The word gospel
translates to news that brings joy.
But this isn't just any news.
A gospel is news that changes a life forever.
After being invaded and enslaved by Persia,
Greece won two decisive battles at marathon and Soldiers.
The Greeks sent out heralds, also called evangelists,
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.
Fully God, fully man.
Bringing news that would change our lives forever.
His news was this.
I am the divine.
Come to you to do what you could not do for yourself.
I will take what you deserve so you can have what I describe.
You have no idea how much it will cost me.
But you also cannot imagine the depths of my love for you.
It is a gift that I give freely.
So intent.
Repent from all the ways you run for me and follow me.
Follow me because I am the only way to eternal life.
Follow me.
Because I'm the savior you've been looking for.
Follow me because I have authority over everything.
Yet I have humbled myself for you.
Follow me.
Because I died on a cross for you.
Because I'm your true love and your true life.
This is my good news for you.
This is my gospel.
That you have been saved by grace and that you are slaves.
No more. You.
That is the book of Romans.
The good news of the Gospel of Jesus.
That he came and 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 liberty and diverge to what I had planned
on what I did in first service, because I need to address this.
That is the truth.
As the good news.
But sometimes it's very difficult
to hold on to the good news when 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,
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 them and that for all of us.
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 you a couple of things about us. One,
that we're very careful about how we talk,
what we believe,
what we see on social media stuff,
especially surrounding this 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.
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,
how it.
This changes a little bit
of your understanding of God's sovereignty.
And in the absence of knowledge,
my faith steps in,
and in where there is doubt,
my confidence has to remain.
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
and have received him to yourself.
That's the the the 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 humanity that we have no clue
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 perspective to 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.
You're providential.
I I'm not sure what that means in this sinner, 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.
Yes, I pray that you allow them grief, but grief with hope.
And on a human level, I pray for wisdom
and discernment and breakthrough for the authorities
that they would do their job and do their job well.
But even more than that.
And alongside that, I pray over this family.
Draw close to them.
God, draw close to them
through your people, through your church, and through your spirit.
Let us know how to walk well alongside them.
Thank you for Caleb's faith.
Thank you for his reliance upon you.
And thank you that that young man heard what we all desire to hear.
Well done,
my good and faithful servant.
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 walking through that, with me and with us.
Tough transition into,
the celebratory nature of the book of Romans.
But this is what family does, right?
This is what family does.
We acknowledge the hurting and 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.
This is what we do.
And and in juxtaposition of, of that,
I need to let you know that this was a really fun week at flip side.
It was a really good week.
And Wednesday night we had pregnancy care center here
with the junior high and high school kids talking about
intimacy and sexual intimacy, which was really crazy for them.
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 night and all day early in the morning
and afternoon on, this weekend, which was just amazing.
You ladies did a great job putting 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 40 guys that were going through discipleship
together, which was just such a good time for us to be together as well.
And then we got church now and then baptism afterwards.
And it's just a good weekend, man.
Thank you, church, for doing what you do and 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 best to get through two chapters so we can wrap
this up.
Last week I dealt with the first part of chapter 15.
I'm going to wrap it up today.
I'm going to go back and recap it a little bit.
But let me just say this as we get into to to the last two chapters
of the book of Romans that Paul had always planned
on going to Rome, it was always his desire to go to Rome.
But he'd been prevented from going there.
And so he write, he wrote this letter in 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 a as a as an apostle, as a missionary,
as an emissary, for the Lord Jesus, the resurrected Savior.
And that was his plan.
And he got there,
but not as that he got there as a prisoner.
That would set the stage for his beheading.
How many of us understand this 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.
And it's not usually us.
Right. And so.
So all of this happened in Paul's life according to the plan and the will.
The father somehow.
And what I love about the book.
For what things I love about the book of Romans.
It starts with the proclamation of the power of God,
and it ends with a proclamation of the power of God
and everything in the middle, between the beginning
and the end of the book of Romans is a manifestation of the power of God.
And what we see in the book of Romans is that it is the power of God that saves us.
It's the power of God that sanctifies us, makes us holy,
and it's a power of God that stabilizes us.
Our faith in a very unshaken world, a very shaken world.
And so it's the power of God
that that saves us, that sanctifies is that stabilizer, stabilizer.
And it's all through the book of Romans.
And it's going to culminate in chapter 16 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 living without your life,
without the power of God, it is available for you that's available today for you.
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, but each of us pleases neighbor, for he good.
To build him up.
But let me let me help you 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 app and go to the Bible app to get them.
