Romans 12 -a Day in the Life of a Christian

Good afternoon, everyone. Give me a moment here to get the electronics set up.

It's nice to be back with all of you. After a few weeks, we were gone a couple of weeks ago for the winter family weekend out in Cincinnati and then out of town a couple of weeks ago with family for a short winter break and then was unconscious for the day. We had a very last weekend on the Sabbath. We came down with this cold that's been going around that's lingered a bit and basically just dove into bed for the day, which pretty much did the trick. So it's good to be back with everyone again. Hopefully everyone else will be getting back to full strength again pretty soon as well. A few weeks back, I was having a conversation after services with one of our newer members, and he made a suggestion to me and said, you know, it'd be great if sometimes somebody would give a sermon about a day in the life of a Christian. And I just kind of acknowledged it and filed it away and, to be honest with you, more or less forgot about it for a while. And I'd been working off and on over the course of the week on the sermon and kind of struggling to put something together, to be honest with you. So if any of you were praying about the sermon around 7.30 last night, I was spending a little time reading through the Bible and reading some passages when suddenly it kind of all came together for me. I was in Romans 12, and it struck me in a way that it hasn't before, that Romans 12, in many ways, lays out a day in the life of the Christian. And so I'd like to spend our time for the sermon today going through Romans 12 and considering it from that point of view, in case you haven't thought of it in that way before either. If you will, let's turn there, and we'll just go ahead and read through the whole chapter to begin with. And then we'll take our time going through the passage and see what it has to tell us. Romans 12, and we'll start in verse 1.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually, members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.

Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit and serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Distributing to the needs of the saints and given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.

Don't set up your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. And don't be wise in your own opinion. Repain no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So, as I was looking through this passage and reading through the chapter, it essentially breaks down, and probably in your Bible, with some of the headers there in most Bibles, it breaks down into three separate groupings or portions of the passage. And that's how I'd like to look at it today.

The first one, at least in my New King James Bible, was labeled Living Sacrifices to God. And we'll spend a little time there first talking about that, and how we deal with that on a day-to-day basis. Giving ourselves to God, so that we can be instruments working and having him work through us. Secondly, the header, again, that's in my Bible, is Serve God with Spiritual Gifts.

It talks about the way that we use the Spirit of God, and the unique way that he's helped us through his Spirit, and given us abilities to do things, and how we should use that on a day-to-day basis again, in serving God's people, in furthering his will. And then lastly, it goes through, in the longest part of the passage, behaving like a Christian. How it is, again, on a day-to-day basis, as we deal with members of the Church, our brethren, as we deal with our neighbors, and people that we're dealing with in the world around us, as we deal with difficulties, as we deal with conflicts, how it is that we go about doing that.

So I'd like to go through the passage in those three parts, and reflect a bit on how we live these words, and live what we see here in Romans 12, on a day-to-day basis, as Christians. So let's start in verses 1 and 2, again talking about our lives as being living sacrifices. In the Phillips translation of the Bible, this passage is translated a little bit differently, and I think it gives an interesting additional element to the way that it's worded.

It starts out, with eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him, and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands, and moves towards the goal of full maturity. So, if we think about that, there's really a lot written here, and I'd like to spend a while actually going through and taking apart the different portions of this passage, because it's saying a lot in terms of putting our lives before God, having his spirit, using his spirit, and having it transform us and change our lives.

Let's think first about this idea, and what's put here, if we go back to the New King James, the idea of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, and also the renewing of our mind. The analogy that's being made here in terms of presenting a living sacrifice, people in that day and age would have been very familiar with sacrifices made at the temple. At the time Romans was written, people would have still been extremely familiar with temple sacrifice, what the Levites would have done.

As we know, there are countless instructions made in the Old Testament about how offerings are to be brought before God. Among those rules are things about the types of animals that are to be brought before God as offerings. If you recall, one of the things is that the animals are supposed to be pure and without blemish.

So as people were to bring offerings before God, they weren't supposed to take the smallest, the runt of the litter, the lame animal, the one that wasn't good for anything. And well, I can't really use that one for anything anyway, so I'll just go ahead and offer that to God because it's of no use to me. But rather, they were supposed to take those that were without blemish, perfect, strong, and bring those to God, bringing the best that they had before Him.

And that's a symbol, really, and as is being pointed out here in this passage, is we're bringing ourselves before God as an offering, the same type of thought. Similarly, the ones bringing the offering in the Old Testament had to go through very careful rituals and procedures before they were to bring the offering before God. If you recall some of the things that you might have read in Leviticus, for example, the way that they would wash themselves, to be completely clean before God, before they went into Him, and they would put on the white priestly garments, white linen robes, again, extremely clean.

