5 Characteristics of a Loving, Unified Church | Romans 15 - Romans: Book of Revolution

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

Okay, so today we're in Romans 15.

I'm talking about the characteristics of a loving, unified church.

And then next week we finish up with Romans 16.

And then after the Holy Sexuality Conference, I'm going to do a series on Satan, demons, and the fourth dimension.

And in that series, I'm going to talk about the cosmic powers around us, how they're working in society, how they're working in culture, but how we have this ultimate victory and how we have power over the enemy day by day.

I mean, every day you guys can walk in victory and in power, but you're going to get hit with stuff, right?

I mean, that's what the Holy Sexuality Conference is about, is equipping you in working in the rim of people that struggle with stuff many of us don't struggle with.

And yet we love them, and Jesus loves them.

And Jesus always went after the weaker in culture.

And that's really what that's what Paul is finishing up Romans with.

He's finishing up with this idea that even though there were a lot of Gentiles in the church that had no background in the Bible, they had no background in the scriptures, and then you had the Jews who had a strong background in the law and in the scriptures, the conflicts that occurred.

He's finishing up the letter with this is how you have unity.

This is how we work with diversity as a unified, loving, caring church.

And I read, when I was reading Romans 15, I just found that there were these five qualities.

So I want to look at the five qualities in Romans 15 of a unified, loving church.

So if you have your Bibles, starting at verse 1, we then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves, let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

For even Christ did not please himself.

But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me, for whatever things were written before were written for your learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind, so he keeps coming back to this unity.

Joe was talking about that last week, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So here's the first thing.

The first quality of a unified loving church is we care for the weak.

We care for those weaker than ourselves.

You may be strong in an area and somebody else is weak in that area.

You don't condemn them, you love them.

You try to come down to where they're at and understand what they're going through.

And that's what I was doing with the situation with this person related to Antifa and some of the differences.

I wanted to come and relate eye to eye, heart to heart, in a way where I understood her position.

And so we had a guy, he's in our church, and he comes out of a very, very dark background in sexual confusion.

And um, and he's a part of the road, and he's a powerful part of the road, and I met with him for hours and hours and hours.

I wanted to understand what he had been through.

He grew up in the church.

He felt condemnation in the church because of maybe more of his effeminate qualities that he had and how that he was made fun of as a kid in the youth group in this particular church here in our city.

And how he became so bitter and he became so deeply shamed by what was said to him.

And then he got saved, man.

He got radically saved through the fasting and prayer of his mom and dad, and he's here now and he's fired up for Jesus.

Well, that's what we should be.

We should be a church that cares for the weak, not condemns the weak.

And it's so easy to condemn, and it's especially easy to condemn when we don't know what we're talking about.

Or we just judge things on a surface level.

Be careful with that, church.

Try to find out about people, try to know their heart, try to love them where they're at, try to understand what they're going through.

And you can do that without compromising.

It's called clarity with charity.

Clarity with charity.

And that's what the conference is going to be about on holisexuality.

It's it's this Dr.

Christopher Ewan.

His mom Angela is gonna be with him.

She was key in him getting saved.

And this guy went to prison, man.

He was in his last month of dental school to become a dentist.

And he gets busted because the way he was making money for dental school, who's a drug dealer, one of the biggest in Atlanta.

But anyway, he goes to prison for 10 years.

And while he's in prison, I think I've told this story maybe before, but I'll just say it again, and I'm he'll tell it way better, but I just feel like it's I love his book, which is the name, the same title, Holy Sexuality in the Gospel.

He sees this green book on top of the trash in the prison, he pulls it off.

It's a Gideon's Bible, New Testament.

He reads it in like four days, gets radically saved, and his life is transformed, became a professor, and then became a traveling speaker now and a best-selling author.

So the church has an obligation to care for the weak, to care for those that have struggles in their life.

You all have struggles in your life.

I have struggles in my life.

