Romans Chapter 15:7-13

If there's somebody in your life today that you think, man, they are just so lost and so pagan and so carnal and so whatever and I just don't see how God could do something with this situation. Friend, don't underestimate God. We're reading a book written by a man who persecuted, threw in jail, possibly executed Christians for being Christians. Look what God did with his life. No matter who you are or what you've done, the Bible declares that there is hope for everyone. Find out more as Pastor David continues in Romans 15 with his teaching, Hope.

Here's David McGeady. Look at the list of all the criteria that we needed to meet in order to have a relationship with him. Is that what he did? No. No, Jesus did everything to break down the wall that was between us. And this verse says, we're supposed to receive one another like that. Now, let's understand, that is not our natural inclination. our natural inclination is the moment we kind of meet somebody so we begin to size them up we begin to guess at what kind of person they are maybe what they do for a living where they live what they drop all these different things and kind of that is not Jesus that's the world the world says analyze people around you because one of them may be your enemy one of them may hurt you this verse says receive one another as Christ received you you see how Jesus receives us every Sunday morning when I give an invitation and people respond if you're here today and you're not sure you know Jesus says your Savior I'm gonna give you the opportunity to respond at the end of this and when people begin to respond it's just a glorious thing and I just it's awesome as people begin and sometimes people timid and they're all I don't know can you imagine as somebody begins that walk I'm a jumping down from a platform go whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a minute there buddy you can't just come to Jesus as you are I need to have a little interview here before we just don't accept anybody that's not what Jesus does that's not what he did with me and being honest that you know I thought man when I came to Jesus I thought I thought I was gonna say no that's not what he did he accepted me and forgave me and built the relationship built upon mercy and grace with me and that is our model in the church today we should treat each other like we would treat Jesus we should treat each other like we treat Jesus that's a challenge in it verse 8 now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers Jesus said Matthew 15 24 but he answered he being Jesus and said I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that's what Jesus said now don't get offended at that understand that he was a prophesied Jewish Messiah one of the things he was here to do is be of fulfillment of those prophecies and in that his large part of the focus was to the Jewish people when he was here now that's not he did minister some to Gentiles I'll get into that in a second but then Matthew 10 6 he says but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel when he was sending out the guys he said go to the house of Israel promised you to the Jews there was a promise that the Messiah would come and God keeps his promises and he kept his promise about the Messiah now that Jesus ever ministered to somebody that was not a Jew absolutely he did a couple occasions in the scripture I'll give you one Matthew 8 5 to 7 says now when Jesus had entered Capernaum a centurion came to him pleading with him saying Lord my servant is lying at home paralyzed dreadfully tormented and Jesus said to him I will come and heal him that centurion was not Jewish he was a Gentile and yet Jesus ministered to him even in the beginning of the church let's understand Jesus turned to the disciples who were Jewish and said this Luke 24 49 said behold I send the promise of my father upon you but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are a dude was powerful and high was Jerusalem a Gentile city that was a Jewish city and Jesus said stay here don't do anything don't go anywhere stay here leading to Acts chapter 1 verse 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem notice the priority in Jerusalem first then in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth and if you follow the book of Acts the book of Acts parallels us exactly Acts chapter 1 through chapter 7 are dealing exclusively with Jewish believers as a matter of fact when Gentiles wanted to come into the church they had to have a meeting to figure out if they were going to allow us and under what circumstances now I'm glad that meeting went well and we were allowed in now you can sit here go well makes me feel bad I'm not Jewish I'm not Jewish let's understand a couple chapters ago speaking about being grafted in God again was confirming his promise his prophecy to the Jewish people why in God's plan did he do that well he tells us it's not because they were smarter wiser better people he just chose them that's who he chose and we can sit there go I don't you know I don't know it's just a little weird may ask a question how did you hear about Jesus God in his divine plan chose the Jewish people to give his word to to shed and spread his word to all the people friend let me assure you that at some point you heard the gospel from a Jewish person now maybe you're going well no I didn't about pastor David I heard it from you and you just said you're not Jewish where did I get the gospel from this book Peter Jew Paul Jew Timothy Jew Matthew Jew John Jew this is where I received in God's plan he said did you just be okay I want you to spread the good news among the Gentiles and be and look at the marvelous job God did through them so well that now the point most people consider Christianity a Gentile religion now God has asked us as Gentiles to spread his word so the baton has been shared at the very least let's read on though it verse 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written for this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name now now we come into the picture because understand even regarding what I just said and the timeline and stay in Jerusalem max 24 be a witness in Jerusalem max 1 8 and then at the timeline 1 7 God's plan was always to reach Gentiles always that was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures in the Old Testament if you will New Living translation these last two verses remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors and he came so the Gentiles might also give glory to God for his mercies in them that is what the psalmist meant when he wrote I will praise you among the Gentiles I will sing praises to your name so there was a timeline that was followed Jesus said I came to the lost house of Israel was that permanent no it was temporary it's part of his plan and then the Jewish people would reach out to the Gentiles again it's happened wonderfully Paul is dealing with two groups of people the Gentiles the Jews and he's doing so beautifully and he says Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy to the Jewish people he turns on he goes and he came for the Gentiles it doesn't say that for God so loved the Gentiles that he gave his only begotten son that God said love the Jews he gave his only begotten son it says for God to love the world the life lesson here Jesus came for everybody Jesus came for everybody friend there was a time in my life when people looked at me and they thought man there is no hope in God for him they underestimated God if there's somebody in your life today that you think man they are just so lost and so pagan and so carnal and so whatever and I I just don't see how God could do something with this situation friend don't underestimate God we're reading a book written by a man who persecuted through in jail possibly executed Christians for being Christians look what God did with his life to reveal himself through these things again these two factions and going back to the book of Romans while it was written and whatnot Acts chapter 1 18 verse 1 and 2 says after these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth and he found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus who had recently come up come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome and he came to them so Claudius was Caesar and he kicked out the Jewish people that left the Gentile Christians then Nero allowed the Jewish people to come back and so there's that faction going on because now the church had been totally Gentile now the Jewish Christians come back and they're all looking at each other going I don't like you they wanted to divide over these issues now this quote is from Psalm 18 49 in this verse the next two verses are gonna be quoting the Hebrew Scriptures therefore I will give thanks to you O Lord among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name sometimes there's a slight difference between what you read there and in your English Bible the verse reference you read usually that's because they're referring to the Septuagint which I don't want to bore you with all the details but basically the Hebrew Scriptures are rewritten in Greek and they were the most common version of the Hebrew Scriptures and so most of the times when the New Testament refers to the Old Testament is referring to the Septuagint which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures your Bible is the English version of the Hebrew Scriptures so sometimes there's slight difference not not anything in any major theological treatise or anything like that you've been listening to cross the bridge we'll return to David's study in Romans in just a moment but first I would like to let you know about a new product that we're excited about here at cross the bridge each year David McGee spends countless hours coming through the Bible in preparation to teach God's Word this is clearly seen every week as he proclaims the amazing truths found in the Bible to his home church and through the radio ministry that's why this month we want you to be blessed by some of our favorite teachings from this year with the cross the bridge best of 2013 these three powerful teachings will help you to live victoriously in Christ through a better understanding of who Jesus really is the best of 2013 is our gift to you this month when you give to cross the bridge your gift will be used to reach countless people with the gospel while also encouraging other believers to stand firm in the faith to help us take God's Word to the world please contact us at eight seven seven four five eight fifty five oh eight or visit us online at cross the bridge calm now let's return to our verse by verse study of Romans verse 10 and again he says rejoice O Gentiles with his people this is Deuteronomy 32 43 and I give it to you in a new living translation in another place that is written rejoice O you Gentiles along with his people the Jews Paul saying you know what get over it praise God together rejoice with his people let's go to verse 11 and again praise the Lord all you Gentiles laud him all you peoples now here's the cool thing when we as Gentiles are worshiping God we're fulfilling