Let Jesus Fill Your Cup

At the Neighborhood Church as we go through the Bible, we have come to Romans, where Paul begins exhorting a life of loving others as living worship, in light of all of what has been accomplished through faith in Christ.

Sermon Notes:

Prayer: Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the immeasurable gift of your Son, who you wrought an incredible victory for us in Him. I ask Holy Spirit that you would continue this incredible victory through the power of the preached gospel and the Word, that by Your power today our minds would be renewed and enabled to live beautifully in an act of worship and witness to the world of Your amazing love in Jesus’ name.

I brought a cup today. It is Alicia’s cup. I have a matching one at home with a design she painted on it for me. Alicia likes a full cup, especially with really dark coffee.

Who here likes to start the day and wake up with coffee, or tea, or something in your cup?

Folger’s jingle: The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.

I’d like to submit to you that, rather, the best part of waking up is that Jesus fills your cup.

And that is what Paul is proving through the book of Romans in the first 11 chapters.

Where Byron left off last week was with this thought: that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39:

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-> If you have Jesus filling your cup, you have all the promises of God filling your senses, and God’s Spirit dwelling in you, energizing and empowering you to face whatever challenge in the day or days ahead fully confident that that God is for you and loves you.

Context: the book of Romans: (16:20-29)

Paul is staying in Corinth for 3 months, on his way to Jerusalem with the offerings he has collected for the Jerusalem Christians during an empire-wide famine that lasted for more than a decade. He is writing to the Christian church in Rome after it experienced a shift in leadership when all the Jews had been expelled from Rome, leaving only Gentile Christian converts, and as of Paul’s writing Jews have been returning for the last 4-ish years. Paul had never been there, but knows many people personally who have moved back or to there, including Pricilla and Aquilla and others, and is sending Phoebe, an affluent woman and leader in the church in Corinth, to represent Paul and deliver his letter, with hope of encouraging unity between the Jews and Gentiles and preparing them for his eventual future visit to be able to continue on into Spain for the sake of preaching the Gospel in unreached areas, ‘to the ends of the earth.’

Context: Romans 12-16: ‘Therefore’

This is what could be considered the great ‘therefore.’ Pastor Bob, who first taught me how to study the Bible, always said ‘when you see a therefore, you have to ask, what is it there for?’

All of the prior 11 chapters qualify this single ‘therefore.’ All of the doctrine, all of the theology, all of the realities that are described in the first 11 chapters are the platform for the launch into what he’s about to say. For any command that follows, it is in view of what was just explained. And Paul summarizes this for us: God’s mercy. In view of God’s mercy: ______. We can fill in the blank with every single command without any further justification or explanation needed.

Aside from the Sermon on the Mount, this is the most condensed chunk of scripture of what Christian life should look like: loving, pure, humble, and unified. Beautiful and radiant. Like a diamond.

Ephesians 5:25-27: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

This is the Lord’s will for us: to be made beautiful like a bride, ready for His return. Let’s dive in.

Romans 12

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to

offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

9: Sincere: anupokritos Without hypocrisy, unfeigned, or unmasked

9: Hate: ahpos-too-GOYN-tes: an intense revulsion, abhorrence, or detestation

9: Cling: ko-LA-oh, passive verb, to be tightly joined, cemented, or glued to something.
‘Be bonded to good.’

10: Devoted: philostorgos philos (friendly, loving) and storgē (familial love or affection).
‘Love each other like a family.’

10: Honor: Greek phrase: lead the way, go first, or surpass ESV: ‘Outdo’ one another,

11: Zeal: (zelos) - Heat, boiling over, or burning intensity

13: Practice Hospitality: diōkō - aggressively run after philoxenia - love of strangers

14: Bless: eulogeō - eu (meaning "well" or "good") and logos (meaning "word", "reason",
or "to speak”). To speak well of, praise, or invoke God’s favor and grace over.

14: Persecute: diōkō - aggressively run after

15: Rejoice: chairō (χαίρω), to be cheerful, glad, ‘calmly happy.’

16: Live in harmony: (phroneō), to have an attitude, or be of a shared mindset.

17: Low position: tah-pay-NOYCE - of low social status, humble circumstances, undistinguished, or "of no account,” lacking social influence.

Romans 13:1-6: Reasons to honor and obey government: free from fear of judgment, fairness.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Jesus’ summary in Matthew 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Summaries are helpful to know. Do you think it would be just as effective to summarize all that with just ‘love others’?

Delight in the Law: Old way vs New way

“Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” (Psalm 1:1,2)

As a lover of reading, my daughter appreciates this metaphor: Imagine introducing to someone your favorite book. You love the book, the story, all of the characters, you have a deep connection with it and it’s moved you to want to share it with others.

What if someone said ‘oh I read the summary on the back. I’m good!’

Or what if they said ‘I read a summary of each chapter, I’m good!’

I asked her how it would feel. “It would feel like they just treated it like garbage!”

God’s Word is worthy. It will not pass away—it’s not going anywhere. How do you experience reading commands? This will reveal something about your cup and what it’s filled with.

God’s commands—His law—is holy, righteous, good and spiritual (7:12, 14), but also brought death through sin revealing our inability to keep the law due to our sinful nature (3:20, 7:10).

How can we delight in (obey) laws without falling off either side of the ‘righteousness cliff,’ laws that we’re unable to keep fully, reveal our own wickedness, and yet when we do keep some, can risk pride and self-righteousness?

Paul shows us that there’s an ‘old way’ and a ‘new way’ of our approach to living rightly.

