I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn
to Romans chapter 15. About 11 years after the
writing of Romans from the city of Corinth, near
the conclusion of his third missionary journey,
the Apostle Paul sat alone in a dungeon, writing
a letter to his beloved son in the faith and
his partner in the ministry, Timothy. He knew
that his execution was at hand. Paul was not
afraid of that event as he contemplated it. In
fact, we have these words from his heart just
undoubtedly a few days or weeks before the executioner's
sword beheaded him, at least according to tradition.
I am already being poured out as a drink offering.
And the time of my departure has come, says the
Apostle. I have fought the good fight. I have
finished the course. I particularly like that
last phrase, I have finished the course, because
the Apostle Paul faced the end of his life contented
that he had completed his course. That is what
God had intended for him to accomplish in his
life. He did not face his execution with regret
that he might have done more, but he said, I
have finished my course. If you and I want to
die that way, then we must plan now to make it
so. Whatever it is that you may want to accomplish
in your life, you had better make plans now to
achieve that or you may come to a situation like
Paul faced with a different attitude. Our text
in Romans chapter 15 expresses to us why Paul
was able to say, 11 years after the writing of
these verses, what he did. He planned for his
future. And God, by his grace, allowed his plans
to be accomplished within his will. He says in
Romans 15 22, for this reason, I have often been
hindered from coming to you. But now with no
further place for me in these regions, and since
I have had for many years a longing to come to
you whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see
you in passing, and to be helped on my way there
by you, when I have first enjoyed your company
for a while. But now I am going to Jerusalem,
serving the Saints. For Macedonia and Achaia
have been pleased to make a contribution for
the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes,
they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted
to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their
spiritual things, they are indebted to minister
to them also in material things. Therefore, when
I have finished this, and have put my seal on
this fruit of theirs, I will go by way of you
to Spain. And I know that when I come to you,
I will come in the fullness of the blessing of
Christ. Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord
Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to
strive together with me in your prayers to God
for me. that I may be delivered from those who
are disobedient in Judea, and that my service
for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints,
so that I may come to you in joy by the will
of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. The
Apostle Paul wanted to visit Rome to meet these
people personally. And in the text he shares
his plans for the future with them. As we look
at Paul's words, I am reminded that planning
for our future is an important responsibility
that each of us has. Now I recognize that some
object to such a statement. and seem to say that
God calls us to live by faith. And yet I would
suggest to you that living by faith is not the
same thing as living haphazardly. There is nothing
particularly spiritual about poor preparation
or the lack of planning. The Apostle Paul planned
out his future. As he shares his heart with us,
we can glean insights from him to help us to
plan wisely in relation to the future that we
have. The first insight is found in verse 22,
where we are encouraged to realize that hindrances
are a part of life. Now we might wish it were
otherwise. But that doesn't change the fact.
We should keep in mind that hindrances are not
necessarily bad for us. After all, hindrances
can be stimulators of growth, can't they? The
chick, as it is hatching, is hindered by that
uncomfortable shell. And yet the process of getting
out of that shell is important for that chick's
growth in those early hours of its life. It needs
that stimulation from the shell, and therefore
it struggles with that hindrance until it is
free. And the same can be said for you and for
me. There are times when hindrances are stimulators
for our maturing and our growing. We need them.
Also, stimulators can be protectors. sent by
God. I suppose that a number of us today could
relate personal experiences when something hindered
us for example in our schedule so that we got
away from home later than we anticipated for
a trip only to find that down the road there
was an accident and had we been on time as we
had planned we might well have been involved
in a serious situation. Hindrances are not always
bad. Sometimes they are God's protectors for
us. In addition, hindrances can be indicators
that we are living the way that we should. Sometimes
hindrances come to us because of busy, productive
lives. which often complicate our plans. And
so sometimes hindrances are good in that they
are indicators that we are living up to our potential.
A person who has time to do anything he wants
without any hindrances is a person who probably
is not living up to his potential. So hindrances
are a part of life, and that's not necessarily
bad. It can be good. The sources of hindrances
vary. Satan can hinder us. In 1 Thessalonians
2, 18, Paul says exactly that, that he had wanted
to go see the Thessalonians, and yet Satan had
hindered him. He doesn't say how. In Daniel chapter
10, he prayed for a certain thing to occur. He
might have understanding. But the answer to that
prayer was delayed for three weeks. by satanic
hindrance. We must remember that we are, in fact,
in a spiritual warfare, and there are times when
Satan will directly intervene in our circumstances,
in our plans to hinder us. Hindrances can also
come from physical obstacles that may have nothing
to do with Satan. Illness, for example, is sometimes
a hindrance. how well I am aware of that this
morning. There are times when hindrances simply
are the result of physical situations that we
get into. We're not able to do what we would
like to do, what we would plan to do. And then
there are times when hindrances come, as in the
case of Paul here, because of the demands of
ministry. You see, what had hindered Paul at
this point was not Satan, nor was it illness
as much as we know, but rather what hindered
Paul was his busy ministry. He has explained
that his ministry has kept him occupied from
Jerusalem, 1400 miles to the northwest, to modern
-day Yugoslavia. And he says throughout that
whole region we have preached the gospel. and
he had done it quite successfully. It doesn't
mean he had been to every town. Paul's strategy
was to go to the large cities and then from there
to send out teams apparently to the smaller villages.
But he says very clearly in verse 23 that he
had no place any longer in that region where
he was, and at the time he was writing this,
he was in Corinth. The idea is that he had accomplished
what he had intended to accomplish there. Not
that everybody had been evangelized, every village
reached, but his purpose, according to his philosophy
of ministry, had been achieved. And therefore
he was looking on to other things. What had hindered
Paul here was the demand of his ministry. And
so, as you and I plan, as we should, Remember
this, that we will be hindered at times. And
those hindrances are a part of life. They are
not necessarily bad. But not only a part of life,
but we trust them also to be under the sovereign
hand of God. Turn back with me to Acts chapter
16 for a moment as we see an example I think
very clearly of what I'm saying. The Apostle
Paul was on his second missionary journey. He
had visited the churches that he had founded
in the region of Asia Minor on his first missionary
journey, and then took a turn to head back toward
the east on the south side of the Caspian Sea.
But in verse 6 it says, They passed through the
Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden
by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
And when they had come to Messia, they were trying
to go into Bithynia, working their way back toward
the east. And the Spirit of Jesus did not permit
them. And passing by Messia, they came down to
Troas. What's taken place here? No, we are not
told. Was it a group of people after Paul's life
that caused him to change directions? Was it...
some illness? Did the Lord appear to him in a
vision and say, don't go this way? We're not
told. All we know is that Paul had planned to
go back to the north and to the east and to the
innermost part of Asia, and God said to him in
some way no and hindered him. And whatever that
hindrance was, Paul said this is of God. He believed
that hindrances were under the sovereign hand
of God, and he went down where he had liberty
to go, to Troas, and from there God gave him
specific direction to go over into Europe. And
that's the direction that he went. So may I encourage
you, as you realize that hindrances are a part
of life, also realize that all of your hindrances
are a part of God's sovereign plan for you. None
of us gets to do everything that we want or plan
to do. That's life. Therefore, will you please
stop being frustrated in whatever circumstances
are confronting you today? And will you rather
relax by faith in the sovereignty of God in those
hindrances that seem to be mountain -like obstacles
before your plans on this Lord's Day? Realize
that hindrances are a part of life, but they
are under God's sovereign hand and direction.
Second insight that I see is in verses 23 to
28. As we plan for our futures, we need to keep
the needs of others in perspective. In other
words, we should not plan self -centeredly. Our
text says this about Paul. He might have wished
to go directly to Rome. and to those regions
beyond Rome, perhaps to Spain. But you see, there
was something that hindered his plans at this
point, that caused him to adjust his plans, or
his desires rather, rather than planning as he
might like to have gone, he adjusted his plans
to keep the needs of the Jerusalem saints in
mind. Those needs were so pressing upon Paul
that they overruled what he himself might like
to have done. Now what were the needs in Jerusalem?
