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Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards Others/Everyday

Gary Wright · Sunday, 2 November 2025 · Romans 12:9-21 · 44:39 · 5,512 words

Romans S28 · 12:9-21 Burton

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Romans 12:9–21 shows believers how to love with genuine agape, hate what is evil, and live as a living sacrifice. The sermon explains that the Holy Spirit empowers authentic love, calls us to be devoted to one another, to rejoice in the confident hope of Christ’s return, and to respond to enemies with kindness. It challenges listeners to let love be real, avoid laziness, and serve the Lord with zeal. Ultimately it urges believers to rely on God’s Spirit, ask forgiveness, and put Christ’s love into practice daily.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

love 133 hospitality 11 show 25 evil 19 genuine 11 agape 7 rejoice 13 lowly 6 roger 4 sometimes 17 lazy 5 believe 37

Topics

The Holy Spirit 3 Hope 3 Prayer 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Unity 1 Love 1

Scripture referenced 48

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 12 0:05 Romans 12 0:26 Romans 12:1 0:26 Romans 12 0:41 Romans 12:1-2 0:41 Romans 12:3-8 1:23 Romans 12 1:43 Romans 12:3-8 1:43 Romans 12 1:54 Romans 12:9-11 1:54 Romans 12 2:05 Romans 12:9 2:05 Romans 12 3:11 Romans 12:9 3:11 Romans 12:9 3:16 Romans 5:5 5:19 Romans 5:5 5:29 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 7:50 Romans 5:8 8:59 Romans 5:1 9:22 John 6:26 11:31 Proverbs 6:16-19 12:52 Romans 12:2 13:54 Romans 12:2 13:54 Romans 10 15:00 1 Timothy 5 16:43 1 Timothy 5:1-2 16:43 Romans 11 18:00 Romans 12:11 18:00 Romans 12:11 18:10 Romans 1:6 19:21 Romans 12:1-2 19:37 Romans 12 19:48 Romans 12:3-8 19:48 Romans 12:12 19:57 Romans 12:13 22:51 1 Peter 4:9 26:50 Romans 12:14 27:46 Acts 7:60 29:03 Romans 12:15 30:01 John 11:35 32:04 Romans 12:16 33:15 Romans 12:17 35:56 Romans 12:17-21 35:58 Romans 12:18 38:01 Matthew 5:46 41:32 Romans 5:8 43:20 1 John 4:19 43:36

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

But today we're going to be continuing in our study through the book of Romans.

We're in chapter 12, and we've studied, or Paul has written in the first 11 chapters of Romans about the mercies of God, what we were just saying about.

Mainly about salvation, that Christ came, but there's many mercies that we receive from Christ.

But starting in chapter 12, verse 1, until the end of the book, it's about how we live as believers because of those mercies of God.

So Paul wrote in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, that because of those mercies, because we've experienced the mercies of God, because we've been saved, that we should be a living sacrifice.

That we shouldn't be conformed to the things of the world, the way the world believes.

We should be transformed by God's word and the Holy Spirit.

That is the first thing.

And he's specifically talking to those of us who have put our faith in Christ here.

So he's saying, believers, be a living sacrifice.

Don't be conformed to the world.

Be transformed by my word and by my spirit.

And then he goes on in verses 3 through 8, and he says, not only do I want you to be a living sacrifice.

But I want you to be humbly serve me.

And I'm going to give you spiritual gifts in order to do that.

And each of us have different ones.

And this is verses 3 through 8 in chapter 12, where he speaks of this.

Each believer has a spiritual gift to serve the church.

And today, we are going to be in verses 9 through 11 in chapter 12.

And listen, if you have your Bible this morning, I want to encourage you.

To open it up to chapter 12, verse 9.

Or if you have your phone or a device, whatever you may have.

I think there's something special about looking at God's word.

The scripture will also be on the screen.

But I encourage you to do that.

But today, we're going to be talking about how believers are to love.

Okay?

But before we jump into it, let's pray together.

Father, we love you.

Thank you for today.

I thank you for the opportunity.

To serve you.

To share your word this morning.

But Lord, I just pray that your word penetrates hearts this morning.

That it's not about me at all.

It's all about you.

And that we focus on your goodness.

And help us to apply your word to our hearts, Lord.

All of us.

Including myself.

We love you.

In Jesus' name.

So in Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 9.

We're just going to read verse 9 for right now.

But Paul writes,

So Paul, like I said a few minutes ago, in the chapter, wrote about spiritual gifts.

That we all have them.

But the motivation behind the spiritual gifts that God gives us is love.

It's love.

And love is the lifeblood of a Christian.

If we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us.

Our life should reflect that love.

Okay?

And in the English language, the word love can mean a lot of things.

I mean, we can say, I can say, I love classic cars.

And I can also say, I love my friends.

Those two are not the same.

At least they shouldn't be the same.

And I can say, I love my friends.

And I can also say, I love my wife.

And those better not be the same.

Right?

Those better not be the same.

Love in the English language can mean a lot of things.

But in the Greek language, there's different words for these different kinds of love.

And the love we're talking about today is the word in Greek called agape.

Okay?

It's a divine love.

The kind of love that God has for us.

And it's the kind of love that we receive when we receive Christ's love.

As our Savior.

When we put our faith in Jesus, it's the kind of love that he pours into us through his Holy Spirit.

Listen to Romans 5.5.

It says,

And hope does not put us to shame.

This is the book of Romans.

I probably should have said that.

And hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So why are we able to love like God?

Because the Holy Spirit has poured that love into those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ.

And that's the only reason we're able to love like God.

And because this love comes from God, it's genuine.

It is genuine.

And that's what Paul's talking about.

Let your love be genuine.

And sometimes, believers can put on this fake act of love.

Have you seen this before?

I have.

And maybe I've even done it myself.

Our love for others, because of this love that lives in us, should be genuine.

Everything we're going to be talking about today requires that we are believers and that the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

And that that love comes from that.

And this love should not be a pretend love.

It should be genuine.

And this past week was Halloween.

And it really made me think of what we're talking about.

I went over to my daughter.

She has all the grandkids and the whole family over and friends.

And my granddaughter was dressed up like a doctor.

Her name's Quinn.

So I called her Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

But she had like this pink outfit on, little mask, glasses with no lenses, and a stethoscope.

She was really cute.

I should have put a picture up.

She really looked like a little doctor.

But guess what?

I would never let her do anything for me if I was suffering.

Because she was pretending.

Right?

And that's what Paul's saying.

This love that we have should not be fake.

It should be genuine.

It should be real.

Because we have Christ living in us or the Holy Spirit living in us.

And this is what it should look like.

1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 8.

Paul, same writer, writes about love.

He says,

Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

Whoa, that one is a bit convicting right there, isn't it?

It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice in wrongdoing.

But it rejoices with truth.

Love bears all things.

Think about that.

That means we put up with other people because we love them.

We put up with what they're doing because we love them.

But it bears all things.

It believes all things.

It hopes all.

It loves all things.

And it endures all things.

That's the kind of love that the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts.

And this is an important one, too.

This is verse 8 in that same chapter.

Or that same, yeah, same chapter.

Love never ends.

When we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have him forever.

And that love is forever.

Agape love, the divine love we're talking about,

it's a sacrificial.

It really makes me think of verse 1.

Be a living sacrifice.

Be a living sacrifice.

How do we do that?

Through this sacrificial agape love.

A love that cares for the well-being of others.

And a love is present,

regardless if the one that we're showing the love to loves us back.

Genuine love, this type of love,

requires, even as believers, even with the Holy Spirit,

it demands our time.

Sometimes it demands our money.

It demands our personal involvement.

This love is a choice.

God, my buddy, Pastor Doc, I don't know if you know him.

You're probably smiling right now because he's an awesome guy.

But Pastor Doc used to say,

God is a gentleman and he's not going to force us to do anything.

God equips us to do, to love.

But we still have a choice.

Either we're going to love like this.

Love doesn't mean that we let people take advantage of us

and walk on us because people will do that.

They will.

You start helping people out and sometimes they want,

they just come to you with their hand out all the time.

Look, that's not love.

That's not love.

Matter of fact, I'll give you an example.

Jesus fed 5,000 with what?

I think with five loaves and two fish.

And the next day, the crowd followed.

They followed him to the other side of the lake

and they wanted to be fed again.

And Jesus said this to them.

Oh, this is John 6, 26.

Jesus answered them and said,

Truly, truly, I say to you,

you are seeking me not because you saw signs,

but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

They wanted to be fed again, right?

They were coming to him with their hand out again.

Right?

If you need help, and it's our responsibility to help.

That's not what I'm saying.

But,

we can't let people take advantage of us.

So, we have to be careful here.

And I just wanted to warn you about that

because I've had that happen to me.

And I have a heart for people,

so it's hard for me to discern that sometimes.

But we have to be careful

because people will come to you that way.

As we go on,

Paul says,

Let your love be genuine.

But he also says this,

Abhor what is evil.

Hold fast to what is good.

And you're going to be surprised what the word abhor means.

God is telling us to hate what is evil.

We say God is love,

but he's telling us to hate what is evil.

And guess what?

God hates what is evil.

If it's outside of his word, he hates it.

In Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19,

it lists six things that the Lord hates.

Listen to this.

There are six things the Lord hates.

One, are an abomination to him.

Haughty eyes, that means like prideful.

A lying tongue.

And hands that shed innocent blood.

A heart that deceives wicked plans.

Feet that make haste to run to evil.

A false witness who breathes out lies.

And one who sows discord among brothers.

God hates what's evil.

God is, his character is love,

but his character is also one that hates evil.

So as believers with the spirit living in us,

we love what is good and we hate what is evil.

And sometimes people don't want to hear that,

but that is the truth.

Romans 12, 2, we have to go back to Romans 12, 2.

What does it say?

Do not be conformed to this world.

Don't let the world and its way of thinking

conform you into thinking that's the truth.

But be transformed by the renewing

of your mind.

When we read God's word and the Holy Spirit's in us,

that he's going to remind us of the truth of this word.

He's going to teach us what is good.

He's going to transform our minds

and through the transformed minds,

our actions will be transformed.

Abhor what is evil.

Hate what is evil.

And evil is the absence of God's goodness.

It is the absence of God's goodness.

It is wherever God is.

God is not.

And I'm going to tell you right now,

there's a lot of places and a lot of things in this world

that God is not.

Okay?

We have to be careful, believers.

In Romans 10, Paul goes on and says,

love one another, brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

So in this section we're going to be talking about right now,

God is speaking to how believers are to,

to greet other believers in the church,

in the body of Christ.

Okay?

So it says,

love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

And the word love here is not agape.

It is, I'm going to do my best,

phileo storgos.

And it means a friendship kind of love.

And it also means a natural family love.

B, believers are to be devoted,

like a family is devoted to one another.

Like my brothers and sisters can drive me crazy.

You know what I mean?

You have relatives like that.

But guess what?

At the end of the day, I'm devoted to them, right?

I'm going to, we have the same parents.

We grew up together.

I'm going to have their back and they're going to have mine.

Why?

Because it's a natural family love.

And that's the kind of love that we should have,

towards other believers.

We should take care of one another.

There's an example in 1 Timothy,

chapter 5, verses 1 and 2.

do not rebuke an older man,

but encourage him as you would a father.

Younger men as brothers,

older women as mothers,

younger women as sisters in all purity.

We're to love each other with a natural love

that comes from God.

Because we have the same thing in common.

We're believers in Christ.

Can that be difficult?

It can be difficult.

Remember I said you have to work at this.

Sometimes we're doing events

and sometimes we're doing things.

And somebody, another believer,

might want to do things differently.

And it might rub you the wrong way.

You have to remember that we're to love them,

each other, it should be a two-way street,

love each other with this type of brotherly,

natural love because we're both following the Lord.

Romans 11, Romans 12, verse 11, Paul goes on.

Do not be slothful and zeal,

but be fervent in spirit.

Serve the Lord.

In verse 11, he's talking about

the attitude of a believer.

Ooh, could be saying, don't be lazy, right?

Don't be slothful.

That slothful means lazy.

Don't be lazy.

Ministry can be difficult.

It can be difficult.

I'm going to tell you right now,

it's hard sometimes.

And we have to have conversations that's hard

and we have to think that it's difficult.

We love the Lord.

We should have this zeal, this excitement

because we're doing the work of the Lord.

And when we trust him in that,

he strengthens us.

We don't become lazy.

You get tired, but we don't become lazy.

We keep this excitement.

You have this excitement, believers?

I hope you do.

And we have to,

do our part to be enthusiastic,

to be diligent serving the Lord.

And God has given us everything you need.

In Romans 1, verse 6,

Paul tells us that he called us as believers,

that God called us as believers,

including you, it says this,

including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

In Romans 12, 1 and 2,

we are challenged to be this,

to follow the Lord,

and to serve him as that living sacrifice.

