Podcasts about church so

While divorce hits home for more than 50% of American families, it is no different in the Church… So why aren't we talking about it? Kate shares her story of disappointment as she had to learn to navigate the waters of divorce as a young, single-mom. She shares her trials, her triumphs and her sacred moments with the Lord that became landmarks in the story of hope. Make sure to stay tuned for part 2 to follow! You don't want to miss a moment of this miraculous story! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

#049_"Our Lady of Fatima" Getting Real with Katherine WolteringCovid-19 Is God purifying the Church? "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." (Rev 3:16) Our Ladies requestsThe two greatest sins that cause our Blessed Mother to WeepPraying the "Rosary as mental prayer"The Fatima.org This website has A LOT of information. Even I find it overwhelming. Therefore, I would direct your listeners to start with these two links:https://fatima.org/about/fatima-the-message/https://fatima.org/what-can-i-do/our-lady/Contact Jack: BWYR Podcast is a production of the John Paul ll Renewal Center or email him at info@jp2renew.orgPlease visit the TOB Educators Page on Facebook!Support the show (http://jp2renew.org/donate/)

Covid-19 has rapidly morphed from a pandemic into a ploy by leftists liberal Governors to set themselves in array against God. God declares that Church is essential. Governors defy God by declaring Church non-essential. In doing so America's godless governors stand in arrogant opposition to both the Bible and the Bill of Rights- A glaring example of this widespread godless arrogance took place on Wednesday evening, 15 April, whenTucker Carlson interviewed Phil Murphy, the Governor of New Jersey. After affirming his disregard for both the Church and the Constitution, Governor Murphy went on to explain his autocratic reasoning as to why Liquor Stores are more essential to mental and emotional well-being than is the Church- So, whose right, Almighty God, or America's godless Governors- Is Church non-essential or is it essential- For an answer we will look to two sources - the Bible and the Bill of Rights.

Do you go to Church on Sunday and leave what you do and say there at Church? So many of us are “routine religious” meaning we participate only because it’s another thing in our life. We have to learn to bring home what we learn at Church and not just that, we have to LIVE it EVERY DAY. Because if your not giving yourself to God every waking moment of your life, who are you giving yourself to? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/em39/support

If you’re not married or you are gay and you’re having sex, the Church of England has some very bad news for you: YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED. So why are the Church SO obsessed with sex? This is a catch-up version of James O'Brien's live, daily show on LBC. Listen live, weekdays 10AM-1PM and join the conversation: 0345 60 60 973

EP57: Salvation Outside of the Church Sean has a Voodoo Ranger, but thinks it’s a founder. Secret: it’s from New Belgium Brewing. But it’s ok, he talks in a terribly Spanish accent. It leads to a plan for the recording in SO IL where we’ll taste test the famous All Day IPA vs All Night IPA from Founders Brewing. Then the boys rant about Social Media and the hostile environment online today. Sean doesn’t do much social media anymore and the boys talk about why. With all the hostility online, the cure may be a good ol fashion ass whoopin for some kids. Michael gets asked why he no longer pastors a church. After some banter, the boys get deep about salvation outside of the Church. Can you still be a Christian after leaving the Church? So many churches are more like a country club. Is that ok and is that something you would like to be a part of? Once you leave a church or organization, then you can fully challenge the teachings and doctrine you’ve been taught. Is it OK to question things? Church is not the building, it’s the people. Screw the building, we’re the UnChurched! If you enjoyed the conversation, give us a like and share. https://unchurchedpodcast.wordpress.com Email: unchurchedpod@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unchurchedpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnChurchedPod

The Most Powerful Weapon: A Healthy Local Church I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 6, we're looking this morning at Verses 1-11. And as we do that, I want to present again to you my conviction that the most powerful weapon in the hand of Almighty God for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a healthy local church. Is a powerful thing in the hands of God, a community of believers that have covenanted together to follow Christ, have made that baptismal commitment that we heard Julia just make a moment ago, that we're going to follow Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we've received forgiveness of sins and that we're in a family, we're not alone, we're brothers and sisters. And it's a beautiful thing to be part of the family of God and that we can present holiness and love and the word of God in a very compelling way to a world that needs it so much, the world is watching all the time. And so the most powerful weapon... And I use weapon language because it is a violent advance we're talking about here. The kingdom of heaven is taking enemy territory from Satan and his demons. It's a different kind of warfare, it's a spiritual warfare and this weapon is the most powerful thing in the hands of God, a healthy local church. That includes even a great mission agency like the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The mission agency is a good thing, but what that mission agency seeks to do all over the world, is to win individuals to faith in Christ and then settle them in healthy local churches. They're to be taught to obey everything Christ has commanded, and that's in the context of a healthy church, and that's where 1 Corinthians is so powerful for us because it seems that Corinthian church was not a healthy local church. Are you getting that sense? Chapter after chapter of dysfunction. And I think the thing that's so powerful for me, as a pastor, is to realize there are no perfect churches. Churches can be healthy, but there are no perfect churches. And the kind of issues that the Corinthians were facing we face, they're still with us today. The corruption of the human heart is essentially the same and the call of God towards holiness is the same and we need this timeless wisdom. We can't say, "Look, that was 20 centuries ago, we don't deal with those kinds of things anymore." Oh, we really do. I. The Facts of the Case: Fraud and a Lawsuit And so, we come to a kind of an interesting point in 1st Corinthians on lawsuits among believers. You're like, "Okay that's what we're doing today?" Yes, we're talking about lawsuits among believers, taking one another to court. It's a very practical thing. And you're saying, "Was that actually going on in the Corinthian church?" Well, it was. And as Paul answers it and addresses it, he addressed it in a timeless sort of way to help us to see the responsibility that we Christians have toward the watching pagan world, the unbelieving world that's watching us all the time. So, let's look at this Corinthian church, this hugely messed up local church with all kinds of dysfunctionality. Apparently what happened here, what are the facts of the case, it seems to me that one brother, we'll call him Brother B, had defrauded another, call him Brother A, in business. He had a swindled him in some way, taking advantage of him. To deal with this, Brother A, the cheated Brother, took Brother B to court in front of the Corinthian pagans, the authorities. Took him to court to get his money back. So, you can imagine the scene, Brother A, Brother B standing before some non-Christian Roman official to have this case argued so that Brother A could get his money back from Brother B. This was horrible, according to the Apostle Paul. Scandalous, shameful. The Christian church was out there airing their dirty laundry in front of everybody to be seen, the very people they're going to try to witness to next week. Now they've got to deal with this court trial. II. The Shame of the Lawsuit: The Pagan World is Watching It's a shameful thing. Paul's tone here is very strong, he's aghast, he's horrified. He uses the shame language, look at verse 5. He says, "I say this to your shame." The issue was that they're witness to a lost and dying world, there in Corinth. And so, there are layers of shame here. Not just one, not one simple shameful thing, but there are layers of shame. Shame #1: Completely Defeated by Even Having Lawsuits at All Shame layer number one is in verse 7 Paul says they are completely defeated by even having lawsuits at all. Look at verse 7, "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you, means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" Rather than go to court. That's what Paul is saying. That's shame level number one. Shame #2: That Someone Who Was Claiming to Be a Christian Would Defraud another Brother in Christ Shame level number two is that an individual in their church, someone who is claiming to be a Christian, could actually defraud another brother for money, that's shameful. Look at Verse 8, "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers." Shame #3: That They Would Expose Their Dirty Laundry to the Lost People They Were Supposed to be Winning Shame level number three is that they would expose their dirty laundry to the lost people that they are supposed to be winning to Christ. They would go out in public with this, look at verse 6, "but instead, one brother goes to law against another and this in front of unbelievers." Shame #4: There Was No One Wise Enough in the Church to Settle This Temporal Matter And then, Shame level number four is that there's no one, it seems, wise enough in your church to handle a temporal case like this. That's where he actually used the word shame, look at verse five, "I say this to shame you." "Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?" So, this is what's going on, this is the mess. Paul has to bring light into this darkness. He's seeking to bring health to the disease of this local church. III. The Christ’s Laws of Loving Witness Now, for us, we have to just step aside from this and look big picture at Christ's message and his laws of loving witness that I think are relevant to this case and this issue of lawsuits among believers. Let's start with the basic permission, it seems, that Jesus gives to the unbelieving world, the watching world, to judge us by whether we love one another. Jesus said this in John 13:35, "By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." So, to some degree, you're saying outside world, watching world, if you want to know if you're dealing with my disciples, watch and see if they love one another, that's how you'll know. John 13:35. As Paul will later say in this very epistle, 1 Corinthians, 13, famous love chapter. He says, "Love is patient, love is kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." So all of that is what love means here. How does that line up with a lawsuit? Also, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." We talk about this, it seems, regularly in 1 Corinthians. This is continually on Paul's mind, what Jesus said in the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew Chapter 5, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." That's a really powerful expression, isn't it? By watching your good deeds, it seems Jesus is saying they'll end up in Heaven glorifying the father. That's incredible. So that's part of the evangelistic package is your good behavior. It's the context for the Gospel words that we preach. We also have the parable that Jesus gave us of the 10,000 talents, a parable about forgiveness. You remember how Peter initiated that conversation? "Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Thinking he was being generous. And Jesus said, "I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times." 490, don't do the math. And don't count, don't keep that list, remember? You're up to 146, hope you know. You're running out of coupons. That's not what he's saying, he's saying there's just limitless forgiveness. The Parable of the Ten Thousand Talents And then he told the Parable of the 10,000 talents. You remember the king wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and there was found a man who owed him 10,000 talents, an incalculable sum. A talent, 75 pounds of a precious metal. So, in today's value it'd be billions of dollars. And it was gone, he had squandered it. Staggering. And since the man was unable to pay, the king ordered that he be sold into slavery, he and his wife and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. Impossible, but he'd be in prison forever. And the man fell on his knees before the king and said, "Be patient with me and I will pay back everything." But the king, in mercy, cancelled all of that debt and let him go, but then that man went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, which is 100 days wages for a day labor, so that's a considerable sum, probably $15,000-20,000 in our amount, but far less than 10,000 talents. And he grabbed him and began to choke him, "Pay back what you owe me." He was unable to pay, and so he begged for forgiveness, but he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown in prison till he should pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were obviously distressed. Went back and told the king, and the king hauled that man back in and said, "You wicked servant. I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" And in anger, in anger the king handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back his debt, the 10,000 talents. And Jesus summed it all up saying, "That is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It's very powerful. It's maybe one of Jesus most powerful parables. Jesus also told us in Matthew chapter 5, that we disciples should turn the other cheek. When we're dealing with others, with enemies who would attack us and hurt us, he gives us a whole different ethic. Matthew 5, "You have heard that it was said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Listen to this, in light of the lawsuits issue. "And if someone wants to sue you and take your cloak, let him have your tunic as well." In other words, Jesus would almost say, settle out of court and give him what he wants and more besides. Interesting. "And if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said: 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Sermon on the Mount. So these clear teachings are part of Christianity. Turn the other cheek. Someone sues you, give them what they're demanding, give them more than they're demanding. Don't resist them, don't defend yourself. Then Paul gives us a similar teaching in Romans, Chapter 12, dealing with enemies, dealing with outsiders, dealing with people who hate us. "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written, 'It is mine to avenge, I will repay.' On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Well, all of that, the most recent verses I've been giving you, have to do with dealing with outsiders, enemies, persecutors. I would say it's a how much more ethic in terms of with brothers and sisters within the church, how much more would we seek to be gracious? How much more would we seek to be kind and loving to them? The Beautiful Ethics of the Early Jerusalem Church Now, the early church seemed to have drunk in all of Christ beautiful teachings of this ethical life together and they lived it. After the day of Pentecost, when they heard the message of the Gospel, 3,000 were added to the church that day and their life together is described incredibly at the end of Acts 2:44-45. It says, "All the believers are together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need." That's the loving, cohesive community that was there after the day of Pentecost. How does suing a brother and recovering your loss line up with that? It doesn't. And then, again, in Chapter 4, we have the church's sacrificial attitude, Acts 4:32-33, and it shows how their loving attitude toward one another was the power for their evangelism. Their evangelistic fruit came from this healthy covenantal life of a local church together. Listen to Acts 4:32-33, "All the believers were one in heart and mind, no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all." Now, the Corinthians, it seems, at least one of these brothers, had turned away from this lifestyle entirely, took a brother to court and tried to recover his lost revenue. It seems the Corinthians misunderstood their lives in this world. We are aliens and strangers, and all that we have in this world is a temporary gift of God, it's useful for the advance of the Gospel, we can't take any of it with us. It's just a tool down here to seek to win the loss and sustain the people of God. IV. The Future Revealed: The Saints Will Judge the World and Angels Not only did the Corinthians misunderstand their lives in this world, they misunderstand our exalted, misunderstood our exalted future in the next world. Verses 2-3 gives us a glimpse into the future that we would have no other way, it's interesting. Look at verses 2-3, "Do you do not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you were to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?" Verse 3, "Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life?" This is a remarkable revelation about the future. Christianity is a revealed religion. It teaches us things that are going to happen in the future and this gives us incredible insights about the role we're going to play in the