September 29, 2025 • 34 mins
Pastor Joe Liles unpacks the essential characteristics of authentic Christian living from Romans, Chapter 12. The message challenges listeners to move beyond surface-level faith and embrace a transformative spiritual journey.
Pastor Joe dives into the core principles of Christian identity: genuine love, serving with enthusiasm, extending grace to others, and maintaining hope in challenging seasons. Through personal stories and scriptural insights, he reveals how Christians are called to be agents of peace and reconciliation in a divided world.
Key themes include:
- Understanding true Christian character
- Valuing others above ourselves
- Serving with passionate commitment
- Responding to conflict with unexpected grace
- Living out faith practically in daily life
This message is Ideal for believers seeking deeper spiritual understanding, those exploring Christian faith, and anyone interested in a message of hope and meaningful living.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Yeah, so we're in a series onRomans right now, and our series
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on Romans has been a walkthrough understanding what it
means to be Christian. Thankyou, Joe. I appreciate that. And
when we're walking through thisidentity of what it means to be
Christian, there's really anunderstanding of who Paul was
writing to when he wrote thebook of Romans, and we're now
four weeks into this series,which means we've traversed
through different things likethe understanding of what
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righteous is in this rightrelationship with God, and
understanding God's relationshipwith God's people, which are the
Jews. And then you have thesenew Christians, the Gentiles.
And Paul hasn't even plantedthis church. This was a church
that Paul is not even visitedyet, and so he's writing them in
the book of Romans. And we'retrying to understand what it
means to be Christian by hearingfrom two different people
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groups, the Jews and theGentiles, that are trying to
reconcile their faith with eachother, while also having Rome do
what it does in Rome, right? Andthey have pagan gods and
different things, and they'retrying to reconcile all these
things that are going on. Andwe've been saying, How can we
understand what it means to be aChristian within this? And so we
talk through righteousness. Andthen last week, we talked about
that, that starting moment infaith, that we all have, this
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starting moment where we aremeant to believe in our heart
and proclaim with our lips whatit means to be Christian. And
that's how we begin and and Ibrought up, if you weren't here,
last week, I made sourdoughbread for the first time, right?
And so I do have any sourdoughbread makers out there. We got
some at no one, no one. Doesanyone want to make sourdough?
And this is never you get asourdough bread maker. That's
great. Does anyone want to makesourdough? And is it never
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jumped in, okay? This is great.
So we brought in Kaylee Harmon.
She taught us how to makesourdough, gave us one of her
two year starters, right? So wehad this and and then I brought
mine to worship. Now, when youbring it to worship, and you're
supposed to do it in themorning. I basically did what's
called over proofing, just andit just keeps on growing on its
own, which was amazing. And so Igot it home, and Kaylee sent us
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this video that showed her doingthis last fold of the bread, and
it looked amazing on the video,she's grabbing the sour dough,
right? And it's this dough thathas been growing overnight, and
it's this perfect way, and shefolds it over once, and it's
beautiful, and she folds it overtwice, and then she rolls it
this way, and then she rolls itthat way, and it's just, it's
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beautiful, like it's it's pure,like it looks like it looks
perfect. And then she pulls ittowards herself to kind of
tighten that air in there,right? I'm like, this is
beautiful. Mine would not comeout of the bowl like I could
not. I had to flip the bowlupside down and let gravity work
while I reached up without evenseeing it to kind of, and then
it hit the granite counter andstuck to it like I couldn't. I
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couldn't even turn it over. Ihad to, like, peel it off the
counter. And I was like, This isgonna be a disaster. And so, and
here's the deal, it's afterSunday, so I'm exhausted, right?
And I'm like, in between, like,passing out and waking up, and
the timer goes off in 30minutes, I gotta roll it again,
right? And I gotta roll itagain. And then I got my I
didn't even know we had a Dutchoven. Apparently, we have a
Dutch oven, just like, ofcourse, we do. We've always had
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a Dutch oven. And I'm, like, 15years, I've never known that
we've had a Dutch oven. I saythis is great, and so, and of
course, it's right next to thetoaster, which I pull out every
day. There's the Dutch oven.
Guess I never asked what thatwas. And so we have this in our
pantry. And so I grabbed that,and I'm letting that heat up,
and I spread and it stuckeverywhere. This is gonna turn
out horrible. And so I put it inthere, and you gotta let it
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bake, right? Just let it bakefor an hour. Bake for an hour.
You put it. I had the parchmentpaper dropped in the Dutch oven,
and I walked away, and I waslike, let God deal, you know? I
was like, God's gonna work thisone out. I prayed over it as it
went into the oven. I think it'sgonna be great. And so, um, so I
pulled it out an hour later, andit's one of those moments where
you have the lid on it, like thelids on top of the Dutch oven
and, like, there's this, like,it's exciting breads exciting.
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Like, I had this reveal moment Iwalked over. I was like, when I
put it on top of the stove, andI was like, and then music
started playing. Was reallylike, Haha. It was like, the
mermaid song. And so I was like,oh. And I opened up, and this
bread looked awesome. It was, Imean, it was, it was perfect. It
had, like, the ridges on it. Mybread was not good enough to
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score, even though I tried toscore it like it was too sticky.
So I tried to cut into and itdidn't work. And so, but I
opened it. Now, here's the deal.
I can make bread in anythingthat I'll eat anything so, like,
it was edible, right? That'swhat Jess says about most of my
food. It's edible. And so I madeit, and I was like, this is
beautiful. Kayla came home andshe goes, Hey, did you make your
sourdough? And this is my 16year old daughter. And I was
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like, Yeah, I made my sourdough.
And she goes, Can I try a piece?
And I was like, Yeah, you can.
It's delicious. And she goes,I'll be the judge of that. She
walked over, she grabs a bite,and I can. I'm not even looking.
I don't even want to see herface, right? She grabs a bite,
right? And I don't hearanything. Oh, man, one bite.
That girl walked away. I waslike, It's not good. Something
doesn't matter, right? She comesand sits down next to me on the
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couch, and she has a plate ofbread with butter, and she goes,
this is delicious. I did it. Imade bread. I made bread, which
is amazing. So last week, if youdidn't see last week's message.
Is out on YouTube, Facebook. Wetalked about this identity of
like a starter in faith. Likeour identity of faith is that
God is working into our lives,and that we have all these years
of experience with God, and it'snot meant to be held. It's meant
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to be shared, and that at anymoment you feel lost with God,
you can go back to the momentwhen you started with God, and
you can begin there. This isthis new reality, that we have
this new transformation everysingle day, we have this
reality. And so we talked about,what does it mean? And so we use
that as an illustration, but itwas a beautiful way to talk
about what it doesn't mean tohave faith and share it with
others. And so now, when we'rein the book of Romans, we're
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walking through the book ofRomans, and it is truly in these
last four chapters, right, thatare in 12, 1314, and 15, right?
It is talking about not therelationship with God to God's
people now, but our relationshipback to God. So there's a switch
that happens in the book ofRomans, and it's beautiful,
because then it starts to say,Okay, who are we in relationship
to God? Not who's God inrelationship to us? And all of a
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sudden we have this moment whereGod's faithfulness is now our
faithfulness, and that's theswitch that's happening. And so
we take this moment, and we'regoing to be talking today about
the marks of a true Christian.
What does it mean to be trulyChristian? And I think this is
kind of hard, because I think alot of people have a different
identity of what it means to beChristian, and a lot of people
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say they're Christian, andyou're like, oh, okay, but you
also do this, right? And I'mover here going, Oh, I'm a
Christian, but I also do this.
And, like, I don't, I don'treally believe that. And you're
like, okay, but I believe 90% ofwhat you believe. Does that make
us both Christian, or are you awrong Christian and I'm a right
Christian? How many people havebeen there before, like, in
Christian conversations? Okay,it's good. How many of you in
loving relationships where youdon't believe the same things,
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right? Can I just get an amen onthat? Everyone has to say it.
