00;00;00;00 – 00;00;26;16
It’s been a good day for you, Pastor. I’ve been just blessed to see so many things. Kind of the Lord answering some prayers and doing some wonderful things. And there’s a handful of people here who’ve been especially a blessing to me and and started out this morning with Sister Susan and our air conditioner on our side of the of the hall gave out apparently somehow and that’s not unusual around here we got about 20 units on this property.

00;00;26;16 – 00;00;43;08
And so I went to her and I said, look, we we’re going to roast in there. She said, Well, come on and teach your lesson in here. So I kind of hijacked her ministry and and she was so gracious to let me do that. She’s normally not that nice to me, but today she just was so kind. And I love that about her.

00;00;43;08 – 00;01;09;17
She’s just a blessing on Sundays. I really appreciate the event. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday might be a different story, but she’s just an encouragement and and then others who have spoken encouraging work. I’ve had so many people say something about my clothes today. Thank you all for making me feel good. And I. I went to lunch today. That new French restaurant, if y’all been there, the new French restaurant, Le Cracker Barrel.

00;01;09;17 – 00;01;27;15
Have you ever been to that one? We went to that one a day and and and I was just, you know, just sitting there eating and and like a baby eating carrots. I was eating those baby carrots. And that joker just dropped right there on my soup, man. And my wife just looked at me and just shook her head.

00;01;27;15 – 00;01;49;16
She said, We got to get you a beer. If you’re going to wear that thing to the restroom, I’m going to get you a barbed wire. And but everybody’s been so encouraging today, and I appreciate turn your Bibles, if you would, the Romans tonight. And I’d like to direct your attention to a new section. We’re in verse by verse study of the book of Romans fully engaged now 16 chapters in the book of Romans, if I recall.

00;01;49;19 – 00;02;08;17
Every one of them is powerful. Every one of them is incredible. I can’t wait for the 16th chapter because there are the these dozens of names and the 16th chapter that we’re going to have a chance to study. But that’s going to be a long time from now. But starting back in June, we began our expedition through the book of Romans.

00;02;08;17 – 00;02;31;20
And from June until now, we’ve covered seven verses. That’s a nightmare. That means we’re going to be here till kingdom come. But tonight, after having finished the seventh verse of the first section last weekend, tonight, we’re going to be able to start a new section. So if you’re able to stand in reference to the word, I’ll direct your attention to verse number eight.

00;02;31;22 – 00;03;01;25
ROMANS Chapter one, verse number eight. I’m going to read it carefully from verses eight through 16 will only be covering verse eight tonight if that makes you flesh feel any better. ROMANS Chapter one, verse number eight. If you have a place there, church tonight, we say amen. Paul says, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

00;03;01;28 – 00;03;27;08
Now, can I push pause for a moment? I’m looking for a theme in Romans one verses eight through 16, and I don’t think we found it. I think we found a supporting remark, but I don’t think verse eight is the theme. Let’s see if we can find it. Go further. Verse nine for God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers.

00;03;27;10 – 00;03;52;23
I still don’t think we found the thing verse ten making request if by any means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. I still don’t think we have it. Verse 11 for I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end.

00;03;52;26 – 00;04;22;01
You may be established. I think we’re getting close. Verse 12 That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Now would not have to be ignorant brethren, that ofttimes I purpose to come unto you, but was lent hither to that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

00;04;22;04 – 00;04;42;00
So I don’t think we got it. Verse 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is I am. Here’s what I think is the theme, as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome.

00;04;42;00 – 00;05;12;05
Also for I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation and to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek, you can be seated. I think our thing, in my judgment, anyway, is readiness to preach. Verse number 15 I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

00;05;12;05 – 00;05;42;24
I think that is the connection, that’s the hub that every other supporting verse is going to stem out of readiness to preach. And I think what Paul does is he introduces his intentions in his letter to the Romans in verses eight through 16, now in verses one through seven, he’s saying hello, he is giving a salutation and that’s all well and good.

00;05;42;24 – 00;06;13;22
We’ve moved past that formal setting. Now it’s time to get down to business. And what Paul expresses in this passage is pretty clear to me. He wants to see them. Verse number 11 I long to see you that I may impart under you some spiritual gift he desires to to go to them. If you’ll look in verse number oh, excuse me, verse number 14 that are both to the Greeks and to the Barbara Barons, both to the wise and the unwise.

