A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment of bringing something to represent their religion. The first boy got in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is the Star of David." The second one was a girl and when she stood in front of the class and she said, "My name is Mary. I’m a Catholic and this is the Crucifix." The third boy got in front of the class and said, "My name is Tommy and I am a Baptist and this is a casserole."
Romans 1:8-12
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, 10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
Most of those who were gathered at this Roman church had probably never even heard of Paul, so, he speaks from his heart and in verses 8-12 he not only tells of the love he has for the Lord but also of the love he has for those who are in Rome.
In the last chapter of this book he signs off by mentioning 29 people he had known from previous places he preached and these people had become part of this church, and many think he’s not just saying hello but he’s letting the rest of the church know that these are people who can vouch for him.
His overall purpose in writing is to encourage the believers, to tell them he intends to visit and his desire is to preach among them. And so, he begins in verse 8 by telling them,
I He’s grateful for two reasons, first that these people are saved and second, that they’re not ashamed of their salvation.
So, he says, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”
When Paul uses the word first, I always tend to look down the page for the word second; like he’s starting to list a few things; but when he says first, he’s emphasizing his ‘first’ priority is to express his gratitude. And Paul says he’s grateful because their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now that’s quite a testimony, isn’t it? Of course, we realize he’s referring to the Roman world but that’s no small potatoes.
Can you imagine being from any large city in North America and someone saying, “Everybody in this city has heard about your faith.”
So, Paul is grateful and people who are truly spiritual are those whose lives are marked by an attitude of gratitude. After all, if we’re not thankful, it’s because, we don’t feel like we’ve been treated right or somehow, we didn’t get what we deserve. Of course, it goes without saying that if any of us got what we deserved we’d be spending eternity in hell.
There was a lady who wrote to Ann Landers and she said, “I’m looking forward to going to heaven when I die but if my parents are there, I’d rather go to hell.” And reading that I got the impression she isn’t going to have to worry about the choice.
One Saturday morning, a 4-year-old boy and his grandpa went out for a treat at the donut shop. And as they were driving along the Grandpa asked the little boy, "Which way is heaven?" The little boy pointed up to the sky. And then he asked, "And which way is hell?" And the little boy pointed down towards the floor. And then Grandpa asked, "And where are you going?" And the little guy said, "To the donut shop." And many we meet have the same attitude. They don’t care about eternity they’re more concerned with getting what they want and getting it now.
If there's anything we learn about the apostle Paul, it's that he had a grateful heart. In every epistle he wrote, he always begins by expressing his thanks for those to whom he is writing, except for one and they were the Galatians who he couldn’t possibly be grateful for because they had departed from the faith and were living totally in the flesh.
But notice, that it was the faith of the Roman Christians he was grateful for, not the size of their building, their number of employees or even what they gave to missions. It was their faith because their faith had astonished the entire Roman world.
As a matter of fact, their testimony was so strong, that in 49 A.D., Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jews out of Rome. And Suetonius, the Roman historian records that the reason Claudius expelled the Jews was because of the influence of someone named "Christos,” which seems to be Claudius' feeble attempt at identifying the Christians.
So, Paul says, I'm thankful that your faith is spoken of throughout the world and their faith included not only that they were saved but that these people had a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ and His power was evident in how they lived; and listen, these were people who were living in the heart of darkness of Rome itself. Paul was thankful for their credibility and integrity because they were living out their faith in the face of continual political hostility.
No wonder Paul wanted to spend time with these believers. They were shaking the foundation of their world and listen; they weren’t doing it by holding protests or city-wide campaigns but they were simply witnessing to one person at a time.
Someone wrote,
Lord help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer shall be for OTHERS
The heroes of the Christian faith are not always those who pastor the biggest churches, write the most books or travel the world ministering to missionaries. Often the true heroes of the faith are unknown and will never be known until the day of reward.
I had a friend who went home to be with the Lord a few years back and he dropped in to see me when I was living down east. He had spent the first portion of his life as a missionary in Guyana and when he came back to Canada, he had a ministry among the native people in Ontario.
He told me he had come from a very small church in Ontario and this church had never grown to more than thirty-five members. It was in a very rural country area. But from that church came twelve full time missionaries and those who remained home supported the twelve missionaries until the last person had retired from the field, and then the church folded.
We hear that and we wonder, what happened? Did they abandon the faith or somehow lose their vision? No, God had raised them up to do a job and they did it. And it all began because they loved the Lord and treasured His word. These people are heroes. I mean, imagine how many had been saved because these people stayed behind and prayed and supported those who went. It makes you wonder; how many unknowns are around us?
There was a man in Kansas City who had been severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured and he lost his eyesight as well as the use of both his hands. He was a new Christian and he said that one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.
Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille but much to his disappointment, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had also been destroyed by the explosion.
One day, as he brought a braille page to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible with my tongue. And so far, he has "read" the entire Bible cover to cover four times. This man is one of my heroes.
Unlike him many have excuses why they don’t read the Bible like: “I just can’t understand it. I don’t have the time. I don’t know where to start. There are too many translations and I don’t know which one is right. I’m just not motivated. The Bibles too boring. It’s just not practical. It’s full of errors. It’s outdated. I prefer to read something lighter like the Daily Bread. And the best excuse I’ve heard is, I just can’t be bothered.
The fact is, we are attracted to the things that really grab our attention. There were two men walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of them said, "Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket." But his friend didn’t hear a cricket and said: "How can you possibly hear the sound of a cricket ... with all the traffic and the noise of the city."
The first man, was a zoologist and he had trained himself to listen to the sounds of nature. So, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime and threw it on the sidewalk and about a dozen people stopped and started looking for the dime. You see, we hear what interests us. And Paul wanted to spend some time with those who were interested in the Lord and His word.
There was an elevator operator at a hospital in Nashville who said, "I'm just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody." And listen, it doesn’t matter how small our church is, what our disabilities are or where we live because all of us can be used to minster to someone.
II And then he says in verses 9 and 10 his prayer and desire was to visit them.
He says, “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, 10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.
Paul says God Himself was his witness that he was constantly praying for them. I remember when I began my ministry in Guelph there was a lady there who was a real prayer warrior and she not only prayed for me daily while I worked with the young people but as I was leaving to take on a senior pastors role, she told me she would continue to pray for me every day.
And then there were people in the church I pastored who prayed for me at prayer meeting, then the ladies prayed during their prayer time during the week and many of the members told me how they were praying for me every day in their personal devotions. Now we were not some kind of mega church but we did average twenty-five baptisms a year. And I can honestly say, “It wasn’t me.”
Prayer can be both a defensive as well as an offensive weapon because we’re not only praying for protection but we’re also praying for spiritual advancement.
In terms of protection we know that the devil uses all kinds of tricks to get our minds off the things of the Lord and on ourselves. And sometimes we have to use his attacks to redirect our thoughts. I mean, if our minds are pre-occupied with someone because we have a problem with anger, bitterness or even lust we need to pray for that person and the more we pray the more the devil is going to realize he’s not hurting but motivating both us and those we’re praying for and we know that’s certainly not one of his goals.
As Christians we are in a constant spiritual battle not only with the devil but also with ourselves when it comes to praying because it’s easy to see prayer as a waste of time when things happen so slow, but listen, God says it’s the only way He’s provided that we can accomplish anything in the spiritual world. So, we need to pray.
I heard of a young pastor who said to an older pastor, “Please pray for me that I will stay humble.” And the older pastor said, “Why? What do you have to be proud about?”
There are two necessities in the Christian life where Satan constantly attacks us and if he’s successful; then we’ll be totally ineffective for Jesus Christ.
And the first one; is the area of personal devotions and this means simply reading your Bible and praying. And if you don’t read your Bible and pray every day then Satan has you exactly where he wants you. You see, scripture is nourishment for our souls and prayer is a weapon for both defence and offence.
I remember when I first got saved and I wondered how much time I should spend reading the scriptures and how many people should I be praying for, and I started reading Christian books about the great believers of the past to see what they had done.
I read about John Wesley who traveled 250,000 miles on horseback, averaging twenty miles a day for forty years. He preached 4,000 sermons, produced 400 books and he learned ten languages. At age eighty-three, he was annoyed with himself because he couldn’t write more than fifteen hours a day without hurting his eyes. At age eighty-six, he felt ashamed he could no longer preach more than twice a day. He complained in his diary that he had an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning.
I decided, I was going to follow Wesley’s example and I got up at five in the morning and got on my knees to pray; but to be honest, it was the worst position I’ve ever slept in. I’m not John Wesley.
The big question for many of us have is, where do I start and I always tell people to start simple. Listen very carefully, start by reading your Bible for five minutes and then pray for three people.
I shared this with a friend one time and he said, “I’ve got my own thing going. I’m going to memorize the entire gospel of John.” He got down to verses 3 or 4 of the first chapter and then he quit. I asked him a few days later how he was doing and he said he decided he was going to follow the apostle’s example and write out his very own copy of the New Testament. He started with the book of Luke and he wasn’t a very fast writer but he got about half way through the first chapter and quit. His problem was our problem, he needed to start small and build.
Some one said, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” And the stupid never listen to anybody.
I always tell those who ask about devotions to start with the book of John and when you read it; underline every word that Jesus says and when you’re finished; go back and just read the words you’ve underlined. This will get you familiar with Jesus and with what He had to say.
And if you’re like the rest of us you’ll find reading the Bible grows on you. In the beginning it’s the medicine stage where you do it because you know it’s good for you; and then it’s like bran flakes, it’s dry but nourishing but then it becomes like dessert and you can’t wait to have a little more. O.K. so, read it every day for five minutes.
And then pray for three people. Any three. They can be family members, friends, co-workers or whoever. Pray for their spiritual needs, pray for their health and then pray they’ll be productive at work, at school or whatever they do. And listen, if you don’t make a list of those you’ll pray for, I’ll guarantee you, your mind will simply go blank and you’ll come to the conclusion that you’re not the praying kind. Prayer is a discipline and keeping a list of people and their needs will keep your mind from wandering.
And as you grow in the faith, you’ll find yourself praying for your family, your friends, your pastors and hopefully for a few non-Christians as well and then don’t forget to pray for your own needs as well.
And you need to find the right time for you, which is not to say you can’t pray anytime but if you don’t pick a specific time then you’ll end up with no time at all. For some people, it’s in the morning and for others it’s just before they go to bed. No matter when you do it, as the Nike commercial says, “Just do it.”
Do it, when you don’t feel like it, when you’re sad, when you’re busy, when you’re tired, when you’re feeling good, when you’re stressed, when you’re not motivated, when you’re on vacation, when you’re not sure of something and especially when you find yourself making excuses to avoid praying…just do it.
And listen, the Bible says, people prayed kneeling, standing, sitting, lying on a bed or face down on the floor. So, whatever helps you express a sense of humility before God; just do it. I like how someone put it, we are to pray like everything depends on God and then we are work like everything depends on us.
Someone said, “Our prayers we shouldn’t be hazy, crazy or lazy.” Listen, our churches need to be houses of prayer, not houses of programs.”
I remember reading about a pastor who said, ‘Several years ago, a woman ordered me to come to her house where she said, ‘I have called you here because the most wonderful thing has happened. I have personally right before my eyes, as big as life, just like you are sitting here have seen Jesus.’ ‘It was about two or three in the morning, I just sat straight up in bed and thought I heard someone call my name.
At first, I thought it might have been indigestion. But there, right at the foot of my bed, was Jesus, as big as life; actually, he was a little bigger than life. My Lord and he was dressed in shining white just like he is in the third window from the left on the right side of the church. And he called me by name.’ I said, ‘Here I am Lord,’ or words to that affect. And he said, ‘I want you to give your life to my work. I have work for you to do.’ And then he was gone.
So, that’s why I called you here. I want to give my life totally and completely to the Lord and to his work because he said, ‘Gladys, I have work for you to do.’’
‘Well,’ the pastor said, ‘This is wonderful; few of us receive such visions and I am only too happy to think about what you can do to serve the Lord. Let’s see, have you thought about teaching? The fellowship class lost a teacher last month. You might be just the one to ….
‘Fellowship class! she almost shouted, you expect me to teach the very people who were so haughty to me and Marvin when we first moved here? I would like to tell them a thing or two. Oh no, you don’t want me teaching that crowd.’
‘Oh, I see,’ said the pastor. ‘Well, how about the nursery? You know, we have a real problem getting folks who can keep the ….
‘Preacher, have you lost your mind? Don’t you remember visiting me in the hospital last year when my back went out? That would be suicide for me. Since when have you seen somebody able to look after little kids without being able to lift them up?’
‘That true,’ he said. ‘You know before you retired, you worked as a secretary and we have work to do at the church a couple of mornings a week. We could…
‘Oh no, you don’t preacher. I made myself quite clear when you bought that expensive typewriter that I was opposed to it. We had nothing but trouble with those things at work but you thought you knew more about typewriters than anyone else and now you’re stuck with it and nobody knows how to use it.’
He made a couple of more attempts to figure out what Jesus might have had in mind but it was useless, so, he said, ‘Why don’t you think about it, and if you have another vision, whatever you do, don’t let Jesus leave the room until he tells you exactly what he wants you to do.’ Listen, she had a great experience but she had very little in terms of a relationship with God.
She reminds me of the family driving home from church after the dedication of their baby. The older brother started crying in the back seat. His mother asked him what was wrong and he said, “The pastor said he wanted us to be brought up in a Christian home…but I want to stay with you guys!”
