Mutual Support

 Read Ephesians 6

We will put on the full armor of God in the next service.  For now, let’s look at how Paul wrapped up that section.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

There is a concept in military operations called mutual support.  Not only am I shooting the bad guys in front of me, but also those in front of you.  You do the same for me. 

The military term is interlocking and overlapping fields of fire. While we train individuals to defeat the enemy man to man, we practice defeating the enemy together.

Paul’s concept of prayer fits this model.  Be alert, not just for yourself but for all of God’s people.  Pray for all believers not just yourself and your family.

Ask for what you need to accomplish the mission that the Lord has given you but ask also that the Lord protect and provide for those other believers who have put on the full armor of God.

Paul asked for boldness and fearlessness.  Paul knew that his mission was to take the gospel to the world, most of it the Gentile world.

Paul asked his fellow believers to pray that he would never wimp out. Paul faced physical hardship, being stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned.  He asked his fellow believers to pray that he would heed his own counsel and continue to press on toward the goal.

We know that Paul often prayed for new believers to stick to the one true gospel and not be persuaded by other arguments that might appeal to their own understanding.

How do we apply this?

The prayer list is one way.  Putting someone on the prayer list doesn’t help.  Praying for those on the prayer list does.

We don’t say—I hope—I put them on the prayer list. My work here is done.  Unfortunately, some do just that.

Connecting with other believers more than on Sunday or Wednesday gives us insight into what we should pray for in their lives.

Serving the Lord in various ministries often gives us eyes to see where prayers would be most effective.  We are told that the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. 

How powerful would the prayers of many who are made right by the blood of Jesus be?  Surely, the more that we pray for each other the better.

Paul asked for prayers for himself. How should you pray for me?

Pray that I don’t ever preach to itching ears.  My tendency is to preach the truth without regard to whether or not it is favorably received; however, we live in an age where so many do not want God’s word but want his blessings.

Pray that I don’t put any fluff in the messages entrusted to me. You are still going to get the dad jokes, but pray I don’t dilute anything to avoid ruffling feathers that the word of God intended to be ruffled.

Pray that I stick to the truth even when it leaves me socially isolated.

Pray that I do not become cynical.  I am somewhat sarcastic by nature, but I must never become cynical even when people come to the church seeking only the things of this world.  Help me to continue to preach and teach and counsel salvation through Christ alone.

Pray that I never abandon my echoing of the Lord’s charge to love one another. When my human nature says chokehold, help me to preach and live love one another.

Like Paul, my charge is a little different from yours, but we share many things in common and should pray for these things for each other.

To be known by our love.

To be a light unto the world.

To seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness before all things.

To forgive when my own understanding says not this time.

To seek to be led by God’s Spirit in all that we do.

We are to be mutually supporting.  We put on the full armor of God each day but we fight not only for ourselves but for each other.

One of our main munitions is prayer. Let us be mutually supportive in our prayers.

Amen.

Romans Wrap Up, Review, and Rolling of the Credits

Read Romans 16

Paul finally concludes this lengthy epistle in what we define as the 16^th chapter.  It is the longest of his letters.  That’s why it traditionally comes first in your Bibles.  His letters to the churches are sequenced not by date but by length with the short pastoral letters after that.

At the end of a stage play, the cast comes out for a last curtain call.  There are bows and curtsies.  Many are acknowledged with applause for their performances.

In a major motion picture, the credits may roll for ten minutes after the story is over.  The credits often have their own musical score.  They are something of a production in themselves.

Paul, in similar fashion, rolled the credits at the end of his longest letter.  He acknowledged those who had helped him in many ways.  We may know some of these people.  Some are from Corinth.  Some likely from Rome.  Some may have carried the letter penned by Paul’s scribe, Tertius, who is also acknowledged in this chapter for being the speech to text app that put Paul’s pontifications to papyrus.

Paul has a final piece of counsel to add to his acknowledgements, closes with a benediction, and in this final chapter has said, “That’s enough for this letter.”  His hope was to visit this congregation in person.  He mentioned that in the beginning and explained more of how that might happen near the end.

As we have approached this letter mostly as a biblical textbook, let’s do our final review.

·     By the evidence of creation itself, everyone should know there is a God.  He is real and you should know that with or without a preacher, a Bible, or instructions from another person.

·     God’s wrath awaits the rebellious person.  We deserve it.

·     OBTW—we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

·     We—just as Abraham who was the greatest example to the Jews—are justified by faith.  It’s not by our bloodline or strict compliance with the law, but by faith.

·     OK, let’s get historical and theological for a moment.  Sin entered the world through one man.  You guessed it.  Adam takes the rap for this one.  Sin’s partner in crime, death, followed closely in trace.  But through one man—Jesus who walked this earth as God in the flesh—we are made right with God again.  We are right with God.

·     We didn’t have to do anything to earn this gift of grace, so what should we do?  Go on sinning so we can get more grace.  No!  That is not who we are anymore.  In that “No” Paul begins his discourse on discipleship.

·     Discipleship is our response to God’s incredible and undeserved love.  It is how we love God back, and sometimes it is a struggle.  Salvation came in an instant.  Discipleship is a process and sometimes that process finds us doing things that we never intended to do.

·     And then we come to what we mark as Paul’s 8^th chapter.  Paul talked about struggling and then follows it with affirmation after affirmation, at the heart of it all is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!  That affirmation alone should get us through the toughest of days.

·     Our suffering in this present age can’t compare with what is to come.  Suffering, pain, and persecution may seem intense to us now, but won’t even muster an afterthought when we are living in what God has in store for us.

·     In all of these things that we deal with in our discipleship, we need to realize that we are victorious because of Christ Jesus.  In all these things, we are more than conquerors.

·     Sometimes we can’t make sense of much of anything but we are assured that God takes all things and works them for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

·     What can we say here?  If God is for us, who can stand against us.  Remember that this is a rhetorical question.  God is for us.  We should have the boldness of David when he faced the giant named Goliath.  Don’t you wish that Mister T had written this part of the Bible.  “I pity the fool that doesn’t have God and comes up against his servant.  That poor, uncircumcised Philistine.”  God is with us!  God is for us!  Who and what can stand against us?

·     And then we come to some of the most poetic and empowering of Paul’s words.  Here they are in the New Living Translation.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

·     Just as it seemed that Paul was on a roll with discipleship and had accompanied it with some of the strongest affirmations in the New Testament, he changes course.  He tells us that we need to understand God’s sovereignty.  God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.  That turns out to be a good thing for everyone who was not in the bloodline of Abraham, those people known only as gentiles at the time.

·     God has a chosen people but for a time they were blinded, numb, or in a stupor when the Messiah came, taught, healed, died for the sins of humankind, and took his life up again.  Most of the Hebrew people, especially their religious hierarchy, just missed it.

·     That’s good news for us and as it turns out, good news for these Chosen People as well.  All have been bound over to disobedience so that all my come to know God not by the bloodline of Abraham but by the sacrificial blood of Christ Jesus.

·     By the time that we get to chapter 12, Paul begins his upper level instruction in discipleship.  Some of what he has to say takes us to graduate coursework.

·     It begins with being a living sacrifice.  This could be an oxymoron or a paradox.  Most sacrifices don’t get to live.  The two words usually don’t go together, but when we give ourselves fully to God then we finally come to know the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.  I’m I thinking that I am coining my own Pauline term—paradoxymoron.  I think Living Sacrifice is a paradox of truth contain in this oxymoron.  Plus, I like inventing my own terms.

·     Next we are called to renew our minds.  We can’t just give God a little part of our mind and expect to see transformation.  We need to let him replough our entire field so we can be transformed into the exact person that he wants us to be.

·     OBTW—there is a fantastic benefit to giving our entire lives to God and surrendering to this transformation process.  We get to know God’s will.  We should not shrink back from this for it is a good and pleasing and perfect will.  Of course, we must surrender one of our biggest excuses when we become a living sacrifice and commit to the renewing of our mind; we have to give up saying, I don’t know what God wants me to do.  I don’t know what God wants me to do with my life.

·     Paul continues his discipleship discussion with a short discourse on gifts.  Our salvation was not just a Get out of Hell Free Card.  It also came with Spiritual Gifts.  We are to take our gifts and use them.  If God gifted us to teach, then teach.  If he equipped us to cook, then cook.  If he put music in you, then sing and play and lift your voice to the Lord like no other so as to bring him glory.  If it is to write, then write.  If it is to speak an immediate message from God—we call that prophesying—then speak the truth that God has given you.  Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that so many people die with their music still in them.  What a tragedy.  What terrible discipleship.  God gave us gifts so that we could put them to use and bring glory to his name and produce fruit for the body of Christ.

·     Paul then jumps to graduate level discipleship.  Love must be sincere.  Do you know how hard it is to fake sincerity?  Now that should be an oxymoron.  Our heart is being shaped like God’s.  We must have genuine love for one another—even the knuckleheads.

·     While Paul is working at the graduate level, he adds:  Bless those who persecute you.  To which many of us reply, I am happy with an undergrad degree. 

·     Do not repay evil for evil but overcome evil with good.  You can’t fake this, at least not for long.  It goes back to love must be sincere.  That goes back to our transformation.  We are being shaped in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.  That goes back to our entire lives being given to God as our reasonable act of service, as our true worship, as the only acceptable response to God’s mercy and grace.

·     The next part doesn’t get any easier, especially for Americans.  We are to submit to authority. Ouch!  We are a nation born in rebellion.  We would rather dump tea into Boston Harbor than submit to what we thought or think is unjust governing.  This goes back to God is sovereign.

·     Those in power are there at the pleasure of God.  There serve as his lieutenants and if we are doing the right things, they shouldn’t bother us much.

·     Paul pushes further.  Pay your taxes.  Did he know what the tax rates would be in the 21^st century when he said that?  Probably not, but the counsel stands.

·     Give honor and respect where they are due.  Okay, that makes this authority stuff a little easier to stomach.  We respect our service men and women, police and emergency service workers, and even the guy who climbs the pole in the ice storm to get our power back on.

·     Here comes some more graduate level stuff. Accept fellow believers even if they are weak.

·     We probably won’t agree on everything and we don’t have to.  There are some things that we might label disputable matters.  It’s just another term for stuff that we don’t have to agree on as we respond to God’s grace with our discipleship.

·     In that context we are counseled not to be a stumbling block to those who may be struggling with their faith by how you live out your salvation.  Don’t abuse the freedom that you have in Christ by making obstacles for those who are struggling in their faith.

·     Help those who are struggling in their faith.  Encourage and coach and mentor and help!

·     Do not judge fellow believers.  We are all accepted by Christ and will all make account to God one day.  Our sin won’t come into play during this accounting.  The blood of Jesus took care of that, but we will account for how we lived out our salvation.

·     Go to God’s word for our encouragement.  These words not only challenge us to live a better life, they encourage us along the way.  Dig into God’s holy word and know hope.  The verses that we memorize, the pericopes that we study, and the entire biblical witness that we have received give us hope.

·     And so we come to Paul’s final piece of challenge and counsel.  He told the Roman believers and is telling us, “Watch out for those who try to sell you a bill of goods.”  Be on the lookout for those with teachings contrary to what you have received. 

·     Watch out for what Paul elsewhere described as one who would preach to itching ears.  They serve their own interests and not the Lord.

·     For those who have stayed the course through these 5 letters of Paul, you might have asked yourself, “Why did he start in Galatians?”  The reason is simple and straightforward—to begin with this message:  There is no other gospel!  We wrap up Romans in the way we began this series.  There is no other gospel.

·     We are to stick to what we know to be true.  Don’t compromise the truth by making it fit into what would be easier to contend with by making it comply with your comfort zone.

·     Don’t try to make the gospel friendlier to what others think of you.  Stick to the truth.

·     Remember the words of Jesus as revealed in John’s gospel.  If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed; and you will know the truth and the truth will set your free.

·     Hold fast to the truth.  No compromise.  Jesus is Lord!  Let us live our lives according to that truth that will never change.  Let’s live in response to the mercy and grace of God that we call salvation by being Christ’s disciples.

We have made it through Paul’s letter to these first century Roman believers.  We have remained faithful to the chapter per message model that we began with.  That is a double-edged sword.

It did get us through 5 of Paul’s letters at a good clip, but it also left many areas with only a 10,000 foot AGL fly over instead of digging in at every point of some very rich theology.  So don’t put Paul’s letters on the shelf.  Keep them on your reading list.  Much will sound familiar but you will find much that will speak to you anew.

Amen.

What is a Christian to do in the Cauldron of Craziness that we call today's world?

We were once the beacon of hope to the world.  Now we are a cauldron of craziness.  What are we to do?

Scripture tells us that in the last days people will want those who preach to them to scratch their itching ears.  They will only want to hear what appeals to the most selfish nature.  Our politicians have captured the most banal causes to rally people these days and people are responding.

Sound doctrine has no more voice.

But what are we to do?

Proclaim the gospel in season and out of season.  There has never been a time when true hope was needed more.  People need to return to the Lord. 

People cry out for rights and walls and security.  God has called us to love him and to love one another.

Some want anyone who can get to a polling booth to be able to vote just like they were a citizen. Others want a mass deportation of millions.

Black Lives Matter.  Brown Lives Matter.  Gay Lives Matter.  Police Lives Matter.

The life in the womb, it doesn’t seem to matter so much.  That’s why people won’t get on board with All Life Matters.

What are we to do?

When people turned away from God and sought their own purposes long ago, he confounded their efforts by causing them to speak different languages.

If anyone were to accuse the United States of pursuing godly objectives today, we would surely be acquitted.  We have confounded our own good standing in the world and with each other by turning away from God.

Many who claim to be pursuing godly purposes have twisted holy words in an effort to support their cause or garner power.

What are we to do?

Proclaim the gospel in season and out of season, and it does seem to be out of season as far as the world is concerned.  That makes it the perfect season for the one who has a heart to take God’s light into the darkness.

Make no mistake; this insanity that surrounds us is darkness.

What are we to do?

It is time to Christian Up!  That’s right; it is the old when the going gets tough the tough get going spiel.  But it happens to be right on target. 

It is time to bring light to a dark world, not in words of condemnation but in invitations of hope.  It is time to call this nation—that can be great again—to repent and come back to God.

We can be great again not because of whom we elect but because the people will come back to God.  God’s love does not fail.  He does not change.  His heart desires us to come to him and enjoy the relationship with him and each other that he planned for us from the very beginning.

We should never be surprised when the world behaves as the world.  It is, after all, the world.  We must be vigilant and press on towards the goal of taking the good news to everyone that we can, connecting those who have received Christ but don’t participate in the work of the body of Christ with a family of faith, and disciple those who do come in the doctrine of love—the royal law.

From a military perspective, we might classify the world as a target rich environment.  Look in any direction and we who follow Jesus have plenty of opportunities to do his will and bring glory to his name.

I would like to think that America will not only survive as a nation but once again be a godly beacon for the world, the land of hope, and one that puts God before self in all things.

Whether we can reclaim what was once pure and noble in this nation is at stake and the outcome uncertain.  What is very much certain is the call for every man, woman, and child who follows Jesus to live up to our calling right now.

Let’s be the light of the world and lead people to Christ.

Let’s be the salt of the earth and give people a taste of God’s goodness in their every encounter with us.

Let’s not forsake gathering together and worshiping God.

Let’s love one another.

Let’s pick up our cross every day and truly follow Jesus.

It is time to Christian Up and lead this nation to God one person and one family at a time.  So get off of your phone or your tablet or your computer and go be God’s love with your neighbor.  Share the gospel.  Invite them to gather with you and others who are learning what it is to follow Jesus.

Go into this crazy world and be God’s love!