And when you think about it, when these laws were first given and they were actually out in the wilderness, how difficult it must have been, wandering through the wilderness with the dirt and sand, certainly, that was there. And even in those conditions, they were asked to come before God with white garments, clean and pure, again, bringing a perfect sacrifice to Him.

So when it talks here in the first verse about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice that's holy and acceptable to God, it's making an illusion, a reference to this and the different rules that were there for the sacrifices, the purity, the perfectness, giving the best that there is to God. And we're supposed to come before Him in the same way, giving Him our best, giving Him our strongest, not giving Him our leftovers that we can't do anything else with. So we think about our daily lives and interacting with God and putting ourselves before Him.

To me, it brings out certain things that we should think about in that regard, in terms of coming before Him with a fresh mind, with a focus, not coming to Him at a point in our day when we're distracted and thinking about everything else and just making a few extra minutes for God to say a quick prayer, to take in a quick verse or two of Scripture on the run when we have other, more important things to do the rest of the day.

To what extent do we bring the best part of our day to Him? Now, we're all different as human beings, right? Some of us are better and fresher in the mornings, some of us are better in the evenings, after we've gotten everything done and out of the way. But what part of the day do we bring to Him? How strong and perfect is our sacrifice and what we present before Him as we seek to take in His Word and be strengthened by Him?

Turn with me, if you will, as well to Psalm 51. Again, talking about the references here to sacrifices and what we see in verse 1, the analogy of bringing ourselves as a sacrifice before God. Because we know, and David knew at this time in Psalm 51 already, that even the physical sacrifices that were brought, the ultimate point of those were not the idea of bringing an animal and taking the life of an animal and burning it in sacrifice before God. There was something bigger that he was after. Psalm 51, we'll read verses 16 and 17. And here, David said, in his Psalm of repentance to God, You don't desire sacrifice, or else I would give it to you.

You don't delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. So, broadening it out, and especially, you know, this was written at a point in time when there was a Levitical system in place. There were priests. They didn't have the temple built yet at the time of David, but there were priests there. And even at that point in time, David had the spiritual insight and understanding to come before God and recognize the fact that it wasn't the sacrifice itself, this animal, that God wanted.

God was after a change in heart. A broken and a contrite heart is the way that David said it. So, as we think of bringing ourselves before God as living sacrifices, what is it that we bring within our hearts when we come before Him? That's the ultimate goal of the Old Testament sacrificial system. It's the ultimate goal of what He's looking for from us as Christians, as people who are bearing His Spirit. But that Spirit is working within us through the forgiveness and the grace that we've been granted, that we're coming before Him and offering our hearts and our minds and the fullness of our strength to Him in order to do His way and sacrificing our own lives and the things, the goals, the desires, and the things that we might have in front of us, and putting Him first and laying out our lives before Him to say, God, I want you to do what you can do with my life first and foremost.

Turn with me to Jeremiah 31. It is also laid out in the Old Testament by Jeremiah as he was foretelling the time when Jesus Christ would come, and the changes that would take place in the way that people would live God's way, and how it was going to be a time focused not just on keeping a set of laws that was given, but again, on a change in the heart. Jeremiah 31, and we'll read verses 31 through 33. Here Jeremiah foretells, he says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant that they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, I'll write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. So this is again what's being referred to. So when Jeremiah was speaking and talking about the new covenant, he was talking about the relationship that we could and would have with God after Jesus Christ came, after he gave his life, after the Holy Spirit came, to work within our minds and our hearts in a way that, under the old covenant, under the system given to the children of Israel, could not happen.

The old covenant brought forth and showed the mind of God in terms of the laws that were laid down, but the ability for the Holy Spirit to come into a person and work with a person, like it can under the new covenant, was not there. And so again, as we think here about coming before God and presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice that's holy and acceptable to him, what we read about here in Jeremiah 31 is what's being talked about.

This new mind, this new heart, this converted point of view that can come through God's Holy Spirit that's working within us. That's what he wants us to bring forward to him on a daily basis. As we're acknowledging him, we're acknowledging his spirit working within us, his purpose that should be higher than our own purposes in our lives, and we're bringing that before him and asking him every day to renew us in that.

Every day bringing our lives and our minds and our hearts before him again to renew that commitment to him and to doing his way of life. Turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews 9. We'll continue on this analogy or this symbol that's being given of the offerings, because I think it's very powerful and it's very strong.

When we think about this background that people would have understood when they heard these words and the culture that they had grown up with in this time, there's a lot that this would have meant to them. This is expanding things out, as we think now in verse 1, about the mercies of God as well.

The way that the sentence here is laid out in the beginning of this chapter, I think, is also very important because it talks about Paul beseeching us by the mercies of God that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. So we can't present our bodies as a living sacrifice on our own accord. We can't come unto God unless God has called us and drawn us to him. Let's read about that a little bit more in Hebrews 9. Because again, when we're thinking about the Old Testament sacrificial system, those offerings had to be offered and given day after day after day, and they would absolve, they would cleanse the people symbolically of their sins, their transgressions before God.

But the next day, another sacrifice would have to be given, and on and on and on, that cycle would go. But what's it like for us? Is there an ongoing sacrifice that has to be made? Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9. And Hebrews is very interesting, these passages, in the ways that it contrasts the old sacrificial system and what's come in through Jesus Christ and the new way that comes through him.

In this passage, starting in verse 24, it points out, again, talking about the Old Testament temple, For Christ, it says in verse 24, has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God before us. So it's starting out saying, look, everything that was built on earth, the temple, the holy of holies, was made to be a pattern, a physical likeness of what's up in heaven.

It's not the real thing. It was a physical likeness that was made in order to give mankind an idea and build that image and that approach of coming before God. But there is a real heaven. There is a real throne of God, and Jesus Christ has actually gone there. Not into some man-made likeness of it, not into some symbol of it, but directly there, in the presence of God for us.

In verse 25, not that he should offer himself often, so unlike the sacrifices that they offered back in the Old Testament, not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. Here it's referring to the offering that was made annually on the Day of Atonement, where the high priest would go into the holy of holies and offer in that holy of holies on behalf of the people. It says then, in verse 26, Jesus then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed for men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly await for him, he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. So what it is pointing out here is that it's through Jesus Christ, through his sacrifice, and as we focus on that on a day by day basis, and we remember that that one single sacrifice was given for us, we on a daily basis then can come before God, renew our commitment that comes through that sacrifice, ask God to extend to us the forgiveness of our sins, not that we have to offer a fresh sacrifice, but we come before, we simply ask through that sacrifice of Jesus Christ that's been given for the forgiveness of our sins.

And it's that that allows us to come before him as a living sacrifice, to be holy and acceptable to him.

Let's read one more passage talking about this in the mercies of God, and we'll go earlier in Romans, and we'll read Romans 8, verses 1 through 11. Romans 8, verses 1 through 11. So Paul is referring here in this first verse back to things that he's already spoken about or written about in this book of Romans, and Romans is full of description and understanding in the chapters coming up to this about the mercies that God has set forth and the things that he's done.

Here in Romans 8 is an area that I think is most closely related and most pointed in that way. Romans 8, we'll read verses 1 through 11. Again, talking about what it is that enables us to come before God and offer ourselves as a sacrifice and to do something through that. Romans 8 and verse 1. There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

So what's being said here is that as we're taking on, as we're given that sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we take that on as we focus ourselves, again like it says in Romans 12. 1 here, in setting ourselves before God and walking along his path through Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he gave, even though we sin, even though we have weaknesses, we are forgiven of those, we're washed clean of those.

It doesn't say there's no such thing as sin. It doesn't say that sin doesn't matter. But it says that by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as we come daily before God and we renew our commitment, we ask for that forgiveness to come from us, those sins are not accounted to us. But grace, we're able to walk as righteous people before him and fulfill his will.

Verse 5 builds on this, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's an opposition to God. For it's not subject to the law of God, nor can it indeed be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, which dwells in you. So the mercies of God, as we think about that, a quick phrase in the first verse of this chapter, but there's so much that it means.

And there's so much that enables, because it's through those mercies of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit that he gives us, through our ability to walk in that Spirit and in a forgiven and justified state, that we're able to bring ourselves before God as a living sacrifice, that we're able to be holy and acceptable to God, and move forward in our lives being transformed. Let's focus for a moment on another word here, and that's the second word of the chapter, Beseech.

The word Beseech. It's not really a word that we use these days. You know, I don't walk into the house at the end of the day and say, I beseech thee, my wife, that we might have dinner together tonight. Just maybe some of you say that. I don't happen to say it. It's not really a word that we use, right?

But in the old English, the idea of beseeching goes well beyond asking. It's not Paul saying, hey, you know, hey, give this a thought. Try doing it sometime. When you're beseeching somebody, you're asking them earnestly and eagerly with importance and intensity to do something. He's telling us in this letter, and he's telling the Romans that he wrote it to, that he wrote it to, this is something incredibly important. They need to focus on it. They need to think about the importance of it.

They need to have intensity. And he feels strongly about the fact that they need to do this, presenting themselves before God as a holy and acceptable sacrifice. It also carries some implication with it. And the implication is that we have the ability to do it. Paul would not have beseeched the Romans or us to do these things if it was not possible to do it.

Now, back then, there were all of these different types of philosophies about how the flesh is inherently evil, and the mind is good in different ways of the mind versus the flesh. The point that was coming across here, though, is the fact that we have control over our bodies. We have control over what we do and how we act in our lives. Paul would not have said that he beseeches us to act in a certain way if we don't have the ability to do that.

God wouldn't have inspired him to do that. It reminds me a lot of an appeal that was made back in Deuteronomy, again, to the children of Israel. We'll turn to Deuteronomy 30.

Deuteronomy 30, and we'll read verse 19. This is a fairly well-known passage that often talks about the blessings and cursings. It lays out a whole lot of ways for the Old Testament people of Israel, the ways that they could put their lives and their ways into God's hands and be blessed for that, or if they forgot about God and went after their own ways, that they would be cursed for doing that. It starts to come to a point in a wrap-up in verse 19, that the Lord would be cursed for doing that. It starts to come to a point in a wrap-up in verse 19, and it starts to come to a point in a wrap-up in verse 19, here, of Deuteronomy 30. And here it's written, I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. So you get to see when those words were being spoken, how that would be an act of beseeching, laying before the children of Israel in this case, saying, look, you're not going to be blessed for this. You've been given all of these things. There are different ways that you can go. It might be the same way that we talk with a child or a close friend, when we see them at a difficult crossroads in their lives. We say, look, you've got a decision to make, right? You can make this decision, and it's going to end in cataclysm. It's going to cause you all kinds of trouble. You can make the other decision, and it might be tough on you today, but it's going to take you in the right direction. And we beseech those people, right? When we're in those situations, and we say, look, make the right choice. Choose life. Choose the thing that's going to bring you good, even though it might mean difficulty, might mean heartache, might mean a lot of hard work in the near term. I think especially as older people see children or grandchildren or other members of the younger generation, nieces and nephews, go through decisions, it's a lot easier to see in the rear-view mirror, right? As people are making decisions in the next generation. And we try to bring those things before the next generation. And we try to bring those things before them and say, look, choose the right thing. Make the right decision here because it's going to lead you on a better path through the rest of your life. That's the feel, that's the emotion that's behind this idea of Paul writing, I beseech you. We have a choice. We have a choice every day. Do we bring ourselves before God? Do we set ourselves before God and say, God, I rededicate myself to you. Forgive me. Lead me in your way. Take my life as a sacrifice and use it. Or do we decide not to do that because we're a little bit too busy or we got up a little late or whatever the case might be. Those are decisions that we have to make on a day-to-day basis as we bring ourselves before Him.

Let's look finally in verse 2, and I promise we'll move a little faster than this through the rest of the chapter. For those of you who do math, if we move at this pace, we might be done by 5 or 6 this evening. Verse 2 of Romans 12 says, Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I think this is something that's well known to us that we need to, on a day-to-day basis, look at the things that are happening in our lives, the things that are coming through our minds, the things that we're exposed to. And it's easy, if we're not careful, if we're not conscious about it, to simply take in the things that are coming, and I don't know about you, but I can tell, when I read certain things, when I'm watching things on television, when I have things coming at me on the radio or wherever else, it starts to impact your mind. The things you think about are a product of the things that you take into your mind. And so we have to be careful, we have to be conscious about the things that are coming in, so that we're not conforming to all of those inputs that might just be randomly coming into our heads, but rather that we're deliberately taking in things that are going to transform our viewpoint, make us think and act and be different than the world that's going on around us. Turn with me, if you will, to Galatians 2, and we'll read verse 20 of Galatians 2. In Galatians, Paul uses some very stark language when he talks about this. He talks about a life and death type of a situation, when he talks about the transformation that happens in the life of someone who becomes a Christian. Galatians 2 and verse 20.

Here Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ, so it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. In other places, he talks about the old man being dead and buried, and a new man having risen up out of baptism. And so the analogy here is of a new life, a new life to the point where the analogy of life and death, actually having died to our old life and been resurrected to a new life through baptism, is the analogy that's used. So when we think about transforming and renewing our minds and not conforming, we think about this analogy, and even how strongly Paul has put it in terms of life and death, that the way that we used to live, as we simply took in the inputs that were around us and lived the way that everyone else around us did, that life is gone. It's so far gone, it's as though we died to that life, and we don't exist in that life anymore, and we live in an entirely new life as we move forward. So in wrapping up this first section, thinking about it again in the context of a day in the life of a Christian, to me, this first part of Romans, these first couple verses, talks about and has us realize on a daily basis, do we bring ourselves forward before God? Do we first of all recognize the mercies that He's given to us? The sacrifice that's been given for us by Jesus Christ, the fact that it takes us away from our sins, it takes us out of our old life, all of the old things that we did, and through that we can offer ourselves every day to God as a living sacrifice, as someone who will work His ways as His Holy Spirit is living in us, and we can put ourselves before Him in that way every day and recommit ourselves to living a life that's a new life and a different life in Him.

Let's go on to the second section of Romans 12. This talks about serving God with spiritual gifts. To me, this section is very instructional because of the way that it goes at the discussion, because it doesn't talk first about spiritual gifts. Instead, it starts first about a principle that's really, I would say, a guiding principle or as an underpinning of how it needs to be looked at, and that is humility. In one of the commentaries that I was reading through a bit, it made a statement that I thought was very good, which is that spiritual giftedness does not equal spiritual maturity.

I thought that was a really good way to put it. Spiritual giftedness does not equal spiritual maturity. Two different things. The best way that I could liken that would be to athletics. I think we can say when we look these days at professional athletes that athletic giftedness does not equal emotional maturity.

It does not necessarily equal the right way to live. We see this played out. I think of one football player who showed up at a nightclub a few years ago with a loaded gun in his pocket and shot himself in the leg. Probably one of the best people in the world at catching a ball while 250-pound cornerbacks or linebackers were about to hurdle them into the turf. But when it came to making wise decisions about carrying firearms and not shooting yourself in the process, he wasn't quite as good at that. In fact, I think he ended up in prison for a year for that.

We've lived through our own experiences here in Cleveland, with talented young football players who come in very good at throwing a ball and running, but not so good at the overall skills of dealing with life. Whether it's dealing with substance abuse, whether it's dealing with destructive relationships with the opposite sex, even just showing up at practice in the morning, doesn't equate. But in the same way that we see it played out with professional athletes, as well in our spiritual lives, simply having spiritual gifts or abilities that are given to us by God's Spirit doesn't mean that we're mature. And we have to think about those things first.

And that's why, to me, it's very instructional that this entire discussion that comes later about spiritual gifts is started off by a discussion about humility. Because it's when that mindset of humility and that context of how it is that we relate to other people within the body, it's when that's in the forefront of our mind, that everything else falls into place and is used properly.

Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians 2, verses 1-8. The passage here that I'm talking about in Romans 12 is verse 3, where it says, Philippians 2, verses 1-8, lays out Jesus Christ again as an example that we should look to for this attitude. Philippians 2, verse 1, Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.

Taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of man, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So how amazing is that? We don't always think about it, necessarily, but as we read through some of the passages in the Gospels, and we read about the Pharisees, for example, coming to Jesus Christ and accusing him of being a blasphemer, accusing him of being a son of Satan because of the things that he was saying, imagine you're walking the earth, you're God. You are God in the flesh. And these human beings that you created, who are caught up in this tiny construct of their rules and regulations that they had set up, and focused on staying in power within those rules and regulations, come and tell you that you're a son of Satan.

Imagine how that felt to Jesus Christ. Would we have the emotional control to deal with that constructively like Jesus Christ did? I would imagine I probably wouldn't, especially if I had the ability to call down lightning from heaven. But he did, and he had complete control, and he took that, and that was he knew all of that that he was going to get into. And at the end of the day, those people would even kill him and take his life, and he was willing to lay all of those things down.

And for one reason, and that was his love and his care for all of the children that he was going to call, that God was going to call, and he was willing to do that. That same attitude, that same mindset, that same willingness of humility, and to have things taken from us, and to be thought of differently, were all things that he was willing to take on. Because he had that level of humility, and had that love that he was showing.

Matthew 23, let's turn there for the same type of concept. Matthew 23, and we'll read verses 9 through 12.

Matthew 23, verses 9 through 12.

Verse 9 reads, Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father who is in heaven. And don't be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. So what he's saying is don't take on grandiose titles to the disciples. You don't need to be called something special. You don't need everyone, when you're walking down the street, saying, Oh, here comes the great teacher, here comes the great teacher, the father of us all.

Don't worry about those things. He who is greatest among you, though, in verse 11, should be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So again, coming back to this theme that we see here in Romans 12, leading into a discussion about spiritual gifts, is this essential quality of being humble. And realizing that things that are given to us through God's Spirit are given to edify other people, to help people within the body of Christ, and to further the work that Jesus Christ is doing here on earth through his church.

It's important, then, foundationally, to recognize as human beings, we all have the same worth before God. We're all creations of God. Regardless of whatever different physical attributes or belongings or anything else that we might use to draw differences between ourselves, we are essentially equal and of the same worth before God.

It doesn't mean we're all the same. God gives us different gifts and abilities through his Spirit. But in terms of our worth, we absolutely, 100%, are the same. A quick humorous anecdote here when we think about this, in terms of things being the same and different. I think nowadays we often tend to get wrapped up in things. Everyone should be equal, everything should be equal, differences aren't important. There was a lot of these differences can come into play when you deal across cultures and language. I just wanted to read you a few humorous anecdotes that came out from something known as the Chevy Nova Award. Is anyone familiar with the Chevy Nova Award?

