Laboring With Those Who Are Laboring Also, AND LOVING IT! Romans 16:1-16 Description: ​ Encouraging others to join us in the joy of serving Jesus! BEGIN: Hey, up here. Good morning! It’s good to be with you this morning, even if it’s only digitally on the Big Screens! Most of you probably know that I tested positive for Covid a week or two ago and have been isolated at home for the past ten days or so. In fact, this is the first day that the Licking County Health Department says it’s ok for me to go out. But I did not want to risk playing it that close so I asked the elders and staff if I could speak remotely this morning. Which they all said was ok AS THEY ALL PULLED THEIR FACEMASKS UP A LITTLE MORE SECURELY AROUND THEIR FACES! Which is still a wise thing for us all to do this morning. For our own sakes, but also for the sake of our neighbors that we might not even know we might be infecting. But this morning I want to talk about brighter things. I want to talk about the joy of serving Jesus! We used to sing a song about that when I was young. “The joy of serving Jesus everyday!” ​ Joy because of... ➢ What we get to do! ➢ Who we get to do it for! ➢ And who we get to do it with! I. What We Get to Do! Remember being a kid and looking up at your mom, your dad, daydreaming of the day when you’d get to do all the stuff big people did? I remember going on service calls with my dad to fix tv’s in people’s homes. And I can’t tell you the number of times I was asked if I was going to be a tv repairman when I grew up like my dad. I was too timid to say so at the time, but I couldn’t wait to grow up and do “big people stuff” like my dad someday. I couldn’t wait until I could help ​ ​ people… ● at home ● at Church ● in the hospital ● at Church camp ● on the mission field ● up and down the creek ● into and out of the baptistry I couldn’t wait until I learned the Bible well enough to… AM090620 - 1 ● teach lessons, ● and give devotions ● and preach sermons! I kept blank paper in the back of my Bible so I could take notes during the sermon, always my favorite part of the Church service, after which I would run up to the pulpit and compare my notes to the preacher’s, and see how close my notes were to his! Why? Why did I do that? Because I couldn’t wait until I grew up, and I got to do some of that stuff all these others were doing. Especially considering... II. Who We Get to Do It For! You know, one of the Lord’s greatest workers who ever lived said… Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, AS FOR THE LORD and not for men, Colossians 3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. YOU ARE SERVING THE LORD CHRIST. It’s amazing, when you think about, Who it is that we get to serve! Not just WHAT we get to do, ​ ​ ​ ​ but WHO we get to do it for! ​ ​ Because it’s not as if He needs us to do anything for Him. But it’s such a privilege and honor to serve Him! Next week our LifeGroups are going to begin by looking at King David’s desire to build the Lord a temple, something the Lord never asked for. And yet, the Lord allowed King David to make preparations for such a thing, and the Lord allowed David’s son, King Solomon, to build such a thing, just the same. Why? Not because the Lord needed it, or that the Lord even wanted it, but because King David and King Solomon wanted to do something for the Lord. And the Lord let them! Think what the Lord allows us to do, for Him, not because He needs it, but because of the pure privilege and honor it is to do such things for Him! One commentator I read talked about all the ways God could have chosen to share this amazing gospel we get to share; how men and women can be forgiven through His Son’s death on the cross for their sins... He could have written it in the clouds or had the wind ring out the good news or use another aspect of His creation - but He chose us, His children, to carry the message and minister for Him. What a privilege! What a joy! AM090620 - 2 ➢ What we get to do! ➢ And Who we get to do it for! But folks, as great as those joys are-- there’s another joy that our text this morning speaks of. And that’s the joy of realizing... III. Who We get to Do It With! Before closing his letter to the Church at Rome the Apostle Paul mentions 28, 29, 30 individuals by name. Greek and Roman names that might sound strange to us, but names of individuals that had become great friends of Paul. Co-laborers with him! Names like… ● Epenetus ● Andronicus ● and Junia ● Ampliatus ● Urbanus ● Stachys ● Apelles ● Aristobulus ● Herodian ● The family of Narcissus ● Persis ● Asyncritus ● Phlegon ● Hermes ● Patrobas ● Hermas ● Philologus ● Julia ● Nereus ● Olympas ...and all the saints who are with them. Strange sounding names to us. Would have been strange sounding names to Saul of Tarsus, had he never seen the light, and come to Christ, on the Road to Damascus, and accepted the Lord’s call to go into all the world, especially the Greco-Roman part of the world, and preach Christ. Had Saul simply stayed home, and remained “a Hebrew of Hebrews”1 he would have never met these individuals. And he might ​ have stumbled over these Greco-Roman names as badly as I did this morning! But not now. Because now these were well known individuals to the apostle. “Partners in ​ crime” with Paul in preaching Christ around the Medeterranean world! Men, and women, Paul ​ met, and worked with, all over the world, who are now working in the Church at Rome as well. Individuals like… 1 Philippians 3:5 AM090620 - 3 ● Priscilla and Aquila. Close companions and co-workers with the Apostle Paul, ever since meeting their fellow tentmaker in Corinth. Where they opened their hearts, and their home, to the apostle of Christ.2 And followed him to Ephesus, where they continued to open up their Ephesian home for the cause of Christ. In his first letter back to the Corinthian Christians the Apostle Paul wrote… 1 Corinthians 16:19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. That’s what happens when you open your heart, and your home, to the service of Christ. You become close to a whole bunch of other servants of Christ. You become, friends. With men, and women, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE EVEN KNOWN had it not been for your ​ ​ passion to serve Christ crossing paths with theirs. That’s just who Priscilla and Aquila were. Friends! Of Paul! Co-laborers with an apostle of Christ! Laboring with those who were laboring also; AND LOVING IT! And Paul was happy to count Priscilla and Aquila as servants with him! ● That’s how Paul felt about Phoebe as well! Paul begins this whole section of greetings by saying… Romans 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, ​ Another friend of Paul! How did that happen? Through some mutual service in the cause of Christ. Somewhere along that journey-- their paths crossed! And think about this: Phoebe was the name of the Greek goddess who was grandmother to Apollo, the god of the sun, and grandmother to Artemis, goddess of the moon! That’s who Paul’s Phoebe was probably named after when she was born! Which means Paul’s Phoebe was probably born into a pagan family! It would have been surprising if she wasn’t. But somewhere along the way she was… ● introduced to Christ, ● gave her life to Christ, ● and gave her life to serving Christ... ...where her life crossed with Paul’s! As did virtually everyone on this list! That’s why they’re on this list. Because of their service to Christ, and because, somehow, their service to Christ, crossed with Paul’s! 2 Act 18:1 — Act 18:3 AM090620 - 4 ❖ Paul calls Priscilla and Aquila, “my fellow workers,” in v. 3. ​ ​ ❖ He says, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen,” in v. 7. And then he ​ ​ ​ adds, “They are well known to the apostles (not just to me, because of their ​ ​ service, but the other apostles as well), and they were in Christ before me!” ​ ❖ “Greet Urbanus,” Paul says in v. 9, “our fellow worker…” ​ ​ ● “Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa.” And “greet the ​ ​ beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.” I love those names “Tryphaena and Tryphosa.” Those names sound almost poetic the ​ ​ way they roll off the tongue. But what I like more is what those names mean! The name Tryphena means “dainty” and the name Tryphosa means “delicate.”3 “Dainty” and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ “Delicate,” those were two of the “work horses” in the Church at Rome! I love that! ​ ​ ​ And I’ve seen that! More times than I can count.