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The River ChurchSermons

REACH, GATHER, GROW

Gather - Encouragement

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 14 September 2025 · Romans 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 · 38:29 · 5,466 words

Romans S21 · 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 Waterford

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The sermon looks at what it means to be the church, drawing on Romans 15 to stress unity, mutual care, and corporate worship. It teaches that strong believers must bear with the weak, build each other up, and not please themselves. The message describes gathering as a lifestyle that extends beyond Sunday, calling listeners to welcome others as Christ welcomed them and to encourage one another daily. Believers are challenged to respond to God's truth, share their struggles with a fellow Christian, and actively join in the church's life.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

church 89 gather 46 unity 16 strong 15 welcome 16 build 15 o'clock 8 superpower 4 lawn 5 sandwich 4 care 14 hymn 5

Topics

Unity 6 The Gospel 4 The Body of Christ 2 Sin 1 Prayer 1 Faith 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 The Holy Spirit 1 Righteousness 1 Freedom 1 Salvation 1 Conscience 1

Scripture referenced 26

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 15 0:45 Romans 15 0:51 Romans 15 1:30 Romans 15 1:38 Romans 14 4:55 Psalms 133 7:04 Romans 15 9:27 Romans 15:1 9:40 Romans 15:5 10:31 Romans 15 14:31 Romans 15 14:37 Romans 15:1 14:37 Romans 15 15:38 Romans 14 15:38 Romans 14 15:43 Romans 14 20:56 Romans 14 21:02 Galatians 1:10 22:27 Romans 14 22:52 Romans 14:15 22:52 Romans 14:20 22:57 Romans 15:2 26:04 2 Timothy 3:16 27:03 Romans 15:5 29:03 Romans 15:6 33:25 Romans 15:7 34:01

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:44. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Good morning, everybody. Good to see you. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15. Last week, we kicked off our new gathering times at 9 and 11, and you guys lost.

Last week at the...

9 o'clock in the auditorium, we had 348 people, and at the 11 o'clock, we had 349 people.

So, pretty exciting, huh?

Just exciting to see what's going on, and exciting to see us gathering together to worship the Lord.

Excited for what is to come.

I just know some of you go, did everybody come to this one?

And 11 o'clock was like, did anybody show up?

So, really, really awesome.

Just a wonderful, wonderful thing.

So, Romans chapter 15.

Now, if you weren't here last week, you may ask the question, wait a minute, Pastor, did we fast forward?

Did I miss a couple weeks?

You said Romans 15.

Aren't we walking through the book of Romans?

Well, this month, we're taking almost a pause of walking through verse by verse,

and we're going to step back and look at Romans in a broad stroke to look at the church.

What is the church?

What is the purpose?

What is the plan?

What is the calling of the church?

Now, if you've been around here a while, it may bring another question to your mind that says,

Pastor, why do we always come back to talking about the church?

And if some of you have picked up the flow of what we do, like in January, we talk about the purpose and plan of the church,

and in September, we talk about the purpose and the plan of the church.

Why do we keep coming back to this over and over again?

The reason that we do this is because living out the plan of the church is not something we naturally,

naturally will do.

It is not something we'll just fall into.

It is not something that easily will come to us.

To be the church is something radical.

God calls us to something beyond what is normal.

It's the gathering of the church.

And if you've been around the church a while, you've noticed that many times the church isn't very good at being the church.

If I were to have you raise your hand and go, how many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

How many of you in here have church?

There would be a lot of you that would raise your hand because there's something, somebody who represented the church hurt you.

So we come back to this teaching because it's so important.

You know, the Bible comes back to this teaching.

If you've read through some of the Bible, come to the New Testament.

When they come to the churches in the New Testament, there were problems like there's problems today.

One pastor said the churches in the Bible failed miserably.

In many places, like in Galatia, it was ravaged with legalism.

In Corinth, they had, they, in Corinth, they picked sides because of sexual sin.

And one side said, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to go on this side where sexual, where we're going to land.

And so there was this split.

Keep going.

You look at Pergamum in Rome or in Revelations.

They were divided.

Laodicea basically made God sick.

Ephesians forgot their first love.

Thyatira had false teaching.

Sardis, the Bible says, as a church was dead.

So when we come to Romans and Paul is writing to the church in Rome, like every church, there's some difficulties.

There's some problems because the church is full of sinners because that's all of us.

But to go to God's word and go, okay, what is God called the church to be?

How to live our purpose, the plan, because there is a purpose.

There is a plan.

And so in Romans, when you get to chapter 14,

and 15, it seems like Paul is attacking a specific issue.

There's division in the church.

See, there's Jews and Gentiles.

Now the church is supposed to be the most united place there is.

And it's also to be the most diverse place there is.

Now those two words usually don't go together.

But in Rome, it shows that there were Jews who some of them knew the Levitical law and they were struggling because they're free from the Levitical law.

They're free to eat.

They're free from.

They're free from specific days being more powerful than other days.

But they really struggled with it.

Some of the Gentiles would look at them and be like, why?

They'd walk over there with a ham sandwich, eating their ham sandwich in front of the Jew and go, what's your problem?

And they would offend them because as a Jew, a part of the law, you couldn't eat that.

You couldn't have a ham sandwich.

They weren't doing the right things on the Sabbath day.

So Paul steps into the middle of this conflict, tells the church how they're to act and how they're to live.

I love one pastor said,

What would have been easy for them to do is that with this conflict, they could have formed two churches or formed two gatherings, right?

There was the first church of meats and then the first church of vegetarians.

That could have been roast.

Split them.

Let's have two.

It's not what the church is called to do.

The church is about unity.

The church is about gathering together with God's people and being unified.

Like in first Peter three, eight.

Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love.

Tender heart, a humble mind.

Don't pay.

Don't repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling.

But on the contrary, bless for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing.

Go to the Old Testament in Psalms 133.

Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

You go to the end of second Corinthians as Paul wrote to the church of Corinth who was struggling.

He says,

Finally, brothers rejoice.

Bring for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love, peace will be with you.

Where in the world are you going to find this unity?

Where in the world the unity that the church is called to be?

Where are you going to find that?

Where are you going to find this peace and this freedom and this kindness?

Where are you going to find it?

You're going to find it in the nation?

You're going to find it in politics?

You're going to find it on a team?

You're going to find it anywhere else?

No.

Why?

Because we're the only place that has one playbook.

One playbook that tells the church how to live, what our purpose is, and how to love one another.

This is what the Lord has called the church to be.

This unified front.

And just like second Corinthians that aims for restoration, comforts one another, we agree with one another, we live in peace.

And the God of love and peace is with us.

There is no other place like the church.

That's why I think there's no other battle like the church.

For it not to be what it should be.

So this morning, may we be challenged.

If you know the Lord, you're part of the church.

And looking at what, how we are to live as the church.

Let's pray and dive in.

Lord God, I pray you help us this morning.

Thank you so much for your word.

May I preach clearly, hear correct doctrine, Lord.

Work in our hearts.

In Jesus' name, amen.

To Romans chapter 15.

Oh, it just says so much about what the church...

What the church is to be, what it's to look like.

It says this, Romans 15, 1.

We who are strong...

You have to ask your question, is that me or not?

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.

And not to please ourselves.

Let each of us place his neighbor for his...

Let each one of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

Here's the example.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written,

the reproaches of...

The reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me.

But whatever is written in former days was written for our instruction,

that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures,

we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another

in accord with Jesus Christ, that together...

And you just keep hearing together, unity, this is wonderful stuff.

That together you may with one voice glorify...

Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

Last week kicked us off and we used three words that really point to the purpose of the church.

And last week you talked about reach, that we're called, if we know the Lord,

called to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What Christ did and Christ came and died on the cross and rose again,

we are to have this heart, we are to have this supernatural love,

to love people, to care for people,

so that they will hear about the good news of Jesus Christ.