But I made the choice not to put the verses up there.
And here's why.
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 Bible and to show up without resources
and to sit like you're watching a television.
Right.
Right. Yeah. Know.
And so I don't know that I'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.
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 Bible app, you're exposed.
So open up.
And if this is really uncomfortable
for us, I'll probably keep doing it.
Okay.
So I'm going to read from the English Standard 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 up there, they're not going to be up there.
So he says in verse one and two,
the strong have an obligation for the weak and their failings, not to please
ourselves, to please this neighbor for his good, to build them up.
We talked last week about the strong.
The strong are those who live with a great deal of freedom in the grace of God,
not to have a bunch of parameters and rules around their lives.
We listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We follow the grace of God, and God has given us great, incredible liberty,
and we just live in that and experience the fun of it.
Other people the week, Paul says, have a lot of rules around their lives
and regulations. Don't do this, don't do 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
given us in Christ, have an obligation to 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's what 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.
Because we're real.
We all. Here's what I learned a long time ago.
We all listen to the same radio station, WITF, FM.
What's in it for me?
We all listen to that station,
and we view the world through the lens of what?
What's in this?
For me, I was watching an NFL draft last week, not a one of those young men.
I understand the celebration of it making 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 it like, what's in it for me and Paul
saying, we gotta push against that
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, verses three and four,
and it says this do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you
look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.
What he's saying is that we emulate Christ, who didn't look out
for his own interests but looked out for 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
and rage for the benefit of someone else.
It's been said that the man who gets wrapped up in himself
has a pretty small package.
You understand?
Like you're just a small person when 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 Christ didn't please himself.
That's our model, Jesus as our model.
But as it is written, the reproaches of 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 encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
You're saying Jesus is our example of someone who didn't
live to please themselves, but lived to for 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.
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 encouragement grant you to live in such harmony
with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may
with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore welcome one another, as
Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
Here's what he's saying.
He writes this desire as 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 speaking as a prayer over him.
May the God of endurance and encouragement grants you
to live in such harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus.
That together in your harmony with each other, you would glorify God
through Jesus Christ.
He said, this is my perfect and this is why he says it as a prayer.
Because living in view
of the benefit of another is not natural to us.
So it has to be a supernatural work within us.
And so he's praying it as a prayer over us.
The ability to live like Paul is telling these people to live like,
put someone else ahead to emulate the attitude of Christ
is not natural for us, right?
And so he's speaking it as a prayer because he knows it's
only accomplished in us by 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,
because we're going to get somewhere.
But I need I need to
we don't have the time for me to dive down into 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.
Old Testament.
But prophets poetry to drive home the point.
And here's his point.
I'm just going to read verse
eight and nine, for I 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 truthfulness in order to confirm the promises
given to the patriarchs Abraham, 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,
the Jews, thought they were special because 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
so that
he could reach us, because that was always God's plan from the beginning.
And then these five Old Testament books,
it talks about this idea that the Gentiles,
the non-Jews, will sing praises to God, will glorify God, will worship God,
because we too have been invited into God's family.
In other words, what Paul is saying is, look, Jews, you are special
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 God to be adopted into his family.
This was always his plan, and he was telling this plan to the world.
From the very beginnings of the first patriarchs of the faith.
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 know that what Paul saying is God's eternal
plan has always been for you to be a part of his family.
It's always been a part of his plan.
Now watch this verse 13th May the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing,
so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Let these words sink in.
May the God of what
hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the
what power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in what you know.
Please understand.
There was no hope, no lasting certain
firm, strong, foundational hope
apart from 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 power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
We don't come by it naturally in our own human nature.
We are not by nature hopeful people
with a hope that is not shaken.
It's only by them, by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit,
that we have a hope, because that hope is built in God,
in first Corinthians 1313,
Paul says, these three continue to remain faith,
hope, and love.
Hope does not remain apart from the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in relationship with the father.
Through faith in the son,
we have to understand this.
We don't come by it naturally 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?
That's what Paul saying.
You don't you don't talk yourself into being hopeful.
You don't you don't work yourself up into positivity.
That doesn't last.
Matter of fact, the Bible will say that we talked about today.
We will grieve,
but we grieve as those with hope
because hope doesn't disappoint.
And that's only possible us by the end.
One spirit because it's a supernatural word to be people of hope,
to understand.
And this is what so many people in this world are looking for.
Not just hope, but the God of hope.
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 points I have written you very boldly
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 saying that you've been with me
long enough, I would say the same thing you'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 new information for a lot of you.