I don't need people condemning me, I need people loving me.

And by loving me, I mean that they understand where I'm going and what I'm going through.

And sometimes they even have a helping hand.

It's called blood-stained allies.

They become blood-stained allies to help guide me toward an obedient, holy, joyful, life-giving walk with God.

So that's the first thing.

That's what Paul's saying here.

He's saying, look, instead of judging the Gentiles or judging the Gentiles, judging the Jews, can't we have comfort and love toward each other?

Verse 7, therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written.

For this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

And again he says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.

And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, laud him, all you peoples.

And again, Isaiah says, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope.

So what he's saying here is basically he's giving an apologetic with Scripture that God had a plan to bring the Gentiles into faith.

He always had a plan for that.

Because there's a contingent of Jews that feels like that these guys are kind of second-class citizens compared to them.

And he's making the point that, no, all through scriptures there was a call upon the Gentiles.

And then he says in verse 13, now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Characteristic number two is a loving, unified church abounds in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We don't abound in hope based on a positive future because we have a positive mental attitude, as important as that is.

We believe that there's not a hope, there's the hope.

There's the hope.

And I remember in 1976, I was standing in line, I was 18 years old, Jolly, it was called Jolly Elementary School, in line with my gymnastics coach from high school, voting for the first time.

Voted for Jimmy Carter.

She voted for Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Georgia, right?

And so I'm in line to vote for Jimmy Carter at 18 years old.

My hope was in Jimmy Carter.

Then my hope was in Ronald Reagan.

And then my hope, we could just go down all the 45 years of this, right?

But in the midst of that hope, that's so secondary, guys.

That's so secondary to the hope.

The hope we have in Jesus.

How many have been disappointed in people you voted for who went into office and now they don't vote the way you thought they were gonna vote?

Alright.

Guess what?

The way Jesus votes is always right.

And he's not up for re-election, and he can't be impeached.

Twice.

Can't be.

Okay?

So who's your hope in?

He's saying that a unified, loving church has put their hope in the hope.

In the kingdom of God.

You guys, the kingdom of God is advancing.

It is advancing.

Whatever happens in DC and it can drive you crazy.

Whatever happens in Denver, it can drive you crazy.

The kingdom of God is advancing.

God's not in heaven, going back and forth, you know, all worried and frustrated about the fact that they lost the game or whatever, whatever game you lost yesterday.

Okay?

You know, Nick Saban's not going back and forth like this, you know.

Okay.

God is in control, he's on the throne, and he's working out his plan through all the muck.

He is.

Satan's not gonna win, demons aren't gonna win.

That's what you're gonna hear when I talk about Satan, demons in the fourth dimension, is that there is this overarching plan, and we tend, as a people, to focus on the negative.

That's just what we do.

We focus on the bad stuff.

And some of us in this room, you're on a dopamine addiction, man.

And uh, and I know it because I'm talking in the mirror, okay?

I have been diagnosed through a zytoscan from Pam Holloway that I've got way too much dopamine.

Okay?

Because I watch this stuff and I just have to take a break.

You've got to take a break.

And I gotta look at all the cool stuff that God's doing, all the wonderful stuff that God's doing, all the fantastic stuff that God's doing, how great he is.

He's on his throne, he's moving in power, people are getting healed.

I have a file from Bill over here, about an eighth of an inch thick of all the people in this church who've gotten healed through the laying on of hands.

I mean, kingdom, the kingdom's coming, it's working.

And we can focus on the kingdom of Satan or we can focus on the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says, look, all these things, Matthew 6, 25 through 33, he says, look, you're worried about this, and you're frustrated about that, and you're anxious about that.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things you're worried about will start to come together.

They'll be added unto you.

Isn't that exciting?

And so we we have to put our hope in the hope.

Not a man, not a woman, not a political ballot initiative.

Be involved in all that.

You guys know we talk about be involved, be involved, be involved.