00;06;13;22 – 00;06;47;17
So as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that be at Rome. He wants to go to Rome so that he can preach the word to the Romans. He wants to edify them through the spiritual gift of preaching that God has given to them. I hope I’ve made the case. Now, with that being said, I think the theme of Readiness to Preach has a supporting cast in the passage that helps us to get an understanding of exactly what readiness to preach means.

00;06;47;18 – 00;07;15;27
Now, I asked myself the question this week, actually asked myself this question years ago, but I refreshed it in my mind this week. What is the difference between Paul’s readiness to preach and our modern readiness to preach on occasion? And my ministry, I’ve had young preachers who are, you know, zealous and they’re hankering to preach just like I was when I was a younger preacher just dying to get behind the pulpit and preach.

00;07;15;27 – 00;07;39;11
And I wanted that influence and everything else that goes along with it. And I’ve even had young preachers who’ve invited themselves to preach. They’ve I remember one time when I was young, my pastor and I were playing basketball together. Some of you met my pastor. He’s about 64, and he and I were shooting hoops together and and he and I were boxing each other out under the basket, trying to get a rebound.

00;07;39;11 – 00;08;01;27
And somebody shot a shot, a three part shot fired off a three pointer. And it came it came in an arch and hit the front of the rim and didn’t bounce up, but in fact, came down at an angle and pop my pastor right in the nose, just blood just started gushing out. And I was brokenhearted for my pastor.

00;08;02;00 – 00;08;20;10
You know, first thing I said to him, I said, Preacher, if you’re not going to be able to preach Sunday, I’ll fill the pulpit for you Sunday. I had such a hankering to preach and such a desire for it that I had even invited myself on his ill pleasure to fill in for him. And he said, Brad Bailey, you just won’t do.

00;08;20;13 – 00;08;48;06
And every young preacher has that ambition and that desire. But what do they want? What do they want if they really wanted to preach? There’s nursing homes everywhere, but that’s not what they want, right? If they really wanted to preach, they’re street corners in Tampa where you can set up. We’ll provide you with a sound system. A speaker will put you out there.

00;08;48;13 – 00;09;19;20
They’re there street corners with homeless people. And they were if they really wanted to preach, There it is. But that’s not what they want. What do they want? An air conditioned building, a listening audience and people who came to hear them. So Paul is different than our generation. His assessment of readiness to preach had certain necessary components, and those certain components are what he identifies.

00;09;19;20 – 00;09;43;24
I believe in the surrounding verses to verse number six, the verse number 15. I think he is supporting what it means to be ready to preach. Now, let’s talk about that with one verse tonight and and this is all we’ll discuss. Verse number, verse number eight. He begins with First I want you to underscore that word in your mind.

00;09;43;27 – 00;10;07;23
It’s very important to the discussion. He says, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now, the key to this section is this claim readiness, and it’s an outstanding matter. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anybody talk like this to a congregation, but here it is.

00;10;07;23 – 00;10;26;16
And it’s our chance to talk. It’s just us in the Lord. But this readiness, this is not like any readiness that we see today. It’s not like I’m ready to preach. I turned on the air conditioners and the lights that the parking lot is filled. The congregation has gathered. I’m ready to preach. That’s not what Paul is describing at all.

00;10;26;19 – 00;10;56;11
And he speaks of of preparation. He speaks of a of a certain list of things that create the original version of readiness that someone like the Apostle Paul would have had role Home has a very unique setting. It offers proof to us that modern preaching that is normal in a one way conversation is not what readiness to preach is.

00;10;56;18 – 00;11;41;19
You see, when I prepared sermons this week and freshened my points and got them all ready, you know what I prepared for? I prepared to be in this building with you people, with you doing nothing but sitting and listening. No rebuttal. But that’s not the way Jesus preached and that’s not the way Paul preached. On occasion, there would be an outburst and readiness to preach for them meant that they were prepared to answer whatever accusation or whatever insult or whatever it might have been that was hurled at them during the preaching event.

00;11;41;21 – 00;12;14;06
So Paul is going to Rome. Where are you staying with me now, when you see this, he’s going to Rome where he will preach to a more pagan audience than he will a saved audience. It’s so comfortable in here for me tonight because we all believe the Bible. That’s what makes this a little easier for me. But if we ever preach somewhere where they didn’t believe the Bible, I have a priest in a prison one time and this prison was full of Muslims.

