back to index2018-10-07 Power of Prayer and the Gospel
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 15, 32-33. 00:00:10.880 |
Peter already read it, but I want to just review it to make sure that you know the text 00:00:17.360 |
Romans chapter 15, 32-33, reading out of the NASB. 00:00:21.440 |
I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together 00:00:26.640 |
with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient 00:00:31.800 |
in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so that 00:00:37.320 |
I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. 00:00:48.200 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the many blessings that you've given us in our lives. 00:00:53.840 |
We thank you for the freedom that we have to be able to gather and worship you without 00:01:01.360 |
We know, Father God, that we are tremendously blessed to be able to gather together, to 00:01:06.160 |
have your word, to have fellowship among brothers. 00:01:10.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to fill our hearts with gratitude that our worship truly may be in 00:01:22.240 |
You know, one of the observations that I've had throughout the years just working with 00:01:25.960 |
just various people that as the years go by, I'm more and more convinced the power of the 00:01:38.760 |
And I'm not simply just talking about Christianity. 00:01:42.320 |
You know, whatever decade you grew up in, the impact that was made in our lives, it 00:01:49.360 |
just gets impacted and it just kind of stays with you for a long, long period of time. 00:01:53.120 |
So you know, even the kind of music that we kind of lean toward, a lot of that depends 00:02:02.000 |
So I grew up in the, you know, in the late 70s and early 80s as a teenager. 00:02:07.600 |
And so whenever I hear music from that generation, like a lot of endorphins get released and 00:02:12.400 |
I have a lot of fond memories during that time. 00:02:14.800 |
So even now, every other music past that generation sounds like trash to me, you know. 00:02:19.600 |
But whenever I hear the music from the 80s, right, so you guys who are from different 00:02:26.920 |
But even fashion, right, certain things that was so cool a decade later is so weird. 00:02:32.480 |
And certain things that you guys in your 30s, you thought you were so cool in your 20s, 00:02:38.780 |
And then the people who are younger, whatever generation you are in, whatever period that 00:02:43.560 |
you were teenagers, and we don't do this consciously. 00:02:46.800 |
It just, that's the generation that we were in and that happened to be the fashion, it 00:02:51.520 |
had to be the culture and without making a conscious choice, it happened. 00:02:54.680 |
Like why certain hairstyles look better to you than other hairstyles, why certain genes 00:02:59.000 |
have to be tighter than the previous generation, I don't know. 00:03:02.320 |
But these things are done without thinking because you're being influenced by whatever 00:03:10.680 |
Now all of this to say that we have to be very, very cautious that our faith in God 00:03:16.720 |
isn't simply a reflection of the community that we belong to. 00:03:21.240 |
That we have to be careful that just because you were born in a Christian home, you were 00:03:24.360 |
raised in a church, or you went to church all your life, and that we learned how to 00:03:29.520 |
And a lot of times we're not even thinking, like, am I doing this because this is my community 00:03:34.160 |
and these are my friends and this is my family? 00:03:36.480 |
How much of this is a real faith that's driving us? 00:03:40.960 |
And again, you don't need to make a conscious choice, it just happens. 00:03:43.560 |
Just like why certain hairstyles, why certain music, why certain fashion seemed better to 00:03:54.160 |
In the same way, like why certain things are more important to you in this generation maybe 00:03:58.080 |
than the previous generation of Christians or prior to that. 00:04:01.440 |
Is it the Word of God and the Spirit of God that is conforming and changing us, or is 00:04:06.640 |
it just happens that that's kind of like the culture, that's the age that we live in? 00:04:14.200 |
If we're not careful, we can easily succumb to conforming rather than being transformed. 00:04:22.560 |
In Romans chapter 12 too, it said, "not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing 00:04:31.720 |
And are our hearts and what we value being transformed by the things of God? 00:04:36.460 |
Or are we just conforming because that just happens to be the generation that we're in? 00:04:41.440 |
And if that is the case, Jesus' greatest rebuke were to the Pharisees who said, "You are like 00:04:47.760 |
whitewashed tombs where on the external, on the outside, you know how to be religious, 00:04:52.540 |
you know how to be good, but inwardly, there was never any kind of transformation taking 00:04:59.340 |
I've known plenty of people who are very disciplined in their walk with God. 00:05:06.520 |
I've known people, I've had people in my life where they woke up every morning from 5 to 00:05:11.660 |
6.30, every single morning, six days a week, prayed fervently, at least what it seemed 00:05:19.240 |
I've known people who are very generous in the church. 00:05:22.380 |
On the outside, they had all the indicators that may look like that they were great Christians, 00:05:29.600 |
and yet their hearts were filled with bitterness and anger and splendor. 00:05:34.160 |
And every time you have an opportunity to sit down and talk with them, all you hear 00:05:37.700 |
about what is going wrong and how they are wronged by everybody and anybody. 00:05:42.580 |
And their hearts are filled and all you hear is over and over again, those things. 00:05:48.160 |
If we're not careful, we can allow just the external, we're just conforming to what's 00:05:53.180 |
going on, but there's no real transformation taking place. 00:05:56.420 |
The reason why this is so important is because Paul has been preaching the gospel and he's 00:06:00.300 |
ending this letter at the end of chapter 15, asking them, urging them to pray, to agonize 00:06:10.380 |
And he said, we talked about last week, how the prayer has to be motivated and moved according 00:06:16.340 |
He's asked for prayer by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Holy Spirit. 00:06:21.940 |
So we talked about last week how our prayers have to conform to God's will. 00:06:26.740 |
You can't just come to God with a wish list and say, these are things that I desire of 00:06:31.580 |
And part of the reason why sometimes our prayers are so ineffective is because we've never 00:06:35.540 |
made up our mind that Christ was going to be Lord over our lives. 00:06:40.740 |
That Christ is Lord on Sunday, Christ is Lord at church, but he's not Lord over all of our 00:06:46.620 |
So we're still continuing to pursue the passions of this world and then we just kind of fit 00:06:52.460 |
And then one of the first places where that gets revealed is in our prayer life, because 00:07:01.900 |
But the second part that he says, he says not only according to his will, the Lordship 00:07:06.180 |
of Christ, but according to the love of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:11.980 |
People appeal that even in our prayers, it has to be in line with the Holy Spirit. 00:07:19.940 |
There are things that you just cannot do if your heart is not engaged. 00:07:25.820 |
And one of the primary things that you can't do, I mean worship, right? 00:07:28.940 |
There's a huge difference, and you know as well as I do, there's a huge difference between 00:07:36.420 |
You can come in here and open your mouth and sing songs, because you like singing, you 00:07:41.940 |
like the beat, you like the music, you like being in a room filled with people doing the 00:07:51.740 |
And there is a huge difference between singing and worshiping. 00:07:55.380 |
Worship is not something you can do when your heart is not engaged. 00:08:02.620 |
Prayer is not something that you can do when all it is is just a bunch of things that you 00:08:06.860 |
should say to God, and then you just repeated these phrases and you just happen to say it 00:08:13.020 |
Because prayer ultimately is petitioning God. 00:08:16.140 |
But in petitioning God, if your heart is not engaged, those prayers are going to be empty. 00:08:25.260 |
It's no different than if a child asks for something, but they don't really care if you 00:08:30.980 |
You don't jump for that, you don't sacrifice for that, you don't pour any energy into that. 00:08:36.820 |
So Paul says, according to his will, according to the love of the Holy Spirit, in Galatians 00:08:45.900 |
He says joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, they're all kind of interconnected, 00:08:50.180 |
but the first thing that he mentions of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. 00:08:54.020 |
And as you know, in the New Testament, whenever you see a list of things and you see the first 00:08:59.140 |
thing that on that list, that it is not there randomly. 00:09:02.980 |
When we make a list of things that we like, we have to say, well, first I like this, and 00:09:09.140 |
In the New Testament culture, whenever they wrote it, it was assumed that first, second, 00:09:13.340 |
third, without saying it, was there for that purpose. 00:09:17.860 |
That's why Apostle Peter was always on the top of the list of the apostles, because he 00:09:24.620 |
He was the most influential among the apostles, at least the first 12. 00:09:29.380 |
So when it says the first fruit of the Spirit is love, the first evidence that the Holy 00:09:37.300 |
The first evidence that you are walking in the Spirit is love. 00:09:41.240 |
The true evidence that you are walking right with God, that you are spiritually mature, 00:09:46.340 |
is not discipline, even though that's important. 00:09:50.820 |
It's not your Bible knowledge, even though that is important and it's crucial. 00:09:59.180 |
That's how you know when somebody met Christ. 00:10:02.500 |
That's what he means when he says the fruit of the Spirit is love. 00:10:05.860 |
So therefore, even our prayers to be effective, he says, it must be by love. 00:10:13.820 |
Second Corinthians 5.13, "For if we are besides ourselves, it is for God. 00:10:23.820 |
Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all die." 00:10:27.020 |
The word for control in some of your translations says to compel, or in some of your other translations 00:10:36.580 |
Paul is writing to this Corinthians church, his second letter, a very difficult letter 00:10:41.320 |
because he is wrestling with this church because they didn't like what Paul had to say. 00:10:46.980 |
They were questioning his apostleship, that maybe some of these things that he's saying, 00:10:51.740 |
And so he's literally wrestling with them in these two books. 00:10:56.740 |
And when he says the reason why he is enduring, and he's not shaking off the dust and moving 00:11:01.940 |
on, he says it's because the love of Christ controls him. 00:11:13.340 |
He's concluding that the root of why he keeps doing what he's doing, despite the hardship, 00:11:20.220 |
heartache, the many tears that he must have shed in particular for this church, he said 00:11:29.300 |
It's because of what Christ has done for him and why he does what he does for them. 00:11:38.840 |
If you take compassion out of the gospel, the gospel makes absolutely no sense. 00:11:54.180 |