Well, there were two of them, at least, and they
were interwoven. On the one hand, there was the
problem of poverty among the saints. They were
lacking food and clothing. because apparently
of continued persecution. The Apostle Paul wanted
to care for that need of impoverishment. But
an interwoven need with that was a certain factious
spirit that was within the Jerusalem church.
A spirit of dissension between Jew and Gentile.
If you go back and look at the Jerusalem church,
you will see that spirit lift its ugly head several
times. For example, right after the conversion
of Cornelius, there was a little problem and
God went to extraordinary lengths to prove to
those Jewish Christians at that church in Jerusalem
that Cornelius and Gentiles were full candidates
for salvation without becoming Jews. Now they
learned to accept that. For after all, I'm sure
they reasoned, Cornelius had been a God -fearing
Gentile. But then the Apostle Paul was commissioned
by the church in Antioch to go on a missionary
journey and he went to basically Gentile areas.
And there were vast numbers of Gentiles converted
to Christianity. And when word of that got back
to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, again
they had a hard time. Now these were not God
-fearing Gentiles, these were pagan Gentiles.
And they were becoming Christians without first
learning about the Jewish law. And so there was
called a great council in Jerusalem after Paul's
first journey, Acts chapter 15. One of the most
momentous occasions in church history. And that
issue was wisely settled to the wisdom that God
the Holy Spirit gave to James, who was the chief
elder in the church in Jerusalem. Then Paul went
on his second missionary journey. Apparently
so critical was this spirit in the Jerusalem
church that when he completed his second missionary
journey, he returned to the Jerusalem church
first before going back to his home church in
Antioch. reported to them in Jerusalem what had
taken place because he didn't want any kind of
a misunderstanding to arise again with those
Jewish believers in Jerusalem. Then Galatians
chapter 2 records for us this tension that existed
between these Jewish believers and the Gentiles
who were being saved. You see there were some
of them who wanted the Gentiles to keep the law
or at least certain legalistic regulations to
make them acceptable to the Jews. And there were
others who may have been concerned over the large
influx of Gentiles into the church. For you see
the Gentiles very quickly outnumbered the Jews.
And the Jews were not used to that. Therefore
there was a double need you see in the Jerusalem
church. There was this problem of poverty, And
there was this problem of this spirit of dissension,
this factious spirit that kept eating away at
that Jerusalem congregation. So God led Paul
to do something that I think was very wise, and
that was to take an offering. From that we know
that Paul must have been a Baptist. For after
all, isn't that what most Baptists do when they're
in trouble? The Apostle Paul took an offering.
He collected it, as it says here in our text,
in Macedonia and Achaia. By the way, if you're
Baptist or visiting, I'm a Baptist, so I'm not
poking fun at you, but at us. But in Macedonia
and Achaia, and also in Asia, we read in Acts,
he began to take this offering. He wanted to
present that offering to the Jerusalem church.
Now here in the text in verse 26 he calls it
a contribution. The word literally is fellowship
and the idea is he was collecting a love gift.
He wanted it to be something that was spontaneous
from the Gentile believers for these Jews down
in Jerusalem who were believers. It was a love
gift and he says it pleased them to give. That's
another reason we must have known these were
Baptist churches. It pleases them to give. That's
a good characteristics of Baptist maybe. Then
in verse 27, he calls it a debt. Not a love gift
now. He says it's a debt. For he says the Gentiles
have shared in the Jews spiritual wealth in their
Christ. Therefore, it's only right that the Gentiles
now help the Jewish believers in their material
poverty." So he says there is a certain indebtedness
on the part of the Gentiles to give. By the way,
the Jerusalem leaders may well have agreed with
this. You see, they were used to a temple tax
being gathered among the Jews throughout the
world, a half a shekel, a year, to be sent for
the maintenance of the temple in Jerusalem. And
so they may have felt it was very appropriate
from their background that the Gentiles send
in an offering to help the Mother Church, so
to speak, in Jerusalem. But then the apostle
calls it in verse 28, fruit. This offering, he
says, was a fruit. of the Spirit of God working
in their lives. It was the result of the Gospel
being preached and God working in them. And they
were liberal as a result of that in their giving.