00;12;14;09 – 00;12;33;18
I’m a fool. And when I went into that prison, I was nervous because these guys were flipping up their DC badge, and on the back of their badge was the crescent moon in the star, the unmistakable mark of a muslim. And they would just flash that up at me. And that was basically their way of saying, Don’t even try it.

00;12;33;21 – 00;12;51;14
Don’t even try it. Yeah, I was a little younger and and more zealous back in those days. And so when I got in there, I thought, you know, they’re going to have me in this chapel or they’re going to have me in the sanctuary and I’m going to have musicians and I’m going to have pews and listeners and everybody’s going to have a Bible.

00;12;51;16 – 00;13;08;17
I thought that’s what readiness to preach met, right? You know where they put me right in the middle of the pod? And I said, I looked at the guy with a little bit of hesitance and I said, Where am I supposed to stand? He says, Stand up on that table right there. And I climbed up, you know, one of those tables that was poured into the concrete.

00;13;08;17 – 00;13;28;12
I climbed up on that on that stainless steel table, and I started preaching Bible open. I started preaching. It was a long time ago when I was young. I just started thundering down. I’m talking about rock ribbed leather, long hell, fire and brimstone. I was blowing out Muslims and everything in the world. I said, Have you ever robbed the bank?

00;13;28;12 – 00;13;45;26
Have you ever done this? Ever done that? You’re going to hell and you know it and I know it. God knows it. And my heart just thundered down on well, as God stood up from where He was and went over to the television that was still running and the football game was on and I was competing with that football game already.

00;13;45;27 – 00;14;12;16
He went over there and just pushed the button, the volume button, all the way up as loud as it could go. I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready for that. So I tried to get louder, and the louder I got, the more they started to around and mocking me. And finally when halftime came and they turned the tube back down, they took that as an opportunity to discourage me enough to leave during halftime.

00;14;12;16 – 00;14;35;09
They wanted me to leave during halftime so that they could get the third and fourth quarter of the game uninterrupted by this irritating preaching that was going on. And one guy threw some urine and another guy spit and one guy. I’m telling you, I still have nightmares about him. He just came and stood at the base of that table and stood there and stared at me.

00;14;35;16 – 00;15;00;14
And once in a while he flip up that DC badge and show me that he was qualified to be a terrorist if he had to be. That’s intimidating. That’s not as easy as preaching here. But if you want to know what readiness to preach is, readiness to preaches, you are able to communicate and articulate message in any circumstance.

00;15;00;17 – 00;15;29;14
And if an opponent stands up, you answer that opponent. And if something happens adversely to the message, you’re prepared to absorb whatever that is. And if you need to ignore it, you can ignore it. If you need to address it, you can address it, whatever the case may be. I remember one time on the street in downtown Nebraska Avenue, and this this man pulled up while I was I was preaching on the loudspeaker.

00;15;29;14 – 00;15;47;17
And these cars are going by and we’re just trying to get a few seconds of the gospel into their windows. And some of them would roll down the window and listen for a moment. This one particular guy, I mean, he just got all irate and was driving this big jeep and he did a big U-turn and flip that thing around in the intersection and drove up on the curb where we were at.

00;15;47;19 – 00;16;09;16
And he got out pointing his finger and wagging his hand and yelling and screaming, I’m brother Thompson was there. I think him and a couple of other guys went over and tried to defuze the situation as one had finished what I was preaching and I walked up to the guy two way conversation. You see, preaching isn’t always going to be a one way conversation.

00;16;09;18 – 00;16;41;09
Sometimes preaching the word means you’re going to have to be in a debate with someone who’s not just going to sit and listen like y’all are doing tonight. So Paul spoke of a readiness that I’m not sure is exactly what we’re used to. I’ll give you a story of George Whitfield. You might have heard his name, the famous Georgia preacher who to preach to thousands and thousands and thousands with no P.A. system and open outdoor air meetings.

00;16;41;11 – 00;17;04;10
Benjamin Franklin went to hear George Whitfield preach one time, and he was so impressed with the tone of his voice that Ben Franklin said, I stepped off a mile and I could still hear him preaching. This is not what makes you ready to preach. This is not what makes you ready to preach. This is not what makes you ready to preach.