future world that Christ will establish. And the logic here is given our exalted role in the future world, we should be able to handle mundane earthly things. It's a how much more argument here. We should be able to handle little things in the church. Bombshell #1: The Saints Will Judge the World So he drops a couple of bomb shells here. It's really quite interesting. Like bomb shell number one, "The saints will judge the world." Wow. Now, this could refer to some role Christians will have together with Christ in condemning the unbelieving world to their just fade on Judgment Day... Possibly. The entire anti-God system, that we read about in the book of Revelation. The anti-Christ system will come crashing down in judgment and the saints will have a role in that final justice. So the entire thing will be reversed from what was going on in Corinth, the wicked will stand before the righteous. In that case seems to be the logic here, then why would the saints voluntarily reverse it and stand before the wicked to receive verdict? It could refer to what follows Judgment Day, so the saints will play a role in the eternal kingdom, ruling and reigning with Christ, judging with him, like Revelation 3:21 says, "To him who overcomes, I'll give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father in his throne." So, there's a sense of ruling with Christ. Bombshell #1: The Saints Will Judge Angels Bomb shell number two is that the saints will judge angels. How can this be? This is amazing, some commentators wonder is this referring only to the devil and his fallen angels, demons. Romans 16:20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." So, we'll get to have a role with Christ in pulling the trigger on sending them to the lake of fire. That's how some commentators answer. Others think it refers to all angels, Holy Angels. Doesn't say demons here, but holy angels. So, that will, in some sense, no longer made a little lower than the angels, but in a resurrected glorified state, above the angels and ruling over them in some sense. I don't know. When I don't know, I say I don't know. But I do know how Paul's using all this and he's arguing, as I said a moment ago, if that's our future, how much more should we handle the present? That's how he's arguing. V. The Remedy Commanded: Humble Mediation Within the Church So the remedy is humble mediation within the church, appoint wise individuals within the church to mediate. Therefore, if you have disputes against such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account within the church. That's one possible translation. But then in verse five, he says, "I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there's nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?" So this is just like the advice Jethro, Moses' father in law gave to him. Don't sit on every case, appoint wise individuals who can judge lesser cases under you and handle all of that. And so that's basically the role. Get individuals who are wise, discerning, Godly men, and they can handle these kind of disputes in-house. We don't take it in front of the pagans to deal with it. That's the logic that he's giving here. Verse 4 is notoriously difficult to translate. There are a lot of different... The NIV is going to read a little bit differently. The ESV it's going to read differently than KJV. It's a hard verse. ESV gives us, "If you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?" As though those people, the people of little repute are the outsiders. Why would you go to them? That's the ESV approach. NIV gives the idea that you could choose even the most humble believer, somebody with no reputation within the church and they could do the job. Difficult to know which way to go, but the point is clear, appoint Godly men and handle it in-house, mediate it in-house and don't go to the pagans. Now, above all of this, is renew your commitment to the Christian principles that we've talked about a few minutes ago. Remember that we'll be known as Christ disciples if we love one another, that's far more important than who's right or wrong, who wins the arbitration case. Genuine reconciliation between brother A and brother B, that's what we need here. Not who wins the case, who is proved right or wrong, or who gets the money. Far more important is, do you love one another? Have you forgiven one another? Far more important? The deepest attitude here is a powerful kind of transferable principle here that Paul gives in verse 7. The very fact that you have lawsuits among you, means you've been completely defeated already. Listen to these words, "Why not rather be wronged?" It's hard for me to overstate how powerful that verse can... What a powerful impact that verse can have on your marriage, your family life, your church life, your work life, Why not rather be wronged? It's just another way of saying, turn the other cheek. Don't seek your own vindication, leave it to God. Allow yourself to be wrong. Don't retaliate, don't argue back, don't answer back, allow yourself to be misunderstood. Why not rather be wrong rather than be a bad witness to the outside world? Alright. So for most of this, I think, most of the verses I've been walking through, I think Paul has turned his guns on Brother A, the plaintiff, the one who initiated the lawsuit. But now he turns and gives his attention, I think, to Brother B, the one who defrauded or swindled his brother. Look at Verse 8. "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers." VI. The Serious Warning: The Wicked Will Not Inherit the Kingdom And then he brings in Verses 9-11, in context, I think Verses 9-11, which is a remarkable sin list and has great import for our ministry in this day. And we're going to talk about it much more fully next week, but I just want you to see it in context here with the lawsuits and Brother A, Brother B. There's a deeper warning he's given to Brother B, the one who committed... It seems he committed the crime of defrauding his brother. And look what he says, Verse 9-11. "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes or homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers. What's the next one, nor swindlers, the last one on the list, will inherit the Kingdom of God, and very famously the statement, such were some of you." That's what you used to be, "but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." So, you swindler I'm worried about your soul, I'm worried about whether you're actually what you say you are, a Christian. I'm very concerned about that. You may win the case, you may get away with it, but God sees everything and I'm very concerned that you will not look good on judgment day, and that is far more important than any money that would pass between the two of you. What is going on in your soul? That's how Verses 9-11 functions in the flow of the chapter. Now, for us in our day and age, with such questions about homosexuality and other issues, it is worthwhile for us to go back over it, and we will next week Verses 9-11, and especially the incredible impactful statement, "Such were some of you." So I want to unfold all of that next week. But I had Verse 9-11 read this time because I think it completes Paul's argument with Brother A and Brother B. Paul's basically saying to the swindler, "I fear for your soul, I fear for your soul." VII. Applications Alright, so that's the text. Walk through it. Now, how do we apply it? How do we apply it? I said to some of the guys this week, I said, "I feel like I'm carrying eight cans of worms up here to the pulpit with a can opener." [laughter] And which can will I open? I'm not even going to name the cans, I've got a list in my head of what the cans are. But just to name them, I'm starting to open them and they'll start crawling all over the pulpit. What about this, what about that, what about the ethics of the other? And on and on it goes. And I got to tell you, I don't know, I don't know all the ethical implications of this. I'm safest to stick to home-base which is don't sue another brother in Christ. One thing I do want to say given our present setting, before we even get into my attempt at applying this. Many of you are aware of what's happened in the Southern Baptist Conventional last couple of weeks in terms of sexual predators that were in some way protected by Southern Baptist churches and never brought to justice. I don't think this text gives any right for a church not to hand over such a criminal to the authorities. The elders of our church, we are absolutely committed to the protection of our children. We discussed this at length on Monday and ways we can take steps. Many things are already in place in terms of background checks and things like that. So this passage does not give a cloak of secrecy by which sexual predators, behind which they can hide. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. Crime gets committed, they should be handed over to the authorities and there's a lot more I could say about that. That itself is its own can of worms, but I wanted to say that. Alright, so what question is in front of us? Can Christians ever go to court at all? And if so, when and how and for what? I don't believe this passage rules out all involvement of Christians in lawsuits. Paul himself regularly was in court. And he actually used the court's mechanisms and appeal process for his own defense and for the spread of the Gospel. "I appealed to Caesar," was a legal thing he could do as a Roman citizen. Paul wrote Romans 13 saying that, we must... All Christians must submit ourselves for the Lord's sake, to the governing authorities because there is no authority except what God has established. Remember in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were wrongfully without trial, beaten publicly and thrown in the Philippian jail, remember that? And how God sent this amazing surgical strike earthquake, in which all the chains fell off and the prison doors flew open and that's amazing. As a mechanical engineer, I'm like, "I don't know how that happens." But it happened, it's incredible. The Philippian jail was converted as a result of that. But this prisoners didn't run away. Paul didn't run away. He could have. The next day, the magistrates sent word saying, "Paul and Silas, you can go." Paul's like, "No chance. We were beaten publicly without trial and now you want to kind of get rid of us secretly, no way. Let them come themselves and escort us out." Now, why is he doing that? I think he's carving out religious freedom for the new church that's being planted there in Philippi. And so he's using the legal situation to do that. Now, let's keep it simple ethically here, in terms of application. Don't take another Christian to court. That's just the simple teaching here. It's not addressing, "Should you defend yourself against non-Christians?" I've read a lot of what we should do with non-Christian type verses. But within the church, do not take another Christian to court. I would have a hard time skirting the clear teaching in this passage. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? It's very clear. It's better to be defrauded than to take the brother or sister to court. It's better to lose the money. It's better to lose the portion of the business than to litigate and press your rights and win the case, but show no regard for your Christian witness in front of the watching pagan world. That is a bad thing, so don't do it. We should care much more about the souls of the people involved in that process. The law enforcement officials and the district attorney in the courtroom and all of that, we should care about their souls, more than the money we can win back. The basic rule here in terms of involvement in the court system must be your motive. Why do you want to go? Now if the issue like with Paul and Silas is a matter of principle concerning other people, their rights, their freedoms, and not just your own selfish rights or advantages, it may be necessary to go to court. We could imagine a Christian public defender whose whole life is spent in court defending the poor, the weak, the needy from attacks by the powerful. Such a Christian would spend most of their days in court. You could just as well imagine a Christian district attorney whose whole life is spent prosecuting criminals and upholding Romans 13. And there maybe many examples of Christians going to court for the benefit of the gospel or for religious freedom. Like the rights we've seen of certain individuals like Christian bakers, to not necessarily have to bake a cake for a gay marriage, something like that. Or the rights of families to publicly or to educate their children and not have to go to the government schools, which many countries in Europe do not have. It's illegal. They have to go to the government schools, but Christians went to court to carve out the freedom to educate, religiously educate their own children. The issue here in 1 Corinthians 6 seems to be carnal. "I was wronged, I want my money back," and a sense of indication. That's I think home base for what not to do. Central issue then must be our loving witness to a dying world. We are surrounded every day by people who are without hope and without God in the world. They don't have that anchor that I prayed about it, at the beginning of my message here. They're dead in their transgressions and sins, they need hope. We are here to give it to them. Nothing that you would lose in a court trial or something like that is anywhere near as important as that. People are watching us. So let's, as a church, go back over the basic rules that Christ has given us. If an outsider came into our church, a meeting, a home fellowship, Sunday morning worship, would they know that we are Christians because we evidently love each other? Start there. John 13:35. Are we acting like the lights of the world here in the Raleigh-Durham area? Do people see our good works and glorify God? Will they glorify God in heaven, because they saw how we were living? Having had our infinite sin debt covered, our 10,000 talents, are we living out a life of forgiveness toward people who have sinned against us? Are we characterized by gracious, loving forgiveness toward people who have sinned against us or are we unforgiving and choking the person saying to them, "Pay me what you owe me"? Do we turn the other cheek? Do we give our tonic as well? Do we go the extra mile with people who are trying to hurt us? Do we see our temporal blessings as less important than the souls of the people we're dealing with? Can we take the words, "Why not rather be wronged?" and see how many hundred different ways we could live them out in the next week? Don't defend yourself, don't argue. Don't try to prove that what you did was the right thing, be humble. How would that affect your marriage, let's say? How would that affect your relationship with your kids or your relationship with your parents? How would it affect your relationship with your neighbors or with co-workers? "Why not rather be wrong? Why not rather be wrong, rather than press your case and win your case? "Why not rather be wronged for the sake of the gospel? Now, as we finish this message, I can't help but just call to any that are here that don't know Christ. Every week I pray that God would bring people who have never heard, who have not yet come to Christ or have not yet yielded. I think about what God did in Julia's life. And I don't know what stories are unfolding among those of you that are not yet Christians in your life. I don't know what resistance that you have. It may be that you're battling depression. It may be that you have guilty feelings for things that you've done. Do you realize what a great savior Jesus Christ is, how He came to seek and to save lost people like you and me? And there's no sin that we can commit, no manner of sin or blasphemy that the Son of Man, Jesus, cannot forgive. And so I'm calling on you to just look to him with the eyes of faith. Look to him and ask him to be your savior. There is a court trial coming and there's no escape from the judgment of God. He sees everything. We're going to have to give an account for everything we've ever done. Christ is the only one who can vindicate you on that final day and he is a great savior. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. And we would love to hear your story next chance we get, when you stand up in the baptismal area and tell us what happened and how God saved you. Now we're going to turn in the service now to an observance of the Lord's Supper. I'm going to close this sermon time in prayer and then I'm going to ask the deacons to come and help serve. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time we've had to walk through 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. Thank You for the power of the word of God. And thank you that your Spirit's been here. Now, we ask for fresh ministry of the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of baptism. Ordinance of the Lord Supper. Thank you, oh Lord, for the Lord Supper. Thank you for communion. Thank you, Lord, that we have the opportunity to do this, and I pray that you would please be with us through the spirit that we would experience it fully and powerfully. In Jesus name. Amen.

What is the purpose of going to church? Have you ever felt like you don't get anything out of Church? So why do we go to Church and how do we worship? Can you baptize two adult members who are living together, not married and have a baby? How should we think about Civil Disobedience? Was someone like Martin Luther King Jr. in the right? What about Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Connect with Preston Send a question to Preston by emailing chris@prestonsprinkle.com Follow him on Twitter @PrestonSprinkle Check out his new website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review.

The Necessity of Planning Would it trouble you if I were up here without a plan? Would that bother you? If I just said, "What should we talk about? We got some time together. What should we do?" I know it would trouble me. That's not the way I'm put together. I like to plan out my messages. I like to think about it ahead of time. It seems reasonable to do so. I think we are planning beings, aren't we? Some more than others. My wife is definitely more than I am, more of a planner than I am. And that's a good thing. Everyday we make plans, and as we're looking at Romans 15:23-29, we're looking at the plans and priorities of the Apostle Paul. Paul reveals what he's intending to do, what his plans are, what he hopes to do, etcetera. It got me to thinking about the issue of planning. And it occurs to me that we hardly make it through life without being planners. We make plans for small things like putting together a grocery list. Woe to you if you ever go to the grocery store hungry and no idea what you're there for, okay? You'll buy far more than you ought to. We plan out a work day or a work week. We figure what's the best way to spend our time, Monday, Tuesday, all the way through Friday. From small things like that all the way up to larger things like career planning or financial planning or life planning. There are financial planners that will meet with you and talk about things like debt strategies or saving plans, investment plans, planning for college, long-term investments, even retirement. They'll talk to you about that, and they're skilled in that ability and that discussion to help you make those plans. And also world history has been formed by those who have made plans and have executed them. I was reading recently about the Marshall Plan. In 1947, the United States government Secretary of State George Marshall wanted to help rebuild Europe. Part of it was a buttress against encroaching communism. They wanted to see, especially Western Europe, strengthened and rebuilt so that those economies would be able to stand up and be vibrant. And so $13 billion was apportioned through the Marshall Plan to the rebuilding of Europe after World War II. Architects spend their whole career planning out buildings down to the very detail, kind of windows and structure and the artistic appearance, all of that. Engineers plan out projects down to the nuts and bolts. That's what it is, we do planning all the time. And in this way, I think, we reflect the character of God. We are created in the image of God, and our God is a planning God. We believe from Ephesians 1 that he planned out, before the foundation of the world, to call a people for himself, for his own name and his own glory, that they should be holy and blameless in his sight. And it says, "In love he predestined them and called them according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose or plan of his will." Our God is a glorious planner. And thanks be to God, all of us who are Christians can say this, "Thanks be to God that his plan extended even to me, and that God worked in history and orchestrated things so that I would come to faith in Christ." God is a planning God. And we are in his image and therefore we are planners as well. It says in Proverbs 22:3, "A prudent man sees danger coming and takes refuge, but the simple keep on going and suffer for it." So the ability to look on into the future, to use your imagination and to think what's coming, and then to make plans accordingly and carry them out, now that's in the image of God. Now, the ant in Proverbs 6 is held up as an example against the sluggard. "Go to the ant, O sluggard," we're told, and why? Because he stores up his food when there's an opportunity, in the summer. Stores it up so that when winter comes he'll have enough to eat. And so we're enjoined to be planners like that. But I tell you that human planning is at a much higher level. The Christian I think in this area of planning is trained to think in three senses. First of all, we're trained to think, "The Lord may return or I may die tonight. So I need to be ready right now to face my judge and maker unafraid." It could be that you came here today not a believer in Christ. You need to come to faith in Christ, and why? Because you don't know for sure what a day will bring about. You need to look to Jesus who shed his blood on the cross that you might have eternal life. You need to trust in him for your personal salvation, because you don't know whether you'll even be alive tomorrow. So that's the first sense a Christian is trained to think about planning. We need to be ready to die, we need to be ready to face our judge and maker unafraid now because we might not even have tomorrow. We need to think like that. But secondly, the Lord may not return tonight or I may not die tonight, and so therefore, after the ant who stores up when there's an opportunity, I need to make plans for the future. I need to think about the future as though I might live another 30, 40 years. Knowing all of that is in the hand of God, I might not, but I need to plan for it. I need to keep working and plan for the future. And there Isaiah 32:8 stands and helps us. There it says, "The noble man makes noble plans and by noble deeds he stands." So that's a planning verse for you. We are to make plans and we're to live and act out according to those plans. And those plans are to be noble plans, and by those noble deeds, we will stand righteous and with a life that's worth living. So that's the second way we're trained to think about planning. Thirdly, having planned, we're supposed to go back to the first concept that God is sovereign over all things and that he may overturn many if not all of my plans. And that that shouldn't frustrate us, it actually should delight us. I want my bad plans overturned, don't you? I want my lack of foresight not to be the final determiner in the end. I want God to make the final decision, and he does. He rules over all those things. Now, we'll talk more about some aspects of that, but I think that's a good way for Christians to think about planning. Now here in Romans 15, we're going to get a look at the Apostle Paul's plans. How he thought, what he planned to do, and how the Lord finally would dispose of those plans in the end, according to wise counsel of his will. I. Paul’s Plans: To Jerusalem, then to Spain Now first, we get a sense that Paul's planning to go to Jerusalem and then to Spain. Now, let's review Paul's relationship with the church at Rome. Back in Romans 1:13, Paul expressed a deep desire to visit the church at Rome. Romans 1:13, he says, "I do not want you to be unaware brothers, that I planned many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so until now in order that I might have a harvest among you just as I've had among the other Gentiles." So Paul had already made many plans but they weren't getting fulfilled the way he wanted. And now here in this text, in verse 23 and 24, he says, "I've been longing for many years to come, and visit you. I plan to visit you when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and have you assist me on my journey there after I've enjoyed your company for a while." That's his plan, that's what he's planning on doing. Now, we already talked last time and the week before about why Paul hadn't visited Rome yet. We saw previously that Paul made clear his priority structure was to focus on unreached people groups. To be a frontier, trail blazing, church planting missionary or apostle to the Gentiles. That's what he was called to do. Look at verse 20 and 21, again by way of reminder, "It has always been my ambition," Paul says, "to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written, 'those who were not told about him will see and those who have not heard will understand.'" This priority led to Paul's activity, and his activity is from Jerusalem all the way round to modern day Yugoslavia, Illyricum, he has been fully preaching the Gospel of Christ. He's been active in all these strategic urban centers, following the main perhaps Roman roads, going to places like Corinth and Athens and significant places, and also some that were a little bit smaller but that God led him to. In Asia Minor, in northern Greece, which is Macedonia, and down in Southern Greece, which is Achaia, he'd been faithful in preaching the gospel all the way to the border of the Adriatic sea. He's been faithful in doing that. Secondly, we also saw that the Roman church was a mature church. He says in Verse 14, "You are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to counsel one another." And the idea there is, therefore, you don't need me to come. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a fully blessed time. He actually does say that in verse 29, "I know that if I come it will be with the full measure of Christ's blessing and that there'll be a good time of rich fellowship and there'll be harvest among those Romans that haven't heard yet, etcetera." But what he's saying is you're a healthy, strong church and I'm not going to spend a lot of time there. That's why he hadn't visited Rome yet, so Paul hadn't come. But now Paul makes an amazing declaration. Look at verse 23, he says, "But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions…" Wow, there's no other place to go if I'm looking for a frontier here in Asia Minor and in Northern Greece, Macedonia and down in Southern Greece, Achaia. There's no more place for me to go. The gospel has been fully proclaimed in all these areas. Oh, what an incredible statement that is, that is a rich and powerful statement. He's not saying that there's no one there that hasn't heard the Gospel, everybody's heard the Gospel. He's not saying that, but he's saying he can see the hand of God in laying out a strategy where there are centers of strong gospel preaching churches in each of these regions, and he wants to move on now to a place where there's no churches at all, that's what he's talking about. And so he wants to go to Spain. It was a new horizon of fruitful ministry, a new trail to blaze and we'll talk more about that in a moment. But that's his desire, he's going to go on because there's no more place for him to work. Now here he expresses his plans, he says, "But now, since I no longer have any room to work in these regions and since I've been longing for many years to come to you, I hope to do so in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present however," verse 25, "I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints." So there's the plan, first to Jerusalem bringing some aid to the saints, second to Spain. Going to stop by in Rome on my way through. Those are my travel plans. That's what he's talking about. But we know from scripture that all plans are subject to the sovereign will of God. There are many verses in the bible that teach us this. For example, Proverbs 16:9. Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Or this one, again, Proverbs 16:1, "To a man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue." In other words, you can make your plans, but God's going to be sovereign even over the words you speak. All plans are subject to the throne of God, that's what it's saying there. Or this one, Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." So we make many plans, and we ought to, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. The strongest teaching on all this in the New Testament is in James Chapter 4, and there James is dealing with people who are confident, fully confident in tomorrow. They're actually more than that, they're fully confident in a year from now. And so James addresses this arrogant confidence that has this confidence that we'll be alive and be able to do business even a year from now, in some very strong words. James 4:13-15, he says, "Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow." Today or tomorrow is equally certain to these people. "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'if it is the Lord's will we will live.'" Stop right there. That there is careful meditation. If it is the Lord's will we will live. That's not morbid, it's theologically accurate. If it is God's will I'll be alive tomorrow. If it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or that. Even my own plans are in the hands of God. That's the way we ought to think. Now even the great apostle Paul, the one who is caught up to the third heaven and saw inexpressible things that man is yearning to know about but no one can put into words, is not even permitted to try; even the great apostle Paul who wrote the Book of Romans made plans that didn't work out. Planned to do certain things, and he's got to explain himself at least to one local church. Here he describes his plans to the Romans, but it's not clear he ever made it to Spain as we'll talk about it in a minute. But in 2 Corinthians, he's got to deal with the fact that he had planned to visit that church and didn't go anyway. And he needs to uphold his apostolic authority in light of that. And so in 2 Corinthians 1 he talks about the change in his travel plans. He said, "I planned to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. When I planned this, did I do it lightly, or do I make plans in a worldly manner? So that in the same breath I say yes, yes and no, no? But as surely as God is faithful our message to you is not yes and no." The issue is that an apostle who changes his plans like this seems unstable, uncertain, unsure, unleader-like, unreliable, therefore not worthy of following. So he's got to deal with it in 2 Corinthians, his change of plans. Nothing could have been further from the truth in Paul's case, he's just establishing that God rules over our plans finally in the end. Knowledgeable that God rules over our plans, however, does not mean we ought not to plan. And so here Paul is making his plans. Five years ago on the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was packed up to go down to Washington DC to meet with some leaders, Christian leaders in Congress and Christian senators, for a meeting together with some pastors. So I was all packed up to go on the morning of September 11th. My car had the luggage in there, I had my suits with me, I was all... I'd planned to go, until I saw that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and that they had sequestered all the members of Congress and hid them in some secure places, and that the whole highway which I was going to travel on right by the Pentagon was closed down to all traffic. I knew immediately, among many other things, I wasn't going anywhere today. My travel plans had changed. And so it is in our lives. We can make plans, but in the end, it's God who decides what happens. They rescheduled the meeting for a month later, and so we went, I went, and that was the weekend of the anthrax scare. So I was there when there was plastic all over the air ducts and stuff. I came back saying to my wife, I was complaining of flu-like symptoms four or five days later, she didn't think it was funny. But I never did get anthrax and that was an amazing time. But just walking around through the Capitol building and looking at all that, and just the intensity was so strong at the time, and the time of prayer. But that was what God planned, not my original plan. You see, God makes the decisions in the end. We still need to plan. II. Paul’s Mission to Jerusalem: Serving and Uniting the Church So what was Paul's mission to Jerusalem? What was he going to do? Well, he wanted to serve and unite the church. Look at verse 25-26, "Now however, I'm on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there, for Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." The issue here is money. It's a love offering that was taken from Gentile churches in Greece. Macedonia as I've said is Northern Greece, Achaia is the southern part. Macedonia, that's where you get Philippi and Thessalonica, and all that. The southern part is Athens and Corinth and those cities. And he said both Macedonia and Achaia together these Gentile churches were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Now this shows an attitude of fellowship. Paul... Actually the word contribution in the NIV is the word "koinonia." They're pleased to make a "koinonia", a fellowship is what it was. It's money, but it's coming out of a theology of oneness, that we're part of one body of Christ together, and Paul is there in service to the unity of the Body of Christ. Not like communism in which government decrees that everybody's stuff belongs to everybody else, but rather, from an open and glad heart, a desire to share. That was the fellowship they had. Now, the money was for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. These were Jewish believers who because of their faith in Christ were put at a great societal and social disadvantage or economic disadvantage. It was already declared in John's gospel in John Chapter 9. Remember the man that was born blind? And it said right there that they had already decided that if anyone said that Jesus was the Messiah, he'd be thrown out of the Synagogue. Well, you can't imagine what effect that would have if you're living in Jerusalem, if you've been thrown out of the Synagogue. Perhaps you're a Jewish shopkeeper and nobody comes to your place and buys anything. Maybe you're a Jewish farmer and nobody buys your crops. Maybe you're a Jewish merchant and you invest in a big caravan coming from some other place and they bring in all your wares, big investment, nobody buys