Turn with me once again this morning to Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15, our study resumes this morning at verse 30. Given that the final part of this chapter constitutes a list of Paul's final instructions to the believers in Rome as they prepare for his impending visit, there's really no need for any in-depth review of my last message. So let's go ahead and read verses 30 to 33 together. Here Paul writes, now I urge you brethren by or in accordance with our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshment in your company. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. If you've known me for any appreciable time, you'll know that one of the things I really dislike about this particular time of the year is the tendency that so many people have to make what they call New Year's resolutions. Now, what do I have against New Year's resolutions? Hmm. I think you know where I'm coming from. Most New Year's resolutions are really just restatements of things that people should be focusing on the other 365.25 days of the year. New Year's resolutions are those sudden epiphanies that people have. Hey, I need to be doing something that I should have been doing all along. I need to be changing my life in a way that's more profitable for me. I need to be doing things that are more beneficial to me and others around me. And again, these should be things that we're focused on every day of the year. I don't know what it is about the new year that convinces people that now's the time to turn over a new leaf, when in reality, every morning you wake up is another day to turn over a new leaf, another day to address the inconsistencies that might exist in your life, the times when you're at odds with what God commands in His Word, the things that you know you should be doing but aren't doing, the things you know yourself to be doing but shouldn't be doing. New Year's resolutions are silly. Gonna lose weight. Yeah, well check back with me in six months and we'll talk about how well that worked out for you. I'm going to read my Bible more. I'm going to pray more. I'm going to do this or that other thing more in hopes that I might be drawn closer to God. Well, where was that thought two weeks ago? Again, you can see just how silly New Year's resolutions are given the fact that we actually have a day nine days after July the 1st that is an actual day on the calendar. It's called National Quitters Day. It's a real thing. Excuse me. I'm going to try to struggle through this, but I've been coughing all week. National Quitters Day is that day upon which people decide they can no longer make good, or at least not as good on their New Year's resolutions as they envision themselves to be able to do on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve. It's just a part of the human condition. People want to do better. People want to resolve to handle this, that, or the other situation better. They want to resolve to be this or to do this, but it rarely works out that way. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be in a constant pursuit, a constant effort to make our lives more compatible with the life of Christ himself. We need to be on a constant mission to change our behavior in such a way as to promote the kingdom and cause of Christ as opposed to living in the same old ways that we've grown accustomed to living. Every day should be another step forward in sanctification. Every day should be another attempt, a fresh start, as it were, to finally and forever becoming conformed more to the image of Christ. There are things that we must resolve to do and to be for the kingdom and cause of Christ, and the majority of these things simply do not allow us to grow weary or lax. We need to have that understanding. I would dare say that there are many who make New Year's resolutions that go into those resolutions fully aware that within a certain time frame they're just going to abandon those resolutions. Again, the believer in Christ can't do that. We need to resign ourselves to certain ways of thinking, certain behaviors, certain disciplines And we need to resign ourselves to the fact that when we do these things, we cannot grow lax. We cannot grow weary in doing these things. Here in our text, Paul's asking his readers to do something, not only which would benefit him personally, but by extension, and more importantly, I might add, that which would ensure their own continued growth and well-being in Christ. Now, before I actually get into his request here, let's note how carefully he prefaces it. First of all, he says, I urge you, brethren. This should sound fairly familiar. It's the same phrase that he uses in places like Romans 12.1. Remember what he said there? He says, I urge you, or I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. He's using that same sort of language here, where he says, I urge you. I become your parakletos. The word translated as urge here is the word parakleo, which means I come alongside you much in the same way that the Holy Spirit does to reason with you and to beg you to do whatever it is that I'm about to ask you to do. I've come alongside of you as one who has a vested interest in your spiritual well-being, as one who genuinely loves you and cares for you, as one who wants to see you succeed in all the things that you've been taught to this point." He's simply saying, on the basis of our common bond in Christ, On the basis of this love of the Spirit that enables us both to serve one another effectively, I'm asking you to do this thing for me. What does He want them to do exactly? Well, first and foremost, He wants them to strive together with Him in their prayers to God for Him. Strive together. That's another really interesting phrase. To strive together is a translation of a single Greek word, sunagonizomai. You can hear the word agony in that word and that's exactly where we get our word agony or great struggle from Paul saying I want you to engage with me in the struggle that is prayer. I want you to agonize with me in heartfelt prayer in the common bond of Christ with the love shed abroad in each of our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I want you to join together with me in this battle called prayer." The same word was used to describe how Epaphras prayed in Colossians 4.12. Remember what Paul said there? He said, Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you might stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. This word was most commonly used to refer to athletic contests. where not just individual struggle was involved, but where team effort was involved. One of the, probably the best examples I can give of this is the example of the game of tug-of-war. In a game of tug-of-war, you've got people on both sides who are striving, and I'm not gonna go into any more gory detail than necessary, In the ancient Greek games, it was not uncommon for people to lose limbs during tug-of-war. It was not uncommon for men to be ripped in half in the game of tug-of-war. They were struggling to the point of absolute exhaustion and possible death to win that game. And Paul's saying, in the same way that you can envision these two teams on either side of the rope pulling as if their lives depended on it, and in some cases they did, to the vision that you can envision those warring factions, those struggling parties, I want you to struggle with me in that same way in prayer. Kind of adds a new twist to our prayer life, does it not? He says, I want you to be as fervent in your prayer for me as those athletes are in that game or in the games." Paul understood that the kind of fervent prayer that he was requesting here was anything but a simple or casual undertaking, especially since so much of his own prayer time involved real spiritual warfare. Let me just stop there to ask you, when's the last time you really prayed to agonize over something? Do you pray that way? Do you even know what prayer like that involves? Sad to say, but in our current modern culture of prayer, people throw out prayer requests. Others respond by saying, yeah, I'll pray for you. And then they might, they might go and pray, but what is that prayer, except on the way home from work, remembering, oh, so-and-so's not well, and they need prayer. So, Lord, I'm throwing up a prayer, and please take care of them as you will, and okay, now what's for dinner? Or you lay down at night and someone comes to mind and you're like, oh yeah, by the way, Lord, before I drift off to sleep, comfortable here in my own bed, I pray for all the orphan children in the world, all the widows. Let me see. Okay, done. My conscience is clean. I've prayed. It's not the kind of prayer I'm talking about. It's not the kind of prayer Paul's talking about. Paul knew that there would be a tendency to engage in half-hearted, if not frivolous prayer. He knew that there would be box checking. There would be an attempt to pray perfunctory prayers. He'd already excoriated the Pharisees as Jesus himself did for praying long-winded orations before God intended to impress their fellow men. Paul understood that true, genuine prayer was that which occurred in one's own prayer closet. True, heartfelt, agonizing prayer is that kind of prayer where you are hard-pressed to find anything to say between your sobs other than, please, Lord. Have you ever engaged in that kind of prayer? Do you know what that kind of prayer is like? Do you know what it means for the Holy Spirit to take your own prayers and fashion them in a way that's beneficial in the hearing of God? Do you know what it's like to not be able to pray and have to trust wholeheartedly on the Holy Spirit to do the heavy lifting for you? I would dare say that there are few in this room this morning, and this is not a chastisement. It's part of our condition. I would say that very few actually know this kind of prayer. When a prayer request goes out for a brother and sister in this place, does it cause you to agonize for them? Does your heart really go out to them? Or again, are you just doing your perfunctory duty? I don't want the perfunctory prayers. He says, I want you to strive together with me. When you go to prayer, imagine yourself on the other end of the rope with me saying, pull, pull. Do you pray that way? It's a great example of how we should all pray for one another. This kind of intercessory prayer doesn't come from some legalistic, formulaic, perfunctory, or obligatory compulsion. Where does it come from? What is it that motivates this kind of prayer? It's a genuine love, care, and concern for its object. Do you love your brothers and sisters enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with them? To engage with them in this kind of spiritual warfare? If prayer is nothing else, prayer is the epitome of spiritual warfare. Prayer is the battleground. Are you in the battle? The prayers of a righteous man are said to avail much. How about your own prayers? If you've not yet grasped the importance of this kind of prayer, I would encourage you to begin asking the Lord now. Lord, change my heart. First and foremost, Lord, soften my heart. Soften my attitude toward those around me so that I'll be more inclined to agonize, not just for them, but with them. I would dare say that if we were the praying church that we should be truly, I'm not talking about having perfunctory prayers, hearing one another pray to each other's delight. I'm talking about if each one of us knew where our prayer closets were and routinely went in there and pulled together on our own accord, there's no end to the blessings that might happen in this place. One commentator said this, he said, what a plea this is for unity among the saints and the expenditure of agonizing effort in concert against evil rather than the use of that energy and connection against one another. That's a really great point, is it not? Just think about how much energy goes into all the infighting and arguing with one another over this, that, or the other eternally insignificant issue. Think about how much that energy could be better spent if it was redirected toward our common enemy, the devil. In any given church, you've got people who are more concerned with being right. You've got people more concerned with winning a debate, more people concerned with winning an argument, more people concerned with being more popular, more people concerned with anything but unity in the body. And it shows. And they'll go to whatever lengths are necessary to make their voices heard. Not really understanding. If they did understand, that would prove them to be even more evil than I suspect they are. But not really caring to even understand just how insidious it is to turn all of our energy onto each other as opposed to striving together to defeat our common enemy. We all have a common enemy in this place. It's the devil. The last thing we should be is enemies toward one another. I'm grateful to say that that's not a problem here. We don't seem to have that problem here, but we need to guard against it at every turn. We need to make sure that every word that proceeds out of our mouth is wholesome, good for edification. That whenever we talk about anyone else in this place, it's for their good and for God's glory. We need to be on our careful guard to ensure that we are unified in our desire to defeat the devil and glorify God to the uttermost. So what was it in particular that Paul wanted the believers in Rome to pray fervently for on his behalf? Well, he actually has four requests. First, He asked them to pray that he might be rescued or delivered from the disobedient in Judea. Now, this is an obvious reference to the Jews who continue to hound Paul everywhere he went. For the sampling of the kind of thing that Paul's talking about here, all we have to do is look back at the book of Acts. In Acts 14.2, Paul refers to the Jews as those who disbelieved and stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren." In Acts 19, 9, Luke recalls the time when Paul took some of his disciples out of harm's way to the school of Tyrannus. Why? Because the Jews had become, quote, hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people. In Acts 21. You can go ahead and turn there. We're going to read a portion of this. Acts 21, verse 27. and following. Acts 21, 27 and following, we have a particularly vivid example of even more of the shenanigans perpetrated by the Jews. You'll recall there that Paul had undergone a ritual purification of himself and some newly converted Gentiles. This was still kind of an effort on Paul's part to not ruffle the feathers of the Jews if it could be helped. And there in verse 27 we read this, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, saying, Men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the law in this place. And besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." Now, is any of that true? No, he didn't take them into the temple. He never spoke against the Jews and what they believed, except when they were in error, in clear error. If anything else, Paul was always trying to reconcile Jewish beliefs and practices with new revelation in Christ. And still, they were accusing him of these things. Why? For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul brought him into the temple. Then all the city was provoked, and all the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up from the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. at once. He took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander came up and took hold of him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. And he began asking who he was and what he had done. But among the crowd, some were shouting one thing and some another. And when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. When he got to the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, for the multitude of the people kept following him, shouting, away with him. At every turn. Paul was being hounded by the Jews. These Jews who had, by the way, been provoked to jealousy by the conversion of the Gentiles, by the success of the gospel, Paul was known as that rabble rouser. Paul had been known as that person who had abandoned his Jewish faith in favor of the way, and they wanted nothing to do with him or anybody like him. And so at every turn, he was being chased, he was being hounded, he was being hindered, he was being thwarted. In Acts 23, 12 and 13, we even read that the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who formed this plot. In chapters 24 and 25 of Acts, we find the Jews attempting to have Paul charged by the governor first, And then by King Agrippa himself. Little wonder why Paul would later refer to these disobedient in Judea as he did in 1 Thessalonians 2.15 as not only not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men. And then in 2 Thessalonians 3.2, simply as perverse and evil men. Now there's something very telling in Paul's prayer request here that I believe is certainly worth mentioning, I want you to notice very carefully. Paul's prayer is not that his enemies would be destroyed. He could have very well said that, could he not? Lord, get these people off my back. Kill them all. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of it. We know Paul never would have done that, though. Why? Because these were his kinsmen, according to the flesh. These were his countrymen. Need a reminder? Romans 9, 1 through 5. Paul's already said, I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart, for I wish that I myself were accursed. separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the prophecies and the promises who are the fathers and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is overall God blessed forever. Amen. Let me just ask you this. Once again, I have to ask the question. What kind of love is this? What kind of love compels a man to pray for those who seek to do him so much harm? What kind of love compels a man to pray for his own would-be assassins? Well, it's the same kind of love that Christ has shed abroad in your heart and mine. if He has indeed done that. It's the same kind of love that Christ Himself calls us to when He exhorts us to love our enemies, to do good for those who would seek to do us harm, for those who would seek to turn us over to the devil himself if they were able. to those who would just as soon see us dead as anything else. This kind of love that Christ has given to us is the kind of love that recognizes that we're all deserving of nothing but the eternal wrath of God. It's the kind of love that recognizes that none of us deserves to be saved. But that if God can save me, He can save you. And you, and you, no matter how deplorable your life may have been, no matter how much an enemy of God you may have proved yourself to be, I mean, we're talking about Paul here. Paul thinking himself to be doing God a great service was actually doing God the greatest disservice imaginable. And it took the sovereign intervention of God to convince Paul of the error of his ways. Well, guess what? It took that same intervention to convince you of the error of your ways. Again, we tend to look at Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, and we think, well, yeah, if conversions were like that, there'd be no denying that God was at work. Folks, there's no denying that God was doing the same thing in your heart and mine. Oh, but Paul, he was really bad. So were you. Do we need to go back to Romans 3? I hope not. Paul understood that he had been delivered, and so could they. And he's asking for prayer. He says, all I want is a respite. Just pray that I'll be rescued. Pray that if the time comes, I'll find a way out. And you know what happened? He did, every time. Every time he found a way out by God's grace. But the one thing he didn't pray for was for their destruction. Now would most of them end up being destroyed anyway? Yes. Because most of them would prove to be unbelievers to the very end. Would many of them subsequently be saved? Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Paul's second request was that his service to Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints. Most commentators believe that this is a direct reference to the monies that he had collected. Remember he's already told the Romans before I come to you. I've got to stop by Jerusalem Got to take care of this thing. I've got to deliver the collection that was made for the Saints a lot of poor in and around Jerusalem Especially given you know the socio-economic Indicators of the time it was very difficult for the poor to thrive in and around Jerusalem the churches and began collecting, namely in Macedonia and Achaia, they'd been collecting monies to support these poor in Jerusalem. And Paul's job was to take the monies back to the Jerusalem church. Now, this might sound all well and good. This might sound like a simple enough thing to do. But think about who we're talking about. We're talking about Paul. Who makes up the Jerusalem Church at this time? It's largely made up of converted Jews. Very few Gentiles at this particular time. Paul's concern was that should he show up now as a Savior figure with this big bundle of cash, this is Paul the traitor to the Jewish faith. showing up and lording over his success on his missionary journeys, lording it over the poor in the Jerusalem church. How would that be received? How could that have been received? It could have been a really horrific experience for Paul, yet again, even among the Jewish Christians there, those who had been converted from Judaism. One commentator noted this, he said, Paul wanted it to be received with loving gratitude for what it was, a gesture of brotherly love and conciliation. There was a real danger, however, that the contribution he brought from the Gentile churches might not be graciously accepted, even accepted at all. It might be regarded as a bribe in return for which Paul's opposition to the law would be condoned, and the equal standing of his upstart churches in the kingdom of God acknowledged. It was by no means certain that it would be taken as what it was, a pledge of brotherly love, and God alone could dispose the saints to take it as simply as it was offered. Paul wants the Romans to pray that the Jewish believers Our Jewish saints will favorably accept the relief funds. Strong religious prejudices remained against Gentile believers and against those who preached to the Gentiles. There was then, and even in our day, the possibility of people being offended at the idea of receiving charity. It often takes more grace to be on the receiving end than on the giving end. It would have been a real concern, but how did it all turn out? Do we know? We do. Acts 21. Acts 21 verses 17 through 20. Here Luke writes, after we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. After he'd greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they began glorifying God." Of course, if you keep reading, things weren't as idyllic as you might think. We learned that the believers in Jerusalem still had a way to go in terms of relinquishing some of their ceremonial observances. But as far as the reception of the funds collected is concerned, they did receive them with gratitude. And I believe we have Paul's prayers to thank for that. I think this is an example, yet again, of the value of prayer. In the third place, Paul asked his readers to pray that he might be able to come among them in joy by the will of God. Now again, we've discussed the biblical meaning of joy. If you ask somebody on the street, what is joy? Chances are they're gonna respond with something akin to, well, joy is that feeling that I, that's not biblical joy. Joy is what I feel. Joy is what I experience. Joy is this, that, or the other thing. That's tangential to me in terms of an emotional response. Joy in the scriptures is much different. Joy in the scriptures is that settled assurance that regardless of my circumstances, regardless of my lot in life, Everything is happening for my good and God's glory, and I can rejoice that that's being done. Right? Joy is perhaps exhibited best by Job when he said things like, though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. With that trust comes a sense of rejoicing. We rejoice in the fact that we can trust in God. which in turn results in the ability to rejoice even more. I rejoice because I trust. I trust because I'm able to rejoice in that trust in which I gain even more trust. You see how that works? Joy is impervious to circumstances. Joy is that which resides in us in much the same way as our faith resides in us. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, according to what Paul writes in Galatians 5. Joy is always available to us, even though we don't always tap into it. You know, for the most part, we, even as saved individuals, live a very Eeyore kind of life. Any Eeyores out there? If you don't know who Eeyore is, he's Pooh Bear's little friend, little donkey, He talks like this. I'm just going to go and eat a worm. You know, have you known people like that, even Christians? How are you doing today? Not so good. Praise God, I woke up this morning. Yeah, you're really going to win souls with that attitude, right? Praise God. But if we're being honest, we all have those moments. Right? We all complain. We very seldom demonstrate the type of contentment that we should demonstrate. Now, by contentment, we had a conversation this morning with John. Let me just clarify what I mean by that. Contentment and satisfaction are two different things. I can be content with where the Lord has me today. in all my frailties and all my shortcomings and all my physical things. I can be content, but I don't have to be satisfied. Would I love to be rid of this cough? Yes. Would I love to have a million dollars? Absolutely. And if you have a spare laying around somewhere, I can put it to good use. Would I love to have more success in this area or that area? Yes. Would I love to be a better father to my children? Yes. A better grandfather to my grandchildren? Yes. Those things are not lacks of contentment. Contentment, much like joy, is just the settled assurance that whatever my God ordains is right. I don't have to be satisfied with it. which causes me to do things, like we talked about these resolutions that we as Christians should all be making, causes me to do things that make me better in terms of being molded into the image of Christ. So I hope you understand that. Being discontent in the way that I refer to it as being sinful is when we understand, okay, whatever God ordains is right, but I don't like what God ordains. That's wrong. That's sinful. Be okay with what God has ordained, but always be praying for change. Always be praying that you might be a part in that change. Always be praying, Lord, what might you do in using me to bring about the change I seek? I hope you can see the difference. If not, there'll be a sermon coming fairly soon where I'll explain all of that if need be. That said, there's a big difference between having joy and experiencing joy. There's an ever-abiding joy that's ours in Christ, but we don't always feel it. You know, Jesus himself understood this paradox. John 16. Turn to John 16. And I think this is a really good antidote to the health and prosperity gospel that is still making unexplainable inroads into many people's minds. You know, the belief that God just wants you to be happy. Is that true? No, not necessarily. He wants you to be happy in Him. He wants you to be resolved with His provision. He wants you to be secure in Him. He wants you to love like He does. He wants you to feel loved as you are. But there's a big difference between all those things and actually being happy. God wants you to be healthy. No. Do you know every person, and John, wherever you are, correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a suspicion that every person that dies, on planet Earth has something physically wrong with them. Right? We're all subject to the second law of thermodynamics. We're all experiencing entropy. And the older we get, the faster that seems to happen. But we're all going from a state of order to a state of chaos, not the other way around. And so the health and prosperity gospel would have you believe that no, God wants everybody to be happy and joyful and living in the spirit to the extent that you never experience anything bad in your whole life. Well, then explain what Jesus meant in John 1620. When he says this. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You'll be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. Whenever a woman's in travail, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more for joy that a child has been born into the world. We talked about that in the first hour. Therefore, you too now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one takes your joy away from you. The kind of joy that we have is the joy that will be realized ultimately on that day when we see Him again face to face. Between now and then we will endure very disappointing times. Between now and then we will experience sorrow. Between now and then we will experience periods where it's increasingly difficult to rejoice But see, our settled joy comes with that certain knowledge that there's coming a day when all tears will be wiped away, all sorrow will be no more, and we'll look full in the face of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever. Is that not joy-inducing? Isn't it? Joyful? To know how the story actually unfolds? Isn't it a joyful thing to know who wins in the end? Have you ever sat with somebody in a movie that you've seen before? And you know how the movie ends, but they don't? And they're a wreck? And how many times in your own head you're like, I know something you don't know. Right? Or how many times have you sought to console them saying just wait? Just wait. Because you know the end. Do you know we can do the same thing for each other? If you're going through periods of sorrow, if you're going through periods of doubt, if you're going through periods where joy seems far afield from you, can we not reach out to one another and say just wait? Sorrow endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Ultimately, morning might be when Christ Himself appears, but even so, even so, is that not joy-inducing? This is what Jesus means. With this in mind, with this certain knowledge that you will see me again, be bolstered by that. Let nothing take away your joy because nothing can. And Paul's actually asking the Roman believers to pray that he might actually experience a joyful time in their midst. Now what does that mean? If your joy is impervious to circumstances, if your joy is unassailable by anything that can happen to you, what's Paul asking them to pray for? He's asking them to pray for the other side of this joy experience, and that is the joy that we can feel when we tend to one another as we ought. There are all kinds of things that Paul might have experienced in his time at Rome that would have been anything but joy-inducing. As I thought about why Paul would ask for prayer in this regard, my thoughts turned to an exhortation in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, 17. An obvious reference to one's pastors, remember this? Writer of the Hebrews says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Excuse me. He says, let them do this with joy and not with grief. for this would be unprofitable for you." It's hard not to arrive at that passage and avoid sounding self-serving. But I'm going to do a little self-serving. I can't speak for John or Mike, but I can't speak for myself and the teaching ministry, preaching ministry that I enjoy in this place. Being an under-shepherd of the chief shepherd himself is not something I would wish on my worst enemy, nor is it anything that I would exchange for all the gold in the world. Now let me clarify that. Being an under shepherd of the shepherd, Chief Shepherd himself, is the singularly most daunting, trying, the most difficult thing I have ever undertaken in my entire life. Having been given watch care for the souls of so many in this place, having to make sure that I dot every I, cross every T, that I do nothing to lead you astray with regard to biblical truth, trying to make sure that every little chirping mouth is fed at least a portion of the worm each week is incredibly intimidating, incredibly Difficult and the sad reality is a lot of the little chirping mouths have the idea that they're the only chirping mouth That they're the only one that needs to be fed that they're the only one who needs to hear this that or the other thing that that Surely everybody here's on the same page surely everybody here needs the same things everybody here you know has heard that or the other thing that you've said umpteen million times now and In a vast number of cases, a lot of people underestimate the reality of the situation by making those gross assumptions. The truth of the matter is, anytime I stand before you and say, thus saith the Lord, I'm doing that in a very calculated, very studied way. I'm doing that with the realization that one person needs to hear something. Another person doesn't need to hear that again. Another person needs this in their life right now. Another person doesn't need this in their life right now. What do I do? Is the need of that person more important than the need of that person? This family is going through something, so I can't go through this particular area without being insensitive. This family has just come through something by the grace of God, so I might need to put more emphasis on that as an opportunity for more growth and so on. You can only imagine. what this exercise is like every week. And it's only by the grace of God that the indwelling Holy Spirit continues to compel and lead and guide and direct and help me walk through what amounts to a veritable minefield of personal considerations. And here's the thing. There's a freedom that the Holy Spirit gives me to do that in a way that at the end I generally come out unscathed. It's only by the grace of God. Why am I saying these things? Paul knew that when he got to Rome, he would be inundated. He'd be asked a thousand and one questions. about this dispute, that dispute, this issue, that issue, this thing, the other thing. He'd be asked to be on duty the whole time. And all he's saying is, pray that when I come to you, I can be joyful in your presence and not experience grief. Now again, I'm not talking about garden variety things. There will be times when I goof. There will be times when I say things in a way that you might not have said them yourself. There will be times when I leave out things that you would have loved to hear. There will be times when I say things that you would just as soon not have heard. There will be times when I use Peter instead of Paul. Moses instead of Joshua. I might disappoint you by not sharing your precise beliefs in certain areas. I might not agree with your opinions. You might not like the way I dress, the way I comb my hair. You may take exception to my overuse of certain words or phrases. And here's the thing, I'm perfectly okay with that. As John often reminds me, he says, Tim, this is just people's way of reminding you that you're human. and reminding themselves that you're human. I'm not talking about that kind of thing. So what am I talking about? What is it that is a sure joy stealer in the body? What is it that Paul wanted to avoid among the Romans that would have made his experience a time of joy in their midst? Well, I can tell you what is a joy stealer, or better, a grief inducer. What's truly grief-inducing is disunity, infighting, constant wrangling about this or that insignificant topic of disagreement. What is grief-inducing is a dysfunctional or non-existent prayer life. Scriptural or doctrinal anemia brings grief to me like nothing else. A lack of faith, hope, and or love, anything basically that's more destructive than it is constructive will bring your pastors to grief. Now notice very carefully that the writer to the Hebrews, which I again believe is Paul, he doesn't say that let them do what they do with joy and not with grief because that wouldn't work out well for them. He says it would not be profitable for you. It's very important. Look, we who are called to pastoral ministry are given the skin of a rhino, right? We're all squishy inside, yes, but we're still given the skin of a rhino. We're pretty thick-skinned. So personal things don't really affect us that much. You know what affects us more than anything? What will break your pastor's hearts more than anything is to see this not working in accordance with the love that Christ has shed abroad in our hearts. To see all of this not working in a cohesive way in the interest of the kingdom and cause of Christ. to see gossiping and tattling and backbiting. And again, I'm pleased to announce we don't have those problems here, but we need to be on guard for those things. And who is it that stands right at the beginning, right at the entry to the guard shack? It's you, and you, and you. We all bear the responsibility, not only for making our leaders' lives joyful, but for making one another's lives joyful. Let the person next to you, short of sin, we've talked about that, but let the person next to you minister their gifts in such a way as that they can do so joyfully and without grief. In 3 John 1 verse 4, one of my favorite passages as far as my own sentiments as a pastor go, remember what John said there? He said, I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children, spiritually speaking that is, to hear of my children walking in the truth. Paul wanted to come to the Romans and find them walking in the truth. That's the joy he was seeking. He wanted to come among the Romans and hear them talking about the things he had taught them. He wanted to hear questions, yes. He wanted to give answers, yes, but not in terms of settling vacuous disputes. He wanted to be able to grow them and mold them more into the image of Christ because that's the greatest source of joy that he knew. And he knew that only to the extent where they were causing him that joy, they would also be generating that same joy among each other. He knew that it would all be for their benefit, not his own. He knew that in order for him to enjoy the greatest level of gospel success among them, He would need to be able to work among them with the greatest sense of joy. And that brings us to Paul's final prayer request. And I believe this is kind of where all of this is leading. If you pray with me in accordance with these first three requests, then I'll get the fourth one. His fourth prayer request was that he might be able to find rest in their company. Ah, the value of rest. How did Paul arrive to Rome as a prisoner? His experience leading up to his arrival in Rome was anything but restful. And yet in Acts 28 15, Luke writes, and the brethren, when they heard about us, came from there as far as the market of Appius and three ends to meet us. That's when they arrived in Rome. And when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Just the mere fact that they had all come out to greet him in unison was obviously a very joy-inducing thing for him. It was at that point that Paul undoubtedly knew, I can rest. And rest he did. His first imprisonment of two years, he got all the rest he needed and then some. But he was also able to accomplish some of the mightiest things for the Lord that he would ever accomplish during that time. You know, one of the things I really love most about the fellowship we enjoy here at Grace, it really is a great time of refreshment and rest. Some of you might be thinking, well, how can you say that? This is your busiest day of the week. This is when you stand up and teach, and normally you'll have a class afterwards, and normally you'll be sitting downstairs answering questions. And it's because I can say this categorically. The saints here at Grace Baptist Church give me all the joy that I could ever need. You give me all the rest that I could ever need just by being you. For that to continue. I, Pastor Mike, Pastor John. Would urge you to continue praying for these same things for us. in the days to come, and not only for us, but for one another. If we truly want this spirit of unity, cohesiveness to continue, it has to begin with putting aside our own self-interests and praying fervently that God might grant each of us the peace, unity, joy, and rest that can be found only in Him. I pray that all of us might enjoy each of those realities.