Heed The Word

Holy Hot Sauce: Becoming Fervent in Spirit and Loving Like Family

• Pastor Ken Davis • Season 2025 • Episode 20

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Sincere love isn't something we generate within ourselves but flows from God as its source and is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

• Abhorring what is evil while clinging to what is good creates the foundation for sincere love
• Treating fellow believers as family members demonstrates love without hypocrisy
• Our Heavenly Father is grieved when His children fight amongst themselves
• Being "fervent in spirit" means allowing God's fire to heat our hearts to boiling love
• Rejoicing in hope strengthens us through tribulations and fuels our capacity to love
• Blessing those who persecute us by speaking well of them and praying for them
• Weeping with those who weep rather than trying to immediately cheer them up
• Associating with the humble and not being wise in our own opinion
• Listening more than we speak shows genuine interest in others

We want to encourage you to not just listen to Heed the Word, but to truly apply what you learn. Take the Word of God and begin applying it to your life every day.


Speaker 1:

You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel, Southwest Metro. Please join us as we study our series entitled Lessons in Christian Living.

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The love of God, that love that we need in order to be able to obey His commands, that love that we need in order to love without hypocrisy, that love that we need that we might demonstrate our love to him, our love to the body and our love for one another. That love has God as its source. Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Speaker 1:

There's no shortage of self-help books, motivational speakers and even opinions out there about how we're supposed to live on this earth, but as Christians, we need to take our direction in this area from the Word of God. So we're bringing you our series entitled Lessons in Christian Living, taken from the 12th and 13th chapters of Paul's letter to the church in Rome. Love is the base, the foundation in a relationship with the Creator. However, this love isn't something we generate within ourselves. So where does this love? So where does this love, this desire, come from? In the book of 1 John, we learn that God is love. By our submission to him, through the word of his grace, he gives us a love for his truth. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Heed the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 12, as we join Pastor Ken.

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When we do not utterly reject them, but we allow the devil to have a foothold in us and in our lives, then we are ultimately hurting those whom we are supposed to love. By contrast, we are to cling to what is good. The idea here is that we are to stick like glue to what is good. When we see something that's good, that's right. We are to keep our eyes set on that thing. We're to focus on that good thing. Philippians 4 puts it this way. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things. And as Christians, we need to keep our eyes on those things that are pleasing to God, those things that are good and pure and holy. We're told that we're to think on those things. So we are to abhor evil and we are to cling to what is good.

Speaker 2:

The next part of verse 10 says that we are to be kindly affectionate to one another. Now, that phrase be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another is really a mouthful, particularly that word kindly affectionate. In the Greek the word is philostorgos and it means cherishing one's kindred, especially parents or children, fond of natural relatives, an example fraternal towards fellow Christians. In essence, what it's saying is this those of us who are children of God are to treat each other like family, brotherly kindness, brotherly love. That is to exemplify our attitudes and our behaviors. We are children of God. So if you believe in the name of Jesus Christ this morning, if you have repented of your sins and turned to him for salvation, confessing him as your Lord and Savior, then you this morning are a child of God. And if you are children of God, then you are brothers and sisters of one another. We're family. You can pick your friends right, but we're family. Paul exhorts us in verse 10 to be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in other words, to show each other the love and respect that would be due someone who's part of our own family.

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How many of you have kids? A lot of you have kids. Do your kids obey you? Not perfectly right, but you want them to, don't you? You want your children to obey you.

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Is there anything worse than when your children fight with each other? Not much, I'm sure, if we stretched our imaginations we could think of a few things, but really one of the worst things that can happen day by day within a family is when the siblings are fighting, when they are fussing, when they are at one another, because it breaks a parent's heart to see these children, whom you love, treat each other in a hateful or a disrespectful way. Now you're children of God. How do you think it makes your Heavenly Father feel when you hate and bite each other, when you fight and argue with each other, when you treat each other with disdain or with disrespect or in an unloving way? If it bothers you as a parent when your children fuss and fight, how much do you think it bothers your father, who is in heaven, when his children fuss and fight To the extent that the Bible tells us?