And for those of you with this new information, something resonates
inside anyway.
And it looks I just sometimes I just gotta remind you of that.
Let's just remember that's why it's good for us to be together,
why it's good for us to open up the Bible to remind ourselves.
And what he's saying here is you have look at what he says.
You're filled with all the knowledge and able to instruct
one another like you have.
If you're walking with Jesus,
you have within you because the Holy Spirit is there.
What you need to instruct each other in these issues of hope,
in these issues of instruction for counsel and encouragement.
Do you understand?
There's no reason for the church to 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.
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 work for God,
for I will not venture to speak of anything except Christ has accomplished
through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed.
I love what he's pressing into.
What he says is, I am only going to speak about what God has done through me.
I'm not going to talk about what I've done.
I'm not going to talk about what we're up, whatever.
I'm only going to talk about what God has done through me.
In other words, what he's saying is I'm not going to try to build my brand.
Do you understand me?
I'm not in 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 do what God has asked me to do.
And then I'll brag about what God has done.
And I will only talk about his work,
and I will only glory in what 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.
Well, what he's saying is 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 supposed to be apprentices of Jesus,
especially people who are supposed to be apprentices of Jesus with the title pastor
seem to be so much more focused and concentrating
on their brand and their hashtag.
More than
simply bragging about Jesus.
Didn't sin.
They got to be real careful.
We gotta be real careful with this.
I'll speak only word and then look at verse 19.
By the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God.
So that from Jerusalem all the way around the whole world, there
I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.
I love that look at verse 20, and thus I make it my ambition
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 God like God.
I did all that God asked me to do.
I've left nothing undone.
I didn't leave the field in the middle of the game.
I kept what I kept pressing in until 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.
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.
Here's my concern.
And this is what I love about 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 off in the first few decades.
Now I get to watch people do it.
That wasn't what he did.
Did you one did you know this, that sociologically,
in our culture, the most?
The decades of where
you have the most impact and the most influence
in your 70s,
in your 60s and then in your 80s, did you know that
it's not in your 20s, in your 30s, in your 40s, in your 50s,
when we as individuals have the most influence
and the most impact is when we're in our 70s, our 60s and then our 80s.
And so for
those of us who are there or approaching there,
and we look back over decades and think, man,
I served well, it's someone 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 working against your own influence and impact.
Those are the decades that you present.
Those are the decades that you get more excited.
Those are the decades that you apply yourself.
Even the panel goes down even further.
I'm not going to leave anything left undone.
You understand?
And I love the fact he says,
I don't want to work where a foundation has already been
laid. Am.
This is why we plant churches.
I want to go plant churches where there aren't any churches.
I don't want to go planning a little one on these.
My gracious, what old
waste.
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 anybody on their deathbed say, you know what?
I wish I just would have waited longer to follow Jesus
and just started serving him too 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
and will not fade because the Holy Spirit is in them.
Get infected by that.
Don't get inoculated.
Get infected.
Let me jump down to verse 26
for Macedonia and a.k.a these places where we're the
where the church has been planted,
have been pleased to 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 share in the spiritual blessings.
They ought to also be of service to them and the material blessings.
Here's what you're saying.
These churches in Macedonia and Achaea benefited
from this.
The spiritual heritage of the believers in Jerusalem.
Like like they they benefited from the church in Jerusalem,
kind of imparted to these churches their spiritual heritage in the faith.
And what Paul's saying is now those churches who had been blessed
spiritually owe it to that church
to share with them materially.
That's what he's saying,
that those who receive spiritual blessing are indebted.
That's what Paul.
That's a word.
Paul, you, as you owe it, are indebted to share materially.
There's a transaction that happens and it's biblical.
And not only is there an in Dennis, there's a joy in it.
Like they were happy
after what they received spiritually.
They were happy to share because because they understood
that the spiritual blessing they've received
is a far greater value than the material stuff that's going to fade.
So why not 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 verse 30 and 31 right at the end of chapter 15.
I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ
and by the love of the spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God
on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea,
and that my service in Jerusalem will 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.
What he's saying is this I appeal to you by our Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of the spirit to strive together with me.
It Paul understood this that we don't do ministry alone,
that we don't do ministry alone.
What he's saying is, I need your prayers.
I need your partnership in this.
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.
Ministry is a team sport and you got.
You understand?
This.
And I need you to toil with me.
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 us in chapter 16.
