Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 15:31-33

REVIEW: God's church is a ministering church, and according to Rom. 15:30-33, it is active in the ministry of intercession.

 Last week we saw that Paul urged the Roman Christians to make intercession for him. And that he uses the same words here as he did in Rom. 12:. And by doing that I believe it shows the great importance God puts on the ministry of intercession. Paul urged the Roman Christians to strive together with him in prayer.  This means that we are not to take intercessory prayer as a casual action we do or don't do depending on how we feel at the moment.  It means we pray together with great passion and we agonize together over the needs of others.

 Paul's first prayer request was that he would be delivered from the disobedient or unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem who hated and persecuted him. And I said how we desperately need to be doing the same today since Christians all over the world are being horribly persecuted, tortured, even killed for their faith  in Jesus Christ.

TRANS: Today I will pick up where I left off in Romans 15. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:31 where we will continue to examine Paul's other prayer requests and then read his intercessory prayer for the Roman believers.

Read: Romans 15:31-32

    B. His acceptance
 Paul is asking for prayer that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem would not only accept the financial gift from the Gentile churches, but that he and his ministry would be accepted by them as well. Paul wanted the money he had collected from the Macedonian and Achaian churches to help bind the Jewish and Gentile believers together as one church. But he realized that the Jewish Christians may view the offering as a bribe so that the Gentile Believers would not have to convert to what could be seen as a Judaised version of Christianity.

 You might wonder how anyone could refuse such a generous gift, especially when they were in such poverty? Well, we need to remember that the Jew/Gentile hatred and prejudices were very strong, even in the Christian church.Paul wanted the offering to heal the division between the Gentile and Jewish churches but he realized it could also do the opposite. Paul also realized that although he was sent out by the elders in the Jerusalem church, his ministry to the Gentiles may  not have been fully understood or appreciated by all in the Jewish church.

APP: Isn't it sad that there are some in the church who do not accept the ministry or service of another in God's  kingdom. Nor will they support them or that ministry. The reason is almost always pride or selfishness. This happens between denominations, between local churches..even within individual churches. Prideful, carnal Christians will often oppose a particular ministry just because of the person heading it up.

 Why? Because they don't like that person or they are jealous of what God is doing in that persons life and not doing in  their own life. What they sometimes say is ' I did that before and it didn't work' What they are thinking is 'Don't do it because if it works, I will look bad.' What they are do is talk bad about that person or ministry and not participate in it.

 Whatever the reason, it is sinful behavior and it is another example of the church shoots itself in the foot by not striving for oneness.We need to be praying that as God moves individuals to serve Him and His Church, that the Body of Believers will accept and support them.

    C. His joy
 Paul's next request was that he would be able to visit the Roman church with a heart of joy.  He realized that it was possible for things not to go well for him in Jerusalem. If it didn't go well, then his journey to Rome would not be a happy one.

    D. God's will
 Paul knew that true joy is only found in walking in the will of God. So he asks the Roman Believers to pray that if it pleased God, if it would be His will, after he finishes his service to the Jewish Christians, that God would bless him by guiding him to the church in Rome.

APP: Notice that asking for blessing and guidance from God comes BEFORE we are involved in the work..not during or after we have already begun it. More often than not, we have a personal agenda and make plans accordingly. We get the resources and start our project 'for God'.  Later, as things get snagged, we ask God to bless our work for Him...only to find that He says....no! Perhaps because He never intended for us to do that work in the first place.

 When we step outside God's will, we are headed for failure.

 We need to intercede on  behalf of those who faithfully minister for God and serve His people. That God would work powerfully in their hearts and lives. That they will obediently keep in step with the Spirit of God as  He directs them by the good pleasure of His will.

