Every Christian a Cheerleader

1 John 3.14 says, We know that we have passed from death unto life. You want assurance of your salvation? Here's one of the evidences. We know we've passed out of death into life.

How? Because we love the brethren. We love the church. We love the assembly. When's the last time you came to church with the intention of slapping somebody on the back or giving somebody a hug, some act of service, some sacrifice of time and you say to them, I am grateful for you.

Thank you for serving. One of the marks of the Christian faith is how we treat each other. The Bible tells us that Christians are supposed to treat each other with love. In fact, that's supposed to be one of our defining characteristics.

But I think we all know that's not always the case. Christians don't always treat others like they're supposed to. Could you use a reminder today regarding the way you treat those with whom you worship on Sunday? That's the theme of Stephen's message today from Romans 12 here on Wisdom for the Heart.

He's calling this message, Every Christian a Cheerleader. In our last session, we began to unpack some inspired advice, spiritual direction from the Apostle Paul on life, liberty and the pursuit of godlikeness. This is real life. This is genuine liberty. This is authentic godliness. And this is, I think, the text in Romans 12 where Paul's zest for living becomes contagious. He tumbles over himself with one phrase after another about what it's like to experience real living.

This is life. Here's what it looks like. Here's what it sounds like.

Here's how it acts. Listen to Paul's enthusiasm for sort of cheering on the body beginning at verse 10. He says, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. It's like Paul is a member of a cheerleading squad standing on the sideline of a football field with a megaphone in his hand cheering on the church.

He's sort of waving his hands at us. And under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he's encouraging us to move forward for God's glory. He's saying we can do it. We can make it.

This is how to live. And we'll cover these phrases, how Paul tells us to pursue genuine life and liberty and authentic godliness. ESPN ran an article some time ago about the rivalry we all know a little something about. If you're from around here or you've been here long enough, you know the basketball rivalry between Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Both teams have different shades of blue as their primary color. And North Carolinians are told, you know, when you move into town, choose your blue.

There are many, of course, who prefer red. Well, no matter who you pull for, you have to admit that Duke fans take their task seriously. Every fan is a cheerleader. When the games between these two teams are held in Duke's Cameron Arena, home fans, known appropriately as Cameron crazies, are actually given instructions. ESPN got a hold of a sheet that was handed out to fans last season. It was called Duke Cheer Sheet.

Here's what it said. This is the game you have been waiting for. No excuses. Give everything you've got and we will walk away the victors. Notice this wasn't given to the team.

This was given to the fans. Give it all you've got and we'll win the game. Cameron should never be less than painfully loud tonight. Please focus on our team. Better to bring our team up than put their team down. Especially coming out of timeouts, we need to be incredibly loud.

During the opponent's free throws, in the second half especially, forget the novelty stuff. Just be unbelievably loud. This is a huge game and it ends by saying, stay in the bleachers but go nuts.

I'm convinced that Paul is urging the church forward with a similar spirit of enthusiasm for one another and for God. And it all comes out, it tumbles out of this text. Every positive move, every act of service, every sacrifice of time and effort should be backed by the admiration and as it were, applause of the body.

One author said we ought to install seat belts in our pews but would we need them? This is life. This is real life.

This is not a game. Look at verse 10 again. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. That's like saying cheer one another along because you belong in the same family. The word for brotherly love is Philadelphia. It's the word attached to one of the cities in this country. The city of brotherly love.

That's what it means. Philo for love and Adelphas for brother. This is the kinship of two boys. The word translated be devoted also compound word philo for love and storegeo storegei for parent.

Paul doesn't leave any loophole for the believer here. Love one another like boys. Love each other and be devoted to one another as parents to a child.

This is not an option. One author said it is actually inescapable. John would write in his little letter, whoever loves the father loves the child born of him. In fact John had already made it clear in chapter 4 verse 20 if somebody says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. To the Thessalonians Paul wrote this which is interesting to me when you think about it.

Now as to the love of the brethren that is as to the love of the body you have no need for me or anyone else to write to you for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. In other words it is the nature of the believer to cheer on another believer. You don't need God or anybody else. God's spirit just sort of teaches you. You know it intuitively as a believer. You don't even need a cheer sheet when you show up.

You just do it. This word this compound of Philisturgia kind of made me think of all of the moms especially who are devoted to their children. My wife doesn't like to travel much although we've gone just about all over the world together. I coaxed her into going with me. She doesn't like to travel alone but she is going to be on a 10 to 11 hour one way trip to Pennsylvania. And what will pull her there is our sons will be playing in the soccer homecoming game. If they lived closer she would be at all the games. In fact when our boys were five we started them in soccer leagues and I remember one particular year the team gave my wife a special prize for being the best screamer. It's true.

Any other moms out here like that? Oh I'm sure. When our sons graduated from high school at the awards banquet to our surprise they called Marsha up on the platform and gave her an award for being the best cheerleader they had ever had.

And she deserved it. So whether I could come along to Pennsylvania for homecoming or not she will go by herself. If she has to she'll put food in the fridge for me and cut up some vegetables. Make sure I'm taken care of. Doesn't matter I'm eating at Bojangles anyway. And our dog Patches likes vegetables.

Don't ask me how I know. You see I think this kind of devotion is the idea here. We can just camp out on that phallostorgia. The devotion of a parent for a child. And I think in fact Paul is encouraging us to develop several arts and I want to give them to you. This first phrase I think he's encouraging us to develop the art of simply cheering on the family. Be devoted like brothers. Be devoted like a parent. You endure those violin practice sessions and then you say that's wonderful. You go to the piano recitals. You go watch them play. You watch them as they stumble along as they grow and learn and you say you can do it.

Love like that. 1 John 3 14 says we know that we have passed from death unto life. You want assurance of your salvation? Here's one of the evidences. We know we've passed out of death into life.

How? Because we love the brethren. We love the church. We love the assembly.

And when the assembly meets we want to be there. When's the last time you came to church with the intention of slapping somebody on the back or giving somebody a hug? They didn't dive for a ball.

They dived for a baby. Some act of service. Some sacrifice of time and you say to them I am grateful for you. Thank you for serving. Let me cheer you on. Listen we are not commanded. We are not challenged in this text to be cheered.

We are challenged to cheer. Secondly, develop the art of not only cheering the body of Christ but develop the art of giving the right of way to others. He writes further in verse 10 give preference to one another and honor.

Good phrase. You take the verb in its basic sense and you could understand Paul to literally be saying try to outdo one another in giving each other honor. See if you can beat the other one at giving honor to the other one.

Try hard as you run the race to come in behind another. It's as if he's calling the Christian to outdo each other and bestowing honor on one another. Man is this the opposite of what the world considers?

The move forward? What the world would say? Now that's life.

That would be their belief. The top of the food chain you know is when you command the attention of others. When you get the plaque.

When you give the orders. That's living. I don't know of many more men that come from the pages of scripture that packed more life into living than John the baptizer. A man who single handedly began the reformation within the nation Israel. A man who was commanding the attention of his people, his nation.

He was front page news in Israel every single day. Shortly after baptizing the Lord who at that point began his official ministry. The gospel writer lets us in on a private conversation between John and his key leadership team. They came to John and said to him, teacher, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, Christ, to whom you have testified, behold, look, all are coming to him. In other words, John, he's taking your place. He's taking the spotlight.

He's attracting our crowd. John delivered those incredibly mature words that signal true godliness and true greatness. Who models with these words Paul's expression here in Romans 12 when he says to his leadership team, we need to understand he must increase and I must what?

Decrease. See true living is descending rather than ascending. True greatness is vacating rather than occupying. That's the opposite of our culture and our nature. But that's how it works. That's life in the assembly.

That's Christianity, which is real. Paul is saying, try to outdo one another in putting the other person first. Defer, give the right away.

Say, no, you first. You please. You're honorable. I appreciate you. You are the one I look up to.

Those kinds of things. I finished reading a few months ago a book detailing the home life of Jonathan Edwards, one of the key spiritual leaders in the Great Awakening in New England in the early 1700s. An amazing individual. The book was an insight into the home life of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, especially as it related to their marriage. The title of the book, get this, the title of the book is Marriage to a Difficult Man. How many wives like the title of that book? One chapter tells the story of one Sunday morning just as Jonathan Edwards began his sermon, the balcony collapsed. So packed with people. Fortunately, and he wrote in his journal, amazingly, no one was hurt, not even a bone broken. But the church was considered unsafe and a new building was soon under construction.

Here's the point I want to highlight. The deacons, the officials of the church were soon mired down with the touching matter of who was to sit where. You see, everyone had assigned seating in that day and much like their counterparts in England, they would sit six to a pew on the ground floor and they would pack nine to a pew in the balcony. That's where the common people sat. The best, the coveted seats, the prestigious seats were in the front. If you've been to one of the cathedrals in London, you've seen the queen's seat right under the pulpit right next to it.

John recorded in his journal that Eli, who Parsons, John Stoddard, Colonel Dwight and Seth Pomeroy toiled for hours upon hours over the seating charts and finally this harassed committee that couldn't please everybody, by the way, worked out a plan that seemed to ruffle the least feathers. See, that would signal a church in need of an awakening and a culture that needed reversing. And so like the body of Christ, true God likeness, true living is when we follow his cheering us along to look for someone else to honor, to outdo one another in honoring others beside ourselves. James Boyce wrote, instead of thinking about other Christians, though, and appreciating other Christians and what they are doing, our minds are usually on ourselves and we are resentful that we are not sufficiently recognized or sufficiently appreciated.

Therefore, we become jealous of others. Great harm has been done by this. Ministries have been seriously weakened. Churches have been divided. Valuable causes have been set back for generations, sometimes set back for good.

The solution? Paul gave it again to the Philippian church when he wrote, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2, 3, and 4. That's another way of saying practice the art of deferral. Practice the art of giving the right of way to the other person.

The church should be, as one ancient author said, the noblest school of courtesy. Practice the art of cheering on the family. Practice the art of deferring to others the right of way. Third, practice the art of excelling in your own place. Cheering, deferring, excelling. Paul writes in verse 11, not lagging behind in diligence. Literally, don't be sluggish in your work. Don't shrink back from whatever you're doing with your hands.

The word indicates someone who is hesitant, not sure they want to take the step. And Paul cheers, don't do that. Take the step.

Do it. Whatever your hand finds to do, Ecclesiastes 9, 10 writes, do it with all your what? Do it with all your might, your power. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, right? And for the church, whatever is worth doing for God ought to be done with excellence.

We represent his name, his character, his reputation. What our hands find to do should not be shoddy, lazy. Within this context, Paul could very well be encouraging the believer to make sure they don't hesitate to fulfill all these distinctives. In other words, don't lag behind in deferring. Don't lag behind in honoring. Don't lag behind in cheering on. You could read this text and you could say, well, you know, I agree with what Paul is saying.

I need to learn these arts. I agree with all of that. Ladies and gentlemen, it's possible for a Christian to be moved to the point of agreement without ever being moved to the point of action.

Agreement is not the same thing as action. We can all nod our heads and say, yeah, Paul, we agree with exactly what you're saying and never do anything. Maybe that's why Paul inserts this here, make sure you do it. Don't lag behind. Don't hesitate. In a broader context, Paul would be cheering on the believer to pursue diligence and dedication to whatever they happen to be talented or gifted or employed in doing. Whatever you do, you should be the best at what you do, whether you're pouring coffee or photocopying or decorating or changing diapers. I found you can do that the wrong way, too, or you can do it well. What are you doing these days?

What are you occupied with? Do it with excellence. Pull out all the stops. Do it with all your might, which is another way of saying do it with everything you've got. Fourth, we should practice the art of cultivating enthusiasm for the things of God.

You know, he's just been hammering away at this and now he says it right out where we can't miss it. Verse 11, the middle part. Be fervent in spirit. Z-o. It gives us our word zest. Be zestful. Be passionate in spirit.

Z-o refers to heat. It can be translated be boiling in your spirit. That's a great phrase. It carries the idea of having your spirit on fire for God.

That's where we get our phrase. He or she is on fire for God. One translation reads having your spirit aglow. Now the date of case indicates that Paul is not referring to the Holy Spirit, large s, but to your spirit, little s. The verse is a challenge for the believer internally to be fervent in your spirit. Obviously as it relates within this context to all of these things in this pursuit of life and love and God likeness. And as a zealous believer, you become a very powerful advertisement for the things of Christ. Have you ever met a Christian who is the opposite of that? You would rather they not say they belong to your assembly or to the Lord.

You'd rather people don't know. Vance Havner used to say, one Christian with a genuine glowing experience is worth a library full of arguments. Maybe you're thinking, well, I'm just not an enthusiastic kind of person. That's not my personality. Would you note in this text Paul is not talking about your personality. He's talking about your spirit. I know people at that game I'm sure don't have an enthusiastic personality, but they are fervent in spirit when they show up there. See we have this connection with our spirit internally with the spirit of God.

And we have the development of hunger and with that comes enthusiasm for more. I'll show you how it works in one way. You ever been out visiting? You ever knocked on doors? Those of you who are trained in our evangelism explosion teams, you know exactly what I'm about to talk about.

Those of you who have come back from a New York gospel outreach, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know when the day starts out or when that appointment or maybe it's just talking to your neighbor or that coworker. You know how it starts out.

You're a little tentative and you're going to not follow what Paul says and you're going to lag behind. You know you're going to be tenuous in your thoughts and finally you say something or you knock and then you begin to talk and what happens? Time begins to fly. Adrenaline begins to pump in a way unlike anything else you do. And enthusiasm is bred and it grows. You're afraid somebody might mock me or somebody might reject me or make fun of me, but then you just talk.

And those kids and our daughter's been to New York and she said the same thing. You don't want the day to end. There's got to be somebody else I can talk to.

Let's go to one more door. And you end up feeling entirely different than when you started out. Maybe you're thinking, well, I don't know. I'm going to wait for God to make me passionate before I do anything and then when I'm passionate I'll do it. Now you need to understand that enthusiasm accompanies and is often the child of the exercise. Practice the art of cultivating enthusiasm. One more thing here.

We need to practice the art of focusing upward. Paul ends this phrase. It'll take a breath. That's why in your English translation there's a semicolon. He's racing, but he's got nine things to say.

We're only covering five. But he takes a little breath. But just before he takes a breath, he says, serving the Lord. Don't forget, you're serving the Lord. Excelling in your work, that's outward.

Fervent in spirit, that's inward. Serving the Lord, that's upward. You could literally render this phrase as it relates to the Lord.

Serving. Actually, if you really wanted to be wooden in that translation, even though it might have a negative connotation in our English minds, you could render it as it relates to the Lord slaving. Now the idea of slaving is negative. We can talk about slaving at the job. I slaved over my homework or I slaved all day long outdoors working in the yard. We have this idea that if you're slaving at something it means you're not getting a break or you're not being compensated well or whatever. I'm just slaving away. To the Greek mind, it wasn't negative at all.

In fact, it was descriptive. That word was used of someone who was serving his master completely in agreement with his master's will. I'm slaving the Lord because I am in complete obedience and agreement with what he wants me to do. Are you slaving or resisting? Slaving or holding back?

Slaving or disobeying? As to the Lord, Paul says, I am his slave. Paul is cheering us on to do more than belong but to participate. To do more than sympathize but help. To do more than believe but behave. To do more than be fair but be kind. To do more than be kind but to love.

To do more than perform but excel. To do more than challenge but encourage. To do more than earn but enrich. To do more than talk but serve.

And to do more than live but grow. That's our cheer sheet. The only fanatics who want to live like that? Christian crazies. Got one in my neighborhood, a Christian crazy. Wants to talk about the Lord.

Got one at work like that at school. Man, I sit next to a Christian crazy. Every Christian a cheerleader and here is the cheer sheet right here. Practice the art of cheering on the family of God. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Practice the art of deferring right of way. Give preference to one another in honor. Practice the art of enthusiasm for the things of God not lagging behind in diligence.

Fervent in spirit. Practicing the art of excelling in your place and practicing the art of focusing heavenward. These were important reminders today that I hope you'll take to heart as God plants his word and uses it to transform your life. That's our goal here at Wisdom International and that's the reason why we bring you this daily program called Wisdom for the Heart. Give us a call today at 866-48-Bible. You can also write to us at Wisdom International P.O. Box 37297 Raleigh, North Carolina 27627. I hope we hear from you. Please tune in again next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.