Otherwise, half of therelationship gets in trouble. So
we're just going to try thatagain. Are you guys ready? 123,
we don't all believe the samethings, so we have to understand
what this means. And I've beenteaching this to the youth too
on Wednesday nights. SoWednesday nights, we have like,
40 to 50 youth gathering here,right? And it's fifth through
12th grade. It's awesome. Andwe've been doing an I believe
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series. I believe in God, theFather, Jesus Christ, the Son of
the Holy Spirit, and we're inJesus right now. I believe in
Jesus, and we're talking aboutwhat it means to believe, but I
take them through thesestatements, right? That are
going to for them to understandwhat is true and what is false,
right? And sometimes what webelieve and what we think is
true, even though we think we'velearned it at some point in our
life, is not true, it's false.
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And so I've been taking themthrough what I call Joe's,
believe it or not, on Sundaynight. Do you guys want to hear
a couple of these questions,just to kind of get us in the
heart of true and false? Okay,so I'm gonna give a couple of
these to you. We've donedifferent, different groupings
of them. We've done animals.
We've done space on Wednesdaynight, we did the human right?
So different things about thehuman and so here's a couple
that I did, and get it ready forLiza, true or false. If you
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sneeze with your eyes open, theycan pop out, true or false. See,
like, people are like false,right? Here we go, Okay, how
many think it's true, okay, allright, how many think it's
false, right? Okay, it's 100%false. That's not a thing. Like,
if you thought it was true,you've been engaged your whole
life in the wrong way. Like,have you ever sneezed? Like, oh,
my eyes never that's neverhappened. 1000s of times you've
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seen people sneeze and no one'seyeballs have popped out of
their socket. If you have acondition, we're not gonna get
into it. Okay, here we go. Justlike fingerprints, you have
unique toe prints. How many ofyou think that's true? How many
of you think it's false? Okay,you know what's happening right
now. Not everyone'sparticipating, so we're gonna do
that again. You can't sit andwait in it all right? So how
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many of you think that is true?
You have unique toe prints? Howmany of you think it's false?
Okay, it's totally true. That'stotally true. We're just not
gonna fingerprint someone'stoes. You know, I'm saying that
that's gross. Like, you have toget your shoes off, your socks
off, you got stinky toes, andyou gotta sit that on a scanner.
Like, that's just not gonnahappen. Just use your finger.
That's why we don't do that.
Okay, here we go. And so we gotthat one. Here's the next one.
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You have more bacteria in yourhuman body than human cells.
More bacteria than human cells.
Okay. How many of you think it'strue? Okay? How many of you
think it's false? All right,it's true. Everyone go gross,
yeah. How many of you like, Idon't think that's true. Now you
questioning my authority, right?
Like so many of you are like, golook that up after this. Go
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ahead. I dare you. I dare you.
Come back next to me andapologize to me. That's what
you're gonna do. Okay, here wego. Next one you can breathe and
swallow at the same time.
Breathe and sweat. If you couldbe up here. When I say these
things, this is what happens.
And it's, it's one of those, areyou? Like I did? I never, I I
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haven't thought about thatbefore. Like I'm 42 years old,
I've neverokay. How many of you think it's
true that you can breathe andswallow the same time? Okay? How
many of you think it's false?
Okay? How many of you have everbreathed and swallowed the same
time before? No one. There's areason it's false. You cannot
breathe and swap Have you ever.
Ever breathed and swallow itthat you choke. That's what
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happens. Like one thing has togive way. You either can't
breathe or you can't swallow.
Whoever raised your hand andsaid that it was true. Nope.
Okay, here we go. Okay, nowhere's here's the last one, and
this one's hard. You got to dosome math. The average person
blinks 10,000 times per day. Theaverage person blinks 10,000
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times per day. How many of youthink that's true? Okay? How
many of you think it's false?
Okay, false. It is false. Weblink like, 100,000 times a day.
So just like, little bit off, ifyou're like, of course, it's
10,000 Nope, you're off. That's10% of what we blink, right? The
reason I did this in youth isthe same reason I'm bringing it
here. Sometimes we get socomfortable in life that we
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don't engage ourselves inthinking about topics that are
not presented right before us.
We sit in a space where we say,Oh, I don't have to think about
that, so I'm just not going toengage that that level of is it
right or is it wrong? And thenall of a sudden, what happens in
our life is what we've neverengaged before. Can you swallow
and breathe at the same time?
You're like, Oh, I've neverthought about that, but before
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you have a chance to think aboutit, you're presented with it
before you have a chance tothink about it, it's in front of
you, and people want to say, butwhat do you believe? What do you
know about this? What is youreducation? And somehow, a
conversation about, can Ibreathe and swallow reflects on
how smart are you, and what wasyour education, and where did
you learn this? And don't youhave experience breathing, and
also you're like, hold on, butI've never thought about it in
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this way, but you don't havetime, and people don't allow us
time to engage thatconversation. How many of you
feel like that? A lot in yourfaith, where you have these
moments where you're like, Ihaven't thought about that, but
now it's right in front of me,and you're asking me what I
believe about it, and I haven'thad time to talk with God about
it. I have experience of it, butI haven't related that to my
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faith in this way before. Andnow you're saying, If I don't
think this way, then I've neverbeen a Christian, or I don't
love people the right way, and Ihaven't even had time to, like,
stop and pray over this, and yetyou want me to tell you where I
stand. Do you know how manytimes people have come to me as
a pastor and say, I don't want atheological dissertation? I
don't want you to open scripturewith me. I just want you to tell
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me yes or no. Do you know howmany times I get that when I'm
in conversations with peoplewhere they just want a hard line
answer of what I believe aboutsomething, and I say, Hey,
that's not how my faith works.
And they go, no, no, I just wanta yes or no. I said, that's
beautiful. I said, that'swonderful. I said, I just want a
conversation. I said, it'sgreat. Apparently, we're at an
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impasse, so we're going to haveto a lot more coffee. It's going
to be great. Part of this is tounderstand what does it mean to
be Christian, and how do weengage that? And Paul talks
about that in the book ofRomans. So we're gonna go into
Scripture. We're gonna open upin Romans, chapter 12, if you
got the good book, we loveBibles in the church. Raise up
Bibles if you got them, if yougot a Bible, raise it up. Yes,
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yes. Love Bibles in the church.
It's great if you don't have aBible. We have Bible boxes. Now
here's something really cool. Soour Bible boxes are on the
church they're the boxes on thewall. You can see Bibles in
them. Next to that is what wecall the TNC mailbox. That's
where you can drop your justsaying, Hi, card. It's that
black box next to it. We putstudent Bibles in there, we put
adult study Bibles in there. Weput elementary Bibles in there,
and we put kids Bibles in there,like preschool Bibles in there.
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Those Bibles are for you, right?
There's a card in there thatsays, hey, read the Bible. And
if you need a Bible, just fillthat card out and drop it at the
welcome desk, and we will getyou a Bible within two weeks to
have here at the church, becausewe want everyone to have Bible.
Cool thing is that our Biblesare gone. Like they keep they're
disappearing, which is great. Ihad the youth come to me on
Wednesday like, Hey, we'relooking for more student Bibles.
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And I was like, well, great,grab them and worship. They're
like, there's no more inworship. What did I was like,
awesome. Because that meanspeople have the word in their
hands, and that's what we'regaining for so if you don't have
a Bible with you, that'salright. We're also on the Bible
app, so you can jump in rightnow. There's a chair back card
that says church apps. You candownload the Bible app on there.
If you scan that QR code, it'lltake you right to the Bible app
for today, our event. If youneed to find it. Just go to the
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hamburger menu in the Bible appand choose events, and our
neighborhood church will show upbecause it's geo located. So you
can jump into that and followalong with Scripture and notes.
So we're going to be in Romanschapter 12, bring in verses nine
through 21 is where we're goingto start. Nine through 21 and
this admittedly is a longersection of Scripture, but I
wanted you to hear it throughthe whole thing, so that way we
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could go back and break it downverse by verse. That's our goal
today. It's kind of verse byverse of the marks of a church.
