Transformation Hat Trick - Romans 12:9-21
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
I'm excited to jump back in. It's been, I don't know how many weeks since I've been up here to teach, and so it's like learning how to ride the bike again. So it might be a little wobbly this morning, but I know you guys will bear with me. But Pastor Andre has been holding down the fort for us for the last few weeks, diving, continuing in our series in Romans, and I'm so grateful. It's amazing to have a partner in crime like him around here to be able to work together and lead this church. So we're gonna be in part 20. Can you guys believe it? Part 20 of Romans, and we're gonna wrap up Romans chapter 12 today.
And last week, Pastor Andre jumped in and he really talked about this transition that's happening in the book of Romans right now. Paul has gone and focused so much on the details. I mean, the nitty gritty, the itty bitty pieces on the power of the gospel and how the power of the gospel. I mean, he argues with himself, it feels like, at some points in this book and we even get lost. I know we've had those weeks where it's like, okay, what did he say right there? I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, what? And he just like feels like you're running a circle. But he's literally putting forth a airtight argument about the power of the gospel and how that is focused and centered on Jesus Christ. And so Paul here is now in chapter 12, making the shift into, so then what does that mean for us? Because it's not just a situation where it's just about God. It's just about him and what Jesus did and all his power and his might and how amazing he is. That's all great and fine and dandy, but there's a very practical side for us and what it means for you and me every single day. Not just when we show up on Sunday and we go, "Oh yeah, power of the gospel. Hey Jesus, good to see you. Okay, cool. I'll see you next Sunday." But the power of the gospel affects us and our lives and our heart every single day.
And Paul here is locking down all the details of what it means to live this life in light of the power of this gospel. Pastor Andre last week shared and set this up with verses 12, one and two, in a different sort of a translation. And I love what he said here. Pastor Andre said, this theologian took these verses and kind of put it into some modern language for us to understand. Says this, he says, "So here's what I want you to do. God helping you take your everyday ordinary life, you're sleeping, you're eating, you're going to work, you're walking around life and place it for God as an offering. Embrace what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for Him. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants for you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out in you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
I love that version. 'Cause sometimes we can read these letters and if we remember these letters were written in the culture and the context of that day and age, still grounded in God's truth. So when we can take those scriptures and kind of unwrap them a little bit and turn them into our culture and understanding, it's pretty amazing. We don't lose sight of the truth that is at the core of it, but puts in a little bit sometimes, little bits and pieces to understand a little bit easier. But I love it, he said there right in the middle. He says, "Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit right into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He, God, wants from you and quickly respond to it." You and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, we call ourselves Christians, aren't supposed to look like the culture around us. We are supposed to look a little bit different. And that's okay. That's what Paul here is talking about. He wants you to be a little bit different. And instead, we're to be more like Jesus, to be all who God created us to be. God has a purpose for our lives. There's a reason that you're still here on this earth, breathing and alive. God still has a job for you to do. God still got something He has specific for you, and He wants you to receive that purpose and calling through the power of the gospel. The problem is though that sin has marred us, sin has changed us. It's disrupted this plan that God had for each and every one of us, this perfect image that Christ desires for us. But what's amazing is that in the power of the gospel in Jesus, we are healed. We have clarity and we are transformed. We're not the same that we once were. And Paul here in this moment, he's going to dive back into this focus on transformation.
