This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions, hi this is Pastor Tom
Holliday and this week we are in chapter 16 of the book of Romans, the last
chapter of this book. So thank you, thank you for making it all the way through
to the end of this book. I have some good news, this is certainly not the end of
Drive Time Devotions.

We're intending to go through the books of the Bible one after the other and so
after finishing this book we'll be beginning another book in the Bible. More on
that in day five as we look together towards the future. But now, Romans chapter
16.

Romans chapter 16 is one of those parts of the Bible that you often skip over
when you read through the Bible in a year for instance, because it has a long
list of names and if you're trying to read through the Bible real quickly you
think oh list of names skip to the next book. But the value of studying through
a book like we are is that you take some time with a list like this because in
this list you see some of the ways revealed that God changes history through
individual lives. Romans is the most theological book in the New Testament but
the end of this book the focus is on people because people are God's priority.

Unless theology is personal it's not real it's about people and how God wants to
work in people's lives. And as we look together at this list these next few days
we're going to see an idea of the different ways that God can change history.
Don't miss the fact as we look at this list that many times when we think of
changing history we think you've got to do something big but it is often in the
details of living out the life and personality that God has given to us that we
really change history.

In fact you might even jot that down in your brain if you're where you can write
down something put it there just and write it where you can see it this week. We
change history when we faithfully live out the life and personality that God has
given to us. In this chapter, Romans chapter 16, Paul gives greetings and
commendations to 27 different people, two different households, 18 men and nine
women in that group of 27.

He also mentions one husband and wife team and then at the end of the chapter
we're going to see at the end of this week he sends greetings from eight people
back to them. Now remember we just studied last week that Paul had never been to
Rome and yet he knows all of these people in Rome and he sends greetings from
others to Rome. Paul was obviously a people person.

He could go into any city in the Roman Empire and there'd be somebody that he
knew because he'd had contact with them through the church. As Paul talks about
people in this chapter he talks about our relationships to one another. Four
times he describes people as being his friends in Christ.

Five times his friends as being in the Lord, in Christ and in the Lord. That's
where our relationships come from. Twice he uses the family language of sister
or brother.

Four times he calls the people that he's writing to he calls them beloved and
twice as he's talking through he talks about what it really takes to be in
fellowship with one another as believers. In verses three and nine he talks
about that we need to be fellow workers. That's where fellowship comes from but
in verses four and seven he talks about the fact that we need to be fellow
sufferers.

We work together and we face the difficulties and sufferings of life together.
There is fellowship in that. Romans chapter 16 is a list of names.

What's so inspiring about a list of names? Well every year hundreds of thousands
of people on the Capitol Mall in Washington DC walk by a black wall called the
Vietnam Memorial and they look at a list of names. Something inspires them as
they see the names of those people many of whom they've never known.

They would never would know those names and yet as they see the list they
realize these are people who gave their lives for their country. As we look at
Romans chapter 16 this like many other chapters in the Bible is a list of names.
Names of people who gave their lives to serve Jesus and that inspires me.

There is a sense of awe as you walk into this list and as we read through this
list once again don't miss the fact that when we think about changing the world
it's not about doing something big it's when God works in the details of our
life. We change history when we faithfully live out the life and personality
that God has given to us. If you didn't write that down didn't put that in your
brain before try and do it one another time.

It's not when we try to do the big thing that it will impress anyone and
everyone it's when we live out the life and personality that God has given to
us. So what is this list of people? Well let's start it today and then we'll
finish it tomorrow.

Romans chapter 16 1 Paul begins the list by saying, "I commend to you our sister
Phoebe, a servant of the church in Sentria. I ask you to receive her in the Lord
in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help that she may need from
you for she's been a great help to many people including me. " He starts out
with Phoebe and he commends her and that says that Phoebe was most likely the
one who carried this letter this letter that was written to Romans from Paul to
the Romans so he commends our sister Phoebe.

She was a servant of the church in Sentria that was the seaport of Corinth and
so she came from that seaport to Rome to deliver this letter. As Paul talks
about his sister Phoebe he gives a picture of who she who she was and how she
impacted the church. He uses four words he uses the word sister and servant and
saint and helper.

She's a sister there's a family relationship in the family of God. She's a
servant the word that's used there is diakonos the idea of a deaconess she's
serving Christ she's doing the practical actions of ministry and serving. It may
have been she was a deacon by office it may have been just she was a deacon by
task that she served Christ in the church.

Either way servant is the key word. The Bible tells us she was a saint. She is a
person whose heart had been changed by Jesus Christ.

By the way the word saint in the Bible does not mean someone who is perfect as
we sometimes use it today. The word saint means anyone who is a believer in
Christ. It has to do with the fact that Christ has changed our hearts and made
us new.

She's a saint and then the Bible says she is a helper. She may need help she's
been helped to many people. The idea of help there is the idea of a benefactor
somebody in fact who had given financial support to many people.

This apparently was a business woman who had given money given help to many
people. God used her in people's lives. Now it's interesting that the list
starts out with Phoebe.

She's one of nine women in this list and that's very impressive. It's incredibly
impressive in that day that women would have been included in the list at all.
In the days that the New Testament was written it would have usually been just a
list of men and how their accomplishments or their greetings were being passed
along.

But the Bible is different. The Bible is unlike any other literature of the day.
Anytime you hear someone say well the Bible is anti-woman.

The Bible is anti-women. The Bible doesn't really lift up the role of women. You
know they really haven't done their homework.

They haven't studied the Bible at all. The Bible tells us that the role of women
is incredibly important in the church and in the family of God. In Jesus's own
group of followers there were many women.

Martha and Mary and Mary Magdalene and Mary his own mother. Many other women who
were followers of Jesus and helpers in his ministry. And as Paul who many people
would say was very very anti-woman.

Paul writes about women. You see that first in this list is Phoebe and then many
others. The Bible greatly elevates the role of women in serving Christ and
serving God and making a difference in this world.

In fact the next person in the list is a woman. In verse three greet Priscilla
and Aquila my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risk their lives for me.

Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also
the church that meets in their house. Greet my dear friend Epinetus who was the
first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

You can read if you want about Priscilla and Aquila Paul's dear friends in the
book of Acts. Acts chapter eight chapter 18 says a lot about this couple. Also
first Corinthians 16 and second Timothy 4 talks about this couple that had so
impacted Paul's life.

They worked together they served together and apparently Priscilla and Aquila
were currently in Rome and they were leading in church. It was meeting in their
home. So he says greet them and then he says greet Epinetus.

And I love the idea that we're confronted with here of a man who's who'd been
the first to make a difference in an entire area of the world. He was the first
convert in the entire province of Asia. Think of the courage that takes.

The courage to be first. Not to follow anyone else. To let others point their
finger at you or think you strange or even suffer persecution for being first.

As I read about Epinetus I think maybe I need to be first. Maybe you need to be
first. Maybe you need to be the first convert.

We've gone all the way through the book of Romans and yet you haven't yet turned
your life over to Jesus Christ. You've been you've been thinking about it.
That's why you've gone through this book and listened to it.

But we're at the end of the book now. You know that Jesus has a real power and a
real love for you. He can make a real difference in your daily life.

Maybe you need to be the first convert at your school. You don't know another
believer at your school. Or maybe in your business.

Or maybe you need to be the first convert in your family. The Bible tells us
that by the end of Paul's ministry in Asia all of Asia had heard about Jesus.
But Epinetus was the first.

Or maybe you already are a convert. The word convert by the way simply means
somebody who has changed their way of thinking. They've repented of going one
direction in their life.

Their selfish direction. And they've decided to go Christ's direction. Maybe
you're already someone who's made that decision.

But you need to be the first to speak out and let others know that you're a
believer in Christ at your school or at your work or in your family. As we read
through this list of names, we'll finish it tomorrow. The key is that Jesus
Christ in his name is the name that makes the difference in our lives.

So let's praise him. Let's thank him for just a minute as we end this look at
these names today. Jesus we thank you.

Above all names is your name. And your name is the name that gives us power. In
your name we can find strength.

In your name we can find love and joy because your name is an expression of who
you are Jesus. Your name is an expression of what you want to do in our lives.
Jesus Savior.

You can save us from our sins. You can save us to become all that you created us
to be. And so Lord in order to live out the name, the purpose, the identity that
you have for us in this world, we start with your name and who you are.

And the reason you came into this world to give us life. We praise you. We thank
you.

And we thank you Jesus in your name. Amen. Well tomorrow we're going to continue
our look at this list of names as we look at Romans chapter 16 verses 6 to 16.