Friday, August 12, 2022

Romans 15 The Invitation

Romans 15

The Invitation

Description: Faith Works: Sticking Together Romans 15:14-16: ppt download

 

Don’t minimize the power of Christ in you, the hope of glory

YOU ARE

full of goodness 

 complete in knowledge

competent to instruct one another


 

The Invitation

 

As you read through the

first 15 chapters of Romans…

 

Paul very boldly addresses issues of sin.

  

Romans 3:23…

 

 All have sin and fall short.

 

The wrath of God is upon the disobedient.

 

Judgment upon Jews and Gentiles.

 

Paul deals with issues of racial barriers,

social injustice, pride, bickering and more.

 

It would be easy to get the idea that

the believers in Roman are very immature.

 

But all that changes in Chapter 15.

 

Paul in Romans 15:14 says…

 

I myself am convinced, my brothers,

that you yourselves are full of goodness,

complete in knowledge and competent

to instruct one another.

 

Paul says…

 

 I myself am convinced. 

 

Three very positive things Paul is convinced of…

 

They are…

 

full of goodness

 

 complete in knowledge

 

competent to instruct one another

 

That is a very high Commendation.

 

It is like Paul has been preaching on sin

and at the end of the message, He says…

 

 “You can do this.”

 

It has always amazed me at how quickly

a sinner can become a leader of righteousness.

 

Remember when Jesus came upon the man

who lived in the tombs at the cemetery…

 

Violent, and full of demons,

everyone was afraid of him.

 

But Jesus casts out the demons that went into the pigs.

 

As Jesus was leaving this place,

 the man who was full of violence

and demons, asked to go with Jesus.

 

At this point, you would think

this man would need counseling,

rehabilitation and certainly not left alone.

 

But Jesus sends him off with purpose and mission…

 

As Jesus was getting into the boat,

the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.

Jesus did not let him, but said,

"Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you,

and how he has had mercy on you."

 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis

how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Mark 5:18-20

 

WOW!!!

 

The power of God is able to turn an evil sinner

into a Gospel preacher in a moment.

 

Let’s look at Paul’s three commendations again.

 

They are…

 

full of goodness

 

 complete in knowledge

 

competent to instruct one another

 

Psalms 34:8 invites us to…

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good;

blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

 

Job tastes of the bitterness in his soul

which is in contrast of tasting the goodness of God…

 

2 "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,

the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul.

 

When you taste of God’s goodness,

 You will be like Job who said…

 

3 as long as I have life within me,

the breath of God in my nostrils,

4 my lips will not speak wickedness,

and my tongue will utter no deceit.

5 I will never admit you are in the right;

till I die, I will not deny my integrity.

6 I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it;

my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

Job 27:2-6

 

Once you taste of the goodness of God

you will not want anything less.

 

You will hunger and thirst for righteousness…

 

Complete Knowledge

 

Comes from personal experience with God…

 

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

John 1:1-2

 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

 

"I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

 John 14:6-7

 

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you all things and

will remind you of everything I have said to you.

 John 14:26-27

 

Knowing what God did for you,

 gives you the foundation of all knowledge…

 

For God so loved the world.

 

All knowledge is built on this fact.

 

To know the God of love is to know it all…

 

competent to instruct one another.

 

How quickly after you are…

 

full of goodness

 

And…

 

 complete in knowledge.

 

That you can guide and advise others…

 

competent to instruct one another.

 

Paul defines his confidence is in

the work of Christ in each one of us…

 

I will not venture to speak of anything except

what Christ has accomplished through me.

Romans 15:18

 

Paul says…

 

 I myself am convinced.

 

Convinced the believers in Rome were ready for Ministry.

 

You and I need to also have confidence

that God is able to transform a life.

 

Over my years I have seen some of the most

unlikely people transform the world.

 

I get excited when a new believer shares

their new experience with others.

 

Some of us may need to be renewed in our faith.

 

We need to hear someone like Paul say,

 these three positive things about us… 

 

YOU ARE

 

full of goodness

 

 complete in knowledge

 

competent to instruct one another

 

Don’t minimize the power of

Christ in you the hope of glory.

 

Paul goes on in Chapter 15…

 

 To invite the Romans to join with Him in ministry

by praying for him as he continues the work of the Gospel.

 

You are ready for ministry,

ready for action.

 

Why?

 

 Because you are…

  

 full of goodness

 

 complete in knowledge

 

competent to instruct one another

 

 

 

Scripture Reading

 

Romans 15:14-21 NIV

 

14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

 

17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written:

 

"Those who were not told about him will see,

and those who have not heard will understand." 

 

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