Light It Up!

Great to Good

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Nov. 27, 2022

Don’t Live in the Dim!

Ok, let’s turn one last time to Rom. 12 and let’s Pray.

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Rom. 12:9-18

I told you about our chandelier light that only had one out of the five bulbs working but after I worked on it I got it to the point that no bulbs were working. Quick update: we bought a new chandelier light after my son Jared and I wired it up, we flipped the breaker and…nothing. Sensing a theme…

What we found out was that the dimmer switch blew. I wasn’t able to replace it with another dimmer switch, but I threw in a regular 3 way switch and the light works perfectly. What that means is when the light’s on, it’s full on, we can’t dim it. And we’re ok with that.

As I read through Paul’s encouragement about genuine love worked out in our relationships in vv. 9-18, it strikes me that Paul is calling us to do what we do with zeal! To live and love with all our heart rather than dimmed to half-hearted.

Jesus said we are the light of the world but we can hide that light under a bushel and we can dim that light by being half-hearted, apathetic, lacking passion, with little enthusiasm and God deserves better than that.

Col. 3:23 says, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men

Don’t just do it, do it heartily. Turn that dimmer slide all the way up to full brightness. Do it with zeal! Give it your all! The Holy Spirit has given you the power to live for Christ, but we can block or we can dim that power by our own half-heartedness. Paul isn’t angry, he isn’t cross, he’s like a coach coaxing the best out of us. The power’s there – go for it! Light it up!

Before we go any further, I need to stress that we’re talking about sanctification here, not salvation. Paul has made it clear in earlier chapters that salvation isn’t something we add our effort to. Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Salvation is 100% the doings of Christ. If we try to add any effort to his finished work, we negate the power of the cross.

But in our Christian walk, God is looking for us to add zeal, passion, wholeheartedness. Don’t just pray – pray with fervency! Don’t just serve the Lord, serve with gladness! Don’t just give, give cheerfully (God loves a cheerful giver)!

We have control over our brightness. Our emotions don’t rule us, or at least they aren’t meant to. We are meant to rule our emotions. Jesus said “you’ve left your first love” – he didn’t say, “nothin’ you can do about that.” He said, turn around, repent and go back where you left it and get it back again!”

I’m talking to myself because it’s easy for me to settle. I’m ok with dim. Little love, little zeal, little fervency. Call me crazy, but I feel Paul is saying, “c’mon, God has given you way more power than that – turn up the zeal! Turn up the passion! Turn up the light!”

1. Don’t just love –love with deep affection!

Love one another with brotherly affection. Vs 10

This translation doesn’t quite do this verse justice. The NKJV does a better job of capturing the idea: ¹⁰ Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love

Paul didn’t want to write the same old thing about love, he wanted to find a fresh way to encourage them to light up their love so he uses a word that is only found in this verse in all the New Testament. Kindly affection. Family affection.

We have special affection for our family, don’t we? When my phone rings and I see it’s my wife or one of my kids, I drop everything to pick up. If they need me, I’m there. I care about a lot of people, but my heart feels a “family affection” for my family. When it’s good news, my heart is happy. When it’s bad news, my heart is troubled. Family affection slides the love to a brighter level.

Do you know that God loves you with deep affection? God’s love isn’t some sterile, mass-produced love. It’s very individual. You are His son or His daughter and He loves you more than you can believe. God knows your name, He hand-crafted you in your mother’s womb, He counts every hair on your head. When you pray, God picks up right away because He loves you with a deep affection. Paul says I pray that you know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. That’s Jesus loving us with deep affection.

Brotherly love is pretty great. Paul says, you can get brighter than that: add warm, kindly, tender, family affection. Affection gives grace for our mistakes, gives room for us to be different, and puts up with our quirks. We all have our quirks, don’t we? Without affection, we have little patience for people’s quirks. With affection, it’s what makes them them.

Affection flourishes in the soil of time together. Ever notice that it usually takes a bit of time for awkwardness to turn to affection as we go from barely knowing someone to friendship. Are you uncomfortable meeting new people? Afraid of that silence when you run out of things to say? I’m a talker (meaning I have a big mouth) and I’ve said so many dumb things over the years that I’ve probably broken a record or something. In a church where there’s no affection, people walk away saying, “what a jerk.” Add affection and it’s “that’s just Allen being Allen.”

I enjoy people with all their quirks. I mean, don’t go out of your way to be quirky, but if you say something dumb or random or uncomfortable, I totally get it. You’re trying and I appreciate that. I’m not walking away thinking bad thoughts about the dumb thing you said, I’m thinking “Wow, I’m glad it wasn’t me for a change.”

I encourage you to find a context to be with brothers and sisters and stick with it. Push through the awkwardness towards affection. It’s worth it.

2. Don’t just honor - outdo one another in your honoring.

Outdo one another in showing honor. Vs. 10

Honor is about esteeming others. It’s seeing the intrinsic value and worth of a person. I found myself wondering why Paul didn’t just say honor one another, why he says we should “outdo one another in showing honor”? I think it’s because our natural tendency is to honor ourselves and diminish the worth and value of other people.

In March of this year a piece of art by Yves Klein sold for over a million dollars. What makes that unusual is that this piece of art is invisible. Yves Klein painted a number of invisible art pieces. I happen to have one of his works in my trunk, which I’d let it go for $10K OBO. Becky, it might be worth your time to paint a few invisible paintings.

I don’t know about art, but I do know that Jesus saw the value in invisible people – the Zacchaeus’ and the Matthew’s and the Mary’s of the world that no one else noticed or saw. He saw them. He valued them. He honored them. Zacchaeus, I need to come to your house to have dinner.

The church should be a place where people are seen. Valued. We need to resist the desire to honor ourselves and outdo one another in showing honor. Push that slider all the way up to full brightness of honoring and esteeming other people.

This kind of honor isn’t based on talent or achievement or social status or any of the other things that convey honor on some people. This kind of honor sees the intrinsic value and worth of every human being, because the handprint of God is on them. And on us.

3. Don’t just serve the Lord – serve Him with a fervent spirit!

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Vs. 11

Paul could have said “serve the Lord” but he’s sliding up the dimmer full blast – when you serve the Lord, serve Him with all you’ve got! Don’t be slothful, don’t be half-hearted, stir up your spirit till you get to fervent.

“I serve the Lord with everything I’ve got…That is, everything I’ve got left over after I serve my own desires and priorities and do what I want to do.”

The word “slothful” means sluggish and it also means shrinking. Slothful is tired and timid. We find excuses not to serve. We excuse our tepid spirit as “just the way we are. It’s what I feel. Can’t help it. I’m just built to run at lukewarm.”

We acting like we’re thermometers, when God made us to be thermostats! Thermometers just measure the temperature, they can’t affect the temperature. Thermostats change the temperature. Paul says, turn up the heat! Be fervent!

God cares about our attitude. The Bible says serve the Lord with gladness. Praise Him with a whole heart (Ps. 111). Love the Lord with all you’ve got! Fervent prayer is effective (Jas. 5). If our faith is dim, our love is dim, our zeal for God is dim, it’s not God’s fault. The power is there by the Holy Spirit to burn brightly, we need to take the dimmer off, and turn up our enthusiasm for the things of God!

God didn’t create you a thermometer, God created you a thermostat – turn it up! Turn up the zeal! Turn up the fervency! Turn down the slothfulness!

What’s that look like?

• Being generous to those in need and invite people into your home and life (vs. 13)
• Empathize with others. When they rejoice, feel joy with them. When they hurt, cry tears with them. (vs. 15) One of the characteristics of narcissists (people who have an unhealthy love and obsession with themselves) is that they can’t really empathize. They only feel for themselves. Love feels what other’s feel. Our hearts may tend towards self-absorption but God has given us power to break free from that and care about others!
• Harmonizing with others (vs. 16) – love the imagery. Harmony is different notes that compliment each other. We can be a different note without being a discordant note. Play your tune, but do your best to harmonize with others.

Finally, look at verse 18.

4. Don’t settle for broken relations – try hard to make peace but know it’s not all up to you

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.Vs. 18

Relational issues are rarely the fault of one person. Do what you can to make peace where there’s conflict. Make peace where there’s relational breakdown.

Maybe you’re responsible for 20% of the problem. Take 100% responsibility for that 20%. Ask for forgiveness for what you did wrong. Own it. Don’t make excuses.

I know from experience this doesn’t always work. Paul’s words so far as it depends on you has set my heart free more than once. Relational peace and harmony doesn’t all depend on me. I can’t do both sides of the relationship, I can only do my side of the relationship.

There might be a broken relationship in your life and you need to take a hard look: have you contributed to the breakdown in some way? Did you hurt them? Did you speak words that burned? Did you wound them, do they feel misrepresented by you?

Don’t move on until you’ve met with them and asked them to forgive you for your part. Don’t take on more than you’re responsible for, but do what you can to bring peace to the relationship.

But for some, you aren’t the problem. The baggage isn’t your baggage, it’s theirs. Don’t try to pick up their baggage. Don’t carry their issues. If you’ve done what you can do (as far as it depends on you) and the other side has no desire to make peace, move on.

Don’t let it dim your light. Don’t let it dim your enthusiasm, your zeal, your passion for the Lord and His people. Slide the glide up all the way to full brightness.

God has given us power – stir it up! Turn it up! Serve the Lord with passion, zeal, fervency, boldness, brilliance! In the church, one of the things we are called to do is stir one another up to love and good works!

Working together by the power of the Holy Spirit to be a great church bearing good fruit. Let’s together light it up.