Bible prophecy when we're in here and we're singing together and we're worshiping the Lord that was prophesied about now we we tend to go yeah well you know it's what we do no no no no wait a minute it was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures that Gentiles would come to what at that time was mostly a Jewish God outside the nation of Israel not a lot of people believed in God the God of what the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as we refer to him still the fact that so many Gentiles have come into the church again in prophecy the fact that this morning because there's people in here that are Jewish who believe in Yeshua as the Mashiach Jesus as the Messiah we're worshiping together guess what another fulfillment of Bible prophecy as we worship together how cool is that and you just thought you were coming in here singing now this reference is from Psalm 117 in verse 11 it comes from 117 verse 1 and this is actually the whole chapter it's not a long chapter says praise the Lord all you Gentiles laud him all your peoples for his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endurance forever praise the Lord so you ever only have a couple minutes and you'll read a whole chapter go to Psalm 117 it's only two versions you read today man read old chapter dude the shortest let me give you something this is kind of it's kind of interesting and that you got to be careful you don't want to start a new religion over the numbers that you find in the Bible but occasionally there's some pretty cool stuff let me throw something at you the shortest chapter in the whole Bible is Psalm 117 that's on that this verse refers to okay the longest chapter in the whole Bible is Psalm 119 the middle chapter of the Bible is Psalm 118 it's better there's 594 chapters before Psalm 18 there's 594 chapters after Psalm 118 when you add 594 together twice you get 1188 or let me say it a different way 118 8 where's the middle verse in the entire Bible Psalm 118 verse 8 somebody up there is thinking is that happenstance I mmm that just can't be a coincidence mathematically it just odds are stacked against that coming out so what does Psalm 118 8 have what kind of message kind of interesting is it better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man it's a good little message for us isn't it again let's understand when God's writing prophecy when he's doing stuff like this he's not just you know doing guesswork when Jesus was prophesied as the Messiah God was speaking from what he knew Jesus already to be Jesus is not guessing at the future he knows the beginning he knows the end verse 12 and again Isaiah says there shall be a root of Jesse and he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles and him the Gentiles show hope now again we read this and we don't we tend not to think of the significance verse 4 talks about hope verse 13 talks about hope where is our hope our hope is in Jesus and we go yeah okay Jesus the Jewish Messiah prophesied by Jewish scriptures hung out with the Jewish disciples and yet now we're following him Paul in these writings he gives three verse references from Deuteronomy which is the law from Psalms which is the writings and from the prophets this is Isaiah and in verse 12 so he hits the writings the prophets the law and he's speaking to the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers who had got in he can't do that and you can't do this and shouldn't do that shouldn't do that you know and it's still going on today Gentiles look at Jewish believers and they go well you know if you believe in Messiah you can't keep your feast and you can't keep doing all those things and the Jewish people of course we're looking back and going well if you're gonna believe in Messiah you need to keep the feast and keep all the little bit man we love to argue we do I do I'll admit that some stuffs worth arguing about some is not you know I've got great great friends that are Jewish believers in the Messiah and they have chosen the key Levitical laws they've chosen to keep the feast I'm okay with that as a matter of fact you know I've gained insight into looking at the feast and celebrating the feast the the problem comes when a Jewish person looks at the Gentile and says you have to keep the feast if you're gonna believe in Jesus that becomes a problem the other problem happens when a Gentile looks at a Jewish believer and says if you're gonna believe in Jesus you have to stop doing the feast you have to stop trying to keep Levitical law you can't do that and Paul is dealing with this and you say no no no no no no no no no no no no this is happening here and you know why I don't I'm gonna be bold enough to say it's not gotten better in the last 2,000 years Paul's dealing and saying hey let's all let's quit arguing about stuff that you know let's finish up with verse 13 says now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit the God of hope look how God is described in these passages the God of look at verse 5 the God of patience the God of comfort now in verse 13 the God of hope God of hope we touched on this a couple weeks ago but the one thing that seems to be missing in lives today especially among those who don't know Jesus as their Messiah is hope don't have hope now when I say hope I'm not talking about I hope it works out I hope it's gonna be okay I'm talking about hope as in the assurance that it's gonna be okay you're just not sure when that kind of hope and sad to say that many Christians don't have that hope they they have more of the hope it works out hope it's