I feel like I've been gone a long time, but I found my way back in Romans. I think we're in chapter 12 today. And this is a long book. And when you think about Romans, and you get to Romans 12, you realize that the first 11 chapters were the groundwork. They were the theology. And then in chapter 12, he begins the application. And it's a rapid-fire chapter. He's just one thing after another. But very application-oriented, and that's important. I wanted to read something from Zechariah real quickly before jumping right into Romans 12. And this is from Zechariah chapter 7. Of course, Zechariah comes before Malachi, your last Old Testament book. I've read from this chapter before, but I just want to capture a couple of thoughts about the Zechariah that has a point to it. Zechariah in chapter 7, he's addressing this group of people that have returned from the captivity in Babylon, and most people didn't return. After the 70 years of captivity, virtually everybody just stayed where they were at. They had set up a new life. They spoke the language, their kids grew up in the schools there, all that kind of stuff. Why go back to the Holy Land even though God said to go back and they were supposed to go back? So you have a small group that went back, 50,000 or so, and God reminds them of some of the disobedience of the past that was a problem. And there's a group of people that have come from Bethel to ask questions in Jerusalem of Zechariah and some of the priests. And God will answer their question. But their question was really, you know, we've been fasting these 70 years. Should we continue doing these fasts? It's interesting they would come from Bethel. Bethel was the center of idolatry. It was part of the reason the Northern Kingdom, as we sometimes call it, got in so much trouble. It's why they had had judgment on them. And God, removing the people out of the land, eliminated the idolatry. And now they're coming back to Jerusalem for answers. So that's interesting. But then in the midst of him reminding him of what had happened, he says in verse 9 of chapter 7, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, and listen to how simple this is. Because you can get lost in the theology and maybe forget sometimes that it's all to drive you back to something very practical. He says in verse 9, Execute true judgment and show mercy and compassion to every man to his brother. Like that sounds like something Jesus would say. Tell the truth, Show mercy and compassion to other people. See, they had a question about, well, should we continue the fast? We've been doing this for 70 years. We're so religious, we do a fast like, you know, four or five times a year. We fast for this and fast for that. And God says, I didn't read it up above, but he says, when you were fasting, did you do it for me? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Now he says, let me talk about the real deal. true judgment, show mercy, compassions, oppress not the widow nor the fatherless. Like James picks this up, he doesn't quote it, but he says that true religion or pure religion in his epistle is taking care of the widows and the fatherless, the widows and the orphans. It's right out of the book. He says, don't oppress the stranger. That's a non-Jewish person in your country. You can take advantage of them. Nor the poor. The vulnerable people are always oppressed first because they're the ones that can't do anything about it. That's true in our country. It's been true throughout history. poor people, infants in the womb, very old people, people who are born with some condition where they cannot fend for themselves in any way. They get oppressed first. Let none of you imagine evil against your brother in his heart. Now, this sounds like things Jesus was saying in the Sermon on the Mount, right? He talked about what was in the heart attitude, not just what you did on the outside. And so you just see it's very practical. And he reminds them in verse 11, but they, in the past, The Jewish people of a prior generation refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. They didn't listen to me. They lost sight of it. It wasn't just about the fast and the celebrations and some other things, although those were commanded, some of them. It was this stuff. There ought to be a practical outworking. In chapter 8, he changes gears. And he looks to the future, and he talks about what it's going to be like when Jesus returns, and what it'll be like in Israel, and these wonderful conditions, and how there'll be a temple on that day, and all these wonderful things. And it's this glorious vision of the future. And, you know, I was having this sort of, some messages back and forth on Facebook with someone I've known for a long time this weekend about prophecy questions and understanding prophecy, and someone had some kind of odd ideas. And she made this comment, they just haven't been to seminary yet to understand this prophecy stuff. And I commented back to her, and I truly believe this, prophetic matters in the scripture are the ABCs. They're for the new Christian. They're not for the people going to seminary. That we've drunk that Kool-Aid in our time is a problem. And I can prove it to you right here in Zechariah 8, which is where I sent her. he talks about prophetic matters you know he says in verse eleven but now i will not be under the residue or remnant of this people as in the former days uh... verse twelve the seed shall be prosperous the vine shall give her fruit it shall come to pass in verse thirteen as you were cursed among the heathen oh house of judah and house of israel so i will save you and you'll be a blessing you