219 ~ ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME ~ PART 1

Hi and welcome to the VR Zion Sermon Podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire and instil fresh faith in you.

We begin a new series today titled All Roads Lead to Rome,

which is a study in the book of Romans.

As we study this letter written to the Jewish and Gentile

believers in the city of Rome, we ask that you put yourself in

their shoes, for our context is not that different after all.

Our hope is that through this series, you would experience the

fullness of knowing who God is, what He did for you through

Jesus, and how you can live a life that honours Him and

blesses others. Hi church.

What a joy it is to begin this series today with you.

Our series is called All Roads Lead to Rome, and it's basically

a walk through the book of Romans.

And as you know, we were reading it and Geshom and I were just

discussing what God would potentially want out of this

book. We were just thinking of, you

know, how heavy this book is. First of all, from a teaching

standpoint, it's a heavy book. It, it literally wraps the whole

entire essence of the Bible into one book.

And so it's a, it's a very heavy book, but it's such a

theologically sound book in the sense, of course, the whole

Bible is theologically sound. But this one, if you read it and

you digest it and, you know, chew on it enough, you will know

the exact blueprint of our Christian theology.

You'll get an idea of what this is all about.

And I was just as I was reading a bit about the background of

this book of Romans. Of course the author is the

Apostle Paul. The interesting fact was this

church was actually planted in the city of Rome by believers

who were there at the Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday.

On that day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God filled a bunch

of believers and they spoke out in tongues, tongues of fire

appeared on them and they began to speak in different tongues.

Couple of those believers were the ones who left from there,

went back to Rome and establish the church there.

So it feels very fitting that two Sundays after the Pentecost

Sunday, now we start this letter.

And it's so important to understand that this book of

Romans is called actually like the manifesto of the Christian

faith. It is we look at it and we

understand why we believe what we believe.

If we look at it and we realize this is the foundation to our

faith in Jesus. And it's amazing because it was

written by Paul. Paul had not visited this church

yet. He was in the city of Corinth in

AD 57. He wrote this letter from there

to them because he was sitting in an other in, in, you know,

colloquial terms. It was another metropolitan city

or a cosmopolitan city where there was a melting pot of

cultures. There were people of different

beliefs. There were those when, like the

common New Ages now, we had those who believed in anything.

We had those who believed in nothing.

There was a lot of idolatry. There was a lot of

permissiveness. This is a city that he was

living in at the time of writing this, and he knew that what he

was seeing in Corinth was also probably the issue at Romans, at

the place of the Romans. And so he was addressing the

problem that the global body of Christ would eventually face and

was currently facing at that time.

Today when I read it, when I read the whole book of Romans at

one shot, this is what it resonates with me that it is as

relevant today as it was back then in 1857.

And so today I want us to look at the book of Romans.

We're going to be doing this over the next couple of weeks.

We're just we're leaving it open to how God leads the teaching

each Sunday. But there are some repeated

themes in this entire book, which I just want to give us an

introduction to serve. We're not too taken aback when

we keep hearing it over the next few weeks.

The first word that is repeated a lot is the law.

And when it talks about the law, because it's talking about the

law and it's talking about grace and righteousness and all of

that. But the law, when it talks about

the law, what is it talking about?

Us talking about the Tanakh. The Tanakh was the book of

books, books of Moses, which is the Torah, which is also the

writings, the poetic writings, and then also the books of the

prophets. And all of this together formed

the law that the people were reading at the time.

And the Jews, the traditional Jews, followed the law to the

letter. Every ritual, every tradition,

there were these traditions of a past down generations and they

were very ritualistic about that and that all of this comprised

the law which they were taking, you know, and they believed that

was what would bring them closer to God, that was obeying, that

would bring them salvation. And a lot of times Paul had to

go back to that place of saying observance of the law is not

enough. Faith in Jesus was.

So that is a repeated word. It actually appears about 78

times. The next word that appears a lot

is righteousness. And here it talks about how we

have to actually look at righteousness through the lens

of God and that the righteousness of God is imputed

or given to us in Jesus. So it's a very vital theme that

is talked about. It appears about 66 times.

It debunked the idea that, you know, our good works or our

goodness would bring us righteousness.

It was all imputed to us from God.

