Romans 12:9–21 Sermon | Pipes, Not Buckets: Living as a Blessing

How do we live as active channels of God's grace rather than passive containers who keep His goodness to ourselves?

In this sermon on Romans 12:9–21, we examine what it means to live as a blessing by serving as "pipes, not buckets." Moving past surface-level religion, the message explores how authentic love functions within the family of God through genuine affection, active compassion, and persistent prayer. Discover how responding to a hostile world with unexpected kindness, empathy, and grace reflects the counter-cultural heart of the gospel and brings glory to God.

In this episode, we cover:

• Pipes vs. Buckets: Understanding our calling to extend God's blessing and comfort to others rather than letting it terminate with us.
• Authentic Love in the Church: What it looks like to practice sincere, unfeigned love, hate what is evil, and engage in a "holy competition" to honor one another.
• Compassion in Action: Moving beyond empty words to meet practical needs, show hospitality, and stay connected to the source of our faith.
• Uncommon Responses to Hostility: Overcoming evil with good, rejecting personal vengeance, and extending love to a world that opposes the gospel.

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This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

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Good morning. Are we good? Okay, whoa. Hey your Bibles, would you go ahead and grab those? Go to Romans chapter 12.

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Romans chapter 12. If you don't have a Bible, you can just relax. The text is going to appear here on the screen, or you can look it up at your on your device. But either way, I'd love for all of us to be looking at God's word together. And that's going to be today in Roman, Romans chapter 12. My name is Leo Almeida. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Grant Parkway. And over the last few weeks, what we've been doing, we've been looking at the four core values of our church. Okay, every organization, Christian or not, church or not, has a set of values that describe their identity and their culture and their DNA. And for us as a church, we are driven by and we're guided by these four values. Number one, gospel. We want everything we do here at Grand Park to orbit around the realities of the great announcement announced in this book. The great news, the good news. That is that there is a God. Okay? And even though we're at odds with him, we have guilt in our life, we're at odds with him, he is rich in mercy and he sent his son to die in our place. That is that is good news. That's the story we live, that we focus on and we live in. That's reality we ground ourselves in as a church. The second um core value is community. Okay, we are called into a relationship with God that is personal, but it ain't private. Okay, how nice would it be for us introverts if God gave us a Bible on a private island? Okay, that's not the case, but we're called to be in community with one another. So as pastors, one of our roles is to connect you to the Lord, but also to connect you with one another. And the next one is mission. Okay, the Lamb who was for sinners slain is making all things new. Okay, we don't we're we're not just a church that has missions, okay, but there's a God of mission in the universe. He has a church here in the world, and he's making all things new here, and he invites us over to come along. And our last or our fourth core value is blessing. And I'll be talking about blessing. We'll be looking at blessing today. Now, I learned a lot about blessing through my college roommate, Ryan Gooch. That's his real name. So naturally we just call him Gooch. And I learned a lot about blessing from him in one afternoon. It was a Saturday, okay. I got up early to go to study or to go do something, but after I finished whatever I was doing that morning, I went to Panera Bread. Okay, I don't I don't know why, but I went to Panera Bread in our Panera Bread in Stillwater, Oklahoma. You order at one place, and there's only one window where you pay and get your food. So I ordered and I pull up to get my food. Okay, the lady hands over my bag, and I'm about to reach over to grab my bag of cash to give to her, because it's Panera bread, right? So a sandwich and a Coke, it's it's tuition money, right? So I'm giving her my scholarship money to pay for this meal, and she goes, Oh no, no, don't worry about it. The car in front of you paid for you. You're good. And I was like, say less, okay? I got my food and I took off, and all of a sudden the music in my car got better, the sun got brighter, the trees got greener. It was shaping up to be a really, really good day. I get home, I rip open my bag, I get my sandwich, and