To Romans chapter one, as you guys know, we visited the Troy family, the BMC up north. And I know we've all been praying for Emily and their family. But this coming coming weeks are extremely crucial. They're leaving for New York tomorrow and they're going to be out there and they're going to be going through some tests.

And then at the end of the week, they're going to find out exactly what procedure they're going to take. And most likely, the parents told us that she's going to end up having surgery. And if everything goes well, they're going to give her time to recuperate. And they're hoping to be back at at their home up north in about three weeks.

But from the very beginning, when we heard about this news, they said that the best case scenario is for her to have brain surgery. So there's a two year old child where they're going into her brain and taking out two tumors. And so I know we've all been praying, but especially for the next three weeks, it's going to be very crucial.

And so we asked that you would really be on your knees and be prayer for Emily and for their family. And I know that the initial shock of the news, we've kind of gotten accustomed to it and we're still praying for them. But like I said, the next three weeks are crucial.

And so that again, that the doctors who are performing surgery, that they'll go in and they'll be able to be as precise as possible because it is brain surgery. They did caution that there's a possibility of after effects. And you know, I won't get into the details, but there's a lot of concern for that.

So if you guys can please continue to be in prayer and they're going to be out in New York on their own. They have some people coming in and out, but for the most part, they're going to be alone. They're not going to have the support system that they had up north.

So please, please continue to keep them in your prayers. And as we get updates, we'll let you know. So you guys can be in prayer. Okay. Now, if you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter one, we'll be reading from verse eight through 13. Our primary focus this morning is going to be from 11 through 15, but I'll be reading from eight through 15.

Reading out of the ESV. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know brothers that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for your anointing, your blessing. We pray, Father God, that your word would go forth with the power of the Holy Spirit.

It would convict us, encourage us, strengthen us, and remind us, Lord God, who we are in you and our calling, Lord God, that we may live lives truly worthy of the glory of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we've been studying through the book of Romans, you know, last few times we were talking about how chapter 1 is basically, half of chapter 1 is an introduction of Apostle Paul.

He's going to get into the meat of what he wants to say to this church and start from verse 18. And so the gospel message, we'll be there in about two weeks, but the gospel message in verse 18 begins with "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Before he begins to introduce why there is a need for Jesus, why he died, what his death means, there has to be a conviction for the need for the gospel.

If there isn't a deep brokenness over our sins, the gospel is just going to be message. It's just going to be news, but it's not good news. So we're going to dive into that when we get to verse 18, but prior to that, Paul begins to introduce himself because he hasn't been to this church.

They know of him, and he knows of them, but they don't know each other intimately. So we looked at in the beginning, Paul begins the letter by introduction of himself, who he is. He's a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle for the purpose of the gospel.

The second week we talked about his message, how this message was not something that he received by himself. It was given to all the prophets of the Old Testament, and now we see in every part of Israel's history the preparation for the coming of Christ, and we looked at that when we talked about the gospel message.

A couple weeks ago we talked about his ministry. He talked about himself, he talked about the gospel, he talked about his ministry, and we talked about how personal his ministry was. That it wasn't just his job, it was his calling. That he, this is my God, this is, you are my, in my heart, my prayer.

And so how personal this is. Well today we're going to be talking about Paul's goal in ministry. So he's laying all this out before he actually even jumps into the message. What is his goal? Well, he explains that to us again, if you were to go back with us in verse 11, he explains why he wants to come to them.

And again, why he's even writing this letter. It says, "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you." So his whole reason why he wants to come to Rome is so that they may be strengthened. But what he says initially, he says, "I want to impart some spiritual gifts to you, to strengthen you." So there's some debate as to what does he mean when Paul says he's coming to strengthen you, to impart some spiritual gifts.

Now if you are, if you have a charismatic background, or maybe you've been taught differently, you may say, "Well, Paul's talking about spiritual gifts as in he's laying hands, and they're going to speak in tongues, and prophecy, and gift of healing." Not to say that we can't say that, but again, whenever we look at scripture, you have to make sure that scripture is reinterpreting scripture.

Paul's not going to contradict himself. And we have to understand when Paul uses certain languages, that he's consistent with the other letters. He's consistent with what other people say, right? What other parts of the Bible say. So what we want to look at, when Paul says that he's imparting spiritual gifts, and for the purpose of strengthening them, what do other passages and other parts of the Bible say about that?

Turn your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4, 11 through 14. Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this because that's not the main point, but I do want to touch upon it because it is an issue that is talked about and debated. Ephesians 4, 11 through 14.

It describes the beginning of the church. It describes how church is strengthened and built up and united. And this is what it says, Ephesians 4, 11 through 14. With his own words, Paul writes this, "And he, Jesus, gave the apostles," and again, this is not just a generic use of the term apostle.

He's talking about specifically the few apostles that were anointed, right? Specifically called, "the prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry." So if you notice, every one of these titles, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, that every single one of them, there's a unifying calling for each one of them.

And I think it's pretty obvious that the primary work of each of these offices is to preach the Word of God. It's to teach and to preach the Word of God. That's the apostles are receiving revelation from Christ, and so they're teaching and preaching the Gospel. The prophets are proclaiming this, what they have heard, and then evangelists are to go outside and to share the Gospel.

Pastors are to teach and to equip and shepherd within the church. And then the teachers, obviously, is to, it's pretty obvious, even in the name itself. That God, Christ, gave the church, these people, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to strengthen them for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

So the primary way that God has given the church to strengthen the church is by the teaching of the Word of God. To mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried away by every wind of doctrine by humankind by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

So what does he mean? You may look at that pastor and say, "Well, he's imparting spiritual gifts, we don't have apostles to come, and if he's laying hands on people so that they can prophesy and they can heal, then we're in trouble. Because we don't have apostles. And we don't have people coming around and giving these spiritual gifts." But I don't think that that's what Paul is talking about predominantly.

Not that Paul as an apostle couldn't do that, but if you look at the other text in the Bible, it is clear that what Paul and what Christ says predominantly, what he has given the church to equip and to strengthen, to unify the church, is the Word of God.

Even Christ himself said, "The whole reason why you perform miracles is so that they would identify who he is and hear his message and believe him and follow him." Think about all those people who've seen his miracles and yet when he was going to the cross they rejected him.

Remember what Peter says? He's talking about the Trinity, he's seen his glory, but he says, "We have something more sure, which is the Word of God." See, Paul, his intention, his goal of ministry is by coming to Rome and to continue to teach, continue to clarify the Gospel, which is exactly what he's going to be doing in the Book of Romans, in order that they may be strengthened.

In Titus 1.5, you see the same thing. Paul writes to Titus and he tells him, "The whole reason why I left you in the island of Crete is so that you may continue and finish the work that we started and establish elders in the church." He didn't just go there and preach the Gospel and then move on and say, "Oh, you know what?

These people made decisions, so I'm going to move on." His whole goal was to establish and plant the church, and then he says, "You need to stick around. These people were converted, so you can disciple them, and that those disciples will eventually become elders, and when you have elders in the church, then you can move on, so that they can continue to equip and to strengthen the church." So you can see that even in Paul, when he goes to each of these places, that his goal is not simply to say, "Thus saith the Lord," and he hears the Gospel and then move on.

His goal was disciple-making. That's his intention from the beginning, when he sent out his disciples. He didn't say, "Go and tell them what the Gospel is." He says, "No, go and make disciples." We see that in Acts chapter 16, 5. Some of you guys who are with us in the study of the book of Acts, something very important happens in Acts chapter 15.

Acts chapter 15, there is the first council of the church, where all the apostles and the disciples get together, and there's a discussion that takes place that, "Did the Gospel get to the Gentiles? Can they also be followers of Christ?" And they have this huge discussion that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised.

That they don't need to become a Jew in order to become a Christian. So this is huge news. For thousands of years, they thought that the Kingdom of God was about Israel. But all of a sudden, the Kingdom of God is open to the Gentiles. So Apostle Paul and his companions take this message, and his whole second missionary journey begins because he's trying to convey this message to these villages.

So he goes to the villages and he's sharing with them the vastness of his kingdom and his love. How the Kingdom of God has been open to the Gentiles, you don't need to be circumcised. And then this is how it's described. Acts chapter 16, 5, his second ministry journey of clarifying the Gospel, he says this, "So the churches were strengthened in faith, and they increased in numbers daily." They were increased in faith.

How were they increased in faith? Not because he was performing miracles, but because he was clarifying the Gospel. He was making it clear to them. So as they heard the Word of God, they were being strengthened and being equipped. And as a result of them being equipped, what happened?

The church increased. Why, you know, I'm going to take a few minutes to stop and talk about this for a few minutes, because this is so important. Especially in today's generation. You know, when I was in seminary, there was this movement, this church marketing movement that came in. And it's now, after what, about, what has it been, four or five years?

It's now that this movement has come in, it's kind of embedded itself in the church, it's almost kind of like a given. If you want the church to be successful, if you want it to grow, if you want to attract a lot of people, you have to dummy it down.

You know, you can't just straight up give them theology. You can't just straight up exposit the Bible, because no one's interested in that. We have churches now, and we've heard of churches, I've met people who would say, "You can't teach Bible study? People are not interested in that." Right?

"How come we don't have Bible study? Because no one's going to come." And the sad truth is, that's true. You can call it Bible study, but you can't actually study the Bible. Right? So, I've, every once in a while, I'll have fellowship outside of my little bubble, and I'll try to fellowship with people from different denominations and different schools, and we would have this conversation, talking about, "Oh, what does your church service look like?

You know, what does your Bible study, what does your discipleship look like?" And sooner or later, we get to the conversation of, "How long is your sermon?" Right? "How long is your sermon?" And so, typically, I would say, "Well, I shoot for 40 minutes, and typically I fail. If I shoot for 40 minutes, I usually go about 45 minutes.

Every once in a while, I go about 50 minutes." Right? And when I tell them, like, "50 minutes," people come. And they're just dumbfounded. Like, "People sit through that for 50 minutes?" I said, "What is your Bible study like?" "Well, we study the Bible. We call it Bible study, so we're studying the Bible." I said, "People come to that?" Because that's been their experience.

Their experience has been, "Well, if we do this, you know, the people are just not interested, so let's get rid of it. Let's do something, you know, we'll just kind of sprinkle a little bit of the Bible, and then spend the rest of the time rock climbing or something, and then that'll attract the people." And the sad truth is, that's how churches, in a lot of circles, are growing.

But if you look at the early church, he said, "Why did it grow?" You know? "Why did it grow?" He says, "Because the churches were being strengthened in faith. Because their faith was being strengthened," he says, "that they were increasing in number." We've always said, from the beginning of the church, and again, you know, I've gone through that the first part of my younger ministry, you know, I didn't know, like, what I was supposed to do.

And seminary, to be honest, doesn't train you for ministry. It trains you to know the Bible, right? How to interpret the Bible. It doesn't teach how to do ministry, like, you know, how to do communion. I didn't learn any of that. We're just winging it, you know? So, you know, first part of ministry, oh, that's what you're supposed to do.

I just tried this, and I tried this, and tried that. And I just got burnt out. And to be honest, the church grew. You know, the youth group grew, the college ministry grew, the young adult ministry grew, and it was growing, but I looked at the growth, and I was extremely dissatisfied.

I would stand up on a pulpit, on some Sundays, and I would just stand there, just looking at the crowd, thinking, "These people could care less what I'm about to say." You know? But I have to say it anyway, because I'm getting paid. You know, I got to, this is my job, so I have to say it.

And that just completely burned me out. And I remember during that period, after, I was thinking about it, I was like, "I don't know if I want to do this." I feel more like a social worker than a preacher of the Word, you know? Like, I got to song and dance to make sure everybody's happy, and everybody's getting along, and, you know, I got to do this, and I got to do that.

And I got burned out, almost left the ministry, and again, the only reason why I stayed in ministry, because Esther said, "Don't quit." You know, I'm not going to go too deep into that, but she said, "Don't quit." My mom told me, "Don't quit." And I said, "Okay, then I won't quit." You know?

It's more complicated than that, but that's basically what happened. So when we planted this church, we, I came in thinking, "You know what? I don't know if the church is going to grow." And it didn't, for the first six, seven years of the church. But I'm not going to do that again, you know?

Because even if it grows, it's not what I want. I don't, that's not a genuine church. I grew up in the church all my life. I saw the superficieness of the church, and I'm not going to be a part of that. I'd rather have a secular job than do that.

So our intention was, from the beginning and to this day, that whatever growth is going to happen, it's going to happen because people want to know Christ. And that's it. Our church is not very sophisticated. Some of you guys may have already picked that up, you know what I mean?

Because we're not good at hiding it. There's a lot of stuff we're not good at. Because I'm not good at it, right? But we said, "You know what? I'm not going to go around and plug up holes and make it look professional and have color everything and fantastic." But we're going to make sure that at the core of it, that what we do have is Christ, that the Word of God is taught.

Because I believe whatever growth happens, that it should happen with genuine followers of Jesus Christ. That if the church is going to grow, it's going to grow because people are hungry for God. Not because they were lonely. Not because they want VBS for their children. In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with that.

But the church should not grow because the Word of God is taught, but they're not interested, but let's do something else. Then after a while, you're going to have a church packed with people in the name of Jesus, but nobody's interested in Jesus. I'm absolutely convinced that if you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, nothing else will satisfy you but Christ.

I'm absolutely convinced. I will take that to my grave. Maybe you notice it or you don't notice it, but I'm absolutely convinced. If you have been justified, and justification basically means you heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you've seen the light. You've seen the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you were attracted to Him.

That's why you're here. That's why you're giving offerings. That's why you're spending your free time serving the church. Because you saw something in Christ that you couldn't find anywhere else but in Christ. So if we continue to, if we build a church to give you anything else but Christ, we wouldn't be doing you any service.

I believe that life is in Christ and it's in Christ alone. That's why when Paul says he's come to strengthen the church, you know, we may hear what Paul says, it's like, you know, again, Paul's talking to a church that he just said was a model church. That their faith is being proclaimed all throughout the world.

So he's not talking about a church that's backsliding. He's not talking about the Corinthians Church or the Laodicean Church or the Church of Ephesus. He's talking about a great church. And yet he says, "I want to come to you to impart some spiritual gifts that you may be strengthened further." Right?

If you're not careful, you may listen to that and say, "You know, that sounds like my mom, you know. I used to get a B+ and she said, 'How come you didn't get an A?'" You know, "I got 3.9 but she said, 'Why didn't you get 4.0?'" You know?

"I got 4.4, not 4.5?" You know? "I got into UCLA, not Harvard?" He says, Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, 9-11, another exemplary church. You know, these churches in Macedonia, the Philippian Church and the Thessalonian Church, they were experiencing tremendous famine. But because Jerusalem was experiencing this famine, they begged Paul, "Give us an opportunity to give." Even in their extreme famine.

So this was a model church and he's writing this letter. And this is what, look what he says. Philippians 1, 9-11, "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more." You guys don't need me to teach you because God Himself is teaching you about love.

But we want you to do this more and more. "With knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Again, you hear that and it's like, "Oh my gosh." You're talking to an A student and they're saying, "Get an A+." If you don't listen carefully of the meaning behind what Paul is saying, you're going to end up leaving.

Whenever there is a push to sanctification, legalism. I don't feel delivered. I don't feel free. I feel more burdened today. So let's get rid of that and just talk about justification. How He loves us and how He accepts us so that we can be free every week. So whenever this push towards sanctification happens, we say, "Burden." So again, some of you may have already kind of like, "That sounds like A+." Again to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4.1, "Finally then, brothers, we ask you and urge you in the Lord." I mean, He doesn't just say, "Hey, you're doing great.

Just do a little bit more." There's a sense of urgency to do more. "Urge you in the Lord, Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to live and please God just as you are already doing to do this more and more." Does that sound good? You feel challenged?

Now let's do it. There's some of you who are high achievers, right? And you work out every single day. You never eat above 1,500 calories. You know what I mean? You sleep. You never watch more than a movie per year. I mean, you read a book every two days.

I mean, you're just high-functioning people. Let's do it! And it's like, "Yes!" And for the rest of us, "I haven't read a book in a couple years." You know what I mean? I say, "Every morning I wake up at 7, you wake up at 9, you know. You start out your workout routine, you make it about half a day, you know, and it just never seems to go." And then you read stuff like this, and He says, "No, you're doing great, but keep doing it more and more.

I urge you to do it. What you're doing is not enough. To go further. Let's do it!" And it's like, "Oh my gosh!" You know, this sounds like a Pharisee burden. Isn't that what the Pharisees did? Didn't the Pharisees take the Law of God and they added all of these things, and you've got to do more and more?

You're obeying the Sabbath, and He said, "No, you've got to do more and more. You're going to the temple giving sacrifices." It's like, "That's not enough. You've got to do more and more." But why does Paul say this to the church? Why is there this push to sanctification? Because he's not talking to Pharisees, he's not talking to people in the Law, he's talking about Christians in the church to push towards sanctification, to urge towards sanctification.

If that's not enough, let me give you a little bit more. If you're burdened already, I'm going to burden you some more. Okay? 2 Peter 1, 5-8. Peter says, and it's not just Paul, so you can't just blame Paul. Peter says, "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and with virtue knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do you feel free? Or do you feel burdened? Let's be honest. If you've been a Christian for a while, push for sanctification is no longer something that you receive in joy.

Feels burdened. Why is this church constantly pushing us to seek holiness? To evangelize? To pray? To have communion with God? And just kind of like, "That sounds Pharisaic." And yet, Paul says it. Peter says it. James says it. Book of Hebrews says it. And yes, even Galatians. And yes, Book of Romans.

It's going to be presented in the Gospel. It's going to get to chapter 12. And he says, "Present your body as a living sacrifice." Fundamentally, so fundamentally, we misunderstand what sanctification is. People think sanctification is a way for us to appease God. That if we work and if we achieve a certain level, that we're going to get to a point where God's going to be pleased with us.

And so we see sanctification as a hoop that we need to jump through and a grade that we need to meet in order to get to the side and get the reward. But the problem is, no matter how high we go, we never quite make it. See, but that's where Christ came in.

Sanctification is not an avenue to jump through a hoop to get the reward on the other side. Sanctification itself is the reward. Let me say that again. Sanctification, spiritual growth, discipleship is the reward. Paul says that "godliness with contentment in and of itself is great gain." Let me explain to you why Paul keeps doing this.

When you move to another country, if you, let's say as an example to China, because we do ministry out in China. When you go to China and you move out there, one of the first things that you need to do is you lived in American culture, you ate certain food, you spoke a certain language.

In order for you to adjust to that new country, what's the first thing that you need to do? Change your language, right? You have to learn the language. And then you have to learn the culture. And then your diet is going to change, right? So if you take all the habits that you have living in the United States and then you go to China and say, "You know what?

I'm an English speaker. I'm only going to speak to people who speak English." Right? "Oh, I love hamburger. I don't like Chinese food. So I'm only going to eat hamburgers." Right? "Well, you know, I grew up in a Western freedom country and you're not going to let this communist country tell me what to do." Right?

Let me tell you something. You're going to be miserable. Not only are you going to be miserable. You're going to make everybody around you miserable. And they're going to be looking at you like, "What is wrong with that guy? Why did he move here?" Right? Sanctification, the scripture describes, is moving from one kingdom to another.

In Colossians 1.13-14, he says, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." So we were once bound in the kingdom of darkness, and now we have been delivered from that. Now we are in the kingdom of his glorious son.

So when we transfer this kingdom, the culture that you were used to, the food that you used to eat, the kind of things that you were accustomed to in this kingdom, now is being transferred over here. So you didn't earn your citizenship. Jesus Christ earned a citizenship and naturalized you as his adopted son.

But now that you are in his new kingdom, you are learning to function in his new kingdom. Because the sooner you learn the language, the easier your life will be in the new kingdom. The sooner you learn to eat Chinese food, you can eat anywhere you want. The sooner you learn the culture, you can assimilate and be part of the people.

But as long as you hold on to that old kingdom, as long as you hold on to what you were used to back over there, your life becomes that much more difficult. That's sanctification. Sanctification is freeing us from what used to bind us in our old kingdom. So when we see sanctification as a hoop that we need to get through to get the rewards, and not realizing that the more we become like Christ, the more free we are to live.

Do you understand? The more we live, the more we are closer to Christ. The more we understand his heart, the more we speak his language, the more we are accustomed to everything of Christ allows us to function in this new kingdom with joy. Jesus Christ said, "If you drink of the water that is over here, you're going to be thirsty again and you're going to have to keep going there.

But if you drink of the water that I give you, you will never thirst. If you keep going back and eating of the bread that the world offers to you, you're going to be hungry again. But if you eat the bread that I give you, you will never go hungry again." So the process of sanctification is moving us from one citizenship to another citizenship for what purpose?

To live. And that's why Jesus says in John 10, 10, "I have come to give life and give this life abundantly." The very things that used to bind you, now God is challenging us, "Leave that aside and come into my kingdom so that you may experience this joy and have this joy abundantly." See, when we don't understand that, we think of sanctification as a task that we need to get over.

And so whenever something becomes a task, it becomes burdensome. Not realizing righteousness in itself is the reward. If you're a Christian, if you are a true Christian, you will never experience more joy than when you are at the center of the will of God. When you're living according to His will.

That's why it says in Psalm chapter 1, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on this law he meditates day and night." He's like a tree planted by the living water.

His leaf will never wither. It'll live. And whatever he does will prosper. Why? Because he's planted by the living water. Because he's meditating on the word of God. Because he's being sanctified. See, what Paul is doing here, he's not burdening them. He said, "Do this. You're doing a great job, but do this more and more." What he's telling them to do is live.

You're getting good with the language. Now keep going. You're getting accustomed to the food. Don't stop there. Keep going. The more accustomed you become to this new culture, the more you will be able to live in freedom. So righteousness and holiness is our path to freedom, not bondage. In the old covenant, it was a source of bondage because they had to leap over that to get to God and they could never leap over that.

But in the new covenant, it is a reward. Holiness is a reward. Holiness is life. And the Christian is most alive when he is living a holy life. He's the most alive when he is praying. He's the most alive when the word of God is sanctifying him. Because we are no longer in the citizenship of the old kingdom.

Isn't that awesome? That paradigm shift, it may just sound like semantics, but that's the difference between bondage and life. That's the difference between rejecting sanctification and embracing it with all our heart. That's the difference between running this marathon with joy and running this marathon always looking back, thinking you're missing out.

That's why worship is, worship can be a dread or it can be something we look forward to all week long. If worship is something you have to do on Sunday, it's like, "Oh my God, how long is I, 50 minutes?" You know, and then asking for money again. It's like, "Hey, we need volunteers to put up the chairs.

You know, I'm working all week and I come to church and I got to set up chairs too?" Get it over with. But if worship is what happens because you see joy in meeting Christ. You know, today we have become a generation of people like, worship has to be led by Matt Redmond or Casting Crowns or, I don't know, those are the two people I know.

Keith Green is no longer around so I can't, you don't even know who he is. If it's not led by these people and flashing lights and John Piper speaking or some of the John's speaking, right? If it's not done by the cream of the crop, it just doesn't do it for us.

If you ever have one of those situations, you go to a birthday party and they put it in, whatever gift that they gave you, you know, they put it in this elaborate package and you know, it's an iPhone 7, you know, package it up with a bow and then you open it up and it's like a $10 gift card and like, "Ah!" Right?

You ever hear that happen? You know, like, so if the gift isn't that fantastic, you have to make the package look awesome. But if it actually was the iPhone 6 plus, right, if it actually was something that you really wanted, you could give them in a plastic bag. You almost want to give it to them in a plastic bag so that they're just like, "Hmm, what is this?

A plastic bag?" They open it up like, "You love me?" You know? If the product isn't good, you have to package it really nice. Right? That's what's happened in our generation. Because the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit has been quenched, that we have to package the church in a way that they come and then what happens?

They come in and say, "Wow, they have all this stuff." And then they come in there about a year and two years later, it's like, "Huh? $10 gift card. I could have gotten that over there. Went through all this to get that." But when Christ is at the middle, when the heart of the church is Christ, you know, some of the best worship that I've experienced was in strange places in the world with 100 degrees inside, with wooden chairs, and no mic system, and the person gave two and a half hour message that I couldn't even understand.

And then in worship, people are, I mean, worshiping. No one's thinking about anything. I said, "Man, this is awesome." You come out of that thinking like, "Wow, that was worship." You know? Because all that, there was no package. All they had was the product, the meat. And so sanctification in our generation has become something we need to jump through, but not recognizing that it is the gift.

When you're walking right with Christ, some of you, you know, maybe you're struggling now, but you remember a period in your life when you felt the most peace and most joy. If you're a genuine believer, and I'm confident that you will say the same thing I will say, you were the happiest and the most joyful and alive, not because you had the most money, not because you were the most comfortable, but when you were at the center of the will of God.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Come talk to me after the service like, "That's nonsense." You know? When I went bungee jumping, that was when I was the happiest. You know? Yelp had this 5.5 star, you know, and this sushi, and that was when I was the happiest. If I'm wrong, come and talk to me.

Right? I'm confident that your confession is the same as mine. It was when you were at the center of the will of God. And that's why He pushes them to sanctification. He pushes them to love. He pushes them to sacrifice. Because in that we find joy. Because this is His kingdom.

And we are His children. Let me conclude with this. Paul, his joy, it wasn't the sanctification in and of itself of it produced joy, but he was also mutually encouraged. He didn't just do the, "Oh, it's my job." He said, "No, you do this because you're my job." First Thessalonians 2, 19, "For what is our hope or joy or crown or boasting before our Lord Jesus at this coming?

Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy." Not only is our sanctification a source of great joy, but sanctification and fruitfulness in other people is great joy. If any of you have ever experienced somebody coming to Christ because of you sharing the gospel, you know that there's nothing in this world like it.

Nothing in this world like it. There's nothing you can compare to. You can't travel to the remotest part of the world and come back and say, "It was kind of like when somebody came to Christ. It was kind of like when my brother accepted Christ. It was kind of like when my children or my good friend or my parents came to Christ." It's nothing like it.

Paul says, "You are my joy." And so Paul is pushing them to sanctification so that they may receive joy, and he's preaching the gospel that he may be filled with joy. And for the sake of time, we want to give enough time for the communion, but the scope of his ministry, he says, and let me read from verse 13 all the way to 14 and 15, he says, "I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Let me stop right there. Paul uses the language, verse 14, "I am obligated." And so whenever we think of obligation, we think of burden, right?

I'm obligated to do this. But then look what he says in verse 15, "But I am eager to preach the gospel. I'm obligated to preach the gospel, and I am eager to preach the gospel." Which is it? Of course it's both. He says both. Obligation doesn't kill the joy.

He says, "I'm obligated, and all the more why I am eager. I'm a husband. It is my obligation to love my wife." You say, "Oh, obligation, that doesn't sound romantic." Right? He said, "That sounds burdensome. You're obligated." But that obligation brings me tremendous joy. I'm obligated as a father.

I'm obligated. And if I don't take care of them, what kind of a father are you? He said, "Oh, that must be burdensome. My obligation is my joy. My obligation is my joy. My obligation to preach the gospel is my joy. My obligation for the sanctification church is my joy.

That's the source of my joy." So we think that obligation somehow negates the joy, but Paul says no. Some of the greatest joys in life are the things that you are obligated to do. We're obligated to worship God. But that's where we get the greatest joy. We're obligated to preach the gospel.

But that's where we find the greatest joy. We're obligated to live a holy life. But that holiness leads to greatest joy. And that's why Paul says, "You know what? I am eager to preach the gospel, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians." He's not limited to one group of people.

He says Greeks had a reputation of being, you know, they had the philosophy, they had the arts, they had the knowledge. I mean, they were known to be the sophisticated people. And then you have the barbarians, right? Well Paul is saying, "I'm obligated to both." You know, we have a tendency to witness down.

You know what I mean by that? You go out, street evangelism, and you look for people that are a little bit less than you, at least in your mind. You never say it. You don't say, "That guy's worse than me. I think I'm smarter than that guy. I'm pretty sure I make more money.

I'm better looking, so that guy's going to hear the gospel from me." You go out and then you say, "Well, that guy's taller, stronger, better looking, more educated, older than me, better clothes. He's my boss." You know? You say, "I can't witness to him." So we have a tendency to preach the gospel down.

Because there's something inside of us that's relying upon our own effort, our own position. Right? So if I happen to be elevated, then I can preach down because, you know, I'm so respected and I have all this money and everybody's looking up to me. But as soon as we think somebody's a little bit higher, a little bit above us in any way, we say, "Ah, they're not going to take me serious." But what does Paul say?

The power is in the gospel. That's why in verse 16, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes." The power is not in you, it's not in me. That's why he says, "It's my joy." Whether I'm preaching to the Greeks or to the barbarians, to the Gentiles or to the Jews.

It's not about my position, who I am, my experience, my money, my intellect. He said, "No." That's why Paul says in Corinthians, he said, "You know what? Your letters are strong, but your presence is unimpressive." That can mean two things. One, he doesn't preach well. You know, they're comparing with him to, who am I thinking of?

Apollos, right? Apollos is the seasoned preacher. You don't preach that well, you stutter. Or he's just not good looking. In fact, Paul is known to be a short, bald guy. He walks in, he's like, "That guy wrote this letter?" Remember what Paul said? "When I came to you, I did not come with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the power of God." When I was with you, I resolved to know nothing but Christ crucified.

What is he saying? Whatever you think of me, that's not where the power is. Whether you think of me high or you think of me low, that's not where the power is. Whether you are Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman, the high will be brought low, the low will be brought high.

Because the entrance into the kingdom and the power that changes people's lives is in the gospel, not you. Not me, not our technique. So as a church, we need to be brought back to what makes us us. What brings you joy? Why you were attracted to Christ in the first place?

What justified you should be the same thing that attracts you, and that's the very thing that we ought to pursue. That's, you know, all of that. Paul's laying all of that. Before we even get to the message, right? Know who you are. Know what the message is. Know what the ministry is and why we need to be doing this, that we may pursue this with joy.

We're going to have time of communion, and obviously every time we have communion, it's an opportunity for us to reflect and to think about the very things that we're talking about. We don't do this because you've earned your righteousness. You don't come up here because somehow you've done the right things this week, so you deserve this.

Nobody comes up to this table because you deserve it. So what we are celebrating this morning is what Christ has done. We are celebrating justification. But in the process of celebrating justification, we are to reflect deeply upon our pursuit. Do you have unconfessed sins? It takes some time to confess it.

Do you have relationships? Do you have bitterness toward people that you've left unresolved and is causing this tension in the Holy Spirit to be grieved in your life, to take time to confess these sins? And so as you are ready, we're going to ask you one by one, if I can ask Elder Phil to come up and help me.

And then when you come, please, obviously if you're sitting right in the middle, you know, you're welcome to come, but again, it's going to cause traffic. So if you, this side come this way, and this side come this way, and then grab your, the elements and then go down this middle aisle together so we don't cause this traffic here.

But at the same time, we want to encourage you, if you're not a Christian, you've never confessed your sins, to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, we ask you to sit in your place and not to come up because communion table is kind of like an anniversary, right?

Baptism is the marriage. So if you have not been baptized, we ask that you wait until you're baptized to come up. But those of you who are ready, just be prayerful when you're ready, one by one, we're going to invite you to come up. Let me read a passage with you as our team opens up.

And then again, be prayerful when you're ready, we invite you to come up. First Corinthians 11, 23, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given things he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, 'This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.'" So as you are ready one by one, we ask you to come and take of the element.