Who Matter In Life Series

Romans 16:1-27

Getting on the Same Page as God about Who Matters in Life

Introduction

A. A fun game to play is to ask people if their house was on fire and they could grab 3 things what would those three things would be

B. This is a good way to get to know people and get you will get to find out what matters in their life

C. If they do not take any of their clothes, clothes are probably not a priority in their life

D. If they take their TV their TV would matter a lot in their life

E. As we take a look at Chapter 16 we see a long list of people names

F. Interesting to note that in this chapter Paul personally greets at least 26 people by name

G. So we get to this part in the scripture and wonder why do we care? Why do we care about Paul saying hi to some of his friends

H. But these people that Paul mentions can teach us a lot about what matters in life

I. Just like we did a couple of years ago at Christmas with the genealogy list at the beginning of Matthew, we are going to look at this list and see what we can learn from it

J. Today we are going to see what matter in life by looking at:

a. Some Friends to Greet

b. Some Foes to Avoid

c. Some Faithful Servants to Honor

I. Some Friends to Greet

A. Explanation

1. The first person that Paul mentions is Pheobe

2. WE do not know that much about Pheobe,

a) We know that she was a member of the church at Cenchrea

b) Pheobe was on her way to visit Rome, being that the Postal system is not what it is today, it was common to find someone to hand deliver a letter

c) Pheobe, is called a servant. The original Greek here is feminine so some people translated it Deaconess.

d) Paul is not worried about what office she serves in, what he is trying to stress is that she does serve, she does have a huge heart and she is involved in Ministry and she is a women

3. In the book of Acts we here about Priscilla and Aquila. We do not know that whole story but we know that they risk their lives for Paul. We should be grateful for that

4. He also mentions Epenetus because he was the first convert in Asia, always something special about that first convert

5. Also Paul mentions Adnronicus and Junias, and you might wonder why that is but I am sure they spent a lot of time together in prison and became good friends

a) Now you notice when Paul mentions Andonicus and Junias, that he calls them apostles, that is not necessarily a position or an office but rather the more broad meaning of messenger

B. Application

1. Now, what can we gain form this entire list?

2. This list shows the parts other people played in Paul Ministry

3. To think that Paul was able to do this by himself is ridiculous

4. Paul had all of these people on his support team

5. Also keep in mind who all is on that list

6. There were women, women who Paul said were ministering

7. I do not know where we got this idea that Women are not allow to minister, Paul clearly let them do some major tasks, why should we be any different?

8. Paul takes the opportunity to give thanks to these people

9. It is good to do the same, just to tell them thanks for their service

C. Illustration

1. When I found out who my missionary speaker at Edinboro was I started dancing. It was Coral Trinidad. Coral you may remember was living in a RV at Edinboro for a while after health problems made them unable to return to Mali Africa

2. Coral was far more then the missionary speaker, we affectingly gave her the title as Camp Mom. Being a licensed Counselor, she was constantly counseling with kids and my staff.

3. She was such a great help, so I told her she was such a great help

4. She told me I was a real encouraging, that encouraged me so I told her she was a great help, well that encouraged her she kept on ministering…

5. Bottom line, Lives were changed!

6. By taking the opportunity to say thank and to encourage one another my staff was able to see God do amazing things.

7. If we would spend as much time encouraging someone as we do putting each other down, think what would happen

8. If we would spend as much time encouraging someone as we do trying to figure out why they can not do the job think about what would happen