Relationships in the Body of Christ

All right, for those of you who don't know, my name is Franz. I'm the planting pastor over at Fellowship Potsdam, and I preached this sermon this morning, and no one threw anything at me. But that's because we frisked them before they came in the door so they wouldn't have anything in their hands. I know that you're all going to be waiting for the end of the sermon where we talk about heaping coals of fire on people's heads. It's funny, I actually missed that part of the message when I preached this morning, and it was one of the questions during our question and answer time.

Which, by the way, pastors, is it okay if I do a Q and A after the sermon today here? I hear crickets. What? Yes. I'm just kidding.

I wouldn't do that to you guys. That'd be too scary.

All right. Well, last week, the scripture exposed us to the concept of presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. Do you remember that? Those of you that were here, we learned that the key to being transformed is the renewing of the mind. It all starts with the knowledge of the word of God and ends with us yielding to it.

How many of you remember this from Romans 6? No. Reckon. Yield. If you remember, slip your hand up.

Oh, boy, our marketing needs some work. No. Reckon and yield. We'll get into that a little bit because this was taught in Romans 6. Actually, Pastor Chad is the one who taught it here.

No one remember? Two people did. Two people. Either that or they're the only ones that are awake at this present time, where Paul presents identity truths about who we are in Christ and. And what Christ did for us.

And so what is our responsibility in that? Well, first of all, we need to know what those identity truths are. Second of all, we need to reckon them to be true. Now, maybe you wonder, what is this word reckon? At FP this morning, we had an Aussie sitting there, and they used the word reckon in all kinds of sentences.

To me, it seems like they use the word reckon in places that you're not supposed to use it, but that is what the Australians do. Any Aussies here today? Caitlin, do you reckon I'm telling the truth? Yes. Okay.

That's right. So reckon means like in English, not in Australian. It means that we accept something, that it's true by faith. If I say to you that you've been baptized into Christ, you're like, what? I don't remember that.

Well, the Bible says that you have been baptized into Christ. Well, first of all, you need to Know what the word baptized means? It means to be placed into, to be immersed into. And so the Scripture teaches us that we have been immersed in Christ. And if we've been immersed in Christ, all those who believe in Jesus are in Christ right now.

And where is Christ right now? Well, the last testament we had here is that he's seated at the right hand of God. And if that's true, if Christ actually is seated at the right hand of God, and we have been immersed in Christ, then where are we spiritually in our identity? Truth? This isn't a hard question.

Where are we?

Boy, oh boy, we got to do some corrective teaching here, Chad. We're seated in Christ at the right hand of God. That's where we are. That's our identity. Truth.

For how many of you, this is the first time you've ever heard this? Come on. Nobody answered me earlier. Now nobody's hands going up? See, this is what it means to know something.

But then our responsibility is to accept it as true. For me, to reckon it to be true. Do you see yourself that way? Or do you see yourself as a wretched sinner whom God just barely saved because you go to church at least three times a month, Some of you identified with that. Yeah.

You see, when we know the truth of God's word and we reckon it by faith to be true for us, then we only have one step left, and that is to yield to the Spirit in our life as he leads us and guides us and fills us with himself to accomplish the purposes that God has called us to. We've all been called to a purpose. Every believer in Christ has been called to manifest Christ to the world and to be holy.

But the problem with this is it requires humility. It requires us to humble ourselves before the living God, and not just the living God, but before one another. And we're going to be talking about, what does that look like today? What do relationships in the body of Christ look like when we submit ourselves to the work of God? Now, the purpose of all this is to function together as the body of Christ and correctly manifest Jesus to a lost world.

We do not simply exist for ourselves. Now, whether you know it or not, this church body is manifesting a version of Jesus to the world around us. The question I have for us is, what version is that? Is it a version that stays true to who Christ is? Or is it this version that shows that Christians are always fighting amongst themselves?

They can't get along. There's schisms, there's people elevating some people and then people who are elevated over here, they're having affairs with other people. Is that the version of Jesus that people hear about from a church? Or is it the version that the Bible gives us? And what the apostle Paul is going to do today, or at least in this passage I'm going to try to do, using his words, is to help us see what it looks like for the body of Christ to be in fellowship with one another.

And this is more than just exercising the ministry gifts. Last week the, the sermon was on the ministry gifts. And these gifts were given to be used accordance with our faith, our ability to minister to one another so that the entire body benefits together and grows in the likeness and knowledge of Jesus Christ. But we are to care for one another. Even if we didn't have the ministry gifts being used in our context, we are still called to care for one another with agape love.

We're going to be talking about that today. Paul felt it was appropriate to explain carefully what it looked like to give practical care and even how to deal with difficult people in the church.

So what I'm thinking about doing is calling out some of these difficult people today. And if your name's not been called, it's because I haven't met you yet. I'm just kidding. Look, we don't all get along, right? We struggle.

Maybe some of you don't. Maybe some of you know how to skate on the surface and just do great. I'm not like that. I don't get along with everybody and not everybody gets along with me. And sometimes the best you can do is to live in peace with one another.

So we're going to be talking about that today, so I hope you're ready. Okay, open your bibles to Romans chapter 12. Let's start in verse 9. And Paul dives right in. I like that.

I don't like to do a whole lot of chit chat. Let's just get right into it. Let love be without hypocrisy. What kind of love is he talking about here? Let's get that out of the way.

Is it this love that we feel for one another? Oh, it's been so long. I haven't seen you in six days. I'm so excited to see my friends at church. It's gonna be amazing.

Oh, going to wear my new jeans, which I did actually. They're really comfortable, I like them. No, he's talking about agape love, this self serving love, the very love that Jesus had for the world, for God. So agape the world that he gave his only begotten son. So our love must be sincere.

And sincerity is a tough one, right?

To have sincere love for somebody. Sometimes we just end up faking it, don't we? Like it's not always there. Sometimes when we see someone we're having struggle with and we're like, I gotta love this person. Just not feeling it today.

Maybe if I sneak around the other door, they won't see me and I can get by this Sunday without having to be in contact with them. But you see, the agape love doesn't depend on our emotions. It doesn't depend on how we feel. It depends on what we do. How do we act towards one another?

Do we show deference and honor? We'll talk more about that as we continue on. But what is insincere love? What does that look like? Maybe that's easier to describe.

Well, insincere love is expressed through gossip, slander, and then thinking more highly of yourself than the person you are pretending to love. I'm bringing in agape love today. I'm special. And then you see that person and you're all, blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, who, who, who? Praise God, Jesus and then hallelujah and the Holy Spirit.

But inside you're like a Pharisee. You're like a whitewashed tomb. You're rotten inside. And Paul is warning us now, before I continue on with these things, what you're going to hear today, you're going to think, if you're anything like me, you're going to think I can't do this stuff. No sir.

And I don't even want to preach this sermon, to be honest. I don't even want to do this stuff and I got to be the one preaching about it. So now you're going to hold me this standard that I'm not going to be able to keep because I'm still struggling with these things. And there's some verses in here I was saying in Fellowship Potsdam, you know, if I could just cut it out of my Bible and pretend it wasn't there, I would feel a lot better about myself. Because after all, that's what matters is how I feel about myself.

Right.

Well, let's keep going. Let's see if we can get through the sermon without breaking down in tears. Because the next thing it says is abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. What is this? Abhor.

Detest evil. Yeah, I detest the evil that I see in you, but I ignore the evil that I see in me?

Is that what it's saying? No. It has to start with us, doesn't it? We need to detest evil in us. And when I see my sin, I have ways of sugarcoating it, putting a nice sweet film on.

It's like, yeah, so what if it's 4 million calories? I'll put a little bit of ice cream on that and it'll go down super smooth. And what the word of God is teaching us is that we should abhor the evil that's in us. Oftentimes we see other people's evil and then we want to go to them and we want to correct them. And there is a time and place for that.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that, but I think you need to get your house in order first. That doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but what it means is you need to humble. We need to humble ourselves before God and say, you know what? I am susceptible to the same type of evil as I am seeing in the life of the person that needs my help.

Now, what would you think? To call out someone's sin is helping them. Yes, if you love them, it's helping them. But you know what we normally do, and I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I'm going to give you a little taste. We fake keeping peace with people to protect ourselves so we don't get embroiled in controversy, so we don't get brought into the mud.

That's not love. That's not what the Bible teaches as being love. The Bible teaches us to dive in, but it gives us some very specific guidelines on how we should do that. Let's keep on going. The contrast to detesting evil is to cling to what is good.

The word cling means to stay glued. To stay glued to what is good. Now we need to be careful not simply to hate evil, but to stay connected to good. Just hating evil and not being connected to good will leave a vacuum in your life. And you know what gets sucked into that vacuum?

Judgment and legalistic attitudes. You see, that which is good is that which is pleasing to the Lord. But if you don't remove the evil and add in the good and you leave a vacuum in your life, the enemy will fill that vacuum as quickly as you can think about it. And next thing you know, you say, well, I am against that kind of evil and you should be, too. In fact, I see you condoning that kind of evil.

Let's have A discussion about that. Is there anything good about that kind of a conversation? No, nothing at all. It's just judgmental attitudes. You see, there's a difference between disciplining yourself against certain evils or applying your version of discipline to other people.

That's when you get into legalism. And so when you remove that, you abhor the evil and you don't add in the good, the evil comes back. It just metamorphosizes and changes shape. And then you're left with being just as evil. But now you're pharisaical and evil at the same time.

That's even worse.

The way I see this is to hate what is evil while embracing grace at the same time. And what that means is when you see evil, recognize it in yourself first and realize that it's by the grace of Jesus that you've been given eyes to see and ears to hear. And then extend the grace. Not the judgment, not the legalism, but the grace to other people. It is the grace that will heal their hearts.

It is the grace that will bring them back to Jesus, not your legalistic, judgmental temperament that is coming on them because of how good you've decided that you've become. You see the difference between the two.

So there's another sentence here starting in verse 10. This is a long sentence because it ends in verse 13. Now, it starts out with, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another. And then there's a bunch of semicolons. And these semicolons are descriptors of what it looks like to be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

Now, some academic writers, they treat each of these separately, but I think because of the semicolons, we need to relate those back to the main subject of the sentence. So we're going to look at this in the context of how do we treat one another within the context of the body of Christ. Okay? Now you may think, well, we should treat everybody this way. Yes, that would be great.

That'd be fantastic. I mean, that's a pretty high bar. But if you're not doing it in the church, how do you think you're going to do it outside of the church? Let's start with our brothers and sisters first and see how we do. Let's start with our own family and see how that goes.

So we see here the first thing is the kindly affectionate. It's the idea of tenderness, the kind of love that healthy parents give their children, except in this case, it is tempered with brotherly love. Now, Paul is using familial language, language of how families work with each other. But some of us might not have had the greatest experiences when it came to familial relationships. Perhaps you were in a broken family.

You had a father who abused you, or a mother who ignored you or left you. And so for you, it's hard to really picture what, what this looks like. So Paul then gives a description of what this looks like. He's giving it as a preferential honor to one another. In other words, always consider what the other person wants or needs first before insisting on your own needs and wants.

Now, because that was very distracting, let me say that again. Always consider what the other person wants or needs first before insisting on your own needs and wants.

If I look back over this week, I may have done that maybe twice. If I think about it, because I struggle in this area, I look out for me first and maybe you do the same. We don't naturally look out for others unless they can give us something that we're looking for for ourselves. You see, we can dress up this other centeredness and say, oh, it's because of the love of Jesus. But just wait.

When that person doesn't give back what you were looking for, then your true intentions come out and you will see that, you know what, probably it was selfish in the first place.

Now, verse 11 is an interesting sentence fragment. It says, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. It went from this lovey dovey stuff to not lagging in diligence. Paul, what's going on here? Well, the idea that came to me as I meditated on this part of the verse is that as you honor another person with an action, you make it a priority rather than a delay.

How many of you have experienced somebody in a conversation, let's say it's before church and you're like, hey, you know, I need such and such to happen. And the other person goes, huh, amazing. You know, that's what I do. Like, oh, cool, can you hook me up? And they're like, yeah, I'll take care of that first thing on Monday morning.

You're like, cool, I really, really need this. I have this deadline on Tuesday and it needed to happen by the time Thursday comes around. You're like, do I call them? What do I do? They haven't done it yet.

It's like they've forgotten. I don't want to impose on them. They kind of offered. You see the awkwardness? That's going on here.

This is what Paul's talking about. In my opinion, I could be wrong, but I think he's trying to help us ease out of this awkwardness and actually do what we say we're going to do. I mean, what a really cool idea, isn't it? I mean, maybe it's the first time we've heard this. Do what you say you're going to do and do it quickly, or don't promise to do it at all.

This is where relationships start to fray in the church. When someone says, hey, I'll do this for you, and then they don't. Then you have this crust that builds up over your heart and you stop trusting people. I know this because that was the way I was for many years. There was so many people that let me down that I eventually created a protective barrier in my heart between me and another person.

And I just stopped trusting everybody. And that's not healthy either.

And so think about this. Verse 11. It even says, do it as if serving the Lord, because really that's what we're doing. If we say we love Jesus and we want to serve Him. You know how he's calling us to serve by staying true to our word and doing what we said we're going to do.

If we can be people like that, the world is going to beat our door down because this is not normal in the world. And if it's not normal in the church, then why would the world ever bother wanting to be a part of something like a church?

Now, verse 12 shows some character traits that should mark how we relate to one another. It says, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulations, continually praying together. And it continues on, talking about sharing our resources with those in need and opening our homes. And I shared this with Fellowship Potsdam. I mean, this is pretty easy.

Rejoicing in hope. When you see someone that's rejoicing in hope, enter into it with them. We'll see that a little bit further on here in the next few chapter, a few verses. But you know, praying together at fp, I am seeing this in action with our people. And I can say the same about Crossway as well.

Seeing this in action after services, people coming together, praying for one another, rejoicing together, crying together. It helps us to feel like we're not alone. I think one of the biggest needs that each one of us has in this world is to be seen and to be heard. And I'm not talking about just like, oh, I saw you across the street the other day. That's not what I'm talking about.

We want people to see us for who we are. And the things that we say, the words that are coming out of our mouth, we want to be heard. And being heard means understood. And even if what's coming out of our mouth is just a bunch of gobbledygook, it's just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? It doesn't matter because we just want a connection, a real connection with somebody else.

Now, some of us have that, and we're very privileged. But there's some people in this room right now, in a crowd this size, that does not have a good connection with anybody else. And they're here in this congregation hoping, just hoping that perhaps somebody will take notice of them and hear their story and hear what's going on in their life.

Well, it's the pastor's job to find those people, right? No, it's not. It's not at all. It's the community. It's this organism that's sitting right here in front of me to find these people and encourage them, to connect with them, to love them, to pray for them.

Now, verse 13 and 14 are really interesting. I was just going through preparing my sermon, got to verse 13, got to 14, and then just something told me, hey, look at it in the Greek and see what the original languages has to say here. And something weird popped up in verse 13 and 14. There's two words translated differently, but they're the same Greek word. Now, the first one is in verse 13.

It says distributing to the needs of the saints, and it's given to hospitality. Now, those of us who've spent any time in the south, we know what that means, given to hospitality. Be ready at any time to put the dog on the table. Now, not the real dog, but, you know, the fancy dishes, and invite people in and make sure that they, you know, if they need to sleep on the couch or in our fancy guest room, we have that going, right? So given to hospitality and then bless those who persecute you.

So the words given to and persecute is the same Greek word. What is going on?

Well, in those days, one of the saints needs was a place to stay where while they were being persecuted, one of the first things that happened when they were being persecuted did they be kicked out of their houses and they would have needs. And what we need to remember about this letter to the Romans is it was written to them and not to us. And the apostle Paul is identifying a very specific need that they were going through in that Specific time and used a little bit of interesting wordplay in the Greek to make a statement. And basically the statement is, for those who are being persecuted, pursue hospitality. There's a connection there.

He used the same word as a wordplay to help them remember, hey, it might be your turn next. And when it's your turn, you're going to want somebody to take you in. Now that's what it meant to them. What does it mean to us? I mean, that's just an interesting little thing for I'm not a Greek nerd, but I'm a Bible nerd.

And so I like these kind of things, these little things that pop out. It's like, oh, yeah, that's cool, I never saw that before. But we were also reminded of the necessity of being hospitable to one another. In Titus 1:8, it says, Be hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober minded, just holy, self controlled. And then in Hebrews 13:2, it says, do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels.

And in 1st Peter 4:9, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. You know, I can be hospitable really easily if you give me about three weeks to plan.

That's not hospitality, okay? Hospitality is to go, hey, yeah, you know what? I need to throw some clean sheets on the bed. I got to get the laundry out of there, you know, and let me run the lidl real quick and we'll find us some ribs we can throw in the oven, right? It's last minute.

Like, yeah, I'm hospitable. God has given me a place, and my place is not so special and so important that I can't invite somebody that needs help into that place. I think that's what hospitality is really talking about. And some people, they make it their ministry to be hospitable. And I give great respect to those who are willing to do that as a ministry.

To have people in their homes all the time and to spend time with them. I don't know if I could do that. It's too much for me to think about. I like to have my own space. My office messes, my office mess.

I don't want to share it with you, but this is what the Apostle Paul is teaching us about, what it means to be in a relationship with one another. In the context of this church. There should be no one in here that has needs that are not in the process of being met in some way. At least be knowledgeable about Those needs. Now, granted, some of you are hiding.

Some of you come here. And as soon as the service is out, you're gone. You don't want to talk to anybody. And right now I'm talking to you. You don't want to talk to me, but I'm talking to you.

Take a chance. Stick around, get to know somebody, ask a question, move from your own concerns, even though they're huge, and ask a question about somebody else's concern. Again, remember, it begins with each one of us caring about somebody else, no matter what stage of life we are in. So let's continue on here in verse 15.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Now, I've entitled this practicing empathy, and I have a definition of what the difference between empathy and sympathy are up on the screen.

Empathy and sympathy are related, but not the same. Empathy means feeling with someone or entering into their own, into their experience. While sympathy means feeling for someone, concern or pity, from some distance. So sympathy is at arm's length. Empathy is within the circle of your arms.

It says to cry, to weep, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. That means you get to know people, and people have the courage to weep in front of you because they know that they will have a sympathetic, in this case, empathetic ear, listening, willing to come in to their lives. I embarrassed Chad this morning a little bit because Chad does that for me. And we get together throughout the week. And if I'm having a rough day, or if I have, or even if I'm in the middle of a day and something exciting happens, I will call him up and I pray that he answers the phone.

And when he does, then I share with him this exciting thing that I have. And what I want from him is to go, no way. That's so cool. That's all I want right now. How would I feel if you go, oh, yeah, interesting.

You should see what I'm doing right now. Like, oh, okay, that kind of didn't go the way I wanted it to go. Of course, he doesn't do that. But this is what empathy is. It's entering in to other people's lives.

Verse 16. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. So what's going on here? The same mind?

Well, in Philippians chapter 1, verse 27. It says, Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So whether I come or see you, come and see you, or am absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel. What should we be in one mind of the Gospel?

The truth about who Jesus is and what he has done for us. There is lots of other things we could talk about. Perhaps you have a particular way of thinking about Scripture, A way of understanding and laying an overlay and understanding how Scripture works. Good, so do I. But that's not the most important thing.

I may come to a different conclusion about a passage of Scripture than you do. What that should do is foster some really healthy conversation and discussion. But what it shouldn't do is create disunity. So we are of the same mind about the principal important things of the word of God, about ecclesiology, even eschatology, if you even know what those words mean. The other stuff, let's be free to disagree.

It's okay. I think in this room there's probably all kinds of different opinions about different passages of Scripture, but yet we can all come together under the banner of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's strive to make the main things the main things and not the secondary things. And then this next part he says about high things.

It says, do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. The best that I can understand of this passage is that there should be no caste system in the church. What's the caste system? Well, in India there was a caste system. There was different levels of people and they were assigned these.

I don't know if by the gods, I don't know how the history of the whole thing, but there was people that were in this level and there was nothing anybody could do about it. And if you were in the lowest cast caste, you could not go to the next caste. You could not get a ladder and make your way higher and higher up. You were just stuck there. Well, they outlawed it, apparently, but that doesn't mean that it's outlawed from the hearts and minds of the people.

And people are still treating each other that way. We should not do that in the church. We do not have a caste system in the church. We are all equal at the foot of the cross. Man, woman, boy and girl.

It doesn't matter what your gifting is. It doesn't matter what your role and responsibility is. We're to agape one another equally. There's no caste system in the church. And if there is, then the leadership needs to be held to a higher standard and taken down a notch, or however not many notches they put themselves up.

Here's the problem that we often do, especially in certain cultures. You look at the pastor as being up here and the rest of us as being down here. The truth is, I know the pastors of this church and none of us feel that way. In fact, we are called to serve, to shepherd. And so if you see something like that happening wherever you go, if you have an opportunity, raise your voice.

There's no caste system in the church. Not when Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He is the one we elevate, he is the one we worship. He is the one we look to. That's what I mean.

I think this means of high things. Be humble, serve others, consider everyone better than themselves. Again, this is a passage I don't like. I want to just take this out of the Bible because there are times when I think I'm better than you. There, I said it.

What are you going to do about it?

You're going to throw me stuff? Just make sure it's dollar bills or euros. Look, we all do right at different times. We struggle with this. It's only through the power of the Spirit that we can change.

And then wise in your own opinion, be willing to concede that you could be wrong in your opinion. Look, everybody's got opinions. Some of us have more than one. Who cares? Opinions are opinions.

Truth is truth. And be willing to be wrong. I struggle with this too. I want to be right. I work really hard at being right.

And I really have had to learn over the last couple of years to preface what I'm saying and say I could be wrong. But here's what I think. What's your opinion? I've been doing that more and more often. At least I think I am.

I'm trying to.

This is a way better road to go. And there are times when I have been shocked, scandalized to realize that I was wrong.

First Corinthians 8:2 says, and if anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. Wow, I can relate to that. Be willing to listen to others ideas, even if you are already convinced your own. And finally, in the last verses, we're going to talk about what it means, like to have a relationship with people in the church when suffering persecutions, repay no one evil for evil, have regard for good things in the sight of all men, if it is 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, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink.

In doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. I like that verse. We're going to keep that one in there. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Now, this whole idea can be applied both within and outside the church.

Maybe you'll be shocked at this, but evil can happen within the church.

Why? Because the church is made up of people who are being transformed but have not yet arrived. Nobody in here has arrived at full transformation. We are being transformed into the image of Christ day by day. And the grace that God gives each one of us as he waits for us to transform, we are to offer to other people who may not be as far along as usual, and to allow them the same grace that we have been given.

Now, our society gives us the right to react to evil done against us, but the Gospel gives us the ability to repay evil with good. It's not that impressive for someone to react in an angry, hurtful way when they're persecuted. That's not impressive at all. But you know what blows the world away?

It's at the court case when they're doing sentencing and the young man is sitting there, and the mother of the girl this young man killed says to this young man, I forgive you. I forgive you. And I hope that you find Jesus when you're serving out your sentence. I'm not angry at you anymore because I know my daughter is in the hands of Jesus and the world just goes, what? Huh?

What's going on here? You see, that's impressive. Wouldn't you like to be that impressive? I know I would. I still get mad.

I still want to take revenge. I'm a big guy. You mess with me, I could hurt you. I could. Want to try me?

No, I'm just kidding.

If I've been intimidating to anybody up to this point, that probably didn't help at all, Right?

But see, this is what the Gospel does. It gives us the ability to repay evil with good. Now, this is a hard saying in the heat of the moment, but it is a mark of someone who is making progress in transformation. How are you doing? Are you being transformed into the image of Christ?

Here, let me slap you in the face. Let's see how that worked out. Let's do a little test. No, I'm just kidding. But.

Right. That would really make a difference. That would show and reveal where we are in our process of transformation. Now, verse 18 is an awesome verse. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Now, there's a couple little things going on here. You see, sometimes we deal with difficult people. Now, if you were a person that's like, no, I never deal with difficult people. You are that person.

And that's a different sermon. We can get to that at a different time. But no matter how amazing you are, you simply will not click with everyone. And I know that's true in my case. I'm not for everyone.

And I've learned to deal with that. It's okay. I don't have to be for everyone. My personality can rub some people the wrong way. And when this is the case, my go to wisdom from the word of God is to be peaceful in every way that I can to that person without feeling the pressure that they must like me or I them.

It's okay if you don't like me. I still have the responsibility to agape you, to love you, and to show honor, and so do you. But we don't have to like each other. It's totally fine.

I can show love and honor to someone without being their best friend. Now, if you're in a conflict with someone, the scripture here is saying, do your full part to bring peace. That means don't insist on your rights, but for the gospel sake, you absorb what is necessary of the cost so that there can be peace. You see, when someone hurts you, it costs you something. And what you want the most is for that person to repay you what that cost.

And what forgiveness does is say, that's okay, bro, I'll cover that. I got it this time.

I gotcha. That's what forgiveness is. You see, when we sinned against God, we violated his righteousness. And he sent His Son to take all the cost, gather it up in his arms and take it unto the cross. I'm using word pictures here, so you see what's going on.

And he paid the final cost so that we could be in relationship with Him. And it is precisely for that reason that God calls every one of us in this room and gives us a purpose of being in relationship with one another and forgiving one another. Because everything that we have been forgiven has been taken care of on the cross. We are not in a deficit. Our bank accounts are not empty.

We are full of Christ and His forgiveness. And we can offer that forgiveness to other people, especially when they don't deserve it because that is the definition of grace. And if we want to be people of grace, that then this is necessary to happen. Now, sometimes we have a person in the church that has wronged us, and they won't repent no matter what we've said to them. Let me give you a piece of advice.

In the future, don't have any dealings with that person. That's wisdom. You don't have to be with everybody. And if someone's wronged you grievously and will continue to do so, it is unwise to continue in a relationship with that person at that level. But that doesn't mean that you stop loving them.

You see, agape love doesn't depend how you feel. It depends on what you do. And we can love and honor one another without even knowing each other's names. This is a mark of the Church of God. Living at peace with someone who's being carnal is a difficult balancing act.

Well, Christians, if they're really Christians, they're not. They're not carnal. They're not in sin, right? I mean, those aren't real Christians. They probably weren't.

Probably never even saved. Well, let me read to you what Paul says in first Corinthians. He says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you. Now who's he talking to? Brethren.

Who does he call brethren? His brothers in Christ. Right. I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal as babes and in Christ, yes, Christians can be carnal. We can walk out of fellowship with God.

For a long time. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you are not able to receive it. And even now you are still not able, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Carnality can happen in the church, and if you're not careful, it's going to happen with you just like it happens with me.

You see, true peace is more than the absence of strife. You can be in conflict with a difficult person who refuses to see their carnality and either confront them to establish true and lasting peace or avoid them to have a false, temporary peace. Which one do you think I like? I like to avoid. So if I haven't talked to you in about six months, you probably ticked me off.

Now, for some of you, you're like, oh, no, that's not always the case. But the road to peace is sometimes the least peaceful thing you can do. But it must be done for love. Love considers the other better than ourselves. And.

And sometimes love demands that we confront carnal behavior for the sake of transformation, for the sake of purpose. There comes a time when you simply step back and allow that person to be destroyed by their own sin because they are not responding to your attempts to help them. I've taken this straight out of church discipline as it's found in Scripture. And so sometimes we can confront a person, and that is the least peaceful feeling thing that we can do. But that can bring lasting and true peace as each one of you grow in your relationship together and with the Lord.

But sometimes when you do that, people just get offended and they get mad. That's a risk you have to take. And if they get offended and get mad, then step away. Okay, if that's the way it's going to be, I'm going to give you the space. I'm going to love you, I'm going to honor you, but I'm not going to enter into dealings with you because it's unwise.

See, this is stuff. I get these questions all the time. What do I do with this person? They're always hurting my wife, my family, and me. And I know the Bible says to forgive and go back and trust them.

I say, no, it doesn't say that. It says to forgive them and then be wise about what you do with that person. There's many admonitions from the scripture that says, do not spend time with a fool. Do not give your time to them. Do not throw your pearls before swine.

There's all kinds of admonitions. That's not what the sermon is about. I just threw that in for free. Okay, let's keep on going. We're almost finished here.

I know you guys are getting tired and thirsty. Water tastes so good. Yum. All right. Verse 19.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. So we should leave room for God to avenge. Now, this is an area where we must step back and allow God to work. There are consequences for sin and wrath for the evildoer.

If you get involved, you are taking the Lord's role in judgment away from him. We're not called to that. We are called to fight evil with good whenever we get the opportunity. Kindness in the face of persecution can go a long way. It's easy to.

To forget our purpose as believers in Jesus, to manifest Christ to the world, even to our enemies. Now this last part, for in Doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head? One of my dear friends at FP asked, wait, so we should be forgiving people so that God, so you can heap coals on their head, so their head will burn so that God can avenge them with the coals of fire on their head? Like that seems a little conscious. I'm supposed to be forgiving them, yet we're forgiving them for a devious purpose.

Right? He was confused about this. Why are we talking about heaping coals of fire? Well, first of all, it's a metaphor. It's not literal.

Right? When we forgive someone, it's not like out of heaven comes this thing and there's coals of fire on people's heads. But when we treat them with a love and respect that is do them as image bearers of God, it gives chance for their heart, their conscience to be pricked, to prick them and to see the truth about who God is. You see, God can bring that about, but you with your attitude, or let's just say me with my attitude, can get in the way of that. And so it's not about forgiving them and leaving room for God to destroy them.

Like, okay, God, I'm waiting. I gave you room. You want another three feet? Okay, I'll back up. Go ahead and get him, God, I'm ready.

That's not what he's talking about. But he's saying, look, let God be God. Let him be the judge and you not. And all you care about is grace and mercy and forgiveness, and you let God be the wrathful God. Now here is what's so cool about God's wrath.

You thought, well, where are you going with this, Pastor? What did Jesus absorb on the cross?

Our wrath. And what if this person that you're forgiving is a believer in Jesus? What happens to the wrath of God? For them, it too was taken by Christ, just like yours. And so when you elevate yourself above another person and you're looking for destruction to come on, then what you're actually saying is, God, I prefer justice over grace.

I prefer justice over mercy. Smite them, God, I'm ready. And God says, well, should I be just and do it to everybody who deserves it? Yeah, God, you've forgotten that you are part of everybody and that you deserve that justice. Folks, let's love grace more than we love justice.

Because Jesus died for justice so that he could give us grace. Why go back to justice? Verse 21, it says, do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. First Peter 3, 8 through 12, let me leave you with this passage. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous.

Oh, we can use some courteousness, can't we? Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers and but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. You see, these 13 verses essentially give us a blueprint and what it should look like when we know reckon and yield. Because in chapter 12, verse 1, it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, based on everything he taught us in the first 11 chapters, that this is how we are to live. God's not saying, live this way and I will give you the first 11 chapters. No, he's saying, I'm giving you the first 11 chapters so that you have the ability to live this way.

Way that's keeping the cart behind the horse where it belongs. When we are secure in Christ, we can step away from caring only about ourselves and look towards the interest of others. We have the power to control ourselves to the degree that the transformation of the Gospel is evident in how we relate to our brothers and sisters and even to those outside the church. Now, we're not always going to experience the marks of sincere love from people in the church, right? You guys know that you're not so naive to think that after the sermon that this church is going to be a bastion of sincere love.

I mean, that would be awesome, right? But we are all in the process of being transformed. And so we need to be gracious with one another, kind, forgiving one another. That is the superpower that we've been given by the power of the Spirit. Let us learn to prefer each one better than ourselves.

It's impossible. I'm discouraged just thinking about it. But the Bible teaches us that when we renew our mind and we yield to the Spirit, he gives us the ability to get it done, even when we feel like we have no capacity. This is what God has promised us. Through the power of the Spirit, the Gospel transforms our minds.

Because when God had the right to pour out his wrath on us for our sin, He Instead took it on himself and granted us mercy. We've been given the power to do the same to others when we rest in our security in Christ. Know who you are in Jesus. If you don't know, on the Fellowship Potsdam website there is a chart that gives all of our identity in Christ. You can download it for free, you can read it.

It has all the passages of scripture. It tells you about who you are. You can read that, you can memorize it. And then when you reckon it to be true in your life, and you say, I'm resting in this fact and that this is who I am in Christ, and you yield to what the power of the Holy Spirit is doing. In what you know, you will perform acts of righteousness and Christ will be manifested in your life.

That's how that works. If you've never heard that before and you want to know more, come talk to me or any of the other pastors that can help you start moving in that direction. Music Guys, girls, if you want to join me up here, I'm going to close us in prayer. At least the sermon part of it anyways. And I trust that the word of God has spoken to you today.

If I mess it up in any way, shape or form, I take responsibility for that. Everything else is all God.

Father, as we close this portion of the service, as we conclude with your word, thank you for your kindness to us, your grace and your mercy, that while we were still dead in our sins and trespasses, Christ died for us. And in this room there may be someone that has never put their trust in the finished work of Jesus. And I pray that today would be that day. Would you lead them to speak to someone today so that they could get their questions asked and they could be born again. And for those of us who are lonely today, those of us who are alone in this church, who have never really spoken to anyone, who wishes that someone would just talk to them.

Oh, Father, help us to find those people. And if we can't find them, give them the courage to speak up and say, hey, I've been coming here for three months and no one's spoken to me. Will you speak to me?

Sometimes we have to say hard things, God. But I pray for those people. I pray that you would give them courage today. Because we all need each other.

We need to know you through other people. So help us, Father, transform us today. May the gospel do its work. May we manifest you to the world in a way that is accurate and true. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Before you leave today, I encourage you to speak to someone you've never spoken to before. Say hello, introduce yourself, and if they look at you funny, I can't help you with that. That's on you. You're gonna have to figure that out. So as we go from here, I want to leave you with a benediction from the word of God.

Now, may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like minded towards one another according to Christ Jesus. That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. Go with God and manifest Christ to the world today. You're dismissed. Have a great afternoon.