Romans 15:27-33 - The Preaching & Ministry of Paul, Pt. 3 (03/19/2023)

Good morning everyone. I was thinking about, I sent all of you an email but you probably won't get it till you get home because you probably didn't check your email this morning, but it got me thinking about our church in general.

We've got, I think about all of our folks that have been around for a long time and how we sort of took the foundation from Jesus and the apostles and the

New Testament and began to build on that and then all the different things that we went through when we were in our youth and then

I think about our young people now in our church, the ones that have little ones and all the things that they're doing and stepping up and not just watching us anymore but actually taking the lead and I think about Zach fixing our fellowship hall where we can actually hear each other.

We've talked about that for five years and you just went in there and did it, so I'm sure you had some help, but I mean I don't know if you did or not, but appreciate that and David's class this morning was quite amazing.

I picked up two or three really amazing thoughts from his

Sunday school lesson today that really could, you know, change the way you think about things is really good and the letter that Katie and Dave wrote,

I don't know if that's what I emailed to you, the school board here wrote a letter that was printed in the local newspaper, very negative about Governor Abbott's visit with our school and our city and so they sent a rebuttal out and they got it printed and so it's in your email when you get home.

I would read it. It's really great, but so the Lord is, you know, if you want to talk about school and Brother Paul and Glenda, but you guys fit in with the old folks at this point, right?

When you've been here 10 years, if you've been here 10 years, that's like part of the foundation.

So, but I was thinking while you're up here talking, I was thinking I was so fortunate to watch and to know personally

Brother Lester Roloff, one of the great preachers of all of church history, but right here from Dawson, Texas is where he was born.

He took his milk cow to Baylor and sold milk to pay for his tuition at Baylor.

He got a PhD in theology. Nobody knew that. He wouldn't let them call him Dr. Roloff. He said, no, it's

Brother Lester. He talked like that, but he was an amazing preacher and he had a home with 300 acres where kids on drugs could go and get cured.

Young, I mean, adults could go. Men had a women's home, and a youth girls and boys home and had like an 80 to 85 % cure rate.

The state of Texas had like a 20 % cure rate. That's not real accurate, but it was low. I think it was around 20%.

And it was amazing to watch that work, but he was a pilot and he was flying to do a meeting.

He was an evangelist as well. He flied to do a meeting and went through a storm and it blew the wings off and he crashed and went to heaven that day.

He had preached a sermon at our church was, as far as I know, one of the last meetings he did before he went to be with the

Lord in Mejia. We put up a big tent and had, I don't know, three or 400 people under the tent in Mejia to hear

Lester Roloff preach. Helicopters were flying in from Dallas with news people to talk to him.

And he got famous because the state closed his home down and he fought it in court and won it and opened it back up.

And then I think they appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and they ended up closing it again, at least the part for the kids.

They didn't want us helping kids. Well, anyway, the last sermon he preached was on,

I don't know how many reasons he listed, but it was like a bunch, 10 reasons I'm ready to go to heaven or something like that.

And just a few weeks later, his plane went down and he went to heaven. He preached that sermon at our church right before he went to heaven.

But my story is this, after he was gone, even though he had trained good leaders and so forth, it just wasn't the same anymore.

And because what God does is he blesses men and women for a particular job at a particular time.

And he puts his power on that man or that woman and uses that person to do what he wants to do.

And Paul Davis is such a man. If he's not here, the school won't be what it is.

He cannot train someone to do what he does. God has to anoint a person.

And so that's just the way it is. So if you do go somewhere, take the kids with you because we can't handle them.

Seriously though, God has to do things. Now I'm not saying God can't bring another man that's anointed or a woman like he did at First Baptist.

I always think of that case. It's the only case I know of. So it doesn't happen often, but you had Truett there who was an amazing preacher at First Baptist Dallas.

And when he died, God brought Dr. Criswell, who even took it higher. But after he was gone, it's not the same now over there.

So you see my point. So each of us are very important. We are the ones

God put here to do whatever it is he's doing, which is quite amazing in the school, raising up these young people to be leaders in America, where our public schools are failing in that job terribly.

It's a joke to read if they try to write and say what a good job they're doing.

It's really interesting to read. It reminds me of the scriptures when they say that they argue with themselves, their arguments go full circle against themselves.

But it was a great letter you guys wrote, and I hope you guys will read it. Anyway, you mentioned the nation a lot in your prayer time this morning too, but your

Sunday school lesson nailed it. Let's see, it was

Psalm 12. If you want to read, I find stuff all through the

Bible about business in the Bible. We've even got a podcast about that, Business in the

Bible. We don't call it that, but that's what it's about. But that Psalm is about politics in the

Bible. And it's pretty, if you weren't here for Sunday school, go read it when you get home, because it pretty well nails where America is right now.

And it's kind of frightening to think about, not really because we know who's in control, but we know who thinks they're in control too right now.

And they're not, but they think they are, and they can do some real damage while they're there. And they surround us because they pull people like them in, into the generals and our military become like them.

If they can affect the judicial system, it becomes like them. The Congress tries, you know, it's just, they pull evil people in with them and it takes

God raising up a good man or woman to change it. So, you know, and it takes somehow the, they got to win by such a margin that the cheating won't even show up.

And that's not easy to do because it's about 50 -50 in the country. I think it's more like 55 -45, them winning actually.

It's just, they don't all get out and vote. So now that they've figured out how they can vote from home for everybody in their household, we're in trouble.

I've said that for years though, you've heard me say it. If they ever get where they can vote from home, we'll never win another election.

I bet I've said that a hundred times. Well, we're there now, but God can still do amazing things.

So we don't, we don't give up hope because we know who is in control. We don't know God's plan for America.

It's mysteriously difficult to find in scripture, unless you're one like I sort of am.

I think I'm, I think I'm along with the crowd that believes where it mentions the isles, like island, the isles, that that's a reference perhaps to England and all of her babies, which

America is one of her babies. And it could be a reference to America. I don't know. But other than that, it's really hard to find if America is even there during the tribulation period.

We know that without America right now, seemingly Israel would fall, right? And Israel can't fall, can she?

She can fall, but not until Armageddon. And at that point, right before she falls,

Jesus saves her. So America has a great role right now, as long as we support

Israel. And you can be thankful for you. If you have kids or grandkids, you can be thankful for that. If you ever see

America change that stance, then you should move to another continent because this country will get nuked from every direction.

And you might rather watch that on TV from somewhere else. So if we ever stopped supporting

Israel, or I would say, I would dare say if we don't win the next presidential election, then you might want to be thinking about at least not living too near a city, which we're pretty good here.

I don't think they'll nuke, of course, Canada, but they will probably hit Fort Hood and Dallas, Houston for the oil and stuff like that.

So they didn't build those for nothing, the nukes. Are you with me? They weren't built not to be used.

And the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. That's the humans that control these things. So listen, you have to be preparing in some way or another.

Maybe just emotionally and spiritually you prepare. Maybe some of you physically prepare.

I know a lot of you are armed to the tilt and plenty of ammo. So you at least for a while protect your food from the people who try to flee

Dallas, right, or whatever. But it's a very serious time we live in. Things are changing unusually and fast.

Last Saturday, not yesterday, but I think last Sunday, I mentioned the day before, there was a major volcanic eruption.

And if you go to YouTube and look at it, you can see the power of God there. There was an earthquake yesterday in Ecuador that I think the death toll will be much higher.

At that point, it was only 12, but it's probably much higher by this morning. Just two weeks before that in Turkey, in part of Syria, I believe.

Am I right? Did I get the country right on that? Turkey, anyway. Killed thousands by an earthquake.

And so, you know, things are changing. I understand we had a twister that went right over our property here, missed us, missed your house barely.

And then I'm going to drive out that way towards the country club on the way home and take a look because apparently there's trees and everything down.

So the Lord spared our building. But, you know, we have to, your

Sunday school lesson day was all about coming to the Lord and crying out because that is all we can do at this point.

It's funny how we phrase that. We say all we can do is less. Now all we can do is pray because we always want to try to fix it ourselves first.

That's very human of us. It's not very godly. The prophets of old didn't do that.

Elijah didn't do that. He just said open his eyes, Lord, so he can see who's protecting us out here. Remember that?

I don't know how many tens of thousands of angels were surrounding the army that was threatening him.

That was no threat, right? So we're at the place of crying out for this nation, but we don't know

God's will for this nation because there's not a lot of it revealed in scripture. If you find anything, bring it to me, please.

If you find something other than the idea of the aisles. But I do think,

I mean, I hate to say it, but I think there is one other place the United States is mentioned is I think it's the great horror in the book of Revelation where they're in boats out on the water watching it be destroyed in a moment.

I think that's New York City, but I could be wrong. So I think America is listed there. But I mean, we've just got to really be in prayer, crying out to the

Lord. I mean, for very important things like where should we be?

What should we be doing? We're not supposed to be on our house waiting for Jesus to come back and doing nothing. We're supposed to be working.

And, you know, things like that letter that you guys wrote. I tell you what's interesting about that is who reads the

Course in the Daily Sun, right? I mean, we'll read it because I told you about it, but you don't read it.

But guess what? What's the young lady's name that's on the think tank, the governor's think tank?

Mandy. Mandy what? Drogan. Mandy Drogan is part of a think tank in Austin that the governor utilizes a lot for things that he does.