That's great.

But don't put all of your eggs in that basket.

Don't put so much hope in that that you just go from joy to depression on a regular weekly basis.

A unified church is a church where we we hold up our head, we have good posture, we got a confidence that God's moving, and that the DNA of the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy.

So most of the time in our families we have righteousness, peace, and joy.

Most of the time at the road we have righteousness, peace, and joy.

Most of the ways we treat people that are weaker than us is with righteousness, peace, and joy.

And then we're getting equipped.

We're building a house of truth.

We're building up truth in our lives, we're walking in truth, but we're not arrogant about it.

We're loving about it.

Does that make sense?

So that's what I think he's saying here.

He's saying, look, church, whatever happens with our disagreements with the Gentiles and the Jews and all the stuff and the conflicts that were happening in the church, there was within that church this hope of peace and joy ruling.

Verse 14.

Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish one another.

I just I love this part.

Look at that, full of goodness, but filled with knowledge.

That's so exciting.

So we we we have knowledge, but we're still full of goodness.

We're not arrogant about it, we're humble about it, admonishing one another.

Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus and the things which pertain to God.

For I will not dare to speak of any of these things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient in mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illerchum I fully preach the gospel of Christ.

And so I've made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation, but as it is written, to whom he was not announced, they shall see.

And to those who have not heard, they shall understand.

So, church, we're called by God to be a unified church, experiencing signs and wonders, experiencing healing, experiencing God's power in our lives.

And so it's not that it's not that as believers we run after signs and wonders.

I mean, there's certain Pentecostal churches, they run after signs and wonders.

That's not what the scriptures say.

Mark 16 says, signs and wonders will follow the believer.

So when we walk in the power of the Spirit, it should be that signs and wonders follow us.

In other words, as we look at a situation and we begin to pray about that, we should begin to expect that God's gonna do miracles.

Do you expect miracles?

You should.

You can.

And if you have, if you're not, you start working on that.

Ask God to give you faith to believe that situation, God might do a miracle.

He just might do a miracle there.

I'm gonna go and pray with that person.

I'm gonna go and I'm gonna believe God for a sign of his kingdom.

I'm gonna believe God for a miracle of the kingdom of God.

We pray that.

Liz and I pray that almost every day for all of our kids.

Each one of our kids, our young adults, has a situation that they're in.

Usually there's something very positive and there's something negative in everybody's life.

And we are always praying, God miraculously show up.

Miraculously show up in this where they encounter you in that situation.

We're gonna believe and we're gonna believe and we're gonna believe because I want to go down believing.

So you have to let hope be what secures your future, not hurt.

We've all been hurt.

We've all been broken, we've all been ripped off, we've all been betrayed, there's malevolent people inside the church, there's malevolent people outside the church, you're gonna get hurt.

But is it gonna be hurts that determine your future, or is it hope that determines your future?

Because we walk with a limp, and so we can focus on the limp.

We can focus on the spiritual knee or the spiritual ankle, and that's all we think about if we look at looking at how we've been hurt.

Oh, I've been hurt, and I've been hurt.

Oh, if you only knew my background, oh, if you only knew what kind of parents I had.

Oh, that's when I want people to speak in tongues.

Because I don't, and I'm not gonna be their interpreter, man.

Because I am not interested in it, okay?

All right?

But here's what we are we're people that we look at that, we understand it, we don't run from it, we recognize it, but we get up and we hold our head up and we walk forward on the road less traveled.

And we walk with a lamp.

Sometimes in this life you're never fully healed.

Sometimes it's like this.

Keep come on, man.

You're at the right church.

Come on.

We like limpy people.

We like people who walk with a lamp.

That's good.

It's it's awesome, it's fantastic.

Walk with a lamp.

But I don't want to hear about your limp for the rest of your life.

I want to hear about your walk for the rest of your life because you're letting the hope that you have, the hope in your future guide your future, not your hurts.

