Sermon
The Place of Service in God's Family
Romans 12:11-13
June 19, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles now and your lesson notes that were included within your bulletin today. We have chosen a very, very practical subject throughout the summer to talk about as a congregation. For many years I had read through the book of Romans over and over again and when I came to chapter 12 I realized that it was a powerful, practical chapter that deals with the way we live our lives out as Christians, not only within our own homes, but within the life of the church as well as in the world around us. And so chapter 12 in Romans...it's page 600 if you're using your pew Bible this morning. If you're using your personal Bible, Romans chapter 12, and so throughout the summer months we're talking about this very practical matter of behaving like Christians.

That word became very familiar to me as a young boy because my mother used it frequently, Don, behave yourselves. In other words, act right and change your ways. So our thoughts throughout the summer is how do we behave as Christians in our world. We've come in our chapter 12 down to verses 10 through 13 and from our notes we read: "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality."

If we read the remaining part of the chapter it's just filled with directives as to how we live out and practice our Christian faith.

Our notes read: When a person, by faith, receives Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, they become a part of the Family of God, the Body of Christ, the People of God, the Church. In fact, if we had time to go through the Scriptures there are many metaphors there used to describe the Christians. That is, we're a part of the kingdom of God, we are the bride of Christ, and there is the suggestion that we are the Army of God. That's where the great hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers Marching As To War' comes from, but I today want to think with you concerning the designation of who we are as Christians, the people of God.

By divine adoption, we are made a part of God's eternal family. And the Westminster Catechism describes adoption as "an act of God's free grace where-by we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God." It is the "reception into a family of one who does not belong to it by birth." And our divine adoption was purchased at a dear price...the blood of Jesus Christ. When God determined to adopt us, He sealed the deed with divine blood. Thus, free grace runs through the whole privilege of adoption and brings us a greater mercy than Adam had in Paradise. He was a son by creation, we are sons of God by adoption. We are now a part of the Family of God...we are God's people.

When I hear that word 'adoption' it stirs a wonder and a deep appreciation in my heart because it's delightful to have God bless our homes as a couple with life in a child, and we receive that child as a gift from God. There's an added dimension when we mention the word adoption. Some months ago a lovely couple in our church came to announce that they were going to adopt a little child in a foreign country. They were excited. They were going through the long process, and I'm sure a costly process, in preparing for that great event and then came February and they announced that they were flying away to China, and they went to China. A couple of weeks later they bring home this beautiful daughter that became theirs. They had traveled halfway around the world to make that selection and to bring that bundle of love home, and to share the rest of life with that little one.

A few weeks ago we had the joy of dedicating this lovely little adopted daughter. But to find in the heart a love that reaches beyond the boundaries of the home, reaches to someone who's been neglected, abandoned, or rejected, and to love that one and bring them in as part of your family, that's a beautiful dimension of love. And that's exactly what has happened as Christians. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Thus He sent Jesus to die and to redeem, and to adopt us into that eternal family, and so thus, we are part of the people of God by an act of God's divine adoption.

And thus our present responsibility as adopted sons is to extol and magnify God's mercy and live for His pleasure. As His sons, we must bear His likeness. Those who belong to distinguished families do their utmost, by noble living, worthy actions and dignified mien, to uphold the honor and the reputation of their forebears, and not in any way disgrace the family's good name. Because of our glorious family connections, through wondrous grace, Peter asks the question, "What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"

And Paul answers it in our wonderful text today. He tells us how we fulfill and live out our Christian faith. We must never forget...we are the people of God. No description of the church so emphasizes the dignity, and the value, and the privilege of its members as the phrase 'the people of God.' In today's world, feelings of loneliness and alienation are everywhere to be found, leaving a flood of depression and despair.

What is at the root of this tragic state of affairs? I believe the fundamental cause is that there is little or no sense of 'belonging'. The emergence and often breakdown of the isolated, nuclear family has meant that the wider sharing in a community has largely been disbanded.