00;17;04;17 – 00;17;45;16
Y’all with me so far. You get my point here. If you’re called to preach and you’re claiming readiness, that means that God may put you anywhere and under less than ideal circumstances. And you still have to be prepared to communicate it in spite of what those circumstances may be. So. Whitfield I read his diary and Whitfield spoke often of speaking to what he was estimating 10,000 people, 10,000 people in a freshly harvested corn field.

00;17;45;18 – 00;18;10;08
And he would talk about being in the cold air of New England and preaching for 60 minutes to 10,000 people with no P.A. system. It so wore him down and it so impacted his physical body that one of the entries said on his third tour in America, this is a quote on his third tour in America. In his second of New England.

00;18;10;13 – 00;18;43;06
George Whitfield was only 29 years of age. He was physically exhausted, having made five Atlantic crossings in five years and preaching nearly nonstop in that period of time. He landed at York in New Hampshire, which is presently Maine. And on October 26, 1744, this time accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth. Within a week of almost nonstop preaching, he collapsed and lay apparently dying in anticipation of the evening service.

00;18;43;12 – 00;19;19;29
Mr. Whitfield rose up and said to the doctor, quote, By the help of God, I will go and preach and then come home and die, end quote. And he did. What if preaching is the last thing you do? Are you ready for that? What if it kills you? Brother Bill and I are friends of David Brainard, who died at 29 with lungs full of pneumonia, riding horseback from place to place to place, preaching to the American Indians.

00;19;19;29 – 00;19;40;24
Through an interpreter, he spoke of having horses shot out from under him. He spoke of how many horses died in his ministry, Whitfield said. And so readiness to preach is a little bit different than ours. David Brainerd Status of readiness to preach the Apostle Paul status of readiness to preach is a little bit different than ours, isn’t it?

00;19;40;26 – 00;20;11;08
I would say that most preachers are cupcakes. I don’t mean that as an insult. A golf club fits their hand better than a Bible that’s too soft, because sometimes the preaching of the word can be an exhausting and dangerous thing. And if you propose those circumstances to some preachers, they say, Well, I’m not interested in that. Do you know what that means?

00;20;11;08 – 00;20;43;18
You’ve just confessed. What? I’m not ready to preach. So what is Paul’s point? I want to give it to you quickly. I will skip over some things. You seem to just turn to some pages here. The first thing this might be come as a surprise, but the first thing on Paul’s list, and he calls it that in verse number eight, first you see that the first thing on Paul’s list is a declaration of gratitude.

00;20;43;20 – 00;21;10;05
He starts his epistle by saying, I’m glad you’re here. How many of you know there’s a lot of men who believe God is called them to preach, but God hadn’t called anybody to listen to them. And unfortunately, those men, they’re going to keep whittling away and they’re going to keep stomping and roaring and preaching and what they call preaching.

00;21;10;05 – 00;21;41;14
They’re going to just keep doing it and keep doing it until they wear some church down to nothing or until they wear out every listener. Because listen to this. If God has called a person to preach, that means God has additionally called someone to be the congregation. There’s a partnership there. And any preacher who cannot be thankful for his congregation is not ready to preach.

00;21;41;17 – 00;22;06;14
Are you with me now? I want you to see this with your own eyes. Verse eight. First a Thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the world. This is an interesting verse to me. This is the priority of gratitude. First, I want to say thanks. First, I want to be thankful the word first.

00;22;06;14 – 00;22;37;07
Here is the Greek word, Proteus. It means first in order, but it also means first in importance. Now, the reason that’s important to differentiate between those two is because if it means first in order, then somewhere in the immediate context, there’s going to be a second and possibly a third and maybe a fourth or fifth. But if it means first and priority, he’s going to use the term first and there will be no second, third or fourth thing on the list.

00;22;37;09 – 00;23;12;09
And if you look at the immediate context, there are no seconds and thirds. So he is referring to protons. He is referring to first in importance. He is saying for me to be qualified as ready, I have to first say how appreciative I am of this gathered congregation. Are you all with me on that? Imagine me preaching to an empty building how futile that would be.

