WEBVTT 00:00:06.784 --> 00:00:10.442 All right, good morning, good morning, good morning, you can grab your. 00:00:10.442 --> 00:00:12.910 I almost feel bad for like interrupting that, you know. 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:15.375 But hey, kids, y'all go ahead and head down the hall to kids. 00:00:15.375 --> 00:00:16.643 Me, can we give it up for our kids? 00:00:16.643 --> 00:00:17.368 is there a heading out? 00:00:17.368 --> 00:00:30.249 Yeah, what a great day, what a great day already to be together If we have had the chance to meet. 00:00:30.308 --> 00:00:36.789 My name's, james and I get the privilege of serving here as campus pastor, and it's an honor honor to have you here today. 00:00:36.789 --> 00:00:38.064 Thanks so much for being in the room. 00:00:38.064 --> 00:00:48.051 We're we're in the middle of a series right now called In the Fire, and what we're talking about through this series is learning to thrive in the trials of life. 00:00:48.051 --> 00:00:51.466 Because, how many of you know, life is difficult, man, like we can all agree on that. 00:00:51.466 --> 00:00:52.342 Life is hard. 00:00:52.342 --> 00:00:57.430 And the question then becomes well, how do we go through the difficulties of life? 00:00:57.430 --> 00:00:57.820 Do we? 00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:01.248 do we crumble under the weight of trial? 00:01:01.248 --> 00:01:10.990 or or, like an olive that is pressed so that the oil can flow, Did the trials actually bring out the best in us? 00:01:10.990 --> 00:01:19.469 And today, today, we're going to talk about dealing with difficult people, and now is not the time to elbow the person next to you to look at him. 00:01:19.469 --> 00:01:20.681 This is for you Now. 00:01:20.681 --> 00:01:24.022 I mean it might be, i don't know, i guess between them and the Holy Spirit, but no, let's not. 00:01:24.022 --> 00:01:28.746 You know, i want to try to keep the peace at Sunday lunch and all that stuff, but I was dealing with difficult people. 00:01:28.746 --> 00:01:34.193 How do we deal with people that just make things more difficult than they need to be? 00:01:34.193 --> 00:01:48.521 And what we're going to see today through the scriptures is that the apostle Paul actually wants to flip the script and say Hey, in your relationships with people that the world would term difficult, let's, let's start, as Michael Jackson would say, with the man in the mirror. 00:01:48.521 --> 00:01:56.526 Let's examine ourselves and see how God wants to change us as we relate to the people around us. 00:01:56.526 --> 00:01:59.268 My, i'm going to start here today. 00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:02.649 My family this week lost a hero. 00:02:02.649 --> 00:02:17.169 My grandfather passed away suddenly early Friday morning, late Thursday night, and so we talked last week about walking through pain and how hurting with hope still hurts, and so my family is kind of living in that right now. 00:02:17.169 --> 00:02:18.305 I didn't see, we didn't see it coming. 00:02:18.305 --> 00:02:22.450 It was unexpected, but I want to start this morning and just honor my grandfather. 00:02:22.450 --> 00:02:27.932 He's 82 years old, lived his life to to serve Jesus and to love people. 00:02:27.932 --> 00:02:35.045 If you ever met him, he would talk to you like you had known him forever and he had known you forever. 00:02:35.045 --> 00:02:46.068 And you know he was the guy that, like we're eating dinner and trying to leave the restaurant, he's back in the kitchen like praying for the kitchen staff and all like, just like he, just everywhere he went, he knew somebody. 00:02:46.068 --> 00:02:52.143 He's encouraging somebody, he's got a word of you know prayer or encouragement for somebody He just met. 00:02:52.143 --> 00:03:10.971 That's just who my grandpa, my grandpa, was, and so moments like that you don't see coming, but I'm grateful to have had him in my life for 30 years And I know most of you in the room never had the chance to meet him, but if, if you've heard me speak, you've heard him in a lot of ways. 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:18.968 I I found last night a note that he had written for me when I first started in ministry And you know it was his list of. 00:03:18.968 --> 00:03:28.633 You know, if this is, this is what it looks like to do ministry well, and it was all about relationships with others and serving Jesus with integrity. 00:03:28.633 --> 00:03:45.472 And so I'm grateful, grateful to, to, to him and to my family for that type of legacy, and I just I wanted you to kind of know what we're walking through because I don't know any other way to, any other way to lead than just to to, to bring you in on where we're at today. 00:03:45.472 --> 00:03:57.771 And I want to talk about him a little bit throughout throughout our time together, because when it comes to relating to people, i don't know if anybody better at dealing with people and encouraging people and loving people well than my grandfather. 00:03:57.771 --> 00:04:08.280 So that said, paul in Romans, chapter 12, is going to give us some really, really practical wisdom. 00:04:09.001 --> 00:04:15.766 If you ever read the book of Romans, there's a lot in Romans that's like it's so theological, it's so spiritual sounding. 00:04:15.766 --> 00:04:20.980 Sometimes it's like I don't even know what to do with that Cause I'm really not even a hundred percent sure what that means. 00:04:20.980 --> 00:04:22.485 And that's a lot of Romans. 00:04:22.485 --> 00:04:36.507 But when Paul gets to Romans 12, it's like he flips the script a little bit and says, hey, from this point forward let's talk about how the internal transformation of the gospel is lived out on the external level. 