And then verses 3 through 8 in chapter 12,

we're equipped to do this.

God's given us everything we need.

Paul goes on in verse 12

and gives us other reasons

that will help us stay excited

about what the Lord's doing.

He says,

Rejoice in hope,

be patient in tribulation,

constant in prayer.

He helps us keep our enthusiasm,

the main thing is this,

rejoicing in hope.

Now the world, in our world,

when we think of hope,

it's something that we wish for.

But in the scripture,

hope is something that we're confident in.

We're confident as believers

that someday we're going home

to be with the Lord.

We are.

We're going to be transformed to be like Christ.

We're in the process now,

but then we're going to be

like Christ.

The Bible says that,

Jesus says,

I'm going to prepare a place for you

that someday you'll be able to come with me

or I'll come and bring you there.

And when we come there,

he's going to say what?

Welcome home, believer.

That's the confident hope a believer has.

That helps us to keep our enthusiasm up

knowing that we're serving him

and someday we're going to have that.

We're going to be glorified

and be with him.

And through that hope,

even when hardships come,

we can stand up because we know

that's the truth.

It says be patient in tribulations.

Stand firm in tribulation

because we have this hope.

And this is really important,

this last one.

Constant in prayer.

If you do not have a prayer life

if you're not praying on a daily,

you're missing out.

You want to be motivated.

Spend some time with the Lord.

Be in his word to him, right?

Me and my wife have a great relationship,

but if I didn't talk to her on a daily basis,

it would probably go south pretty quickly.

God wants a relationship.

He wants you to talk to him

and that's what prayer is.

Those are the things that keep up our enthusiasm.

and he's starting to make a transition here.

He says,

first of all,

in verse 13,

he says,

contribute to the needs of the saints.

And then he says,

seek to show hospitality.

I love this verse.

So the word contribute means share.

It means it's a noun version.

The noun version of contribute means fellowship.

And who is he?

What are the needs we're meeting?

If the saints,

first of all,

what are the saints?

They're other believers.

What are the needs?

Anything that we,

we can help them with.

Sometimes it's just coming alongside

and encourage them.

Sometimes it's actual physical needs.

there's some things we may not be able to help with,

but we do our best to contribute to the needs

of other believers.

And then he goes on and he says this,

seek to show hospitality.

Now I believe this hospitality here

is for believers and to other believers

To non-believers,

because the word hospitality actually means

the love of strangers.

this church was called Bethany.

And I was the student guy here.

And I asked a speaker that I met in Ohio

to come here and speak.

And he taught us all about getting volunteers,

helping and things like that.

His name was Roger.

But after the meeting and my wife and I took him out,

him and his wife, Wendy,

we took him out to dinner.

We went down to Lucky's in Linden.

As soon as we pulled up there,

some guy comes out,

some young guy.

He says,

can you help me?

I need gas in my truck.

My first instinct was like,

there is no way, right?

And I'm sorry that I said that.

But Roger showed hospitality.

He jumped out.

He talked to this guy.

We drove across the street.

Roger put 20 bucks in the guy's truck.

And then,

he took the guy to Burger King right there

and bought him dinner.

I was so convicted.

He shared the gospel with him through that.

Showed hospitality.

When we can help and we can show love,

we do it.

And again, you must be careful of people taking advantage

because they will.

But the word in this is a seek to show hospitality.

The word seek means to look for the opportunity

to shape, to be hospitable.

Look, pursue it.

And I seen that in Roger that day.

And I'm going to be honest.

I love people and I love helping them.

But am I always thinking about how to do that?

Sometimes I get distracted.

But Paul's saying, or God's telling us here,

seek to show hospitality.

We should be looking for it.

And what should our attitude be

when it comes to showing hospitality?

It should be,

it shouldn't be like mine

where I was going to push the guy away.

Because 1 Peter says,

show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

1 Peter 4, 9.

Show hospitality without grumbling.

That don't mean to say,

well, here's 20 bucks,

but I really don't have it.

Right?

It means we do it in love

and we choose to do it

because the Holy Spirit is living in us.

And we want to serve God

and we want to show the love of God to somebody

if we're able to.

If we're grumbling,

is our love genuine?

Paul continues in these next few verses.

So we've been talking about what it looks like

love other believers.

But now Paul's going to go into

how do we love people who are not believers?

And in verse 14,

he says,

bless those who persecute you,

bless and do not curse them.

Look, it's easy to love those who love you back.

It is.

But it's a different ball game

when they persecute you.

When they're teasing you.

When they're doing mean stuff to you.

When Paul uses the word bless,

it means instead of hoping the worst

for this person who's treating you poorly,

you hope the best for them.

We choose to speak kind words to them.

Pray for them.

How many of us struggle with that?

Don't raise your hands, but

I can raise my hand.

Sometimes I do struggle with that.

I need this as bad as all of you.

But there's a great example.

There's a great example of this

praying for your enemies

in the book of Acts.

There's a disciple of Jesus.

He is being stoned to death

because of his faith.

And in Acts 7.60,

this makes me a little emotional.

It says,

while being stoned,

like they circle around him

and they throw rocks at him

until he's dead.

While that's happening,

this is what he says,

and falling to his knees,

he cried out with a loud voice,

Lord, do not hold this stone.

And when he had said that,

he fell asleep.

That was the last thing he said before he died.

The word fell asleep means

he died right after that.

That is love right there.

Love, not only,

we're not only to love those who persecute us,

but we're to rejoice

and we're to weep

with those who don't know Christ.

In verse 15, Paul says,

rejoice with those who rejoice,

weep with those who weep.

And what Paul means by rejoice

is with those who weep,

those who rejoice here

shouldn't be jealous.

Like a lot of times,

like at work

or even in the church,

people will be promoted

or they'll be asked to do things

that you really want to do

and you're jealous about it.

What Paul means here is

we shouldn't be that way.

If we have the love of Christ in us,

we need to rejoice with them

and it should be, guess what?

Genuine rejoicing.

Genuine, not fake.

Not,

not for our personal gain.

We should celebrate with folks

even in their good circumstances,

even when it's at our expense.

Struggling with that.

I'm so convicted by this passage.

But Paul goes on and he says,

love weeps those who are hurting.

So we're to love or rejoice

with those who are rejoicing.

Even if we're jealous,

even when we don't feel like they deserved it,

even when we feel like we deserved it more

and we're to weep with those who are hurting.

People that don't know the Lord,

when they're hurting in the world

or when they're hurting,

we're supposed to come alongside them

and show kindness and compassion.

We're to cry with them.

We're to encourage them.

Jesus gives us a great example.

In John 11, 35,

his friend Lazarus had died

and Jesus waited too long.

The sisters asked for Jesus to come,

but by the time Jesus got there,

Lazarus was already dead.

And he was in the grave.

Guess what?

Jesus raised him from the dead later.

And he knew he was going to do that.

But Mary and Martha,

his sisters came out and they're like,

Lord, if you would have been here,

he wouldn't have died.

They were emotional.

And what did Jesus do?

Wept with them.

He had compassion.

He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead,

but he still loved and he came alongside them.

Honestly, he shared the gospel with them in that moment.

It should be what our lives look like as believers.

When we identify hardships and the joys,

we should show the love of Christ

to those even that don't know the Lord.

And the next verse is related to this.

Verse 16 says,

live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty,

but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

We can't be haughty or wise in our own sight.

That means we can't be prideful.

We have to go back to what Paul talked about earlier.

We can't be thinking of ourselves.

We cannot think of ourselves above other folks.

If we're going to live in harmony and empathy,

it's impossible if we're prideful.

If we're going to live in harmony with one another,

it's impossible if we have pride

and we're thinking of ourselves.

And then Paul says,

associate with the lowly.

Sometimes we want to,

take care of the people we want to take care of,

don't we?

Paul's saying,

take care of the lowly.

Why?

Because those folks are the ones

that probably need it the worst.

When I was the kids guy back here,

sometimes we would have kids come back,

they didn't fit in,

and none of the other kids

really wanted to be around them.

And I can't stand that when I'm back there.

But there was this young man that comes here.

I'm not going to say his name.

Every time we had a kid like that back there,

this kid,

this kid would come alongside him

and make sure he was involved in everything.

I'm talking about like a fourth grade boy.

That to me,

I've never,

I just don't see that very often.

This kid took care of the lowly

more than what,

it wasn't the same kid always.

That's such an example of how we should be.

People come into our church

and we may look down on them.

Oh, who is this?

Or out in the world,

we're like,

we look down on people sometimes.

But we're to associate with the lowly.

Why?

Because Christ died for all of us.

He died for all of us.

And they're only considered lowly

by the identity the world gives them.