00;23;12;11 – 00;23;38;23
So having a congregation is a plus. Having a congregation is a bonus. I got to tell you the truth. Sometimes I wonder, why do y’all keep coming back? I know it’s not me. It’s the word that keeps drawing you back. It can’t be anything else. Knowing that the word is going to be preached is what draws people to this property like a magnet, right?

00;23;38;25 – 00;24;01;10
You remember back in the day when we used to play around those big, heavy speakers and once in a while a speaker blow up. They don’t do that much anymore. But back in the day, the cone of that speaker was fragile and it put all kind of protections and different things over it. But if you were a beat head or blocked it loud, cranked that thing up once in a while, you’d hear that speaker.

00;24;01;13 – 00;24;20;24
And then I think it buzz, you say, Oh, I blow my speaker, You busted the cone on the speaker. It’s worthless. But it had that big magnet in the back. You remember that real job and we take those things apart and get that big magnet out of there. And when we play with that magnet in the neighborhood, all the boys come and say, Hey, give me a piece of that magnet.

00;24;20;26 – 00;24;40;25
I want a piece of that magnet. This is back before cell phones, magnets, back when we had real childhood, not not the fantasy childhoods that you guys are pretending to have. We had we had to have creative ways to have fun. So we had Chad Herold, Chad Tillman, Chad, by the way, the three Chad’s. And then there was me, Brad.

00;24;40;25 – 00;24;57;05
We were the terrorists of the neighborhood. And one day I came out one of those big magnets, my brother Joel, and busted the speaker, and I took that dissembled that speaker, took that magnet out of the back of it. And all the three of the chad’s I wanted a piece of that magnet. So I was generous about I took a hammer and I tapped it.

00;24;57;07 – 00;25;23;16
And so now I’m keeping the biggest piece for myself. But I gave them all a piece of that magnet. You know what you learn about magnets like that really, really fast. Even when you break them, they want to come back together. And that’s the nature of the church. Even when the church has to dismiss the the Holy Ghost inside of you and me says, But we’ll be back.

00;25;23;18 – 00;25;49;17
You’re drawn back. And sometimes I handle you poorly. Sometimes I might even be having a bad day. And I may have an attitude that I shouldn’t have. But that doesn’t stop you from coming back. And if I’m ready, like Paul was ready, I should be thankful. And every other preacher should be thankful that you came back right? I live with a phobia.

00;25;49;17 – 00;26;12;06
My whole ministry about you not coming back keeps me up at night. Yes, there’s some of you. I’m so glad you got sick. I’m just so glad because I thought you left. I thought you were upset. I thought I made you mad. And then when I found out you had the flu, I said, Praise God, it’s just the flu.

00;26;12;08 – 00;26;37;07
You can’t stay away, Kenya. And it’s not me, is it? It’s that your spirit craves something. Your spirit longs for something. And even though it’s inconvenient, there’s some of you that drive your way outside of our county. And you still come here. There’s some of you that have extenuating circumstances that a lot of people would use an excuse not to come.

00;26;37;07 – 00;27;11;17
But you can you come anyway and you continue to come and you are faithful. You know why? Because you know that the word is going to be communicated and I’m telling you, there’s no substitute for a congregation who wants to hear the word. You see that in this verse? First, be thankful for that congregation. First, gratitude may seem to be unfamiliar and even a necessary ailment in preaching, but Paul’s remark to the church is this I am first thankful for you.

00;27;11;19 – 00;27;45;17
First, it appears that gratitude for the church is what prepared Paul to preach. He just knew they were going to receive it. And that is my week. Tonight. When this service ends, I’ll be get ready for next Sunday. Why? Because in some relationship way, you’re counting on me to be here. And I’m counting on you to be here.

00;27;45;22 – 00;28;20;28
And that’s a partnership that we should be thankful for. Can I get a witness on that church? He says first we should be thankful. Let me hurry. In every epistle that Paul wrote, he’s thankful for something. I find it hard to listen to a preacher who’s not thankful. Can I get a witness on that church? To be thankless is to be thoughtless.

00;28;21;01 – 00;28;47;18
And if they’re thoughtless, if they are, if they’re not thoughtful, let me put it like that. If they’re not thoughtful about the blessings that they possess, because of the congregation, if they’re not thoughtful about that, they’ll tend to be harsh. They’ll tend to a abandon the shepherd mentality and they’ll start saying, you know, I could live without this sheep or that sheep.

