What Would Jesus Do? (Romans Week 33) by Eric Gonzalez

Welcome if you're new here or you're just visiting us for the first time.

Again, my name is Eric Gonzalez.

I'm one of the pastors here.

So welcome, welcome.

We're so happy that you are here with us.

While I was studying for this message, I started thinking about a lot of our missionary friends that Erica and I have just around the world.

And just think about just different stories.

Like, what can I tell New Albany?

Like, what story can I tell to really like let them see what God is calling us into?

And I remember a story of a missionary friend, his name is Jerry.

He's from Minnesota, and he moved, he felt from the Lord the call to the nation of Mexico.

Now, if you could just imagine this young adult white kid just really passionate for Jesus and just feeling a call to move to Mexico.

Well, he in 1986 he ended up studying Spanish for a full year and a half and just getting him and his family prepped, and they made the move to Mexico.

Well, they landed in the mountains of Oaxaca.

Unfortunately, the people that he was working with do not speak Spanish.

They were Mayans.

So he's like, great, why'd you send me here, Lord?

Well, a few years passed, and he had been working with these tribes.

Uh, they ended up planting nine different churches up in those mountains, and there was so much change happening within these people groups that were going to school, getting healthy, and the gangs around the area did not like that.

Um, obviously, Jerry and his family were being blamed for everything that was happening, all the change.

So they ended up chasing them out of town.

Um, Jerry and his family took asylum in a city called Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.

It's a beautiful, really big city.

And while they were there, Jerry was describing just being frustrated and just crying out to the Lord, like, Lord, you, I know you sent me here.

We've seen the fruit.

Why are you allowing this to happen to us?

And at that time, it was him and his five children and wife.

And so he said that he took, uh he took his five kids and they went to the grocery store just to let out some steam.

And uh, on the way back home, you know, the streets in Mexico are a little bit different.

When you stop at a stoplight, uh, there are a lot of vendors, there are performers, and sometimes there are people, specifically kids, that run up and they clean people's windshields for them for a coin or two.

And as he's approaching the stoplight, he sees this kid just run directly at his man.

And something caught his eye with this kid.

And he rolled the window down and he asked him, Hey kid, what's your name?

And the kid answered, Well, my name is Juan.

And the kid started to just clean the windshield.

And as he was cleaning the windshield, Jerry noticed a few things about the kid.

Like, one, where are your parents?

So he asked him, Hey, where do you live?

Where are your parents at?

Like, who's watching you?

And he looked at him, and the kid answered, Well, I don't know where my parents are at.

They I don't have parents.

He said that he lives in parks and under bridges.

Then Jerry noticed his arms, and what happened to your arms?

He had scars all over them, and he proudly puffed up his chest and said, Well, I'm part of a gang.

And when I do things that the gang doesn't like, they turn their cigarettes off on me.

And that moved Jerry's heart.

It moved him.

He felt the not just the compassion, but there was this injustice feeling that he had.

And he was crying out to the Lord in that moment.

And maybe for a few of us, he asked himself this question.

For a lot of us, it might be a cheesy question, but to him, it was very serious in the moment.

Like, what would Jesus do?

Lord, what would you do in this very moment?

If you were sitting with me here, encountering this kid, what would you do?

And then Jerry said that he remembered that he always preached a practical gospel.

You know, it's easy for people to just, well, here's a couple coins or here's a sandwich.

He wanted more for the kid.

So he told Juan, hey, Juan, meet me on the curb.

I want to talk to you real quick.

I feel like, I feel like I have some hope for you.

And Juan just stared at him like, that's weird.

But he went over, he obeyed, and Jerry pulled over when he did.

He jumped out of the car, and Juan was on the curb with his head down.

And Jerry just tells him, like, hey Juan, I want to help you.

Can I help you?

And Juan looked up, and when he did, Jerry said that he had tears rolling down his eyes.

And Juan said, Please help me.

Immediately, Jerry opened his van.

Trust me, when he was explaining it, it wasn't creepy.

It's like, you opened your van and then what?

You know, he opened his van and he invited him to step in, and Juan was greeted with white Juan said it this way, I was greeted with white these five white kids.

And it was just, it's kind of rare to find white kids out there.

And they all say, Come in, come in.

And Juan jumped in.

Jerry shuts the van, and the only thing he could think about in that moment is, how am I going to explain this to my wife?

Well, his wife, fast forward, they get home, and his wife describes the story as, yeah, I went outside to greet them because they went for groceries.

They opened the van and all of a sudden, surprise! And there were six kids, not five.

And she was confused.

Jerry, what did you do?

Who is this kid?

You kidnapped him?

Well, his name is Juan, and well, Juan, tell her, where do you live?

Where are your parents?

And in that moment, she said she felt the Lord calling her.

From that moment on, they they encountered Juan in 1992.

By 1993, they started an orphanage there in Mexico.

And they saw the Lord's purpose and why they were there.

Now, why do I explain this story?

Well, Jerry, we have a little tie-in with Jerry.

Jerry is actually Jake McNally's dad.

Jake and Anna, the people that we just prayed for.

And uh that orphanage, from 1993 till now, they've served over 800 kids.

They've taken over 800 kids in that orphanage.

Yeah, glory to God.

They've planted numerous churches in Mexico.

They're in Puebla, they're actually one of they have one of the largest churches there, multi-campus.

It's amazing what God is doing.

And all of that started and began because of a kid named Juan and the purpose of the Lord in that region.

Now, have you ever asked yourself that question?

What would Jesus do?

But not in a cliche way.

Like when you're going through something.

Maybe you're going through something at work or a coworker.

Have you ever just asked yourself, what would Jesus do?

Lord, what would you do in this very moment?

Well, in today's passage, we're gonna see how the Lord and Paul the Apostle is very strategic in everything that he does and even the places that he goes.

And I want us today to ask ourselves, leaving here, like, Lord, what would you do this week?

What would you do in my circumstance, in my situation, in my neighborhood, in my family?

That's my hope for us today.

So before we jump into the text, is it okay if we pray and invite the Holy Spirit?

Lord, we invite you to come.

Father, we ask that you speak to us.

We ask that you move.

Lord, we thank you for being present here with us today.

We honor your name.

And everyone says, Amen.

Amen.

So we'll be in Romans chapter 15 and we'll start at verse 14.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

And this is what it says, I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and competent to instruct one another.

Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again.

Because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, he gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.

I will not venture to speak of anything except Christ has accomplished through me, in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done, by the power of signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit of God.

So from Jerusalem all the way around to Elycrium, I have full, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not build on someone else's foundation, rather, as it is written, those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you, but now, but now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to see you while I'm passing through, and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem, in the service of the Lord's people there.

For Macedonia and Akaiah were pleased to make a contribution for the poor amongst the Lord's people in Jerusalem.

They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For the Gentiles have shared in the Jewish spiritual blessings.

They owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea, and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord's people there, so that I may come to you with joy by God's will, and in your company be refreshed.

The God of peace be with you all.

Amen.

I'm going to try my best to just break this text into four simple points.

And the very first one is there is this encouragement, an encouragement, a reminding of just different aspects of the gospel, but then also of the sacred calling of Paul the Apostle.

In verses 14 through 16, he says, I myself am confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Nevertheless, on some points, I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in this priestly service of the gospel of God.

Paul the Apostle again is encouraging Rome and is specifically pointing out look, I've heard how good you guys are.

I've heard of how you are able to instruct one another, competent in these doctrines and able to pass it from one disciple to the other and expand the church.

I've heard of these things.

And for me, when I was reading this, I really feel heavy this passage when it comes to the aspect of encouraging one another.

I do believe the Lord is inviting us to call the gold out of each other here in New Albany.

If we call the gold out of each other to encourage one another, but so that we can continue the work of ministry here in New Albany so we can reach the unreach and make disciples.

Another thing that we notice here is that he also calls out their competency in these doctrines.

Reminder that he is reminding them of the things that they already know.

And this is really encouraging because we're going to learn here in a little bit that Paul the Apostle didn't actually plant that church, but that those disciples were competent enough to continue the work there in Rome.

Another thing that is pretty highlighted here in this text is him taking the affirmation in his priestly calling.

Now, the aspect of reminder is throughout the letter, he's reminding Rome of the gospel.

He's reminding them of who they are as people, as adopted sons and daughters.

He's reminding them of who God is and where he has saved us from.

He's reminding them of the importance of the message that he carries and the importance of the ministry itself.

This aspect of having the service of a priest as he holds everyone unto the Lord.

Why is this important?

I believe it's important because what God is calling all of us into is something holy and reverent.

If we are not careful, which we've seen it with a lot of different churches, unfortunately, here in the U.S., that we become gimmicky.

We try to win the loss with Harley Davidson's.

And you know what they say with uh gimmicks like that is the way you win them is the way you lose them.

The minute you stop giving out Harleys, people will stop coming.

Is the gospel not enough?

What the Lord is calling us into is holy.

And we should have this reverency each time we come into the presence of God.

And this is an invitation for you and I.

I love when Nathan was leading us into worship.

You could feel the Lord here because the worship gets simple, the Lord shows up.

There's this reverence we have to respond with, closing our eyes and lifting our hands.

And this is serious work.

It's as serious as a surgeon going into an operating room.

It's as serious as an architect designing, you know, the bridge that we're all about to drive over when we, you know, I don't know, go to the London Bridge or something.

I think there's a song about it falling down.

But, anyways, it's an important, it's important work.

There's this reverency.

I think that we all step into this type of calling when we hold our loved ones unto the Lord and we ask God for their salvation.

We step into that role.

When we share Jesus with our neighbor, we step into that role as a priest.

We we hold these people unto the Lord.

Lord, move and work.

We become evangelists.

We become evangelists for the Lord.

John saw, he said this about the evangelists.

He said, All evangelists are priests because they offer their converts to God.

When through our witness people are brought to Christ, we often offer them to God sanctified by the Spirit.

This is serious work.

This is holy work.

When I say holy, I don't mean perfect, because sometimes we mix those two words together.

Holy, all it means is to be separated.

Separated for the exclusive use of something or someone.

God wants to separate you, to use you for his glory, to bring people into the knowledge of the goodness of God and his love.

This is the invitation from the Lord.

And this is what we see.

What Paul the Apostle is, he's writing this letter and he's just reminding them of these things.

What I love about Paul is he likes to brag.

He brags a lot, but he mostly brags on Christ.

What God has done through him for the benefit of the body.

Anything, anything that Paul had done, any success or any importance in ministry, he always points to Jesus.

It's always about Jesus.

It will always be about Jesus.

Through his word, deed, through the power of the Spirit, he's pointing to the Lord.

This is work unto the Lord.

And this is fascinating to me because it's easy.

It's easy work.

It's easy work when the power doesn't have to come out of you.

Like, to be honest, I don't know how to heal people.

Like, I personally don't have the power to heal someone.

I personally don't have the power to raise the dead.

I personally don't have that power.

But through the example of Paul, he points to Jesus like, well, this is his power.

We're just like tagging along to what he's already doing.

That makes it easy for us to jump on that boat.

Amen?

That's what I think, and I really hope that encourages you to just step out into the world to be the light of the world.

He always brags on God, but something that we also see within this text is this holy ambition.

This holy ambition and this heart to reach unreached places.

In verses 20 to 22, he says, Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, so that I don't build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.

This is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

Paul's ambition is driven through this old prophecy in the Old Testament in Isaiah 52, verse 15.

Isaiah 52:15

To take the gospel where Christ has not yet been named rather than building on another person's foundation.

Well, what does that mean?

Like I said, uh people, some people believe that Paul planted that church, but he actually didn't plant the church in Rome.

The New Testament doesn't actually specify who planted that church, but rather that it was assembled through people that visited the day of Pentecost.

The day of Pentecost when everyone gathered in Acts chapter 2, verse 10, where there were visitors from Rome, both Jew and proselytizes, they were all there and they carried the message of the gospel back to Rome, which means what?

Acts 2:10

That that church was planted and grew organically.

Organically.

This is amazing.

We see this awesome thread of evangelism through the story of Christ and even through this letter that God is inviting us to for his glory.

Amen, Eric.

Yes, we want to see that here too.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

To have this unashamed heart, to want to see and have this experience with the living God, being able to take what you've learned and received and give it out freely.

He talks about it in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

Romans 1:16

This is the type of heart that God wants his believers to have, his children, to be set on fire.

But what is evangelism?

What does it actually mean?

Well, the dictionary says this it means to present the good news of Christian, of the Christian gospel to others, with the aim of winning converts and inviting them into faith in Jesus Christ from proclaiming, sharing, or teaching the message.

Of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection through both spoken word and lived action.

Well, that's pretty fascinating because that's what we see Paul the Apostle right here.

In verse 18, I will not venture to speak anything except what Christ has accomplished through me and leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done.

By the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God.

Both talking about it and being about it.

We are evangelists for Christ.

All of us.

Every son and daughter.

The minute we step out of this temple, we are a witness, we are a light.

This reminds me of, you know, a few of us know this.

We're working with a small group of our Hispanic community that we have, and all of them were forming them as leaders, and they have now been commissioned to start what we call life groups in their homes.

It's kind of like a small group.

It's a little bit different because unlike our New Albany American English-speaking service, right?

We only have a small group.

So we have to be intentional in reaching for the people and inviting them in.

And while all of them are amazing, uh Jesse and his wife Jalen are an amazing couple.

They serve in different areas of this church.

And they were telling me a story about their life group.

They had practically, they right now have about 12 people that aren't connected to a church and that they're just coming to their house to learn about Jesus.

And within these 12, there is this group, right, uh, this couple right now that they've been going for a few weeks and they've seen breakthroughs in their marriage and breakthrough personally going on in their lives.

Well, the gentleman last week was at work, and out of nowhere, he was sharing that this coworker starts opening up to him about a lot of different things going on in his life.

And after a few days, he kind of got the hint, oh, I think I should invite him to life group.

So when he went back to work, the guy's opening up, and I need help, and yada yada.

He's like, no, you need God.

Guess what?

I know a place you can go.

I know a guy.

He could lay hands and pray for you.

I know God is gonna work in your life.

Well, that literally just happened this past week, and the guy is so excited to visit Jesse and Jalen's life group.

What is the point of that?

The point is that notice how Jesse and Jalen's yes is affecting different people's lives, and now their lives are being so infected that they're now able to share and be witness for Christ through not just their words, but also their deed.

This is an awesome invitation, I think.

Amen?

Come on, I think you guys should just give a hand to the Lord, because I think that's a pretty awesome thing that's happening.

You know, I heard it said this way it's only good news if it gets there on time.

And for a lot of people, I think their time is now.

I think the minute they encounter you, I think it's the time.

And if it's not through you preaching at them, maybe praying for them.

Maybe taking them to your prayer closet and and holding them unto the Lord, Lord, work in their life.

Oswald J.

Smith said this about evangelism.

The church does not, the church that does not evangelize will fossilize.

The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.

No, Albany, we're not a fossil, are we?

No! We're living, we're the living body of Christ.

To have a heart for the unreached people groups, your neighborhood.

Where is that unreached people group?

Is it your neighborhood?

Is it your pickleball, you know, team, court player people?

Is it your basketball team?

I play indoor soccer.

I know there's a lot of unreached people there that we are working with right now.

What is your content?

For some of us, it might be family members.

Maybe for a lot of us, have sons and daughters that have actually departed from the faith.

Maybe it's them.

And maybe you have all your ducks in a row, and everyone in your life is Christian and awesome, except that one crazy uncle, because we all have that one crazy uncle.

And if you don't have one, you're probably it.

Okay?

Pray.

Ask the Lord.

This is God's invitation, and to have this heart of not being ashamed of the gospel and not being ashamed of what God is doing in our lives, for this is the power of God unto salvation.

And I get it.

Sometimes, as you know, a lot of us have been Christians for a long, a long, long time.

We've gone through a lot of different churches, heard a lot of million different sermons, and for some reason our hearts have grown cold.

When I was praying for us, I was really feeling this.

Maybe a lot of us have been hurt.

And church hurt can also help us grow cold.

I believe the Lord wants to fan your flame today.

I believe the Lord wants to give you a heart for the lost.

Like, do you remember the first time you gave your life to Jesus?

For a lot of you that have been following Jesus for a long time.

Do you remember that first time and how passionate you were?

How you know you would sing oceans and you'd be crying.

Oh, what an amazing song.

Every baptism you'd be crying and joyful, another one, another one.

Or you just couldn't wait to get home to read your Bible.

You couldn't wait to have some, to have an encounter with someone at Kroger.

Do you remember that?

I believe God wants to get us back to that.

To that moment where you were just, you'd do whatever it takes just to be in his presence again, or to share.

To share the little bit of what you learned on Sunday, even, or to invite someone to your small group.

I believe the Lord wants to do that for us today.

And look, there is a cost.

There is a cost.

There's always a cost.

There's a cost to the gospel.

There's a cost to having a missional mindset.

There's a cost.

What is the cost?

Sometimes the ambition of having this heart is, it requires patience.

It requires for us to be flexible.

It requires even some delays at times with prayer requests or delays in relationships.

There's a cost, but it's worth it.

And Paul the Apostle is showing us it is totally worth it.

It is so worth it.

Jesus shows us it's so worth it.

God shows us it's so worth it.

Doesn't the scripture say, for God so loved the world that he gave?

It is so worth it.

It is so worth it.

My third point is that there's this tangible unity that Paul calls the church to.

And he also expresses his future plans.

Verses 23 to 29, he says, but now that there is no more places for me to go in this region, since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to see you while I'm passing through, and to have you assist me on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord's people there.

For Macedonia and Nakaiah were pleased to make a contribution for the poor amongst the Lord's people in Jerusalem, that they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For the Gentiles have shared in the Jewish spiritual blessing, and they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

There's this long-term vision that Paul has.

Everywhere he goes, he hears of a people group that haven't heard the gospel.

He goes, and I love how he mentions it.

There is no other place in this region where we're like, we're we're doing it.

Now we gotta go to Spain.

Now we gotta go to Spain.

And on the way there, I want to go visit you.

I want to go visit you and be encouraged.

I want to see what God is doing.

Long-term vision.

Do you have long-term vision for the calling over your life?

I believe all of us are called.

I truly do.

Do you have long-term vision for your workplace?

Do you have a long-term vision to to, I don't know, just just with your family?

Not just inviting them to a Christmas service or an Easter service, but do you have long-term vision to see the people saved around you?

Or around you saved.

This is quite amazing because with having this type of heart, we also should have hearts of generosity to share what we have.

To share this news.

Look, if I I truly believe if you truly, truly believe the gospel and everything that scripture says, you'd really, freely just give it out.

You'd really give it out.

It was freely given, so we should freely give.

There's a lot of different ways for us to share and to show our generosity.

A lot of us aren't called to go to Mexico, right, and go work with Mayans.

But a lot of you have been blessed by the Lord material with material things, with your financial status, for you to help fund.

We see two specific um uh churches in Macedonia and Nikaiah that gave a contribution.

They heard of the need, and people came together to fill that need.

And Paul was transporting that over.

There's a lot of you here that I do believe God is making your heart beat really heavy.

I think all of us as Christians, as believers, should move in generosity.

Right now we're trying to teach our uh our kids to be generous.

It's a little hard when they're five and two.

But yesterday I had an awesome proud dad moment.

We went to a birthday party.

My daughter Genesis is five, and her best friend Jade turned five, and we went to the birthday party, and you know, I don't know if you guys know this, but do you guys know what pinatas are?

Pinatas, right?

Well, a lot.

You'd be surprised.

Don't look at me like that, okay?

There was a lot of people yesterday at yesterday's party that did not know what a pinata was, all right?

Uh there was all types of people.

There are a lot of uh, you know, uh American white people, and there was a few Muslim families that were there.

Um, and you know, when Jenny and Ava saw that unicorn pinata came in, they're like, game on.

You girl, you guys see them, they're dressed all pretty in pink.

Not when there's a piñata, okay?

And it's a Dominican family too.

And in the Dominican, they don't actually do pinatas, but they saw Jenny's party, they want it, so boom, they did it yesterday.

And so there's imagine this room full of kids and they're breaking this pinata, and there's some kids there that had never seen or had hit anything.

They just see this beautiful unicorn being torn to shreds with a stick.

Okay?

You guys laugh, but there were some kids screaming, crying, like, what is going on?

Um, specifically, there was this Muslim family there, and the little girl just crying her eyes out.

And then the pinata was so hard, but it was already broken that one of the parents came in, broke the piñata in half, and shook it so the candy can come out.

And all the kids jump in and are grabbing the candy.

And this little girl, because of the her seeing this unicorn, she's traumatized.

She saw this thing die in front of her.

She's with her dad, she missed out on the candy.

And my daughters both came to their father, super proud with their trophies, their bags full of candy.

Look what we got.

Let's go.

But my daughter Genesis noticed the little girl next to us that she didn't have any candy.

And without me saying anything, she just grabs a handful and here you go.

And the dad was like, What?

And then Ava, you know, monkey see, monkey do, she just follows her sister, does the same.

And there was something that happened in that gentleman's heart while he's holding his daughter.

The spirit of generosity, what that can do.

We didn't have to preach at them, we just have to show them some love.

And how awesome that my daughters were used by I believe they were used by God in that moment.

There's a lot of different ways for us to walk in the heart of generosity.

I really recommend for you to ask the Lord, how would you have me be generous throughout this week, Lord?

How?

Because what we want to do is reflect the Lord through our not just words, but our deeds.

And I also uh I want to encourage you to think.

Think of ways to think long-term vision on your job.

How can I like infect these people with the gospel?

Or you might work in an area where you cannot talk about Jesus at all.

How can I love these people?

How can I be known for my goodness?

How throughout church history, we see the spirit of generosity.

You know, the church is the one that establishes hospitals.

We learned even like even orphanages, right?

Schools.

There are different ways that we can operate and move with the Lord.

I do believe it's just it just depends on us who's hearing, who's seeing what the Lord is doing.

Amen.

The last point is the power of mutual prayer.

Verses 30 to 33.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea, and that the contributions I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord's people there, so that I may come to you with joy by God's will, and in your company be refreshed.

This is awesome because Paul the Apostle himself is asking for prayer.

He's not shy.

Paul the the Paul the Apostle, like the guy, is asking for prayer.

How many of us are shy to ask for prayer?

Raise your hand.

Come on.

I get shy sometimes.

You know, with ministry time, there's like really intense, you know, sermon from Pastor Michael or Pastor Rich, and we're crying.

It's like, all right, come up for prayer.

Nobody comes up for prayer.

Paul the Apostle himself asks, he has three specific petitions.

Did you guys notice that?

The first one to pray against like the opposition that that to keep him safe.

He's asking for protection.

The second one is so that he can transport things safely.

And the third one, so when I show up, I can just be refreshed by your presence.

Don't be shy.

Whatever you're going through, come up and receive prayer.

Pray.

Pray for us.

Pray for our church.

There's a lot of things to pray for.

Pray for your attitude, you know, sometimes, because I do that.

I pray for my own attitude.

Pray.

Prayer is not the thing that we do at the end of, you know, things in our lives.

It should initially be the very first thing that we do.

It's the groundwork.

It's the groundwork.

And this is what God is inviting us to to pray, to earnestly seek the Lord.

And here he's literally asking them to join him in his struggle in prayer.

Literally, to struggle alongside with him in prayer, earnestly seeking God for his guidance, his provision, prayer.

How many of you believe that there's power in prayer?

There's power in prayer.

Paul shows us through this through this text.

He shows us that the gospel, the gospel living involves and requires God's grace for us to pull the gold out of the people.

It requires us to pursue holy ambition, uh, to pursue this uh priestly call that he has for us, to move practically in practical generosity, and for us to move heavily in prayer.

As we were getting ready for today, the biggest thing for me, I I don't want to call Nathan up for the worship time, but as I was praying for us today, I I really felt led to invite those that if you are going through anything in life, anything, come up.

I we want to pray for you.

We have people trained up to pray and lay hands and and ask the Lord on your behalf.

But specifically today, I I was really feeling that there have been people that feel cold.

They feel like their their fire has dwindled.

That first love aspect, that that when when I was talking about, man, remember how you how you felt when you first got saved, that love, that passion has kind of dwindled.

You've seen a lot, you've been through a lot, and and the circumstances of life have probably dimmed that.

We want to pray that the Lord fan your flame today, to give you a heart for the lost.

When we're done with this Roman series, we're going to do a vision series.

We're gonna talk about the vision of New Albany, where God is leading us, who He's calling us to.

I'm really excited for that, and we need you on fire, figuratively, passionate, okay?

Passionate for the Lord.