ROMANS: Seeing Christ

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Lord Jesus, that's exactly what we've come to do this morning.

We've come together for the purpose of chasing our fears away, of laying siege to that which isn't true, uh, with the weapon of that which is true, your word, which is why we open the Bible, we preach the Bible, we teach the Bible, we live the Bible.

We're not perfect, uh, but we want to be consistent.

We, God, you've come today to turn complainers into worshipers.

We don't win that, we don't want to be the dead be down, or when everybody at work sees us coming, they go, Okay, here's we're gonna find out what's wrong with the world right now.

Let us be winsome, free, liberated worshipers of God.

You made little children uh to remind us how good it can be, to remind us not to take ourselves so seriously and be and not become some uptight religious weasels who trip over the kingdom and can't see when it comes.

Is it any wonder you took a small child like Carolyn who read today and put them on your lap and said to a bunch of religious people, unless you become like this child, you're not gonna see my father's kingdom.

Lord, we want to see the kingdom today.

So let us become childlike, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

If you're our guest, we've been preaching through the book of Romans.

We broke it into three big sections.

The last section is the last five or six chapters, Romans 12 to 16.

We've just entitled this section, Everything, because the Apostle Paul kind of covers this litany of uh of different topics.

And the one I want to talk to you about today, I want to talk to you about seeing Christ.

Seeing Christ.

And we're gonna read, I'll start reading in verse 7.

We'll read down to verse 13, and I want to kind of I want you to train your eyes to see Christ when you read the Bible, because we by nature open the Bible and we read the Bible like our high school yearbook.

We open it up and look for our picture and we look for self-affirmation.

And if you're not careful, that kind of posture leads you on a journey through Christianity and not into Christ.

And so I want you to see Christ.

And the only way I know to describe this is if you've been at this church any length of time, you knew that I grew up poor, I grew up very poor.

We're on food stamps.

I don't say that so you'll feel sorry for me, uh, but but but it explains what I'm fixing to tell you.

When we go to a restaurant, my wife and I will go to dinner.

If and we'll get the menus.

If there's a misspelled word in the menu, my wife will find it.

I don't know how it is.

She's an English lip major, she went to Baylor, she's not a critical person.

If you want something edited, get my wife to edit it for you.

She can pick out things and she'll have the menu, and I'll be because I've I've never found a misspelled word in a menu anywhere in America.

Because when I open the menu, I'm thinking about what I'm fixing to eat, because for me, eating is an act of worship, and I'm not being silly.

I love to eat, okay?

I have to be careful.

I have to beat my body and make it my slave, or else I would weigh 400 pounds.

Yesterday, my wife made bacon for breakfast, and she walked in, and I just said, that makes me love Jesus more right there.

She said, What?

I said, bacon.

I love bacon.

Why?

Because when I grew up, we couldn't afford bacon.

I'm so rich right now.

I've got a box in my kitchen that keeps my food cold, and guess what's in it?

Bacon.

Is God good or what?

So when we go to a restaurant, I just open up the menu and I'm just thinking, what I'm fixing to just devour to the glory of God.

I love red meat.

When I go to a steakhouse, I just think, I'm about to put a hurting on something.

And my wife will be like, oh, they misspelled sirloin.

Those are words that never come out of my mouth.

I'm just like, are you kidding me?

Because your eyes conditioned to see certain things.

Here's what I want us to do.

I want us to train our eyes this morning to see Christ in the scripture.

Let's start reading Romans chapter 15, verse 7.

Romans 15:7

Paul says, Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

As it is written, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.

And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.

And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

We'll stop right there for this morning.

I want to talk to you about seeing Christ.

And when you look at the text, there's three three things you see about Christ.

The first thing you see in verse 7 is you see Christ over culture.

Christ over culture.

Paul is concerned with the ethnic division between the Jews and the Gentiles in the church at Rome.

And if you look up a couple verses earlier, pick up in verse 5.

You can kind of get the weight of what he's about.

He says in verse 5, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together, Jews and Gentiles, people that by nature do not get along, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, now when you see the word therefore in the Bible, what it means is, hey, what I'm fixing to say is predicated on what I just said.

So he's just said, hey, together with one voice, glorify God.

Therefore, he says in the next verse, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

Now, Paul is writing and saying, hey, it's not okay basically if you'd have all the Jews go to church over here and all the Gentiles go to church over here.

Can you understand that this morning?

If you can, say amen.

Okay.

So he says, not okay.

You can't say, hey, we're of this ethnic group, we like this, and y'all like that.

And we can agree that that's not okay.

Right?

Correct?

Then answer me this question.

How did Sunday morning become the most segregated day in America?

Oh, I lost you there.

I got somebody over here.

The rest of you are kind of like, I didn't quite get to that.

What I'm saying is this is be careful because we've kind of let this happen.

We say, hey, well, the black folks go to church over there, and the white folks go to church over there, Hispanic folks go to church over there, and the Chinese people, they go to church over there.

Here's what happens: if you go to church with just one ethnic group, it always happens, it starts creeping in.

You start preaching culture instead of Christ.

And that's not what the Bible's about.

The Bible's about a multitude of all nations, all kindreds, John the revelator in the book of Revelation, we see a picture around the throne room of God in heaven.

And he says, I beheld a multitude of all nations, all kindreds, all tribes, all tongues, all peoples that no man could number.

Did you know that Fort Bend County is the most ethnically diverse county in the nation?

Did you know that?

And so, see, what why am I telling you this?

A, because the Bible says that Christ over culture, but but B, we don't want to be a church that kind of braces against all these different cultures that are coming.

We want to be a church that embraces all these cultures that are coming.

So you'll hear in the days to come about an ESL, we're trying to get English as a second language thing started here in our church.

We want to be a part of that because we want to help people that are immigrants that are new to this part of the country to say, hey, we want you to know where to go shop and where to get food, and we want you to feel welcomed here.

And the word, that's the word they use in the Bible, but we here use the word welcome.

And by the way, welcome is not a man word.

Welcome is a woman word.

And I'm not being sexist, okay?

Some of you women are like, what a pig.

No.

Men never say to each other, welcome, brother.

Be like, dude, don't say that.

What do you want to do?

Hug or something?

No, women are always like, oh, welcome to my home.

Men never open the door and go, welcome to my home.

Men open the door, and our first thought is, What do you want?

The doorbell rings, and you've done invad, you've done invaded the man cave.

And our thought is, what are you doing here?

Because we don't welcome people.

When the Bible says the word welcome, let me tell you what it means, and I'll describe what I mean.

When it says welcome, it's a Greek word proslimbano.

Proslimbano, and it means to open up your heart, to receive someone into your heart.

Now, I I I I can demonstrate to you that we've become less of a welcoming people in architecture in the way your home is laid out.

And I'm not getting on to you.

We bought our home, it was like this, and but what we've done is we've expanded the bedroom.

And we've in the master bedroom, we have a room for a king-sized bed, and a couple of club chairs, and a flat screen TV, and a master bath with two walk-in closets, and a walk-in shower, and a big sunken oval tub.

We've got all this stuff, and we've got a family room, and we've got a media room, and we've got a front porch that's about this big.

Because we kind of provide space for ourselves, but we're saying to everybody else, no soliciting.

I have a neighbor who has a no soliciting sign in their window.

I just love to go just ring their doorbell.

I'm soliciting.

And the lady from the inside screams, Isn't he a preacher?

Shouldn't he know better?

Ding dong, ding dong.

Because here's the deal: we're not good at welcoming people into our heart.

I used to think I was until I got engaged to my wife, who lived in England for a while and did mission work over there for a summer and lived with a family, and they came from England to our wedding.

Now I gotta be careful about the way I say this because in the first service, two sinners came up and said, Hey, you made it sound like you and your wife lived together before you got married.

And I was like, Well, she wanted to, but I got convictions, okay?

And so, let me say right up front, we were at my in-laws in Pensacola, Florida, and the folks from England showed up a week before our wedding.

Do you remember the week before your wedding?

Hello?

Yes, oh wow, on steroids.

Every day would ring the doorbell at 8:30, fully dressed, like here we are.

And my thought was, wow, oh, go to Disney World.

It's nine hours away.

Come back the day of the wedding.

Then my wife, the doorbell would ring, and I'd go get in the shower because I was hiding.

Because I was just like, I'm all out of ideas.

I don't, I barely know you all.

You're nice people, okay?

And so every day, and I kind of, Marcy kind of picked up on it by about day two.

I was like, hey, are we supposed to like entertain these people all day?

Well, you know, that's part of their culture.

Well, we're in America now, okay?

And part of our culture is leave us alone.

She's like, shut up.

And I was like, oh, this is what's well, this is the way it's gonna be if we get married, right?

She says, What do you mean if we get married?

Well, I mean when we get married.

We're getting married, yeah.

Pagey Dr.

Freud.

And so we made it.

They came, they came to the wedding, it was great.

And then the first year we were married, I cashed in a bunch of miles, took my wife to Scotland for a week, and we went to England for a week, and we stayed with these people.

And I realized what a selfish pig I am.

They moved out of their bedroom and let us have their bedroom.

Yeah, picture me sleeping in your king-sized bed.

Yeah, some of you just got the picture, you're like, hail's gonna freeze over before that happens.

You ain't even coming in my bedroom.

Yeah, they moved out and they slept in a twin bed.

The two of them together.

And I was just like, see, cuz, and every day we would get up and they would say, Today, here's what we're gonna do.

And they would take us.

One day the man took me to play golf.

One day we went and toured castles, and uh, and every day you have like high tea.

They took us to high tea at this thing.

All I know, I don't know what high tea is, but you get to drink hot tea and just pound food.

That was my favorite part.

I brought it out in this three-tiered tray and said, This is like smoked salmon with cream cheese sandwiches, and there was like four sandwiches and four of us, and I was like, where are the rest of y'all gonna eat?

Because I'm about to get after some of that.

Every day.

And so I kind of got by after about the third day, I was just kind of like, man, man, this is this is a little bit convicting.

I'm laying in bed, and very clearly the Holy Spirit says, You know why it's convict, you selfish weasel?

Because they welcomed you into their heart, and you just barely welcome them into your home.

He's like, okay.

Got it.

Thanks.

I got a question for you.

Who have you welcomed into your heart lately?

And maybe before you welcome somebody into your heart, you need to make room in your heart.

You say, what do you mean?

I don't know.

You tell me.

Because you see, when the first thing you see, when you when you train your eye to see Christ, the first thing you see is Christ over culture.

It's Jews, Gentiles, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, uh, Iranian, uh, African, Nigerian.

We got all kinds.

Look around this room.

People ask me all the time, how'd your church get so ethnically diverse?

Because these are the kind of people that'll be in heaven.

Heaven's not for white people only.

You get to go, by the way.

Crackers.

Anyway.

And people always, and they go, oh man, I just love that.

Hey, the Bible says heaven's gonna be a multitude of all nations, all kindreds, all tribes, all tongues, all peoples.

And if they're gonna be there, don't you want to be a church that's a part of facilitating them being there?

See, that's Christ over culture.

Second thing you see is you see Christ the servant.

Look at verse 8.

He says, For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised.

What in the world?

It's a reference to the Jews.

They were always priding themselves on, hey, we're the people of the circumcision, we keep all the rules.

Christ became a servant to the circumcised.

Now, think about that just for a minute because the Jews, they pictured the Messiah, that when Christ is the reference to the Messiah.

When the Messiah would come, he'd be this conquering war hero.

He would come in like a ruling king, and he'd overthrow the Romans and set up a new government, and they'd all get to be in charge.

And here comes Jesus riding a donkey.

A military general would come in riding a white stallion, parading behind him with all the armies that he'd captured, leading captivity captive behind him, and he'd big parade, letting everybody know, I'm in charge.

Check me out, riding my war horse.

And Jesus comes riding a borrowed donkey, and people are kind of like, This isn't the main feature, is it?

This is just a preview.

This is what this isn't what we paid for.

And by the way, just think just for a minute.

I mean, we're at church.

I know it's Sunday morning, it's probably gonna rain this afternoon, which is God's way of saying, take a nap, by the way.

That's in the Bible somewhere.

Doing you men a favor.

It's God's way of saying, don't go to Lowe's and pick out flowers, don't do yard work, just take a nap to the glory of God.

Just draw all the blinds, turn off all the lights, put the air conditioner on 58, and just power down.

Get you some of that.

All you women are like, we're not running that air on 58 and pay my bill.

I see you.

I see, I know you keep the checkbook.

You're like, I can tell you don't pay the bills at your house.

They call all the time, go, hey, well, Mr.

McClendon, when can we expect payment?

You can expect it anytime you want, but that means you're gonna get it.

Say, they wanted the king.

Hey, they were so convinced that by the way, here's the beauty of Jesus, the Messiah coming as being a king or a conquering war hero, because then to be Christ-like, you get to be king.

They wanted Jesus to be a king so much in John chapter 6, after he fed the 5,000, that people were just amped up and just like, whoa! They said this in John chapter 6, verse 14.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6:14

When people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world, perceiving this is Jesus, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When God knows that you have an agenda to work him and not worship him, he just withdraws from you.

Just mark the word again in your in your mental notes.

When he, hey, when they were gonna take him by force and make him king.

And by the way, you're not gonna make Jesus anything.

He just withdrew again to the map.

It wasn't the first time Jesus slipped away and said, I see y'all want to use me for your own ends.

That's not gonna happen.

He didn't yell at them, he just walked away.

Because the people wanted that.

Why'd they want that?

Because their thinking was, hey, if I had that kind of power, I could feed 5,000 people and there would with a couple of loaves and some fish and there'd be basketfuls left over.

Here's what I'd do with it.

And Jesus says, Well, I've got that power, and I'm not gonna do that with it.

Let's just think for a moment.

The Bible's so subtle and speaks with this loud authority when it says this simple phrase in verse 8, for I tell you, Christ became a servant to the circumcised, to the Jews, to the religious know-idals of the day.

Now, think for just a minute.

God created the world from nothing, right?

We didn't rise up out of some primordial slime.

We're not here because of a big bang where things collided together and then the world came out of that.

No, God spoke the world into existence, everything that exists, God created, okay?

And so God created the world from nothing.

So if from nothing God made everything, then it stands to reason that he could become anything, right?

Hello?

See, church is not just for feeling.

Use your mind a little bit.

If God created the world from nothing, then it stands to reason that when he wanted to become something, because it says Christ became a servant to the circumcised.

In other words, if he could create from nothing, he's got some power, he can feed 5,000, have basketfuls left over, then you would think, hey, I want to become something.

What do you want to do?

I mean, when's the last time your kid said for Halloween, what do you want to be for Halloween?

I want to be a servant.

They don't even sell that costume at Walmart.

That's what it was like.

He says he became, if he could become anything, why would he become a servant?

Here's why.

Because God knows, and we need to admit today that human nature is to exalt ourselves.

And God's nature is to humble himself.

You say, well, what do you mean?

Just watch a man score a touchdown.

It's a touchdown.

You think they can invented a cure for cancer.

What do you mean?

Let me just read from the Bible.

You don't have to turn there, you can write in your notes, come on the screen.

This is Mark chapter 9, verse 33.

Mark 9:33

Jesus and his disciples are walking down the road.

By the way, it is a dangerous thing to realize that God not only hears what you say, but he knows what you say and think before you ever say it.

This is what the Bible says.

As they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way?

And they're all like, but they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If any one of you would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all.

And now, hey, it's it's bad enough that we're full of ourselves.

You ought to hear our parents talk about us.

That's why Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

By the way, I love to go to like the first the orientation for school, the first year of school.

Uh, we have a fifth grader and a tenth grader across the street here.

And I I I love, I don't say a word.

My wife like takes notes.

We went to parent night at Garcia.

She had a notebook and pen.

I said, What are you doing?

I'm gonna take notes.

What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna watch people, and I'll give you a running commentary on the people.

She wrote down, shut up.

I got a note for you.

And so she's taking she's writing down who the sixth-grade counselor is and who teaches this, and da-da-da.

And I'm just looking around, kind of going, man, this is interesting right here.

If you see me at the mall sitting on a bench with a cup of coffee, don't talk to me.

I'm like Jane Goodall among the chimps.

I'm just watching.

We're a long way from the garden, Jesus.

Don't come soon because we got a lot of work to do.

And every once in a while I have to tell teenage boys, hey, get your hand off that girl, okay?

That ain't your property.

Walking around with her in a headlock.

That's not comfortable walking like this.

You never see married people doing that.

What?

You gotta be 16 to be that dumb.

This is sexy.

Yeah.

One kid, hey, I got a couple chiropractors in my church that can fix that neck.

But but but I go and and it's amazing.

Every year, it happened, especially in elementary school, after the big thing's over, all the parents go up and basically try to tell the teacher how special your kid is.

Well, my son's really gifted and talented.

He didn't get in the GT program, but I mean he's gonna be a filler in your class, and da-da-da-da-da.

They get done.

I walk up to him, my boss's like, don't say a word.

So I let my wife walk off, and I walk up to him and said, Hey, my kid's kind of a daydreamer once in while she stares off in space.

Just let her stare off in space.

I want my kids to be free thinkers, by the way.

I ain't got no complaints.

I don't expect you to raise my kids.

That's my privilege, okay?

I think you're underpaid and underappreciated.

So to kick things off, I'm gonna get you a gift card to Papasities.

I ain't getting you a coffee mug full of pencils or nothing like that, or an apple, you know, like a paperweight, like an apple.

I'm gonna get you like a hundred-dollar gift cards, and they just burst into tears.

Come here, let me hug you.

I tell them, hey, you can get a gift card to Papacitas, or I can get you a gift card to specs.

Which one would mean more?

Now, all of you that know what specs is, I'm gonna see you after the service.

And I just say, hey, by the way, a lot of school teachers pay for supplies out of their own pocket.

People are going to hell for that.

Somebody said, Hey, you don't need me doing that.

We don't pay you enough money.

So when you need something, you send a note home to my kid and we'll get it for you.

Okay.

Are you sure?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, come on, man.

We don't pay you.

It's crime to pay you what we pay you and they make you pay out of pocket.

Who's running these schools that they can't get you supplies?

Don't say anything.

Who I gotta slap around here to get things straightened out.

Where's the principal?

What is that?

Higher up the food chain, okay.

Got it.

But hey, hey, you think we think our kids, people in the Bible, think the same thing.

This is in Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

Listen to this.

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him.

Get a load of that.

She's kneeling before Jesus.

You can look humble and never be.

She kneels before Jesus and she asks him for something.

And he said to her, What do you want?

And she said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one on your left in your kingdom.

By the way, that's not a question.

Agree with me about how great my kids are, that they get to sit at your right and left in the kingdom, and they should have gotten the GT program, but we just didn't take the test that way.

My kid doesn't take standardized tests very well.

You need to know that.

I'm in the back of the class, kind of going.

And the teacher's looking like, Are you a student or a parent?

Which one are you?

I mean, the gall of this lady says to Jesus, not a question, but a command.

Agree with me.

Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one on your right hand and one on your left in your kingdom.

And Jesus answered to her, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

And they said to him, We are able.

And he said to them, You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

And when the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.

But Jesus called to them and said, I know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life is a ransom for many.

Matthew chapter 20, verses 20 to 28.

Matthew 20:20–28

I got a question, another question I want you to ask yourself today.

