You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Open your Bibles, if you will, or if you don't have one, in one form or another.
Yes, you may pull out your phones and turn them on, if there's a Bible on there.
Romans chapter 12.
You'll see there, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in the pew pockets in front of you.
And you can turn to page 948.
We're going to be looking at just a couple of verses.
I'm going to read from Romans 12, verses 9 through 10, and then verse 15, which will be the primary focus of our time together.
Let love be genuine.
Abhor what is evil.
Hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
And then verse 15.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
And weep with those who weep.
Let's pray together as we enter into the study of God's word.
Father, would you meet us and speak to us through your word.
Speak into our hearts so that we might see the glory of your face.
And we might be filled with the hope of your coming.
Come and meet us in that place where we are today.
And make yourself known.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
We're in this series through the summer of one another.
Talking about gospel community.
And as Will began last week, the core of all of this is that we love one another.
Father, this is the one primary quality that distinguishes us from everybody else in the world.
It's not the crosses we wear around our necks.
It's not the bumper stickers on our car.
It's not the causes that we are so passionate about.
It is the way we love one another.
That's how the world will know that Jesus is in our midst.
And so we see here, this text, what Paul is doing in Romans, is unpacking that.
We have to see it in context, though.
What Paul has done from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 11 is to lay out for us this glorious picture of what Christ has done.
All that he has done for us.
Who we are in him.
And the hope we have in Christ.
And then you get to chapter 12 and there's this word, therefore.
Which calls our attention back to all that's just been said.
And then we are called there to present our bodies as living sacrifices.
That we, I mean, simply put, we are to, in response to all that Jesus is, lay down our lives.
Not just for God himself, but to lay our lives down for one another.
A few verses pass.
In verse 5 he says, we are members of one another.
We do not live in just proximity with other individuals.
We are not to live in isolation.
God has made us into a body, a family that is intricately, deeply united to one another.
That's who we are.
And that is why love, as he says here in verses 9 and 10, is key.
It is primary.
We cannot minimize it.
We cannot do without it.
Love is everything in gospel community.
But what does that love look like?
And from verse 9 down through really the end of the chapter, Paul is describing for us.
He's unpacking this whole concept of what it means to love one another.
And in the midst of that unpacking, we have this verse.
It says, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
And it's very easy for us as we read through Paul.
We could read through that and say, oh, okay, yeah, understand it.
Over and done.
We just kind of blow past it.
But in this short little verse, Paul is saying a lot.
And I want us to unpack that together this morning.
The first thing he's telling us here in this verse is he's telling us a lot about what life is.
And life is a mixed bag.
There is rejoicing.
There's weeping.
Life has its share, a wonderful share of joys and blessings and pleasures.
Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 7 says,
Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart.
For God has already approved what you do.
When we enjoy the pleasures of this life, God approves.
In fact, more than that, he's the one that has poured them out for us.
And what Paul's doing, he's combating an error here that was very common then.
But I also think it's very present among us that there's something less.
There's something inferior about what is material, what is physical, what we experience in this life.
There's something that we're not supposed to enjoy it too much.
That's just not spiritual.
Well, yes, what we experience is broken and corrupt.
It does not have the power to satisfy us.
And it can be abused.
We should not put our hopes there.
But they are good.
All things in God's creation are good because he declared them to be good.
And so we can rejoice in these good things.
One of my great pleasures is just sitting out on my patio with my bride of 37 years and enjoying an evening.
I love the smell of burning fat.
I love perfectly steeped tea.
Or fresh bread out of the oven.
You kind of get a theme here.
A lot of my pleasures are things that I intake.
I can listen to harmonies and music that when they're perfectly together, it brings tears to my eyes.
In all of these things, we are to see them as gifts of God.
To give thanks for them.
To enjoy them.
Don't minimize them.
Enjoy them.
Because God is showing his goodness to us.
That's one side.
There's another side.
Life is hard.
There is this erroneous, equally erroneous view.
That these pleasures are the norm.
This is the way life should be.
And when it's not, we get frustrated.
We can be shaken.
We might even get angry.
As much pleasure as we can experience in this life, this life, this world, and all that is in it is deeply broken.
The pleasures of God that's not what is normal.
We live in a world of cancer.
Of divorce.
Of little boys dying.
It's a world that leaves us empty.
And in many ways, it fights against us.
I feel like I'm constantly at war with my body and my yard.
I can make my yard look really good.
For a couple minutes.
And then it says to me, wait to see what's coming.
Because of sin, the world is cursed.
Every last millimeter of it.
Nothing is escaped.
It is not the way it should be.
It's not the way it was.
It is not the way it will be.
But in this between time, what we will experience in this life is pain and hardship and trouble.
Am I just being too negative?
I'm actually trying to save you from deep disappointment when it does not turn out the way you think it should.
It's normal.
Again, from Ecclesiastes 1.13.
He writes, it is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
He's talking about life.
This is the norm.
So, too many of us just go through life with the idea that things are just supposed to work out.
Pain and suffering are the exception.
And I think where a lot of this idea comes from is that we think we have become so technologically and scientifically advanced that we can actually put an end to the trouble and the hardship and pain.
But all we can do is as we maybe solve one issue, we create five more.
We still die.
We all will.
We will all hurt.
We can't escape it.
We live in a world that's full of hardship, disappointment, and tragedy, and no amount of scientific or technological advance can do anything about it.
Not until the day that Jesus comes and makes all things new.
That said, Paul now comes and charges the hearers of this letter with, how do you love in a world like this?
How do you love?
I mean, in this world where, as one pastor told me, seven out of ten people that you look at will be suffering and the other three will be.
How do you love others in that kind of world?
Well, he said, it's very simple.
You rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
And you weep with those who weep.
Why do we need to be commanded to rejoice with those who rejoice?
Because it's an act of faith.
Let me illustrate why faith is required for us to rejoice with our brothers and sisters when they are experiencing God's gifts.
During the early years of our caregiving with my mother-in-law, we were in Atlanta, and I had a good, one of my best friends was also in a caregiving stage with his father.
His father was a whole lot more difficult.
He was, they'd try to put him in a sister living home or a nursing home, and he'd get kicked out because he was so abusive.
And my friend was an only child, so the weight of all of that was on him.
And so we would get together and talk about the gospel to one another in the midst of these struggles.
Well, after a couple of years of this, his father died.
And my friend inherited a pretty sweet inheritance from me because he was the only child.
And so with that, he sold his house, a simple house that he'd been living in, bought a lake house and a boat.
And then on Facebook, I kept seeing day after day after day pictures of the boat in the new kitchen in the lake house.
Now, was that easy for me to rejoice with him?
You know what I did?
I quit following him on Facebook.
Because I wasn't there.
I was still caregiving.
I was not going to come into a nice inheritance.
There will be, would be no lake house or boat.
And I struggled.
When our brothers and sisters enter into those good gifts, those pleasures that God gives, most of us are not going to be in that state.
We're going to be in that state.
We're going to be on the other side.
We are still in the normal life.
We're in that state.
Where it hurts.
Where there's toil and hardship and envy can make it extremely difficult for us to rejoice when others are experiencing these blessings.
I mean how can I rejoice in this couple's pregnancy when me and my wife can't get there
how can I rejoice in this couple's anniversary
when I'm living in this big alone called divorce how can I rejoice
when they are laughing and celebrating and I have trouble holding back the tears
the love we are required called to by God through Paul here
is that we get outside of our self-focused self-centered look at life in our neediness
and enter into those that I am a member with to enter into that joy and celebration
I am to celebrate with them and why is that so important
because when we join in the celebration of someone else we intensify it
it's not the same when we celebrate alone
I'm close very close to meeting my 10th grandchild Nora
you've probably heard about her well you will
you know it's because when I'm happy about the birth of Nora
it's not the same if I'm doing it in isolation
why do we have parties at special occasions
why do weddings have all these guests to come
it is because it's the gathering
it's the body and the fellowship
that makes the celebration so much richer and fuller
and so to help and to love
we enter into that celebration
with our brothers and sisters
our participation enhances those pleasures for them
and this is why Paul calls it a living sacrifice
in our living
we lay aside
the attention and the help that we want
we lay aside this sense of neediness
and we rejoice that these
our brothers and sisters at this moment aren't there
then in the same way
when the normalcy of life continues or crashes in
we need to be there
ready
to not just enter into their celebration
but we enter into their pain
their weeping
their hardship
their toil
their discouragement
and this calls us to identify
to identify
with our brothers and sisters
in their pain
we are not called
to stop their weeping
we are not called
to fix
their problem
we are called
to enter into the
to their pain
to the point
that we feel it
as acutely
as if
it were our own
there's too many of us
I think are in the habit
of
when we try to help
those who are suffering
we do it
from a distance
we do
like I call
we lob these
comfort grenades
from a distance
words of wisdom
theological
philosophical
truths
we kind of
lob them in there
that don't do
anything
to actually help
we need to
quit
telling people
when they go through
hardship
that God is sovereign
he is
but it doesn't
help
they don't need
these
truths
they don't need
this
these ideas
they don't need
understanding
they need
somebody
they don't need
somebody to
explain to them
that God has a
purpose
or that this
awful thing
that has happened
to them
is somehow
good
cancer is not
good
it never has
been
it never will
be
death of a
child
is never
good
betrayal of a
spouse
is never
good
it is far
too normal
in this world
this cursed
world that we
live in
and God
does not
promise
that things
are going
to
turn around
and be
good
in this
life
yes
he does
in some
mysterious
way
when it's
all said
and done
he can
take those
things
and redeem
them
and do
good things
for us
but those
things in
themselves
are not
good
when we
weep
over a
cancer
diagnosis
so does
he
because it's
not the way
things are
supposed to
be
it's not
the way
he meant
it
don't stay
away
because you're
afraid of
saying the
wrong things
go and
say
nothing
at all
let your
tears
do
the
speaking
your
words
are not
needed
your
ears
and your
arms
are
love
calls us
to
weep
and maybe
just
weep
love
calls us
to enter
in and
identify
so much
that we
are willing
to learn
just how
deeply
others
hurt
so much
so that
we feel
it
as if
it's
our
own
and it's
actually
in the
sharing
of the
pain
when you
come
alongside
someone
you
share
it
that's
where
comfort
really
comes
from
because
somebody
knows
somebody's
willing
to be
there
somebody's
willing
just to
wrap
their
arms
around
you
they're
willing
to
believe
the
promises
of
God
that
you
are
struggling
to
believe
but
they're
going
to
do
it
for
you
and
they're
going
to
hold
you
up
that's
what
it
means
to be
a living
sacrifice
when
we are
suffering
we just
need
somebody
to hold
us up
to the
one
who
can
make
all
things
new
so
how
are
we
supposed
to
love
like
this
well
humanly
it
is
impossible
but
Paul
gives
us
this
wonderful
little
phrase
way
back
up
in
Romans
12
verse
1
and
it's
key
to
all
the
rest
he
says
therefore
by
the
mercies
of
God
by
the
mercies
of
God
that
is
how
we
love
that
is
where
the
ability
to step
outside
of
ourselves
comes
from
God
because
we
have
experienced
mercy
from
the
one
who
made
all
things
who
entered
into
our
own
lives
our
world
and
made
our
lives
as if
it was
his
God
himself
and this
is what
we see
Paul talking
about all
back
through
Romans
God
himself
came
he
entered
into
our
cursed
life
in his
baptism
it was
pictured
of how
he took
that all
on himself
he
suffered
our pain
he took
upon himself
our
disease
all our
brokenness
and when
we hurt
he
wept
but he
did more
than that
he
identified
with us
so
clearly
and deeply
that our
sin
our
death
that we
should have
died
he made
his own
he died
for
us
look at
these
words
from
Romans
chapter
12
chapter
6
excuse
me
do you
not know
that all
of us
who have
been
baptized
into
Christ
Jesus
were
baptized
into
his
death
we
were
buried
therefore
with
him
by
baptism
into
death
in
order
that
just
as
Christ
was
raised
from
the
dead
by
the
glory
of
the
father
we
too
might
walk
in
newness
of
life
for
if
we
have
been
united
with
him
in
a
death
like
his
we
shall
certainly
be
united
with
him
in
a
resurrection
like
his
he
came
died
but
there's
a flip
side
he
was
raised
into
newness
of
life
and
because
we
are
so
deeply
identified
with
him
we
will
know
that
life
as
well
that
is
free
from
the
brokenness
from
the
curse
from
the
disease
the
hardship
and
the
toil
it
is
free
made
new
in
Christ
that's
what the
mercies
of God
gives
us
we
remember
back
to
what
he's
done
that
because
he
was
raised
we
can
now
look
forward
to
what
is
coming
he
is
making
all
things
new
and so
in our
rejoicing
and in
our
weeping
our
calling
is to
enter
into
the
lives
of our
brothers
and
sisters
that we
never let
them forget
the
mercies
of God
we have
already
seen
and the
ones that
are still
to come
so that
as we
deal with
the normal
life
we can
do so
with hope
let's
pray
father
help us
to remember
we do
struggle
we
hurt
we
don't
like to
think
about
it
father
help us
to remember
Jesus
help us
to remember
his mercy
what he's
already
accomplished
and help
us to
remember
what he's
going to
do
and give
us hope
and father
then use
us
in the
lives of
each other
that we
might give
hope
that we
might
encourage
hope
that we
might all
together
stand firm
in hope
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information
visit us
online
at
southwood.org
for more
information
visit us
online
at
southwood.org
disfrгу
becomes
one
glaub
that we
should
ask
Lou
that we
joke
well
that I
know
that
you
that
there
are