The Mercy of God Changes Everything

Have you ever wondered what should actually change after someone becomes a Christian?

In this powerful overview of Romans 12, guest pastor Tim Gibson explains that the Christian life isn't driven by guilt or religious performance. It's driven by the overwhelming mercy of God.

Because we've received mercy, everything changes. Our worship changes. Our minds change. Our relationships change. Our love for others changes. The mercy of God transforms every part of life.

You'll discover:

•  Why Romans 12 is the blueprint for the Christian life 
•  The difference between God's mercy and God's grace 
•  What it means to become a living sacrifice 
•  How God transforms the way you think 
•  Why spiritual gifts exist to serve others 
•  How mercy changes the way we love, forgive, and respond to difficult people 
•  Why Christians overcome evil with good 

If you've experienced God's mercy, your life should never be the same.

Scripture: Romans 12

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Tim is the senior pastor, the lead pastor at the Journey Church, and this is in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Get this. He was my youth pastor. And then he hired me to be his son's youth pastor in Texas. And so this is my longest ministry friend. I love this brother. And he's here today. He's here today with his uh his twin brother Robert. Can you welcome Robert and Tim? Now, Tim, if the sermon is good, they thank you. Yeah, they thank me. If they don't like the sermon, he looks like you. That's close enough, right? That's right. All right, good, good. Hey, I want to pray over you, brother, but it's such a joy to have you here. Yeah. Father, thank you for Tim. I could get emotional just thinking about what this man means to me and how he's blessed my life. And so, Lord, thank you for his investment in me. Thank you for his investment in my wife, Ashley, and my family. And Lord, you know what he means to me. And now he gets to come and bless the church that I minister in. And so, Lord, would you bless this sermon? May it touch lives, may it touch hearts, may we all leave changed and challenged. We love you. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, our Savior. All God's people say it together. Amen. Welcome, Tim Gibson. Welcome, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

I love your pastor. Loved him for a long time when he was just a little kid. I'm not that old. I'm only 39. I know I don't look like it, but anyway, I loved it. Love seeing God's hand on Matt, and I'm so thankful and honored to be able to come and preach God's word. Open your Bibles to Romans 12. This morning I'm gonna bring a message. I've been preaching through Romans at my church, Journey Bible Church in Tulsa for, well, we've been in chapter 12 quite a while. Today I'd like to just give you an overview. Sometimes it's good to see the forest and not just all the trees. So today I'd like us to look at Romans 12. And I've entitled the message this morning, The Mercy of God Changes Everything. And if you'd like to know what the spirit-filled marching orders for the believer is, it's Romans chapter 12. Imagine with me a man who falls overboard in the middle of an ocean. He's exhausted, he's drowning, he's completely helpless. And the rescuer jumps in, pulls him out, brings him to safety on the boat, and quietly, literally saves his life. Now imagine when that guy gets on the boat, if he turns to his rescuer and says, Hey, thanks for doing that. What do I owe you? That just doesn't fit, does it? We don't owe him money. He doesn't owe money. You don't, it's not a cold obligation or a reluctant duty. But rather, the rescued person should out of gratitude and affection and willingness say, I want to give my life to serve you. That's Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 comes on the tale of chapters 1 through 11, where the Apostle Paul has laid out for us gloriously the gospel presentation, how sinners are saved by grace through faith, how we're justified. It's the doctrine now that leads to duty or the practice of the Christian life. The word spirit, Holy Spirit is not in this chapter, but I can tell you, no one can do what is in chapter 12 without the power of the Holy Spirit. So I've entitled or I've thought of chapter 12 as the spirit-filled marching orders for every believer. Now, if you're not a believer, if you're not a Christian, you've not been born again, it's going to be impossible for you to do the things that we're going to talk about this morning. So I beg you to come to Christ, and when you come to Jesus Christ as your Savior, you believe on him by faith. The Bible says you'll be saved from your sins and that he will empower you with the Spirit to live a transformed life. And today I'd like us to look at that transformed life and see what God expects of us. The Apostle Paul is laying out here for us now from doctrine to duty how we're to live our life for the glory of God. So, Romans chapter 12. We're going to go through the whole chapter, but we're just going to read this morning the first two verses. So I'd like you to stand with me. If you're able to stand, let's stand together as we read from God's holy word. All of this is God's holy word, his