May 5, 2025 • 61 mins
In this powerful episode, Pastor Karl unpacks Romans 15 and 16, diving into the transformative "dynamite" power of the Gospel that saves, sanctifies, and stabilizes believers. He explores Paul’s call to selflessness, urging the church to live for others as Christ did, and emphasizes the unshakable hope granted by the Holy Spirit. Celebrating the diverse, tireless servants listed in Romans 16—like Phoebe and Priscilla—Pastor Karl challenges listeners to reject passivity and serve without seeking titles. With passion and urgency, he inspires the congregation to embrace God’s inclusive plan and turn the world upside down for the Gospel.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
The word gospel
translates to news that brings joy.
But this isn't just any news.
A gospel is newsthat changes a life forever.
After being invadedand enslaved by Persia,
Greece won two decisive battlesat marathon and Soldiers.
The Greeks sent outheralds, also called evangelists,
(00:24):
to proclaim the good news to the cities.
We have fought for you. We have won.
And now you're no longer slaves.
You're free.
The reality is that we are all slaves.
Slaves to sin and slaves to death.
We are slaves in need of good news.
Enter Jesus, God's son.
(00:46):
Fully God, fully man.
Bringing newsthat would change our lives forever.
His news was this.
I am the divine.
Come to youto do what you could not do for yourself.
I will take what you deserveso you can have what I describe.
You have no idea how much it will cost me.
But you also cannotimagine the depths of my love for you.
(01:09):
It is a gift that I give freely.
So intent.
Repent from all the waysyou run for me and follow me.
Follow mebecause I am the only way to eternal life.
Follow me.
Because I'mthe savior you've been looking for.
Follow mebecause I have authority over everything.
Yet I have humbled myself for you.
Follow me.
(01:29):
Because I died on a cross for you.
Because I'm yourtrue love and your true life.
This is my good news for you.
This is my gospel.
That you have been saved by graceand that you are slaves.
No more. You.
(02:00):
That is the book of Romans.
The good news of the Gospel of Jesus.
That he cameand lived and died for our salvation.
That is the good news of the gospel,and that is the book of Romans.
I'm going to I'm going to
just take some libertyand diverge to what I had planned
on what I did in first service,because I need to address this.
(02:25):
That is the truth.
As the good news.
But sometimes it's very difficult
to hold on to the good newswhen there's nothing but bad news
to understand.
Yeah.
And for a family in our church,that is their reality.
Some of
you have heard,most of you have heard of the young man,
(02:46):
Caleb Quick,who was shot outside McDonald's.
Well, his family is in our church.
I don't know if you knew that.
Grandma and grandpa and uncle and aunt
and the quick family is part of our body.
And, I wanted to make sure
that I had permission,
to acknowledge themand that for all of us.
(03:14):
And, though the gospel is good news,
sometimes
the realization of that is very difficult
in the midst of bad news.
And so I'm just going to ask
I'm going to ask youa couple of things about us. One,
that we're very careful about how we talk,
(03:37):
what we believe,
what we see on social media stuff,
especially surroundingthis tragedy, this injustice.
And that we do what we can do,
according to Scripture,that we mourn with those who mourn here.
And lift this family up in prayer.
And just in some real honesty,authenticity.
(04:00):
I have no idea
what mercy and grace means.
For the perpetrators,
I have no idea,
what God's justice looks like.
And I have no idea,
(04:22):
how it.
This changes a little bit
of your understandingof God's sovereignty.
And in the absence of knowledge,
my faith steps in,
and in where there is doubt,
my confidence has to remain.
(04:43):
And to that end, my prayers are extended,
as are ours as a church.
And so, church, pray with me.
Father, I thank you
that Caleb knew you and knows you.
And even more than that, that you know him
(05:06):
and have received him to yourself.
That's the thethe only things that we can hold on to.
And in this time, over the,over this family.
And so on their behalf.
We rejoice in salvation.
We rejoice in your faithfulness.
And we acknowledge in our humanitythat we have no clue
(05:30):
what justice, what mercy,what grace looks like.
From your perspective.
And so, father,I pray that you would help us not
to allow our perspectiveto interfere with your perspective.
You're a sovereign,and we have to trust that.
I don't know what that means,but but I, I have to acknowledge it.
(05:52):
You're providential.
I I'm not sure what that means in thissinner, but I have to acknowledge it,
because that's who you are.
And we
collectively, as a church,please pray over the quick family
peace where there is turmoil, comfort
where there is distress, joy in eternity,where there's grief.
(06:13):
Yes, I pray that you allow them grief,but grief with hope.
And on a human level, I pray for wisdom
and discernmentand breakthrough for the authorities
that they would do their joband do their job well.
But even more than that.
And alongside that,I pray over this family.
Draw close to them.
(06:34):
God, draw close to them
through your people, through your church,and through your spirit.
Let us know how to walkwell alongside them.
Thank you for Caleb's faith.
Thank you for his reliance upon you.
And thank you that that young manheard what we all desire to hear.
Well done,
my good and faithful servant.
(06:55):
So we commit this family to you, father,and this process.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Thank you.
And to the family.
We're praying, man.
We're praying.
I had to acknowledge that I had,
thank you for walkingthrough that, with me and with us.
(07:17):
Tough transition into,
the celebratorynature of the book of Romans.
But this is what family does, right?
This is what family does.
We acknowledge the hurtingand we acknowledge the the joyful stuff,
and we just get to live it together,right?
Right. That is what we do.
And so welcome to flip flop family.
(07:39):
This is what we do.
And and in juxtaposition of, of that,
I need to let you know thatthis was a really fun week at flip side.
It was a really good week.
And Wednesday nightwe had pregnancy care center here
with the junior high and high school kidstalking about
intimacy and sexual intimacy,which was really crazy for them.
(08:00):
But so much better than what
they learn on social media.
And, or in the schools.
So, that was that was good. It was good.
And then we followed that up,with a women's conference
Saturday nightand all day early in the morning
and afternoon on, this weekend,which was just amazing.
(08:20):
You ladies did a great jobputting that whole thing together.
And and planning that.
And it was just so, so, so good.
And then Friday or Saturday morning,
I met with, like, my, my 40guys that were going through discipleship
together, which was just such a good timefor us to be together as well.
And then we got church nowand then baptism afterwards.
(08:42):
And it's just a good weekend, man.
Thank you, church, for doing what you doand being who you are.
It's a good family. It's a good family.
But today we're going to wrap up.
Best I can get this.
Romans, 15 and 16.
And so I'm going to do my bestto get through two chapters so we can wrap
(09:02):
this up.
Last weekI dealt with the first part of chapter 15.
I'm going to wrap it up today.
I'm going to go backand recap it a little bit.
But let me just say this as we get into toto the last two chapters
of the book of Romansthat Paul had always planned
on going to Rome,it was always his desire to go to Rome.
(09:22):
But he'd been prevented from going there.
And so he write, he wrote this letterin advance of his trip,
and three years after this letter,he would he would get to Rome.
Now, he planned on going to Rome as aas a as an apostle, as a missionary,
as an emissary, for the Lord Jesus,the resurrected Savior.
(09:43):
And that was his plan.
And he got there,
but not as thathe got there as a prisoner.
That would set the stagefor his beheading.
How many of us understandthis idea that we have our plans?
But God has his plans,
and our plans and God's plans.
When they conflict, one of us wins.
(10:06):
And it's not usually us.
Right. And so.
So all of this happened in Paul's lifeaccording to the plan and the will.
The father somehow.
And what I love about the book.
For what things I loveabout the book of Romans.
It starts with the proclamationof the power of God,
and it ends with a proclamationof the power of God
(10:26):
and everything in the middle,between the beginning
and the end of the book of Romansis a manifestation of the power of God.
And what we see in the book of Romans isthat it is the power of God that saves us.
It's the power of Godthat sanctifies us, makes us holy,
and it's a power of Godthat stabilizes us.
Our faith in a very unshaken world,a very shaken world.
(10:49):
And so it's the power of God
that that saves us, that sanctifiesis that stabilizer, stabilizer.
And it's all through the book of Romans.
And it's going to culminate in chapter16 today.
And it's the power of God,the power of God,
that I need,the power of God that you need.
And if you've been livingwithout your life,
without the power of God, it is availablefor you that's available today for you.
(11:09):
And so let me just recap
the first few verses of chapter 15,because I talked about it last week
a little bit.
Let me just do a little bit of recap here.
Chapter 15, verses one and two.
Paul says this we who are strong,have an obligation to bear
with the failings of the weak
and not to please ourselves, buteach of us pleases neighbor, for he good.
(11:30):
To build him up.
But let me let me helpyou understand something.
I made a choice this morning
to not put the Bible verses on the screen,and they're not on our app.
You can go to our appand go to the Bible app to get them.
But I made the choicenot to put the verses up there.
And here's why.
(11:53):
Because I feel like,
I, I've been allowing
a little bit of laziness
to take root in our church.
Here's what I mean.
And please take this with grace.
But here's what I mean.
I've conditioned you
to show up without a Bibleand to show up without resources
(12:16):
and to sit like you'rewatching a television.
Right.
Right. Yeah. Know.
And so I don't know thatI'm making this hard, fast rule.
From now on, I will not put a Bible,
but I'm going to try it today.
And so here's the thing.
If you brought a Bible,open up to Romans 615.
(12:37):
If you didn't break a paper Bible,get out your smartphone,
because I know y'all got one,and get out your Bible app on there.
And if they haven't downloaded the Bibleapp, you're exposed.
So open up.
And if this is really uncomfortable
for us, I'll probably keep doing it.
Okay.
(12:58):
So I'm going to read from the EnglishStandard version.
Whatever version you have,the revised standard perversion
or the nearly inspirational version,or the King Jimmy
or whatever it is, you just follow along.
But, but,
but if you're looking for those to be upthere, they're not going to be up there.
So he says in verse one and two,
(13:20):
the strong have an obligation for the weakand their failings, not to please
ourselves, to please this neighborfor his good, to build them up.
We talked last week about the strong.
The strong are those who live with agreat deal of freedom in the grace of God,
not to have a bunch of parametersand rules around their lives.
We listen to the leadingof the Holy Spirit.
We follow the grace of God, and Godhas given us great, incredible liberty,
(13:45):
and we just live in that and experiencethe fun of it.
Other people the week, Paul says,have a lot of rules around their lives
and regulations. Don't do this, don'tdo this, don't do this, don't do this.
Paul put those two in.
In contrast with the strong,lived by liberty and the weak in faith.
Live by rules.
And he says, the the strong in faith,who just live by the freedoms
(14:06):
given us in Christ, have an obligationto the ones who are the,
you know, the the rule keepers,and the virtue signal is like, just relax,
just do what's best for them,not what's best for yourself here.
Here'swhat else that is so hard for us to do.
It's so hard for us to live
according to what's best for someone else.
(14:28):
Because we're real.
We all. Here'swhat I learned a long time ago.
We all listen to the sameradio station, WITF, FM.
