Romans | A Kingdom of God Revolutionary Church - 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.

Well, I want to talk today from Romans, and I want to talk about a Kingdom of God revolutionary church because that's what Paul talks about in Romans 1.8.

And we're in the book of Romans, and we're having a, we're going slowly through, like very slowly, through the first eight verses so far, but it's going to pick up.

But I feel like I'm laying foundations and I'm laying foundations and I'm laying foundations.

And there's only one other place in the New Testament, if you don't count the seven churches in Revelation 3, but there's only one other place in the New Testament where Paul commends a church.

And he does that here, and it's so similar in his phraseology.

By the way, I went on, I saw the Broadway play with Hugh Jackman, Music Man.

So I keep thinking about Mayor Shin going, phraseology.

And if any of you guys know the story of Music Man, and that's it.

So anyway, the phraseology in Romans 1.8 and the phraseology in 1 Thessalonians 1 are very, very similar.

So let's start with Romans 1.8.

He says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that's your faith.

Circle, underline that word.

Faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Now that's crazy that evidently Paul, who at this time had not been to Rome, he had heard about the Roman church.

He knew about their faith.

It was starting to expand out throughout the civilized Roman Empire at that way in such a way that he commends them.

Before he gets into all the doctrinal stuff, he says, I'm commending you because I've heard about your faith.

Now, turn to the right to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Just keep going to the right.

If you don't know where it is, you'll find it.

Just go slowly through.

You'll find 1 Thessalonians 1.

If you get to 1 2 Timothy, you've gone too far.

Go to the left.

If you do that, make a U-turn.

Come back.

But 1 Thessalonians 1, it's almost exactly the same phraseology in chapter 1, verse 2.

And I'm going to use this.

I'm actually going to derive my message today from 1 Thessalonians 1, because I believe this is what he's talking about in Romans 1.

About why their faith has gone out.

So he says in verse 2, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith.

So here's the first characteristic of a revolutionary church.

It's a church of faith.

And you go, well, of course it is, Steve.

You know, because today the media always talks about people of faith.

We're people of faith.

And what they mean is that here's what they mean.

They mean you don't believe in science, and you don't believe in history, and you're just a person of faith, which means you don't even know what you believe in, and you just take everything by blind, you know, blind leaps of faith.

And if you're into mysticism, if you're into Buddhism, if you're into Hinduism, if you're into Shintoism, you're a person of faith.

That's not what Paul is talking about.

Paul is talking about a people by which their very daily lives are built on faith.

And here's what faith is: Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 is the best definition in the Bible for faith.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.

The faith that Paul's talking about, the faith I'm talking about this morning, is faith that has substance in something that you can count on.

Do you realize how many times we put our faith in things that are not going to work out for us very well?

We put our faith in a woman, we put our faith in a man, we put our faith in our family, we put our faith in our finances, we put our faith in so many things, and you do.

And to a certain extent, that's normal living.

But he's talking about a faith that has substance in something unchanging.

Something that will never betray you.

And that's Jesus Christ.

And that's his word.

We're a word church because this is where the authority comes from.

This is where our truth comes from.

One of the joys, and the reason I accepted speaking in Connecticut at Cornerstone was because not only do I have a passion for men's ministries getting developed in churches across the country, but also I have a proclivity toward churches that want to engage the culture.

Okay?

That are involved in actually making a difference in the culture.

Not just in whether a person's saved or not, but actually empowering equipping them into the culture to make a difference.

And he was doing this series on sexuality.

And he said, Would you speak on Sunday morning to the church on this issue of sexuality?

And I said, Well, I need to understand what direction you're going with this because there's a lot of woke churches.

And so if you're woke and I'm awake, we're not gonna jive real well, okay?

So so when I heard his explanation, I went, no.

Pastor Eric at Cornerstone, that is a happening church.

That's a church that's trying to take the word and equip people with it.

Faith has substance.

So it doesn't matter how much faith I have in a bridge if I'm going down Academy and there's a bridge there that goes over Fountain Creek.

It's not my faith in the bridge.

I go across that thing.

If a flood's coming and that thing starts to crumble, I don't care how much faith I have, if the substance I'm putting my faith in is faltering, it's not going to do you any good.

That's why faith in faith is so dangerous.

So when I talk about faith, I don't want you to think, how big is my faith, or how strong is my faith.

That's the wrong way to think.

