Romans chapter 12, verses 1 through 13. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality, and we're going to stop right there. And let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that you'll speak to our hearts from your word. I pray, dear Father, that you will take the living, vibrant, eternal word of God and minister to the needs of our lives through it and by your spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. And you may be seated. In this passage of Scripture, I'm preaching on the subject practical Christian living. Practical Christian living. Now, we know that Romans is the book that is the most doctrinal of any book in the New Testament. It's the most doctrinal book of any book in the Bible. It tells us more about salvation by grace. It tells us how faith is what saves us through the grace that's offered through the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us the way to have a relationship with God. Many people who present the gospel will use what's called the Romans Road. There are verses from the book of Romans that explain how a person can be born again and trust Christ as their personal Savior. Chapters 1 through 11 of Romans is called doctrinal. Chapters 12 through 16, the end of the chapter there, is called practical, so practical Christian living. And so we have the first half is doctrinal, well I'd say the first two-thirds are doctrinal, and the last third is called practical, practical Christian living. Now what do we mean by that? We mean it's instruction for Christian living. So the first 11 chapters explain to us what it means to be a Christian. It explains to us how to have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It explains to us what God says about doctrinal issues, how he teaches about salvation, about faith, about grace, about hope, and the list goes on and on. Now in chapters 12 through 16, it's practical Christian living. Now that we've trusted Christ as our life, what does God want of us? What does God want of us? How does he want, what's his house rules for a Christian? You've raised your kids, no doubt many of you, and when they were young, there were many times you said, now I want you in at a certain time, and you'd give your rules. And inevitably, one of them would say yes, but Johnny gets to stay up till 11.30, and you're making them go to bed at 9.30. And you'll say, well, I'm not Johnny's mother. I'm not Johnny's father, but I am yours. And our rules are at 930, lights out and you're in bed. And so often you had to give what was called your house rules. Sometimes you would say to your child, listen, we are a fill in the blank, give them your last name and say, we are a Mutchler and we are gonna do things right or we're Joneses and we're gonna do things right and we're Smiths and we're gonna do things and this is how we do it as a Smith. And they would look at you and we gave them what's called house rules. There was no rule in the constitution of the United States. It was not what every home was based on. It was what your home was based on and how you chose to operate your home. I remember growing up, my mother's rule was your home at dark. But in my pre-teenage years, dark was sort of a nebulous thing because I could still see. It wasn't totally dark. But hopefully, I overcame that and my father corrected that situation and helped me understand it was not what I assumed to be dark, it was what my mother assumed to be dark that I had to show up. And so he put some education to the seat of learning and I readily agreed to my mother's view of what's dark and what's not dark. Now, when we became Christians, We all have our own idea of what a Christian ought to be and how a Christian ought to do and how we ought to live and how we ought to talk and how we ought to walk and how we ought to do all those things. But what's valuable is not what we think a Christian ought to be and do, but what does God think. Because after all, when we become a Christian, we become His children. And so we don't operate by our house rules. Well, I think it's okay for a Christian to do this. It's interesting, I hear more Christians telling what's okay instead of what's not to do. Well, I don't think a Christian ought to do that. But more Christian will say, well, I think it's just fine to do that or do this or do that behavior. The reality is we don't have to even guess at it. He wrote it down in a book. called the Bible. And so in this passage of scripture, we have practical Christian living and we find authoritatively what God's word says for you and I to do and how we are to behave. Now in verses 1 through 2 of Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, he's telling us to make a presentation. And that's where the Christian life begins. If we're going to do things God's way, it all starts with us first of all saying, Lord, I belong to you. You see, we see salvation as Jesus belonging to us. I received Jesus as my personal Savior. Well, that's a good thing. You trust Christ as your Savior, you're saved. Wonderful. Hey, listen, that's not the end all in the Christian life, that's the beginning. Because not only have you received Christ as your Savior, now it's your job to give yourself to the Lord, which is your