4/12/26 - Romans 15:1-7: The Worth of Christ - Steve Gee

This morning, uh, we're back into Romans.

And so we're Romans 15.

And so, as you know, there's 57 chapters of Romans, so we're getting close.

Just kidding.

We are so close to the end of Romans.

Uh, we're gonna read, uh, we're gonna be looking at just the first section there, the first seven verses of Romans uh 15.

In chapter 15, Paul continues the argument that he began in chapter 14.

I know it's been a while because of you know going through, uh looking at the moment, the Christ theological calendar of Easter, Resurrection Sunday, and so it's been a while since we've been in Romans, a month or so.

But he's continuing the argument that he began in chapter 14.

He's telling the mature in faith not to use their gospel freedom regarding what they eat and drink to be a stumbling block for those who are younger in their understanding of the gospel.

And I just again, just to make sure we're all clear here, Paul is not saying, hey, Christian, uh, don't use your gospel freedom against those who are non-Christians.

He's saying, hey, church, uh, those who uh are more mature in their faith uh understand uh in in fuller ways the gospel and what it sets us free to, do not use it as a stumbling block to unwelcome, as he says in chapter 14, those who are also in the family of God.

But Paul's argument here and throughout is broader than just food and drink.

His reasoning is the work of Christ.

And so we should see that what Paul is saying here extends beyond food to all areas of our gospel community.

Here's why I said I'm saying it's important to know the context.

He's talking about food and drink here.

He's this is this is the this is the uh the the the catalyst for the argument that Paul is making is food and drink.

There was disagreements here, and it was becoming a stumbling block, it was becoming an argument, there was despising, there was looking down on, there was judging.

But but Paul is going to use the example of Christ, and certainly the entire gospel, the entire gospel of Christ is not just about what it means for food and drink.

So Paul's use of the example of Jesus Christ is meant to just say, hey, listen, this is one example of that, but in all areas of our life we need to be careful, we need to be thoughtful about how we treat each other.

Back in the day, I think I was around eight years old, I remember um seeing uh that, you know, they I don't know if they have this anymore because you know, commercials don't happen anymore, but uh uh I remember seeing commercials for uh like a sweepstakes, and the sweepstakes would be like a shopping spree.

And the idea was hey, um, shopping spree, you have 90 seconds, you have three minutes or whatever, you run in a store, you get whatever you want.

Anything you get, you know, put in the shopping or whatever, it can be yours.

And there was this idea, and I remember thinking as you know, as an eight-year-old, I remember thinking, oh man, I hope I get the shopping spree.

And and and listen, I'll tell you, like at that point, uh for me, what that meant was I wanted to go to a toy store uh that was fully stocked in a toy that uh called G.I.

Joe.

Like that's all I wanted.

Like it's all I wanted.

I mean, I watched the cartoons every afternoon.

There would be the cartoon, there would be the you know, the 28-minute cartoon, and then afterwards would be the the more you know life lesson at the end of it, you know?

And uh like I loved G.I.

Joe.

It's uh$2.41, I think, for a character.

And I just like I thought about that shopping spree.

And I can remember visualizing myself running, uh, running through, you know, running through the the the lanes of the of the store with a shopping cart just piling in.

I would I would think about the technique, how could I best get all of this?

So I would think about it a lot.

I remember fantasizing again, what would I do with the power and the freedom to spend three minutes in a store?

And again, as you can imagine, all of those daydreams and fantasies were about what I would use my how I could use that power and freedom of a shopping spree and how I could use it to secure something for myself.

Right?

The power and freedom would be about securing something for myself.

And I know it's a silly illustration of an eight-year-old and G.I.

Joe, but I don't think we, even as adults, as 48-year-olds, have graduated from that posture.

How we use power and freedom to secure something for ourselves.

This morning we're gonna look at how the power of God for our salvation sets us free from the captivity of sin for a purpose, and that purpose is not ourselves.

Our power and freedom are the opportunity to love others.

In the kingdom of man, power is the path to being served.

I mean, would we disagree?

In the kingdom of man, power is the path to being served.

The more power you have, the more people who are going to serve you in restaurants, in hotels, in whatever, valets, whatever.

Like the more power, the more you get to be served.

That's the kingdom of man.

In the kingdom of God, power leads us in joy to a cross.

Self-denial.

In the kingdom of God, power leads us in joy to a cross.

A cross of self-denial that declares the beauty and worth of a king who used his freedom, his power, his beauty to not simply bear with the weak, but much more to give everything he had to redeem and build up the weak.

And so we deny ourselves as he denied himself.

We welcome those whom he welcomes, because the great call of all mankind is to declare the image that we have been made to bear.

So that's the overarching thought of where what we're going to be looking at.

In Romans chapter 15, 1 through 7, here's what we read.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans 15, 1 through 7.

Again, continuing the argument about what we're meant to do with the power and the freedom that we've received in the gospel of Jesus Christ within the Christian community.

15, 1 through 7, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build them up.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached him, uh, reproached you, fell on me.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, verse 7, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we look at this passage today from your servant Paul in Romans 15, uh, verses 1 through 7.

Father God, I pray that again, as as Scott prayed and has read at read from Ephesians, that your spirit would open the eyes of our heart, that we would see these things, that we would uh uh uh lay hold of these things.

But Father God, we want, when we leave this place, we want to look more like your son Jesus Christ.

That is the goal.

And what that means today is that we would leave this place by even one degree, that we would walk in this world, in this church, in our communities, not looking to please ourselves.

Because that's what your son did.

And we've been created to image him.

Father God, we need this grace.

We thank you for your patience and forbearance.

May it lead us to repentance.

We need this grace to empower us to do these things.

May we all lean in and surrender to these things.

It's in the name of your son Jesus Christ that we stand with confidence and pray this in all things.

Amen.

So let's have a purpose statement for these seven verses from Romans.

We are gathered by the worth of Christ, and so by the grace of God, delivered through the word of God, we behold Christ, and then are sent out to show his beauty to each other and to the world.

So, yeah, real easy sentence there.

All right, let's look at three parts of that from the passage.

What is the goal, who is the goal, who it looks like?

What is the goal, who is the goal, and what who it looks like.

So, first, what is the goal?

Verse six and seven of Romans chapter 15, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

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

What is the goal?

First, we remember the plural here.

Paul is writing to the church, he's writing to those who have been saved by the power of God in the gospel of Christ.

So, Paul is writing to those who've been gathered together by Jesus.

And what he will go on to explain is that we all have one goal, one voice in which we are singing.

We all, all of those who are in Christ have one foundational, ultimate calling.

That all other gifts and callings uh spring forth from.

Again, going back to the silly illustration from the beginning, uh, what I worth is the goal of my freedom and power.

What I worth is the goal of my freedom and power.

So use the illustration.

If you were to ask me again, the eight-year-old me, what the goal of the shopping spree was, the freedom and power of a shopping spree, and there's freedom and power in a shopping spree.

What is the goal of the shopping spree?

I would say to secure as many G.I.

Joe's as I could.

Why?

Because GI Joe is what I found beautiful and worthy of the power and freedom I would receive in the spree.

Does that make sense?

So what I worth, what we worth, will be the goal of any freedom and power we have.

Does that make sense?

So as you grow in your careers and in age, as you grow, any freedom and power that you have is going to be aimed at what?

Whatever you find worthy, whatever you find beautiful.

If, if, you know, uh uh uh, I don't know, if if if taking vacations on a helicopter is the thing that you think is just the most beautiful thing ever, then you will you will uh I try not to offend anyone with that.

Like if you that's your thing, then that's fine.

I just uh uh then then you'll use all the freedom, like your vacation freedom and and the money that is power, like you will use all of that for that goal.