    E. His refreshment
 Paul's final prayer request is that he would find refreshing  rest in their company. The journey from Jerusalem to Rome was a long one and he was already tired from his previous ministry journeys. Paul needed rest and refreshment, he needed to be built up and encouraged and he sought it in the company of like minded brothers and sisters who were united by the common thread of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

APP: Are you standing in the gap for those who are ministering faithfully and endlessly here at CBC? Are you praying for those who are ministering on the mission field, day to day in a foreign country without the comforts they may be used to in America? Are you interceding on their behalf, asking God to bring a time of respite, a time of refreshment into their hectic and energy draining ministry lives? From out text, it seems we ought to be praying for that.

 A related question is: are you willing to allow your home, or other property, to be used by those in ministry who need a respite?

 Are we willing as a church to be a place
 where missionaries and other Christian servants can come and be surrounded by love and compassion,   where they will be encouraged and built up so that God's servants may go back into the battle refreshed?

I pray your answer is YES!

 You will have a chance to put this into action with our upcoming missions conference April 7-9th. Sure the missionaries are coming here to share with us what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of those they are reaching out to...but we can also minister to them while they are here with us. But it won't happen if you stay home that weekend. Put it on your calendar. Make it an appointment that you refuse to break.I want you to begin to think of ways you can be an encouragement, ways you can be used to build up and refresh God's servants who will be here for our Missions Conference.

For example you can:
 Let one of the couples stay with you in your home, show them hospitality not just entertain them.
 Take one family out to lunch or for coffee and donuts.
 Offer to watch their children for a few hours so they can spend some time alone together.
 Pray for and with them, personal prayers for their life, marriage, children.
 You can begin now by praying for them and the events of the weekend.

TRANS: Paul was a man of prayer. He realized he needed it for himself and he was a man who interceded for others. Here in verse 33 Paul makes a simple intercession for the Roman Believers.

III. Paul's intercessory prayer for the Roman Believers (vs 33)
Read: Rom. 15:33

    A. Peace
 Paul has only one prayer request for the Roman Believers. He prayed that the God of peace will be with them. He prayed that they would experience in an intimate and personal way, the one who is peace and the one from whom all true and lasting peace is given...God, Himself.

APP: If we are to make only one request on behalf of another Believer in prayer to our Lord, it ought to be that they would know God and the peace His presence brings. The world believes peace is often the absence of trouble, that it can be found a liquor bottle or a pill ,peace can even be found by calling a psychic hotline.

 But, peace, lasting peace only comes from the one who is true peace. It comes from a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.Those who know Jesus as their personal Savior will know that peace...those who reject Jesus as their personal Savior will never know that peace in their lives.

Conclusion/Challenge

1. Ministry is a battle. And Satan desires that no ministry be done for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will fight against any and all ministry that is God centered, done in the power of the Holy Spirit and that is supported by a praying army of faithful saints who desire God's plan be fulfilled. The stronger the fight the more passionate our intercessory prayers must become...sometimes  even with fasting as with the old bed ridden saint who prayed and fasted for revival when D.L. Moody preached in her church.

2. Intercessory prayer is a priestly ministry. In Rom. 15:16 Paul saw his evangelistic ministry as a priestly duty. He is making the same connection here. Christians, are a holy priesthood and intercession a sacred honor that is not an option, it is the privilege and duty of all those who are in Christ.

3.  The good news is that we are not in this ministry alone. Jesus Christ, is now at the right hand of God making intercession for us. The wonderful truth is that just as we are saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone we pray by faith alone. Jesus is our eternal intercessor who is responsible for our prayer life and He even straightens out, and cleanses our oft times misguided prayers and makes them acceptable to God.

Read: Isa. 56:7 says 'My house shall be a house of prayer'

 Is CBC going to be a house or an efficiency  of prayer?

 6-8 people every week at prayer mtg. Is that the kind of commitment to intercessory prayer God demands of His church..of His people? I think not.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Beside our worship on Sunday morning, there is no more important activity or ministry we do as a church than pray on Wed. nights....bar none!

 Will you join us? Will you by the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of His Holy Spirit, strive together with us as we make intercession on behalf of one another to our sovereign and gracious God?