12.

Because now, he is throwing down the gauntlet and issuing the challenge.

He is, in essence, going to tell us all to put our money where our mouth is.

We say we want these things, now let’s prove it.

And as they say, “the proof is in the pudding” in that we have to act like the Christians we say we are.

So, how do Christians act?

Or better yet, how SHOULD Christians act?

Which is what we will be getting into tonight.

So, if you would like to follow along in your Bible we will be looking at Romans 12:9-21, and I will also have it on the screen as well.

Paul writes this . . . .

Scripture Focus

Romans 12:9–21 NIV - Anglicised

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practise hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Love Must Be Real (vs 9-13)

So, now here is the challenge that Paul is proposing.

And I say it is a challenge because we say these things all the time.

We hear them taught and preached all the time.

We say we want to do these things and that these things are what our lives represent.

But yet, time after time, we fail horribly at these very things.

Not everyone does, but a great number of people who claim to be Christians, who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior do not live by these principles.

Sure, we may be nice and good to other people we like or other people we think are Christians.

But our lives and our attitudes toward the world and those in the world do not reflect this at all.

So, we will continue to teach and preach this message until probably the end of days!

And here is where it starts . . .

Romans 12:9 NIV - Anglicised

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

And I believe we do pretty good on the second part of this verse.

We have a tendency I believe to “hate” those things we consider “evil,” and “cling” to those things we consider “good.”

However, there is deception in our understanding of this.

Evil here is referring to sin and good is referring to the things of God—not what we think is good.

And problem lies in the fact that we do not hate all sin.

If we did, we would be taking steps to try and eliminate it’s influence and power in our lives.

We would be giving ourselves fully to God, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us.

But we continue to resist because of our own sinful nature.

So, therefore we have not perfected “hating what is evil.”

Now, for the “clinging to what is good.”

There are two definitions of good.

The first one is what God considers good and the second one is what the world considers good.

Now, there are some things in the world that are good and would fit God’s definition, but there are also many things that our world accepts that are good, that God flatly rejects and says is sin.

And the power and influence that sin has in our lives clouds our judgement and understanding of what good really is.

So, again, until we give ourselves fully to God, we have not perfected this understanding either.

Which leads us to the biggest pitfall—Paul says that our “love must be sincere.”

Have you ever encountered someone who’s love you could tell was not sincere?

They were just offering you lip service.

It is fake—well this is part of what Paul is talking about here, but he is also talking about our love being unable to be complete and sincere because our understanding of God—who is love—is clouded, marred, and influenced by sin.

And to be able to act like a true Christian all the time, Christ has to clean that junk out of us, or our “love” is just a show.

Which we see a lot of in our world today—and I’m talking about the Church world.

This fake air of “I love you” which translates, “I’ll be nice to you so long as you don’t get in my way.”

And that attitude shines through.

Paul goes on to tell us, when we have figured out sincere love, to demonstrate that love by . . .

Romans 12:10–13 NIV - Anglicised

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practise hospitality.

And all of these things are not a checklist that we have to keep or check off to “make it to heaven.”

These are not things we must do to “prove who we are.”

These are things that flow naturally out of a transformed person, a cleansed heart.

These things become our nature and who we are.

We become devoted to one another

We honor others and put their needs above our wants.

We have zeal for God.

We serve the Lord, out of a “want to” not a “have to.”

We speak hope into places where there is none.

The joy of the Lord shines through us.

We are patient, even in times of affliction.

We are faithful in our prayer time with God.

We share with others.

Help those who are in need.

We are hospitable toward others.

Again, not because we have to or because God’s gonna get us if we don’t, but because that is who we are.

Do Not Repay Evil for Evil (vs 14-17)

But my fear and concern is that we do pretty good at this when it’s dealing with other Christians or people we like.

Or those who look like us or act like us.

But that is only a very, very small way in which Christ living in us is demonstrated.

The much larger picture is those out in the world.

Those who don’t look like us, think like us, act like us.

Those who don’t even like us very much.

Those who want nothing more than to shut us down and shut us up.

Maybe even want to kill us because they hate us so bad.

We don’t have to act like Christians toward them surely.

After all the Old Testament says, “eye for an eye.”

Let’s “get them before they get us.”

We have to “stand up for our rights.”

We’ve got to “fight back” with the same tactics they use!

Let’s see what Paul says about this . . .

Romans 12:14 NIV - Anglicised

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

In other words, treat them the same way you want to be treated.

Be a representative of Jesus Christ to them and to everyone around.

Be a witness to them.

Show them who Jesus really is and what Jesus is all about.

And we are blessed in our country in that what little persecution we may face, it is mild compared to the rest of the world.

The worst we get is some protesting, name calling, and groups suing us for standing up for Jesus Christ.

In other places people are put to death.

But Paul says “bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

And the sad thing is we think that “cursing” is just using bad words.

Cursing goes much further than that.

Cursing involves ugly and hateful talk that comes out of our mouths in conversations.

Racist and bigoted talk that comes out of us.

Ugly Facebook and Instagram posts attacking this person or that person.

Falsehoods, likes, and unverified information that we share that we think proves our point and makes others look bad.

All of that is also cursing and all of that is not of God.

And what saddens me is that I see this going on.

I see people put one post on Facebook talking about how great and glorious God is and then the next post is hate-filled bitter rumors and put downs of people.

And I don’t care who the person is, how anti-Christian their beliefs are, our Christian beliefs tell us we are to not do those things.

We do nothing in those situations other than damage our witness and in the off chance that someone has the opportunity to share the gospel with the person we are putting down, how open do you think they will be to hearing it when all these people who claim to be Christians are talking like the devil?

Folks, our words have consequences and our words can damage, just as much as our actions.

So the next time you type out an ugly post, before hitting that “post” button, think about whether what you are getting ready to say, reflects and represents Jesus Christ.

And if it doesn’t then, erase it, repent, and move on.

And if you have a bunch of ugly posts out there, then erase them, repent, and move on.

This Christian way is not a game, it is a lifestyle and you choose to live it or you choose to fake your way through it, which will eventually catch up to you.

But Paul goes on here . . .

Romans 12:15–17 NIV - Anglicised

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

Live At Peace (vs 18-21)

Which honestly just sums up what I have already said.

Live in harmony.

Don’t be prideful.

Don’t think you are too good for others.

Don’t be conceited—or don’t get the big head.

Do not repay evil for evil.

Do what is right in the eyes of EVERYBODY. That means Christian and non-Christian alike.

And then he finishes up here . . .

Romans 12:18 NIV - Anglicised

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do we do that?

Do we strive to live at peace with everyone?

Or are we bent on getting even with everyone who has ever and will ever hurt us?

Lets go to verse 19 . . .

Romans 12:19 NIV - Anglicised

19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

In other words, don’t worry about it.

God will take care of it.

Romans 12:20 NIV - Anglicised

20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

And finally to sum it all up . . .

Romans 12:21 NIV - Anglicised

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Altar/Challenge

And I know that this has been a challenging word tonight.

But if we are who we are claiming to be, we need to be living by this word.

And if we are not, then we need to be taking steps to change that.

We need to be repenting of our sin, giving ourselves to God, and striving to live our lives following Him.

Every single day.

Can we say that we are doing that tonight?

Are we behaving like Christians?

And before logging off tonight, I would ask you to reflect on that.

And if God convicts you of anything then I would encourage you to right where you are at, repent and ask God to forgive you .

Then get up, dust off yourselves, and move forward.

And as always if you need anything, just shoot me a message—not shoot the messenger---but send me a message or give me a call.

And until next time, stay safe!