So, in verses 10 to 12 Paul tells them he’s praying for them and then he says, “he’s making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
And he’s praying so that first, he can visit them and second so, he can share with them a spiritual gift which will enable them to be established or built up in the faith and their fellowship will result in mutual encouragement.
When Paul says, "I want to impart to you some spiritual gift," he doesn't mean that he has control of the gifts of the Spirit but when he says he wants to impart it means "I want share with you the gifts the Holy Spirit has shared with me." And this is a two-way street because he expects they will share their spiritual gifts with him as well and this is how God wants His church to function; we are to minister to one another and build each other up and encourage one another.
Can you imagine Paul saying he was coming to your house to visit so you and he could encourage one another? I mean, what could you or I possibly do for Paul’s spiritual life. He wrote almost half of the New Testament. We tend to forget that all of us have at least one spiritual gift and with our gift we can encourage one another.
Paul tells us in 1 Cor 14: 3,4 that spiritual gifts produce edification and exhortation and comfort to each other. So, the function of spiritual gifts is to minister to one another and no one walking in the spirit would ask or think, what are you going to do for me? Spiritual people are those who are pre-occupied with the needs of others.
And listen, we can be spiritually impoverished if we think some are below us and can’t do anything for us. We had a lady in one of our churches who was a helper in the three and four-year old Sunday school class. She was always there and did what she could but she had the intellect of an eight or nine-year-old.
When I left the church, she’d write me once or twice a year and she always sent me a Christmas as well. In every card or letter she sent she’d remind me of an illustration I had used in a message about how I grew up poor down in Cape Breton and I had to wear these big baggy white pants. The pants were baggy because they had been my brothers who was about a foot taller than me but when they handed them down to me, they just hemmed up the legs. She reminded me of those pants at least twice and sometimes three times a year and once she told me she had told her mother about my pants and she said it was the greatest laugh the two of them ever had.
I’ve forgotten most of the people in that church because it was so long ago, but I’ve never forgotten her. She listened and remembered the little things and that was an encouragement.
Some churches are famous for their pastor, some for their architecture, some are even famous for their cemetery and some for their organ, some for their choir, some for the celebrities that go there and some for their theology but we need to be famous for spreading the gospel throughout the whole world.
Near the Tower of London there’s an ancient church called "All Hallows" and just inside the wall there’s a large sign, which is there so tourists leaving the Tower can read it. It gives a bit of history and then raises a question, it says, "Jesus Christ has been worshipped in this building for 600 years, on this site for 1100 years, and in Britain for 1300 years. Don't you think it's time you got started?"
Listen, in the end we’re all gonna die and your time on this planet is shorter than you think. The average person has 1000 weeks of childhood, 2000 weeks of adulthood and 1000 weeks of being old. That's it. There are no do overs and no second chances. We all get one shot at life and when it's over, it's over. So, if we’re going to do anything, we have to do it now.
Someone said, “There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who group all people into two categories and those that don’t.” But listen, Jesus said that all of mankind is divided between those who are followers of Jesus and those who aren’t. In the New Testament He said, “He who is not with me is against me.” And He speaks in terms of two categories for all mankind. There are the believers and the unbelievers, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares and we are either in Christ or in Adam, in the Spirit or the flesh, we’re either a good tree or a bad tree, we’re on the narrow road or the broad road and we’re either going to heaven or hell. And He never mentions any second chances or any kind of purgatory. We all have only one of two choices.
In their book called, “The Three Success Secrets of Shamgar” the writers say we all need to:
1. Start where we are. We don’t have to go somewhere else to become someone else but God created each of us to do His will right where we are.
2. We have to use what little we have like the little boy with a few fish and some bread, or like David with his slingshot or the widow who only had a little bit of oil. God blessed and used what little they had when they placed it at His disposal.
3. We need to do what we can. We don’t need more talent, more gifts or better abilities or even some position or place of recognition but each of us needs to be willing to do whatever God wants us to do with what He has given us.
Conclusion
1. Paul began by saying how grateful he was that they were not only saved but excited about sharing their faith with others.
2. He said both his prayer to God and the desire of his heart was to visit these believers.
3. His goal in going there was to be an encouragement as well as to be encouraged by them.
And in all three areas he wanted to be an encouragement to these believers.
There’s a story about a day when the devil had a yard sale. All his demons showed up to see what he had that they might use. All of his tools were on display for sale. They were labeled with price tags, there was: anger, hatred, lust, murder, and all the rest but at the end of the table was a tool without a label, and it had the highest price of all.
One demon asked, “What is that?” The devil said, “That’s my main tool. It’s discouragement.” The demon said, “What is it priced so high?” Satan said, “Because most people don’t know it’s mine.”
We need to be an encouragement to each other and then we’ll learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord.