What's in it for me?
We all listen to that station,
and we view the worldthrough the lens of what?
What's in this?
For me, I was watching an NFL draftlast week, not a one of those young men.
(14:50):
I understand the celebration of itmaking it,
but not a one of those young men
walked across the stage and thought,oh, finally, I can do so much good.
I got a platform for the world,
everyone of them.
How much can I get out of this?
Right?
Because we all listen to itlike, what's in it for me and Paul
saying, we gotta push against that
(15:11):
and not look to what's best for me,but what's best for you.
And he reiterates it in our Scripture,
reiterates in in Philippians one,
sorry, Philippians two, versesthree and four,
and it says this do nothingfrom selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count othersmore significant than yourselves.
(15:32):
Let each of you
look not only to his own interests,but also the interests of others.
What he's saying is that we emulateChrist, who didn't look out
for his own interests but looked outfor ours, humbled himself, and served.
He said, that's our model.
That's what we do.
You understand, he says,you have to rage against the selfishness
(15:56):
and rage for the benefit of someone else.
It's been said thatthe man who gets wrapped up in himself
has a pretty small package.
You understand?
Like you're just a small personwhen it's all about me.
And so Paul's pushing back here
and he's saying,let's put other people, let's honor them.
Verse three, for Christdidn't please himself.
(16:18):
That's our model, Jesus as our model.
But as it is written, the reproachesof those who were pushed, you fell on me.
It's written about Jesus.
For whatever was written in former days
was written for our instruction,that through the endurance
and through the encouragementof the scriptures, we might have hope.
You're sayingJesus is our example of someone who didn't
(16:38):
live to please themselves, but lived tofor the benefit of someone else?
He's our model.
He's our hope.
He's the one we measure ourselves against.
You don't measure yourself against me.
I don't measure myself against you.
That's not a very good measurement.
Christ is our measurement.
And as Jesus said,lay down his authority to serve us.
(17:01):
So now we lay down ours to serve others.
You follow, you follow.
Okay.
Let's just keep pressing as five,six and seven.
Verse five.
May the God of endurance and encouragementgrant you to live in such harmony
with one another in accord with ChristJesus, that together you may
(17:21):
with one voice glorify the God and Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore welcome one another, as
Christ has welcomed youfor the glory of God.
Here's what he's saying.
He writes this desireas a prayer for them.
He writes it as a prayer.
And basically he's he said,this is my prayer for you.
My prayer is almost speakingas a prayer over him.
(17:43):
May the God of endurance and encouragementgrants you
to live in such harmony with one anotherin accordance with Christ Jesus.
That together in your harmonywith each other, you would glorify God
through Jesus Christ.
He said, this is my perfectand this is why he says it as a prayer.
Because living in view
(18:03):
of the benefit of anotheris not natural to us.
So it has to be a supernatural workwithin us.
And so he's praying itas a prayer over us.
The ability to live like Paulis telling these people to live like,
put someone else ahead to emulatethe attitude of Christ
(18:23):
is not natural for us, right?
And so he's speaking it as a prayerbecause he knows it's
only accomplished in usby the Holy Spirit's presence within us.
As God gives us grace.
Now in verses eight,I'm going to blaze through some of this.
I'm going to blaze through some of this,okay,
(18:44):
because we're going to get somewhere.
But I need I need to
we don't have the time for me to dive downinto every little, every little word.
So in, in, in verses eight through 12,
Paul.
References second Samuel 22.
Psalm 18, Deuteronomy 32,
Psalm 117, and Isaiah 11 five.
(19:07):
Old Testament.
But prophets poetry to drive homethe point.
And here's his point.
I'm just going to read verse
eight and nine, forI tell you that Christ became a servant.
There it is to the uncircumcised,or sorry, to the circumcised.
That's God's people.
To show God's truthfulnessin order to confirm the promises
(19:29):
given to the patriarchsAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, and in order
that the Gentiles, as non-Jews,might glorify God for his mercy.
And his mercy was expressed in the fact
that God sought us out,
not being a part of his chosen peace. He,
(19:51):
the Jews, thought they were specialbecause they were
the chosen people of God.
And they said,
because we're the chosen people of God,and you non-Jews are not chosen by him.
You're not special.
God revealed himself to us, not to you.
And what Paul saying here
is that Jesus became the servant
(20:13):
so that
he could reach us, because that was alwaysGod's plan from the beginning.
And then these five Old Testament books,
it talks about this ideathat the Gentiles,
the non-Jews, will sing praises to God,will glorify God, will worship God,
because we too have been invitedinto God's family.
In other words, what Paul is sayingis, look, Jews, you are special
(20:36):
because God started with you.
But you're not the only special.
This invitation
into my family goes out to everybody.
And so for you and for me, today remains
the invitation of Godto be adopted into his family.
This was always his plan,and he was telling this plan to the world.
From the very beginningsof the first patriarchs of the faith.
(21:00):
I want you all in my family.
None of you are born into it.
I want to adopt you into it.
Right?
Was that Romans five?
Like, I want to adopt you into this.
And so he quotes all these Old Testament.
I'm like I said,I don't have time to get into all of this,
but I just want you to knowthat what Paul saying is God's eternal
(21:22):
plan has always been for youto be a part of his family.
It's always been a part of his plan.
Now watch this verse 13thMay the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing,
so that by the power of the Holy Spirityou may abound in hope.
Let these words sink in.
May the God of what
(21:43):
hope fill you with all joyand peace in believing, so that by the
what power of the Holy Spirityou may abound in what you know.
Please understand.
There was no hope, no lasting certain
firm, strong, foundational hope
(22:05):
apartfrom the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and
hope.
This type of hope, this unshakable,
this foundational hope,not this Pollyanna view.
I hope it works out the certainty
is only by the supernatural powerand presence of the Holy Spirit.
(22:27):
We don't come by itnaturally in our own human nature.
We are not by nature hopeful people
with a hope that is not shaken.
It's only by them, bythe supernatural power of the Holy Spirit,
that we have a hope,because that hope is built in God,
in first Corinthians 1313,
(22:49):
Paul says,these three continue to remain faith,
hope, and love.
Hope does not remain apartfrom the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in relationshipwith the father.
Through faith in the son,
(23:09):
we have to understand this.
We don't come by itnaturally of our own nature.
We have to understand this, that,
where am I?
I got a slide here, don't I? Yeah.
Why is that up there?
Hope isn't a mindset.
It's a miracle.
Do you understand that?
(23:30):
That's what Paul saying.
You don't you don't talk yourselfinto being hopeful.
You don't you don't work yourself upinto positivity.
That doesn't last.
Matter of fact, the Bible will saythat we talked about today.
We will grieve,
but we grieve as those with hope
(23:50):
because hope doesn't disappoint.
And that's only possible us by the end.
One spirit because it's a supernaturalword to be people of hope,
to understand.
And this is what so many people inthis world are looking for.
Not just hope, but the God of hope.
(24:11):
Where hope resides.
Look at verse 14
1415 I myself am satisfied about you,my brothers,
that you,your soul selves, are full of goodness,
filled with all knowledge,and able to instruct one another.
But on some pointsI have written you very boldly
(24:31):
by way of reminder,because of the grace given me by God.
Here's what he saying.
He said, look, you all know this.
If you he's sayingthat you've been with me
long enough, I would say the same thingyou've been with me on,
you know, this stuff.
But sometimes because life happens,we gotta be reminded of it, right?
Like, you know, this, this isn't newinformation for a lot of you.
(24:54):
And for those of you withthis new information, something resonates
inside anyway.
And it looks I just sometimesI just gotta remind you of that.
Let's just remember that'swhy it's good for us to be together,
why it's good for us to open up the Bibleto remind ourselves.
And what he's saying here isyou have look at what he says.
You're filled with all the knowledgeand able to instruct
(25:14):
one another like you have.
If you're walking with Jesus,
you have within youbecause the Holy Spirit is there.
What you need to instruct each otherin these issues of hope,
in these issues of instructionfor counsel and encouragement.
Do you understand?
(25:35):
There's no reason for the churchto go outside the church
for counsel and guidance and instruction.
He's saying you have it.
Just remember what you have.
Do you understand?
He would say the same thing to us.
Let's say you got
you have this.
(25:56):
You have this for each other.
Just remember what it is you possess.
Look at verse 17 and 18.
I'm going to jump around.
Well I got two chapters to get through
verse 17, in Christ Jesus.
Then I have reason to be proud of my workfor God,
for I will not venture to speak ofanything except Christ has accomplished
(26:19):
through me to bring the Gentilesto obedience by word and deed.
I love what he's pressing into.
What he says is, I am only going to speakabout what God has done through me.
I'm not going to talk aboutwhat I've done.
I'm not going to talk about whatwe're up, whatever.
I'm only going to talk aboutwhat God has done through me.
(26:42):
In other words, what he's saying isI'm not going to try to build my brand.
Do you understand me?
I'm notin this to build a following for me.
I'm not in this to build likes.
I'm not in this to build a crowd.
I'm in. I will dowhat God has asked me to do.
And then I'll bragabout what God has done.
(27:04):
And I will only talk about his work,
and I will only glory inwhat Jesus has done.
I'm not here to attract followers.
I'm not here to attract applause.
I'm not here to attract a crowd.
I don't need a spotlight.
I'll take an altar over a stage any day.
You understand?
And I get really concerned.
(27:28):
Well, what he's sayingis he's driving home the point.
He must be greater than I.
Is John three three.
He must increase. I must decrease
John 330.
And I get really concerned. It's
with people who are supposedto be apprentices of Jesus,
(27:51):
especially people who are supposed to beapprentices of Jesus with the title pastor
seem to be so much more focusedand concentrating
on their brand and their hashtag.
More than
simply bragging about Jesus.
Didn't sin.
They got to be real careful.
(28:14):
We gotta be real careful with this.
I'll speak only wordand then look at verse 19.
By the power of signs and wonders,and by the power of the Spirit of God.
So that from Jerusalemall the way around the whole world, there
I have fulfilled the ministryof the gospel of Christ.
I love that look at verse 20,and thus I make it my ambition
(28:34):
to preach the gospel,
not where Christ has already been named,lest I build on someone else's foundation.
A love. When he sent her, he saying, look,
I have
fulfilled the ministry of the Godlike God.
I did all that God asked me to do.
I've left nothing undone.
I didn't leave the fieldin the middle of the game.
(28:56):
I kept what I kept pressing inuntil the day I died.
This is going to be my.
This is going to be what I do.I'm going to keep press.
I'm going to keep working.
I'm going to fulfill everything
that God has given me to do.
Here's what he's saying.
Don't stop until everything is done.
My friends.
(29:19):
We don't get a tap out.
We don't get a walk off the field.
I want to be able to say, like Paul,I have fulfilled the ministry.
Everything that God's asked me to do,I fulfilled it and complete it.
I've run the good race of faith,
right?
I've crossed the finish line.
(29:41):
Here's my concern.
And this is what I loveabout the Apostle Paul
and those he will name in chapter 16.
He didn't stop short.
He didn't leave plays in the playbook.
He didn't call.
He didn't leave money on the table.
He didn't say I worked my tail offin the first few decades.
Now I get to watch people do it.
(30:02):
That wasn't what he did.
Did you onedid you know this, that sociologically,
in our culture, the most?
The decades of where
you have the most impactand the most influence
in your 70s,
in your 60s and then in your 80s,did you know that
(30:23):
it's not in your 20s, in your 30s,in your 40s, in your 50s,
when we as individualshave the most influence
and the most impact is when we'rein our 70s, our 60s and then our 80s.
And so for
those of us who are thereor approaching there,
(30:44):
and we look back over decadesand think, man,
I served well, it'ssomeone else's time to take the mantle.
Oh my gracious, are you wrong?
That's not the example of Scripture.
That's not the model of Paul.
And you're workingagainst your own influence and impact.
(31:05):
Those are the decades that you present.
Those are the decadesthat you get more excited.
Those are the decades that you applyyourself.
Even the panel goes down even further.
I'm not going to leaveanything left undone.
You understand?
(31:29):
And I love the fact he says,
I don't want to workwhere a foundation has already been
laid. Am.
This is why we plant churches.
I want to go plant churcheswhere there aren't any churches.
I don't want to go planninga little one on these.
My gracious, what old
waste.
(31:55):
Like Chowchilla, they need churches.
I don't know.
Listen, please understand what I'm saying.
If you're in your 20s and 30s and 40s,don't wait till you're old.
You jump in.
Now, I've never heard anybodyon their deathbed say, you know what?
(32:18):
I wish I justwould have waited longer to follow Jesus
and just started serving himtoo early in my life.
I've never heard that.
So you jump in
and you get around people
that have been doing it for decades
and still have a hope that will not bend
(32:38):
and will not fadebecause the Holy Spirit is in them.
Get infected by that.
Don't get inoculated.
Get infected.
Let me jump down to verse 26
(32:59):
for Macedonia and a.k.a these placeswhere we're the
where the church has been planted,
have been pleasedto make some contribution for the poor
among the saints in Jerusalem,
for they were pleased to do it,and indeed they owe it to them.
For the Gentiles had come to sharein the spiritual blessings.
They ought to also be of service to themand the material blessings.
Here's what you're saying.
(33:19):
These churchesin Macedonia and Achaea benefited
from this.
The spiritual heritage of the believersin Jerusalem.
Like like they they benefitedfrom the church in Jerusalem,
kind of imparted to these churchestheir spiritual heritage in the faith.
And what Paul's saying is nowthose churches who had been blessed
(33:43):
spiritually owe it to that church
to share with them materially.
That's what he's saying,
that those who receivespiritual blessing are indebted.
That's what Paul.
That's a word.
Paul, you, as you oweit, are indebted to share materially.
There's a transaction that happensand it's biblical.
(34:05):
And not only is there an inDennis, there's a joy in it.
Like they were happy
after what they received spiritually.
They were happy to share becausebecause they understood
that the spiritual blessingthey've received
is a far greater value than the materialstuff that's going to fade.
(34:26):
So whynot trade the lesser for the greater
the you understand what he's saying?
It's a biblical principle.
And so let's just go through this.
We jump to verse30 and 31 right at the end of chapter 15.
I appeal to you, brothers, by our LordJesus Christ
and by the love of the spirit, to strivetogether with me in your prayers to God
(34:48):
on my behalf, that I may be deliveredfrom the unbelievers in Judea,
and that my service in Jerusalemwill be acceptable to the saints.
Verse 32.
So that by God's
will I may come to you with joy,and be refreshed in your company.
Well, he would come to them,but it wouldn't be with great joy.
He's going to be a prisoner.
May the God of peace be with you all.
Here's what he's saying.
(35:08):
What he's saying is thisI appeal to you by our Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of the spiritto strive together with me.
It Paul understood this that we don't doministry alone,
that we don't do ministry alone.
What he's saying is, I need your prayers.
I need your partnership in this.
(35:28):
He's saying,don't make me do this work by myself.
We're partners in this together.
And one of the ways he says,you partner with me is by praying for me.
All that, like,don't make me be the prayer here.
Don't make me be the one who does
the work here.
(35:51):
Ministry is a team sport and you got.
You understand?
This.
And I need you to toil with me.
(36:14):
See, here's what I.
We don't do ministry alone.
And you're invited into this with us.
With me.
And I implore you by the name of Jesus
to jump in.
And then we're given examples of those
who jumped in as examples to usin chapter 16.
(36:37):
Now, to set up chapter 16,I need to let you know this,
that Paul certainly did not do Ministryalone had a vast network of people,
men and women, who served alongside himand led alongside him.
And I love the factthat his network of people
didn't allownor expect him to do it alone.
(37:00):
They didn't allow him,nor did they expect him to.
And these names that we're going to read
through these names mean nothing to us.
They're hard to pronounce.
You've probably not spent much time at allreading these names and studying
these names,
but they meant
something to Paul,and they mean something to God.
(37:22):
And God kept a record of themand their service.
Because God sees what we dofor the kingdom that no one else knows.
They're important.
And though they're important,
they were people without a titleor a position.
They were just uncommon people
(37:43):
doing uncommon workor common people doing uncommon work.
They were just normal peopledoing incredible things.
And so with that said,let me say this, that
these people were listed here,
worked their tails off.
(38:03):
And on what I love about leadership.
And we see this in Romans 16,what I love about good
leadership is as a leader does not expect
anyone to do more than they,but they do expect one to do as they
when a
leader expects their peopleto do more than they.
That's abuse.
But when a leader doesn't expect theirpeople to do as they say, that's neglect.
(38:28):
It's not leadership.
And so a leader doesn't expectanyone to do more than they,
but they do expect them to do as they.
And this list of people here are thosewho did as Paul did there.
Follow in his lead.
It's important, point of leadership.
The other thing I want us to understandthat none of these people had a title.
(38:49):
And we have to be very careful because.
Because often if we're not careful,we get wired a little differently.
If we're not careful,we want a title without the toil.
If we're not careful,we allow ourselves to want a title.
What?That's a toil. Let me prove it to you.
We want the title of Christian
without the toil of apprenticing.
(39:13):
We want the title of being faithful
without the toil of serving.
We want the title of being a leader
without the toil of leading.
We want the title of being generous
about the toil of giving.
Gimson.
(39:33):
So we got to be careful.
And so, Paul, this all these people,
none of them had a title,but all of them toiled
beautifully, magnificently and fallappallingly.
Let me just walk through this listreal quick,
I say real quick.
You know that's not the truth.
I'm not going to gothrough all these names, but a few of them
(39:53):
I need to point out.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe,a servant of the Lord, a century,
that you, may welcome her in the Lordin a way worthy of the saints.
And help her. In what?
In whatever she may need from you.
For she's been a person,of a patron of many and of myself as well.
I love the fact that he startswith Phoebe. Why?
Because Phoebe is a woman.
(40:14):
And it was so uncommon to listwomen in the list like this.
Especially in the Greco-Roman world.Here's why.
Because in the Greco-Roman
world, women had no standard as standingand no authority.
Matter of fact, in the Greco-Roman world,a husband could divorce his wife
for no reason whatsoever.I don't to give a reason.
Just get out.
A woman had no authority to do a thingin response.
(40:36):
Matter of fact, in the Greco-Roman world,when women would be pregnant,
they prayed for a boy and not a girl.
Because boys were seen as assets,girls were seen as liabilities.
So much so that as a woman gave birth,this little baby girl,
if the family didn't want herbecause she was all of a sudden
a liability that they couldn't afford,they would toss her out into the street
and let her die with not a thoughtfrom the community.
(40:59):
Sound familiar?
And if anybody passing by
wanted to rescue this little baby,they were welcome to her.
But they would usually
rescue that baby for two reasonseither to be a slave or a prostitute.
That was the
station of women in the first century.
And so the fact that Paul lists
a woman first is transformativeand revolutionary.
(41:22):
And I get really frustrated with peoplewho are ignorant in culture and world
culture and biblical history
that say that the Bible is chauvinistagainst oppressors women.
They don't know anythingwhat they're talking about.
It's through the Bibleand through the Gospels and Jesus himself.
In the first years that elevated women.
And Paul says, and I'm going to startwith a woman of all the ones
(41:44):
I want to champion, Phoebe, the servant,she has this this role.
It's not a title. It's a role of servant.
That word servant meansliterally in the Greek
diaconate,a literal translation, a servant.
But we get our English worddeacon out of this.
She was a deacon in the church.
(42:05):
I mean, she was a servant.
It's the exact same word used in acts six
when the apostles got togetherand said, we
we can't take careof the needs of the church.
We need to focus onpraying and studying and preaching.
So we need deacons to serve the church.
It's the exact same wordused of those deacons that were chosen.
And Steve in of whom it issaid, is of good reputation,
(42:26):
full of spirit and wisdom.
That's Phoebe.
She has a good reputation, is full ofwisdom, and full of the Spirit of God.
And she served as a deaconessin the church.
Now please noteshe served as a deacon, is not a pastor,
and the role of a deacon was not oversight
and authority overit was serving of literally.
(42:50):
It was to guard and set the needsof the others using their own resources.
That's what they did.
And this was this lady, Phoebe,
incredible woman,incredible leader in the church.
Greet Priscillaand Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ.
These two Priscilla and a cooler.
Again, really interesting.
(43:10):
Priscilla and Akula are mentionedsix times.
In in church history,
four of the sixPriscilla is mentioned before Aquila.
Why is it significant?
Because Priscilla is the wife.
Four of the six timesthe wife is named first,
which was unheard of in the culture.
You didn't list the woman first.
It was always the husband.
(43:31):
But apparently Priscillawas a better leader than her husband,
which is no surprise.
We tell our church planners all the time
when they when they're getting ridof planning a church is a look.
Some of you men,you think you married a cheerleader.
You didn't.
You didn't marry a cheerleader.
You married a leader.
Let them lead.
You understand?
(43:52):
Says these are my coworkers.
And they risked their necks for my life.
Like, they they pressed in.
Look at verse five.
I greet my beloved Aeneas, whowas the first convert to Christ in Asia.
I love the fact that Paul led someone toJesus and he's still with them.
(44:14):
It is incredible when those who startwith you, finish with you.
We are so blessed in this church.
We're coming up on our 20th birthday
and we got about.
I got a list of about 30 people,not counting the kids,
but 30 people that started with usthat are still with us.
It's just a blessing.
(44:35):
This church is so good.
God, some incredible things. Look at this.
Verse six.
Great Mary who has worked hard for you.
When Paul says,this woman, Mary worked hard,
it means literally workto the point of exhaustion.
And it doesn't mean she worked hard.
When the kids weren't playing ball,she worked hard
after where she worked hard and you know,in the way it meant, it means that
(44:57):
she worked her tail offto the point of exhaustion.
She pressed in and kept pressing in
like she kept toiling.
Why would she do that?
Why would all these people work like this?
Let's go on.
Verse seven.
Great Andronicus and Julia, my kinsmanand my fellow prisoners,
(45:21):
these two are women again.
And they were juniors.
She was a prisoner with Paul.
Can you imagine?
Like they just kept pressing inand pressing in and pressing in.
Incredible people.
Look, look at,
look, look at versenine and greet urbanist, my fellow worker.
The only thing I want to point outis just because it's funny.
(45:43):
Urbanist literally means city boy.
He's like an urban guy.
He probably lives it to sorrow.
You know it.
He's got a little puppy, carriesin a little carrier with them
and takes some of thegroomer and blows him dry and
since it
acts as and has a glass of wine,you know it.
(46:05):
I'm joking.
Maybe I just like the fact.
Like there's everybody.
There's a guy here named Rufus.
Rufus doesn't live.
Luke Rufus lives in Chowchilla or Madera.
Like, know what I'm saying?
Like, is Rufus.
Verses 1011 Greta Pelosi was a prude.
And Christ wreath those who belong.
(46:26):
The family of Aristobulusgreet my kinsman Herod.
Herodian.The family of Herod, of all people. Great.
Those in the, in the Lordwho belong to the family of Narcissus.
Here's what I love about that.
Apparently the man of the housedidn't believe in Jesus,
but the mom of the houseled the kids in the house
to Jesus.
(46:48):
What an incredible
heritage of a godly woman.
Just amazing.
Look at verse 12.
Greet those workers in the Lord.
Try Fena and Triforce.
Aren't those great names?
(47:08):
Try and draw false.
I want to give me a scholarship.
Those are just awesome names.
Two women again who worked hard.
Again, same words as Mary worked
to the point of exhaustion.
Who worked and worked? Why?
(47:29):
Why would they work themselvesto the bone?
Why would they realign their schedules?
Why would they realign their priorities?
Why were they realign their finances?
Why would they realign their livesto precedence? Why?
Yeah.
Let me tell you this.
All common people, no title,
(47:51):
no position.
Books.
They understood,
if I can put it bluntly,
it was better to be God's dog
than the devil's darling.
They didn't make excusesfor why they couldn't.
(48:12):
They didn'tmake excuses why they're too busy.
It didn't make excuses why theydidn't have the you know what it took.
They worked their selves
to the point of exhaustion.
Incredible list of people.
It's interesting to methat nine of the 26 are women.
(48:33):
One third of those listed are women.
That's amazing to me for two reasons.
One, that a third of themlisted in the ancient scripture are women.
What an elevation!
But it also amazes methat two thirds of the workers
were men.
A full two thirds were guys
(48:54):
working in the church.
That amazes me
that that many guys
were serving regularly,
you know.
Yeah.
You know, who are the firstto sign up to ministry are
whenever we ask for help for something,you know who it is.
(49:16):
Women.
You know who does allthe teaching of the kids in our church?
Well, not all of.
But most of them.
Yeah.
Women.
Why is it
that men in church
have a tendency to passivity?
(49:36):
Come.
Why is it?
It amazes me that nine
out of 27 were women,and that the other two thirds were men.
Why is it in our culture we've inverted
that?
(50:01):
We men, we're not called to passivity.
We're all called to be spectators.
We were first given charge
and dominion to work,
and so many
when it comes to spiritual things,
have slipped back into passivity.
(50:25):
Anyone go down there with the church?
That's fine.
I'm a.
In the absence in the American family
of solid men
in a family.
(50:46):
Kids at church
need your role models,
guys, more than ever before.
Ever before.
From holding babies
to Wednesday night with the high school
kids.
(51:12):
I'm going to move onbecause Jeff's thinking.
Carl, I still got to sing a song and
then wrap up with this.
Verse 17 I appeal to you, brothers,to watch out for those who cause
divisions and create obstacles contraryto the doctrine that you have been taught.
Avoid them, he says, look out.
There's going to be people in the churchthat are going to do nothing
but cause divisions and cause griefand put obstacles and argue, he says.
(51:35):
Literally, he says, avoid them.That means ignore them.
You know how the best way to shutsomebody up is? Quit talking to them?
Yeah, don't respond.
This follows really well withthe instruction to Titus and Titus 310.
Warn a divisive person once,warn them twice, and then out counsel
them out of your church.
So it says, listen,
I have out counseleda lot of people from this church.
(51:59):
You want to argue about stuff.
This isn't a place for you.
I'm going to recommenda couple of churches
where you can go mess up,but don't mess up a church.
You're welcome.
For such persons don't serve our Lord.
They serve their own appetitesby smooth talk and flattery.
They deceive hearts that are naive.
Basically, they fool people
(52:22):
because so many people.
And I understand that's why we're here.That's why I'm here.
We don't know doctrine and theologyand like, well, I don't know enough.
But what they're saying sounds good,so I guess so.
And they justkind of go along with it and.
And the gospel and good doctrinegets lost.
Well sounds good.
(52:43):
And then he presses in,
I want you to be wise as towhat is good and innocent to what is evil.
The God of peace will sooncrush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christbe with you.
He's saying,I want you to make sure that you are
guarding truth and guiding people.
I want you to be wise in this stuff.
(53:04):
You be wise and I want you to guard truth.
I want you to guard doctrine, and I wantyou to guide people, guard and guide.
That's what he's saying.
He said, you're with me on this.
You've been with me on this day,with me on this,
and pressed into this, guardedand got guard truth,
guard, doctrine, guardthe scriptures and guide people into it.
And then he mentions this one
(53:25):
young man, Timothy, my fellowworker, greet you and so delicious.
And Jason, here'swhy this is so important.
He says, Timothy greet you,guard and guide.
Timothy greet you because he's goingto write two letters to Timothy.
They're called first Timothyand second Timothy, and they're all about
guarding the truth and guarding doctrineand guiding people into it.
(53:46):
And starting next week,we're going to study those two letters
because it has to dowith guarding the truth and guarding
doctrineand guiding people into the truth.
Amen.
That's what we do.
Okay,
now, I love the fact that he mentionsthis cat Jason in here.
If you're not careful,you're going to miss who this is.
(54:08):
Jason.
You'll go back to acts 17 six.
That's where we get our name. Flip side.
The Jews were all hot and botheredabout what the church was doing,
and they want to talk to the apostles.
They want to talk to Peter.They want to talk to John.
And they're off doing ministry stuff.
And the only one left of the followersof Jesus to talk to is this old guy,
this young guy named Jason.
(54:30):
And they say to Jason,this church has turned
the world upside down.
And now they're here messing up our city.
It's the flip side,
and what we want to do is turn the worldupside
and mess up the ranchos and mess upRiverstone and mess up Tesoro.
(54:51):
And maybe God, God's will eventually getto Madera and Chowchilla
because that needs to be messed up. Two
that's why we're messing up Cuba.
That's why we're messing up Guatemala.
That's why we're messing up Mexico.
Because this is what we do.
That's why you find churchesall over the United States,
because we're messing stuff up.
And this cat, Jason,was there at the beginning.
(55:12):
And I love the fact that those who startedwith them are still with them. Why?
Because they understand.
And they've been infusedwith the power of God,
and they have a hope that is abiding,and they're not tapping out.
And just as a side note,
(55:33):
verse 23, Gaius, who was, hostto me, to the whole church, greet you.
Gaius was one of the two peoplethat Paul baptized
Paul and baptizedtwo people that he can remember.
And I love the fact that early in Paul'sministry baptizes this guy
and this guy still with them.
Verse 25,
(55:54):
now to him was able to strengthenyou according to my gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ,according to the revelation of the mystery
that was kept secret from a long ages,but has now been disclosed.
And through the propheticChrist has been made known to all nations
according to the commandof the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faithto the only wise God, be glory
forever through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Here's what he's saying Paul starts,and he ends with the power of God.
(56:18):
In Romans 116 says, I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ,for is the power of God unto salvation.
When Paul uses the word power
in the God in Romans, hereit's the Greek word dunamis.
Guess whatEnglish word we get from doing a miss?
Dynamite.
Dynamite is you old ones.
(56:38):
Remember that dynamite? It's the.
I am not his.What is his? What? Paul saying?
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it is the dynamite power of Godto bring salvation.
And then at the very end of Romanshe says, Now to him who,
according to the dynamite power of God,will strengthen you.
The dynamite power God bookends
(57:01):
Romans from the beginning to end.
It's by the dynamite power of God
that though we deserve the wrath of God,we're given the grace of God.
It's by the dynamite power of God
that he lays out.
The plan of Godand the way of God throughout Romans.
And it's these people in Romans 16that have understood this power for God,
(57:25):
this dynamite power of Godthat is resident within them,
that live with this eternalhope that can never be shaken.
They've come in contactwith this dynamite power of God
through the preaching of the gospel,and they've given themselves.
How could they not work themselvesto exhaustion?
It's the only logical responsethat because of who you are
and what you've doneand the power of you, that is now in me.
(57:49):
The only logical responsethat I have to respond to you
is by praising you,because you are the great and mighty God,
and to sacrifice for you because of whatyou sacrificed for me in your son.
Amen. Do you understand?
That's why they work to exhaustion.
That'swhy they're willing to go to prison.
(58:10):
That's why they're still with them.
That's why they're not tapping out.
And that's why this verse church turned
the world upside down.
And that is our invitation.
Because of who God is.
(58:30):
And so I tell you again,
my friends, God has the power to save you.
God has the power to sanctify youand make you holy.
God has the power to stabilize youby the grace of God, as revealed in Jesus.
And the only natural response
when you understand this is to praisethe God who is the great God,
(58:52):
and to serve the God who is the great God,
who will give you his very dynamite powerwithin you,
that you will not be shakenand you will not be overcome.
A hope that transcends all the upsand downs and the evils of this world.
I hope that cannot be shaken.
That's the invitation.
(59:15):
For anyone who would respond,
a living hope from a living God.
He is the great one.
And he must increase.
And I must decreasebecause he is the Great One,
and he doesn't invite us into this great
kingdom.
(59:37):
God, thank you.
Thank you that you love us.
Thank you that you've invited us.
Thank you that you've called us.
Thank you for examplesin your word of people who will understand
and who've been infused with the powerof you, the dynamite power to save them,
the dynamite power to sanctify them,that dynamite power to stabilize them.
(01:00:00):
Thank you.
You are a great God,and you deserve to be greatly praised.
And you are a great God,and you deserve to be greatly served
with every fiber of our being.
There is none higher than you.
There is none greater than you.
There's no lover, greater lover of meand of your people than you.
(01:00:20):
There's no greater Godwith any greater plan than you.
You sit alone.
You are uncontested.
You are unchallenged.
You deserve to be praised.