inspired, infallible, authoritative word. What we're studying here is not my word to you, it's God's word to you. So let's hear from God. If you're a believer and you desire to give your life to the Lord for what he's done and how he saved you, here's what he expects of you. Romans chapter 12. Let's just read verses 1 and 2. The Lord says this: I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And this is the word of God. Would you bow your heads with me as we pray? Father, we love you this morning. We're thankful for your word. Father, as we as believers, as worshipers, I pray this morning, we would hear with hearts ready to receive what you have for us. I pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would imprompt upon us a desire, a heart change to submit in every area that we're going to discuss this morning. Open our eyes and our wills and our hearts to see wonderful things from your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Keep your Bibles open. Hope you grabbed a sermon guide in your bulletin this morning. We're going to look at a couple of things, three things. The third point is obviously going to be the big point. But as we dive into this particular chapter, I can't help but to lay a foundation for you of what the Apostle Paul is saying. There's a key word, and again, if you've studied any of Paul's letters, you kind of understand that he has a doctrinal section, and then inevitably that leads to a practical life living. There's no exhortation to be saved in this passage. In fact, the very first verse describes us as brothers and sisters. And here is the expectation that God has for us and how we're to live out our Christian life. Look at verse 1. The Apostle Paul says this to you I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. A couple of things here before we dive into the rest of the chapter. And we're talking about being transformed. Paul has said at other places, the old is gone, the new is come. If you're in Christ, you ought to see a change in how you live. And here in my exhortation, Paul's exhortation, is that the mercies of God should motivate you to live differently. So let's look at this. A couple of things. Number one, Paul gives an appeal. An appeal for transformation is the first thing that we see. God doesn't coerce transformation, but rather lovingly calls believers to it, making it a delight and not a duty. Notice Paul says in verse 1, I appeal to you, brothers. He doesn't say I force you. It's more of a calling. I appeal to you. This word appeal appears at least a hundred times in the New Testament. Other places. Luke says it this way, Acts 24, I beg you, I beg you, I encourage you, I urge you, I exhort you, I implore you, I appeal to you. That's the idea here. The Apostle Paul comes. He doesn't come and say, say, I'm gonna force you to do this, but rather, uh, he it is a command, but he appeals to us on the language of invitation, not intimidation, love, not legalism. It's not a cold list of obligations that the Apostle Paul is about to lay out here for us. It's not a forced compliance to rules, but rather, notice this appeal that Paul gives us is to our heart in light of what we've experienced, and we're gonna get to that in just a moment. But this appeal is this idea that he wants us to willingly respond to the grace that we've received in Jesus Christ. In other words, there's a joy to this thing. This whole transformation that we're about to lay out, and I'm about to lay it out for you clearly. We're gonna look at the whole forest of chapter 12, should be the joyous response, the willing surrender of every true believer who is in Christ. God's not twisting our arms, he's winning our heart, he's won our heart. And that's that leads to sec point number two, and that this is really the big point here of this whole issue is the foundation and motivation of this transformed living. And what is it? Well, it's God's mercies. God's mercies toward us melt our hearts, reorient our wills, and compel us to this joyful surrender to live for the glory of God. All right. So not only is it a foundation for us, but motivation. And what is the it? Notice, Paul says, by the mercies of God. I love that. I like to use it as a verb. We could use the word mercies. If you're in Christ this morning, you've been mercied. You've been mercied by God. He's extended mercy to you. Now notice this word's in the plural. It's in the plural. By the way, these mercies don't refer to just one act of kindness, but a flood, a flood of God's incredible mercy. Somebody asked me, and I should have probably defined it a little more clearly in the first service. What's the difference between grace and mercy? Well, grace is unmerited favor. God gives us favor. Mercy is withholding judgment. So favor, mercy, grace is giving us favor. Mercy is withholding judgment that we deserved. We'll see that here a little bit more clearly when we look at all these mercies together. But Paul says there's a foundation and a motivation for us. These mercies that God has bestowed upon us melt our hearts, change our wills, compel us, if you will, to follow the Lord and to obey his commandments. I'm reminded of John when he says clearly, God's commandments are not burdensome to us. We desire to obey. We follow