in walks my roommate. And I proceed to brag to him, hey, do you know how much the sandwich costs? $3.99. The car in front of me paid for my food. To which he doesn't show much emotion. I still remember his face looking at me and going, so you paid for the car behind you, right? He's a sinner, but that parable, that parable is us. We're all Leo at one point. Okay, we have this tendency in our walk with God to let this bent towards letting God's goodness stop with us. We have this tendency to be buckets for God's goodness. And the problem with that is the way that the New Testament describes believers in Christ. Just for your information, the Bible uses the word Christian a whopping like three times. And rather, it uses other words to describe believers in Christ like you are a royal priesthood. Jesus makes eye contact with the disciples and says, listen, you are the light of the world. And lastly, your New Testament is pregnant with verbiage around you are the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth. So you see those passages, you see, man, we are called to be pipes, not buckets. When it comes to God, God's goodness and blessing is not just for us to experience, but it's also for us to extend. It's not just for us to experience, but it's also for us to extend. Look at these passages here. Genesis 12, 2 says like this. God is talking to Abram, and he tells him, Listen, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. Watch this. So that you will be a blessing. God's goodness to him is gonna flow beyond him. And just spoiler alert, you're benefiting from that blessing that Abram got. You're a son of Abram, says Galatians 3. Okay, furthermore, 2 Corinthians 1 puts it like this. I love this passage this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. Watch this, and God of all comfort, who comforts us, okay, who comforts us in all our affliction. Again, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So Paul has experienced comfort from God, and it's not just to be experienced, he wants to extend it as well. And friends, this is all throughout your Bible. This theme is like buying a car. Whenever you buy a brand new car, you can't stop seeing that car everywhere. Okay, this is like this. So Romans 15, 7 says this, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. Ephesians 4 32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. As for forgave you. I love Wade's prayer just a second ago. That's exactly right. The forgiveness of Jesus is not just to be terminated on us, we just swim in God's grace, and we are to extend it as well. And then lastly, John 13 says like this. Jesus looked talking to his disciples says this if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done. You should do you should do just as I have done to you. We're called to be pipes, not just buckets. Friends, God's goodness was meant to flow beyond you. Okay, what does that practically look like? What does living as a blessing actually look like full speed? Let's look at this. I'm gonna be verses 9 through 21. It says this. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast what is good. Love one another with a brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit, serving to serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be pray, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves. 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's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so you will heap the burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. It's the word of the Lord. Now, friends, no matter how much or how little you know about blessing, no matter how you've been behaving as a Christian, um, if blessing was a sport, you were already on the court. If blessing was a sport, you were already on the court. Uh the AM uh people, not AM people, the football, they play at the field, what's it? Kyle, Kyle Field? Kyle Field, look at y'all know where does OSU play? They play at Boons Boone Pickens. Um, and uh we have uh the Texans here play at Reliant Stadium. I should look this up before I said it. The Rockets play at the uh Toyota Center. Friends, the arena of blessing relationships. You're already in it right now, you're already on the court. The question today is how do you play? How do you do this going full speed? How do we live to the pleasure of God and to the benefit of others? How do we live in such a way where God is looking and he's pleasured by our lives? He's watching our lives like the way we watch our favorite show, calling angels and even Satan over, like, whoa, watch this part, watch this part. How do we live in such a way where it looks like that to God, but also people are benefited from knowing us? People are better for knowing us. And they salivate, like, man, what God is this? What does being a blessing