They were generous. They wanted to give. It was
not something that they had to work up. They
didn't have to give away things in order to get
money. They didn't put on an appeal through the
Asia Minor television network. But what they
did was, they gave. because the Spirit of God
was spontaneously working in them, so it was
fruit. That's what the offering was like. A love
gift, a debt, a fruit. Now Paul's hope was that
in taking this offering, he would go down to
the Jerusalem church, meet the need of poverty,
and secondly, show to those Jewish believers
how much the Gentiles loved them and hopefully
breach. again this factious spirit. Now the point
in all of this is that Paul kept the needs of
others in perspective as he planned. There will
be times when your future plans will need to
be tempered because of the needs of others. This
is what the Apostle Paul meant in part I think
when he said earlier in this very chapter that
we are to please one another and not ourselves.
That means when a pastor who has an opportunity
come to him for a bigger church must first look
at the situation and keep the needs of his present
church in mind. That's why an executive who has
an opportunity for promotion must first see how
that promotion will affect his family, for example.
That's why a student who's making summer plans
needs to keep in mind his parents. and their
needs. That's why a husband who's going on a
fishing trip, gentlemen, needs to keep in mind
his wife and her needs over that long weekend.
You see, in our planning, we need to keep the
needs of others in perspective so that we don't
become totally self -centered. That insight will
help you. It may even bring some peace to your
home. A third insight regarding our planning
for the future is that we need to make our desire,
our number one desire, the fullness of Christ's
blessing. That needs to be our priority. That
we might know the fullness of His blessing in
our lives. All else is secondary at best. And
the place of blessing, dear friend, is the place
of obedience. You can write this down in the
back of your mind. It's a little principle that
is true. Obedience brings blessing. Disobedience
brings discipline. When you and I live in the
place of obedience, then we will be in the place
of the fullness of blessing. And that's why the
Apostle Paul was able to say as he did in verse
29, I know that when I come to you, I will come
in the fullness. of the blessing of Christ. He
wasn't fearful of that, but because he was a
man who practiced obedience, he knew that he
would have that fullness of blessing. Dear friend,
never allow your plans to rob you of this, the
fullness of God's blessing. Always make your
plans consistent with what it means to obey God
in your life. Never make your plans your own
direction, irregardless of what God wants, what
God commands, and thus miss that blessing of
God in your life. Griffith Thomas said it was
only as he lived in the fullness of blessing
that blessing could accrue to others through
him. Our work will never rise higher than our
character, and our character will never be stronger
than the measure of our communion with Christ.
Is that your number one priority in life, to
know the fullness of Christ's blessing? Is it?
Or is it to get the big job, to make the big
bucks, to become famous, to retire early as a
wealthy person? to have all of those things that
your neighbor has and you lust for. Whatever
other plans you make in life, please, I beg of
you, make your priority, your number one desire,
the fullness of the blessing of God. And you
may have that if you simply obey. There is a
fourth insight we find in verses 30 through 32.
We need to recognize the role of others in our
lives. You see, whoever you are, whoever I am,
we share a partnership with others who love us.
friends, family, a local church. And these people
play a vital role in helping us to realize our
plans. God does not intend for us to be macho
Christians. God has not called us to be super
saints. who are independent and autonomous of
other believers. We are a part of a body of people
as believers, and we are part of a family. Others
desire to share with us our plans and to help
us. You see, we share the same Lord Jesus Christ,
just as Paul and the Romans did, verse 30. We
share together the same Holy Spirit just as Paul
and the Romans did. The Holy Spirit who sheds
as a flood in our hearts the love of God for
one another. And because we belong to each other
and we serve the same Lord and have the same
indwelling Spirit, we want to help each other.
Why is it then that we so often Go off on our
own tangents and forget about others and don't
incorporate them and ask for their prayers and
their help. The Apostle Paul points out two important
roles that others have in our lives. One of them
I've already suggested and that is prayer. Paul
asked him to pray for three things and he might
be delivered from danger. After all, there were
those literally who wanted to kill Paul to assassinate
him. He asked him to pray that he might, in bringing
the gift to the saints in Jerusalem, be accepted.
