Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#306 "Don’t Underestimate Your Faith" (Romans 1:11-15)
How do we build each other up in faith, like Paul talks about in Romans 1? He says he longed to be with other believers so they could mutually encourage each other’s faith. That hits home. When we show up and share the gifts God has given us, something powerful happens. We grow stronger—together.
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How do we build each other up in faith, like Paul talks about in Romans, chapter 1? He says he longed to be with other believers so they could mutually encourage each other's faith. That hits home. When we show up, share the gifts God has given us, something powerful happens. We grow stronger together. Turn to Romans, chapter 1, and let's stand strong in the word together.
Speaker 1:Well, hey there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word podcast. Blessed to be with you guys as we continue our study here in the book of Romans, and I am so thankful for the body of Christ. Let me just say that right out the gate, because when I was looking at this passage and praying through it and studying it, it really hit home about the people that God has put in my life, that have spiritual gifts, and how they have strengthened me and the Bible we're going to be getting into in verse 12 today in Romans 1, where Paul talks about mutually encouraging each other's faith. So I want you guys just to think about that. How, in recent days, even if you look at the year that you've been going through, whenever you're listening to this podcast in your stage of life, whenever you're listening to this podcast in your stage of life and you think about the people that God has placed in your life and how you both have, mutually, and not just one person but multiple people, how they've encouraged you and you've encouraged them. Because he says both yours and mine. And last podcast, when we're talking about how the gospel won't let you sit still, you know, paul was driven and he prayed without ceasing for these people. So when he says here now in verse 11, for I long to see you. I've been praying for you constantly, I long to see you so he can give them something, that right there, my friend, speaks volumes to the fellowship and, may I say even friendships that you can have with people that you're real with, that you're vulnerable with, and it's not always. They give you something and you never give them anything in return.
Speaker 1:This isn't taking advantage of people. This is authentically, genuinely loving and caring and encouraging the people that God has put in your life, that you're closest with. This isn't I scratch your back, you scratch mine. You know, as long as you do something for me, I'll do something for you. That's the agreement. No, this goes far deeper than that.
Speaker 1:This is about building people up and it's mutual, and you know what I have to say this, and this is why I am grateful because there's so much fakeness, there's so much superficiality, there's so much selfish ambition, even in my ministry career. And I was meeting with a dear friend recently and I was telling him you know, I'm really, really tired of how we are so good at self-promoting and yet it's always like a given, like, oh, you know, I preach the gospel. Yeah, we, of course we believe in the gospel, but how very few people are mutually encouraging. It's always like what can you do for me? And that's very sad and God forgive all of us for making it about ourselves. And so when we were talking about how Paul was so fixated, he says I serve with my spirit in the gospel. Remember that, meaning his entire life, his interests, his focus is the gospel. I was praying this morning and asking the Lord, just like Paul when he came he was using that term. Remember that priestly service Lord, I consecrate, I give myself to you so that you can use me in your anointing power, that people could see the high priest in us, jesus Christ, that they can know that their sins are forgiven, that they can go from death to life, whereas in Acts 26, when Paul says they went from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of God. So the last podcast, when we're talking about not standing still, just being motivated, being convicted, being empowered by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel, when he says in the gospel of his son.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to be talking about not underestimating your faith in terms of the people around you that are believers, and encouraging one another, as we are to do. The Bible says as the day approaches. So let's dive right in. Let me read verses 11 through 15, and we will then learn how you and I are not to underestimate our faith. Now, remember, this is him in context, going back to verse 8 to verse 15. He's sharing how he is so looking forward to being with them and, as always, pastorally, that's his heart.
Speaker 1:There are several phrases if you go back to verse eight, where he says I thank my God, why? Because of your faith. And then verse nine, he talks about how he serves them in his spirit. Verse 10, he's always praying for them. And verse 12, mutually encouraging one another. And then he says in verse 13, this intention that he has to come to them. And then in verse 14, he's obligated and we're going to be talking about what that word means and then, in verse 15, eager to preach the gospel to you. He's very pastoral.
Speaker 1:This is about them and that's what I am always trying to do on this podcast to help you guys in the context of where you find yourself living. Do your pastors have that heart for you, for your family? And, you know, don't, let's not use excuses. No doubt and I'm the first to stand in the gap and defend and give the benefit of the doubt for pastors when you live this life, you realize, man, it's a calling. It's so rewarding and I've been so blessed and I am filled with joy and privilege when I've been able to walk into homes, going to hospitals, overseeing and officiating weddings and funerals, answering people's questions, helping people understand who Jesus is, walking people through tough times, you know, helping people find freedom in Christ and being delivered from darkness and from evil spirits, challenging people who are trying to discredit christianity, grabbing hands and praying in the spirit together, laughing, having meals together, going on retreats. I mean, you guys, it's endless and that's why I'm so thankful.
