Hard Work & Perseverance (Romans 16:1-27)

We're going to be in Romans chapter 16 this morning.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

So you can go ahead and open there.

If you're just joining us, we've been going through the whole book of Romans and we're actually going to finish it here this morning, which is exciting.

And we're going to be jumping into 1 Corinthians starting next week.

So I encourage you last week if you haven't yet.

It's great to sit down and read the whole book of Corinthians in one sitting if you're able to, just to get the context and the themes of the book before we jump in and start zooming in on different verses.

But this morning we have a long text because it's really Paul's kind of farewell and his greeting to a lot of different people.

But I think we should be able to finish it, no problem here this morning.

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

And we stand because I see this is probably the most important thing that we do in a service.

This is God's word directly to us.

So we stand out of honor for God's word because this is what he's written specifically for us to glean from.

So Romans, the entire chapter of 16.

If you need to take a break and sit down midway, that's so no, I'm just kidding.

Starting verse one.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Centria, so you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help.

For indeed she has been a benefactor of many, and of me also.

Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life.

Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches.

Greet also the church that meets in their home.

Greet my dear friend Epineatus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you.

Greet Andronicus and Junea, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners.

They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me.

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stychus.

Greet Apellus, who is approved in Christ.

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

Greet Herodian, my fellow Jew.

Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

Greet Trifana and Triphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother and mine.

Great Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermos, and the brothers and sisters who are with them.

Great Philologus and Julia, Nerius and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ send you greetings.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned.

Avoid them, because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites.

They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.

The report of your obedience has reached everyone.

Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Timothy, my co-worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sospitator, my fellow countrymen, greet you.

I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you.

Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Cordus greet you.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him be the glory forever.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

Pray that you would open our hearts and our eyes and our minds and our ears to everything that you want us to hear.

Lord, that we would be clay in your hands and that you would speak here this morning.

I would step out of the way, and that your Holy Spirit would be the one doing the teaching here this morning.

And that we would be receptive to the things that you have.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, the first thing I think that we should notice in this passage is that twenty-seven people are greeted by name to the church in Rome, to a church that Paul had never even visited.

And he names 27 different people in that church.

And he greets a bunch of others as well, but he just refers to them as family members or members of households.

In addition to those 27 that he mentioned, he's going to mention an additional nine names that are currently with him in Corinth as he's writing this letter.

And to me, when I think about this, this speaks really to two different things.

First, Paul was a very relational person.

He knew the people that he was ministering to, and he had a lot of really close relationships.

Now, the second thing that I see is this speaks to the transient nature of the early church.

Mainly because of the persecution of the early church both in Jerusalem and the persecution of the early church in Rome as well, where Christians had to flee, or they were kicked out of cities, like the Jews were kicked out of Rome under the rule of Claudius Caesar.

And as we're going to see, Paul has worked with many of these people firsthand that he mentions here.

And as a reminder, we're reading somebody else's mail here this morning as we read through the book of Romans.

And as we read through this chapter, we tend to want to know who each and every single one of these people are.

We want to know their history.

We want to know how they know Paul.

We want to know what he's talking about in some of these cases.

But in a lot of these cases, there's really no way of knowing the history of these people or what exactly he's referring to.

But the church in Rome obviously knew everything that Paul was talking about, and he knew all of the people that Paul was referring to.

But one of the benefits of a chapter like this is it helps if you're looking for Bible names when you're pregnant.

Brandon and Marcy are pregnant right now.

Marcy's actually in the back.

And uh so, Brandon, I know you didn't know this walking into here today, but we're gonna help you name your baby.

Okay?

Spoiler alert, my vote is for philologists.

Okay?

I just think it could be used for a girl or for a boy.

Yeah.

They would never have to spell it over the phone when they're talking to anybody.

So anyway, but there's 36 names to choose from here this morning, so we're not gonna pressure you on any of those, okay?

But in all seriousness, the last thing that I want us to pay attention to as we go through this last chapter is I want us to notice how often hard work and how often perseverance are mentioned in some capacity as he talks about each one of these people.

And if it's mentioned by Paul in Scripture, then it's mentioned through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through Paul in Scripture.

So I think it's safe to assume that God values and looks upon highly hard work and perseverance.

Let's jump in to verse one here.

He says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Centria, so you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help.

For indeed she has been a benefactor, your translation might say, or helper, of many, and of me also.

She's obviously somebody that Paul thinks very highly of.

And most believe that this formal commendation here is because he actually entrusted her to deliver this letter to the Roman church.

Because this introduction and this commendation would be completely out of place if she wasn't the courier of this letter.

Many assume that she's a widow, basically because in the Greek and the Roman culture, married women did not travel without their husbands.

And women not yet old enough to marry or who had not married didn't travel alone.

They were always traveling with their family.

And Paul basically says here, you know, take good care of Phoebe while she's with you.

Assist her however she might need your help.

And it's like we went over last week.

She's doing the Lord's work.

So Paul tells him, take really good care of your sister while she's with you in Rome.

And Paul mentions how she has been a helper of many, but then he also mentions that she's been a helper of Paul as well.

Which makes a lot of sense to why he would call her a servant.

And some of your translations that you're holding will actually call her a deacon.

Because it comes from the Greek word diaconos, this word servant that we're looking at here.

And it simply means one who executes the commands of another.

That's what the definition of deacon is.

And that's the exact word that Paul uses right here.

And this is the word that we get, the word that we use, you know, within uh church leadership and servanthood and titles for that word deacon.

And it says here that she's from Centria, which is the seaport in Corinth, which we're going to be talking about a lot actually next week as we jump into 1 Corinthians together.

But that's where she's from.

That's where she was sent from as she's arriving to Rome now.

So that's Phoebe.

Look at verse 3.

Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquilah, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life.

Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches.

Greet also the church that meets in their home.

So we actually see Priscah and Aquila three different times in the book of Acts.

And they're a couple that Paul met in Corinth because they were part of the Jews, as I already mentioned, that were forced out of Rome by Claudius Caesar.

And they were also tent makers, just like Paul was.

And they were working as tent makers in Corinth.

So when Paul showed up to Corinth, he jumped in and they started working together as tent makers together.

And then after that, they joined Paul in his journey from Corinth to Ephesus.

And Paul mentions here that they risked their own lives for him.

And this is one of those moments where we don't know exactly what happened, but I would love to know like, whoa, what did they do?

How did that happen?

How did they risk their own lives?

But that's all we get, that they risked their own lives for the sake of Paul.

So they have some serious history with Paul.

And this couple has been a huge blessing to the early church, and specifically, as it says here, to Paul.

And now apparently they're back in Rome.

And they have a house church that's going there, he mentions.

So they go from Rome, then they get kicked out, and then they go to Corinth, and then they go with Paul to Ephesus.

And then it says here that they're back in Rome.

And then in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul tells Timothy to greet Prisca and Aquila, which tells us that they made it back to Ephesus again, and now they're helping Timothy there.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

So no wonder Paul says, as you look in your own text, all the Gentile churches thank them.

They were all over the place ministering for the sake of the gospel.

This is a really dynamic couple that we're looking at here.

They're willing to go wherever God sends them, they're willing to serve him along the way in whatever capacity God desires.

And Paul calls them co-workers.

And I really believe that he's talking a lot about a lot more than being tent makers with them.

I think he's talking about the work of the ministry that he's been doing with them for a while now.

Look at the second half of verse 5.

He goes on Greet my dear friend Epineetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

Again, we don't know much about Epineetus other than what is said right here in the text this morning.

But for Paul to say dear friend, some translations say beloved.

This is much more than an acquaintance to Paul.

This is somebody that he knows really well if he's willing to call them beloved or willing to call them a dear friend.

Verse 6.

Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you.

Remember, I said, note whenever you see that worked hard or worked very hard.

We don't really know anything about her.

But she must be very highly regarded within the church to be this high up on the list of 27 people that Paul's going to be talking about here.

Look at verse 7.

Greet Andronicus and Junea, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners.

They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me.

So these were countrymen of Paul.

But they had also been imprisoned for their faith with Paul at some point.

Which is probably why the apostles thought so highly of them.

They obviously persevered through a lot for the sake of the gospel as they lived out their faith.

And the fact that they knew Christ before Paul, it may point to the fact, we don't know for sure, but it may point to the fact that they may have actually known Jesus.

Or maybe they had possibly been a part of his ministry.

Or maybe they were saved on the day of Pentecost.

Who knows when they were actually saved, but it was before Paul.

Verse 8.

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

So there it is.

We see dear friend again, but again, that's all we know about him.

Verse 9.

Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stychus.

Greet Apellus, who is approved in Christ.

Again, we don't know much about these people, but I personally want to know more about Apellus and why he is approved in Christ.

It's a really interesting phrase that Paul uses here.

Approved here is the same word that they use for honest money changers back in this day.

They're the ones that didn't accept untrue money.

The coins, you know, back then were made of precious metals.

And it was a common practice to shave a little bit off of your coin and then shave your savings, and then your shavings, I should say, and then melt them down and then sell that.

And this word approved was used for money changers that didn't do this and didn't allow it.

They would closely examine their coins and would see if anything's been shaved off of them.

So they were the ones that only handled the genuine products.

And Apellus, it says right here, is approved.

He's the real deal.

He's approved in Christ.

And I really wonder why Paul is saying this.

There's some big history here.

Maybe we'll get to find out when we get to heaven.

I don't know.

Look at the second verse of verse 10.

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

There is a lot of speculation on this one.

A typical greeting would be greet Aristobulus and his household, but he just greets the household here.

So either the whole family came to the Lord minus the husband, or it's possible that he's greeting a group of slaves or bond servants that came to the Lord and they're all under the household of Aristobulus.

But again, don't know for sure.

Look at verse 11.

Greet Herodian, my fellow Jew.

Greet those who belong to the household of narcissists who are in the Lord.

Greet Triphana and Triphosa and have who have worked hard, there it is again, in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Basically, Paul knows a lot of people.

Verse 13.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother and mine.

You know, this could be the same Rufus that we saw as we're going through the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, 21, because it mentions Simon the Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry the cross, but then it mentions his sons, and Rufus is one of those.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

And both times that we see Rufus in Mark and right here, it's mentioned as if the church would automatically be familiar with who the person is.

So it may be the same guy, it may not be, but we don't know for sure.

But what gets me is he says, Greet Rufus' mother, which he calls his own mother as well.

Have you ever had a friend whose parent treated you like their own?

I know I did growing up.

You know, there were some people who were like, yeah, that's kind of like a second mom to me.

That's what Rufus and his mom are to Paul.

And if she, we don't know exactly where she's from, but she's living in Italy.

And so if she is an older Italian woman, and if she's anything like my grandmother, who I called Noni my whole life, I could just picture her mothering Paul.

You know, like, Paul, you're all a skin and a bones.

You need to eat the song thing, you know.

I just see her like just feeding Paul and feeding him and feeding him.

I have no idea.

That's just a little picture into how I think.

But Paul has that relationship with Rufus and with his mother.

He's very, very close knit with these two.

That's a close relationship.

If you that's a and that's actually a lot of time spent together if you're able to consider somebody else your second mother.

Look at verse 14.

Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them.

Greet Philologus and Julia, Nerus and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them.

Paul knew so many of these people intimately.

And he knew their family members as well.

And he had such amazing and encouraging things to say about these people.

Could you imagine how encouraged you would be if you heard your name in a letter from the Apostle Paul?

That would make me want to keep running the race.

It would make me want to continue on in the midst of persecution, as this church is experiencing so much of.

It made me want to keep fighting the good fight.

It made me want to keep pressing on.

If my name was mentioned like this from a letter from Paul.

And did you notice that theme that I pointed out from the beginning as we just keep going through all these names?

The Holy Spirit, through Paul's words, honors those that are hard workers and whose faith has been put to the test.

He honors those who were victorious through all of those trials and through all of the persecution that kept on in their faith.

You know, so many of these mentions fell into those two camps of hard workers or persevered through something really hard.

And I just find that very interesting.

That for these that are already, the church in Rome, that already know Jesus, who have already placed their faith in him, and who are now under grace, as we've been going through in this whole book.

They're no longer under the law, they're under grace.

That for these, hard work is so valued by God.

Not hard work to earn favor with God, but hard work because you love him and you love his people so much.

That you want to see God's kingdom expanded.

And this list is filled with those people that are really wanting to see that, wanting to see God's kingdom be expanded.

And they're not doing the works to earn favor, they're doing it just because they love God.

That much.

Look at verse 16.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Now, this is the verse that everyone in my youth group growing up had memorized.

Like, oh, it says in the Bible right here.

But remember, this is descriptive, this is not prescriptive of what we should do.

This is what Paul's just telling this church to do.

You know, I think our modern context would say something like, greet each other with a holy handshake.

Or with a holy side hug, you know, or something like that.

I think those would probably be a little more culturally appropriate for us, which I saw a lot of that going on here this morning.

So good job.

Look at the second half of verse 16.

All the churches of Christ send you greetings.

You know, I think this is a part that we often just glaze over.

But there was an awareness of the greater church among these churches in the first century.

We'll see that in the intro to 1 Corinthians next week as well.

And I'm afraid that that's something that the modern church in America doesn't take serious enough.

Churches sending greetings to other churches.

To this day, and I know this because a pastor had over at Shoreline, it's a big deal to send greetings between churches in Africa.

As we saw when Landon and Rachel Rogers were here, there were the missionary couple from Italy.

I don't know if you remember, they had a video of their church greeting ours, and then he shot a video up here of our church greeting them.

It's a really big deal in other cultures because it's kind of a recognition of between churches of, you know, we know what you're going through.

We support you.

We have your back when needed.

You're not alone, and we want you to know that.

But sometimes I think because of the popularity of Christianity in the U.S.

and the lack of persecution that we don't experience, I guess is the way to say it, I think that we see a greeting or we get a greeting from another church, like, oh okay, hey, yeah, nice to see you guys, but we're just gonna continue on doing what we're doing.

But I think when you're in like a church in Africa, or when he was talking about the hardness in Italy, where there weren't churches like anywhere else around, they were the only one for miles and miles and miles.

I think for those churches it's extra special because, like, hey, there's some people like us that are somewhere else.

We're not alone, and we're so glad that they're persevering in their faith.

We want to encourage them and we want to greet them.

You know, I think if it was more difficult for us to follow Christ, that we would probably take greetings a lot more serious.

And we would probably get a lot more excited about sending greetings and receiving greetings from other churches.

But we have it pretty easy in America where we are.

So a lot of times it's like, hey, another church.

Hey, nice.

There's 10 more of them here in town.

But for churches like the church in Rome, it's a big deal.

Like, oh, there's other people that are going through what we're going through, that are being persecuted, and okay, there's others out there.

We're not alone.

I really think that's what these greetings mean when we see them in Scripture.

So now as we get into verse 17, we're gonna kind of switch gears here a little bit.

And now Paul will give one last warning to the church in Rome.

He's been giving them a lot, but here's kind of his last parting warning.

Verse 17.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned.

Avoid them, because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites.

They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.

Paul gives this admonition, I think, to the Roman Church to be confident in what they know and to be confident in what they have learned.

And to not fall prey to those that want to divide and make things harder for the believers that are in Rome.

And I think that poses the question: well, how do we do that?

How do we follow Paul's instruction?

How do we do that in modern day as well?

Well, he just says to avoid people like that.

And then I think the question is, well, how do we know who to avoid?

Well, I think we need to know the word for ourselves.

Otherwise, we're not going to know who is a deceiver.

Or if they're saying something that's unbiblical or not, if we don't know the word for ourselves.

And also, just from experience, these people are usually ones that pull you aside after service, you know, and say, hey, there's a group that meets in my house on this night of the work, uh, this night of the week, and we're like, we're really studying the word.

Like, like the way that we should, you know.

Yeah, you should come over, and then it just ends up week after week just being their one pet doctrine that they just hold on to really tightly.

I've seen it play out that way, you know, within churches.

Or it's the person that pulls you aside to say, you know, can you believe what happened and how the leadership is handling this?

You know, to which the answer should be no.

I I don't know anything about that.

Let's go talk to the leaders right now and we'll we'll ask them about this.

And usually the case is, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, we're not gonna, you know, I can do that.

But that's how it should be handled.

I want to encourage you, if there's any questions that you ever have about what leadership is doing or handling anything, if anybody pulls you aside, just come talk to us.

I promise we don't bite.

We would love to know what your concerns are if there's areas that need improvement or something that we may not even know about.

But those are the ones that Paul is talking about right here, those smooth-tongued deceivers that want to pull people aside and start their own little you know things that are going on.

Verse 19.

The report of your obedience has reached everyone.

Therefore, I rejoice over you.

But I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil.

So Paul's just telling him, your reputation's good.

It has spread far and wide.

And Paul's rejoicing over this because this is something to rejoice over when a church has really good reputation and they're being effective for the kingdom of God.

But he says, be wise about what is good.

Be good students, be skilled in your knowledge of God's word.

Understand what is good for yourself.

Study God's word and know it.

And then he says, be innocent about what is evil.

Now, this doesn't mean close your eyes and your ears, you know, block your ears so you just don't know what's going on.

It doesn't say ignorant.

Don't get the idea that it says ignorant.

It says be innocent.

And that word simply means unmixed.

It means pure, as in the word that they would use like when they were mixing wines or they were mixing metals together.

He's saying, basically, don't mix with evil.

Don't associate with evil, be set apart from it and remain pure in Christ.

That's why he says, so be wise about what is good and yet innocent about what is evil.

So know the word and don't mix yourself with evil.

Verse 20.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

You know, I think this is an encouragement for this church to persevere in the midst of persecution, to remain in their faith.

Saying this struggle, as real as it is now, it's not going to last forever.

And I believe that we here today can take great comfort in this as well.

You know, our life is short.

Scripture says that our life is but a vapor in light of eternity.

And it won't be long until God does business with Satan.

And the curse and the effect of the curse is gone for good.

But so often I think we get so bogged down with the worry of today.

With the trials of whatever season it might be in our life right now.

But we can take comfort that there's going to be distinct victory over Satan.

There will be a time where we get to live in heaven and on the new earth where the curse is going to be lifted, and Satan cannot harass us anymore.

So I think Paul's just encouraging them, you know, just keep running this race with endurance.

Because there will be an end to this race, and we will be rewarded with a crown at the Bima seat of God.

And I think he's saying you won't have any regret that you ran this race faithfully, that you worked hard, that you persevered for God's kingdom.

You're not going to regret that you didn't give up.

Just keep fighting the good fight.

And it's no accident that Paul follows this with the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

You know, it's only by his grace that we can run this race.

Only by his grace that we can do anything that's good.

Only by his grace that he already conquered death.

And that we have nothing to fear.

That's all because of God's grace.

And this is Paul's way of reminding them exactly of that.

Look at verse 21 with me.

Timothy, my co-worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosapater.

Wheelers, Saucipator?

Yeah, that's a good one, isn't it?

My fellow countrymen greet you.

These are the people with Paul that are greeting the church in Rome.

So he's writing this letter from Corinth, and he's saying, These are the people with me, and they're sending their greetings to you as well.

Verse 22.

I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Don't think that he was the author of the letter.

Paul is the author of this letter.

But it was customary to have a scribe or a secretary write for you.

And they would actually suggest grammatical changes and even the shaping of sentences and things like that.

Of course, though, with the final say and the final approval of the author, who is Paul, and the real author being the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul.

So the scribe basically sends his greeting in the first person to the church of Rome.

Verse 23.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you.

Paul's writing this letter from Corinth to the Romans, and we'll see Gaius in 1 Corinthians 1, actually, as Paul mentions him there.

And Gaius was Paul's host while he was in Corinth.

So he's sending his greeting to the Roman church as well.

Look at the second half of verse 24.

Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Cordus greet you.

And then verse 25, now to him who is able to strengthen you, according to my gospel, and the proclamation about Jesus Christ.

Paul knows that in order for the Romans to continue in love and good works, that they're going to need strength that they cannot muster on their own.

That they can't get just by trying harder or putting more effort into something.

It has come from God.

Any strength, any good comes from God.

And Paul's just reminding them of that right here.

By reminding them that this is all to and for God.

So he reminds them of who they are worshiping.

And that's what the rest of this chapter is about.

He's just reminding them of who this is all to.

You know, some get all weirded out on this verse because Paul says my gospel.

Don't think for a second that it's different than the gospel that Peter would have preached, or different than the gospel that John would have preached, or James would have preached.

It just means Paul was the one that delivered this good news.

That's what gospel means.

So Paul's just saying, this is my good news that I'm sharing with you.

It's not different from the, you know, it's not like there's multiple gospels out there about Jesus.

There's one Jesus and everybody's sharing the same gospel, but he's just saying, This is my good news to you guys that I've been sharing with you.

Jesus is amazing.

That's kind of what he's doing.

Second half of verse 25.

According to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic scriptures.

The mystery here is God's plan for salvation for Jews and for Gentiles.

That was prophesied about for centuries, and it's now revealed.

That mystery is now revealed in Jesus Christ.

It's now made known through the gospel for anyone to accept in faith.

Which that's like the book of Romans summed up right there, basically.

The very end of verse 25.

It says, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles.

Paul's saying, I've written this according to the calling that the eternal God has placed on my life, to advance the obedience of the Gentiles to faith in God.

Just a reminder of his calling and what's going on here.

Verse 27.

To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to him be the glory forever.

Amen.

What a way to close.

Giving all glory to God for what he did through his son, Jesus Christ.

For each and everyone that's reading this letter back then or right here this morning.

You know, way back in the beginning of Romans, we talked about how chapter 1, verses 16 and 17 were the thesis statement of the book.

Where he told us what he was going to tell us before he told us.

Where he unveils this mystery that he just spoke about.

But back in chapter 1, starting verse 16, that's the first time he mentions it.

And I want to read it to us as kind of a reminder that really sums up the book of Romans so well.

And I'll just read it to you.

He says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

First to the Jew and also to the Greek.

But in it, speaking of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.

You know, I hope that as we spend our time walking through this book for the last 33 weeks together, that this has become so clear.

That salvation in Christ is through faith in him and not of our own works.

It's not about being good people.

It's about trusting in the goodness of God and in his son Jesus Christ.

Not just being good people, but being submitted to God.

Abiding in Jesus Christ and walking by the Spirit.

You know, those are the three things that I hope we get out of this book as a whole.

Out of the book of Romans.

Being submitted to God, abiding in Jesus Christ, and walking by the Spirit.

You know, people that do this are the followers of Christ that I don't have to worry about, and that the elders of this church really don't have to worry about.

Because if you're submitted to God, that means you're seeking him in everything.

Which means you're in his word.

Which means you have a rich prayer life.

If you're abiding in Christ, that means that he is the relationship that has first priority in your life.

And that nearness to him is of utmost importance to you.

And if you're walking by the Spirit, you're not going to need me or anyone else in this church to tell you what to do.

Because you're allowing him to be your guide.

You're allowing the Holy Spirit to be your counselor.

You're allowing him to be your helper in everything.

I mean, could you imagine what God could do with a group this size if we were all sold out in those three areas?

You know, and maybe you're sitting here and you're struggling with one of those things.

Or maybe you're struggling with all three of those things.

And you simply need to ask God for help.

To give yourself completely over to Him in those three ways.

Or maybe this is all new to you, and you've never invited Jesus into your heart at all.

Well, today's the day.

There's no time like the present for that.

That mystery that we were just talking about has been revealed in Jesus.

Today is that day.

To accept that.

You know, he's made a way to the Father for us.

He's inviting you to come into the family of God.

Jesus is offering you forgiveness of everything wrong that you have ever done in your past.

To forgive you of all the people that you've hurt in your past.

To forgive you of all the ways that you've hurt yourself as well.

He wants to forgive you.

And all you need to do is ask him to do so.

And I'm going to challenge you to just do that right now.

Right in the seat that you're in, to ask him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life so that you can become a part of the family of God.

And I want all of us to consider this.

If Paul wrote the letter to the church in Atascadero, would your name be mentioned in that last chapter?

Would you be mentioned as one that persevered?

As one that worked hard or very hard for the sake of the gospel?

Would you be called a servant or a deacon?

Or would you be called one of Paul's co-workers in Jesus Christ?

And if not, if you wouldn't be mentioned, I think we should all consider why not?

Why wouldn't we be mentioned in that?

Could you please join me in prayer?

Lord, we want to be mentioned, not for our glory or our own sake, but because we are submitted completely to you.

We're abiding in Christ and we're walking by the Spirit.

Lord, when we're doing that, we are serving you.

We are working very hard for your kingdom.

Lord, not for any other reason than we love you so much that we can't bear to think of people not being able to experience what we get to experience.

To live in a community of believers now, but to get to spend eternity with you, forever and ever, in perfect glory, outside of the curse and the harassment of the devil in our lives.

Lord, we so look forward to that day.

But help us to bring people with us, Lord, to work hard for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of your kingdom, simply, not because we want your approval, but simply because we love you so much and we want the people around us to come into that same relationship, to grow and to become more and more conformed into the image of Jesus Christ through that work of sanctification that you do in our life.

Would you help us to live well moment by moment, worshiping you, depending on you, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us every step, every word, every thought.

Lord, may it be completely surrendered and submitted to you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.