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Don't tell me you love God if you hate your brother, because how can you love God whom you haven't seen if you hate your brother whom you have seen?

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You see, if we claim to love God but then we treat each other with hatred and anger and disrespect, then how does that communicate love toward the one who gave us life? Because he gave them life, just like he gave me life. He is their source, just like he is my source. He is their provision, just like he is my provision. He's filled them with his Holy Spirit, just like he's filled me with his Holy Spirit. So if I love him, then I should love him in them as well and they in me. So if I love him, then I should love him in them as well and they in me. So verse 10 tells us that if love is to be sincere, we need to be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love In honor, giving preference to one another. In other words, to consider each other as being more important than we consider ourselves. In other words, putting one another ahead of each other, as being more important than we consider ourselves. In other words, putting one another ahead of each other, caring enough to let the other person go first.

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Now verse 11 recognizes that this is work that this is not easy because in verse 11 he says not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. You see, when I am kindly affectionate toward you in brotherly love, I am serving the Lord, and when you are kindly affectionate toward one another in brotherly love, you are serving the Lord and you're not to be lagging in diligence in regard to this. In other words, you're not to be lazy about it. Don't be lazy in loving each other, don't be lazy about showing your love to one another and caring for one another. The word not lagging in diligence literally means not lazy. Don't be lazy regarding your love for one another. The word not lagging in diligence literally means not lazy. Don't be lazy regarding your love for one another.

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But this next phrase, fervent in spirit, is vitally important, because we can try all day long to love one another and fail miserably at it. In order to truly do this, we must be fervent in spirit. It says in verse 10 again Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly kindness, with brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence. So in other words, don't be lazy about this, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now, what does this mean, this idea of being fervent in spirit. Well, the word fervent literally is talking about heat. In other words, it's boiling something that is boiling hot or something that is glowing hot. Now, you may be the metal, but God provides the flame that heats that metal, and you may be the water, but it's God that is going to bring you to a boil, you understand? So we are to be fervent in spirit. In other words, our spirits are to be glowing hot for God. Our spirits are to be boiling over with the love of God that comes from being in fellowship with him. Again, god is our source. God is the means by which we attain this love for one another. So if you lack this love, then be diligent in seeking God and ask him to give you the love with which you can love one another and thereby serve him, which you can love one another and thereby serve him.

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Merriam-webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines hope as a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in, fulfillment. So we are to be rejoicing in our expectation of God's fulfillment of his promises to us. If we want to know what this hope is talking about, turn again to Romans, chapter 5. What is the hope that we are to rejoice in? What is it that we are to expect and to desire? Romans 5, verse 1,. Therefore, having been justified by faith, in other words, now that we're saved, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access, by faith, into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So what is the hope that we are rejoicing in? We are rejoicing in the hope of God's glory, both that we would seeicing in. We are rejoicing in the hope of God's glory, both that we would see it come and that it would be revealed in us.

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And not only that.

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But we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character and character, hope.

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So this hope that we are to rejoice in is actually strengthened by tribulations.

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So when we go through difficult situations and we look to God as our supply and our source and our strength, he teaches us day by day that he's not going to fail us, that he's going to finish the work he began in us and that he is going to give us the love that we need to show to one another, the love of God, that love that we need in order to be able to obey his commands. That love that we need in order to love without hypocrisy. That love that we need that we might demonstrate our love to him, our love to the body and our love for hypocrisy. That love that we need that we might demonstrate our love to Him, our love to the body and our love for one another. That love has God as its source. Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now, if the Holy Spirit has not been given to you, if you are not a Christian this morning, then this love is beyond your reach.

Speaker 2:

You may have a desire to obey the things that I've spoken to you today, but apart from the empowering Spirit of God, you will be unable to do so. But the good news is you can acquire that simply by putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2:

If you're not a Christian. This morning you need to understand Jesus. Christ died for you. Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, christ died for us, much more than having now been justified by His blood meaning to be declared just as though we had never sinned. By the blood of Christ we shall be saved from wrath through Him. You see, there is judgment that is coming upon this world because the world has rejected God. But we who have placed our faith in him are redeemed from this world. For verse 10 says For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Speaker 2:

So we rejoice in hope, in the hope that God has redeemed us and will glorify us together with him. Again back to Romans, chapter 12. Him Again back to Romans, chapter 12. Guys, when you feel like you cannot love, when you feel like you are out of touch with God, when you feel that you need a fresh outpouring of His love and His Spirit in you, you have access to Him, and all you need to do is to go to Him and to ask Him in prayer to renew you and to fill you and to empower you to love. And don't you think he'll do it? If he wants you to love and he's the source of that love, don't you think that when you ask him for some of it, he's going to give it to you? He wants you to obey more than you want to obey, and so when you go to him and you say, Lord, help me to obey, isn't he going to answer that?

Speaker 2:

prayer. It's in perfect keeping with his word for you that you might love one another. Now, how is this love manifested? Well, in distributing to the needs of the saints. You know, when one of our brothers or sisters are in need, shouldn't they be able to go to family for help?

Speaker 1:

brothers, or sisters are in need?

Speaker 2:

shouldn't they be able to go to family for help? Now, that's not to say that there aren't times when God is trying to discipline us and to correct us, and we need to stay out of God's way when he's doing that. But if we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, when our brothers and sisters come to us in need, our desire is going to be to help them because we love them. Distributing to the needs of the saints, giving to hospitality. Now, you know, I've got to tell you this idea of giving to hospitality that phrase does not do justice to the thought behind it.

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What it's?

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saying here is this, Look for opportunities to be hospitable. I mean chase people down to show them hospitality, you know there is a lost art isn't there in the world today and in the church today, People so often isolate themselves in their homes and shut themselves off from the rest of the world. We see each other on Sundays and Wednesdays at best, and so often we don't intermingle the rest of the time. But you know what we're to be given to, hospitality we are to look for opportunities to be with each other.

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In verse 14, Paul writes Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Now this idea of blessing those who persecute you. The idea of persecute. There is the word pursue, so you are to bless those who pursue you. I think of this as those people that are always after you about something right. They're always after you about something. There's always something that's bothering them, there's always some issue that they have with you.

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You can never quite do anything right in their eyes they're always criticizing you, but the Bible says that, rather than criticizing in turn, rather than speaking harshly in turn, what you are to do is to bless them and not to curse them or to doom them. Well, what does the word bless mean? The word bless here is the word eulogia, which is where we get our word eulogy, in other words, to say something nice about, and it means to speak well of someone.

Speaker 1:

To thank or invoke a benediction, or in other words, to pray for them and to prosper them.

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So, in other words, if there is somebody who is just on you all the time and within the context I get the impression that it's a brother or sister in Christ If they are just bugging you all the time, they're nagging you, they're nitpicking at you, they're speaking evil of you?

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what is your response to?

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be your response is to be that you speak well of them, that you speak kindly of them and to them, that you pray for them, that you look for opportunities to be a blessing to them.

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Now, is there anybody else here who finds that difficult? And yet that is love without hypocrisy.

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Love without hypocrisy says this look, you may be having issues, but there are probably reasons that you're having issues, and the more you are frustrated and angry maybe that means that you really need a little extra love today, and so, rather than being angry and frustrated with you in turn, maybe I should be a little more loving, a little more patient and a little more kind to you. Now I don't have the ability or the strength to do that in my own flesh, but Jesus does.

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He blessed those who persecuted him when they were nailing him to the cross. What did Jesus say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That is a heart that we would have if our love is to be without hypocrisy. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice Weep with those who weep. You know, so often when we see somebody who's weeping, we have a desire to cheer them up, don't we?

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But, maybe we don't need to cheer them up. Maybe we need to acknowledge how they're feeling and to sympathize with them. Not to pity them, but to sympathize with them, to share in their hurt, to share in their pain, to affirm them in what they're feeling and what they're going through, and to let them know that, yeah, sometimes life does hurt, but God loves us in spite of it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt and what they're going through. And to let them know that, yeah, sometimes life does hurt, but God loves us in spite of it it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. So we're to rejoice with those who rejoice.

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We're to weep with those who weep.

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We are in verse 16, we're told to be of the same mind toward one another. In other words, we are to be mindful of one another, we're to think of one another, we're to be considerate of one another, we're to care about one another. Do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble.

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In other words.

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If I only invite someone to dinner who's likely to invite me to dinner next week, then what good have I done, right? If I'm only interested in showing love to those who will in some way be a benefactor to me, then what have I accomplished? But we are to love those who are high and those who are low. We're not to be regarders of persons, because God isn't.

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Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

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Do not be wise in your own opinion? Now, that is an entire sermon all unto itself. There are so many people who are wise in their own opinion.

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You know how you can tell if somebody is wise in their own opinion. They talk more than they listen. Sometimes I wonder what that says about me. We should all wonder what that says about us. People who talk more than they listen very often are wise in their own eyes. They think they've got all the answers and they're ready to tell you what those answers are, before they even realize what question it is that you're asking.

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You know if we are going to allow love to be without hypocrisy.

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if we're going to demonstrate this kind of love for one another, then we have to be considerate of one another and conscientious of one another, and we have to think about what's important to the other person more so than we think about what's important to ask.

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And so when I sit down with you and we spend some time talking together, I should be more interested in what you have to say than I am in what I have to say, and if you're coming to me asking for advice or counsel, I need to hear you out before I try to provide an answer. And when I do try to provide an answer, that answer had better be from the wisdom that God provides, not from the wisdom I have in my own eyes.

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Guys, let love be without hypocrisy. I want to end with a story that I think sums up these verses pretty well and gives us a wonderful example to follow. It is related of the late Mr Charles Haddon Spurgeon that on one occasion he found a boy on the street ragged and hungry. Taking him with him home, the good pastor fed and clothed him and then, kneeling down, he prayed for the friendless boy Several times. In the prayer he referred to the Almighty as Our Father.

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When the prayer was finished, the boy said Did you say Our Father yes, my boy, yours and mine yes, was the reply. Then we are brothers. Yes, gravely replied the pastor, and then he talked to him of the Lord Jesus Christ and finally, on taking leave of him, he gave the boy a letter to a certain boot dealer for a pair of boots. A few days after, mr Spurgeon was passing the boot shop.

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When the dealer saw him and called to him, he said I had a strange thing, the other day A boy came into the shop and asked for a pair of boots, saying that his brother had sent him. And when I asked him who his brother was, he said you were. That's right, said Mr Spurgeon, and he is your brother too and, if you like, you will share the cost of the boots. You see, whether the person is honored and renowned, like Charles Spurgeon, or poor and lowly, like a little boy living on the streets, if Jesus Christ is their Lord, then they are our brothers and we are all to share the cost of their sins. We are all to minister to the needs of the saints. We are all to let our love be in truth and in beauty and not just in work. You know what I want to be without the practice. We're not just to act like we are people, but to really love as God, and he does.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's all the time we have for today. You've been listening to Feed the Word, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Southwest Metro, located in Burlington, Texas. With so many ideas out there about the Christian life, we thought it necessary to share with you a series entitled Lessons for Christian Living, A teaching through the 12th and 13th chapters of the Book of Romans that tackles the issues of Christian life. If you were with us at the beginning of today's broadcast, you know we mentioned that we'd be giving additional information about Heed the Word and how to get a free copy of this message. For more information about Heed the Word, log on to HeedTheWordorg.

Speaker 3:

That's HeedTheWordorg. At the website, you'll find everything you need our contact information and a link to our online order form, which will allow you to place an order for a CD of today's message in its unedited form. Since all of our materials are free of charge, supplies are limited, so log on to heathewoodorg and place your order today. As we close today, we want to encourage you to not just listen to Heath the Word, but to truly apply what you learn. Take the Word of God and begin applying it to your life every day.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's all the time we have for this edition of Heal the Word with Pastor Ken Davis. Place a marker in your Bible and join us next time as Pastor Ken continues with our series entitled Lessons for Christian Women. Thanks for watching.