And I pray in this momentthat you would infuse your people
who want to be infused by youwith the presence
and the power of your Holy Spirit,the dynamite power
(01:00:43):
that is powerful for salvation,that is powerful for endurance,
that gives a hope, that is unshakable,that gives us security,
that is untouchable,that gives an eternity, that is secured.
God, that we in this
place would turn the world upside down.
(01:01:03):
You are a great Godand greatly to be praised.
Amen. Stand up. Let's sing.
The word gospel
translates to news that brings joy.
But this isn't just any news.
A gospel is newsthat changes a life forever.
After being invadedand enslaved by Persia,
Greece won two decisive battlesat marathon and Soldiers.
The Greeks sent outheralds, also called evangelists,
(00:24):
to proclaim the good news to the cities.
We have fought for you. We have won.
And now you're no longer slaves.
You're free.
The reality is that we are all slaves.
Slaves to sin and slaves to death.
We are slaves in need of good news.
Enter Jesus, God's son.
(00:46):
Fully God, fully man.
Bringing newsthat would change our lives forever.
His news was this.
I am the divine.
Come to youto do what you could not do for yourself.
I will take what you deserveso you can have what I describe.
You have no idea how much it will cost me.
But you also cannotimagine the depths of my love for you.
(01:09):
It is a gift that I give freely.
So intent.
Repent from all the waysyou run for me and follow me.
Follow mebecause I am the only way to eternal life.
Follow me.
Because I'mthe savior you've been looking for.
Follow mebecause I have authority over everything.
Yet I have humbled myself for you.
Follow me.
(01:29):
Because I died on a cross for you.
Because I'm yourtrue love and your true life.
This is my good news for you.
This is my gospel.
That you have been saved by graceand that you are slaves.
No more. You.
(02:00):
That is the book of Romans.
The good news of the Gospel of Jesus.
That he cameand lived and died for our salvation.
That is the good news of the gospel,and that is the book of Romans.
I'm going to I'm going to
just take some libertyand diverge to what I had planned
on what I did in first service,because I need to address this.
(02:25):
That is the truth.
As the good news.
But sometimes it's very difficult
to hold on to the good newswhen there's nothing but bad news
to understand.
Yeah.
And for a family in our church,that is their reality.
Some of
you have heard,most of you have heard of the young man,
(02:46):
Caleb Quick,who was shot outside McDonald's.
Well, his family is in our church.
I don't know if you knew that.
Grandma and grandpa and uncle and aunt
and the quick family is part of our body.
And, I wanted to make sure
that I had permission,
to acknowledge themand that for all of us.
(03:14):
And, though the gospel is good news,
sometimes
the realization of that is very difficult
in the midst of bad news.
And so I'm just going to ask
I'm going to ask youa couple of things about us. One,
that we're very careful about how we talk,
(03:37):
what we believe,
what we see on social media stuff,
especially surroundingthis tragedy, this injustice.
And that we do what we can do,
according to Scripture,that we mourn with those who mourn here.
And lift this family up in prayer.
And just in some real honesty,authenticity.
(04:00):
I have no idea
what mercy and grace means.
For the perpetrators,
I have no idea,
what God's justice looks like.
And I have no idea,
(04:22):
how it.
This changes a little bit
of your understandingof God's sovereignty.
And in the absence of knowledge,
my faith steps in,
and in where there is doubt,
my confidence has to remain.
(04:43):
And to that end, my prayers are extended,
as are ours as a church.
And so, church, pray with me.
Father, I thank you
that Caleb knew you and knows you.
And even more than that, that you know him
(05:06):
and have received him to yourself.
That's the thethe only things that we can hold on to.
And in this time, over the,over this family.
And so on their behalf.
We rejoice in salvation.
We rejoice in your faithfulness.
And we acknowledge in our humanitythat we have no clue
(05:30):
what justice, what mercy,what grace looks like.
From your perspective.
And so, father,I pray that you would help us not
to allow our perspectiveto interfere with your perspective.
You're a sovereign,and we have to trust that.
I don't know what that means,but but I, I have to acknowledge it.
(05:52):
You're providential.
I I'm not sure what that means in thissinner, but I have to acknowledge it,
because that's who you are.
And we
collectively, as a church,please pray over the quick family
peace where there is turmoil, comfort
where there is distress, joy in eternity,where there's grief.
(06:13):
Yes, I pray that you allow them grief,but grief with hope.
And on a human level, I pray for wisdom
and discernmentand breakthrough for the authorities
that they would do their joband do their job well.
But even more than that.
And alongside that,I pray over this family.
Draw close to them.
(06:34):
God, draw close to them
through your people, through your church,and through your spirit.
Let us know how to walkwell alongside them.
Thank you for Caleb's faith.
Thank you for his reliance upon you.
And thank you that that young manheard what we all desire to hear.
Well done,
my good and faithful servant.
(06:55):
So we commit this family to you, father,and this process.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Thank you.
And to the family.
We're praying, man.
We're praying.
I had to acknowledge that I had,
thank you for walkingthrough that, with me and with us.
(07:17):
Tough transition into,
the celebratorynature of the book of Romans.
But this is what family does, right?
This is what family does.
We acknowledge the hurtingand we acknowledge the the joyful stuff,
and we just get to live it together,right?
Right. That is what we do.
And so welcome to flip flop family.
(07:39):
This is what we do.
And and in juxtaposition of, of that,
I need to let you know thatthis was a really fun week at flip side.
It was a really good week.
And Wednesday nightwe had pregnancy care center here
with the junior high and high school kidstalking about
intimacy and sexual intimacy,which was really crazy for them.
(08:00):
But so much better than what
they learn on social media.
And, or in the schools.
So, that was that was good. It was good.
And then we followed that up,with a women's conference
Saturday nightand all day early in the morning
and afternoon on, this weekend,which was just amazing.
(08:20):
You ladies did a great jobputting that whole thing together.
And and planning that.
And it was just so, so, so good.
And then Friday or Saturday morning,
I met with, like, my, my 40guys that were going through discipleship
together, which was just such a good timefor us to be together as well.
And then we got church nowand then baptism afterwards.
(08:42):
And it's just a good weekend, man.
Thank you, church, for doing what you doand being who you are.
It's a good family. It's a good family.
But today we're going to wrap up.
Best I can get this.
Romans, 15 and 16.
And so I'm going to do my bestto get through two chapters so we can wrap
(09:02):
this up.
Last weekI dealt with the first part of chapter 15.
I'm going to wrap it up today.
I'm going to go backand recap it a little bit.
But let me just say this as we get into toto the last two chapters
of the book of Romansthat Paul had always planned
on going to Rome,it was always his desire to go to Rome.
(09:22):
But he'd been prevented from going there.
And so he write, he wrote this letterin advance of his trip,
and three years after this letter,he would he would get to Rome.
Now, he planned on going to Rome as aas a as an apostle, as a missionary,
as an emissary, for the Lord Jesus,the resurrected Savior.
(09:43):
And that was his plan.
And he got there,
but not as thathe got there as a prisoner.
That would set the stagefor his beheading.
How many of us understandthis idea that we have our plans?
But God has his plans,
and our plans and God's plans.
When they conflict, one of us wins.
(10:06):
And it's not usually us.
Right. And so.
So all of this happened in Paul's lifeaccording to the plan and the will.
The father somehow.
And what I love about the book.
For what things I loveabout the book of Romans.
It starts with the proclamationof the power of God,
and it ends with a proclamationof the power of God
(10:26):
and everything in the middle,between the beginning
and the end of the book of Romansis a manifestation of the power of God.
And what we see in the book of Romans isthat it is the power of God that saves us.
It's the power of Godthat sanctifies us, makes us holy,
and it's a power of Godthat stabilizes us.
Our faith in a very unshaken world,a very shaken world.
(10:49):
And so it's the power of God
that that saves us, that sanctifiesis that stabilizer, stabilizer.
And it's all through the book of Romans.
And it's going to culminate in chapter16 today.
And it's the power of God,the power of God,
that I need,the power of God that you need.
And if you've been livingwithout your life,
without the power of God, it is availablefor you that's available today for you.
(11:09):
And so let me just recap
the first few verses of chapter 15,because I talked about it last week
a little bit.
Let me just do a little bit of recap here.
Chapter 15, verses one and two.
Paul says this we who are strong,have an obligation to bear
with the failings of the weak
and not to please ourselves, buteach of us pleases neighbor, for he good.
(11:30):
To build him up.
But let me let me helpyou understand something.
I made a choice this morning
to not put the Bible verses on the screen,and they're not on our app.
You can go to our appand go to the Bible app to get them.
But I made the choicenot to put the verses up there.
And here's why.
(11:53):
Because I feel like,
I, I've been allowing
a little bit of laziness
to take root in our church.
Here's what I mean.
And please take this with grace.
But here's what I mean.
I've conditioned you
to show up without a Bibleand to show up without resources
(12:16):
and to sit like you'rewatching a television.
Right.
Right. Yeah. Know.
And so I don't know thatI'm making this hard, fast rule.
From now on, I will not put a Bible,
but I'm going to try it today.
And so here's the thing.
If you brought a Bible,open up to Romans 615.
(12:37):
If you didn't break a paper Bible,get out your smartphone,
because I know y'all got one,and get out your Bible app on there.
And if they haven't downloaded the Bibleapp, you're exposed.
So open up.
And if this is really uncomfortable
for us, I'll probably keep doing it.
Okay.
(12:58):
So I'm going to read from the EnglishStandard version.
Whatever version you have,the revised standard perversion
or the nearly inspirational version,or the King Jimmy
or whatever it is, you just follow along.
But, but,
but if you're looking for those to be upthere, they're not going to be up there.
So he says in verse one and two,
(13:20):
the strong have an obligation for the weakand their failings, not to please
ourselves, to please this neighborfor his good, to build them up.
We talked last week about the strong.
The strong are those who live with agreat deal of freedom in the grace of God,
not to have a bunch of parametersand rules around their lives.
We listen to the leadingof the Holy Spirit.
We follow the grace of God, and Godhas given us great, incredible liberty,
(13:45):
and we just live in that and experiencethe fun of it.
Other people the week, Paul says,have a lot of rules around their lives
and regulations. Don't do this, don'tdo this, don't do this, don't do this.
Paul put those two in.
In contrast with the strong,lived by liberty and the weak in faith.
Live by rules.
And he says, the the strong in faith,who just live by the freedoms
(14:06):
given us in Christ, have an obligationto the ones who are the,
you know, the the rule keepers,and the virtue signal is like, just relax,
just do what's best for them,not what's best for yourself here.
Here'swhat else that is so hard for us to do.
It's so hard for us to live
according to what's best for someone else.
(14:28):
Because we're real.
We all. Here'swhat I learned a long time ago.
We all listen to the sameradio station, WITF, FM.
What's in it for me?
We all listen to that station,
and we view the worldthrough the lens of what?
What's in this?
For me, I was watching an NFL draftlast week, not a one of those young men.
(14:50):
I understand the celebration of itmaking it,
but not a one of those young men
walked across the stage and thought,oh, finally, I can do so much good.
I got a platform for the world,
everyone of them.
How much can I get out of this?
Right?
Because we all listen to itlike, what's in it for me and Paul
saying, we gotta push against that
(15:11):
and not look to what's best for me,but what's best for you.
And he reiterates it in our Scripture,
reiterates in in Philippians one,
sorry, Philippians two, versesthree and four,
and it says this do nothingfrom selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count othersmore significant than yourselves.
(15:32):
Let each of you
look not only to his own interests,but also the interests of others.
What he's saying is that we emulateChrist, who didn't look out
for his own interests but looked outfor ours, humbled himself, and served.
He said, that's our model.
That's what we do.
You understand, he says,you have to rage against the selfishness
(15:56):
and rage for the benefit of someone else.
It's been said thatthe man who gets wrapped up in himself
has a pretty small package.
You understand?
Like you're just a small personwhen it's all about me.
And so Paul's pushing back here
and he's saying,let's put other people, let's honor them.
Verse three, for Christdidn't please himself.
(16:18):
That's our model, Jesus as our model.
But as it is written, the reproachesof those who were pushed, you fell on me.
It's written about Jesus.
For whatever was written in former days
was written for our instruction,that through the endurance
and through the encouragementof the scriptures, we might have hope.
You're sayingJesus is our example of someone who didn't
(16:38):
live to please themselves, but lived tofor the benefit of someone else?
He's our model.
He's our hope.
He's the one we measure ourselves against.
You don't measure yourself against me.
I don't measure myself against you.
That's not a very good measurement.
Christ is our measurement.
And as Jesus said,lay down his authority to serve us.
(17:01):
So now we lay down ours to serve others.
You follow, you follow.
Okay.
Let's just keep pressing as five,six and seven.
Verse five.
May the God of endurance and encouragementgrant you to live in such harmony
with one another in accord with ChristJesus, that together you may
(17:21):
with one voice glorify the God and Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore welcome one another, as
Christ has welcomed youfor the glory of God.
Here's what he's saying.
He writes this desireas a prayer for them.
He writes it as a prayer.
And basically he's he said,this is my prayer for you.
My prayer is almost speakingas a prayer over him.
(17:43):
May the God of endurance and encouragementgrants you
to live in such harmony with one anotherin accordance with Christ Jesus.
That together in your harmonywith each other, you would glorify God
through Jesus Christ.
He said, this is my perfectand this is why he says it as a prayer.
Because living in view
(18:03):
of the benefit of anotheris not natural to us.
So it has to be a supernatural workwithin us.
And so he's praying itas a prayer over us.
The ability to live like Paulis telling these people to live like,
put someone else ahead to emulatethe attitude of Christ
(18:23):
is not natural for us, right?
And so he's speaking it as a prayerbecause he knows it's
only accomplished in usby the Holy Spirit's presence within us.
As God gives us grace.
Now in verses eight,I'm going to blaze through some of this.
I'm going to blaze through some of this,okay,
(18:44):
because we're going to get somewhere.
But I need I need to
we don't have the time for me to dive downinto every little, every little word.
So in, in, in verses eight through 12,
Paul.
References second Samuel 22.
Psalm 18, Deuteronomy 32,
Psalm 117, and Isaiah 11 five.
(19:07):
Old Testament.
But prophets poetry to drive homethe point.
And here's his point.
I'm just going to read verse
eight and nine, forI tell you that Christ became a servant.
There it is to the uncircumcised,or sorry, to the circumcised.
That's God's people.
To show God's truthfulnessin order to confirm the promises
(19:29):
given to the patriarchsAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, and in order
that the Gentiles, as non-Jews,might glorify God for his mercy.
And his mercy was expressed in the fact
that God sought us out,
not being a part of his chosen peace. He,
(19:51):
the Jews, thought they were specialbecause they were
the chosen people of God.
And they said,
because we're the chosen people of God,and you non-Jews are not chosen by him.
You're not special.
God revealed himself to us, not to you.
And what Paul saying here
is that Jesus became the servant
(20:13):
so that
he could reach us, because that was alwaysGod's plan from the beginning.
And then these five Old Testament books,
it talks about this ideathat the Gentiles,
the non-Jews, will sing praises to God,will glorify God, will worship God,
because we too have been invitedinto God's family.
In other words, what Paul is sayingis, look, Jews, you are special
(20:36):
because God started with you.
But you're not the only special.
This invitation
into my family goes out to everybody.
And so for you and for me, today remains
the invitation of Godto be adopted into his family.
This was always his plan,and he was telling this plan to the world.
From the very beginningsof the first patriarchs of the faith.
(21:00):
I want you all in my family.
None of you are born into it.
I want to adopt you into it.
Right?
Was that Romans five?
Like, I want to adopt you into this.
And so he quotes all these Old Testament.
I'm like I said,I don't have time to get into all of this,
but I just want you to knowthat what Paul saying is God's eternal
(21:22):
plan has always been for youto be a part of his family.
It's always been a part of his plan.
Now watch this verse 13thMay the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing,
so that by the power of the Holy Spirityou may abound in hope.
Let these words sink in.
May the God of what
(21:43):
hope fill you with all joyand peace in believing, so that by the
what power of the Holy Spirityou may abound in what you know.
Please understand.
There was no hope, no lasting certain
firm, strong, foundational hope
(22:05):
apartfrom the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and
hope.
This type of hope, this unshakable,
this foundational hope,not this Pollyanna view.
I hope it works out the certainty
is only by the supernatural powerand presence of the Holy Spirit.
(22:27):
We don't come by itnaturally in our own human nature.
We are not by nature hopeful people
with a hope that is not shaken.
It's only by them, bythe supernatural power of the Holy Spirit,
that we have a hope,because that hope is built in God,
in first Corinthians 1313,
(22:49):
Paul says,these three continue to remain faith,
hope, and love.
Hope does not remain apartfrom the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in relationshipwith the father.
Through faith in the son,
(23:09):
we have to understand this.
We don't come by itnaturally of our own nature.
We have to understand this, that,
where am I?
I got a slide here, don't I? Yeah.
Why is that up there?
Hope isn't a mindset.
It's a miracle.
Do you understand that?
(23:30):
That's what Paul saying.
You don't you don't talk yourselfinto being hopeful.
You don't you don't work yourself upinto positivity.
That doesn't last.
Matter of fact, the Bible will saythat we talked about today.
We will grieve,
but we grieve as those with hope
(23:50):
because hope doesn't disappoint.
And that's only possible us by the end.
One spirit because it's a supernaturalword to be people of hope,
to understand.
And this is what so many people inthis world are looking for.
Not just hope, but the God of hope.
(24:11):
Where hope resides.
Look at verse 14
1415 I myself am satisfied about you,my brothers,
that you,your soul selves, are full of goodness,
filled with all knowledge,and able to instruct one another.
But on some pointsI have written you very boldly
(24:31):
by way of reminder,because of the grace given me by God.
Here's what he saying.
He said, look, you all know this.
If you he's sayingthat you've been with me
long enough, I would say the same thingyou've been with me on,
you know, this stuff.
But sometimes because life happens,we gotta be reminded of it, right?
Like, you know, this, this isn't newinformation for a lot of you.
(24:54):
And for those of you withthis new information, something resonates
inside anyway.
And it looks I just sometimesI just gotta remind you of that.
Let's just remember that'swhy it's good for us to be together,
why it's good for us to open up the Bibleto remind ourselves.
And what he's saying here isyou have look at what he says.
You're filled with all the knowledgeand able to instruct
(25:14):
one another like you have.
If you're walking with Jesus,
you have within youbecause the Holy Spirit is there.
What you need to instruct each otherin these issues of hope,
in these issues of instructionfor counsel and encouragement.
Do you understand?
(25:35):
There's no reason for the churchto go outside the church
for counsel and guidance and instruction.
He's saying you have it.
Just remember what you have.
Do you understand?
He would say the same thing to us.
Let's say you got
you have this.
(25:56):
You have this for each other.
Just remember what it is you possess.
Look at verse 17 and 18.
I'm going to jump around.
Well I got two chapters to get through
verse 17, in Christ Jesus.
Then I have reason to be proud of my workfor God,
for I will not venture to speak ofanything except Christ has accomplished
(26:19):
through me to bring the Gentilesto obedience by word and deed.
I love what he's pressing into.
What he says is, I am only going to speakabout what God has done through me.
I'm not going to talk aboutwhat I've done.
I'm not going to talk about whatwe're up, whatever.
I'm only going to talk aboutwhat God has done through me.
(26:42):
In other words, what he's saying isI'm not going to try to build my brand.
Do you understand me?
I'm notin this to build a following for me.
I'm not in this to build likes.
I'm not in this to build a crowd.
I'm in. I will dowhat God has asked me to do.
And then I'll bragabout what God has done.
(27:04):
And I will only talk about his work,
and I will only glory inwhat Jesus has done.
I'm not here to attract followers.
I'm not here to attract applause.
I'm not here to attract a crowd.
I don't need a spotlight.
I'll take an altar over a stage any day.
You understand?
And I get really concerned.
(27:28):
Well, what he's sayingis he's driving home the point.
He must be greater than I.
Is John three three.
He must increase. I must decrease
John 330.
And I get really concerned. It's
with people who are supposedto be apprentices of Jesus,
(27:51):
especially people who are supposed to beapprentices of Jesus with the title pastor
seem to be so much more focusedand concentrating
on their brand and their hashtag.
More than
simply bragging about Jesus.
Didn't sin.
They got to be real careful.
(28:14):
We gotta be real careful with this.
I'll speak only wordand then look at verse 19.
By the power of signs and wonders,and by the power of the Spirit of God.
So that from Jerusalemall the way around the whole world, there
I have fulfilled the ministryof the gospel of Christ.
I love that look at verse 20,and thus I make it my ambition
(28:34):
to preach the gospel,
not where Christ has already been named,lest I build on someone else's foundation.
A love. When he sent her, he saying, look,
I have
fulfilled the ministry of the Godlike God.
I did all that God asked me to do.
I've left nothing undone.
I didn't leave the fieldin the middle of the game.
(28:56):
I kept what I kept pressing inuntil the day I died.
This is going to be my.
This is going to be what I do.I'm going to keep press.
I'm going to keep working.
I'm going to fulfill everything
that God has given me to do.
Here's what he's saying.
Don't stop until everything is done.
My friends.
(29:19):
We don't get a tap out.
We don't get a walk off the field.
I want to be able to say, like Paul,I have fulfilled the ministry.
Everything that God's asked me to do,I fulfilled it and complete it.
I've run the good race of faith,
right?
I've crossed the finish line.
(29:41):
Here's my concern.
And this is what I loveabout the Apostle Paul
and those he will name in chapter 16.
He didn't stop short.
He didn't leave plays in the playbook.
He didn't call.
He didn't leave money on the table.
He didn't say I worked my tail offin the first few decades.
Now I get to watch people do it.
(30:02):
That wasn't what he did.
