MAIN TEXT
Romans 12:11 (niv)
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord"
Romans 12:11 New King James Version (nkjv)
"not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord"
Romans 12:11-13 The Message (msg)
"Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master"
Roma 12:11 Ang Pulong Sang Dios (hiligaynon)
"Magmapisan kita kag indi magtinamad; mag-alagad kita sa Ginoo nga hugot gid sa aton tagipusuon"
Roma 12:11 Ang Bagong Tipan: Filipino Standard Version (fsv)
"Magpakasipag kayo at ang kalooba'y lalo pang pag-alabin sa paglilingkod sa Panginoon"
Romans 12:11 (thai version)
อย่าเกียจคร้านในการงาน จงมีจิตใจกระตือรือร้น จงปรนนิบัติองค์พระผู้เป็นเจ้า
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February 4 2018
Intensified Life
“Never be lacking in Zeal”
February 11 2018
Intensified Passion
“Keep your spiritual fervour”
February 18 2018
Intensified Service
“Serving the Lord”
February 25 2018*
Intensified Commission
AUTHORITY TO
OVER ALL THE POWER
NOTHING WILL HARM YOU
REJOICE
Luke 10:19, 20
"See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
*25th Foundation Celebration
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on the word:
"intensify" "intensified"
verb make more forceful, severe
SYNONYMS and ANTONYMS
- to make markedly greater in measure or degree
- accentuate,
- amp (up),
- amplify,
- beef (up),
- boost,
- consolidate,
- deepen,
- enhance,
- heighten,
- magnify,
- redouble,
- step up,
- strengthen
Words Related to intensify
- broaden,
- enlarge,
- expand,
- extend,
- lengthen
- accelerate,
- hasten,
- quicken
- emphasize,
- point (up),
- sharpen,
- stress
- augment,
- enforce,
- reinforce (also reenforce),
- restrengthen,
- supplement
- maximize
- enliven,
- jazz (up)
- aggravate,
- exacerbate
Near Antonyms of intensify
- decrease, diminish, lessen, let up (on), reduce, subdue, tone (down), weaken
- dwindle, recede, subside, taper (off), wane
- alleviate, ease, lighten
Antonyms of intensify
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this might be HELPFUL below
click here
SERMON TRANSCRIPT on RE-IGNITING your PASSION FOR GOD here
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COMMENTARY
THAT IS HELPFUL for ROMANS 12
by Wiersbe
Right Relationships Mean Right Living
Romans 12-13
In all of his letters, Paul concluded with a list of practical duties that were based on the doctrines he had discussed. In the Christian life, doctrine and duty always go together. What we believe helps to determine how we behave. It is not enough for us to understand Paul’s doctrinal explanations. We must translate our learning into living and show by our daily lives that we trust God’s Word.
The key idea in this section is relationships. The term “relational theology” is a relatively new one, but the idea is not new. If we have a right relationship to God, we will have a right relationship to the people who are a part of our lives. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar”
(1 John 4:20).
Our Relationship to God (Rom. 12:1-2)
This is the fourth “therefore” in the letter. Romans 3:20 is the “therefore” of condemnation, declaring that the whole world is guilty before God. Romans 5:1 is the “therefore” of justification, and Romans 8:1 the “therefore” of assurance. In Romans 12:1, we have the “therefore” of dedication, and it is this dedication that is the basis for the other relationships that Paul discussed in this section.
What is true dedication? As Paul described it here, Christian dedication involves three steps.
You give God your body (v. 1).
Before we trusted Christ, we used our body for sinful pleasures and purposes, but now that we belong to Him, we want to use our body for His glory. The Christian’s body is God’s temple (1 Cor. 6:19-20) because the Spirit of God dwells within him (Rom. 8:9). It is our privilege to glorify Christ in our body and magnify Christ in our body (Phil. 1:20-21).
Just as Jesus Christ had to take on Himself a body in order to accomplish God’s will on earth, so we must yield our bodies to Christ that He might continue God’s work through us. We must yield the members of the body as “instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13) for the Holy Spirit to use in the doing of God’s work. The Old Testament sacrifices were dead sacrifices, but we are to be living sacrifices.
There are two “living sacrifices” in the Bible and they help us understand what this really means. The first is Isaac (Gen. 22); the second is our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaac willingly put himself on the altar and would have died in obedience to God’s will, but the Lord sent a ram to take his place. Isaac “died” just the same—he died to self and willingly yielded himself to the will of God. When he got off that altar, Isaac was a “living sacrifice” to the glory of God.
Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration of a “living sacrifice,” because He actually died as a sacrifice, in obedience to His Father’s will. But He arose again. And today He is in heaven as a “living sacrifice,” bearing in His body the wounds of Calvary. He is our High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16) and our Advocate (1 John 2:1) before the throne of God.
The verb “present” in this verse means “present once and for all.” It commands a definite commitment of the body to the Lord, just as a bride and groom in their wedding service commit themselves to each other. It is this once-for-all commitment that determines what they do with their bodies. Paul gives us two reasons for this commitment: (1) it is the right response to all that God has done for us—“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God” (italics mine); and (2) this commitment is “our reasonable service” or “our spiritual worship.” This means that every day is a worship experience when your body is yielded to the Lord.
You give Him your mind (v. 2a).