Now, to set up chapter 16, I need to let you know this,
that Paul certainly did not do Ministry alone had a vast network of people,
men and women, who served alongside him and led alongside him.
And I love the fact that his network of people
didn't allow nor expect him to do it alone.
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 all reading these names and studying
these names,
but they meant
something to Paul, and they mean something to God.
And God kept a record of them and their service.
Because God sees what we do for the kingdom that no one else knows.
They're important.
And though they're important,
they were people without a title or a position.
They were just uncommon people
doing uncommon work or common people doing uncommon work.
They were just normal people doing incredible things.
And so with that said, let me say this, that
these people were listed here,
worked their tails off.
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 people to do more than they.
That's abuse.
But when a leader doesn't expect their people to do as they say, that's neglect.
It's not leadership.
And so a leader doesn't expect anyone to do more than they,
but they do expect them to do as they.
And this list of people here are those who did as Paul did there.
Follow in his lead.
It's important, point of leadership.
The other thing I want us to understand that none of these people had a title.
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.
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.
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 fall appallingly.
Let me just walk through this list real quick,
I say real quick.
You know that's not the truth.
I'm not going to go through all these names, but a few of them
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 Lord in 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 starts with Phoebe. Why?
Because Phoebe is a woman.
And it was so uncommon to list women 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 standing and 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 thing in response.
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 her because 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 thought from the community.
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 reasons either 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 transformative and revolutionary.
And I get really frustrated with people who are ignorant in culture and world
culture and biblical history
that say that the Bible is chauvinist against oppressors women.
They don't know anything what they're talking about.
It's through the Bible and through the Gospels and Jesus himself.
In the first years that elevated women.
And Paul says, and I'm going to start with a woman of all the ones
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 means literally in the Greek
diaconate, a literal translation, a servant.
But we get our English word deacon out of this.
She was a deacon in the church.
I mean, she was a servant.
It's the exact same word used in acts six
when the apostles got together and said, we
we can't take care of the needs of the church.
We need to focus on praying and studying and preaching.
So we need deacons to serve the church.
It's the exact same word used of those deacons that were chosen.
And Steve in of whom it is said, is of good reputation,
full of spirit and wisdom.
That's Phoebe.
She has a good reputation, is full of wisdom, and full of the Spirit of God.
And she served as a deaconess in the church.
Now please note she served as a deacon, is not a pastor,
and the role of a deacon was not oversight
and authority over it was serving of literally.
It was to guard and set the needs of 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 Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ.
These two Priscilla and a cooler.
Again, really interesting.
Priscilla and Akula are mentioned six times.
In in church history,
four of the six Priscilla is mentioned before Aquila.
Why is it significant?
Because Priscilla is the wife.
Four of the six times the wife is named first,
which was unheard of in the culture.
You didn't list the woman first.
It was always the husband.
But apparently Priscilla was a better leader than her husband,
which is no surprise.
We tell our church planners all the time
when they when they're getting rid of 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?
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, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
I love the fact that Paul led someone to Jesus and he's still with them.
It is incredible when those who start with 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 us that are still with us.
It's just a blessing.
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 work to 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
she worked her tail off to 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 kinsman and my fellow prisoners,
these two are women again.
And they were juniors.
She was a prisoner with Paul.
Can you imagine?
Like they just kept pressing in and pressing in and pressing in.
Incredible people.
Look, look at,
look, look at verse nine and greet urbanist, my fellow worker.
The only thing I want to point out is just because it's funny.
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, carries in a little carrier with them
and takes some of the groomer and blows him dry and
since it
acts as and has a glass of wine, you know it.
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.
The family of Aristobulus greet my kinsman Herod.
Herodian. The family of Herod, of all people. Great.
Those in the, in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.
Here's what I love about that.
Apparently the man of the house didn't believe in Jesus,
but the mom of the house led the kids in the house
to Jesus.
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?
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?
Why would they work themselves to 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 lives to precedence? Why?
Yeah.
Let me tell you this.
All common people, no title,
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 excuses for why they couldn't.
They didn't make excuses why they're too busy.
It didn't make excuses why they didn'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 me that nine of the 26 are women.
One third of those listed are women.
That's amazing to me for two reasons.
One, that a third of them listed in the ancient scripture are women.
What an elevation!
But it also amazes me that two thirds of the workers
were men.
A full two thirds were guys
working in the church.
That amazes me
that that many guys
were serving regularly,
you know.
Yeah.
You know, who are the first to sign up to ministry are
whenever we ask for help for something, you know who it is.
Women.