know he starts talking about the future in chapter nine he'll continue talking about the the future but look at what he says Here in verse 16 These are the things that you shall do today You know the future and you know the past because I told you about both of them Here's what you'll do today speak every man the truth to his neighbor Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts Against his neighbor and love no false oath for all these are the things that I hate saith the Lord that the prophecy is always intended for everybody, and it's intended to be something that changes us now. And so I say all that, and I know it's a lot to say, but because when you get to Romans 11, you really need to understand that for all the disputing people have about the first 11 chapters, and debates about this or that, and a lot of it is about tradition and celebrity preachers and stuff rather than the text, because the text isn't that hard. It was read aloud to people in an early church. You get to Romans 12, and Paul reminds them, this stuff has an outworking in a very practical way. He's talked in Romans 9-11 about the past and the future for Israel. The other chapters talk mostly about salvation, but they also talk about your future glorification, going to be with the Lord. Now it's very practical. So look at how he does this, and it always comes back to this. If chapter 12 doesn't bear out in our lives, then chapters 1-11 were largely wasted on us. See, that's how it works. So, verse one, I beseech you. He sort of, you know, pleads with them. Therefore, it's a big therefore in chapter 12. It really looks back to all that's gone before, because everything forward is just going to be as practical and really simple. Not easy to execute, but easy to understand. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. That's the motivation. That's an interesting thing, too, because I mean, again, you know, people say a lot of things and I think don't think them through, but it was just something I was reading the other day, insisted that we're never told to be motivated in our service for God based on any sort of gratitude to Him for what He's done. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. He's basing the mercies of God as a motivation. I wonder why God's mercy would be a motivation. Mercy of God. It's going to be obvious why God's mercies are a motivation and they should be. God's mercies to us on an individual level should be a motivation for what he's going to say. He says this is the what to do but not the how to do it. Verse 1 is the what to do. Verse 2 is the how. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now sacrifices in the Old Testament never survive, right? No one has a lamb running around in their backyard and the week earlier they took it down and sacrificed it at the temple and now it's back in the backyard again. That only happened once, it happened in the first century, right? So, how are you going to be a living sacrifice? He's using that Old Testament Jewish concept of a sacrifice Holy, you know the sacrifice of the animal had to be set apart It had to be a lamb without blemish or if it was some other kind of animal you couldn't you could you couldn't if you were poor and you took a Dove you couldn't take one that already died All right, you couldn't take one that was sick you you know, it was a set-apart animal this living sacrifice is set apart the other thing about a sacrifice is it's all in and You know, no animal gets sacrificed 30%. It's all in. So, a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God. That acceptable is the same word as pleasing. When you're reading the Old Testament, you read things like something is a pleasing aroma to God. This is the language he's using. It's the language of a literal sacrifice. but he's making it metaphorical to talk about our giving of our whole life. That's the key here. It's a living sacrifice. Your body is your whole life. It's all that you can do with the body God has given you. Your whole life, set apart or holy, pleasing unto God, which is your reasonable, and you could replace the word service with worship. Yeah, because the word here is the word used for service in a spiritual sense, usually attached to being at the temple, which would still have been standing at the time Paul wrote Romans. So he's using this word that people associated with service and yielding a sacrifice at the temple, and uses it for us. So, it's not just service in the sense we normally think of service, but think of a service that is recognized as a pleasing worship to God. This tells you a lot about what worship ought to be about. You could go and fast every time of the year that God requires it, but you don't tell people the truth and you oppress the widows and the poor people because it's just business. And God's like, that violates Zechariah, but it violates right here what he's saying in verse one. So verse one is the what, verse two is the how. First, don't be conformed to this world. Think of it this way. Conformed is the word used for pressing something into a mold. It's a passive verb, right? An active verb is something like I hit the ball. A passive verb is I was hit by the ball. It doesn't necessarily tell you Who did the action? Who threw the ball? This is passive. Don't get conformed. Don't get pressed into the world's mold. And that's what the warning is. He says, both negatively and positively, in terms of how to make your life a living sacrifice, pleasing to God, on the negative side, do not allow yourself to be pressed into the world's mold. This is worldliness. what would that look like? The world's mold. Now, there's a whole lot of factors that want to press us into the world's mold, but there's a lot to this. So part of it is the thinking, right? The thinking of the world. Doesn't the first Psalm say that the man of God, he meditates on the wall day and night? Blessed is the man who what? Remember what it says in Psalm 1? Walk if not in the counsel of the ungodly. He doesn't go get the world's thinking. Yeah. Right? And that's the kind of thing we're talking about. So the world's mold, it always starts off with the thinking of the world, because the thinking of the world will govern what you do. And Paul's going to get to thinking very explicitly here in a minute. But this is an issue Paul would talk to the Colossians about accepting vain philosophies. He talks to the Corinthians about You know, our weapons are not fleshly or carnal, but they are mighty. They're taking down the strongholds, and we need to deal with every thought that sort of elevates itself above God, and we need to take our thought life captive to Christ, you know, obedience to Christ. Our thinking matters. But then there's sort of things like lifestyle issues, things that maybe culturally it's fully acceptable. Maybe everyone up and down the street says this is the way it should be. The world's going to try to press you into its mold on multiple layers. And it could be lifestyle issues, things as simple as music and entertainment. You know, if I read my Bible right, Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour. And he's going to do it a lot of ways. All I'm saying is, it's a very broad concept, and he says, Just don't let the world push you into its mold. And there's so many different sort of avenues of attack there, but that's the negative. What's the positive? He says, be transformed. Interesting word. Uh, I'll, I'll write it for you. Transformed in the, in the Greek meta more Long word. Metamorphosis. We get the English word metamorphosis. It's the word for when Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration. And Peter and, do you remember who else was there? Two others were there. Or was it two? Just two. Peter and John. I'm thinking it was another. But Peter and John. But they're on the Mount of Transfiguration. And Jesus, they see him in his glory. They don't see him just Jesus in the flesh. For that brief moment, God says, this is my son, listen to him. Right? It's this word. This is a big change, right? We use it for what happens to an insect that's in a cocoon and then becomes a butterfly. We understand that. But it's an internal change. And how would this internal change happen? Paul says it's the renewing of the mind. Our mind is the seat of what we think. It's the source of our emotions, because your emotions happen as a response to how you think about the things around us, the stimuli around us. What we have as a worldview, what we think about God, it's all in there. It's not the word for polishing it up. It's not the word for making repairs to your mind. God is suggesting that we're jettisoning all the baggage, all the things that would fit us within the world's mold, And we're going to get to a different mold, and it's the mold of Jesus Christ, really. And that's what's going to happen. So it's a transformation. It's inside out. What we think matters so much. And that's why you can't say, well, that prophecy stuff, I know it's a third of the Bible. We don't need that. We'll wait. If I go to seminary, I'll learn prophecy. I don't need the doctrine stuff, because doctrines, you know, I don't need Romans through 11. Just tell me what to do." That's nonsense. He's going to transform your mind. If He doesn't transform your mind, when you get to verse 1 and it says, therefore, therefore, it doesn't make any sense to you. He's working on our mind. So, the Word of God is one of the primary ways this is going to happen. The renewing the mind. We're going to take in the Word of God, the Holy Spirit has a ministry there to help us with that. So, on the positive side, be transformed. Be changed from the inside out. by, this is the basis, the renewing of the mind, that you may prove, that's documento, it's a word that you would use for testing something in order to give approval to it. You would test a wedding ring, not to see if he pulled a fast one and bought you a cubic zirconia, but for the jeweler to tell you what it's worth. You know it's a diamond. Is it a fine cut diamond? Is it a antique diamond that has cuts that aren't made that way anymore, and they test it. That's this. That's why the King James says that you'll prove it. Prove it the way you would prove the value of the diamond. We're going to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. When I was in my 20s, I remember I was going to a Sunday school class and starting to learn the Word of God, and the most common issue of confusion, and not in the sense that Not of not understanding the Bible so much, but people were talking about is, I don't know what the will of God is for me. And I think a lot of people are there. And it turns out when you open up the Bible, you find out it's not hidden. But God says, here's how I'm going to show it to you. I don't want you to be conformed to the world's mold. I want you to be motivated by the mercies of God, by my mercy to you in your life. I've saved you while you were a sinner, still a sinner, my son died for you, transformed by a renewed mind. And he says, when you get that renewed mind, you're going to prove, not just know God's will, but prove it in your life. You're going to see it and you're going to see the value of it as you live it out. That's the goal. And so what if is you had a renewed