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All right. Good morning. I think it's time to start. What a beautiful morning,
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It's gorgeous. And we've got a
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lot to be thankful for. Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Wonderful. Alright. So instead of trying to have a conversation, I think we'll just sing together.
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How's that sound? Why don't we stand up? The word hallelujah, when we say hallelujah, it's just an expression of worship and rejoicing. It means praise the Lord.
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We've And got a lot to praise the Lord for. When I see the beauty beauty of a sunset glory, amazing artistry across the evening sky. When I feel the mystery of a distant galaxy, it all's and humbles me to be loved by a god so high. What can I do? And what can I do?
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But thank you? What can I do but give my life to you? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What can I do When I hear the story, when I hear the story
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Amen? You can be seated for a
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minute. Amen. So, can y'all hear me this morning? Good. I've got a few announcements.
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First of all, connect hour happens in between services and I want to thank the ones of you set up for that. Nancy Teracciano is the person who's in charge of it. But lots of different people do it. And it's just been fantastic and getting better. So thank you so much.
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Last week, we had like one half of the bar was American stuff. Then there was the surprise tamales and there's no telling what's going to be back there but it's always going to be good. So, that happens at 10:00 right after this service before the next. Good place to connect. Today, there's no children's church.
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It's not happening. During this service today, there's no children's church going on during the Thanksgiving break. So, there will not be the little cavalcade out of here just before the sermon. Awana is happening because Thanksgiving break ends at school time tomorrow. So, Awana is happening tomorrow evening in this room, 06:00.
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Kids learning scripture, memorizing it, and playing games together. So that's Awana tomorrow night. Same time down the hall. We'll be doing Monday nights at first b.
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Monday night, I
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think it'd it'd just be pizza night and then we're getting into Luke six. Jesus teaching about judging others. It's really good stuff. So, know the door is open. Know that you're always welcome to Monday night, okay?
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06:00, meal, music, and a message right down the hall. There is a ladies luncheon coming up that ladies you're all invited to. It's Wednesday, December 7, so that's coming up pretty quick. Twelve noon to 2PM. It's up at Snow King Resort, the grand ballroom there.
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And if you have not RSVP'd yet, please do so to Nancy Irwin. I don't see her back there yet, but Nancy Irwin's number is the one up there. (205) 529-4126. That is an all community ladies Christmas luncheon. December 11, Renzi is out of town right now, but he is in charge of the chili cook off.
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It's always a fun time. We do Christmas caroling around town first, usually hayride style, and then come in and have a chili cook off. Carolyn starts at 04:30. That'll be after the play that morning. I don't think we have a slide for that, but, the eleventh in the morning, we're having one service.
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It's at 10:00. That's eleventh, not next week, but the next week. We're having one service at 10:00 and that'll be for the play, Reflections, that's being done by the first b players. Right? Nancy Cummins is in charge of that.
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Today, we're gonna skip the kitchen commercial today, but I am gonna ask you if you would be praying for it. We feel like a lot of folks have stepped out and said, yes, I'll pledge and give. But instead of doing the longer Chris Chris kitchen commercial in this Christmas season, I'll ask you and I'll pray right now, actually. Lord, would you please stir our hearts to do your will? Lord, I mean that in every possible way across the spectrum, but as leaders of the church have gotten together for the last two years and and tried to pinpoint exactly where the ministry of this church could be improved and all of the ministries came up with the same thing.
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Lord, we ask you to make this happen. We turn it over to you. We're thankful and grateful for what you have given and for what those here who have given Lord, but we ask you that you would complete this, campaign. We have planned it. We're right in the middle of it.
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We've planned it. But Lord, you are the one who directs our steps. In Jesus name, Lord, would you do it? Amen. And for all the other, one more thing.
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There's one more thing because it's Christmas. Y'all notice it's decorated. It's advent season here and the the tree out front, you may have seen on the tree out front we've done this for years and years and years there are tags that are hanging up like this on the little cardboard cutout mounts that are hanging on the wall. There are others like this. All of the tags have written on them specific items.
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This says, family six, father, large pair of work gloves. So that's what this one says. And that is for a particular person who is in need of a pair of large work gloves. So the ones on this tree, on these tags, those are all specific gifts for people. We've kind of noted that there are 23 families that we have found in need, and so we are putting those up there.
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If you would like to be a part of it, it's something that you all have done for a long time in the past. If you'd like to be a part, grab a tag, bring that in. You can put the stuff in my office. And Tanya is the main one who coordinates that. On this tree in a week or so and on the other tree in the fellowship hall, you'll see these.
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These were made up by Krista Nethercott and her kids. And these have specific items on the back, but they are not for specific people right now that we know of. This is stockpiling for the Community Resource Center and for First Bee. So any size baby diapers, children's museum passes, one adult, one child. Okay?
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These things are great, but they're not for the specific families right now and they're for those who will be throughout the year, okay? So, if you see these, that's what that all about and I think that's the last announcement but we have an advent reading mister missus Todd, Jennifer, Lampa, and all the kiddos, would you come forward? Good morning.
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Today is the first Sunday in Advent. First candle, which is the candle of hope. We have hope because of the faithful promises of God. He sent his son, and we receive our savior, a savior born to redeem the world from sin and death.
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Romans fifteen thirteen says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Amen. Thank you and y'all can get up and greet one another and we will bring you back together with a series of songs.
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Amen. God, we do want to really I I pray that your really your spirit and your fervor when and your joy would would hit the deepest parts of us so that what else could we do but really give you thanks and and give you praise for you are good. You are truly good. And yet, Lord, we do confess that sometimes we're just kinda fearful in the things that we do and the things that we say, and praying for that you would make us bold. Like the early church people, they they didn't pray necessarily just for safety and comfort, but for boldness, that they would be bold in in sharing about you.
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And I pray that that conviction will grow deeper and deeper in us. Amen.
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As the frontline team comes forward. God, we do thank you lord for every perfect, good, and perfect gift. Eugene just said right before he read James last night and what a blessing it was. Florine over here just said, oh that B minor, that B minor in that song. It's just a blessing from God.
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Lord, we recognize the big and the little things
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that you do in life and lord, where we say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Last week, we sang it.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. You give and take away. I'm thinking of some fairly significant loss as we approach this Christmas season that we are going through without a family member that was here last year or that we're going through it and it's just a time right now of lament. And so God, I pray that you would turn that, that you'd turn it, that we'd no longer be a slave to the fear, that you would turn it towards hope. And God, I I think of recognition of all of the blessings coming off of Thanksgiving the other day, counting us up.
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Lord, would you allow us to see the little blessings and the big blessings every single day. One of those is how you provide for us every single day,
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all year long, Lord.
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And so, God, I pray that you would take what we put in these plates right now and that you would spread your good gospel of hope to those who are in the season of lament. Lord, it's not like we don't know what it's like to hurt. God, would you take us and use us to spread your gospel to the ends of the earth. Would you use this offer and multiply it and take it where it will do the most good for your kingdom. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you let this church be a light to the nations and to its surrounding community?
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Amen.
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Home and suffer. We bring an offering of worship to our king. And no one on earth deserves praises that we
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Amen. There's it feels weird for there to be no stomping right now, doesn't it? For the No Peak Children's Church today, I've kinda gotten used to that sound of the pitter patter of lots and lots of little feet. I have, y'all have gotten into Advent season and I'm an everyday person. Remember what we've been studying for the last three weeks that Paul says there's some special day people where some special days and there are other people who kinda see every day is the same.
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I bowed my wiring, divine wiring. I'd see every day pretty much the same. So, I'm going on with Romans, okay? No, I'm just kidding. I'm going on Romans today.
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I'll be in to Christmas before it gets here. I promise. I saw this portion though this week and thought and we need to have a personal section every once in a while. We've had a doctrinal treaties for the last, I don't know how long since January 17 is when we started Romans, but we had a couple of weeks where we were in Paul's personal remarks to them, the prescript of the letter, and then he's getting to the end of the letter. I've already told you he's had a false ending twice already by this point where it looks like, okay, he said everything he needs to say, and then he starts back up and wow, that was even more important than the last thing.
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And then he starts back up again. So Paul is gonna pick up his personal remarks like he started off. I'll try to point that out. I was gonna go a lot further today, and the more I looked at it, I thought, there's a lot here, and there's a lot here for us today. If you start thinking about it in the here and now, right here, the way that this flows, I wanna go.
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So, if you think about Romans being a profound doctrinal treaties, most people say it's it's his opus. It's the big theological edifice that Paul constructed on God's inspiration. It's a profound doctrinal treaties, but it's wrapped up in a personal letter from the apostle Paul to all who are beloved of God in Rome called as saints. So think about that. If you were sitting in Rome and hearing this letter read the first time, it would not take from January 17 until November 27.
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They would have read it and they would have read it again and again but they would have read it straight through. So, these personal remarks are an assurance of his confidence of the church at Rome. Now, who is it that is building the capital c church? Jesus. Amen.
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Thank you. John Mick is smiling because Jesus rocks. This is Email sign off. Jesus is building his church. He promised that he would.
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He's promised he'd never leave or forsake. He promised that his spirit would come and the Holy Spirit would be active. My favorite book I read the whole time in seminary was written in about 1919. It's by Roland Allen. It was called the spontaneous expansion of the church.
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Meaning, if you are saved by God above and he gives you his spirit, He empowers you to build his church. It's awesome. That's a great book. Now we get in the way of it a lot of times by saying, well, I don't think that person's ready. And keeping people down, but if you have had a an experience with God, you can share that experience with God and it will grow the kingdom and so here we go.
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Paul's listing his assurance of his confidence in the church realm. It starts off and says, and concerning you, my brethren, brothers and sisters, I, myself, am convinced that you yourselves, so he's being specific, right? I, myself, I've given this doctrinal treaties for the last 14 chapters or so. And now concerning you, bring it back down into this room at this place, my brothers and sisters. I, myself, am convinced that you yourselves it reminds me of this first part.
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It's a gospel exalting prescript of the letter. He says, first of all, in verse eight, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, people who are hearing this letter because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. Like I said, Christ is building the church and he's doing it through individuals who have faith. Attaboy. That's a nice pat on the back for the church at Rome.
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He's never been there. He knows a lot of people there and we'll see that in the next chapter. Chapter 16 is covered up with people's names of people that he knows that are now there. But he's saying, good job at the beginning. And then he goes into that whole section about the universal reign of sin and how no one is righteous.
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No, not one. And then he comes out of it and talks about the spirit in the flesh. And concerning you, my brothers and sisters, I myself am also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness. Wait a second. No one is righteous.
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No. Not one. There's none who does good. There's none who seeks after God. He said that in chapter three, and now he says, I'm convinced.
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I myself am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness. How's that happen? Well, there's something between the universal reign of sin and them being full of goodness and it is the work of God. It is the work of the gospel. Let's go forward.
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I'll skip this for now and come back to it. Filled with all knowledge. That doesn't sound like yeah, it does. Filled with all knowledge. Paul is saying, concerning you, I'm convinced you're full of goodness.
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You're filled with knowledge. Although, I've just laid out the master plan here in front of you. I'm convinced you already know it. And that you yourselves are able to admonish one another amongst yourselves. I've been admonishing you now for quite some time, Paul is saying, But you're able to do it yourselves.
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This is an expression of humility for one thing because Paul does feel that he must must preach the gospel and that he must expound it and get it down to its irreducible minimum. Try to strip away traditions of man. Try to strip away all of the unnecessary items. And he is saying, I know that you can do this. Now he's been receiving reports that they haven't been doing this exactly this way.
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Full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another. We'll come back to that at the end of the sermon. Turn back around, get 14 at the end. 15 says, but, however, but, disjunctive, pretty strong, I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again. What are some of those points that he has written pretty boldly on?
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For the last two chapters, he's spoken almost exclusively on unity in the body of Christ that if Christ has brought us all together, he can keep us together and that we should not let our our matters of conscience or opinion separate us. That's what he's talked about for the last three sermons that I've preached. Those are those were pretty bold. He said that those of you who are strong in faith were not to be holding in contempt those who are weak in faith and those who are weak in faith were not to be judging those who are strong in faith. So, not to be judging and not to be holding one another in contempt and think about that.
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Think about in your own head right now in this room. Who are the people, claim Christ, that you are judging or that you're holding in contempt? Yeah. I've written very boldly to you, he says, on some points, and I've preached it fairly boldly too. One of you said this week that I was walking a tightrope for the last weeks, and he was expecting for me to fall at any minute on one side or the other, the judging or the holding in contempt.
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And I feel like I might have a couple of times. He said, no. I think you held it together, But it was bold. Paul's message to them was really bold. Yes.
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I know that some of you hold these traditions so dear and you're Christians, and you do them out of love for Christ. And then there are others of you who don't believe that those are necessary, and you're right. They're not. But you do what you do out of your convictions before Christ. I've written to you very boldly on some points, like the universal reign of sin, how we are all in need of good news because the bad news is universal.
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But Paul says, because of the grace that was given me from God, Paul, who had been Saul, incredibly bright citizen of Rome, citizen of the world, very learned man, educated, and puffed up in his knowledge, persecuting the church. And then on the Damascus Road, God's grace struck him. His grace struck him, not his merit. Now, God used everything that Paul had in him before and he used everything he would transform him into because of the grace that was given me from God. He had said this in Romans twelve three also.
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Paul says, for through the grace that is given to me, this is another one of those strong bold points. I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. But to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted allotted to each a measure of faith. Had Paul known what it was like to think more highly of himself than he ought? Oh, yeah.
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Have we? I have. But I've written to you very boldly on some points because so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God. I I think of this guy. This guy was here with me all week this week.
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He came in Tuesday after our last service of the week, and then he left Friday before we got to this service. I would have had him stand up and just say howdy anyway. Andrew Halbert, I was in seminary with him and just had one class. The whole five years I was there, I only had one class with him, but we became friends. He is serving as the academic dean of a seminary in Costa Rica right now.
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Now he's a missionary kid. He grew up on the field with a father who had very, very profound theological understanding that he applied every single day in his normal job serving the people of Honduras. He grew up there from age three to 15. So he's twelve years there. His English and Spanish are completely fluent, completely equal.
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He had a he doesn't have to think to translate from one to another. He doesn't even realize that he's thinking in one or the other. He's a great guy, and he is back now. Now he's an introvert. He is not an extrovert.
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He's nothing like me in that area, but he is an architectural thinker. He understands legal arguments like Paul. He understands education systems, and he has had this opportunity or this job kinda dropped in his lap. He knew that he wanted to serve, and he opened himself up to it, and he found himself at ECP, which is in Costa Rica. It's like it's not a language school.
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It is a school of theology for all of Latin America. Now, he understands theology very very well. He's very gracious about it. He understands what things are central to the gospel and which things are opinion based. He has a strong denominational background and realizes it and has grace for those of other backgrounds but he believes in the authority of scripture.
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So, God has him in a place because of the grace that was given to Andrew. God has him in a place where he can make the most impact for God. Because in Latin America, one of the things that we struggle with is very, very strong individual CEO style pastors that don't have a plurality of leadership around them. There is an incredible amount of biblical illiteracy. There is an incredible amount of honestly, there's a there's an anti intellectual bent that is starting to turn.
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This seminary had been failing and because he had been to several different seminaries and seen how their programs work because of the grace that God had given him, He called all of those academic deans at all those places, and he started to arrange these things into a format that actually works for the students. So just in the past, he's been there for four years. In the past two, he's been the dean. He's seen things come out of kind of a tailspin and come back up. This one's the one that was first on my mind this week, but I met with about 10 of y'all, and I see the grace that God has given you to go through what you've been through.
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You are now using that. Some of y'all that are helping out the poor in this community have been horribly poor. Some of y'all who have been through desperate pain and loss of children are helping others who are going through that right now. Because of the grace that God has given this guy, a whole seminary has started to turn and started to write. Because of the grace that is given to you, God is using you.
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I can't believe I'm standing up here. Because of the grace that God has given me, I'm here. This makes no sense except in God's economy and I'm very very thankful. Now, Paul goes on and says, because of the grace that God has given me, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. Now, very very Jewish as Paul was.
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God chose him to be. He gave him the understanding and he chose him to be the minister to the Gentiles. He says, ministering as a priest, I'm going to come back to that in a little bit because that translation is a little sketchy and there's nowhere in the New Testament, nowhere in the New Testament where someone is called a priest in the New Testament using where they administrate God's blessing or receive God's offering to administ administrate God's blessing. He says ministering in priests. It's an okay translation.
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It's not great. To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God. That's what I was trying to get to. The gospel of God. Now that reminds me of the prescript of this letter too.
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And since the kids are up here today, I use this illustration once in the past. I'm gonna run through it. The prescript of a first century letter is really simple. Usually, it's like this, Artemis, Cicerone, Advocatus Essi Dei. It's it is Artemis to Cicero, the lawyer, greetings.
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That's just as simple as the prescript usually is. We usually say, dear so and so. Right? So an illustrated prescript is this. Bob, the builder, to dizzy the cement mixer.
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That's the prescript right there. Greetings with the salutation. So at this time, letters were typically short. Now Romans is not all that short. 7,700 and something words.
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It's not really a short letter, but typically, it would go something like this. Bob, the builder, the dizzy, the cement mixer greetings. Can we fix it? Yes. We can.
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Farewell, Bob. That would be a normal kind of a letter. So a typical prescript of Romans should look something like this. Paul to the saints of Rome, greetings. But this oh, and it has in there Paul the sender, the saints are the recipient, and then a salutation.
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But this is what the prescript of Romans actually looks like. And this is the mirror image. This is the other bookend of this book that we're studying. That's what it looks like. It has in it the sender, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, a sent out one, and set apart for the gospel of God.
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This is the time. The gospel of God. For our lord, he includes other people with him right there and we have received grace and apostleship. Could have been the folks who are with him right in the letter, probably extended to those folks in Rome. And those recipients were the people in Rome.
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You also, you, all who are beloved of God in Rome, call us saints, grace to you. So those are the recipients. Now what's all the rest of this stuff? He has laid it out as the gospel of God. The gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his name's sake.
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Grace to you and peace from God our father. That's the salutation right there. That's the greeting. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we talked about this gospel of God a while back.
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It can be either God's good news or the good news about God. And I think we have to go with it being God's good news. He's the one who forecasted ahead of time. He is the one who made this plan in eternity past. It is the good news about God too but the way he means it right now is God's good news.
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The gospel of God. I've been set apart for it. Set apart to spread the good news about who? Jesus. Ministering as a priest, the gospel of God.
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He promised it. His prophets, his holy scriptures, his son. It's about God. God's good news is about Jesus and so Christmas, this makes sense. We're heading towards Christmas.
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At just the right time, Galatians says, Christ was born. This is another succinct statement of the gospel Paul uses. Now, I make known to you brothers and sisters the gospel, the good news about Jesus, which I preach to you, which you also received, and in which you also stand, by which you're also saved. If you hold fast the word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received.
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He didn't come up with it on his own. He received it. The Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised the third day according to the scriptures. That's the good news. That's the good news about Jesus.
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That's God's good news. Now here we are, again, looking at this ministering as a priest. The NASB says this, and it might be a technical distinction nobody cares about in the room except for me, but I do care about it. So I'm gonna go to the ESV version on this one. This is a much better translation exactly, part for speech, part of speech, back and forth with the Greek.
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Because of the grace that was given me by God to be a minister of Christ, someone who administers Christ, who brings to them Christ. Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly or sacred service of the gospel of God. Out of my service to the gospel, I bring this message to you. Now his message is not just the truth about Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection, but it is the ramifications that come out and how we should live our lives, not just justification by faith which Romans is very strong on but it is sanctification by that continuing faith in that continuing gospel for the rest of our lives. You don't just need the evangel once.
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You need the evangel, the good news for the rest of your life. In the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that in order that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. They need to know that it is through faith. They need to know how to approach God, and there is one way. There's one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Jesus Christ.
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So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. I'm a spin back to verse twelve one. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Acceptable to God. You come before him, nothing in your hand you bring.
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You come before him just admitting your need of him and accepting his grace. And the offering that he asked for is that your body, that your continued service would be a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service or your save sacred service, your priestly service of worship is to carry forward you as your body as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God and not being conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The tie in there so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable ends this way, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. That's what makes it acceptable. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
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It is God's work from 14 through 16, but Paul says in verse 14, I think it's next. He says this, concerning you my brothers and sisters, I myself am also convinced that you yourself, very emphatic, are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another. This looks like to me a list of criteria for picking a church. It's not children's program check. Nice Wednesday night, Bible study check.
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Full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and able to admonish one another. Not just be admonished by the guy standing up front, but able to admonish one another. Full of goodness, filled with all knowledge. So let's look at these in these last ten minutes and go forward. Full of goodness.
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The word for goodness is agathosunes. Actually, agatha or agathas is the word good, and then sunes is like synthetic. It's something that's with something else. It's more than just good. It is an intrinsic goodness.
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It's a part of this goodness. Intrinsic goodness, especially as a personal colleague with the stress on being kindly, kindly. Rather than just your own personal righteousness, you're being kind to others. It's that side of goodness. It's not used anywhere except for the New Testament.
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It's only used in Paul except for one other time when it's a quote from what Paul said in Acts 20 by Luke. Okay? So Paul comes up with this word to describe the goodness that is intrinsic specifically because of a relationship with God. It is something that has been made good, full of goodness. You're full of goodness.
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Although he said, like I said, in chapter three, no one is righteous. No one seeks after God. No one does good. No, not one. Yet, you're full of goodness.
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You're full of goodness because of the gospel of God because you believed it, you've accepted it, and you have acted on it. You're full of goodness. Praise God but that's even available at all. Filled with all knowledge. There are two things in this one, the field and the knowledge that I think are really interesting.
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If you look at filled, it is pepelo rho thee manoi. Romanoi, not threat. No thee in there. It comes from pleroma. You know what that is?
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A fullness, but it's got a little bit more information. It is a divine passive from plerio. This divine passive means you did not fill yourself Being filled. Being filled with all knowledge. Being filled means God is the one who imparts to you, not just knowledge, but wisdom.
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I'll get to knowledge in just a minute. Being filled to your individual capacity. Are some people more capable of more knowledge than other people? Yes. Are some people capable of more faith than other people?
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Yes. God has given to each as the as he measures. Being filled to your individual capacity or be having been made complete. Being filled. Being filled with what?
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Actually, some translations will say right there, complete in knowledge. You as a church, Paul says to the folks at Rome, you're full of goodness and complete in your knowledge. Why is it that he wrote the letter if they're complete in their knowledge? It's encouraging to hear the truth again even though you know it. So the knowledge part of that.
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Knowledge. Experiential knowledge, though, doctrine, wisdom, knowledge that's gleaned from firsthand personal experience. It is knowledge that has application behind it. You're doing something with it because you know it. I always say that doing follows believing.
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What it is that you believe is what you will act on. So application knowledge gained by a direct relationship with God. So he says that you're full of goodness and being filled. You have been or you are being it's better are being filled with knowledge, and you're able to admonish one another. Now there are two words in that one too.
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The able and the admonish. Able, I like, and I try to bring it up every time we hit it. The dunamunoy is from dunamis, which sounds like dynamite, which means power. There is power. There is the ability or the capacity to do this.
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You can break loose a dam with dynamite. The only thing I've ever used dynamite for is breaking loose beaver dams to get to logs. Divinely empowered to be able to have the capacity. You have the capacity. You're powerful.
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You're empowered by God to admonish. Now admonish, to me, it has a negative connotation. I don't know. It may just be me. Does it have a negative connotation to you?
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It does to me. I don't know. Maybe it's because it's a Bible word. I don't know. Admonish is from this Greek word, newthetane, new newthetic counseling.
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If you've ever heard of newthetic counseling, it comes from, this, from the word nous, mind, and tithe mi, which means to place. And so the admonish is to place someone's mind, to place them in a proper frame of mind, especially as it deals with content. So it is to admonish, to warn, to counsel, or to exhort. Now if Paul had not written Romans to the church at Rome, and they were acting like it looks like they were acting where they're separating into Jewish and Christian sects, and they're separating themselves based on their traditions. What might we have?
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A problem with lots of different individual things calling themselves the Christian church. Does anybody else think that's terrible? Denominationalism comes out of naming the things that are not important matters as important matters. The admonishing the warning, the counseling, and exhorting that Paul has been urging them on is to get into the center of the gospel that no one is righteous. No, not one.
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Yet, he gave. Yet, you can accept and yet you can live out his life if you will yield your life. You will yield your members to the righteousness of the Holy Spirit. Now, admonishing is to exert positive pressure on someone's logic. It is urging them to choose God's best.
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Not as a sword or wedge. It is just placing their mind in the place where they can see, oh my, because as we've said a thousand times, you can't say, no, lord. You could say, yes, lord or you can say no. But you're backing away from God when you say, no. No.
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I won't do that. So placing someone's mind in that place. Paul said that about this church, yet he still wrote them. We still need to be reminded. We still need to be encouraged even though in Christ, we are full of goodness.
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Even though in his word and in his Holy Spirit, we can be filled with all knowledge. Even though we love people enough to speak out when they're going off course, even though we can do this, we still need to be reminded to do it, to actually do it. So 14, I like how personal it is. He says, concerning you, my brothers and sisters, I myself am also convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness. I think that Paul has made a step beyond to say, if I ever go off track, would you call me out?
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Would you let me know? Would you place my mind for me? I myself am convinced that you yourselves do this. I'm gonna speak boldly when I need to. I expect that you will return that favor.
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So I wrote this up. This is kind of a mock up of this, and I'm speaking this is me, Ray, speaking to you in this room right now. I myself am satisfied about you brothers and sisters. My brothers and sisters, that you yourselves, you are full of goodness. If you've trusted in Christ, I believe that he has imparted to you his goodness which was foreign to you before that.
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Filled with all knowledge because you have this. You have this. You have the the Holy Spirit to illuminate this. I believe that you're filled with that knowledge and that you're able to instruct one another, instruct, admonish, warn counsel, exhort. But on several points, I will continue to challenge you very boldly.
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I will. I promise that I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna try to preach exactly what's there every single week, and it's not always easy. So I'm gonna keep on doing it because of the grace that was given me by God to have me here in the first place, but through all of my past experiences too that prepared me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to Jackson in the priestly service of God's good news alone so that the folks who come here will be conscientiously obedient to that very good news and off be offering themselves as living sacrifices in his service. And in so doing, be continually sanctified by the Holy Spirit until Jesus returns.
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So we're looking forward to that and I love y'all and I've I've had five different manifestations of this. One of them was starting to back and name everybody in here and how I know you're good and you're filled with knowledge and you're working and I can see this standing up here. It's overwhelming sometimes. I thank you for doing that because what you're doing is the priestly service of the gospel of God to this community. So, Jesus, would you, Lord, show yourself through us?
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Would you reflect off of us in such a way, Lord, that more would come, that more will be drawn into the church of at Jackson, that to the ones who are beloved of God, saints in Jackson, Lord, would be every day adding to their number. Every single church in this valley that you'd grow it. In Jesus' name, would you lift us up? Would you show us exactly where we are lacking? Would you, Lord, use our brothers and sisters around us to do that?
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Would you draw us out of our sin? Draw us into your light. In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand with us?
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I take him at his word and do. Press that to see me sorry. And in my heart I find him, that he would leave his place on high and the cumbersome for man till you die. You count
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Amen. This is from Thessalonians from second Thessalonians two sixteen and seventeen. Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father, who has loved us and given us an eternal comfort and good hope by grace. May he comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and in every good word. Amen.