reasonable service. So in other words, our job is to live for Him who died for us. Now understand, our salvation is not based on our merit, it's not based on our works, it's not based on our performance. But just because our salvation is not based on our performance doesn't mean we don't want to perform. We don't want to do what Christ asked us to do. You see, if I broke every rule in my family growing up, I would still be my father's child. I just would wish I wasn't. because he had a way of correcting. And the Bible says, whom he loveth, he chasteneth every child, every one. I've often said that God wants all of his children close to him. Either you can sit on his lap or you can bend over it. My father taught me years ago that spiritual principle, it's better to sit on a lap than to bend over a lap. And so I want to sit on my Savior's lap. I want to be obedient to the Lord. Not for my salvation, not to earn it, because I can never earn it. I can sit on his lap all my life and I still haven't earned it. But I do want to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. And so verses 1 and 2, everything starts with presenting yourself to the Lord. Now we see in verses three through eight, it talks about spiritual gifts. God has given to everyone a measure of faith. Now, when we think about that measure of faith, we're thinking about maybe saving grace or saving faith or something, but actually in the context, what he's talking about, he's given us what you and I come to know as spiritual gifts. And it's gonna tell us that we're in the same body. There's one body. And yet, there's many offices, there's many members, there's many things for different Christians to do in the one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And know this, that when you trust that Christ is your Savior, God gave you a spiritual gift that he wants you to perform in the body of Christ. and not the nebulous body of Christ of which all believers are a part, but in a local assembly body of Christ. Because I do believe that every local assembly is a local body of believers. And so you need to pray for that. And that's why I believe that every Christian ought to be a part of a local assembly. It's so easy to say, well, I'm a part of the big church. Well, where do you serve in the big church? Well, where do you give in the big church? Well, what do you, I mean, I understand you're a believer, but see, God wants everyone in a local assembly plugged in so that we as a church can effectively carry out the mission of the gospel. And that's to win people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then disciple them and teach them. That's what Sunday school's all about. That's what Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you start coming to all those service, you're gonna be a strong Christian. Every service is part of the discipling program of Grandview Baptist Church, and so it is with every church. Every service is a part of that. So we have this spiritual gifts. I don't have time to go over that this morning, but it will list them and it say, if you have the gifts of teaching, then do it with all your heart. If you have the gift of giving, do it with simplicity, very humbly. And so whatever the spiritual gift is, it's gonna tell you exactly how to minister that gift. And now we come to verse nine. And in verses nine through 13, We see what I've come to call many years ago, power-packed verses, power-packed verses. And by that, I mean that in every single verse, the Apostle Paul is addressing one, two, or three separate subjects. So he gives a power-packed verse, he gives us two or three subjects in every one verse, in verses nine through 13. That's the subject of our message here this morning, verses nine through 13. So if you will, you got your Bible open, let's look at verse nine. The Bible says in verse nine, let love be without dissimulation. Well, that's an interesting word. I'm sure you haven't used it all week long, have you? I'm sure you haven't said, you know, I've tried to do everything I should, but quite frankly, I just feel like I've been dissimulating this week and I hope you'll pray for me. And everybody look at you with wide eyes and say, yeah, I can tell you need prayer. Anybody who talks like that needs prayer, right? Dissimulation is an old English word that means hypocrisy. Let love be without hypocrisy. Now the word hypocrisy is an old Greek word. It comes from the Hippocratic actors. And what hypocrisy literally means is two-faced. Two-faced. Because in those days, when you had actors and you had a play, you didn't have an actor for every part. You had an actor who played several parts. And so what they had is they had a face, and if they played a happy part, it had a face with a smile, and it had a stick, and a person would hold the stick in front of their face, and they would talk, and throw their voices a little bit different, and they would play the happy part. And then they played a part that was sad, so they had a face with a frown on it, and they had a stick. And so they would play different parts, and they would put a different face up in front of theirs, and they would play the role, Hippocratic actors. And the word Hippocrate means two-faced, one-faced, two-faced, smile, frown. And the Bible says, let's don't be two-faced when it comes to love. Love that is fake is not love at all, amen? Love that is fake is not love at all. And so it's important to us as believers to understand God wants us to love. This is the new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you. So over and over in scripture, we see that Christ gives us this commandment that we are to love each other. Now in chapter 12, verse nine, he says, don't be fake about it. How many Christians know we're supposed to love each other? Every one of us could raise our hand, amen? How many of us are real good at it? None of us could raise our hand, could we? No matter how hard we work at it, none of us have perfected that. You know, you go to church long enough any place you're gonna find that some people are really fun to be around, and others are not so much. And if I say that, you think in your mind, oh, I know who's really fun to be around. And if I say, and others are not so much, this face comes to your mind, say, yeah, that's why I said over here, is that over there, or over here, or over there. That's why I walk on this path instead of that path. There's just some people we just don't connect with. You know, there's that book that was written, what, men are from Mars and women are from Venus. And there's something, there's some people, some Christians you think are from Pluto. You know, it's like, man, they're way out there, you know? And praise God they're saved, but we're not on the same planet. And, but the Bible says, let love be without dissimulation. You know how easy it is to go around even in greeting time and put a big old smile. Oh, it's so good to see you. And then you're thinking, get lost. No, I mean, I'm sorry. You wouldn't say that. You wouldn't say that. I might say that. You wouldn't say that. No, I wouldn't say that either. But you know, there's just some people. You know, if you go over here and you talk to them, you say, well, I don't want to spend the whole greeting time talking to one person, so I'm going to avoid them. I'm going to go over here. I'm going to talk to several different people. I'm just saying it's so easy to love with hypocrisy. It's so easy to put on a nice smile and not really mean it. And so the word of God tells us, let love be without dissimulation. Let's all work on that. Let's all work on having a sincere love for each other like God tells us to have. Then the Bible says, abhor that which is evil in verse nine. Now the word abhor means to hate with a strong hatred. If you look up in the Greek, that word abhor is the strongest word you can use for hatred. abhor that which is evil. The Bible says in Psalms 97 verse 10, ye that love the Lord hate evil. You know our biggest problem? We're like the frog that fell in the water that's warm gradually to boiling and that's the way we are in America, isn't it? We have some wicked things going on in our country and we've just acclimated. We're just acclimated. We're in the water and it's boiling all around us, but it happens so gradually. We're just still there being boiled alive. Now, when it says to abhor that which is evil, I don't think it means that we have to get in someone's face and let them know. I do think it means that inside in our personal thoughts, we need to say, that's not right. I hope we've all learned that we can love people without having to endorse everything they do. Amen. We have relatives that way. We love them, but we don't endorse every lifestyle they have. We don't endorse everything that they do. We don't endorse, and that's the way it is in society. You can love people without having to endure. You can abhor the evil in people and yet still have compassion and love for people. And so we gotta have that balance, abhor that which is evil. Then it says cleave to that which is good. And this is the third thing mentioned in the one verse of verse nine. Cleave to that which is good. The word cleave means to be cemented or glued together. It means to attach yourself to whatever is good. Attach yourself. The Bible says we ought to be zealously affected always in a good thing. zealously affected always in a good thing. So find a good thing and get attached to it. Now I think a church is a good thing. I think your Bible is a good thing. I think our prayer life is a good thing. I think serving the Lord is a good thing. Find some good things in your life and get attached to them. Build your life around them. I praise God that men in our church and women in our church have businesses, but don't get attached to a business. That's just a tool. Get attached to your children. Get attached to your family. Get attached to your church. Get attached to that which is a good thing. The Bible says cleave to that which is good. In verse 10 it says, be kindly affectionate one to another in brotherly love. Kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love. And here this passage, the Greek word for brotherly love is pronounced, you know, here's the thing, I bet every one of you know how to pronounce it. It's Philadelphia. That's the Greek word for brotherly love. Philadelphia. You see, it was William Penn who got the area known as modern day Pennsylvania. In fact, it was Pennsylvania and the area of Delaware as well. And he was given that by the King of England because the King of England owed his father money. And so he gave him this piece of land because he owed his father money. And William took that, William Penn took that money or took that land as a payment for his father, having never seen it. And so then he goes across the ocean, comes to Pennsylvania and sees the land that has been given him by the king because he owed his father debts. and he calls the land Pennsylvania, after William Penn. Just think, it could have been an odd name too, right? But still, Pennsylvania. And so he calls it Pennsylvania. Then, William Penn was a very, very religious man and he was a Quaker. So he gathered all the Quakers that had come to the new colony and put them together in a city that he named Philadelphia. He said, man, we got all these Christians together, it's gonna be a city of brotherly love. Man, that's gonna be wonderful. And so he calls it Philadelphia, brotherly love. But the Bible here tells us, be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love. We are to have the same kind of love that William Penn wanted to have when he named the city Philadelphia. Kindly affectionate, kind to each other. You know, brotherly love is like that brother-sister love. It's like sister-sister love. It's like brother-brother love. It's a love that doesn't always agree, but always defends. Doesn't always agree, but always defends. My brother is about three inches, my older brother is about three inches shorter than I am. It's quite a bit stocky. In high school, I was, the youngest, was always taller than him. In fact, in elementary school, even, I was taller than him. And we were in the same grade. When my brother was in third grade, he had ear infections, and he missed so much school that he was placed, he was lowered one grade, and ever since then, we were in the same grade. And our last name is Mutchler. That's not always easy to pronounce, which I don't mind someone mispronouncing it unless you're at school and somebody's doing it on purpose. And they would not do it on purpose to me because I was taller than some of the other boys in my class, but they would do it on purpose for my brother who was shorter. And so I got in a lot of confrontations because of my brother being called names or someone mispronouncing our last name. And I didn't mind that they mispronounced our last name. I mind it that they tried to do that to hurt my brother. And you know, I stood up for my brother and I got in a few opportunities to swing fists, which is not a bad thing for a boy to learn how to do that. And so I got in a few little challenges with other guys defending my brother. Let me say this, we ought to love each other so much we defend each other, even if we don't agree with each other. Several years ago, our family was around the dinner table and one of our kids had made mention of one of our members and said something. It wasn't derogatory. It was just maybe half and half. And I said, listen, that's a good person. And all my kids said, yeah, we know dad, he's a good person, he loves the Lord, and he's a fine person. They had heard me say that so many times in our home that they just automatically started quoting it, what I've said over and over. I said, well, it's true. I laughed a little because I'd never thought I'd said it all that much, but apparently the kids realized I had. But let's defend each other. Let's don't pick apart each other. Let us have brotherly love for each other, kindly affection one to another. Now let me hasten on. We come to verse 10 also, in honor preferring one another. That means to put others before ourselves. And it can be used as a measure of one's progress in Christian maturity. Who do you put ahead of yourself? You say, what do you mean that's a measure of your progress of Christian maturity? Here's why, because it's hard to do. It's hard to do. See, if you do the easy lessons in the Christian life, that's wonderful, but that's no sign of maturity. But when you do the hard lessons in the Christian life, that's a sign of maturity. And the hard lesson is in honor preferring one another. It's putting others above yourself. That is a master's level of Christian maturity when you've learned to put others above yourself. Because how many know that our human instinct tends to be pretty selfish? Yeah. So you ought to start learning to get that master's degree and honor of preferring others above yourselves. Let others be helped. Let others be helped. I always reluctant about giving any illustration, but here's just one simple illustration. When we went to Israel, We had 21 people go to Israel and little did I realize that because you take people to Israel in that group, they came back and said, well, you know, you're taking so many people, we'll give you some free slots. And I said, what? And they said, yeah, we'll give you some free slots. I thought, well, I'll have my wife go with me. And then, I had three free slots, so I had my wife go with me, and then I had Brother Vestal go for free, and then I had one more. And I let Miss Vestal, and I let Sarah Gardner split that because Sarah wanted so bad to go to Israel. I paid full price. I organized the thing. But that's okay. That's just all part of honor, preferring one another. Let me just say, it's a master level because usually when you do that, it costs you. Not always finances, but it costs you. That's okay. What you gain from it is far more than anything it could cost you because you're gaining that relationship with the Lord because that's the same way Jesus did. He always put others first. In honor, preferring one another. In verse 11, not slothful in business. Part of our Christian testimony is that we're a hard worker. Ephesians 9, 10, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Proverbs chapter 6, verse 6, go to the ant, thou slugger, consider her ways and be wise. Hard worker. First Thessalonians 4.11, and that ye study to be quiet and do your own business and to work with your own hands as we command you. And so all of us ought to be hard workers, whether you're the boss or whether you're the lowest worker on the lowest totem pole, all of us as believers should be hard workers. A small businessman who had immigrated to this country kept his accounts payable in a cigar box, his accounts receivable on a spindle, and his cash in a cash register. And his oldest son would say, I don't see how you can run your business this way, said his son. How do you know what your profits are? "'Son,' replied the businessman, "'when I got off the boat, I had 36 cents "'and the pants I was wearing. "'Today your sister is an art teacher, "'your brother is a doctor, and you are an accountant. "'I have a car and a house and a good business. "'Everything is paid for. He said, just add it all up, subtract the 36 cents and the pair of pants, and that's the profit. Two fellows decided to go in business together and they got a truck and they went 100 miles into the country. and they bought watermelons, 50 cents a piece, filled up the truck, came back to the city, and sold them two for a dollar. And one guy says, I told you we wouldn't make a profit unless we got a bigger truck. Well, let's be fervent and work. Let's work hard. Then it says fervent in spirit, verse 11. God deliver us from passive Christianity. Good night. Christianity is not, we're not having a funeral service every Sunday morning, it's a celebration of a resurrection. The casket's empty, the tomb is empty. I've been in it, I saw it, there's nothing there. It's an amazing thing. Galatians 4.18 says, but it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you, Paul writes. The Bible tells us to be fervent in spirit. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Sometimes we pray for things as though it'd be good if God answered it, but okay if he doesn't. Lord, I pray you'll be with our brother, he needs your help. No, we ought to pray, oh God, please, he needs your help. Lord, he needs a miracle, he needs your intervention. Lord, you gotta help, you gotta help, you gotta help. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. Some of our prayers might be so boring that even God wants to go to sleep when we pray. That shouldn't be. Fervent prayer and fervent Christian life, get excited about what God's doing in your life. Then it says in verse 11 serving the Lord fervent in spirit serving the Lord The Bible says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9 For they themselves show of us what manner entering in we had unto you and how you turn to God From idols to serve the living and true God But we ought to serve the Lord I was so thrilled with how many people filled out those cards last Sunday and said, yeah, I'll do something. I'll be a greeter. Even in greeting time, people said, I'll be there. I'll do this. I didn't sign up, but I'm gonna help. Well, praise the Lord. That's what God wants us to do. Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Any way we can figure out a way to serve the Lord, we ought to be all in. Jump in with both feet. Rejoicing in hope. By the way, it's so important to be serving. There's no way I'm gonna get through all this passage of Scripture. I could just talk for another hour and share this Scripture, but let me give you this illustration and we'll be done. There's a Spanish philosopher, his name was Unanimo, and he tells about a Roman aqueduct in Segovia, his native Spain. He said it was built in A.D. 109, A.D. 109. And for 1800 years, it carried cool water from the mountains all the way to the city. Nearly 60 generations, men drank from the flow. Then there came a recent generation where everyone said, you know, that's like a museum piece. we ought to make sure that that lasts longer. And so let's put in modern water pipes so it doesn't have to carry the flow of water anymore. And so they did. But within a few years, the sun beat down on that aqueduct and dried all the mortar till it crumbled. and great gaps of it just started falling apart. You see what service could not do as far as destroying it for 1800 years, inactivity did. I always love to see seniors that though they're retired, they're still very active. Chances are you're gonna be around for a long time. But once you decide you're going to be inactive, your days are numbered. And so it is in the Christian life. Let's be serving the Lord fervently, because when we stop, we start falling apart.