Guard the Unity, Open the Door: How Romans Ends

Transcript lightly edited for readability. Bracketed words are editorial.

Well, good morning. Let me see if I can get this over here without messing up the communion table and creating a viral video. So we are all good. How good it is to be here with you guys today. So grateful for your pastor and his friendship. I've known him for several years and he has been kind and gracious to allow me to get to know you a couple of times. And that is a very special treat indeed. Matter of fact, I was thinking on the way over here because I had such a long drive. I've known you for a few years. And folks, I don't have a big circle.

I'm not super connected. I've been Mustang a while. But I want you to know just for your sake. Every once in a while I'll hear a conversation. And refuge church comes up. And you are always spoken of highly. Your reputation in our community, your work, the things that you do, you are making a difference, folks. Thank you. Thank you for faithfulness. Thank you for the congregation that you are. And thank you for your patience as we share. And I have the privilege today. I believe it just kind of winding up this amazing book of Romans, of kind of landing the planes, so to speak. And we'll see if there's anyone who can walk away from the plane after it lands.

We'll get that just a little bit. We're in Romans chapter 16. We're going to go ahead and begin in verse 17 today. I had the chapter of 16, the very last chapter of the book. And you know, rather than going ahead and preaching through every single verse in it, I thought maybe we could just kind of look at a little bit of a tag that kind of encapsulates the whole idea of what he's trying to do. And that certainly is found there. We begin in verse 17. Bible talks about us being fearfully and wonderfully made. I love that phrase. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We're not an accident.

We're not just something that came along, but rather God in his amazing fearsome power. He made us who we are. He designed us and he has given us so very many things. This machine, this flesh and blood machine that he's given us is truly an amazing miracle, the way that it works and things are going on. But for as great as God's design is, we know that we are susceptible. We know that as good as the body might be that there are those things called viruses. There are those things called accidents. There are those diseases that come along. And so we take care. We make sure that we try and do the things we're supposed to do.

Many of you in your cars today, you buckled your seatbelt. You went ahead and strapped in that child. You went ahead and made sure you weren't planning on having an accident, but just in case you took a measure for that. You were able to see that okay, something might happen, but we want to go ahead and make sure that everything goes along exactly what I suppose. That is what Paul is doing here in this, our little chapter here in Romans, this little passage of verse. He's saying, he's proud of the church. The church is doing good. He's just spent 16 verses ahead of time saying greet so and so.

Say hey to so and so. Make sure so and so knows that I love him. I mean a list over and over and over again. And then he ends that section with this phrase, greet each other with a holy kiss. I'm not sure what that looks like, but it sounds good doesn't it? It sounds like there is a fellowship there. It sounds like there are people who are getting along and doing good things. And so he comes in in the midst of a healthy good body and he says, but take caution. Be careful. Because the goodness that you have, you want to protect it. You want to make sure that it stays the way that it is supposed to be.

And you want to make sure that the enemy doesn't have even the slightest foothold in your body. Let's go ahead and look in Romans chapter 16. And let's go ahead and begin there in our verse 17. Okay. Romans 16 verse 17. Would you go ahead and stand with me? And it's on the honor system because I can't see whether you're standing or not. Okay. Between you and Jesus right now. Romans 16 verse 17. I urge you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.

By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience. So I'm full of joy over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Thank you. Maybe seated. Paul gives us just a few things and just give some highlights of the verse. Some things I know that we have communion in just a little bit. I'll reference that in the message once or twice. Just what a great opportunity for you today is you kind of end this study in this amazing book that God has given us.

But Paul understood that there were things that can disrupt the unity of the body. Things that can make a healthy body unhealthy. And he knows that they come from within and from without. And so he has words for this Roman church. And therefore, I think words for us that help us get to where we need to be. The first thing he says is guard yourself, be cautious, watch out for. In other words, there's something there you need to be aware of. Be sure and be careful. We understand in this wonderful season of football, there are things of offense and things of defense. And we know that the church of Jesus Christ has an offensive side to it.

It is on the move. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. We as a church, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are moving out of the world. The whole purpose of the book of Romans, one of the significant purposes of book of Romans, is because Paul is getting ready to go to a place the gospel has never been preached before. And he wants the Romans church to be a part of it. This idea of going out, we are on the move. We're offensive. But for every offense, there needs to be a good defense as well. To protect those people, to go ahead and keep the enemy from doing what the enemy wants to be able to do.

There is a defensive posture to our faith. Paul says that we need to be careful because there's an enemy there who would divide us. Have you ever seen them break apart a huge rock of granite? I mean, huge tons and tons and tons of that. And so something that stonemasons have been doing for centuries, millennia, I would say, what they do is they can take a saw, they can take the different things and break it down. But one real interesting way that they do it is they have this slab of concrete they want to split into. And so they drill just little holes in a line across the top of it.

Just little tiny things, nothing real big, nothing that's going to hurt the granite. The granite laughs at that big deal. And then they put, they're called feathers. They're two little iron, two little steel shims on either side of that in the hole. And they put a wedge in the middle of it. So you get the picture, you got a hole, you got a shim on either side, you got this wedge that's going in between. And it puts pressure on that. And there's, you know, every foot or so there's that. And then the stonemason takes the sledgehammer and he goes along to the first one and he doesn't slam hard.

He just gives it a tap. Just like that. It moves to the next one, another tap. The next one, another tap. And on down the line, tap, tap, tap, tap. He comes and he starts and then at that end, tap, tap, tap, tap, all the way back, tap, tap, tap. And as you're watching, you can see the cracks start to appear. It's just little tiny minuscule that's a pressure. But added up over time, eventually the tap, tap, tap, ceases. And the rock falls apart. Refuge church, you have an enemy. Sometimes the enemy comes with a big boom. Granted, sometimes you wake up in a whole new day and you got to deal with the crisis.

But I want you to know, we serve an enemy who's smarter than the boom. An enemy who comes to us one tap, tap, tap, at a time. Nothing big. A little bit of a disagreement, a little bit of a side word. Maybe just a glance, missing a little bit of an opportunity here, being a little bit late for a volunteer position over here. You know, just little things a little word shared in this part here. It doesn't take very many times of the tap, tap, tap before the enemy can create an entire crevice that splits the church apart. As having a few years in the pastorate behind me, I've experienced a lot of the booms.

There have been days you walk into the office and all of a sudden the day is far different than what you thought it was going to be. Those crisis things I've experienced. And yes, those are trying, but nothing suffers a pastor's heart more than hearing the tap, tap, tap within his congregation. Paul says, be careful, refuge church, be on guard. Because the enemy comes along and he would seek to somehow use the feathers and wedges of bitterness, of selfishness to take the church where he isn't supposed to go, a virus to infect the body. And then Paul gives a strategy. How do you handle those who might disrupt [unclear] of the church who might get the church off track and somehow divide the mission that the church is supposed to be about?

What's this great strategy? Well, he tells us at the end of verse 17, he says, avoid them. Don't have anything to do with them. The best way to protect your body in case of a virus is to keep the virus from entering the body to begin with. We remember those days, what, six years ago, when we were all facing questions of gloves and masks and school being in or out and whether we meet or not, and how do we greet one another? Can we shake hands? Do we shake elbows? How do we do it? Do we give just a thumbs up? Do we wear a sticker or yellow, green, red?

What do we do with it? We understand that horrific day that we went through. Paul says, have nothing to do with those who would disrupt you. Have nothing to do. He kind of identifies them. He talks about them of people of their own appetite. People have their own desires. People have their own things about them. They are smooth talkers. They got everything that sounds so good, but be careful about following them. Would you join me in understanding and just accepting and affirming the fact, we are inundated with information within our lives. I mean the things that appear on our screens and the things that come into our lives over and over and over again, we are in information overload almost from the moment we wake up.

And the enemy wants to use that. One of the true isms of life, never go grocery shopping when you're hungry. You're going to buy out the store if you do that. You're hungry today. You're hungry because you're living in a world that doesn't like you very much. A world that wants to make fun of your faith. You're living in a world that wants to pass laws and have practices and procedures and themes and entertainment that run counterintuitive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you are hungry for someone to come along and say, I've got the faith. I've got the proof. Here it is. And if you're not careful, even when they're proclaiming to be a person of truth, they still might be sharing a lie, warming their way in one tap at a time.

And Paul says, be on guard against them. Just because it appears good, don't be so hungry you fall for the bait. He says, be on guard. Avoid those who would come in and somehow disrupt you. Whether they govern in Congress, whether they are the writer of songs or books, whether in our culture, they make chicken sandwiches or whether they appear on reality TV show with beards and they shoot ducks. Be careful. We can give celebrity status. And in so doing, we give away the right to discern. Be cautious. That's why he's saying. Be wise. This idea of conflict coming in, Paul understood that. In Acts he said, be on guard for yourselves.

And for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. He's got a word to the shepherd, a word to the pastor. And what word is it? He says, know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and not spare the flock. And among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on alert. Remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I didn't cease to admonish each of you with tears. Don't be so hungry that you fall for the lie.

Paul comes back and he says, be careful. Avoid those with the wrong word. They'll disrupt the body. That is one of the amazing things that happens with communion. One of the things is the Lord gives us this symbol of our faith. We find out and remind ourselves just what it is that draws us here. Why'd you come this morning? One because of the speaker. I get that. Maybe you came because you liked the music. Maybe you came because you liked the fellowship. You got some friends. Maybe you came because you see things going on here that are good things. That's well and good. But when you take the cup, when you take that little piece of bread, you're reminding yourself of the one thing that gives refuge, church, meaning, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You remember that it's not about the music. It's not about the fellowship. It's not about the activities or the events. All those are well and good. But you remember that the primary thing that draws you together as a people of faith is that Jesus Christ paid the price for our failure for our sin when he broke his body, shed his blood on the cross, and then dead, laid in the tomb three days later, rose to life, walked out victorious over sin and death, rose to the heavens, and one day he's coming back. That's what refuge church is about. That's who you are. That's the message that you have that goes out to this entire world.

Guard yourselves because you have an enemy who would love to silence that message. He would love to get a church so wrapped up in internal struggles that they have no power, no resource, no energy to worry about those who are on the outside. And that is the message of Romans. That is the whole reason he wrote that. Look there in the next couple of verses. There's that little bit that's right there. He kind of has a game plan. He says, I've heard about your obedience. Obey. Obey. He says, as you move forward, as you continue to guard yourselves, as you continue to take on the mission, as you continue to be the people of God, I've called you to be.

I love the fact I rejoice in the fact that you are an obedient people. Let me ask you this, refuge. How can you obey what you don't know? Can I just get real personal with you and ask you a question? Do you have a quiet time? Do you have a time I'm guessing in the morning, some might have it at night, but I see it as a morning time. A time that you have dedicated to letting God's words speak to you. Time to pray and the time to listen. It doesn't sound like much does it? Brother Dave, I just don't. Yeah, I know that'd be a good thing.

And everyone's so hard to do, but I come to church and I listen. And that's great. I'm not arguing with coming to church. The friend, if the only time you're listening to Jesus is when you're sitting in the congregation, you're missing the point of your faith. Can I challenge you with this? 15 minutes. I'm not asking you to get up in the morning an hour early and have this really deep Bible study in this intense prayer time. 15 minutes. You're going to read a little bit in the Bible. You're going to pray and you're going to listen. You've got 15 minutes, don't you? I promise you, if you are faithful to those 15 minutes, they're not going to be enough and you're going to find the other time.

You've got to start somewhere. Friend, how can you be a people of obedience if you don't even know what he's saying? How he wants you to listen and apply it to your life today? What he wants to do today? 15 minutes, folks. He says obey. He says, be wise, discern, understand. He says, avoid. Be a people of innocence. Thank God for a gospel that allows us to be free of the weight of our failures. And then he has one sentence. And it's a great sentence. A sentence that I just sum up as says when. The very last thing he says is, being alert, remembering, that those things are going, I'm sorry.

He says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. I love that. The God of peace. I like that. That's easy. That's a wonderful picture. The God of peace. How great is that? The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. Do you hear that friend? This is the mission. Whatever it is, Satan has going on out there. He calls to mind the story in Genesis when he pronounces the punishment upon those who have fallen, those who have done wrong. And he talks about the fact that Satan will bruise the heel, but we will crush his head. We understand all that. The God of peace uses you to defeat the enemy.

And not just by a one last second time running out field goal kind of moment. We're talking about a crushing defeat that has no doubt who the victor is. That's what Paul is calling you to. That's what he's saying. Go out on mission and be the people that I've called you to be. Be careful. Don't let the enemy have any kind of foothold. Don't let the tap, tap, tap come into your fellowship and ping you to be the people you are and make a difference. And I think that's the message that he has for you today. I've debated about whether sharing the story or not. See, I like to tell stories.

Come from an honest long line of storytellers. Had an aunt who told me, Dave, never tell a good story. Well, you can tell a great story. Let me tell you a story. Listening to the radio. A little thing. I will just hear it once. I think it's on the radio. It was called Car Talk. A couple of guys were there. People have thrown in with car problems and they kind of diagnosed it over the phone. And it was the thing that made it interesting. I don't have the car stuff for me anyway. It was these guys were entertaining. They were kind of comedians. They would go a lot of banter back and forth.