The world wants to control your mind, but God wants to transform your mind (see Eph. 4:17-24; Col. 3:1-11). This word transform is the same as transfigure in Matthew 17:2. It has come into our English language as the word “metamorphosis.” It describes a change from within. The world wants to change your mind, so it exerts pressure from without. But the Holy Spirit changes your mind by releasing power from within. If the world controls your thinking, you are a conformer; if God controls your thinking, you are a transformer.
God transforms our minds and makes us spiritually minded by using His Word. As you spend time meditating on God’s Word, memorizing it, and making it a part of your inner man, God will gradually make your mind more spiritual (see 2 Cor. 3:18).
You give Him your will (v. 2b).
Your mind controls your body, and your will controls your mind. Many people think they can control their will by “willpower,” but usually they fail. (This was Paul’s experience as recorded in Rom. 7:15-21). It is only when we yield the will to God that His power can take over and give us the willpower (and the won’t power!) that we need to be victorious Christians.
We surrender our wills to God through disciplined prayer. As we spend time in prayer, we surrender our will to God and pray, with the Lord, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” We must pray about everything, and let God have His way in everything.
For many years I have tried to begin each day by surrendering my body to the Lord. Then I spend time with His Word and let Him transform my mind and prepare my thinking for that new day. Then I pray, and I yield the plans of the day to Him and let Him work as He sees best. I especially pray about those tasks that upset or worry me—and He always sees me through. To have a right relationship with God, we must start the day by yielding to Him our bodies, minds, and wills.
Relationship to Other Believers (Rom. 12:3-16)
Paul was writing to Christians who were members of local churches in Rome. He described their relationship to each other in terms of the members of a body. (He used this same picture in 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:7-16.) The basic idea is that each believer is a living part of Christ’s body, and each one has a spiritual function to perform. Each believer has a gift (or gifts) to be used for the building up of the body and the perfecting of the other members of the body. In short, we belong to each other, we minister to each other, and we need each other. What are the essentials for spiritual ministry and growth in the body of Christ?
Honest evaluation (v. 3).
Each Christian must know what his spiritual gifts are and what ministry (or ministries) he is to have in the local church. It is not wrong for a Christian to recognize gifts in his own life and in the lives of others. What is wrong is the tendency to have a false evaluation of ourselves. Nothing causes more damage in a local church than a believer who overrates himself and tries to perform a ministry that he cannot do. (Sometimes the opposite is true, and people undervalue themselves. Both attitudes are wrong.)
The gifts that we have came because of God’s grace. They must be accepted and exercised by faith. We were saved “by grace, through faith” (Eph. 2:8-9), and we must live and serve “by grace through faith.” Since our gifts are from God, we cannot take the credit for them. All we can do is accept them and use them to honor His name. (See 1 Cor. 15:10 for Paul’s personal testimony about gifts.)
I once ministered with two men who had opposite attitudes toward their gifts: the one man constantly belittled his gifts and would not use them, and the other man constantly boasted about gifts that he did not possess. Actually, both of them were guilty of pride, because both of them refused to acknowledge God’s grace and let Him have the glory. Moses made a similar mistake when God called him (Ex. 4:1-13). When the individual believers in a church know their gifts, accept them by faith, and use them for God’s glory, then God can bless in a wonderful way.
Faithful cooperation (vv. 4-8).
Each believer has a different gift, and God has bestowed these gifts so the local body can grow in a balanced way. But each Christian must exercise his or her gift by faith. We may not see the result of our ministry, but the Lord sees it and He blesses. Note that “exhortation” (encouragement) is just as much a spiritual ministry as preaching or teaching. Giving and showing mercy are also important gifts. To some people, God has given the ability to rule, or to administer the various functions of the church. Whatever gift we have must be dedicated to God and used for the good of the whole church.
It is tragic when any one gift is emphasized in a local church beyond all the other gifts. “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (1 Cor. 12:29-30) The answer to all these questions is no! And for a Christian to minimize the other gifts while he emphasizes his own gift is to deny the very purpose for which gifts are given: the benefit of the whole body of Christ. “Now to each man the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7, niv).
Spiritual gifts are tools to build with, not toys to play with or weapons to fight with. In the church at Corinth, the believers were tearing down the ministry because they were abusing spiritual gifts. They were using their gifts as ends in themselves and not as a means toward the end of building up the church. They so emphasized their spiritual gifts that they lost their spiritual graces! They had the gifts of the Spirit but were lacking in the fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, etc. (Gal. 5:22-23).
Loving participation (vv. 9-16).
Here the emphasis is on the attitudes of those who exercise the spiritual gifts.
It is possible to use a spiritual gift in an unspiritual way.
Paul makes this same point in 1 Corinthians 13, the great “love chapter” of the New Testament.
Love is the circulatory system of the spiritual body, which enables all the members to function in a healthy, harmonious way. This must be an honest love, not a hypocritical love (Rom. 11:9); and it must be humble, not proud (Rom. 11:10). “Preferring one another” means treating others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:1-4).
Serving Christ usually means satanic opposition and days of discouragement.
Paul admonished his readers to maintain their spiritual zeal because they were serving the Lord and not men. When life becomes difficult, the Christian cannot permit his zeal to grow cold. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Rom. 12:12, niv).
Finally, Paul reminded them that they must enter into the feelings of others. Christian fellowship is much more than a pat on the back and a handshake. It means sharing the burdens and the blessings of others so that we all grow together and glorify the Lord. If Christians cannot get along with one another, how can they ever face their enemies? A humble attitude and a willingness to share are the marks of a Christian who truly ministers to the body. Our Lord ministered to the common people, and they heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37). When a local church decides it wants only a certain “high class” of people, it departs from the Christian ideal for ministry.