00:04:36.507 --> 00:04:38.605 And so that's what we're going to read today. 00:04:38.605 --> 00:04:42.729 The subtitle in my Bible says marks of a true Christian. 00:04:42.729 --> 00:04:47.860 In other words, if you know Jesus and you've been changed by the love of God, the grace of God. 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:50.126 You've been forgiven by the mercy of God. 00:04:50.126 --> 00:04:53.805 This is what's going to be happening in your lives. 00:04:53.805 --> 00:04:56.688 We're going to read nine through 21 together this morning. 00:04:56.779 --> 00:05:00.908 The apostle Paul writes these words let love be genuine. 00:05:00.908 --> 00:05:05.237 Abhor or hate what is evil. 00:05:05.237 --> 00:05:07.344 Hold fast to what is good. 00:05:07.344 --> 00:05:12.090 Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another and showing honor. 00:05:12.090 --> 00:05:13.682 Don't be slothful and zeal. 00:05:13.682 --> 00:05:15.687 Be fervent and spirit. 00:05:15.687 --> 00:05:17.370 Serve the Lord. 00:05:17.370 --> 00:05:18.800 Rejoice and hope. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.084 Be patient and tribulation. 00:05:20.084 --> 00:05:22.029 Be constant in prayer. 00:05:22.029 --> 00:05:26.549 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 00:05:26.549 --> 00:05:28.665 Bless those who persecute you. 00:05:28.665 --> 00:05:29.964 Bless and do not curse them. 00:05:29.964 --> 00:05:31.454 Rejoice with those who rejoice. 00:05:31.454 --> 00:05:32.663 Weep with those who weep. 00:05:32.663 --> 00:05:35.306 Live in harmony with one another. 00:05:35.306 --> 00:05:39.959 Don't be haughty or proud, but associate with the lowly You're. 00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:50.044 Be wise in your own sight or pay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible, so far as it depends on you. 00:05:50.044 --> 00:05:54.919 Live peaceably, or live that peace with all Love. 00:05:54.919 --> 00:05:57.753 Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. 00:05:57.753 --> 00:06:01.086 For it is written vengeance is mine, our repay, says the Lord. 00:06:01.086 --> 00:06:03.867 To the contrary, if your enemy's hungry, feed him. 00:06:03.867 --> 00:06:10.569 If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. 00:06:10.569 --> 00:06:12.222 And then I love verse 21,. 00:06:12.222 --> 00:06:17.301 Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good Father. 00:06:17.301 --> 00:06:41.905 My prayer this morning is that you would take the practical words of Paul and, by the transforming power of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, give us the strength to live a life of love And open our eyes this morning to the truth of your word and help it to find a good place in our hearts in which to take root. 00:06:41.905 --> 00:06:43.750 In Jesus name, amen. 00:06:44.840 --> 00:06:46.848 I I'm not a scientist by any stretch. 00:06:46.848 --> 00:06:48.526 I was a history major in college. 00:06:48.526 --> 00:06:50.807 I I like science when I was in school. 00:06:50.807 --> 00:06:51.641 I'm not a scientist. 00:06:51.641 --> 00:06:55.390 If you are and I'm wrong, wait till after and you can correct me on this. 00:06:55.390 --> 00:07:00.450 I do, however, know, as what my dad would call to you, how to use the Google machine. 00:07:00.450 --> 00:07:01.822 Um, and so I. 00:07:01.822 --> 00:07:04.729 I use the Google machine this week and this is what I've found. 00:07:05.719 --> 00:07:12.697 Scientists tell us that, on a DNA level, human beings are 99.9% identical. 00:07:12.697 --> 00:07:21.271 Fascinating DNA, molecular level, we're 99.9% the same, which, to me, it says a couple of things. 00:07:21.271 --> 00:07:23.426 We got a lot more in common than we have. 00:07:23.426 --> 00:07:33.673 That separates us, that divides us And, at the same time, that 0.1% seems to be pretty significant, does it not? 00:07:33.673 --> 00:07:38.591 Because our world today is far more divided than united. 00:07:38.591 --> 00:07:54.435 People today are far more at odds than they are together, like mine did, like it's a whole lot easier to foster and further division than it is to bring people together across the aisle, whatever that aisle is, is it not? 00:07:54.435 --> 00:08:05.659 We see it all across our world today division happening by religion or political identification, or color of your skin or socio-economic status. 00:08:05.659 --> 00:08:16.478 There's so much that society divides us and puts a golf in between us And yet DNA level is 99.9% the same. 00:08:16.478 --> 00:08:20.907 There are moments where that 99.9% is Evan. 00:08:20.968 --> 00:08:42.679 I remember being in Israel a couple of years ago and our group was leaving the western wall, the wailing wall, and we're walking out of that area of the Temple Mount around to the steps of the Temple And in process, as we're walking, we come upon a bar mitzvah happening And there are bus loads of people unloading to celebrate this bar mitzvah. 00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:48.865 There's music playing, people are singing in Hebrew The majority of our tour group. 00:08:48.865 --> 00:08:51.934 They were young once, but they were no longer. 00:08:51.934 --> 00:09:13.790 We wouldn't call them young today necessarily, but it was fascinating watching them listen and hear and absorb this Jewish bar mitzvah, people singing in Hebrew and this group of Baptist just begins to like dance, and I wish if I had a video to show you today of this group of Baptist dancing to a Jewish bar mitzvah in Israel. 