So this is a marketing award that's given out. And the reason it's called the Chevy Nova Award is because in Spanish, nova means doesn't go. Back in the day, Chevy tried to take the Chevy Nova and market it in Mexico under the same name that was used here in the United States. And shockingly, people were not willing to buy a car that had the name doesn't go.

Who knows? So this is an award that goes to a few of the ad slogans that just completely missed the mark because of language. Coors Beer. Coors put its slogan, turn it loose, into Spanish where it was read as suffer from diarrhea. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign. Nothing sucks like an Electrolux. Cleral introduced the mist stick, a curling iron with a name that translates in German into manure. I don't know, ladies, why wouldn't you want to use the manure stick before you're going out for a nice dinner? When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S.

with a smiling baby on the label. Later, they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside since many people can't read. A little grisly, unless you think about it. An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of, I saw the Pope, which refers to El Papa in Spanish, the shirts read, I saw the potato because they used the word la papa.

Two more here. Pepsi's Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation translated into Pepsi brings back your ancestors from the grave in Chinese. And lastly, when American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first-class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its Fly in Leather campaign literally, which meant Fly Naked in Spanish. Alright, back to the topic. So let's look at verses 4 and 5 then, as we're talking about spiritual gifts. Even though things might seem to be the same, and we are in so many ways the same, we are also different in that God has given us each different gifts, different personalities, different ways that we can contribute within the Church.

So in verse 4 and 5 it talks about us being many members in one body, but the members don't have the same function. And so we being many are one body in Christ, individually members of one another.

What I like here is it lays out this idea of interconnectedness. And you'll turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12 dives even deeper into this with the analogy of a body and how different the different parts of a body are, but they work in an interconnected way that makes everything work smoothly. 1 Corinthians 12, we'll start in verse 4.

And there are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. So there are different things that are going on in the body, different things that different individuals and different parts of the body do, but it's God that works through all of it. And in verse 11, For by one spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, and we've all been made to drink into one spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body, is it not, therefore, of the body? And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body was an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He pleased. So this interconnectedness, the functioning, and I think the body is a great and perfect example for what God is trying to get across here. Because all of the different parts and pieces, when they work together in harmony, can do incredible things. When you look, I don't know if you're a track and field fan, you look at a high jumper, right?

The way that a high jumper runs across, loops towards the bar, is able to hurdle him or herself up in the air and clear a bar. And I don't even know what the record is these days in the high jump, but it's probably six, seven feet, maybe even more than that. And it's amazing, all those parts of the body working together, both hands, the way those hands come back and the back arches to clear, to get, first of all, off the ground and arching the back to get over the bar. And then getting the feet over at the very end before hitting the bar. All of the coordination, all of the work that has to go into that.

You can't do that with one arm. We have the Paralympics, but when people try to do that with a single arm, they're not able to get the same type of momentum, they're not able to get the same type of fluid motion to get up and over the bar. Because with one arm, the body is off kilter, the amount of momentum that you can get throwing your arms back differs, and it all changes. Sometimes it's even simple things. If you're a football fan like I am, players go down with things like turf toe.

I'm not even entirely sure what turf toe is, but it's an irritation, one of the small toes, where you can't run. To the point where you've got big, burly, 300-pound guys who could take any one of us and put us through a wall, and they can't go out there and play a football game because of their toe.

The body works together. All of those pieces have to work to be high performance, and they work in their different functions. And it's that interconnectedness that God's talking about. I find it incredibly encouraging what 1 Corinthians 12, verse 18 says, and that is that God has set the members, each one of them in the body, as He pleases.

And isn't that exciting, as we're each sitting in our spot, pretty much our reserved spot these days, I guess, right? We all sit in the same place. He's not saying He's placed us in the individual pew where you're sitting. He's saying something much more profound, isn't he? Every one of us is here by God's calling because we have something unique to offer to this congregation, to people who are going to come into contact with this congregation, to moving the work of God forward.

Do each of us feel that way? Do we understand that? Do we think about that every day as we come before God? Why are you here? Each one of us is here because God has called us and He's placed us here, and He hasn't placed us here for some just futile reason, right? You'd look good in a pew, so I'm going to call you into the church because we've got an empty slot over there that we need to fill.

It's much deeper than that. We all have a function, and that's what we need to do, is continue to think about, pray to God, and look at what our functions are, what do we have to offer within the body? And then when we come, as we interact with people, that we're doing that actively. We're making ourselves part of the body, we're becoming part of it, we're reaching out to others, and that we're learning and understanding more about them, as well as what it is that we have to offer. None of us are here by accident. Otherwise, what it says here in 1 Corinthians is untrue.