Did you onedid you know this, that sociologically,
in our culture, the most?
The decades of where
you have the most impactand the most influence
in your 70s,
in your 60s and then in your 80s,did you know that
(30:23):
it's not in your 20s, in your 30s,in your 40s, in your 50s,
when we as individualshave the most influence
and the most impact is when we'rein our 70s, our 60s and then our 80s.
And so for
those of us who are thereor approaching there,
(30:44):
and we look back over decadesand think, man,
I served well, it'ssomeone else's time to take the mantle.
Oh my gracious, are you wrong?
That's not the example of Scripture.
That's not the model of Paul.
And you're workingagainst your own influence and impact.
(31:05):
Those are the decades that you present.
Those are the decadesthat you get more excited.
Those are the decades that you applyyourself.
Even the panel goes down even further.
I'm not going to leaveanything left undone.
You understand?
(31:29):
And I love the fact he says,
I don't want to workwhere a foundation has already been
laid. Am.
This is why we plant churches.
I want to go plant churcheswhere there aren't any churches.
I don't want to go planninga little one on these.
My gracious, what old
waste.
(31:55):
Like Chowchilla, they need churches.
I don't know.
Listen, please understand what I'm saying.
If you're in your 20s and 30s and 40s,don't wait till you're old.
You jump in.
Now, I've never heard anybodyon their deathbed say, you know what?
(32:18):
I wish I justwould have waited longer to follow Jesus
and just started serving himtoo early in my life.
I've never heard that.
So you jump in
and you get around people
that have been doing it for decades
and still have a hope that will not bend
(32:38):
and will not fadebecause the Holy Spirit is in them.
Get infected by that.
Don't get inoculated.
Get infected.
Let me jump down to verse 26
(32:59):
for Macedonia and a.k.a these placeswhere we're the
where the church has been planted,
have been pleasedto make some contribution for the poor
among the saints in Jerusalem,
for they were pleased to do it,and indeed they owe it to them.
For the Gentiles had come to sharein the spiritual blessings.
They ought to also be of service to themand the material blessings.
Here's what you're saying.
(33:19):
These churchesin Macedonia and Achaea benefited
from this.
The spiritual heritage of the believersin Jerusalem.
Like like they they benefitedfrom the church in Jerusalem,
kind of imparted to these churchestheir spiritual heritage in the faith.
And what Paul's saying is nowthose churches who had been blessed
(33:43):
spiritually owe it to that church
to share with them materially.
That's what he's saying,
that those who receivespiritual blessing are indebted.
That's what Paul.
That's a word.
Paul, you, as you oweit, are indebted to share materially.
There's a transaction that happensand it's biblical.
(34:05):
And not only is there an inDennis, there's a joy in it.
Like they were happy
after what they received spiritually.
They were happy to share becausebecause they understood
that the spiritual blessingthey've received
is a far greater value than the materialstuff that's going to fade.
(34:26):
So whynot trade the lesser for the greater
the you understand what he's saying?
It's a biblical principle.
And so let's just go through this.
We jump to verse30 and 31 right at the end of chapter 15.
I appeal to you, brothers, by our LordJesus Christ
and by the love of the spirit, to strivetogether with me in your prayers to God
(34:48):
on my behalf, that I may be deliveredfrom the unbelievers in Judea,
and that my service in Jerusalemwill be acceptable to the saints.
Verse 32.
So that by God's
will I may come to you with joy,and be refreshed in your company.
Well, he would come to them,but it wouldn't be with great joy.
He's going to be a prisoner.
May the God of peace be with you all.
Here's what he's saying.
(35:08):
What he's saying is thisI appeal to you by our Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of the spiritto strive together with me.
It Paul understood this that we don't doministry alone,
that we don't do ministry alone.
What he's saying is, I need your prayers.
I need your partnership in this.
(35:28):
He's saying,don't make me do this work by myself.
We're partners in this together.
And one of the ways he says,you partner with me is by praying for me.
All that, like,don't make me be the prayer here.
Don't make me be the one who does
the work here.
(35:51):
Ministry is a team sport and you got.
You understand?
This.
And I need you to toil with me.
(36:14):
See, here's what I.
We don't do ministry alone.
And you're invited into this with us.
With me.
And I implore you by the name of Jesus
to jump in.
And then we're given examples of those
who jumped in as examples to usin chapter 16.
(36:37):
Now, to set up chapter 16,I need to let you know this,
that Paul certainly did not do Ministryalone had a vast network of people,
men and women, who served alongside himand led alongside him.
And I love the factthat his network of people
didn't allownor expect him to do it alone.
(37:00):
They didn't allow him,nor did they expect him to.
And these names that we're going to read
through these names mean nothing to us.
They're hard to pronounce.
You've probably not spent much time at allreading these names and studying
these names,
but they meant
something to Paul,and they mean something to God.
(37:22):
And God kept a record of themand their service.
Because God sees what we dofor the kingdom that no one else knows.
They're important.
And though they're important,
they were people without a titleor a position.
They were just uncommon people
(37:43):
doing uncommon workor common people doing uncommon work.
They were just normal peopledoing incredible things.
And so with that said,let me say this, that
these people were listed here,
worked their tails off.
(38:03):
And on what I love about leadership.
And we see this in Romans 16,what I love about good
leadership is as a leader does not expect
anyone to do more than they,but they do expect one to do as they
when a
leader expects their peopleto do more than they.
That's abuse.
But when a leader doesn't expect theirpeople to do as they say, that's neglect.
(38:28):
It's not leadership.
And so a leader doesn't expectanyone to do more than they,
but they do expect them to do as they.
And this list of people here are thosewho did as Paul did there.
Follow in his lead.
It's important, point of leadership.
The other thing I want us to understandthat none of these people had a title.
(38:49):
And we have to be very careful because.
Because often if we're not careful,we get wired a little differently.
If we're not careful,we want a title without the toil.
If we're not careful,we allow ourselves to want a title.
What?That's a toil. Let me prove it to you.
We want the title of Christian
without the toil of apprenticing.
(39:13):
We want the title of being faithful
without the toil of serving.
We want the title of being a leader
without the toil of leading.
We want the title of being generous
about the toil of giving.
Gimson.
(39:33):
So we got to be careful.
And so, Paul, this all these people,
none of them had a title,but all of them toiled
beautifully, magnificently and fallappallingly.
Let me just walk through this listreal quick,
I say real quick.
You know that's not the truth.
I'm not going to gothrough all these names, but a few of them
(39:53):
I need to point out.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe,a servant of the Lord, a century,
that you, may welcome her in the Lordin a way worthy of the saints.
And help her. In what?
In whatever she may need from you.
For she's been a person,of a patron of many and of myself as well.
I love the fact that he startswith Phoebe. Why?
Because Phoebe is a woman.
(40:14):
And it was so uncommon to listwomen in the list like this.
Especially in the Greco-Roman world.Here's why.
Because in the Greco-Roman
world, women had no standard as standingand no authority.
Matter of fact, in the Greco-Roman world,a husband could divorce his wife
for no reason whatsoever.I don't to give a reason.
Just get out.
A woman had no authority to do a thingin response.
(40:36):
Matter of fact, in the Greco-Roman world,when women would be pregnant,
they prayed for a boy and not a girl.
Because boys were seen as assets,girls were seen as liabilities.
So much so that as a woman gave birth,this little baby girl,
if the family didn't want herbecause she was all of a sudden
a liability that they couldn't afford,they would toss her out into the street
and let her die with not a thoughtfrom the community.
(40:59):
Sound familiar?
And if anybody passing by
wanted to rescue this little baby,they were welcome to her.
But they would usually
rescue that baby for two reasonseither to be a slave or a prostitute.
That was the
station of women in the first century.
And so the fact that Paul lists
a woman first is transformativeand revolutionary.
(41:22):
And I get really frustrated with peoplewho are ignorant in culture and world
culture and biblical history
that say that the Bible is chauvinistagainst oppressors women.
They don't know anythingwhat they're talking about.
It's through the Bibleand through the Gospels and Jesus himself.
In the first years that elevated women.
And Paul says, and I'm going to startwith a woman of all the ones
(41:44):
I want to champion, Phoebe, the servant,she has this this role.
It's not a title. It's a role of servant.
That word servant meansliterally in the Greek
diaconate,a literal translation, a servant.
But we get our English worddeacon out of this.
She was a deacon in the church.
(42:05):
I mean, she was a servant.
It's the exact same word used in acts six
when the apostles got togetherand said, we
we can't take careof the needs of the church.
We need to focus onpraying and studying and preaching.
So we need deacons to serve the church.
It's the exact same wordused of those deacons that were chosen.
And Steve in of whom it issaid, is of good reputation,
(42:26):
full of spirit and wisdom.
That's Phoebe.
She has a good reputation, is full ofwisdom, and full of the Spirit of God.
And she served as a deaconessin the church.
Now please noteshe served as a deacon, is not a pastor,
and the role of a deacon was not oversight
and authority overit was serving of literally.
(42:50):
It was to guard and set the needsof the others using their own resources.
That's what they did.
And this was this lady, Phoebe,
incredible woman,incredible leader in the church.
Greet Priscillaand Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ.
These two Priscilla and a cooler.
Again, really interesting.
(43:10):
Priscilla and Akula are mentionedsix times.
In in church history,
four of the sixPriscilla is mentioned before Aquila.
Why is it significant?
Because Priscilla is the wife.
Four of the six timesthe wife is named first,
which was unheard of in the culture.
You didn't list the woman first.
It was always the husband.
(43:31):
But apparently Priscillawas a better leader than her husband,
which is no surprise.
We tell our church planners all the time
when they when they're getting ridof planning a church is a look.
Some of you men,you think you married a cheerleader.
You didn't.
You didn't marry a cheerleader.
You married a leader.
Let them lead.
You understand?
(43:52):
Says these are my coworkers.
And they risked their necks for my life.
Like, they they pressed in.
Look at verse five.
I greet my beloved Aeneas, whowas the first convert to Christ in Asia.
I love the fact that Paul led someone toJesus and he's still with them.
(44:14):
It is incredible when those who startwith you, finish with you.
We are so blessed in this church.
We're coming up on our 20th birthday
and we got about.
I got a list of about 30 people,not counting the kids,
but 30 people that started with usthat are still with us.
It's just a blessing.
(44:35):
This church is so good.
God, some incredible things. Look at this.
Verse six.
Great Mary who has worked hard for you.
When Paul says,this woman, Mary worked hard,
it means literally workto the point of exhaustion.
And it doesn't mean she worked hard.
When the kids weren't playing ball,she worked hard
after where she worked hard and you know,in the way it meant, it means that
(44:57):
she worked her tail offto the point of exhaustion.
She pressed in and kept pressing in
like she kept toiling.
Why would she do that?
Why would all these people work like this?
Let's go on.
Verse seven.
Great Andronicus and Julia, my kinsmanand my fellow prisoners,
(45:21):
these two are women again.
And they were juniors.
She was a prisoner with Paul.
Can you imagine?
Like they just kept pressing inand pressing in and pressing in.
Incredible people.
Look, look at,
look, look at versenine and greet urbanist, my fellow worker.
The only thing I want to point outis just because it's funny.
(45:43):
Urbanist literally means city boy.
He's like an urban guy.
He probably lives it to sorrow.
You know it.
He's got a little puppy, carriesin a little carrier with them
and takes some of thegroomer and blows him dry and
since it
acts as and has a glass of wine,you know it.
(46:05):
I'm joking.
Maybe I just like the fact.
Like there's everybody.
There's a guy here named Rufus.
Rufus doesn't live.
Luke Rufus lives in Chowchilla or Madera.
Like, know what I'm saying?
Like, is Rufus.
Verses 1011 Greta Pelosi was a prude.
And Christ wreath those who belong.
(46:26):
The family of Aristobulusgreet my kinsman Herod.
Herodian.The family of Herod, of all people. Great.
Those in the, in the Lordwho belong to the family of Narcissus.
Here's what I love about that.
Apparently the man of the housedidn't believe in Jesus,
but the mom of the houseled the kids in the house
to Jesus.
(46:48):
What an incredible
heritage of a godly woman.
Just amazing.
Look at verse 12.
Greet those workers in the Lord.
Try Fena and Triforce.
Aren't those great names?
(47:08):
Try and draw false.
I want to give me a scholarship.
Those are just awesome names.
Two women again who worked hard.
Again, same words as Mary worked
to the point of exhaustion.
Who worked and worked? Why?
(47:29):
Why would they work themselvesto the bone?
Why would they realign their schedules?
Why would they realign their priorities?
Why were they realign their finances?
Why would they realign their livesto precedence? Why?
Yeah.
Let me tell you this.
All common people, no title,
(47:51):
no position.
Books.
They understood,
if I can put it bluntly,
it was better to be God's dog
than the devil's darling.
They didn't make excusesfor why they couldn't.
(48:12):
They didn'tmake excuses why they're too busy.
It didn't make excuses why theydidn't have the you know what it took.
They worked their selves
to the point of exhaustion.
Incredible list of people.
It's interesting to methat nine of the 26 are women.
(48:33):
One third of those listed are women.
That's amazing to me for two reasons.
One, that a third of themlisted in the ancient scripture are women.
What an elevation!
But it also amazes methat two thirds of the workers
were men.
A full two thirds were guys
(48:54):
working in the church.
That amazes me
that that many guys
were serving regularly,
you know.
Yeah.
You know, who are the firstto sign up to ministry are
whenever we ask for help for something,you know who it is.
(49:16):
Women.
You know who does allthe teaching of the kids in our church?
Well, not all of.
But most of them.
Yeah.
Women.
Why is it
that men in church
have a tendency to passivity?
(49:36):
Come.
Why is it?
It amazes me that nine
out of 27 were women,and that the other two thirds were men.
Why is it in our culture we've inverted
that?
(50:01):
We men, we're not called to passivity.
We're all called to be spectators.
We were first given charge
and dominion to work,
and so many
when it comes to spiritual things,
have slipped back into passivity.
(50:25):
Anyone go down there with the church?
That's fine.
I'm a.
In the absence in the American family
of solid men
in a family.
(50:46):
Kids at church
need your role models,
guys, more than ever before.
Ever before.
From holding babies
to Wednesday night with the high school
kids.
(51:12):
I'm going to move onbecause Jeff's thinking.
Carl, I still got to sing a song and
then wrap up with this.
Verse 17 I appeal to you, brothers,to watch out for those who cause
divisions and create obstacles contraryto the doctrine that you have been taught.
Avoid them, he says, look out.
There's going to be people in the churchthat are going to do nothing
but cause divisions and cause griefand put obstacles and argue, he says.
(51:35):
Literally, he says, avoid them.That means ignore them.
You know how the best way to shutsomebody up is? Quit talking to them?
Yeah, don't respond.
This follows really well withthe instruction to Titus and Titus 310.
Warn a divisive person once,warn them twice, and then out counsel
them out of your church.
So it says, listen,
I have out counseleda lot of people from this church.
(51:59):
You want to argue about stuff.
This isn't a place for you.
I'm going to recommenda couple of churches
where you can go mess up,but don't mess up a church.
You're welcome.
For such persons don't serve our Lord.
They serve their own appetitesby smooth talk and flattery.
They deceive hearts that are naive.
Basically, they fool people
(52:22):
because so many people.
And I understand that's why we're here.That's why I'm here.
We don't know doctrine and theologyand like, well, I don't know enough.
But what they're saying sounds good,so I guess so.
And they justkind of go along with it and.
And the gospel and good doctrinegets lost.
Well sounds good.
(52:43):
And then he presses in,
I want you to be wise as towhat is good and innocent to what is evil.
The God of peace will sooncrush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christbe with you.
He's saying,I want you to make sure that you are
guarding truth and guiding people.
I want you to be wise in this stuff.
(53:04):
You be wise and I want you to guard truth.
I want you to guard doctrine, and I wantyou to guide people, guard and guide.
That's what he's saying.
He said, you're with me on this.
You've been with me on this day,with me on this,
and pressed into this, guardedand got guard truth,
guard, doctrine, guardthe scriptures and guide people into it.
And then he mentions this one
(53:25):
young man, Timothy, my fellowworker, greet you and so delicious.
And Jason, here'swhy this is so important.
He says, Timothy greet you,guard and guide.
Timothy greet you because he's goingto write two letters to Timothy.
They're called first Timothyand second Timothy, and they're all about
guarding the truth and guarding doctrineand guiding people into it.
(53:46):
And starting next week,we're going to study those two letters
because it has to dowith guarding the truth and guarding
doctrineand guiding people into the truth.
Amen.
That's what we do.
Okay,
now, I love the fact that he mentionsthis cat Jason in here.
If you're not careful,you're going to miss who this is.
(54:08):
Jason.
You'll go back to acts 17 six.
That's where we get our name. Flip side.
The Jews were all hot and botheredabout what the church was doing,
and they want to talk to the apostles.
They want to talk to Peter.They want to talk to John.
And they're off doing ministry stuff.
And the only one left of the followersof Jesus to talk to is this old guy,
this young guy named Jason.
(54:30):
And they say to Jason,this church has turned
the world upside down.
And now they're here messing up our city.
It's the flip side,
and what we want to do is turn the worldupside
and mess up the ranchos and mess upRiverstone and mess up Tesoro.
(54:51):
And maybe God, God's will eventually getto Madera and Chowchilla
because that needs to be messed up. Two
that's why we're messing up Cuba.
That's why we're messing up Guatemala.
That's why we're messing up Mexico.
Because this is what we do.
That's why you find churchesall over the United States,
because we're messing stuff up.
And this cat, Jason,was there at the beginning.
(55:12):
And I love the fact that those who startedwith them are still with them. Why?
Because they understand.
And they've been infusedwith the power of God,
and they have a hope that is abiding,and they're not tapping out.
And just as a side note,
(55:33):
verse 23, Gaius, who was, hostto me, to the whole church, greet you.
Gaius was one of the two peoplethat Paul baptized
Paul and baptizedtwo people that he can remember.
And I love the fact that early in Paul'sministry baptizes this guy
and this guy still with them.
Verse 25,
(55:54):
now to him was able to strengthenyou according to my gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ,according to the revelation of the mystery
that was kept secret from a long ages,but has now been disclosed.
And through the propheticChrist has been made known to all nations
according to the commandof the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faithto the only wise God, be glory
forever through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Here's what he's saying Paul starts,and he ends with the power of God.
(56:18):
In Romans 116 says, I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ,for is the power of God unto salvation.
When Paul uses the word power
in the God in Romans, hereit's the Greek word dunamis.
Guess whatEnglish word we get from doing a miss?
Dynamite.
Dynamite is you old ones.
(56:38):
Remember that dynamite? It's the.
I am not his.What is his? What? Paul saying?
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it is the dynamite power of Godto bring salvation.
And then at the very end of Romanshe says, Now to him who,
according to the dynamite power of God,will strengthen you.
The dynamite power God bookends
(57:01):
Romans from the beginning to end.
It's by the dynamite power of God
that though we deserve the wrath of God,we're given the grace of God.
It's by the dynamite power of God
that he lays out.
The plan of Godand the way of God throughout Romans.
And it's these people in Romans 16that have understood this power for God,
(57:25):
this dynamite power of Godthat is resident within them,
that live with this eternalhope that can never be shaken.
They've come in contactwith this dynamite power of God
through the preaching of the gospel,and they've given themselves.
How could they not work themselvesto exhaustion?
It's the only logical responsethat because of who you are
and what you've doneand the power of you, that is now in me.
(57:49):
The only logical responsethat I have to respond to you
is by praising you,because you are the great and mighty God,
and to sacrifice for you because of whatyou sacrificed for me in your son.
Amen. Do you understand?
That's why they work to exhaustion.
That'swhy they're willing to go to prison.
(58:10):
That's why they're still with them.
That's why they're not tapping out.
And that's why this verse church turned
the world upside down.
And that is our invitation.
Because of who God is.
(58:30):
And so I tell you again,
my friends, God has the power to save you.
God has the power to sanctify youand make you holy.
God has the power to stabilize youby the grace of God, as revealed in Jesus.
And the only natural response
when you understand this is to praisethe God who is the great God,
(58:52):
and to serve the God who is the great God,
who will give you his very dynamite powerwithin you,
that you will not be shakenand you will not be overcome.
A hope that transcends all the upsand downs and the evils of this world.
I hope that cannot be shaken.
That's the invitation.
(59:15):
For anyone who would respond,
a living hope from a living God.
He is the great one.
And he must increase.
And I must decreasebecause he is the Great One,
and he doesn't invite us into this great
kingdom.
(59:37):
God, thank you.
Thank you that you love us.
Thank you that you've invited us.
Thank you that you've called us.
Thank you for examplesin your word of people who will understand
and who've been infused with the powerof you, the dynamite power to save them,
the dynamite power to sanctify them,that dynamite power to stabilize them.
(01:00:00):
Thank you.
You are a great God,and you deserve to be greatly praised.
And you are a great God,and you deserve to be greatly served
with every fiber of our being.
There is none higher than you.
There is none greater than you.
There's no lover, greater lover of meand of your people than you.
(01:00:20):
There's no greater Godwith any greater plan than you.
You sit alone.
You are uncontested.
You are unchallenged.
You deserve to be praised.
And I pray in this momentthat you would infuse your people
who want to be infused by youwith the presence
and the power of your Holy Spirit,the dynamite power
(01:00:43):
that is powerful for salvation,that is powerful for endurance,
that gives a hope, that is unshakable,that gives us security,
that is untouchable,that gives an eternity, that is secured.
God, that we in this
place would turn the world upside down.
(01:01:03):
You are a great Godand greatly to be praised.
Amen. Stand up. Let's sing.
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