One of the things I love about Living Vine is when we're worshiping together, you hear the scriptures read together. I don't know if you know this. You go to some churches, you hardly ever hear the scriptures read. Maybe you're lucky once or twice in the sermon. And I know sometimes it shows up in our music, but it's great to just dwell and think on what we're reading and I don't think it was by, I don't know if it was deliberately done, but if your scripture readings are planned beforehand to what's being preached, maybe that wasn't, but I hope that you see that there is a connection to what we're reading here in Romans chapter 15 from what we read earlier about Jesus and his role as a servant, making himself a servant. Okay, we're going to begin in Romans chapter 15 in verse 1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up for Christ did not please himself But as it is written The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs In order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name and again as it is as is said Rejoice of Gentiles for his people and again praise the Lord all ye Gentiles and let all the peoples extol him and again Isaiah says the root of Jesse will come Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Father, thank you for your truth today. Thank you, God, for your Word. Oh God, how we need it. Oh God, how we need to live by Your Word. Lord, like a tree is watered and the branches produce fruit. Lord, we need Your Word to water us by Your Spirit so that we may be fruitful that Lord God, that You would manifest in us by Your Spirit, goodness, kindness, self-control, love, and all those attributes, God, that come from You. that glorify You. Lord, may Your Word live to us today. Give me the words to say as, Lord, I speak. And help me, Father, to proclaim Your greatness, Your goodness, as You are to be praised, Father. Thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So, See here, as we've read this together, Paul's writing to the church in Romans, and Paul writes to the church in Rome from Corinth, and he has a desire to go there someday to be with them, and we know providentially how God does that. Maybe not by the means that Paul expects, but at this time, God uses Paul to write this letter to Romans, this incredible letter, And he tells the church in Rome that they have an obligation to please their neighbor, to build him up by following Christ's example in glorifying God. And Paul further states that we can do this through God-empowered endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures that gives us hope and instructs us to live in harmony so that we may glorify God together among all peoples. That's a lot. But it's all there. It's all there for us. It's all there for the church in Rome as Paul is writing to them to encourage them that they may all together do all these things. That they may serve the Lord together. That they may glorify God together. That they may look to God to empower them and to give them something that we all need. And what is that? Did you catch it? Hope. Hope. Hope-filled endurance and encouragement. That's what we need when we get discouraged. And I hear many people, maybe you even hear professionals, health professionals, many people say that the time of year that we've gone through, even through March, seems to be a time of the year when people experience a lot of depression, don't they? lack of sunlight, there's a lot of reasons given for that. We can think about some of the changes that have taken place in our society and in our country in just the last two years and all of that can feel heavy to us, can make us feel down, depressed, discouraged. And even in the Church of Christ, we've seen the reports, I'm sure you have. I think most of us haven't been living in a hole somewhere. We realize that there has been division in churches. Churches that preach the Word of God. Churches that believe the Gospel. And there has been division and there's been disunity because of conflict. Some of it related to COVID and other things. Politics. All of these things. have happened and many other things. It just seems like, and everywhere I hear pastors and see them talking about it, there's just a feeling that there's not the unity that we need. Why is that? All these things can be depressing. They can be discouraging. But a lot of it has to do with one thing. It's a problem that we all have. What is that? We could simplify it and we could say sin, couldn't we? What is sin? Thinking about yourself. more than everybody else. Thinking about yourself inwardly more than you're thinking about God and His glory and what matters to Him. What He made you for. What He made me for. What He's established His church for. Those are the things that Paul is writing about here that are very relevant to us, aren't they? They cause us to think about who we are, what our purpose is, and I don't mean just some general purpose that is personalized for you as an individual. We're talking about things that are set that Christ has designed us for. It's not your own personal design. It's His design for you, for me, for us together as God's people, as the body of Christ. So this is what we have, and the reason that we have this hope is because of what God has done in us. I want you to take a look. Take a look at verse 1. Paul says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. We who are strong. We who are strong. Paul is putting himself in this number. The people he's addressing, he's assuming, and the church in Rome. From everything we read in Paul's letter to the Romans, they are a healthy church. What would be considered a spiritually healthy church. That didn't come about by Paul, obviously. It came about by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God strengthening who was there in Rome. He assumes there are people there that are strong. What does it mean to be strong? Why are they strong? We who are strong. Those