Speaker 1:But let me just say that when you look around and we start, you know, making excuses oh, it's the 21st century? Oh, it's because of media, it's all because the church is large and they can't meet all the needs. If you are not being shepherded, if you don't feel that the people that are overseeing your soul as Hebrews 13 talks about a true shepherd and you're like, are they thankful to God for me? Do they know my faith? Do they know my story? Verse eight are they serving me, as Paul did in preaching and living out the gospel? Are they praying for me? Can I go to them and know that they are going to give time, devoted time, to pray with me? Are they imparting verse 11, spiritual gifts and strengthening my walk with God? Are they encouraging me and am I able to encourage them? See, that's what we see here.
Speaker 1:And so when you see verse 11 now, where Paul says this for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you Verse 12, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far I have been prevented. So these are not excuses. Right, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Speaker 1:So if you go back, what we talked about in the previous podcast, the first thing that Paul expresses, if you go back to verse nine, was that he longed to be with them. Now we see here in verse 11, that he is expressing this longing to impart something to them. So I want to break down that term. When it says, for I long to see you, it's epipotheo, it's a very intimate word. It means deep desire, strong, craving, great affection or heart aching. So literally you can say it like in modern terms my heart aches to be with you, my heart aches to be with you. Why? That I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.
Speaker 1:So this right here, as I've been talking about, shows his heart pastorally and this imparting is metadidomi. It means I want to share something with you, and I love this. It means I want to share something with you and I love this again, showing the heart of Paul pastorally as a teacher, not just as an evangelist, not just as an apostle but as a shepherd, is. He wants to, as a teacher does. He wants to instruct, he wants to share insight, he wants to share something profound that he knows that is going to help his students, in this case the Romans, and it's going to help them in such a way that it's going to change their lives. It's going to change their lives.
Speaker 1:This explains why he says to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. So in order for you and I to encourage one another's faith, we have to be strengthened in the spiritual gifts that God has given us. Now the word for spiritual gift is charisma, and later, in chapter 12, verse 6, he says having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, differ according to the grace given to us. So according to the grace given to you and the grace given to me, and so on and so forth, and we come together as the body of believers but one Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, we are extenuating, we are giving the grace that God has given us by exercising the gifts that you have and that I have, and they mutually compliment and encourage each other. And Paul was so committed and he was so eager to teach the Romans about these spiritual gifts that we will see, as I mentioned, in Romans 12, verses 3 through 8, he's going to expand more on what those spiritual gifts are.
Speaker 1:Now we know that these spiritual gifts were not given by Paul. That's why he uses the word in part. He says I'm not giving you these spiritual gifts. The word means to share, okay, and the purpose is to build up the church by encouraging one another's faith. So if you go back and you look at the people that you love, you care about, what are their spiritual gifts? Do they know what your spiritual gifts are? See, the more that you and I know that, then the more I can look at you and say you have the gift of mercy, you have the gift of hospitality, you have the gift of giving, you have the gift of encouragement, you have the gift of discernment, you have the gift of healing.
Speaker 1:Now let me just be clear. The gift of healing doesn't mean that you go to the friend and you got, you're sick and just like, in the name of Jesus, you know and it's you're completely, jesus, you know and it's you're completely. I'm not saying like that, healing in the context of what you see in first Corinthians 12. Again, if you miss that, you can go back to the study that we did through the book of first Corinthians. But healing in some cases, yes, that God will empower them and through them, to heal you, maybe of an infirmity, of a sickness, but also healing the soul, like a counselor, can bring healing to your life to really help you become more decisive or to work through problems, and that can bring healing to you. So, when we impart that to one another, as Paul says, I wanna share these things with you so that you could be strengthened, meaning you could be matured in them, this is gonna help.
Speaker 1:Now, when he says that we may be mutually encouraged by each other, he's employing an ancient rhetorical convention and in essence it just means, like, capturing the goodwill, and so, like, when you see us come together, what we should see in the body is goodwill, a demonstration as we extend grace to one another. It's because our heavenly father has extended grace to us, as Christ didn't come to be served, but to serve. As we then serve one another, it's not to benefit ourselves, and so Paul was coming this way to let them know that it's not like I'm high and mighty I'm a dictator and you need to listen to me and mighty I'm a dictator and you need to listen to me there's this mutual love and respect. And so, at the heart of what we need to understand, when we are not to underestimate our faith, and when we exercise our faith, we are essentially using the spiritual gifts. We have faith in God, knowing that this is who he's made us to be. You have these gifts. Exercise them for the glory of God. It's not about you, it's not about me, and that's what Paul is pointing to. Your giftedness is not about yourself. And so he's pointing out that our faith and our giftedness are to encourage.