And I believe it's true. God says He places all of us, whether old or young, whether fit or struggling with illnesses, whatever it is, He places us here, He has placed us here for a reason. And we can all take encouragement that we have a function that we perform within the body. Now, within that backdrop, verses 6 through 8, talk about some of the individual gifts that are given. And I'm actually not going to spend much time on that today, because that's not really the purpose. But He talks about there being gifts of prophecy, or in this case, what it really means is not so much foretelling the future, as we might think, but it talks about inspired teaching or preaching.

It talks about ministry, or serving, simply helping people and serving them. It talks about teaching. It talks about exhortation. Some of us are incredibly good at just sitting down one-to-one with people and encouraging, exhorting them, and motivating them to continue doing what's right. It talks about giving, the physical needs that people have. Some of us are very good at giving and helping to meet those needs.

It talks about leading. It talks about showing mercy. All of these different functions. But the one thing I want to focus on is the common denominator that goes with each one of these gifts, is to do it. Right? If we read through each one of these gifts, right? If it's prophecy, then prophesy and do it in proportion with your faith. If it's ministry, use it in ministry.

If it's teaching and teaching. If it's giving, do it with liberality. If you're leading, do it and do it with diligence. If you're showing mercy, do it and do it with cheerfulness. There's action involved in each one of these things. And so as we wrap this whole thing back into this idea of the day and the life of the Christian, to me it brings out a powerful thing that we need to think about.

Not only living each day with an attitude of humility and understanding that it's God who gives us the things that we have, and He gives them to us so we can pass them along and use them to edify the body. But it's also the idea that we need to continue to dwell on the connectivity with the church and with our brethren. On a daily basis. I think we know intellectually we show up here every week for church, but being a Christian is an everyday vocation. And I know one of the pieces I need to challenge myself on as well is, do I use the things that I've been given on a daily basis to make a difference within the congregation?

Some of you out there are fantastic at this sort of thing. Sending out cards, emails, even text messages. Simple things like text messages on a day-to-day basis to others. And the encouragement that you bring, the connectedness that you drive by doing those things, are absolutely fantastic. And I know when I receive them, it's a special thing. And it is encouraging. And I know when I look at my own life, I have to ask myself, on a day-to-day basis, do I do enough on an everyday basis, in the everyday of my life as a Christian, to continue to drive that connectedness, that health, and that strength of our congregation, and of God's people around the world?

So as we think about this section, that's what I'd like to leave you with, in terms of using those gifts on a daily basis, and making sure that we're adding to the body of Christ, fulfilling our function that we were placed here in the body to do on a daily basis. Let's look at the last section, then, which in my Bible is titled, Behave Like a Christian.

Verses 9 through 13 of this section talk about our behavior towards, essentially, other members of the church, other believers. It talks about love being without hypocrisy, abhorring what is evil and clinging what is good, being affectionate towards others, giving preference to one another, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, steadfast in prayer, and distributing to the needs of the saints, and being given to hospitality. So again, we think about our day-to-day walk. What it's saying is, as we're dealing with people who are within the church, there are these qualities that we should be putting forward. I'm not going to dwell on a lot of these points, because I think these are well understood, and things that we know about, but let me turn to one passage in Matthew 10.

In talking about the idea of abhorring what is evil and clinging to what's good. Again, as we think of sort of the daily process. Matthew 10 and verse 16. This was an instruction that Jesus Christ gave to his disciples as he was sending them out to preach the Word. And he was told them there in Matthew 10, verse 16, as they're going out into the world, he says, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. I haven't spent a lot of time with sheep, or with wolves for that matter. Maybe a few of you were raised by wolves, probably not. But sheep in the midst of wolves are targets, right? Wolves would call that a target rich environment. And so what Jesus Christ was telling the disciples was, look, I'm sending you out into a bad and a dangerous world. Not only bad and dangerous, but wolves prey on people. They travel as packs, they prey on sheep, helpless animals, and they work together to destroy them. And so he said, as a result of that, be wise as serpents and be harmless as doves. And that's really what I think about when I read the idea of abhorring what is evil and clinging to what's good. That verb clinging, another one sort of like beseech, right, that carries a lot with it. And I think of children, for example. When we were on vacation, we went and we had a chance to go swim with dolphins. And there was a family there that had this little girl, and she must have been like 18 months old. And these dolphins had to look like sea monsters to this little girl, because whenever the dolphin came around, the girl would just literally cling to the mother and scream. And this dolphin would come, and everyone else is saying, oh, it's so cute. Look, it's opening its mouth. You see all the teeth. And I can just think what this 18-year-old, 18-month-old girl is thinking, as this sea monster is coming and opening its mouth with all these teeth, right? When we think of clinging, of whoring what's evil and clinging to what's good, let me tell you, this little girl was clinging to her mother when this dolphin was coming and opening its mouth with all these teeth. That's what the Bible is telling us to do here. Cling to what's good. Don't sort of have a thumb and a forefinger and pinch a little bit of the garment of mom or dad as you're following through the crowd. You cling. You hold on tight. That takes daily effort. It takes daily focus to do that. Excuse me. Let's look at verses 12 and 13, which focuses on some other actions to take. Rejoicing and hope, and patient and tribulation. Hope comes first in this. And that is something that I find really instructive here as an example as well. In the Bible, whatever hope is talked about, it's hope in a specific direction. The direction is the resurrection. It's Jesus Christ, the fact that he was resurrected from the dead, and he comes to bring a similar reward to us. And hope, if you look at all the different places it's used, especially in the New Testament, is always associated in that direction of our ultimate reward and eternal life that's coming for us. And that's how we have the power to deal with patience and tribulation. Because that hope comes first. We understand what it is that God has as his reward for us. We understand where it is that our life is going. And on a daily basis, as we're buffeted by trials, and as difficulties come through, it's that hope that we can cling to that lets us be patient within those trials.

And then as we move down through verses 14, we deal with passages in verse 14, especially down in verse 15, more generally in terms of how we deal with people overall. Not just our brothers and sisters within the church, but the world as a whole.

In verse 15 on, talking about rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, not setting our mind on high things but associated with the humble, not repaying evil for evil, not being vengeful, and looking out for people who need, who have needs. If your enemy, even your enemy is thirsty or hungry, give them drink or food. It's interesting today in this world, you know, so often now, people are just looking for someone who's decent. It's a sad state of affairs, but just having a neighbor who's a decent, good person is a great asset, isn't it? People who are able to live with these qualities.

We won't turn to Galatians 5. I think we're familiar with the fruits of the spirit that are laid out in Galatians 5, 22 and 23. And I always thought it was interesting, at the end of the fruits of the spirit, when I was memorizing as a little kid, I'd always memorize, and against such there is no law. My mom had to tell me one day, that's not a fruit of the spirit, that's just a statement that comes at the end.

But, you know, it goes through. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, peacefulness, all of the others. And then it says at the end of all of that, against such there is no law. You're not going to find, well, maybe you'll find one or two countries in the world, where joy about certain things might be against the law, right? But you're not going to find laws written in the books that say, don't be a joyful person, don't be a peacemaker, right?

Don't have goodness as an essential quality that you have. These things that were given by God's Spirit, we are given these things, these fruits, the ability to generate those fruits, we're given those things by the Spirit. And we should manifest those. And as we manifest those, those bring light to the world around us.

As we go to our workplaces, as we're in our neighborhoods, as we function simply as Christians, and showing these attributes of God's Spirit, there's no law against those. People are looking for them. And they can give us an ability to be a witness, an example for God and for Jesus Christ. And they can also help us to be successful in the things that we're doing on a day-to-day basis, whether it's at work, in our neighborhoods, and other places. How often are we in situations where people say, I simply want somebody who does a decent job and can get along with the people around them. It doesn't sound so complicated, but in today's world, that can become a rare commodity.

Simply somebody who can get along with the people around them and take responsibility about doing a good job. We're given those abilities. We're given those attributes and those fruits by God's Spirit. So as we wrap up, hopefully, maybe some of you are a little puzzled going into this about how Romans 12 could have anything to do with the day and life of a Christian. But this last section, I think we can see again how, as we go about living our day-to-day life, all of the things that we do, the qualities that come out, the way that we treat people, are laid out here in this latter part of Romans 12.

So as we think of living our day-to-day lives as a Christian, I'd like to encourage everyone, go back to Romans 12. Spend some time. As you can see, there's a lot of depth here. We've only skimmed through sections of this. This is something I think that could easily make something that you could dig into and study for a week, if not more, and really taking apart what's in here. But in the first section, presenting ourselves every day before God is a living sacrifice. Acknowledging and thanking God for the sacrifice He's given, claiming that forgiveness from our sins that comes through Jesus Christ, rededicating our lives to serving Him.

In the second section, talking about the spiritual gifts that we're given. Having humility, but also taking in that every day we need to use the things that God has given us to enrich our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ and serve the congregation. Finding ways every day of the week to strengthen those bonds that God has given us. And then lastly, behaving like a Christian, dealing on a day-to-day basis with the people that we deal with, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, in a way that shows God's Spirit in His way of life.

I think Romans 12 can help to continue to power us forward in living good productive daily Christian lives. Have a great Sabbath.