So then, what is the goal of people who have been set free by the power of God unto salvation?

The goal is we glorify God, He is what we find beautiful and worthy of our lives.

So then we aim the freedom and power we've been given in Christ at the goal, the thing we worth, Christ.

Not ourselves.

Once again, we're reminded of the ancient breathed in purpose of man.

The church is a redeemed, the church is a redeemed orchestra that has been given a single symphony.

We are a redeemed orchestra that's been given a single symphony, the ancient song of our humanity, a song that is meant to fill the earth with his beauty and worth, and each of us a different instrument led by the conductor of all creation.

We all with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because he is what we worth.

This is our goal.

It is the goal of today, it is the goal of tomorrow.

But don't miss it.

While the goal is plural, again, we know in the New Testament, you is all, you know, should be y'all, right?

It's you is us.

If it is, it is it is it is plural, but it is also personal.

I imagine if we took a poll right now, and we won't, if we took a poll and said, hey, uh uh uh, how many of you want this church, redemption church of Madison that meets at 1620 Old Mansdale Road?

Like, what should be our goal?

I imagine that if I that everything we do would be for the glory of God.

I imagine that if I ask that question right now, uh that every member and guest in this place would say, that's the goal I want for our church.

I mean, do you think that's a hard?

I think that's easy.

Yes, the goal of our church, like I want to go to a church.

Don't we want to go to that church?

The goal of our church is not some small kingdom of some address with some logo with some guy.

No, the goal of our church is the glory of God.

I think we all raise our hand.

I think that's an easy affirmation.

And if I'm if I'm presuming that, then sorry, I assume that.

That we would all say, easy one.

What else you got for me?

But it's easy for us to drift into the belief that the church together becomes something other than who we are as individuals.

AW Tozer addresses this problem in his writings.

It's called the fallacy of corporate holiness.

It is the belief that when we gather as the church, we become something different than who we are as individuals.

Tozer wrote this the corporate church has no existence apart from its individual members and therefore can never be holier, more ardent, or more spiritual than the individuals that compose it.

If the church is not made up of individuals who are aimed at the glory of God in their daily lives, then the gathered church will never be aimed at that goal either.

So to ask the church to affirm our mission and our goal is a question for the individuals of the church.

The question is not whether we will live for this goal.

The question is, will I, will you surrender to this goal?

Does that make sense?

I want to go to a church that loves God and that is generous with the things, with its power and its freedom, that is, that is, that is aimed at the glory of God.

I want to go to that church.

I'll leave a church if it's not that.

Amen.

Do that.

Are you that?

Is that how you view yourself?

And again, I understand this, and I've used this illustration before.

We all think it's Voltron.

We all come together, we become something different.

Listen, the church is made up of individuals.

We can't have this corporate, uh, this holiness fallacy that we think, okay, we all don't want to do it in our personal lives, but when we come together, we want that to be what it is corporately.

Does that make sense?

We'll never be that.

We'll never be that.

So the idea, does the church, do we live for the glory of God?

We need to hear that as am I living for the glory of God?

So before we look, okay, I know I go on for a while there, but this is not the point.

So before we look at the rest of this passage in Romans 15, we must all agree on our individual, and then obviously it'll become corporate, our God-breathed purpose.

Having been given power and freedom in Christ, we need to ask ourselves to what end?

We exist not just as a church, but as individuals who've been fearfully and wonderfully made by the God of creation for his glory.

We've been made in his image in order to image him.

If that's not our or your goal, then Paul is giving us directions to a place we do not want to go.

Like it's almost a non-sequit.

Like we can be done with this sermon right now.

We can be done with Paul's passage in Romans 15.

If you're here, if if if in your heart you say, I don't want, like, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to pick up my cross daily.

I don't want to follow Christ.

I want the church to, but I don't want to.

So listen, everything else Paul's going to say about Christ and about us following him, uh, then like well, then it's not gonna work.

We have to answer that question with our hearts first.