mind, you could be led of God by your desire. See, now that you're thinking the way God wants you to think about things, seeing the world through the lens of the scripture, and it becomes evident to you, you're like, you know what, this is what I need to do. I want to do that. What if God could do that? In other words, what if it wasn't like God's will was just sort of hidden, and God's playing a cat and mouse game with you? What if he actually was just going to tell you what he wanted you to do? And then, and you see this in scripture, you can go back in Genesis and you can read about Jacob. You know, why did he spend so long? You know, he married a couple of different women and dealt with some guy there that was kind of a lot like himself. But he got an idea at some point, you know, I want to go back home. God was leading him by his desires, but he also had events in his life that then confirmed God's hand was in it for Jacob. and his family, to go back home, to make men some fences with Esau and all those things that happened there. And in our lives too, we can get confirmation, but what if God could lead us by our desires because we have a renewed mind? And then we would prove in our lives, we would go down a course that is good and acceptable and perfect in the will of God. Now, for I say though, through the grace given unto me, Paul's talking about the authority given unto him. The grace given unto him is his apostleship. He's given some authority now to speak and what he says he knows is from God and it's scripture. And Paul says, I say through the grace given unto me to every man that's among you, not to think of himself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly. That word in the scripture, it literally means that you're not drunk. It's not used in a literal sense in the New Testament even once. It's always used in this figurative sense for someone who is aware, alert, prepared mentally. He says, don't be high-minded, don't be haughty, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, have a good assessment of where you're at. Why would he even say this here? He just said to renew your mind so that you can prove what the perfect will of God is. And the first thing out of the gate, he says, you need to be humble. I mean, think about that. Um, I wonder if it's possible to have a renewed mind, to begin taking in all this Bible, all of Romans one through 11, to really understand what it says there and to put the pieces together and other parts of scripture and start connecting the dots and not be humble. I think it's entirely possible. In fact, not only is it possible, it's quite likely that we will, with the renewed mind, with the learning the scripture, we might find ourselves puffed up. We might find ourselves looking down at someone else. Maybe they're not where I'm at in my walk, or look what I did. I went and did this and this and this and this. You know, all these things that go through our mind, we play that comparison game and stuff. Right out of the gate it says, you need to be humble. Why? What's the motivation? Mercies of God. What part of that did you earn? None. Whole book telling us we didn't earn it. Freely. A free gift of justification. The mercies of God came at no cost to us. We have no right. See, as we step out with our renewed mind, it's a renewed mind that needs to be tethered to these mercies of God so that we're humble. And what he's going to do is start talking about the outworking of our love for people. It's going to sound like things Jesus preached. Go and love people, even the ones that don't love you back. And he says, you've got to be humble. Prideful people are very poor at loving others. They're very rich at loving themselves. So he knows if you're going to execute on the simple command to display love to people, to go and reflect the mercies of God, you're going to have to be of a humble mind. And that's just how it is. So right out of the gate, I could read from Peter and other places, but this is an oft-repeated admonition in the New Testament. about being humble, and in fact, I think it's part of the Spirit. Words in our King James like meek or meekness. Don't think of yourself more highly than it ought. Now this doesn't tell you that you shouldn't have essentially a self-assessment, a self-image, what you think of yourself. He expects you will think of yourself. He just says don't think of it more highly than you ought to think. Be sober. Do it correctly. according as God hath dealt every man the measure of faith." And what's he talking about? I think he's going to talk about this issue of spiritual gifts, and so we'll say a little about that, but even setting aside the notion of gifts, God has, in some unique way, made every person. They have talents, strengths, and weaknesses, and to have a sober assessment of that, is a good thing, and that's what he says. He doesn't say not to think of yourself at all, but think of yourself soberly, reasonably, realistically, because God has made you with certain talents and abilities, and he expects you to use them in giving your whole body, your whole person, your whole life, a living sacrifice. So it's important to know what our areas of giftedness is or talents. It's important to think soberly about it. So let's see what he says. He says, for as we have many members in one body, arms, legs, different members, toes and fingers, he says, all members have not the same office. And of course, he's thinking of a local church. I don't think that 12 local churches together can be one body. And I won't go down this very far, but just thinking about it because Certainly the most common understanding of the