I mean, if you're driving on the road and if you ever see a roadkill, you know, you 00:12:00.780 |
ever see a roadkill, a squirrel, a possum, you look at that and maybe some of you, oh, 00:12:05.100 |
you're squeamish, you know, like, oh my gosh, that's disgusting. 00:12:09.500 |
You know, when's the last time you thought about the possum's parents? 00:12:14.420 |
I wonder if his brother and sister is looking for him. 00:12:19.740 |
Like, when do you feel compassion for that possum? 00:12:31.380 |
What is it that we have that motivated him, moved him to send his only begotten son to 00:12:40.020 |
In Matthew 9, 36, Jesus, seeing his people, felt compassion for them because they were 00:12:44.420 |
distressed and dispersed like sheep without a shepherd. 00:12:48.140 |
And in conclusion, he said, therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers. 00:12:56.080 |
And then compelled him to tell his disciples to pray? 00:13:03.300 |
The word compassion literally in the Greek means to have your bowels moved. 00:13:07.420 |
Now, in the English, that means something else, right? 00:13:11.180 |
So it's like, well, it was a bowel movement that caused, you know, the gospel to happen. 00:13:15.580 |
But the better understanding of that in our context, if you've ever had news that was 00:13:43.060 |
Whatever it was, it was an emotion that you could not control. 00:13:48.420 |
When Jesus saw the multitudes, it felt like it went punched in the gut. 00:13:52.500 |
And then he turned to his disciples, I have compassion for them. 00:13:55.780 |
And you ought to beseech the Lord of the harvest. 00:13:58.100 |
And the word beseech isn't simply to ask and pray. 00:14:05.340 |
Come before the Lord and beg for more workers to come and help with this work. 00:14:10.140 |
That's what Paul is asking here to be compelled by the love of the Holy Spirit to pray for 00:14:21.980 |
When he went ashore and saw the great crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their 00:14:28.020 |
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on the crowd because they 00:14:31.660 |
have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. 00:14:34.980 |
Over and over again, the scripture says Jesus was moved because of compassion. 00:14:48.280 |
Over and over again in the New Testament, the word compassion is used to describe God's 00:14:57.760 |
So everything that we sing, every Bible study that we have, every endeavor of the church, 00:15:03.740 |
if you take compassion out, it makes no sense. 00:15:08.380 |
Part of the reason why evangelism is so weak in our generation, I don't believe it's 00:15:18.900 |
They say, oh, you know, we're not being trained, so therefore we're not evangelizing. 00:15:23.420 |
If we just had more training, we would be doing more evangelism. 00:15:27.760 |
Or maybe if we had more opportunity, and if I was living in China or certain places of 00:15:35.820 |
In the end, much of the lack of evangelism in our generation is because of lack of compassion. 00:15:43.820 |
Because we see the lost who do not know Christ, and it does not move us. 00:15:50.740 |
We believe theoretically and theologically that all have sinned and fall short of the 00:15:56.380 |
The wrath of God is being revealed, the wickedness of all mankind. 00:16:08.620 |
These are in the scriptures, repeated over and over again. 00:16:14.360 |
And yet when we see the lost and we live among them on a day-to-day basis, it does not move 00:16:23.860 |
When we are moved with compassion, we will find a way to get trained. 00:16:33.060 |
We can get on campus and say, "I'm not evangelizing because we don't have a program. 00:16:40.700 |
All of that is a smoke screen for a lack of compassion in us. 00:16:45.940 |
If we had compassion, we would move because that's exactly what moved Christ. 00:16:50.720 |
And that's why he says to pray, pray for this gospel ministry by the will of the Lord 00:16:55.700 |
Jesus Christ and by the love of the Holy Spirit, to pray. 00:17:05.660 |
The synonyms of callousness is to be cauterized, to have thick skin, to be hardened, insensitive, 00:17:11.620 |
deadened in feeling, indifference to suffering, cold-blooded, emotionally hardened. 00:17:18.140 |
In every way, all of these things affect the way that we pray. 00:17:22.280 |
Just like we can't worship when our hearts have become hardened. 00:17:28.460 |
You can't fake coming in here and worshiping God and raising your hands and being emotional 00:17:33.060 |
and trying to milk moisture out of your eyes. 00:17:42.160 |
If our hearts have become hardened toward the things of God, what causes you to be desperate 00:17:45.980 |
is not you say, "You know what, I'm going to be desperate now in my prayer. 00:17:49.860 |
I'm going to force myself to have a sense of urgency." 00:17:55.820 |
Over and over again, the scripture describes unbelief as to being hardened. 00:18:02.820 |
Second Corinthians 3.14, it says, "But their minds were hardened, for to this day, when 00:18:07.180 |
they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ 00:18:13.980 |
You know, we typically think, especially in a Bible teaching church, that only if we had 00:18:19.260 |
more knowledge, only if we had more teaching, only if we had more theology, because our 00:18:30.140 |
But our mind, if we can engage our mind in theology, if we can engage our mind in proper 00:18:37.420 |
But the Bible says that even your mind can become hardened until the Spirit of Christ 00:18:47.340 |
transforms and renews and revives us, that even our understanding of theology and right 00:18:51.220 |
and wrong can become hardened because it is spiritually discerned. 00:18:57.100 |
A spiritually discerning mind isn't simply a mind that has read more books and has done 00:19:06.660 |
A soft mind, soft heart, and soft life is an individual who has been deeply convicted 00:19:13.620 |
and moved and compelled by the love of Christ. 00:19:19.780 |
Hebrews 3.13, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none 00:19:23.420 |
of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." 00:19:36.980 |
If you get in the habit of sinning and repenting and sinning and repenting and sinning and 00:19:40.620 |
repenting, we may say, "Of course, God says, you know, God will forgive seven times seventy." 00:19:47.020 |
But just like an arm that's been broken over and over and over again, it becomes weaker 00:19:51.700 |
In a life that sees sin as something that is not utterly sinful, eventually it hardens 00:20:02.780 |
And though we repent and though we receive forgiveness, our hearts become harder and 00:20:06.260 |
harder and harder, and we become more and more callous. 00:20:09.780 |
And so what happens is we start to engage our body without engaging our mind or our 00:20:17.540 |
When was the last time you really wept for lost souls? 00:20:24.420 |
Think about the things that bother us, emotionally move us, and things that consume your mind. 00:20:32.560 |
How much are these things that are, whether you get it or don't get it, it just makes 00:20:39.540 |
How much of our crying out before God are things that have eternal consequences? 00:20:46.860 |
Matthew chapter 24, verse 12, Jesus says at the end, "And because of lawlessness will 00:20:52.180 |
be increased, the love of many will grow cold." 00:21:05.380 |
Because sin and unrighteousness has become a normal part of our culture, sometimes even 00:21:10.500 |
inside the church, the first thing that you see is a hardened heart. 00:21:14.540 |
When you have a hardened heart, it affects the worship and it affects our prayer. 00:21:18.460 |
That's why Paul says to pray by the love of the Holy Spirit. 00:21:27.180 |
Until the love of Christ compels us, you will never pray for the lost. 00:21:33.700 |
Until the love of Christ compels us, it affects everything that, it affects our worship, it 00:21:39.700 |
affects our fellowship, it affects our Bible study. 00:21:43.100 |
You can be disciplined, you can engage in all the religious activities and be an A student 00:21:50.500 |
and everything that you're doing, but until your heart is broken because of what Christ 00:21:57.340 |
has done for you, and until you recognize the brokenness of Christ's heart for the 00:22:02.940 |
lost, your worship will always be superficial. 00:22:08.780 |
Your prayers will be offered up but never with any kind of urgency. 00:22:13.260 |
If not today, next month, if not next month, next year, if not next month, maybe next decade, 00:22:17.420 |
the next thing you know you wake up, 20, 30, 40 years have gone by and you think that that 00:22:25.020 |
It contradicts everything that we see in Scripture. 00:22:29.980 |
It contradicts the command that he gives to the New Testament. 00:22:35.620 |
You know what's interesting is, Paul says to pray by the love of the Holy Spirit, the 00:22:40.500 |
opposite of that, the love of Christ, is callousness, but the two things that he prays for here 00:22:49.260 |
is for his own protection in order that he may continue to be fruitful in the Gospel. 00:22:56.740 |
You know what's interesting is the first thing that he says of them, he said, "Prayers to 00:23:02.660 |
God for me that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea." 00:23:07.220 |
The word for disobedient here in Greek, and you're going to be able to recognize this 00:23:16.780 |
It's interesting that he uses the word to pray by the love of the Holy Spirit and not 00:23:24.300 |
in apathy, and he describes those who are persecuting him are those who have hardened 00:23:32.020 |
To protect them from these people who have chosen to be apathetic, chosen to be obstinate 00:23:38.420 |
against God, unpersuadable by the things of God, because they've committed themselves 00:23:46.980 |
for themselves, and as a result of that, they live unrepentant lives. 00:23:55.620 |
Before he met Christ, he thought beating Christians was God's work. 00:24:02.340 |
He was responsible for the death of the first martyr in the New Testament, and all the while 00:24:10.660 |
That's how hardened his heart was toward God. 00:24:18.740 |
They made sure that every part of the law was obeyed meticulously, all the while thinking 00:24:25.540 |
that they're moving up in this ladder of righteousness, and yet when the very Messiah 00:24:30.860 |
that they've been waiting for and praying for for hundreds of years was standing right 00:24:36.460 |
in front of them, not only did they not recognize him, they ended up crucifying him. 00:24:48.740 |
We can easily be susceptible to a hardened heart, or we can be in the church all our 00:24:55.900 |
lives, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, singing the songs, doing the Bible study, maybe even participating 00:25:03.180 |
in short-term missions, maybe even leading worship, maybe even as a pastor, and yet never 00:25:11.060 |
knowing and being compelled by the love of Christ, because that's how deceitful sin 00:25:17.860 |
is when we are at the center and Christ is not the king. 00:25:26.540 |
He prays for protection, but the prayer for protection wasn't simply because Paul was 00:25:32.220 |
You know, typically when we pray for protection, it's because we just don't want to be hurt. 00:25:40.260 |
And so in this journey of doing whatever we're doing, we're praying for protection, we're 00:25:44.020 |
praying that we won't be persecuted so that we can have an easy, comfortable life. 00:25:51.820 |
Paul was praying for protection so that he may continue the gospel ministry. 00:26:01.780 |
The gospel message was very offensive, so it was no surprise why they wanted to get 00:26:07.980 |
rid of him, because the more popular he got, the more the gospel started messing up even 00:26:15.220 |
People started destroying the idols and the whole economy was based upon selling idols. 00:26:19.700 |
And so the more popular this gospel message got, it ruined them. 00:26:26.580 |
Jesus was a very popular man until he began to call out the sins of the leaders of Israel. 00:26:32.440 |
If you remember the gospel account, the first half, first about half a year of his ministry, 00:26:38.580 |
and he began to perform miracles, people were traveling days. 00:26:46.140 |
I don't know if they got on horses or they walked or I don't know how they got there, 00:26:49.420 |
but they traveled about two days distance to come to Jesus because they thought maybe 00:26:58.260 |
It wasn't until Jesus saw them coming and he began to call them out, "Bear fruit in 00:27:09.060 |
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:27:10.620 |
Those who are under the law are condemned under the law. 00:27:12.720 |
Those who are outside the law are condemned outside the law. 00:27:16.220 |
So the core of the gospel message is to bring a sinner and recognizing his sin and to repent 00:27:33.280 |
Those who reject him, they reject his lordship. 00:27:37.220 |
They reject the fact that he calls them to repentance. 00:27:40.560 |
They reject the fact that he says that they are wretched and poor and blind and they need 00:27:49.200 |
So when he began to call them out from their sins and call them from repentance, to turn 00:27:54.600 |
from their wicked ways, that's when they turned against him and they eventually crucified 00:27:59.120 |
And then Jesus said to his disciples, "If you follow me and you proclaim the same message 00:28:09.480 |
So Paul takes up his cross, Peter and the apostles take up their cross, and every single 00:28:15.480 |
one of them who preached the gospel met the same fate as Jesus. 00:28:21.200 |
Not everybody was crucified, but everybody was persecuted. 00:28:26.660 |
What is strange in our generation is that we have so-called gospel proclamation and 00:28:37.560 |
I'm not talking about walking around saying, "Hey, you're going to go to hell. 00:28:39.960 |
You're going to go to hell," and showing no compassion for the lost. 00:28:44.480 |
But when we are surrounded by people in our lives and say, "Hey, good. 00:28:50.880 |
You're so generous and you're so kind and you're so patient." 00:28:54.920 |
I mean, if you take the preaching of the gospel out of Christianity, who wouldn't want to 00:29:03.400 |
Because we're called to turn the other cheek. 00:29:08.800 |
We're called not to slander, not to commit adultery. 00:29:12.480 |
When I was a youth pastor, I had, you know, like a youth group filled with kids that parents 00:29:19.840 |
And parents don't come to church, but they would drop off their kids because they wanted 00:29:25.080 |
Some of them were doing drugs and the parents said, "We have to send them to church and 00:29:31.000 |
But as soon as they started really committing their life to Christ and they say, "You know 00:29:34.960 |
Maybe I want to go into ministry," and the parents would turn and get angry with me. 00:29:38.080 |
If you take the preaching of the gospel out of Christianity, who wouldn't want to be around 00:29:44.800 |
I remember, you know, years back, you know, I had to supplement my income as a car detailer. 00:29:52.080 |
I had no idea what I was doing, but I did it because people wanted to pay me, so I did 00:29:57.320 |
So I made these little cards and I put it in people's cars and I said, "For $30, I'll 00:30:06.760 |
But I remember thinking, like, I have to come up with a name. 00:30:09.640 |
And so the first idea that I had was, you know, I want people to know that they can 00:30:14.280 |
trust me because literally they're handing me their car. 00:30:17.120 |
You know, some of these cars are like $70,000 car and I walk in, they just give me their 00:30:25.600 |
They just saw a little sign that I put on their car. 00:30:28.800 |
So I thought, I need to come up with this name. 00:30:30.680 |
The first thought that I had was I was going to put "Integrity Car Detailing" so that 00:30:39.600 |
So I remember thinking that that's what I was going to call my car detailing, you know, 00:30:45.160 |
And I went to the Yellow Page to see, you know, Yellow Page. 00:30:48.800 |
Some of you guys don't know what Yellow Page is, right? 00:30:58.840 |
That's where people would advertise and put their business name. 00:31:00.680 |
And I would go in there to look auto detailing. 00:31:08.200 |
Integrity plumbing, integrity roofing, integrity landscaping. 00:31:11.240 |
And everybody had the same idea because, you know, like you want to tell people, "Hey, 00:31:18.600 |
Who wouldn't want to be around good Christians who are living with integrity, who's not going 00:31:24.600 |
You know, they're going to turn you on the cheek. 00:31:38.140 |
The reason why the persecution came is because Paul was consumed with preaching the gospel 00:31:45.680 |
He was determined to go and shake up the ground, shake up the economy, shake up the families, 00:31:50.920 |
and to tell them that the path that you are on leads to condemnation until you turn and 00:31:57.600 |
That's why they hated Jesus, and that's why they hated Paul, and that's why the Bible 00:32:04.520 |
Even if you're meek, even if you're patient, even if you're one of the most kindest people 00:32:08.880 |
in the world, it's the message itself is offensive to this world. 00:32:17.880 |
Paul was not simply asking for safety and comfort. 00:32:21.560 |
He was asking that he would be able to continue to preach the gospel. 00:32:28.440 |
I'm going to ask you guys to turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. 00:32:33.160 |
For the remaining about 10 minutes, I want to show you how God answered Paul's prayer. 00:32:41.720 |
Paul prayed that he may be able to come to Rome. 00:32:44.600 |
He prayed that he may be able to bear fruit while he is there. 00:32:49.240 |
I want you to see how God answers this prayer. 00:32:52.880 |
It took me almost three and a half, four years to finish 16 chapters of the book of Romans. 00:33:00.000 |
I'm going to go through eight chapters in 10 minutes in the book of Acts. 00:33:07.120 |
Chapter 20, Paul is at the end of his third missionary journey and he's about to head 00:33:15.160 |
People are beginning to say, "If you go to Jerusalem, you become famous enough that they're 00:33:22.040 |
Paul tells this church of Ephesus that he had a really close tie with and he spends 00:33:26.480 |
all night praying with them, thinking that he may never see them again. 00:33:32.680 |
Then chapter 21 is when he begins to set sail. 00:33:37.880 |
I don't know, whatever's going to happen in Jerusalem, let it happen. 00:33:44.400 |
He gets to Jerusalem, chapter 21, and starting from verse 15, he goes straight to the temple 00:33:51.840 |
Now you remember Jesus, when he was going to the cross, one of the first things that 00:33:55.760 |
he did on the last week of his life after he comes into Jerusalem, he goes straight 00:34:01.640 |
The reason why he goes to the temple is because that's the epicenter of the Jewish leadership. 00:34:06.840 |
Jesus was basically getting things rolling because he was headed straight to the cross 00:34:11.840 |
and he knew that he was going to be crucified by the hands of the leaders of Israel. 00:34:16.960 |
In order to get their attention, he goes straight to the temple and he begins to challenge the 00:34:22.180 |
teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes at the temple itself. 00:34:30.760 |
He goes to Jerusalem, he goes straight to the temple, and he begins to preach the gospel. 00:34:35.640 |
After he begins to preach the gospel, sure enough, they get stirred up and they get angry 00:34:39.920 |
Verse 30, it says, "All the city was provoked." 00:34:43.360 |
I'm sure Apostle Paul and his companions were not surprised by that because that's exactly 00:34:53.880 |
"While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort 00:35:01.680 |
At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them, and when they saw the 00:35:06.320 |
commander and soldiers, they stopped beating Paul." 00:35:14.520 |
So starting from chapter 21 all the way to chapter 28, Apostle Paul is under the protection 00:35:23.480 |
Maybe he's in prison, but throughout the whole time, until he gets to Rome and preach 00:35:30.120 |
the gospel, the reason why he lives is because the Roman guards are there protecting him. 00:35:37.800 |
In my mind, I don't think when Paul prayed, "Pray for my protection," he said, "Can you 00:35:42.080 |
pray that the Roman guards would come and protect me?" 00:35:49.240 |
Maybe he was thinking like splitting of waters. 00:35:59.260 |
They start removing him from the scene because this mob wants to kill him. 00:36:03.040 |
But Paul says in chapter 21, verse 37, he says, "You know what? 00:36:14.400 |
Now that I'm safe, now that they can't beat me because you're here, can I talk to them 00:36:19.520 |
And then in chapter 22, he turns around and he begins to address them. 00:36:29.560 |
And then he preaches the gospel again to this angry mob. 00:36:37.260 |
And because of that, obviously, they are stirred up and they are enraged. 00:36:42.800 |
And now, if they wanted to kill him before, now like, "We got to get rid of this guy." 00:36:55.640 |
Let's beat him a little bit, at least to appease the crowd because they want to kill him. 00:37:00.240 |
But at least if they know that if we're going to take care of him, then maybe it'll kind 00:37:07.280 |
And Paul says in chapter 22, verse 27, "Is it right for you to beat a Roman like this 00:37:19.760 |
He said, "My father was a citizen, so I was born into it." 00:37:24.120 |
If we keep beating him, we're going to get in trouble." 00:37:32.240 |
And then they, again, we can't treat him like this. 00:37:38.520 |
Maybe, you know, how do we diffuse this situation?" 00:37:41.460 |
So we don't want the responsibility with this guy. 00:37:49.080 |
So chapter 23, they take him to the council of Israel. 00:37:52.760 |
These are the same people who crucified Jesus. 00:38:00.100 |
And then he stands there before the same people made the decision to kill Jesus. 00:38:05.280 |
The Roman guards, to diffuse the situation, and whatever happens to him, like it's out 00:38:09.960 |
of our hands, Peter stands before, and Paul stands before him, guess what he does? 00:38:17.880 |
He begins to preach, and he says, "I'm here because of the hope that I have for the resurrection." 00:38:23.040 |
Well, which resurrection is he talking about? 00:38:27.120 |
The one that you paid money to the Roman guards to keep their mouths shut. 00:38:32.480 |
The one that you threatened in the beginning of the book of Acts, saying that if you keep 00:38:41.160 |
In front of those same people, he turns around and he begins to preach the gospel. 00:38:45.800 |
And as a result of that, he stirs them up even more. 00:38:48.680 |
So each chapter, their anger for him is just being stirred up. 00:38:55.080 |
By the time you get to chapter 23, verse 12, "So when it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy 00:39:00.760 |
and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until 00:39:09.600 |
And it says, verse 13, there was about 40 of them. 00:39:15.360 |
Every time I read this, I chuckle because I think about what happened to these people 00:39:25.340 |
They say they weren't going to eat or drink, and I'm thinking, how long did it take before 00:39:29.120 |
the first guy decides that he was going to eat the matzah? 00:39:41.520 |
And then some of the hardcore is like, "How dare you? 00:39:46.960 |
And then the first guy just kind of like, "I don't feel so good. 00:39:54.960 |
So I can imagine the first few guys, they had some excuse, they went back home, and 00:40:01.960 |
Four days, five days go by, and they're all... 00:40:04.560 |
Anyway, I could just milk this forever, but it just, in my mind, it's very comedic because 00:40:13.220 |
At some point, I have a feeling they start eating. 00:40:16.240 |
It's like, "Ah, maybe we're a little bit too rash. 00:40:29.720 |
Chapter 23, verse 23, "As a result of this vow, he called to him two of the centurions 00:40:37.120 |
and said, 'Get 200 soldiers ready by the third hour of the night to proceed to Caesarea with 00:40:46.520 |
200 Roman guards with horses and spears, God sends to protect this guy, this guy that they 00:41:05.880 |
They don't know that this is God answering prayer. 00:41:07.400 |
They don't know that this is what Paul is praying, right? 00:41:10.160 |
So from this moment on, 200 soldiers are attached to Apostle Paul, and no matter where he goes, 00:41:15.040 |
now he can preach the gospel because physically he's protected. 00:41:21.860 |
They take him to the governor, Governor Felix, and he stands before the governor. 00:41:25.280 |
And instead of pleading his case, he just says, and he begins to preach the gospel. 00:41:31.400 |
This guy, people are trying to kill this guy. 00:41:33.200 |
We need 200 men to protect him, and he just won't relent." 00:41:40.280 |
So as a result, he just keeps him in prison for two years. 00:41:43.360 |
And the two years that he's there, he's writing letters, he's meeting with people, he's preaching 00:41:47.480 |
to the guards, and he's still continuing to do gospel ministry. 00:41:52.320 |
And he says, and as a result of his imprisonment, he says, "Many other brothers have become 00:41:56.480 |
emboldened, and now they're beginning to preach the gospel everywhere because of his imprisonment." 00:42:06.000 |
They keep him in prison for two years, hoping that maybe that he's going to bribe Felix, 00:42:12.760 |
And then finally, the leadership changes, and then he said, "You know what? 00:42:16.760 |
Let's move on, because I don't want the responsibility over this guy anymore." 00:42:19.400 |
They send him off to King Agrippa in chapter 25. 00:42:23.680 |
So he stands before the king, and he gets a hearing from this king. 00:42:27.840 |
King Agrippa was one of the kings of Israel that was stationed there by the Romans. 00:42:37.680 |
He stands before the king, and as soon as he gets a chance, he begins to preach the 00:42:46.280 |
This is why these Roman guards, this is why I was in prison. 00:42:52.480 |
And the king of Agrippa, in chapter 26, verse 28, just, "I don't understand this guy." 00:42:59.240 |
He says, "In a short time, you will persuade me to become a Christian?" 00:43:03.400 |
And Paul said, "I would wish to God that whether in a short or long time, not only 00:43:08.280 |
you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains." 00:43:20.200 |
Whether in chains or not in chains, whether short or long time, whether before you, before 00:43:24.520 |
the guards, whether I'm in prison or free, my life obsession is to get the gospel out." 00:43:42.040 |
For to him, to die is gain, because that means he gets to go to what he's been longing for 00:43:51.760 |
But to stay is also great, because that means more fruitful labor for me. 00:43:57.400 |
And so, how do you kill the joy of a man who rejoices if he dies and he rejoices if he 00:44:05.360 |
All because he is consumed with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:44:14.080 |
The reason why you are so frustrated, the reason why you feel like you lack purpose 00:44:19.640 |
and direction is because you have created your own will. 00:44:25.640 |
And you're begging God to get him to bend towards you, and he won't bend, and you're 00:44:34.280 |
But here's this man who's chained, at times even beaten and stoned. 00:44:46.900 |
As a result of that, Agrippa says, "You know what? 00:44:51.200 |
And Paul says, "I appealed to Caesar because he's a Roman citizen." 00:44:54.000 |
He said, "Well, I could have possibly let you go, but since you're appealing to Caesar, 00:45:03.320 |
So he sends him on a boat in chapter 27, and he begins his journey to Rome. 00:45:10.920 |
But even this journey to Rome isn't wasted, because he's going as a prisoner. 00:45:16.560 |
And there are over 200 guards on that ship, and then this huge storm comes in, and it 00:45:23.280 |
And so the guards don't want to lose the prisoners, so they're thinking, "You know, we should 00:45:27.160 |
throw all these guys off and then drown them to save ourselves." 00:45:29.920 |
But, because Paul made such an impression upon the leadership and upon the people on 00:45:39.040 |
We're going to somehow get him on this boat, and we're going to get him there." 00:45:43.520 |
Eventually, God prophesies that no one's going to die, and he answers the prayer, and all 00:45:48.560 |
of them are saved, and they get shipwrecked on an island. 00:45:52.800 |
And on this island, he gets bitten by a viper. 00:45:55.960 |
And the people on the island are thinking, "Well, surely this must be a sinner, because 00:46:06.960 |
So initially they say, "You know, this guy, he probably deserved it, whatever it was he 00:46:20.760 |
So they turn from calling him a sinner to a god, and then while he is on that island, 00:46:28.920 |
a prominent man's father, he gets sick, and then Paul goes and he heals him, and then 00:46:38.360 |