The word faith appears about 62 times in this book and basically

talks about the initiator. It's it's what it's a gift from

what even having faith to believe in Jesus is a gift that

the Spirit of God gives us. And this talks about an active

trust in God. It's not some, you know, faded

out a jaded one woman thing. Faith is this active component

in our walk with God. So when we look at this book

over the next couple of weeks, we don't know how many weeks

this is going to go for, but we want you to keep two things in

mind. Two outcomes.

Because when we're doing something, we need to know where

we're headed, right? The two outcomes is you're going

to find out why you believe what you believe, right?

The second thing is you're going to find out how we can live out

what you believe. It's so important we we have the

theology that we get from this book, but that theology will be

empty. It'll just be head knowledge if

we don't put it into practice, if there is no practical

component. So we're going to tie in the

two. We're going to look at how we

understand this in all its correctness in in the way God

intended us to understand, but we're also going to see how we

will live that out in our everyday.

It's going to have two components.

So every Sunday when we teach about this, when we learn, we

are looking at it in this angle, hey, why do we believe this?

What is the significance of what we are believing?

And then how does that work its way out into our everyday?

So today we're going to be looking at chapter one, Romans

chapter one, and we're going to be looking at verses 1 to 17.

I'm not going to read the whole thing.

Basically, it's structured like most of his letters.

There's an introduction where he, he's reaching out to the

believers of Jesus in Romans and he, he basically sets the tone

because he establishes who he is.

Paul says that he is an apostle who's called by God, who's

appointed. He talks about who he

represents. He's, he talks about this triune

God. He talks about Jesus and, and he

literally gives the gospel in three lines.

He talks about what Jesus, who Jesus was, what he accomplished,

who established Jesus's mission or not.

He's very clear. And then he also shares who he

actually speaks about, what is the content of his preaching?

So that's what the entire chapter, the initial part of

this chapter is. And he mentions this nice line,

which is so much in line with our church's theme for the year.

He says he has been set apart for the gospel.

For the first few months of this year, we have been looking up,

looking at how God has set us apart from certain things to

really live a life that is consecrated and holy.

But today we want to remind you that you are set apart for

something. You are set apart for the

gospel. You are set apart for the

Kingdom of God. You are set apart for Jesus.

It's so important to remember what we are set apart for.

Paul Ben goes on to explain the gospel.

What is the gospel? You know, a lot of times we just

use these words and we forget to actually dig deeper and

understand what is this gospel? The gospel is very simply

explains it in the first few verses.

He says Jesus, the Son of God, was born in the earthly line of

King David and the Spirit of God raised him from the dead.

And that resurrection established that he was truly

divine, that he was truly the Son of God.

And he goes on to establish who he is in Christ.

He says that he's an ordinary person who was given grace and

was called into apostleship. And the apostles were basically

those who were sent. They were the sent ones.

So they were called of God, and then they were sent to do the

work of God. And so Paul establishes that,

you know, it's only by God's grace that he was chosen and

then he was sent. And so when you look at the

audience, who is he writing to at that moment?

He was writing to the Romans. But today when we read it, we

realise he's talking to us, each one of us, because we are

ordinary. We we're probably really normal

people. And yet God has called us.

We are the chosen few. We are the remnant, we are the

set apart few. And it's important to remember

this. He says that you belong to Jesus

who you who loves you dearly and I want us to remember this

before we start. Our identity in Christ has to be

so sealed in this place where we are set apart by God.

We are loved by Jesus. We are called to be holy.

That is what we are. That is where we stand right

now. Even as we dive deeper into a

couple of verses in Romans chapter one.

This is where we stand as the audience, as the ones reading

this letter to remember. Bottom line, we were saved

because of pure grace, not because of any goodness in US.

It was just the fact that God chose us.

He hand picked us and set us apart.

The pivotal verses we're going to be looking at from chapter

one is verses 16 and 17. OK, so we're going to be looking

at these two because this is the most important verse in this

entire chapter. And this is what it says.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the

power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the

Jew 1st and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of

God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

The just shall live by faith. As I was reading, this is a very

well known song and there was a song that came out many years

back that we used to do in Sunday school with the kids.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, Lord, you know that

song. And so we know this verse, this

Paul was very clear. He says I'm called to

apostleship and what am I? What is my job?

I proclaim the gospel, the gospel that was shared to me by

Jesus himself in a vision is what I'm going to preach to

others. I'm not ashamed of it.

And he knew that this proclamation that he was doing

would land him in trouble, but yet he kept doing it because he

says I'm not ashamed. It is a power of God.

It saves everyone who accepts what is received.

And he mentions this order here. He says it's first for the Jew,

then for the Gentile. There's really no debate on

that, that the the gospel was first presented to the Jews when

they turned away, when they rejected Jesus, it was made

available to the whole world. The whole Gentile world heard

it, received it and stepped in. And so this Roman church that he

was writing to basically had a mixture of both the Jews and the

Gentiles. They were those who know, knew

the ways of Judaism and had now chosen Jesus and had now started

walking in faith with him. And then there were the Gentiles

who knew nothing about the law, but who just believed in Jesus

of, you know, and, and just loved what was being taught to

them. They accepted him, they got

baptized. They were anointed by the Spirit

and had now been added to the community.

So there was this mixture of people.

And so he's presenting to them what God's intended plan was.

But what really arrested my attention was this phrase.

It says for in it the righteousness of God is revealed

from faith to faith and that from faith to faith just kind of

didn't let me be. So I kept looking at it and

saying, God, what is this? What what are you trying to say

revealed from faith to faith? And so I started reading it in

other translations and I want to present it to you in a couple of

translations for you to understand what Paul is actually

saying in the amplified. It says springing from faith and

leading to faith disclosed in a way that awakens more faith.

Fashion translation says it moves us from receiving life

through faith to the power of living by faith.

The ESV says for in it the righteousness of God is revealed

from faith for faith. The complete Jewish Bible says

this, for in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in

his sight. And from beginning to end it is

through trust, as the Tanakh puts it.

But the person who's righteous will live his life by trust.

Isn't that amazing? Trust from faith for faith

awakening more faith. So what what is the text telling

us? It's telling us about a faith

gradient. So at the time of salvation, it

is because of your faith in Jesus that you are saved, right?

And it's a it's a gift. But that faith cannot stay

stagnant. It cannot stay at the point or

the place or the quality it was then he's indicating that this

Christian life will need to have a gradient of faith which

steadily increases day by day. And it's important that we are

aware of the degree of faith we are having at this time.

Now what does that look like? Jesus spoke about mustard size

faith in Matthew 17. This is what he said.

Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief.

For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard

seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to

there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for

you. So basically what had happened

was the disciples had had encountered someone who had a

demon and they were unable to drive out the demon.

And so they called on Jesus. He rebuked them and said you

guys don't have enough faith. But of course he added this

interesting addendum. He said of course, but this type

goes out by prayer and fasting. He said there was an added thing

and Jesus was doing a lot of that.

So he was filled with the power of God.

But he says very interestingly, he sandwiches this in the

middle. He said you need to have faith

as small as a mustard seed because then you can save your

mountain move and it'll actually move.

So basically what Jesus was saying, if you need to be a

mountain mover, you need to have faith that is that small.

That's all you need. You just need to believe without

a shadow for doubt that it will happen.

Childlike, trusted, implicit belief that God will fight for

you. God will come through.

So when you, when you take this into our everyday lives, you

know, life as we know it has these huge mountains, obstacles,

struggles, opposition, hardships that all of us face.

None of us are exempt. And it's interesting because

after one mount, we conquer 1 mountain.

We, we have a sea, you know, a steady path for a while and then

we face the next mountain that is life for every one of us.

And So what does that look like for our faith?

Like we've been talking in church, we believe it's a new

season for church after six years.

We believe God is turning us in another direction.

We are pioneering again on different levels.

And in this new season, it doesn't mean that our faith can

flag. It cannot mean that our faith

just starts to go, oh, well, you know, we've accomplished so

much. Now God will do the rest.

Our faith has to step up in the new season.

A lot of times we think when that new season comes, God will

do everything. I can relax.

We can. It's amazing because you can,

but you can't relax when your faith has stepped up internally.

And what does that look like? Can I orchestrate my own faith?

Can I step it up? Can I just turn this knob and

say no, my faith needs to increase?

It's not like that. It doesn't happen like that.

So let's let's look at what Jesus himself taught us about

this. Matthew chapter 13 verses 31 to

Matthew 13:31–32

32. This is what he says.

Another parable he put forth to them saying the Kingdom of

heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in

his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds, but when

it is grown is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so

that the birds of the egg come and nest in its branches.

Mark talks a little differently. He says when it is sown it grows

up and becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out large

branches so that the birds of the airmen nest in its shape.

What is Jesus talking? He just said faith as small as a

mustard seed is adequate. But now he's talking about this

seed being sown in soil and the tree that it produces is huge

and it brings so much shade to everything around.

What is he talking about? He's talking about this gradient

again, that that mustard seed faith has to be sown into our

lives and God is the one who brings increase.

If you look at a plant growing in your garden, you realize you

literally have no control of how it grows.

You don't have control of how the weed is growing.

If you put a time lapse camera, you just record it.

You realize you're doing nothing.

Your watering is probably doing 10% of the job.

Growth is brought about by God, the growth of our faith, the

gradient of our faith, It's entirely in God's hands, but it

only requires a willing heart. It only requires a surrendered

life and God in the midst of that circums like ideal, optimum

circumstances. God grows our faith.

And so here it says, it's so interesting.

Paul writes when he's writing to the Romans, he mentions this one

thing in verse eight. He says, I first thank my God

through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of

throughout the whole world. I wonder if someone was to write

a letter to us today, would they say, Christine, it's amazing.

I pray for you all the time and I've heard your about your faith

from wherever I go. Is your faith spoken about by

people at the far ends of the earth?

The Roman believers faith was so strong, was so vibrant that it

was known at different parts of the globe.

Is the quality of your faith and mind like that?

Is the caliber of our faith like that?

Is it at a level where it is talking far and wide of how we

believe in Jesus, of what that faith is doing?

I want to ask you, is your faith a stagnant faith?

You got saved, but it hasn't really grown from there because

the problem with the stagnant faith is it will not have an

aroma. It will not attract more people

to Jesus. Are you having a depleting

faith? Series of obstacles, too many

mountains, too many unanswered prayers, dryness, barrenness

that your faith has started regressing.

Remember that a depleting faith will begin to show up in your

life as a dryness. People around you will not sense

the joy of the Lord in you. You will start to drift because

you don't have much purpose anymore.

But today God is calling you for a faith that is ever increasing.

Maybe all you have energy for is that mustard size faith.

But will you plant it in your life and say Lord, I believe

that you will come through what you said you will do.

I believe in you. I will hold on to you with every

fiber of my being. That is a great place to start

because that faith needs to grow.

It needs to increase. Because the truth is, faith is

the thing that had faith in Jesus is the thing that helps us

adapt in every season we are placed in.

I often wonder of how people actually do life in today's

world without Jesus. Because you know, for us,

irrespective of the season, whether it's a high, it's a low,

it's barren, it's it's fruitful. The constant has been Jesus,

even in the hardest times. The fact that we can cling on to

him like an anchor keeps us going.

But if you don't have Jesus, what do you have?

Who do you call on? Who do you turn to in the night

seasons? Who do you weep your heart or

bear your soul to? Who is the one who heals?

The ones that no one else can heal on earth.

It's so important to remember that a faith in Jesus is what

keeps us going in every season. You may be entering one of the

hardest seasons of your life. You may be exiting one of the

hardest seasons of your life. Whatever it is, will your faith

keep you tethered to Jesus? I was in an aquarium recently

and my kids were, you know, wandering through the aquarium

and looking at all the. Different fish and this one boat

arrested my attention and it just talked about amazing

adaptations. OK and I want to read what the

boat said and then this is what I really felt when I was reading

the boat. The boat read The inter tidal

zone is hidden at high tide but a place of discovery at low

tide. Animals in the zone have special

adaptations to help them survive.

Strong tube feet to resist powerful waves or hard shells

that lock in moisture and prevent dehydration during low

tide. And as I was reading it, I was

just thinking that this pretty much describes the Christian

life. It pretty much describes human

life. But for the Christian, our

amazing adaptation is our faith in Jesus.

Because when the seasons happen where there is low tide, we're

exposed to the elements. We don't feel the presence of

God as much as we did in the previous session.

Our faith keeps us hooked on to Him.

And then there are those times when it's high time and storms

of life are beating on you and yet you have this anchor in Him.

And then there was peaceful times.

It's Placid, it's calm, and you know He's in the boat with you.

You see what I'm saying? For the believer, through every

up and down, through every upheaval, through every

calmness, through every fruitfulness, through every

barrenness. The thing that keeps us sane,

the thing that keeps us well, the thing that keeps us going is

a faith in Jesus. The only constant in our lives

will be Jesus. The amazing adaptation we have

is faith in Him. That's what keeps us going.

As we mentioned on Pentecost Sunday, we believe we're heading

into a season of harvest as the body of Christ.

And this harvest looks like there's going to be a lot of

fruit being born, but there's also going to be a lot of de

wedding. There's going to be a lot of

landscaping that God does in our lives, along with the growth

that comes with the harvest, along with the specific tasks

God gives us. He will need us to step up the

measure of faith that we carry. Because the faith that I had for

the previous season was great, but this new season is going to

need a different level of faith. I'm not going to say it's going

to need more. It's going to need a different

quality of faith. It's going to need a different

kind of caliber of faith. Are you ready for that?

Are you ready that you will move from faith to faith because

throughout our lives what is going to mark us on a spiritual

calendar of God was to you know and we meet him in heaven when

he looks at our reports, so to speak.

What is going to carry on is our faithfulness to him.

Have I been faithful full of faith no matter what storm I

stood firm and said Jesus is enough.

He will carry me through this no matter the successes my eyes

were on Jesus. That's what's going to count

because when I close my eyes and go meet him, he's going to say

well done, good and faithful, full of faith, faithful servant.

And the interesting thing is I cannot do this on my own.

I cannot step up faith on my own.

I cannot increase the quality of faith on my own.

I need the Lord for it. I need Him.

It's not a miracle portion, but this is the way He grows faith.

OK, I want you to really listen to this.

This is not going to be pleasant to hear.

He grows our faith by our circumstances.

He grows our faith by the ordinary situations we face as

humans. It's interesting.

If you ask God for more love, He'll place you in circles with

people who are hard to love just so that you step up and how you

love them. If you ask God for more

patience, Lord, give me patience.

Give me endurance. He gives you hard situations

where you're waiting for a long time, where you're dealing with

people or your children who really test your patience.

Similarly, when you ask Him for more faith, He allows you to

walk through circumstances that need you to lean on Him more,

need you to lean on Him solely. So how does this translate to

you and me today? How do we take this for

ourselves? OK, we know that we don't need

to be ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to save

all of humanity. And it, it is through the gospel

that I understand the righteousness of God from faith

to faith, right? But what does this look like for

you and me? How do, how does this faith

grow? Like I said, it grows through

our ordinary human life, ordinary human circumstances.

So the first thing I want you to remember is that faith will grow

as we continue to do life. Faith grows as we live life.

Romans 117 says the just shall live by faith.

That word live the Greek root for that means to experience

God's gift of life. Isn't that amazing?

So the just shall live by faith is basically saying when you

stand in the righteousness of Christ, because our

righteousness is nothing, it's filthy rags, but we have the

righteousness of Christ, we learn to live this life to

abundance. Many of us are mistaking

abundance as an abundance of things.

We're thinking that you know we need to have more to live this

abundant life. No, in the midst of what you

have, the little you have, Abundance of soul is what makes

all the difference. A spiritual abundance standing

in your identity in Christ makes all the difference.

Seek first His Kingdom and all these things will be added unto

you. You have to come to a place of

enjoying this abundant life. That's when you're actually

living life to the fullest. And faith grows as you live this

life, as you live this new life in Christ.

Now this, this, you know, Romans 117 is actually the latter part

of the worst. It's taken originally from

Habakkuk, and I want to read what Habakkuk writes.

Habakkuk chapter 2, verses two to four.

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

And Habakkuk starts this chapter by saying, I will stand on the

ramparts. I will stand on that watchtower

and listen for what God wants to tell me.

And then God replies. This is what God says.

God answered, Write this, write what you see.

Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read

on the run. This vision message is a witness

pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming.

It can hardly wait, and it doesn't like if it seems slow

and coming. Wait, it's on its way.

It will come right on time. Look at that man, bloated by

self importance, full of himself but soul empty.

But the person in right standing before God through loyal and

steady believing is fully alive, really alive.

This is the worst that we're looking at.

The person in right standing before God through loyal and

steady believing, that is faith, loyal, steady believing is fully

alive, really alive. I'm sure in your life you have

some who have lived the Christian life completely

faithful to God, who actually epitomize this and say you've

seen them through every season when they could have washed

their hands off their faith said no, I still, you know, I know

that Jesus has called me. I know that this is he's allowed

it. I will walk in faithfulness to

him steady believing the ups and downs are real.

High tide, low tide, We face it. Every one of us face it.

And I want to encourage you. When you read the book of

Romans, you feel so normal sometimes you feel, why am I

going through these ups and downs?

Shouldn't I be just, you know, sailing through life shouldn't

no matter what happens? Shouldn't I be just, you know,

cruising through? Well, life happens and God

understands what we go through. And in the midst of all of it,

He says, stay fixed on me. And so in this place, faith

grows as you live life. What is the vision primarily,

before you even live this life fully and abundantly, what is

the vision you have for your life?

What is the vision God has given for your life?

I need to correct that because a lot of times we have a vision

for our life. Oh, I need to do this by 25.

I need to own this by 30. I need to be married.

I need to have a kid. Or maybe that lesson feature in

your life's plans. But whatever it is, you have a

vision. But I want to ask you, what is

the vision God has given? What is the word God has given

you saying this is what I created you for?

They've been multiple times in the last five years when God has

reiterated to me the things that I was created for.

What has He told you? Hey, this is what you were made

for? Because when you come in

alignment with what His vision for you is, living fully becomes

very easy. You're not actually striving to

live up in abundance. It's important because he says

this vision message is a witness pointing to what's coming.

So very important to this journey of life is keeping our

eyes on the God vision that he's given us.

If God has said this is my vision for you, I want you to be

a shining light for me in the place in your marketplace.

No matter what's happening in the marketplace, you keep your

eyes on that vision. God, you call me, you brought me

here, you lead me. Maybe your God has given you

this vision. You're going to mentor a

generation of young people in your school that you work at.

So no matter what obstacles you're facing, you're going.

God, you're placed me here. I know that you have me here for

a season. I'll do what you asked me to do.

Maybe you're a homemaker. You think you don't have much to

do, but God is impressed on your heart that those children in

your home, your two children, your one child, that is your

focus. That is the place where you're

going to see the harvest. You'll be so intentional, even

when you're buffeted with self doubt and an identity crisis.

You know that inherently that's where God called you.

The vision for our life is all important.

Faith grows when we do life with that vision.

More important than the vision, though, is the one who gave you

the vision, Paul writes in another letter.

He says, keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and

perfecter of my faith. He is the one that I keep my

focus on because the highs and lows are real, the ups and downs

are real, the dark seasons of the soul are real.

But when I keep my eyes on Jesus, everything else fades

away. Things may not make more sense,

but when I look at Him, I find comfort.

I remember the things He did in the past for me.

I know He can do it again. I know that He is as loving as

He promised he would be. It's so important that we keep

our eyes on Jesus because he is the one who made us righteous.

Today I stand and righteous standing before God because of

what Jesus did for me. So it's so important that in

this journey of life, this Christian life, to move from

faith to faith, I need to do life as I am.

I need to stand in this place, living this new life in Christ.

Your faith will grow when you embrace the life you are living.

Too many of us wish we had a different life.

I, I despise social media for this one thing.

Too many people look at social media and think I need to have

that kind of spouse. I need to have that kind of

holiday. I wish my children did such and

such. I wish you know I could

influence people like the way that person is.

We don't know their journeys. We don't know what they walked

through. We don't know their sacrifices.

All we see is this life that is plastered on social media.

It's important that we come to this place of God.

What have you called me for? I will run the track.

Too many of us are running on someone else's track when God is

marked out a track for us. And it is when I run this track

faithfully that automatically my faith will grow because I'm

embracing the life that I'm living.

It is a new life in Christ that I am facing.

I run it fully. That's when my faith

automatically grows. You need to remember you cannot

grow your faith. It's not something that you can

by willpower grow. It just happens when you live

life. So that's the first important

thing. Faith grows when you live this

new life in Christ. The second thing is faith grows

in community. Post COVID, there was the option

of online. There was the option of, you

know, meeting, you know, in remote offices.

Many of them have, you know, decided to have full time online

positions. So the need for community has

dropped. But can I just tell you

something? What COVID proved more than

anything was that we need people.

We were not meant for isolation. We were not meant for solitary

confinement. And I believe that today the

body of Christ needs its people to come back in.

You cannot do the Christian life by just connecting to an online

community. That may be great for a weekend

that you're not well or that you're travelling, but you need

people to do life with. Faith grows in community, It

doesn't grow in isolation. Romans one was 11 to 12.

This is what Paul says. I long to see you, that I may

impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be

established. That is, that I may be

encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you

and me. Some of us are very comfortable,

but just one Sunday we visit here.