who are strong are enabled to look to God beyond their present circumstance to place their hope in God. Right? Those who are strong are those who are looking beyond whatever the problem is in the church, in their life, whatever's happening at the moment, so that they can place their hope totally in God. For what else would they have to offer anyone who's weak? If you're not convinced and strengthened and encouraged by the truth of God's Word and who He is and who He is in you by the Spirit, then you have nothing to offer. Maybe a hand clap. But when the Spirit is working through you by His Word, by His truth, you have everything. You have everything to give away to those who need it. And you can do it every day. We have an obligation. It's not just when we feel like it. It's not just when we think that there's a time and then there's not a time. No, we have an obligation. It's an obligation to be fulfilled. To bear the failings of the weak. And not to please ourselves. To bear with the failings. Galatians chapter 6 says that we're to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. It's a fulfillment of what God has commanded us to do. To bear with one another in love and gentleness and meekness. To care for one another. To be weak could be many things. It could just be discouragement. It could be someone who's been disobedient to God. It could be someone who just hasn't grown in their faith, and they may be categorized by someone who is immature in their faith. They just don't know enough to have the foundation. When things come in their life, they just don't know what to do next. And they need encouragement from other believers. They need the teaching of God's Word. And all of these things, both the weak and the strong, are to accept each other. We're to run together. There's not some spiritual class in the church of God where there are some, oh, look at them, they're more spiritual and I just can't touch where they are. We're all to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And that humbleness allows us to be servants. And who is our model in this? Who is it that we look to? And looking beyond ourselves, looking beyond what we are. We're not to please ourselves. We see in verse two, let each of us please his neighbor for his good and to build him up. And we see this often in the Scriptures. We see it in Ephesians, where Paul says we are to build up the body of Christ. We're to build up the church and build up one another. And we do that through love. And our model is Christ, we see in verse 3. For Christ did not please Himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." Paul's quoting from Psalm 69 and 9. Christ did not please himself. He did not please himself. But we see what He did in Philippians. What He did is that He humbled Himself, and He came in the form of a servant, didn't He? He came in the form of a servant. So we see, Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me. He took the reproach of this world. And he took that upon himself. We see also in verse 8. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. That means the Jew. and to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. He's become a servant, and He's our model. But He did what He did to please others, not Himself. So we think about our focus in pleasing other people, and someone might think, well, I thought that we're not supposed to be man-pleasers. I thought maybe that was something we're supposed to shun. Isn't that kind of worldly to want to please someone else? It doesn't mean that you're serving everything of that person's interest. It doesn't mean that you're just doing everything that they want you to do. But it means that you're serving them for the sake of God. It means that for God's sake and for His glory, you're willing to serve. There's a difference. There's a difference in doing something to please God. It doesn't mean you're doing everything that a person would want you to do necessarily. But you're doing those things that will bless them for God's glory. And we can do that when we focus on others. And we live for God in this way. We see in Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 and 5 You're welcome you can flip there, but I'm going to go quickly here Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 5 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." Paul is consistent, isn't he? Look out for the interests of others. That's what God calls us to do. Also in Philippians 2 verse 13, For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. That's who we're doing it for. His good pleasure. But in that it brings delight to our souls. To please God, doesn't it? That's what should happen. As mentioned earlier, what I do serving the company that I serve, there's a premium in our company that the customer, the guest, is to be preferred. And there's a thing that they do called ten-tiling. where every person that comes by, you're to recognize them. And they're within 10 tiles. So now you're going to notice that probably next time you go in. It's like you notice that because it is to make the person know that they're important, that you're glad that they're there, and you want them to keep coming. And sometimes I have to help people, especially young people, that are struggling with that. It's hard to understand. Why is this so important? I mean, this is kind of irritating. I have to engage people and I have to ask them questions about themselves and say hello and have to do this. I mean, there's hundreds of people come through some days and I've got to do this. One person a while back, I said, you know, I really, why would I want to do that? Why would I want to know something about someone else? That's a legitimate question, right? I mean, if you live in the world and a lot of us, we have this natural inclination that we just think about ourselves. Why would I want to know about anyone else that I don't know? I have nothing, I assume maybe I have nothing in common with them. Assume I May never see them again, maybe maybe not Why would I want to engage someone why would I want to talk to someone that's not in my circle of friends Why would I? Why would I want to put myself out there that that even if I say something to them? Maybe they won't be so nice Maybe they won't They won't return the hello. That's an awful feeling. You ever done that? You ever said hello to someone and they just barely, maybe barely look at you or they just, I love the stone cold, you say hi and they're like. It's like, well, did they hear me or what's going on there? You wonder, right? It's like, is anybody home or did I say it wrong? You wonder. And yet, you put yourself out there and you take the risk because why? Well, people have different reasons. But of course, as Christians, we're called to risk, aren't we? It's different. It's not just because we're attending to some customer or someone that we just want to please so that they'll do what we would like for them to do, which is to buy more things. We do it. Why? Why? Because Jesus loved us first. That's a great way of putting it. Jesus loved us first. Jesus cared for us first. He cared for us when we didn't care for Him, right? God loved us when we were unlovable. And that's the greatest reason. But there is another reason too. Because you ought to love your neighbor. You ought to love your neighbor. Three chapters back, Paul started this thought. He's been connecting all of this together. If you notice, this is just in the middle of Paul's instruction to the church about how that we are to love. And he starts by talking about how we're to care for our neighbors. And our neighbors is everybody, isn't it? Both the believer and the unbeliever. But especially those that are in the body of Christ. We're to care for other people. And we do that in a variety of ways. But one place we start, we don't end there, but one place we start is with our lips. Right? With our words. We're to care. And you have to take effort to do that. And the motive ought to be because you really want to know about that person. Right? You really do. You really want to get into their life. And there's a way to do that. Everybody isn't as approachable. There's some people, they may avoid you doing that. But that doesn't mean you stop, but you just do it on their terms and respect their space, right? We do that. But that takes the discernment of the Holy Spirit. That takes walking with God and recognizing that God is using you in the moment, and wherever you are, when we're in this space for fellowship, right? When there's new people that come in, and there's people that you don't know, you take the time to engage them, to say something to them, to let them know that you care about them. That is Christian fellowship, and yet sometimes it's not done so well. Thankfully, this morning we had time to do that, but we don't want to end it there, do we? It's an opportunity for more hospitality, more engagement, to welcome people, maybe to your home, maybe to coffee, a time to serve them. But we serve people with our words. We serve them with our actions. And people really know if you care, don't they? I mean, do you know when somebody cares for you? You know. You can see it in their eyes, right? We even, with our body language, you can tell when someone is engaged. We have a lot of things that can cause us to disengage in this time. A lot of digital devices, right? Lots of things. I'm not throwing any shade on anyone that's looking at your device to try to read the Bible or anything right now. I know you're paying attention. I can tell. There's reason though that we are to engage somebody fully because we want them to know I care about You that's what you call Loving your neighbor, isn't it? That's what we're to do. We're to do that to the glory of God and hopefully Hopefully what they will see It's that thing that sometimes we hear when somebody comes to Christ, when they're used by God to do that. And what is it that sometimes people will say? There's something different about them. And I know sometimes we all have our strange idiosyncrasies, and I'm not talking about that, even though the Bible does say that God's people are a peculiar people, right? But we want them to know something beyond that, that we genuinely care about them. You know, there's people out there who just don't know that there's anyone who genuinely cares about them. That genuinely cares about them. And we see Paul even proclaim. Because we bring the Gospel everywhere we go and whoever we're talking to. In Romans chapter 10. How beautiful. And partway down verse 15. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. That's what we're to do. And we preach the good news with our words and our actions. And we're, as Paul says in Romans chapter 12, we're to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto Him, which is our reasonable act of what? Worship. Service. Worship. To God. That's what we're doing. And Ellen, if you noticed, a lot of what we've read is about worship. A lot of what we're seeing here is about worship. And in the middle of that, God produces endurance. Endurance. We see in verse 5, May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live. And that word in the Greek, endurance, is used 32 times in the New Testament and 16 times by Paul. It's an important word to the Christian, isn't it? Endurance. Sometimes translated, perseverance. It's that which God enables us to live the Christian life. And again, more evidence to the person who's not a Christian that God is faithful. that God really does provide for His children. That evidence is the joy of the Lord in our lives and the encouragement. Periclesis. The word is used in the Greek 29 times, in the New Testament 20 times by Paul in his writings. Endurance and encouragement. It's what we need. God would grant that. This is a prayer that Paul just launches into here. He just launches into this prayer for God's people. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you these things. And that's what we need. And what does that produce? Harmony. That we would live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ, that together you may with one voice glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're to do together. We've been doing that this morning. Have you noticed this theme in some of the songs that we've been singing? Have you heard some of that in the praise that we've already been singing about these things? About the unity that comes from the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ? These are things that we do together with one voice. Isn't that beautiful? You can think of the ways that you can do that with one voice together. It's understanding that we have the same Gospel. It's understanding that we have the same understanding of the Scriptures and the doctrines of God that are in the Scriptures. That all these things are important. The glory of God. Because that's where the encouragement comes from. You see back in verse 4, Because it's through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures that we may have this hope. The Scriptures. The Scriptures that Paul is pointing to are the same Scriptures mentioned in verse 8 in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs in order that the Gentiles might glorify God as He is given for His mercy. That's what we're to focus upon. God's faithfulness in the Scriptures. God's faithfulness. We see in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Scriptures. That's what equips us. That's what encourages us. And we can never go away from that. Those are the things that make the difference. Those are the things that God is going to use in our lives so that we may glorify Him and serve Him. As Paul is making this survey, and you think about hope, and this hope that comes from the Scriptures, think about it this way. What if everything you hold dear was taken away from you? What if everything you hold dear was taken away from you? I want you to think about right now for a moment. What's happened in your crane? There are believers in your crane. There are churches in your crane that God's established. Imagine being those Christians, those brothers and sisters in Christ now, and all those people that are having to flee their country, everything that they own, Everything that they have, their houses, their jobs, their churches, everything being destroyed or ripped from them. Think about all of that. What if you lost your home, your possessions, your job, your community was destroyed by bombs, family members were lost, would you have any hope? Would you have any hope? You could dwell on that for a minute just to think, how would I feel if all that had happened to me? But they have the same scriptures that we have. And they have the same hope that we have. Think about it like this, through the Scriptures. How many times were the children of Israel taken into captivity? Paul's looking back. Remember, as Paul is writing Romans, New Testament hasn't come together. What are people looking to? What are they looking to? The Old Testament. God's faithfulness through all the ages. You think about the children of Israel, taken into captivity, exiled from their country, their homeland, and yet God gave them hope. God gave them hope. Joseph, son of Isaac, sold into slavery by his brothers, It was ordained by God to happen. This young man, through many trials and temptations, as a faithful young man, tempted by Potiphar's wife, thrown into jail for a time. He proved himself faithful to God and God gave him authority. to the point that God sovereignly saved those very brothers that sold Him into slavery and into captivity. God was faithful. You look at God's people, how God many times faithfully delivered them from slavery in Egypt for 500 years there. After being exiled to Babylon for 70 years, But through all of it, God raised up men and women to shine like the morning sun, to shine for God, for His glory. Men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and Deborah, and Esther, All of these, God, in the middle of all kinds of tribulation and trial, God raised them up for such a time. Isn't it amazing how God does that? He doesn't wait until things are good, does He? It's in the middle of difficulties that God does His work so many times to show Himself to be God. To show when all our resources are gone, just as Paul, after he's said everything that he can say, he just launches into a prayer and just Because that's all you can do at the end, is call on God to do what only He can do. When you have gone to the end of your resources, and everything is spent, and you know the only person that's going to come through for you is the God of heaven, God of earth, the God of hope. That same God who's faithful in everything. He's faithful in all these things. In all of this, God sovereignly deposits His hope. He deposits it for us so that we can hope in Him. I'm thinking of the story of John Bunyan. You know who John Bunyan is? Not Paul Bunyan. John Bunyan. John Bunyan, the non-conformist Baptist pastor who refused to stop preaching faithfully in the 1600s when the monarchy was restored in England. Bunyan was arrested and he was placed in prison for twelve years. You think about that. Twelve years. It would be an opportunity to be bitter, wouldn't it? It would be an opportunity to say, why this? I've got a family to care for. I've got children. He had a large family. And there he was. He was arrested. And during that time, he wrote two of his greatest works, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and Pilgrim's Progress. Hundreds of thousands of people have read now. two of his best and most well-known works. I think it was Charles Spurgeon that said that he would read Pilgrim's Progress, I don't know how many times, I think he'd read it every year. He later was imprisoned again for six months, later on, after he got out and he started preaching again, faithfully. How can someone endure such things without hope? How can you do it? Hope is not some pie in the sky. I hope things will turn out. I hope things will get better someday, maybe. James Boyce said it this way. This is not just optimism that Paul is writing about. Not a hope founded on something the world thinks is possible. This is not the way the world thinks that, well, all we have, maybe you've even heard news commentators say it like this, well, in the end, all they have is hope. But I'm not for sure they know what that is. It's not that kind of hope. This is an eternal, fixed in heaven hope that God has for those that He has set apart for Him. This is the hope that a person that knows Him, that has the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of him, knows. It's never going to change. It's never going to go away because it's as faithful as His promises. It's as faithful as who He is. And isn't it something how after Paul prays, he just launches into praise? I mean, this is like the greatest hits. And the last part of this, you see in verse 9, "'Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.'" That's from 2 Samuel 22, verses 50 and 51. Or you can also see it in Psalm 18. In verses 49 and 50, David looks back in faith at God's promises and looks forward in hope to the fulfillment in the coming future King, His Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah. He didn't know how that was going to happen, but he hoped in it. And Paul is bringing all this back to memory. This is God's faithfulness. And again, it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people. From Deuteronomy 32-43. Verse 11, and again, Praise the Lord, O you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol Him. Psalm 117 and 1. And again, verse 12, Isaiah says the root of Jesse will come. Even He who arises to rule the Gentiles in Him will the Gentiles hope. They will hope. We see Isaiah, that's a quote from Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and verse 10. Some people, you may not realize, who is the root of Jesse? who is the root of Jesse. We know that David is from the line. This is speaking of Jesse, the father of David, King David, who ruled Israel. It was through David's earthly human line that the Messiah Jesus was to come. We know Jesus is fully human and fully God. And that's the promise, that it would be through the root of Jesse. All of this is the hope that we have in Christ. So all of that is showing, exhibiting the praise that God is worthy of as we trust Him, as we hope in Him, as we know that He will fulfill His Word. And He will do it by His own standard, His own time, in His own way. Paul said this, back in Philippians 3, verse 7, But what things were gained to me, these things I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed, What? Being conformed to His death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead, we're all going to die a physical death unless Jesus comes first. That can be a terrifying thought for the person whose hope isn't in God. You talk to someone, He talks about sickness, loved ones dying, possibility of their own death someday. How do you face that without the hope of Christ? How do you face that without knowing that God is your all in all? Knowing that the best is yet to come. That's what we're hoping in. That there's something better I was just talking to a brother earlier and we were fellowshipping about some of the things the crazy things that we see But we know that it's all going to come to an end someday It's all going to come to an end and God will bring it off to an end for his glory And there will be a new heavens and a new earth. I And we will have the hope that God will reign. Jesus will reign over all. And we can give praise to Him. And we see this prayer that Paul prays. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. That's everything. That's not something that's passing away. That's the hope that we have in God for all eternity. The hope that causes us to praise, to sing to him, to worship him with our lives. Are we doing that today? If you're discouraged, be encouraged. Your hope is in Christ, not in this world. It's in Him. It's in Him. The trial that you're facing right now, that may seem like it's never going to end, that physical illness that maybe you continue to struggle with, all of those things are passing away in the things of this world. But as the hymn that sometimes we sing, On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. is the rock. He's who we need in this hour. Brothers and sisters, be encouraged as we seek the Lord together. Put your hope and your trust in Him today. Amen. Father, we want to thank You for Your Word today. We thank You, God, for Your truth that, Lord, we know that we have failed. We confess, Lord, our great need of You. Even in our unbelief, Lord, We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us seeking our own way. But Lord, you have laid our sin on Christ. That we may call out. We may confess our sins. We thank you, God, you are faithful to forgive us our sins when we turn to you. and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And that, Father, You never change. Lord, search us today and know us and try us. See if there's any wicked way in us, Lord. Lord, if there's fear, Father, I pray that You would replace it with faith. If we feel hopeless, O God, I pray that you would strengthen us, that we may hope again. Lord, may we cleave to you and your word that our fellowship with you would be sweet, that it would be lasting, and that we would never look back, O God. We would look forward to what's to come. And oh, what a beautiful place. What a beautiful future we have with You, O God. We thank You for that. And we look forward to that day when we will all be one and sing to Your praise together for all eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen.