Concern for the Hearts of Others (Romans Week 20) by Michael Williams

What does it look like to carry the heart of God for people who are far from Him? In this message from Romans 9:1–5, we explore Paul's astonishing burden for his fellow Israelites. A burden so deep that he speaks of "unceasing anguish" for their salvation. As followers of Jesus, we are called beyond comfort, distraction, and self-preservation to embrace a holy concern for the souls of others, praying, loving, and persisting until our hearts begin to reflect the sacrificial love of Christ Himself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, welcome. It's good to be with you. My name is Pastor Michael. If I haven't had the chance to meet you, I would love to after the service. I have been gone for about six weeks, and so it's it's good to be back. Um I think most of you probably know my wife and I had a baby, and I thought I would give you the gift of a picture. Um there's James. Yeah. So yeah. Uh but no, everybody's doing well. James is healthy, Hannah's healthy. Thank you so much for all the prayers. Uh, feel very, very blessed. Um, and it's good to be here with you all this morning and to be back. And I've heard that things are going really well, so I'm glad to be with you. Um we have been in a series on Romans since we really started as a church in January, but before we quite get to that, if this is your first or second time, uh we do have little connect cards. I would ask at the end of the service if you would fill that out and turn it in. I really I mean it when I say I would love to connect with you and get to know you a little bit. There's also space on the back of that card. Um I pray through those each week. So if you would like me to be praying for something going on in your life, I'd love to be praying for you. Um so you can put that on the back of the cards, and Eric and I will be praying for you guys. But but we've been in Romans, and last week Rich preached, and he uh I believe finished up chapter 8 in Romans, and so we're gonna continue on in chapter 9, which is what follows. Um, and so that's great, and it's it's fun to be back here preaching. Um it was weird this week. This is the first time I've juggled being a dad and preparing a sermon at the same time, and so we'll see how it goes. Um so yeah, it's it's fun though, and and right off the bat, I also want to just say, you know, Romans is like a a dense book of the Bible. Um it's it's not for the light-hearted, and and for many people, Romans sort of feels like it ends after chapter 8, like we've gotten through the good stuff, and then you know, we have a couple more messages, and then our pastor will announce we're in a different book of the Bible, right? And so that would be how a lot of us approach Romans, and but we're actually we're actually only about two-thirds of the way through. There is quite a bit more of Romans, and we're in a section that, you know, from 9 to 11, chapters 9 to 11 is not the easiest section of the Bible to understand. Um for a lot of people, sections 9 through 11 doesn't really fit. Chapters 9 through 11 doesn't really fit. In fact, if you've been following along really carefully, you might have noticed, and especially if you use like NRSB or ESV version of the Bible, uh, from chapter 1, when Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, every sentence in Romans from that point on until today is followed by a but, a four, or a two. This has been one argument since January. I mean, we've we've spread it out over six months, but can you imagine getting it all at once? Like one long argument, and then it sort of cuts off. And today it's like we're turning over a new page and and Paul's gonna talk about something different. It is gonna fit in the whole book, but it it's gonna be something different. And as we look at chapters nine through eleven, every commentary, every preacher, everything you read about these chapters, you're gonna get a different take. And a lot of it is is very relevant for our world today. Because nine through eleven is about is about Israel. It's about Jews, it's about the people of God and whether they are still the people of God. That's particularly pertinent as we think about the nation of Israel today and what their status in the world is. And so we're gonna wrestle with these for six weeks or so as we're in 9 through 11. Um, Pastor Rich, actually, I believe in July, is gonna do like an after-service talk just about the nation of Israel, because that's uh something he's very passionate about and very knowledgeable about. Like, like what do we think of this modern-day country of Israel, and how does it fit in the story of the Bible and and what is God's big plan for human history? But today we're actually gonna start with just the the first five verses of chapter nine. Before we do that, though, I want to I want to tell you a story. Some of you have, I'm just curious, has anybody ever heard of David Brainerd? David Brainerd, got a few hands up, yeah. David Brainerd is a famous missionary. Uh he was a missionary in the United States in about, I think he was born in like 1716, so before we were even a nation. And David Brainerd lived a very difficult life. He died at the age of 29, but he went to Yale. He struggled with depression his whole life, but but he's kind of famous for being a missionary to Native Americans. And David Brainerd, he wrote, why he's famous, is he he wrote a journal that has since been published, the The Journals of David Brainerd. And these journals have inspired many of the most famous missionaries in human history. Jim Elliott credited it with turning his heart on fire for missions. Uh, William Carey, who went to India, credited these journals for turning his heart on fire for missions. And David Brainerd was a fascinating guy. I know a lot of us when we think of mission trips, we think of like a one-week stay in another country where you know we do a couple of days of evangelism and then a couple of days where we you know pour and see the sights, and then we come back and we show all of our pictures to the church, and we think of missions in maybe this romantic way. But but David Brainerd, he was a missionary all by himself on a horse in the wilderness of North America, riding on horse to different tribes to share the gospel. He would ride in sickness and in health, find these remote tribes, and with a translator, he would he would share the gospel with them. He would tell stories about how when he would get there and share, some of the tribes would chase them off and try to kill him. Others would listen and seemingly nothing would happen. And he also tells amazing stories of revival. In his journal, he talks about going to New Jersey to the Delaware Indians, and as he's sharing the gospel, seemingly nothing happens, but his soul is just burdened for them. And so he goes and he camps out by a nearby tree, and he he vows, I'm gonna stay here and pray for their souls until there's breakthrough. And he prays night after night after night, and and finally this entire tribe ends up coming to the Lord. He has these warriors weeping over their sin. And God, he he broke in. This was a man who carried a burden and a passion for people. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 29, and partly because of how he lived his life, he was, like as Paul said, a drink offering just poured out. Why don't you think for a second? Can you imagine caring about other people that much? Like caring for their souls that much? Have you ever been concerned for somebody else's salvation? Have you ever been like so bothered, so agonized, so concerned for somebody else's salvation that you couldn't sleep? We kind of we live in a culture that is very pluralistic both in our democracy, but also sometimes in our in our theology. We we often don't think that it's it's our place to to be burdened by the choices of others. You know, a lot of the echo of our individualism is is an echo of of Cain and Genesis. You ask God, am I my brother's keeper? Like, shouldn't I do my life and they do their life, and as long as we don't hurt each other, everything's fine. Am I really my brother's keeper? Am I really my brother's spiritual keeper? Should I be burdened for the salvation of other people? Should I should I carry that in my chest? We're gonna come to some of the most shocking verses in Romans today. We're gonna be in chapter 9. Let's pray, then we'll get right into the text. Lord, we welcome your presence.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Help us to feel about other people, how you feel. I'm only third. I'm only third. Arrange your priority. Rearrange what is important to us by cutting out with your word. We welcome you and we welcome your word. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

This is the Apostle Paul writing in verse 1 of chapter 9. I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience will confirm this by the Holy Spirit. I'm filled with great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, to them belong adoption, the glory, the covenant, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchy, and from them according to the flesh comes the Messiah, whose overall God blessed forever. Amen. I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit. I am filled with great sorrow, unceasing anguish in my heart. If I could I would wish that I myself be accursed and cut off from Christ, if only for their sake, the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory and the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all. God bless forever. Paul is is turning the page and he's he's talking about his people. And just a tad bit of review so we we get what he's saying. He's he's built up, he's climbed this mountain that we just reached last week in chapter 8. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. It's a beautiful expose on the gospel, and he's in ecstasy. It's probably one of the most beautiful chapters in the entire Bible. If you were going to memorize a chapter of the Bible, I'd probably say, memorize Romans chapter 8. It's got it all. It's beautiful. And from that mountaintop, you would think we would go somewhere even more glorious, but instead he goes from the mountaintop all the way down to the valley. He expounds on the beauty of the gospel, and then he says, I'm an unceasing anguish for my people, for my kinsmen.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

He wants to explain. He doesn't want to leave out his people.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

This is this is interesting, and I think in order to understand why this fits in, we have to understand a little bit about who he's talking to. If you remember, this is a letter that would have been read in house churches in Rome. There would have been Jews there, and there would have been early believers, Gentile Christians, and all of them would have been trying to learn and follow Jesus together. And for eight chapters, Paul has been building the case that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. In fact, most of the Jews, their number one complaint against Paul was that he was somehow anti-Semitic. That somehow Paul was denigrating the Jewish faith. I mean, maybe you remember in chapter 7 he said things like, the law is powerless, the Torah doesn't lead to life. It actually makes our sin compounded even more. He says in chapter 3, you might remember that the Jews are just as guilty as the Gentiles. Maybe you remember in chapter 2 where he lists all the sins that the Gentiles were doing, and he says to the Jews, You do them too. You're not any better. You might say in the beginning of Romans, he's equalizing the religious camp and the not religious camp to make the case that we all need the gospel. And the Jews, they're hearing this and they're thinking, Aren't we the special people of God? Aren't we the special privileged people? And in chapter 3, he already gave us a hint of what he's going to expound on in chapters 9 through 11 when he says, you are special. And does anybody remember the reason he gave for why the Jews were special? He said, It's because you've been entrusted the living oracles of God. He says, You're special because you have the scriptures. And we talked about what a beautiful benefit it is to have the Bible, one that we so often take for advantage. I met a guy in Yemen once who walked 120 miles for a copy of the Gospel of Mark. 120 mile walk. So he could have his Bible reading done. Right? We are privileged to have uncensored internet, Bibles in every bookstore. But he's saying it's a privilege to have that. And here in chapter 9, if you noticed, he, and I'll go through them in a minute, he gives more privileges that the Jews have. He says that they had the prophets. He says that they were adopted or chosen as the people of God, that they had the covenants, they had the law, they had the worship and the sacrificial system, they had the promises, and they had the Messiah. Hear what he's saying. He's saying, you know what? I do have a special place in my heart for the Jews. And when we get into chapter 11, he's going to expound on the thought that God still cares particularly about the Jews. He's saying, look, look, it's it's not what you think. Yes, Jew and Gentile both need the gospel, but I'm not against the Jews. I carry a special burden in my heart for them. So much of church history is filled with anti-Semitic moment. The church has often been the leading driver in the persecution of Jews. And often Paul has actually been used as as a tool to lead the way. And I think if if there was any passage in the Bible that would keep us from having the wrong posture towards Jews, it would be this passage. Did you hear the heart of the apostle?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

I would be cut off from Christ if they could be saved. What a sentiment.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

See, before we get the theology of Romans 9 through 11 right, we have to get the heart of Romans 9 through 11 right. And the heart is, I would do anything for them to know Jesus, for them to experience what I've experienced. And so we're just going to go through some observations of this text this morning, and we're going to look at Paul's heart and we're going to ask the question: what does it mean to be concerned for the heart or the soul of other people? And so the first observation I want to offer is just Paul's posture towards the Jews. His posture towards the Jews. These were people that had been trying to kill him in every city he went to. These were people that were frustrating to Paul, maddening. I don't know if any of you have a maddening person in your life, but the Jews were maddening to Paul. They were so stubborn. In other places he writes, they're blinded, and it's so easy when people are stubborn around us to not be patient with them. To not soften, but to harden towards them.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I think it's fascinating that Paul's heart is soft, that his heart is tender, that he wants to pursue them more and more.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

I wonder in your life, are there people that are frustrating, people that are blinded, people that are stubborn, that are stuck in their ways, and I wonder, is your heart over time getting more tender towards them or more annoyed and bitter with them? See, if we want to be effective missionaries like Paul, if we want to reach people with the gospel, our heart has to get more and more tender towards them. Paul is, he's echoing Jesus here, and he's echoing Moses here. Moses once prayed, blot me out of the book of life if the people I'm leading don't get to go. Jesus once prayed and demonstrated on the cross his forgiveness for his enemies. What he's saying at the heart of Moses and Jesus, and now Paul is, that there's a posture that precedes any mission work. And it's the posture of tenderness. It's the posture of a person who cares, who carries a certain kind of anguish. There's a man named Edward Kimball, some of you have heard of his name. Edward Kimball lived a relatively normal life. He was middle class, he was a Sunday school teacher at his church. One of the things that happened over decades of teaching Sunday school is the Lord would give him a burden for different students he had in Sunday school. In one particular student who was a stubborn, annoying kid in the classroom, uh, he just had this burden for him over and over and over. He'd pray for this kid for a number of years. Finally, he felt like the Lord, this guy was a young adult now, invited him to go and share the gospel again with this kid at his job. He was working in a shoe shop. And he didn't want to do it. He's like, this kid has been in my Sunday school class for years. He's heard the preacher preach the gospel. The last thing he needs is to hear it again, Lord, but he couldn't get away from the nagging feeling, so he went. And he shared the gospel again. And the kid got saved. He got saved. He was shocked. Edward Kimball said, I couldn't believe it. But this time something broke, and the prayers, they were all answered. And Dwight L. Moody came to faith. And Dwight L. Moody caught on fire for the Lord and carried an anguish for others and led an incredible ministry because of one man's persistence, his burden for other people. We are we're called to have a posture towards the other. Can I ask you this morning?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Are the people in your life fit, are your heart is your heart warm towards them? Is there a growing tenderness? Do you ever think about other people's spiritual destinies? Do you ever think in your soul about what it's like to be them?

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Do you ever anticipate their objections to faith and try to build bridges around them? Do you ever serve and love people until you've earned the right to be heard by people? Do you care for other people?

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Notice his heart.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Second observation. Notice who he felt this way towards. I mentioned that they were his enemy, but he felt this way towards people who had privilege. These were the people that had the Bible. These were the people that should have known better. These were the people that had the scriptures. These were the people that grew up in church. He's burdened with an anguish for these people that are religious but don't have the gospel. For these people that should know better. His heart is burdened for these people that carry privilege. In this text, he's talking about spiritual privilege, but we we might call it any kind of privilege. He's seeing through what on the outside seems like riches. It seems like there's these spiritual riches, and he's seeing through to the poverty. We actually see the same thing in the Apostle Paul's life when he's praying about going to Macedonia. Some of you know this story in the book of Acts. Paul wants to share the gospel. He wants to go to Macedonia, but he's he's waiting. He feels like the Spirit is blocking him. And Paul wants to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He knows that missions work is a response to a missionary God. It's not us pioneering and dragging God along, but it's us seeing what the Father is doing and joining in. And so he wants to go there and he's waiting on the Holy Spirit, and finally he gets a vision. And in the vision, he sees a man from Macedonia. And the man from Macedonia is begging. Now, this is an incredible juxtaposition. This is like a weird vision. Macedonia was the wealthiest part of the Roman Empire. These are fancy people. They had unique clothes. These are the cultural elite where Alexander the Great was from. And the word for begging literally means like on their knees crying out, screaming, help me.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

What a picture.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

The wealthiest people down on their knees begging like the most desperate beggars, saying, Help us, we don't have the gospel. And in an instant, Paul saw through the facade. He saw that people a week ago who we would say they have it all together and they're okay. He saw spiritually they're bankrupt. They're desperate. Their privilege means nothing. They're blind. They're empty inside. And when he has that vision, then he can go with a new heart.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Do you see through what people show you on the outside?

SPEAKER_00 24:06

That person you get coffee from that smiles and puts a smiley face in your cup, do you ever see through it?

SPEAKER_01 24:16

The person who is your neighbor that seems like they're just living their life and happy. Have you ever seen the pain they're hiding?

SPEAKER_00 24:28

See, Paul, he's he's seeing through the privilege of the Jews. Others would have said they have everything they need. They're fine. Why go to them? Why carry a burden for them? And Paul, he's like, I would give up all that I have for them. I'm desperate for them because I see who they really are. If we want to care for other people, it it begins by seeing.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Seeing with the eyes of Christ. Other people in your life co-workers, family members. But the truth of the matter is that you have been content with not really looking.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

You are content with they're okay on the surface. And I don't really want to know their problems deeper. You're okay with I asked them how they're doing, and they said they're fine.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

And I couldn't be bothered to say, How are you doing really?

SPEAKER_00 25:35

And making space for the pseudo-counseling session that would follow where they dump all their stuff on you. Have you ever prayed, God, show me my neighbor how you see them? You might just see a rich person on the ground begging, screaming for help. You might just see that family in the call de sac that nobody talks to. You might just see them desperately pleading, would somebody be my friend? You might just see the coworker who, in your mind, has just been on an upward ascension up the ladder and they have it all together and they're great at golf. You might just see them completely different if the Lord lent you his eyes. Paul's heart of anguish comes because of how he sees his brothers and his sisters. Third observation: just the benefits of this burning heart. What are the benefits of carrying this anguish for others? One of the benefits I think we see right away is it makes Paul Christ-like. It makes Paul Christ-like. Now, for many of us, when we think of becoming like Jesus, we think of the bad list, the things we do that we know we shouldn't do, and we think if I just knock out some of my bad habits and replace them with good habits, I'll be more like Jesus. We have a sort of behavior modification for system, and we think that primarily we become like Jesus through doing certain things and stopping certain things. But the reality is we become more like Jesus when we get more of Jesus' heart. And here we see that by caring about other people, Paul's actually getting closer and closer to Jesus' heart. Notice how close he gets. In the actual Greek, he says, I wish that I could give my life up for them. Who is the only one who could give his life up for them? Jesus. He's like inching closer and closer to the sacrificial heart of God. See, when we begin to see others different and care for others different and get a godly anguish for them, we actually begin to become more like Jesus. If you want to be less selfish, I would encourage you, it's not about knocking out a few selfish habits in your life. If you want to become a less selfish person, start getting a burdened heart for somebody else. Start caring about their salvation to the point where you can say with Paul, it's like an unceasing anguish that I carry. See, if you want to get to the place where you're not in a church with constant bitterness and divide, get focused on the loss. See, there's not much church division when everybody is burdened for the souls of others. We have church division when we get off mission. We have church division when we start focusing all the secondary doctrines because we've stopped focusing on our neighbors. If you want to overcome the disunity, get a burden and a fire for other souls, carry a passion for other people.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

If you want to live a life of meaning, a life that's not filled with petty things, yet a burden for other people.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

See the result of an anguished heart, a burning heart, is a heart that is closer to the sacrificial heart of God, a heart that is focused and not distracted by petty things, a heart that is undivided, and a heart that is pursuing significance. Paul in Philippians describes the church that he planted as people hanging around his neck with a reference to jewelry. I've been told by a reliable source that I ought to buy my wife a a gift for having provided us a baby. And the gift that she wants is a necklace that'll have like a birthstone for each of the kids that we hopefully have at least have one stone, and and those stones around her neck, they're they're representative, and she is the reliable source. And yeah. Um some of you that was like, yeah, it was her. It was her. Um and I'm smart enough to comply. So yeah, she wants to carry the kids, their birthstones, around her neck. And Paul uses similar imagery. He's telling the the church in Philippi, I've got you like jewelry around my neck. Like this is the real treasure. This is the real significance of life. The jewels we get in heaven aren't actually jewels. It's not a jewelry shop. The jewels in our crown in heaven are people, their names. Who are you carrying around your neck? That is your purpose in the kingdom. Who is there because of you? Who have you been burdened for? Who have you prayed for and prayed for and prayed for and visited them in their place of work, visited them at their home. Who do you care in unceasing anguish for? What you anguish for will be your treasure. And if you live the Christian life just filling pews until you die, you will have no treasure in heaven. Jesus was very, very clear about that. There will be people, he says, who walk through the fires of heaven and they're gonna make it with nothing but themselves. And there's others that labor with work that will last.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

And the work from earth that will last up there is people work. It's human, it's your neighbor. Do you view the people in your life as potential treasure? Is your neighbor a potential treasure? Is your coworker a potential treasure?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Is that family member that nobody wants to talk to because they're so frustrating and annoying? They should have had counseling decades ago, but they skipped it.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Is that person treasured to you? Somebody worth anguishing over. We are called to have burning hearts.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

The last observation I want to make is that this is how the church grows. Notice again what he says. For the sake of my own people, my kindred, I wish that I myself would be cut off. Who's he talking about? He's talking about his people. We all have our people. And it's always been true that the church has had people called out to cross cultural boundaries and to go to other people. There's always been people called out. I remember when I was in college experiencing the call of God to go to the Middle East. There's always people that are called out to go across boundaries, but most of us, our task is not to cross international borders all the time and to live somewhere else. Most of us were called to carry a burden for our kindred, for our people. At first, we can define this as maybe our nuclear family. We can define like the people around us, like who do I work with, who do I live next to, who is in my biological family, and those are the people that we carry an anguish towards and with. And if you look at church history overwhelmingly, this is how people come to faith and how the church grows. First, probably the number one way the church has always grown is parents leading their kids to Christ. Parents leading their kids to Christ, raising them up to follow Jesus. Without a doubt, if you want to find the fastest growing religions in the world today, the most significant indicator is birth rate. Because it's way easier to raise up your kids to be followers of Jesus than it is to travel overseas, learn a foreign language, convince somebody with a completely different worldview to follow Jesus. Now there are people called to do that, but we all are called to start with our kindred, our people. The people in our neighborhoods. This is how the church actually explodes and grows. There's a famous woman in church history, her name is Monica. Some of you already know her, Saint Monica. She was a mother, and she prayed for 17 years for her son. Seventeen long years. At one point her bishop said to her, I don't know if it was a prophetic word or if it was just him trying to comfort, he said to her, anybody who gets prayed for for this long with this many many tears certainly will be saved. And like eight years later it proved true. And her son, Saint Augustine, got saved. And he credits in his devotional confessions, he credits the prayers of his mom for his salvation. How could I not be saved if for 17 long years she wept over me? And he challenges us to ask, who are we weeping over? The church, it grows when we catch this heart for our kindred.