Christ and desire to follow him. So mercy is not the reward for transformation. Mercy is the reason for the transformation that you ought to see in our life. What moves us as a Christian is not fear of punishment, pressure to perform, but rather the mercies of God. Those mercies of God melt our heart, reord our will, and really compel us to surrender. Now, I'm going to give you the mercies. And these are not on your outline, but I'm going to give them to you. You don't have to write them down. I'm going to fly through them. But if you're in a if you're a believer this morning, you ought to resonate with what I'm about to put on this list because these are all the mercies that I kind of compiled, and I'm sure there are more. This is not a comprehensive list. But what are the mercies that Paul has explained in chapters 1 through 11? Well, here they are. Let me just give you a highlight, and then we're going to jump into the big part of the message, okay? Here's the first one. He's justified us. We have been mercied in justification. The Bible says if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, Romans chapter 3, we have been justified by grace as a gift to Him. I love that. Justification means declared righteous. God declares us righteous because of our faith in Christ. He's able to do that because Christ takes all of our sin and we get all of Christ's righteousness. It's called the, if you will, the great exchange. Christ takes our sin and gives us righteousness, his righteousness, so that God is just in justifying us by faith in him. And that's a mercy. He didn't have to do that. Secondly, I'm just highlighting these. We've been reconciled to God. Paul is very clear about this. Romans chapter 5, verse 6, and chapter 5, verse 8. The Bible says there, Paul says we were once enemies of God. If you're not in Christ this morning, the Bible says you're still an enemy of God. You are hostile toward God, and God is hostile toward you. That's the bigger issue. Without Jesus Christ being your Savior, God is hostile toward us. But Christ has come and reconciled us so that we have a relationship with God and we can be in his favor. Romans 5.10, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Praise be unto God. Third, we were adopted. We were adopted. I love this in chapter 8. We were once outside the family of God. But now his mercy is that he brought us in to the family. We've been made sons. We've been made heirs of the family of God. Whereby we are able to cry out, Ah, but Father, we've been given the spirit of adoption and heirs with Christ. That's in chapter 8, glorious truth. Number four, we've been sanctified. Sanctified. We're being transformed. We've been put into a newness of life. In Romans chapter 6, verse 4. We walk in a newness of life, whereby we have the Spirit of God in us. That's why Paul tells us that we're to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. So we've been sanctified. We're being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit as we put to death the deeds of the body, Romans 8.13. Number five, I told you I was going to go fast. We've experienced the sovereign mercy of God. This is a big one in chapters 9 through 11. In chapter 9 through 11, the Apostle Paul is very clear that Israel was saved because God was merciful to them. God, he even quotes God, saying, I will have mercy upon them on whom I'll have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. So that it does not depend upon the man who wills or the man who runs, but upon God who has mercy. And if you're in Christ, it's because God's been merciful to you and his sovereignty. Wonderful. Number six, briefly, there's no condemnation for you who are in Christ. Isn't that an incredible truth? Romans 8, 1, so most of you have that memorized. Is that not a mercy that no longer God's condemnation is upon us? We are his family, we are his friend. The verdict of our life is over, it's been permanently changed. We have received grace in Jesus Christ. Number seven, we've been united with Christ. United with Him, not only in His death, but in His resurrection. And we also live with Him. So we've been radically changed in our position. We're no longer in Adam, but we're in Christ. What a great truth in chapter 5 and chapter 6. Number eight, we've been given the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit lives within us. He dwells within us. Chapter 8, verse 9. Chapter 8, verse 11. The Spirit gives life and he helps in our weakness and he intercedes for us so that we're not left alone as orphans. But another comforter has come beside us and help us. He helps us. This is his mercy, that he has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Number nine, he has given us assurance of our salvation. He gives us assurance. His Spirit gives witness with our spirit that we're sons of God. And we have confidence that He who predestined us, He who forknew us, predestined us. He who predestined us also called us. And he who called us also justified us. He who justified us also glorified past tense. There's the promise of our assurance that God will one day glorify all those whom he has called. We have assurance of our salvation. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are his, and we can know that we've been born again. That's John's point of 1 John very clearly. And then the last one is mercy. I'm sorry, patience. Patience. God is patient with us. He's patient with the world around us, even those who are unbelievers. It's the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience that led us to repentance. And so look at this list. Is this an incredible list? If you're in Christ, this is how God has merced you. He's justified you, reconciled you, adopted you, given you life. All of that is the foundation and the motivation for the rest of the chapter. All of that is why we're not forced to try to be transformed. We do it out of a willing heart and a loving spirit and a desire to bring honor and glory to God because we've been mercied. Do you realize you've been mercied this morning? If you're in Christ, you've experienced the glories of heaven in your soul. What a joy. What an incredible blessing for us. God didn't have to do this, but He did all it all for us in Christ. Now, let me just say this before we look at the third point. And the third point is going to be the description of the life transformed. Since we have been mercied, we ought to mercy others. Since we have been mercied, we ought to be vessels of mercy to others. Let's look at the third point. Number three, and this is the rest of the chapter, okay? Number three, the scope of the transformation. What is it? And here it is in a summary. The believer's life is totally reshaped before God, within myself, toward others, and even toward my enemies. That's the outline of chapter 12. An upward transformation, an inward transformation, an outward transformation, and even a transformation toward unbelievers, those who are hostile toward us. Now on your outline, I give you a QR code. You can go and download this particular diagram that I'm going to give to you. It's on your outline, you can download it later. But here it is clearly the mercies of God change my life vertically, inwardly, horizontally, and even toward others. And I think that describes clearly the outline of this chapter. I told you we're going to be looking at the forest and not the trees. I'm not going to be looking at a lot of the details. I'll let you work those things out. But I think that as you see these major categories, you're going to see what God expects of us. Here are, again, the spirit-filled marching orders for the believer and how we relate to God. If you'll notice there's a key word I give to you on this little diagram. Key word is sacrifice toward God, humility toward ourselves, love toward others, and then the last one there is see differently our enemies. We view them differently and we respond to them differently. All right. So let's work that out if we can this morning. And let's ask ourselves this question as we dive into this. Do we see a transformation in every one of these areas in my life? Do I see the Spirit working out my salvation, if you will, to use Philippians 2? Do I see my life being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit in this vertical relationship with God, how I view myself, how I treat others, how even I treat my enemies? And the last one is the hardest, I'll be honest with you. I spent 12 weeks going through this whole chapter. The last paragraph is, I think, the hardest. And the most clearly evident that the Holy Spirit's working in you is that you're able to respond with godliness to those who mistreat you. All right, so let's look at this. We'll divide them into the four areas. Here's the first one. Number one, on your outline, you'll see the four categories. Number one, a call to surrender. Now go back to chapter 12, and we're going to look at these. Here's what he says at the end of verse 1. I appeal to you what? To present your body, bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Alright? Paul jumps immediately to the most important relationship that the believer has with God. How are you to respond to God? And he uses the word sacrifice here. Present your body, and this is a command. Here's a new attitude, a new directive that you have. Now that you've come to Christ, now that you've been merced by God, here's your new response to God. Throw your body on that altar and don't let it crawl off. And that's the problem, isn't it? Many times we want to crawl off the altar, but God's calling us to present our bodies, our person, all of our being, to crawl onto an altar and sacrifice every aspect of our life to God, to surrender to God, to surrender all of our life, our Minds, our hearts, our wills to God, in order that our whole life might be a worship unto God. And this is everywhere in Scripture. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Colossians 3, verse 16 and 17 says, every word and every deed should be done in the name of the Lord. I love Hebrews 13, verse 15 to 16, which tells us that we're to live a life of sacrifice of praise and a life of doing good to others and to God. So here, the first thing Paul says is that our lives are to be a total surrender to God. I think a great illustration of this is the potter's clay. Oftentimes we don't think of our lives as clay, but we're to climb up on that altar and like God, allow God to mold us, to shape us. And the clay never gets to say to the molder, don't make me a vase or don't make me a bowl or a cup. No, rather, God is shaping us. He's molding us. He's shaping us the way he would want. Now look at verse 2. Here's how he's shaping us. And again, I'm not going to work all the details out, but very clearly, the way he shapes us is that he renews our mind. And he renews our mind through the reading of his word. Look at verse 2. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Here's how God is shaping the vessel. Here's how God is shaping you as a surrendered vessel to him. He's taking the word of God. And as you read it, it's saturating your mind, and you're letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And that word is shaping you, and the Holy Spirit's taking it like a knife, and he's trimming the edges, and he's shaving the edges, and he's forming us into the image of Jesus. And he only does that through the word of God. Of course, he uses trials, he uses difficulties, he uses other people and counsel. But the word of God is the number one priority. It's the number one means that God uses for the believer. Because the believer loves the word. And the believer knows that the word of God is perfect and accurate and they want to submit to it. So look at again, look at verse 2. We won't look at all the details, but he says, listen, allow your minds to be transformed. So that you're able to test and discern what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. That you might align your life with the will of God perfectly. That's your new role with God. That's your new marching orders with Him. Every day I'm going to the Word and I'm allowing the Word to mold me and shape me, change my thinking, pull me out of the gutter. Don't let me think like the world. And make me into the image of Jesus Christ. That's your mission every day of your life. Crawl back up on that altar and say, Jesus, I no longer am over my own life. I'm not over my own family, my own money, my own future, my own dreams, my own body. I give it all to you. You tell me through your word what you want me to do. Here the Apostle Paul lays it out clearly. Augustine of Hippo knew this well. He lived a life of sexual immorality. I don't know if you're familiar with Augustine, one of our church fathers. He lived a life of sexual immorality, worldly ambition, intellectual pride. He had a mother named Monica. Monica prayed for Augustine, Augustine, St. Augustine for years. He would have nothing to do with Christ until one day when he heard Romans chapter 13 being read by a little girl. And this shows you something about the power of the Word of God. Romans 13, the little girl read this verse put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh. At that moment, Augustine surrendered his life to Jesus. The Holy Spirit flooded in, and his life was changed forever. He no longer began, he began forsaking sexual immorality, forsaking pride. His life was changed forever. He didn't clear up, simply clean up Augustine. He gave him a new way of thinking about his life. Gave him a new way to live as a sacrifice, having his mind transformed. You see, here's the foundation for it all. His word transforms everything. Well, that leads us to the second thing, number two. And we ought to stop and pause for just a moment. And ask, does that so far, does that describe your life so far? You're a believer. Are you giving your life continually as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice to God? Every day? You're saying I no longer live for myself. I'm taking up my cross daily and following Christ. It's a daily thing. This is my new vertical relationship with the Lord. This is how I'm to live. This is God's will for my life. Secondly, number two, and they're going to get a little harder here. Number two, how do I view myself? An inward perspective, a new way to see myself. In verses three to eight, if you look at verse three, and we didn't read this, but let's read at least verse three and four. Look at what Paul says: For by the grace of God given to me I say to every one of you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. And then he describes this relationship in the community where all of us live as one member among many, having been given gifts in order to serve each other. Some have different gifts, and I'll let you work again all the details of this out. But Paul says the church body is a body of servants, a body of humble servants that think of others more importantly than themselves, and they think accurately about themselves. Now let's think about this for just a minute. Because it's really an oxymoron for a Christian to be full of pride. There's nothing more dangerous in a local church body than for members to be prideful. Pride comes out in unforgiveness, hurt, words, harsh words, arrogance, my idea over your idea comes out in many different ways. Here Paul says, listen, we've been saved to be humble in order that we might serve each other. So the key word here is humility. Humility. Do you think of others as more important than yourself? In your marriage, do you consider your partner as more important than yourself? Your brothers and sisters. I'll talk to the children here for just a moment. Are you prideful? Are you always fighting and having dissensions, having