In his sermon 'Obligated to Give,' Douglas Campbell discusses Romans 15:24-28, focusing on the Apostle Paul's desire to visit Rome and Spain after delivering aid to the church in Jerusalem. Paul emphasizes the importance of giving, noting that the Gentiles, having received spiritual blessings from the Jews, are obligated to share material blessings in return. The sermon highlights the early church's practice of communal living and giving, as found in Acts, and discusses the theological errors that led to poverty in Jerusalem. Campbell stresses that Christians are obligated to give to the hungry, support church leaders, and contribute to missions. The sermon also addresses the natural human tendency towards selfishness and the need for Christians to learn and embrace the practice of giving in response to Christ's ultimate sacrifice.

Good morning. If you would turn with me to Romans chapter 15. This morning I'm going I'm going to look at Romans 15 verses 24 through 28. Romans 15, 24 through 28. The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome.

He says, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and will be helped on my journey thereby 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 Archaea have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem For they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings They ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and I have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning with joy, Father, as we sing and remember Calvary, that sacrifice of your Son, whom you poured out your wrath upon the cross in place of my sin and the sin of all those who would come to know you.

Father, that sacrifice can never be repaid by any of us. This morning, Father, as we come to look at your word, as given to us by your servant, the apostle Paul, God, stir that within our hearts. As we think about the giving of the church in Corinth, the giving of the Gentiles to bless those whom, Father, you have chosen to send your Savior from. Father, this morning I pray that that would speak to our hearts. That as we are so blessed and so indebted for our salvation, Father, we are also so blessed and indebted because of the word you have given us that you have revealed yourself to us that father we might become more like you I pray that's our cry today, Father, to change us, to be more like You.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Well, this morning we continue on with the book of Romans. We continue on with the Apostle Paul. He's finishing up his missionary work in this part of the world, and he has set upon his heart to go to Spain, And it's been on his heart for quite some time.

It's a very deep desire that he has. And this morning he has some instructions of what must happen before he continues on in his journey. This morning, as always, when I come to sections of Scripture that sometimes are hard, hard for, sometimes hard for us to understand, hard for us to to know, and sometimes even hard for the preacher to preach. It's fairly easy for me to harp on fathers and dads to discipline and to train your children. Why?

Because the beneficiary is your children, and I'm in the same boat that you're in. And this morning as we come to this text, while there are many beneficiaries to a giving church, the pastor tends to be one of those beneficiaries. And so if you know me, well, you know that I tend to try to avoid this topic, which in itself still isn't good for the church for me to do that. But I don't I don't preach to this topic this morning because I'm hoping to get a raise or anything like that, but that we have come to this section of Scripture, and this is what we have come to. That is the blessing of preaching through books of the Bible.

The preacher doesn't get to pick out his strong suits, he doesn't just get to pick out the things he likes, but he is forced to preach all of Scripture, the entire counsel of God's Word. So this morning, know my heart as we go through this passage in Romans 15. Let's look first at Romans 15-24. The Apostle Paul says, 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. We know in this text that Paul deeply desires to see the church in Rome.

One thing that's true about Rome in this era is that many people desired to go to Rome. Rome would have been sort of, not really, but similar to maybe Chicago or St. Louis to us. It would have been a very busy, sort of almost center of the world, or where trade was happening. It would be very, there would be the finer things, things that you wouldn't find in the the village of elveston per se you would find the maybe the massage people and the the fine dining and all these things that us even rural people aren't accustomed to.

But many would travel to Chicago to enjoy these finer things or maybe we can compare it to New York City where we see all of the best and all of the worst that our culture has to offer. And so many, almost everyone at that time, they would desire to go to Rome, but it would have nothing to do with the church, and it would have everything to do with a fun day or week or month or year on the town. But Paul reassures the church in Rome that that is not why he wants to go there. Again, he says, 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." Paul desired to be with the church. Paul loved the church.

Why? Those are his brothers and sisters. Those are whom he served God to reach. Those are whom are somewhat fruit of his ministry, of his service to our king. So he's going there to enjoy their company.

He's also going there to be helped on his journey by them, and we'll get to that in just a minute. But let's continue. Romans 15, 25 through 26, He says, at present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Archaea have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Now, to understand this, to understand why this is important to Paul, we must go to Galatians chapter 2, verses 9 through 10.

Paul was called to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. If you know at this point in history that the, in the Old Testament we realize that the Jewish people are called, are set apart. They are called to know God. God has revealed Himself to them. And for the most part in the New Testament Church up into this point, those within the church viewed their ministry as sharing Christ with the Jewish, with the Israelites, with the Jewish people, that they were God's chosen people.

And yet God raised up the Apostle Paul to reach the Gentiles. And if you remember the Apostle Paul, before he was the Apostle Paul, he was a man named Saul. And he was a scary man named Saul because he persecuted the church. He tracked down those who were part of the Way, which is what they labeled Christians in their time. He chased them down and he threw them in prison.

Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr. Paul was there. In fact, When God changed Paul, when Paul became born again, Paul agonized over his past. If you remember many times, Paul said that he is the chief of sinners. He persecuted the church.

And yet God, in His sovereignty, was raising up Paul to reach the Gentiles, which was almost unheard of. And so we find in Galatians 2, 9-10, the other apostles putting their endorsement on his ministry to the Gentiles. It says, And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they be circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." So Paul is endorsed by the church to go reach the Gentiles. The only requirement they put on Paul was, remember the poor.

Remember, essentially what they were saying is, remember us. When you go to the Gentiles, remember us here. Because the church was, The church in Jerusalem was hurting in this time. Jerusalem was a very poor area, but it was even more so for the Christians. Jerusalem was not the commercial center of the world like Rome would have been.

Jerusalem was kind of off the beaten path. Through different things, Jerusalem was a poor area. But it was even worse for the Christians. The reason it was worse for the Christians is because in this time period, Christianity was practicing a mild form of what we could call Christian communism. And we find that in Acts chapter 2, 44 through 45, it says, and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And then Acts 434 through chapter 5 verse 5 it says, there was not a needy person among them, for many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. Then Joseph, who was also called by the Apostle Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the Apostle's feet. Continuing on to chapter 5, but a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and Brought only part of it and laid it at the Apostles feet, but Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie? To the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land while it remained unsold Did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it." Now we find these are things that were happening in the early church. And this morning, understand rightly, in their excitement, there was excitement in their giving. In their excitement, the early church, they weren't happy to just give of what they had.

They started to sell their stuff. They started to put in our modern word we would call, they started to liquidate. And they started to distribute everything that they would sell amongst the saints. And that works really great for a time. What they found is after a time goes by, now the land that they would have had to produce more money, more food, it's all sold, and now the entire group in Jerusalem descends into poverty, deep deep poverty.

They were liquidating things and dividing the money to the poor. What you and I would say, well that sounds like a very noble thing to do. But we find in this ideology, it's very noble for a moment. When we can no longer give because we no longer have, when we can no longer produce, when we can no longer work, when we can no longer make money, it does no good for anyone. Why did they do this?

Why did the early church do this? I believe one, it was a bad theological understanding. I believe the early church in this time believed that at any moment Christ was going to come back for his church. And so we have the same result in many many cults today that focus on the end times. The leaders stand before their people and they say, well Christ is coming on such and such day and that's only in three years.

So sell everything you have, run all of your credit cards up, because it's not going to matter in four more years. Anybody think that's a good idea? That's a very bad idea. One, because we know that no one knows when Christ will return, and two, we don't know that Christ will return in our lifetime. Now I look into the world as I'm sure you do.

You turn the TV on and you say, the world is falling apart. Surely, Christ is returning soon. And I do believe Christ is returning soon. I believe it with all of my heart, but soon could mean a thousand years. Amen?

That's what we find in Scripture. Soon is a thousand years. To God, two thousand years is soon. Amen. So this, I believe with good intentions, this put a severe poverty on the early church.

We could go off many different realms in that area, but understand this morning, all through history, communism has only brought extreme poverty. It sounds really good. It sounds very noble, but it always leads to extreme poverty. Let me show you what happened a little bit later. Paul had to correct this idea or this thing that was happening in the church.

In 2nd Thessalonians 3, 10 through 11, it says, For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Busy bodies, especially in this time period, are only enabled by those who would provide for them. It's very rare that someone who is starving that has work available becomes a busybody. They become busy at work.

It's only provided through a system, some form of communism, some form of those who are gifted in some talent or those who work harder, we bring all of our stuff into one pot and we distribute it evenly among everyone. It always ends in disaster. Now does that mean that we shouldn't give? Absolutely not. Does that mean that we shouldn't give?

Absolutely not. Does that mean that we shouldn't help our neighbor, our brother or sister, if if they're in poverty? Absolutely not. But simply distributing our finances isn't what helps those in poverty especially if we start to sell everything that we have if we begin to pull the rug out from under our own feet, to be able to provide for ourselves and those in the future. If we begin to rid ourselves of all of these things and to give it to those who aren't working, ends in disaster.

So Paul has to correct what was happening in the church. But then also, Paul was eager to hold true to his word and return to Jerusalem to help. So we see this problem that happened to the church in Jerusalem. Did that change Paul's opinion of helping them? I think at this point, the church in Jerusalem realizes the error of what has happened.

I think that they would go back and not do that again. Not that they wouldn't help each other, but they would definitely go about it differently. And Paul is eager to help. Paul has given his word to help. Paul in fact is so eager, Maybe three or four weeks ago, we talked about this concept that Paul was so eager to go to Spain.

He's been eager for a long time and his path keeps getting stopped. It keeps getting shifted. He keeps having to do this first or accomplish that first. And we came up with the saying that some of the Mr. Brody and some of them I've heard say a few times that duty must come before desire.

And Paul illustrated that and demonstrated that. But this morning, I want you to understand even more how how devoted or how eager Paul was to hold true to this word to return to Jerusalem to help. Now I have a map. Hopefully it'll work. Is it not gonna Is it not going to work?

Oh no. Okay, I'm sorry. So Let me try to describe it for you. Most of you probably have seen the Mediterranean Sea. It's very big, way bigger than the Mississippi for sure.

So Jerusalem would have been, pretend Jerusalem would have been way over here on this very edge of the Mediterranean Sea. And about halfway across it, about a little more, you would have had the city of Corinth, which is where the Apostle Paul was when he wrote this letter to the Romans. And then all the way on this side was the church in Rome. And then even farther over here by this window would have been Spain. And so Paul finds himself here at Corinth.

And Corinth, to travel from Corinth to Jerusalem, it's roughly going to be about a thousand mile trip, But not in an airplane and not in a car. Probably a lot by sailboat, which depends largely on wind blowing the correct direction and stopping lots of times to gather more food that's going to keep them going. This is going to take a long time. It's going to be not, it's not going to be a trip to North Carolina in a tour bus where we play games and eat snacks and have all kinds of fun. This is going to be very rough.

This is going to be sleeping on wood planks for months and months and maybe a year. This is a rough trip. So he is set in his heart, He's going to travel from Corinth, and he's going to go to Jerusalem. This is going to be a long, hard trip because duty is becoming before desire. He desires to help those in Jerusalem to bring this offering that the Gentiles have taken up to bless the church in Jerusalem.

Maybe some of you have maps in your Bible in the back if that helps. So this is roughly a thousand mile trip. Here's the kicker. It's a thousand miles in the wrong direction. It's a thousand miles the other way.

So Paul is devoted to bringing this offering to the church in Jerusalem. One, because he has given his word. And he's going to go a thousand miles in the wrong direction to accomplish it, to put off going to Rome and to put off going to Spain. He's going to do this trip. There's a couple of reasons why.

One, because he has given his word to not forget them, the church in Jerusalem. Two, I believe it's a great testimony of what God is doing throughout the Gentiles to those in Jerusalem is a testimony that God is doing things, great things, throughout the rest of the world. And three, which we'll get to in just a minute, Salvation came from the Jews. Let's go back to that in a minute. So let me put it on, let me put it in plain or more, let me make it a comparable thing.

So this morning, I give you the task of going to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And you're going to do this by boat and by walking and doing all these things. And you would all would be like, we're going to die. Maybe not all of you, but I sure would. This is going to be a long trip.

But imagine God has set that in your heart. You're going to travel to Albuquerque where... I shouldn't bring cartoons into that. Yeah. So you're going to go to Albuquerque.

You're going to share the gospel, the people. Actually, you're just going there to visit the church that's already been established there. But before you can go to Albuquerque, I need you to do me a favor. I would like you to take this offering, walk and ride in the boat, however long it takes you. First, before you go to Albuquerque, I'd like you to take this to New York.

You'd be like what? That is a long ways and this isn't perfect mileage but it's very it's it's roughly close. But it's very, it's roughly close. Was Paul devoted? Did Paul say duty before desire?

Absolutely. Paul had to be a hundred percent committed to Christ for this to not just—it would almost seem devastating. And then, once Paul finally gets to Albuquerque and visits for a while, his next goal is to make it up into Canada, north of Washington, to finally get to Spain, where his main desire was the entire time. Paul was eager to help. Look at Romans 15-27.

He talks about those in the Gentile churches. He says, For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. We get that same concept today, that those whom have blessed us spiritually, they deserve our offerings. Those in my life whom has given me a better and closer understanding of God, who have discipled me.

It's those people whom deserve, if I can't give them anything spiritual, I want to do my best to bless them physically. Paul lays that before the Gentiles. If it weren't for the Jewish people, the Gentiles would be hopelessly lost. If it wasn't for the person who shared Christ with you. If God didn't choose to use them, if they weren't obedient, if they didn't say duty before desire, because sharing our faith is rarely a desire unless you are really close to God.

In fact, usually as a new believer, we would go through a time where we would be so excited, we'd be sharing our faith with everyone, and as that newness wears off, We tend to quickly revert back into, hide in my hidey hole. I don't want the negative reactions that I've been getting. But God has called us all to overcome that. God has called us all to share the gospel. God has called us all to share the gospel.

God has called us all to disciple, that we might amass for ourselves spiritual blessings, but also those whom, like Paul, had relationship with Timothy, that he saw him as his son in the faith. John 4 22, Jesus himself illustrates this. He says, You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. If we are blessed by spiritual blessings, we ought to be a service to them in material blessings. Romans 15 28 it says, when therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

And if you remember all the way back at the beginning, and I didn't put it up there, Verse 24 again says, 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. So Paul is going to Jerusalem. He is in that verse when it says delivered in the Greek, it actually is somewhat using the word deacon, the Greek word deacon, that Paul is even taking on a deacon's role in delivering this help for the needy, and it illustrates to us, no matter what your role in the church is, that all of us are called to serve. Paul didn't see this as a lessening of his calling to God, but something that he had to do, that he was eager to do. And in fact, if we understand that word rightly, in Scripture, a deacon inside the church is not merely the only one who serves, that God has called us all to serve the church.

Yet the deacon is merely the one who sets the example for the rest of the church to follow in serving the church. But it's also not outside of the role of the elder or the pastor to serve in those ways. The deacon position was merely ordained that the pastor or the elder wouldn't be consumed with those things. So we're blessed by Paul. We're blessed to see him bringing these material blessings to the church in Jerusalem.

But we also get another illustration of giving as I'm jumping around a bunch. Let me read Romans 15-24 once again. I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I've enjoyed your company for a while. The Apostle Paul is telling the church in Rome, the Gentile churches have given me this offering for those who are hungry, who are poverished in Jerusalem. Once I'm done there, I'm coming to you to enjoy your company, to love on you.

But there's another reason I'm coming, and that's because you are going to provide me the funding to go to Spain. The Apostle Paul is preparing them. In essence, The church in Jerusalem, the Jewish side of it, the funding is now going to be coming from the Gentile side. That the church in Rome is going to take part in this missionary journey to Spain. Why?

Well, one, as we look through Scripture, we understand that we are obligated to give. We're obligated to give to the hungry, especially, the word of God says, especially to those who are in the kingdom of God. That as we think, as you and I think, as we sit in an American Church, there are many brothers and sisters across this world who are surviving on a dollar a day, who don't know what a steak dinner is like, Who don't have the newest, coolest Air Jordan shoes, if that's still a thing. Who don't have, to my shame, I have like a hundred, not a hundred. I have like a crazy amount of coats that I always got to figure out where to put them because this coat works better this day and this one's lighter and Brothers and sisters If you're an American you have no comprehension of how much abundance we have.

We have no comprehension. We have no comprehension what it's like to live on a dollar a day. There's been almost no time in history where people have lived in houses and everybody in their house has their own room. I, when Deanna and I were first married, we moved into Pug Price's old house. And I remember, I can't remember how many children she told me she raised in that house.

And we, after we had our, when we, Deanna was pregnant with her second kid, I was like, I don't know how we're going to do this. Somehow the rest of the world manages. And it's not to our shame. It's nothing wrong with having big houses. But if we neglect the Word of God, in spite of our blessings, If we blame not serving God, if we blame not conforming our life to Scripture, because we can't make ends meet if we send some money to missionaries or to those who are hungry, or supporting the church, we are very misguided.

We're obligated to give. We're obligated to give to the hungry. We're obligated to support the church and leaders in ministry. We're obligated to give to missions. I think it was in James Montgomery Boyce's commentary where he went deeper into, it's not normal for the human, our flesh, to want to give.

It's something that we have to be taught. Why? Because there's something inside of all of us, especially before we come to Christ. If we're not in Christ, We are ruled by selfishness. It consumes us.

It is what we live for. And after we come to Christ, after God has given us a new heart, we begin to battle that selfishness. We begin to battle our old self. We begin to say, no, I'm not going to be selfish. I'm not going to hoard all things for me.

And he says in his commentary that it's that thing of which Christians must be taught. And while it is tempting for people like me to skip over this, it's a disservice to the church if we're not taught to give. Amen? Amen. This Amen.

This morning I would ask you, are you a giving person? Now there, don't get me wrong, there are some in this room who have blessed me way beyond what I deserve. But in the church, and trust me, I'm concluding. Even in church fundraising groups, there's a principle of you need to try, shoot to get a third of your fundraising goal completely consumed by the richest people and another third by the the semi-rich people and then the rest of it the one-third of your fundraising goal can come from just the average guy sitting in the pew. That's how nonprofits, that's how they look at things, that's why they go, I don't know, not to go way into that.

That's not the model of the church. The model of the church is, everyone gives some. Amen. Now this morning, understand rightly, it's also that we don't live in debt. If you're in debt, pay your debt off immediately, as fast as you can.

Don't give half of your paycheck to the church and remain in debt. Get out of debt. But then when we're out of debt, it's all of our jobs to support the church. It's not a third do this, a third do that. It is a hundred percent of the church participates in a hundred percent of the giving.

It's the same as we go to physical or service giving. It's never God's design for 10% of the church to do 90% of the work. It's God's design for 100% of the church to do 100% of the work. Same is true financially. This morning I'm kind of all over the place, but let me, let me, in conclusion, let me repeat the three things that we see Paul illustrate in this.

We're obligated to give to the hungry, especially those who are in the church. We're obligated to support our leaders in ministry, and we're obligated to give to missions. Why are we obligated? Because Christ gave us everything. Christ gave us the gift that we could never acquire.

Christ gave us what was impossible for us, and all those who turn from their sin and trust in Christ, they get the gift of eternal life, which the shadow of which will cause us to not even see material things anymore. Amen. That's why we're obligated because our gift is far superior to any of that. This morning if you don't know Christ, if you aren't turning to Him and trusting in Him, you don't know gifts and that's why it's hard to give. Turn to Christ.

This morning, if you know Christ and you're not regularly supporting, I'm not saying even support your pastor. You should support your church, but there are those in the faith, missionaries, people that have greatly impacted my life, that it's a joy to give. Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word. Father, as I've been reminded so much this week, Father, how selfish my flesh is, how it wants to lead me down roads of self-pity and holding onto stuff. Father, deliver us from this flesh. Father, as we look into the American church, it could be easily said compared to the rich man, whom you said was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to go to heaven. That should be alarming, deeply alarming to every American father.

But God, we know with man things are impossible, but with you all things are possible. So Father, this morning we pray that you would reform our hearts. That we would be dedicated to your service, that we would be devoted even to the point of walking a thousand miles in the wrong direction, if that would glorify you, God. Father, help us to be givers, Givers of our finances, givers of our time, givers of your kingdom. Help us to be busy about not building up treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy, but storing up treasures in heaven.

For God, in a hundred years, that's all that's going to matter to many of us. Set our priorities, correct. Change our hearts, Father. We plead Father In Jesus' name, Amen.