And she proofed the letter that they wrote before they sent it to the paper. And she said, oh,

I like it. And I don't, you know, it's funny how she said that. I won't repeat it. But anyway, it was fun.

It wasn't bad, but I mean, it was funny how she said it. But she said, I'm going to send this all over the, I'm going to send this everywhere.

Everybody's going to see this. So this little bitty church has an effect on things going on in the country.

And if you affect the country, you affect the world, right? Dave and I are going to go out for the first time since COVID and do a live meeting next weekend.

So I won't be here to preach, but John King's coming and he'll be with you to preach. And Ben is going to do the

Sunday school. Dave and I will be in Denver. Colorado is an interesting place where a lot of people from California have moved there and they've changed the voting records of Colorado.

It's very liberal now. We're going to be right in the middle of that, Dave. Oh, so what are we going to do? We're going to talk about the stock market.

And we're also going to show all through the Bible, how business principles are there. And mysteriously, the gospel gets mixed right in with the business principles somehow at our meetings.

But I mean, we can have an effect. So this little church is sort of the foundation for a lot of stuff going on in the country.

And thank God for that. Well, let's pray. Lord, thank you for our service. Thank you for everything you've put in our hearts and minds already.

Now we ask you to be with us as we study your word for a few more moments. And we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. In this particular part of the book of Romans chapter 15 and starting about verse 17 and following, we have found several things about the apostle

Paul that are enlightening for us because in my book, he's the best Christian that's ever lived.

And I don't know that God is the judge and we'll see, but I think he might be the best

Christian, the most powerful, amazing Christian that ever lived in the last 2000 years that we know of.

And so it's interesting to read about him as a person to see how God used him and what he did to prepare his heart and how he thought and how he spoke.

And there's a lot of that in the latter half of chapter 15 of Romans. First of all, we found out that this was about verse 17 that Paul did not preach with poems and little cute stories and things like David talked about in Sunday school this morning, vanity, like things that are vanity.

If it's not God's word, it's vanity. It's empty. It doesn't make people grow. Well, Paul didn't preach that way.

He preached the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, not with flowery words or overly educated sounding terminology and phrases, but he preached a simple, powerful,

Holy Spirit filled messages straight from the scriptures. And that's the first thing we saw.

Then going down through 17 to 20, we see that Paul did not build his churches on the work of others, like Mormons do, like Jehovah's Witnesses do, like Charismatics and Pentecostals do, not so much the

Pentecostals, but the Charismatics. They'll take your brand new convert, bring them over to their home and teach them, try to teach them how to speak in tongues.

And I've always wondered, you know, like if that's a gift, how do you teach it? But to them, it's taught. And I will say this publicly as often as you get me to say it, is that there's only two things that can cause modern tongue speaking, because it's not the

Holy Spirit. There's only two things. It can be a psychological learned response or it's demonic.

And often it's both in the same room. And I believe, this is my theory here, those who start out with the psychologically taught version can may well end up with a demonic version if they keep going with it.

Because the Holy Spirit tells us in Hebrews chapter one, verse one and two, that he no longer speaks to us that way.

So if they're doing it, they're faking it. Well, when you fake, you open the door for demons to come in and say, well, we'll be the

Holy Spirit. If you don't believe me, read the story in the book of Acts.

I believe it is where Paul was going down the street preaching and this young girl was following and said, hey, listen to him.

He's telling you things of God. He's telling you the gospel. You need to listen to him. He's telling you the truth. He turned around after a while, he got tired of it because she was making a show of everything and a mockery of Christianity.

So he turned and looked at her and cast the demons out. She was filled with demons who were telling the people to listen to the best

Christian who ever lived. So why is it people think they always know it's God when stuff like that's happening?

Oh, it's God. It's the Holy Ghost. And a lot of times if you'll notice, they don't say it's the Holy Spirit.

They'll say it's the Spirit. The Spirit is among us. Listen, that's true. The Spirit is, but it's not the

Holy Spirit. Well, you have all of this sort of thing going on and these people love to take the people that you witness to and they get saved, but they're new babies.

And if you don't disciple them quickly enough, they will grab them with an appearance of love and caring, teach them to speak in tongues and convince them they can cure them of cancer and then bring them into their church.

I've seen it my whole life in ministry. I've seen it. It's called proselytizing and they do it.

But Paul did not do that. That's verse 20 of chapter 15 of Romans. Now, next thing down around verse 25,

Paul was an entrepreneur preacher who did not take a salary from the church. He was a tent maker.

And so we see all of these cool things going down through there. I think we ended up last time talking about where he rebuked the false apostles and deceitful workers.