This is an easy way to spend a little bit of time on a Saturday while you're driving something like that. I wouldn't even mention it except for this one caller. He called in and said, the guy that we asked him, I can't help you with today, he says, well, do you know anything about curses? I was kind of half listening up to that point, but he had my attention right then. And they said, well, do you know anything about the door mechanism or anything with them? And okay, you got to give us some context. And he said, okay, here's the story. All my life, ever since I could remember, I've always wanted to own a horse.

I love this guy right now. I mean, I'm I'm enthralled. I'm ready to listen. I've always wanted a horse. Finally, I was looking online. I saw this one. It was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lived like somewhere in Louisiana. I think something like that. He said, I called the guy. We talked about it. He sent me some pictures. He looked really good. I said, you know what? If it's what it looks like it is, I'll go ahead and fly in, come look at it. I'll drive it back if everything's supposed to be. And he said, okay. So he flies in, got everything ready. He goes out, looks at it.

It's everything he wanted. Price is good. Pays the price. Gets in the hearse and starts to drive it back to Louisiana. Everything's well and good. Well, he kind of gets down the road a ways and he thinks he's going go ahead and and have a little bit of a break. He had stopped at a convenience store to fill up with gas, got himself a sandwich and a Coke. And so he decides it's be a great time to kind of stretch his legs. It's been a long day already. So he goes ahead and he pulls at one of those rest stops along I-35 and he goes ahead and just kind of opens up the back door and sits down on the edge and has a little sandwich and Coke right there on a hearse in the middle of a rest stop of Oklahoma, okay?

A little literally tailgate party going on right there, party on one. Well, he got done with the sandwich and Coke. He wasn't quite ready to leave yet. And so, you know, I really didn't get back in it. So he just thought, I'm going to go going back in there and I'm going to go ahead and check out the rollers and the windows. So he goes back and he checks out all the little thing, all the little hardware, all the thing, the drapes and everything like that little window that opens up to the other side of things. All good. And just about that time, a big old Oklahoma gust comes up and closes the door.

And he says, and this is my problem question for you. Because what I found out as I went to open up the door, when they build hearses, they don't put handles on the inside. Why would they, right? He said, I tried everything I could think of rattling. Nothing was going to work. I thought maybe, you know, even went to the window that goes to the other side, tried to reach in. Nothing was going to work. I was trapped. I could not get out. What I'm asking is, is there a way that you could tell me that I could pretty easily install a handle on the inside of a hearse.

The hosts say this. They say, yes, we will talk about that in a moment. But you got to tell us, how do you get out? And he said, well, I just kind of sat there thinking I didn't want to break the window or anything like that. So I kind of pulled the drape aside and I saw a dad and his little girl walking hand in hand down the sidewalk and I tapped on the window. The dad looked at me and he goes, I know what's going through that dad's mind. Folks, I have seen that movie and whatever comes out of the back of a hearse is usually not good for the person opening the door.

He said that the man had grace. He laughed. He went to the door. He made sure his daughter was standing behind him and he opened up the door for me. And then they proceeded after much laughter. They proceeded to talk about the details of how to get a handle on a hearse. That story struck a chord with me. And it's a story I love to tell because I love the picture. But it didn't take much for me to apply that picture to my life because I remember a day when I was just a little guy and I wouldn't use these words. But the Bible says I was stuck in the back end of something that was meant for places of death.

And I couldn't get out. But because of the great love of my God, he provided a Savior who came and opened the door. And I'm free now because of that. And the only thing I have today is the mission to go out and find those who have yet to find the freedom that Christ offers them and take the risk and open the door. And that's the heart of it, folks. In an amazing that in a book where Paul says take a risk, be a living sacrifice, blessed are the feet who go. Go to those that whosoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Go. I'm going to Spain where nobody's ever been with a gospel. My heart is to go. I want you to go with me to help me, to resource me, to go out there. The whole book is about risk. The whole book is about being Jesus in lives of people who might not like Jesus very much. And then he says, be careful. The two go together. Be careful you don't get distracted. Be careful the enemy doesn't raise up things that silence your mouth. Instead guard your unity and risk everything. I don't know the days ahead for you. I don't know things that are taking place. I know great days are ahead.

God doesn't raise up this kind of congregation just to [unclear] on the vine. God has some great things ahead for you and your pastor. I'm excited to hear the story when it's written. Guard the unity that you're ready for the day to open up the door for somebody. Jesus thank you today. Remind us as we share.