00:09:13.790 --> 00:09:20.675 There's the 99.9% Right there, something about the music and the celebration and the joy. 00:09:20.675 --> 00:09:21.679 We were just united in that moment. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:23.466 It was incredible. 00:09:23.466 --> 00:09:24.348 Never forget it. 00:09:24.348 --> 00:09:27.230 Those moments are few and far between. 00:09:27.230 --> 00:09:29.679 Those moments are few and far between. 00:09:30.201 --> 00:09:34.679 The reality is that we live in a world that is divided. 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:42.659 We live surrounded by people that you and I might term difficult. 00:09:42.659 --> 00:09:45.327 Anybody know any difficult people. 00:09:45.327 --> 00:09:46.630 Anybody live with a difficult person. 00:09:46.630 --> 00:09:49.164 Anybody like we got difficult people in your family, kids. 00:09:49.164 --> 00:09:50.679 You should not be raising your hands at that right there. 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:55.749 And I'm just saying come on, bowen Reeves, you know like not to call any names or anything. 00:09:55.749 --> 00:10:01.442 You know Like we live within a difficult world, and not only that. 00:10:01.442 --> 00:10:11.850 We also, if we're honest and we should be honest because we're in church on a Sunday morning we all have people that if we had an hour of free time, we wouldn't choose to spend it with them. 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:15.567 You all right, like can we laugh at that? 00:10:15.567 --> 00:10:21.679 I don't know, i'm not sure, i'm still trying to figure it out myself, but that's reality, right, like we don't get along with everybody. 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:25.004 Not everybody likes us And, if we're honest, we don't like everybody either. 00:10:25.004 --> 00:10:26.523 But what do we do? 00:10:26.523 --> 00:10:32.951 We're faced with dealing with difficult people in the day today. 00:10:34.221 --> 00:10:42.495 The context of what we read in Romans, chapter 12, paul has spent a lot of time working through the gospel. 00:10:42.495 --> 00:10:59.323 He's riding to a church in Rome, a group of believers that he's never met, but he's heard of their faith And he knows the environment in which they live is hostile and becoming more hostile to their faith, and so he's trying to encourage them. 00:10:59.323 --> 00:11:03.231 Hey, your faith in Jesus has the power to change everything. 00:11:03.231 --> 00:11:10.659 In Romans 1.16, he says I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for salvation. 00:11:10.659 --> 00:11:14.679 First to the Jew and then to the Gentile, paul says I'm not going to stop proclaiming the gospel. 00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:19.631 I don't want you to stop proclaiming the gospel because there's power there to set people free. 00:11:19.631 --> 00:11:22.528 And he talks about what that freedom looks like. 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:30.494 In Romans 5.6.7, he begins to lay out this picture of hey, you used to be under the weight of the law. 00:11:30.494 --> 00:11:40.659 In other words, your standing before God was based on how well you could live up to God's perfect standard of righteousness. 00:11:40.659 --> 00:11:52.432 And if you read the Old Testament, what we see over and over and over again is that human beings, because we're sinful, we cannot achieve perfection in our own power, in our own strength. 00:11:52.432 --> 00:12:02.679 And Paul says you were under the weight of the law, and because you couldn't live up to it perfectly, you were also under the curse of sin. 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:06.679 Sin had grabbed hold of your heart, your flesh was leading the way. 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:09.679 You were a slave to what you wanted in the moment. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:20.245 So on one hand, you're condemned by the law because you can't reach God's standard, but on the other hand, you're a slave to sin and you can't do anything to fix it, and that's not good news. 00:12:21.381 --> 00:12:39.593 Then Paul says this but you're no longer under the law because Christ Jesus, through his death, barrel and resurrection, has set you free from the grip of sin and the weight of the law And you now live under what Paul calls the law of grace or the law of love. 00:12:39.593 --> 00:12:52.635 So what you and I were powerless to do in our own strength, jesus has done lived the perfect life, shed his blood in our place, resurrected from the dead. 00:12:52.635 --> 00:12:58.131 Now we don't have to achieve moral perfection to be right with God because Jesus did. 00:12:58.131 --> 00:13:06.213 We don't have to set ourselves free from the weight and the grip of sin, because Jesus already has. 00:13:06.213 --> 00:13:09.025 How do we get right before God? 00:13:09.025 --> 00:13:11.432 How do we achieve righteousness before God? 00:13:11.432 --> 00:13:13.619 It's through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:13:14.442 --> 00:13:16.187 And Paul says Hey, there's freedom there. 00:13:16.187 --> 00:13:18.044 You're free now. 00:13:18.044 --> 00:13:20.679 You're not a slave to your desire. 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:26.817 You have the power by the spirit of God inside you to obey God. 00:13:26.817 --> 00:13:27.679 And he's really clear. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:29.245 Paul is really really clear. 