And I'm not saying we do it perfectly, but I'm saying do you even is that even your aspiration?

Is that your aim?

Do you see that it's the goal of your lives?

Again, if that's not our or your goal, then Paul is giving us directions to a place we do not want to go, and we'll find personal reasons to disobey, to neglect, to tune out, to make excuses, while at the same time somehow expecting the church we attend to be what we are not willing to be.

But if we as individuals hunger for this, if we long for this, if this is the ultimate foundational thirst of our personal souls, then we will not simply lean in, we will give ourselves to it.

We will go after what we worth.

So again, we must first agree upon the goal.

We must affirm that this word from God through Paul is meant to shape our hearts and lives as individuals, and then obviously corporately.

And then in that transformation and renewal, we're aimed at the image of God for the glory of God.

And before this can be what we are aimed at, it must be first what we are aimed at as individuals.

We wake up and say, God, whatever I do today, may you be glorified.

May you be glorified when I eat and drink, may you be glorified in how I respond to feeling slighted, may you be glorified in how I respond to being encouraged, may you be glorified in how I suffer, may you be glorified in how I celebrate.

This is the destination of our days and of our lives.

By the grace of God and the work of the Spirit in you, if that is us, if that is you, then here's what's next.

Here's what that looks like.

Two, who is the goal?

Verse three.

For Christ, he's the goal, he's the song, for Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

Okay, another illustration uh from days gone by of me.

Uh, because I don't, it's hard for me to give an illustration from your life.

Uh so anyway, when I was in my 20s, uh I think it's out there, I used to play music, and before we would go uh get in the van and drive ridiculous hours, we would have to gather as a group and uh learn the songs, learn something called a set list, like the order of the songs we were gonna play, the timing of everything.

We're gonna play it fast, we're gonna play it slower.

Like we had to learn all those things.

So we would come together uh in a in a garage or in a house or in a practice space, and we would learn the songs.

Here's what we're gonna play, we'd have to learn all those things.

Now, the goal of that rehearsal time was not that time.

The goal is we're about to go out uh into the world and we want to be able to play these things.

We all need to know the songs and the settlers.

Does that make sense?

You get it.

As those who sing with one voice, as the instruments of a grand orchestra, we must first learn the words and notes to the song.

Does that make sense?

Like we're gonna sing Jesus.

Do you know Jesus?

Jesus is a person, he's the second person of the Trinity.

He is eternal, he's more real than you.

So we need to know who he is and how he acted and how he acted in the flesh if we're going to actually sing that song as a group.

Again, the song is Jesus, he's the symphony of our lives individually and corporately, and so we gather as the church those who've been welcomed by God in Christ to grow in knowledge of him, that we should sing him well.

You can't play a song you don't know the notes to.

So, what facet of the beauty of Christ does Paul want us to gaze at in Romans 15?

In order that we might not only be captured by the beauty, but also walk in that beauty.

So the melody of Christ that Paul wants us to know in verse 3, here's the note that he's playing here that hey, know this about Christ.

If you want to play this, if you want to sing this to the world, if you want to sing, you need to know this about Christ.

He did not please himself.

So then that's the note we are meant to learn so that we can then play by the grace of God for the glory of God.

When Christ walked the earth in the flesh, he did not live for his own pleasing or accommodation.

He did not wake up each day bent on accommodating himself.

Christ did not show up with his antennas high on how he was being treated.

Every conversation was not spent spring-loaded to find insult or disrespect.

Matthew 20, 28.

Even as the Son of Man came to be served, or came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many, right?

This is Christ saying, I didn't come to be served, I came to serve.

Jesus, the eternal Son of God and eternal King, was not seeking to be served by others.

He spent his life in self-denial and then gave it for the sake of others.

You want to image him?

Here's the song.

It's not about your own accommodation.

This is the beauty and worth of our Savior, and it's his image that we have been knit together to bear.

Personal holiness is not some arbitrary standard of living, it's about a God-breathed purpose to reflect his nature to all of creation.

So then, therefore, we don't live to please ourselves, and I know that's heresy to our culture.

It's certainly heresy to our inner lawyers and accountants.

This is a direct attack on an age bent on itself that seeks to declare its own glory and find its value and truth from within.

It's against the whispers of our flesh to continually evaluate how others treat us and all of our triggers.

It's a contradiction in a time when the selfie is more important than the destination.

We live in a day that is built on the economy of consumer review.

We're here to be served.

And if you fulfill that purpose, you shall be given five stars.

We shall give you the nod of the like and the validation of the comment.

But Jesus was not a consumer and comfort was not his goal.

Let me just give you a note.

I cannot promise you, as someone who's been at redemption for a while, I cannot promise that when you walk in these doors, we will, as a church, be able to meet your needs.

Can't promise you that.

I can't promise that you and your family will be served well here at Redemption Church.

Can't promise that.

I can't promise that someone will say hello and welcome you when you come to church.

Can't promise it.

Here's what I can promise with absolute surety.

What I can promise you is that when you walk into this place, you will have an opportunity to welcome others.

I guarantee it.

As long as there's somebody else here.

Every time you walk into this place on Sunday, what I can promise you, I can't promise you you're going to be welcomed.

What I can promise you is you're going to have an opportunity to look like Christ.

You're going to have an arena, a context to not please yourself, to glorify God.

That's what we do as community.

This is why we gather.

Real hard to welcome others by yourself at home.

Do you know what I mean?

How are you going to want another anybody and obey Christ when you're not around anybody?

How are you going to prove to the world that you're his disciple?

John 13.

How are you going to prove to the world that you're his disciple when there's no one else to love in your circle?

How are you going to show Christ's forgiveness when you've got nobody to forgive?

Because you avoid people.

When you come to this place, you have an opportunity to glorify God, to sing that song.

Absolutely.

You'll have an opportunity to serve.

You'll have an opportunity to look beyond your own accommodation for the sake of accommodating others, which is the opportunity to sing the ancient song of Christ's beauty and worth.

You can sing the song of Christ in this place every Sunday.

Paul then says, What Christ did do instead of seeking his own gain, he bore reproach.

Reproach, think of shame.

So he was shamed.

This points our eyes to Jesus on the cross.

We know that Jesus did not have to go to the cross, and he certainly did not need to stay up there.

Yet he allowed himself to be spit on, slapped, beaten, stripped, and hung in a disgusting public execution.

Did you hear the measure of God's, of Christ's desire to not uh of how he did not seek to please himself?

Seriously, I hear all these things and I think about all these things, the reproach he bore on the cross to serve us, to serve me, to serve you.

When I hear about what he took on himself for the sake of the glory of the Father, when I hear that, I think, so he was spit on, slapped, stripped naked, and hung on a cross for the sake of the glory of God.

And sometimes I won't, I am not even willing to be given a side eye by somebody before I lose it.

Are you kidding me?

He hung on the cross and had mere mortals wag their heads at him?

And again, while he hung there, he was mocked and treated as less than human.

And then he drank the full cup of God's wrath.

There's never been a greater shame than the crucifixion.

As we've previously discussed, death in this way was aimed at taking a person's dignity while it robbed him of life-giving oxygen.

A person lost his humanity as he lost his life.

And what we know is that reproach, that shame was ours.

We rebelled against his image and became less than humanity, the humanity that we were made to be.

So we rebelled against his image, we've been made in the image, we rebelled against that image, and we became less than the humans we were meant to be.

And that's exactly the reproach that we see Christ wearing on the cross, less than human.

And he did all of this, he bore all of that shame so that we could receive his clothing, his righteousness and dignity are placed on us as we are forgiven and adopted as children of God.

That's the heart melding, heart-capturing, heart-shaping beauty and love of our Lord and Savior who hung on a tree in our place so that we could stand in his place.