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And of course, we want the gospel to go beyond our people. But it certainly has to come to our people. Do you carry a burden for your people? Maybe it's for your generation. Do you carry a burden for them?

SPEAKER_00 36:00

John Knox, the famous founder of the Presbyterian Church, he was a reformer in Scotland. He prayed a very famous prayer. He prayed to God, give me Scotland or take my life. And he's prayed that numerous times. Actually, Mary of the Scott, Mary of Scott, she actually said, I fear John Knox's prayers more than all the armies of Europe. And she was right, because he did end up taking Scotland. So she was wise to fear his prayers. And Scotland came to Christ. But he carried a burden for his people. See if you want your life to be significant, to be bigger than you, to be bigger than a 30-year career, and some family reunions and a few good hobbies. Carry a burden for something. A burden for your people. Paul here, he's saying, These are my people. And for eight chapters, he's saying they've got it all wrong. And now he's saying, I still won't let go of them. I'm going to hold them by the neck. I would rather be cut off from Christ than let go of them. I'm going to see through until they are saved. I won't let up. This persistence, this anguish. And he says in faith, we'll get to in a month or two in chapter 11. He says in faith, and in the end they will be saved. My prayers will be answered. He's got that much confidence that the people of Israel will come back to Christ. He has a heart that's burdened, a heart that carries anguish, a life that's bigger than his own.

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Who are you carrying? Who do you care about this morning? Is it possible that us as a church will only go and make a difference in the kingdom to the degree that our hearts burn for others?

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Charles Spurgeon once said, A church on fire is a church warmed up, not to the boiling temperature, but to the blood temperature, the blood of Jesus temperature, the temperature of sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

I would do anything for them to be safe. Do you carry that burden for your city? For your neighbors, for your family, for your place of work, for New Albany. It takes an anguished heart. It takes an anguished heart. Or are we cold? Are we focused on just our lives making it?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

You know, four weeks into fatherhood, I've never been more tempted to just be focused on my life and making it. It seems like everything right now, and and being out in the real world with you this morning is wonderful. And it's this reminder. It's this reminder that there's more. Right? And to a less dramatic degree, we all face that temptation to make our lives about our own little things. Christianity took over the Roman Empire because Paul's heart got transmitted into Paul's churches. Paul's churches became evangelistic hubs around the Roman Empire until the Empire finally tilted, tilted, tilted, and fell in this Christian direction.

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Why? Because people were caught in Paul's heart. They caught his anguish. They caught his missionary zeal. We as a church have to be defined by this passion, by this anguish.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

It has to be said of us that we care about North Central Ohio with an unceasing anguish, to the point where we might even say, Let our church be cut off if they find him.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

If we care that much, if we burn that much, then we will see God do incredible things. We will see what God wants us to do, whatever happen here as in heaven. And in our own lives, when you begin to burn, everything changes.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

I wish I could shake every hand today, look you in the eye, and say that. Because it is so, so true. When you begin to burn for others, everything in your life will change. Spirituality is not sin management, it's not church attendance, it's not Bible knowledge, it's not theology degrees, it's not listening to good preaching, it's not your favorite song. If you want to grow in your faith, burn for somebody else. Set your life on fire, and people will come watch you burn. Burn for something. Don't be cold, don't be lukewarm, burn for something. Burn for somebody. And if you're here this morning and you don't burn, ask God and don't stop asking until you feel the tiniest bit of Paul's unceasing anguish. Because the unceasing anguish of Paul is what our Father in heaven feels towards us.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

That's what he feels towards you who are far from him this morning. He feels anguish for you. That's right. Lord, we thank you. We thank you. That other people cared. That other people followed a call. That other people sacrificed and obeyed. That we might be saved. We confess that our lukewarm hearts. We confess our distracted spirit. We confess the thing that entangles us and keeps us from running. Have mercy, O God. Have mercy, O God. And give us your heart. Give this terror to your heart. Give this fear to your heart. For Pete. For New Albany, for Johnstown, for Granville, for Betascala, for Blackwick, for Gehanna, for Westerville.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Give us your heart. Give us how you feel. Let us see what you see when you look at our small corner of the world. Give us unceasing anguish.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

I pray for people here in this room to even have sleepless nights of prayer for people around them. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy. Set us on fire. In Jesus' name. Amen.