I put that paragraph there because we live in a society where the disintegration of the family and the sense of belonging, the sense of being protected, is gone from so many, many children. We have the sacred and solemn obligation every day as we open the doors of our church and between 800 and 900 children come pouring through those doors. And I recognize that many of those children, probably 50% or more, come from homes where there wasn't a daddy present or a mother present in the home. You sense this sense of incompleteness within the children.

We watch as those children come in and I've always been so thrilled with the lovely ladies that are in the office. One little girl comes, her daddy loves her deeply but she has no mother, and daddy does the very best that he can for his little daughter but he can't comb her hair like mother could. I watch the gals in the office as they bring this little one in and fix her hair and get her all prepared and make her presentable for school because here's one who doesn't have a sense of being wanted by a mother.

You know because of this disintegration of the family I get very sensitive when it comes to Mother's Day and to Father's Day. My years go back 60-65 years as a young person, when Mother's Day came everybody went to church because mom went to church. That's not true today. When it came Father's Day everybody went to church because it was Dad's Day, and we're going to honor Dad by going to church. That's not true today.

Someone asked me some time ago, Pastor, why don't you preach Mother's Day sermons and Father's Day sermons? Because it's hard. Because when you're dealing with a society that's disintegrating there are a lot of people who sit here who do not know the joy of a wonderful mom and the blessings of a great dad. It's a very sensitive subject - and even the subject of family is sensitive because so many do not and did not enjoy the sense of belonging to a tight knit, lovely, compassionate, caring family.

You know, as your pastor, my desire is, and as we think through this subject today, the family outside the walls of the church may be in disintegration, but it be not so that we, within the family of believers here, we create that sense of warmth, concern, and love for one another. May this become the family that many people have never known. That's what Paul is talking about in his message to us today.

On with our notes: In contrast, the heart and the core of God's message to man through the Scriptures is that He desires a people, a community, to share His life. It is God's unmistakable purpose to have a people of His own, and by His amazing grace it is the utterly undeserved privilege of all who belong to Christ to belong to this community, the people of God. It is God's intention that as His people we should glorify Him in our world, and He has commissioned us to reveal Him through our corporate life as His 'own people' to a world that does not know Him.

Jesus Himself said, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

It is always true that our lives speak more loudly than our words. And by using the illustration of light, Jesus was showing the powerful impact true Christian living can have in our world. What the world needs to see is the wonder and beauty of God-possessed personalities; men and women with the life of God pulsating within, who practice the presence of God and consequently make it easy for others to believe in God.

Thus, in our text in Romans 12, it gives us some very specific directives as to how we live out our Christian faith in our church, as to how we behave. So Paul begins our lesson today with this directive, "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love..."

We note that in the Greek language, that is the original language of our New Testament, there are four words for LOVE. They are pronounced differently by some, agape, philia, storge, and eros. The last word, eros, refers to sexual love and does not occur in the New Testament, no doubt because this kind of love had become so debased among the heathen. The first word, agape, is the New Testament word for God's love and for the love of Christians for God and for one another. It's a love that flows simply because that's the very heart of the matter and it expresses itself never with the intent of getting anything in return. It's just kindness and graciousness and love that flows because it comes from inside, never expecting to be repaid. That's agape, love.

Now the first word, agape, is the word that's used in verse 9. And you notice we went over that last week, let love be without hypocrisy. The remaining two words, philia and storge, are used in verse 10, which means all three words of the New Testament words for LOVE are used in these two verses, verses 9 and 10, but they occur in combination.

In the Greek text the first words of Paul's command are "in brotherly love." That is PHILADELPHIA in Greek or philia and when that is connected...when that is spoken of it speaks of a love that's exhibited between brothers and sisters, a deep understanding, concern, and compassionate love. It's between brothers and sisters.

I moved down a couple lines - These words mean that "in respect to the love of our Christian brother and sister, we are to be marked by a devotion that is characteristic of a loving, close-knit, and mutually supportive family."

Now last Lord's day we talked about the body, and thus the body concept graphically portrays that Christians are members one of another. Each believer, no matter what his or her status in life is, is necessary and vitally important to God in the order of things in His church. We talked about that much last week.

But now Paul brings another concept to our attention; it's the family concept. And it gives us an ever greater appreciation for what a functioning church should be. The concept of the "family" adds a dimension of warmth, of tenderness, of concern, and of loyalty--in short, it's human emotion and devotion.

Now the term BROTHERS is used to refer to the "Christian family" approximately 230 times throughout the New Testament beginning in the Book of Acts. The word "BROTHERS" literally means "FROM THE SAME WOMB." It is distinctly a "family term." It means we have all been "born again" into God's forever family. We are vitally related to each other through a common heritage. "In love He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ."

Showing affection and love to other Christians and treating them as brothers and sisters in Christ does not happen automatically. If it were automatic, we would not have so many exhortations to do so. Pause.

Do you remember last week we talked about this issue of love, and we said love was not that warm fuzzy feeling. We said love is a decision. We know something to be right, to be godly, to be proper, to be Christ honoring, and thus we make the decision to do that, and in so doing we live out love by our expressions and by our actions, but it's a decision. And what Paul is saying here is...what I'm suggesting in our notes is that we don't automatically oft times react as love really should react.

Let me use an illustration. It was easy to say to my wife on my honeymoon, I love you, but you get 6 years or 16 years or 26 years or 36 years or 46 years from your marriage date and now those words are expressed out of a sense of responsibility. Not that it isn't true - but expressing love doesn't come automatically under many situations, and it's something we make a decision to do because it's right, it's godly, and it's proper. And that's why I believe that there are so many passages in the Scripture that remind us brotherly love is eternally and timely very responsible.

Look at the verses: "Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more."

Look at what Hebrews says: "Keep loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." Brotherly love.

Look at what Peter has to say: "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, with all your hearts. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God."

Peter goes on to talk about brotherly love, he says, "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing."

Peter goes on: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."

Now Paul, in the context in which he exhorted Christians to "be devoted to one another in brotherly love", also exhorted us that we should "rejoice with those who rejoice" and we should "mourn with those who mourn." Now this, of course, involves emotion; deep feelings of joy as well as deep feelings of sadness. Some Christians find it very difficult to identify with other believers at the "feeling" level.

Some individuals have been so deeply hurt by others they are afraid to express their feelings. They are not willing to take a chance of being hurt again. But, we must work towards a mature Christian perspective of human relationships. As Christians we must be vulnerable. Don't let a bad experience rob you of God's best. Act upon what you know to be right, and God will help you and bless you for your effort.

Let's not forget...Christians are our family regardless of their background, race, nationality, occupation, wealth, or education--or even whether we are attracted to or like another believer. That's irrelevant.

A contemporary church will never have the power of the early church until today's Christians love one another as a close-knit family. Now here is a tremendous revelation. Look at how Luke describes the early church, and this is what attracted the world to the church. Look at what he says: "And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread [including the Lord's Supper] and prayers. And a sense of awe (reverential fear) came upon every soul, and many signs were performed through the apostles (the special messengers). And all who believed (who adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus Christ) were united and [together] they had everything in common;"

Now watch the next verse, And they sold their possessions - this is brotherly love - (both their landed property and their movable goods) and they distributed the price among all, according as any had need. Brotherly love, folks. "And day after day they regularly assembled in the temple with united purpose, and in their homes they broke bread [including the Lord's Supper]. They partook of their food with gladness and simplicity and generous hearts, constantly praising God and being in favor and goodwill with all the people; and the Lord kept adding [to their number] daily those who were being saved [from spiritual death]."

What's the attraction? It's people living out their love and their faith in a wonderful way in a very practical expression of concern and compassion for one another. And Luke suggests, because he's the writer of the Book of Acts, that this became the tremendous attraction that brought people into the body of Christ, loving one another, caring for one another, reaching out for one another and letting the love of God flow through us as human beings.

And when I was thinking of that, and I didn't put these in your notes, so go with me in your Bible to page 519, it's Matthew 18:10-14. We are to love as God loves. Look at He loves. Jesus tells the story in Matthew 18:10. "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

God's love...and Jesus describes it as a shepherd. If we would look at a topography map of the nation of Palestine it's about 130 miles long and about 70 miles wide. It's a very narrow piece of real estate on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. But when you see the topography you'll notice that right down the middle of that little nation is a...it looks almost like a backbone...it's a plateau and it rises up a few hundred feet and it goes in the air, at it's point it's probably 2 - 3 miles wide, and it stretches a long distance down through the very heart of Palestine.

Well it was to these plateaus that they would take their sheep for grazing, and getting up the plateau were ravines and cliffs and very dangerous precipice to get up to this plateau. The shepherds would take their sheep up there and frequently sheep would wander away from the fold and get caught in one of those precipice or ravines. And according to Dr. Barclay he says that in Jesus' time many of the folds were called communal folds, that is, they were a group of sheep owned by a village not by individuals. And so owned by the village they often had two or three shepherds that would go along with the flock and thus, if a sheep wandered away there was at least a shepherd who would leave the flock to the other shepherds and he would go searching for that lost sheep.

Jesus is describing the love of God. Here are 90 and 9. Are they not enough? No, one is lost. And Jesus paints the picture of the shepherd going out on those ravines and in those precipice and searching for that lost sheep. God's love is individual. We thank God for the flock, but we are individuals, and we have to be very, very sensitive in this matter of brotherly love that every individual, every one counts. And to have one straying, for one to go away, for one to wander off into the pathways of sin, it should disturb all of our hearts. We are too content to be grateful just for the flock, but we forget the one who has wandered away.

Not only is it individual love, it's a patient love. Probably the most dumbest animal that God ever created was a sheep - and we are likened to sheep. But sheep you have to always give them constant attention, and what you have here is the patient love of a shepherd searching out for a sheep that's gone astray. Not only is it a patient love, it's a seeking love, and it's a rejoicing love.

As I was thinking about this thought I remembered an old hymn we used to sing years ago. I'm not a singer. I wish I could sing, but it was entitled "The Ninety and Nine" and I called one of my aged friends and I said, would you look through your catacombs and see if you can find a song for me, and he did. Listen to the words:
There were ninety and nine who safely lay
In the shelter of the fold.
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare.
Away from the tender Shepherd's care.
Away from the tender Shepherd's care.
"Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?"
But the Shepherd made answer: "Tis of Mine
One has wandered away from Me;
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep."
But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Or how dark was the night the Lord passed through
Ere to find that sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless and ready to die.
"Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way
That mark out the mountain track?"
"They are shed for one that had gone astray
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back."
But all through the mountains, thunder riven
And up in the rocky steep,
There arose a cry to the gate of Heaven,
"Rejoice! I have found My sheep!"
And the angels echoed around the throne,
"Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!"

I included that in our thoughts today because brotherly love if it's lived out is going to be a love very sensitive to wandering sheep. And you know, as a pastor's heart I can be very, very grateful for the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who come and worship with us each weekend, but I'll tell you what hurts me deepest. It's the wandering ones who don't. And the sadder thing is that oft times the wandering ones are not missed. And Paul told us to have a brotherly love that was compassionate.

The other day, I had been missing a person who had been with us for many years. I learned that there was sickness, and we were aware of that, but it was suggested that a call be made and a call was made, and the person on the other end of the phone said, I've been gone for over a year and this is the first phone call.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're not living out this part of behaving like Christians. There should be a deep concern in all of our hearts for those that wander away from the fold. That's why Paul sets down this directive: Have a compassionate love that's brotherly with one another.

You know, as I study this passage with you it really gets right down to where we live, doesn't it? But here's what the world is looking for: Why don't you Christians live like Christians? And Paul said I'm going to tell you how to behave like a Christian. Let brotherly love be so obvious that it makes it easy to believe in your God. And when it's not there, we lose about all the evangelistic appeal that any church can have if it doesn't have brotherly love.

Father, Your word cuts right to the quick. And oft times we find contentment in the fold, insensitive to the wandering sheep. Please forgive us, and please help us to be a congregation where love for You and love for one another and love for our world is so predominant that it will make it easy for the people of our community to fall in love with You. That's our prayer and we mean it with all of our heart. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.