Living a Transformed Life Through Genuine Love and Service
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Sermon Summary
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"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." [00:00:33]
"The first is the simple word 'love.' That's the first, 'love.' The love that Paul says of ours is to be sincere, without hypocrisy. 'Authentic,' it's a keyword today. Those of you that work with youth know that the youth want authenticity. It's not a bad thing to require or ask for. It's what Paul says of this love." [00:02:04]
"We know that we love because we have first been loved. We know that this command and, in fact, all of these commands that follow are not like the ethical principles. As Paul is giving these principles here, they are no different than the style of the Greek philosophers who precede him, and the Roman philosophers who were his contemporaries." [00:04:10]
"Ethics in the end is who we are. You don't have to really do much hard work to cultivate a bad habit. If you want to cultivate the habit of sleeping in, for instance, it's a relatively easy habit to cultivate. If you want to grow weeds in your garden; it's a relatively easy thing to do." [00:05:48]
"Paul says, 'Abhor,' from the inner core of your being detest, to keep at arm's-length, to call it for what it is, 'Abhor what is evil.' But then, with all that same intensity and white-knuckling might, 'Hold fast to that which is good.' And the first century was a world where evil was called good, and good was called evil." [00:11:57]
"Outdo one another in showing honor. Now, I think Paul could have made things a little bit simplified if he simply said, 'Be humble.' But he worked it out this way, 'Trip over yourself,' 'Trip over yourself in putting up the other person.' 'Trip over yourself in setting aside your prerogatives, your rights, your entitlements so that the other person could have the clear path.'" [00:13:31]
"When discouragement overtakes the Christian, and fainting of spirit is the sequel, it is because the claims of the Lord's service have ceased to be uppermost in our thought. He's saying, we forget, we forget that we're servants called to serve the living God. And when we forget that, it's really easy to get discouraged and disappointed and maybe even disillusioned." [00:18:19]
"Polycarp is there in the arena, the Christians are behind him, the crowd is gathered in the amphitheater. And they tell him, 'Distance yourself from the Christians, say, 'Away with the atheists,'' because the Christians were called atheists, irony of ironies, because they denied the gods of the state. And so, all Polycarp had to do was turn to his fellow Christians, many of whom he served, and say to them, 'Away with you.'" [00:21:02]
"Murray said this, 'The believer must never have his horizon bounded by what is seen in temporal. If these first-century Christians had their horizon bounded by what was seen and what was temporal, they would not be a hopeful people. And if they're not a hopeful people, they would not be a joyful people.'" [00:25:48]
"Paul says very simply, 'Be constant in prayer.' How do you do this? You're not doing it right now because you're listening and you're not praying. What's going on here? Let's look to Luther for some help. He wrote a commentary on Romans too. Luther said there's two kinds of prayers; there's the vocal and the mental." [00:31:45]
"So, there are the vocal prayers and there is the prayer life, and Luther came out of the monastery where the whole day was marked by the hours. The whole day was marked by the prayers. The sun moved across the sky, you had your prayers to mark it. But he's talking about the soul's communion with God when he says, Paul says, 'Be constant in prayer.'" [00:33:46]
"Well, this list, these six things, this is what the transformed life looks like. This life of love, this life of service, this life of humility, this life of prayer, this is what the transformed life looks like. But at verse 13, I think we see a very practical outworking of this. And so, I want to see verse 13 as sort of the application of this." [00:35:56]
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"The first is the simple word 'love.' That's the first, 'love.' The love that Paul says of ours is to be sincere, without hypocrisy. 'Authentic,' it's a keyword today. Those of you that work with youth know that the youth want authenticity. It's not a bad thing to require or ask for. It's what Paul says of this love." [00:02:04]
"We know that we love because we have first been loved. We know that this command and, in fact, all of these commands that follow are not like the ethical principles. As Paul is giving these principles here, they are no different than the style of the Greek philosophers who precede him, and the Roman philosophers who were his contemporaries." [00:04:10]
"Ethics in the end is who we are. You don't have to really do much hard work to cultivate a bad habit. If you want to cultivate the habit of sleeping in, for instance, it's a relatively easy habit to cultivate. If you want to grow weeds in your garden; it's a relatively easy thing to do." [00:05:48]
"Paul says, 'Abhor,' from the inner core of your being detest, to keep at arm's-length, to call it for what it is, 'Abhor what is evil.' But then, with all that same intensity and white-knuckling might, 'Hold fast to that which is good.' And the first century was a world where evil was called good, and good was called evil." [00:11:57]
"Outdo one another in showing honor. Now, I think Paul could have made things a little bit simplified if he simply said, 'Be humble.' But he worked it out this way, 'Trip over yourself,' 'Trip over yourself in putting up the other person.' 'Trip over yourself in setting aside your prerogatives, your rights, your entitlements so that the other person could have the clear path.'" [00:13:31]
"When discouragement overtakes the Christian, and fainting of spirit is the sequel, it is because the claims of the Lord's service have ceased to be uppermost in our thought. He's saying, we forget, we forget that we're servants called to serve the living God. And when we forget that, it's really easy to get discouraged and disappointed and maybe even disillusioned." [00:18:19]
"Polycarp is there in the arena, the Christians are behind him, the crowd is gathered in the amphitheater. And they tell him, 'Distance yourself from the Christians, say, 'Away with the atheists,'' because the Christians were called atheists, irony of ironies, because they denied the gods of the state. And so, all Polycarp had to do was turn to his fellow Christians, many of whom he served, and say to them, 'Away with you.'" [00:21:02]
"Murray said this, 'The believer must never have his horizon bounded by what is seen in temporal. If these first-century Christians had their horizon bounded by what was seen and what was temporal, they would not be a hopeful people. And if they're not a hopeful people, they would not be a joyful people.'" [00:25:48]
"Paul says very simply, 'Be constant in prayer.' How do you do this? You're not doing it right now because you're listening and you're not praying. What's going on here? Let's look to Luther for some help. He wrote a commentary on Romans too. Luther said there's two kinds of prayers; there's the vocal and the mental." [00:31:45]
"So, there are the vocal prayers and there is the prayer life, and Luther came out of the monastery where the whole day was marked by the hours. The whole day was marked by the prayers. The sun moved across the sky, you had your prayers to mark it. But he's talking about the soul's communion with God when he says, Paul says, 'Be constant in prayer.'" [00:33:46]
"Well, this list, these six things, this is what the transformed life looks like. This life of love, this life of service, this life of humility, this life of prayer, this is what the transformed life looks like. But at verse 13, I think we see a very practical outworking of this. And so, I want to see verse 13 as sort of the application of this." [00:35:56]
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