And so that's what that's what unifies a church.

That's what unifies a church is that we are, we are, and you know, here's the thing is that we see people get injured in something in their life, and we can relate because we've been injured in that.

And so that's when we become bloodstained allies.

We come in there, we don't condemn, we comfort with patience.

We comfort with patience.

We pick them up.

We say, Man, I know what that's like.

Six years ago, this is what happened to me.

And I can tell you, God did miracles.

And He will do a miracle in your life too.

That's what's church.

That's a unified church.

A unified church is not where we're pointing fingers, it's where we're putting our arms around people that we even are weaker and that we disagree with and we struggle with.

May it be known out there in the political arena.

We don't act like those other people, we're different.

I vehemently disagree with certain things out there, but I'm not gonna ever condemn that person.

And I'm certainly not gonna get into the game playing of labeling others.

You know what that is?

That's such a weak perspective.

Because when you're winsome and you understand both issues, you can still be in the debate.

But in a kind and loving and Christian way.

You say, well, that's that you don't understand that world out there, Steve.

And I'll say, I don't, and I don't care to understand it.

I understand the kingdom of God.

And if we could start bringing the kingdom of God into the kingdom of men, we'd see a revolution.

I don't become like those people, I transcend those people by being different.

And sometimes that means even the people you thought were your friends turn on you.

That's okay.

I want to be on the side of Jesus.

And Jesus is always loving and he's always kind, but he's also uncompromising.

Clarity with charity.

Awesome.

Signs and wonders, man.

For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you, but now I'm no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you.

Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall join up with you, for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped out of my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

But now I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.

For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution, they're talking about finances here, a financial contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.

It please them indeed, and they are their debtors, for if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.

Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain, but I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ.

The fourth characteristic is a people who are rich in generosity.

Here's what had happened.

If you read Acts chapter 2, in Acts chapter 2, the church in Jerusalem is very wealthy because those widows and those sojourners that had come from all over Asia Minor had come to Jerusalem.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

Pentecost comes.

Holy Spirit falls, 3,000 get saved.

A few days or weeks later, another 5,000 get saved.

I mean, it's just their money is pouring in.

Barnabas, can you remember the story?

Barnabas, he gives land.

They don't even know what to do with all the generosity of the new believers that are coming in.

But then the Jewish authorities came down hard on the Christian church and it scattered.

We call it the diaspora.

There was a scattering of the Christians, and they left Jerusalem.

So a lot of the wealth left Jerusalem.

Then there was a famine a few years later, and now this very wealthy church has become an impoverished church.

And yet in Macedonia and Achaia and some of these other parts, where there's a little bit more financial wherewithal, Paul has been going along and collecting finances for the Jerusalem church.

Here's his point, though.

His point is you guys wouldn't be saved right now if it wasn't for what God did at Jerusalem.

So, where you have material blessings, would you now generously give to the spiritual blessings that you receive from Jerusalem?

Because this is where it all got started.

And so, in your own lives, I'm a big believer in giving tithe and tithing 10%.

Because I know it sets you free.

I know it sets you free financially to do that.

And I've tested it for 38, 40 years doing that.

It works.

Okay?

And I believe I'm also a big believer, not because I'm a pastor, because I was doing this way before I was a pastor, but I believe that your 10% goes to the local church.

Because where you're getting fed spiritually is where you should bless materially.

So we have a box, we have a box out here.

We don't even take an offering because we trust God with this 100%.

There's boxes out there and you can give online.

I do an automatic withdrawal for mine, so I don't have to think about it.

It's just always there.

Do you hear what he's saying?

So here's what's gonna happen in the church.

In any local church, there's gonna be people in the church where you're blessed financially.

You are retiring or you're in a job where you're doing really well, you're an entrepreneur, you're doing really well, but there's other people in our congregation that aren't.

Some folks in here, it's a big, big struggle financially for them.