scriptures, he's talking about all Christians everywhere at that point in time as sort of one body. But the reason that the imagery won't work is because you might have a church in Corinth that's nothing but a big toe to fill out the imagery, and a church somewhere else that's the rest of the foot, and a church somewhere else that's a hand. But those churches don't even have the possibility of really working together. So his idea is that a local church will function as a single body, and within that body, all the parts have to be there. But all the parts aren't the same. They don't all do the same thing. Just like in a human body, the hand and the foot don't have the same function, but we don't look at it and say, you know, I was reading something the other day, and it was asking the question, if you had to lose your arm or your leg, which would you pick? I mean, how do you rate one versus the other? I think it's hard to do until you go without it. So we don't look at it and say, well, the hand is more valuable than the foot or the foot more valuable than the hand. But he says, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. God has placed us differently and with different strengths and weaknesses. So not all members have the same office. Not all members will have the same role in a church. They'll do different things. So we, being many, are one body in Christ. The church is just not going to function healthy if it doesn't function as a body, right? If the church has no legs, it's got a smart brain up there, they know it all, but no legs, the church won't accomplish. So one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. So every person is sort of connected to everybody else within this body that we call a local church. Having been gifts, and this is the first time he mentions it, differing according to the grace that's given to us. So there's a couple of views on the gifts, and I'm not going to belabor this, but I'll just kind of throw out just the general views and kind of where I think of it. But there's the view that the spirit gifts, seven of them are listed here. They're also listed in 1 Corinthians. Some of them. The list don't match, by the way, entirely. But these gifts are thought by some to all be present today and have been through the 2,000 years of church history. Others would say that in the first century was sort of the closing of the canon of Scripture. The gifts came to an end. That's where I stand on it. It's not a hill to die on for me, but it does seem to be what is reflected in Scripture. That's called a cessationist view. And then there's a big view in the middle where a lot of Baptists stand, where they say, well, some of the gifts are around today, like teaching, that's still around, but the gift of tongues is not. So, and sometimes we will use the word like charismatic, those with more of a charismatic background would view their being, the gift of tongues would be present today, and the gift of prophecy and some things like that. So, that doesn't mean that those people, because I have more of a cessationist view, I'm not saying those people ain't saved or anything like that, so don't get your wrong ideas. Why do I think the gifts ended? We don't have, An indication, after this point, for a long time in history, really until the 1800s, much of an indication in church history of a charismatic movement, or what you might think of it as, is that Paul would write his last epistles to Timothy in Titus. But when he writes to Timothy, it's like, Paul, you've got the gift of healing, why don't you just heal Timothy's health problem with his stomach? He says, no, take some wine for your stomach. Why didn't he heal him? Those are the kind of questions I raise. There's also some textual indication that the gifts may come to an end in 1 Corinthians, and it says when the perfect is come, and there's a little debate about that. But it's just to say, one can debate these things, but it seems like the need for the gifts would come to a close after the Church has begun to really grow in earnest. Now, a lot of the debate, though, is around, what do we mean by the gifts? I think the gifts are immediately usable empowerments of God. We see it in the Old Testament when the Holy Spirit comes upon people so they can build the temple or the sanctuary. They needed artisans who could fashion the gold into the various things that go in the temple. And you had people that didn't have the skill, then they did. It didn't say they came because they'd finished their journeyman's license and all that, and then they made the stuff. God empowered them to do it. what gets taught today, and even a little commentary I was reading last night on Romans. He says God gives everybody a gift, and you need to develop and hone and work your gift. If I have to spend years and years developing my gift until I can actually stand up and teach, I'm not sure that was a gift, right? What if God actually gave people some skill set that they didn't have? Right? Couldn't he do that? So that someone who really couldn't teach and couldn't prophecy, all of a sudden could. That's what I think actually happened, and that's one of the reasons I don't see those gifts operable today. Once you decide that the gift is really just like a talent that you hone and work it up over many years, then the talent and the gift's not any different. What happens in Scripture, it seems, is you've got all these people saved at Pentecost, They're not all from Jerusalem. They start going back to all these places all over the world where they came from, and they begin to plant new churches, and God empowers them with the skills they need to do it. And it's a temporary thing, it seems. So that's, again, without it being a hill to die on, kind of where I'm at on that. But that being said, all this stuff about the gifts, it has application. Whether we have gifts today, or whether it's talents and skills that God has given us, We end up with the same thing, which God says, you need to be humble about it. You need to have an assessment of what you can do well and what you can't, and then you need to do it. And so he says, we have gifts differing, different gifts. I might say different talents, different skill sets. According to the grace that's given to us, it comes from God. No one, no one's even good at throwing a football down the field. It's not for the grace of God. So, it's according to God, and he says, whether prophecy, most Baptists today who, like in Southern Baptists, would usually teach that the gifts are still around, they interpret the prophecy gift to be teaching. I mean, I took what's called a spiritual gift test years ago. I always say I flunked it, but what it actually said is I had to get to prophecy. They said, I'm not a good prophet at all. I thought we'd win the World Series. Wrong again, right? So, prophecy has been interpreted to mean teaching. That's just interpreting it just any old way you want. Prophecy means prophecy. This is people, whether they're telling the future or talking about the present, whether they're forth-telling or fore-telling, they're speaking for God. They stand up and say, God said. That's what a prophet does. Nobody does that today. The canon is closed, and I personally think that doesn't happen, but if it did, that is, if prophecy is still around, it still has to be prophecy. It can't be just teaching. You say, well, why not? Well, the word doesn't mean that, and look what he lists next. Verse 7, or ministry. That's just generally serving people. Generally serving people. Everybody wants to have a gift of prophecy or tongues. Not everybody gets in the ministry line that just says, look, we're going to put you to work. Maybe taking care of kids in the nursery. See, that's a different line. He lists that twice. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth. There's teaching. See, it's separate. He wouldn't say it twice. He wouldn't say, oh, I already mentioned prophecy. I don't have to mention teaching. They're different. This person gets up there, and they only have the authority to say what God actually wrote in this book. Nothing else. That's the extent of it. If we're going to teach as God's doctrine, it has to come from this book, and that's what a teacher does. So, he's just saying, you've got different gifts, go do it, be motivated by the mercies of God, have a renewed mind, don't conform to the world, and go and use these gifts. He says, "...or he that exhorteth on exhortation." Those who exhort are people who encourage and build up others. I have known someone for a long time, this is his gift. If there's a gift, this is it. It's his skill, it's his talent, this is what he does better than anybody I know. And he always thought of himself as a preacher, and he couldn't preach out of a wet paper sack, but he could encourage people. And did it. And I would see people flock to him in all areas. They kind of flock to him because he's an encourager, an exhorter. An exhorter can exhort you to do something that you need to do. It may not all be sort of, you're so awesome, but someone may say, hey, have you thought about this? But they exhort you. They motivate you to move, to change, to do things. He that giveth with simplicity. That's people who don't love their stuff. A lot of times God gives these people lots and lots of stuff because they don't love their stuff and they're willing to part with it. You see it play out in Acts 5. A lot of rich folk had extra land and they were selling their land and giving it over. He says, just do it with simplicity. No, no, I need to make a big show about it. I need to put it on the billboard. Make sure everybody knows I did it. Do it with simplicity. Remember the humility part? All this is playing out. with humility. He that rules, that means has a position of authority or a leader. You know, God's put you in a position of leadership within the church. He says, do it diligent. What's he talking about? He said, don't be a sloth. Don't be a lazy person in the ministry. I mean, it's just that simple. Paul had to have seen these things happen or he wouldn't be calling them out. Because he didn't say the same thing about every skill. He picks this out and says, don't do this. He picks out the ones who are going to be the givers. He says, be simple about it. Don't make a big show of it. He picks out the people who are going to be leaders in the church, and he says, work your butts off. Yeah. It's really easy to get a reputation for laziness, and nobody likes it. And he says, with diligence. He that shows mercy with cheerfulness, not drudgery, not, well, I don't want to do this. I don't want to volunteer over here. I don't want to give this money. I don't want to do this. He says, you ought to have a hard attitude that's glad to do those things. After all, God has given you the ability and the wherewithal and the opportunities to be a person that shows mercy. Be careful about it. Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. He's just throwing them out. But these are all the ways that our making our whole life a living sacrifice, pleasing to God, based on a renewed mind, where we view the world and our purpose and our task and the attitude with which we do it, we view it all differently, because we have this renewed mind. And he's just throwing them out. And somewhere in this list is us. We're somewhere in here. This is what we do. And he says, do it this way. And then to everybody, you need to abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned. There's four kinds of love in the Greek language. One is erotic love. That was not even mentioned in the New Testament. That's eros. There's agape, usually associated with God. It's the love of choice. It's an attitude to do for others. But there's storgos, which is the love of usually family members. You can love family members that don't like a whole lot, right? You have family reunion, and you try to stay at the other end of the table. Eventually, you got to talk to them. And not that you, you know, I don't hate this person. I'm glad the family reunion's once every five years, right? So, but then there's a love of a close friend. And that's the phileo. We get the word Philadelphia. So, when he says, to be kindly affection one to another, that's storgos. The word is phile-storgos. That's the, you know, there's some emotional bond. It could be close family, it could be more distant family, but it's family member sort of love to one another. Because now you're in the family of God, and in your church, you're a church family, be kindly affection to one another with brotherly love. That's the Philadelphia. See, between the two, this isn't merely agape love. He has the idea that we're establishing relationships, because if you don't have relationships, you won't have either one of these. You may have the agape love, because you can be kind, but this is more than that. Then he says, in honor, preferring one another. Let other people go first in line. Let someone else get the credits. Let someone else have their name in lights. It doesn't have to be you. one before you. Didn't he say to be humble earlier? Don't think more highly of yourself. So you see how it plays out. You're not going to do these things. I won't do it. You won't do these service things if we're not, if we're preferring ourselves above other people. Not slothful in business. Again, don't be lazy in your business. Don't get a business reputation that's different from your Sunday morning reputation. Fervent. Fervent is the word for the water boiling in the kettle, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Wow, what a lot. Well, rejoicing in hope. He's told you about the future, the future, the prophetic matters, the part that we're not supposed to learn until we go to seminary. He says, I want you to understand that. So today, in this moment, you have a life that rejoices. You see how it was never intended to be for some ivory tower thing. It was always today. We rejoice in hope. We're patient in tribulation. I'll rejoice because of the future But I will be patient that is I will endure The hard times because they're going to happen in chapter 5. He said that continuing instant today in prayer distributing the necessity to the saints that's giving to people's needs now sometimes people talk about a a social gospel, and I don't like that phrase because we have a gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. It has to do with saving sinners. I know the word gospel can be used in different contexts. There's no, quote, social gospel. There are a bunch of verses that tell us to do for people. So we have a gospel, and we should do what we can to bring the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ has died for sinners, to people. But we should meet needs when we can meet needs. And so there's a lot of emphasis on that. And even when I read earlier from Zechariah, what did he say about widows and orphans? Those are the people who aren't going to have their needs met unless we step up and do it. And so he says here, distributing to the necessity. What if I got a guy who's just too lazy to work? There's not necessity, but there is necessity. And we know the difference. It's hard to make a government program that knows the difference, but it's easy for us to look at it and know the difference. And if you call the shot wrong, and you thought there was a real need, and you helped them, and you were wrong because they tricked you, God isn't going to deal with you about that. He'll deal with them. Don't worry about it. Don't sweat it. Given the hospitality, given the hospitality, people would travel on that day, and they didn't have a Motel 6s. And so they needed to stay at your house. You open up your house to traveling Christians so they could stay in your house for free. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice. Weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not the high things, but condescend to men of low estate." Don't always be up here about how important and this and that. He says, hang around with some poor folk. Hang around with ordinary people. Don't worry about hanging around with the elitist all the time. They're bad company. Bad company corrupts good morals. Hang around with the people of woe estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. This is the humility thing again. Recompense no man evil for evil. Don't retaliate. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Have a reputation. It says in the sight of all men, you ought to have a reputation for honesty. So just something to your heart. People say, that guy's honest. If possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. And that's where we'll stop. It's not always possible to live peacefully with all men. But God says, when I look at it, it better not be your fault. Right? As much as is possible with you. Jesus said it in Matthew 5, blessed are the peacemakers. And that's what Paul's saying.