Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Pick a Church | New Testament | Romans 16

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

This is the time of year for sending and going. Some are going to a new school or a new job. You’re leaving friends and family behind and also your church. You might be faced, for the first time, with the task of finding a new place to worship. Tanya uses Romans 16 to discuss what to consider when picking a new church. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 16

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. This is the time of year that many of you are either sending or going. Some are going to a new school or a new job. You're leaving friends and family behind. And also a vastly important part of your life. You might be faced for the first time with the task of finding a new place to worship. You might wonder if you should stay in the same denomination that you grew up in.

What if that church in your new location, though, doesn't have to be. have a ministry for people your age. How do you know if that church is healthy? Now, others of you are sending. You wonder if you have said all the things that need to be said, affirmed the positive attributes, and encouraged growth in the weaker ones. You are praying and hoping that your loved ones find a church where they will continue to grow in their faith and where they will be welcomed and loved. Today we're at the end of Romans, a letter from Paul to teach and encourage people he loves. He longs to be with them in person, but until then, he tells them how to be established in their faith. You can look for the same things Paul talks about in Romans 16.

When you're trying to decide where to worship, whether it's for a little while or where to plant your roots, there are two things that could be, should be a priority as you look for a church. Number one, a church that loves people well. And number two, a church that holds a high view of God's word. As we approach the end of Romans, we find nowhere else, Paul's letters that there's such a lengthy list of greetings. He gives a shout out to at least 26 different people that mean a great deal to him. Some of those he greeted were non-wealthy, freeborn citizens like Paul. Some of them were tentmakers, like Aquila and Priscilla, who risked

their lives to save Paul and who hosted a house church in a wealthier section of Rome. Some of them were former slaves and refugees who hosted and attended house churches in tenements. Paul obviously established several deep and personal relationships of people who were like him and people who were not. What united them was their love for one another. They worked together to protect Paul, sometimes even staking him away in the dark hours before rioters could find him and arrest him. They used their money big or small to meet practical needs, and they offered their homes for small churches to form and meet together. The early church shows us how to be loved and how to love well. Both things we need at all stages of life without exception.

I've heard a recurring theme, especially from college students. While you're surrounded by people all the time, many say college is the loneliest time of their lives. There's a feeling of being unknown. Like all these people know your name, your major, but they don't really know you. They don't know your family, your story, your past. If you're in college or moving away from home, you need to be loved in your church, and you need to have opportunities within your church to love others. Serving is one of the most wonderful cures for loneliness.

So is working hard for something together. Paul is connected to these people in Rome because they are laboring toward the same cause. They want more people to know about Jesus. There's a beautiful place in a barely on-the-map town in Missouri, and it's called Camp Barnabas. it's in Purdy. It's a camp where children with special needs go for a week of fun and connection while their families know they are safe and loved. Last week, I had a friend who went there to serve and a different friend whose child went there and was served. Both had one of the most fulfilling weeks of their lives. Find a church that loves people well and be part of what it takes to make it happen.

The second thing to look for is a church that holds a high view of God's word. After greeting all his people, Paul makes a serious appeal for upholding the integrity of the gospel so that false teachers don't seduce us with anything less than Jesus. He says there will be people who want to put obstacles in front of us, people who want to make divisions. And they will say things that are contrary to what we've heard in God's word, but they will do it in a way that sounds really good, even relevant. Paul says, by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Now, the good news is that we don't have to be naive. And also, these false teachers, Paul says,

give themselves away. First of all, Paul says, they will say things that are contrary to the gospel. It will be really close, but not pure. In Paul's day, there were people that preached the good news of Jesus plus works as a way of salvation. In our day, it sounds really close to the truth also.

Maybe you pick up a book in the faith section of the bookstore that says really beautiful things about Jesus, but also says you should prioritize intellect, hard work, that you deserve freedom and personal enjoyment. See, Paul says the way to know teachers are false is by who they serve. Verse 18, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. Does it sound good and sell a book? Or does it glorify the Lord Jesus Christ?

When you are established and put yourself in a church that preaches and holds a high view of God's word, you will be equipped, both through your intellect and by the super natural power of the Holy Spirit to discern what is true and what is false. If you're going to college, I can't stress this enough. You have one of the most amazing opportunities of your life to think about what you believe about Jesus and why you believe it. College can be a place where you construct your faith instead of having it deconstructed, but you need a church to stand in the gap with you. Now, the churches in Rome were house churches. They were meeting in all different parts of town. Some of them, like I said, were meeting in tenements above storefronts. Can you imagine

the smells and the sounds? But it was important to them to make this happen because they'd received the revelation of the gospel and they didn't want to turn back. What about you? Paulins Romans with the benediction that describes God as the one who will establish and strengthen the believer. He is the one who gets the glory from the work done in our churches. Now I have a year off. This is my non-sending year. So my oldest three children are all two years apart. so I get to send someone to college every other year until 2026, and then I have a gap until 2029. So sending and going are on my mind a lot, and they're on my heart as a mom and as a friend to young people. I have made Psalm 1 my prayer for those who are going. When I feel anxious about my

children going to college, going into the world, I pray these words and invite God to be the one who establishes and strengthens them, and the only one who gets the glory. You can pray with me now if you like, or you can remember Psalm 1 and come back to it for yourself or for someone else when you need a prayer for going or sending. Lord, let my children walk not in the council of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but find their delight in your law, and meditate on it day and night. Make them like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,

whose leaf does not wither, in all of the tree. that they do, let them prosper. Amen.