Today I want to talk to you about gather.

To reach, gather, and grow.

And today I want to talk to you about the saints.

And saints just means those who are saved.

Because of Christ we have the righteousness.

Because of Christ we have the righteousness of God on us.

So today to talk about how the saints are called to gather together.

Now I want to make clear what does it mean to gather?

Some of you hear that we don't use...

We don't use the word service, we use the word gathering.

And it's purposeful.

We want to use those words because when we think about serve us,

many times we think we come and go, okay, serve us, serve me.

But a gathering is when we're called to be together, to come together.

So last week we started some new gathering times, 9 and 11.

Now a couple months ago I had a man write me,

and I think he had a good heart in this,

and he wrote me and just said,

Pastor, I'm concerned about the structure of our gatherings.

Like, our gatherings are like, they're this little box that we have.

And so I'm not sure that God wants us to have a little box when we have gatherings.

Like, we're supposed to sing three songs, and then preach, and then...

Like, we have this time, and I feel like we can just...

Maybe we're not letting the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit wants to do.

And so he thought, he just questioned it.

So to answer that, one, I don't think structure is an enemy of the Lord, right?

If I were to just tell you, hey, show up at some time Sunday morning,

I'd say, man, that'd be interesting.

Some of you already show up at weird times, right?

So a structure isn't bad.

But the truth is, the truth about our gatherings

is we don't have a start time or a stop time.

When our gatherings really start is when you get here.

What time are you showing up?

You're going to be here at 8?

There are people here at 7.

There are people here at 8.

There are people here at 9, 10, 11.

There are people who won't go home until like 1 o'clock

because after the gathering, they're not done being the church.

After a gathering, they hang out together.

You'll see people praying with each other,

caring for one another,

fellowshipping with one another.

See, our gathering time isn't restricted to this little time stop.

The gathering of the church is much larger than this Sunday morning thing.

It is we are called to be unified, to care, to encourage,

and to love one another every day of the week.

You'll find here, you want to get here early,

there's going to be lots of gathering going on.

You want to hang out after the gathering as long as you want.

I know the guys will turn off the lights

and we yell them to turn them back on.

After 11 o'clock, it happens.

But gathering, to be together.

And so in chapter 15, it lays out what this gathering looks like.

It gets so beautiful.

See, chapter 15, verse 1 says,

we who are strong have an obligation.

Not, hey, we really would like you to do this.

It's way beyond that.

It's saying the church, people in the church,

we have an obligation to bear, to carry,

to help whatever struggle, to put that on our shoulder,

the failings of the week, and not to please ourself.

Listen, when we first think about the gathering of the church,

one of the things I want you to think about is the Bible says,

those of you who are strong, spiritually strong,

you have an obligation to care for those who are struggling.

You have an obligation to help them and to carry

and to give up things if it will help them,

grow in the Lord.

In chapter 15, this is specifically talking from chapter 14.

And we won't get too much into chapter 14

because we'll preach on that in November.

What is happening is the Roman church is divided.

Like I said, some of the Jews think you can't eat that

and they're struggling with this.

And Paul knows there's a freedom to do that.

And so there's some in the church who know there's a freedom,

that there isn't meat, that they have to abstain from this meat.

They're free to do that.

And there's some people in the church,

who know they have that freedom.

But Paul says, you know what?

If it's going to hurt him, you may have to give that up sometimes.

You're not going to walk around with a ham sandwich in front of them

because they are struggling with it.

And in their conscience, they're trying to honor the Lord.

And the Lord says, follow your conscience here.

Do it to honor the Lord.

Because if you don't do it, then it is sin.

So in 14, it says you have to give up some things.

It says you may have to give up food.

You may have to give up, it's in there.

You may have to give up drinking,

Uh-oh, touchy subject.

Can I tell you yesterday?

I just want you to perk up.

Yesterday, I had people drinking at my house.

