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Romans 12 verses 9 through 13 is a section of Scripture commonly referred to as marks of the true
Christian. For those of us who have been transformed in Christ, what does that now look like in the life of a believer when we understand the text?
This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. All right, so the book Forty Mormon Beliefs and What the
Bible Says is apparently not a May 31st publication. It is a June 1st publication.
It never ended up online yesterday, but it will be there today. It's not on the website yet, at least as of this recording, but it will get there on June 1st.
You can check out our website, www .utt .com, click on the bookstore link and you will find the book there at some point today.
And not only is the book going to educate you about what the Mormons believe, but it also educates you as to how to respond biblically to a number of false beliefs, not just from Mormonism, but there's a number of apostolic and charismatic teachings that sound very similar to things that the
Mormons believe. And so knowing how to respond to those things and what the scriptures are that give you the sound response to some of those false claims, that's in the book.
So I hope that it is encouraging to you, edifying also Forty Mormon Beliefs and What the
Bible Says, again available at www .utt .com. Romans chapter 12 is where we are at again today.
Let's look at verses 9 through 13 and then pick up where we left off yesterday. Let love be genuine.
Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another by showing honor. 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.
All right, so coming back to verse 9, which we talked about on Monday, let love be genuine.
We're not fake with one another. We're real. When you ask a person how they're doing, you are genuinely interested in how they are.
Genuinely. Did I say generally? Genuinely interested in how they're doing and be prepared that the response that comes from them might not be, oh,
I'm doing good, you know, just a casual whatever and then moving on. But have an opportunity to be able to hear another person's heart, to share with one another, to pray with that person.
If you say to a person, I'll pray for you, don't just say it and walk away. Take the time right there on the spot to pray for that person.
May we show genuine love with one another in the body of Christ. We are to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good, promoting the good things, having nothing to do with the bad things.
Love one another with brotherly affection. We treat one another in the body of Christ with a special kind of love, like you would show one of your own siblings.
There's something unique about the love that you share between your brothers and sisters by blood, right?
So it should be the same with those who are brothers and sisters by the blood of Christ.
There's a unique love that we show with one another, a brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor, which we talked about yesterday.
That means that we're not just loving one another according to the measure of love that they have given to us.
Not paying this for that, all right? But we are just pouring out love and grace and forgiveness on one another, not according to any particular measure.
It's just love, man, all right? Matthew 7 .12, sorry for sounding so hippie there.
Whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
As Christ has loved us abundantly, so we need to love one another abundantly. And so here we are today in verse 11.
Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Now what do these words mean?
Well, zeal means fervor for a cause. And it's truly a desire to see the activism for that cause come to fruition.
So you're not just doing something for the sake of doing it or trying to find a hobby or a passion to get behind, but you truly want to see that thing that you're passionate about happen.
You want to see it come to be, okay? So let me give you an example of this. Slothful in zeal.
Here's an example. I'm guessing or I'm taking for granted here that everybody who is listening to this broadcast, everybody who listens to these devotionals that we do every day,
I'm just going to take it for granted that you're pro -life, right? I don't think that anybody who truly has a desire for the word in this way to want to listen to me every day,
I don't think that I've got any pro -choice people really. So everybody's pro -life.
If you, you believe that all life is precious, that it goes from conception to natural death.
If a person were to have an abortion at any stage of development of the child in the womb, that would be murder.
Okay? That's what you believe, right? Have you ever done anything about that belief?
Is it just a belief that you have, but you've never done anything about it?
That would be slothful in zeal. It might be something that you are passionate about, but you're not really doing anything about it.
And so that zealousness that you have is slow to come to development. And so that's what that would mean to be slothful in zeal.
And so Paul is telling us, do not be slothful in zeal. Oftentimes when he uses the word zeal, he's talking about a passion for the word of God.
So let us not be slow in the development of our understanding of God's word.
One of my elders, Dave Bleasner, in his testimony, he talks about how when he became a
Christian, he probably wasted 10 years, hardly educating himself at all about the word of God.
It was just the casual stuff that happened, but he wasn't in like an active pursuit of God's word.
So for that decade, that first decade of his Christian walk, he was very slothful in zeal.