You know who does all the 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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
I'm going to move on because 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 contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
Avoid them, he says, look out.
There's going to be people in the church that are going to do nothing
but cause divisions and cause grief and put obstacles and argue, he says.
Literally, he says, avoid them. That means ignore them.
You know how the best way to shut somebody up is? Quit talking to them?
Yeah, don't respond.
This follows really well with the 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 counseled a lot of people from this church.
You want to argue about stuff.
This isn't a place for you.
I'm going to recommend a 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 appetites by smooth talk and flattery.
They deceive hearts that are naive.
Basically, they fool people
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 theology and like, well, I don't know enough.
But what they're saying sounds good, so I guess so.
And they just kind of go along with it and.
And the gospel and good doctrine gets lost.
Well sounds good.
And then he presses in,
I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 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.
You be wise and I want you to guard truth.
I want you to guard doctrine, and I want you 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, guarded and got guard truth,
guard, doctrine, guard the scriptures and guide people into it.
And then he mentions this one
young man, Timothy, my fellow worker, greet you and so delicious.
And Jason, here's why this is so important.
He says, Timothy greet you, guard and guide.
Timothy greet you because he's going to write two letters to Timothy.
They're called first Timothy and second Timothy, and they're all about
guarding the truth and guarding doctrine and guiding people into it.
And starting next week, we're going to study those two letters
because it has to do with guarding the truth and guarding
doctrine and guiding people into the truth.
Amen.
That's what we do.
Okay,
now, I love the fact that he mentions this cat Jason in here.
If you're not careful, you're going to miss who this is.
Jason.
You'll go back to acts 17 six.
That's where we get our name. Flip side.
The Jews were all hot and bothered about 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 followers of Jesus to talk to is this old guy,
this young guy named Jason.
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 world upside
and mess up the ranchos and mess up Riverstone and mess up Tesoro.
And maybe God, God's will eventually get to 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 churches all over the United States,
because we're messing stuff up.
And this cat, Jason, was there at the beginning.
And I love the fact that those who started with them are still with them. Why?
Because they understand.
And they've been infused with the power of God,
and they have a hope that is abiding, and they're not tapping out.
And just as a side note,
verse 23, Gaius, who was, host to me, to the whole church, greet you.
Gaius was one of the two people that Paul baptized
Paul and baptized two people that he can remember.
And I love the fact that early in Paul's ministry baptizes this guy
and this guy still with them.
Verse 25,
now to him was able to strengthen you 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 prophetic Christ has been made known to all nations
according to the command of the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faith to 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.
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, here it's the Greek word dunamis.
Guess what English word we get from doing a miss?
Dynamite.
Dynamite is you old ones.
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 God to bring salvation.
And then at the very end of Romans he says, Now to him who,
according to the dynamite power of God, will strengthen you.
The dynamite power God bookends
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 God and the way of God throughout Romans.
And it's these people in Romans 16 that have understood this power for God,
this dynamite power of God that is resident within them,
that live with this eternal hope that can never be shaken.
They've come in contact with this dynamite power of God
through the preaching of the gospel, and they've given themselves.
How could they not work themselves to exhaustion?
It's the only logical response that because of who you are
and what you've done and the power of you, that is now in me.
The only logical response that 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 what you sacrificed for me in your son.
Amen. Do you understand?
That's why they work to exhaustion.
That's why they're willing to go to prison.
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.
And so I tell you again,
my friends, God has the power to save you.
God has the power to sanctify you and make you holy.
God has the power to stabilize you by the grace of God, as revealed in Jesus.
And the only natural response
when you understand this is to praise the God who is the great God,
and to serve the God who is the great God,
who will give you his very dynamite power within you,
that you will not be shaken and you will not be overcome.
A hope that transcends all the ups and downs and the evils of this world.
I hope that cannot be shaken.
That's the invitation.
For anyone who would respond,
a living hope from a living God.
He is the great one.
And he must increase.
And I must decrease because he is the Great One,
and he doesn't invite us into this great
kingdom.
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 examples in your word of people who will understand
and who've been infused with the power of you, the dynamite power to save them,
the dynamite power to sanctify them, that dynamite power to stabilize them.
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 me and of your people than you.
There's no greater God with any greater plan than you.
You sit alone.
You are uncontested.
You are unchallenged.
You deserve to be praised.
And I pray in this moment that you would infuse your people
who want to be infused by you with the presence
and the power of your Holy Spirit, the dynamite power
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.
You are a great God and greatly to be praised.
Amen. Stand up. Let's sing.