So when you're giving, you're empowering us as the leadership, the elders and others, to know how to distribute that so that we minister to all the saints.

So we can afford to bring in one of the top speakers in the United States on gender confusion, gender issues, Dr.

Christopher Ewan, because of your generosity.

We couldn't do that.

So I mentioned it to a pastor who said, How did you get Christopher Ewan?

And I said, Well, I just called him.

And they said, Yeah, but he'd be expensive.

I said, Yeah, he's the most expensive speaker we've ever had.

Well, how do you afford that?

I said, Because we have a generous church.

So, see, it enables us to be able to do cool stuff like we've done.

You we've got some great conferences here, you know.

Every one of those are really expensive.

But we do it because you guys are so generous.

I mean, this is phenomenal.

You guys are phenomenal.

I'll just say that.

I mean, probably not all of you are, but um I'm only kidding.

You're all phenomenal, but I'm talking about like in finances.

Some of you can't do it right now because of where you're at.

I understand that, man.

I've been there.

Believe me, I've been there.

But but your generosity enables us to do things here at the road that empower you to be effective in your job, to be effective in your family, to do marriage conferences, to do different kinds of conferences that we do, because that's what that's what turns me on.

I get turned on by you guys getting equipped.

I mean, nothing I enjoy more than hearing vision come from folks in our church because you're fired up about something that's good and righteous and holy and beautiful and kingdom.

Love that.

Well, we can do that because of your generosity.

So a unified loving church is also a generous church.

And not just financially, but with our lives.

That's what I can't wait in two weeks when Dr.

Christopher Ewan's here is I get to hang out from 6 o'clock till nine or whatever it is on Friday.

And then in the morning on Saturday, it's gonna be so fun because I just love having those.

I'm not speaking, which is really great.

So I'm not speaking, so I'm really relaxed.

And um, it's just fun to hang out together.

So it's it's material blessings, and it's also, I believe, emotional blessings that go with that.

I like what John Wesley said.

John Wesley, the great Methodist preacher, said, Do all the good you can by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.

And then sit on your can.

I just added that part.

It didn't seem like the right thing I said.

But but isn't that beautiful?

I mean, do be all in, man.

Be whole-hearted in whatever you're doing, be whole-hearted at the road, be whole-hearted in your marriage, be whole-hearted in your singleness, be whole-hearted in what in what you believe, be whole-hearted theologically, be whole-hearted historically.

Read, understand what's going on, be a house of truth.

And then you get blessed, others get blessed, you become more confident, you become more winsome, you're more joyful because you know what you're talking about, you're equipped, you're empowered.

If you don't understand economics, then study it.

If you don't understand your spouse, study her.

Study him.

Very, very exciting to live with that kind of a mentality.

Verse 30.

Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive, strive together with me in prayer to God and for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe.

And that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you.

Now may the God of peace be with you all.

Amen.

Lastly, a loving, unified church contends in prayer.

Contends in prayer.

Contends in prayer.

That's why we started noonday fire every day.

Well, I should say Monday through Friday in the chapel, one hour, we pray about stuff.

And the first part is personal.

So if you come to that, we'll take time to pray for your family or whatever's on your heart.

We we break up into groups and we contend in prayer and we believe that God will answer those prayers.

And we pray for joy and we pray for power and we pray for signs and wonders, and we pray for the miracle working power.

And do you think God's not interested in a church that has noonday fire Monday through Friday praying?

He's gonna, oh well, whatever that, you know, whatever.

No, Jesus comes in that.

And he's excited to answer those prayers because that's what he does.

Knock and the door shall be open.

Seek and you shall find.

Ask and it shall be delivered to you.

Men and women, some of you in this room don't have because you don't ask enough.

You've got a God who loves for you to ask.

We have a God who loves for you to cry out to him where you feel like this is completely impossible.

He works best in impossible situations.

But he needs people to believe.

Thank you for listening to the Born for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.