No, the way to think is what's your faith in?

It's okay if it's not very strong right now.

It's okay.

It says that if you have faith, like you know what a mustard seed is?

I mean, that's really a dinky seed.

And my wife's into like those kind of seeds and stuff.

And she's got like a greenhouse, okay?

So she's always doing like stuff with the greenhouse and all that.

And and I we don't have mustard, but I've seen mustard because I've taught on it before.

So I, as a pastor, you're supposed to know stuff.

So I I've seen it.

It's really small, right?

Okay, it's really small.

But so is have you ever seen a cucumber seed?

I mean, all seeds are like, they always say it's like the smallest of seeds.

I can tell you, man, I've seen some really, really dinky seeds.

Then the point is, is that with faith as unto like a mustard seed of faith, you can move mountains.

That says to me, don't worry about the size of your faith.

Worry about what your faith is in.

So I pray for someone up here who's got cancer, and I don't have much faith for cancer because I haven't seen many people get healed of cancer, but I have faith that God can heal cancer.

So I'm on the ministry team up here praying because God can heal cancer, not because I've got great faith.

So get over it.

Don't worry about the size of your faith.

Put your faith in the right substance of things hoped for.

Because he'll increase your faith if you'll hang in there.

If you just keep doing the right thing, God will increase your faith.

And that's why being in the Word's so important, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And so when you dig into God's word and you actually say to the Lord on a regular basis, I don't have any faith, I don't feel like I can do this, this is impossible, this is ridiculous, I can't believe I'm in this position.

God, will you give me the faith to hang in there?

He will.

And he loves that kind of honesty.

So faith is the substance of things hoped for.

So a lot of times faith is not right now, it's not happening, it's something you're hoping for.

It's an expectation of something unseen.

So here's what God does, I think in many of our lives, that's really exciting, is He starts to give you the ability to see something in the future that's not natural.

It's not normal.

It's not what everybody else says.

If you don't have some things happening in your life that you're believing God for, that goes against conventional wisdom, I would say ask God to increase your faith.

Because I think that should be a regular part of our life, that we're believing God in our finances, in our relationships where there's unforgiveness or brokenness or bitterness, that you're believing God can change that.

But there's no evidence for it.

There's no evidence that person still hates your guts.

There's a lot of people in this city that hate my guts.

And I don't care.

Now, what I mean by this, I don't care because it doesn't stop me from loving them, and I'm gonna continue to reach out.

In most cases, sometimes that's not smart.

But the point is, you're gonna have enemies.

As you walk with God, don't worry so much about your critics, worry about your friends, the relationships you have.

If people are not in the arena with you, they're not gonna understand what you're up against.

And so, and so as we have faith and we love people, something happens within us where we can see, you know, someday that's gonna get reconciled.

Someday, God's gonna bring us back together and it's gonna get worked out because God is a reconciling God.

I see no evidence of it.

There's no way naturally that can happen, but I believe in a supernatural God.

And you can you don't have to have a certain amount of faith.

It's who your faith is in.

Well then, five verses later, Hebrews 11, 6, the writer of Hebrews says, without faith, it's impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Now that's awesome.

So what he's saying here is that every time you have faith for something you know is godly and righteous and good, God's pleased with that.

Even if you don't see anything happen.

You're believing for reconciliation.

You're believing that God's giving you a forgiving heart for that person who has deeply betrayed you and hurt you, and there's still animosity there, but you're growing to forgive.

You're extending forgiveness by faith.

Your feelings aren't there, you don't feel it, man.

But you have faith that you're doing the right thing.

You know that according to the promises of God, that's the right thing to do.

God's going to reward you.

He's gonna reward you.

But the rewards of God are usually long term, not short term.

So a lot of times, you know, we we do the right thing, and I'm I'm camping on relationships because I think this is really where the mustard, this is really where the mustard fight is in our lives with relationships, is that we keep pressing in and we have to begin to believe God eventually is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

And your feelings are waging battle in the opposite direction.

You want to be mean, you want to have a mean spirit, you want to lash out, and then you do.

And then you have to go, now you've got a double problem because you you want reconciliation, you want to do the right thing, then you don't, and now you gotta ask for forgiveness from the Lord because you didn't, and so suddenly that's why there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, is because you gotta you gotta battle that and then hang in, stay in the fight.

Substance, his substance, his faith is what we need, not our faith and our feelings.

Feelings are so up and down, right?

But faith, even a little bit, has the potential, if we plant it into our heart and into our mind now, it does grow.

And it starts to get some roots.

So it's future-oriented, it's it's a hopefulness.

And so that's the kind of church that God loves.

That's that's why He created the church.

Have you ever wondered, like, why do we have the church?

I mean, if you listen to certain branches of the media, you know, you'd get a different perspective than what reality is.

You could get another one on another side.

But the reality is Christ gave us the church.

And the church that Paul is so excited about is number one, a church of faith.

Your faith in action.

It's the faith of you and I going out into the community every day and being different than everybody else.

Tell the truth.

I mean, if we just start on the level of honesty, just being honest, as much as we can tell the truth.

Don't lie.

As much as possible, go the extra mile by doing a little bit more than anybody else does in the arena of love and forgiveness and mercy, and watch what God will do.

Here's our biggest problem in the church is a judgmental spirit.

Now, we should have judgment, but a judgmental attitude.

And so everybody has to kind of reach your level of whatever is your level of some perfection that you have, which usually is an indication that's what you have on yourself.

And God wants to set you free and have grace.

Have grace for others.

Because you're gonna get ripped off, man.

You're gonna get ripped off, you're gonna get ripped off by the church, you're gonna get ripped off in life.

How do we handle that?

Faith is a substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.

Faith is a belief that somehow God's gonna reward my faith in him.

But a lot of times you don't see it for a while.

So faith is the first thing that he says.

Now look at the rest of verse 2, and excuse me, the rest of verse 3.

We give thanks to God always for you, always making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith.

Now, listen to this labor of love, patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election in God.

So, secondly, it is a Kingdom of God Revolutionary Church, it's a church known for action.

It says here, it's your labor of love and your patience of hope.

So when you came in this morning, did you see all the boxes?

You see all the boxes when you went through that entranceway there?

I always want to call that a narthax because I grew up Lutheran.

So our Narthax, okay?

You you came in and those boxes are there because of this ministry, Mercy's Gate, that I've been a part of when I was at Mountain Springs.

We we worked with them.

It was a different name back then.

It was called Northern Churches Cares.

That's what I remember it being.

But now it's called Mercy's Gate.

And we went out and saw what they're doing.

It's so exciting.

They're feeding the, I would call, I would say Mercy's Gate main vision, it would be the working class poor.

The working class poor.

So those men and women that are right on the edge, man, if they miss a couple more payments on their rent, they're on the streets.

I mean, they're they're living a tight life.

And I love it because it's churches getting behind them, and they've they've got a storehouse there of foods and stuff for people.

And I just love what they're doing, and I want us to be the biggest giver they've ever had.

And so when you walk in, you'll see to the left, and as you're leaving, you'll see it to the right, there's a list of the non-perishable items.

You can just take a picture of that, or you can take a picture of the website, and they give you the list.

And then I'm hoping and praying that we start filling up that metal basket that's right there.

It's about this high, it's about, I don't know, three by three feet that they gave us.

And we just pile it up every week to be a church that labors in love to helping the working class poor in our city.

They're set up for it.

And then there's boxes everywhere, and that's for Thanksgiving.

And take a box and fill that sucker up, man.

And it's got all the list of the things that you put in there, and then bring it back.

I think everything's on there that you need.

Look how blessed we are.

Man, let's just pour it out on our city.

That's a church of action.

That's the reason Pam and others did this stuff in relation to the resiliency issues of diet and supplements during COVID.

And over 3,000 people got healed, you know?

Like I shared that at this church, and I could see at Cornerstone Church this stunned look.

What are you talking about, man?

And I go, I can tell by your stunned look that you're asking yourself, what are you talking about, man?

Churches don't do that.

Churches are about religion.

We're just supposed to stay in religion and always be religious.

Vote! Vote! We vote here, we heal the sick here.

There's a day coming when every service at the road is gonna be packed with people because they know there's healing here.

They know they can't get it out there, but they can get it here.

And they're coming and they want substance and they want truth because it's a labor of love.

It's a labor of love.

So a church of action.

Look at verse 5.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance.

As you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

So let's just break that down a second.

He says, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.

So thirdly, a revolutionary church is rooted in the word and alive in the spirit.

Rooted in the word, alive in the spirit.

So I like to say that there's three kinds of churches.