arguments with your brothers or sisters, or are you serving them? Are you humble, considering them more important than yourself? Here, Paul lays this clearly out. We have a different thinking about who we are. We think rightly about ourselves. We remember that we were mercied by God. We were hostile toward God. We didn't deserve mercy. We didn't deserve grace. We didn't deserve kindness. We didn't deserve gifts. And he gave them to me. And because of that, out of the overflow of the mercy that I've received, I'm merciful to others. And I have a new attitude toward my wife, my husband. I'm humble. I'm humble. Philippians chapter 2, verse 3. Put on this mindset that Christ had, right? Consider others as more important than yourself, just as Christ took on human flesh and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, right? We can't be self-centered. We have to be thinking of others as more important. C.S. Lewis, I think, had this right. He wrote the book Mere Christianity back in the 1950s. Maybe you're familiar with C.S. Lewis. Some were fearful that all the fame and all the mail and the lectures that he was given might cause him to be prideful. One of his friends asked about C. S. Lewis and said, Hey, what about C.S. Lewis? Is he arrogant? Is he prideful? He said, Oh no. If you've ever spent any time with C.S. Lewis, and by the way, I don't agree with all the things that C.S. Lewis says. I'm just using this as an illustration. Don't hold me accountable to everything that C.S. Lewis believes for all that matter. But in any case, someone said about him, oh no, anytime you talk to C. S. Lewis, he looks at you and he talks to you as though you're the only person that matters at that moment. And he's such a humble person. By the way, you can kind of see humility in people, don't you? You kind of spot people who are arrogant. Here's what C. S. Lewis said. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. And I think there's some truth to that. I think in pride, when someone's proud, they're always thinking about how they can benefit themselves, how they can be the best, or how they can put themselves in a better light, etc., etc. Here's the point of Romans 12: this portion right here. You are to be humble and think of others more than you think of yourself. And you are to serve them. You've been gifted with gifts in order to serve. Serve others. Christians are to be servants. We're to pour out love on others as we serve them. Gospel destroys pride and it creates a sober, grace-shaped, excuse me, self-understanding. Think with humility. Recognize your grace gifts. Serve within the body. But here's the bottom line. Pride asks, how important am I? I deserve this. I deserve that. Humility says, How can I serve? How can I serve my spouse? How can I serve my kids? How can I serve my church? How can I serve my community? We ought to be serving others. Alright, so that's a different perspective about myself. I often ask this of my spouse, and maybe you should do the same. Sometimes I ask my wife, how am I doing? She knows quite well how I'm doing. And if you're humble enough husbands, you'll be able to say, sweetheart, how am I doing? Can you give me a grade? Am I A, B, C, or D on pride? And then maybe some of us need to go. And by the way, it works the other way as well. Ladies, ask your husbands, how am I doing on pride? Pride will destroy your marriage. Pride will destroy the church. Pride will destroy any relationship that exists. That's why Paul says we've been changed. The mercy of God changes. We have no room to be prideful. No room. Zero room. Why? Because we've been mercied by God. And therefore we're humble. So ask God to humble you. Ask God to give you humility. Ask God to help you to be a servant. Ask God to help you to think of others as more important than yourself. Here's the third thing. Number three. I'm going to hurry here because I want to get to the last one. Number three, a new way to love others. So now we're looking at outward. Look at verses 9 to 16. Again, we're looking at the forest, not just the trees. Let your love be genuine, he says. Love. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another. Don't be slothful in zeal. Be zealous. Be fervent of spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice. Be patient. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and hospitality. Alright, so that whole section, again, you can work out the details. But the major picture here is that my heart toward others is radically different. Radically different. I love people. Notice he says with brotherly love. Brotherly love. Love one another with brotherly affection. I love that. As members of the family of God, we we love we love the church. We love the whole world? Oh man, we really love our church family. And we forgive one another. We forgive one another. That's a hard one, isn't it? Don't know if you've heard of Corey Tin Boom. She survived Nazi concentration camps in the 1940s. Her sister Betsy died. Her dad also died in the concentration camps. You can imagine what kind of bitterness and hatred she might have toward the Nazis. After the war was over, apparently Corey Tinboom traveled around through Europe and spoke about forgiveness and told her testimony. And one interesting