00:13:29.245 --> 00:13:35.452 Your freedom in Christ isn't the freedom to do whatever you want. 00:13:36.982 --> 00:13:42.737 Sometimes I think we're afraid that if we tell people that you're free in Christ, that means they can just go out and do whatever they want to do and live however they want to live. 00:13:42.737 --> 00:13:48.451 And Paul is really clear Now you're free to choose to obey Jesus. 00:13:48.451 --> 00:13:51.659 You're not a slave to your sin anymore. 00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:55.591 You're free to follow God and to do what he wants. 00:13:55.591 --> 00:14:01.372 And instead of being under the law of righteousness, you're now under the law of love. 00:14:01.372 --> 00:14:05.610 Everything's changed because of that. 00:14:06.502 --> 00:14:10.679 And so, in Romans 12, paul begins to outline for us what that looks like. 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:13.659 He says Hey, god is doing a work on the inside of you. 00:14:13.659 --> 00:14:19.659 He's renewing your mind so that you don't conform to the ways of the world, but so that you live a transformed life. 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:27.590 And then in Romans 12, verse nine, he just gets super practical And this reads a lot like Proverbs. 00:14:27.590 --> 00:14:42.451 It reads a lot like Matthew five and the Beatitudes, where, where Paul just begins to say, hey, here is what the gospel looks like lived out, here's what faith in Jesus on the inside looks like on the outside. 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:55.395 And I love this for our conversation today dealing with difficult people, because what Paul is going to tell us here has less to do with what happens to us and more to do with how we respond. 00:14:55.395 --> 00:15:07.095 And how many of you know that, no matter how much you want to control what people do around you, the only thing you can control is who you are in your day to day life. 00:15:07.095 --> 00:15:17.679 Circumstances are outside of your control, people outside of your control, what happens a week from tomorrow outside of your control. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:30.735 But what we can control is what God is doing on the inside of us, whether or not we lean into that and obey that and follow the leading of the spirit. 00:15:30.735 --> 00:15:31.495 So here's what we're going to do. 00:15:31.495 --> 00:15:44.576 I've gotten a list of nine ways that God wants to work in our hearts and it's right from Romans 12, nine through 21, and every one of these nine things is applicable in dealing with difficult people. 00:15:44.576 --> 00:15:51.990 We're just going to run through the list and I'm going to show you at the end today why this actually has the power to change the world. 00:15:51.990 --> 00:16:10.001 Because here's what you're going to be thinking as we're going through this list There's no way that would actually work And I know you're gonna be thinking that because that's what I was thinking as I was reading this Like this sounds like it's too good to be true, but I'm gonna show you something at the end that hopefully will encourage you. 00:16:10.001 --> 00:16:14.699 So here's kind of the breakdown of Romans 12, verses nine through 13. 00:16:15.495 --> 00:16:19.086 This is what we can call general relational wisdom. 00:16:19.086 --> 00:16:21.302 It's geared towards people in the church. 00:16:21.302 --> 00:16:23.182 This is how you relate to each other. 00:16:23.182 --> 00:16:24.821 Let's start there. 00:16:24.821 --> 00:16:26.682 Number one don't be fake. 00:16:26.682 --> 00:16:28.995 You wanna relate well to other people. 00:16:28.995 --> 00:16:31.153 You wanna be able to deal with difficult people. 00:16:31.153 --> 00:16:33.194 Don't be fake. 00:16:34.543 --> 00:16:40.894 Paul says this let love be genuine, hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good. 00:16:40.894 --> 00:16:48.891 Can I just tell you this morning that, no matter what you feel about God, god is confident in what he feels about you. 00:16:48.891 --> 00:16:49.400 He loves you. 00:16:49.400 --> 00:16:57.134 He loves you with a real, genuine, authentic, everlasting love. 00:16:57.134 --> 00:16:58.456 He loves you, james. 00:16:58.456 --> 00:16:59.635 I don't know how do you know? 00:16:59.635 --> 00:17:01.925 Because he sent his son. 00:17:01.925 --> 00:17:12.215 And John says very clearly in 1 John, we know love because God, the Father, sent the Son to shed his blood for us. 00:17:12.215 --> 00:17:13.788 That's love. 00:17:13.788 --> 00:17:14.050 God loved it. 00:17:14.050 --> 00:17:20.755 He didn't just say he loved us, he took action to demonstrate the depths of his love for us. 00:17:20.755 --> 00:17:33.038 And Paul says hey, if you want to relate well to people, you wanna handle difficult people as they come your way in life, let love be genuine, don't be fake. 00:17:33.038 --> 00:17:36.823 Know that God loves you and love people. 00:17:36.823 --> 00:17:43.562 Know that God has served you, and so carry that on. 00:17:43.562 --> 00:17:57.980 See, we look at love sometimes and we think love's a feeling Hallmark type Perfect moment, snow at sunset, problems have been worked out, coming up on the two hour mark, they gotta get married in the next three minutes. 00:17:57.980 --> 00:17:58.863 That's love. 00:17:58.863 --> 00:18:00.480 It's gotta be like that. 00:18:01.115 --> 00:18:14.965 But when scripture talks about love, love for God is not necessarily a feeling-based love, because that conception of love just wasn't in the author's minds in the New Testament. 