And we talked a little bit about the Pentecostal movement in particular who believes that they still have apostles.

Well, they don't because one of the qualifications in the Bible is you have to have walked physically with Jesus.

So they're lying about that. And Paul rebuked false apostles. We should do the same.

All right. So now that brings us where we are. And we had gone out to the book of Philippians chapter four, if you'd like to turn there and kind of a little bit of a parallel passage on some of the things we're studying in Romans 15.

And because my next point comes from there. So Philippians chapter four verse 10 and following, let's read it a little bit.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now, Philippians 4 .10,

that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity.

Now you have to look at the Greek a little bit on this word care, where he said, you cared for me because the word literally is phroneo, which means to exercise the mind, to entertain or have a sentiment or opinion about something or someone.

So he's not saying you took care of me financially. He's saying you had good thoughts of me.

You had warm sentiments of me. Now that can lead to taking care of helping people financially.

And in the context of this, I believe that it did, but the word doesn't mean that.

So these people had warm feelings about the apostle Paul. They wanted to help his ministry and Paul, they know that Paul's a businessman building tents and selling them and has money, but they want to help anyway.

They want to help further the ministry. So look at verse 11, not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state that I'm in wherewith to be content.

So we can see that at some points in Paul's life, he bordered on having wealth because wealth just means more than you need to live on.

He had extra. And then in other points in his life, he was in virtual poverty. He didn't even have enough food to eat.

And here's what he says about that is when I find myself in want, which means I don't have all the things

I need right this minute. He said, I've learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.

So Paul could be content if he had wealth and he could be content if he had nothing. Why? Because money is just a tool and he knew it and it's not

God. It doesn't take the place of God. It can't even come close. And he had

God, so he was content in any state he was in. Verse 12 says, I know both how to be abased, which means have nothing and to be mocked because I have nothing by other men.

And I know how to abound, which means to be wealthy everywhere.

And in all things, I am instructed both to be full and I'm instructed how to be hungry.

Who instructs him? The Holy Spirit and the word of God. Two things always, the water and the spirit, the water of the word and the spirit.

Same thing. This is the theme we've seen through much of these last chapters in Romans.

So I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere. And in all things, I am instructed both to be full and how to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. And don't you find it interesting that that right there is a famous verse that's pulled out and used all over the place in all kinds of writings and speeches and pastors just throw it in the sermons and they don't throw it in with that context.

Isn't that interesting? Because he's not talking about, I can be powerful. I mean, that's not the context.

I can, like with God with me, I can break down walls and take over Washington and Austin and, you know, we can get rid of all the bad people and make sure it's only good people in charge.

I can do all that through Christ to strengthen me. He's just saying, look, I know how to prosper and still walk with God and not let the money ruin me, right?

Not let money be an idol. It doesn't affect Paul. And I know how to be hungry and in want and not let that make me bitter towards God.

I'm fine in that state. In fact, I can do hungry and I can do full. I can do all things through Christ to strengthen me.

That's the context of that verse. So it becomes useless if it's all about power that you want to have in the world.

It's not for that. What it is for is contentment. But let me tell you something.

If you can be content when you got nothing and you can be content when you have everything, then you do have power.

You have power over this entire world because this whole entire world, all they seek is money and power.

And they're not going to be content when they don't have it. And so you are a more powerful person than they are.

So in that sense, you can do all things through Christ, which strengthened with me. Verse 14 says, notwithstanding, you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction.

Now that word communicate is a word, literally, it's like two little

Greek words. You put them together. It means to co participate. It's funny because that's redundant, isn't it?

Participate means do it with you. Co means to do it with you. So it's like it's to double be with me.

You're being with me in my afflictions. You are with me when I'm doing well.

You don't get jealous because I have money. When I'm hungry, you don't mock me because I have nothing.

You participate in my life and you support me. And that's how the Philippian church was toward Paul.

It's really quite an amazing relationship that they had. Verse 15 says, now you

Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, now think about that right there. The beginning of the gospel started with Paul.

Why is that? Because the other apostles didn't understand the mystery that God gave Paul out in that wilderness for on and off for three years when

Jesus himself met with him physically. You know how I know it's physically? Because you can't be an apostle, an apostle, start saying a possible.

You can't be an apostle if you didn't walk with Jesus physically. So that's how

I know. So Jesus appeared and met with Paul in the wilderness and taught him the things he needed to know.

The mystery of the church, which was something the Jews had a hard time with. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, something they had a hard time with.

Jesus taught him all the mysteries of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the church and the rapture that would come.

And Paul's the one who spoke of that. I don't see too many other people. Job referred to the second coming, but not specifically the rapture in that sense, more the resurrection.

But Paul brought us the rapture. Think about that. An entire doctrine that Paul brought that the other apostles didn't.