story happened one night after she had been sharing about forgiveness. I guess the Lord was going to test her to see whether or not she was going to practice what she preached. Because one of the guards of the Nazis came up to her. She recognized him immediately that he was one of the Nazi concentration guards. He came up to her and said, Fraulein, I've been saved. I've trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. And I thank you for your message on forgiveness. And I wanted to ask you, Fraulein, would you forgive me? She said in that moment that bitterness, anger, selfishness rose up in her heart. The flesh rose up, and she didn't know if she would do it, but then she stuck her hand out, knowing she would obey God and obey what the Lord said. She stuck her hand out and shook his hand. She said, at that moment, a flood of joy, a flood of blessings filled her heart because she knew that she was doing what God. She was loving a brother, loving someone with brotherly affection and forgiving them. I don't know if there's someone in your life that you need to forgive. Here, notice this is radical. We'll get to it here in a second in the last part. Is there someone in your life who's a Christian, a brother, a sister, a wife, a husband, someone you need to forgive? Or are you harboring bitterness and anger toward them? Here, God calls us to genuine. Notice, let love be genuine. Let it be genuine. Abhor what is evil, yes. Don't sweep it under the rug. Hold fast to what is good. We're not going to candy coat sin and we're not going to candy coat people's failures that they need to be called on the car, but let's do it, but let's forgive them. Let's give them a chance to forgive. Let's give them a chance to reconcile, right? Don't harbor bitterness and hurt and anger in your heart. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor to one another. I love that one. Showing honor. And there's lots of details that I'm not looking at here. You can work them out. This is gospel-shaped community life. Loving others, loving sincerely, honoring each other, practicing hospitality, weeping with others, rejoicing with others, living in harmony, all of that. That leads us to the last point, and we'll be done. And this is the hardest one of all. So now we've looked at upward, inward, outward. Now the last section is the section on adversial, a new way to respond to enemies, our enemies, to those who are against us, are hostile toward us, who are hurtful to us. It could be a brother, it could be a sister, it could be somebody even close to us, or it could be somebody out in the world. Somebody has hurt me, somebody has said hard words to me. Somebody has done evil against me, toward me. How am I supposed to respond? Look at verse 14, last section. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be wise in your own sight. Here we go, verse 17. Repay no evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live at peace with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself. Beloved, never avenge yourself. Never. Key word, never. There's never a loophole in how you're going to respond to someone else. If somebody speaks harsh words toward you and your family, you do not have a right to cross the street and beat him to a pulp. You don't have the right to do that. And if you know what I'm talking about, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go look online. You don't have a right to that. And I don't care if you're a pastor or not, you don't have the right to do that. This is the glory of Christ in us. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. You'll not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Man, that's a hard, hard section. And it reminds us that this is not something we do in our own ability. This is spirit empowered. My brother and I were, we were going up a street in Tulsa this last two days ago. He was here and we we went to a state sale, and I bought something at a state cell, and I had my back of my truck all filled with this stuff, and I was going slow because I didn't want it to fall out. I had it strapped in, but I wanted to. This guy came around the corner, and man, he gave us the bird, you know, out of the corner. And the flesh in me wanted to give the bird back. Like this, you know. I didn't do it. Of course, I don't do that, those kind of things. Hopefully I'm a little more mature than that, but the flesh, man, wanted to do that. Let me give you a principle here that I think is very helpful. Are you familiar with the echo? An echo. An echo is it bounces off a wall and comes back. The world operates on an ecosystem. We are called not to follow the echo. We're called to break the echo. So let me just show you this. For the world, you say, I love you. Oh, the world's gonna love you back, right? Oh, I love you too, dude. You're the awesome, right? If you say to the world, I hate you, the echo comes right back at you. I hate you. We don't operate on an echo system. We break the echo. We do the opposite. We don't operate that way. The world says fight fire with fire. Now, here's a principle. I want you to meditate on this. We don't fight fire with fire. We fight fire with living water. Living water that comes out of your soul that Jesus has given to you. And you