Welcome to Mill Creek Church in Belleville, Texas, where our worship service is in progress. Today, Pastor Monty Byrd continues with his sermon series on the Book of Romans. And now, Pastor Byrd. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, please. Father, as we continue our study of Romans, I just pray, Lord, that you would open up your truth to us. I pray, Lord, that we'd embrace it, that we'd participate in it. In Jesus name. Amen. Today, as we begin our continued study of Romans chapter 12. I'd like to preface my remarks by reminding everyone that chapters one through 11 deal with salvation. In chapter 12 begins the remarks of Paul on how Christians should live. And in fact, it's how the chapter opens when you look at the beginning of chapter 12, verses one through 12, Paul wrote, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, that be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul then goes on and mentions the fact that we've all been given a gift or gifts in the service of his kingdom. And after that, he is in verses nine through 11, which we have been on for a number of Sundays. And let me begin at verse nine, even though our focal passage is in verse 11. It says, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 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. And as we study verse 11 today, which reads, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. I think it is a tremendous verse for the time and day that we find ourselves in. We live in a time of spiritual apathy within the American church. The church was already apathetic before COVID. But I believe COVID hastened the apathy which had already set in. To prove my point anecdotally, I can't recall how many people have told me that due to the church's response with COVID, how much they enjoy staying at home and watching their church on TV. Why get up and go to church when you can stay in your pajamas and the comfort of your living room and watch your congregation have church? That comment just proves to me the fact that the church is apathetic. Let me read for you an article from Christianity Today, which was written in the spring of 2022. It says around two thirds of people who usually attend church, at least monthly, said that they were back in the pews in March of this year, 67%. Let me emphasize my words. Only 67% of people who attended church pre-COVID are back in church. Roughly the same amount that were attending in September of 21, 64%. The article goes on and says, 2021 had many leaders clinging to the idea that the next season, Easter, The new school year, Christmas, et cetera, would bring back attendance to 2019 levels. For most churches, that, quote, magic season never materialized, wrote a former pastor and church leadership strategist at the start of the year. In 2022, the constant cycle of hope and disappointment will give way to the new reality that this is your church. It will become evident that some of the people who said they were coming back later clearly aren't coming back ever. You could say they weren't coming back because COVID caused a change in their habit. I don't agree with that. I think that all COVID did was expose the true disease, which is spiritual apathy. And in our focal verse, verse 11, Paul tells us that the Christians should be the exact opposite of apathetic. He tells us in verse 11 of Romans 12, not lagging in diligence, fervor in spirit, serving the Lord. I like the King James Version, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. We should be fervent. We should not be apathetic. Now, before we break open the bongo drums and the tambourines, let's look at what Paul is meaning in his words of fervency in the word he uses for sluggishness or slothfulness. So slothful in the original language is sluggish. Don't be sluggish. The word that he uses for fervent is the same word that was used to boil something, that our belief Our mindset, our attitude towards the things of God should be fervent. Now, if I'm gonna boil something, what do I have to have? You gotta have a fire, right? Without a fire, you're not gonna boil anything. And so what Paul is telling us as believers is, is that we should have a diligence and a fervency in serving the Lord. Now, one could have a misguided fervency. And I want to spend some time this morning giving you several biblical examples of people who had a fervency or a zeal, but it was a misguided fervency and zeal. Paul already discussed this in Romans chapter 10, as he was describing the Israelites. Turn with me to Romans chapter 10, as we look at verses one through four. Paul wrote this, brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for all Israel is that they may be saved for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The Israelites had a fervency. They had a zeal. It says that in verse two, they have a zeal for God, but that wasn't a saving zeal because their zeal wasn't according to truth. It was a misguided zeal. It was based upon legalism. Can a legalist have zeal? Absolutely. You see this in the words of Christ in Matthew chapter 23, as He described the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In verse 15 He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte. And when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." The scribes and Pharisees had a zeal, tremendous zeal. It wasn't a saving zeal. It wasn't a saving fervency. It wasn't a diligence based upon truth. Legalism with fervency does not produce fruit. It produces nothing. And in fact, you can see that in the parable of the seed and the sower in Luke chapter eight. Turn with me, if you will, to the eighth chapter of Luke, as Christ describes the meaning of the parable of the seed and the sower. In verse 11, Christ said this, Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy. And these have no root, who believe for a while and in time temptation fall away. And the ones that fell among the thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who have heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Let me call your attention to verse 13 of the verses that I just read. It says, they receive the word with joy and these have no root. Receive the word with joy and these have no root. When you think about having a false joy, we see that. Unfortunately, in 25 years of ministry, I've seen that, where people come in and they get excited about the things of God, and as they get excited about the things of God for a little while, and then they drift away. It's a false zeal, a false fervency. Simon the sorcerer in Acts chapter 8 had a false conversion. And if you recall in Acts chapter 8, he wanted the power that the apostles had to have the Holy Spirit evidence their salvation. At that particular time, due to the ministry efforts of what the apostles were going through, the Holy Spirit wasn't evident in someone's life until the apostles put their hands on them. That doesn't happen today. They had basically, as the apostles would come into town, they'd have a little Pentecost. As we think about what was going on in Acts at the coming of the Holy Spirit, when the apostles would come into town and you'd have people give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, they'd have a little Pentecost. And this would prove that these people were believers. Well, Simon the sorcerer saw that power And he wanted it. He had a zeal for it, a fervency for it. He wasn't a believer. He just wanted what they had. He didn't want God. A misguided fervency. First Corinthians chapter 12, you see a misguided fervency in the church at Corinth. In verse 1 it says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The Corinthian church was mixing in paganism. And they were exhibiting this among their worship. And they were holding these, quote, gifts as something special. They do the same thing with tongues. They put an emphasis on the gift and not God. And if you think about it, that's the commonality of all of the examples that I've just given you. From the parable of the seed of the sower who they temporarily had a zeal, a joy, to Simon the sorcerer, all of the examples had a misdirected zeal. which is why Paul in our focal passage in Romans 12 verse 11 says, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, and then the qualifier, serving the Lord. Serving the Lord. Fervency, diligence, zeal is only profitable if it is focused upon Jesus Christ himself. If not, you end up with legalism, you end up with a focus on gifts. But when I keep my focus and you keep your focus on Christ, It produces a zeal in fervency. And if I remind you how I opened up with the quotation of Romans chapter 12 at the beginning, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's reasonable for us to give our life to Christ in his service, in recognition of his kingdom. And I think that is missing today. I think it's missing among a lot of Christians. There's no zeal. There's no fervency. there's a spirit of apathy. You can see it when people make a decision about even worship. If they don't have anything else going along, if there's nothing better to do, they'll go to church. And you saw this magnified with stay at home worship. I can stay at home and I can watch it on TV. Let me counter that with the entirety of the twelfth chapter. If the twelfth chapter is about us presenting our bodies to Christ as a sacrifice, if the twelfth chapter is about us executing our gifts among the body of Christ. Can I do that from home effectively? Can I minister to my brothers and sisters in Christ from the comfort of my living room? Absolutely not. As I said last week, Christianity is a team sport. It's a team sport. It's not a solo sport. For you to execute your gifts, it has to be done within the body of Christ. And within the body of Christ, there has to be a fervency, a zeal. We should be excited about serving the Lord. We should be diligent about serving the Lord. But unfortunately, The church has forgotten that there's only one answer to all of society's problems. It's not morality. It's not education. It's not politics. There's only one answer to this world's problems, and that answer is Jesus Christ himself. Now, let me ask you something else. What is left at the end of time other than Jesus Christ? It's nothing. It's all gone. It's all destroyed. Only Christ is left, Christ and his people. And when you think about all of the things of this world that cause us distraction, and I think you could say that Christian society has become tremendously distracted. And unfortunately, they'll even be distracted in thinking of a building as the end purpose of spirituality. But it's not the building. As much as I love this building, it's not gonna be here. There's no building. There's no Christian church building that's going to survive. It's Christians in Christ. And you and I will be judged according to how we have executed our gifts within the kingdom of Christ. You and I know how the end of the story plays out, don't we? We know. We know the end. Now, if you and I know the end of the story, doesn't it make sense that we reorder our life to represent the end of the story? In other words, if I know and I believe that Jesus Christ's words, I am the way, the truth, and the life, if I believe those words, then my life should be reordered. because whether we go and see him by passing away or he sees us by coming back, I think we'll all agree that we're one day closer. We're one day closer in appearing before Christ. I'll steal a line from my father-in-law. I always loved this and I've shared it before. One day he asked me, he goes, Monty, why do old people study the Bible so much? And I said, I don't know. And he goes, they're cramming for the final exam. I do think there's some truth in that. When you think about, we all start realizing that we have less days than more, less days than more, and we're going to have to appear before him. And what we need in the Christian church is we need a zeal. We need a fervency. If I recognize that my neighbor is going to spend eternity in hell, if I really believe that, if I really believe that I have a neighbor or I have a family member or I have a work associate that will spend their eternity in hell, shouldn't I have a zeal, a fervency to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ? I believe that Paul gives us a wonderful model in Philippians one on what our attitude should be towards the Lord. Turn with me in the first chapter of Philippians verse 19. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to, what does he write? My earnest expectation and hope. Is that a fervency? I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness as always. So now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor, yet what I shall choose I cannot tell." He was diligent. He was fervent. And may you and I have a fervency that can be recognized by the rest of the world. that we believe that Jesus Christ is the only answer for society. Join me in prayer, please. Lord, we thank you so much for this wonderful truth. I pray that each of us would examine our lives and ask ourselves, do I have a fervency? Do I have a zeal? Do I have a diligence? I would pray that each one of us might display that in our life. And we know that that only can be found by studying your word and living out your truths and being faithful to your kingdom. I pray, Lord, that if someone's listening and they've never accepted you as savior, that they would repent of their sins, ask for forgiveness, and turn to you. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us as Pastor Byrd continues this sermon series. If you wish to hear more, you may find him at millcreekchurch.org or go to sermonaudio.com slash millcreekchurch. Prayer requests may also be left at millcreekchurch.org. Our church services are as follows. Sunday morning Bible study is at 9 a.m., followed by our worship service at 10 a.m. We have Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study, and they are at 6.30 p.m. For more information and our mission statement, please visit our website millcreekchurch.org.