Are the people around you that you live with and they and you work with, would they consider you a servant?

Just a free.

See, I'm afraid in our culture, we've kind of reverted back to that.

We gotta exalt ourselves.

Because here's what the Bible says.

This is Philippians chapter 2, verses 5, verse 5 to 11.

Philippians 2:5

Have this mind among yourselves.

Get around some other people.

It's not a solitary journey.

Have this mind among yourselves, plural.

Get around some other people who are descending into greatness.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours, by the way, in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.

Taken the form of a servant, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

John chapter 3, verse 30 records these words from John the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest man to ever be born of a woman.

John 3:30

How'd you like to have that as a character reference on your resume?

Setting in an interview and just push that across the desk.

Says here that the Son of God says, You're the greatest man born of a woman.

Yeah, get a sniff of that, big boy.

BA BAM! Let's talk about a salary.

And this greatest man ever born of a woman said this in John's Gospel, chapter 3, verse 30 of Jesus.

He must increase.

And I must decrease.

He must increase.

And I must decrease.

Now look at me.

Some of you, if all you do is decrease, that's self-hatred.

That's not humility.

See, he has to increase to understand, to magnify the worth and the magnificence of God and the priority and the preeminence of God.

That's what rescues you and I.

We don't take humility and turn it into self-hatred and self-loathing.

No, it's humility.

It's power that is properly placed.

It's submitted to ultimate power.

He must increase, and I must decrease.

The Bible doesn't call us to hate ourselves more, to think less of ourselves.

It calls us to believe what the Bible says.

I said there's a what and the why.

The what is he became a servant to the circumcised.

Why?

Two reasons the text tells us.

Let me just point them out to you right here in the latter part of verse 8, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.

In other words, to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that God keeps his word.

What he said to the people in the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he came to confirm.

And then secondly, in verse 9, in order that the Gentiles, people that are not religious by nature, people that don't have church clothes.

Remember when you go to church when about 20 years ago you had to have church clothes?

I didn't have church clothes as a kid, so I never went to church.

I always felt dirty and a little more poor on Sundays because we didn't go to church.

And matter of fact, so much so when we drive by the first Baptist church in my town, my dad would say, You boys duck down.

And I grew up driving by churches, my head down below so no one can see me.

Because in a small town, everybody knows they see the football game on Friday.

If you went to church on Sunday, they'd give you the business.

Small town guilt has written, has inspired many a country song.

And we would just duck down and go by the church, and my dad, all right, sit back up.

And I had deep thoughts as a shameful little kid.

Instead of ducking down, why don't we just walk in there one day?

We didn't have clothes.

Why do I tell you that?

Because the Bible says that one of the reasons that Christ became a servant is so that the Gentiles, people who didn't know the rules and didn't have the clothes, might glorify God for his mercy.

Might glorify God for his mercy.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2, about verse 12, that Gentiles, by the way, unless you're of Jewish descent, that's me and you and everybody in this room.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

It says we were strangers to the covenants without God and without hope in the world.

That's why every once in a while, if you're a visitor here, I'm not trying to be funny or crass or off-color.

I tell these people I love with regularity, you should be burning in hell right now.

But because God's merciful.

Because why?

Because you are strangers to the covenants and the promises of God.

You were without God and therefore without hope in the world.

But God, who's rich in mercy, made you alive.

He let you hear the truth that set your heart free one day.

That's what the Bible says.

That's why he did it.

That's why, and then it starts there in verse 9, and it quotes four different passages from the Old Testament.

He says that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written.

In other words, the Old Testament talked about this happening.

The first line is from David, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

David has just conquered all these Gentile nations, and he's worshiping God among them.

But notice the progression.

It goes from God's people worshiping among the Gentiles.

In verse 10, and again it said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.

Now the Gentiles are rejoicing.

Now they're worshiping.

In verse 11, and again, praise the Lord, all your Gentiles, and let all the peoples, the Laos, extol him.

The peoples is people groups, tribes, nations, tongues.

In other words, not just Jews and Gentiles.

He's got them, the Gentiles worship.

Now he says, let all the nations worship God.

And then finally, he says in verse 12, in Isaiah, again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who rises to rule the Gentiles.

In him will the Gentiles hope.

The root of Jesse, the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, Son of God, God concarni, God with flesh and blood, will come.

And the Gentiles will hope in this Jewish Messiah.

That's the why.

Third thing you see this morning when you read Romans 15, 7 to 13, and you train your eyes to look for Christ, you see, first of all, Christ over culture.

Second of all, you kind of see Christ, Christ the servant.

And then thirdly and finally, you see Christ's kingdom.

Look at verse 13.

You still with me?

Verse 13.

Now, you don't have to strain your eyes.

You don't have to, because my wife, when she looks at things, she's not a nitpicky person.

And by the way, I live with one of the I live with one of the most the best servants I know.

Every morning brings me coffee, and my friends are like, Did your wife ever get tired of you joking and stuff?

I joke because I don't have words to describe how great it is.

And that's not fair to her.

I just never, I don't have a frame of reference for it.

I've never had a relationship like this.

But I don't mean just that, but just always serving me.

Always.

And so I think it's easy for us men to read in the Bible.

Well, the Bible says, you know, wives, submit to husbands and everything.

It also says in the same passage, keep reading, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

And gave himself up for her.

Hey, it ain't hard to submit to a husband that sacrifices.

Every day I'm reminded I have to step my game up because my wife has never stopped.

Because every once in a while I think this thought, well, that'll do me for a while.

That's horrible, isn't it, Tommy Hammer?

I think she so appreciates this, this will buy me two weeks of self-centeredness.

I think that.

And I'm your pastor.

Pray for me.

I don't say it out loud, but I just kind of smugly think, boy, I bet she's just overwhelmed with how good she's got it.

Yes.

But strangely, she's not.

But when my wife goes to the restaurant, she doesn't strain to find misspelling's in the in the menu.

It just jumps out to her.

Watch the kingdom jump out in verse 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

You see it?

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

By the way, joy and peace can only be had or experienced as a result of believing.

You say, Where's the kingdom?

Look back at Romans chapter 14, verse 17.

Romans 14:17

The previous chapter, Paul says very clearly, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Does it not say that?

Righteousness, being right with God, and peace and joy.

And here in verse 13, he says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

That's the kingdom.

May He fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

You can come to church and enjoy and not believe.

You can come to church and sing and not believe.

You can come to church and appreciate and not believe.

You can come to church and tithe, give money and not believe.

You can come to church and doubt and not believe.

But you cannot have joy and peace like the Bible talks about and God offers without believing.

I saw it this past week.

You ever had those days like where you just open up your daytime or your iPhone and you look at your calendar and you're like, what in the world was I thinking?

One of those days was Wednesday for me.

Crazy day.

Had a 7 o'clock breakfast meeting, had a 10:30 counseling session, had a 1 o'clock session, had a 3 o'clock session, had a 3.30, excuse me, had a 5 o'clock session, and then a 7 o'clock session.

And the last of the 7 o'clock session was a couple, I'm doing premier counseling for them.

We done met, they said, can we meet one more time?

And I'm like, I don't know what else to tell you about marriage.

Just get married and just fight and make up and just do better.

And so, I mean, it's the end of Wednesday.

I mean, I'm just slogging down the hall, coming to the foyer to get a dessert.

Like, okay, cut me, Mick.

Cut me.

And so they come in, we sit down, we start talking, and the guy's kind of like, he's kind of got an edge to his voice.

And I'm like, hey, tell me what's going on?

Well, I mean, I just, man, this is serious business.

I mean, I'm fixing to take responsibility for another person, and I don't want to screw this up.

Well, is that why you're talking like this?

He goes, Well, it ain't funny.

I said, Well, let me tell you something, my man, because I try to be helpful.

She's as cheap now as she's ever gonna be.

And he goes, Man, this is just a heavy burden to take on.

I said, by the way, don't ever say this is a heavy burden when you're talking about your wife.

That's free marriage advice right there.

And all of a sudden things begin to happen.

See, because when you see the kingdom in the Bible, you can recognize it when it starts showing up in real life.

And I'm sitting there talking and I was like, tell me about that.

He goes, Well, just it's just, it's just, it just feels heavy.

And I said, it doesn't have to be.

He goes, What do you mean?

I turned over to Matthew chapter 11 and started reading the words of Jesus and about verse 28.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

He says, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden.

I said, That's you, isn't it?

He goes, Man, yeah.

And he says, and you'll find rest for your souls.

And all of a sudden I could tell that guy had no idea what I just read.

And Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

I said, You know what a yoke is?

It's not the thing in an egg.

It's this, it's this wooden thing that's got two arches in it, and you put two, put it over two oxen and it sinks them up.

And Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

He says, Get in here with me.

I'll teach you how to do this.

If you're here today and you're thinking, I could never live like the Bible talks about, you're exactly right.

You can't apart from a relationship with Christ.

It's just behavior modification, it's just doing good and trying harder.

It's just it at best, it's religion.

At worst, it's desperation, but neither one's Christianity.

Jesus says, take my yoke upon you, learn of me.

He says, for I'm gentle and humble in heart.

Now I won't overwhelm you.

I won't, I w I I won't kill you the first day out.

And all of a sudden I could just sense the kingdom's about to sit down in my office.

It's about 8 40.

And I'm like, God, I had 41 cups of coffee today.

I overbooked my all of a sudden my spirit just kind of just kind of thickened up, and I was like, we we're about to get down to something right here.

And I said, tell me what's going on inside.

Because Jesus says, Oh, by the way, for my and for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That brother started doing some deep breathing.

Looked over his fiancee's crying.

And I just sat there and looked at him for 30 minutes.

I said, Tell me what's going on.

I know God's here.

He'd welcome me as a father welcomes his son.

I know God's.

And I said, You tell me about God in relation to you.

Tell me about you in relation to God.

I'm close.

I'm close.

How close are you?

I'm I'm at the door of the plane.

I want to jump out.

I ain't shoving you out.

There ain't no pressure here.

Five more minutes of deep breathing.

I thought, either we're giving birth to a baby or something's happening.

Look over, the fiance is crying harder now.

And I said, You on the diving board?

You hey, you may be a couple steps from the edge.

And I'm not gonna, we ain't gonna pressure this.

We can just hit the pause button.

No, I'm on the edge.

What do you need from me?

Two minutes of silence, and then all you could get out was, help me, Mr.

Neil.

Found myself getting up out of my chair, walking around the end of my desk, and put my hand on him, and I said, Y'all gonna write your vows to each other, right?

By the way, they're getting married right here in this room this coming Saturday.

You can write your vows to each other.

Becoming a Christian is a lot like giving your vows to you forsake all others, you you cling to this person.

That's what coming to Christ is like.

I said, if I could verbalize some vows and you repeat them after me, would that help you?

Yeah.

All right, I'm gonna say a phrase and you say it out loud.

Out loud.

Yeah, we don't just think it.

We we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord.

Okay, okay.

You ever scanned a wild hog?

Usually they're dead.

When you start skinning those things that are still alive, I mean hey, and I'm not making a that's brokenness.

I mean undone.

And I looked at his feelings, it's okay.

And he got done, and he just sat there and laughed.

And I thought, well, either he's crazy or he's been converted.

So what's this feel like?

He said, uh like an inside.

It feels light.

That's his burden.

His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

See, that's the kingdom.

When the kingdom comes, it's not heaviness.

If you're here today and you're just thinking, man, my wife's grinded on me to go to church, and I just that ain't Jesus.

His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

I just want to ask you today, do you believe?

Have you ever had the experience of the joy and the peace of believing?

Hold your hands out.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

That by the power of the Holy Spirit you may overflow with hope.

Depart now and overflow in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.