Next Sunday we visit somewhere else because we have friends in

different places. That may work for a while, but

you need to put down your roots somewhere because it is in that

community where you are growing. You get sharpened by other

people. You hear, I love when we meet 4

ladies prayer during the week. Someone else's testimony will

minister to us. When they say, you know, I

prayed for this and this happened.

It always challenges me to go, why don't I pray like that?

Why am I not asking God for things like this auntie is doing

or if someone else is grieving through a season when the other

women embrace her and say we're with you, we're standing with

you, you're not alone. Mutual encouragement.

Faith is grown in community. Let's not kid ourselves, you

cannot be of wholesome Christian if you are not in community.

You need to plant yourself somewhere.

You need to do life with people. I love hearing stories of faith.

I love when people tell me this is where I was at, this is how

God met me. It stirs up my faith.

I may have been flagging that day.

I may have been going, Oh God, I wish, I wish you would show me

that you're real and someone just shares that story.

It builds me up. Someone just shares in our group

of how prayer was answered, how God came through powerfully.

Too many of us are missing out on that integral part of the

Christian journey, which is community.

We wonder why we're so lonely. We think we're the only ones

going through that problem. Get into community.

You'll hear of those who have run the race far ahead.

They'll say, I know exactly what you're walking through.

You will get through it. Whatever season of life you're

in, you're not alone. I love what Peter writes in his

episode. He says for around the world,

brothers and sisters are going through the same things that you

are going through. I often turn to that and say,

Lord, I thank you that I'm not alone in this.

I love that we have friends around the country.

I love that we have friends around the world who when we

connect to those more pivotal moments, God will connect us

with them. When they hear us out, they say,

don't worry, we've been there, we've done that.

You will get through it. That's the power of community.

We start playing those crazy faith filled prayers.

We start to step outside our comfort zone.

We have a couple of friends who are younger than us and who call

us out on our fears, who call us out on our anxieties, who call

us out on things and challenge us to be better, challenge us to

lead better. Challenge us to think with

greater vision. We need community.

Let's let's not kid ourselves anymore.

Let's not say that you know, the online thing works for me.

It cannot possibly work in the to the degree that you know, in

person community works. As I conclude, I want to leave

this with you. Our faith in Jesus is what will

preserve us and protect us in the changing times that we live

in, the times we live in our volatile times.

There are wars happening in different parts of the globe.

Recessions are promised. Governments are changing or not

changing, whatever it is, things don't look as promising as we

would like them to look. Maybe your job feels like it's

on the rocks. Maybe your financial situation

doesn't look very stable. Maybe your health has been on

edge. Whatever it is, faith in Jesus,

that is what will keep us going. As I was thinking about this, I

got this image of a ladder and you're going to be looking at a

couple of images right now. Some of us, the way we look at

our faith, we're like the steps to, you know, we're just

starting out. We just accepted Jesus.

We feel, you know, we've got the stable ladder that we see, you

know, can stand on firmly because Jesus is my foundation.

I'm standing on him. We have adequate amount of faith

to do the things we're called to do.

Some of us have grown. We've we've grown in our faith

to a place where we're so stable.

We're like the larger step ladder, you know, the one that

we have at home. We open it out, it's it's super

stable. You fix it, you can do your

work. And our faith sometimes looks

like that. The problem with the step ladder

kind of faith I realize is that it's so fixed on my abilities.

It's so fixed on what I know. It's so fixed on who I know.

Oh, I can get this done. Oh, I'm confident that I can

sell this product. Oh, I'm confident that I get

that, that you know the good review.

I'm confident that I'm capable of handling this.

And so sometimes my faith gets so established in what I am

capable of that I forget that it requires a leaning on someone

else. And you remember the old

fashioned ladders, the ones that we had when we were kids, This

was the most unstable thing. And you have a picture of it.

It's called the straight ladder. And this straight ladder was

always so dependent on the wall that you leaned it on.

It had no stability on its own. If you went to the circus, the

clowns would try climbing up on it straight.

But beyond that, you and me, ordinary people, had to lean it

on a stable source. And even then, you had to keep

it at the right angle so that doesn't slip when you climb it

right. God is calling us for a straight

ladder like faith. He's saying, will you bring your

life and lean it solely on me? Because I don't shift, I don't

change. I love that you have abilities,

but you need to trust my abilities.

I love that you have resources, but I have innumerable

resources. I love that you have influence,

but my influence is world renowned.

It touches the far-flung islands.

It touches the depths of the ocean.

It touches the depths of the the heights of the heaven.

Some of you, I've already had this straight ladder faith the

last season built it. You were built in furnace.

Your faith has been built up. It's been tested, it's tried,

it's true. But you know what?

God's calling you to the next level.

He's calling you to an extension ladder kind of faith.

You know what that is? It's the same straight ladder,

but it has an extension that gets pulled up and God is saying

I'm taking you to the next level.

But will you trust me? It will require raising faith.

It will require a bold faith like you never had before.

I'm going to stretch your resources.

I'm going to stretch you. I'm going to make you visible.

I'm going to amplify your voice and your sound.

I'm going to use you in ways you never even pictured and

imagined. You didn't ask for it, but I'm

going to give it to you. But will you be ready for that?

If you notice, there was a gradient of the ladder, just as

there has to be a gradient in our faith.

Start out with the mustard seed fear.

Sometimes with the multiple mountains you're facing, you

need a lot of mustards. Mustard says you need a lot of

it. But ask this from God.

Ask Him to grow your faith. He is faithful to do what He has

promised because it is faith in Jesus that will preserve and

protect us. Nothing else, nothing else.

Isaiah 33 verses 5 to 6. This is what it says the Lord is

Isaiah 33:5–6

exalted for He dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice

and righteousness. Wisdom and knowledge will be the

stability of your times and the strength of salvation.

The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

Wisdom, knowledge will be the stability of your times.

Where does this wisdom and knowledge come from?

Jesus, the source of everything. The strength of salvation, the

fear of the Lord is his treasure.

It is in the presence of God. It is in that relationship with

Jesus that we will have what it takes to navigate the times

ahead. Let's not pacify ourselves by

saying I can manage and my bank balance is OK.

I have a plan for my life. Where is your ladder leaning?

Have you become so self reliant or do you need to move back to

the straight ladder and say Lord I'm leaning on you for my

marriage, for my children, for my future, for my health, for my

job, for my calling, for my purpose.

I lean on you entirely because I know that you are not a leaning

wall or a tottering fence. You are rock solid.

You don't change. Will you lean on Him today?

From faith to faith. We cannot do this life without

an ever increasing faith. A faith that goes from season to

season, unshakable, steady and loyal, unchanging.

There will be times when you face doubts.

There will be times when you think God, I'm believing in you,

but I don't see the return. I want to encourage you.

Keep pushing on, keep pushing forward.

Hold on to what you believe in because the one who has called

you, he's faithful. He's faithful to His word.

Can we just pray? I want to pray for you that your

faith will experience this gradient.

It will grow from strength to strength.

Father, I just thank you for the gift of faith, for even that is

from you, Lord, it was not our ability to believe in you.

It was a gift from you. And I just pray right now for

each of us, wherever we are in this season of life, that Lord,

for this next season you're leading us into, that our faith

will be stepped up. That God, you will use us in the

ways you have purposed for us to be used.

That God, where we are lagging behind, we would catch up to

you. I pray God, for perfect

alignment with you. That God, each of us will have

an align, our vision and yours will align.

That we will not, Lord, push your vision out of the way, but

we will keep our eyes fixed on you.

Father, I pray very specially for those who are afraid of the

times ahead, that Lord, if they are worried about the

instability that is coming, God, that they will anchor themselves

in you, they will keep their eyes on you.

Father, I pray for those who have stepped out of communities,

who have stepped out of churches because of hurt, because of

fear, because of anything that has let them down.

Father, I pray that they will take a chance again.

They will find themselves in a community that Lord, their faith

would be grown amongst others. Or Father, we thank you, we love

you, we know that you are doing things in our life.

I pray that God, throughout our lives, no matter what, high and

low we go through, that God, we will be so steadfast in knowing

you, in loving you and following you.

Help us, O God, help us, we love you and we thank you in Jesus

name, Amen. Amen.

God bless you. I pray that as we do the book of

Romans, you will realize why you believe what you believe and

that you will be able to translate that into your

everyday. God bless you.

Thanks for listening to this message.

We hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this.

Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past

episodes. If you like what you are

hearing, consider rating US, subscribing and even sharing it

with friends. That would really help us.

For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to

Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus

finds life.