them, or you have to sell them at bargain prices because nobody will take them. You've been shut out. You've been blackballed. And as a result of this societal problem because of their faith in Christ, they were poor, very poor. Now these were the very people that the leaders in Jerusalem begged Paul and Barnabas to remember as they went out in their mission to the Gentiles. In Galatians 2:9-10, "James, Peter and John those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they would go to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." So one of the things they mentioned, these pillars in Jerusalem mentioned, these men, is please remember how much the saints here are suffering. Could be that there's some Gentiles who have come to faith in Christ, and they could help us out. And Paul says, "We are eager to do it." And so they went out, not only in the name of Christ, but once people were established and the churches were flourishing, and they said, "You know something, there are issues back in Jerusalem. Is there any way you could help?" And so they started taking a collection, money, from these Gentile churches. He mentions it in depth in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. If you want to know more about the offering, there's more reading about it there, but let me just read a few verses from that. It says in 2 Corinthians 8:1-4, "And now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches." Now let me stop a minute again. Macedonia is the northern part of Greece, Achaia the southern part. Corinth was in the southern part. The northern churches have already given. What he's doing is he's saying look at the example of your brothers up there in the northern churches. Now you who are in the southern churches in Corinth, you ought to give too. That's what he's saying to these brothers in Corinth. He says, "We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they pleaded with us urgently for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints." Oh, what a sweet attitude among these Macedonian Christians. They're poor, but they give everything they can for the saints in Jerusalem. And he uses that example to motivate the Corinthians to give as well. And Paul stresses here in verse 26, Macedonia and Achaia were pleased. So, apparently, they gave as well. The Corinthian churches, the church in Athens perhaps, they gave as well. And so there's this big offering collection that has been taken. And he stresses the pleasure that these Christians had in giving. They were pleased to do it he says. He says it twice, they were pleased to do it and yearned to do it. There was a pleasure in the giving. Oh, that's a heavenly attitude. I don't want to be chained to my money, do you? I like to send it on ahead by giving in the Lord's work. It's the only way you can really invest in heaven. You know how they say you can't take it with you? Well, that's true, but you can send it on ahead, you can wire it ahead. Give it by faith in the Lord's work as the Lord calls on you to give cheerfully and generously, because God loves a cheerful giver. Give. That's what he said the church in Macedonia and Achaia did. They were pleased. Now, back in those days, you couldn't send it on ahead, you couldn't wire it like you can do Internet banking these days or wire some money to an unnumbered or a numbered account in the Grand Cayman Islands or some private bank in Switzerland or something like that. You can do all kinds of stuff with money by electronic means. Back then, if you're talking about silver coins or even gold, you had to carry it, there wasn't paper money. And so, he's got this big amount of money and he's got to get it to Jerusalem. That's a big job, isn't it? And so it'd be on animal back in a caravan perhaps, or on one of those slow moving vessels that would go through the Mediterranean, hugging the shore and eventually get to Jerusalem. So Paul was going, he's going to bring that money, and he's got some brothers with him who can protect the money, perhaps somewhat at least, from highway robbery, and get it eventually there to the church at Jerusalem. That's what he says he's going to do. What Was Paul’s Motive in the Mission? Now what was his motive in the mission? Well, he talks about the service to the saints. It's related to the word for deacon. He's a servant to the saints there in Jerusalem. He wants to serve them. But why? Because they have real needs. They're hungry, they need food, clothing, and shelter for their children, for themselves. They're not able to make a living and support themselves. And so they really have become wards of the church at this point. It's a very tough situation for them and he wants to serve them. But he also has a higher purpose doesn't he? We've seen throughout the Book of Romans, but especially here at the end, how much Paul yearns for Jew/Gentile unity to be put on display. And so he wants the Jews and the Gentiles, who both believe in Christ, to be openly and visibly together and one as Christians. He wants to show the power of the gospel to make former enemies brothers, friends in Christ. And so he talks about this, the unity that they have in Christ. A very open obvious tangible way to display this unity is for Greek churches, Gentile churches to give a lot of money to a Jewish church and help them out. And so he displays a rather remarkable attitude about this offering. He certainly describes how gladly willing the Greeks were to give, but he also goes beyond it and says they actually owed it to them. They actually owed it to them, they were pleased to do it, and indeed, they owe it to them. Huh. Wasn't it Bill Cosby that said, "After all, it's my money, okay?" Well, that's an attitude in our hearts, you look at it and say... We can relate to that. In one sense it's true, there is such a thing as possession. It is ours. As the Lord said to Ananias and Sapphira, "Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold?" "It was yours." But there's a sense of obligation here that Paul's talking about among the Gentile Christians. Well, what's his logic? Well, he says They're pleased to do it, indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." It's amazing logic. Basically, he's coming at it from this point of view. Remember how Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "You Samaritans worship what you don't know; we worship what we do know..." You know why? Because "salvation is from the Jews." It's the very thing that had been said to Abraham way back at the call of Abraham, "Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed." It is a Jewish fountain that has opened up the river of living water for the nations to drink at. You have received lavish spiritual blessings. He already talked about this in Romans 11 with the image of an olive tree, remember? The Jewish olive tree has Jewish roots, the patriarchs, and it's been growing up, it's a cultivated olive tree. And you Gentiles you've been cut out of a wild olive tree and you've been grafted into a Jewish olive tree, and now you share in nourishing sap flowing from the Jewish root system. You have received spiritual blessings from the Jews. And therefore the Gentiles owe it to the Jews to share with them the lesser blessing of material things. That's the way he's arguing. That's an amazing thing. What Was Paul’s Reason for Telling the Church at Rome about the Mission? Now you might ask, Why is he telling the Romans about it? Well, could it be that he's trying to motivate them to think the same way about their money? Could it be he's motivating the Roman Christians to think that way about Jews and to evangelize Jews or to Jewish Christians to promote unity in the church at Rome? As we've already noted, it's a mixed church. And he's going to be... Oh, how shall I put it, hitting them up for money in a minute. He's going to be asking them to support his mission work, and if they're clinging to their money as though it's their own, they're not going to be open-handed and generous. They're not going to think about their money rightly. And so he wants to show them the example of Macedonia and Achaia. III. Paul’s Mission to Spain: Advancing the Church Alright, well, what's Paul's mission to Spain? We've talked about his mission to Jerusalem, for the unity and service to the church. What is his mission to Spain? Well, it's to advance the Church. Simply put, he wants to preach the gospel to people who've never heard of Jesus. Now, there's some good evidence that the Old Testament place known as Tarshish is actually Spain. Do you remember the story of Jonah? How Jonah didn't want to go to those nasty Gentiles in Nineveh? Didn't want to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so he said, "I'm going to run." Maybe he had never read Psalm 139. "Where can I flee from Your spirit? Where can I go from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. Even if I go to the far side of the sea, you are there." And actually, you're never going to make it, Jonah. I'm going to send a storm, and you're going to go to Nineveh. You see? Many are the purposes of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. Where is he trying to go though? He's trying to go to Tarshish. That probably was Spain. You think about the Mediterranean, and if that's all they really knew, that is the distant most parts of the earth. That's the end of the world as far as they're concerned. Well, we have already learned from Scripture, The ends of the earth belong to Jesus. To the distant shores, it belongs to Jesus, the distant islands will worship him and praise his holy name. God said in Isaiah 49 to Jesus, "It is too small a thing for you to be the savior of the Jews only. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that you may declare my salvation to the ends of the earth." Paul says that's for me. I want to take Jesus' name to the distant most regions of the world, very different from Jonah. He's not running from God, he's not running from the Gentiles, he's running to Tarshish to preach the gospel there. There's another prophecy so beautifully in Isaiah 66:19, and such a powerful prophecy speaking to the Jews, of the Jews, the people of Zion, this is what he says. God says, "I will set a sign among them and I'll send some of those who survive to the nations. To Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, who are famous as archers, to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations." Paul's a direct fulfillment of that prophecy. Isaiah 66:19. Look it up, "I'm going to send them to Tarshish I'm going to send them to Greece and they're going to hear of my glory, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Paul says, "That's for me, I want to go. I want to take Jesus' name to the ends of the earth." And why? Because it's not just these two prophecies. There are many of them. Psalm 2:8, God the Father says, "Ask of me and I'll make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession," speaking to his son. Psalm 22:27, "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of nations will bow down before him." Psalm 67, "May the peoples praise you O God, may all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest and God our God will bless us. God will bless us, [listen] And all the ends of the earth will fear him." Isaiah 45:22, this was Charles Spurgeon's conversion verse. Isaiah 45:22, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other." So we look unto God and are saved, and this one gospel is good not just for Jerusalem, and not just for Judea and Samaria, but to the uttermost parts of the earth, to the ends of the earth. And Paul wanted to go to Spain. And what did he want to do in Spain? Well, he wanted to plant a church, actually many churches. He wanted to establish healthy strong gospel centers. And if the Lord had given him time, he'd have said, "Now, is there anything further than Spain?" Maybe history would have been changed. Christopher Columbus wouldn't think anything of it. Maybe the Lord would have led him to even distant shores, who knows? But he wanted to push the Gospel as far as he could go. He wanted to go to Spain and preach the gospel. Did Paul ever make it to Spain? Well, there is no New Testament evidence that Paul ever made it to Spain. Never got there. Some scholars reading some of the church fathers think he got there, but I think the church fathers are just reading Romans 15 and talking about it. There's really no evidence that Paul ever made it to Spain. As a matter of fact, as people put together the chronology of Paul's life, try to figure it out, New Testament scholars, it may be that that trip to Jerusalem was the last free trip he ever took. That he was put in chains, was brought through the shipwreck on Malta to Rome, and there he stood trial before Caesar and died for the gospel, and never made it to Spain. We don't really know. But either way, God eventually got the Gospel to Spain, didn't he? Eventually the Gospel made it there, and why? Because it is the Lord's will that the distant most parts of the earth, even to the furthest shores and islands hear of the glory of Jesus Christ. Even if the Apostle Paul doesn't have the honor of doing it. VI. How Rome Fit In: Understanding and Helping These Missions Now, how did Rome fit in? Well, it was their job to understand and to help Paul's missions. He wanted them to support him on the way. Look at verse 24, he says, "I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while." Verse 28 he says, "So after I've completed this task [in Jerusalem] and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way." So he wants help from them. He wants financial assistance, maybe some personnel, some people who will go with him and help him plant that church in Spain. That's what he wants. He also wants somewhat to reduce their expectation. Since they're full of goodness, complete knowledge and competent to instruct one another, they don't need Paul to be their pastor, so it's like, "Oh, would you mind? We actually have a pulpit committee and we've been looking, and you are looking really good for us. Is there any way we could convince you to be our pastor?" Paul says, "Look, before I even get there, just know I'm passing through. You can help me, we'll have a good time together. We'll bless one another. There'll be some fruit. I trust that some Romans will come to faith in Christ, but then I'm moving on, I'm going to Spain. However, when I come, verse 29, "I know that when I come, I'll come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ." Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to say that? Let's say a Christian family invites you over for dinner this afternoon. You say, "Well, I want you to know, I know that when I come I'll come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. You'll be blessed to have me." You say, "Well that sounds arrogant." No, that's not it, it's just my desire is that you will be blessed in Christ by my coming. I yearn to have that kind of sweet fellowship. I yearn to leave the sweet savor of Christ after we left, not, "I couldn't wait for them to leave," but rather that it was a rich blessing of fellowship, and that's what he's saying in verse 29. V. Application Now, what application can we take from these verses? Well, can I urge you to be planners, godly planners? Can we start out at eternity with our planning? I would like you to plan for death. Because it's appointed to each one of us to die, and then to face judgment. So I want you to plan for judgment. I want you to plan to stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and to give him an account for everything done in the body, whether good or bad, plan on that. Plan on it, plan on giving Christ a full account and work backwards from there. Then I'd urge you to plan for 10 years from now. Say, "Lord, if you give me time, where do I want to be in 10 years?" We often talk in this church about the two infinite journeys. What kind of person do I want to be in 10 years, how do I want to grow, what are my habits, what do I want... Spiritual disciplines, what Bible chapters and books do you want me to memorize? How do you want me to develop as a prayer warrior? Right now I'm paying X amount of time, I'd like to pray three or four X every day. I want to be more of a prayer warrior. I want to be more faithful in evangelism. What kind of person you want me to be in 10 years? And in terms of the external journey, what do you want me to do for the kingdom? What's my mission, what's my calling? Plan 10 years down the line, knowing you might not ever even make it, but just plan for it and prepare for it. And then work backwards. What do you want to do next week? What do you want to do later this afternoon? Plan for eternity, plan for 10 years from now, plan for later this week and tomorrow. Be planners, but know that God holds all of those things in his hands. The noble man makes noble plans and by noble deeds he stands. Plan for that. Now, if you've come in here today and you're not a Christian, come to faith in Christ, don't plan for anything other than that. I don't ever want it to be said, Somebody came to this church and didn't know how to come to faith in Christ. They've been going to all these other churches, heard other messages, no one ever told them how to be saved. It's as simple as this. You look to the cross of Jesus Christ, the blood shed on the cross, trust in him and not in your own righteousness for your salvation. And then after that you can make noble plans by the power of the Spirit. Close with me in prayer.