Speaker 1:Now, I love this word when he says mutually encouraged, because it's some parakaleo. It means to be together intimately. So he wants to impart, he wants to share the giftedness that God wants them to have, that they may be mutually encouraged. It means that they may grow together intimately, and it's a simultaneous thing. Each of you are benefiting from the relationship, from the giftedness, from the grace, from the love, from the fellowship. Isn't that amazing? This is called concurrent encouragement. When two Christians spend time together, they both serve one another. So as you seek to give of yourself to someone, they in turn will give to you. Think of it as a two-way street. Now, that's not setting it up in selfish terms, because, if anything, it's a genuine display of selflessness and true, genuine friendship. That, my friends is powerful, and Paul is longing to have that with them. And so in verse 13, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, so he's he's emphasizing his eagerness to be with them.
Speaker 1:Remember, travel back then is nothing like it is today. And so there's a lot of obstacles that Paul had to deal with. And because his absence had been, you know, very prevalent and known. And saying, what's up with paul? I thought he was going to be here already months ago. It wasn't because he didn't want to, wasn't because he didn't have a desire to. Rather, remember, there were needs that came up in eastern mediterranean area that had occupied him.
Speaker 1:If you go back to romans, chapter 15, verse 19, he says by the power and signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. So there was no doubt that there were times where Paul, with good intention, wanted to be somewhere, but then the Holy Spirit moved him to go somewhere else, and then there's obstacles, and then there's persecution. Spirit moved him to go somewhere else, and then there's obstacles, and then there's persecution, and then there's delay, and then there's not proper funding. There's a lot of things that Paul was dealing with that were out of his control. Paul was preparing to leave Corinth. If you go back and you look at the setting as he's writing the book of Romans, go back a few months, within that previous year. He was preparing to leave Corinth for Jerusalem to deliver the generous offering that was collected from the Gentile churches, and obviously many from Corinth, and this was about providing aid to who? To the struggling Jewish churches. So this was something that was very expansive, had never really, you know, been done before, so they didn't have a book on this, and so there was a lot of things that were piling up, so to speak, that Paul was dealing with.
Speaker 1:But from there, that's when Paul hoped to travel from Jerusalem to Rome and then to Spain, but he faced many hardships along the way, and then to Spain, but he faced many hardships along the way. In fact, warren Wiersbe says, quote Paul had a very perilous journey and he arrived in Rome a prisoner as well as a preacher In Jerusalem. He was arrested in the temple, falsely accused by the Jewish authorities and eventually sent to Rome as the emperor's prisoner to be tried before Caesar. When Paul wrote this letter, he had no idea that he would go through imprisonment and even shipwreck before arriving in Rome. At the close of the letter Romans 15, 30 through 33, he asked the believers in Rome to pray for him as he contemplated this trip. And it is a good thing that he did pray, end quote. So now we understand why he was delayed. It wasn't because he didn't care.
Speaker 1:And I have a confession to make because even pastorally, even it was my job. There were times where things would happen and it was an inconvenience to me and I would make some kind of excuse or reason why. And it's just so unfortunate that people's problems or the lives of people is an inconvenience, and God really worked early in my ministry that he had graciously extended to me and I was not worthy. And there were times afterwards that God would speak to me and it would just overwhelm me. And so when I'm looking at things like this with Paul. He meant it and so you want to be around people that mean it when they say I really miss you, and they mean it. I really want to be with you and spend time with you and I just want you to know you're such an encouragement and because, remember, paul wants to be with you and spend time with you and I just want you to know you're such an encouragement and because, remember, paul wants to be there with them.
Speaker 1:He says to reap some harvest among you, which now is the third thing that Paul expresses. As he prayed for them, he wanted to see plentiful harvest among the Romans. Now, the cool thing about this term harvest is twofold. Obviously, as we see throughout scripture, it deals with someone's spiritual development. In this case specifically has to do with the church and the spreading the gospel in Rome. Can you imagine that was Paul looking at the heart of Rome, the capital of the empire, and if I could get the gospel there of God, if you lead me to this, even though he was facing all this opposition right now and you know he was going to face a lot of in Rome Could you imagine how this will spread to all the Gentiles? And that's the term he uses is Gentiles, now RJD Utley in his commentary he believes that fruit here, this harvest or fruit, has to do with the laboring that Paul wanted to do among them.
Speaker 1:It's the same term that he uses in Philippians 1, verse 22, where it says but if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, meaning if God, if you want to extend my life here, then I want my life to matter and I want it to be about harvesting. And this goes back to like Matthew 13, when he uses the word of God as the seed and God's the farmer and he's throwing out his seed onto different soil and we. The harvest is plentiful but the labors are few. And so clearly we see this with Paul that there was not a lot of people like him and so he had a desire to see that come to fruition. And then here in verse 14 says I'm under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So he's using interesting word here to really highlight his compulsion to preach the gospel. The Greek word here is apholetes, it means debtor.