Not by God.

The last section Paul talks about here,

starting in verse 17,

I'm just going to read verses 17 through 21.

It's the hardest part.

even when they intentionally are mean to you.

Hurt you.

Love them.

He says this,

Repay no evil for evil,

but give thought to do

what is honorable in the sight of all.

so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourself,

but leave it to the wrath of God,

for it is written,

vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary,

if your enemy is hungry,

feed him,

if he is thirsty,

give him something to drink.

For by doing so,

you heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil,

but be overcome evil with good.

When somebody intentionally treats us poorly,

the first thing we want to do

in our human flesh

is to pay them back.

Do you agree?

We have to totally depend on God here.

Paul's saying instead of that,

our behavior should be honorable.

And he says this,

in the sight of all.

If we're believers,

our behavior should be honorable

to anyone who's watching.

We're a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We should show honor to these folks

and we should be honorable

to everyone who sees.

If we commit the same evil

that they committed against us,

how are we any different?

We're not.

We are not.

In verse 18, Paul says,

if it is possible,

so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

He's not saying,

well, if it's possible,

live peaceably,

but if not, retaliate.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying,

peace is a two-way street.

You do your part

regardless of what they do.

Does that sound familiar?

Sounds like agape to me.

Our to live peaceably,

no matter how the other person treats us

or whether they're willing to meet us halfway.

Quotes from Deuteronomy 35

and says that vengeance is the Lord's, not ours.

Instead, we're supposed to show our enemies

and honestly, anyone who's watching,

the love Christ in our actions.

He says, if somebody's, if your enemy,

listen, if somebody's bullying you,

you're supposed to treat them well.

Feed them, he says.

Give them something to drink.

If they're thirsty.

And by doing this,

you pour burning coals on their head.

What's going to happen

when somebody treats you like a dirt bag

and all you do is show them kindness?

They're going to be like,

what in the world is wrong with this person?

They're showing me love

when I'm treating them like dirt.

What do they have?

I want to be like that possibly.

Sometimes they don't,

but that is one of the main reasons we do that.

We show love even when they're showing it being poor to us.

I mean, I think of Stephen again

and Jesus Christ on the cross.

We are to be a witness.

We never overcome evil with evil.

We overcome evil with good.

We show the love of Christ, no matter what.

Look, it's easy for us to love those who love us,

but to love people that are hard to love,

treat us poorly, a whole different story.

There used to be a student back here

that came sometimes, he was a middle schooler.

And I told him, I'm like, I'm not going to say his name.

I told him, I said, look,

we can't love without Holy Spirit living in us.

He's like, Gary, we can love.

We can love, we can.

He argued with me.

I said, and the same kid was being bullied

by some kids back there at the time.

I said, you love them boys.

It was a different story, right?

God's saying, you can only love like I love that way.

When you have the Holy Spirit in you.

It's easy for us to love those who love us.

Matthew 5:46, this is the Sermon on the Mount.

Christ says, for if you love those who love you,

what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same.

The tax collectors were really the scum of the earth

at that time.

So he's comparing this love.

He's comparing them.

He's saying, look, if you love your best friend,

'cause they love you back, good is that.

That's really what he's saying.

What's the big deal?

Even the world people, even the people outside this church,

some of them will love us back.

People that we, people outside the church

will love people that love them.

But to love like Christ means we love our enemies.

And that's where the rubber hits the road.

That's where the rubber hits the road.

And this is really hard stuff to hear.

And I want you to know, you're not,

if you're feeling convicted, you're not the only one.

This really spoke to me.

Look, God demonstrated agape to us.

He sent his son Jesus to die for who?

Those of us who have rebelled against him,

who have pushed him aside.

Bible calls us God's enemies because of our sin

and our rebellion against him.

But what does God do?

Showed us his love.

Romans 5:8 says, God shows his love for us that while we were

still sinners, Christ died for us.

Why do we love?

Because he first loved us.

That's 1 John 4:19.

Love because he first loved us.

What are you doing with this, believers?

How are you really doing this love

that Christ is calling us to?

Because of our faith in Christ, we're

empowered by the Spirit of God to love like Christ loves.

Have this choice.

And a lot of times, the great thing is, come to the Lord.

Ask for forgiveness, share our sin with him.

Tell him we failed him.

Ask for forgiveness and repent and turn to what he's trying to

have, wants us to do here.