He wasn't letting that zealousness for God come to fruition, developing his understanding for the word of God, growing in sanctification in that way.
And so it was very, very slow in that particular process. And when we as Christians are growing with one another in Christ, we should not be slow in that process.
We're actively pursuing one another, keeping in line with all of these things that Paul has said here about loving one another, outdo one another, holding fast to what is good, let love be genuine.
Okay, since all of these things are requiring the body of Christ in order to happen. So it is the same also when he says, do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit.
Fervor is an intense passion. So with one another, we are passionate about the word of God and growing in it and growing together in it.
So as the body of Christ, that's what this means. To be zealous for growth, for sanctification, for growing together with one another, according to the word of God, serve the
Lord. And so in this way, doing this together, we are serving God together. Verse 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Three instructions there, but they still all go together. Rejoice in hope. We are constantly rejoicing in the salvation that we have received in Christ Jesus, our
Lord, knowing that this life is not the end, but when he returns, he will usher in his peaceful kingdom.
All this evil that we experience in the world right now, the suffering, the wasting away of our bodies, the aches and pains of just daily living, all of this stuff will go away and his perfect kingdom will be the everlasting reality.
All right. So that is the hope that we rejoice in constantly. We are patient in tribulation, knowing that the things that we are enduring in this life aren't merely temporary.
They are producing something in us, our sanctification, but there is a glory that awaits us that is far greater than the glory that is happening in us through this process of growth in holiness.
And we need to also be constant in prayer for this submits our minds and our hearts constantly to the
Lord daily, every day. This is one of the spiritual practices that I think is the most difficult for me to execute sometimes.
It's easy for me to open up my Bible and study the word of God. That's an easy thing for me to do.
I think part of the reason is because I crave knowledge. So I just want more of it. But the thing that I need to discipline myself more to do is submitting my mind and my heart to God in prayer, speaking to him and letting my mind be conformed to his will.
So let us rejoice in that hope constantly that has been spoken about to us through the word of God.
We are patient in tribulation, knowing that the things that we endure in this world are producing something great.
And it's only temporary. We're not going to be experiencing this tribulation in this world forever, but only for the time that we are here until God's kingdom comes.
And we need to be constant in prayer, continually submitting our minds and our hearts to the Lord, lifting one another up in prayer, praying for our leaders as Paul instructs in first Peter or I'm sorry, first Timothy chapter two and in whatever way, in everything with prayers and supplications.
We are presenting our requests to God. Verse 13 now contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality in a verse that I quoted earlier this week from Galatians.
We need to show love to everybody, but especially to the household of faith. So our first priority is to the men and women of God.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ. And then we also extend love to people that are outside the church.
And the primary way that we do that is by preaching the gospel that is showing love to a lost and fallen world by giving them the words to eternal life that can only be in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. And so we contribute first to the needs of the saints seeking to show hospitality, seeking to show hospitality means that we're actually finding ways.
We are actively pursuing ways that we can show love to other people in the body of Christ.
We're not just ready for something to pop up like, oh, a friend of mine has a need.
Well, now I have a way that I can show love to this person. We're not waiting for an opportunity to arise.
We're actively pursuing opportunities to be able to show love and charity to others in the body of Christ and in being hospitable.
We need to open our homes up to one another. How is it that another member of the body of Christ can know that you are living in a right way, that you are treating your family in a right way, but that you have opened up your home for somebody else to be able to come in and interact with you and see the way that you live your life?
They know all the ins and outs about you, so they know how they can encourage and admonish you in a right way that is continuing to train you in a way of holiness.
So let us be these things with one another. This section of scripture that is labeled, if you have the
ESV Bible, it is labeled the marks of the true Christian. And here's what we have read so far.
We're going to pick up in a different section tomorrow, but here's what we've read so far. Let love be genuine.
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. And there's more where that came from tomorrow.
Our great God, we thank you so much for these scriptures and this word. We pray that these things are written on our minds and hearts to continue to pursue active daily.
We are seeking for ways that we can practice these things in our daily lives as we are growing in the training and the instruction of the
Lord. Continue to illuminate our paths with the word of God.
And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt