back to index2015-07-26 Serving the Lord with All Your Heart
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Romans 1. We're going to continue our series and our studying of Romans chapter 1. And 00:00:11.520 |
though I'm going to only be on verses 8 through 12 this morning, I kind of want to read for 00:00:17.680 |
the purpose of review, starting from verse 1. So Romans chapter 1, verses 1. And I'm 00:00:23.360 |
going to read all the way to verse 15. "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an 00:00:28.480 |
apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets 00:00:32.760 |
in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to 00:00:37.280 |
the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of 00:00:41.200 |
holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have 00:00:46.440 |
received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his 00:00:50.640 |
name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 00:00:55.940 |
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and 00:01:00.240 |
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus 00:01:05.120 |
Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is 00:01:09.800 |
my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of the Son, that without ceasing 00:01:14.360 |
I mention you, always in my prayers asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last 00:01:19.360 |
succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual 00:01:23.680 |
gift to strengthen you, that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, 00:01:28.480 |
both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, 00:01:33.040 |
but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as 00:01:37.640 |
well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to 00:01:41.920 |
barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you 00:01:46.120 |
also who are in Rome. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing over this 00:01:51.960 |
time. We pray that the word that goes forth will judge the thoughts and intentions of 00:01:55.900 |
our heart. I pray that you would open our eyes, soften our hearts, Lord God, that your 00:02:00.040 |
word will go forth and will not return until it has accomplished its purpose. In Jesus' 00:02:05.120 |
name we pray, amen. Again, I think you and I are tremendously blessed because we have 00:02:14.880 |
so many options and choices. I see so many people who have ability to travel now. Again, 00:02:21.880 |
even just 30 years ago, not just in foreign countries, but even in the United States, 00:02:26.320 |
to be able to go out to the East Coast or go to Hawaii, it took major planning, major 00:02:31.480 |
commitment because traveling was not something that you just kind of did on a whim. Today, 00:02:35.920 |
I mean the flights are cheaper. In fact, our whole church is on the point system, so you 00:02:41.600 |
can use those points to go wherever you want. And even food, especially when you travel 00:02:47.600 |
to outside the country, you realize how spoiled we really are because we're used to eating 00:02:53.320 |
different food almost every day. You eat Mexican food today, and tomorrow you can't have that 00:02:58.840 |
because you're sick of it already. You have sushi, so tomorrow I have to have steak. You 00:03:03.840 |
had Korean food, so now tomorrow I have to have Indian food. So we have all these options. 00:03:08.280 |
And even when you travel to rich countries, they don't really have all the options that 00:03:13.880 |
you and I have. So it's a blessing, even spiritually. If you don't like this sermon, you feel like, 00:03:20.120 |
"Ah, you know, Pastor Peter, he bombed today." You can go home, go on the internet, you know, 00:03:24.640 |
and there's thousands of other pastors who are preaching this morning that you can download 00:03:28.320 |
and listen to them. It's like, "Okay, now at least I got a good sermon this morning." 00:03:31.400 |
You have all kinds of options. You don't like the temperature of this building, you go somewhere 00:03:35.640 |
else, you know. I mean, in one sense, it's a blessing, but if we're not careful, that 00:03:42.600 |
all these blessings that we have can easily bind us. And it easily binds us because, because 00:03:48.520 |
of so many options, we become less committed. We become onlookers and kind of picking and 00:03:53.920 |
choosing, like, just like if you had one thing to eat, there's nothing to think about, you 00:03:57.640 |
know. I just need to eat, period. But with all the options, you're always thinking, like, 00:04:02.280 |
"Should I eat this? Should I not eat that? I don't want to do this. I don't want to do 00:04:05.440 |
that." And you and I are living in a generation where commitment is difficult. Even when you 00:04:14.040 |
have every intention to attend this particular event. And again, this is not just our church. 00:04:21.640 |
I think this is just universal. People don't tend to commit to anything until the last 00:04:26.160 |
minute, just in case. Who knows what's going to happen from now until three weeks from 00:04:30.760 |
now. Maybe, maybe some, you know, musician's going to come into town that really want to 00:04:35.320 |
attend, and I don't want to commit to that. And as a result of that, we've created a generation 00:04:40.560 |
of onlookers, consumers. I want to weigh my options. And so this clear commitment, this 00:04:49.000 |
clear conviction has become watered down. One of the things that I really love about 00:04:56.000 |
scripture is scripture is absolutely crystal clear, especially in our generation where 00:04:59.520 |
everything's kind of wishy-washy. Everything's in the gray area. Where the Bible teaches 00:05:03.760 |
with conviction, He speaks with authority. And that's why when the people were hearing 00:05:08.800 |
Jesus they were amazed. Not simply because of the miracles, but they were amazed that 00:05:14.440 |
Jesus was speaking with such clarity and conviction. And they said, "That man speaks with authority 00:05:19.400 |
unlike the scribes, unlike the Pharisees. When He speaks, He speaks with clarity that 00:05:25.360 |
this is right and this is wrong. Here is light and here is darkness. Here's the children 00:05:29.920 |
of God, here's the children of the devil. Either you are living or you are dead. Either 00:05:34.280 |
you love God or you hate Him." And He spoke with such clarity. Here's the line, "Do you 00:05:39.440 |
stand with me or do you stand against me?" And again, because you and I are living in 00:05:46.200 |
a generation where speaking with that kind of clarity almost always, automatically brings 00:05:51.380 |
some kind of scrutiny. Not only outside the church, but oftentimes even inside the church. 00:05:56.880 |
When we look at Paul's ministry, he hasn't even jumped into his content yet. In the first 00:06:01.560 |
chapter, the majority of it is just an introduction. All the way up to verse 17, he hasn't even 00:06:07.200 |
jumped into the meat of his letter yet. But he's introducing himself. So the first part 00:06:13.920 |
of the sermon, the first part of the message when he said, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, 00:06:17.800 |
called to be an apostle," he talked about his identity. His identity crystal clear, that 00:06:23.120 |
I am a slave of Jesus Christ. There's no in-between. He's not a part-time worker, he's a slave 00:06:29.200 |
of Jesus Christ. He was an apostle set apart for the Gospel ministry. He knew exactly who 00:06:34.880 |
he was. Not only did he know who he was, he knew exactly what the message was. And we 00:06:39.480 |
talked about that last week. How this message, this Gospel was given from the prophets, from 00:06:45.320 |
of old. This wasn't just something that Jesus just brought a new thing to a new generation. 00:06:51.280 |
He said, "This is at the core of who God is." God has been preparing from the beginning 00:06:57.320 |
of the fall of man until the end of time, that this is at the core of his heart. So 00:07:01.880 |
when we talk about the Gospel, we're not talking about a good news. There's all kinds of other 00:07:09.200 |
good news. We just believe that the good news is the best news. No, what Paul is saying, 00:07:15.800 |
this is the news. This is the story. This is at the core of God. So Paul knew exactly 00:07:24.160 |
what it was. This is at the core of God. He said, in fact, this Gospel is about Jesus 00:07:29.560 |
Christ and the whole purpose of this Gospel is to bring about obedience of faith. Today 00:07:36.000 |
and for the next couple of weeks, we're going to be talking about Paul's ministry. We're 00:07:39.840 |
going to be talking about his heart. We're going to be talking about what his intention 00:07:44.240 |
is. Why does he want to come here? What is the goal of why he's writing this letter? 00:07:49.160 |
It's all contained in the next maybe about 10 verses. So we'll take maybe at least two 00:07:53.840 |
weeks, maybe three weeks just unpacking this to see, again, have a greater glimpse of Paul, 00:07:59.200 |
his identity, his message and his ministry. So as we jump in this morning, there's one 00:08:05.320 |
clear thing that I want to emphasize this morning and hopefully at the end of the sermon 00:08:08.880 |
that again, there's one point that I'm trying to make is that for Apostle Paul, his ministry 00:08:16.400 |
was very, very personal. This was not just his job. You could see even by the way he 00:08:24.920 |
addresses God, he's not just talking to the God or a God or the most powerful God. He 00:08:32.640 |
uses a very intimate word and he says, "My God." Look with me in verse eight. First, 00:08:38.320 |
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. Now, when you read this, you can just 00:08:44.000 |
kind of read it and just pass by it. It's like, okay, you know, I think my God and just 00:08:47.840 |
a part of the introduction. But you see in Paul's letters that oftentimes when he talks 00:08:55.240 |
about God, he's a very personal God. I give thanks to my God always for you in 1 Corinthians 00:09:00.920 |
1.4. Philippians 1.3, I thank my God in all of my remembrance of you. Philippians 4.19, 00:09:07.920 |
and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ 00:09:11.760 |
Jesus. Philemon 4, I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers. Over and over 00:09:18.840 |
again, he's not referring to a God or the God, he's talking about my God. Now, why is 00:09:26.000 |
this important? And again, this is connected to everything else that he's going to say. 00:09:31.760 |
If the God that we worship is not a personal God, he's just the God, he's just a holy, 00:09:39.920 |
holy, holy God. And everything else that we do easily becomes drudgery, just easily becomes 00:09:47.920 |
something that we have to do, it becomes a job. We do not present an impersonal God. 00:09:56.600 |
He didn't give us a set of facts for us to regurgitate to other people. See, it's not 00:10:03.600 |
good news until it is good news to you. If I said to you this morning, "Somebody won 00:10:11.320 |
the lottery," which is true, how does that affect you? It doesn't affect you at all. 00:10:17.880 |
So what? People win lottery every day. What if I told you that somebody in your local 00:10:23.160 |
neighborhood won the lottery? Oh, really? You know, and you're kind of curious, right? 00:10:29.440 |
Who is that person? Maybe have a better effect, but maybe not personal. If I say somebody, 00:10:36.120 |
somebody in this room won the lottery, then you're going to be all curious, "Who won the 00:10:41.360 |
lottery? Are they going to tide that? Are we moving now?" Right? It's going to affect 00:10:49.480 |
you. What if I said somebody in your family won the lottery? Like, "How much are they 00:10:53.440 |
going to give me?" Right? If I said somebody, if I said you won the lottery, so you have 00:10:58.640 |
a different effect depending upon how personal it is. But if it's not, if it's not personal, 00:11:03.360 |
we say, "Somebody won the lottery." Right? "Somebody won the lottery." Okay. That's good. 00:11:11.200 |
I'm happy for them. Not really, but you know, I'm happy for them. The good news isn't good 00:11:16.800 |
news until it is personal. We don't spread the gospel of a bunch of information about 00:11:23.720 |
some theological truth that's true to the world until it is true to us. You know, I 00:11:31.160 |
don't know if those of you who've ever worked at telemarketing, but if you ever work for 00:11:34.760 |
telemarketing, first thing that they train you to do is to have a little paragraph they 00:11:40.080 |
want you to memorize. And they literally want you to say this word for word. And again, 00:11:44.880 |
they do this for two reasons. One, because they've tested out that these are things that 00:11:49.760 |
actually has effect and they see that these are things that you need to say and these 00:11:53.720 |
are the things that trigger people to make decisions. Another reason why they do that, 00:11:57.840 |
for legal purposes, that you need to say certain words or certain phrases to legally be able 00:12:04.840 |
to say, "Oh, we're going to switch your phone company," or, "We're going to sell you this." 00:12:07.600 |
Or if you exaggerate something, right? And legally, like they find out like, "Oh, you 00:12:12.880 |
said something you shouldn't say." And then you turn that in, they'll reject that because 00:12:16.600 |
legally they can't switch their company. So for those two reasons, you have to go and 00:12:22.280 |
say these things perfectly. See, the gospel is not a set of facts that have been given 00:12:27.760 |
to us where He says, "Here it is," and regurgitate this information to other people. If you examine 00:12:35.080 |
Paul, and it's not just Paul, but if you examine the authors of the books of the New Testament, 00:12:40.120 |
it was very personal. They weren't just telling, "You know, this is what I heard in my dreams 00:12:46.220 |
and now I'm going to tell you." Right? They were personally deeply affected. He wasn't 00:12:53.040 |
just proclaiming some impersonal God, a set of information that's good news to the whole 00:12:58.800 |
world. He says, "My God, I thank my God whom I serve with my whole heart." That's why when 00:13:07.960 |
Jesus asked His disciples before we went to the cross, you know, we often ask the question 00:13:12.720 |
like, "Why did He spend three years?" You know, in reality it was less than three years, 00:13:17.880 |
but why did He commit three years to ministry? Couldn't He have just gone to the cross? Right? 00:13:23.160 |
I think the primary reason why He spent three years with His disciples was to give them 00:13:28.760 |
conviction of who He was. So when He asked the question, "I know what the world says 00:13:33.980 |
who I am. Who do you say I am?" And that was the most important question. I think that 00:13:39.000 |
was at the core of Jesus' discipleship. To bring them to a point, "I know what they say, 00:13:45.320 |
but we say, 'You're the Son of God. You are the Christ.'" And even as people were turning 00:13:52.160 |
away when Jesus said, "Are you going to turn from Me too?" And remember the disciples, 00:13:55.320 |
"Where are we going to go? You have the words of life." The question that we, again, repeatedly 00:14:04.300 |
have to ask ourselves is not, "What does our church stand for?" You know, I hear people 00:14:10.800 |
say all the time, "Oh, you know, our church is involved with mission. Our church is involved 00:14:14.200 |
with this." And we just kind of vicariously think that we're living in obedience because 00:14:18.680 |
our church, you know, our pastor, or our leaders. But who do you say He is? Who is He to you? 00:14:27.620 |
Not to the church, but to you? See, with Apostle Paul, again, I've highlighted a few verses, 00:14:35.280 |
but one of the things that you'll recognize with Apostle Paul, it was extremely personal. 00:14:41.320 |
Not just in the way that he addressed God. If you keep reading, he says, "I thank my 00:14:44.960 |
God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 00:14:48.120 |
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son." So, not 00:14:54.460 |
only is God a personal God, he says His serving is in His Spirit. What he means by that is 00:14:59.960 |
not saying, like, physically He's doing this, and spiritually there's something else going 00:15:03.420 |
on. It's very, actually very common what he is saying. He's saying that my service to 00:15:09.480 |
Him is not just external. I'm serving Him wholeheartedly. He is completely committed. 00:15:16.280 |
That's what he means. He's serving God externally and internally. See, it was extremely personal 00:15:24.440 |
to him. It wasn't just a job where he checked in and said, "Well, what do I do from 9 to 00:15:30.160 |
5?" You know, you date entry with this, you meet these patients, and you do this and that, 00:15:35.160 |
and then you clock out at the end. Right? What Paul is saying is my service to God is 00:15:39.960 |
wholehearted, complete, inside and out. That's exactly what he says in Ephesians 6, 5-6. 00:15:46.000 |
"Slaves, obey your masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart." Not just to check off 00:15:52.560 |
the list. Right? So, "Oh, I read my Bible, you know, I memorize Scripture, and I'm serving 00:15:57.040 |
the church, so externally I'm doing everything." He says, "Not by way of eye service, just 00:16:04.680 |
so that when people are watching you say, 'Oh, I did it.'" Not simply by eye service, 00:16:09.760 |
as people pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Right? 00:16:17.200 |
If you ever see anybody who is working and laboring for the Lord, and complaining and 00:16:23.220 |
grumbling at the same time, you know that that service is not going to last long. At 00:16:28.960 |
some point, there's a breaking point. At some point, it's not going to be enough. See, Apostle 00:16:34.440 |
Paul, what he's saying is, "I serve my God." And again, it's very personal to him. "I'm 00:16:38.400 |
serving my God wholeheartedly in my spirit." Because there are certain things that you 00:16:44.240 |
just absolutely cannot do half-hearted. You can watch a movie half-heartedly, which 99% 00:16:51.600 |
of the time, that's usually me. You know, I'm usually not that engaged when I'm watching 00:16:55.920 |
movies because I fall asleep probably about 70-80% of the time. Especially if I'm home. 00:17:01.560 |
Esther and I, it's a running joke. Like, who's going to fall asleep first? Right? We have 00:17:07.120 |
a movie night. "Oh, let's go get a movie." And then we're just kind of watching each 00:17:11.000 |
other to see who falls asleep first. Right? And if we missed it, so what? You know? I 00:17:16.800 |
fell asleep on, you know that Up movie? Some of you guys who watch that. I fell asleep 00:17:20.800 |
at that point when the wife dies. Yeah. And I woke up, and he's chasing some strange bird. 00:17:28.640 |
And I didn't understand the whole movie. Like, why? Why is he here? Why is he chasing this 00:17:33.520 |
bird? And then Esther had to, like, "You missed it? How can you miss that?" It's like, "Ah, 00:17:37.120 |
so it's just a movie." Right? I understood later why everybody liked it. But, you know, 00:17:42.080 |
there's certain things that you can do half-hearted, and there isn't a huge consequence because 00:17:47.120 |
it's just entertainment. I've seen some of you guys take the bar. Especially the California 00:17:53.200 |
bar. Supposedly, it's supposed to be the hardest bar that you can take. You know? That's not 00:17:59.640 |
something you go in half-hearted. You don't just say, it's like, "Oh, you know what? I 00:18:03.040 |
forgot to study. You know, I'm supposed to take the bar tomorrow. You know, three days 00:18:07.780 |
of eight-hour tests. And I'm just going to cram it Sunday night." You know what I mean? 00:18:14.040 |
You have to prepare for that. You don't just half-heartedly walk into that. You know it's 00:18:18.520 |
coming, and you have to schedule all your life. You know what I mean? If it's happening 00:18:24.000 |
in June, starting from January, you're going to have to plan who you can meet, who you 00:18:27.120 |
can't meet, when you can go out, when you can't go out, when you're going to sleep. 00:18:31.680 |
You have to plan all that out because you know that you can't just casually walk into 00:18:35.160 |
that. I've seen some of you guys take the CPA exam. I was just surprised how hard that 00:18:40.740 |
thing was. Initially, I thought, "Jeez, not that, you know." Initially, I thought, "Whatever." 00:18:45.720 |
When I started seeing everybody taking it, it's like, "Wow, this is no joke." You know, 00:18:50.120 |
you fail one, and they give you a certain period of time, you got to take all of it. 00:18:53.920 |
And I know some of you guys are preparing, some of you guys have already taken it. You 00:18:57.040 |
don't just enter into that half-heartedly, right? You don't start a business half-heartedly. 00:19:02.600 |
You don't just say, "Hey, you know, I saved up $200,000, and I want to invest in the business." 00:19:07.280 |
I'll just do that one. You know what I mean? You don't just do that. It's like 95% of the 00:19:13.000 |
businesses fail. You might as well just throw your money away. You go in there, you make 00:19:17.680 |
sure you have a business outline, what you're going to do, you know, and how long it's going 00:19:22.880 |
to take for you to make a profit. You go into all of that thoroughly prepared. Same thing 00:19:27.360 |
with marriage. You don't just walk down a street and fall in love and say, "We got married 00:19:32.120 |
tomorrow." You know what I mean? You get a lot of prayer and thought into it because 00:19:36.360 |
you're going to be connected with this person the rest of your life. A lot of prayer, counseling 00:19:41.240 |
goes into making this judgment. There are certain things that you can do half-heartedly, 00:19:45.800 |
and there are certain things that you absolutely cannot do half-heartedly. Scripture tells 00:19:52.480 |
us clearly that following Christ is not something you can do half-heartedly. You cannot, you 00:20:01.080 |
can't go in and become a lawyer and say, "Ah, you know, I did some okay, or some I didn't." 00:20:06.280 |
Either you pass it or you didn't pass it. "Ah, that guy got a C-." So he's a C- lawyer. 00:20:12.640 |
"Ah, that guy got a CPA, but he didn't pass all his exams, so he's good in the beginning, 00:20:19.280 |
but it just never balances out at the end. But he's kind of a CPA." Either you are or 00:20:24.320 |
you're not. The Scripture says to count the costs. What does it mean to be a follower 00:20:32.080 |
of Jesus Christ? And the sad thing is, in where you and I live, that that cost isn't 00:20:37.560 |
calculated until a lot of times way into our Christian life. We don't really think about 00:20:45.040 |
it until we start working and we see the consequence of what it means to be a genuine follower 00:20:49.280 |
of Christ. We start thinking the consequence of when we get married and have kids and making 00:20:55.360 |
decisions that's going to alter the projections of our life, and then we start thinking about, 00:21:00.880 |
"Wow, you know, this is the cost of following Christ." In Jeremiah 29, 13, it says, "You 00:21:08.360 |
will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Personal relationship 00:21:15.080 |
with Christ is not something that we can do casually. You don't casually walk into the 00:21:20.920 |
presence of God. You don't casually commune with this holy God. I remember one of the 00:21:29.200 |
best sermons that I heard about prayer and why prayer is so difficult for so many people. 00:21:37.160 |
And again, it was so contrary to what I heard prior to his preaching that it really made 00:21:42.520 |
a huge impact on me. And his main point of his sermon on prayer was that prayer is the 00:21:48.120 |
most difficult thing that a Christian can do. And when you really think about it, it's 00:21:52.800 |
like, "Why is it so difficult?" Like, reading the Bible, you have to actually set a time, 00:21:57.160 |
read the Bible. Some of you guys are better readers than others. And then you need to 00:22:00.080 |
actually think about it. You need to comprehend it. You need to know what it says, and then 00:22:04.600 |
you get lost. And, you know, so it requires a lot more work to study the Bible. But then 00:22:08.720 |
prayer is just close your eyes and hear God, and you just kind of have some thoughts about 00:22:12.680 |
God. Why is that so hard? In fact, you hear, say, "Oh, I pray when I run. Oh, at the gym 00:22:17.280 |
when I'm lifting weights, I'm praying." You know? And sometimes when we eat, we pray, 00:22:23.440 |
"Thank you, Lord, for this." You know, we thank God while we're eating, right? It's 00:22:30.480 |
so casual. But what Martin Luther, Lord Jones was saying was, "Prayer is communion with 00:22:37.320 |
the Holy, Holy, Holy God." To come into His presence casually, and that's why prayer is 00:22:43.360 |
so frustrating for so many people, because it is looked upon so casually. See, prayer 00:22:50.320 |
requires a commitment. In Psalm 119, verse 2, it says, "Blessed are those who keep His 00:22:56.920 |
testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart." God is not somebody that you're going 00:23:02.520 |
to just casually walk around and then bump into. It's like, "Oh, I met God today." He 00:23:07.360 |
says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart, when you have 00:23:13.880 |
made a commitment that this is what you want." Even in your prayers, just casually, "Oh, 00:23:20.280 |
Lord, you know, this is where I am. Can you please help me?" "Amen, amen." So you feel 00:23:23.240 |
like, "I did it." Right? "I said it. I put in my time. I prayed. How come God's not answering 00:23:29.200 |
my prayer?" Because the Scripture says, "When you seek Me with all your heart, I will be 00:23:36.960 |
found by you." So how much of our prayers ain't affected because we haven't made up 00:23:40.880 |
our mind that this is absolutely essential to me? How much of it is just so casual? And 00:23:50.400 |
if we, like a magic formula, if you just say the right words, abracadabra, and if you put 00:23:54.600 |
in the right amount of change into a vending machine, somehow something's going to come 00:23:58.000 |
out. See, with Apostle Paul, you know, it was very personal to him. Even his work, even 00:24:04.480 |
his labor, he said, "With all his heart." We can't stand before God and say, "Lord, 00:24:12.080 |
I want to know Your will just in case I decide to obey." See, that decision has to be made 00:24:19.040 |
before you come before God and ask God, "What do You desire?" We can't come before God and 00:24:24.320 |
say, "Lord, I want to know Your will. I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit yet. I'm not 00:24:29.640 |
sure. I want You to answer my prayer, but I'm not sure if I'm committed to this yet." 00:24:36.200 |
We can ask for revival, but revival means that God's going to examine our lives. The 00:24:41.800 |
Holy Spirit's going to come and examine every aspect of our lives because He's going to 00:24:46.360 |
be there. He's not going to just walk into any room. He's going to walk into rooms that 00:24:50.840 |
are prepared for Him. Is my devotion to God absolutely committed? Even in worship, you 00:25:01.080 |
know, we can walk in so casually. Like if I go to sleep on Sunday and Saturday and wake 00:25:06.400 |
up in the morning, put on clothes, you know, and come in, you know, and the quality of 00:25:11.840 |
the worship depends upon how much time I spent in prayer, how much time I prepared, how many 00:25:17.680 |
good illustrations that I've given to you, and how engaged I can be in the way that I 00:25:21.240 |
talk. So I say, "Oh, you know, he did a good job. I was blessed. Oh, he didn't do a good 00:25:25.880 |
job. The worship team, did they pick the right songs? Did they prepare enough? Did they get 00:25:30.760 |
us to focus?" And how much of that is dependent upon what we have brought into the room, that 00:25:39.400 |
we have committed, that this is important to me. See, God is not somebody that we can 00:25:47.520 |
pursue casually. He made it absolutely clear. You can come and put in your time. You can 00:25:53.560 |
give to the church. You can, you know, socially, you know, build relationships. But to meet 00:25:59.880 |
with Him, to have Him, to have revival in your life is not something that happens casually. 00:26:07.160 |
It's not something that simply happens because I've prepared. See, you can't even serve Him 00:26:15.120 |
half-heartedly. You can't. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Paul says, "I appeal to you, 00:26:22.120 |
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, in view of this mercy." Eleven chapters of 00:26:26.800 |
exposition of His grace and love. In view of this tremendous mercy that we have received, 00:26:33.120 |
he says, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which 00:26:39.880 |
is your spiritual worship." Now, let's examine for a minute what he means by "living sacrifice." 00:26:46.520 |
Because a Jew who heard the word "sacrifice" meant, what did it mean to him? Death. Because 00:26:56.040 |
an animal wasn't taken to the temple and then let it run around for a few minutes and then 00:27:00.680 |
taken back home. An animal who was taken to the altar was slaughtered and was dead. His 00:27:08.240 |
life ended. So when Paul says, "In view of this mercy, in view of this tremendous gift 00:27:13.280 |
that we have in Christ, let not just give our offering, not just give our animals, give 00:27:17.680 |
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship." 00:27:27.400 |
So what is he saying? Even our sacrifices, even our serving cannot be done casually. 00:27:34.720 |
You will seek me and find me if you seek me with all your heart. Have you made up your 00:27:39.400 |
mind that this is the most important thing in your life? That's why he says, you know, 00:27:44.040 |
the letter to the Laodicean church, notice carefully what he says to the Laodicean church 00:27:48.120 |
in Revelations 4. "I know your works." He's not just talking about your heart, but he 00:27:54.400 |
says, "I know your works and what you are doing. I know that you are neither cold nor 00:27:57.800 |
hot." You're not, in other words, what is he saying? You're uncommitted. You're doing 00:28:04.000 |
stuff, but you're uncommitted. You're giving, but it's uncommitted. You're crying out to 00:28:09.240 |
God, but it's uncommitted. Neither hot or cold. I wish you were either hot or cold. 00:28:14.120 |
You make up your mind, right? And isn't that what Joshua was saying at the end where Herod 00:28:19.000 |
was quoting? Because you keep tottering between this and that, right? If serving the Lord 00:28:24.840 |
is a burden to you, then go serve what you want to serve. Stop teetering between one 00:28:30.520 |
and the other. See, that's the rebuke that the Laodicean church got because they were 00:28:35.680 |
uncommitted. Because you were lukewarm, neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 00:28:41.120 |
So, you know, an uncommitted worship, uncommitted prayer, uncommitted service is unacceptable 00:28:47.520 |
to God. We can't casually come to God. We can't casually pray. We can't casually meet 00:28:55.000 |
God. When you hear the Gospel, the first thing that we need to ask ourselves is, "Is this 00:28:59.240 |
true?" See, you can't even preach the Gospel casually. You can't, how can you possibly 00:29:07.080 |
preach the Gospel casually? I remember, some of you guys remember, you know, when Rita, 00:29:14.400 |
she's no longer a student, she's married and has a child in China, but some of you guys 00:29:17.640 |
remember how we were praying for her for years. And there's some people in this room that 00:29:22.520 |
played an important role in seeing Rita come to Christ. But I remember right when she was 00:29:28.240 |
on the verge of becoming a Christian, we went out to visit her. And I remember Rita having 00:29:33.440 |
dinner with her and she was asking, this is before she became a Christian, she said, "You 00:29:37.360 |
know, all of my friends are telling me to stop meeting with you. And the reason why 00:29:41.920 |
is because they tell me that the only reason why you're here is because you want her to 00:29:45.680 |
convert to Christianity. And if you are not interested in Christianity, they're not interested 00:29:51.260 |
in being your friends." You know, and she said, "Is that true?" So I remember sitting 00:29:57.620 |
and thinking through that and I said, "Well, I better answer this correctly or else this 00:30:01.020 |
will be the end." Right? And all the years of laboring and the people that have been 00:30:05.540 |
meeting up with her. And so I said, "Okay, you know, I should be honest with her." And 00:30:09.220 |
I said, "Rita, they're absolutely true. Your friends are right. They observe correctly. 00:30:16.260 |
You know, and I know you're not dumb. You know, we come out here for that reason. We're 00:30:20.420 |
not here to make money. And it's pretty obvious we're not here to make money. We're not here 00:30:23.820 |
because of the great weather, because it's not good. You know, we're not here for the 00:30:28.820 |
great food. We're here because of you." She said, "What kind of friend would I be? If 00:30:35.320 |
I, whether you believe it or not, I believe that the only way of salvation is through 00:30:41.220 |
the blood of Christ. And as long as I'm your friend, there will never be a time where I 00:30:47.220 |
will not be working to bring you to Christ." And if you, if you ask me that question, you're 00:30:54.820 |
absolutely, that's why we're here. That's why we're spending thousands of dollars coming 00:30:58.140 |
here. That's why people are packing up their bags and moving to a foreign country so that 00:31:01.300 |
you can hear the Gospel. And that's the only reason why we're here. Now, to make a story 00:31:06.620 |
short, you know, obviously a few months after that, she committed her life to Christ. But 00:31:12.460 |
that is true for every one of us. Gospel preaching cannot be done casually. It is not a set of 00:31:20.700 |
information that we are to regurgitate and to hand off to other people. This is not a 00:31:26.040 |
message where you have a scripted thing that you memorize and you just pass out to other 00:31:30.860 |
people. Until you are convicted, until this is your God, until this message is yours, 00:31:36.700 |
until you've been deeply affected, you cannot be effective. For Apostle Paul, this ministry 00:31:45.260 |
was very personal. And that's why the third and final thing that we see is that even in 00:31:49.820 |
his prayer, you can see how intimately entangled he is with this ministry. Remember, Paul never 00:31:55.460 |
met these people. Paul never met these people. They weren't friends. They weren't family 00:32:00.220 |
friends. They weren't no business contacts. He's never met these people. And that's why 00:32:03.700 |
he's writing this letter. And yet, he's writing this letter. He says, "I thank my God for 00:32:08.020 |
you. Because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world, I long to be with 00:32:13.220 |
you." Now, is he just saying it because that's just what Christians say? You know how Christians 00:32:19.460 |
say, "Oh, I'm sick. I'll pray for you." And some of you pray, and some of you may not pray. 00:32:27.340 |
But that's what we say. That's what we say. It's like, "Oh, hi. Bye. We'll pray for you." 00:32:33.180 |
Is that what Paul is doing? Is this just something that a Christian says, right, and tells people? 00:32:40.020 |
And if not, if he actually means it, is he really rejoicing? Is he really longing to 00:32:48.420 |
see them? I'm absolutely convinced that that's exactly what he's saying. In fact, he says 00:32:53.380 |
that over and over again to all the other churches. So, humanly speaking, we can look 00:32:58.860 |
at that. We have a hard time praying for people that we don't personally know. Now, when was 00:33:03.100 |
the last time you really pleaded with God for lost souls that you've never met? It's 00:33:09.260 |
much easier when you've met them, right? Or you know them personally. So, we tend to pray 00:33:13.060 |
for ourselves, our family members, our good friends, our co-workers. These are people 00:33:17.900 |
he's never met. The reason why Paul was so personally engaged was because he sacrificed 00:33:24.500 |
everything. He sacrificed everything to bring the Gospel to them. So, he rejoiced when he 00:33:32.180 |
saw the Gospel bearing fruit. That's what he says in 2 Timothy 2.10. I endure everything 00:33:37.660 |
for the sake of the elect. And everything that Paul is talking about is beating. It's 00:33:43.620 |
confiscation of property. Risking his life, spending nights and months and years in jail. 00:33:50.300 |
He said he's risking all of that so that you may come to Christ. And that's why he says 00:33:55.140 |
in Philippians that some people are preaching Christ out of envy, but I rejoice. Whatever 00:34:00.640 |
your motive is that Christ is being preached, that the Gospel is being spread. That's how 00:34:06.060 |
personally involved he was with this message. And again in 1 Corinthians 9.22, I became 00:34:12.300 |
all things to all people by all means that I may save some. When Rita came to Christ, 00:34:20.300 |
you know the people who rejoice the most are the people who talk to her, who prayed for 00:34:24.740 |
her, who are concerned for her, who share the Gospel with her. And I know the other 00:34:30.020 |
people rejoice too, but the people who committed, people who sacrificed, people who are engaged 00:34:37.020 |
in this work. When we heard that Rita came to Christ, remember that day when she sent 00:34:41.540 |
an email and I read her email? And we, I'm literally, I mean it was momentary revival. 00:34:48.140 |
Right? We were just so elated that she came to Christ. And even those who didn't know 00:34:54.220 |
her personally, those who prayed with us in the church, you know, it felt like a family 00:34:59.820 |
member that came to Christ. See, Paul is spiritually, emotionally, socially engaged in this work. 00:35:09.900 |
It wasn't a half-hearted commitment. He was willing to die to preach the Gospel. And that's 00:35:15.900 |
why Apostle Paul, when he says, "I rejoice," that these aren't just words. This is a testimony 00:35:23.040 |
of an individual who's given everything to bring the Gospel to the lost. See, someone 00:35:29.220 |
who is not engaged in the work, it's just news. If you haven't been engaged in praying 00:35:36.140 |
for the lost, when you hear that somebody comes to Christ, it's just news. We talk about 00:35:41.740 |
somebody, you know, like, "Oh, somebody became a Christian and they're going to give their 00:35:44.380 |
testimony." Right? If you're not personally engaged in that, it's like, "Oh, you know, 00:35:49.180 |
your mind tells you you should rejoice, because the Scripture says that. Your mind tells you, 00:35:55.220 |
'I should be excited. I should be happy. I should be rejoicing to hear their testimony.'" 00:36:01.580 |
That's what your mind tells you, but your heart is not there, because you're not engaged. 00:36:09.300 |
Your sacrifice, your worship to God, there's no sacrifice involved. You haven't pleaded 00:36:15.080 |
on their behalf. You haven't given up anything important for the Gospel ministry. So when 00:36:20.660 |
somebody comes to Christ, unless it is somebody in your family, somebody that you know personally, 00:36:25.940 |
we don't understand, like, "You rejoice over a bunch of these strangers." Paul was absolutely 00:36:32.700 |
committed. Not only was he committed in rejoicing, I mean, it hit him personally when they weren't 00:36:40.220 |
committed. 2 Corinthians 11, 28, it says, "And apart from all the other things, all 00:36:45.160 |
the other sufferings, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." 00:36:51.500 |
Why would he? Why would he be so personally affected that other people were not thriving 00:36:58.280 |
in their faith? Because he invested so much in spreading the Gospel. He invested so much 00:37:04.500 |
in discipling them. He invested so much in praying for them, night and day. So he rejoiced 00:37:09.380 |
when they were doing well, just like your children. When your children do well, you 00:37:13.660 |
rejoice. When they don't do well, you grieve, because you've invested so much of your life 00:37:18.180 |
in them. So, Apostle Paul, his ministry, his relationship with Christ, his preaching the 00:37:26.140 |
Gospel, his building up of the churches, his discipleship, all of this was extremely personal. 00:37:35.260 |
See, God is not somebody that you can follow casually. Uncommitted. You can come to church 00:37:42.940 |
uncommitted. You can serve the church uncommitted. You can give uncommitted. You can fellowship 00:37:50.740 |
uncommitted. You can go to foreign countries for short-term missions, uncommitted. You 00:37:58.380 |
can do all kinds of stuff uncommitted. But you cannot seek Him and find Him uncommitted. 00:38:07.620 |
You will never know Him uncommitted. You will never know the power of prayer uncommitted. 00:38:15.420 |
You will never experience revival uncommitted. You will never know the joy of bringing a 00:38:21.660 |
loss to Christ uncommitted. You will never weep for the loss uncommitted. You will never 00:38:30.380 |
grieve and cry out to God for the lost world uncommitted. See, Apostle Paul, to him it 00:38:39.660 |
meant everything. That's why he didn't just pray. He cried out. When he prayed, he prayed 00:38:46.900 |
for open doors. He prayed for open doors. And then he said when the door gets open, 00:38:52.300 |
he prayed that he would have boldness to preach. And then he said not only for that to happen, 00:38:57.060 |
but to pray rapidly so that as many people can come to Christ. His whole purpose of writing 00:39:02.580 |
this letter is to prepare them because he was ready to pack up his bag and go out to 00:39:07.180 |
Spain. Again, my prayer for all of us is that you and I live in a generation where being 00:39:14.580 |
committed is a foreign thing. It's a foreign thing in our generation to be committed to 00:39:22.060 |
anything. The best commitment is, well, you know, I'll do my best. Like I said, there 00:39:29.100 |
are certain things that you can do uncommitted. You can watch a movie uncommitted. You might 00:39:33.780 |
even go to school uncommitted because you're not completely sold out. You might actually 00:39:38.260 |
even maybe go to work uncommitted. He's like, I have to pay the bills. But you cannot be 00:39:44.060 |
uncommitted in your walk with Christ. You can come to church all your life and completely 00:39:49.380 |
miss him. If you can take a few minutes to pray with me as I asked the praise team to 00:39:56.180 |
come up and lead us in worship. And again, to come before the Lord, to examine Apostle 00:40:00.140 |
Paul and his commitment in his life. Who am I? Where do I stand with Christ? What is the 00:40:05.340 |
message that I'm so committed to? And this personal commitment of Paul to ministry, to 00:40:11.860 |
our God. Is he my God or is he the God of this church? Let's take a few minutes to come 00:40:18.140 |
before the Lord and ask the Lord to bring renewal and revival in our hearts as we seek