So this was the beginning of the gospel when Paul began his journey, which we'll talk about that in a minute.

When I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only.

So now see this whole idea of communicating does not mean money. It means with your heart, with your heart and soul,

I support you. I support you when you're down. I support you when you're up. I support you when you're being criticized by others.

I support you when it seems like you've won every argument. You see, they were just with Paul no matter what.

Okay. So, but when it qualifies that with the adjective phrase that says concerning giving and receiving, now, you know, it's an aspect that it does have to do with money.

So they did give Paul a love offering. Verse 16, for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity.

So what we see here is some of the money Paul received from the Thessalonicans had actually been sent from the church at Philippi, perhaps to the church at Thessalonica to be given to Paul to further his ministry.

Now we know from scripture that Paul didn't use that money to live on. He went to great lengths to explain why he didn't, especially when he was at Corinth because that church would have thought he was just like all the other false apostles if he preached for money.

So he wouldn't take any of their money. But this money was given to him to further his ministry, which part of his ministry was to take money to the poor church at Jerusalem and give it to them and be a blessing to them.

And these other churches knew that they could participate. If they could get this money to Paul, he would get it to where it was needed.

And so it's not like Paul was taking a salary. He was a tent maker. In the year 148

B .C., 20 years after the fall of the kingdom of Macedonia to Rome in the year 168

B .C., Thessalonica was made the capital of the

Roman province of Macedonia. So when you see in the scripture where it talks about Thessalonica or then it talks about Macedonia, it's kind of talking about the same place, the same church, because Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia.

Thessalonica was founded around 315 B .C. by the king

Cassander of Macedon on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma.

And 26 other local villages were around there and came together to form this city now in biblical times called

Thessalonica. He named it after his wife Thessalonike, who was the daughter of Philip II and the half -sister of Alexander the

Great. Isn't that interesting? And she was the princess of Macedonia. So that's the history of this city where Paul went in to preach the gospel.

And no man had heard it in that city when he got there. It was no one ever heard the gospel. There were probably some

Jews there that talked about, you know, Moses and working your way to heaven and all that sort of stuff that they had perverted it by then.

But they had never heard the true plan of God until Paul walked into that city. Verse 17 says, not because I desire a gift, you know, verse 16 said, you gave to me twice.

And he says, not because I desired a gift. See, he didn't use their money to live on.

But he said, I did take the money from you because I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

Now, what does that teach us? Let's stop a minute and pause because I'm going fast. I don't have any time ever when I get up here.

So what does that mean? Well, I can remember Brother Rocky saying this, my mentor,

I heard him preach in so many churches, big churches, little churches, country churches, city churches, that he truly could be all things to all men.

So they would listen to his gospel. But anyway, he would tell them, look, I don't want you to give me a little love offering.

I want you to give me a big love offering. I'm the Jew. Jews like money. You need to give a big love. He didn't say it like that.

He said it very eloquently, but it was almost like that. He said, you know, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't give the Jew a little gift, stuff like that. But he would always tell them, he would say, you do know that those of you who are working for a living, you're running companies, you have jobs, you can't go to the places

I go. But when you give to my ministry, you're part of the ministry and God gives you credit as being part of this ministry.

And this is a worldwide ministry. He would say stuff like that. And he was absolutely accurate because he based it on this verse we're looking at right here, verse 17, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit for you so that like you can bear fruit so that when you get to heaven,

God says, okay, I see that you had a part in these people over in, you know, New Guinea getting saved or wherever Paul or the missionaries going to go that you supported.

Verse 18. So that was a great principle in verse 17 is when you give to someone that with all your heart and the best investigation you could do really is a true preacher of the gospel.

Wherever they go, you go with them. Isn't that interesting? Whoever they went to Christ, you helped to win them to Christ and you never left your house.

That's a good deal. If you want to talk about a business return on investment, that is a great return.

We had some missionaries we supported for a long time in Africa and they would come speak about once a year and we'd always go to hear them.

And when we could hear how far a dollar would go over there, like $200 gift, which everybody in this room could give a $200 gift if God led you to do it.

And if you gave them that gift, that would pay for a child to go to their Christian school for a year, a whole year, $200.

Not per month, per year. Now you think about you give $200. If you do it here, your return is you helped a child go to school for a week maybe here, right?

But you do it over there, it's a year. So your return on investment is much higher when you gave it to that missionary.

But that's why we told them to quit coming because Paul needs the money now. But anyway, I'm kidding.

But you see the point there in verse 17, very powerful. You are bearing fruit that you gain rewards in heaven for when you give to God's work to genuine ministers of the gospel.

Verse 18, but I have all and abound. I am full having received of Ephroditus the things which were sent by you.

So he's telling the Philippians he got, they sent him some money, some clothing, who knows what they sent him, some books.

And that gift was an odor of sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well -pleasing to God because they gave it to Paul who was

God's man. Isn't that something? So like when you give money to God's work, it's like a sweet smelling savor to the

Lord. It is truly a way that we as believer priests can offer offerings to God. Jesus is the ultimate offering that all those offerings picture, but we're supposed to give spiritual offerings.

And so sometimes when we give money to God's work, it is considered a spiritual offering by God himself.

And Paul makes that clear in verses 17 through 23. Paul received funds from the

Philippian church, which might've been sent to the, looks like were sent to the Thessalonican church to be given to Paul.

And some of it might've been used as food rations for Paul, but more likely he bought his food with his tent money when selling tents.

And he used this to help the poor church at Jerusalem. But at any rate, whatever Paul used it for, it was an odor of sweet smell and sacrifice acceptable and well -pleasing to God.

Now, if we go back to Romans now, in Romans chapter 15, verse 27, that little passage was in Philippians, kind of parallel with what we're studying here.

So look at Romans 15, 27. It has pleased them truly that their debtors they are.

For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

Now there is a principle that's really powerful and important, and it ties right in with what we just read in Philippians, where Paul told him, when you give me money, it's like you're bearing fruit in God's kingdom and you get rewards for it, et cetera.

This is a little bit cumbersome in the English here in Romans 15, 27, a little cumbersome as you read it, but what it's saying is that when you have men and women who teach you this book, like brother

Otis taught us, like Bill did for 13 years, you know, they both sat right over there, like David and Ben and others do now in our church.

And you should have heard Paul's speech. Most of you did because nearly all of you came to the governor thing.

You heard Paul give his talk and it was amazing. But I mean, when you have people who minister the word of God to you, then what that is doing is you become a partaker of their spiritual things.

Like it takes energy and effort and love and all kinds of things to prepare a message that's of any use.

It's not just a little pep talk, like it's something that's really, if you grab hold of it, it helps you grow. It's something where you're going to learn something you've known your whole life and be reminded of it, but you're also going to hear something new that you never thought of before.

You can't hardly find Bible teachers like that anymore. We've got several in this church, but my point is when that happens, then that's what he's talking about in verse 27, when he says you are partakers of their spiritual things.

And it now says it is now your duty to also minister to them in carnal things.

Now, carnal doesn't always mean like the flesh in the bad sense. It just means physical in this usage.

Like if they're helping you spiritually, you need to help them physically. If they need shingles put on their house, help them get that done.

If they need a new camper, like maybe they're a missionary that comes through here and they're going to head to Mexico, help them get new tires on that thing because they ministered to you.

I think about the last family that was here and we're procrastinating a little, my fault.

We need to go ahead and decide how much we're going to send them every month and start sending it because they blessed us spiritually.

He was a wonderful young preacher of the gospel. And we don't hear that many anymore that actually either they're in something, they're either legalists or they're totally like no scripture and just rah -rah or somewhere in between.

But this young man preached the word to us, didn't he? It was great. So that's what this verse means in verse 27.

If they give you spiritual things, you give them physical things that they need to live. That's a principle

Paul taught. And he's really not referring to himself there because he makes tents.

And I'm not trying to get you to give me money because God blesses me through three different businesses. I don't need that.

But what Paul did want him to do was to give so that the group as a whole could help the poor

Christians in Jerusalem that had no money. And he wanted to take that love offering, but he didn't want to just take the money he could take, which was limited.

He wanted them to all participate. And not only that, he wanted them to bear fruit in heaven on earth and gain rewards in heaven because they did give that money that went toward that end.

So this is what Paul's doing here. And it's very noble. When therefore

I have performed this, in other words, when I take this money, see, this is how I know

Paul's not using this money for himself. When I've performed this, that means, that doesn't mean he went out and bought a bunch of food and ate it because they gave him money.

That means I'm taking this money to Jerusalem, to the poor church. So when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, which is the money that you gave me to take them,

I will come by you to Spain. So Paul was going to take this money to Jerusalem.

And he's going to give it to the poor church. And then he's going to take a trip. He thinks that he's going to Spain.

We don't know if he actually made it there or not, but he wants to go via Rome and he wants to visit this church at Rome and spend time with them and then go from there to Spain.

So Paul will take the love offering to the poor church at Jerusalem and then travel to Spain, hopefully in his mind by way of Rome.

So we see in verse 27, again, it has pleased them truly and their debtors they are for if the

Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things.