All word, no spirit, you dry up.

All spirit, no word, you blow up.

Word and spirit, you grow up.

So how many of you have been a part of what I call 4th of July Roman candle, fireworks, spirit churches?

I mean, every Sunday is a fireworks show.

I mean, they've got the Roman candles coming off the pulpit, man, and boom, boom, boom.

How many have been to churches that are dead as a doornail?

All right.

Okay.

Well, I think the fire is supposed to be in the fireplace.

I'm from Georgia, and we we always had wood-burning fireplaces, but we never used them because we were in Georgia.

But I came to Colorado and I built, uh I've remodeled the house like three times.

And so I wanted a wood-burning fireplace.

I didn't want that gas thing.

And I like splitting wood, I like chainsawing, I just love all that stuff.

It's just, I just dig it.

It's weird, but I like that.

And uh, I tried to kill myself a couple times with a chainsaw, but I'm still here.

Um but but you why do you have a wood burning fireplace?

Because you want to heat your house, right?

And it's cheaper.

It's harder work, but it's cheaper, and I just I like that's just the way I am, anyway.

But if you got A fireplace, and there's no fire in the fireplace, you're not going to heat up your house.

And there's a lot of churches that have a fireplace, ornate fireplace.

I mean, it is one cool fireplace.

It's like some I see in some of these homes that you go in.

When you go in and you see them on the, you know, on uh Zillow or Realtor.com, and you're, I'm always looking at prices and stuff because I like to buy stuff.

And so you come in there, and it's, and I mean it's got it's got pillars on one side, and a pillar over here, and it's got your hearth, it's a you know massive, and the big flat screen, which is actually bad for your neck to have it that high, but anyway, that's another issue.

But anyway, you got your flat screen up there and everything.

You have to go like this to see the program because the hearth is massive and there's no fire in it.

What good's that?

And you go to churches and it's ornate and it's lots of purple.

Purple's like the religious color, right?

And a lot of purple stuff and everything, but there's no fire in the fireplace.

And then you got churches, you know, like last night.

We watched the Georgia game.

That's the reason I'm a little hoarse right now.

Coach Smart for Georgia said, if you come to Sanford Stadium and to Dooley Field in Athens, Georgia for the Tennessee game, and you can talk the next day, you were not loud enough.

Okay, so we anyway, I had a little group and we screamed and hollered and everything.

Anyway, we went out to the fire pit afterwards, and you guys remember uh yesterday the wind started picking up.

So after everybody had left, I put dirt, I always put dirt, and then I hit it with the hose, and I did that, but I went out afterwards to go to the uh hot tub, and I'm walking out and I can see flames jumping up in our fire pit because the wind was so intense.

I think it was like 25 to 50 mile an hour wind.

So if I'm not, if we're not careful, a fire could jump out of the fire pit and start burning everything up.

So I put the hose on it again and soaked it really good.

You know what we need?

We need churches that have a beautiful fireplace, but they don't burn down the house.

Okay?

So we need to have the fire in the fireplace so we warm up the house for generations to come.

That's what we're building at the road.

A word and spirit church.

So we're word-rooted, spirit alive, and culturally engaged.

That's what he's saying.

He's saying, like, he's saying right here, he's saying, remember this, not word only.

You also got to have power from the spirit.

So, men and women, we need to be a power of the spirit church that's rooted in the word.

Verse 6, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia, Achaia, who believed.

And if you remember the story, in it's uh Acts 17.

They come to Thessalonica, you guys, and when they came, this is what the elders of the city said.

Oh no! Those people who have upset the world have come here also.

So their reputation had preceded them.

People knew about this church from Jerusalem and these apostles that were coming, and it was so shocking that they had come to Thessalonica, they start stoning people.

And Jason gets stoned and persecution right out of the chute on the Thessalonic church.

That's what's happening in Rome through the emperors.

Because one of the most exciting things that will happen, I think it's gonna happen in the days ahead, is the church is more powerful than any political party.

That the church finally starts to wake up and quit sitting around with all the ornamentation that goes with being religious and realizes no, we're kingdom of God, revolutionary people.

And God still loves this world that he gave his only begotten son.

He loves this world.

He says, Go ye therefore into the world.

He says, That you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you should bear witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and remotest parts of the earth.

So this is a church that under persecution has joy.

This Thessalonican church, and then we know from history, the Roman church, it was also true, they were under persecution.