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sample SERMON resource
TITLE:
Keep Your Spirit Boiling (Romans 12.11)
from Todd Pylant
The life of continual transformation, as Paul described in Romans 12, is a life where we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice (12.1), where we are transformed by the renewal of our mind (12.2), where we use our spiritual gifts (12.3-8), where we love without hypocrisy (12.9), and where we are fervent in spirit (12.11). This last exhortation seems a bit tricky. Here, we are not told to do something, or to not do something, we are told to “feel” passionate about our faith. Paul wrote,
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Romans 12.11 ESV)
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. (Romans 12.11 NIV)
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Romans 12.11 NRSV)
Exegesis of Romans 12.11
In this very short verse, we are told not to be slothful, a word which means slow or lazy, in our zeal. “Zeal” is a word that means “haste, earnestness, diligence, striving after anything.” So, we should not be lacking in zeal (NIV) nor should we lack diligence (HCSB). In addition, we are to be fervent in spirit (ESV). The word translated “fervent” literally means “to boil.” Our spirit is to “boil over” as we serve the Lord. The Message captures the essence of this verse quite nicely: “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master.”
This idea of keeping our spiritual fervor is not unique to Romans 12.11. The Bible also tells us to “fan into flame the gift of God” (see 2 Timothy 1.6), to show earnestness and not be sluggish in our faith and perseverance (see Hebrews 6.10-12), to excel in our zeal (see 2 Corinthians 8.7), and to not grow weary of doing good (see Galatians 6.9). It does seem that the Scriptures not only want us to be obedient followers of Christ but also to experience a passion and desire to follow Christ. In the vernacular, we would say that we are to “be on fire for Jesus.”
Living Into Romans 12.11
The struggle with Romans 12.11 is not in understanding the text, but it is in living into the truth of the text. Anyone who has been following Christ for more than a week knows that weariness and lack of zeal are constant struggles on the pathway to maturity. The real question is, “What can we do to keep our spirit boiling over for Christ?” Or the even more difficult question, “How do we restore spiritual fervor to a spirit that is not only not boiling but has grown cold?”
In trying to answer that question, I want to focus on the image that Paul used: boiling over in our spirit. If we go with that image, it makes us think about water that is boiling over the side of a pot on the stove. But water does not boil itself. Water boils because it is placed near the fire, so perhaps the better question is what can we do to place ourselves near the fire of God’s Holy Spirit so that He can heat to boiling our spirit?
Before I attempt to offer some wisdom in this regards, it might be helpful to just confess that the struggle to keep our spiritual fervor is very common to God’s people. You may feel like you are the only one in the church who feels like your water is not boiling, but read the psalms and you will find the spiritual confessions of those whose spirit was less than boiling. And consider this, why would the Bible teach us to keep our spiritual fervor unless there was going to a struggle? Paul knew that even among the reborn and transformed, the natural temptation is to become slothful in our zeal and for our water to become lukewarm.
So, how does our spirit boil? What can we do to place ourselves near the fire of God’s Spirit so that we can keep our spiritual fervor?
Spiritual Disciplines
For any goal that we set, whether that goal is to run a marathon, to graduate from college, to save for retirement, to lose weight, to have a vegetable garden, or to make a quilt, anytime we set a goal, we have to break that goal down into the things that are going to have to happen in order to reach that goal. For me, I am training for my next half-marathon in July, and in order for that goal to be reached, I know that there are some steps that have to be accomplished: I have to run 3 to 4 times a week, and I have to have one long run each week that gradually increases so that the week before the race I will run 13 miles. If I do not accomplish those steps, than it does not matter how much I want to run the race or how important it is to me, I will not be able to finish the half-marathon.
And the same is true with any goal. If you want to make a quilt for your grandchild who is having a baby, then you will break down the steps of what has to happen to get it done: how much fabric has to be cut out, how much time do I need to quilt it, how much will I have to do each week to have it done before the baby is born.
So, if our goal is for our spirits to be boiling over, then what are the steps that have to be done in order to make that a reality? The single best phrase that captures these steps that lead to a boiling spirit is: the Spiritual Disciplines. The spiritual disciplines are the basic steps that we take in order to reach the goal of a boiling spirit. Richard Foster’ book, Celebration of Discipline, is one of the classic works in this area and has been very helpful for me in this regard. I like how he describes the spiritual disciplines. He wrote,
The disciplines place ourselves before God so that He can transform us…By themselves, the spiritual disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done. (7)
He talks of “the path of disciplined grace” where we put ourselves in the pathway of God’s grace so that we can be transformed by His grace. Or to use the analogy of Romans 12, the spiritual disciplines are the way that we put our water near the fire of God so that He can boil our spirit. The disciplines don’t produce the boiling, and anyone who has tried to make your own spirit boil can testify to this. The disciplines put our soul near the fire of God who can bring our spirit to a boil. What are the spiritual disciplines? Foster lists twelve in his book.