Now that's really kind of cool when you think about that. Most of the Christians at the

Jerusalem church were Jewish believers. Almost all of the

Christians at Philippi and Thessalonica and at the church at Rome were

Gentiles. And these Gentiles are giving money for Paul to take to the

Jews who didn't believe God would save a Gentile. Isn't that wonderful? God's ways are higher than our ways.

His thoughts higher than our thoughts. So the principle is that when someone ministers to you spiritual things, you should help them with physical things.

Now I have a question, did Paul ever reach Spain? Well, the

Bible doesn't say so. All that the Bible, the inspired word of God says is that he hoped to go to Spain by way of Rome.

Doesn't say he got there. He said, that's my plan. That's all we know. So anything else we would hear may or may not be true because it's historical and it's profane history, not inspired word of God.

So what we do know is that Christ's Austin, who wrote around 300

AD, he's also the one who said tongues had ceased from the church and no one even knew what it was anymore because it was not a gift that God used anymore.

300 AD, that's almost, I mean, the apostle John was almost still alive when that was said.

So that's how long ago that gift ceased along with prophesying in the sense of telling the future and laying on of hands and healing people.

All of those had long since ceased by 300 AD. We know that from church history.

But this same man that wrote a commentary on the book of Corinthians and said,

I don't know what tongues means because I've never seen it happen before in church. That same man said that Paul, I'm quoting

Christ Austin here, Paul, after his residence in Rome departed to Spain.

And that doesn't say that he made it, but it says he headed towards Spain, which implies that he did go to Spain before he came back to Rome and was in prison.

So that's interesting information to have. Now, when we look at the

Romans road, which we think that's a way to lead people to Christ, but what it really is, it's a roadmap around the world, the known world that Paul traveled.

You're going to be astonished how far he traveled. But if you add Spain to it, which most people don't, but if Christ Austin's right,

I'm going to add another, I'm meant to look it up. Somebody needs to Google that for me. Google the distance between Rome and Spain for me,

Dave, and tell me that number in miles here in a minute. So anyway, Christ Austin thinks he did make it.

And then Jerome, an early church father, also believed that Paul made it to Spain.

That's not proof that he did, but they think he did. And they were scholars of their day and they lived a whole lot closer to the events than we do.

So maybe, maybe Paul did go to Spain. It would be interesting to research if there's any other proof that he might've been there.

I want to read this to you. This is a writing entitled,

Being a Disciple, the Journey from Being a Student to Being a Disciple by David and Roseanne Evans.

And I've got their URL here where you can look them up. They've got a website and I'm quoting from their website.

And I quote from these guys, use the amazing

Roman road network and sometimes traveled by sea to travel across Israel, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

A lot of the details are included in the book of Acts, which is true. And you have a lot of interesting details there about Paul's journeys.

Most biblical scholars agree that Paul would have traveled over 10 ,000 miles by foot in his ministry.

That would be equal to walking between New York city and Los Angeles four times on foot.

Hopefully not crossing the mountains there in the middle of our country. But when you read the book of Acts, you begin to realize that Paul's missionary journeys were not an easy walk.

Paul gives us a small insight into that in second Corinthians chapter 11, starting with verse 25.

I'm still quoting this website, but this is from scripture. Paul says thrice, this is talking about his own missionary journey.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times

I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the ocean.

I think that means without a ship, floating. In journeys often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, the

Jews, in perils by the heathen, the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

Verse 27 says in weariness and painfulness, in watching often in hunger and thirst, in fastings often in cold and nakedness.

Well, the more one looks into the life of Paul and his complete dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more the words of Isaiah 52 7 apply.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, your

God reigns. And then there was a study done by Stanford University on the cost of Paul's trip, what it would cost in today's money, which is kind of interesting.

You never think about things like this. You just think, oh, well, he just traveled around and the gospel went out, and here we are today.

You don't think about the suffering and physical endurance this man had to have to get the church to the place where it had most of the

New Testament, which he penned, most of the greatest volume of the New Testament, which this one man penned, and I believe it includes the book of Hebrews.

To think about the times that people left him for dead in a ditch, and then

God transported him to heaven, showed him some stuff, and sent him back that he told us, and then some stuff he wasn't allowed to tell us.

To think about the times he was starving and had no food, and he was naked because something happened and his clothing was wearing out, and he was in a place where he couldn't renew it, and all these things that happened to this man in order for the church of the last 2 ,000 years to sleepily sit in the pews and listen to sermons.

Isn't that something? Stanford University recently unveiled

Orbis, a site that lets you calculate the time and cost required to travel by road or ship around the

Roman world in about AD 200, which is about as close as they could calculate this to when

Paul lived. It takes into account a lot of factors. It models ancient sea routes based on historical sources, and how high the waves would have been, so how much energy it would take the ship to get through there, and how many days it would take, and all that.

It factors all that in, the software does. So the apostle Paul went on three missionary journeys from AD 46 to 57, traveling around much of Asia Minor and Greece.

In 60 AD, he was also taken to Rome. Orbis allows us to calculate how long these journeys would have taken in pure travel time, excluding time spent at each destination, and how much they would have cost.

So his first missionary journey was a distance of 1 ,581 miles, and the travel time was 53 days, and it cost 237 denarii, which

I'll calculate that into dollars in a minute. The second trip was 3 ,050 miles.

It took 100 days, and it cost 314 denarii to take that trip. The third one was 3 ,307 miles, 92 days, 481 denarii, and then when he went to Rome, it was 2 ,344 miles, and it's not counting if he went to Spain.

Did you find the number? How much? Oh my goodness. So that trip of 2 ,344, you'd have to get to Spain and back, so that's two more thousands, right?

So that'd be 4 ,344 miles. So that would add another 4 ,000 miles to the 10 ,000 that's commonly allotted to his trip, so it's more like 14 ,000 miles he traveled by foot or sea.

That last trip to Rome was 699 denarii. So basically, if you just multiply it by a hundred, that's about what it is.

So if you added all three of those trips, it's about $103 ,000 or more in today's money just for him to take those trips.

So where'd that money come from? You see, this is the money that the church... See, he didn't make that much selling tents where he could pay for the whole trip.

So the Philippian church, the Thessalonican church were the two main churches that helped him give us all the experiences in most of our

New Testament. So tell me they didn't get fruit in heaven. You think they get to heaven and God says, well, you know what?

We got this thing called the New Testament you didn't know about when you were alive, but the whole church for 2 ,000 years had it.

People were burned at the stake for it to print it, and Christians died for believing it, but they had their lives enriched beyond belief because of you.

So you get this reward for giving that money to Paul. See how that works? It's real. It's still going on today.

So speaking of the Roman church about his planned visit, Paul says in Romans 15 29, and I'm sure that when

I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

So a person who is in the word and anointed by the fullness of the Holy Spirit will be a blessing to any church because he says he comes in the power of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

Verse 30 says, now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and because of the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

So not only should we give money to people that are giving the gospel out, teaching the word of God to people, we should be praying for them continually.

What for? Verse 31 tells us that I may be delivered from them that do not believe.

What does that mean? Be delivered from the unbelievers so they don't kill me. That's what he meant.

And that my service, which I have for Jerusalem, that's the money that he's taken to the poor church, may be accepted by the saints.

Like those Jews, they're stiff necked. Pray that they'll even take the money.

That's what he's saying. Also pray that I may come into you with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed.

He wanted some fellowship time with the church at Rome on the way to Spain. And now the

God of peace be with you all. Amen. So there are five reasons listed in those verses from Romans 15, 29 through 33.

Five reasons we should pray for those who minister the word to the church. Number one, for the

Lord's sake. We pray for them for the Lord's sake. What does that mean? Well, it's all about Jesus' kingdom, right?

It's all about God's will for the history of the world and how the gospel affects it.

So that's the first reason that we pray for God's ministers is for Jesus' sake, because he is behind those ministers, leading them and taking them exactly where he wants them to be.

And having the effect that he wants them to have. So it's for the Lord's sake that we pray for God's ministers.

Secondly, for safety from those who would persecute or kill them. Thirdly, that one's ministry would be accepted by the church.

Just because you take money to a church or a message to church doesn't mean that people will receive it. We need to pray that the message of our ministers will be received by those who hear it.

Fourthly, that the minister may come in joy by the will of God and all may be refreshed together and have fellowship together.

And then fifthly, that the God of peace would be with the church. So there we have it.

We have now finished chapter 15 of Romans. And here's a picture of Romans Road, but I'll tell you where you can find it.

If you have one of these old fashioned Bibles, there is a map in the back of most Bibles. It'll say the Romans Road, and you'll see this very picture.

It's astounding. It's more than this because this doesn't include Spain. So it'd add another 4 ,000 miles to this.

Isn't that amazing? So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the apostle Paul and that one man, how you used him so mightily in all of our lives almost 2 ,000 years later.

And throughout that 2 ,000 years in the lives of millions of Christians who have lived and fulfilled your will in their lifetime.

And you gave them your word, much of it through the apostle Paul to empower them, to bring joy to them, to bring strength and love and service into their lives.

Thank you for this man. And Lord, thank you that we get to meet him someday face -to -face and prepare us that we might be ready for that meeting.

And Lord, we get to meet you face -to -face as well. And thank you for that. And Lord, we ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship, bless the food we're about to have, bless all of our ministries and bless us as we attempt to be better salt and light in these last days.

And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. You are dismissed. Thank you guys for being with us.