give good to that person who is in who insults you, who is evil toward you, who is harmful toward you. Why? Because this is something supernatural in you. And the power of Jesus comes out in you. Isn't this what Jesus did? When he was reviled, he didn't revile in return. When they spit on him, he didn't spit back on them. When they put a crown of thorns on his head, he didn't fight back. When they crucified him on the cross, listen, here it is, he was overcoming evil with good. He was pouring living water on his very enemies and saying, I want to be gracious to you and kind to you and loving to you. This is how the gospel transforms us. We pour living water on those who hurt us and insult us. I think this is the hardest of all because we're fleshly. We want what's ours, we want to return, we we want we retaliate, we want to do what we want to do, and yet God says no. This is the evidence that you have been mercy. Why? Because those who have received mercy, here's the summary those who have received mercy become vessels of mercy. Because you once hated God, you once were an enemy of God, and God was kind to you. And so you should be a vessel of mercy to those people who are not kind to you. People in the world. Maybe somebody even in your own family. They're not good, they're evil. Oh, well, I'm gonna take care of that. No? Leave room for the vengeance of God. So, the last area here, a new way to respond to our adversaries, to those who hurt us. We pour living water onto the situation in order that the gospel might be seen. Now, as we close, Martin Lloyd Jones said this if your Christianity doesn't affect your whole life, it isn't real. A couple of things here that I'm gonna make statements, and I forgot to do them in the first one service, but I'm gonna say them here. You can put them up there if you'd like. Number one, there's no area of life untouched by the mercy of God. No lot, no area. The mercies of God don't just improve one part of your life, they transform all of it. All of it. And then the last statement is this we don't live this way to become. God's people. We live this way because by his mercy we are his people. We are his people. I'm thankful for that. As we close, here's what this whole chapter reminds us. The mercy of God changes everything. Everything. I'm so blessed. I have three adopted children. We're going to bring this to a close this morning. I have three adopted children. I love my adopted children. I have one biological child. But it is interesting if you've ever talked to some adopted children, sometimes it's difficult for them to feel adjusted into their family. Sometimes, especially those who are adopted at an older age, sometimes forget that their name has been changed. They become a Gibson or they become a Jones or they become whoever. They kind of forget their identity. This chapter reminds us that we're to live in accordance with our identity. We've been adopted into the family of God, and therefore we're to live like children of the Most High God. We're to have a relationship with Him that we're willing to sacrifice our life. We're going to give our whole life to the Lord so that we can know exactly how He wants to shape us and form us. We think differently about ourselves. We're humble. The mercies of God have humbled us so that we begin serving others. Our love for others goes out to the whole world. We love otherone with a sincere love. And then lastly, even our enemies taste the living water that comes out of us. Because we've been merced, we've been changed, we've been transformed. We don't do all of this again. We don't do all of this to become God's people. We are God's people. We've been adopted into the family of God. Let me pray for you. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're going to have an opportunity to do that today at the end of the service. You can't do any of this without the Spirit of God in you. This is impossible living without the Spirit of God. This is spirit-empowered living. Romans chapter 12, the marching orders for every Christian. How about you? What area of your life do you need God to do a little work in? Maybe that first one. You humble yourself and say, Lord, I'm ready to throw myself back up on that altar and submit my whole life to you. There's an area in my life I've been neglecting. God, you know it. Help me to throw that up on the altar. Help me to surrender my life, my anger, what I look at, those kinds of things. Maybe your love for others has been waning. Maybe you're not a servant like you should be. And certainly maybe how you treat those who hurt you, even somebody in your own household, ought to be transformed in how you live. Let's pray together. Father, we love you this morning. We're thankful for your mercy and your grace. We thank you that none of this is requirements for salvation. All of that we see here in this chapter, Father, is simply the outworking of our salvation. These are the results of the mercy of God in our life. Oh, I pray for the saints here at Central. May the mercies of God transform every area of their life. Father, help us. Strengthen us. Help us to be aware of what you expect of us and help us to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. We ask these things in Jesus' holy name. Amen.