And so during that trip from Jerusalem to Rome, all these things happen, so that by 00:46:44.360 |
the time he gets to Rome, Paul's no ordinary prisoner. 00:46:54.560 |
He gets to Rome in chapter 28, verse 15, "And the brethren, when they heard about us, came 00:46:59.720 |
from there as far as the market of Appius, and three inns to meet us. 00:47:04.280 |
And when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage." 00:47:13.640 |
And meanwhile, he was able to witness to all these people, so he was praying for fruitfulness, 00:47:17.320 |
and all that was happening all along the way. 00:47:19.480 |
And finally, he comes to Rome, and all the leaders of Rome come to him, asking him, and 00:47:25.440 |
he's able to spend time with them, but that's not where it ends. 00:47:27.800 |
He said, "All the Jews," in verse 17, "hear about him. 00:47:30.840 |
After three days, Paul called together those who were the leading men of the Jews, and 00:47:35.360 |
when they came together, he began saying to them, 'Brethren,'" and begins to preach 00:47:40.600 |
"In the comfort of his inn, with the protection of the Roman guards." 00:47:48.480 |
You can't ... I'm pretty sure when Paul was praying for this prayer, for protection, for 00:47:53.320 |
fruitfulness to get to them, he wasn't imagining the Roman guards. 00:47:57.900 |
He wasn't imagining the free boat ride that took him there. 00:48:01.680 |
He wasn't imagining in the comfort of his inn, and people coming to him and asking him, 00:48:06.720 |
"What are you about?" and then preaching the gospel in Rome, almost ... I mean, even though 00:48:13.640 |
he's a prisoner, he's being treated like a royalty, and he's preaching the gospel to 00:48:19.880 |
Verse 21, "We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any other 00:48:23.400 |
brethren come here, reported, and spoken anything about you, but we desire to hear from you 00:48:27.400 |
what your views are for concerning this sect. 00:48:31.400 |
It is known to us that it is spoken against in everywhere." 00:48:34.320 |
Verse 23, "When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers, 00:48:39.320 |
and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God, and testing 00:48:43.560 |
to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets from 00:48:49.160 |
He had a captivated audience that was coming to him at his own inn, protected by the Romans. 00:49:00.980 |
If you didn't see the connection between the prayers in Romans and what was happening here, 00:49:13.280 |
Part of the reason why our Christian life is so exciting is because we are walking with 00:49:17.600 |
Christ, and God answers our prayers in the context of following where he goes. 00:49:25.560 |
And why so many Christians are frustrated with their life is because they are outside, 00:49:29.040 |
living outside of the will of God, and they are wondering where this life is. 00:49:34.040 |
I thought if I went to church, if I went to Bible study, if I chose the right group and 00:49:38.160 |
had the right friends and were disciplined the right way, that this life would be abundant. 00:49:43.920 |
And then when they don't experience that, they think there is something wrong with Christianity. 00:49:56.860 |
And that is maybe the reason why we are not experiencing the life that Christ is giving. 00:50:02.480 |
Even in the context of people wanting to kill him, he saw God being faithful to him. 00:50:12.480 |
In verse 30, "And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters, and was welcoming 00:50:18.440 |
all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus 00:50:32.920 |
Everywhere he went, they picked up rocks to stone him. 00:50:35.560 |
God sends the Roman guards, hundreds of them, to protect him. 00:50:38.800 |
God orchestrates these things so that he can show up to Rome, and it almost kind of gives 00:50:56.160 |
You will never have the kind of assurance of your prayers when you pray than when you 00:51:01.840 |
have committed yourself to preaching of the gospel. 00:51:06.920 |
You will never experience the intimacy of God's heart until you understand God's brokenness 00:51:18.300 |
You will never know the urgency of this spiritual battle until you have been on your knees, 00:51:26.880 |
crying out for those who do not yet know Christ. 00:51:33.380 |
You will never understand what propelled Christ to hang on that cross and then called his 00:51:42.840 |
"Go preach the gospel, make disciples of all the nations." 00:51:48.360 |
You will never understand the heart of Christ until you understand the brokenness, the compassion 00:51:53.460 |
of our Christ for you, for me, and for the world. 00:52:00.060 |
The Bible doesn't explain to us what happens after chapter 8. 00:52:04.060 |
According to church tradition, Paul is released after two years. 00:52:08.100 |
He ends up getting the support that he needs and then he actually goes out to Spain. 00:52:13.300 |
Eventually, when his work is done, he is recaptured and he's beheaded. 00:52:19.680 |
And as he prayed in Philippines, he went to the Lord in glory. 00:52:44.300 |
That we would live consistent with the gospel that we love, that saved us, that we sing, 00:52:50.260 |
that we proclaim and be on our knees, get on our feet to spread this gospel. 00:52:59.420 |
Because then and only then will prayer make any sense. 00:53:05.460 |
Then and only then our fellowship is more than just gathering of Christians. 00:53:11.860 |
Then and only then will you really understand what it means to have life and to really have 00:53:18.800 |
When you are no longer grasping onto the life here and eager to go to the life that he has 00:53:24.060 |
prepared for us, he who finds his life shall lose it. 00:53:28.140 |
He who loses his life for my sake shall find it.