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Living a Love-Filled Life, Part II
Romans 15

• We are looking at a continuation of Romans, chapters 13 and 14, in which Paul is talking about how the church should live with each other.

• Even though there were huge differences culturally and even religiously in the Roman church, Paul is saying that this is how we should walk, in love.

• This is what living a love filled life looks like, acts like, and treats others like.

Vs. 1-2
• We are to bear the struggles of the weak and lovingly understand them, not judge them.

• A weaker brother may be judgmental because you have freedom and are watching the Super Bowl, and in his zeal, he can’t watch it, but you must be sensitive to his heart.

• Are you willing to take up your cross and love your neighbor for his good?

o To live with love for your neighbor takes a work of the Holy Spirit.

o It takes more Holy Spirit to take out the garbage than to speak in tongues.

o It takes more Holy Spirit to make a meal for someone or to invite someone over for dinner and love on them, than to lift our hands in worship.

• Living your life on behalf of others is a sign of maturity!

Vs. 3
• Jesus lived His life with an attitude saying to the reproaches that were leveled against God, “let them fall upon Me.”

• He lived His life for the benefit of others.

Vs. 4-6
• You can’t live a love filled life without saturating yourself in God’s Word.

• Paul was referring to the Old Testament, in this context, but this means all of the scriptures to us today.  The Old and New Testaments were written for:

• Learning-that we would learn what is right and wrong; what is righteous and unrighteous.

• Patience-that as we apply what God is saying to us, we would learn patience.  This is not easy stuff.

• Comfort-that as we learn and walk life out in patience, God will grant us comfort because this is the life we were called to live.  “A soft answer turns away wrath,” where do you read this?  Not in any self help book, only in the Bible!

• Like minded-The scriptures would give us unity as we live this life of love, one mind, one mouth, one heart!

Glorifying God, with our thinking, our speaking, and our living!

• This is the life that is love filled.  This is the point - Love!  This is the way Jesus lived His life; He is our example and model.

• Ex.  It is easy to look at each other and have a meter of measurement, but Jesus is our model, not each other.

Vs. 7-8
• Jesus came to bear the promises of the Old Testament, as a minister to confirm all the promises made beforehand.

Vs. 9-13
• Now there is a Jewish contingent that feels these Gentiles shouldn’t be in the church, and Paul is quoting the scriptures saying that the Lord has had a plan for the Gentiles for generations past.

• Ex.  You know the news; you know the upcoming election.  I have been following the news and politics for over 35 years and the promises all sound exactly the same: lower taxes, help the poor and middle class, peace in the world.  There is no hope in the United Nations, or even in our presidential elections; our hope is in Christ!  I have hope in THE HOPE!

• I have hope in The Hope, the God of Hope!

• Vote, be involved in the process, but ask yourself, where is your ultimate hope?

• Is it in making a million dollars?

• Retiring in Florida and playing golf?

• What is it?

• Don’t know if it will happen for you, but my hope is in The Hope!

• Ex.  The doctor will one day say “you’re terminal,” and guess what? You are never terminal!  You are always eternal.

• “…in believing” you must believe it folks!

• “…by the power of the Holy Spirit” this power is dunamis, where we get the word dynamite!

• You can’t live a love filled life without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

• This is the power baptism!  You are baptized into the Body of Christ when you get saved, but this is the Power Baptism.

• Filling of the Spirit is not about you getting more of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit getting more of you!

• It is filling up again and again.  In Acts 2 they get filled, in Acts 3 refilled, and in Acts 4 refilled.

• I love refills. How about you? I like free refills.

• Ex. D.L. Moody was talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Someone asked him why, since you are already filled with the Spirit and he said, “Because I leak.”

• You must be filled with power of the Spirit to be witnesses!!

• The Corinthians said they were filled with the Holy Spirit and all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested and yet they were suing each other, drunk at communion, and involved in incest and fornication!
 
• They were not witnesses!  They were not filled with the Spirit.

• Spiritual gifts are not the sign of being filled with the Spirit.

• It is when you are filled with power that is marked with holiness and a witness for Christ; that is the Spirit filled life.

• The steam is not in the engine to just blow the whistle, but to move the train.

• In Acts 8 they believed and the Holy Spirit came in.  In Acts 9 Paul waits for 3 days after being knocked down and he was then a believer, but on the 3rd day he got filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.

• “Be being” filled with the Spirit.

• In Acts 1 Jesus told them to “wait” for power, not go!  Wait for power!  The sign will be that they will become witnesses!

• The sign of the filling of the Holy Spirit is reproduction: Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria! 

• It’s not how much learning you have, or how many gifts you have.  It must be ignited by the Spirit!

• He is the God of hope.  Don’t be worried about our world or our family; be filled with the Spirit afresh.  He will give you hope in believing.  You will be reignited!!

• Pray, “God ignite these flames again!”  “I need a new filling of the Holy Spirit.”

• Read “They Found the Secret,” a compilation of the filling of the Spirit of the great men of God like DL Moody and others.

Vs. 14-15
• I know you know this, but there are a few points I want to bring up to you.

Vs. 16
• I am a servant of Christ and I am officiating the gospel of God by reaching the Gentiles.

• It is like Paul is saying, “This is my love offering to the Lord, that I might bring to the Lord the Gentiles.”

• Paul knows that he is called to the nations.  I do this with all of my heart!

• Ex. The Moravian missionaries that left to go to the leper colony, knowing that they would die said, “May the lamb that was slain receive our offering.”  Now that is love!

• Ex. As your pastor, I am offering up this church as an offering to the Lord.

Vs. 17-18
• In other words, “I’m not going to brag about what I have done, but what God has done through me.”

• Not just in word, but in deed, Paul made his lifestyle.  He lived his life in a glass house; everyone watched him.

Vs. 19-21
• Paul’s apostolic ministry is the “laying down of foundations.”

1 Corinthians 3:10-11
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

• Paul wasn’t a builder, but a foundation layer.  Then elders and pastors were laid down.

• We are called to reach out to the lost not steal sheep from other churches.

• Paul is laying down foundations; he is looking at Spain because no one has been there yet.

Vs. 22-25
• Paul will take a long detour to get there.  Clement of Rome tells us that Paul eventually made it to Spain (church history, not scripture).

• He hopes to stop in Spain and see them on his way.

Vs. 26
• Paul is saying that the believers in Jerusalem needed help now.

• In Acts 2 we see a very wealthy church, but by this point, they have become a very impoverished church.

• We observe that a great persecution came to the church in Jerusalem in Acts 7, and many of the people were scattered and much of the tithers and givers were driven out of Jerusalem and the church became impoverished.

• Then a great famine came.  The church in Jerusalem needs help and Paul wants to take money from the Gentile believers to help the Jewish believers.

Vs. 27-29
• He sounds so sure doesn’t he?  He will get there by way of prison, shipwreck and hunger!

• Now that encourages me.  Look at what Paul suffered.

• In Acts 15 it “seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us.”  We just don’t always know, and the same was true even for Paul.

• He has this internal witness in his spirit.  He just doesn’t know how it’s all going to happen.