Speaker 1:This is powerful because remember it was we talked about earlier where he's compelled, he feels. You know I don't want to sit down on this. I want to. I just want to do what God has called me to do. He's using a word that is reflecting a divinely inspired calling in his life that has overwhelmed him to do. He's using a word that is reflecting a divinely inspired calling in his life that has overwhelmed him to the point where he says woe is me if I preach not the gospel. That's how compelled Paul felt.
Speaker 1:Remember, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16 and 17,. He says for if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for the necessity is laid up for me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, for if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with stewardship. So when he says I'm under obligation, it's reflecting his divine calling. That speaks to what we're going to be looking at in the next podcast. In verse 16, he says for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. It transformed his life. And see, that's the difference, when you and I don't underestimate our faith, when you and I know the transformative power that has taken place when we have put our faith and trust in him. We're not going to be ashamed to tell people about it. And I love this because he says I'm obligated, meaning I have this divine calling to reach Greeks into barbarians.
Speaker 1:The word is barbario. This is talking about people living in the Western part of Rome and outside Greek culture who were considered uneducated and uncultured. So he was not just going to the elite class. He's emphasizing that god is no respecter of persons, but he loves mankind. Remember jesus took on flesh, he lived a poor life, he died and he rose again to offer you and I eternal life. The niv application commentary says this quote greeks is a faithful translation of the greek wordon, but the second word is barbaros, which is the word barbarian. Educated Greeks used this word to mock those who could not pronounce the Greek language as accurately as they did, but Jewish writers usually did not include themselves among the barbarians.
Speaker 1:Probably, then, greek and non-Greek is Paul's way of referring to all the Gentile humanity. And then he says both to the wise and to the foolish. And so that's what Paul's saying. He's like when I come to you, I'm going to reach all the Gentiles, I'm not just going to go to the wealthy ones. I'm not just going to go to the respected classes so people can think more highly of me. I'm going to go to all people. That, my friends, shows you the heart of Paul.
Speaker 1:So I ask you, are you underestimating your faith? What about the faith of the people in your church or among your leadership? Do they have cliquish groups? Do they have just people they focus on and neglect other people? You know, I pray and I encourage you guys. Pray for me, because my heart is to not segregate but to always remember where I came from, from the South side of Tucson, from a poor family that did their best, losing my mom at 15, trying to figure out what adulthood looked like, and fell upon the ministry and had really no desire to be in full-time ministry. I always admired pastors, I loved all that, but just seeing God's hand in my life and I'm thinking I'm not worthy of doing this to this day, I don't. I don't feel that at all and I'm so privileged and I just want to say one of the things I saw recently that speaks to this is I was a part of a church event and they just had all kinds of people and they had people of disability coming and, you know, worshiping, and it was just the body of Christ, a reflection of Christ's love, and it was amazing. And it wasn't just about performance, it wasn't about big names and people with positions, it was just the body of believers Kids, young people, singles, married grandparents, people with disabilities and I just got emotional. It just really spoke to me.
Speaker 1:There are people, my friends, who are living a life that people envy and yet they're going to perish because they don't know the gospel. They're following worldly wisdom and they're fools. And there are people in our lives that we get annoyed and we disregard, and yet God's like no, I put that person in your life so they can mutually encourage you guys, each one of you guys can encourage each other, and so, as Paul says here that he's eager to preach the gospel, are you, or do you not look at your faith as something that is worthy or strong enough, or that you're not equipped enough to be able to go out there and share your faith? Or you say I don't really encourage people too much, I don't really have a lot of friends, people don't really like me, but you know what, if you really feel that my heart breaks for you. I want you to know that God is no respecter of persons. He loves each and every one of us. He shows no partiality. God loves you and God has given you a faith that you place in him to use it. He's given you gifts so that you can be an encouragement to other people. So I pray that has blessed you guys today. Thank you, guys for your prayers. I've enjoyed this time, as always.
Speaker 1:You can check out our website, standstrongministriesorg. If you want to become a Stand Strong supporter, you can go click on donate. We are tax exempt. Ministry means we are nonprofit, so you can give whatever God is laid in your heart to give to help support this ministry and all the other things that we're doing through articles, through videos. We're doing through articles through videos, through traveling, speaking, defending the faith, writing materials, books. My new book I'm writing right now is on spiritual warfare. So if you have any questions regarding anything that we've discussed, you can always contact us at info at standstrongministriesorg. So love you guys. Until next time. Keep standing strong in the word of God. Thank you.