Obeying laws to feel right with God is the ‘old way.’ It never truly satisfied, never overcame the struggle against sin, and never brought life (Romans 7)

The new way is through the Spirit. This is the New Covenant, the new promise God makes: when we call on the name of Jesus—The Son of God given for us, believing in what his broken body and blood accomplished, we lift a cup to be filled with a powerful Love not our own. This love fills our hearts with a security of His acceptance and compels us to want to in order to know Him more (1 Corinthians 15:10). Like Paul, this kind of Love compels us to completely pitch whatever filled our cup before because the taste is so bland to us now that nothing else but the gracious love of God in Christ will satisfy (Philippians 3:8-9).

This new way of actually brings life, and makes it possible for a community to embody. We have written history that proves it where we see in a letter written about the Roman church 40 years after Paul wrote this letter to it, depicts that it had lived out these commands to a tee, and was indeed beautiful.

Paul culminates his thoughts about what we ought to do in light of Jesus by clarifying another motivation: That Jesus is coming back.

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

“The best part of waking up is that Jesus fills your cup”

How do we get our cups filled with Jesus?

Hear the gospel: Jesus. Jesus died for you—lives for you. Jesus made the way for God’s infinite pleasure over you to be possible completely apart from your own goodness.

Believe the gospel: Anyone who believes can call upon the name of Jesus, at any time, and experience the promise that God made and has been happening every day for the last 2000 years: The Holy Spirit will come inside you, cleanse you, and empower you. And as you continue looking to Him, he will continue His work in you, making you more and more spotless and beautiful and perfect until the day when He returns. Jesus filling your cup means that you come to Him to fill you rather than having it filled with an infinitely less valuable substance.

2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

If you call on His name, God says you will be saved.

Romans 10:13-15: Unbreakable rationale for missions:

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Final Prayer: Romans 16:25-27:

Now to Him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Clement Reference:

1Clem 1:3 For who that had sojourned among you did not approve your most virtuous and steadfast faith? Who did not admire your sober and forbearing piety in Christ? Who did not publish abroad your magnificent disposition of hospitality? Who did not congratulate you on your perfect and sound knowledge?

1Clem 1:3 For ye did all things without respect of persons, and ye walked after the ordinances of God, submitting yourselves to your rulers and rendering to the older men among you the honor which is their due. On the young too ye enjoined modest and seemly thoughts: and the women ye charged to perform all their duties in a blameless and
seemly and pure conscience, cherishing their own husbands, as is meet; and ye taught them to keep in the rule of obedience, and to manage the affairs of their household in seemliness, with all discretion.

1Clem 2:1 And ye were all lowly in mind and free from arrogance, yielding rather than claiming submission, more glad to give than to receive, and content with the provisions which God supplieth. And giving heed unto His words, ye laid them up diligently in your
hearts, and His sufferings were before your eyes.

1Clem 2:2 Thus a profound and rich peace was given to all, and an insatiable desire of doing good. An abundant outpouring also of the Holy Spirit fell upon all;

1Clem 2:3 and, being full of holy counsel, in excellent zeal and with a pious confidence ye stretched out your hands to Almighty God, supplicating Him to be propitious, if unwillingly ye had committed any sin.

1Clem 2:4 Ye had conflict day and night for all the brotherhood, that the number of His elect might be saved with fearfulness and intentness of mind.

1Clem 2:5 Ye were sincere and simple and free from malice one towards another.

1Clem 2:6 Every sedition and every schism was abominable to you. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbors: ye judged their shortcomings to be your own.

1Clem 2:7 Ye repented not of any well-doing, but were ready unto every good work.

1Clem 2:8 Being adorned with a most virtuous and honorable life, ye performed all your duties in the fear of Him. The commandments and the ordinances of the Lord were written on the tablets of your hearts.

1Clem 3:1 All glory and enlargement was given unto you, and that was fulfilled
which is written My beloved ate and drank and was enlarged and waxed fat and kicked.

1Clem 3:2 Hence come jealousy and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and tumult, war and captivity.

1Clem 3:3 So men were stirred up, the mean against the honorable, the ill
reputed against the highly reputed, the foolish against the wise, the
young against the elder.

Romans 12:7-21: Ben's Paraphrase

Now, In light of Jesus:

• Worship by how you live.

• Don’t be, think, or prioritize like the world.

• Let the new things you learn from God change who you are.

• Don’t let yourself think you’re better than you are.

• Think about your value relative to how much faith you have in Jesus.

• Use the gifts God gave you relative to your faith and ability.

• Honestly love people.

• Be repulsed by evil.

• Be bonded to good.

• Be loyal and caring to Christians like a real family.

• Lead the way in lifting up and valuing others.

• Express happiness about what you know God’s going to do.

• Let your trust that God is working through challenges keep the peace in you.

• Keep praying knowing God hears and loves our heart connecting with Him.

• Share with your brothers and sisters.

• Seek out chances to have random or new people over and care for their needs.

• Speak life over people, even those who want death for you.

• Join in with others’ joy and sorrow.

• Get on the same page with other Christians.

• Don’t put yourself above others, hang out with anyone, no matter their popularity.

• Do not try to pay people back for what bad thing they’ve done to you.

• Think about how your actions will impact others before you do them.

• Try to have no relationships where there’s unsettled conflict, if possible.

• Do not let justified anger out on others, let and trust God to do that for you.

• Do nice things for mean people so that grace changes them.

• Don’t let evil take over.

• Win the battle with evil with the weapons of light and love.

• Obey, honor, respect and pay those you should.

• Pay back your debts.

• Just love people how you’d want to be loved.

• Wake up, get your cup filled up, put on your ‘Jesus jersey’ and play to win.