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Let's turn to Romans 15,
and we're going to
work through this particular chapter.
One Heart, One Voice
is what I've entitled it today.
One Heart, One Voice.
We're going to look at it in three sections.
Section one, we're going
to look at verses 1 through 7;
"We who are strong, ought to bear with the failings,
"of the weak. And not to please ourselves,
"each of us should please our neighbors for their good.
"To build them up, for even Christ did not
"please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those
"who insult you, have fallen on me."
"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us
"so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures,
"and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope.
"Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you
"the same attitude of mind towards each other that Christ
"Jesus had, so that with one mind, and one voice,
"you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord
"Jesus Christ." So, what is the
encouragement of scripture here to each and every one of us?
It is simply this:
To live not to please ourselves--
but to live to please others.
We see this attitude being addressed time and time again,
in the New Testament. Paul talks about it
in Philippians 2,
and he gives Jesus Christ as the example.
Who did not think of equality
with God something to hold on to, and He
divested Himself of those privileges,
and He became one of us.
He humbled himself,
took upon himself the form of a servant,
and He became obedient, even to the point of death.
He did not consider Himself; He considered us.
And He acted to please us.
For our good; for our benefit.
And Paul used that example to say,
"Have this same attitude in you."
Don't think of yourselves more highly than you ought.
I think Richard went over that in Romans 12.
It's an attitude.
So, what the encouragement is for us,
is to not please ourselves,
but to please our neighbors for their good.
So what does it mean to please someone?
Well, the definition is,
"To make one inclined to, to be content with, to soften
"one's heart towards another."
It also has the idea of intentional, deliberate
and continuous conduct towards others.
So, there's this attitude,
this inclination of the heart to be content
with another person, to soften one's heart
toward that person, and then to have intentional deliberate
and continuous conduct towards that person
to please them; to love them; to serve them.
So, we're to live for the good of others.
Paul talks about this in I Corinthians chapter 10,
he basically said, you know, I've become all things
for all people, in hopes to save some.
That's kind of the idea here.
So, we're to live for the good of others,
and what that means is we're to please our neighbor.
That's our encouragement.
Let's go to I Corinthians chapter 10,
I Corinthians chapter 10, starting in verse 23.
So last week, Richard talked about
eating and drinking, you know, there's some
that you know, that won't eat certain foods,
there are others who that you know, will eat anything.
And so, how do you get along with those different attitudes?
How do you treat one another?
Certainly we have freedom,
But we don't want to put a stumbling block in front of
another person. Paul echoes this--that
whole thought, that whole attitude here in I Corinthians 10.
He starts out, "I have the right to do anything.
I Corinthians 10:23. "I have the right to do anything,
But not everything is beneficial.
"I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive.
"No one should seek their own good, but the good of others."
So in Christ, there's freedom.
We're free, aren't we?
If we were under dietary rules and
regulations and we were utilizing
those things to make ourselves more pleasing
to God, more acceptable to God, more righteous in God's sight,
We've been set free from that. We recognize that
eating and drinking does not bring about righteousness.
So now we're free to eat whatever.
Some may still struggle with that. Some may still have
consciouses that say, "No, I can't do it"
So, we don't want to flaunt our freedom in front of somebody
that is still saying in their conscious,
that it's not right to eat meat on Friday,
or to do this or to do that.
Some may have a special day they observe. We recognize
that it's not a day of the week,
any day of the week we worship the Lord.
We don't want to flaunt our freedom.
So, we're free, but he said
every choice of freedom
isn't necessary--necessarily beneficial.
It's not necessarily constructive. So we should not seek
our good, but the good of others.
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscious
for the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.
That's true, isn't it? The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.
Even shell fish, for goodness sake.
"If an unbeliever invites you to a meal
"and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without
"raising questions of conscious. But if someone says
"to you 'this has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it,
"both for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscious.
So there was one exception.
You go into the house of an unbeliever
you eat whatever they put before you.
Unless they tell you that that meat
has been sacrificed to an idol.
Then it's a different story.
For the sake of that person, for the sake of your conscious.
Say, "I'm not going to participate". That's what he's saying.
"I am referring to the other person's conscious,
"not yours, for why is my freedom being judged by another's conscious?
"If I take part of the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced
"because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink
"or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Do not
"cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the Church of God,
"Even as I try to please everyone
"in every way," Same word: Please.
Paul says, "I try to please everyone in every way.
"For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many,
"so that they may be saved."
What is the issue at stake?
Your freedom or the salvation of another person's soul?
That's how we have to start thinking in this life.
It's not all about us.
It's not all about our freedoms.
We are free in Christ.
We don't want to be bound over
under Law again. We don't want to be bound over unto sin again.
We've been set free from those things.
We never want to go back.
But we don't want to use
use our freedom 1) to indulge the flesh, or
to flaunt freedom in front of someone
who might need to hear the gospel message.
You're certainly in witnessing to
your next door neighbor, Frank, who is Jewish.
You don't invite Frank over
for pork chops
grilled out on the grill. Why?
Because that's a stumbling block.
If you try to share the love of Christ with Frank,
you've already told him that you're not
really concerned about who he is
or what his background is. You've already
demonstrated that you're not interested
in him at all. Why?
Because you served pork chops.
That's offensive. So if you want to
show Frank that you love him, that you're interested in his soul,
that you're interested in his salvation,
you're going to serve something that's more in line with
his upbringing; with his heritage.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
So, at that moment, you're living, not to please yourself,
I know, you like pork chops! They're good.
They're very good.
Man, just done right on the grill, just
there could be nothing better. Right?
But it's not about whether you like pork chops or not.
Frank needs to know Jesus.
What are you going to do to communicate
that you love and care for Frank?
So that his ears might
be open to what you have to say.
That's what this is all about.
So live for the good of others..
what does that mean?
Please your neighbor.
Build him up.
That's what we see in this passage,
that we need to build our neighbors up.
"Each of us should please our neighbor
"for their good to build them up."
Edify them. Encourage them.
You know, life eats away at people.
This world is not a friendly place.
This world doesn't pat you on the back.
This world doesn't encourage you for your
acts of kindness or goodness.
The world doesn't stand back
and applaud you for being a person of character.
The world eats at you.
The world tries to tear you down.
Satan ensures that that's the case.
That's just the way it is.
We as believers in Christ
Can go against the current of the world,
and edify our neighbors.
We could build them up.
We can help strengthen them.
We can give them the encouragement they need.
So, for the good of others,
we please our neighbors,
we help build them up,
and we accept them
just as Christ accepts us, in verse 7,
"accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring
"praise to God."
Now, this word, 'accept' really
is a word "receive" and it means
to receive to oneself or to admit to one society, in fellowship.
To receive and treat with kindness.
Certainly, in the early formation of the church,
that was being made up of Jew and Gentile, there was a lot
of animosity between those two groups.
So, what God was saying, was accept
you Jew, accept the Gentile into the fellowship.
No, they're not like you.
No, they don't follow the same dietary rules
and laws. And no, they don't follow
the Jewish practices.
But none of those things
made you righteous in the sight of God.
Only faith in Jesus Christ, so accept them.
Even though they eat differently than you;
even though they drink differently than you;
even though they practice life a little bit differently than you,
accept them into the fellowship. Why? Because your
connection is deeper than the food
that you eat, the beverages
that you drink, or the other rituals that you
live out day to day. Your connection is
deeper; it's spiritual.
You have been bound together
by the love of Christ.
You have been connected by the spirit of God.
You both belong to Jesus Christ
and as a result of that, you belong to one another.
So receive each other accordingly.
Some of you in this fellowship
were raised in backgrounds
where Saturday was the day.
Others of you never even went to church,
never even darkened the door of the church growing up.
Didn't matter what day.
The word "Sabbath" was foreign to you.
Didn't even know that word
existed, and certainly had no idea
about its meaning.
But now, we're one in Christ.
We accept one another.
We receive one another into fellowship
and we interact with one another,
based on the blood of Jesus Christ.
we don't let those
past things stand in the way
of loving one another today.
We accept one another.
Kind of interesting, I've
watched "Chariots of Fire"
I think Friday night.
Some of you may remember that movie.
It was about two sprinters both on the
Olympic team back in the Great Britain back in the 1920's.
One was a missionary, Eric Lidel to China,
and he was fast. Man he could just about
out run anybody back in that day. Another guy named Abram
His last name, was a sprinter as well,
both made the Olympic team and at the end,
Eric Lidell said, "I'm not going to
"run a race because it violates
"my conscious, because it's going to take place on
"the Sabbath." Now Eric Lidell
was thinking the Sabbath was Sunday.
That was a Sunday. That was the Sabbath.
He's said, "I'm not going to race" so that enabled Abram
to race and win a gold medal in the 100 yard sprint.
Well, it worked out that
where Eric Lidell could run the 400 on a Thursday,
and he won the gold.
So, happy endings for all.
But here was a guy making a stand,
"I'm not going to do it, because it violates my conscious"
"It would be wrong for me to run on Sunday"
What he called the Sabbath.
Did the Sabbath ever change? No, it's always been
sundown on Friday, to sundown on Saturday.
That's never changed.
But, if he were here among us today,
and that was still his conscious,
we would need to overlook that,
because there's something greater that binds us.
And that's the love of Jesus Christ.
So, we accept one another, just as God
in Christ, has accepted us.
Were we always pleasing to God?
Did we have anything to offer God
that was holy?
God was holy,
we were unholy.
Through the blood of Jesus Christ,
He has made us holy.
He accepts us into the fellowship.
The same is true with one another.
So, what are God's gifts?
This is hard stuff. I mean, it's difficult
to love people that are different than you.
Based on background and culture and all of those things.
How do you overlook?
How do you get the strength to
bring it about?
Well, God's in the midst of this.
If you don't know, today is Pentecost Sunday.
50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God gave the gift of His Spirit.
His Spirit now lives inside of us.
And it's only through
the work of the Spirit that the love of God can
pour out of us into the life of someone else.
We as a body have become the dwelling place
of God through His Spirit.
We're God's house, not a building,
but a body of Christ.
We are God's house.
We have God's Spirit living inside of us, and God's Spirit
is what brings about this love in our heart
that can be poured out into the lives of others.
So, God gives us gifts through His Spirit, those gifts
are endurance, encouragement,
hope, and we see all of these in this
these...this first section.
This endurance is really a word that means patience, and it
is a patience that is directed towards things and circumstances.
I Corinthians 13, love is patient,
that particular word is directed towards people.
Patience with one another.
This particular patience is towards
things or circumstances.
It's a bearing up under; specifically
patience as a quality of mind, the bearing of evil and sufferings
with a tranquil mind.
That's what this patience is all about.
Who gives us that?
God's Spirit.
God gives us endurance or patience.
He also gives us encouragement.
God strengthens us and establishes us in the faith.
That's God's work. With all of that,
we have hope. We have hope.
Hope is something that
going to happen to us, we're sure of it.
That hope that we have becomes
an anchor for our souls,
and allows us to do, to carry out,
the encouragement of scripture,
to live to please others.
If you didn't know that all of your needs
were met in Christ Jesus,
that you've been given everything
you need for life and Godliness,
these encouragements to live for others
wouldn't make sense.
It just would be illogical.
Lord, I gotta get my needs met first,
and then I can start thinking about the needs of others.
Well, what Jesus is saying to us, is that every need that you have
has already been met in Jesus Christ.
There's not one need that has
gone unmet in Him.
You had a need for forgiveness.
Jesus met that need, didn't He?
Exceeded every expectation.
You were just looking for forgiveness for all the sins of the past.
Jesus Christ took away all your sins, and gave you forgiveness
for every one: past, present and future.
That need's been met.
You had a need to belong;
To have an identity,
God declared you to be "Child of God",
He adopted you into His family
and gave you the assurance
that you were His, and His forever.
You have a name: Child of God that's above
every other name. You can't get higher than that.
God has bestowed that upon you.
He's made you right in the sight of
God, holy and blameless.
He's given you a relationship.
He's connected you to the one thing that you
want more than anything, and that's the love of God.
your needs have been met in abundance
exceedingly, abundant.
More than you can ever dream or imagine.
And you know that
based on the gift of God's Spirit,
that you're going to get a new body,
and that all things are going to be restored.
That hope serves as an anchor
for your soul and actually compels us
in living out this attitude for the good of others.
God provides that.
God anchors us in something.
Oh, the world will try to pull you away.
The world will try to loosen that anchor
so that you can drift and be carried along by
worldly philosophies and the desires and cravings
of the flesh, and all of those sort of things.
God keeps bringing us back
to what's truth, anchoring our souls
so that we can live out the attitudes
for the good of others.
That's the work of Jesus Christ.
The Jew and Gentile,
you know, why is this particular section important?
Because the body of Christ is made up of Jew and Gentile.
It is a diverse organization.
It wasn't just people of like paths and
ancestry, and financial status, and social status
and all of that, coming together.
God sent the message of Christ
to the world.
To people of every walk.
Of every ethnic background.
Of every religious background,
and He brought us
together as one, in Christ.
Paul, longed for his
his brothers; his Jewish brothers and sisters to come to know Christ.
But he knew that his mission was to reach out
to the Gentiles, and so he did, why?
Because scripture revealed that this body
was to be made up of Jew and Gentile.
Those who didn't know Christ
those who weren't included in any
Israel, back in the day, were always
a part of God's plan. That's why he
goes back and looks at all of these Old Testament passages.
"I will praise you among the Gentiles! Rejoice, you Gentiles
"with His people. Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles. The root of Jesse
"will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations
"in Him the Gentiles will hope."
So, what's this great mystery that's been revealed through
through the apostles and the prophets?
The Jew and the Gentile are one.
That's the story.
That's why it's important for us to accept
one another. Why?
Because we're diverse, we're different.
That's why we learn to live to please others.
Why? Because we're different.
In showing our love one for another,
we give the most compelling evidence
for the world, that this gospel message is right and true.
Both Jew and Gentile are one.
It's good news, isn't it?
Just great news. And we as Gentiles
as diverse as we are, can be one.
You know, that's been kind of the
sordid history of the church,
You know, since Christ, we keep drawing lines of division.
Separating us.
You know, based on all sorts of things.
You know, we say we're supposed to be one,
yet, we join up in little
groups based on what we like
about each other. So if there's others
who are like other things,
they're excluded from our little group.
Those divisions have been detrimental to
the body of Christ. Why?
Because that's not what God intended.
He said we were all going to be one.
Let's live accordingly.
"So may the God of hope fill you with all
"joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may over flow with
"hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
The last thing we're going
to talk about today is the mission.
Our purpose.
Paul was going to Jerusalem,
when he wrote this book to Rome,
the Romans.
He knew there was going to be trouble in Jerusalem.
He didn't know exactly what that was going to be, but
he had in mind that he was eventually going to get through that trouble
and that he was going to continue his missionary journeys.
He wanted to extend the reach of the kingdom
further east. So he wanted to go to Spain.
And so, he wrote to the Romans, saying,
"I plan to go to Spain and on my journey,
" I'm going to stop in Rome.
"And we're going to have a time of fellowship,
"I'm going to be encouraged by you, you're going to be encouraged by me.
" And then, I want you to
"help me in my journey to Spain."
"I want you to provide the finances to help me to go to
Spain, and carry this gospel message to
folks that have never heard.
So that was his his purpose.
So, he writes in the last section,
verses 23 through 33, about these plans.
And at the end of it, he says,
"I want you to join me"
In verse 30:
"I urge you, brothers and sisters
"by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit,
By our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love
of the Spirit, to join me.
Said, "In my struggle, by praying
"to God for me, pray that I might be
"kept safe from the unbelievers,
"and that the contributions that I take to Jerusalem,
may be favorably received, by the Lord's people so that
I might come to you with joy by God's will, and in your company
be refreshed.
The God of peace be with you all, amen.
"Join me." was Paul's request.
He had been set apart as an apostle.
As the apostle to the Gentiles.
He knew it would
was God's work through him, and he knew
it was God's work through believers.
He didn't do this alone,
he requested help.
Join me.
Help support what I'm doing.
Be encouraged,
that new people are going to hear. Why?
Because what ultimately is the mission?
People are dead.
They're dead in sin, and they need life.
That's it.
He says, "Let's get behind it"
You've already been saved!
You've gone from death to life.
Share it!
Make it available to someone else.
That's mission.
People out there
they've heard the word "Gospel".
They've heard Christian stuff.
But you know what?
There's a listening problem.
There's a hearing problem.
Why? Because they don't see the real need.
We have that opportunity to show them what their need
is, and what Christ has accomplished.
The fact that they can go from death to life.
They can be set free from the wages of sin
and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That's the mission, and Paul says,
Join me!
What are we saying to you, when we're asking for support?
As we go to New York, and Washington DC and Louisville, Kentucky.
To join us, on a mission that brings
life to dead people;
that opens up a door for relationship with God, opens up
a door where people can be planted firmly in the love of God.
Is there a greater mission?
Is there a greater purpose?
Is there a greater reality to invest
time, energy, resources in than that?
I can't think of one.
Paul, unashamedly, with boldness,
said, "Join me."
Why? We've got something to say.
that is life changing. Let's say it together,
and let's see as many people as possible
come to know Jesus.
Come to experience life in His name.
Well, let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we
thank You that You reached
down in Jesus. and saved us.
We were once dead in sin.
We lived to gratify the flesh,
we followed the ways of this world.
But because of your great
love and Your mercy, You made us alive.
You anchored us to your love.
You sent Your Spirit to live in us.
You've met every one of our needs.
You've given us a solid hope.
Now in light of that, You're simply saying,
Offer yourselves.
Offer ourselves up to You,
to be used in such a way
that others can know You.
So that others can go from death to life.
So that others can be set free.
Give us hearts that want to join in.
Gives us hearts that want to reach out.
Gives us hearts that want to share Your love.
Thank You for this
momentous day, the fact that we celebrate
the gift of Your Spirit to us.
Help us to live in dependence upon Him,
to work out what He's working in,
we thank You for these things in Christ'
matchless name, amen.