In this continuing collection of sermon notes from Sunday messages, one of my church’s pastor answered why, based on the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to the Romans in Romans 12 …

01.31.2010 — Romans 12: 1-16 (Paul)

• In our church, we want to be committed to “living theology” as a community of believers. We are called by God, all of us, by Jesus and empowered by the Spirit to do the work of ministry (2 Corinthians 5: 17-21).
• Our unity now is found only in Christ, for the glory of God alone, making much of Him as His new creations, for the rest of our lives.
• But we still struggle because we wrestle with our sin natures. We do not always deal well with diversity, do we? Too often we think deep down like we are always right. If the world were a perfect place, we subconsciously assume, everyone would only act as we do! Such disagreements have done such damage, over insignificant things, to the cause of Christ. Yet we are called to love God, and each other as we love ourselves, and we know we do that.
• “God’s mercy is our motive and our motivation for growing together in grace. … The mercies of God make us family.” So we can call each other brothers and sisters in Christ, with affection He has given us, with God as our heavenly Father.
• The mercies of God give us a common purpose and move us through a common process. He has given all for us; let us be grateful and give all to Him. This makes rational, reasonable, right worship. We help each other in perseverance too, because we need each other. This is a lifelong community project, letting our lives be transformed.
• We must encourage one another to find our satisfaction not in the temptations of the world, but in Him (2 Corinthians 5:18). We need to want to be like our Heavenly Father, beholding His glory in everything. His mercy moves us from selfishness to being committed to others.

• Don’t think of yourself and that you are more than you are; instead, look to Christ. All this is for His glory. Yet this does not diminish the importance of each member of the body. His plan is to build His Church not through uniformity but through diversity.
• We all have different gifts, and we should humbly use them. If we don’t the body cannot function as it should. Here, we need everyone involved! The leaders don’t have all the gifts; everyone can use his/her gifts!

• We should always endeavor to live like this. These verses pack quite a punch. But people will know we are His disciples by our love. If we don’t have true love, other good deeds mean, or gain us, nothing (1 Corinthians 11: 1-3). “None of this shake hands, give a hug, then talk behind your back business. … Don’t let your ‘love’ be hypocritical.” I pray that will never happen at our church; let us not dwell on others’ flaws.
• Meanwhile as we grow in grace, we must learn to hate evil, and we must be talking about Jesus together, and stir each other to good works.
• “Outdo one another in showing honor.” This denotes respect and deference.
• Finally, all this must be with fervency, “boiling” passion. This is not a business — we must delight in this! Paul also encourages unity through humility, working together side-by-side for the cause of the Gospel. Let’s build our lives on His mercies, making much of Jesus through how we live, how we love and how we speak.