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Romans 12 9 says, let love be genuine. So when we have an opportunity to show love to somebody else, we don't do it begrudgingly. We want to show love to them because God genuinely loves us when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. I'm really excited about the broadcast this week because this is the week when my devotionals on this program catch up with where I'm at in the sermon series in church. And so now I'll be able to study the same material all the way through the week instead of confusing myself and wondering where I'm at in Romans on the program and where I'm at in Romans in the sermons on Sunday.
All right. I don't know about you, but I'm excited about that. I mentioned last week that I had an announcement to make on Monday, and I wanted to wait until Monday to share this announcement with you because I wanted to share it in church first.
If you're a regular listener to this broadcast, you know that we've been trying to raise money to put a new roof on our building. Back in December, we had a really bad ice storm. Significant damage was done to our roof.
It was an old roof anyway. I knew that we needed to do some work on it. But once water starts leaking in on me while I'm preaching, I can't put it off anymore. So we began the process of telling the congregation that we were going to move toward raising money to replace the roof.
I was on the In Treating Favor podcast with Landon Chapman and Nate Pikowicz about that same time. And they asked me, so what's going on? What's new in your world? And I said, well, we need a new roof.
And I mentioned it on this program as well. And we've had some people not just from different parts of the United States, but different parts of the world have sent money to our church to help us with replacing that roof.
So I've had some people who I kind of lost track of it, at least as far as this program is concerned. And I wasn't mentioning it for a while. Had some people contact me and say, hey, how's the the fundraising going for putting a new roof on the building of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City?
So I gave a few updates here and there. Well, over the course of May, we've had some bad storms. You've heard me talk about it. I mentioned it on the program last week. Tornado sirens went off on Wednesday.
It's been a really stormy May. This started at the beginning of the month with a bad hailstorm that got in that first couple of days of May and then two days later had another bad hailstorm. So I contacted our insurance company and wanted to see if there was anything that they could contribute toward repairing our roof, considering that we just had two bad hailstorms.
So we had an insurance adjuster come out, myself and the elders. We were there. We went around the building with him pointing at stuff. You know, what about this? What about that? He climbed up on the roof, measured everything out and did the whole bit.
Everything that he was saying to us sound very favorable. It sounded like the insurance company was was really going to help us out with this. We just didn't know how much. So I got a letter from the insurance company this past Wednesday telling me exactly how much money we are going to get toward the roof.
I won't say exactly what the dollar amount is, at least on this program. The church knows we shared it with them. But let me just tell you, with the contributions that have been sent in, plus what the insurance company is contributing, we now have more than enough to put a new roof on First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City.
Not only that, but we can do some of the like eaves and overhang stuff all the way around the church, whereas previously the estimates that we were getting was just on re shingling the roof. But now we've got enough to be able to do some of the other things, guttering and stuff like that, and also make repairs on the inside of the building from the damage that was done from water leaking in.
So I thank you so much for your generous contributions to helping us put a new roof on our building. I mentioned it to the church yesterday. I said, look, guys, we've had people from around the world that have sent us money to help put a new roof on the building.
We had an estimate done that was about twenty one thousand dollars. And I'm telling you, we're now over that. We're over the twenty one thousand that we were trying to raise and have enough to do some significant improvements on different things that need to be done in the building.
So the church knows that that donations have come from people who watch when we understand the text and listen to when we understand the text. And I personally want to thank you for your prayers and your generosity over the course of this process of trying to put a new roof on our building.
It's still pretty rainy right now. We're still expecting more rain this week. Stuff tends to dry up about the mid to late part of June. It's definitely really dry in July. July is by far the driest month in Kansas.
So it will happen soon. We'll be able to get the roof repairs and stuff like that done soon. But again, thank you so much. Really, I can't express enough how much it has meant to me and to my whole church that there are people around the globe that have been praying for and supporting this ministry, this little ministry, just a little church.
I mean, you know, we're one hundred congregants regularly on a Sunday, probably one hundred and fifty if you were to get us all there at the same time. But anyway, just this little church in the ministry that we do there in Junction City, Kansas, and people around the world caring for us.
And we appreciate that so much. All right. I don't want to take over this whole time fawning over you. Instead, let's praise our God for his greatness and his faithfulness as we come to his scriptures.
Romans chapter 12, verses nine through 13 is what we're going to look at today. Paul says to this church in Rome, 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.
So the first charge that we're given there, very simple command, but yet, boy, it's tough to try to meet sometimes. Let love be genuine. So don't be fake with one another in the ways that we are showing love.
If somebody asks you to do something, don't, okay, be excited about the fact that you have a chance to serve someone else. This is an attitude check that I'm really trying to work on it myself right now, because when my kids ask me to do something, I'm trying to not portray to them that they're disturbing me in some way or that they are a burden to me.
But rather, when they ask daddy for a favor, it's another opportunity for me to be able to serve my kids and show them that I love to serve my kids so that they will in turn learn that it is a joy to serve other people.
So not rolling my eyes or not kind of ho-humming it, but with enthusiasm, saying to my children, yes, I would love to do that for you. Paul said to the Colossians that seeing that we have put off the old self and we've put on the new, which is being renewed in the image of its creator.
We are not to lie to one another anymore. That's in Colossians chapter three. So in other words, we should not be fake with each other. We should be genuine with one another and not. And let me add this, not just in the ways that we love someone else, but the ways that we need love from someone else.
Burke Parsons posted this on Twitter. It was either yesterday or the day before. I just loved it. When you walk into a church tomorrow. So this was Saturday. This was Saturday when he posted this. When you walk into church tomorrow, if you don't feel like smiling, don't put on a mask.
Cry if you must. You are with family, not on stage. Isn't that beautiful? So when we're told here, let love be genuine. This is not only in the ways that we show love to one another, but also in the ways that we might ask someone else for love.
We are genuine and real with one another, honest with an open heart, displaying our hurts, our faults, our needs, even confessing our sins. In these ways, we are being genuine with one another in how we've been called to love.
We are told here in verse nine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. The way that Paul put this with the Ephesians is have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness, rather expose them.
So we are to just absolutely stay away from anything that is evil or is repugnant to God. We should hate the things that God hates, love the things that he loves, and delight in the things that he delights in.
So we desire in an effort to be more like God, to have a mindfulness of God, abhorring what is evil, and holding fast to what is good. Paul said this to the Thessalonians also, test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.
That is 1 Thessalonians 5, 21 and 22. Test everything, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. So let us do this as well, and also exposing the works of darkness so that others know what is evil and wrong and is hated in the eyes of God so that we may teach others to do what delights the Lord.
I think of things that are going on in our culture right now. We need to cling fast to our marriages and promote what good marriage is supposed to look like, and at the same time exposing what is not marriage.
What this culture is saying is a marriage between a man and a man, that's not marriage. It is not even marriage. Marriage is between one man and one woman for life, and it is a picture of the way that Christ loves the church.
Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
Going back to something we talked about last week, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church being one with Christ, as a husband is one with his wife.
However, verse 33, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. This is a picture of a good marriage, and this is exactly what we should be promoting before our culture, abhorring what is evil, holding fast to what is good.
That means we've got to fight for our marriages. We've got to show what true marriage is and what a good marriage looks like. These are instructions that Paul is giving to the church. As we're reading about these things in Romans 12, remember, reminding you again, these are instructions that Paul is giving to a church as to what justification is supposed to look like in the life of a believer.
So in chapters 1 through 11, he's been going through this doctrine of justification. So now that we understand that we are justified by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, what is that supposed to look like in the way that a Christian lives?
And so here's some of the instructions that we have received so far. Love must be genuine. We must abhor what is evil, and we must hold fast to what is good. Right now we're working at about the same pace that we were working at in our sermons when we were in this section, because I've only gotten through one verse today, but we'll pick up from there.
We'll be in verse 10 tomorrow. Let's close with prayer. Our great God, we thank you so much for these instructions that have been given to us. And may this help us understand this process of sanctification, of being made holy, being shaped in the image of Christ, knowing that we've been justified in Christ.
What should this look like in our lives now? And God, I want to take this moment here also to thank you for your faithfulness to us in this process of raising money for our roof. I thank you so much for how you've blessed this ministry, what you've called us to, and that there's been an opportunity such as this through the internet, over the airwaves, through Podbean and YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and all these other kinds of things.
This opportunity that we've had to share the gospel, and it's being spoken into people's lives. I pray that there is a real fruit that is coming from this. There is a growth in sanctification, but there's also somebody that may be hearing these words for the first time and hearing about their sins spoken through God's word and a need for a savior.
They repent of their sins and know Christ as Lord. God, we are all sinners in need of your grace. And we thank you for these words that we might know about that grace that has been given to us in Christ, who is our only hope.
Keep us faithful to these words to preach them according to what your spirit truly means to communicate. Thank you for your faithfulness to us in all things, and it is in the name of Christ that we pray.
Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.