I think perhaps that was the greater concern
that he had. I think that Paul was a little concerned
that those Jerusalem Jewish believers might scorn
this gift from Paul and those Gentiles. So he
says, you pray that they will accept this gift.
By the way, sometimes it's harder to accept a
gift than it is to give a gift, isn't it? And
yet both graces are important. And thirdly, he
prays that he might, and he wants them to pray
with him, that he might have a safe and joyful
trip to Rome eventually. So he says, pray with
me. And that prayer is a striving, he calls it.
The word there is the word agony. It pictures
an athletic contest, for example, wrestling.
I like to watch real wrestling. I turned on some
kind of wrestling yesterday, I forget the name
of it, on one of the channels in the afternoon,
and I tell you Hollywood couldn't do a better
job of acting than those two guys. A real joke.
But if you ever meet a real wrestler, you'll
know it the minute you shake his hand. You'll
know if he's real. Wrestlers are strong. And
why? Because it's agony to wrestle. It's hard
work. It's muscle against muscle. And therefore
one who wrestles is one who is in agony. He's
building up strength. He is striving through
that process. Now the Apostle says likewise,
we are to wrestle in prayer. You know something?
We don't know very much about that. We really
don't. Some of us say prayers, but we don't know
what it is to wrestle in prayer, to strive with
it. I believe that God wants us to be earnest
about our praying. He wants us to get an urgency
about our praying. It concerns me that we as
a church don't have a great deal of urgency in
our praying, at least the praying that I hear.
Maybe there's some that I don't hear in our small
churches or other places. Folks, God wants our
praying to be like a wrestling match. That's
where the work gets done. And it's not fun. It's
not fun. Do you wrestle in prayer for our missionaries?
You read the prayer letters and they say remember
this remember that and don't forget this conference
and this project we're working on It goes in
your eye gate and right out of your mind Do you
ever take that letter to your closet and pray
and wrestle with that missionary in his plans?
We need to learn something about this matter
of sharing with one another in prayer Recognize
the role of others in your life. They want to
pray for you, but you have to be open enough
to let them know your needs, your plans. But
secondly, he mentions the role of refreshment.
The Apostle says, so that I may come to you in
joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest
in your company. It's almost as though Paul looks
over at the Roman church not too far away as
he writes this letter. And he sees over there
in that Roman church a harbor. And it's serene
and calm and there are no big waves. And he sees
himself at this point in the middle of a storm.
And he's longing to get over there and to drop
anchor in that harbor in Rome and be with those
believers and be refreshed. and have some rest.
You know something, we need to refresh one another.
Will you take your concordance sometime, maybe
today, and look up the word refresh or refreshment,
and see what text that will lead you to in the
New Testament. Are you a refreshing kind of Christian?
When others bump up against you, do they find
you a calm harbor or a stormy tempest. Now let's
face it, there are times when all of us are stormy
tempests. But the norm ought to be that we are
at peace so that other believers coming into
our harbor for a little visit can find some refreshing
rest there. When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy,
that last letter. I think out of a broken, maybe
disappointed heart, he said, everyone's forsaken
me. No one wants to come to me here in this prison,
this dungeon. But he said, how I thank God for
Onesiphorus. He says he has come to me and he
has refreshed me. And you can see the broken
heart of the apostle alone there in that dungeon,
just looking forward to those little visits that
he could have with Onesiphorus. I want to tell
you something, around you today are some people
with broken hearts. Around you right now, there
are some people who are in stormy tempest, though
placid they look on the outside. Will you be
a refreshing rest for somebody today? Will you?
Will you recognize the role that others want
to have in your life? There are some people who
want to minister to you today. Will you let them?