I just wanted you to perk up.

I go, what, what?

Yesterday, we had a neighborhood gathering.

And so we don't have any fences in our backyard.

So all the neighborhood, they come to the back corner of my yard.

And somebody opened a beer right there.

Listen, there's been people who go, well,

you should have told them to get off your lawn, to get out, to go away.

What are you doing?

Do you know what that did in my past?

Do you know the devastation that alcohol brought to my family?

Get off my lawn.

But then you look at the Bible and go, man, pastor,

it seems like there's a freedom to be able to do that.

Yeah, yeah.

I think if you're going to try to find in the Bible to go, hey,

you can't drink alcohol at all.

You're not going to find that in there.

There's one side that I look at people.

And if I have such a judgmental, you don't line up with what I think.

Get off my lawn, which the church has been sometimes.

There is a conviction of mine.

Not necessarily in the scripture.

I have a conviction.

Now, get off my lawn.

Get off my lawn.

Get away from me.

You're missing how the church is called to love.

And then I would say on the other side that there are people that flaunt their freedom.

They go, well, God doesn't tell me I can't do this.

And they walk around and they hurt people because they're not willing to be strong enough

to give something up because they go, I'm free to do it.

And I'm going to flaunt it.

And I don't care what's going on.

And the Bible says, if there is something that you can give up strong Christian

that will help build somebody who's weaker, that will help them.

Then you need to do it.

That's a strong believer.

So here, the Bible points to people in the church caring.

So when a friend is struggling with alcohol, struggling with the addiction of this, guess what?

Don't have it in your house when they come over.

Don't invite them to the bar.

For some of us, for me, it's a conviction.

I lay it down.

Here, the scripture is pointing to what is the church?

The church is where people gather together and we are called to take care of one another.

One of your buddies is struggling with porn.

Trying to overcome that.

So you don't invite him over to your house and watch a show.

Oh, there may not be porn in it, but it may be suggestive and you're hurting him.

And you may say, well, that show does.

I don't feel any conviction of sin.

It doesn't push me to do what's wrong.

It may not, but you give up stuff to not be a hindrance to them.

One said the strong are to care for the weak.

And if you are prone to judgmentalism and exclusivism, this is a big pill to swallow.

If you're the kind of person who is sure he is.

Right?

And must have his way.

You will not like this at all.

Another one said the church.

We've been divided by cosmetics and alcohol and tobacco and card playing and dancing and Bible translations and sports and music and material wealth.

Now, listen to me in this.

I am not saying we just accept everything and it doesn't matter.

That is not what it's saying.

Chapter 14 starts out very clearly.

Chapter 14 says for as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him.

But not to quarrel over opinions.

What this is talking about things that are gray areas in the Bible that the Bible doesn't specifically point out.

We move to convictions in our life.

We are not talking about doctrines.

We are not going to move off the doctrines of the Lord.

We are not talking about sin that the Bible specifically calls out.

We are not moving off that one little bit.

We stand on the doctrines.

We stand on the truth of Scripture.

We stand on the playbook.

Because if we don't, we're all in trouble.

One said we're not talking about basic doctrines such as sin, the deity of Christ, salvation by faith, clear scriptural commandments against adultery or lying.

We are talking about non-essential areas.

This is not to be wishy-washy in doctrine.

No, we study God's word firmly.

But there are some areas that if we are unified in the gathering of the church, we will be willing to lay down.

We will be willing to try to please God.

We will be willing to please our brother to help him in what?

Growing in the Lord.

Now, some of you out there may say, wait a minute, Pastor.

Doesn't Galatians 1.10 says we should not please man?

Understand, in Galatians, it's talking about us not following the Lord so that we can get man's approval.

Here in Romans, it's saying how can you care and love somebody so much that you can help them grow in the Lord?

Verse 15 in chapter 14 says this.

Verse 20, it says,

For the sake of food, destroy the work of God.

Do not sit for the sake of food.

Now, what do you want to put in there?

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with a lot of 8 o'clock people, talked about a big move for them.

Change of gathering times, change of style.

And I sat down with one lady, an older lady, who may love hymns more than anybody else in here.

Like, loves hymns, grew up on a singing, would travel and sing hymns, sing at the 8 o'clock.

Just loved it.

And we sat down and had just a blessed conversation.

Her talking about how impactful hymns have been to her life.

That in the storms, in the struggle, that she goes back and goes right and begins to sing.

And it is beautiful.

And last week during the 9 o'clock gathering, I saw her and she looked at me and she goes,

It's a good move, Pastor.

We've talked multiple times.

You know what her heart is?

Whatever you think about hymns and the time, anything there.

I just want to show you a strong lady.

That she has come and said,

Pastor, if you guys have prayed about this, if you have sought the Lord,

then if I need to give up something that is my right and my freedom,

if it is for the kingdom and for God's glory, I'll lay whatever down.

And I just thought it was the most beautiful, strong thing that I have seen.

It says, what can we do to care for people?

One person said, a person without the grasp of the gospel,

if there are differences of opinions or differences in practice,

they will be huge and insurmountable.

See, the truth is, without the gospel, we'll run away from unity.

Because it's too hard.

Without the gospel, we'll give up.

But because of the gospel and what Christ has done,

it brings us to a place to love and to sacrifice and to care for people.

One said, a way you can tell how much you understand the gospel

is to look at how much you love people despite their flaws.

The gathering of the church is where we look to care for people to build one another.

Look at verse two.

It says, let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

Listen, as we gather as a church, what are we doing?

We're gathering to build one another up.

So me as a pastor, there is a specific calling as we gather.

God has called pastors to preach the word.

So it is something I take personal that I am called to preach the word of God to you.

Why?

Because as a pastor, I'm called to build you up through the preaching of God's word.

But this just isn't my work.

It is our work to build one another up.

It is our work to care for one another, to sit down in scripture together and to grow,

to challenge one another.

Are those things always easy?

No.

Is being unified easy?

No.

But going to the word, 2 Timothy 3.16,

all scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Sinclair Ferguson said it so well, said as we build each other in God's word,

we go to the word to see what it teaches us, to see how it rebukes us,

to see how it heals and restores and transforms us.

We read to see how the word of God equips us to serve Christ better.

In the gathering of the church, you're going to see strong people laying down things to care

for those who are struggling.

You're going to see them laying down nights of the week.

You're going to see them laying.

You're going to see them laying down things that they have freedom to.

What do you mean?

I should take that guy to lunch and pay for him.

That's my money.

There's a freedom, but there's a calling to build, to build people up.

And can I be honest?

There are some of you in here who for years have studied the word of God.

You have a grounding in the word of God.

There are people that you need to build up.

There are young believers in the church that need your care and need your wisdom in the

word so that you can teach them.

There are some of you, you are.

You are grounded in God's word.

You don't need to sit back.

We need people to care for people, to build them up.

Gathering of the church, the strong helping the weak, the building one another up.

Look down at verse five.

It says, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one

another in accord with Jesus Christ.

If you look out there, but there's not much harmony, there's not much unity.

So here Paul says, God, God of endurance and encouragement.

The only way we live out this unity in the church, live out gathering, knowing the call

is by having a superpower.

What are you talking about?

Well, last time, remember I talked about love was a supernatural thing given from the Holy

Can I tell you unity is the same thing.

We will not strive for unity without the help of the Lord, without his encouragement, without

him giving us endurance.

Can I tell you in the church, you're going to have to endure things.

Things are going to be different.

Things are going to be difficult and things are going to be hard.

When I talk about unity, it doesn't mean we all come in here and smile every day.

Like everything's all great.

No love is wonderful.

It brings peace and joy, but love brings heaviness because caring for one another, it hurts and

it's heavy.

And so having what the Lord gives us, this endurance and this encouragement that only

comes through him is from believers seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is supernatural.

This is a superpower from the Lord.

Now, some of you have other superpowers.

If you've been around, you've heard me talk about it.

It's called church ninjas.

It is an amazing superpower.

Some of you have this power.

See, a church ninja is, it's like we, we gather together, lobby.

We have our songs.

I come up, I pray.

You weren't there two seconds before I get done praying.

There you are.

As soon as the sermon ends, I look up.

Where'd they go?

They're gone.

It is church ninja powers for people who pop it and come and go.

And I want to tell you, that's not the church.

If you know it, you know it.

If you know the Lord, the Lord has gifted you.

Be a part of this.

Now, I'm not talking about being a secret server.

This is another superpower.

Like secret server, those of you who serve and nobody knows, this is a wonderful thing.

Like John, who got here two hours before you to make sure everybody, everything's set up

to make sure people can watch online.

Like a lady who sneaks into the parking lot with anybody knowing and sprays the parking

lot, killing all the weeds in the park.

She does it, doesn't want anybody to know.

Man came to the church this week.

We're trying to make a new church.

We're trying to make a new classroom and he's built a wall for us.

Nobody knows.

This is beautiful.

This is serving the Lord, not caring if people see or not.

But I want you to know, as we're called to gather together, this gift of unity comes

from the Lord to have this endurance and encouragement.

Tim Keller said this, passive Christians will not experience much unity.

Only believers who are following hard, setting priorities for Christ to grow will experience

And can I tell you, I think he's right.

Unity doesn't come easy.

So gathering where strong people are caring for weak, gathering where we're building each

other up, gathering where we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to endure and encourage.

Look at verse six.

It says that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

That's what we're doing this morning.

That's why Phil comes and leads us in worship.

Why?

So we, as one voice.

Unified together in corporate worship may glorify the Lord.

Verse seven, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

I read this.

I'm like, this is the gathering of the church.

Worshiping together, welcoming each other.

Tell you what, it terrifies me to hear people say, yeah, I went to this church and not one

person said hello.

That's terrifying to me.

That God here says that we're to welcome one another.

Years ago, when I was the youth pastor, I had my student leadership team.

About 15 kids.

And I looked at them and said, hey, I don't want you to come here next week.

I want you to go to somewhere else.

I just want you to go to a different youth group where you don't know one person.

I just want you to see how it feels.

So next week, no, I'm not doing that.

All right.

No, I'm not doing that.

I wasn't going to tell you to do that.

But just the thought of feeling how it would feel to walk in a place and not know anybody.

To hear that the church is called to gather and we're to welcome.

How are we called to welcome?

It says we're to welcome people as Christ has welcomed us.

That we go back to the gospel because of what Christ did for us.

That we have a relationship with God, not because we're good or we go to church or we give to church.

We have a relationship with God because Christ welcomed us through the cross.

That because of our sin, we fall short.

But the amazing welcome of the Lord says, I have given my life on the cross.

I died on the cross to take your sin.

If you will believe in me.

If you will believe in me, repent of your sin, receive me as Lord, you will be saved.

Not because of the work that we have done, because God welcomes us, has called us, has saved us.

Church, I want us to be challenged as a church what it means to gather.

It's a place of strong help in the weak.

It's the place of building one another up.

It's the place of being encouraging and enduring hardship.

It's a place of one voice worshiping the Lord.

And it's a place.

It's a place of one voice worshiping the Lord.

It's a place where we welcome each other because God Almighty has welcomed us.

Let's stand together.

Listen, maybe this morning the Lord challenged you with something.

I encourage you to spend some time in prayer in it.

Can I encourage you to find a brother and sister in the Lord and share with them how the Lord is challenging you to keep you accountable.

Can I challenge us as a church not to just hear, but to respond to God's truth.

The world is lost, hurting.

Broken, there is one salvation.

There is one freedom.

There is one hope.

It is in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church as we stand on the gospel to be a light to this broken world.

Lord, help us be the church you've called us to be.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray.