Romans 12 (Part 8)

Let's go to Romans Chapter 12. I think you can now open your Bible with your eyes closed to Chapter 12 of Romans. We have been there, for our visitors, examining the character of the Christian life, the fruit of the spirit, the merciful, loving, gentle attitude that God expects us to exemplify and also other areas of life, of Christian service.

In verse 12 last Sunday we discussed the last part of verse 12 which says we are to be how, in prayer how are we to be? Constants. The idea, as if to refresh our memory, the idea of how we should behave with respect to prayer, that dimension of the Christian life, is that we must be insistent, we must be persistent, we must be militant with respect to prayer. The word constant doesn't quite capture it as much as it does in the original Greek “proscarterontes”, that is, insistent militants. So this idea of being insistent is important and we saw how many times, in Scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the need to pray without fainting. That idea, I believe, I just said in Spanish, like the Lord wrestling with the Father there in the Garden of Gethsemane and the association of Jacob wrestling with the angel immediately came to me. Being insistent, being militant, Jacob told the angel: I won't let you go until you bless me, but the angel blessed him, right?

And insistence is important and one of the things that perhaps I didn't mention last Sunday is that prayer is... insistence on prayer sometimes, particularly in situations of great struggle and great requests that we have before us. of the Lord obeys a natural rule and that is that great things in the world require great efforts, yes or no? For you to raise a large rock you have to have either a lot of strength or a lot of people to help you or be there insistently until you tire the rock and move it from its place. Likewise, it is sometimes with the great things that we have to ask the Lord. Why does the supernatural sometimes also obey natural rules? It is a mystery because we are surely in the world, because the divine comes into action in the context of the human and the natural and for this reason, just as great things require great effort, great persistence, so also the spirit, the great requests many times they require great insistence as well.

The exercise of continuous, insistent, persistent prayer, like physical exercise, only yields all its benefits if it is carried out consistently and with deliberation and insistence, so this idea is very important, we must be constant in the prayer. How should we be? Constant in prayer.

So the Apostle Paul goes on to say: “....sharing for the needs of the saints”, that's a new concept. Sharing for the needs of the saints. Tais creas tonahon coinntes. In the needs of the saints, sharing. That is the Greek, the order is like this, in the needs of the saints, sharing. Or it would be almost like participants or participants. It is the subjunctive, or rather the gerund: constantly insisting or sharing. It is like a thing that is practiced continuously. In the needs of the saints, sharing. And there are many things here that we can take away. What word, can someone tell me what word do you remember there? Coinnontes, coinony. What does coinony mean? Coinony means fellowship, sharing, being intimate, being part of.

You know when you give like a penny to someone who asks you for a penny on the street, and you sometimes stop us there on Albany street and we roll down the window so they get out of our way and we give you a dollar or a peseta and we go on and forget about the face, sometimes we don't even remember who that person was or what his appearance was like. I believe that what the Lord is telling us is something deeper. I believe that this is the way, brothers, the Lord God when he gives, he does not give in a generic way, he does not give in an indifferent way, he does not give in a contemptuous way, God gives and gives himself.

And we see that on the cross the Lord, when God saved us, He did not save us simply by doing a magical act from heaven but He descended to our condition, He says He became like one of us, He participated in our loneliness, He participated our temptations, he participated in our pain, he knew what betrayal is, he knew what fear is, he knew what physical agony is, he knew what it is to feel the sin that dirties us and makes us feel separated from God, the Lord participated , had fellowship with us and then gave. And that is so important that we understand this idea, that is to say that when we give, we give by making ourselves participate. And here there is so much material, brothers, that we can take out, I believe that one of the things is that I believe that we have to ask the Lord: Father, make my heart tender towards the pain of others. right yes?

It's so important, brothers, I don't know if it was Saint Francis of Assisi who said that ..... I don't remember who it was but that the things that hurt you can hurt my heart too. And I believe that this is what we have to ask the Lord, because many of us have already seen so much pain in the world that we are already indifferent and the Christian cannot be indifferent. We have to feel and our giving always has to be for sharing.

We live in a world where we are used to it, 20 were killed in a suicide bombing, 2000 people died in an earthquake, since humanity is like this and we know that there is so much need among our people that we no longer care Sometimes we give things out of compromise, no: Lord, make us always sensitive. Coinnontes, sharing.

There is another very interesting thing in this passage, he says, whose needs? Of the saints, sharing. God's love is for the whole world, but brothers, there is something interesting that the word says and that is that there is a special call for family love, love for the saints, love for your companions in this Christian family. We have to remember this, brothers and sisters, that in every possible way we must have a particular love and care for the family of faith. The believer must help, particularly those in the family of faith.

If you go with me to Galatians Chapter 6, it says: ".... let us not get tired of doing good, because in due time we will reap if we do not faint." Look at what it says in verse 10, ".... so as we have opportunity", remember that passage from a while ago that we spoke at every opportunity, serving. Look what it says "... let's do good to everyone." That is the primary rule. ".... and mostly to those of the family of faith." Who mostly? To those of the family of faith. That is to say that this is not a coincidence, it is not simply like a thought, just like that, fleeting, there is this call from God for the church to worry about the family.

We must be very attentive to the needs of others, here we have a body, a group of brothers, a family and we have to worry about each other. Say amen, even if it's to please me a little bit, because look around you, there are brothers who feel alone, there are brothers who have relatives in their countries far away and here are people right now who are going through tribulations and difficulties, there are people who they have financial needs, there are other people who are homeless and having a hard time, winter is approaching and there are things that are on their mind there and where is that caring for those in the family of faith. We must take care of each other. If you have an excess, share with your brother.

Sometimes we have bank accounts there waiting for the day we retire and look, maybe we're not even going to get there, we're going to die before then, share, share with someone. Now I think there is a corollary to that, there is one thing that also emerges and that is that we should not abuse the generosity of others, the pastor always gets in here with his things and spoils the party for the people The other thing is very nice, isn't it?, but this is also important. We must be careful not to tire the brothers more than necessary with our needs, we must also be balanced. This is very important because everything has to have order in life, brothers.

Look at First Timothy, Chapter 5, so you can see that this is something very important. Brothers, this applies to all the laws of life, even in doing good, sometimes we, there are people who are like the anchor of the family, when there is a need they go to that person, and that person already lives tired, loaded, exhausted, resentful because she always has to be filling the need, brothers still in doing good you have to have order. If God has given you a spirit of service and love and giving to others, give but with discipline, take care of yourself, do not let yourself be manipulated, there are people who are so dependent that if you love them you have to let them also find your place

Don't give them everything because otherwise they will never develop independence, you have to be careful, you have to be orderly. Verse 3 and 4 of First Timothy, Chapter 5, says, look here for example with the widows, it says: "...honor the widows", this is the advice that Paul gives Timothy, ".... honor the widows who really are, but if any widow has children or grandchildren, those first learn to be pious towards their own family and to reward their parents” Wow! "Because this is good and pleasing before God." You kind of sometimes don't expect the Bible to be so practical and so specific, but it is so, brothers. Because the church does not have unlimited resources, then I believe that the important thing is first that we there, attend before the church does not even have to intervene. I believe that many of the needs of the saints must be attended to by the saints themselves and we have to participate in the needs of others and then there is mutuality, with order.

Then further down it says in verse 8: “.....because if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” There are so many support systems in society that if we cared about caring for our own, there wouldn't be such a need for all this other stuff in the world, for welfare, and all this stuff. There are many ways, I think that are more humane, to help each other and to bless each other.

Look at what verse 16 says, "... if a believer has widows, let him support them and the church is not taxed so that there is enough for those who are truly widows." My point is brothers, that we must have balance in everything. Yes, there is a call from God for us to be generous to one another, but there is also a call from God on the other side, that we not put more burdens on people than they have to carry.

And finally it says here “.... practicing hospitality”. Here is the idea regarding hospitality, the word that is translated hospitality is filo xenian, filos is the word for love and xenos is the word for foreigner where the word xenophobia comes from, for example, xenophobia is when there is fear of the immigrant, fear abroad, here is filos xenian, that is, love for the immigrant, love for the foreigner. The idea is the following, with respect to love for the foreigner, with respect to the care and attention that the foreigner deserves, hospitality is translated, we must be diacontes, where the word diacon actually comes from, to serve, to continue, but the idea Original in the Greek is that we have to pursue this diligently, we have to get involved in an active way. If you go, for example, in Corinthians, the Apostle Paul uses that same word in Corinthians 4, I think it is, he says that we are persecuted but not abandoned, I think it is. How come it says in Second Corinthians, 4:9? The Apostle Paul says "... persecuted but not abandoned", it is the same word that he uses here for diacontes, it is the same root. You see that it is something active, it is something that we have to pursue, we have to get involved. But it is important, brothers, that with respect to hospitality, we are diligent. Hospitality is something that is not optional in the life of a Christian.

Look at Titus, Chapter 1:8, among the requirements for a bishop along with blameless, as God's steward, not haughty, not hot-tempered, not given to wine, not quarrelsome, you know what it had to be, what? “.....Houser and lover of the good.” Brothers, the word of the Lord calls us to be hospitable and we must practice that as a discipline. Hospitality is above all in an immigrant community like ours, where there are so many people who do not have an extended family, are here alone or just a couple eating a cable each in their solitude, at home, after they arrive from work or they leave the church. Everybody you see that, where we are going, we are going to go to such a restaurant and we are going to find ourselves at home, and there are a few little brothers who are not receiving any care. Let's be hospitable. We attend to the needs of others. Let's open our home. This is the idea of being hospitable.

How many want to be hospitable on this day? Amen.

Finally go to First Peter, Chapter 4, 7 to 11, we see here, if you have read with me this passage from Romans Chapter 12, you will see how Peter independently of the Apostle Paul deals with the same issues that we have discussed in a very compact form. It says there in verse 7, First Peter, 4:7 says; ".... but the end of all things is near, so be sober and watchful in prayer." We have this idea of being vigilant in prayer, the idea of being insistent in prayer, of being sober, as I was saying, no one thinks of himself more highly than he has the right to think, but think of himself sanely, and here we have this idea, be sober.

Now he says: “.....and above all have fervent love between yourselves, how? Again, the idea of love remembers that we talked about there is also this idea filos storge, family love, care, affection, and also here the idea of between you, the idea of towards the saints, practicing love and fervent love, as it says in things of the spirit being fervent. It says, "....because love will cover a multitude of sins." And look here in verse 9 that says: "....host one another without grumbling."

You know what happens when you host someone for a little while, we complain that they stayed longer than they told us they were going to stay, or that they went into the fridge and drank all the juice for us. the morning when we were leaving for work and they complain that you don't give them everything you're supposed to give them and that you didn't leave it all the time that.....it's a mess, when you have people in your house many times the whole enemy world ends, but here it says stay without murmurs. “....Stay without gossip. Each one, according to the gift he has received, ministers to the others. Be good stewards of the manifold grace of God”. Come here the idea, according to the gift that you have received, remember in Romans 12 also, according to the gift that we have received, if of prophecy, according to faith; if of service, in serving; Do you remember there, this whole idea, if God gave you a gift, minister it according to what God has given you.

You are not looking to use the gift of another, but the gift that God has given to you. If anyone speaks, speak according to the words of God; in playing the piano, playing the piano. If anyone speaks, speak according to the words of God, if anyone ministers, minister according to the power that God gives so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Say that, it's not about me, say it, it's not about me, it's about the Father. When you serve, when you give something, give it for the glory of the Lord, not for your glory, or your satisfaction. Hey, brothers, if we thought about that more often than when I serve, I serve is for God to be glorified, not for me to give myself a guille, oh! Look what I have, I did it because God gave me a gift to sing, and I am singing, he gave me a gift to minister and I am ministering. No, no, no, you do it for the glory of God.

May the Lord help us, brothers. How about we stand up and embrace this call. We are going to ask the Lord to help us right now, first to be insistent in prayer, second to identify ourselves with the needs of others and particularly with those in the family of faith. Tell the Lord: Father, make my heart tender. And finally that we be hospitable and lovers of the needy, lovers of the fragile, lovers of the foreigner, lovers of the outside, lovers of the alienated, lovers of the one who cannot give. Thank you, Lord, we accept your challenge, Father, we accept your call, Lord, we want to be a hospitable church. Do you know a way for you to practice that today?

We have so many visitors, make sure that 3 or 4 receive a handshake from you, ok, because these things are not there on the moon, it is not poetry that I am talking about, it is acts, it is action, every Sunday visitors come to our church and many say; Wow, what a loving congregation, and that's to the glory of Jesus Christ but you are part of that family and you must spread your love. Do not allow anyone to leave without looking for 2 or 3 without looking to extend your hand because you are part of this family, so say hello, the Bible says that we greet each other. On Sundays let's greet each other, let's express love and express love to someone, to a visitor, if you find someone entering the church in the parking lot, you don't know him, well look, come over and say hello. He may already be a member of the church here for many years, it doesn't matter, he knows you. We have to get to know each other. We can't be foreigners here, just sharing a bench, that doesn't glorify the Lord. It glorifies the Lord when a family worships and praises him in a spirit of fellowship. Express love to someone and let them feel the warmth, especially now in winter we need warmth, so shake someone's hand and may this church always be a church of hospitality, affection, love, hugging each other and taking care of each other. others, instead of criticizing each other.

Father, we give you all the glory and honor, we love you, we rejoice in you, we adore you and we bless you. Thank my Lord. Thank you for our brothers. We give you Lord all the glory and all the honor in the name of Jesus and the people of God say: Amen.