gonna be okay how you doing I'm just holding on brother well what do you mean just holding on I'm just hoping to get into heaven by the skin of my teeth now I understand I don't some days more than others but we have a quiet assurance and that kind of quiet assurance friend should keep us from being anxious about all the little differences that we have with one another it's so cool it's such a God thing to look out here Sunday morning and you see some people that are you know dressed more in business casual kind of some suits some coats sometimes you know and then you see some people that mean the name suit the t-shirt shorts tats earrings whatever and we're all worshiping together that's God I don't know if you've taken the time to stop and consider when the Lord sees us all worshiping together and not looking at each other going what's he got those earrings in for why is he wearing a coat but we're just worshiping together and focusing on Jesus that's a beautiful thing you know why because that doesn't happen outside the supernatural move of God it's a good thing God of hope the New Living Translation in this verse Paul says and this is kind of the end of his theological treatise in the book of Romans here it says so I pray that God who gives you hope will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him may you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit I'll read that again in a New Living Translation so I pray that God who gives you hope will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him may you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit God who gives you hope will keep you happy and full of peace do you think God is able to keep you happy and full of peace and give you hope absolutely so what's going on when you walk around and you're not filled with peace and you're not filled with hope we walk through our life and we go awesome a peace and walking through all and here's trouble oh my goodness this is this bill that I wasn't expecting you know this thing happening at work or this relationship you know what I'm just gonna give my peace to that I don't have much peace anymore if you're sitting here today and you know Jesus as your Savior and you don't have peace friend and love you've given your peace to something what did you give it to maybe you gave it to the claim of the world that they could give you temporary peace and satisfaction oh and they can short-lived little things sometimes chemical sometimes not chemical sometimes situation sometimes a retirement account whatever but that's a temporary non lasting peace God can give you true and lasting peace and he wants to do that but friend you can give that peace away and when you lack peace you need to ask yourself what did I give my peace to when you get in the middle of a situation you go well oh did you hear about such-and-such so-and-so gave your peace away God wants to give you peace now why is this in here in this section of Scripture because you know how often we give our peace away I don't like the way he does that we give our peace away well you know I really think I really think in our church we ought to do this differently and I'm not happy with the way that's going you give your peace away Jesus paid a very high price to give you peace friend be careful what you give your peace to I say that Jesus paid such a price for our peace because he did literally pay a price why because Romans earlier says that we were at war with God at war not that we had slight disagreements or there was this little he just need to straighten us out a little bit no no no we were at war with God everyone of us but Jesus died on the cross to break down that wall he died for our sins that we could not only be forgiven but filled with joy filled with his Holy Spirit filled with his peace friend if you lack peace today let me assure you it is not God's fault God offers you everything peace joy forgiveness in that he offers himself and if in the midst of all this stuff the world is going through and maybe you find yourself in you can know peace in the midst of that storm if you know the Prince of Peace but let me assure you if you don't know the Prince of Peace any peace that you have or will have is temporary and is not lasting and it will slip through your fingers like the shifting sands of the society and culture but I have to be like that the God of peace the God of patience the God of comfort is here today for you friend do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven you can know right now I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him please pray this prayer with me out loud right now dear Jesus I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things I have sinned and I'm sorry please forgive me of all those things please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name amen friend if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible you've been forgiven you've been born again so congratulations friend you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make God bless you if this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David we would love to hear from you you can call us toll-free at 877 458 5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ also if you contact us this month we will send you the cross the bridge best of 2013 for your gift of any amount if you've ever wondered how we can walk in the full power of God's Spirit then this new product is just for you and we'll send it to you as a way of saying thanks for your donation you 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