00:18:14.965 --> 00:18:25.203 Love for God, in the New Testament vocabulary, is evidenced in obedience to God, and you see that idea over and over and over. 00:18:25.203 --> 00:18:30.963 How do you know if you love God, well, according to the Bible, it's because you obey what God says. 00:18:30.963 --> 00:18:40.903 Our love for God isn't because we lift our hands in worship and we get goosebumps when the songs come on and we always feel like God's really, really close to us. 00:18:40.903 --> 00:18:44.619 No, the evidence of our love for God is that we do what God says. 00:18:44.619 --> 00:18:52.442 We love God and we obey God and we love the people around us and we serve the people around us. 00:18:52.442 --> 00:18:55.665 And that leads to this pursuit of what is good. 00:18:55.665 --> 00:19:08.017 We begin to turn away from what is evil or sinful or broken And we begin to pursue that which is good and wholesome and holy. 00:19:08.017 --> 00:19:11.066 We progress and become more like Jesus. 00:19:11.066 --> 00:19:12.242 So we don't wanna be fake. 00:19:12.242 --> 00:19:15.505 Number two we want to go beyond what's expected. 00:19:15.505 --> 00:19:21.283 Jesus said it like this if someone forces you to go a mile, go two. 00:19:21.283 --> 00:19:24.021 How will people know that you care? 00:19:24.021 --> 00:19:26.557 They'll know you care when you go beyond what's expected. 00:19:26.638 --> 00:19:29.001 Verse 10 says love one another with brotherly affection. 00:19:29.001 --> 00:19:32.863 Outdo one another in showing honor. 00:19:32.863 --> 00:19:33.846 I love that. 00:19:33.846 --> 00:19:36.198 We live in a world. 00:19:36.198 --> 00:19:37.463 Man, everybody's competing. 00:19:37.463 --> 00:19:40.521 Are they not Competing at work for the promotion? 00:19:40.521 --> 00:19:44.500 competing with the people down the street that just bought a new car? 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:49.986 competing with what your friend from high school you hadn't talked to in 24 years posted on social media. 00:19:49.986 --> 00:19:51.080 You gotta post something better. 00:19:51.080 --> 00:19:52.559 Like we just compete. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.304 And Paul says hey, compete, sure, compete. 00:19:56.304 --> 00:19:58.521 Outdo one another in showing honor. 00:19:58.521 --> 00:20:04.442 Be more encouraging than the people around you and then challenge them to be more encouraging than you. 00:20:04.442 --> 00:20:12.826 Outdo one another in building people up, speaking truth and life into the lives of people around you. 00:20:12.826 --> 00:20:14.502 You wanna compete for something? 00:20:14.502 --> 00:20:19.447 Outdo one another in speaking honor over people's lives. 00:20:19.447 --> 00:20:21.239 How beautiful would that be. 00:20:21.239 --> 00:20:25.582 When's the last time you scrolled through Facebook comments and you're like oh, that's honors, that's honoring. 00:20:25.582 --> 00:20:27.162 How honoring are they on Facebook? 00:20:27.162 --> 00:20:28.781 We don't honor on Facebook. 00:20:28.781 --> 00:20:30.161 We get ornery on Facebook. 00:20:30.161 --> 00:20:30.682 You know what I mean. 00:20:30.682 --> 00:20:34.585 It's like let's outdo in showing honor. 00:20:35.735 --> 00:20:38.383 Third thing Paul says is be serious about your faith. 00:20:38.383 --> 00:20:40.721 Be serious about your faith. 00:20:40.721 --> 00:20:43.022 Don't be slothful in zeal. 00:20:43.022 --> 00:20:51.425 So don't take for granted what God has done and what God's calling us to, thinking that this transforming life is just gonna happen. 00:20:51.425 --> 00:20:53.561 Let's rest in God's grace. 00:20:53.561 --> 00:20:57.824 But then let's be serious about pursuing a life of holiness. 00:20:57.824 --> 00:21:02.521 Let's be serious about pursuing God in the pages of his word. 00:21:02.521 --> 00:21:03.880 Be fervent in spirit. 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:07.061 Paul says Serve the Lord, rejoice and hope. 00:21:07.061 --> 00:21:08.906 Be patient in tribulation. 00:21:08.906 --> 00:21:10.339 Be constant in prayer. 00:21:10.339 --> 00:21:15.045 Let those be the things that guide and direct your life. 00:21:15.045 --> 00:21:17.564 And let's be serious about faith. 00:21:17.855 --> 00:21:22.988 And then, in verse 13, paul says to live with generosity. 00:21:22.988 --> 00:21:26.303 Live with generosity, and I want you to see this. 00:21:26.303 --> 00:21:28.422 Contribute to the needs of the saints. 00:21:28.422 --> 00:21:32.383 So take care of the people in the body. 00:21:32.383 --> 00:21:36.625 And Paul says seek to show hospitality. 00:21:36.625 --> 00:21:47.649 So care for one another, but don't get so called up locking arms and looking in that you forget they're people on the outside that God's trying to bring to the inside. 00:21:47.649 --> 00:21:51.485 So take care of each other, but keep your circles open. 00:21:51.485 --> 00:21:52.772 I love that picture. 00:21:52.772 --> 00:21:56.550 Right In your life, groups take care of one another, outdo one another in showing honor. 00:21:56.550 --> 00:21:58.055 Let love be genuine. 00:21:58.055 --> 00:22:08.235 Be serious about pursuing your faith together and always be looking for the next person that needs to be part of the circle And welcome them in with open arms. 00:22:08.235 --> 00:22:09.595 Let love be genuine. 00:22:09.595 --> 00:22:14.804 Seek to show hospitality to those who are on the outside that God wants to bring to the inside. 00:22:14.804 --> 00:22:27.035 And you kind of see a shift there, right, paul's talked a lot about hey, let's make sure that as the church, we're loving each other, we're faithful, we're doing what God's called us to do, we're taking care of one another. 00:22:27.035 --> 00:22:32.875 And let's not forget, there's a world of people that don't yet know God, and we're gonna see that. 00:22:32.875 --> 00:22:39.115 So we've got the general relational wisdom don't be fake, go beyond what's expected, be serious about your faith, live with generosity. 00:22:39.115 --> 00:22:42.887 And now the difficult people here they come. 00:22:44.037 --> 00:22:50.486 Verse 14, paul says this bless those who persecute you, bless them and do not curse them. 00:22:50.486 --> 00:22:54.326 I saw something on social media a little while back that made me laugh. 00:22:54.326 --> 00:23:03.795 It said that when you're driving down the road, if somebody does something they ought not to do on the road, that you should just give them a thumbs down, that they get highly upset. 00:23:03.795 --> 00:23:10.032 And so we're driving down 2060 the other day and this guy cut me off and I'm like Tara's, like don't do that, don't do that. 00:23:10.032 --> 00:23:13.453 And I was reminded of that when I read Romans 12, 14,. 00:23:13.453 --> 00:23:16.035 I was like Tara's right, tara's always right. 00:23:16.035 --> 00:23:19.475 Bless those who drive badly on 26. 00:23:19.475 --> 00:23:22.155 Don't curse them, bless them. 00:23:22.155 --> 00:23:25.515 Bless those in your office who talk bad about you. 00:23:25.515 --> 00:23:35.110 Bless those in your family when you're not getting along and Thanksgiving dinner's awkward Cause your uncle did it again Like just bless them, don't persecute them, don't curse them. 00:23:36.358 --> 00:23:47.925 Like what kind of life would that be When people spoke badly of us, or people did something to us we didn't like, or people like fill in the blank When people hurt us. 00:23:47.925 --> 00:23:54.604 If our primary initial response was not I curse you in the name of God, we would never say it like that We might. 00:23:54.604 --> 00:24:10.034 You know, like there's an old song called I'm praying for you And it's like sounds great at first And you start listening to the chorus and this guy's like praying that these people like wreck their car and like their life falls apart and their bank account gets hacked and like all that Like that's not what we're talking about. 00:24:10.034 --> 00:24:15.570 How do we bless those who persecute us? 00:24:15.570 --> 00:24:21.854 How do we receive bad but give good? 00:24:21.854 --> 00:24:28.506 You know, you know How many of you like growing up. 00:24:28.506 --> 00:24:31.874 It's like the second you felt like somebody offended you. 00:24:31.874 --> 00:24:33.245 You're like I'm coming after them. 00:24:33.245 --> 00:24:36.446 You know that's all that's in there for all of us right. 00:24:36.446 --> 00:24:41.880 And we get offended and people confront us and like we get criticized. 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:43.445 Like that's life. 00:24:43.445 --> 00:25:12.269 But Paul says you don't have to return that in kind, proverbs says it like this a gentle answer turns away wrath, life and death is in the power of the tongue, and so as people speak ill of you, there is power when you look back at them and you've got every right in the world to go in and tell them like it is, and you choose to respond with kindness and grace and compassion. 00:25:14.383 --> 00:25:22.783 I think the best example of Romans 12, 14 that I can think of is the example of Jesus on the cross. 00:25:22.783 --> 00:25:37.929 He's looking and he's got the ones who crucified and gathered around the foot of the cross and they're casting lots, they're gambling over his clothes as he bleeds and dies And his words are Father, forgive them. 00:25:37.929 --> 00:25:43.184 They don't know what they're doing And what the gospel writers do. 00:25:43.184 --> 00:25:46.091 When they write that phrase, they write it in such a way. 00:25:46.091 --> 00:25:54.944 The original language It implies that Jesus is saying that over and over and over, as he's bleeding and dying for the sin of the world, father, forgive them. 00:25:54.944 --> 00:25:55.666 They don't know what they're doing. 00:25:55.666 --> 00:25:56.448 Father, forgive them. 00:25:56.448 --> 00:25:57.711 They don't know what they're doing. 00:25:57.711 --> 00:26:03.352 It's blessing instead of cursing, and that's our example. 00:26:03.352 --> 00:26:09.432 He's our, he's our king, so we want to respond to cursing with blessing. 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:10.786 I don't know what that looks like for you. 00:26:10.786 --> 00:26:21.371 I don't know who the difficult person is in your life that you've got in mind right now, but my prayer and my hope is that the next time you're dealing with a difficult person. 00:26:21.371 --> 00:26:24.226 Romans 12, 14 comes to mind. 00:26:24.226 --> 00:26:26.907 You're like how do I, how do I spin this? 00:26:26.907 --> 00:26:31.451 How do I let my love for God be evident through my words? 00:26:31.451 --> 00:26:34.728 How do I respond to their anger? 00:26:34.728 --> 00:26:40.089 there They're cursing with a gift of blessing from God. 00:26:40.089 --> 00:26:45.690 Second thing Paul says is Hey, in order to do this, you got to meet people where they are. 00:26:45.690 --> 00:26:47.987 You got to meet people where they are. 00:26:47.987 --> 00:26:51.889 Verse 15, he says rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. 00:26:53.400 --> 00:27:05.791 Philippians two talks about how, how, in Christ, our job is to consider others as greater than ourselves, to look to the needs of others before we seek to meet our own needs. 00:27:05.791 --> 00:27:12.189 To care I'll say it like this to care more about others than we even care about ourselves. 00:27:12.189 --> 00:27:16.665 This is not in my notes and let me show you. 00:27:16.665 --> 00:27:25.042 I should say this We live in a world that that is really concerned with self-help and self-care, and that can be a good thing. 00:27:25.042 --> 00:27:29.589 Jesus took time away to pray. 00:27:29.589 --> 00:27:40.290 Jesus took time away to fill his cup, to be united to God, but I don't see many limits to the love of Christ when he walked and met with people. 00:27:40.290 --> 00:27:47.851 I see Jesus going above and beyond to meet people where they were. 00:27:49.100 --> 00:27:52.009 John, chapter four a woman at the well that he had to go to Samaria. 00:27:52.009 --> 00:27:52.590 No, he didn't. 00:27:52.590 --> 00:28:00.592 There was a much shorter road And we had to go to Samaria to meet a woman where she was, in the middle of her brokenness. 00:28:00.592 --> 00:28:09.291 His disciples didn't understand it, they didn't get it, but the kingdom of God got bigger that day because Jesus met somebody where they were. 00:28:09.291 --> 00:28:11.623 May we do the same. 00:28:11.623 --> 00:28:18.410 May we seek to to understand rather than just to condemn and judge. 00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:23.487 Number three when it comes to dealing with difficult people. 00:28:23.487 --> 00:28:28.504 Number seven in our overall list don't be arrogant. 00:28:28.504 --> 00:28:30.269 Don't be arrogant. 00:28:30.269 --> 00:28:33.688 Verse 16, live in harmony with one another. 00:28:33.688 --> 00:28:37.449 Don't be proud, but associate with the lowly. 00:28:37.449 --> 00:28:40.166 Don't be wise in your own sight. 00:28:40.166 --> 00:28:45.931 Be humble enough to know that, that, that we don't have it all figured out. 00:28:47.442 --> 00:28:54.942 I'm I'm 30 years old And if I know anything, it's that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did when I was 22. 00:28:54.942 --> 00:28:57.044 I had all the answers. 00:28:57.044 --> 00:28:58.583 Eight years ago, i'm telling I don't know what happened. 00:28:58.583 --> 00:29:21.439 I think I had kids, i had my wife, i got to have kids, my wife had kids, i helped, but like that's never mind, like I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did, and the more I learned, the more I understand that I've got so far to go when it comes to being like Jesus and responding like Jesus and loving like Jesus and leading like. 00:29:21.439 --> 00:29:23.265 I've got so much to work on. 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:28.611 There's no room for pride when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:29:28.611 --> 00:29:37.730 Jesus bled and died because my sin was great And there was nothing I could do to reach myself up out of the pit. 00:29:37.730 --> 00:29:42.891 I couldn't climb out and there was nobody else but Jesus that could get me out. 00:29:42.891 --> 00:29:45.945 There's no room for pride at the foot of the cross. 00:29:45.945 --> 00:29:56.291 There's no room at the foot of the cross to look at somebody else, regardless of what they do or their status in life, or how much money's in their bank account or the color of their skin. 00:29:56.291 --> 00:30:00.588 There's no room at the foot of the cross to look at anybody like they're less than you. 00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:14.205 Jesus said if you want to be great, serve, because even the Son of God did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life away as a ransom for many. 00:30:14.205 --> 00:30:17.545 So let's not be arrogant. 00:30:17.545 --> 00:30:22.851 Let's know enough to know that we don't have it all figured out. 00:30:22.851 --> 00:30:35.167 Let's keep a spirit of humility, but let's also be confident in the truth of God's word to know that, hey, we don't have it all figured out and we're not always okay, but God's got it all figured out and he's always okay. 00:30:35.167 --> 00:30:42.284 So, like Paul said, hey, if we're going to boast in anything, let's boast in our weakness and the strength of God's grace. 00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:46.364 Difficult people come your way. 00:30:46.364 --> 00:30:52.749 It's easy to get prideful, be like, thank God, i'm not like them, thank God, i'm not doing things like they're doing things. 00:30:52.749 --> 00:31:01.228 But let's just remember, hey, everybody's on a journey, everybody's walking through something, everybody's going through pain. 00:31:01.228 --> 00:31:06.826 I don't want to be so prideful that I think that I know better than them or I've got it figured out more than they do. 00:31:06.826 --> 00:31:16.724 Let me figure out instead how to be confident in Christ and humble in my flesh and live like that Number eight overall. 00:31:16.865 --> 00:31:19.090 Do the right thing simply because it's right. 00:31:19.090 --> 00:31:23.189 Do the right thing simply because it's right. 00:31:23.189 --> 00:31:28.825 How many of you know that they're not going to be people lining up to give you trophies as you bless those who persecute you? 00:31:28.825 --> 00:31:35.304 You might not get celebrated in this world, people probably aren't going to understand. 00:31:35.304 --> 00:31:44.353 But Paul says it like this repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 00:31:44.353 --> 00:31:45.884 I love that word honorable. 00:31:46.186 --> 00:31:48.110 In the Greek It literally means beautiful. 00:31:48.110 --> 00:32:00.595 So Paul says live a beautiful life Even as people do bad to you and there's ugly things entering your world and pain entering your world inflicted by others. 00:32:00.595 --> 00:32:24.186 Paul said give thought in that moment to building a life that is beautiful and do what's right, not because they're gonna praise you, not because they're gonna back off and their judgment of you or their condemnation of you, but just because that's the way you build a beautiful life by doing what's right and good, simply because it's right and good. 00:32:24.186 --> 00:32:31.795 And then Paul says this if possible and I love this so far as it depends on you live peaceably with everyone. 00:32:31.795 --> 00:32:38.742 Live at peace with everybody, everybody, anybody. 00:32:38.742 --> 00:32:42.243 Have problems with the word like live at peace with the people you like and get along with. 00:32:42.243 --> 00:32:43.466 I'm good with that. 00:32:44.436 --> 00:32:54.463 Paul says live at peace with everybody, everybody, the person that you get along with the least. 00:32:54.463 --> 00:32:58.768 Have you done everything in your power to live at peace with them? 00:32:58.768 --> 00:33:01.265 And y'all, let's be honest. 00:33:01.265 --> 00:33:09.775 Sometimes that means if you might need to pray for them from a distance and forgive them from a distance and not be in close contact with them for a season. 00:33:09.775 --> 00:33:10.478 That's okay. 00:33:11.636 --> 00:33:24.934 That may be what it takes to make peace, but sometimes it means going to somebody that has wronged you or you've wronged and saying, hey, i wanna reconcile, i wanna make peace. 00:33:24.934 --> 00:33:27.134 Peace isn't just gonna happen on its own. 00:33:27.134 --> 00:33:38.665 Peace has to be made, and Ephesians two is really clear Jesus has made peace between us and God through the blood of his cross so that we can live at peace with others. 00:33:38.665 --> 00:33:44.301 And that starts in here in the body, but it extends beyond these walls. 00:33:44.301 --> 00:33:52.618 So far as it depends on you, just a quick question who in your life do you need to make peace with? 00:33:52.618 --> 00:34:08.038 Who in your life do you need to go to today, this week, have a difficult conversation, put yourself out there a little bit and say, hey, i wanna do everything in my power, live at peace with you. 00:34:08.038 --> 00:34:10.320 Maybe they understand, maybe they don't. 00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:12.762 Maybe God reconciles and redeems. 00:34:12.894 --> 00:34:21.363 Maybe he doesn't in this moment, but Paul says hey, it's much more about your heart before God and your heart for others. 00:34:21.363 --> 00:34:23.280 That's what you can control. 00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:34.552 That's what's on the table for you is to do your part and then trust watch this trust that God's gonna handle his part, cause that's where he goes next. 00:34:34.552 --> 00:34:41.923 He says hey, you don't have to avenge yourselves, you don't have to defend yourself, you don't have to go out and get people who get you. 00:34:41.923 --> 00:34:47.744 He says God will work that out, god's the judge and he doesn't need our help with that. 00:34:47.744 --> 00:34:51.817 He's just, he's righteous, he's good, he's perfect, he's got it. 00:34:51.817 --> 00:34:55.103 On the contrary, in Paul quotes proverbs. 00:34:55.103 --> 00:34:57.322 He says if your enemies hungry, feed him. 00:34:57.322 --> 00:35:00.722 If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. 00:35:00.722 --> 00:35:02.000 And I love this is so Paul. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:07.418 Paul's like hey, and when you do that, it's gonna be like your heaping burning coals on his head, not gonna understand. 00:35:07.418 --> 00:35:09.099 It's gonna freak him out a little bit. 00:35:09.099 --> 00:35:09.802 They're not gonna get it. 00:35:09.802 --> 00:35:11.481 It's gonna make him like what's going on? 00:35:11.481 --> 00:35:12.559 I don't understand. 00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:18.284 But there's power in love. 00:35:18.284 --> 00:35:21.603 There's power in making peace. 00:35:21.603 --> 00:35:26.487 There's power in returning good for evil. 00:35:26.487 --> 00:35:32.722 There's power in a word of peace spoken into a hostile situation. 00:35:32.722 --> 00:35:39.313 There's power in a genuine love and desire for what is good. 00:35:39.313 --> 00:35:39.759 There's power there. 00:35:43.682 --> 00:35:59.381 My grandpa had a list of quotes my dad found in one of his Bibles And to me the best one on the list was this A bulldog can whip a skunk, but it never smells the same again. 00:35:59.381 --> 00:36:02.215 And I think that's what Paul's getting at here. 00:36:02.215 --> 00:36:08.903 It's not always about being right and winning the argument, it's not always about getting the last word. 00:36:08.903 --> 00:36:13.715 It's about loving well, being confident. 00:36:13.715 --> 00:36:16.595 Hey, that God made you a bulldog, and that's great. 00:36:16.595 --> 00:36:18.668 Just be a bulldog and love everybody else. 00:36:18.668 --> 00:36:19.454 You know what I mean. 00:36:19.454 --> 00:36:24.634 Like let God do the work as you do the work and you do the work, and I think that's what Paul's getting at here. 00:36:24.634 --> 00:36:27.974 It's not always about being right and winning the argument. 00:36:27.974 --> 00:36:33.195 Let God do the work as you do what God's told you to do, james. 00:36:33.195 --> 00:36:33.518 I don't know. 00:36:33.518 --> 00:36:36.262 I don't know if this really has the power to change the world. 00:36:36.262 --> 00:36:40.700 Verse 21 says don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 00:36:42.635 --> 00:36:48.403 Scholars think that Paul wrote this letter somewhere mid to late 50s AD. 00:36:48.403 --> 00:36:56.139 And that's important because, remember, he's riding to a church in Rome, the epicenter of the world. 00:36:56.139 --> 00:36:58.581