And I'm going to give you sixmarks, six ways you can look at
yourself and say, Okay, this iswhat it means to be a Christian
out in the world, as we hearfrom Paul writing to the church
in Rome. So let's begin now.
This is Romans, chapter 12,verses nine through 21. Says
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this, let love be genuine. Hatewhat is evil. Hold fast to what
is good. Love one another withmutual affection. Outdo one.
Another in showing honor. Do notlag in zeal. Be ardent in
spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoicein hope. Be patient in
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suffering, persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of thesaints. Extend hospitality to
strangers. Whoo, take a breath.
Everyone. Just take a breath.
Whoo, if you go and read thatagain, you're like, Ooh, I can
work on that for the rest of mylife. That right there we're
going to break that down. Well,let's go on and read 14 through
21 because it continues. Blessthose who persecute you. Bless
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and do not curse them. Rejoicewith those who rejoice, weep
with those who weep. Live inharmony with one another. Do not
be haughty. I love that word,hot tea. We need to use that
more. Do not be haughty, butassociate with the lowly. Do not
claim to be wiser than you are.
Do not repay anyone evil forevil. But take thought for what
is noble in the sight of all, ifit is possible, so far as it
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depends on you. Live peaceablywith all. 19 Divine Love,
beloved, never avengeyourselves, but leave room for
the wrath of God. We're going tohit that one too. Don't worry,
for it is written, Vengeance ismine. I will repay, says the
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Lord. No, if your enemies arehungry, feed them. If they are
thirsty, give them something todrink. For by doing this, you
will heap burning coals on theirheads. Do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome evil withgood. And all God's people said,
marks of a true Christian. Howdo you guys feel? You're doing
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that's a lot. That's a lot overand over and over. If you want
to go back into this daily andbreak it down and be like, Hey,
how am I sitting in myrelationship with God and being
a Christian out in this world?
You can go back over this againand again and again and realize
not that we are failing in it,but that we are growing into it.
I think we take a look at this,I'm like, Oh, I didn't hit that
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one, and I didn't hit that one,and I didn't hit that one, and
that's not right. And that's notright. And now I'm over here,
and you're like, I'm I'm notdoing this well. And yet, what
we are doing is we're talkingabout transformation with God.
We're talking about moving intothis and working through it. So
I want to walk back throughthese. I want to walk back
through that. I want you to hearthem so we can kind of
understand what is really beingtreaded about the marks of a
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true Christian, and I title thismessage fake Christians versus
real Christians, because I thinkthat's happening a lot in our
society right now. Our societyis kind of in a dualism, right?
It's this identity where we'reputting in us versus them. It's
happening all over, and it's notjust right now, I want to let
you know that this happened backin Jesus' time, Jew and Gentile
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law and gospel, Heaven andEarth, disciples and not
disciples. I mean, all of thesethings have been happening since
the beginning of Scripture, whenwe've talked and we're living
into it again. And so we have tounderstand what is our through
line as a Christian, when it'snot about an us versus them,
we're about reconciling allpeople to God. So what does that
mean when we go back out intothe world? Well, it begins here,
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so let's walk back through it.
Okay, we're gonna start in verse10. We're gonna start in verse
10. Here's what it says in verse10. One more time. Do not lag in
zeal. Be ardent in spirit. Servethe Lord. Do not lag in zeal. Be
ardent in spirit. Serve theLord. Okay, how many of you love
the word ardent and have no ideawhat that means? Right? You're
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like ardent. Be ardent inspirit. Do not lag in zeal. So
there's an important thing thatI wanted to give you. There's
this identity that when I'mlooking through scripture, if a
word stops me, and I've said itall my life, but I just have no
idea what it means. I reallywant to process that, and I want
to look back through and says,Be ardent in spirit, and don't
lag and zeal. What does thiseven mean? Right? We're truly
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sitting here in this one, sowe're going to understand what
that means. But in order to getto there, you have to understand
verse 10. Listen to this. Verse10 says, Love one another with
mutual affection outdo oneanother in showing honor. How
beautiful is that? Love oneanother with mutual affection
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outdo one another in showinghonor. This word honor is very
interesting in Scripture. Itmeans to give value. That's what
honor means, Love one anotherwith mutual affection and outdo
one another in giving each othervalue, which means when I see
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you, I should give you morevalue than me.
I should raise up the valuesthat I see in you and why you're
important in my life. What endsup happening is that we let
society tell us our worth beforewe ever get to the space with
understanding our value comesfrom the cross of Christ.
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Christ, that there was a crossthat paid for our value with
Jesus Christ. And yet we comemore often than not, and let
society tell us how much we areworthy in society. How many of
you feel that that your worthcomes from society and people
are happy to tell you how muchyou're worth in society? Does
people feel that? Does peopleget a paycheck with how much
they're worth in society andfeel that they should make more
for the work that they're doing?
If you've ever felt like youshould make more in what you're
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doing, society is telling youthat you are not worth what's
happening in your life and theamount of work that you put in,
your worth has always come fromthe cross. Your value has always
become because who God is inyour life, our job and our
Christian part of us, we shouldbe the one sharing with everyone
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around us how much we value you,how we see you. And that's a
note for today to go into thepeople that you love in their
lives and say how much they arevalued and why they are valued.
And then it gets deeper. Sogoing back to verse 11 says
this, do not lag in zeal. Beardent in spirit. Serve the
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Lord. Do not lack in zeal. Ilove this because really, as I'm
thinking through what it meansto be ardent, I looked up the
word in Greek. It's really,really interesting. Ardent means
to boil over. So let me read itfor you again with the word boil
over, right? It's the same lookyou had when I said, Can you
swallow and breathe at the sametime? That was the same look all
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of you just gave me. And solisten to this. Do not lag and
zeal. Boil over in the spirit,serve the Lord, right? And what
this means is that we don't wantto be quick to anger, right? We
want to be quick to obedience.
As Christians, when it says,boil over in the spirit, do not
lag and seal it says, Don't belazy. Honor God, right? Be quick
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to honor God. And do that with aspirit that boils over, that
flows over. Do it with a spiritthat's on fire for God. And I
want you to imagine if you'veever been cooking pasta, and you
set it there, and you walk awayfor like, two seconds, and then
all of the pasta foam boils overthe pasta, and then goes into
where the stove is at. And then,you know, later, you have to
take off all the stove parts andclean. Does anyone have this
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happen in their life? Am I theonly one sweet goodness? Am I
the only one everyone's hadthis? Okay? This is the identity
of the spirit. Your ardent andzeal should boil over. You
shouldn't be quick to anger. Youshould truly be quick to
obedience. And then it says, Atthe end of 11, when you get
there, serve the Lord. And thisshould be done enthusiastically.
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This is not a moment whereyou're just quick to be
obedient. This boiling overmeans you're on fire for God. It
truly means that the mark of aChristian is to serve God
obediently and enthusiastically.
Right? That is the differencebetween one of my children
coming to say, you have touristtoday and I'm going and I'm
going, I am so excited to dochores and a way to help this
family, and I would love to godo those right now. I don't have
anything else to do, and nothingis more important that is
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enthusiastically doing whatyou're obedient to. The way my
kids respond is not biblical,and then we have unbiblical
conversations. So then thosemoments now we understand the
difference of what it means torespond obediently and
enthusiastically. Now let's keepon going. Verse 12 says this,
rejoice in hope, be patient insuffering, persevere in prayer
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one more time. Rejoice in hope.
Be patient in suffering,persevere in prayer, there is
something in our life about whatit means to be patient in our
suffering. I don't have to saythat I believe that we've all
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suffered, because that is onething as a pastor that I know is
true at one time or another inour life, we have all suffered.
And when I hear this scripture,and I know the families I've
walked with, it becomes verydifficult to say, Hey, be
patient in your suffering.