And today we look at the Chinese church, we look at the Malaysian church, we look at the Indonesian church, we look at what's happening in Iraq and Iran and places like that.

Those are persecuted believers, and when you meet them, they're so joyful.

And some of them you say, we're praying for a little persecution on you guys in the West.

Because we're kind of fat and sassy, and we're a little bit arrogant.

One of the funnest things in my life was years ago, taking a bunch of uh suburban kids, boys, and um, and that summer I formed a little men's boys, wasn't men, but boys' gymnastics team.

And these guys didn't know anything, and they definitely didn't know me.

And I kicked their little gym short butts from one end of the gym to the other, and they loved it because they wanted something to live for, they wanted to do something with their life, and it was just a small thing, it's just a little gymnastics team and everything, but but I could see the spark in their eyes that when they worked out and they were hurting and it was painful for them, there was something of pride, there was something within them that said, This is this is the manly heart, this is the masculine heart I was created for.

And they didn't know how to say it.

I mean, they were only like 12 and 13 years old.

And I didn't even know how to say it to them then.

I just recognized what had been in me and I gave it away to them.

Folks, listen, you're made for persecution.

You're made for persecution.

You can handle it.

We will handle it together in the days ahead.

And you will need the church.

You're not on your own.

If you're not in a community group, you need to get in a community group.

If you're not connected with some people at the road, you're gonna need to be connected with some people at the road.

If what they're talking about in relation to food shortages are coming, if what if they continue to push the vaccines and all these different Fauci and his cabal are gonna continue to create more and more weird stuff to create more and more vaccines.

Be careful.

Do your homework.

At the road, we're the smartest church in town.

I really believe that.

You guys are so smart.

I say stuff at these other churches, and they and I I can tell you, man, it is splattering on the wall back in the back.

It's just going whoom.

People do not know what I'm talking about.

Because you guys are smart.

I mean, it who starts a church voter guide?

How weird is that! So I got a call from a leader here in the city yesterday.

You'd know him if I said his name, but he he called.

We'll say his name's Joe.

And I said, Joe, you got five minutes because the Georgia game's about to start.

And so, but this, but he wants to start this Liberty Institute, Pike's Peak Liberty Institute.

He wants me to be on this founding board with him to raise up a new generation of young leaders that will get into the arena and make a difference.

They will have biblical values, conservative values, that love liberty.

And I said, There's one problem with everything you're saying.

And I said, What is it?

It's way too small.

And he said, What do you mean?

I said, we need a revolution.

You need a liberty revolution.

We need a liberty revolution that touches schools, that touches businesses, that touches health care, that touches a church, all these areas.

And we both got really fired up.

And so I recorded the first part of the game.

So but you gotta have joy, you gotta have joy in adversity, gang.

Just get ready for it and don't let it bother you.

Like, okay, it's hard.

Oh, well, welcome to the party.

It's hard.

Okay?

So get tougher.

Get tougher in your heart.

And I don't mean become mean-spirited and harden-hearted.

I'm not saying that.

I mean you gotta be tougher on your exterior and stay tender on your interior.

So you stay loving and you stay kind and you stay gentle, but at the same time, you're tough.

You don't let people just push you around.

Okay?

So that's what I have to say about that.

Verse 8.

For from you the word of the Lord is sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.

Your faith toward God is gone out so that we do not need to say anything.

For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

Fifthly and lastly, a revolutionary church is constantly reaching out to the unchurched.

Some of you are unchurched here today.

You came and you went, what kind of a church have I gotten myself into?

Well, you don't have to come back, because that's one thing good.

But if you do come back, what you're gonna hear from us at the road is we welcome you, whatever your addiction.

We welcome you with whatever sin you carry.

If you struggle with same-sex addiction, if you come with same-sex uh struggles and attraction, God still is there for you and he can transform you.

You come and you've got a cocaine addiction, you've got sex addiction, you got a porn addiction, you come and you're going through a divorce.

Everybody here is messed up.

We're all messed up.

But we believe in Jesus and we believe that he can take mustard seed faith and he can move mountains in your life.

And if you desire to live in righteousness, peace, and joy, you have come to the right place.

And Christ loves you and he takes you where you're at.

And I pray we can be a loving church to wherever people are at and not be judgmental, be full of grace and love.

Thank you for listening to the Foreign 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.