But don't misunderstand, the song of joyful self-denial in light of Christ is not a temporary song of this age, it is eternal.

This means that the work of Christ on the cross in our place was not so that we could then ascend to a throne to look down on others and be served.

Ever.

The self-denial of this age is not so that we can then one day live on a new earth in which others serve us and we're bent inward on our own comfort.

Listen, this hit me not until like late last night when I thought about this.

You know how I like eternity?

I like to think about it.

I don't know if I've ever done this, uh like uh like allowed my brain to think about this.

Uh you know, for all of eternity we'll be serving.

How does that make you feel?

You're like, oh, I thought I was just now, and then I go to heaven and I'm gonna be served.

I thought when I get to heaven, it's gonna be like uh grapes and and palm branches.

I don't know.

I think that's what it what you get whenever you're something.

Uh y'all have that?

I don't know.

Okay, I don't like grapes.

Okay, so like uh so those cotton candles, those are good.

So I I wonder, like, uh like I that's what you know, all of eternity, you know you're gonna be serving others.

Do you know what the Trinity has done for all of eternity?

Exalted one another.

We're going, that's us.

Like we are going to live forever in eternity serving each other for the glory of the Lamb who was slain.

That's forever.

And here's the problem.

Here's why there's tension, and maybe there's not.

Maybe you're like, I can't wait.

But here's the tension with our flesh.

We think, what?

I thought the goal, the end goal of power and freedom in eternity was bent inward.

It's because we're still wrapped in sinful flesh that we would even have a wait a minute.

That doesn't sound as good as I thought it was.

All of eternity we're gonna serve each other's end, and it's gonna be true goal and worth, and it's gonna be a person named Jesus Christ.

His name will be on your head, it won't be hard to forget.

All of eternity serving one another, loving one another, living to accommodate one another, because that glorifies the king.

And that'll be our greatest joy.

That'll be us running down a uh uh uh an aisle with our hand out, grabbing what we worth.

I can't wait to serve people.

I'm gonna do this, and it's gonna go in the shopping.

Like, I can't wait to serve other people because it's gonna make it's gonna show the beauty of my king.

That's eternity for the rest of ever.

Y'all get it.

I didn't get it till last night when it almost crippled me.

Seriously, I almost wept.

So beautiful.

Can't wait.

Okay.

Yeah, that was in here.

Yeah.

We're going to walk as those who are above denying themselves.

To walk up, sorry, to walk as those who are above denying themselves is not and will never be of Christ.

So when we walk as though we were above it, we don't need to deny ourselves, that's not now and will never be Christ.

To receive the gracious power of God and use it to exploit others is against him.

And in fact, that is to image the image of man, the man of this age, the man who seeks the temporary crown of the kingdom of earth, the kingdom built on sand from the fame of those who are returning to dust.

And I know I've heard the argument, but listen, I'm not Christ, we're not Christ.

We cannot do what he did.

We'll never accomplish what he accomplished, and that is true.

We're not called to be God, we are called to image him, we are called to follow him, but we cannot redeem anyone.

We can't save anyone.

We are branches on a vine, called and empowered by grace to bear fruit that looks like him.

That is the aroma of him to those who are lost and dying.

You understand why we want to bear fruit?

The fruit is shows the nature of Christ: kindness, love, patience, self-control.

That's Christ.

So when we bear fruit, we're bearing fruit to show Christ.

Okay.

Y'all get it.

Third and finally.

Who it looks like.

That's where I'm at, right?

Sorry.

Romans 15, 1, 2, and then 4 through 7.

It's on your screens.

Should be still in your Bible.

After the resurrection, if you remember this, let me let me take you to this point before we get to this.

After the resurrection, uh, the you know the resurrection, the thing we talked about last week.

Uh the disciples were expectant once again.

This is what we talked about in our Sunday school class, Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Acts 1, 6, and 7.

So when they had come together, they asked the Lord, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, It's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

So again, the disciples wanted to know, hey, is it time for the kingdom to be like, is it time for us to be served?

We've been oppressed.

Is it Jesus?

Is it time?

Are we gonna show them now?

They wanted to know what came next.

They wanted to know what the Lord would do now.

And Jesus tells them the timing of the future restoration is not for them to know.

And then we see the thing, we see that the thing the resurrected Jesus would do next is leave them, but not without telling them that he would now carry on what he began.

Acts 1, 8.

But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

We all know that.

They would receive power and they'd be as witnesses in their city all the way to the ends.

And this is for us as well.

We all who have been made in his image and fallen short, but then were united with him in his death and resurrection, have the same calling upon our lives, to be his witness.

And when we hear the word witness, we may only think of the person in the courtroom who stands and testifies with their words, but Christ meant more for us.

To be a witness is to follow him in word and deed.

To be an evangelist of Jesus is to be a disciple of Jesus.

That is, one who follows Christ in declaring Christ in their entire lives.

In fact, the word witness in Acts 1.8 is the word martyrs in Greek.

The word martys is where we get the word martyrs.

So what did Christ say?

I'm gonna leave, but the spirit, the power of the spirit will come upon you, and you will be called to be witnesses, martyrs to the ends of the earth.

Okay.

What do martyrs do?

They die for what they believe.

And you say, well, okay, does that mean we're all gonna have to no, not necessarily.

It doesn't mean we're all gonna actually die a physical death for the sake of Christ.

That's not what it means.

But what did Christ tell his disciples earlier on in Luke and in Matthew?

We hear it in Luke 9.

If you want to be my disciple, does it say find a throne to sit on to use and lord over people?

No, he says what pick up your cross daily in self-denial.

We're called, all called on some level to die for what we were.

And this is what we do anyway.

We give our lives for what we find valuable, we give our freedom and our power over to what we find.

You, if you this is the thing that is your treasure, you will give everything you have for it.

Do we?

I mean, is that is that a is that a biblical church only concept?

No, it's everywhere.

It's the goal of an advertiser.

Worth this, and then you'll give your life for this, right?

Is that what we see all around us?

This is what the Bible says too.

What you worth, you will be a martyr for.

You will be a witness for, you will testify for, you will give yourself for.

Your freedom and your power will be aimed at that thing.

This is not foreign logic that is just in the Bible.

This is what Paul is pointing to here in Romans 15.

To be a witness, a martyr is not just a ministry of our mouth, it is a ministry of our lives.

It is to die to ourselves for the sake of Christ.

We are called to do what he did for our sake.

And before you feel crippled and crushed by this weighty calling, remember this: God never sent anyone without first blessing them to do so.

In our Sunday school class in the upper room, Al Hunter kind of went through these passages as well.

Uh you remember in Genesis 1 before God sent the first man out to be fruitful and multiply.

Remember what God did first?

Before God said, Be fruitful and multiply?

It says what?

He blessed them.

He blessed them first.

In Genesis 1.28, we read, and God blessed them and said to them, Go.

And then after the great flood in Genesis 9, God blessed Noah and his sons and then said, Be fruitful and multiply.

After the resurrection, we read in Acts 1 what Jesus says, wait for the blessing, the power that will come unto you, and then you'll go and be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth with his beauty and worth.

And so it is for us today.

Verses 4 and 5 of Romans chapter 15, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Verse 5, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

We do not hear this calling and then turn our eyes to our hands and our own abilities.

Instead, we look to the heavens.

We are dependent upon the blessing, the power of God, the Holy Spirit, his grace in these things.

Being a living sacrifice is not a once-for-all endeavor.

It is not accomplished in a prayer.

It is not an ongoing sacrifice.

I'm sorry, it is not accomplished in a prayer.

It is an ongoing sacrificial living in light of the mercy endurance.

John 15, 1 through 11.

Abide with me, have fellowship with me.

This is Christ speaking.

Why?

So that you would bear fruit.

So then we don't just pray a prayer, Jesus, please come into my heart, see you when I get there.

No, we abide with him.

We look for the power of the Spirit, His grace, that we would then be able to bear fruit for his glory.

That we would look like him, that we would image him.

And so he encourages the church by saying, May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

May he who went before us in endurance grant us to live in a way that sees the needs of others as more than our own needs.

As Jesus said again in John 15, it is only by abiding in him, in his love, that we can then bear the Christ-exalting fruit of loving one another.

The fruit that declares and testifies that we are his disciples.

That's the goal.

Freedom and power is used for the glory of God.

Lastly, in closing.

Okay.

Here's another really good verse.

In case you were thinking, I wonder if there's any other good verses.

That's ridiculous.

1 Corinthians 10, 31 through 1 Corinthians 11 1.

Parallel passage from Paul.

1 Corinthians 10, 31 through 1 Corinthians 11 1.

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, what's the goal?

Do you know how that finishes?

Do all for the glory of yourself?

No.

Do all these things for the glory of God.

Sorry, it just hit me as I was reading that again.

Because I always think about the eating and drinking.

I'm like, how do I eat and drink for the glory of God?

That's important.

What does that mean?

Thankful, dependent.

But then I saw the other part.

I didn't see this.

It covers, it covers a lot of other things too.

It says, whether you eat or drink, and then it says, or whatever you do.

I think that's funny.

It's like whether you eat or drink, and then Paul says, or whatever you do.

Like, okay, like you just took an hour of my day and just made it all of my day.

Whatever I do, Paul says, do it for what?

The glory of God.

It's not bent inward.

Not now, not in eternity.

Okay, let me finish the passage.

Maybe something else will jump out.

Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to, this is Paul speaking, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

So what Paul is saying here, he said in Romans 15, Christ did not please himself.

That's what we're called to do.

Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians 10 and through 11 1, he's saying, I am trying to imitate Christ, so then imitate me as I imitate Christ.

And what does he say?

I don't seek my own pleasure.

Like I'm not seeing, I'm trying to do things for the good and benefit of others.

So how do we imitate Christ?

What does it mean to be like be Christ-like?

We don't seek our own advantage.

We do not seek our own accommodation.

We remember that the only reason we have life eternal instead of death, He used it to serve us, to die for those who are not only weak, but for those who are against God.

When our joy, satisfaction, and hope is in Christ, then we are free to please our neighbors instead of seeking it to pleasing ourselves.

So then, that's my song, that's your song, that's our song.

And we pray like this Romans 15, 5 and 6.

This is our prayer.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant us, you, to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together we, you, may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the note we learned today?

We don't seek to please ourselves.

That's what Christ did.

We want to image you for his glory.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

Father God, we need your help not just in seeing and understanding these things, we need your help in doing these things.

Your apostle Paul said that we ought to pray for you for encouragement and endurance in doing these things.

May we remember that it was for the joy set before him that Christ endured the cross.

And so too we seek that same endurance.

Like your son Jesus Christ.

Father God, we our goal is Him.

May we worth Him.

May we see that the treasures of this world are so temporary.

May we leverage our time, our resources, our finances, our lives, our comfort.

May we leverage all of those things for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ.

That people would hear one song from us.

That is the beauty of Christ.

Father God, these things are so hard.

As your disciples, as the disciples of Christ said, But who can do these things?

And your son responded, No one.

With man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.

So we need, we wait like the disciples in the first century after the ascension, we wait in prayer for the power of your spirit.

But Father, we need to be willing.

I mean, we we need to surrender to these things.

We don't want to grieve the work of the Spirit.

May we say we want to attend a church that lives for the glory of you.

And may we see that that means that we that we are aimed at that as well.

Father, thank you for your son Jesus Christ.

He is beautiful.

It's in the name of your son we pray this and all things.

Amen.