00;28;47;21 – 00;29;10;24
I could see me being better off without this family or that family. You know, I’ve never felt that way. I’ve never been able to feel that way. And there some people I want to paint their head off. But let me just say something. The Holy Ghost won’t let me do it. Why? Because there’s a certain gratitude that is birthed in the heart of the preacher for the congregation who consistently and willingly listens to the preached word.

00;29;10;27 – 00;29;39;18
Now, Paul’s list, when he was a younger man, he said in Galatians he was thankful for some things and he talked about being thankful for, you know, for the for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These are optimistic about a whole lot of different things and thankful for a whole lot of different things. But when it comes to this particular thing from us, when it comes to this particular issue of Paul’s gratitude, he says, I am thankful for you and I want you to see this with me next.

00;29;39;21 – 00;30;07;19
He doesn’t even know these people as I even know them. He’s never been to the church at wrong. So what has ignited this gratitude? Verse number eight. Look at it. Oh, you see this? He said, I think, My God, are you ready for this? Through? Jesus Christ. Let me ask you a question. Answer it honestly. Do you love Jesus Christ?

00;30;07;22 – 00;30;29;17
So do I. And that’s why we connect. You get that? This church is not about Democrat, Republican, Ford or Chevrolet, Coke or Pepsi or Starbucks or Duncan. That’s not what this church is about. You know what this church is about? I’m glad to be in a room this big with this many people who love Jesus. Can you get that?

00;30;29;17 – 00;31;00;10
What do you see that I am thrilled. Every service that arrives that we get to be in this place with this many people that have the same agenda and the same beliefs about Jesus Christ. Right. Football season starts Saturday. I’m going to duck on some. You’re going to get that later because George is playing organ. You’ll get that later.

00;31;00;12 – 00;31;17;29
When I want to see a contest, I want to watch football. But that’s not why I come here. This is not a competition. This is not me trying to one up you are you trying to one up me or anybody trying to one up one another? No, no, no. There’s a unity. There is a an environment that creates this.

00;31;17;29 – 00;31;51;08
This can Tejas unity and Paul is thankful for that. He is blessed that even though he doesn’t know these people he is optimistic about them. Yeah. I read this story one time and I’ll just tell it to you. There was an optimistic farmer who was located, sadly, beside a pessimistic farmer, and the optimistic farmer would see the sun coming up and shout over the tractor to his pessimist neighbor, Look at that beautiful sign and that clear sky, that negative neighbor.

00;31;51;11 – 00;32;21;13
He would pessimistically reply, Yeah, it’s probably going to scorch the crops. The clouds would gather. The optimistic farmer would rejoice that God was watering their crops for them. And he reported that he reported to the neighbor next door. The pessimist that God was giving their corn a drink. Today, the pessimistic farmer replied, Aha, but if it doesn’t stop for long, it’ll flood and wash everything away.

00;32;21;16 – 00;32;47;10
Negative, negative, negative. The optimistic farmer. He wouldn’t quit right? He’s an incurable optimist. The optimistic farmer decided to put it in, put his neighbor to the test. He. He bought the smartest bird dog in the world and taught him to do the most amazing things while hunting. One day the two farmers were sitting in the boat behind a duck blind, and when the ducks came in, both men fired and boom, boom, boom.

00;32;47;17 – 00;33;17;08
Down come the ducks. Optimistic farmer looks at his new dog and he says, Go get them, boy. The bird dog leaped out of the boat and walked on water, picked up the birds one by one, fetched them back to the boat. Optimistic farmer looked at the pessimistic farmer in the boat, said, What do you think of that? And without a smile, the pessimist answered, He can’t swim.

00;33;17;08 – 00;34;02;10
Kenny, look, if you’re coming to church to be pessimistic, you and me are not going to be very good friends. If you’re coming to church to be critical, you can expect me to protect this congregation from you. Do you hear what I just said? If you can’t love the fact that people in this church love Jesus to some degree now we all know they don’t love Jesus as much as you do, but at some level they have a love for the person of Jesus Christ.

00;34;02;10 – 00;34;35;11
That is a unifying reality. So yeah, but I know so much. It doesn’t matter. We should be thankful for what we have in this church. Not critical. Are you with me? Church? You’re home now. Watch this. Oh, skip some pages here. Do you see me? Does that make you feel good? I’m skipping pages. Strangers he’s never met. He calls him brother.

00;34;35;13 – 00;34;56;22
He calls him sister. I’ve always had a I’ve always had to be careful with that because I’m around Christians so much. If I’m not careful, I’ll call the person at the cash register, brother or sister. I’m so used to calling people, brother or sister, but when he refers to them, he puts it right out there in front of our eyes.

00;34;56;22 – 00;35;21;09
He said, It’s all because of Jesus Christ. That’s why you love me. That’s why I love you. We are verse eight. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. And then He gives this little note in our clothes that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Stay with me. Now I want you to see this.

00;35;21;12 – 00;35;50;20
He said, I’m thankful for what I heard about you. Now, if you go to one of those churches that could teach the post office a thing or two because they get bad news going all the time, if you go to a negative church, you’re not going to be prepared to embrace that congregation. Right? Sometimes I have the opportunity to go preach in meetings and this summer I’ve preached in churches.

00;35;50;20 – 00;36;13;19
I’ve never preached in my life, preached in a church in Orlando from Grace Church in Orlando, just had a great meeting. And when I got there, the pastor said, We’re so excited you’re here. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say. We just know you’re going to be a blessing and we’ve been praying for you. We heard about you and Tampa and more so that you’re over here with us.

00;36;13;22 – 00;36;28;04
How did you get that? I don’t. Have you been stalking me? I’m not on social media. I don’t know what he knows. But he was so thankful that I was there. And I said, Pastor, man, I’m excited to be here, too, man. I kind of I kind of felt important as a pastor. I’m excited to be here, too.

00;36;28;07 – 00;36;48;23
That pastor never said one negative word to me about his congregation. Not one negative word. And we had a wonderful meeting. Another church I preached in, the pastor felt like he needed to inform me of some things before I came and I was listening and he started telling me how you don’t like this person, how he doesn’t like the way this person does things.

00;36;48;28 – 00;37;11;01
And so when I got there, you know what? As soon as I walked behind that pulpit to face a congregation whom I had never met, as soon as I walked behind that pulpit, my head was full of negative thoughts. Do you get the point? And that service was dead and cold. I want you to see what Paul said about the Romans.

00;37;11;01 – 00;37;29;18
He said, I have heard that your faith is an impressive faith. Verse number eight. Do you see that? He said, It is known. I want you to factor this in with me and see the Greek study here and I’ll be done. He says it is known. Look at the last word, the last four words throughout the whole world.

00;37;29;20 – 00;38;03;29
Throughout the whole world. Now he uses the word thing. It’s the Greek word Eucharist. It’s where we get the word Eucharist from, which is a reference, a formal reference to the Lord’s table. So he starts out by saying, I am glad that I’m part of the communion with you. And then he moves from that item down list to this testimony of faith that in verse number eight, he says, is spoken of throughout the whole world.

00;38;03;29 – 00;38;36;18
And I want you to underscore the word world in your mind or in your Bible, because the word world here is not the same as you might consider when you think the world. You think about the globe, you think about the cosmos. And all of that is the Greek word here. What the Apostle Paul is saying at the end of verse number eight is Your faith is spoken of throughout the entire known world, which in that day would have been the Roman Empire.

00;38;36;21 – 00;39;09;24
So the entire surroundings of the Mediterranean Sea, north, south, east and west was under the rule of the Roman Empire. What letter is this? The letter to who? The letter to the Romans. So Paul writes to them and he says, Your reputation of outstanding faith, your reputation of difference, making faith, the power of your church has made its way all the way back to my ears.

00;39;09;29 – 00;39;44;15
And I want you to know that I’m excited about the opportunity to Rome and preach and impart some spiritual gift to you, because I have heard of your faith. Wow. Were you witnessing that with me? And think about that for just a moment. You know, every church has a reputation. You remember the church at Corinth Paul wrote to them to, didn’t he, when he wrote to them?

00;39;44;15 – 00;40;09;18
You know what he said? It’s commonly reported, commonly report. You know what that means? It’s the talk of the town. Everybody’s about it. And everybody knows that The church at Corinth, you are fragmented and you’re in, you’re in, you’re in feuds all the time. He said, I heard that you’re suing one another. I heard that you are abusing the Lord’s table.

00;40;09;21 – 00;40;29;16
I heard that you’re confused about the second coming. And he said, on top of that, he said, I heard something is not even named among the Gentiles that a man should have his own father’s wife. You know what that means? There was a man, a leader in the church at Corinth who was sexually romantic with his stepmother, Paul.

00;40;29;18 – 00;40;59;03
So that’s what I heard about your church. So he writes two letters to Corinth, and he says to the people of Corinth. Chapter one Rebuke. Chapter two, three, four, five, six. In first Corinthians eight, nine, ten, 11, and 12. All review 13. Rebuke 14, Rebuke. Chapter 15 is one verse of rebuke, and then about 45 verses of admonition wanted.

00;40;59;03 – 00;41;25;06
Paul had to get so negative with that church. Are you ready for this is because they had been so negative about each other but in the church it wrong. Nobody’s claiming perfection. Nobody’s claiming senselessness in the church it wrong. But what they are doing is they are saying there are some things that are not worth magnifying and singling out.

00;41;25;09 – 00;41;47;17
He said What you need to know about this church is these people are full of famous faith. You know what that means about this church? That means everywhere they went they were boasting about Jesus, bragging about Jesus. And the scuttlebutt and the rumors in the town was this If you ever get close to one of those Roman Christians, you better be sad.

00;41;47;18 – 00;42;20;07
You better bring a lunch because they’re going to load you up about Jesus, Paul said. I heard about that. I heard that your church is full of faith and his readiness to preach remark is basically this I can’t wait to come and meet you in person. Do you see that? He said. I can’t wait to come. And if your faith is that high octane, if your faith is that outstanding and your faith is that amazing?

00;42;20;14 – 00;42;45;28
He says. Later in the passage that we read tonight, he says, Just imagine what could happen if I bring my apostolic preaching gift there. If your church is here now, could you imagine it going even higher? And Paul says, I can’t wait to see what happens. That’s why we come to church, because we can’t wait to see what God does next.

00;42;46;00 – 00;43;07;05
There was a season in our church when we were under a lot of stress here, to put it mildly. We were under a lot of pressure and a lot of stress. And to be honest, there was a season where we got pretty, pretty desperate with God and said, Lord, you’ve got to come through, Lord, you’ve got to make a difference.

00;43;07;05 – 00;43;30;09
And did he not make a difference? He made a difference, didn’t he? He came through. Let’s boast in him for just a minute to God be the glory. If he hadn’t stepped in, this place wouldn’t exist. I know that. I know that. And that test them all. And he started circulating and people started saying, Hey, you got to go check out what God’s doing it better.

00;43;30;10 – 00;43;57;01
You got to go and check out what God’s doing at the Tabernacle. You know why? Because when a church is on fire, when a church is burning and blazing with a testimony that boasts in Jesus Christ the world won’t be able to stay away. But the world does not want to go to a church where members are telling bad things about other members.

00;43;57;03 – 00;44;26;22
Now put it in park and think about that for a minute. You can’t claim to love your church and be negative about the people that Jesus died for on this property. Are you with me on that? You can find something positive. You can find something nice to say even about Nick, if you think long enough and hard enough and just ponder the thought.

00;44;26;22 – 00;44;51;16
Even Nick has positive features right? And you learn to love those things. You learn to you just fall head over heels for people that you may barely even know. But when Jesus is the common denominator, the outstanding faith becomes the testimony of that church. I love that verse, don’t you? Thank you for. Let me talk to you about it, Father.

00;44;51;16 – 00;45;30;08
As we close the service this evening, our hearts are in this moment, united together around this passage. And we have I want to come farther and just testify about my thankfulness for Romans chapter one, verse eight. I’m thankful that this message came in, this format for this congregation on this night and this month and this year. I can’t imagine a better circumstance where we could have shared this together.

00;45;30;10 – 00;45;55;12
Thank you for it. We treasure it, and we always will. As we examine Paul’s readiness to preach in the next series of Sunday nights, we pray that you will prepare our hearts to hear what this genuinely outstanding man has to say. It was for the church at Rome, but we want to benefit also. Help us, Father. We pray in Jesus.

00;45;55;15 – 00;45;58;22
Lovely name. We pray in Jesus name.