Amen. I'm glad we sang that last song, because I got a question for you. Are you lifting up your cup expectantly tonight for the Lord to fill your soul with satisfying good things? Have you come tonight expecting for God to teach you from his word, to challenge your heart and to equip you to serve him? You remember, maybe you've read Oliver Twist, the classic. And there's a famous line from that book, please, sir, might I have some more? Remember that? And I say this respectfully, worshipfully, that ought to be our heart every time we come into church and sit down in the pew before service starts. Please, sir, God, might I have some more? We ought never be satisfied with what God is doing in our lives. Too often we are discontent with the things wherewith we should be content, and we are too content with the things where we should want more. So I trust that tonight as we open up the Word of God, Romans chapter 16, that your heart is ready to be challenged. Throughout this passage, we're gonna look at Romans 16, verses one through six, and then we're gonna skip down to verse 12. And one of the words that we keep coming across in this passage is the word labor. Paul is commending the believers at the Church of Rome or to the Church of Rome. He's greeting some and he's commending some to this church in this letter towards the end of this book. And he keeps using this word labor. And this word labor means to work, hard so that you feel fatigue. And one of the most labor-intensive jobs is construction. And everybody that's ever worked in construction says, amen. That's exactly right. Now, in Nehemiah chapter four and verse six, which is our theme verse for the year, the people were doing physical construction. They were rebuilding the walls. They were resetting up the gates of Jerusalem. But there is also a sense in which they were laboring. Towards a spiritual goal of the revival the spiritual revival of the nation of Israel and the consistent worship of God at the temple at Jerusalem and the people had a mind to work We actually see in the latter chapters of Nehemiah this revival come to pass and and the reestablishment of consistent worship of Yahweh at the temple in Jerusalem and people had a mind to work, not only to rebuild physical walls, but also towards in that, to be doing that to facilitate ministry. And here, Paul, in commending the people in Romans 16, he's highly commending specific people in the church. And he describes many of these people in the ones we look at tonight. And that's our main point is just certain names of these people that he commends. And he commends them with a description of this word labor. Again, that means to work. to feel fatigue. And he's not just talking about going to work and working hard physically, he's talking about these people labored hard, they worked hard also in the ministry. May we come away from this passage tonight excited about rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in the work of the ministry. Look in verses one and two with me. We're in Romans chapter 16. I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, was it Sancria, that ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a succorer. There's a great middle English word. a comforter, an encourager, a helper to many. Now, she was a servant, and folks, servants work hard, often behind the scenes. She was going to Rome on some specific spiritual mission, and so Paul is commending her to the church, saying, listen, this woman is a servant. She has ministered to many. And we'll talk about being a succorer in a minute. But she also was a servant to many. She was a hard worker and she was on a mission for the Lord to Rome. And so he says, assist her. He knew she was going to be taking action. She was going to continue to work hard in whatever that mission was that the Lord had for her for however long she was supposed to be at Rome. But she invested also this idea of being a succorer, a comforter, an encourager, a helper. She had a ministry of helps. in helping to meet needs, comforting, and encouraging many believers. It's kind of like, I think, a parallel of a practical and a spiritual ministry, like train tracks. There's this practical help. She is a succorer of many. She served them, she helped them, she helped meet their needs. At the same time, there was a spiritual encouragement aspect along with it. So these are together. And I can kind of illustrate it this way. In August of 2021, I had the blessing of COVID. I got the Delta variant and ended up in the hospital for five days with COVID pneumonia. And then when I got home, there were folks who came by and they brought food and folks that would actually come to the door or come in and keep their distance, of course, social distance, right? but they would have a word of prayer with me. Some of them would have a little note, maybe they'd just leave a note, they'd leave the food at the door or whatever, but they would leave a note, they'd include a verse that would be a verse of encouragement and comfort. And sometimes folks would come in, they'd brought a meal and we would sit at a distance and we would have encouraging fellowship. And so there was a ministry of meeting a practical need, but also a ministry need of kind of having spiritual encouragement. And even some folks came over and actually mowed my grass and did some yard work for me and had a ministry of helps that was so encouraging for me. And it just encouraged me that God's people wanted to come over and help in a situation like that. I believe Phoebe kind of had that kind of a ministry. I don't know if she mowed the grass or not, but I know that she was willing to invest work, but in a way that was also personally ministering encouragement and I think spiritual encouragement. Now look at verses three to five. We're gonna look at Aquila and Priscilla. We saw them this morning, our introduction in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 18, Aquila and Priscilla. In verse three, four, excuse me, in verse three, four, it greets Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, my co-laborers in Christ, who have for my life laid down their own necks. They took great risks to minister to the apostle Paul. Say, how did they do that? I'll speak to that in a minute. Let's finish reading down through verse five. Unto whom not only I give many thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. How did they risk their necks for Paul? We're not exactly sure, but you've got to understand that when a person went to prison, the prison was not responsible to feed the prisoners or to provide bedding or clothing or any of those kind of things. That was the job of the friends of the people in the prison. And remember how Paul was often the main target of the vitriol and the persecution of the Jews, who would even from city to city sometimes pursue him to oppose the gospel and to personally attack him. So when he went to prison, and a couple of times he was down in Rome, remember? And now actually, when he writes to this church at Rome, he's greeting Aquiline and Priscilla. So Paul had two different times when he was actually in Rome imprisoned. and I believe in one of those times that Aquila and Priscilla are there and they are ministering to his needs and they're taking food and they're being willing to be identified with him and apparently there was some risk being involved with the Apostle Paul. We don't know how else it was that they laid down their necks but Paul and the churches were thanking God for Aquila and Priscilla who add the courage of faith to be willing to risk their necks to help the Apostle Paul and facilitate ministry with him. They were helpers, co-labors. They worked hard alongside Paul in the ministry of gospel, discipleship, and like Paul, they engaged from time to time in tent making, not only to support their own financial needs, but to also help meet the financial needs of other ministry team members, sometimes even, I believe, the Apostle Paul himself. They labored to host a church in their own home. They saw their home as a tool that had been entrusted to them by God. Every week they had to clean it. They had to set it up, people would come, they'd have a service, and then they would have to put things away and clean up their home. In the fall of 1993 and spring of 94, and I referenced this this morning, I helped carry out and we planned in Fox River Baptist Church. Well, we began by meeting in a junior high school. And so every Sunday morning, the folks at the church would come and we would set up chairs. We'd have to pull the piano out and get the pulpit out and put out the songbooks and pew Bibles and all that sort of thing. The people who worked in the nursery would bring toys. And of course, at the end, they'd have to pack them up and take them home. Children's church workers, they would bring, you know, they would bring crafts and different things and Bible lessons and they would bring This is back then when you did the board with the little figures that would stick on the little board, right? And all of that. And a flannel graph. Remember? Some of you remember flannel graph? Yeah. Okay. Flannel graph stuff. And then they would have to pack all that up and take it home. So every Sunday morning we do that. Well, Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, we met in a rotation of homes. So just like Aquila and Priscilla, every week they would have to clean their house, they'd have to set things up, they would facilitate the services, and then when it was over they would clean things up and put things away. We had folks in our church there in the Fox River Valley in Illinois that would do that on a rotation basis once or twice a month. and they would host in their home, and they'd use that as a service. And I'm telling you, what wonderful times of ministry, of fellowship, and of the word that we enjoyed together as we were getting this new church plant going. But that's what Aquila and Priscilla were willing to invest week after week, practical, hard work, for the sake of the ministry of the church at Rome. And Paul recognizes that. And then look in verse six. This is just a short verse. It just says, Great Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. But that word much labor is intentional. Paul was not just waxing elephants. He meant business when he said it was much labor. It says, Great Mary, she has bestowed much labor on us. Stephen Runge observes, whoever she was, her diligent service was more important to Paul than any position she might have held. By recognizing her service like this, Paul creates the corollary effect of challenging those listening to follow her example. Paul says, Mary, hey, Mary, I want to commend to you our sister Mary. She bestowed much labor on us. I believe on Paul and on the ministry team there and the church, wherever Paul was writing from. And he's saying, hey, listen, and maybe she was transferring there. And he greets Mary. And he says, she's bestowed much labor on us. And then, look with me down in verse 12. Tryphena and Tryphosa. How would you like to be born with that name? All right, verse 12. The Bible says, salute Tryphena and Tryphosa who labor in the Lord. Tryphena and Tryphosa, most Bible scholars believe that they were sisters. Their names are extremely similar. They both have the same prefix in their name. Tryphena means delicate. and Trifosa means dainty. These sisters worked really hard for the Lord whom they loved. Alexander McLaren writes this, he says, these names possibly indicate the kind of life from which these two women had come. We can scarcely fail to note the contrast between the meaning of their names and the Christian lives they had lived. Two dainty women probably belonging to a class in which a delicate withdrawal from effort and toil was thought to be the woman's distinctive mark, had fled from luxury and had chosen the better part of labor in the Lord. They had become untrue to their names because they must be true to their master and themselves. we may well take the lesson that lies here and is eminently needful today amidst the senseless and often sinful tide of luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the great and eternal Christian principle of self-denial. Wow, is that not a challenging statement? And maybe I see for myself a bit of a rebuke there. Let me reread that last statement. We may well take the lesson that lies here and is eminently meaningful today admits the senseless and often sinful tide of luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the great and eternal Christian principle of self-denial. has it become that our homes and our recliner chairs and our couches have become so comfy that they're so hard for us to get out of, to get up and get about and be about the Lord's business. Now folks, you know that God is as interested in us being what we ought to be as he is in us doing what we ought to do. and remember that Mary and Martha, that Mary was encumbered with much serving, and she even comes and brings a slight rebuke to Jesus. Hey, tell Mary to come and help me in the kitchen. Martha was just encumbered with much serving, and she was a little exasperated. Here, she's doing all the work, getting the meal prepared and everything else, and her sister's sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus says to Martha, you are encumbered about with much serving, but Mary chose the better part, and it's not gonna be taken from her. So understand, in this emphasis of work, that God wants us to be working out of a heart of love and of devotion to Him, and that a life of busy service as a Christian is no substitute for a personal, intimate walk with Him. So what do you mean? When I was growing up, there was a stream within independent fundamentalism that made it appear, and it was almost insinuated, though it would never have been clearly stated this way, because it's false doctrine, But there was almost this insinuation, if you go out on soul winning visitation every Thursday, and that's usually when it was, or Saturday. Then you know what? Whenever you do other things that may not be so godly, God just kind of overlooks it a little bit because you know, you're so faithful serving him by going out with the gospel and your faith will go on soul-winning visitation. And so, you know, the side of the stuff that you may do when you indulge your flesh may not be such a big deal. And we'd say, man, that's hogwash. That's baloney, right? Great theological terms. But that was almost the attitude, well, if you're busy, man, you're out on a bus ride, you're out on bus visitation on Saturday morning and you ride the bus on Sunday, man, on a promotion Sunday, you're even willing to sacrifice and swallow a goldfish if you guys get the most people to ride your bus to Sunday school. Some of you guys know what I'm talking about. And you got on soul winning visitation, nothing wrong with going out on soul winning visitation. I'm not knocking that. I'm not talking about being busy serving the Lord, coming and mowing the grass and trimming the bushes and cleaning the bathrooms and all that kind of stuff. But if you think that busyness is a substitute for an intimate fellowship with Christ, you are sadly mistaken. But if you have an intimate fellowship with Christ, it should be expressed in joyful service. And we ought to be willing to roll up our sleeves and get involved in the work and sweat for the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it is physical labor, investing in a spiritual cause. And there's a lot of practical work to do in the work of the ministry. Or also, and that's why I love, he starts with Phoebe, that she had, yes, this practical aspect of her ministry, but there's also this spiritual ministry. She was a spiritual encourager and comforter, and I think maybe even restorer, in a sense, of going after Christians who had become so discouraged and so defeated and been in such need, maybe even felt the Lord had forsaken them, and she was able to come alongside them and encourage them and help them and serve them. and minister to them and pray with them, maybe sing songs of hymns that were encouraging to them and challenging them from the Word of God and maybe her own testimony. Just her spirit of service and joy in the Lord was something that God used to spiritually refresh and restore folks. And that's what we need to see. And that's what I want to see in my life and here at Berean Baptist Church. And I'm not saying that we don't have that. I believe we do. We have a lot of folks here who have a wonderful walk with the Lord so far as I know, and only God truly knows the heart and they're faithful to serve. And you can tell that there is a joy and there is a fulfillment in serving God. And I believe it is an outward expression of love and gratitude and service, wanting to please the one whom they love, the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't tell me that you love the Lord Jesus Christ if you're not willing to work hard and labor and feel fatigued for Him in serving Him. Trifina and Trifosa, these delicate and dainty women who'd come from a life of luxury and ease, were willing to be hard workers. They said, forget that, we're gonna work hard for the Lord. And they left those luxuries, maybe, or those dainty things, or maybe they were just very physically petite, and it's kind of like, well, what can you really do? And they said, well, with the grace of God, because we love him, we're gonna work hard. And they did, and Paul commends them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then one more, and it's in verse 12, and look at this. I love this. And salute the beloved Persis, which labored much in the Lord. She was greatly loved of the Apostle Paul and the church because she loved the Lord and evidenced that love by her service to God, his gospel, and his people. There's the use, very clear use of the past tense. It's really an emphatic past tense verb that's used here. And we believe that it may indicate that Persis at this point was greatly aged. She was a very seasoned senior citizen to the point where she was physically incapacitated from being able to serve the Lord due to extreme age or sickness in the way that she had in the past. And yet, She was faithful and she was honored for her faithfulness. I believe that she would have been an example for the Romans of one fervent in spirit serving the Lord. You say, well, Pastor Todd, I'm very limited in what I can do, okay? Or maybe you can say, Pastor Todd, I'm just, I've had things come up in my life, age, health issues, just different situations in my life that are limiting me. Do you think that God does not know that? Sure he knows it. And do you think that God did not ordain that and allow that? Absolutely he did. God's given us all opportunities and abilities and he's also given all of us limitations. And life, our life in this life changes, does it not? We go through different phases and transitions in life. But what God is concerned with is not are you doing what you used to do, but are you doing what you can do? When the kids were growing up, we would often have a theme for the year. And one of them was very poor English, but it stuck, I think, in our kids' minds. And though it's poor English, I hope this sticks in your mind. And I've shared this before. One year, our theme was do the best you can with what you've got. And listen, what do you have to serve the Lord with? How much can you serve him? What opportunities do you have yet? Serve the Lord, do the best you can with what you've got. It may not be what you used to have, it may not be what somebody else can do, but God wants you to serve him to the fullest of your capacity within the limitations that he's placed on your life. if an apostle was writing to another church and commending people in this church. I wonder if our names would be mentioned, and none of these people did it so their names would be mentioned. They weren't doing this so people would say, wow, look at what a servant of the Lord they are, right? No true servant of God is doing it for the attention or for the admiration of men, not if they're walking in intimacy with the Lord, not if their outward service is an expression of their personal walk and fellowship with Christ. They weren't doing it for that, and yet, There was something so evident about their loving labor for Christ that Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing eternal truth, says, I commend them for their hard work, laboring to the point of fatigue, and their faithfulness. May God move in us that we also will be so diligent to be about our master's business. Shall we bow our heads for prayer this evening? Oh, Father, I think of folks like Steve Mineo. And we pray, Lord, for Steve that you would strengthen and help him. We pray that this T-cell transfusion will do all of the good things that the doctors are hoping that it will do. We look to you as the creator and sustainer of life and of the human body. And we pray for Steve that you would do a work there And we pray for Heidi, too, as she's been recovering from a procedure, and pray your help for her. But Lord, as Steve is going to the hospital, as he's going for all these different follow-ups and things, Lord, I thank you for even things he's been able to share with me, how he's been able to be a witness and a testimony for you. And Lord, I pray you continue to use him that way. I think of Bob Hutton, who's been in rehab, and how, as I was talking with him just a little while ago, how he is praying for some of the different rehab people that are there, and witnessing to them, and praying for them, and asking them how he can pray for them, and sharing verses of scripture. Lord, these are folks that are doing the best they can within their limited circumstances. And Lord, I praise you for that. Help every one of us to serve, not for the praise of men, but for your approval. For someday we will stand and give an account before you. Lord, may we labor that we may enter into that rest. One day we will be able to serve you with glorified bodies that never wear down, that are never sick, that are never tired, that don't have the limitations of this frail temporal body in which we now dwell. But Lord, in this temporal time, May we be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving you. Help us, Lord, to do the best we can with what we've got. Like the little boy in John chapter six, we may just have a small, simple meal to offer to you, a very simple offering of our lives and of what we are able to do in service. But Lord, when we yield it fully to you, you can multiply it exponentially by your grace and your miraculous power and use it to influence many, many people and to direct them towards you. So Lord, use us and help us to be faithful to serve you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Another mic?