That's probably something you'llnever hear sitting from me. Oh,
this is hard right now. Bepatient in your suffering. Be
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patient in your suffering, but Ican lean back into the rejoice
and hope, because it begins bysaying, rejoice and hope. Be
patient in suffering, perseverein prayer. And what I believe
this is saying is is asChristians, if we're overflowing
with the Spirit, that we have tohave joy in a promise. And that
joy in the promise, it brings apatience to the present. If
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you're stuck in the present andyou're finding it hard to be
patient and hard to be faithful,and you're a little bit broken,
we need to shift that thatpresent moment. Understand that
there is joy in a promise ofeternity, of where things are
not broken and when there ispeace. And sometimes we forget
to think about what Jesuspromised us on the cross, and is
preparing for us right now,because we get stuck in the
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present and it's hard to bepatient. And I believe that the
mark of a true Christian is totruly find joy in the promise to
bring us patience in thepresent, and not just in
suffering, but all things thatwe go through some. Times it's
just a season of waiting.
Sometimes it's a season ofunexpected things that joy the
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promise, can teach you what itmeans to be Christian in that
season. Now listen to whathappens in the next verse in 13,
one of my favorites, contributeto the needs of the saints,
extend hospitality to strangers.
This is going to be one of thosepoints where I literally wrote
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in my notes hard word justmeant. I'm just going to tell it
to you straight. I'm going togive it to you. Cannot have
relationship with God withoutsacrificing your time to serve
our neighbors in need. If you dothat, you are learning about
what it means to be Christian,and you're sitting in
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Christianity, but you are notliving out being a Christian.
The mark of a true Christian isthat you have relationship with
God when you sacrifice your mostvaluable thing, which is your
time. And it's time with family,it's time with loved ones. It's
time at work, it's time in ahobby, it's time in personal
care, everything. When yousacrifice that time to serve our
neighbors in need, you willunderstand what it means to have
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relationship with God. It's avery true thing. And in fact,
people who are really lost andreally broken, the first thing I
tell them to do when I meet withthem, as I say, you need to find
a place to serve someone who hasa need, and they're like but I'm
I'm broken. It's and I said, Youneed to find a place to serve
someone who has need, becausewhen we go out and serve, what
do we do? It starts to work backinto itself. And this is where
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the cyclical identity of what itmeans to be a Christian takes
place. Is it goes back all theway into the beginning and outdo
one another and showing honor.
Show someone they have value.
Show someone when you're broken,that you're going to value
someone else, because you see itin them, and you're going to
share with them what them whatyour Christian faith is. All of
a sudden, each one of thesestart to play into each other,
and we start to see what itmeans to be a Christian is that
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once you, once you go out andserve, you're valuing someone
more than you are, and you'regoing to show them, and you're
going to let love be genuine.
And all of a sudden, thesethings start to come together,
where the holistic side of youis being a Christian in
community, not just in church.
We get stuck being Christians inchurch, and we are always meant
to be Christians in community.
We should learn how to go backout and serve each other in this
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way, and yet it still goes on.
Listen to verse 14, which iswhere we all fail. So let's just
say this out loud, Bless thosewho persecute you, bless and do
not curse them. How many of youhave blessed the people that you
find really hard relationshipswith? Have you nothing? Oh, we
got southern charm here. I don'twant to miss this, right? How
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many of you have ever said,bless their heart, okay? Oh,
bless their heart. Bless that Ihad a little bit of passive, or
what I call pastoraggressiveness there. And I'd
say, bless their little heart.
Oh, tiny because you're so mean,right? But bless your heart.
Bless your heart. There issomething about blessing you
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cannot exist. And here, can wejust say that being a Christian
is hard because it's gonna beanother hard you cannot be a
Christian unless you Bless thosewho persecute you scriptural,
which means that if you arestruggling with someone and
you're thinking of all thethings that they've wronged you
with, and how are you gonna talkto them about it and what they
deserve and how they have toearn their way back to you, and
you're like, Oh, but I loveJesus, and Jesus died on the
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cross for me and forgave me ofmy sins, even though I walk away
constantly. But you, you gottaearn your way back to me every
step. Bless those who persecuteyou. Bless and do not curse
them. I love that because it'slike, I know it's gonna be
trouble. But also, do not cursethem. Like if you're throwing
curses. We need to have anotherconversation, right? That'd be
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another level. But this blessingis very interesting. This
blessing language that happensin here. Do you know what the
word is in Greek? So cool. Youknow what the word is in Greek
to bless? Eulogy, eulogy, whichI think again, gives me two
times one I'm like, Yeah, I'mgonna bless you because
someone's gonna I'm gonna killyou, right? No, like, we all
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have that in us a little bit,right? But it's not what it
means. I had some fun with thatin my head. You know what it
means? The word blessing andeulogy comes from two words it
means to speak good things. Sonot only bless them, but what
are you doing? I love whenScripture all comes together,
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you're valuing them more thanyourself. Whoo. Do you see what
being a Christian is? Itpermeates all of your life in a
beautiful way.
And so people, when they look atChristians. They can say, Why?
Why would you? Why would youspeak good things of them. Look
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what they did to you and howthey treated you. But it's not
about us. It's always been aboutGod. When we make it about us,
we don't want to bless, we wantto persecute, we want to judge.
We don't want to love, we wantyou to earn your way back. We.
It's about God. We understandthat's already been done for us.
So we get the opportunity tolove others, and that's our joy.
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Now listen to this last part,verses 1718, and 19. Do not
repay anyone evil for evil, buttake thought for what is noble
in the sight of all if it ispossible, so far as it depends
on you. Live peaceably with allBeloved. Never avenge
yourselves, but leave room forthe wrath of God. For it is
written, Vengeance is mine, andI will repay, says the Lord. If
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the Lord's vengeance is what'sgoing to happen? If I love
people, I'm good. If my my wayto go back into community is to
live peaceably with all as faras it depends on me. Do you know
what I'm going to seek? I'mgoing to seek peace. When you
seek peace, you are seeking thekingdom. Seek first, the kingdom
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of God and all these things willbe added when you seek peace.
You are seeking the Kingdom. Itdoesn't say, seek to live
peaceably with all as far as itdepends on the other people in
your life. It says, as itdepends upon you. Being a
Christian means that we seekpeace. It means that we bless
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our enemies. It means that wevalue people. It means that we
serve our neighbors in need,even though we're lost and we
need someone to serve us. Beinga Christian is counter cultural,
and it's beautiful. Being aChristian is what the world
needs right now, I believe thatthe church is the best example
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of how the world should look,but it involves Christians going
out into the world to share whatit means to be a Christian. This
is what Paul shared in the bookof Romans, and these are the
marks of what it means to be aChristian. So my question for
you today, as you leave fromthis place, easy question, Who
are you going to value today,and who are you going to share
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how you value them with as yougo back into the world. The
world needs your voice And allGod's people said, Amen, let us
pray, heavenly and graciousFather, we come before you today
knowing that we are broken, thatwe are lost, that it takes time
to seek you and know you andLord as we come together, we
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know that we need to humbleourselves before you that's slow
to anger, but quick toobedience. Ah, it's beautiful,
but not just obedience,enthusiastic obedience. Lord,
our heart is to know that whenwe love it is genuine,
that we don't do things as theworld does, because neither did
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you. You were in the world, butnot of the world. And so Lord, I
ask you to make that true in ourheart also, that we come
together in ways to know that wewill watch over the people
around us. We will lift them up.
We will serve them. We willbless our enemies,
and that in that Lord, we willbe faithful, and that we will be
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known as Christians SoLord for the people in our lives
that have hurt us, that we arestruggling with right now, I ask
that you would send the Spiritto watch over our heart and that
we could have a moment where welift them up in prayer. And for
those who need to be served, Iwould ask that you would guide
us to them, that we would knowthe words to say of what and how
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they need to be raised up tounderstand their relationship
with you. But most of all, Lord,let us understand our
relationship with you as we cometo know you as our Lord and
Savior, and we pray these thingsin your holy and precious name.
And all God's people said, Amen.
You guys enjoyed our series onRomans. So.
Yeah, so we're in a series onRomans right now, and our series
(00:05):
on Romans has been a walkthrough understanding what it
means to be Christian. Thankyou, Joe. I appreciate that. And
when we're walking through thisidentity of what it means to be
Christian, there's really anunderstanding of who Paul was
writing to when he wrote thebook of Romans, and we're now
four weeks into this series,which means we've traversed
through different things likethe understanding of what
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righteous is in this rightrelationship with God, and
understanding God's relationshipwith God's people, which are the
Jews. And then you have thesenew Christians, the Gentiles.
And Paul hasn't even plantedthis church. This was a church
that Paul is not even visitedyet, and so he's writing them in
the book of Romans. And we'retrying to understand what it
means to be Christian by hearingfrom two different people
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groups, the Jews and theGentiles, that are trying to
reconcile their faith with eachother, while also having Rome do
what it does in Rome, right? Andthey have pagan gods and
different things, and they'retrying to reconcile all these
things that are going on. Andwe've been saying, How can we
understand what it means to be aChristian within this? And so we
talk through righteousness. Andthen last week, we talked about
that, that starting moment infaith, that we all have, this
(01:09):
starting moment where we aremeant to believe in our heart
and proclaim with our lips whatit means to be Christian. And
that's how we begin and and Ibrought up, if you weren't here,
last week, I made sourdoughbread for the first time, right?
And so I do have any sourdoughbread makers out there. We got
some at no one, no one. Doesanyone want to make sourdough?
And this is never you get asourdough bread maker. That's
great. Does anyone want to makesourdough? And is it never
(01:30):
jumped in, okay? This is great.
So we brought in Kaylee Harmon.
She taught us how to makesourdough, gave us one of her
two year starters, right? So wehad this and and then I brought
mine to worship. Now, when youbring it to worship, and you're
supposed to do it in themorning. I basically did what's
called over proofing, just andit just keeps on growing on its
own, which was amazing. And so Igot it home, and Kaylee sent us
(01:53):
this video that showed her doingthis last fold of the bread, and
it looked amazing on the video,she's grabbing the sour dough,
right? And it's this dough thathas been growing overnight, and
it's this perfect way, and shefolds it over once, and it's
beautiful, and she folds it overtwice, and then she rolls it
this way, and then she rolls itthat way, and it's just, it's
(02:13):
beautiful, like it's it's pure,like it looks like it looks
perfect. And then she pulls ittowards herself to kind of
tighten that air in there,right? I'm like, this is
beautiful. Mine would not comeout of the bowl like I could
not. I had to flip the bowlupside down and let gravity work
while I reached up without evenseeing it to kind of, and then
it hit the granite counter andstuck to it like I couldn't. I
(02:36):
couldn't even turn it over. Ihad to, like, peel it off the
counter. And I was like, This isgonna be a disaster. And so, and
here's the deal, it's afterSunday, so I'm exhausted, right?
And I'm like, in between, like,passing out and waking up, and
the timer goes off in 30minutes, I gotta roll it again,
right? And I gotta roll itagain. And then I got my I
didn't even know we had a Dutchoven. Apparently, we have a
Dutch oven, just like, ofcourse, we do. We've always had
(02:58):
a Dutch oven. And I'm, like, 15years, I've never known that
we've had a Dutch oven. I saythis is great, and so, and of
course, it's right next to thetoaster, which I pull out every
day. There's the Dutch oven.
Guess I never asked what thatwas. And so we have this in our
pantry. And so I grabbed that,and I'm letting that heat up,
and I spread and it stuckeverywhere. This is gonna turn
out horrible. And so I put it inthere, and you gotta let it
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bake, right? Just let it bakefor an hour. Bake for an hour.
You put it. I had the parchmentpaper dropped in the Dutch oven,
and I walked away, and I waslike, let God deal, you know? I
was like, God's gonna work thisone out. I prayed over it as it
went into the oven. I think it'sgonna be great. And so, um, so I
pulled it out an hour later, andit's one of those moments where
you have the lid on it, like thelids on top of the Dutch oven
and, like, there's this, like,it's exciting breads exciting.
(03:40):
Like, I had this reveal moment Iwalked over. I was like, when I
put it on top of the stove, andI was like, and then music
started playing. Was reallylike, Haha. It was like, the
mermaid song. And so I was like,oh. And I opened up, and this
bread looked awesome. It was, Imean, it was, it was perfect. It
had, like, the ridges on it. Mybread was not good enough to
(04:03):
score, even though I tried toscore it like it was too sticky.
So I tried to cut into and itdidn't work. And so, but I
opened it. Now, here's the deal.
I can make bread in anythingthat I'll eat anything so, like,
it was edible, right? That'swhat Jess says about most of my
food. It's edible. And so I madeit, and I was like, this is
beautiful. Kayla came home andshe goes, Hey, did you make your
sourdough? And this is my 16year old daughter. And I was
(04:26):
like, Yeah, I made my sourdough.
And she goes, Can I try a piece?
And I was like, Yeah, you can.
It's delicious. And she goes,I'll be the judge of that. She
walked over, she grabs a bite,and I can. I'm not even looking.
I don't even want to see herface, right? She grabs a bite,
right? And I don't hearanything. Oh, man, one bite.
That girl walked away. I waslike, It's not good. Something
doesn't matter, right? She comesand sits down next to me on the
(04:48):
couch, and she has a plate ofbread with butter, and she goes,
this is delicious. I did it. Imade bread. I made bread, which
is amazing. So last week, if youdidn't see last week's message.
Is out on YouTube, Facebook. Wetalked about this identity of
like a starter in faith. Likeour identity of faith is that
God is working into our lives,and that we have all these years
of experience with God, and it'snot meant to be held. It's meant
(05:10):
to be shared, and that at anymoment you feel lost with God,
you can go back to the momentwhen you started with God, and
you can begin there. This isthis new reality, that we have
this new transformation everysingle day, we have this
reality. And so we talked about,what does it mean? And so we use
that as an illustration, but itwas a beautiful way to talk
about what it doesn't mean tohave faith and share it with
others. And so now, when we'rein the book of Romans, we're
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walking through the book ofRomans, and it is truly in these
last four chapters, right, thatare in 12, 1314, and 15, right?
It is talking about not therelationship with God to God's
people now, but our relationshipback to God. So there's a switch
that happens in the book ofRomans, and it's beautiful,
because then it starts to say,Okay, who are we in relationship
to God? Not who's God inrelationship to us? And all of a
(05:56):
sudden we have this moment whereGod's faithfulness is now our
faithfulness, and that's theswitch that's happening. And so
we take this moment, and we'regoing to be talking today about
the marks of a true Christian.
What does it mean to be trulyChristian? And I think this is
kind of hard, because I think alot of people have a different
identity of what it means to beChristian, and a lot of people
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say they're Christian, andyou're like, oh, okay, but you
also do this, right? And I'mover here going, Oh, I'm a
Christian, but I also do this.
And, like, I don't, I don'treally believe that. And you're
like, okay, but I believe 90% ofwhat you believe. Does that make
us both Christian, or are you awrong Christian and I'm a right
Christian? How many people havebeen there before, like, in
Christian conversations? Okay,it's good. How many of you in
loving relationships where youdon't believe the same things,
(06:40):
right? Can I just get an amen onthat? Everyone has to say it.
Otherwise, half of therelationship gets in trouble. So
we're just going to try thatagain. Are you guys ready? 123,
we don't all believe the samethings, so we have to understand
what this means. And I've beenteaching this to the youth too
on Wednesday nights. SoWednesday nights, we have like,
40 to 50 youth gathering here,right? And it's fifth through
12th grade. It's awesome. Andwe've been doing an I believe
(07:02):
series. I believe in God, theFather, Jesus Christ, the Son of
the Holy Spirit, and we're inJesus right now. I believe in
Jesus, and we're talking aboutwhat it means to believe, but I
take them through thesestatements, right? That are
going to for them to understandwhat is true and what is false,
right? And sometimes what webelieve and what we think is
true, even though we think we'velearned it at some point in our
life, is not true, it's false.
(07:24):
And so I've been taking themthrough what I call Joe's,
believe it or not, on Sundaynight. Do you guys want to hear
a couple of these questions,just to kind of get us in the
heart of true and false? Okay,so I'm gonna give a couple of
these to you. We've donedifferent, different groupings
of them. We've done animals.
We've done space on Wednesdaynight, we did the human right?
So different things about thehuman and so here's a couple
that I did, and get it ready forLiza, true or false. If you
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sneeze with your eyes open, theycan pop out, true or false. See,
like, people are like false,right? Here we go, Okay, how
many think it's true, okay, allright, how many think it's
false, right? Okay, it's 100%false. That's not a thing. Like,
if you thought it was true,you've been engaged your whole
life in the wrong way. Like,have you ever sneezed? Like, oh,
my eyes never that's neverhappened. 1000s of times you've
(08:09):
seen people sneeze and no one'seyeballs have popped out of
their socket. If you have acondition, we're not gonna get
into it. Okay, here we go. Justlike fingerprints, you have
unique toe prints. How many ofyou think that's true? How many
of you think it's false? Okay,you know what's happening right
now. Not everyone'sparticipating, so we're gonna do
that again. You can't sit andwait in it all right? So how
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many of you think that is true?
You have unique toe prints? Howmany of you think it's false?
Okay, it's totally true. That'stotally true. We're just not
gonna fingerprint someone'stoes. You know, I'm saying that
that's gross. Like, you have toget your shoes off, your socks
off, you got stinky toes, andyou gotta sit that on a scanner.
Like, that's just not gonnahappen. Just use your finger.
That's why we don't do that.
Okay, here we go. And so we gotthat one. Here's the next one.
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You have more bacteria in yourhuman body than human cells.
More bacteria than human cells.
Okay. How many of you think it'strue? Okay? How many of you
think it's false? All right,it's true. Everyone go gross,
yeah. How many of you like, Idon't think that's true. Now you
questioning my authority, right?
Like so many of you are like, golook that up after this. Go
(09:16):
ahead. I dare you. I dare you.
Come back next to me andapologize to me. That's what
you're gonna do. Okay, here wego. Next one you can breathe and
swallow at the same time.
Breathe and sweat. If you couldbe up here. When I say these
things, this is what happens.
And it's, it's one of those, areyou? Like I did? I never, I I
(09:38):
haven't thought about thatbefore. Like I'm 42 years old,
I've neverokay. How many of you think it's
true that you can breathe andswallow the same time? Okay? How
many of you think it's false?
Okay? How many of you have everbreathed and swallowed the same
time before? No one. There's areason it's false. You cannot
breathe and swap Have you ever.
Ever breathed and swallow itthat you choke. That's what
(10:01):
happens. Like one thing has togive way. You either can't
breathe or you can't swallow.
Whoever raised your hand andsaid that it was true. Nope.
Okay, here we go. Okay, nowhere's here's the last one, and
this one's hard. You got to dosome math. The average person
blinks 10,000 times per day. Theaverage person blinks 10,000
(10:23):
times per day. How many of youthink that's true? Okay? How
many of you think it's false?
Okay, false. It is false. Weblink like, 100,000 times a day.
So just like, little bit off, ifyou're like, of course, it's
10,000 Nope, you're off. That's10% of what we blink, right? The
reason I did this in youth isthe same reason I'm bringing it
here. Sometimes we get socomfortable in life that we
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don't engage ourselves inthinking about topics that are
not presented right before us.
We sit in a space where we say,Oh, I don't have to think about
that, so I'm just not going toengage that that level of is it
right or is it wrong? And thenall of a sudden, what happens in
our life is what we've neverengaged before. Can you swallow
and breathe at the same time?
You're like, Oh, I've neverthought about that, but before
(11:06):
you have a chance to think aboutit, you're presented with it
before you have a chance tothink about it, it's in front of
you, and people want to say, butwhat do you believe? What do you
know about this? What is youreducation? And somehow, a
conversation about, can Ibreathe and swallow reflects on
how smart are you, and what wasyour education, and where did
you learn this? And don't youhave experience breathing, and
also you're like, hold on, butI've never thought about it in
(11:28):
this way, but you don't havetime, and people don't allow us
time to engage thatconversation. How many of you
feel like that? A lot in yourfaith, where you have these
moments where you're like, Ihaven't thought about that, but
now it's right in front of me,and you're asking me what I
believe about it, and I haven'thad time to talk with God about
it. I have experience of it, butI haven't related that to my
(11:50):
faith in this way before. Andnow you're saying, If I don't
think this way, then I've neverbeen a Christian, or I don't
love people the right way, and Ihaven't even had time to, like,
stop and pray over this, and yetyou want me to tell you where I
stand. Do you know how manytimes people have come to me as
a pastor and say, I don't want atheological dissertation? I
don't want you to open scripturewith me. I just want you to tell
(12:11):
me yes or no. Do you know howmany times I get that when I'm
in conversations with peoplewhere they just want a hard line
answer of what I believe aboutsomething, and I say, Hey,
that's not how my faith works.
And they go, no, no, I just wanta yes or no. I said, that's
beautiful. I said, that'swonderful. I said, I just want a
conversation. I said, it'sgreat. Apparently, we're at an
(12:32):
impasse, so we're going to haveto a lot more coffee. It's going
to be great. Part of this is tounderstand what does it mean to
be Christian, and how do weengage that? And Paul talks
about that in the book ofRomans. So we're gonna go into
Scripture. We're gonna open upin Romans, chapter 12, if you
got the good book, we loveBibles in the church. Raise up
Bibles if you got them, if yougot a Bible, raise it up. Yes,
(12:54):
yes. Love Bibles in the church.
It's great if you don't have aBible. We have Bible boxes. Now
here's something really cool. Soour Bible boxes are on the
church they're the boxes on thewall. You can see Bibles in
them. Next to that is what wecall the TNC mailbox. That's
where you can drop your justsaying, Hi, card. It's that
black box next to it. We putstudent Bibles in there, we put
adult study Bibles in there. Weput elementary Bibles in there,
and we put kids Bibles in there,like preschool Bibles in there.
(13:16):
Those Bibles are for you, right?
There's a card in there thatsays, hey, read the Bible. And
if you need a Bible, just fillthat card out and drop it at the
welcome desk, and we will getyou a Bible within two weeks to
have here at the church, becausewe want everyone to have Bible.
Cool thing is that our Biblesare gone. Like they keep they're
disappearing, which is great. Ihad the youth come to me on
Wednesday like, Hey, we'relooking for more student Bibles.
(13:38):
And I was like, well, great,grab them and worship. They're
like, there's no more inworship. What did I was like,
awesome. Because that meanspeople have the word in their
hands, and that's what we'regaining for so if you don't have
a Bible with you, that'salright. We're also on the Bible
app, so you can jump in rightnow. There's a chair back card
that says church apps. You candownload the Bible app on there.
If you scan that QR code, it'lltake you right to the Bible app
for today, our event. If youneed to find it. Just go to the
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hamburger menu in the Bible appand choose events, and our
neighborhood church will show upbecause it's geo located. So you
can jump into that and followalong with Scripture and notes.
So we're going to be in Romanschapter 12, bring in verses nine
through 21 is where we're goingto start. Nine through 21 and
this admittedly is a longersection of Scripture, but I
wanted you to hear it throughthe whole thing, so that way we
(14:24):
could go back and break it downverse by verse. That's our goal
today. It's kind of verse byverse of the marks of a church.
And I'm going to give you sixmarks, six ways you can look at
yourself and say, Okay, this iswhat it means to be a Christian
out in the world, as we hearfrom Paul writing to the church
in Rome. So let's begin now.
This is Romans, chapter 12,verses nine through 21. Says
(14:45):
this, let love be genuine. Hatewhat is evil. Hold fast to what
is good. Love one another withmutual affection. Outdo one.
Another in showing honor. Do notlag in zeal. Be ardent in
spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoicein hope. Be patient in
(15:10):
suffering, persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of thesaints. Extend hospitality to
strangers. Whoo, take a breath.
Everyone. Just take a breath.
Whoo, if you go and read thatagain, you're like, Ooh, I can
work on that for the rest of mylife. That right there we're
going to break that down. Well,let's go on and read 14 through
21 because it continues. Blessthose who persecute you. Bless
(15:33):
and do not curse them. Rejoicewith those who rejoice, weep
with those who weep. Live inharmony with one another. Do not
be haughty. I love that word,hot tea. We need to use that
more. Do not be haughty, butassociate with the lowly. Do not
claim to be wiser than you are.
Do not repay anyone evil forevil. But take thought for what
is noble in the sight of all, ifit is possible, so far as it
(15:54):
depends on you. Live peaceablywith all. 19 Divine Love,
beloved, never avengeyourselves, but leave room for
the wrath of God. We're going tohit that one too. Don't worry,
for it is written, Vengeance ismine. I will repay, says the
(16:14):
Lord. No, if your enemies arehungry, feed them. If they are
thirsty, give them something todrink. For by doing this, you
will heap burning coals on theirheads. Do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome evil withgood. And all God's people said,
marks of a true Christian. Howdo you guys feel? You're doing
(16:35):
that's a lot. That's a lot overand over and over. If you want
to go back into this daily andbreak it down and be like, Hey,
how am I sitting in myrelationship with God and being
a Christian out in this world?
You can go back over this againand again and again and realize
not that we are failing in it,but that we are growing into it.
I think we take a look at this,I'm like, Oh, I didn't hit that
(16:57):
one, and I didn't hit that one,and I didn't hit that one, and
that's not right. And that's notright. And now I'm over here,
and you're like, I'm I'm notdoing this well. And yet, what
we are doing is we're talkingabout transformation with God.
We're talking about moving intothis and working through it. So
I want to walk back throughthese. I want to walk back
through that. I want you to hearthem so we can kind of
understand what is really beingtreaded about the marks of a
(17:20):
true Christian, and I title thismessage fake Christians versus
real Christians, because I thinkthat's happening a lot in our
society right now. Our societyis kind of in a dualism, right?
It's this identity where we'reputting in us versus them. It's
happening all over, and it's notjust right now, I want to let
you know that this happened backin Jesus' time, Jew and Gentile
(17:44):
law and gospel, Heaven andEarth, disciples and not
disciples. I mean, all of thesethings have been happening since
the beginning of Scripture, whenwe've talked and we're living
into it again. And so we have tounderstand what is our through
line as a Christian, when it'snot about an us versus them,
we're about reconciling allpeople to God. So what does that
mean when we go back out intothe world? Well, it begins here,
(18:07):
so let's walk back through it.
Okay, we're gonna start in verse10. We're gonna start in verse
10. Here's what it says in verse10. One more time. Do not lag in
zeal. Be ardent in spirit. Servethe Lord. Do not lag in zeal. Be
ardent in spirit. Serve theLord. Okay, how many of you love
the word ardent and have no ideawhat that means? Right? You're
(18:31):
like ardent. Be ardent inspirit. Do not lag in zeal. So
there's an important thing thatI wanted to give you. There's
this identity that when I'mlooking through scripture, if a
word stops me, and I've said itall my life, but I just have no
idea what it means. I reallywant to process that, and I want
to look back through and says,Be ardent in spirit, and don't
lag and zeal. What does thiseven mean? Right? We're truly
(18:52):
sitting here in this one, sowe're going to understand what
that means. But in order to getto there, you have to understand
verse 10. Listen to this. Verse10 says, Love one another with
mutual affection outdo oneanother in showing honor. How
beautiful is that? Love oneanother with mutual affection
(19:16):
outdo one another in showinghonor. This word honor is very
interesting in Scripture. Itmeans to give value. That's what
honor means, Love one anotherwith mutual affection and outdo
one another in giving each othervalue, which means when I see
(19:39):
you, I should give you morevalue than me.
I should raise up the valuesthat I see in you and why you're
important in my life. What endsup happening is that we let
society tell us our worth beforewe ever get to the space with
understanding our value comesfrom the cross of Christ.
(20:00):
Christ, that there was a crossthat paid for our value with
Jesus Christ. And yet we comemore often than not, and let
society tell us how much we areworthy in society. How many of
you feel that that your worthcomes from society and people
are happy to tell you how muchyou're worth in society? Does
people feel that? Does peopleget a paycheck with how much
they're worth in society andfeel that they should make more
for the work that they're doing?
If you've ever felt like youshould make more in what you're
(20:21):
doing, society is telling youthat you are not worth what's
happening in your life and theamount of work that you put in,
your worth has always come fromthe cross. Your value has always
become because who God is inyour life, our job and our
Christian part of us, we shouldbe the one sharing with everyone
(20:42):
around us how much we value you,how we see you. And that's a
note for today to go into thepeople that you love in their
lives and say how much they arevalued and why they are valued.
And then it gets deeper. Sogoing back to verse 11 says
this, do not lag in zeal. Beardent in spirit. Serve the
(21:02):
Lord. Do not lack in zeal. Ilove this because really, as I'm
thinking through what it meansto be ardent, I looked up the
word in Greek. It's really,really interesting. Ardent means
to boil over. So let me read itfor you again with the word boil
over, right? It's the same lookyou had when I said, Can you
swallow and breathe at the sametime? That was the same look all
(21:23):
of you just gave me. And solisten to this. Do not lag and
zeal. Boil over in the spirit,serve the Lord, right? And what
this means is that we don't wantto be quick to anger, right? We
want to be quick to obedience.
As Christians, when it says,boil over in the spirit, do not
lag and seal it says, Don't belazy. Honor God, right? Be quick
(21:44):
to honor God. And do that with aspirit that boils over, that
flows over. Do it with a spiritthat's on fire for God. And I
want you to imagine if you'veever been cooking pasta, and you
set it there, and you walk awayfor like, two seconds, and then
all of the pasta foam boils overthe pasta, and then goes into
where the stove is at. And then,you know, later, you have to
take off all the stove parts andclean. Does anyone have this
(22:04):
happen in their life? Am I theonly one sweet goodness? Am I
the only one everyone's hadthis? Okay? This is the identity
of the spirit. Your ardent andzeal should boil over. You
shouldn't be quick to anger. Youshould truly be quick to
obedience. And then it says, Atthe end of 11, when you get
there, serve the Lord. And thisshould be done enthusiastically.
(22:27):
This is not a moment whereyou're just quick to be
obedient. This boiling overmeans you're on fire for God. It
truly means that the mark of aChristian is to serve God
obediently and enthusiastically.
Right? That is the differencebetween one of my children
coming to say, you have touristtoday and I'm going and I'm
going, I am so excited to dochores and a way to help this
family, and I would love to godo those right now. I don't have
anything else to do, and nothingis more important that is
(22:49):
enthusiastically doing whatyou're obedient to. The way my
kids respond is not biblical,and then we have unbiblical
conversations. So then thosemoments now we understand the
difference of what it means torespond obediently and
enthusiastically. Now let's keepon going. Verse 12 says this,
rejoice in hope, be patient insuffering, persevere in prayer
(23:11):
one more time. Rejoice in hope.
Be patient in suffering,persevere in prayer, there is
something in our life about whatit means to be patient in our
suffering. I don't have to saythat I believe that we've all
(23:36):
suffered, because that is onething as a pastor that I know is
true at one time or another inour life, we have all suffered.
And when I hear this scripture,and I know the families I've
walked with, it becomes verydifficult to say, Hey, be
patient in your suffering.
That's probably something you'llnever hear sitting from me. Oh,
this is hard right now. Bepatient in your suffering. Be
(23:56):
patient in your suffering, but Ican lean back into the rejoice
and hope, because it begins bysaying, rejoice and hope. Be
patient in suffering, perseverein prayer. And what I believe
this is saying is is asChristians, if we're overflowing
with the Spirit, that we have tohave joy in a promise. And that
joy in the promise, it brings apatience to the present. If
(24:21):
you're stuck in the present andyou're finding it hard to be
patient and hard to be faithful,and you're a little bit broken,
we need to shift that thatpresent moment. Understand that
there is joy in a promise ofeternity, of where things are
not broken and when there ispeace. And sometimes we forget
to think about what Jesuspromised us on the cross, and is
preparing for us right now,because we get stuck in the
(24:43):
present and it's hard to bepatient. And I believe that the
mark of a true Christian is totruly find joy in the promise to
bring us patience in thepresent, and not just in
suffering, but all things thatwe go through some. Times it's
just a season of waiting.
Sometimes it's a season ofunexpected things that joy the
(25:05):
promise, can teach you what itmeans to be Christian in that
season. Now listen to whathappens in the next verse in 13,
one of my favorites, contributeto the needs of the saints,
extend hospitality to strangers.
This is going to be one of thosepoints where I literally wrote
(25:26):
in my notes hard word justmeant. I'm just going to tell it
to you straight. I'm going togive it to you. Cannot have
relationship with God withoutsacrificing your time to serve
our neighbors in need. If you dothat, you are learning about
what it means to be Christian,and you're sitting in
(25:46):
Christianity, but you are notliving out being a Christian.
The mark of a true Christian isthat you have relationship with
God when you sacrifice your mostvaluable thing, which is your
time. And it's time with family,it's time with loved ones. It's
time at work, it's time in ahobby, it's time in personal
care, everything. When yousacrifice that time to serve our
neighbors in need, you willunderstand what it means to have
(26:07):
relationship with God. It's avery true thing. And in fact,
people who are really lost andreally broken, the first thing I
tell them to do when I meet withthem, as I say, you need to find
a place to serve someone who hasa need, and they're like but I'm
I'm broken. It's and I said, Youneed to find a place to serve
someone who has need, becausewhen we go out and serve, what
do we do? It starts to work backinto itself. And this is where
(26:28):
the cyclical identity of what itmeans to be a Christian takes
place. Is it goes back all theway into the beginning and outdo
one another and showing honor.
Show someone they have value.
Show someone when you're broken,that you're going to value
someone else, because you see itin them, and you're going to
share with them what them whatyour Christian faith is. All of
a sudden, each one of thesestart to play into each other,
and we start to see what itmeans to be a Christian is that
(26:48):
once you, once you go out andserve, you're valuing someone
more than you are, and you'regoing to show them, and you're
going to let love be genuine.
And all of a sudden, thesethings start to come together,
where the holistic side of youis being a Christian in
community, not just in church.
We get stuck being Christians inchurch, and we are always meant
to be Christians in community.
We should learn how to go backout and serve each other in this
(27:11):
way, and yet it still goes on.
Listen to verse 14, which iswhere we all fail. So let's just
say this out loud, Bless thosewho persecute you, bless and do
not curse them. How many of youhave blessed the people that you
find really hard relationshipswith? Have you nothing? Oh, we
got southern charm here. I don'twant to miss this, right? How
(27:34):
many of you have ever said,bless their heart, okay? Oh,
bless their heart. Bless that Ihad a little bit of passive, or
what I call pastoraggressiveness there. And I'd
say, bless their little heart.
Oh, tiny because you're so mean,right? But bless your heart.
Bless your heart. There issomething about blessing you
(27:56):
cannot exist. And here, can wejust say that being a Christian
is hard because it's gonna beanother hard you cannot be a
Christian unless you Bless thosewho persecute you scriptural,
which means that if you arestruggling with someone and
you're thinking of all thethings that they've wronged you
with, and how are you gonna talkto them about it and what they
deserve and how they have toearn their way back to you, and
you're like, Oh, but I loveJesus, and Jesus died on the
(28:17):
cross for me and forgave me ofmy sins, even though I walk away
constantly. But you, you gottaearn your way back to me every
step. Bless those who persecuteyou. Bless and do not curse
them. I love that because it'slike, I know it's gonna be
trouble. But also, do not cursethem. Like if you're throwing
curses. We need to have anotherconversation, right? That'd be
(28:38):
another level. But this blessingis very interesting. This
blessing language that happensin here. Do you know what the
word is in Greek? So cool. Youknow what the word is in Greek
to bless? Eulogy, eulogy, whichI think again, gives me two
times one I'm like, Yeah, I'mgonna bless you because
someone's gonna I'm gonna killyou, right? No, like, we all
(29:00):
have that in us a little bit,right? But it's not what it
means. I had some fun with thatin my head. You know what it
means? The word blessing andeulogy comes from two words it
means to speak good things. Sonot only bless them, but what
are you doing? I love whenScripture all comes together,
(29:24):
you're valuing them more thanyourself. Whoo. Do you see what
being a Christian is? Itpermeates all of your life in a
beautiful way.
And so people, when they look atChristians. They can say, Why?
Why would you? Why would youspeak good things of them. Look
(29:44):
what they did to you and howthey treated you. But it's not
about us. It's always been aboutGod. When we make it about us,
we don't want to bless, we wantto persecute, we want to judge.
We don't want to love, we wantyou to earn your way back. We.
It's about God. We understandthat's already been done for us.
So we get the opportunity tolove others, and that's our joy.
(30:07):
Now listen to this last part,verses 1718, and 19. Do not
repay anyone evil for evil, buttake thought for what is noble
in the sight of all if it ispossible, so far as it depends
on you. Live peaceably with allBeloved. Never avenge
yourselves, but leave room forthe wrath of God. For it is
written, Vengeance is mine, andI will repay, says the Lord. If
(30:32):
the Lord's vengeance is what'sgoing to happen? If I love
people, I'm good. If my my wayto go back into community is to
live peaceably with all as faras it depends on me. Do you know
what I'm going to seek? I'mgoing to seek peace. When you
seek peace, you are seeking thekingdom. Seek first, the kingdom
(30:58):
of God and all these things willbe added when you seek peace.
You are seeking the Kingdom. Itdoesn't say, seek to live
peaceably with all as far as itdepends on the other people in
your life. It says, as itdepends upon you. Being a
Christian means that we seekpeace. It means that we bless
(31:21):
our enemies. It means that wevalue people. It means that we
serve our neighbors in need,even though we're lost and we
need someone to serve us. Beinga Christian is counter cultural,
and it's beautiful. Being aChristian is what the world
needs right now, I believe thatthe church is the best example
(31:44):
of how the world should look,but it involves Christians going
out into the world to share whatit means to be a Christian. This
is what Paul shared in the bookof Romans, and these are the
marks of what it means to be aChristian. So my question for
you today, as you leave fromthis place, easy question, Who
are you going to value today,and who are you going to share
(32:08):
how you value them with as yougo back into the world. The
world needs your voice And allGod's people said, Amen, let us
pray, heavenly and graciousFather, we come before you today
knowing that we are broken, thatwe are lost, that it takes time
to seek you and know you andLord as we come together, we
(32:32):
know that we need to humbleourselves before you that's slow
to anger, but quick toobedience. Ah, it's beautiful,
but not just obedience,enthusiastic obedience. Lord,
our heart is to know that whenwe love it is genuine,
that we don't do things as theworld does, because neither did
(32:53):
you. You were in the world, butnot of the world. And so Lord, I
ask you to make that true in ourheart also, that we come
together in ways to know that wewill watch over the people
around us. We will lift them up.
We will serve them. We willbless our enemies,
and that in that Lord, we willbe faithful, and that we will be
(33:16):
known as Christians SoLord for the people in our lives
that have hurt us, that we arestruggling with right now, I ask
that you would send the Spiritto watch over our heart and that
we could have a moment where welift them up in prayer. And for
those who need to be served, Iwould ask that you would guide
us to them, that we would knowthe words to say of what and how
(33:38):
they need to be raised up tounderstand their relationship
with you. But most of all, Lord,let us understand our
relationship with you as we cometo know you as our Lord and
Savior, and we pray these thingsin your holy and precious name.
And all God's people said, Amen.
You guys enjoyed our series onRomans. So.
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