Meditation – being still enough to listen to God’s voice
Prayer – soul to soul communication with God
Fasting – abstaining from food for a spiritual purpose
Study – in-depth understanding, analyzing, and interpreting of God’s Word
Simplicity – a freedom from materialism
Solitude – the freedom to withdraw
Submission – finding freedom from the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way
Service – experiencing the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves
Confession – confess our sins one to another (James 5.16)
Worship – when our spirit touches the Spirit of God
Guidance – discerning the will of God in community
Celebration – to rejoice in the Lord in the spirit of the OT festivals
The way that Foster teaches about spiritual disciplines is important, too. He talks about the inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study), the outward disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and the corporate disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). And while I don’t want this to be a study of Foster’s book, I think he does a great job of clarifying the building blocks of reaching the goal of having a boiling spirit for Christ. So, if your spirit is not boiling, or if your spirit is boiling over and you and you want to keep it boiling over, then let me make a few observations.
First, water does not boil itself. The only way our spirits will boil over is if we put ourselves in the pathway of God’s grace. It is so important to remember that our spiritual activity will not be able to produce a fervent spirit. It is only a means to an end. It is a means by which we can make a connection with God. So, we must always be thinking about how we can put ourselves in the pathway of God’s grace and fire so that He can boil our spirit.
Second, there are basic disciplines of grace that must be in place or our spirit will never be close enough to God’s fire to reach a boil. It does not matter how much I want to run this half-marathon in July, if I am not running 3 to 4 times a week and if I am not doing a long run that is increasing in distance, then it will not happen. And those most basic disciplines are: reading the Word of God so that you can hear His voice speaking to you, conversational prayer, and meditating on God’s Word so that it saturates your thinking.
And here is where the whole “keep your spiritual fervor” thing gets very tricky. If your spirit is not boiling, you will not feel like praying, or reading Scripture, or meditating. But this is exactly why you do it. And I know this sound strange, but we must pray because we do not feel like praying. We must read the Word to listen to His voice because our spirits are lukewarm. We must memorize scripture (which is a form of meditation) because we don’t desire to think about God’s truth. The absence of desire is all the more reason to put ourselves near the fire so that God can boil our spirit.
Third, what Foster’s book help us to understand is that our spiritual community plays an essential role in our spiritual fervor. Consider these words from the book of Hebrews,
23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10.23-25 ESV)
To “hold fast without wavering” is just another way of saying “keep your spiritual fervor.” And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that our spiritual community plays an essential role in that. So here is the third point: we must be investing in a spiritual community where we can both spur one another and be spurred by one another towards a fervent spirit. And I say “investing” because when you need community, it is too late to find community. Just like when you need a savings account for retirement, it is too late to start saving for it. You have to start saving for it when you don’t need it, when you have something extra to contribute so that when you need to make withdraws there is something to withdraw from. Spiritual community is the same way, we invest in spiritual community by building relationships and encouraging one another so that when we need it to help us light our fire, it is there.
Spiritual community does not happen in large group settings, so we are talking about more than attending church on a Sunday morning. Foster wrote about the corporate disciplines of confession (confess your sins to one another), guidance (discerning God’s will together), and celebration (rejoicing in the goodness of God’s love), which are things that cannot be done in mass. We all need a small group of people where we are investing in one another in such a way that we can “stir one another up.” If you have not found a spiritual community, not just a group of friends that you hang out with, but a spiritual community that stirs you up to faith, then it is essential that you put yourself in a position where community and connections can happen: join a small group Bible study, work on a service team in the church, work to make friendships with the people you sit around on Sunday mornings, etc. And be praying earnestly for the Spirit of God to guide you into those special relationships where you can build spiritual community.
And a special word to our high school students who are graduating (since this is Graduate Recognition Sunday), when you go off to college you must set as a priority finding spiritual community, a small group of Christians where you can stir one another up towards love and good deeds. And you must see that this is an essential element towards keeping your spiritual fervor. This will not happen simply because you step on a college campus. Finding and developing spiritual community is an intentional act of investing your lives with other people.
Fourth, serving the Lord is a key part of keeping our spiritual fervor. We see this connection in the text, “be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12.11). And this is why Foster lists service as one of the spiritual disciplines. Serving the Lord, or being used by God to do something of Kingdom value, is one of the ways that we experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. One of the ways that our spirits begin to be lukewarm is when we stop seeing our lives in the larger context of what God is doing in the world. The pattern of this world is to think that if we focus on ourselves and turn inward, then we can find contentment, but that is simply not true. When life becomes all about me that is when our life gets small and insignificant. For our spirits to boil, we need to see that God has a divine eternal plan and He has created us for good works that He has already prepared in advance for us to do. And that is what service is, experiencing the fiery Spirit of God flowing through us and bringing our spirit to a boil.
Fifth, there is a connection between “being conformed to the pattern of this world” and the lack of spiritual fervor. Foster wrote in his book about the disciplines of simplicity and solitude. For simplicity, he wrote about rejecting the materialism of this world and refusing to become addicted to the love of the things of this world.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2.15-17 ESV)
When we are conformed to the things of this world, when we begin to be consumed and chase the desires of the flesh or the pride in possessions, then our spirit will lose its boil.
Sixth, keeping our spiritual fervor is a spiritual fight unto the death. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood but with the spiritual forces of darkness (see Ephesians 6.12). The battle to keep your spiritual fervor is not a single player game. We have an opponent, and games where there is an opponent is totally different than games without an opponent. If I am throwing the ball against the wall and catching it, then I can control how it comes back to me. But if there is another person throwing me the ball, that changes things. Does that person want me to catch it? Will he throw it hard or soft? We have an opponent in keeping our spiritual fervor.