practically look like? Well, Paul shows us right here that it looks like love for the family of God. Number one, it looks like love for the family of God or the body of Christ. There's about 30 commands in this 12, in these 12 verses, okay? About half of them are informing Christians how Christians should love other Christians. You're called to be a blessing by having love for each other. Now, this is tricky, especially in English. Okay? We got one word for love, right? You can love your spouse, you can love your truck. Using one word to say different things, I hope. Right? So the are it's it's tricky here in English, but uh Paul kind of clears this up. Love for the family should be, what is it? Love for the family should be a authentic. Look at verse nine. Let love be genuine. Let love be genuine. Some of your Bibles say, let love be in all sincerity or without hypocrisy. In the New Testament, in the ancient world, hypocrites were people who got on a stage, wore a mask, and played a role. He's referring to play actors. So what Paul is saying here is listen, the church cannot afford to be a stage for fake love. This church cannot be uh cannot afford to be a stage for fake love. Rome had a love problem. Okay? They were really robotic in their love when it came Rome. Society, they were very robotic in the love. What I mean by that is their society was set up with a bunch of hierarchical, hierarchic, hierarchical relationships, a lot of formal relationships. So you treat other people kind of based on where you are on the food chain. Okay, how do I belong? How am I supposed to act in this social sense? You treat people kind of according to that. So love for them was pretty ritualized, or it wasn't sincere, it wasn't overflowing from affection, it was basically rituals. So even acts of kindness weren't an overflow of love, they weren't an overflow of genuine love. Their love was ritual, not sincere. But what about us? What are some ritualized act actions that we have in this room? Or the church at large? In other words, um, what are some what are some ways American Christians go through the motions of loving one another? Right? I have one. Ready? Watch this. Alright, man, praying for you. Right? Praying for you. Are we? Are we though? So how often are we actually listening to people's prayer? I mean, listening to people's prayer requests. Right? Like, I think it's the height of hypocrisy to pray to God and not listen to people. You expect the holy God to lend you his ear and yet you're shutting your ears out to other people. How often are we actually listening to people's prayer requests? Furthermore, how often are we actually praying? How often are we doing something about their prayer? How often are we wanting to be the answer to their prayer? That's why the early church exploded because their amen was a trampoline into action. And then, friends, how often are we actually following up with people? Or do we just neglect the power of follow-up? Versus, uh, how many times do we say praying for you as a salutation? It's just a Christian hello or Christian goodbye, or as a punctuation to a conversation, or how often do we forget to do it altogether when we said it? Church, I want to invite you to put that mask down if we don't mean it. Let's put that down if we don't mean it. Let love be genuine. Let's what if our church had such a genuine love for each other that we slowly but surely started transferring, transferring from I'll pray for you to let's pray. What would that look like? I have daydreamed about being a part uh of a church for decade for a decade now, like where we take communion and we're looking around the room like I'd be crucified for her. I'd be crucified for him, I'd be crucified for her. What if we what if that love just sprung us in a way we're saying instead of I'll pray for you, let's pray right now. Let's pray right now, and I'm gonna follow up with this. Let love be genuine. And he keeps going. Look at verses uh nine and ten. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with a brotherly affection. Okay, society has a cheap knockoff of this Christian love. You've probably seen a sticker on the back of cars. What is it? Tolerance. Tolerance. Authentic love is not just tolerance. Authentic love has discernment, it hates evil and it loves good. Case in point. When I was about five, had a bad temper. Not anymore, as you can tell. I'm fun now. Had a really bad temper. And me and my brother got into a very bad argument. And I was five, okay? Uh I'm almost 30 now. Um, we got into a really, really, really bad argument. And in the midst of this argument, this is BC Leo, I said a very bad word. Okay, I said a very, it's bad, it's 25 years ago, and I still remember exactly what I said. Okay, I'm not gonna repeat it because I like my job, but I like paying bills. Um it was like the CEO of bad words, it was bad, it's just bad, right? Um my mom heard it, and my mom got up very calmly and she went into the kitchen and she got a spoon with a tea full of hot sauce. Now, this is Africa, okay? This is not Tabasco, okay. We have something in Angola called Jindungu. You can't even say it, can you? It will make you tap dance. Like it is a different, it's a different beast. And out of love, she came and grabbed my face and goes, I haven't cussed since 1998. Right? It worked! Evidently, it actually worked. Now what happened? If I was some random kid who would have said what I said, okay, she probably would have just walked past, but her affection for me was such she had to act. The more you love someone, the more you hate their capacity to be gripped by evil. Okay, she hated how evil had a hold of me in that moment. And listen, I'm not calling you to be each other's moral police right now. But what I am saying, when our brothers and sisters are struggling with sin, we should love them enough and hate sin and evil so much that we fight to see them restored and flourishing. What does that look like in your D group? What does it look like in your community group? What does that look like in just in your overall fellowship? Man, I'm preaching out of repentance of myself. I've let my lack of confidence, I've let people slide a lot. I didn't fight for them enough, man. But love in the family should be authentic in this way. Furthermore, um, love in the family should be compassion in action. Okay, it should be authentic and compassion in action. Look at verse 10b. It says this outdo one another in showing honor. Outdo one another and showing honor. Paul is inviting us into a holy competition to outdo one another and showing honor. What are some of the dumb things Christians um compete about now? What is it, church size? In our culture, a lot of gigantic churches look down at small churches and say, You're like that because you're lazy. And a lot of uh small churches look at big churches and say, You're like that because you're fake. And the battle continues. People um have rivalries over what speaker they listen to. Okay, my favorite celebrity pastor is better than your celebrity pastor. We compete in that way, but Paul's inviting us into a holy competition, outdo one another in showing honor. Here's the challenge with that. Listen, I don't want to show you any more honor than you're showing me. I'll only go up here if you go up here with me. It's hard. Well, friends, we're called again to be pipes and not buckets when it comes to the grace and the mercy of God. Listen, before you knew God, how much love did you lavish on God? But on the other hand, while you were yet sinners, see what great of love he has lavished on you. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Friends, God's love is better than unconditional. It's contra-conditional. Not a word. Contraconditional. Contrary to your brokenness, he pursues. Contrary to your goodness, he is good. Contrary to your faith, he is faithful. And it goes on and on and on. He didn't treat you based on what you deserve. That's karma. We don't do karma, we do, we do grace. And John 1 16 says like this from his fullness, we have all received what? Grace Grace on grace. Grace on grace. Okay. Let that guide us into this holy competition of outdoing one another and showing honor. Look at verse 13. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Now, um, what's really cool here is that um look at the action verbs, okay? Contribute, okay? Seek. Some of your Bibles don't say see, they say pursue. Okay. Our care and concern of one another will demonstrate itself not in Facebook likes or well wishes. Our care and concern will demonstrate itself in practical deeds done for others. Either going to them, distributing to the needs of the saints, or inviting them to come to us, give into hospitality. Friends, we have a God who gives. Okay, it makes me want to break stuff when I think about I don't have a temper anymore, so I won't. It makes me want to break stuff. It used to make me want to break stuff when I would consider how many sermons are wasted in Genesis. Trying to tell us how old the earth is, and all these secondary things when the Bible is just trying to introduce us to us a God who gives. Not he made us work for it, he gave. Okay? Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Romans 8:13, one of my favorite passages. Since he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else? This is a God who gives. How do you view your stuff now? Right? How do you view your keys in your pockets right now? Your car, your house, even your money. How do you view those things right now? Are those yours? Or those resources for the kingdom? Okay, this is not necessarily a call or a call for you to tithe more, but I will say, God does not own 10% of your money. God owns a hundred percent of you. He owns a hundred, your body's not even your own. This is a rental. Ball with the price, you're in a rental right now. And I'm not saying these things, so we can be motivated by guilt because when you're motivated by guilt into generosity, you'll burn out. But when you're motivated by the cross, you understand the gospel to the extent that you are generous. Friends, we serve a God who gives, and we should be a blessing in the family by doing the exact same. So love for the family should be authentic, it should be compassion in action, and then lastly, it should be connected to the source. Look at verses 11 and 12. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Now, I don't know how many of us have ever had an important FaceTime call, an important Zoom call, and it just starts lagging. Or how many of you gamers out there, usually probably this side of the room, you've played video games and it starts lagging? Okay, that's the connotation right there. Being slothful in zeal, meaning meaning that don't be slothful in zeal means be diligent without lagging. And then it keeps going, be servant in spirit, literally means, and when it comes to the spirit, be boiling in the spirit. How many people you know have an intense fire for Jesus right now? And not slothful in zeal, fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Meaning meet the demands of the hour. Friend, you are not saved by good works, but you were saved for good works. God has set a plan for you to do or a work for you to do. He made you to accomplish good works here on earth. Being a boring Christian is a contradiction because you are serving the God of the universe. This is just more compassion and action. But how do we pull this off? Verse 12. Rejoice in hope. Someone who is rejoicing in hope is aiming at the finish line. They are meditating on the fulfillment of the gospel. Be patient in tribulation. Someone who's patient in tribulation is aiming at the fulfillment of the gospel. Someone who is constant in prayer is using the access that was bought by Jesus to go to God. They're grounding themselves in the gospel. Friends, the only way you can love the family well is to spend time with the Father. The only way you can love the family of God well is to spend time with the Lord. Trying to love church folks on your own will is impossible because church folks are irritating. That's in Ezekiel, I'm pretty sure, somewhere. I'm serious. So look it up. But yeah, there is so I 2016, I was uh about to be hired by a church and I had some concerns, and I called my boy Michael Vestel. Um he's a pastor's kid, he had some advice for me, and um I almost like nitpicking this church on my phone. I was like, ah, but they have this, ah, blah blah blah. And he goes, Leo, you will never find the perfect church. And when you do, don't join it, you're about to ruin it. It's you, it's gonna be you, about to stink up the place. Right? But you love the family well first by being on fire for Jesus Himself. Okay, being a blessing looks like having love for the family. Do you want to be a blessing? Have a love for the family. You're already in this room, so at least to some measure you care. Okay, and this love is authentic, it's compassionate in action, and it's connected to the source. I only have two points today, so I'm gonna get on the off-ramp of this point by asking you some weird questions. Okay? Um hypothetical, obviously. How would you have treated Mary when she was pregnant with Jesus? Okay, think about that. Like, think about like think you're a first century Jerusalem, Mary is pregnant, you're looking at her, and you know in her womb is a savior of planet Earth. Okay, being used in God's redemptive planet, how would you have treated Mary? What type of genuine love would you have had for her? What type of affection would you have had for her? Okay, how kind would you be to her? How generous or how hospitable or how much hospitality would you show her? You probably wouldn't sit down while she stood up. Like, think about how we treat pregnant people today, right? But but beyond that, man, how much compassion would you have lavished on her? How would you have treated Mary? Now, let's step back from that hypothetical scenario and realize that's not really a hypothetical scenario. There's no one in this room that's pregnant with Jesus, but there are people in this room that are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And what that means is that Christian that you resent, there's a sense in which God calls their body home. The Holy Spirit, something mysterious happening inside of them. How ought we to treat one another? That's incredible. Think about it, that God specifically created them and then he indwelt that Christian.

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S. Lewis takes us to a more awkward extent by pointing out being filled with the Spirit, that's just the beginning. That is just the beginning. In weight of glory, C. S. Lewis says, listen, I if you saw that ordinary Christian, your ordinary Christian spouse, or your ordinary Christian friend, or your ordinary Christian neighbor, your ordinary Christian person on your row, if you saw him or you saw her for who they really are, meaning if you saw them in their glorified body, you would be tempted to worship. Ask John. In Revelation, John is getting chauffeured in heaven by an angel, and twice he looks over at the angel that's chauffeuring him around, and he starts worshiping. And the angel explain, hey, hey, tighten up, get up, get up, get up. Worship God, not me. The Bible tells us we're going to be judging angels. Do you know who you're sitting next to right now? They might look ordinary. Don't let the ordinary of their look throw you off. Something majestic is happening inside of them, and their destiny is an incredible one. How ought we to treat one another? But being a blessing looks like love for the family. Now, lastly, okay, how do we live to the pleasure of God and the blessing of others? Okay, what does that look like? It looks like love for the family, and it looks like an uncommon response to a hostile world. Uncommon response to a hostile world. I don't have the time I wish I had, so I'm gonna be brief on this point. But I will say um one of the strangest things that have ever happened in my walk with the Lord happened about 10 years ago in an engineering class of all places, right? Um I had a class that I had um once a week on Thursday nights at a state school. Nothing? Okay, so our school, there's a lot of festivities. This is how I dance, there's a lot of festivities in the weekend. Okay, it got pretty rowdy in the weekend. Thursday night classes were notorious for people not showing up, showing up saying their name, leaving, or showing up less than sanctified. Just showing up having started early. Okay? So our first day class, this engineering class, our professor is laying it thick. He is going, he's emptying the clip on threats. If you miss more than two classes, I'll choke you. He's going crazy. He's don't miss this, don't ever leave early. I mean, he's going in. I'm like, I'm a rule follower. So I'm like, get him. Let's go. Yeah, get him. Y'all better not. But here's the rub. Nine o'clock on Thursdays, Leo started his very first Bible study. This is gonna be a problem. Okay, because I have to get back there, I have to set up, I have to, this is gonna be a problem. So I have to ask him. So after class, um there's a lot of people making excuses to why they should be leaving early, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's basically slapping people down the line. I mean, he's being very stern, no, no, no, no. And I don't like confrontation. So I walk up to him and I'm like, excuse me, my good lord. Um, but I still remember I said, sir, I lead a small Bible study on Thursday nights. Should I go ahead and move that? That's how I asked. Should I go ahead and move that? And I remember him saying, What you need to do, you need to sit back there. You need to leave whenever you want. Because what you're got, what you're teaching in that Bible study is so much more important than anything that I have to say here. So we'll do quizzes at the beginning of class, you'll be here for that, but then you're free to leave whenever you want. And I remember him emailing me, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Right? Uncommon response. I was not expecting that, and that marked me for years. That was in 2013, it marked me four years. Friends, in that same way, in a similar way, we are invited to be a blessing by responding in an uncommon way to a hostile world. Because the world, I I had a prediction of how I thought he was gonna respond, but the way he responded was such an incredible blessing to me. His soul was so aimed at Godward, he responded in such a way that it blessed me for years to come. It was in that Bible study that I was like, I literally can't do it. I'm gonna burst into flame if I don't want to teach the Bible for a living. It was there. It's a huge blessing. Okay, so this passage, the remainder of this passage, verses 14 onwards, um, gives us um four negatives with four uncommon responses. Okay, um, look at verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Now we all have natural inclinations. If I came over, you're sitting down. If I came over, I just pushed you off your chair, okay? I don't like confrontation. So if Neil comes over and he pushes you, and he can just push you off your chair, well, what's gonna happen, okay? Um, you're gonna try to like break your fall by putting your hand on the ground. Or if I throw something at you, you try to break, uh, you're gonna try to uh uh put your hands up to protect your face. We all have natural inclinations to protect ourselves, especially when we're when there's um imminent danger. Okay, so it's a natural response to feel persecution and curse back. It's natural. Somebody at work makes that sarcastic jab or you feel left out. It's natural, in the same way it's natural to put your hands on the ground, it's natural for you to just bark back. Friends, I get on stage and you expect me to talk about Jesus. I'd get passionate emails if I didn't. But you, okay, a lot of you, most of you, you work in places where that is not allowed. And some of you work in places where that is not allowed at all. Like there's a cost for that. There's persecution way to where it can be hurtful, it can be embarrassing, it can be disorienting. When those days come, we join Paul when he says, When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we we entreat. That's an uncommon response. Look at verses 15 and 16. It says this. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Friends, think back to the um events that happened two years ago. Okay, um so many cultural flashpoints, whether it was COVID, so the whole mask or no mask saga, the George Floyd situation, the election. Think about those things. What would our country have looked like if the voice of empathy was louder than the voice of opinion? What's the last national event that shook you? What if this right here, verses 16 and 15 and 16, was your uncommon response? What if this was your posture? I'm not calling us to be jellyfish. Okay, dead fish go with the flow. Christians shouldn't. It's not us. Okay? But I want to be, uh I'll call you to be people who have a laser focus in not just winning America, but winning Americans for Jesus. What if this was our uncommon response? And I'll just read the rest of these passages. Verses 17 through 21 says this repay no one evil for evil, but give taught to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, our 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 will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Okay. So I'm out of time, but uh bottom line is this, friends. Hostility is coming. It's coming for you, it's coming for your faith. You are now going against the grain of the world as a follower of Christ. And when you go against the grain of like wood, you get splinters. Hostility is coming. But being a blessing means our love for them is independent of how they treat us. We're plugged into a better source. How do you show love when you're under pressure for your faith? I rem boy, I listen, Chick-fil-A and Kate. I remember the first time I got challenged for my faith, Spencer. And he went at me and I wanted to reach across the table and beat him up. It was a very I don't struggle with anger anymore. This is not going well. But I didn't. Um how do you show love when you're under pressure from the world? Where in your life do you have an opportunity to show an uncommon response? Household, relationships. God had an uncommon response to our sin. What he could have done is open up a trapdoor, Adam and Eve, you're done. Close that back up. That's what he could have done. When he said he sent his son to pay the price and set us free. What does being a blessing look like? It looks like relentless love for the family. And it looks like having an uncommon response to a hostile world. I want to leave you to leave you with the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, and then I'll pray. It says this. And don't listen, don't hear me. Don't hear me just read the Bible to you. Okay? My brain, I was working on it's like, okay, the sermon's almost done. So this, and then we're done. Just hear the Jesus looking at his disciples and what they ought to be. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. So they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. God, thank you for who you are. I pray that we can have in these next four minutes, Holy Spirit bring up images in our minds of places we can have uncommon responses. For your glory. Bring those up to mind now. Amen. So, what we're gonna do at our service is you'd like to take a step back and give you some time to just mentally worship. Here's some questions for you to kind of do business with the Lord in your seat. Um, you can take a picture of these, or you and God can just you can just focus on one and just pray through one right now. Um, but I'm gonna step back and let the Holy Spirit do his work um in your hearts right now. Holy Spirit, um you are our only hope. Um willpower can't do it, uh, guilt can't do it, um, foolish competition can't do it. Um, it's only your power through me, only your only power through me, only your power um working through me that's gonna get the job done. And help us to be people who shine and give you glory in such a way people start salivating all around us. Make us obsessed with your glory. Help us to walk in every room thinking, how can I shine a light on the goodness of God? Have that question be a rock in our shoe. It's in your beautiful name I pray. Amen. Um, thank you so much for being here at church this morning. If you're new here, welcome. Um, we matter to God, therefore you you matter to us. And if you're new, we would love for you to just text um in, text welcome to this number right here. That gives us a record of your visit. We would love to connect with you. Um, if you don't have a church home, we would love to be your church home. Um, I would love to be one of your pastors. In fact, um we have a group of pastors um here at this church who are gonna be here in the front, ready to pray with you, process with you, and help uh answer any questions that you may have about our church. Um if this is your church home and this is your day to worship through giving, we have brown boxes all over um the room if you feel uh if you feel led to do so. Uh now I want to direct your attention to the screen to let you know what's happening in the life of our church.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

The student ministry will be heading back to Camp Tejas for January. This will be a time for students to get away from the busyness of the school year to focus on their relationships with God. There'll be games, worship, and fellowship. Head to grandparkway.org slash students for more information and to sign up today.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

If you have any if you have any questions about that, you can email um Ian Weber. Um, hey, would you stand and receive this blessing? You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen race, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Right now, you have the power to live in a way that requires explanation. You are managers. I declare these things in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.