23 Paul’s Reflections (Romans 15:14-33)

SPEAKER_00: We are in Romans, what are we in? 15. Can you believe we're almost done? It's hard to believe. I'm going to open today with an excerpt from a column by Andre Sue. She's a columnist for World Magazine. I don't know if any of you get that. This was in the latest actually, I guess it's two issues ago now, February 25th issue. And it's on the website. So if you want to read the whole article, you can go to worldmag.com. So don't go to world.com. That's a Mooney magazine. So WorldMag.com is the uh the uh conservative magazine. Anyway, she's been uh a columnist for over six years. She graduated from Westminster Seminary. Uh she used to teach English. She was married and widowed in 1999, and she has four children. And in this column, she's reflecting on where she is in her life now. So she starts the older woman is the twin, is the target of a twin cultural broadside, the stereotype battle axe of a whole industry of mother-in-law greeting cards, and the taboo seductress. Think Mammy Yocam of Little Abner or Mrs. Robinson of the Graduate. The Bible takes a different view. Older women are to train the younger women, Titus 2.4. There's an expectation of progress in the Christian life, not just a treading water until Christ returns. Someday, in spite of all your tummy tucks, liposuction, organic food offensives, and fitness workouts, someone will walk up to you and say, as a woman said to me last Sunday, would you be willing to mentor me? And then you realize the jig is up. You're officially an older woman. So she goes on to talk about how in we are her the phrase she uses, in late autumn, we are still meant to bloom. In other words, as an older woman, you're still to be fruitful and bloom. And she concludes, the plan is is that as the first I can read this. The plan is that as the woman's first beauty wanes, a ripening comes that is the second beauty. It is by this that men may still love their wives, even as the bridal dowry of physical allure is exchanged over time for the better dowry of an inner glow. Twenty somethings, you're headed my way. The message of Proverbs is that the destinations are reached one step at a time. Maturity does not come stapled to your AARP membership. Someday only turn around and suddenly a younger woman will tap you on the shoulder and say, Will you mentor me? Be ready. You will not want to wonder if the husbandman would say to you, Cut it down. Why should it use up ground? Which is a reference to a Bible passage she quoted earlier. Somehow that struck me. And I thought it was appropriate because we're almost finished with our study of Romans, and Paul's going to close this letter now as he began reflecting kind of on his ministry and his life. And like Andre Sue, he's looking at what stage of life am I in now, what has God done with me so far, and where is he going to take me next? So there are two themes in this closing section of chapter 15. One, he reflects on the Church of Rome and where they're at, and then the other he reflects on his own ministry and where he's at. And we're going to look at those. We're going to start in verse 14 and go to the end of the chapter. And as we look at what he says about the Roman church, think about our church. Could we say this of Trinity? Is it true of Trinity? Are we growing the way they were growing? And then when he talks about his own ministry, I'd challenge you again to think: is that something I could say? Whatever season of life you're in, can you look at that and say, uh, as Paul does, that God knew what he was doing. And what strikes me in this is his confidence as we go through this section. He's reflecting on his life and his ministry, and he has this utter confidence of, I did what I ought to do, I did what God called me to. And it's not this kind of self-promotion or impressed with himself or bragging in an arrogant sense. It's just looking back at his life and saying, I gave my life to God, he used me, and I had he has this confidence about whatever happened was all part of the plan. And that I think is the goal for us. Okay, so let's start in verse 14. First, we're going to look at what he says about the church. And notice in verse 14 there are three things he says about the church and the qualities they possessed. So he says, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct each other. Now, I find that remarkable. He says, You are full of goodness. Does anybody remember the first four chapters of Romans? I mean, doesn't it seem like, okay, Paul, you switched theology on us here. How can you look at this church and say you're full of goodness when he spent the first four chapters of the book telling us that none of us would be righteous apart from God, and none of us apart from his grace would seek after him or do anything good? So, what's going on? Why would he say to the Roman church, you're full of goodness? I think we have to remember chapters five through eight as well, in that we have this hope that will not disappoint us. The promise of the gospel is that he is busy making us his children. So he's busy producing in us a desire for righteousness and the ability step by step to begin to seek it more and live it more. And so he's looking at the Roman church and saying, There's progress. I can see progress in your lives. You're exchanging the motives of selfishness for the motives of goodness. Now, I'm sure they never executed it perfectly, as we don't, but Paul's looking back at them and what he knows of their ministry and their lives, and he says, I can see God at work. You're full of goodness in the sense of your hearts have been changed, and now you're striving for goodness. You're seeking after it, you're longing to serve God as opposed to just yourselves. Now that's an interesting thing to say about a church, and I was thinking, can we say that of Trinity? I mean, can would people from the outside look at our church and say, oh yeah, that's a responsive church, or a compassionate church, or a church that's reaching out, um, walking or with those who are struggling? And I maybe I'm wrong, but I think we're doing pretty good in that area. I've been here 16 years now, which I guess makes me ancient, because Ken Elsign always says, you know, if you've been here four years, you're an old timer, because four years everybody switches schools and grad schools and moves away. And so the people that are here for over that are the really long timers. But I think that's one of the qualities I've seen most in our churches, this ability to reach out and walk with people who are in need. Now I'm sure we have room to improve. I'm sure there are people who've slipped through the cracks, so I don't say let's get self-congratulatory, but I think we can be thankful that God has blessed us in this area. I mean, I got to see it myself when um I went through a couple of years where both my mother-in-law and my mother were battling cancer, and it was amazing to me how people that I never even knew at the church would bring meals over and do things. It was just uh wonderful. Okay, so he says they're full of goodness, and then he says they're complete in knowledge, which is another striking thing considering the letter he's just written them. I mean, if they know everything, why did he write this letter? I mean, he he lays out the gospel from beginning to end as if they've never heard the message. And now at the end of the letter, he says, You're full of knowledge. I think that in some sense it's an acknowledgement that they have already heard the gospel. This was not new information to them. They already knew that they were sinful and that they needed to be justified by faith. And they knew that they weren't going to get there by keeping the law, all the things that he's been writing about up to this point. Um, they knew the assurance of the gospel that God had promised to finish the work he started, and the hope we have won't disappoint us. So he says, you are complete in knowledge, and then that's something I think we can say of Trinity as well, because we have been a well-taught church over the years. I mean, we have had great teachers here, starting back with Skip Ryan, and now Greg is here. And I don't know, there's still people here who remember Julie Wynne, I'm sure, who started this study, and she was just a fantastic teacher. And it's easy for us to say, oh, we've been so well taught, we don't need to hear that again. You know, we don't, we've heard that, been there, studied that, taught that, went over it, and tune out. Um and I think that's Paul says, yes, you've been well taught, but he writes them this letter because we need to hear it again. Having heard the message of the gospel once is not enough. We need to be reminded of it. It's something I struggle with right now with my teenagers, because like all teenagers, they know everything, right? I mean, you can't tell them anything because they know it all. And so it's that attitude carries over into the Bible. It's, you know, we'll start to talk about something and they'll say, Oh yeah, I've heard that. I studied that in sixth grade Sunday school, you know. That's uh we know that. Or um, I don't have to read that again, and then they just zone out. And I think that's the challenge too, is for those of you who attend this church studying Exodus on Sunday mornings, it's tempting to say, oh yeah, Ten Commandments, I know those. I memorize those in third grade. Yeah, no, I don't need to listen. And you you let your mind zone out. And I think the challenge is, yes, we've been well taught, but there is always more to learn. There it doesn't matter how many times you've studied a passage, you can always come back. And your life will have changed, your experience changed, and now you understand something at a level you didn't understand before. And so that's, I think, the challenge is to say, yes, we've been well taught, but we still need to learn. And I think about Paul. What if he had said, oh, that Roman church, they know it all, I don't need to write this letter. I mean, think how much poorer the world would have been. So we can be grateful for what God has given us, but I think we need to realize there's always more to learn. And then the third thing he says is they are competent to instruct one another. And some versions translate counsel one another. And I think that's the proper response to a church that's been well taught. The improper response is, oh yeah, I know it all. The proper response is, let me tell you what I've learned, let me share it with you, let's walk side by side, whatever measure of truth or knowledge we've been given, share it, teach it, counsel others. And if we all did that, um, I think it would take some of the pressure we put on our pastors and our elders off because we tend to think, oh, they're in charge of shepherding, they're the ones that'll do all that stuff. Um and so we expect somehow that especially the pastors and to some extent the elders are going to do all the counseling, all the ministering, all the encouraging firsthand. Well, it's impossible. They can't. Um and I don't think that was God's intention. I think his plan is that all of us, with whatever knowledge we've been given, share it with others, talk to others, whoever God's put in your life, whoever sits next to you in your small group or on the bus or you know, in your neighborhood, or whoever path crosses your life, share what you've learned. Instruct each other. Now, granted, there are some problems that are so tangled that they require someone with professional training. I'm not minimizing that. There are things that are so deep or so tangled that you need someone who's got extra help and training, maybe in counseling or theology, to sort it out. But I think what Paul's got in mind here is the kind of day-to-day burdens and struggles and frustrations that we face. And in that, we ought to be counseling each other, instructing each other. Okay, so he says the church at Rome has good motives, um, they have a good range of knowledge and a range of gifts, they're able to counsel each other. Now he says what they're lacking. Look at verse 15 and 16. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So you would think that a church that had all this theological knowledge and was able to instruct each other and counsel each other and was being motivated by the Spirit, they wouldn't need to learn anything new. And yet he says, No, in some things I had to write you boldly or bluntly, the idea being you need to be reminded of the truth. And that's something I think we need to take seriously. I don't know about you, but if I don't write it down, I can't remember it. And the older I get, the worse it becomes. And I laughed because as my daughter was headed off to school today, she had written on the palm of her hand these little notes like drop the form by the office, make sure you get the permission slip signed, you know, and all these things. I thought, well, at least I'm not alone. Um and that I think is um one thing we need to remember. We need to be reminded again. There are times when um even though we know the gospel, we've been taught, we need to hear it again, we need to sometimes hear it bluntly and boldly because we slip back into old truths or old ways of doing things. So that's why in chapter 12, Paul says you need to have your mind renewed by the Holy Spirit. We need to keep learning and growing. All right. And that's a lesson I don't think my teenagers have learned yet. But I think when they get out on their own and start experiencing some of those, you know, life isn't fair and and uh those hard knocks, it'll it'll hopefully sink in. Okay, let's go on then. This oh no, the rest of verse 15 and 16. The other thing he says they need, in addition to reminders, is a priestly ministry, and that's how he describes his ministry to them. And what's going on here is a priest in Israel dealt with things that were gravely important, but the priest himself was not important. So he would stand in the presence of God and then represent God to the people, and then he would stand in the presence of the people and represent them to God, and he was this go-between. He would handle the sacrifices, he would handle the offerings, he would communicate to the congregation the God's acceptance of the uh sacrifice. So he was a conduit. And that's how Paul sees his role here. It's like um President Bush just finished his trip, you know, into Pakistan and India, and we all let a go, Afghanistan, and he took with him a translator. Now, we don't even know the translator's name. Don't know who it was, don't know if it was a man or a woman, and you could say that person was of no importance whatsoever, and yet what they did was vitally important because that person had to represent what our president was saying accurately to the president of India and vice versa. So they were carrying this very important message back and forth, but they were not creating anything original. They were not putting their stamp on things, they were just transmitting the message. And that's how Paul describes himself. He says, I was a minister to you to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. So he's not inflating himself. He says, I'm taking what I learned of the gospel and I'm transmitting it to you like the translator, the go-between. So by the grace given to him, he says, I was called to be a minister of Christ. Jesus proclaiming the gospel so that the Gentiles would be acceptable and sanctified by the Spirit. So he's not building his own name, he's not building an organization with his name on it, his role he sees as a conduit and a translator, a translator, sort of. And that I think is an attitude that gives him confidence because he's not worried about where do I fit in the grand scheme of things? Am I going to get all the credit that is due me? Um he's just faithfully carrying out whatever God has called him to do. And that I think is what we ought to strive for. That I don't need to be cheered on, I don't need to have a statue erected to me, I don't need to fear, oh well, someone else is doing a better job than I am at this particular thing, and then I need to make sure my name's exalted over their name or vice versa. It's he's saying, no, I just need to do what God wants me to do. And I'm the translator, I'm bringing this ministry back and forth. So the thing where the message is vitally important, but we ourselves are not the thing that's important about it. We don't have to promote ourselves. And I find that very comforting as a teacher because, you know, in the academic world they always say, oh, you have to come to Macbeth and come up with this brand new interpretation that no one's ever heard before, and and that's what will give you your name to fame in the academic halls. Well, it's not the case with the Bible. We just want to get it right. And so there's a sense in which everything I've told you over the last however many weeks, somebody taught me, and if I had to footnote my teaching notes, the every line would be, oh, this sermon or that tape or this book or whatever. So you could say, yes, I'm a product of plagiarism, and I'm proud of it, because I just hope that I'm accurately transmitting the message. I don't want to come up with something brand new, and maybe an application to our life in time, but not the the message of the gospel. So anyway, the I think in in reflecting on yourselves, I think about this for moms, especially who are home with children, because you're told by the world, oh, you're not doing anything important, um, you won't leave a name, no one will know how well you did it, no one's watching, no one sees, your children don't thank you, you get no outside approval, and yet it's a vitally important thing to be doing. It is the most important thing because you're training the next generation, you're pouring your lives into people. And that's gonna have lasting internal significance. And if we get free from, oh, I have to be praised for it, or I have to be recognized, or I have to exalt my place and just have the confidence I'm doing what God wants me to do, then it becomes a joy. Okay, he's gonna develop that theme then as he goes on. Let's look at 17. In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, which is an interesting thing to say. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to be obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. Now, Paul says he has reason to be proud, or that might be translated boast or glory in some of your versions. But notice what he's not saying. He's not saying, Well, God did his part and I did my part and together we make a great team. And he's not saying, Well, look at all the hard work God asked me to do and how I rose to the occasion and I did my best for him and I accepted all the challenges and I'm boasting in my success. That's not his attitude. His attitude is what is worth anything about what I've done or said is what Christ has accomplished through me. And that's the true basis for confidence. That sense that I am free to be who I am, as God made me in whatever role he's given me, whether it's visible or invisible or upfront or behind the stages or um, you know, has lasting significance like the letter to Romans, or only has significance in my immediate family. Whatever it is, I'm doing what God wants me to do, and what he accomplishes through me is worthwhile. It's valuable. So he's standing there looking at his life and saying, I can have confidence because I did what God wanted me to do, and that has worth. The phrase that's interesting to me in that section is I have fully proclaimed the gospel. I mean, I tried to find this is a map of all the churches that existed in the about 100 A.D. Now, Paul wrote this about 57 or so A.D., so it's a little late, but it's the closest I could find. And he is here in Corinth writing the letter that's going to go to Rome. And what he says is from Jerusalem, which is down here, up to Illyricum, which is up here, I have preached the gospel. So this whole eastern side, he says, I've been there, done that, preached the gospel, and I can look back and say, whatever I've accomplished was by the work of God. And that's an awful lot of churches, if you think about that. Now he's looking west, and he's saying, I want to go to Rome and beyond Rome to Spain. So he feels like at this point he's finished this half, and now it's time to move the other way. So he's it's something of a crossroads at this point in his life. But whenever there's there's names and cities in the Bible, I always have to get out the map and figure out what they were talking about. Now, Paul didn't firsthand plant all those churches, but he probably had a hand in planting the people who planted those churches for the most part. So he's looking. Let's see, so having been to the east and evangelized all those churches, now he's saying, From here on I'm gonna go west and head to Rome. And shortly after he finishes this letter, he goes to visit Ephesus, and in Acts 20, he tells the Ephes, this visit is recorded, and he tells the Ephesians, You will see my face no more. And basically, I'm not coming back here, my work in this region is done. All right. Now that I think is another statement we ought to aspire to, to say, I've done whatever I needed to do. So we're at those crossroads of life, uh, looking back and saying, um, did I do what God wanted me to do? And I that hit me because in many ways we're at a crossroads now. My oldest son's gonna go off to college in the fall, and I have three more years, and then our youngest will go off. And so I'm looking at this, going, that child rearing phase is almost over. I mean, the the everything we've poured into these, you know, this business of raising kids and being parents is gonna be completed, and so we're kind of looking, going, hmm, what's the next adventure? And I think in some sense that's where Paul was. He was looking at the East, saying, Yep, I've done that. Now where's Paul going to take me? So look at verse 22 29. That's where he moves into the future. Um, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been. Named unless I build on someone else's foundation. But let me just stop there for a second. I don't, that sounds at first blush like he's saying, well, I don't want to preach where someone else is. I want to go create something new. I think his attitude is, I'm not needed there. If somebody's already laid a foundation, there are people there who can teach the gospel and keep it moving. So they don't need me, so I want to go someplace where I'm really needed. I think that's the idea. It's not an arrogant statement. Okay, so 21. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints, for Macedonia and Acacia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to have a share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of servants to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So look at the map again. Look at where he's going. He's here in Corinth, Rome's that way, Jerusalem's over here, and as Heather pointed out, it wasn't that easy. You know, you couldn't just hop on a plane and be there in an hour. So he's going the exact opposite place from where he intends to go. This is going to be a long journey. Macedonia is up here in Acacia. These are the people that have made the offering that's going to be traveled or taken down to Jerusalem. So he's got plans, but they're kind of long term. And as we'll see, his plans didn't quite turn out the way he thought. Now notice the two themes he's concerned with here in this passage. Two things, the expansion of the gospel and the unity of the church. So the first one is that he wants to keep moving and go where the gospel hasn't gone before and be able to bring this message to people who don't yet know Christ. And so that's where he's saying, I want to head towards Spain, I want to move on from there. The other theme, I think, is why he's so concerned with this offering, get taken from the Macedonian and Acacian churches down to Jerusalem, is he doesn't, he wants the churches to be involved with each other. He doesn't want this to be like a collection of, you know, like pods, each individual church existing on its own, but to realize that we're all one body of Christ, and that whether they are Gentile churches up in these northern regions or the Jewish church in the in the Palestinian region there, or the Jerusalem region, that they are tied to each other, that they're sharing the same spiritual blessing. And he wants to bring the money from the Gentile believers in Macedonia to help alleviate the poverty in Jerusalem, to kind of spread that unity and build those bridges. So I was thinking about that and I thought, well, what would be the application for us? Um and I think part of it is to realize that if we have spiritually benefited, someone else was there before us. You know, someone prayed for us when we were not believers, and someone loved us when we were unlovable, and someone didn't give up on us when we were being selfish, or um we maybe had parents that poured their lives into us to try to bring us up in in the faith. And one of the things we ought to do is go back and thank them. Go back and say, I realize what you did, or I appreciate what you did. Um because someone paid the price, or someone poured their lives in, or someone gave up time or effort to get us where we are. And that we ought to recognize. There's an interesting movie, I don't know if you've seen it, it's called Pay It Forward. Have you seen it? The idea is this kid comes up with a plan to do a kindness for someone who doesn't deserve it, and the rules of his game is to say, if somebody does a kindness for you, you pay it forward, not pay it back. So you go do a kindness for someone else that they don't expect or don't deserve. And the movie kind of follows this chain of paying this kindness forward. Now being a secular movie, of course, it gets into trouble and tragedy strikes, and people don't always quite do it with the right motives. But it's an interesting idea, and I think in some sense, Paul's saying, yes, I'm gonna go forward and preach the gospel to those who haven't who haven't heard it, but he's also looking back and saying, I want to appreciate those who have gone before me, and that's part of the reason I think he's asking the Gentile churches to help support the Jerusalem church to express their gratitude. Okay, and as far as the expansion goes, he says, it's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known. And he says I would have gone to Rome sooner, but that calling kept getting in the way. I was planning to go to Rome, but then I'd find this other region where the gospel was opening up, and so I went there and I didn't come to you. Now, um, remember back in chapter one, way back in September, um, how he started this. He said, I remember you in my prayers at all times, and I pray that at last, by God's will, the way may be open for me to come to you. So he starts with, I want to come to you. He's ending with, I want to come to you. Um in verse 13 of chapter 1, he says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I had planned many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so until now. And then he was repeating that here at the end. I wanted to come to you, but I kept being prevented because God was calling me other places. Um for instance, at the end of his second missionary journey, he was on his way back to Antioch and he stops in Ephesus, and he it seems that he intended only to stay there for a few days, but there were many people that were coming to know the Lord, and so he said, Oh, this territory is open, and he ends up staying for quite a long time, and that's one of the things that delayed him. And he's looking at Rome, saying, There already is a church there. They don't need me the way these other people need me. So he's planning, but notice something about his planning. He's very flexible. He doesn't have a timetable. He says, he's looking and thinking and saying strategically, where do I think God is calling me, and yet he doesn't lay down deadlines. Okay, God, you have to do it by Friday, or I want it, you know, by the time spring rolls around. He's planning, but he's flexible, and when life changes, he changes with it. The second thing is he's persistent. He does not give up. He had his heart set on going to Rome. He eventually does get there. We don't know whether he went to Spain or not. There is some verses in the Bible that suggest that he did make it to Spain, um, but we're not really sure about that. But it didn't matter how long it took. I mean, this was over many years of him planning to get there and not making it. He was persistent in um working toward that goal. And then the third thing to notice is that he always had a team with him. He says, When I come to Rome, I expect you to help me to go on. He's expecting them, I think, to help him financially, but also I suspect he's two or three of them are going to come with him. He always had assistants and people walking with him side by side. So he wasn't this prima donna working independently. He got others involved. So he knew his gifts, he knew what God was calling him to, and so he has utter confidence in saying, I can be grateful for what I've done, and I'm looking toward the future, excited about what God will do next. Now it turns out his plans were wrong. He didn't get to go drop off the gifts in Jerusalem and then just tidle on up to Rome, like he thought. Instead, he got arrested, and he spent two years in protective custody in Caesarea. And when he finally did get to go to Rome, it was as a prisoner, not a missionary. So he's I think the last statement, I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of blessing of Christ, is kind of ironic because he does come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ, but two and a half years late and in chains. Not exactly how he expected. So when the unexpected things happen, it didn't keep him from planning, it didn't keep him from trusting God. He just went right on doing what he thought he was supposed to do. And I think that's the thing that gives us confidence. He doesn't go into, oh, feeling sorry for himself or whining that it didn't work out the way he planned or it didn't look like what he expected it. We don't see any evidence of him pouting or that kind of thing. He just kind of is flexible, goes with the flow. Now, if you think about it, one of the remarkable things about all this delay in Paul's planning is that he wrote this letter. And if he had gone to Rome, when he first wanted to go to Rome, he probably, I mean, there's no indication that he would have written this letter to them to explain why he wasn't coming. So in chapter one, he says, I plan to come to you, but I can't, so basically I'm writing this letter. Um that changed the course of history. I mean, did you ever think, just in your own life, what Romans has meant to you? I mean, in my life, it's foundational. It's something that's changed me. It's it changed Augustine, it changed Martin Luther, it sparked the Reformation, it's been uh was instrumental in Whitfield and Wesley's conversions. I mean, it it affected the course of history on two continents. And it's probably one of the greatest letters ever written. And Paul wrote it because his plans got delayed. You know, he had his idea of where God was sending him, and it didn't work, so he wrote this letter. And now we know in retrospect that it's probably one of the most important things he ever did because the churches he founded are gone. The people he evangelized are dead. We there's no statue of him, there's no picture of him. Um, but what he did was write these letters to the churches, and they have lasted for centuries, and in doing so, they have affected thousands and thousands of lives. So what Heather said this morning, it's like you're reading my notes, the same idea. We think, oh, I'm late. And that's, you know, life is now over because every all my plans have been messed up. Well, we don't know what God is doing. Um, it's that same uh what looks to us like a derailing or a sidetrack, maybe the very thing that God has us to do, and maybe the most important thing we ever do. So Paul didn't know. He didn't, I mean, in retrospect, writing this letter was more important than taking the trip, but he didn't know that at the time. Okay, where are we on the time? Ooh, gotta wrap this up. So let's look at verse 30. I appeal to you, brothers, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the sp of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. Okay, now he's gonna ask for three prayer requests, and what's interesting about these is all of them were answered, but none of them were answered the way he expected. So let's look at these. So um, strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So he makes three specific requests, and they were all granted. First he asked to be rescued from the unbelievers in Jerusalem, or in uh Judea, and he was rescued, but he got beat up first, and his life was in danger, and he was rescued not by the saints, but by the Romans and placed in custody. So the prayer was answered. He was rescued, his life was spared, but not the way he expected it to be. Then he prays that the gift would be acceptable to Jerusalem, and it was acceptable, but in bringing the gift, it resulted in some lies that caused all this violence, an uproar that again led to him being beaten and almost killed. And he did come to Rome, but he came two and a half years later after being imprisoned and after being shipwrecked, and he did come with joy in his heart and probably for mutual refreshment, but he came as a prisoner and not as a missionary. So he came in chains and not on this journey that he had planned. So it's interesting to me looking back, God answered every one of his prayers, but they didn't look at all like what Paul thought they were going to look like. And that, I think, is another lesson we can learn. We pray for things and God answers, but he answers in a way we don't expect, or in a way that's harder usually than we expect. And yet it's still part of the plan. And looking back, maybe we'll do something in our life that will be the equivalent of writing this letter. Maybe if you're late and you spend ten extra minutes with your child, you'll say something that will be the turning point for them that will keep them from a wrong or put them on the right path or something. We never know how our words are going to be effective. And I think that's where we have to be, as Heather said this morning, flexible and recognizing that yes, no matter what, God is in control. Okay. So, and all of that is to say, when you get to the stage, like Andre Sue and the letter that I opened with, and someone taps you on the shoulder and says, Will you be willing to mentor me? Um, and you realize now you're an older woman, you should be ready to say yes because of all the things that you've learned. You want to be training and learning now. So next week we are going to finish with all the names and all, and that's an interesting, another interesting section of what we can learn about life and the community in in Rome and Corinth. And then we have one more week after that, which is fun and games. So, and I have the best games for y'all. You need to come. And just to warn you, you're gonna work in teams with your small group, and the more people you have, the better you're gonna do. So encourage everyone who's been missing, come that day, because it will help you in the game. Anyway, let me just pray to close us. Father, thank you that you've given us this year to study your word. And thank you that when our plans look like they're upset and off track and derailed, that they're not off your track, and that we're still in the palm of your hand and you're still working in ways we can't even begin to imagine or begin to expect. And we pray that we would be more and more becoming people like the Roman Church who are full of goodness, full of knowledge, and counts competent to instruct each other and encourage each other in your word and in your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.