In this sermon, Scott Brown discusses the Apostle Paul's obligations towards the Roman church as outlined in Romans 1:8-17. Paul had promised to visit Rome but was unable to due to various hindrances. Despite this, he shares his obligations to the church, which include being thankful for all, prayerfully scheming, imparting and receiving spiritual blessings, being determined to obtain fruit from one another, having a large heart towards all, being determined to preach the gospel, and not being ashamed of the gospel. Brown highlights the importance of understanding the gospel and how it can transform a society. He also emphasizes the significance of thankfulness in the Christian life and encourages believers to be grateful for their church community.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 1 and we'll be reading, beginning in verse 8, 8 to 17, Romans 1, 8 through 17. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. Verse eight. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now. That I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.

So as much as is in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for It is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for teaching us your ways in this church.

We pray that you would give us the same heart as the Apostle Paul did for those Roman Christians that what we learned from Him would be embedded here in this church that you would teach us your ways. Thank you, Lord, for the power of the gospel that changes our hearts for all these beautiful things. Amen. Please be seated. So we're continuing our walk through the book of Romans this is the second sermon on this book of Romans and these verses we're learning why Paul wrote this letter and how the power of the gospel changes the ways we relate with one another in the church.

But the big thing is he's explaining why. You know, children, You understand this, right? Your father says, would you please go take out the trash, and you say, why, why? Well, sometimes you get an answer, but sometimes you just get the answer, because I told you to. Well, that's very common, but here the Apostle Paul tells you why, why he has not shown up in Rome yet, because he promised to show up in Rome, and he's not there now.

Now, Of course, being in Romans, we are in the midst of the clearest, most comprehensive picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it really, this book draws so much in scripture together. The doctrines of the Bible converge here, you find this in many places in scripture and just by way of reminder of how this letter to the Roman Church is constructed, it's constructed like most of the other letters to the churches that the apostle Paul wrote. The first 11 chapters really lay out the doctrine. They explain the gospel.

Paul is really explaining, this is the gospel I'm preaching, This is the kind of gospel I'm gonna preach if you send me to Spain, because I wanna go to Spain. So he's explaining the doctrine. What is the gospel? I mean, do you know what the gospel is? If I had gave you a pop quiz, and I asked you to write down what is the gospel, what would you write?

It's very important that you understand the gospel. So the Apostle Paul spends 11 chapters explaining the gospel. And then in chapter 12 through 16, he talks about applying the doctrine of the gospel. How do you live? Because a gospel that's believed, that's not lived, is not true Christianity.

And so the Apostle Paul is teaching you how to live in light of the first 11 chapters of this book that explain what the Gospel is. So I hope that as we proceed along here, everybody will really understand the Gospel. When you get that pop quiz, you'll know exactly what to write down and you'll believe it and you'll know that it's changed your life. So that's what the Apostle Paul is doing. So, we're in the introduction to Romans.

The introduction runs from verse one to verse 17. And we're gonna camp on verses 16 and 17 next Sunday. But here in these verses, we learn why Paul wrote to the Romans, what kind of gospel he's preaching to the Romans, and also why he hasn't come yet. So he's answering all those questions, because there are probably people in Rome where you're saying, you promised to come, how come you haven't come? Who is this guy?

It's been years. What's happened? Well, Paul explains here in this book. You know it's very important as we engage in our studies in Romans over the next period of time that we understand what this book is about. It's a common mistake that Christians make.

They go through a book of the Bible and they find their favorite verses. They find the places that are warming their hearts. But they don't really know what the message of the book is. Well, I hope that we'll understand, even this morning, what this message is all about. Why did the Apostle Paul write this book?

What is he saying? Because there are heartwarming verses. There's so many comforting and helpful things in this book. You should know those, but do you know why this book was written, and do you know what the core message is? You should always know that about every book of the Bible.

You've been believers for a while. You should know what the message of every book of the Bible is, and here in Romans, we'll be in the same kind of territory here. So there's also a summary of the gospel here. Paul is saying why he's been delayed, but there's also a summary of the gospel, particularly in verses one through seven. We encountered that last week, and I explained it in the first seven verses as seven powers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, And the apostle Paul illuminates those powers of the gospel.

He says, Paul, a bond servant or a slave of Jesus Christ. The power of the gospel is it changes your life and you wanna serve God. You become a slave of God, not yourself, not your culture, not your emotions, not the people around you. You actually become a slave or a bond servant of God. Paul was called to be an apostle.

His life was completely altered. He was separated to the gospel of God. His whole life now from the time of his conversion was to live for God. He was separated to the gospel of God, separated from the messages of this world, separated from the flatteries and the ridiculous thing and the immoralities of this world and devoted to the gospel of God. That's what the gospel does in your life.

And then he says that it was promised through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, this gospel is also in the Old Testament as well. And we talked about the continuity of the gospel. And we also encountered, he says in verse four, he says that Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God because of the resurrection. We serve a risen Christ.

We don't serve a Christ who's still on the cross. And so the power of the resurrection is the heart of the gospel. And then he says that through him, we've received grace for obedience to the faith. God broke the power of sin, now we want to obey him. We don't always obey him as much as we should, but we want to obey him, that's the power of the gospel.

And then he gives these final words to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, to have the gospel is to be beloved of God, God's beloved people, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the powers of the gospel in the Apostle Paul's life and those are the powers of the gospel in our lives as well. And so he speaks of these demands of the gospel that are in verse eight. So now when we get to verse eight, the Apostle Paul is speaking about the demands of the gospel. What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be part of the family of God? In Paul's case, what does it mean that I want to go to Rome and be with these people, with this church that's been established in Rome? So we're still in the introduction to this letter when we go from verses eight through 17. And Paul explains that he's a debtor. In other words, he has obligations.

That's in verse 14. Paul's saying that He is coming to be with them. He feels this way about them because he is obligated. He's under obligation. Now, most of us don't really like the idea of being under obligation.

We just wanna do everything from the heart. We want everything to be genuine. Well, that's a right impulse for sure. But at the same time, God has placed us under obligation for how we function in the Church of Jesus Christ. I mean, we've just experienced it.

You know, why do we sing? We sing because God commanded the church to read scripture. Why do we take the Lord's Supper? Well, we didn't invent this. We're not inventing a new life.

We're taking the life that God has designed for us, and that's what the Apostle Paul is really implying here. There's a life, there's a way, there's a way that a local church functions. It's a way that the people interact, and the Apostle Paul is defining that. And, you know, but we don't like to think in terms of obligation, do we? I have to do this.

You mean I have to go to church and be like this? Well, yeah, but we want to do what we want to do because we want to do it. But we often forget about God obligating us. You know, it's very interesting. While on the one hand, you know, God makes it very clear that we serve out of the strength that God supplies.

It does, it really does come from the heart. But it's more than that. Christianity is far more generous than that. Obligation makes a church more capable, it makes it more resilient, it makes a church more adaptable to her people. It causes love to spread in more powerful and clear ways.

It makes the people of God more useful, not only when they are from the heart loving one another and serving one another, but also they know that they have duties in the church. All of you who are believers, you have duties in this church, you just can't freewheel it. And here, the Apostle Paul is giving us seven reasons He wanted to visit Rome, but they're actually, they are obligations that God laid on him. And these obligations are the same obligations that we have toward one another. How do I know this?

Well, because we have commands in scripture all over the New Testament that tell us to do the same things. What the Apostle Paul is doing and saying he wants to do are things that we've actually already been commanded by God to do. So the Apostle Paul is an example to us. He kind of, by personal example, he shows us how to function in a local church. And you have an outline in front of you.

You'll see there are seven things that Paul was obligated to do from the heart. And first, to be thankful for all. Second, to be prayerfully scheming. Third, to be imparting and receiving spiritual blessing, fourth, to be determined to obtain fruit from one another, fifth, to be large-hearted toward all, sixth, to be determined to preach the gospel, and then seventh not to be ashamed of the gospel. So those are the seven things the Apostle Paul is demonstrating in this letter.

Okay, now, When we get to the end of this message, I hope that we're all saying, I wanna be like that. I wanna be thankful for my brothers and sisters. I wanna be scheming in prayer for them and for our church. I wanna be imparting a spiritual blessing. I wanna receive spiritual blessing.

You know, I wanna be determined to receive fruit. You know, I wanna be large-hearted toward my brothers and sisters. I wanna be determined to preach the gospel, and I don't wanna ever be ashamed of the gospel. I pray that that would be the result. Why would I say that?

Well, you know, what's the purpose of preaching? The purpose that God established preaching for, of course, is to inform, but it's to move us from one position to another, it's to change our lives, it's to take us to a better place, is to take us to the fountain of the river or the water of life, so that our lives are more capable, more generous than maybe we would be just on our own without the commands of God, and in this case, without the example of the Apostle Paul. So I wanna ask every person here, is this you? Did you come here today with these kind of things in your heart? I pray so.

This is a great list of how you oughta come to church. You should maybe read this to your children, you know, on the car, on the way. Hey, let's go do this. This is how God desires his church to function. So we turn to these verses, verses eight through 17, and we're hearing a personal testimony of why Paul is doing what he's doing.

Why, why? You children, you understand that. Why, Dad? Well, Paul is telling you. By the way, In these verses alone, 15 times, at least if my count was right, 15 times Paul says, I, I, I, I, or me, or mine.

He's talking about, it's his personal testimony. It's his personal desire. It actually is something that's part of him. And so he's sharing with us this inclination of his heart. I think that he's doing that so that our hearts would be inclined in the same way.

And of course he's speaking of the gospel. Why is he focusing on the gospel? Well, when we get to the end, we'll see because it's the power of God unto salvation. You know, it's really interesting that he's constantly focusing on the gospel. I mean, Paul is headed to a town, Rome, where 30% of the population were slaves.

That's about 440, 000 people. Another 30% were former slaves. I mean, Paul was writing to a church where Christians were being dragged into the Colosseum to be eaten by lions and slaughtered in the gladiatorial games. You know, he's going into a town full of immorality. He's going into a brutal pagan town.

And what does he write about? He writes about what will really help this town. It's the power of the gospel. You know, the apostle Paul, he isn't even, he's not making condemning statements about the government. He's talking about what can change people's lives, and that's the gospel.

That's really the hope that we have in this increasingly pagan society that we live in, that people would turn to God, that their lives would be transformed, that Christian culture would actually be established in their hearts, in their homes, in their churches, and then in their civil life and in their work. That's really the hope of the world. And it's really the only hope. Politics will not do, politics doesn't change people's hearts. You know, it often hardens people's hearts.

I'm so thankful for the people in this church that are involved in politics and raising their voices. Praise the Lord, you should keep doing that. We wanna pray for you. But it's the gospel that changes a culture. And that's what we're really praying for.

So the Apostle Paul, he says that he's obligated. Look at verse 14. Look at verse 14. I am a debtor both to Greeks and barbarians, both to wise and the unwise. A debtor means an obligation.

So he's showing us this obligation. Now, I'll give you a little bit more insight into this. Go forward in Romans to chapter 15. Chapter 15, verse 22. In Romans 15, 22, We learn that Paul was hindered from going to Rome.

He really wanted to go, but he kept getting blocked. God was blocking him. He would move one direction toward Rome and God blocked him. Another and God blocked him. Has God ever blocked you?

Blocked your desires, you know. It's a picture of that. You pray, you long, you made a promise, but you get blocked. Verse 22, for this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you, but now no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire, these many years to come to you. Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you.

For I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped along the way by you. If first I may enjoy your company for what? What's he saying? He's saying, I wanna come to Rome because I wanna go to Spain. And he's going to Rome.

Remember last week I said, Romans is in one way it's a fundraising letter. He's raising funds to go to Spain. You know, he's already, he was in Jerusalem, they raised funds there, and in Antioch, they sent him out. In Ephesus, he spent two years there. They sent him out to do more, and he wants to go to Rome as a stopping point to go to Spain.

It's almost like he's saying, I wanna come to Rome, we're gonna have a missions conference and I need you to send me to Spain. He's doing the Great Commission. That's what he's all about, but he cares so much for this outpost of believers in Rome that he wants to come and impart the gospel, he wants to be with them, but he's actually asking them to support him to go to Spain. Continuing on, verse 25, "'But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints for it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the Saints in Jerusalem. So Paul is going, he's headed to Jerusalem because he's been collecting money for the persecuted church in Jerusalem.

So he's gotta go to Jerusalem first, but in Jerusalem what happens? He gets arrested and He's taken to Rome he gets an all-expense-paid Trip to Rome by the Roman government who's actually trying to protect him in that sense things don't always Play out the way That you hoped or planned and that's what he's talking about here. And this was delay for years. He says, for many years, I tried and I tried and I tried and I just couldn't get to you. You know what this is like.

There are things you prayed for, good things that you prayed for, godly things. And they just didn't materialize. God had a different plan. In Acts chapter 16, verse six, I'll just read it. Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

They were blocked here, they were blocked there. Arrested here, you know, stone and left for dead there. This is very characteristic of missionary efforts in the Bible. If you read the book of Acts, the missionary efforts are always getting frustrated and befuddled. God is doing something in a different way.

And you know, Paul ends up, he's chained to a Roman guard. And the gospel is getting spread through the Roman government. And so Paul is seeking this whole thing. But what's so interesting here is that The Apostle Paul is blocked. You know, this happens.

I mean, I'll just give you an example. You know, most of you are very well aware. We sent two missionary families to Turkey, okay? And after a while, they came back in God's providence. It was disappointing to all of us, but then one of the men began to create a Turkish language audio app to spread the gospel in Turkey just crossing those borders.

And that led to creating an audio app, because people don't read anymore, right? And it's very helpful for people to hear the gospel in voices and Christian literature. And then, you know, a door opened up to translate into Farsi and then not just Turkish but Farsi and and then Russian and Arabic right so what what started at what what seemed like a failed mission wasn't a failed mission at all because God is always redirecting missionary activity. And I think that's what happened with us. We didn't waste any money in sending those missionaries because God was doing something that was bigger, deeper, better than what we had in mind.

We just did what we thought we should do at the time, and life is kinda like that. But this is what happened with the apostle Paul. And so he's chained. At the same time, he's looking for local churches as sending agencies for his missionary work. But Paul is saying, I still wanna go to Rome.

That's the whole thing here. Now, let's talk about the obligations. Let's talk about the things that characterizes life that, as I said earlier, I hope become ours as we gather together. In other words, don't come into this church just doing your own thing. Come and do God's thing.

You know, set yourself aside. Do something better than yourself. Stop trying to find yourself, and do something that's actually consistent with God. Stop following your heart. Do something that's actually relevant and good, and God has said is good.

So Paul's first obligation was to be thankful for all. That's in verse eight. Paul expresses his thankfulness. He says, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. He says first, but he doesn't say first to say, well this is the first in three points, no.

He's saying first as this is the foundation, this is the reason for it all. This is why, this is so much of why as a foundation why I wanna come, because I'm thankful for you. Paul is a thankful man. Now we know that Paul knew at least 24 or 26 people, probably six families in Rome, because he names them. He's met these people before.

He probably met them in the revival in Jerusalem. He probably met some of them. Well, we know he met some of them in Corinth because he was making tents with Apollos there and Priscilla and Aquila. So he knew a lot of these people because of his travels and the revivals that were happening in these cities. So he knows them and he's thankful for them.

Yeah, do you think the Roman church was like this church full of all these perfect people in Rome, new converts in Rome out of that thing, and says, are you serious? Everybody carries baggage with them. There's no churches that are perfect, but the Apostle Paul is thankful for an imperfect church. This is very common in his letters. I mean, even Corinth, with all its problems, he says, I thank my God concerning you.

He's a thankful man. Even for an immature church. He says he's thankful that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. This is a church that was known for his faith. What's faith?

Faith is knowing the will of God and doing it. That's how faith works out. It believes and it takes action. And this really speaks to the power of thankfulness in a church. Paul uses this term 46 times.

I read somebody who said, the Apostle Paul uses this word thankfulness, eucharisteo, more than any other ancient writer that we know of, not just writers in the Bible, but any other ancient writer, because he's a thankful man. And you know, to the Thessalonian church, he says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ for you. You know, lack of gratitude is a bad sign. People get depressed and people get sick when they lose a sense of thankfulness. Maybe some of you are in there right now and you just are not thankful.

You're sorry about this, you're sorry about that, and you're not thankful for what God has given you. That's a trap of the devil. But God really desires to create a thankful people. You know, we just had like a family reunion this last week and I was just so reminded about my dad, you know, who died a while back, but my dad was so thankful. He was one of the most thankful men I've ever known.

He was always so grateful for the smallest morsel of nothing, he was thankful for it. And I so appreciate that. Christians are a thankful people. Now, how are you doing? How are you doing on that?

Are you thankful for these people that you're sitting next to? I picked up my church directory a couple of days ago, And I just started praying through the names. And I'll have to tell you, I am so thankful for every name on that list. I really am. I just found myself moving from one delight to the next in all the different weird people in this church.

You know, we are, we're so different. We come from all these different countries, all these crazy accents, you know. But, you know, I just found myself so thankful. I couldn't help but be thankful for every name that my eye rested on. And so it's a joy, it's a joy to be together, isn't it?

What a great thing God has done he says I thank my God my God that's just an an expression of his tenderness toward God His affection toward God helped to create His affection toward the people of God. So we're obligated to be thankful. We're obligated, okay? Get yourself obligated to be thankful. Well, maybe it'll also rise up in your heart as well.

But if it doesn't rise up in your heart, you oughta get your heart in line with the commands of God. Okay, set the second, second obligation. I'm just gonna call this prayerfully scheming. Paul is prayerfully scheming. This is verses nine and 10.

For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. Verse 10, you see that he's scheming. Making requests, now get this language, all right? Hang on it. If by some means, now at last, I may find a way, I wanna find a way in the will of God to come to you, okay?

He's scheming. He's trying to find a way. Now, I think this is a helpful sort of stopping point to help us understand the will of God and how do you discern the will of God. Paul is trying to find a way in the will of God. Now get this, he doesn't say, I feel led.

He says, I'm trying to find a way. I wanna make this happen. This is a good thing. I'm not passive. You know, a lot of times we just sort of passively cruise through life when actually there's a better way and that's finding a way to be a blessing.

Okay, I'm blocked over here. I'm gonna go around this side. Okay, I'm blocked over there. I'm gonna go up the middle, right? That's what the Apostle Paul is saying.

And he's praying that way. He's not saying, I'll just wait and see what happens. He's saying, I'm gonna find a way to come to you. Isn't that interesting? So anyway, discerning the will of God is not always some mystical thing.

It's often just doing the thing that you know you ought to do. But he knows he's being hindered, so but he's pressing through the obstacles. So the guidance of God is knowing what you should do and then going and finding a way to get there. Even though you might get redirected, like the Apostle Paul got redirected so many times. For years he was redirected, just like our missionaries were redirected, but something better comes out of it as a result.

So Paul, he goes to Jerusalem, thinking that the Jerusalem church is gonna send him, and then they slap handcuffs on him and drag him across the land mass to Rome. He gets shipwrecked, just all kinds of things happen to him. He gets shipwrecked, he swims ashore, he gets bitten by a snake that's supposed to kill him, but it doesn't kill him, and then he proceeds on to Rome. They put him in jail. Instead of having freedom to go about and do what he wanted to do with all those Christians in Rome, he's preaching the gospel to Caesar's household.

It didn't work out the way he thought, but it worked out the way that was best. This is all about really discerning the will of God in your life. Unanswered prayer. You know, Proverbs says, a man's heart plans the way but the Lord directs his steps. A man's heart plans the way.

You should plan, but the Lord will direct your steps. I'm so thankful for that. There are two prayers in Romans. We won't cover them now, but they're beautiful prayers. I'll just tell you where they are.

In chapter 15, verses five and six and verse 13, and the second prayer is in chapter 16, 25 to 27. They're such, you know, we should pray, hey, we're gonna pray these prayers on Wednesday nights, Okay, we're gonna pray those prayers because they're such wonderful prayers. Okay, here's the third, the third obligation, and that is he's intent on imparting and receiving spiritual blessing. He's longing to see them because he wants to be a blessing to them. He wants to pour out good things toward them.

Verse 11, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Two really striking things. Well, there are more. Maybe I'll try to let myself to two.

First, that he wants to impart a blessing. He wants to do some good among them. He wants to be a blessing to them. Is that, like did you come to church for, was that in your mind? I'm coming here because I want to impart some spiritual blessing on these people.

I hope you're locked and loaded for that today. Like, because we're gonna break up, pretty soon we're gonna eat together, and you ought to be locked and loaded to impart a spiritual blessing when we gather together. Some of you are really smiling at me, I know you're gonna go for it. But he's coming with a gift, but it's a gift from God, it's from the Holy Spirit. He's imparting it, In other words, he wants to actively, proactively, intentionally, thoughtfully pour out a spiritual blessing.

You know, you're gonna look in the eyeballs of some people today. Let's do that. You got nothing else to do. Do that. That some spiritual gift that you may be established.

He's not passive, he has something to impart. But then he tells us why. So that you might be established. And he's using a word that has to do with strengthen. So that people would get strengthened.

Like when we gather together, we're not just here to be passively entertained. We're here to strengthen one another. You know, that should be the thrust of our gatherings when we gather together, to make strong. You know, the Apostle Paul in Revelation 3, 2 said, strengthen the things that remain. That's what we should do.

Strengthen the things that remain. And we, look, we don't gather in the Church of Jesus Christ for our entertainment. This isn't Christian entertainment. This is participation. An entertainment church falls short from the true church.

That is a participatory church where people know one another, they're strengthening one another, they're encouraging one another, they're loving one another. They're not just showing up and hitting the parking lot as fast as they can. That's not what actual Christians should be doing. You know, Sometimes people come in and they say, well, I'm just not getting anything out of this. Well, did you come to put something into it, to strengthen a brother or sister?

Hey, everybody here has a story. Everybody has discouragements. Everybody is getting blocked somewhere. Everybody has some heartbreaking thing going on in the background of their life. Everybody has a story that dogs them, you know.

In this church, you know that, I know you, you know, we know. You know that's when we get together and pray on Wednesday night, you know, people are always praying about one another's troubles because we know each other. But the best way to come to a church is to say, rather by the will of God, I'm trying to find a way to strengthen my brother. So we come with motives. And the Apostle longs to see them but the second thing I don't want us to miss maybe you missed it it's easy to miss Paul also needs encouragement he said I need to be strengthened.

I need encouragement. I'm just like you. So their faith was important to him. Hey, so you've got these pastors in this church. Your faith is really important to us.

We need your faith. Just like you need us to be holy and thankful and prayerful. We need you to be that too. And we need you to encourage us, for sure. You know, this is in such sharp contrast to sort of the entertainment church, where you watch people on a stage, and everybody's very distant, and the big shot arrives in town, and everybody listens, and then they leave, and there's no relationship at all.

You know, I heard somebody say, this is how the Roman emperors acted. They would come into town with all their pomp and circumstance and everyone would fawn over them and then this author said, same thing with the popes of the Roman Catholic Church. They would come in with all their garb investments and their formalities, and they would want you to kiss the papal toe, the big toe. I'm not kidding. And, or the papal ring, kiss the papal ring.

That's not Christianity, okay? In Christianity, we're like a family. And even, you know, even the shepherds need encouragement. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying, he said, I need you and you need me, you know.

So this is the give and take of the body of Christ, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. That's what fellowship is, it's mutual faith running all across the relational lines. And then 13, or number four, verse 13. He was determined to obtain fruit. Determined to obtain fruit.

And again, he's saying why he hasn't come. Verse 13, for I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered, until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. So Paul was resolute, he meant business. He wanted to obtain fruit. In other words, he wanted to be such a blessing that his life in that church would be fruitful, like the believers would bear fruit because he was there.

And frankly, that's all of our role as the church. We come together to help one another bear fruit. He was resolute, he was calculated, he was deliberate, he knew what he was seeking in the Roman church, he wasn't just freewheeling it, he was settled in his mind, He was stubbornly bent on obtaining fruit. He wanted to see results. But it says he was hindered by these various barriers.

The fifth, the fifth obligation that the apostle had was to be large-hearted toward all. Verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. So the apostle is now demonstrating his, well I'm just, I don't know if this is the right word, his large heartedness. There was no jaundice eye he had toward these believers. He was, there was no partiality, there was no intolerance, no discrimination, nor bigotry.

He did come with the truth, that's not the same thing as bigotry, that's not the same thing as intolerance, because God has given us things that are true. We need to be faithful to those. But Paul is a debtor in a sense that he's obligated to minister to these different kinds of people. And he uses this word, debtor, which means that you're put under obligation. Again, we're under obligation.

We can't do our own thing. It's one of The hardest things to break in people's lives, they're so used to doing their own thing. When they come into the church, they wanna do their own thing. You know, it even happens with kids that grow up into a church. It's been their parents' church.

So just pray for them that God will lay upon them the obligation that this is their church now. And they have obligations in this church. Some of you young people are in that transition. It's a normal transition. Here's my advice.

Take it on. Say, this is my church. I'm gonna be, I am obligated to pray for this church, to be thankful for this church. I'm gonna impart spiritual blessing in this church. That's why I'm gonna come.

Some, you know, in this transition, they just kinda show up whenever they feel like it. That's not what we are looking for. But he says he's, I really love this, he's a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians. So I think he's talking about categories, I think he's talking about different kinds of people Greeks the sophisticated the philosophers the philosopher Kings the the wise the eloquent you know they use they use all their words right and so the Greek those kind of people and then there's the barbarians you know I mean everybody can't be sophisticated and erudite, right? You know.

But why were they called barbarians? Because you could hardly understand what they were saying. When they talk to you, they sound like bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, so that's why they called them barbarians. It's like, you know, I moved from Southern California. There were some people out here in the country I couldn't understand.

I understand them now, you know, because barbarianism can kind of get in your soul. But I think he's saying I appreciate them all. The wise, the eloquent, the country bumpkins, the ones who just can't speak exactly like the Greeks, these sophisticated people. Paul is large-hearted. Proverbs 3.27, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do so.

Romans 12, 13, be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, he goes on. So we have obligations, and one of those obligations is to be large-hearted toward one another. You know, the church should be just...