Romans 15:22-26 The Apostle Paul has long had a desire to go to Rome to visit the Christians there. He believes now that the time has finally come when he will be able to do so. What are the things that have hindered him from going to Rome before now? What is the corollary of every decision or choice we make in life? How is Paul's experience similar to King David's desire to build a temple, or to some desires in our own lives? What does our faithfulness to the exercise of our spiritual gifts and ministry necessarily imply about doing some other things for God? How did Paul's proposed visit to Rome now fit into God's plan for Paul's ministry? Why did Paul wish to go to Spain? What new difficulties did ministry in Spain present that Paul had not encountered before? How could the Romans help Paul in this? What is significant about the word "help" in this passage, and how does it relate to our own involvement in the missionary outreach of the church? What still stood in the way of Paul's going immediately to Rome and Spain? (60 min)

Keywords Gifts, Rome, Spain, Ministry

Romans 15:16-21 So, Paul says that he has been given a grace from God, but what exactly was that grace? If we choose to neglect or ignore the gift that Christ has given to us, what are we really saying? How was Paul serving Christ? How do we serve Christ? What is the offering that the believer presents to God when he or she exercises his or her spiritual gift? How did Paul's writing of Romans relate to this offering? What was it that made his offering acceptable? How does the person who transcribed Paul's dictation to the Romans play a role in this? What did Paul have to give up in order to know Christ? In what way did he rediscover this? What was the evidence that Paul was gifted with an apostleship to the Gentiles. How can we know what our spiritual gifts are? Did Paul think there was something wrong with building on the foundation laid by another person? Why was Paul's strategy of going into virgin territory important? (61 min)

Keywords Gifts, Grace, Boasting

Romans 12:3-8 The first area Paul addresses where our renewed minds can discern the will of God is the area of spiritual gifts. How did Paul know that the Roman believers needed to be instructed in this area? What was the source of Paul's exhortation in these verses? What are the ways in which we think more highly of ourselves in this subject of spiritual gifts? What are we really saying when we deem our spiritual gift to be unimportant or that it can be neglected? What is Paul referring to when he speaks of the allotment of the measure of faith? What is the "analogy of faith?" What are the three things we learn in the analogy of the church to the human body? In Paul's list of gifts, what are the three things he is exhorting us to do with these gifts? What is the difference between gifts, ministries, and effects? What clue do we get in this chapter to how we can discover what our spiritual gift is? (61 min)

Keywords Gifts, Transform