Will you get close enough that somebody else
can love you and care for you and refresh you
and pray for you? Let me close by pointing out
a fifth insight, and that is that as we plan
for the future, We must submit our plans to the
will of God. The Apostle says that I may come
to you by the will of God. We are responsible
for making plans. But folks, we must predicate
our plans upon what God wills. In James 4, we
are rebuked for making plans without God's will
in view. He says, now listen you people who say,
today or tomorrow I'm going to go into this city
or in such -and -such a place and buy and sell
and get gain." He says, now listen. He says that
kind of boasting is evil. You don't know what
your life will entail tomorrow. You're a vapor
that's here for a while and it vanishes, it's
gone. What you ought to say is if the Lord wills,
we will do this or that. Now as the apostle Paul
wrote this letter. He had never been to Rome.
He was going to be shortly though. You say, well
sure, he made plans to get there. Yes, yes he
did. But I'll tell you something, he didn't get
there the way he had planned. Notice he says
that I may come to you by the will of God. God's
will was not for Paul to go to Jerusalem, have
a happy time there, go back to Antioch and say
hello to the friends and then sail to Rome. As
soon as he got back to Jerusalem within a few
weeks of writing this letter, the Apostle Paul
was arrested. And then he was kept in prison
in Caesarea for two years. awaiting a trial that
never came, finally appealed to Caesar and was
taken in chains to Rome. That's how he got to
Rome. Not like he had planned. He submitted his
plans to the will of God. But notice those little
words there, that I may come to you in joy by
the will of God. If you go back to Acts chapter
28, you will find that when the Apostle Paul
finally got to Rome, He did not get there in
tears. He got there in chains, but not tears.
He was thrilled to be at Rome. And as soon as
he hit the ground in Rome, there were Christians,
in Italy, there were Christians from Rome who
came to greet him and to escort him all the way
back into the city of Rome. The Apostle Paul
went there with joy, though he went there in
chains, because he knew that was the will of
God. And through those chains, he had opportunities
to witness for Christ he could never have had
otherwise. In fact, we read in the New Testament
that even some in the household of Caesar himself,
there were some who had become saved because
of Paul's chains, his imprisonment. You know,
there are some of us who say, well, I'll make
my plans, and if God's will fits in, fine. If
it doesn't, then God's out of luck. Oh no, my
friend, we're the losers. when we have that attitude.
There are some of us who are afraid to let God
have His way, because we're afraid He'll mess
up our plans. But if our plans are messed up
by God's will, then they need to be messed up,
don't they? Are you willing to say in advance,
Lord, here are my plans, but whatever you want,
I want? The result of planning and living by
these insights that we've looked at this morning,
is the blessing of God in our lives, the God
of peace, as he is called in verse 33. Is your
life at peace this morning? Are you at peace
with God? Are you saved? Or are you at war with
God? Is there still hostility in your life? You
say, well, I'm not really mad at God, but I'm
not sure I have peace with God either. Listen,
because we are sinners, we are at war with God.
That God wants to proclaim peace between you
and Him, but He can only do that if you will
trust His Son, Jesus Christ, and receive Him
into your life, recognizing that He died for
your sin on the cross and rose again to save
you. Will you do that? You say, yes, I've done
that. Wonderful. Then do you know the peace of
God? Is God's peace ruling your life, Christian?
Or are you today in the middle of a battle for
the control of your life. Listen, if that's the
case, you better let God have His way today before
you get messed up any further. We are to plan
for the future. We're unwise if we don't. But
as we plan, let's plan according to these insights.
What action do you need to take today so that
your future will be in the will of God? So that
you will be in the place of obedience and thus
the place of blessing Heavenly Father First I
want to give you thanks for strength to be able
to make it through this message Forgiving these
dear people the patience to listen to a raspy
voice And I pray that in spite of the physical
limitations and hindrances that that I faced
here this morning that you will cause this message
to be very applicable to our lives and to hit
home. And Father, if there are some decisions
and commitments that need to be made this morning,
may we have the grace to make those that we might
be in the place of obedience and blessing. And
Lord, if that means taking our hands off our
own plans and off our own lives, then may that
be the result of our decision. You are so big.
You're bigger than we are. You're wiser than
we are. How foolish of us to think that we should
be gods of our own lives. Lord, you have been
raised from the dead. You are Lord. Now I pray
enforce your Lordship in each of us. right where
we are today, in those family relationships,
in the dorm, in the office, and in our planning
for the future. In Jesus' name, amen.