And that's where we're going today. We're going to focus on verses 9 through 21 in this idea of being transformed. Paul here is gonna focus on three specific aspects of transformation in our heart of what I'm titling today, if you wanna write down, Paul's transformation trifecta. Or another way would be the transformation hat trick. You guys know what a hat trick is? So if you don't know, it's okay. I learned some more myself this week. It was really cool. I did a little deep dive on hat tricks. But a hat trick is a concept that's more focused on hockey or soccer, but actually originated with British cricket. But it's the idea of doing something three consecutive times within a period of time. So whether that's in an inning, whether that's in a half, that's in a game at itself, in a quarter, however you want to look at that time, a hat trick is done three times, usually associated with goals or scoring or touchdowns or something like that. Little side note. Last Thursday night, not Thursday, but the one before that. Oh boy, you know where it's coming. The Chicago Bears beat up on a team in Washington, D.C. and royally beat the snot out of them. It was amazing. Sorry if I got any Washington fans in here. I don't think we have any in our church. Whoa! But what was amazing is one of the wide receivers, DJ Moore, had three touchdowns in the game. And this is something we see more in modern sports, but back in the day, like that was huge. And for the Chicago Bears who have never had a decent wide receiver or quarterback since like the 30s or 40s, or a hundred year decades here, back in the day when the film was black and white and it was all blurry and you could barely see where the ball was. Yeah, that footage we've had great wide receiver. Today, no. So to see in high definition 4K, a game where there's three touchdowns was pretty amazing. It was a highlight of my week, but I'll digress. Paul here, he's talking about this idea of a trifecta or a hat trick. Side note, hat trick comes from British cricket when a pitcher or let me get the term correctly here. Where's it at? A bowler retired three batsmen or hitters and three consecutive balls would then give, be brought out a brand new hat at the pitcher mound by the other opponent team on their bill. That's a hat trick. There you go, the more you know.
We're gonna dive into Romans here real quick. You're not here to learn about hat tricks. But Romans chapter 12, we're gonna start in verse nine. Paul says this, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay evil, or evil, but be careful to do what is right in the eyes of anyone. If it is possible, as far as depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, "It is mine to avenge," says God. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we are so grateful again to be here in your presence, to learn from your servant Paul and to learn from your word, God. Jesus, I pray that it would penetrate our hearts, it would literally transform us, as Paul is calling us to today, into who you desire for us to be, your image, God, not ours. So Jesus, I pray that we would have open ears, open hearts, open minds, and open souls today to learn what you desire for us. We thank you, Jesus, we love you, amen.
Paul's jumping in here, this first part, and he's talking about the first of the trifecta, and that is being transformed in love. Being transformed into those who are holy and pleasing to God, Paul says at the beginning of this chapter. It is about transformation. And is it to a point that we live out love in a sincere way? I think for us in our day and age, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in hypocrisy. It's really easy. It's so easy to get caught in this place where it is to live a life without hypocrisy. It's that's hard. Being a hypocrite means to claim to be one thing and yet you act like something else. It's about more than just being polite here, Paul is saying. You heard the term bless their heart. You're not blessing their heart. You're calling them a doofus in a really polite way that they have no idea 'cause they don't understand what you're saying. Paul isn't saying here, "Oh, just bless their hearts." Paul is saying here, "We have to be sincere. We have to love. We have to stop pretending to love people." Think we've done a really good job of that in our lives, of pretending to love other people, but then actually truly loving those who love us, right? It's easy to get caught in this. And Paul here is saying, "We have to be transformed. Love has to be sincere. It takes concentration, it takes effort, it costs us something, right? To love somebody, it costs a piece of us, whether that's our time, our money, our personal involvement. But we also have to remember that no individual has the ability to love a whole community. That's where the church comes in. Pastor Andre talked about that last week when we have all been giving gifts and talents and abilities to love people so that together we can collectively love the world around us. We should be known as Christians by our love. When people hear the word "Christian," I don't think they hear that. I hope and pray that one day the world will hear the word "Christian" in church and go, "That's a group of people who love." That's what I want to be known as, to be one who loves, not just claiming to love, but actually truly loving God first and foremost, as it says in the Scripture, but to really love others and love those around us. If you want to take a deeper dive into this, check out 1 Corinthians 13. It goes deep on what true love is.
Paul specifically uses also this word honor here. And I really like this, 'cause I don't know that we do a good job of honoring people in our society. I think we put people on pedestals, we give awards, we do all kinds of the charades, but I don't know that we truly honor people. Paul here says that we are to honor others by loving them. And we can honor people in one of two ways. We can either honor people for our own personal gain with different motives. We honor our boss, why? Maybe a little paycheck raise, a little bump up in status. Maybe if you have an employees or you manage people, you honor them, why? So they'll work harder for you so that you look good for the boss up top and you can make your way up in life. There's a lot of people doing things in life just to gain a competitive edge in the name of love and honor, but that's not at their heart. We might honor wealthy people, so they might give money to us or help us in a need. We might honor a powerful person so they might be inclined to use their power for our gain or maybe in hopes that they wouldn't use their power against us. You can also honor people by God's way. Honoring God's way is full of love. And it's honoring other people, not because of what they've done or what we can gain from them or how we can get a competitive advantage, but it's loving other people, why? because they too are made in the image of God. They too are a son or a daughter of the Lord Almighty. And that is how we honor, because of the unique contribution that they can make for God's church to change the world and to change lives for Christ.
Paul then touches next on hospitality. This is a huge way, a practical way of showing love to people around us, and I think it's a lost art. I will say this, you guys have so incredibly honored and loved our family during this time of our littlest being born. You guys have given us meals, you guys have sent money, you guys have showed up in our, I mean, we literally have had diapers and wipes sitting in our front room because we were out of room trying to store them, 'cause you guys are amazing. You guys have showed hospitalized, and we have felt it. We've never been loved like this in the church before. And you guys have honored us, you guys are incredible. Our crew, we have four kids now, we call ourselves a crew. Our crew now has been honored with your hospitality. And Paul here is saying, I wanna make a distinction here because there's a difference between hospitality and entertaining. I think sometimes we get caught in thinking hospitality has to be entertaining, that it has to be a perfect, the house has to be perfectly clean, the food has to be perfectly cooked. You have to be honoring, you have to have it all together when they show up at the house, everything has to be just absolutely right. Who's that about? It's about us. That's our own motive. But the way to truly show hospitality is about your guests. And I will say this, I read this week and it hit me hard that you can show hospitality even in the midst of a messy home. You can show hospitality with even a simple meal, a can of soup can show hospitality. You can do chores. You can clean a house together with somebody and show hospitality to them. And Paul here is saying, we have to show love in hospitality. So I want to encourage you, don't hesitate to offer hospitality just because you don't think it's good enough or you're too tired or you're too busy or you're not wealthy enough off to entertain because it's not about entertaining. It's about hospitality.
Paul then says in verses 14 to 15, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. we can, as brothers and sisters usually do, even in the church, brothers and sisters, we can get under each other's skin. We can really drive each other nuts sometimes, right? But Paul here is saying that we as a church family have to reconcile with one another. He's reminding us that even in the midst of conflict, disagreements, both inside and outside of the church that we're to work towards reconciliation. Coming together, showing love even when the other party is not showing love. That is true love right there. I think in today's world of this never-ending lawsuits and incessant demands for our legal rights and all these things that we get caught up in here. Paul is reminding us to forgive. To forgive, to break the cycle. That's what Paul wants here. He wants to break this cycle of non-never-ending, conflicting, battle, fighting, pushing back. "It's my right. No, it's my right. No, it's my right." Paul wants us to break the cycle with this idea of reconciliation to one with one another. 'Cause he says in verse 16, "Live in harmony with one another. "Do not be proud, but be willing to associate "with people of low position. "Do not be conceited." Not only is Paul here talking and making it incredibly clear that our personal state of pride needs to go away, Not only are we to not be proud, but we shouldn't even associate or spend time with the proud. This one kind of hit me weird this week. Because I'm like, "Well, God, if I'm not supposed to associate with Him, how do I share a gospel with people who don't know and understand this?" But I think there's a level here of being around people and associating yourself with them. that associating yourself or being with them, you allow their influence on us. But I think it first starts with us and how we act and our love and our hospitality and our generosity and our actions outside of them is the way that we show that towards them but still being around them but not letting that outside influence come into us. Does that make sense?
This idea of being humble and owning this mentality of humility. And that's our second one today, is this idea of being transformed in humility. If you want to be more like Jesus, surround yourself with people who are like Jesus. Simple as that. That's how it happens. When it comes to humility, Paul also says this in these verses, "Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Verse 13, he says practice hospitality. Verse 13, he says do not be conceited. Verse 16, he says do not repay anyone evil for evil. Verse 17, he says be careful what to do is to do what is right. Verse 17, Paul is super concerned with us understanding that the person who is transformed by Jesus is a person who is transformed in humility. That's what it's about. That is what God wants from us. Sinners are selfish. Sinners seek to prove themselves right. Sinners try to get their own way. Sinners care concern is primarily with themselves. That's not with the followers of Jesus, right? Followers of Jesus, they are transformed. They are selfless. They are humble. They seek the good of others to help care for them.
Paul wraps all of this up, talking about and focusing on the third aspect, is being transformed in peace. New Testament has a lot to say about this concept of people of peace and followers of Jesus being people of peace. Paul says a lot here in these verses on this and focuses in on what it means to be transformed by people of peace. It says in verse 12, "We are to be patient in affliction. Says in verse 14, "We are to bless those who persecute us." Verse 14 also says, "We are to bless and to not curse." Verse 16, "We are to live in harmony with one another." Verse 17, "We are not to repay anyone evil for evil, but we are to do what is right in the eyes of everyone." Paul clearly here then in verse verse 18 says, "If possible, as far as it depends on you, "live at peace with everyone." That seems like an impossible task, right? How are we to begin to live at peace if there are a world around us that seems to have no peace? Nevertheless, Paul says, "Do not take revenge, "but leave room for God." It's not about God. It's not about us. Could it be any clear what Paul is calling us to here? It's a monumental task when we really think about this as a whole, going like, are you kidding me? To all of this? But have you ever met somebody who's just looking for a fight? You don't wanna be around them. Nobody wants to be around them. Nobody wants to deal with them. You don't even wanna think about that person. You don't wanna go, as in the words of the Grinch, You don't want to touch them with a 10-foot pole. You don't want to go near them at all whatsoever. Those are not people of peace. That's not who God is calling us to be transformed into.
Now I understand that it takes two people to create peace. I get that. But what needs to happen is that we as Christians might not be responsible for breaking that peace. That's our part. That's our calling. That we have to be not thinking about revenge in the lives of others. Did you know that repaying evil with evil actually hurts us? I talked about that cycle earlier, right? Of like perpetual action, action, action, action. Paul here is asking and calling and pleading with us to break this cycle. Because when there's forgiveness, there is freedom for you and you are set free from bitterness. Even when we think, "Well, if I just got revenge." Have you ever actually gotten revenge? It doesn't feel good. You never get revenge and you're like, "Woo-hoo, here we go. I got it. Bingo." No. You feel horrible. You're just miserable afterwards. and you think, "Why did I even do that?" Repaying Ephraim for evil only hurts us. But Pastor, you just don't understand what this person did to me. Pastor, you just don't get it what happened. I understand this is hard, and this is a tricky subject. 'Cause we have society around us saying, "Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.”
Paul here says in verse 19 and 20, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed them. If he is thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will keep burning coals on their heads. I struggled with this one this week. I really did. And then I read this theologian author, somebody way smarter than me, wiser. And they said this, "giving your enemy a drink of food "is not excusing their misdeeds, "but rather you are recognizing them, forgiving them "and loving them in the spite of their sins." Which is exactly what Christ has done for each of us. We have all been there at some point. Man, that hit me hard. It isn't easy whatsoever. But it gives us a greater understanding of what is going on here in these moments and what God is actually doing in the lives of other people. So what's with the deal with this coals on the head and heaping it on there? Like, what's going on? Well, this actually comes from a tradition, and not in the sense of us just basically being able to get after our enemies or take a blowtorch to our enemies. But what is happening here is this idea of this concept of ancient Egyptian tradition of carrying coals in a pan on one's head in public as a sign of remorse. It's a physical act of seeing someone carrying a pan of burning coals on their heads. Like, "How, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how?" But they are saying to the point, "I am so sorry for what I did. I want everybody to know that I am deeply sorry." And Paul here is saying, "When we give our enemy food when they're hungry, when we give our enemy water to drink when they're thirsty, when we forgive them, when we say to them, "I love you. You hurt me, but I love you." When you do that to them, it's as if you're putting a pan of coals on their head. And they, in that moment, would hope, they would see and recognize what is going on, and they would find remorse for their own sins. That it isn't in the revenge is their remorse, But it's in our loving and a sincere, caring way that we'll actually begin to transform the lives of those around us. They become ashamed of their actions and in hopes it would help them to turn from their sinful life.
Paul closes with, I think, a single perfect sentence of everything here. He says in verse 21, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That's our calling. That is our greatest, hardest, most climbing the top peaks of the mountain journey calling that we have in our lives. That you and I are called to be people of peace. Simple as that. We're to love God, and we are to help care and love for those who do wrong around us. We are to love our enemies, maybe to the point where they become ashamed for how they have treated us, and in hopes that that changes their lives. This is how someone lives, when they're truly transformed by the power of the gospel. We are transformed by being renewed, Paul says. We are transformed by being loving. We are transformed by being humble. And we are transformed by being peaceful. So my challenge for you today, this week, live as a transformed person. For those of us in here who have accepted Christ into our lives to say, we're here to live different, salvation just doesn't stop when you pray the prayer when Jesus comes into your heart. This is a lifelong journey of being transformed into who God wants for us to be, fulfilling our calling that he has given us.
I wanna challenge you into thinking about, look at all these verses we just went through, thinking about one aspect of transformation that you can live out this week. To just start with one. Start in one place of, maybe I need to be more of a person of peace. So when I show up at work, I have a smile on my face. Not necessarily the grumpy, the I haven't had my coffee yet, I'm still waking up, but be that person of peace. Maybe you need to be more generous this week in some way. Maybe there's a practical need in your family or a neighbor or someone in your life where you can show up and be a presence of God's hospitality for them. Maybe you just need to let that person on the freeway emerge in front of you when you really don't want to. Spouses are looking at each other all over the room. Be the person of peace and traffic. They probably won't have any idea what you're doing. But they might pay for the order and drive through behind you, just 'cause. There's so many different ways you can live this out. And I think for us to try to take all of this on at once would be absolutely overwhelming, overwhelming and we would never get there. But just one step. How can you this week do one thing to live out being the transformed person that you already are? And it's not going to be our own might. It's going to be God's power in us. That's the greatest thing in all of this. All we have to do is let God's power shine through us. to have the power of the gospel just be reflected through our lives. So how can you be one more step transformed this week and then build on it? Build upon that each week. You got 52 weeks in a year. Be back here October 2024. You might be a completely different person. Be completely transformed.
Pray with me. God, we're so grateful for today. God, we're so grateful for your servant Paul, who in his heart, writing to the church in Rome, just explaining what the gospel is and then how it changes us, God, to transform us this day. So God, I pray that you would put on our hearts and our minds this week, how we can be more transformed by the power of the gospel in our lives, to live that out in a very real and practical way. And God, let it not just stop there. But God, may we continue every moment of every day to say, God, what do you desire for me in this moment? How can I live transformed here and now in this space, in this space, whether it's at home, where it's at work, whether it's where we live, learn, work or play. God, I pray that you would use us in our transformation to transform the world around us, Jesus. God, we thank you for today. We worship you, we praise you. God, be with us as we go this week. We gather together next Sunday. We love you, Jesus. We praise you. Amen.