Romans 12, it will be a few minutes until we get to Romans 12 but we will get there, okay? So, most of the other scriptures will be up here on the screen to start with this morning. We start a series several weeks ago based upon this passage and this verse, Revelation four eleven. Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, therefore, thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure, they are and were created. Why were you?

Why were we created? We were created for God's what? For God's pleasure. And for God's glory. These verses I read just a few minutes ago, first Corinthians ten thirty one, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord again for this gorgeous day that you've given us. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be here to worship you and to praise your name. We do pray Lord if there's one in our midst that has yet to receive you as Lord and Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.

We pray that they would do so even today. We pray Lord that you would be magnified and you would be glorified Lord not only in this service but in each day of our life. May we grow to be more like you so that your holy image will be more clearly reflected in our lives to the world around us. To your glory, to your praise, and for your pleasure. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen. So, why did God create you? Why did he save you? He created us and he saved us to bring him pleasure, to bring him glory. Any of you in here an artist?

Ain't got any artists in here? I was just raising my hand to show you how you raise your hand. I am not an artist. I am as far from it as you can get, especially when it comes to paint and all that. But artists, sculptors, they take hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, meticulously painting, crafting, chipping away, at this beautiful sculpture, painting, when it is all complete, and it is finished.

They take and they put their what? They put their signature on it. That when people see that painting, it will bring glory to the painter. The painter will be remembered for his beautiful painting, for his beautiful sculpture, for the time that he put into it, for the talent that God gave him. So that others will enjoy that beautiful masterpiece that he made.

Creation is God's masterpiece. We read about it in Genesis chapter one. He painted with the words of his mouth. As he spoke the world and everything in it into existence. After each day, he said it was what?

It was good and after he created Adam and Eve in his image, he said it was what? Very good and that it was finished. The mic is on. So, so I'm somebody's waving at me from the sound booth back there. So, after the sixth day, God said, it is very good and his masterpiece was complete and it was beautiful and it was perfect and it brought glory to its creator.

But not long after that, the painting was marred. Somebody marred his beautiful masterpiece. Satan and sin entered into the world. And death by sin. When Adam and Eve were when it took of the fruit of the tree from which they were forbidden.

That beautiful painting was marred by sin. And it did not bring God all of the glory and pleasure wherewith he desired. Because God cannot stand. A holy God cannot stand sin. But God had a plan.

He wanted to restore that painting. You know, he could've just thrown the painting out altogether and he could've just what? Started over. But he chose not to. He chose to stick with the beautiful painting that he had made, the beautiful creation, though marred by sin, and he made a plan, had a plan already, plan of redemption to restore that beautiful painting once again to his glory and for his pleasure.

Galatians four verses four and five, it tells us but when the fullness of time was come, when the time was right, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law that he might redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Though outcast and marred by sin, God's plan was to send his only son, Jesus Christ to this Earth, to die in our place on the cross, to take upon himself all of the punishment that was due us so that we could be restored beautiful and glorifying to God once again. Be redeemed from the hand of the enemy, Satan. And be received once again as the children of God. In Romans five eight, it says, but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Second Corinthians five twenty one, for he hath made him, that is Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made, the righteousness of God in him, that we might be restored to that righteous person that God made in the Garden of Eden, robbed and marred by sin. That beautiful painting might be restored once again. Ephesians chapter two, it says, and I'll read, I'll say the quote the first two verses before I get to this one. For by grace are you saved through faith and then not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should vote, boast. But verse 10 reminds us of this, for we are his workmanship, his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God has given us this gift by his grace through faith in his son that we might once again shine forth as that beautiful masterpiece. That God has created. To bring him pleasure and to give him glory. We indeed who have come to Christ by faith are his children, his holy people, his peculiar treasure on this Earth. Redeemed and set apart in Christ.

Sanctified, declared holy unto himself. From the world and from sin. We have been set apart in Christ. Unto Jesus Christ, unto our God, who is it restoring in us that image that was marred by sin. So long ago.

First Corinthians chapter six. Again, I'm going to quote the first couple of verses before we get to verse 11 up here. Paul writes, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived or neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11, and such were some of you.

But you are washed. But you are sanctified, set apart in Christ. You are justified, declared guiltless in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. That's what happened to you when you accepted Christ by faith as the Lord and savior of your life. First Peter two nine says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Into his marvelous light. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. God is restoring in us that painting, that image to his glory once again. It is our privilege and our joy. To be a part of that.

And every day to seek, to bring glory to him, to shine more brightly in a dark world for him. That he might receive all the glory and the praise for it. Our holy God who is separate from sin and that which defiles has told us in scripture that we can do that by being more like him, by being more what? Holy. Therefore, he says here in first Peter one fifteen, but is he which hath called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation.

How are you and I going to bring glory to our God? By allowing God to work in our heart and in our life by by partnering in in a partnership, a joint effort with God by his grace to be more what? To be more holy, to be set apart from the world and from sin, and to be conformed more into the image of his son, that beautiful, perfect image. We won't quite get all the way there till we stand before him in heaven but that doesn't mean that we can't be becoming more like him every day and indeed God expects us to to the glory of our savior. This is who we are in Christ.

We belong to him. We are his children. We represent him and his interest in this world. We must learn how to be set apart from the sinful lifestyle and behavior of the unsaved world to be salt and light. For our maker and our redeemer.

We learned last week that we can do this by our faith, by our faith. Romans one seventeen, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by what? The faith. The Christian, the one justified by grace, enters into that relationship by faith and continues to grow in that relationship and mature by faith and brings glory to God by what? By our faith.

As we learn to trust him more, as we learn to follow him better, as our faith grows, we shine more brightly. As children are children of God, our lives should reek with faith. Our life, it it should be seen by those who are around us. That we are not people who merely walk by sight but we live and walk by what? By faith in our God.

That is going to affect our actions and how we live because we're not simply living for the things of this world. We're living for that holy city, that eternal dwelling place. We're laying up treasure in heaven. And we're living out of love for our God that we might bring him what? That we might bring him glory.

Second of all, we bring, we can be more holy by our affections and desires. Galatians five twenty four Says and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. First John two fifteen says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. What does God expect of his children?

He expects us to love him more than the things of the what? The world. He expects our affection desires to be turned towards the things of God and to be turned away from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Our lives and our decisions are driven by the things which we love. We should not be driven by love for the world and by the lust of flesh but set apart from the lost by our love for who?

For God and the things of God. We must learn how by God's grace to be separated from sin in our lives. Sin, bad, love, and service to God, good. Don't toy with sin in your life. It still breaks God's heart and ruins your testimony.

Not going to be salt and light in a sinful world if you act just like the sinful world. Not going to be salt and light in a sinful world if we are pulled along by the same affections and lust as they. We must look higher. We must have a different desire. We out of a love for God, must choose him.

And then number three, we just introduced this last week. We become more holy and bring glory to God in this aspect of our life as well and that is in our dealings with others, in our dealings with others. We deal with other people, lost and saved on a daily basis. They are watching us particularly if they know we are what? Christians.

To see if we are going to live up. To what we preach and what we say. To see if we are different. To see if there is a joy and a peace. In our lives that the world's not giving to them.

They're watching us to see and they're watching how we conduct ourselves in dealing with them and with others. In Revelation, mean, not in Revelation, Romans. Revelation was Sunday school. Romans chapter 12 verse 10. Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 10 and I'm going to read through the end of the chapter.

So, it won't be up here on the screen. So, if you can turn there, Romans 12 verse 10, Paul speaks on this subject Says in verse 10, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. In honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place under wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink.

For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. So, this passage and many others deals with our dealings with other people. How we act around them, how we relate to them, react to them, speak to them. Our dealing should be righteous dealings.

The word righteousness requires not only an inward righteousness but the word implies also an outward righteousness in how we deal with others in this life and so we're going to look at a few things here in this passage and others. Four things this morning. If we get to all four, on this aspect of our life that is also supposed to be what? Holy and bring glory to God. Number one, verse 17.

Verse 17, recompense no to no man evil for evil, provide things what? Honest. Honest in the sight of all men. In our dealings with others, we should be what? Honest and trustworthy.

You want to know what it means to be holy? Well, is God honest and trustworthy? Yes, he is. So, if we are to be more like him, if we are to be more like Christ, then we need to be more honest and trustworthy. Exodus twenty sixteen says this, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

That's one of the 10 what? Commandments. One of the 10 commandments is you shall not lie against or about your neighbor. You should not go before somebody else and falsely accuse them or say or give false testimony concerning them. Lie about them.

Either to hurt them or to save you. You need to be honest. God expects that of us because God is like that. He is honest. Our sin nature, our old nature, the nature we were born with isn't all that concerned about being honest.

What it's concerned about is the praise of men. What's it concerned about is getting out of trouble and not facing the consequences and so, our old nature says, you know, just lie a what? Just lie a little bit. Now, what happens when you lie a little bit? Well, the lie gets what?

Bigger. It's bigger the lie gets bigger and pretty soon you find yourself just telling outright lies. Be honest. Be holy. Whether it be in school by doing your own work and doing it right or whether it be at work, when your boss asks you to to do something, do such and such.

Do it. And if you didn't do it, be what? Honest. Be honest. Whether it is with your friends who ask you, have you ever done such and such?

Be honest. Don't tell them what they want to hear to make you look big. Or impressive in their eyes. Be honest. Be honest.

If honesty result, even if honesty results in being ridiculed. Be honest even if honesty results in being rebuked and facing consequences. Take responsibility for your actions. Be honest and trustworthy. In your business dealings, be honest and fair.

The Bible has quite a bit to say about this. Usually, in the way of an honest scale or weights. You see, in ancient times, when you went to the market to buy something, you would take the thing that you bought and you would set it on this side of the scale. Then the merchant who was selling the product, he had weights that were marked so many ounces, pounds, or shekels, or whatever they were using back then. And he would put the weights on this side of the scale until the two what?

Balanced out. Well, what did merchants often do? Well, in order to get just a little more money for the product, they would shave the weights. And so, the weight would say a pound, but it was actually one or two ounces short of a pound. It was close enough that was hard to tell but when you started adding several pounds together, it made a stark difference and they made more money.

So, they would shave the weights. In other cases, they would have bags or baskets that you would put the product in and they would have like a bushel basket and you put all, they put all the product in there and they would sell. Here is a bushel basket of apples, okay? However, they might make their basket just a little bit what? Smaller.

So, not quite as many. I wasn't actually quite a bushel. It was close to a bushel but it wasn't quite a bushel and that way, they made a little more money in their product went a little bit farther. What were they doing? They were being dishonest.

They were cheating and they were stealing from the people that came to buy from them. Proverbs chapter 11 and chapter 20, we read a false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight. Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are alike, Abomination to the Lord. What is God saying in your business dealings? Be what?

Be honest. Don't shave the weights. Don't change the size. You ever notice that going in the store one week, you go in and it's this size, the next week is a little bit smaller and a little bit smaller. You know, it stays the same but you know, they're they're not technically lying because they put the ounces at the bottom.

Hopefully, they put them right. But there's a lot of business practice in our society today that's built on shaving the weights. We must not play along. We must be honest. Don't cheat even a little bit.

If someone mistakenly gives you more than you were asking, let them know. Yes. Don't say, oh, look, they accidentally gave me a 50 instead of a 20. Okay, good. Be honest.

The I had I put solar panels on the back side of my house. Part of that deal was I got a new roof and I got new super duper spray foam insulation in my attic. Where to put the new spray foam insulation in the attic, they had to suck out the old insulation that was blown up there and in doing so, when they were taking the old out, they put two holes in my ceiling and so I came home and there they are. Matter of fact, he called me and said, did you have a hole somewhere and and it it's I'm looking down at the top of a sink cabinet or something. No, it wasn't there before.

It is now. Holes in my ceiling. So, however, to be honest and to be honest to them, those places where they made holes were already damaged. A couple of years ago, I had to rewrap the ductwork in my ceiling, because the ducts were condensing and getting my ceiling wet. And I knew there were those two places in my ceiling that had been damaged by water.

And so, I had a choice. I could tell them that, Oh yes, you blew it. Messed up my beautiful ceiling. Or I could be honest and say, Well, actually, that ceiling was already damaged before you did it. I told them, they called their boss, I told him, they still sent out a drywall person.

He decided that in order to fix the hole in my living room, they had to change the entire ceiling out in my living room, kitchen, hallway, vestibule because it is all connected. So, if you patch one, it's just going look patched, like a patch. He sent it to the solar company. They're going to replace for free my bathroom ceiling and rest of that entire ceiling where there is a one little hole. And you know I am so thankful that I told them because now it is not on my conscience.

That they don't know. And in this particular instance, God's giving me a new ceiling. Praise the Lord. Be honest. Honesty does pay in the end.

It doesn't always pay with a new ceiling, okay? They don't always say, oh, just keep the money. But having a clear conscience between you and your God. Being a good testimony before men, it is worth it. Number two, be loving and kind.

Be honest, be loving, and kind. Act like a child of God. Choose love and mercy over bitterness, hatred, and pride. Be more like the the good Samaritan who chose love over pride and prejudice. Remember the the man was caught by thieves and two religious leaders in Israel saw the man laying over there all beat up but they didn't wanna take a chance.

They didn't wanna take the time. They didn't care enough to what? To stop. So, they passed by but the Samaritan who was an outcast in Israel who was treated poorly by the Jews, he stopped to help this man who it would seem in the story was a Jew and probably would not have stopped to help him. But he stopped to help him, bound up his wounds, carried him to an inn, paid for his stay, told the innkeeper, anything else that he accrues, any on his bill, I'll pay it when I return this way.

We need to choose to be more like the good Samaritan. Amen. Do not choose to love only those who love you. Choose to love the stranger, the obstinate, the unkind, the enemy. If you will recall, we were all of those things.

And Christ died on the cross. For you and for me. We need to be more like our heavenly father. Turn if you would to Matthew five. Matthew, Matthew chapter five.

This aspect of our life, we need to learn to be more holy So, God will be glorified in our the masterpiece of our life In this world today. Matthew five forty three, you have heard it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you.

Do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. You know, that's a mouthful. That's a lot of bad all in one verse. A lot of bad treatment. In one verse.

Let me read that again. Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

That you may be the children of your father which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans do the same? If you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?

Do not even the publicans so? Be you therefore perfect even as your father which in heaven is perfect. The world loves its own. The sinner loves the person who loves them. But it takes the love of God to love those who do not love you.

It takes the love of God to love those who injure you, who have ill will towards you, who are insult you, and are unkind to you. But that love of God dwells in us. It has been shed abroad in our hearts by the spirit that he has given to us and we must let that love what? Shine. Reflect the love of God that others might see his love in us and that it might bring what?

Glory to his name. Be more like your savior who healed all who were brought to him. Who taught anyone who would listen, who showed compassion on those who wouldn't let him have a moment's peace, who showed compassion on repentant adulteress and tax collectors and thieves, who healed the ear of a man who came to arrest him, who forgave the thief on the cross beside him who had earlier mocked him. But had now changed his tomb. To whom Jesus said, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.

Jesus who cried on the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. We live in a vengeful world full of malice People always trying to get back, always hurt, always mad, always angry, always bitter. That is not the way of holiness. That is the way of the world. Be you loving and kind.

And number three, this morning and we'll close with this one. Be peacemakers. Be peacemakers. We're reminded of that throughout the passage in Romans 12. As much as it lieth within you, be at what?

Peace. With your neighbor, with all others. Do your very best to make peace even with your enemies. Our God is a peacemaker. So much so that he gave up his son to make peace with us.

Sinners, enemies. First Peter three eighteen. For Christ hath also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit. Why did Jesus come and die on the cross? The just for the unjust, he for us?

Why did he do that? So that he might reconcile us to God in heaven because we were set up separated from him by our sin and the only way we could be brought back together, the only way we could have peace with God is for God to extend his hand to us the hands of his son that took the nails on the what? On the cross for us. And through faith in him, we can have peace. With God.

Our God is a peacemaker. In Matthew five nine, he says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. God wants us to be a peacemaker. In this aspect, we need to also be holy, to be honest, to be loving and kind, and to be peacemakers. Proverbs fifteen one tells us that a soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.

If you're going to be a peacemaker, you have to learn to bite your tongue, not not literally, okay? But you need to learn to control your tongue. Now, the Bible tells us that's not all that easy to do, is it? That's going to take the grace of God to do it. But you can learn by God's grace to control your tongue, to deflate the anger in others by a kind or thoughtful word rather than a harsh one.

To deescalate the situation, to control your tongue and your temper. James one nineteen and twenty says, wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. God says, be quick to listen but be slow to speak and slow to wrath or anger. For when we let loose, doesn't produce good things.

It usually produces bad things. Be part of the solution instead of the problem. Don't compromise what is right but do not bring or escalate strife over that which is inconsequential. What color the carpet is? Or the pews?

Or how you decorate the walls or what rocks you put out by the back gate or when you do this or when you do that or Sometimes, we get all bent out of shape over stuff that just does not matter and we bring strife into our marriages, our businesses, and yes, our church over things that do not matter. Be a peacemaker. Don't be a gossip. Be a peacemaker. Don't have a quick temper.

Neither the pastor or deacons of this church are perfect and we have had a few stressful moments in fifteen years of deacons meetings but very few Why? Because we don't do anything, right? That's we don't do anything. Therefore, no, no. We don't debate anything, right?

No. No. Why? Why few? Because we learned, we have learned how to respect one another.

We have learned how to speak respectfully to one another. We haven't blown our top over things. That are inconsequential or blown things out of proportion. Argued heatedly over insignificant differences or held grudges because we didn't agree. We're not perfect.

But we are learning. And unlike some churches, our deacons meetings are not arguments and fights. Sadly, that's not always the case but it should be. The ministry of the Lord and his church is bigger and more important than me or my interest or my pet peeves. The glory of God is more important than the glory of Rick Polar.

We need to learn how to be peacemakers, to be holy. And in doing so, our God will be what? Our God will be glorified. We need to learn how to be more loving and kind in an unloving and unkind world and in doing so, our God will be glorified. We need to focus more on being honest and trustworthy and just in our dealings in this world and if we will and if we are, our God will be what?

Our God will be glorified in us. The God who sent his son to be our peacemaker, to make peace between us and himself. The God who is love and loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son. The God who is honest and always trustworthy, who has promised all those who come to him that he will give to them eternal life and they shall what? Never perish.

Maybe you're here today and you're not sure that you know Christ as your savior. You can be sure. I would love to speak with you. I would love to pray with you and help you to make sure that you know Christ as Lord and savior and you are at peace with God. If you're here today and the Lord has spoke to your heart about something else, please, I invite you.

Come and pray. I will pray with you if you like or pray where you are but don't put off. Don't put off what God is dealing with you today. Let him change you. Let him make you more into the image of his son.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for all that you have done for us and Lord, I pray that we would take to heart and take seriously the passage that says, be you holy for I am holy. In every aspect of our life, our honesty and in our honesty with others, our business dealings, our children, our parents, our boss at work. We would learn to be more loving and kind even to those who are not loving and kind to us. And Lord that we might be peacemakers for Jesus Christ.

That others might see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. That they might see Jesus in us. Your holy image reflected in us. And that you might draw them to yourself. That they might be saved.

And we do pray today. If there's one here that's never trusted in Christ as savior, they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.