And here’s my point: every temptation, every lie, every condemnation, and every fear is part of coordinate scheme of the enemy (see Ephesians 6.11) to rob us of our spiritual zeal. There is a connection between the temptation to worry and your spiritual zeal. There is a connection between the temptation to sin in your anger and your spiritual fervor. There is a connection between the lie that gossip is enjoyable and being lukewarm. This is why Paul told us in Ephesians 6 to put on the full armor of God because there is a battle going on for the condition of our soul.
Sometimes what happens is that we have been ignorant of the Enemy’s schemes and we have bought into lies or fears or condemnations or temptations and little by little our soul has grown lukewarm. And to gain back our spiritual zeal means that we have to do the spiritual warfare of getting our souls back to the fire of God. Which means that we have to work back through each lie, each fear, each condemnation, each temptation, confessing and repenting and embracing the truth.
Finally, there are just some times in our spiritual walk that we must persevere the valley of darkness. Listen to what Paul wrote,
9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6.9 ESV)
Now why would Paul write that unless he knew that there were going to be times when believers would grow weary of doing good. We have to realize that in our battle to get our spirit close to the fire of God that there may be seasons where we don’t feel God’s heat. And in those seasons, we must hope in the harvest season that is to come. Perseverance implies both time and pain, and the absence of fervor is just another form of pain. It is by persevering through the dry periods, by choosing to step towards God’s grace, that we bring our spirit to a boil in due time.
Conclusion
So today we are encouraged to keep our spiritual zeal, to be boiling over in our spirit. And we have learned that water does not boil itself and we cannot bring our spirit to a boil. All we can do is to place our spirit near God’s fire and let Him bring us to a boil. We have learned that the basic spiritual disciplines of reading God’s Word to hear His voice, conversational prayer, and meditation are essential to spiritual fervor. We have also learned that we need a spiritual community to stir one another towards love and good deeds. We have learned that serving God is essential, seeing our lives in the big picture of what God is doing in the world. We have learned that loving the things of this world is a sure fire way to make our soul lukewarm. We have learned that we have an enemy in this battle, an enemy who lies and tempts and condemns so that our soul will become lukewarm. And finally, we have learned that there are simply some seasons in our lives where we have to persevere through the valley of darkness hoping that in due time a harvest will come.
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a SAMPLE article RESOURCE
Never be Lacking in Zeal
by Thomas, Geoff
The Apostle Paul exhorts the congregation in Rome in Romans 12:11
‘Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.’
This text is easily understood; there are no complicated words; the structure is obvious. First of all the exhortation is stated in a negative form telling us we’re never to lack zeal. Then that is followed by the positive command which tells us what we’re to do, ‘keep your spiritual fervour.’ Finally, we are told the context in which such exhortations are set, serving the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to do so fervently. That is what our text is saying, and I don’t want to make it complicated.
This is the word of God that confronts us now, and it is not before us primarily that we might understand what it says. I hardly need to explain to you what it says; you can all grasp the meaning of these words. Most of you knew before you came here that you should serve the Lord zealously, long before you read these words; in fact you’ve known it for years. It is not here so that we tick another Christian virtue in the wonderful list of those graces arrayed before us in this chapter – ‘O.K. Now we’ve done ‘spiritual fervour’ we can move on to the next virtue.’ These words are not here to be taken home in a copy of the sermon which you’ve tucked into your Bible and put on the shelf with the others. These words are in our faces in order that that you and I might actually change, and become more spiritually fervent as Christians. That is why God has brought us here today.
All Scripture is profitable for correcting us and instructing us in righteousness. In the providence of God we are going to be instructed in not losing our zeal but keeping our spiritual fervour. God has caused us to come here to deliver us from a mere show of discipleship. You know that you have to accept your providence; so in God’s mercy you are here in order that your spiritual zeal be recaptured, and if you leave as you came then I haven’t succeeded in the task God has given me. If you can hear a message on ‘never be lacking in zeal and keeping your spiritual fervour’ and yet be unmoved, then my preparation was inadequate and my proclamation has come to nought, and whose fault is that? It’s not God’s in bringing you here, and so it will be partly mine for preaching too coldly and vaguely and boringly, but it will be also yours for being a hearer only and not a doer of the Word.
It was not enough that these Roman Christians were orthodox in believing all that Paul had laid out in these first eleven chapters. It was not enough that they had presented their bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord and that they were living righteous lives. They also needed to be fervent in spirit, not lacking in zeal. You remember that John Wesley was a Trinitarian and a founder member of the Holy Club in Oxford, sound and righteous, but it was not for many more years after Oxford that he became the great evangelist he undoubtedly was. This was after his heart was ‘strangely warmed’ at a meeting in London.
How important that is. To possess a wise and zealous spirit should be the ambition of each one of us. It is one of the most important longings we could have. The great evangelistic preacher and founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, was once asked to address a large clerical conference of Anglican vicars. He moved them with his fervour as he recounted the thousands who had been converted and the halls he had planted in slums in every city in the British Isles. Some vicars came on to him afterwards and pleaded with him to receive Episcopal ordination into the Church of England. That is what he needed, they told him, the hands of a bishop on his head, and then he would be complete. Of course Booth rejected their request. They were blind to the fact that they were the ones who needed the zeal and fervour that he possessed, that the hands of no man upon their heads could give them – be they the hands of a bishop, an archbishop or a presbyter.
1. Defining Spiritual Fervour
The word means movement, haste or speed. It conveys the idea of eagerness, intense and earnest effort, doing what needs to be done, making a real business of it, going for it, taking it up in earnest without slackness. It means no trifling with Christianity, not playing at religion, no slothfulness in following Christ, but rather a seriousness and a dedication to finishing what you have begun. You all know how important that is in any calling a person takes up. A woman is set to become a hairdresser, or a baker of special cakes, or a maker of children’s clothes. If she is going to have any success at all in her career then she must give herself 100% to the enterprise. There must be industry, strenuous and unremitting, to get the enterprise going. She must be willing to forego ease as a luxury, and spend herself and be spent in her work.
Now we are talking about the life of the Christian as he serves God, and it is a spiritual calling. We are not talking about the excitement of an expanding business to an inveterate businessman – he needs no encouragement from us. We are not talking about the joy of painting to an artist – creating works of art is his life. We are not having to enthuse a conductor with the thrill of leading an orchestra. We are not speaking of making money to a miser. Nothing diverts his eye from that task; nothing slackens his speed by day or night. I need not preach to such men of industry and effort. There is no danger that they will suffer through slovenliness marring their achievements. They will do their work with zeal, for their hearts identify with their work. Today, we are speaking to each Christian of this fascinating calling of loving God will all his heart, and loving his neighbour as himself. We are addressing the subject of how it is possible to fulfil zealously man’s chief end of glorifying God and enjoying him for ever. This is not a work that comes out of the natural bent and bias of your mind. No one takes naturally to honouring God. You surely don’t think that all you need do is let it alone and your spirit will flourish without any effort on your part. It needs every exhortation and encouragement that is at hand, and they will be scarcely enough. So Paul exhorts them, ‘Keep your spiritual fervour!’
2. Understanding Spiritual Fervour
There are two ways in which you receive this, firstly a definitive and once for all gift of God, and then, secondly, a progressing and growing enabling from God.
i] First, the definitive means of gaining spiritual fervour is by the new birth, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Let’s approach it this way, that the word ‘fervour’ means to boil or to be aglow – either interpretation, because both make the same point. If you put a saucepan of water on the oven, then at first it is motionless, but once the heat gets at it then it begins to boil. It comes alive, as it were. So it is with being aglow – it is the figurative language of a fire. The fire gives off heat; there is life in it. So every Christian is to be fervent in spirit. But in order to be fervent in spirit, you must be alive, and that means a fire needs to be lit within you. You need the Holy Spirit working in you. You need him in your heart and life so that you won’t be lacking in zeal, but you’ll remain fervent. It is that Spirit that lights the fire and makes things glow. That is what you’ve been designed for. God has made you; Jesus Christ has died to save you; the Holy Spirit has filled you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are your enablement.
What can you achieve without the fire of the Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit that radiates his holy glow. What good are your prayers without the warmth of the Holy Spirit? What good is your Bible reading without the illumination of the Holy Spirit? What good is your testimony to someone without the co-testimony of the Holy Spirit? What good is your singing and all your worship today unless it is through the Holy Spirit in you? If you are not fervent in spirit, you may belong to some religious system which from the outside looks active and strong and ancient. That may initially impress you and other people, but without the Holy Spirit who warms you and from whom praise and service flow, you’re nothing but a cold, empty stove. You need the Holy Spirit to stir you to holiness, to godliness and to righteousness.
I think you all know enough about life and death to understand that you can’t warm to life a dead body by external heat. No matter how much heat you carefully apply by wrapping the corpse in an electric blanket until the corpse is 98.7 degrees, that process can’t put any living heat into the body. You switch off the blanket and the body grows cold again. As soon as the spirit leaves the body, the corpse becomes cold and moribund. Heat is needed from the inside to warm the body and to be its life. You know that, don’t you? The only way in which our bodies get warm and remain warm is when the Spirit of God is there within our lives. The only possible way that you can become spiritually warm, and live eternally, is when you have the Holy Spirit within you. Those who have the Holy Spirit of God are alive unto God. That is what will make them glow. That’s the beginning of spiritual fervour, in a birth from God.
ii] Secondly, there is the progressive work. You attain spiritual fervour by going on being filled with the Spirit, and by stirring up the gift of the Spirit within you. The Lord is saying in our text that we must remain fervent all our lives; the glow must continue. Don’t quench the Holy Spirit who is at work in you. If you begin to live according to the flesh, then decomposition takes place. We decay from within. The battle for fervour is won or lost in our hearts. Joseph won the battle in Potiphar’s household. He gained the victory over the temptations of Potiphar’s wife by an inward triumph. When you start giving in to the desires of the flesh decomposition takes place; you lose some of the fire. Your faith life becomes dull. Doubt, uncertainty and all sorts of distractions crowd in, because the work of the Spirit is being quenched and it’s getting smaller and smaller. Our only hope is the mercy of Christ sending forth the Spirit constantly into our lives. You remember the scene Bunyan pictures in Interpreter’s House in Pilgrim’s Progress:
Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where was a Fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the Fire burn higher and hotter. Then said Christian, What means this? The Interpreter answered, This Fire is the Work of Grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil: But in that thou seest the Fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that. So he had him about to the back side of the wall, where he saw a Man with a Vessel of Oil in his hand, of which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the Fire. Then said Christian, What means this? The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the Oil of his Grace maintains the work already begun in the heart: By the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still. And in that thou sawest, that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the Fire; this is to teach thee that it is hard for the Tempted to see how this Work of Grace is maintained in the soul.
We go through a tough time, with many falls and heartaches. ‘How am I still trusting in Christ?’ you ask yourself. The answer is that Jesus Christ remains faithful, and he keeps your faith alive; he pours into you the Holy Spirit day by day. So don’t you extinguish the fires of faith in your own heart through defiant sins. Let’s be assured of this, that it is the Spirit who sustains our light and warmth. The Spirit at work in us is the powerhouse, generating the glow in both body and soul, that we can be zealous to do the work of the Lord in the world – ‘among whom you shine as lights in the world.’
Are you fervent in spirit? If not, in what are you fervent? What are the things that really set you on fire? Surely not drink and drugs and sex – not sins like that. Is it cars, money, your job? Is it material things that pass away? Or does your soul really long for the living God? Do you get warm and thankful when you see someone walking in the ways of the Lord? Are you zealous about mission and evangelism?
You are called by the Lord to be a glowing fire for the Lord. You are the light of the world. There are fireplaces and stoves to be seen in certain shops in our town, all nicely polished, and they seem to have a fire burning away in them, but on examination the fire is merely a red bulb with red plastic flames and artificial coals with no warmth because there is no true fire in those stoves. What sort of fire is in you today before the Lord? Real or counterfeit? Where are you going in your life? What direction are you taking? Is it to the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you hope to create heat and light in your life bringing honour to the Lord? What sort of a holy zeal is burning inside of you? Is it ultimately for yourself or is the Holy Spirit leading you? Is your life ruled by chance, by circumstances, by yourself or are you being led by the Spirit of God? Is it by whatever happens to come first or is it determined by every word that is written in the Scriptures by the Lord? What sort of fire is burning in your heart? Is it a fire from the Lord, by the Lord, for the Lord? Is there a warm glow from heaven inside of you, with that quiet assurance that the Lord is leading you and directing you in your life?
If I can put it this way: what’s cooking in your life that will be a blessing to others, and honouring to the Lord? Now God is not demanding from every one of us that we be loud, crackling log fires. The hottest fire is one where there is just a very nice glow from within, sometimes very quietly, but warming all who come into its range. They can all benefit from the pleasant heat. Eliza Doolittle sings of, ‘Lotsa coal giving lotsa ‘eat. Warm ‘ands, warm face, warm feet, Ah, wouldn’t it be lovely?’ That lovely work is what the Holy Spirit goes on producing in every Christian, so you can tell that the Spirit is at work in a person’s life, not by the noise that they make but by the warmth that comes from them. To be fervent in spirit is to be sustained by a glow that comes from God himself. Then you know, and then you are prepared to serve the Lord in time. Go on being filled with the Spirit.
3. Increasing in Spiritual Fervour
I will tell you. There is no mystery at all to this. There is not one way to true fervour. There is no master key that opens every life to being fervent in Spirit. Let me give you many directives that are truly important, and some not so important (you must decide which is which for we are all different members of the body). How may this grace of true zeal be yours in greater abundance than it is at present? Thirty guidelines:
Don’t neglect asking God to make you more fervent in spirit every single day.
Go to bed on time and get up on time each morning so that you start unrushed.
Sit under the best ministry you can get each Sunday. If you can get better preaching elsewhere why stay here? Life is too short.
Hitch your wagon to a star. Our lives are creaking old wagons; our congregation is a groaning wagon, but there are stars to which we can be hitched. I am talking of Martin Luther, John Bunyan, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, J. Gresham Machen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Read what they say; if they have recordings then listen to them. Learn of their lives and their battles. Makes them your role models – a number of men not one. Let their example and teaching help draw you through life. Hitch your wagon to them.
Unclutter your life. Our lives are all a pruning away what is inessential and a search for the simple things of the gospel.
Allow extra time to do things and to get to people and places.
Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over a period; don’t lump the hard things all together.
Take one day at a time.
Separate your worries from your concerns. If a situation is a concern, think about it, and ask God what he would have you do and let go of the anxiety, and put your trust in him. Why worry about situations concerning which you can do nothing? Commit it to the Lord and get on with life.
Live within your budget; don’t use credit cards for ordinary purchases.
Have backups; an extra car key in a friend’s house, an extra house key buried in the garden. A rickety old laptop . . . even a typewriter for emergencies.
K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
Carry a Bible with you to read while waiting in line.
When we are ill we are never quite as ill as we imagine we are. We always add on a proportion. Remember you are never as bad as you think you are.
Get enough rest, and eat sensible enjoyable food. One morning you don’t feel like reading the Scriptures. You don’t feel like working or praying. So you tend to say to yourself, ‘Well I’m not feeling well today and I can’t do this.’ No. You mustn’t say that, you must rouse yourself. Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise.
We all feel better if our minds are being exercised. Read more than the daily paper and novels. Do more than watch the TV. Think. Read non-fiction. The more you use your mind the better.
Get organized so that you use your time to maximal efficiency. It is amazing what you can do if you plan well.
Listen to CD’s while driving. That can redeem the time.
Write down thoughts and inspirations that have come to you or you’ll forget them.
Every day, find time to be alone. Once again, every day, find time to be alone.
When you are bowed down then talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don’t wait until later.
Make friends with as many godly people as you can.
Keep some little cards; inscribe new scriptures on them; commit them to memory.
Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is to say, ‘The Lord Omnipotent is King.’
Keep smiling when you are tricked and criticised.
Take your work and studies seriously, but not yourself at all.
Develop a forgiving attitude (most Christians are doing the best they can).
Do everything for double usefulness. Bake two cakes or two quiches and take one to someone who is housebound. Write two letters to missionaries when you are in the rare writing mood.
Men and women, ‘we must hurry.’ That was the great word of William Chalmers Burns in Scotland as he thought of the shortness of the time. Buy up the opportunities of the week that lies ahead. It will never return.
Never resist an inclination to pray.
So Paul is urging you to ensure that the energy of the Spirit is at work in you constantly with no hindrances preventing it. Resist the hindrances, remove the obstacles, and maintain the glow. You cannot work up the fire but you can remove the ashes and be stirring up the gift of God within you. We must not quench the Spirit. We must resist the drift to becoming lukewarm. That is not an option. The Lord will spew us out of his mouth if we do not become fervent in spirit. We must recapture every day our first love.
4. Serving the Lord
How did the Apostle Paul serve the Lord? Surely he did it with a fervent heart. What did that mean for him? I will say this,that we don’t find the Apostle Paul talking that much about how bad the Roman Empire was. We don’t hear the Apostle Paul complaining about all the things that had happened to him, all the persecutions he’d had to endure. We don’t find any kind of focus on Paul himself. He is too busy serving the Lord. He used every day’s opportunities to make known the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. He sees a statue of an unknown god, and what does he do? He climbs the steps and proclaims to the Greeks who that unknown God is. He appears before King Agrippa, whom he knows has some knowledge of the gospel since he is married to a Jewess. So he drives the claims of the gospel home to that person, to the point that the king cries out, ‘You have almost persuaded me to become a Christian!’ When he stands before the Sadducees and Pharisees, he knows there is a difference between how they look at the resurrection, so he uses the occasion to speak about the resurrection.
Because Paul is fervent in spirit it doesn’t mean that he was unaware of all the things that were happening around him. He knew how the Jews thought. He knew how the Greeks thought, and he used every opportunity that he had. So must you. You are fervent in spirit and yet you need to be informed about the things that are happening around you. You must know what is going on in the world, so that you might use every opportunity that the Lord will give to you. That is the goal of your diligence and fervency of spirit. You are not here to condemn all the bad things that are going on in the world. We know they’re bad. The world is perishing. You do not need to add your condemnation. What this world needs is a church full of good Samaritans, not a church full of self-righteous Levites and priests.
This world, like your body, is dying. It is dying very quickly. It needs help. That is why you must rush to your neighbour’s needs with a compassionate heart. You may not be like that fancy front room fire, all polished up, sitting in the showroom shining but with no heat in it at all. You are to be a burning woodstove to provide heat and warmth in a freezing world. You must provide nourishment that is cooked and ready to be served. I know the apostle Paul and Jesus also spoke very sharply to those who were hypocritical office-bearers and teachers. They too must be addressed in the same way today. But primarily you must also use your time to help those who are prisoners in jail, those who are helpless.
Men and women, there are so many today who are not behind steel bars, but who are prisoners of wrong habits, wrong thinking, who are captivated and led astray by the evil one. They need to be set right. They need to hear the Word of the Lord. You, who are given the warmth of the Holy Spirit, must now use every opportunity so that you may bring the healing light of the Holy Spirit to those who are cold and lifeless around you. The Lord Jesus Christ did not purchase you, neither did the Holy Spirit come with power to live in you, so that you could retire very comfortably into an apartment on the Riviera, so that you could just close the door and have a nice time of fellowship with all the other holy old people who have retired there. By God’s grace we may have fellowship, and we praise the Lord for it, but we may not withdraw into a corner, as if we are too holy for a sinful world, because then we are hiding the light under a bushel. Our last years must be our most important and useful years.
You must keep all things in life in perspective of the return of Jesus Christ. Keep that in mind, by all means. Look for it, hastening unto the coming of the day of God, when the heavens shall be dissolved and the elements will melt with fervent heat. The world is going to disappear. We know that, and we have to keep that in mind while we have time, men and women. For how long is it going to last? We see whole continents coming under the darkness of a false and evil philosophy of man, so that the gospel can no longer be brought. How long will we have to bring the warmth and the love of Jesus Christ?
Only those who have the Spirit of God can bring the gospel to a sin-sick world, cold, lifeless, dead. You may not sit back, self-satisfied and comfortable in your own little world, rejoicing with the few that are going to heaven. This is the time that you are to claim, and bring the warmth and love of Jesus Christ in every opportunity that you have. No matter where you live, what you do, or what your age is, it doesn’t matter. It does not matter where you go because the fire is inside. That is the fire in you that gives warmth, and you can share that warmth and love.The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. He gave his life as a ransom for many. That is your task also. Again, day after day, you are to deny yourself, offer up yourself, and give yourself. You don’t have to worry. Don’t think that by giving up yourself and denying yourself, you are going to run out of heat. The Holy Spirit is the one who provides the heat, and his heat is unlimited. He will supply you with everything that you need, provided you are giving out the heat.
The time is short. Very often you may have only one opportunity to speak to someone about the Lord. Often you may have one opportunity in your whole life to help one person. Don’t miss it. Don’t let it go by. If you are willing to be the least, you will be the greatest. Do not let your pride or your self-preoccupation stand in the way. Men and women, be diligent, not slothful. Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord in time, until the Lord returns. He’s coming and how soon it will be in the light of eternity – hallelujah!
